Tantus was almost finished with his preparations as the last of the emerald light from the spider murdering trees winked out. Tantus looked over to Ralph and Hani who were standing on opposite sides of the platform in the center of the towers shaft. There was slight bounce of the slab as strands of black webbing started to snap from the weight. Deacon sat cross legged in the middle of the platform as three more Infernal Sickles appeared. All five sickles began to spin at a rapid pace. Tantus knew this was his cue to deploy his newly modified ambulator.
The ambulator now looked like a tent canvas stretched over some supports and it had a pyramid shaped top. Deacon previously made a point to explain to Tantus what a hot air balloon was, and the plan was laid before them. Using some of the existing black webbing to connect his device to the platform, they could control their decent to the first floor and hopefully skip all the floors in between. Hani thought it would never work as the dungeon should conjure something up to prevent cheating. Ignis thought it would be a fun ride and they should do it without the magical contraption. Deacon was concerned about the will-o-wisp’s sense of judgement but then remembered it could already fly on its own.
Deacon moved the fifth Infernal Sickle into place under the air cushion created by Tantus before spinning the other four around the outside of the platform. This created four flaming circular saws that cut through the webbing holding the platform in place. They all felt a sudden drop as the platform was cut free from the webbing which then ignited and started to burn everything it was connected too. Surprising most of the passengers, there descent was smooth and non-life threatening.
“I can not believe this worked. It’s the very definition of a stupid idea,” Hani commented as he scanned his side for any threats.
“I warned you back at Crystal Cascade. You’ll see the most insane things traveling with us,” Ralph replied.
Deacon kept focusing inward. He knew that his ridiculous luck stat probably played a hand in this plan working. He wasn’t about to mention that to Hani though. The jester had been very helpful so far but something inside him told him to keep his guard up.
There were spider silk ashes falling from every direction around them. Even some smaller spiders fell from above like little flaming comets. Tantus was doing his best to keep any embers from landing on the tent canvas holding them aloft. They quickly passed through the ring for floor four before descending toward floor three. There were an abundance of webs below them that were now on fire due to the embers dropping past them.
“Deacon, what do we do if we end up floating into an inferno below us?” Tantus asked.
“To be honest, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I was just happy the first part worked. Why do you ask?” Deacon questioned back.
“Because it looks like floor three was mostly webbing and it is taking a lot longer to burn!” Hani answered as he began to swing his hat in a circle to his right. He then shot it out to cut a few support webs holding up an unmoving section of the burning net below them.
“Ok that’s bad. How are we doing on the spider front?” Deacon asked getting to his feet and focusing the sickles to form a tiered drill pattern below the platform.
“I’ve seen them climbing the walls to get a good jumping angle at us, but the flames keep getting in their way. Is this going to be like that time in the forest where the flames don’t just burn out on their own?” Ralph asked.
“Yes and no. Yes, the flames will remain and no its not like the forest. This is a dungeon, no one cares if the whole things on fire,” Deacon responded as he pushed the sickle drill below them to the extent of his aura range. He hoped that would give him enough time to burn and cut through the thick webbing nest. Otherwise they’d be lowered into a flame net.
“All the air magic I’m using is just fanning the flames. We’ll need a solution sooner rather than later,” Tantus said as he kept leaning over the edge to see the carpet of flames and webs below.
No sooner did Tantus say that then they all heard a snap followed by the crashing of stone and wood below them. The crash shook the entire tower. It seemed the inverted floor of the third level was without a connection to the towers shaft. Unlike all the rings above them the upper floors were solid. Deacon postulated that floor three and floor two could only normally accessed through the stair wells and they had just created flaming opening into the shaft of the tower. With that came a rush of putrid air followed by a second crash.
At this point they were passing through the newly made hole to the second floor. Floor three was completely web coated. So much so they couldn’t tell what the environment looked like beyond the shaft itself. Now it was all on fire. After they cleared the debris of the third floor, they entered a vast chamber of egg bundles as far as the eye could see. The closest to them already popping from the heat. All the fire only illuminated a ten foot circumference around them as the flames hadn’t had a chance to spread very far. Deacon once again heard the insect like chittering from the darkness.
“They are planning something. I can hear them communicating,” Deacon told everyone while maintaining the drill alignment.
“This chamber is twice as big as the others. Do you think this is floors two and one?” Hani asked before a portal the size of a commuter tunnel opened up in front of Hani. A gigantic black and blue streaked chitinous spider leg poked through white and red portal smashing into the floating platform sending it careening into a slanted wall.
As the platform crashed into the wall, Deacon slammed his clawed right hand into the stone and reached out for Tantus. Tantus grabbed Deacon’s outstretched left hand. Hani and Ralph flew off of the stone slab in two different directions. The platform slid threw multiple egg sacks splattering both Tantus and Deacon in disgusting spider parts and ichor. The careening platform came to a rest at the bottom of the decline. It seemed Hani’s hypothesis was correct.
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The final floor was an inverted dome, like the shape of a bowl twice as deep as previous floors. Deacon spun his sickles around himself and Tantus to give Ralph and Hani a light reference before checking on Tantus.
“Your grip is like Iron. I think my wrist is broken. What hit us?” Tantus asked as he concentrated a healing spell on his wrist.
“I didn’t see it, but I sure as hell felt it. Let’s hope the others are okay. You might want to prep—” Deacon stopped his sentence as they all got the same slate message.
Dungeon boss discovered: Plane Weaver Empress- The Plane Weaver Empress is a modified variant of the Black Weaver Empress. This dungeon boss has been modified by followers of Hipag, Deposed God of War and Cannibalism. Defeat the Plane Weaver Empress to clear this dungeon and return it back to normal operation. Level 25/Boss Monster, Planar, Alpha.
