Pullas felt incredibly light. Her stomach flipped over itself. She lifted her arms even higher, facing the three long fingers whipping around to smash the group, rat-tat-tat, in quick succession. More tiny hands marched around the group, a grand current of Nether rising to smash over the group. The strange towers on this layer continued to release pulses of image suppression, squeezing at Pullas’s edges.

Death snorted.

Almost without effort, the primordial heap of death Pullas wielded cut a jagged flaw in the suppression. The towers flared with alternating violet and teal colors. She forced herself to concentrate and glance around, even as her image demanded more of her attention. She could barely stop herself from swaying with the rising music. Even with the power I feel rushing through me… I cannot imagine fighting against the tentacle fingers and the suppression and the tiny hands-

Fiona shifted uneasily next to them, even while Death pouted at Pullas’s doubts. “The little ones are starting something.”

Xershi looked sideways at Pullas. His eyes were strange in a way that made her chest feel extremely hot. Death wiggled her eyebrows at Pullas, but no one else appeared to notice. “Keep those tentacles off our backs, I’ll rip up the little guys.” He glanced sideways and made a face. “Maybe it will help Randidly get out of his head, too.”

Before Pullas could respond, Xershi turned away and accelerated. The metal liger stretched and roared, filling the air, a veritable force of nature stampeding into the group of black hands that wove a Nether Ritual around them. His claws scythed their way through the thick groupings of enemies.

Trust. We trust each other. Pullas purposefully ignored the growing pain in her Soulspace. Ignoring the serious surroundings, Death began to sway to the music. More and more energy dripped out of her broken Great Fate, but for now, she had plenty to spare. That’s how we can get through this. Together.

Almost immediately, the strangely lit towers shifted back into a unified teal, gathering an Engraving of suppression toward Xershi’s destructive form. With blazing eyes, Pullas waved her hand and released a radiant wave of energy that passed through the suppression like it was naught but cobwebs. The restriction fizzled and dispersed. Xershi didn’t even glance at the attempted impediment.

“Escaping is the real issue,” Fiona continued. Her mauve light spread out around Pullas’s image, keeping the tugging flows of Nether from affecting her. Her eyes narrowed as she peered around. “Even more than the attacks-”

The three tentacles whipped down. Pullas found herself growling as mobilized her image. With the pressure of the attacks, her emotions were wound together into a dense mass. The details sharpened in response to the threat. Death’s steps in the dance quickened.

The first two attacks arrived, both summarily repulsed. Fiona reached forward and gripped Pullas’s waist, keeping her upright. Death just sighed and shook her head, trying to gather more of all the shredded bits of power still tumbling within Pullas’s wounded Soulspace. Her mind buzzed with the horrible tang of the finger-tentacles substance. Yet the third tentacle pivoted and whipped sideways, aiming for Xershi’s back as he ravaged the tiny hands.

Death’s smile only widened. You, a mechanized system bounded by tight rules and regulations, thought you could fool me?

The knuckles of Pullas’s left hand popped. She released a pure blast of milky death that slammed into the side of the tentacle and knocked it just off, so when it crashed into the ground with enough force to shake the surrounding layer, it only crushed black, psuedo-Nether hands. Their still twitching fingers tumbled in every direction.

Pullas’s heart broke slightly, watching as Xershi didn’t even glance up at the threat. His faith in her protection had been absolute. Also, the crushed hands had been part of the rotation that sucked at Randidly’s Nether; almost instantly his tense expression eased.

Fiona continued to speak, ignoring the interruption. “-what will kill us is getting stuck here. Your image is definitely powerful, but we need both Randidly to escape the Nether trap and to ascend. Randidly being awake will help with the second. But the voice that spoke to him, that thinks he is a Nether King, will likely react strongly when he escapes.”

“So many more tentacles,” Pullas nodded her head slowly.

“So we need to both survive long enough for Randidly to recover and then create an opening so he can get us out of here.” Fiona tapped her cheek. The towers again tried to create a new, more intense suppression, but Death had moved gladly into a more violent dance. All the restrictions were shredded, filling the surrounding space with glimmering motes of teal light. Pullas’s inner song intensified, whirling those motes of light into a mesmerizing ballroom.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Fiona plowed forward. Her eyes watched the gathering tentacles. “I can try and help with Randidly-”

“No,” Pullas said softly. The pressure in her chest was making speaking increasingly difficult. The music rose, washing away everything else. “He will escape soon, on his own. Help me… find this thing’s weakness.”

