“What are you doing here?” Nar hissed. “I told you to run!”

“I’m not running!” Jul shot back at him.

“My Crystal! Is that Jul?” Tuk asked, sitting up.

“Everyone be quiet!” Kur snapped at them.

Jul stealthy approached Nar’s cage and he heard her messing with something above his head.

“You didn’t leave me behind, and I’m not going to leave you either!” she said, breathing hard.

Nar gripped the bars and pushed his head against them, ignoring the pain. Relief and hope warred with the thought of Jul falling into the hands of the cannibals. The images that his mind conjured made him want to scream.

“Jul! Look where we are! Get out! Run!”

“No! I’m getting you out!” she countered. “I’m getting everyone out! We’re all Climbing together, or no one is!”

“Jul! You…”

With a snap, the bars that Nar held onto fell forward and he tumbled down after them, rolling right off the bars.

Something roared into him, and he lost all control of his limbs.

His sight blinked to nothing and his UI flickered before him.

Warning!

You have been cut from the Source!

Warning!

You have been cut from the System!

Warning!

HP is unavailable. Stamina is unavailable.

Regular body functioning cannot be restored.

Danger of death!

Warning!

All attributes blocked!

Danger of death!

The warnings flashed directly into his brain.

A searing heat ignited deep within his soul. A light, of gold and color, roared in indignation and fury at the affront that had been committed against It.

Who had dared to take one of Its own from It?

Nar wanted to scream and run from that all-consuming rage but he had no body. He had no mouth and no voice.

And Something was there with him.

It was beyond imagining. Beyond description.

A light that burned so brightly It blinded his very soul. He was but a tiny speck. A grain of aetherium dust. Less. He was nothing. How was he not burned in the face of such a light? How was he still himself? His soul screamed, a garbled incompressible sound that matched the chaos of light and color that he could not reason with.

And just as he thought he was about to be erased, he gasped and opened his eyes.

Someone was dragging him across the floor and a hand was clamped shut over his mouth.

He muttered and struggled, not even able to control his mouth or thoughts. Sheer panic took over and he flailed weakly.

“Nar! It’s me! Stop!”

That voice! He knew that voice!

The hand covering his mouth retreated.

“Jul?” he asked, dropping his arms.

Jul stopped.

“Yes! Are you okay now? You went all crazy. I had to cover your mouth!”

Nar took a shaky breath. He looked around him through the marvelous power of his [Sight] and saw everything as though the light filtering in from outside was ten times brighter.

“I can see!” he whispered. “I can see again!”

“That must have been the System connecting with you again!” Gad said, still inside her cage. “That means we need to be careful when we get out. We can’t let anyone hear us!”

“Nar, can you stand?” Kur asked. He had dragged himself over to this side of the cage, and was breathing hard, holding on to his side. “The weapons! You need to cover us!”

Nar didn’t need to be told twice. He stumbled to his feet and ran to the weapons pile.

His first few steps were wobbly, but by the time he reached the weapons, he was himself again. Not the weakling he had been at the cubeplant, but the attribute empowered Climber that was not ready to give up just yet after all.

“We need to get Kur out first. He needs his HP!” Nar said.

“No!” said Gad and Kur at the same time.

“Help Tuk first!” Gad said, while Kur grimaced in pain but nodded. “We need [Aura]!”

“Oh, you’ll have it!” Tuk said. “You’ll have all of it!”

Nar found his sword and a tremor ran up his arm as he held it. He felt a burning behind his eyes and swallowed hard against it. He had thought he would never hold his sword again.

The flap suddenly opened again.

“Jul! What’s the hold up?”

The sword glided through the air, silent and deadly. Almost of its own accord. It would not be separated from its owner again. Ever again!

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Nar, wait!” Jul said.

The sword stopped less than an inch from Rel’s neck.

“You?”

Her eyes went big and she opened her mouth. Nar leaped forward and slapped his other hand over her mouth and dragged her in.

