Passing through felt like nothing. There was no surface tension to break, no twisting feeling in my gut, just that chill that flowed through every cell in my body. Within moments the chill went away when I received a new System message.
System: You have developed an affinity with Void
“Jane, did you just—”
“Yeah, I got the message too.”
We emerged into an eerie darkness. It’s not really accurate to call it darkness, it wasn’t the same as the kind of dark that happens when you turn off a light. It was more like there was an absence of darkness or light, there just wasn’t anything. Only void.
Somehow, even though there was no discernible light, we could somehow still see. There just wasn’t a whole lot to look at, only intense, neverending emptiness. Still, I could tell right away that we were not alone in that vast nothing, wherever that nothingness actually was. My body shivered even though the chill was gone.
“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” Jane said.
Looking around, only two things broke the endless emptiness. Beside us was a familiar square block of blackness, the same as the one we’d passed into to get here — the gate — only here the black slab didn’t stop at a roof but extended straight up for as far as I could see, which was seemingly forever. There was no sky, just a limitless infinity above. A haze swirled around us, at times only a thin mist, but constantly swirling, shifting at other times into an impenetrable fog. When it wasn’t too thick, we were able to see a single landmark off in the distance: the single spire of what looked to be a tower pointed up, the only sign that there was something in this void. It was impossible to tell how far away it was.
“I guess we’re going that way?” I said.
“Guess so,” she said, and we set off toward the tower.
The surface under my feet felt flat as we walked, although I couldn’t see it because everything from my ankles down was hidden under a flat plane of color swirling through utter blackness, similar to the hole that had transformed my ring to a void key. This was different than the pervasive fog swirling all around, and remained constant even as the fog shifted. It seemed to stretch on forever all around us. Whatever the surface underfoot I was walking upon was, it felt neither firm nor soft, neither hard nor squishy, but somehow all of the above. A faint, wet, squelching sound accompanied every soft step we took, which made me think that perhaps it was a bit of a blessing that I couldn’t see what I was stepping on.
There were other sounds that faded in and out like the mist. Soft rustling. Faint chattering. Occasional clicks. It was impossible to tell where they came from, it seemed like everywhere and nowhere at the same time. As we progressed, out of the corners of my eyes I started seeing shifting blurs in the haze around me, almost like there was something moving inside it, but when I tried to look directly at the fleeting phantasms there was nothing, only void.
“Okay, let’s go back,” I whispered.
“Not yet,” Jane said. “I want to see the dragon first.”
“Dragon?”
“Don’t all dungeons have dragons?” She grinned at me.
Such an adorable newb.
“Do you really want to meet the kind of creatures that live here?” I asked.
She made a face, but continued undaunted. “Come on, we’re here now, just a bit more,” she said as she kept walking.
“What about just the tip?”
“Do you really think I’m the kind of girl who’d be satisfied by a quick in and out, Daniel?”
“No comment.”
I followed her soft, tinkling laugh and plunged deeper into the void.
As we continued, the surrounding nothingness seemed to close in upon us. The space around us felt smaller. It was as though I was being enclosed by encroaching walls of endlessness. Nothing made sense here. The reference points of sensation and logic I was used to didn’t exist in this place. The vast surface upon which we walked appeared to be level, but the seemingly flat plane of swirling colors rose and fell as we moved so that at times more of our legs vanished beneath it, and then after a few steps became visible again. The sounds similarly faded in and out in a random swell, one moment appearing to come from close to me, then from somewhere far off the next.
Things that weren’t there in the nonexistent haze surrounding us continued to move eerily in my peripheral vision.
“Jane?” I said.
“Yes?”
“Back there, on the other side. Before we came in here.”
“Yes?”
“Did you use your power on me?”
“Whatever are you talking about, Daniel?”
“Your Captivating Presence power. The ability to affect the mood of others. Did you use that to make me want to come in here?”
She gasped, but it was so exaggerated it was obviously an act. “Would I do such a thing?”
“Thought so.”
We kept forging our way through the Void.
