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THE OBSERVATORY

SECOND RING

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The light from SIsi transformed the dome into a world of stark contrasts. Hard shadows turned the large telescope into a domineering presence while the light dragged the decrepit gears and levers into the open. This wasn’t the big dome yet, Tharia was well aware of that, but it was an impressive structure either way. It was also a nest for the Shadow-stinkers.

She watched Annabelle clash with the first of them. It was directly in their path. Using her Scythe as a lever, the goddess stemmed the Stinker out of its hiding place. The quadrupedal creature flopped onto the ground with an angry hiss, two of the legs kicked after Annabelle but the goddess had already weaved to the side. Tharia pressed her lips together. Ignore the distractions, concentrate on the one thing important. She nudged the crossbow until it pointed towards the flame and corrected it just a bit upwards.

Tharia was neither strong nor especially enduring – but she had decent reflexes. Annabelle in the meantime had provoked the Shadow-stinker into an all-out rage by poking the eye mold on top. The creature suddenly stretched out of the hole. This was it. Tharia breathed in and kept the breath in her lungs. Her eyes focussed on the core, she stabilized the crossbow and then with a thunk, the bolt was let loose. It pierced through muscle tissue and into the core, followed by a loud explosion that rocked the dome.

“Here comes the stink”, groaned Tharia and refocussed her attention on the other monsters. They hovered at the edge of the light, like a particularly nasty fish swarm that had discovered a new source of meals outside the water. Her eyes saw the flame flicker out and she made a hand gesture towards Annabelle. The goddess nodded and stepped away from the beast. Tharia shuddered under the look the goddess gave the beasts. It wasn’t a threat, just a clear message she wasn’t even recognizing them as an obstacle anymore.

Tharia placed another bolt into the crossbow and winded it up. Only then did she close in on Annabelle. Together, they walked past the carcass that was still spilling out of the very floor. The human girl pressed her hand against her mouth, while the other beasts got even more restless. Last to follow was Sisi, the sprite quickly hovered towards Tharia and sat down on her shoulder. That moment, the remaining Shadow-stinkers enjoyed a feeding frenzy. By the time the two girls were about to leave the doom, nothing was left of the dead beast.

“Remind me to not die to them”, said Tharia with a slight grin.

“Given your penchant for self-destruction, the humane thing would be to tell you nothing. You obviously enjoy it enough to keep doing it”, said Sisi with a lackadaisical tone in her voice.

“Your cynism turned into plain old mean.”

“You think so? Oh shit, quick dodge to the right, now!” shouted Sisi. Tharia reacted by instinct. Something she regretted immediately as her head bumped into a low hanging pipe.

“Case in point, I didn’t get meaner, you just got dumber”, added the sprite with a gleeful Schadenfreude in its voice. The human girl rubbed her head and felt a bump coming. Sisi had always been a sadist in all manner of ways, but this was turning into open hostility.

Annabelle glared at both of them.

“Shut up, both of you”

Without waiting for a reaction, the goddess turned around and headed through the door. Tharia followed grumbling and shut the door behind them. Only now did Sisi lower the light to more bearable levels.

The space between the domes was even more of a mechanical marvel. This obviously wasn’t a place for visitors as it allowed an unfettered view deep into the hearts of the observatory hill. They stepped onto metal walkways hanging high above an assortment of enormous gears, chains, pendulums, and weights. She heard the construction hiss and groan in a way similar to the train.

Tharia glared at Sisi which once more used her shoulder as a couch. Following a sudden petty impulse, she flipped it away. Sisi had a look of pure betrayal on the tiny face. A moment of fall later, it floated back up.

“What the fuck, Tharia?”

“Oh, I thought we were just randomly hurting each other”, said Tharia. Instead of an answer, the sprite glowered and sat back down on the shoulder. It made sure to take on a regal pose while Tharia followed Annabelle along the walkway.

“This one forgives its steed. It was not properly house-broken after all”, the sprite answered. Being treated like a tool ticked the human girl off. Especially by a flying insect whose only purposes were to make light and to make things go boom. Tharia stopped before she could mouth off. Sure enough, her emotional state was a pure mess again. She clenched her teeth. The anger was misplaced. Just as much as she didn’t like to be a tool, Tharia had treated Sisi as just that.

She spoke with clenched teeth, “That timing on the last bolt was amazing. We couldn’t do this without you, you know?”

