Bel slammed her improvised weapon – a sharp tooth wrapped in wood that she had liquified into a handle – through the skull of the tree rat. It squeaked in futile fury before going still. She jerked the dagger free and searched for her next target, but Orseis had already finished off the other two.

“This is getting easier, right?” she asked as she wiped off her bloodied weapon.

“Sure,” Orseis agreed, “but now you’re going to complain that these cores are too small for you to advance your path.”

Bel frowned and reached down to the dead creature in front of her, quickly stealing whatever essence it had. Her lips twitched with displeasure. “You’re right, these cores are too small.”

Orseis rolled her eyes. “You know, most people would be happy to have advanced to… where are you now?”

Bel inspected her weapon for any signs of wear as she felt around her core, counting her thresholds again even though she knew the result. “Four more since that giant snake. Threshold thirty-six, still twenty-four short of my third core.”

Orseis shrugged. “See? That’s great.”

Bel shook her head, jostling her snakes. A few hissed as they were dislodged from their spots in her head, forcing her to push them out of her face. “But you’re already at the third core. Beth has been on her third core for as long as I’ve known her. Neither of you could stand up to Technis, assuming he’s as strong as the Dark Ravager, so I obviously need to grow a lot more.”

Orseis blew a raspberry. “Well, yeah. He’s a demigod, right? Of course we can’t fight a demigod. Can’t you just assume that one of your divine parents will help out when you fight him?”

Bel raised her hands to the sky. “I have no idea! I’ve been looking for anything that’ll let me talk to my mom, but nothing works.”

“Sure, but you’ve just been eating random mushrooms and shouting at the sky. The only results I’ve seen are puking and some bad farts. I wish you’d stop.”

Bel’s face flushed with embarrassment and indignation. “Well, what else am I supposed to do?”

Orseis shrugged. “Make an altar? Pray? I dunno, my patron likes it when I kill stuff.” She flexed her tentacles. “Especially when I use brute force.”

Bel snorted with disgust. “My parents aren’t so easily pleased, and I think they want me to do this on my own.” She looked around for inspiration. “Maybe we should start looking for tougher things to fight? I haven’t even had to use shockwave on any of these.”

Orseis’ skin flashed an alarmed white. “Whoah, that’s because we’re keeping it in reserve, remember? In case something scary does show up? Look, we’ll get to the pillar soon, why don’t you just keep it in your skirt until we get there.”

She smiled brightly. “For all we know, the pillar people in this layer will be friendly!”

“That doesn’t sound likely,” Bel responded bitterly. “People aren’t very helpful in general. I dont’ know why you’re hoping to find more of them.”

“Ugh. You’re just being grumpy, Bel. I’ve met plenty nice people, and I know you have too.” Then the girl spun around and poked at Bel. “Also, food is really bland without any salt or other flavors, you know? People who live here are bound to have something tasty.”

Ah, those are her true motivations.

Bel heaved a heavy sigh of exasperation. Orseis was a bit childlish – but she was a child, even if not in the eyes of the people from the Golden Plains. Bel didn’t have it in herself to be angry at a child.

“Sorry Orseis, we just aren’t making much progress. Hearing that Technis’ Barrier reaches down this far was like a kick to the gut.”

Orseis’ lips wobbled with sympathy. “Sorry. I could scurry up another tree and check again – maybe it doesn’t reach all the way down to the floor.”

Bel waved her off. “Don’t waste time just to get my hopes up. We’ll just have to trudge through this forest for a few more days, and then repeat this whole process in the next layer.”

Bel’s sour mood killed the conversation for a while, long enough to pass through companionable silence and into awkwardness, at least for her. Bel was about to say something stupid to break the silence when Orseis pointed with excitement.

“Wow, look at that!” she called out.

Bel rushed forward. “What?”

“Some rocks!” her companion answered with mock excitement.

Bel swiped at her, but Orseis spun out of the way, giggling.

“Oh, c’mon. All this walking through the same trees is getting boring.” She pointed at a large, pointed boulder, surrounded by jutting spikes of stone. The boulder stood three or four times Bel’s height, which, relative to the enormous trees towering over them, wasn’t much.

“Well, I’m glad that you’re not worried about something jumping out of the shadows and eating us,” Bel sniped back. “Being bored and not eaten is better than laughing in something’s belly.”

Orseis gave her an incredulous look. “I think you’re just cranky. Maybe it’s because you haven’t eaten?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“You–”

“Oh, hey, look! There’s a dead thing on it. Maybe it’s a scary rock.” Orseis lifted her tentacles and did a poor impression of a predator. “Rawr.”

Bel turned her focus back to the large stone. There was indeed a dead, hairy thing clinging to the side of it. It looked like it had been smashed by another rock and squished flat from the impact.

Bel examined the area around them again, noticing that the rock formation was new. Shrubs and bushes were bent under the stones, and a few nearby trees had deep chunks gouged out of them. She took a step closer and saw that one of the trunks had a large collection of the sharp, fingernail disks stuck into its bark.

“Ori, I don’t like this.”

“Don’t give me a nickname. And yeah, it’s creepy, that dead thing is wearing clothes,” Orseis replied. The cuttlefish girl was tense, her tentacles roving around touching everything within reach, verifying their status.

Bel glanced back at the mass of hair that had once been a living thing. It had to have been dead for quite a few days, she decided: insects had made off with most of the meat, leaving the partially mummified hide of some type monkey-thing behind. Bel’s eyes twitched.

“Ken?” she wondered aloud. The last time Bel had seen the cultists, he’s been dragging James away from her back in Satrap.