“Wait! She’s helping us!” Jul said. “Stop!”

Nar could barely comprehend the words.

In a flash, he had Rel pinned under him. His hand still covered her mouth and his sword was directly above her heart. All he needed was a little pressure, and that traitor would be no more. Unable to deceive and harm anyone ever again!

Jul jumped on him and pushed him away.

“Crystal! I said stop!”

“She lied to us! She-She…”

“She had no choice then!” Jul hissed at him. “But she found me sneaking in. She told me everything! She could have called the others on me! But she didn’t!”

Nar stared at Rel. It took every ounce of his willpower not to jump on her again.

“It-It’s true!” Rel said. “And we have to hurry! It’s almost morning! The boss will be here soon and when he gets here, it will all be over!”

“How can we trust you?” Kur asked, straining his voice. “You got us into this!”

“I had no choice! I’ll get you out now, but you have to promise me that you’ll take me with you to the end! To the O-Nex!”

“How the fuck can we trust you?” Mul asked.

“You have to promise me,” Rel said, her eyes boring into Kur. Pleading. “You have to swear on the Crystal that you will take me! There is no path here! Without me, you’ll never escape!”

“The path always shows up!” Tuk said.

Rel shook her head. “Not here. I don’t know why, but there’s no path here. But there is a way. There’s a barrier, a wall of Pressure. The cannibals can’t go through it because they have lost their [Aura]s. But we Climbers have it, so we can go through!”

“You need [Aura] to pass through?” Gad asked, frowning.

However, before Rel could reply to her, Nar stood above the archer.

“So you’re not a cannibal then?” Nar asked.

“No! I never did anything to anyone. Never. I swear on the Crystal!”

“No, but you still lied and tricked them! Their blood is on your hands!”

“Nar! Enough!” Kur said. “Rel, I swear by the Crystal, my path, and all that I am, that if you get us to safety, you will Climb with us! But I’ll only give you one chance! One chance only, you hear me? You betray us again, you’re gone.”

“Kur!” Mul said, horrified. “What have you done?”

“Take responsibility,” Kur said. “Like I should have done all along. Rel stand watch! Nar help Tuk reconnect to the System! Come on! Quick, before anyone comes!”

With one more glare at Rel, Nar stored his sword away and walked back to his cage.

“Tuk, come on, we need your awesomeness!” he said, extending a hand towards the trugger.

“It’s coming, man! It’s coming!”

Tuk held his hand and Nar dragged him out. The change triggered immediately, and some of Tuk’s screams escaped before Nar could cover his mouth.

“Crystal! Shut him up!” Mul hissed at him.

Nar didn’t bother replying. He struggled with Tuk’s convulsing dead weight and dragged him backwards, away from the purple glow of the cage.

Crystal Almighty! What in the pile is in that thing? He wondered, staring at the purple glowing construct.

Tuk’s reconnection was brief, and soon he was tapping frantically on Nar’s arm.

“Crystal, man, are you trying to kill me?” he breathed.

“You almost woke up the whole damn place!”

“Yeah, well… That was something,” Tuk said.

Nar pulled him up and helped him stand.

“Hot big colorful light?” he asked him.

Tuk nodded. “You think that was the Crystal? It felt like back then, in the chapel back home.”

Nar shook his head. “I have no idea. But now’s not the time. Can you go stand watch with… Rel?”

Tuk smiled. “Well, she was always the nicest of them.”

“Really? I thought you preferred Tas.”

The ring tosser sighed. “He was an ass. I just felt alone. And he took advantage of it.”

Nar clapped his back. “I’m sorry, man. I should have done something. I was going to talk to you tonight, before, well, everything. But it was too late.”

“Yeah, you should have, man. But we all had our own problems, and they used it against us. Go on. Go help the others. I’m gonna go look for my rings.”