“This is really bad. A planar monster shouldn’t exist on the Mortal Plane. That’s Tier four Arcanum. It’s a dimensional creature. I wouldn’t begin to know how to fight it,” Tantus babbled as he backed up into Deacon.
“Calm yourself. We can do this. Somehow. ” Deacon said unconvincingly.
Above them space tore open as a massive black and blue streaked exoskeleton head of a spider emerged into their plane of existence. The portal scar it poked through was white with flecks of red as it breached. In separate parts of the inverted dome other portals opened as it’s massive legs poked through into our world effortlessly avoiding egg sacks wherever they landed. That was when Deacon heard the deepest, most terrifying chittering ever. It was coming from the head of the monster’s mandibles but unlike the other spiders the head had a crown of ridges on top of it glowing in multiple colors.
“Well what’s the plan?” Hani asked from Deacon’s left almost getting a claw to the face for his trouble.
“Fuck’s sake man. Not now with the stealth shit. We need to kill it, are you in fighting shape?” Deacon asked as he looked him over. His left arm was definitely broken, and his face was all bruised.
“I’ll handle this, you figure out what we are going to do next,” Tantus said pushing Deacon away from Hani beginning his healing spell.
As soon as Tantus began casting magic the Plane Weaver’s head snapped over in their direction. It screeched and smaller portals flew from it’s mouth in the direction of Deacon’s team. Deacon managed to knock them both down and out of the way as the mini portals shredded nearby egg sacks and the ground behind them.
“It spits dimensional instability. That’s a new one for me,” Hani said testing his newly healed arm from the ground.
Off in the distance an arc of Ralph’s hallowed blade sliced through the air hitting one of the spider legs with a reverberating thud. The monster replied by smashing that leg down cracking through the floor exposing the sky below them. Then the whole tower shuddered as pieces of masonry dropped from the roof crushing egg sacks. That caused a high pitch keening to come from the empress. Spiders started pour through flaming entrance the team had made high above them. It would take them a while to crawl around the dome to reach their current position. Some of the spiders jumped from the hole and splattered on the floor in a heap misjudging the distance.
Deacon then thought back to something Sun Wu said in the battle earlier. Why couldn’t he combine his halo’s? Chimera only said to start with one. He didn’t say never use more than one. But how would he go about it. Currently he could change connections with trigger phrases, but they only gave voice to the feeling of each energy. He was currently channeling the Infernal Plane right now. What would happen if he channeled Nether and Infernal at the same time? Could it be as easy as feeling hot and cold at the same time? Like an undercooked hot pocket. No sooner did he think of it, something changed within him.
Ralph was making his way over to the dancing firelights provided by Deacon. This monster was too big, and they were going to have collective think of a way out of this. That’s when Deacon’s lights winked out and a large whistling could be heard. Tantus and Hani were launched towards Ralph who managed to catch Tantus as Hani landed miraculously on his feet. There was enough light in here to see coming from sky below through the hole and the tears in space above.
“What the hell just happened?” Ralph asked them both.
“We don’t know. Deacon was mumbling to himself then steam started billow off of him in all directions. It was so sudden and explosive if threw us away from him. It’s like he let a boiling kettle explode. My Precognition went off and I threw both of us into the air,” Hani explained unsatisfactorily to Ralph who frowned.
Deacon accessed both hell dimensions at the same time. It felt to him like someone took the lid off a pressure cooker at max compression. Super-heated steam was billowing from in multiple directions. He checked his party interface in the hopes that he didn’t just kill Hani and Tantus. They seemed to be fine. That was when the first of many spiders made it over to his position. The first came within his aura range and exploded. The liquid that made up its internals boiling over and trying to force its way out of the carapace. Deacon smiled and moved to intercept the rest of the creepy crawlers. Soon the hall reverberated with the sound of bursting egg sacks and full blown spiders as he walked in an ever growing circuit around the base.
The Empress lost her mind at this and tried to smash Deacon with one of her many legs. As it got close enough to him Deacon used Spectral Jump which took the appearance of a steam powered rocket launching him from the ground toward the leg. He extended his claws on both hands and latched onto the hairy chitin. The leg began to wave back and forth trying to dislodge Deacon before it began to pull back into the portal it was protruding from. At this point Deacon had softened the outer shell enough to rip off a large piece of it exposing the soft meat inside. This was his hail Mary move. If it didn’t work, they were all dead. He grabbed the spider meat and for the first time activated Midas Touch.
“Copper!” yelled Deacon all though he didn’t think anyone could hear him over his bodies constant whistling.
There was a pained screech from the empress. As her carapace began to quickly turn a metallic brown color. There was a light that flashed between areas changed and where it hadn’t reached yet. It seemed to be having the hardest time overcoming the lights across the ridges above her head before they succumbed to the power as well. Once the whole head was turned to copper all the tears in space snapped shut severing any all parts still in this dimensions. The head fell to the floor with a hollow metallic bong!
Deacon landed chest first into an egg sac which broke his fall. He just barely managed to roll out of the way of the rest of the spiders leg he was riding hitting the ground. Once he got to his feet, he noticed he had several slate notifications waiting for him. They would have to wait because the ground was cracking, and huge holes were appearing that led to a cloudy sky beneath them.
“Are you kidding me? He’s like a force of nature. Did you see the size of that monster? How the hell did he turn it to copper?” Hani babbled staring at the location of the giant head. It was about to teeter into an open hole on the ground but it’s strange ridges were dug into a section of the still intact floor.