In the expansive chamber with the giant feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, Wyatt turned in the direction of the voice and found Emma walking toward him.
“I’ve been stuck here for hours,” she complained. “Maybe just an hour. Feels like forever with that thing looming over me.” She looked at the serpent. “I know it says hostile, but it hasn’t attacked. Not sure why. Maybe it was waiting for you.”
She didn’t seem particularly worried at this possibility.
He was only half-listening though, as a new message had appeared.
Split the Tour (Redemption Task) Complete
Reward: Foundation Skill
Is Emma the Hunter the task was referring to?
Why would she lie about her name? Maybe she changed her name, or goes by a different one? I wonder if she has ID on her.
Or maybe it’s Quetzalcoatl. But the task didn’t complete until I saw Emma…
They’d learned about Quetzalcoatl in their class, but nothing about that mythical god would make it a hunter. He wasn’t like Artemis or Diana, but a god of creation. And there was also the fact that the message had specifically said Hunter, not a or the hunter.
Wyatt realized Emma was talking to him.
“What?”
She stopped, frowning. “What do you mean ‘what’?”
“I missed what you said.” He gestured at the serpent by way of excuse. Normally he’d make more of an effort to not seem weird, but Emma… well, she was mysterious, and it distracted him more than normal.
“I was saying we need to kill that thing to get out of here, or find a way to break our way out.” She glanced at Quetzalcoatl. “Honestly, not sure which seems more impossible.”
“We can’t go the way I came. It caved in behind me.”
She nodded. “Same for me. Soon as I opened the door.”
Wyatt was interested in finding out if her experience had been the same as his. But first…
“Where is everyone else?”
She shrugged. “Outside still, if I had to guess. I think we’re in that temple. Wouldn’t swear to it, but it seems like it.” She pointed at the ceiling above Quetzalcoatl. “I’m guessing that’s the way out.”
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There was a large, glowing golden portcullis above the serpent’s head.
“And I’m also guessing that if we try to get it open, Quetzalcoatl here will attack.” She looked at Wyatt. “You found clothes, I see. That cape let you fly?”
He shook his head.
“And you don’t happen to have leveled up a bunch, did you?”
“No. You?”
“Level zero still.”
“Me too.”
“Well, fuck. I’m all out of ideas then.” She returned her gaze to the serpent. “How are two level zeros supposed to beat a level ninety-nine?”
“I’m guessing we’re not.” Wyatt considered. This whole thing was obviously designed. Purpose-made with puzzles and everything. So the designer knew they would be weak when they faced the serpent. Wyatt had gotten some items, as well as Essence Orbs which he hadn’t been able to use, though maybe he’d missed some whatever sacellum or delubrums were—possible since he didn’t know what they might look like and he hadn’t thought to look for invisible walls until it was too late—but even if he had used the orbs and even if they had leveled him up or otherwise made him more powerful, it didn’t seem reasonable that he’d have been able to reach anything close to level 99.
Plus, the highest level monster he encountered until now had been level 7.
Maybe those were scaled to my level, but the boss isn’t?
That was possible, but it seemed more likely that there was some other way to solve the problem.
He glanced around the massive chamber. The serpent was still circling in the air, ignoring them.
“It’s still not attacking,” he pointed out. “We might not have to fight it. It might be another puzzle.”
“Another?”
“Like finding the key.”
“What key?”
“For the big door.”
“There was a door. Wasn’t very big. And there was no key.”
He stopped looking around and studied her. Is she lying? Joking with me?
It didn’t seem like it.
“Is that a joke?”
She frowned. “Why would it be a fucking joke?”
“People are weird.”
She laughed suddenly. “True enough. There was a key for your door?” She motioned at the door he’d come through.
He nodded, looking for another, the one she would have come through. After a moment he spotted it. It was indeed much smaller than his. And he saw no keyhole, from this side at least.
“Did you have to fight monsters?” he asked her.
“More of those ahuitzotl. You?”
“Mummies.”
She glanced down at his belt, noticing the orb-shaped pouches. “You didn’t eat the orbs this time?”
“I wasn’t hungry.”
She laughed again. Wyatt wasn’t sure why, he was being serious.
That happened to him sometimes, so he ignored it.
He frowned at her. “You’re… different.”
“Different?”
“More talkative. Are you real?”
She rolled her eyes. “If you want people to be talkative, here’s a tip: try talking to them.”
“I don’t want it. It was just an observation. You’re behaving differently than in the past week.”
“Well we did get kidnapped by fucking aliens. Not mingling with the locals has gone out the window and fucked off to another fucking galaxy.” She sighed. “And fucked me right up the ass.”
He frowned. “That’s a… interesting metaphor. And we don’t know that it’s aliens.”
“It’s always aliens.” She made a weird gesture.
Wyatt didn’t entirely disagree. Whatever was happening almost certainly hadn’t been done by anyone from Earth. Which made them, by definition, aliens. Likely not the little green men type, but aliens nonetheless.
But he wasn’t going to make even that assumption. While it seemed extremely unlikely anyone on Earth would be capable of all this, he simply didn’t have enough data to draw any firm conclusions.
“Let’s explore and see if we can find a way out of here. See if there are any other doors the others might have come through.”
Emma shook her head. “Don’t think there will be others. We’re the only ones who died, at least that I saw. I almost made it too, but then that last one’s death throes got me.” She sighed, looking longingly at his titan skin. “If only I’d been wearing something more substantial than a sexy little dress.”
Wyatt stared at her, thoughts and memories running through his mind. He finally made himself speak. “We died?”