“Tell me something new”, replied Sisi. The tiny face moved the lips into a pout and turned up the nose. It looked like an arrogant but cute pout.

“I’ve missed you”, added Tharia after a moment of silence. From the corner of her eye, she saw Annabelle show a slight smile and nod.

“She missed you too!” was Tharia’s second addendum.

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Their pace had been slow but steady. Tharia still felt the exhaustion creep up on her with her arms aching and her body becoming slower. Each room and corridor was the same. Open it up, spread light, make it stink and move on.

“Wait, Annie... we’re moving in on the big one”, she said with ragged breath, “Let us rest up a bit.”

The goddess hesitated for a moment but one look at Tharia’s story state and she turned around. Tharia had to bite back a sharp comment. As much as it hurt her pride to admit that she was the weakest link, it was a simple truth. She had been from the start and no matter the growth, Annie was an existence she could never catch up to. Not even after she had stopped being human. That’s something she had to deal with.

She blinked in confusion when she felt soft hands make their way under her shoulders. They wrapped around her and then pulled Tharia close to her love. Annabelle’s voice was quiet.

“I sometimes wish I had your strength”

“Stop mocking me”, snapped Tharia and tried to push herself away. Annabelle didn’t let her go, however. So much for strength.

“Life has been easy for me but not for you”, the goddess said and tilted her head with a ponderous look, “but you are here with me. You are stronger.”

Tharia sighed. She felt that Annabelle meant well but it was obvious which of the two needed support to even stand and which of them slowed them down. Annie looked into her eyes and as if she suddenly got the ability to read minds, she continued talking.

“When I got hurt, you mended me for weeks”, the beginning of the sentence had been nearly fluid, rest of it not so much, “b-but when you uhm pain – in pain – uh, when you are in pain you stand t-tall like a statue.”

“Stop reading my mind”, said Tharia with a quiet pout.

“How do you know I can do that?!” shot Annie with raised eyebrows. Wait, what? Tharia suddenly pushed her back.

“You’ve been reading my mind? Since when? What am I thinking about now?”

Tharia concentrated on an orange riding on a sleigh. She kept adding little silly details like two beards growing from the eyebrows and feelers on the eyes. Right, naturally the orange had to have a face first for these to work. So a face it got. The absurdity made her grin. Annabelle gave her an intense stare and then answered.

“Me. In a gown and peeling out of it. Black lingerie underneath”, said Annabelle with steadfast conviction. Tharia blinked and tried to not blend both of these ideas. It failed horribly in an unnatural mind-experiment that gave her laughing fits for several minutes – because she kept adding details to it. Like a face on there too and... right. Monsters.

“I’m good now”, said Tharia and pressed a hand against her own neck. She really was. The short rest had done wonders for her exhaustion. Just a handful of corridors were left before they would enter the last dome. Tharia stepped way from Annie and began massaging her own arms. Her eyes were locked on the door that would lead back out onto the walkways. The final dome was waiting just a few meters away. With it, the next big thing on their kill-list.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The small girl was full of anticipation but also apprehension. Each new encounter was a bag of unknowns where a random fluke could mean the death of them all. This had been easier when she could just push the fear into her dark little abyss and pretend to be happy go lucky. She stared at her shivering hands.

“Fear is normal”, she said out loud, “Only an idiot would feel no despair – and I swore to be better than that. Let’s do this, ladies.”

Her hands wrapped around the crossbow with grim determination. One thing would end this night. She was ready to make sure it wasn’t them. Sisi fluttered on the spot, sprinkling a bit of the dust into the air without igniting it.

“Ready”, the sprite said.

“Always”, added Annabelle. In a golden flash, she was back in her combat garb, filling Tharia with envy. If she were to have that superpower, she’d keep an entire wardrobe of gowns, dresses and... right. Monsters. Not in the wardrobe but at the focus of her mind. They stepped through the door and out into space between the domes.

The first few meters were the normal metal walkway with the machinery down below. Tharia noticed a cover of snow, which meant the outer shell of the domes had been broken at some point. Soon, however, she realized the ground was weird. It had started to deform like she was walking on a mattress. Except it was metal.

“Domain?” she asked in the direction of Sisi, but the sprite shook the head.

“Worse. Void.”

“As in those things from when we fought the Dreamreaper?”