Then we heard it. A faint swishing sound coming from somewhere nearby. The plane of swirling colors was particularly high, halfway up my thigh, so there was a lot of space down below that was hidden from view. Plenty of space for something to be swishing about.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Jane said.
Then I felt it.
Something closed around the bottom of my leg, gripping it, something that was most certainly not a hand, and for the first time in my life I truly knew what it felt like when someone says they jumped out of their skin. My whole body recoiled at the sensation, infused with a sudden combination of surprise and fear and horror and disgust. A lot of disgust.
“Gah!” I screamed and tried to leap away, and whatever it was that had slithered around my calf let go. I stumbled toward Jane, falling against her.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“A little jumpy, are we?” she said.
“Something grabbed me,” I said.
I froze, listening.
“What do you—”
“Shhhh!”
I peered down but whatever might have existed down below remained hidden under the plane of swirling color. But I could hear something. A soft rustling sound from below, like silk rubbing against silk. Then it grabbed me again, and this time it held on tight.
The thing around my leg pulled at me, and I struggled to remain upright, hopping on my free leg as whatever it was tugged at me. Then I started to feel my leg burn in several places where whatever it was held me, as though someone pressed a red-hot poker against my skin then poured concentrated acid onto the wounds. I shrieked in pain and began to fall.
“Holy shit!” Jane cried. She grabbed my hand, pulling me back just in time to keep me upright.
“Use your sword,” I groaned through the pain, and she pulled her rapier free from its scabbard.
“Now what?” she said.
“Stab it!”
She raised her arm, sword tip aimed down, and gave me a questioning look. I could see my own fear reflected in her big green eyes.
“Just don’t hit my leg.”
“I’ll try not to,” she said, jabbing downward. “What exactly am I stabbing at, though?”
She kept thrusting down again and again in various places until we heard the wet squelch of her sword piercing something solid.
“Oh,” she said.
She pulled her rapier up and attacked again at the same spot, this time stabbing down harder and her arm went lower as the sword sank deeper into the unseen thing.
Whatever it was let go of my leg again, releasing the tension, but Jane was still pulling on my arm so she and I both nearly toppled over. “Um, Daniel?” she said. “I know you’re keen to keep looking around here but how about we call it a night, huh?”
“That sounds like a fine idea,” I said, wincing. Although my leg was free again, the burning pain remained.
With one last look at the tower, which looked as impenetrably far away as ever, we started edging back the way we’d come, stepping slowly and lightly, listening for any sign of something else nearby. The clammy grip of her hand still squeezed mine.
We’d only made it a few steps when I felt her fingers squeeze harder as she lurched with a squeal of surprise. “Daniel! Something’s got me!”
“Hang on, Jane!”
Our fingers clenched together as she stabbed down with the rapier in her other hand. She must have struck something and made it let go because she stopped pulling. We exchanged a look of pure terror.
“Time to go!” she yelled.
She clung to my hand and started pulling me back towards the black gate. At once, the sounds around us grew louder. Not just the soft rustling sounds, but also the clicking and chattering, which were joined by new slithering, oozing noises as whatever it was that was with us in the void stopped trying to hide. The ghostly movements in the surrounding haze moved from the corners of my eyes to encompass my entire field of vision, morphing from maybe-not-really-there to definitely-there-for-real.
We ran. The sounds pursued. I didn’t dare look back to see what was making them. I felt like we were pulling ahead of the sounds, and whatever it was that was making them became less of a concern than the shape materializing in the emptiness ahead. It was as though the immaterial haze was slowly coalescing into a solid mass, forming itself into a monstrous, amorphous blob like something ancient and otherworldly from an H.P. Lovecraft tale.
The thing was covered in countless bubbles that swelled and burst, some turning into globe-like eyes, the rest becoming gaping round cavities like empty eye sockets. Its surface boiled with the swirling colors of the void. Thick, tentacular tendrils sprouted from the lower regions of its quivering bulk, slithering out at us, writhing and reaching, and sprouting round suckers that made me remember the burning sensation of something gripping my leg moments before. I shuddered involuntarily and was consumed by overwhelming revulsion.