Nar watched Tuk stumble towards the pile of weapons. The trugger fell to his knees and searched for his rings. He watched him count them one by one as he found them, and he caught the little tremor that shook his chin when Tuk discovered that all ten of them were accounted for.

I should have said something, Nar thought, with bitter regret crushing his heart.

He should have said and done a lot of things. Why did he keep screwing up?

Maybe that's the only way.

Screw up after screw up, learning, understanding, doing better the next time, and not making the same mistakes.

Four of Tuk’s rings shone bright in the dark. They cast Tuk’s face in deep shadows.

Not the time to be thinking about this.

He left Tuk to himself and ran towards Gad’s cage.

“Cen first!” Gad said, helping the lengos get out.

Nar had learned from his mistake and held Cen’s hand.

“I’m going to cover your mouth first, okay?”

Cen nodded. She hadn’t spoken a word since Wik had revealed that the whole magic thing had been a lie. Not even when Jul had showed up...

Nar covered her mouth and took her in his arms.

Cen started shaking against his chest as soon as he pulled her out of the cage. Nar kept his hand tight over her mouth and stumbled towards the weapons pile, so that Cen could arm herself as soon as she was ready.

When she stopped twisting, Nar lowered her to the soft, covered floor.

“Are you okay?” he asked her.

Cen walked over to the pile of weapons and picked up her staff. She felt its length, and a tiny light shone at its tip.

“I’m not,” she said, her eyes glowing with her [Aura]. “But I will be. We all will. At some point.”

Nar patted her shoulder and went back for Gad.

“You ready?” Nar asked.

“Are you? I saw how you struggled with Tuk and Cen.”

“Very funny.”

She flashed him a smile and turned around, angling her face up so that he could better cover her mouth.

Despite what he had said, he realized that Gad had been right.

Her convulsions were much stronger, and he nearly lost his grip over her mouth. She shook and shook for what felt like a lot longer than the others. He dragged her away from the cage’s purple lit door, but just barely, and he didn’t try to go any further. He couldn’t.

He tripped and crashed on his ass.

“Damn!” he muttered to himself.

Somehow, he managed to keep her mouth covered, and a few seconds later, it was done.

“I told you,” Gad said, having read their position on the floor correctly.

“I’m still injured, you know?” Nar said.

“Bah! Those are just scratches to a tank.”

“Whatever.”

He got up and pulled her to her feet. He half managed to swallow his groan, but Gad caught it, and grinned in the semi-darkness.

I am hurt, damn it!

“Okay, you’re hurt,” she conceded, almost reading his mind. “I’ll help Viy. You do the other two.”

Nar nodded.

His head still screamed at him from Wik’s hit, and he was sure he had started bleeding again after all that exertion. But his heart hammered away with more than fear now. There was hope. There was excitement. They were getting away. They were escaping!

He exhaled, slowly, trying to contain his emotions. He felt like he had been dropped down the pile, and had rolled all the way down through the sharp, poisonous aetherium.

I’m going to crash after this, he thought, with certainty.

That reminded him. He glanced at his stamina as he bent down to get to Mul.

Less than half. Same with HP. I hope we can just sneak away.

A part of him didn’t want to sneak away though. He didn’t know how many cannibals surrounded them, but he felt a thirst within him... A need to cut his way out and wash his sword in the blood of those that had wanted to torture and kill him and his party. The ones who sought to prevent him from reaching the exit, and one day returning for his dad.

He inhaled sharply and took Mul into his arms. He was much easier to handle than Gad, and was soon up on his own two feet. He sighed as he grabbed his knuckle dusters, and a dark grin slowly spread across his face.

Nar bent down and grabbed Kur’s buckler and scepter, since he was already there.

Gad and Jul were working together to coax Viy out of the cage, so that left only Kur.

“You’re the last one, Kur,” Nar said, laying the weapons down next to the cage. “How are you feeling?”

Kur smiled and coughed weakly.

“Not great, man,” he said. “But I’ll manage.”

“Maybe Gad can carry you.”