Tharia shuddered. Something about those things had been very wrong. Not just because they were monsters but because looking at them felt like her mind was ready to twist inwards. That same influence had warped the large dome. The machine below bent in on itself, gears had been folded like paper and their metal screeched with each tick of the metal core below.

Soon it took all of her concentration just to not stumble. The walkway had twisted into random wave patterns with sudden hand-sized holes in it. It firmly held in place, even though it was no longer attached to its structural support. A strange chill not born from the cold took hold of Tharia. Together with Annabelle, their steps in subconscious lock, they reached for the large door – but their hands touched a formless darkness instead.

The human girl blinked – there was no more door, just this strange patch of darkness. She stretched her hand inside of it, the material felt like mud without the dirt. Suddenly, in the middle of it, she felt something metallic. Wrapping her hands around it, she pushed on the metal bar. As if her touch confirmed the reality of it, the door suddenly appeared as the darkness rescinded.

“Yeah, that’s not weird at all, not...”

Tharia’s voice faded before she could finish the sentence. A strong force tore the door from her hands and ripped it straight out of the hinges. They stared directly into a human eye the size of a small building.

“Viktor”, mumbled Annie.

The eye peered out of an elongated human face twice as long as usual. It was framed by thick white hair and a beard that covered the entire lower levels of the dome. Tharia stumbled back yet Annabelle stepped forward. The goddess hastened into the building and with a curse, Tharia finally forced herself to follow. In her heart, she was a proper coward without madness to push the envelope.

She had felt dozens of smaller flames but they might not be enemies. Tharia saw the Shadow-stinkers strung up on the walls of the observatory. Those same chains also bound the unnatural looking giant in the middle. Chains kept the pale and leathery torso afloat, a massive telescope was stuck right through the center and a mesh of veins had grown onto it.

What had developed out of Viktor von Halsenstien let out a pained groan. The body of the uneven giant fell forward, impaling itself further on the telescope. A squalid pair of hands grabbed one of the Shadow-stinkers. Then, reality tilted, not unlike what her brother’s Worldengine had done – only more limited. A tear opened in reality, like a crack in the glass. Viktor slammed one of the hands through it and dragged out a writhing mess of flesh.

Tharia suddenly felt something burrow into her deepest subconscious. It was whispering to her, begging to be let in, to be let go, to run away and to come back. With one quick motion, Viktor slammed the otherworldly flesh against the Shadow-stinker. Blood dripped through his giant fingers and when he let go, the Shadow-stinker floated for a brief moment on rotten wings that had sprouted, before it fell to the ground. Its flame gave out instantly.

The human girl put a hand to her forehead. How could they fight this thing? The movement seemed slow and deliberate, no surprise given the sheer size of it. Tharia let her eyes wander around the observatory, she could not find the legs of this thing if it had any. The good news: Chains and impaled telescope kept Viktor in place, he couldn’t even properly turn. Bad news: There was no more walkway behind it.

She swallowed. Alternatively, they could crack the ground, let it smash down into the machine below, yet unlike the underground temple where Annie had fought the cultist leader, this seemed a sturdier build.

Her thoughts were cut short when the giant stared at her and Annabelle. The goddess growled.

“Your plan, fairy! Any second now!”

She was waiting on her? Doom and gloom. Tharia bit her tongue by accident. She suppressed the pain. Don’t be overwhelmed - compartmentalize. One of the large hands approached slow but with force. Annabelle darted to the left and Tharia followed. Sure enough, the hand slammed down where they had been but far too slow to be a real threat. They could use that.

“Lure the hand, wear it down”, she shouted to Annie. The goddess looked at her and then nodded with a thumbs up. Both refocussed their attention on the giant.

“Sisi, can you scout in his back? See if there is any weak point”, Tharia commanded and to her surprise, the elemental flew away without complaint. A moment later, the hand smacked down again. Foundation solid, was her judgment, as barely a ripple vibrated through the dome upon it. Annabelle was rapidly approaching the hand. Instead of her trusty scythe, the goddess wielded both of her war-fans with an opened blade. They sang and whirred as she spun them against the hand. Chunks of flesh were cut off, but it was little more than the bite of a pesky mosquito. They needed something bigger.

The giant suddenly turned his hand sideways, he stretched and then began sweeping the entirety of the walkway. Annabelle stared and suddenly blinked out of existence. Tharia, on the other hand, ran towards the outer shell of the dome. It would be awfully close. The two longest fingers scratched along the outer shell, but the smaller ones didn’t quite reach there. Tharia slid the rest of the way and then curled into the fetal position just in time for the hand to pass over her.