A bead of sweat formed on her back and trickled down her spine, causing her to shiver. Bel was suddenly aware that the forest around them had grown eerily quiet. Her snakes spun around, alert, flicking their tongues through the air as they searched for unfamiliar scents.

“Who’s–”

Bel shushed her companion with a harsh wave of one hand as she clenched the handle of her weapon with the other. “He was one of the Dark Ravager’s cultists. I think we should go.”

Bel took a step and then her earring buzzed, nearly frightening her snakes straight out of her head. She grasped the small ball of metal and hissed at her brother. “This is a terrible time, James.”

“Bel, guess what?” James excited voice rolled right over her objection. “Daran’s layed her first successful larva! I’m a dad!”

“Uh…” Bel felt dizzy – she was probably in mortal peril, but she was also excited for her brother. “Wait, wasn’t that too fast?” she finally asked, too distracted to worry about her own safety.

“Eh, it’s ant stuff. Looks like a beautiful baby girl though. I mean, with antennae. The larva is like an external womb, so I can’t really see any details. Daran says everything is fine though.”

“Uh, great. Look, I have to–”

“She’s so much cuter than I though a larva could be,” he squealed. “Want to guess what we named her?”

Bel opened her mouth and her smile faded. “James, I’ve gotta go. Call me later.”

She quickly pulled her fingers from the earring and looked around, her movements frantic and jerky. From her peripheral vision she’d seen Orseis activate her camouflage abilities before hiding herself against the rock, but she hadn’t seen any other movement. It was too still and too quiet. Every heartbeat hammered in her chest.

A shadow blurred to her side and Bel whipped around, her dagger lifted into a defensive position.

The bird man laughed at her from his perch on top of the rock. “I came to watch the fun,” he mocked, “and to pick over your corpse of course.

His eyes flickered back and forth. “Where’s that seafood friend of yours?” he taunted. “Once you’re gone I’m sure your patrons won’t care what happens to her. I rarely travel to the outer layers, so I haven’t had any fish in a long while.”

It took all of Bel’s will to avoid looking in Orseis’ direction and giving her position away. Instead, she tightened her fist around her dagger and turned to look into the woods.

If he’s here to watch, then he won’t be standing where the threat is coming from, she reasoned.

Bel glanced back at his bird face. It didn’t have expression like a human face would, but Bel still got the impression that his eyes gleamed with anticipation.

The rustling of brush and the sounds of many footsteps pulled Bel’s attention back to the forest. There were shouts and the sounds of fighting, and from the flashes of light she guess that someone was tossing flames around in the forest. As they drew nearer she began to hear the distinctive whistling of arrows cutting through air, as well as the blood curdling cries of the dying.

A moment later, she finally caught sight of a group of figures running through the woods. Kjar’s sight painted them with an angry red, marking them as the guilty that deserved punishment.

Bel set her jaw and her snakes rose in a chorus of hisses. She recognized the them: Nebamon led the group, with Rikja just a few steps behind.

“So you survived,” she muttered. Finally, I’ll have justice.

She felt a pulse of fear when she saw Nebamon’s sword, and she unconsciously reached towards the scar running down her face. She pushed the emotion down, quashing it to make room for her righteous anger.

They’re tough, but they aren’t paying attention to where they’re running. This is my chance to catch them off guard.

Bel’s eye scanned over the chaotic scene as they rapidly approached. After dealing with them, I’ll have to worry about whatever is chasing them. Maybe it’s another one of those two-faced men from the pillar.

Bel lowered herself into a crouch and licked her lips with anticipation.

Nebamon burst through a wall of leaves and jumped over a berry bush. He rolled as he hit the ground, bouncing painfully over the rocky clearing. The moment his body hit the ground, Bel snarled in fury and launched herself at him. The swordsman looked up, his eyes wide with surprise. He pushed himself to his feet–

–and dodged around her, heading for the rock instead.

Bel spun, eyes wide with shock and indignation. “Come back you bastard!”

A moment later Rikja incinerated the bush and barrelled past Bel. One by one the cultists ran by, none sparing a glance.

As one of the last ones sped past, Bel reached out and stabbed him in the leg. The scaled man – some type of lizard person – went down with a cry of pain. To Bel’s surprise none of the other cultists stopped.

They didn’t even turn, rushing after Nebamon to the large rock in the middle of the clearing. He leaped, his sword held high and Rikja flung an incandescent stream of plasma which wrapped around his blade, causing it to glow with heat and energy. He swung it down onto the boulder in an explosion of light and sound, forcing Bel to cover her face to avoid being blinded by the light and debris.

Orseis! Bel tried to look, but molten stones still peppered the ground around her. She could hear the wounded cultists thrashing on the ground, and with a quick glance through her nearly shut eye, she saw that he was actually trying to drag himself towards the exploding rock.

“Don’t leave me,” he wailed.

Bel blinked furiously, as she looked at the epicenter of the blast. She could just make out the other cultists jumping into the pit left under the rock.

Bel stared. No, it’s not a pit, the rock was covering up a hole – that must be a way to get to the next layer!

“Unhand me you lesser creature!”

Bel looked up and was relieved to see that Orseis was unharmed. She had grabbed onto the bird man as he dodged the destruction, and now her tentacles were wrapped tightly around his legs, preventing him from flying away. Orseis wouldn’t be safe for long though – the bird man had already lifted his spear from his back, the blade on the god-gifted weapon glinting dangerously as he aimed it at Orseis’ head.

Bel forgot about Nebamon; she had to get to Orseis immediately.