Shoggoth An eldritch horror from beyond time and space. You should run if you see one. But if you’ve seen it, it’s probably already too late. Gifts: All-Seeing - Always aware of surroundings Powers:
All-Consuming - Master: Devour anything
She Drives Me Crazy - Master: Cause temporary insanity
Tentacular Monstrosity - Master: Create appendages
Skills:
Tentacle - Master
Huh. It really was something from an H.P. Lovecraft story. How unfortunate.
“Burn, motherlover,” I shouted as I produced a ball of fire.
“Did you just say motherlover?” Jane said.
“I don’t like to swear,” I said, then hurled the fireball at the monster. I’m not sure what I had hoped to accomplish, it was just the first thing that came to mind. It had, predictably, no effect whatsoever on the monster, but it did give me an idea. Fire was next to Void on the affinity wheel, but Air was opposite.
I concentrated on creating a focused spear of air. I pictured wind being squeezed into a tight, thin lance. Air molecules compressed so hard that they became a solid force. I pictured the air striking the aberration that loomed before us, piercing it through. I felt the solid shaft of the air spear in my hand and threw it with all the strength I could muster.
System: Your mastery of Affinity Control has evolved
System: Your mastery of Air has evolved
I felt a rush of wind as the invisible spear left my hand, then saw it close the space between me and the monster. It was as though the space itself had density that the hurtling spear of air broke through. Despite the appearance of fog, I knew there was nothing, not even air, in the space: it was nothingness. Void. But the polarity of Air against Void created a sort of tangible shockwave. Then it struck.
It smacked the Shoggoth in the center of a mass of bubbling eyes. The force of it created a momentary dent in the monster’s rippling skin, then it broke through, piercing into the creature and causing a small swath of eyes to burst all at once. A green mist spurted from each one along with a thick, grayish fluid that oozed down the puckered holes left by the popped eyes. The beast let loose an cacophony of eldritch howls that must have come from multiple unseen mouths.
“Jane! Use Air!” I shouted over the din.
We clenched each other’s hand lest we get separated in this impossible place, using our free hands to fire off whatever Air missiles we could conjure. Jane only managed a few weak blasts before she was too low on mana and would pass out if she tried to produce more. I could feel her begin to drag behind me, exhausted by the exertion, but I held her hand tight and pulled her along with me as I kept charging towards the gate’s column of blackness, our one means of possibly escaping this bleak and horrible dungeon.
It was so close.
I’m not sure if my attacks did much in the way of actual damage, but they did enough to keep the Shoggoth at bay for a few precious seconds. Its tentacles slithered away from us, temporarily withdrawn back into the central mass.
Jane dragged behind me like an anchor, momentum being the only thing making her take step after stumbling step. If she’d fallen I’d have literally had to drag her.
“Keep going, Jane! Don’t you dare give up!”
My own feet felt like they were encased in shoes of cement, like in that recurring nightmare I’ve had since I was in elementary school about missing the bus because I couldn’t run fast enough to catch it. The effort of moving forward was agony, each step a monumental victory of will. Our pace had slowed, allowing whatever it was that was chasing us to close the distance. The gate was right there in front of us.
We were so close.
Mere steps away from the gate, Jane’s hand was ripped from mine. I lost my balance, stumbling down to my hands and knees. I felt the surface of the ground below under my fingers, smooth yet bumpy, like a teenager’s face dotted with acne, firm yet squishy, like an overcooked sponge cake, and cold and greasy, like congealed bacon fat. I lunged back, groping for Jane’s hand. I felt the fabric of her clothing under my fingers and grabbed it. Something was pulling her back but I kept clutching her sleeve while I mustered every bit of mana I had left into one last attack.
Air filled my free hand, forming itself into a thin, dense shaft that I hurled blindly behind us. I heard a squawk as it impacted against something, then I fell backwards toward the black pillar, pulling Jane with me as whatever it was released its clutch on her. I took a firm grip on her arm and crawled, clawing at the squishy ground with my free hand, pulling myself inch by inch toward freedom, dragging her behind me up to and then finally, mercifully, back through the stygian blackness of the gate.