After the new abomination asked its question, the black light beams ceased. It seemed to not understand where it was, and the eye stalks kept searching width of the cavern. Ralph managed to jog over during the cease fire. He slid in the loose dirt next to Deacon who had taken up a hiding space in the arm pit of his now down war golem.

“Did you inspect that thing yet?” asked Ralph.

“No. Still a bit terrified right now,” replied Deacon.

“It’s a Berilith Cyclops corpse animated by a Te’Kathin. Never seen that before,” chimed in Ignis.

“A what?” asked Deacon, looking down at his clasped hands.

“Berilith Cyclops, they live underground. Have better hearing than vision. You know, Berilith. Doesn’t matter. Your big concern is the Te’Kathin. Those things get bigger the more mass they consume. No idea why such a creature is this far above ground. They usually only stalk the depths of the Deep Cavern. Look out!” cried Ignis as a boulder flew overhead.

The boulder crashed into the opposite wall causing more of the cavern ceiling to collapse. As Deacon looked up to ensure their safety, he noticed there was no dangling Mastodon. His first idea would have been to control that with Perpetual Plane energy to fight the controlled Cyclops. That was going to be a no go. He also didn’t know if the Te’Kathin had a meat based mind for him to manipulate. That still left the witch doctor at the far end of the cavern. Deacon was in a situation where he was just going to need some help.

“Not sure what to do here Ralph. Any suggestions?” asked Deacon.

“I don’t know the Te’Kathins weakness. I know how to kill the goblins and orcs. I’ll take my troops and push closer toward the entrance. Hopefully that will give you enough time to monkey wrench that Cyclops,” Ralph replied just before peeking over the lip of the golem’s arm.

“That’s not how you use that… but… Regulators mount up and such,” implored Deacon.

“There’s only two of us here right now. Pull your weight champion. It’s clearly looking for you. I don’t know why but let me guess. You pissed it off somehow?” replied Ralph as he mantled over the side of the golem to rejoin his troops.

“Look, Ignis. I’m going to try something crazy. Remember when we fought that really big spider in the dungeon?” asked Deacon.

“Yes. That was a huge monster. You are underselling it,” replied Ignis.

“Well, I’m going to try something like that again. I don’t want to touch that Te’Kathin thing. I know it doesn’t like cold, but it just recoils from it. I’ve got to do something a bit more drastic. So, here’s what I want you to do. Stay low and make your way to the fort on the other side of that slab of stone. My friend Typhus is in there, remember him? Try to help him while I’m out here doing something dangerous. Can you do that for me?” asked Deacon.

“I’m over two hundred years old. You don’t need to speak to me like I’m a child,” Ignis shot back.

“Okay then fucking go, big man. I’ve got work to do. I’ve never tried this before, so I don’t know how it’ll go,” said Deacon as he opened up his hands allowing Ignis to fly up and over their cover.

“Real quick, can I be a Regulator? You seem like you could use more members—” stated Ignis before Deacon began swiping his hands at him.

As Ignis left, Deacon contemplated what dimensions to connect. He could activate the boiler room again but that not only drained his soul energy by ten percent per second but obscured his vision and did damage to his gear. Thinking of that he undressed and stuffed his new monk’s robes into his bag.

‘Might I make a suggestion? Whatever you choose should be combined with the Nether Plane. You know for a fact that it didn’t like that,’ suggested Sun Wu in his mind.

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“Right. So, which one should I pick? If I use the Hunting Preserve, I might just get a different ice based version of the alpha beasts I’ve collected. Not sure I want to run amok like that. No telling what the Perpetual Plane and Nether Plane combination would be. Brain Freeze? No that’s dumb. Let’s try the Nether Plane and The Black. See if that would make a good—” Deacon was abruptly cut off as two Orc Black Guard soldiers stepped into the gap between the golems right arm and its right hip.

“Naked civilian maybe?” said the first one wielding a two handed sword that curved up to two wicked looking teeth on the dull side.

“Looks expired. The hairs old white. Must be one of their elders. Bad luck for him,” commented the other with a pair of hand axes.