Fiona looked solemnly at Pullas. Then she glanced around, taking in the shifts in her image. Finally, she nodded.

*****

Randidly fought in the darkness, tumbling within the waves of Nether. He swam against a dark current of his own energy, increasingly appalled with how easily he had been caught up in the grand trap of this layer.

It was slightly flattering to have a trap made for a Nether King sprung on him, but only slightly. At the moment, it generated a massive headache for him.

Luckily for Randidly, his Nether Core could generate almost obscene amounts of energy. The amount of Nether that could be caught up in the pattern around him was determined by the number of black hands seizing upon his Nether, strand by strand. At the beginning that amount had accelerated upward, almost completely whisking Randidly’s consciousness away with the flow. However, soon that rapid shift began to taper off, likely due to size limitations.

And then his companions must have done something, because abruptly about of tenth of the captured Nether was once more freed up. It wasn’t enough to turn the tide, but it did become a cushion around his body.

His senses expanded to feel the churning tide of Nether around him, to watch with foreboding as his energy was guided along in cyclical loops.

Time was not on his side. He needed a way to counter the rotational momentum. All the while he needed to endure the pressure of his own energy, being turned against him. For a moment, Randidly gritted his teeth and pressed himself deeper into the oncoming flow that bound him here. As he advanced from his spot, deviating from the central position in which he was trapped, more and more pressure built upon his Nether Core.

It simultaneously produced the energy and was bombarded by it, setting his body to trembling. It benefited from being a part of him, a physical being who housed an isolated universe, but it still ached. The Nether around him, the Nether manipulated by patterns against him, accelerated around his exposed Nether Core, drawing more speed and applying more pressure due to its presence.

Wincing, Randidly let himself sink back to the core of the trap. I cannot force my way out. I also have to admit… if this trap was enough to bind the Nether King, even with my insight, I cannot think my way out.

He felt himself grinding his teeth. But at that very moment, he felt a pulse of pure faith, carried along through the Ascension Pact to him. Pullas, believing wholly that he would soon break his way out and help them escape. His heart sank as he thought about that prospect.

And then Neveah was there, pressing against him. Just let go of the other worries. You’ve found good, reliable friends. Focus on the task in front of you.

Easy for you to say, Randidly grumbled back. But he forced himself to do as she said. He isolated his consciousness from the sensation of Nether. He allowed everything to fall away. Then he very deliberately began switching off worries and musings in his mind that weren’t currently helping him.

The training with the Visage of Obsession, once more coming in handy in more controlled doses.

Randidly felt a little bit like standing on top of a small city and looking down as the light were cut off, block by block. Not until he began culling energy to his ancillary worries did he realize how much of his focus was lost to them. Then, when all that swirling intellectual potency snapped back to the chilling and overwhelming tide of Nether, he quickly reviewed his situation.

An idea came to him. I am not strong enough to just rip my way out of this trap. And I am not quite clever enough to think my way out with deft manipulation of energies… but I really don’t need to be, do I? Not when I have both.

Randidly once more pressed himself forward into the raging rapids of Nether. The pressure built on his Nether Core as the Nether accelerated. Randidly ignored the pressure; the Nether Core of an entire universe wasn’t so fragile to quickly shatter under this. Instead, he looked at the rapid flows of energy, traveling around his Nether Core.

The strange thing about Nether patterns is that two flows heading in opposite directions almost stick to each other; the friction becomes a line of support. So with these accelerating flows…

Randidly began to rotate his Nether Core, spinning on a horizontal axis, while the restrictive flow moved on a vertical one. The counterflows began to stick to each other, forming a firm bond. He gritted his teeth as the pressure intensified, but into that sticky bond of Nether he could insert more energy, churning in a minuscule whirlwind between the two flows.

His smile widened. Gotcha.

He unleashed wave after wave of Nether into that tiny little inflatable, building up some space for himself to work. Bit by bit, he pried open the Nether trap, taking the brunt of the forceful restriction on his body and playing with the slack.

Outside, his Ascension Pact was waiting for him. And they needed to keep climbing if they wanted to survive.