I had tangled with several more archers, much more successfully - especially once I got the hang of [High-Speed Reflexes]. Each use was apparently more strenuous than the last. After a minute of continuous use, for example, small gaps where I simply could not activate the Power started appearing.

The gaps would get longer until I took a break, although about… 5 minutes or so? Seemed to be enough. Not that I had any way to measure time properly down here, but the archers were easy while I had the Power.

Especially on the rare occasions that I spotted them first. The plate was incredible if I had the time to put a spell together - at least against the first of the two, since the archers always travelled in pairs, and beams of light that destroyed any matter they came into contact with through sheer heat and what, based on the memories that the System had ‘kindly’ shoved into my brain via Skills, was the manifestation of entropy… were somewhat obvious.

But now I was before another set of ominous doors. Instead of flames, the skulls cried tears of blood, which was more or less in keeping with the rest of the aesthetic down here - and I was sick of it. I had even contemplated the insane idea of breaking the plate, just so I would have less skulls, flames and black glass to deal with…

I kicked the door open, and fired a beam of disintegrating flames straight in. A sphere of complete darkness swallowed it, and then faded away to reveal a skeleton with a burning skull, and a robe with a lot of obscene skull imagery. It held a staff of pale ivory set with yet more skull-shaped gems, which crackled with magic power, and its blazing eyes were set straight on me.

There were pillars around the room. I didn’t wait to see what the skeleton would do - I hurled myself behind one of the pillars. Less than a second later, fire was rushing by on my sides.

The flames were almost solid, and I could glimpse tortured faces within. I shrank back into the pillar, as far away from the roaring fire as I could, until it passed. Then, I forced myself to move again. Not a moment too soon either, the mage had sent small darts of fire that arced around the pillar that had been my cover and would have burrowed themselves in my chest.

Between the pillars and [High-Speed Reflexes] I was able to stay ahead of the relentless flames that the mage was outputting - but eventually, that would start developing gaps. Eventually, my strength would fail.

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I knew I had six ‘free’ activations, and I had already used 2. I needed a solution, because I was almost certain that the moment [High-Speed Reflexes] faded, I would die, horribly.

Obviously the easiest solution was getting close enough to hit the skeleton with my hands. They were all horribly vulnerable to blunt trauma, and I had plenty of that available. In order to do that, though, I would have to cross some twenty odd meters of open space without getting roasted, and neither of my Talismans seemed like they would be good against fire.

So long as the damn thing could use magic, I was pretty much screwed. Running out into the hallway again was a non-starter as well - this was the only way forward, and I had started feeling hungry and thirsty a good while ago.

I poked the memories that had come from my Skills, and to my surprise, I got two thoughts back, sliding in between my desperate ducking and cowering behind pillars.

If the fire was natural, I would be screwed, but the fire was in fact ‘just’ a matrix of destructive magic. It was an imperfect, flawed matrix at that.

The second thought was a bit more… mystical. Drops of water piercing seemingly whole pieces of stone that a wizard had conjured, punching into flesh like knives.

Another charge of reflexes elapsed, but I started watching the spells. I could dodge the darts. It was the waves and walls of fire that I would need to figure out how to break, but now that I started looking… well. The matrices were basically identical each time.

I stepped out and raised the plate up above my head, and called out to Death. The fire rushed at me, to burn the flesh from my bones… and then guttered, flared, and finally died close enough for foul-smelling hot air to wash over me.

I took a step forward. Another wall, another call to the Great Beyond, another set of flickering drops of nihility that tore the matrix apart.

I had crossed halfway through the room, and the skeleton hadn’t fire any darts at me. By now, the call was easy, the spell well practised since I was basically spamming it out. I concluded that the skeleton mustn’t be able to think, given that it was spamming its own ability back…

And then a new matrix took shape, visible only in the gaps between the sphere of black flames that exploded from it. I modulated the call, tilted the plate, and the wave shattered.

I dropped to my haunches, and then leapt forward, clearing the last ten meters with a sweeping roundhouse kick. The moment the skeleton shattered, grey light bled into the world and a Gate burst into existence.

Thankfully, that was on the far side of the world. Letters of blue fire hung above it:

GATE TO PLANAR DEPTH 0: EARTH