125. The End of the Underside

The train car was as chaotic as the station was, a hodgepodge of Underside residents basking in the loss of their System limitations. On one end, an air sprite whipped up a violent gust, and Isaac’s eyes stung from the intensity of the blast. He stumbled, quickly grabbing onto a pole for balance.

Just across the sprite, a fey with arms that fanned into sharp branches attempted to attack. Stray leaves scattered with their movements, quickly picked up by the swirling wind and flying everywhere. Isaac heard a grunt and barely jumped out of the way in time as an axe wielding human lunged at a wingless demon. The blade cut straight through the plastic seats, splitting them in half.

Isaac gritted his teeth. There were too many people in this car. With the confined space, he wouldn’t be able to keep dodging forever, especially not if the other passengers decided to turn their attention to him.

The Traveler’s eyes darted around, scanning his surroundings, and he noted that the car next to this one appeared empty. Mind set, he bolted for the doors connecting the train cars. A branch extended past him, slamming into the wall near his shoulder, but he didn’t waste time looking back.

Running up to the door, Isaac managed to wrench them open, glad that they weren’t locked. Immediately the rumble of the subway and screeching train tracks rang loudly in his ears, and he could feel the air beating against his skin. He gripped the edges of the door firmly, inhaling as he gauged the distance to the next car. The tracks were a dark blur beneath him, jolting up and down. Behind, he heard another crash. Clenching his jaw, Isaac bent his knees, and with another breath, he leapt over to the next car.

For a brief moment, caught outside the train, he could feel a strange rippling in the air, almost as though the atmosphere itself was alive, before his hands grabbed onto the next car’s handles and he yanked himself flat against the door.

Isaac’s heart beat wildly in his chest, and he clung on tight as the train made a particularly sharp lurch. Like this, up against the metal, he could see that the next car was indeed empty. Careful not to lose his balance, he slid the doors open and half stumbled, half fell into the next car, landing hard on his shoulder.

He heard the doors slide shut behind him, and he sat up, wincing when the motion jostled his arm. Isaac tentatively tested the joint. Thankfully it didn’t seem dislocated, but he had no doubt a bruise would soon form there.

Isaac got back to his feet, eyeing the connecting doors warily. Through the foggy windows, he could see the fight continuing in the next car. By now, so many leaves had come loose, whipping violently around the air sprite’s artificial storm, that it was difficult to make out any specific details. His muscles remained tense, and he didn’t allow himself to relax. He had to be on the lookout in case someone else decided to cross into this car.

How much longer until the Golden Lands? It should be soon, Isaac thought. His mind was still churning, struggling to comprehend everything.

He tried not to think about the flood of people crowding the platform, or about Mortimer standing there right in front of that oncoming wave.

He’ll be fine, Isaac repeated to himself. The half-undead man was strong, and worrying wouldn’t accomplish anything. Right now, he needed to find Lilith and get the system back up. That was the only way to fix things.

The train car began to slow down, and Isaac turned to face the windows. His eyes widened.

Instead of the field of flowers he’d expected, the tunnel walls outside warped and swirled like liquid whirlpools. Flashes of vivid colors occasionally burst forth alongside images of trees or buildings or mountains. The subway car jolted again, the usual up-down rhythm replaced with a violent shaking. Isaac heard something crack in the distance. In front of him, the tunnel continued to morph.

“Before the Collapse, there were portals that would sometimes open between different realms. Lilith only stabilized those passages when she created the subway tunnels.”

Cold realization settled in Isaac’s stomach. The train wouldn’t be stopping at the Golden Lands. He probably wasn’t even near the Golden Lands right now.

Alongside the disappearance of the system, the magic binding the realms together had disappeared, too. He distinctly remembered the Old Lands dragon appearing in Solonell City. The old routes connecting the realms could no longer be relied on.

“Damnit!” Isaac ran forward to the car door just as another crack sounded, this time closer, and the lurching grew even more violent. The entire subway system was destabilizing; if he didn’t get out now, there was no telling where he would end up.

The Traveler pounded his fists against the doors, but they remained stubbornly closed. Cursing, he turned and made for the side doors again, once again slipping between the train cars.

Outside and without the filter of the windows, the strange, warping passages were more apparent than ever. Isaac swallowed. The train was still moving slowly, nearly entirely still. He would be fine if he jumped now.

But what if leaving the train made things worse? What if he ended up lost in the gap between realms?

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No, there was no time for hesitation. Sucking in a breath, Isaac eyed what was left of the tunnel floors, bent his legs, and leapt off.

Miraculously, he managed to land on his feet, though he nearly tripped immediately afterwards. It wasn’t just the walls, the ground itself rocked and lurched like a boat caught in a storm. There was nothing stable left.