“Crystal!” Kur breathed, turning around to offer his back to Nar. “Ha! We’ll see.”

Nar placed his left arm under Kur’s left armpit, and moved his other hand towards the party leader’s mouth.

“You ready?”

“Yes, please! Hurry. I need my HP.”

Nar smothered Kur and yanked him backwards. The tall altei began shaking as soon as his head and shoulders cleared the cage door, and as Nar pulled him clear away from the door on the floor, the shaking only got worse.

Crystal, his wound!

Nar dropped, hurting himself in a bid to protect Kur. He wrapped his legs around the big guy and tried to hold him as still as possible. His own pain flared across his body, but the wetness he felt on Kur’s side helped him ignore it.

Please heal up. Please heal up!

When the shaking stopped, Nar let go of Kur’s mouth, but kept his body tight against his, ready for anything.

Kur took a deep breath.

“Are you okay?” Nar asked.

Kur nodded against his chest.

“Crystal. That feels so much better,” he whispered. “I could go to sleep right now.”

“Sorry, man. We’re still surrounded by cannibals.”

“Haha. Funny. Help me up.”

Nar did, carefully. He stood up first then helped Kur stand.

“Fucking Crystal,” he muttered, squinting against the pain.

Nar tightened his grip on his arm, but Kur patted Nar’s shoulder.

“I’m alright. Pass me my weapons, please.”

Nar grabbed them for him and Kur took them into his hands.

“Come on. I need to get us out of this mess. The mess I created,” Kur said.

Nar swallowed hard. “We all did it, Kur. I… It was my fault. I should’ve ignored them.”

Kur shook his head. “You did good, Nar. Never regret that. The problem was me... But now’s not the time. Help me to the door.”

Nar passed an arm under his. Once Kur was secured, he pulled out his own sword and they ambled to the door.

“How are things?” Kur asked Rel.

“We’re still okay. But we’re taking too much time,” she said.

“You haven’t promised that you won’t betray us,” Nar told her.

He could barely stomach looking at her.

“I don’t need to,” she said, looking up at his face. “I would rather die than come back to this. Besides, I don’t think I would be able to, even if I wanted to.”

“Wik said something about you,” Kur said. “About something inside your head?”

“Of course he did…” she muttered. “But he’s right though. I’ll tell you all about it if we survive. For now, just know that I’m with you guys till the end. One way or another.”

Kur sighed. “Guess we’ll see. How far is it to this barrier?”

“Half an hour, giving our state.”

“So close?” Nar asked.

Rel gestured around her. For the first time, Nar caught a glimpse of where they were. They were surrounded by more of the cloth constructions. All of them uneven, and all of them of different sizes. They stretched in every direction, and all that Nar could see was mismatched cloth.

Here and there, purple flames burned slowly out of constructs made of guardian parts, filling the air with a thick, cloying smoke. Nar couldn’t see what it was that they were burning, but it was his first real look at a flame. Something about it didn’t seem right though. It made him feel like he was inside a nightmare. Though, he guessed he really was.

“Crystal, what is this place?” Kur asked.

“They call it bases, their home away from Home. And we’re close to the barrier because a lot of Climbers go through it. Or try to… Many paths lead there, before they fail, so the boss has the whole area guarded, so they can capture the Climbers as they come and get lost.”

“Crystal…” Kur whispered.

“There are many more of these camps. Many, many more. All around us, to cover as wide of an area as possible,” Rel said, shaking her head. “There are thousands and thousands of cannibals here, and the barrier itself is guarded at all times. You guys were probably headed for it anyways, so you were always going to get caught…”

The revelation made Nar’s head spin harder. The sheer scale of it all… The organization of such large-scale suffering? He could scarcely wrap his head around it.

“Wait? Thousands?” Nar said. “You didn’t say anything about that!”

Rel threw him a glance. “What difference does it make? Would you have stayed in the cage had I told you?”

Nar had no reply to that.