Both Orc’s weapons began to glow with a blood red light as they stepped forward. Deacon remembered the curse that was put on Ralph that sapped his attributes and periodically left him weak. If he was going to do something, it would have to be now.

Deacon activated his Dimensional Viaduct ability connecting both the Nether Plane and The Black. He felt the heat in the area of his aura get sucked into his body all at once. His hands were coated in Nether ice up to the wrist. From that point, his skin turned solid black. Not darkened but deep light consuming black. His feet were also covered in Nether ice and that darkness ran up his legs into his torso. After the change he looked up to see the two Orcs were completely covered in ice. They began to crack as whisps of energy floated from their bodies only to be sucked into the darkness coating Deacon.

“Holy crap!” Deacon said but the sound reverberated out of his mouth with an odd timber.

‘Times running out. You only have so much soul energy with which to accomplish your goal. The monster is moving toward the Dwellers troops. You need to intercept it,’ said Sun Wu with some urgency in his voice.

Deacon stepped forward and the metal surrounding him cracked and flaked away. Once he reached the two frozen Orcs their bodies just disintegrated and blew away like snow in the wind. Deacon attempted to move faster but he couldn’t. The temperatures surrounding him were even trying to arrest his motion. At these frigid temperatures, molecules just wanted to stop moving. He was going to have to get the monsters attention.

Outside of Deacon’s aura, you could see with the naked eye the dim light in the area began to slow as it reached its boundaries. Deacon looked like a slow moving disco ball. This made an effective distraction for the beast who grew three more eyestalks just to perceive the phenomenon. Several lances of black light energy shot toward Deacon only to slow enough for him to step out of its path.

Deacon realized that even with all the effects surrounding him right now, the witch doctor could still pick him out. He silently thanked Chimera since he didn’t believe he could trigger Spectral Dodge in this state. Deacon turned his head to the Te’Kathin flatten the bulbous space that used to be the Cyclops head. It then spread more completely down the torso of the corpse. Deacon had to lead it away from the downed body of Alfred. He hoped someone else would retrieve it as engaged the monstrosity.

The Te’Kathin sent out tendrils of black ink toward Deacon only to lose them once they crossed his aura’s area of effect. What was left of the tendrils cracked and flaked away like the outer layer of wood burning in a fire. It shrieked into the air. The surface of the corpse writhing and popping like boiling water. Deacon thought it might be trying to raise its own temperature to combat the extreme cold. The Te’Kathin had the arms of the Cyclops grab torso sized rocks to throw at Deacon. The momentum of the stones slowed as they reached the aura of cold. Enough that Deacon could push them to the side and continue his plodding motion toward the creature. All the eye stalks frantically looked around until they noticed the long metal polearm jutting out of the Cyclops chest. It pulled it free with the squelching of meat. Then it lifted it high smash it down upon Deacon’s head. As the heavy weapon cross the cold barrier it slowed just enough for Deacon to grab onto it.

The old metal used in the construction of the war golems was of the highest quality for its time. Even the chassis that surrounded Deacon when he activated this power held up longer than the Orc’s did. Deacon used this information to formulate a plan. Should the Te’Kathin decide to cut its losses and head straight for the battle further in, it could grow to a ridiculous proportion. He needed to stop it here and now. Deacon was betting it wasn’t that smart.

The Te’Kathin lifted the weapon up to swing again but the strange light ball made distortions in the air as it moved with the weapon. It was too late for the Te’Kathin as it realized there was delay in the light passing back out of the ball. Deacon had landed on the shoulders of the cyclops after dropping off of the haft. He grabbed onto two of the eyestalks as they shattered in his hands. Then Deacon attempted to extend his Dragon Claws only to feel pain as long shards of ice jutted into the crumbling black substance of the Te’Kathin. Deacon squeezed hard digging into the flesh of the now falling Cyclops, ensuring his aura covered every part Te’Kathin. The howling coming from around the body as it slowly fell to the ground, was bone rattling. The last of the Te’Kathin cracked and blew away as the ravaged Cyclops corpse hit the ground.

‘I figured you were going to tell it chill,’ joked Sun Wu in his head.

“Bad monkey king, bad!” said Deacon.