The barrage of swirling colors and flashing images was stronger than ever, and accompanying it was a growing cacophony of disparate sounds, a steady roar that crescendoed with no signs of stopping. Isaac covered his ears and turned rapidly, trying to gauge his position. He needed to get out of these tunnels before they collapsed entirely, but what direction was he supposed to go? Everywhere looked the same, and the longer he stayed there the more everything blurred together.

Isaac closed his eyes, trying to force himself to focus and quash his rising panic. He exhaled and turned left, letting his feet move on instinct. If there was no way to know what direction to go, then he’d just have to pick one.

Around him, the slurry of noises heightened to the point where covering his ears no longer did anything, so he gave up and focused exclusively on running as fast as possible, never looking too long at any of those flashes of warped images and flickers of various realms. He simply kept moving, kept pressing himself harder and harder until his own racing heart sounded loudly in his ears.

And then, all at once, the swirling images disappeared and the roar quieted to a deafening silence.

Isaac blinked, and the sudden stillness shattered.

He was jolted back into reality, and the Traveler stumbled forward, bumping into a man in a dark suit. Isaac moved away on instinct, crashing into a woman with a stroller. A little ways in front of him, a traffic light changed to green, and he heard honks and the rumble of engines.

Isaac’s eyes widened, and he turned, searching wildly around him.

Tall skyscrapers. Densely packed cars crowded on an intersection. Cracked concrete and a bustling crowd. He looked up, and the sky was a pale blue.

He was in Chrowall City.

Isaac was distantly aware of a few odd stares from passersby, some mutters and whispers, but he didn’t care. He was too busy thinking, trying to process everything.

Somehow, he’d ended up back in Chrowall City. Had he stumbled into a portal while escaping the tunnels? That had to be it. His eyes moved automatically over to the subway station across the street, utterly mundane in appearance. He felt a hysterical laugh bubble to the surface.

In his panicked running, he’d actually made it back. He was no longer in the Underside.

But what now?

He remembered Mortimer yelling for him to leave. Fable’s mysterious smile when they simply told him to go to the station. Solonell City’s streets turning into a bloodbath.

No, this was wrong. He shouldn’t be here right now, while the Underside collapsed. He still needed to find Lilith. He needed to fix things.

Isaac clenched his fist. With new resolve, he began to push through the crowd, making his way towards the subway station. He didn’t know if the old method of changing train lines would work, when the tunnels were unstable, but he had to try. He couldn’t forgive himself if he didn’t.

The crosswalk light changed, and Isaac hurried to cross the street, not bothering to mumble apologies as he shoved past people in his rush. Given the time difference between here and the Underside, every second counted.

And then, when he was halfway across the street, Isaac realized that the people around him had slowed down.

A sudden chill crawled up his spine. He froze, and a wave of cold seemed to sink deep into his bones. Isaac’s muscles tensed on instinct, and slowly, he raised his head and looked in the direction people were pointing.

Up above, in the center of the polluted sky, was a growing cloud of smoky black mist. It spiraled around itself in a vortex, growing larger and larger and absorbing the blue hues around it until the entire sky darkened.

Isaac heard mutters, yells, phones being raised and pictures snapped. People got out of their cars to get a closer look. A man standing beside him whispered, “What the hell is that?”

From within that vortex, a long, serpentine body slithered outwards. A smooth round head with rows of razor sharp teeth peered down at the onlookers, long antenna running down its spine, its slimy skin the color of ink and covered in a seemingly endless number of blinking eyes.

More and more of the being’s body exited the vortex, easily dwarfing the skyscrapers around it, until at last the entire creature’s form was visible. It casted a dark shadow on the ground below. The sky seemed to darken further.

It made no noise, but flew smoothly through the air, gliding in an almost elegant manner. The creature rose upwards, then coiled back down, weaving between sharp buildings at a slow, steady pace. And then, it turned and flew directly at a tall office building with no signs of stopping.

With that same easy movement, the serpentine creature soared straight through, punching a hole into the structure as easily as a needle through cloth. Cracks crawled up the building’s walls, and debris crashed onto the streets below. Isaac thought he could make out the distant silhouettes of people falling. The creature looped around and flew towards another skyscraper.

Screams filled Isaac’s ears as the crowd burst into panic. Fleeing onlookers rushed past him, jostling and shoving in their desperation to get away. But the Traveler didn’t pay attention to that, didn’t move from his spot or take his eyes off of the creature.

Across his vision, a familiar array of words and numbers appeared in a flash of golden light. There was no tablet or device to peer at them through.

This was visible to him and him alone.

NAME: 🗌🗌🗌🗌🗌🗌🗌🗌

SPECIES: ABERRATION

ORIGIN: THE ABYSS

ATTACK: 37

SPEED: 13

SKILL: 23

DEFENSE: 44

INSTINCT: 30

INTELLIGENCE: 33

STAMINA: 42

LEVEL: 79

The Abyss creature slammed into another building, the ground itself seeming to tremble from the impact. A second vortex formed in the sky.

Then another.

And another.

The world he’d known crumbled around him.