Sheer wind force dragged her along for a couple of meters. Annabelle re-appeared, looking slightly flustered. Right, her domain of obsession and the weird activation for it. With a chuckle, she gave a thumbs up to Annabelle and got back on her feet. Tharia stared up at the eyes. Given a bit of luck, her heavy bolts could reach that high. However she wasn’t sure if a giant aimlessly thrashing about couldn’t end up more dangerous than one so slow, they could predict it at all times.

Suddenly, Sisi returned. The sprite smacked into Tharia’s shoulder and mouthed the word: “Below.”

The elemental looked exhausted. Whatever it had seen, it had taken the wind out of it. Tharia nodded and then gestured towards Tharia, then in the direction of stairs leading down – and into his beard. They both darted towards it when reality suddenly cracked once more. The ground in front of her twisted into surreal patterns and a moment later, a shuddering mess of flesh smacked onto the ground.

Disgusted, the human girl watched as the pile of flesh struggled to maintain some form of the exterior, before settling on what looked like half an animal – if only by rough shape. This thing was between them and the stairs. Worse, as Tharia tried to make sense of it, she could feel something touch her thoughts and then siphon off concepts and ideas to make flesh this thing.

“You take it, I watch for him”, Tharia shouted to Annabelle. Without a moment of hesitation, the goddess started running. It filled the human girl with pride. This was her Annie. The trust between them was nearly perfect. Her eyes locked onto the giant. He was currently reeling from the pain of having impaled the telescope further into his chest, yet already, the mesh of veins once more pulled it back into place. That could be useful, Tharia noted.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Annabelle dance hither and thither in an attempt to dodge the many unspeakable appendages of the shuffling flesh horror. Even just acknowledging it meant to rationalize its existence. Tharia could feel that her thoughts gave it strength and shape. Annie had this. Trust the beauty with the martial training. She forcefully focussed her attention on the giant again.

Sisi had a point, the flame indicating life was sitting below, not up here. Viktor clamped a hand into one of the walkways. He growled and with a shudder, the metal was easily torn from the walls. The giant then balanced it in his hand, making sounds that were somewhere between the innocent sounds of a child and the guttural grumblings of a several meters large murderous giant.

“Be prepared, he’s got a weapon now”, she informed her love. There were obvious sounds of fighting but she didn’t dare look. The giant once more locked his large eyes on Tharia. By the sounds of the combat nearby, Annie wasn’t ready yet and they couldn’t just run past it. They needed time. With a grunt, she heaved up the heavy crossbow. Immediately, her muscles protested. This was fine, she didn’t need perfect accuracy with a target that large.

The frail girl pointed the weapon at the left eye of the giant. With a growl, Viktor moved his hand in front of it. Curious, the bugger had some semblance of intelligence in it. Tharia immediately shifted aim to the other eye and watched Viktor stop his windup for the swing, to once more protect his second eye.

Tharia chuckled as the situation turned absurd. Every time Viktor tried to wind up an attack, she switched her target to the other side. Turns out, he wasn’t that smart after all. The sudden crunch of metal cutting through flesh was accented by Annie’s breathless shout.

“Clear.”

She nodded and then turned to look at... she didn’t look at it. Nope, not looking. The shape disappeared from her memories the moment she looked away. All she knew was that every time she stole a glance, a part of her mind ended up gone. With a hand in front of her face to shield her from the view, she closed up to Annabelle and they ran down the stairs together.

“Sisi, everything alright?” Tharia said while trying to catch her breath.

“Yes, just... dangerous - but an only chance”, the sprite answered, “Other place – void but core there.”

Tharia didn’t understand half of it, only that they needed to go into the beard. Well, that was a thought she never knew she would have. They soon reached the lower level and from up close, the beard looked like the roots of large trees. Worse, it moved with a mind of its own.

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes, Tharia”, came Sisi’s squeaky voice. She looked up at the giant and saw him stretch his arms. There was one advantage already, the Viktor Godbeast couldn’t reach down this far. Annabelle tugged on her hand and then led them into the beard.

The bloody beard of all things! Somehow, her vivid thoughts painted her intricate pictures of what they would find. They weren’t nearly as weird as what waited for them.

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End: Eppur Si Muove | Coming up: Enter the Beard