Near the slopes of the Lionshard mountain, the whole group had come to a pause. Rieren wasn’t certain what the holdup was for, but her mind was already busy going through too many scenarios of other possibilities to be concerned with the exact specifics that Essalina and her troops were performing. Maybe they were awaiting a scout’s return, maybe not, who cared.
What Rieren was more concerned with was the fact that Elder Olg had sent them here.
Had he seen that there were outside factions gathering on the slopes of Lionshard mountain? Had he thought Rieren and the others would be able to stop them somehow? Wrong on both accounts, and Rieren didn’t think the Elder would do anything he thought he couldn’t win in some way.
Which meant there was a different motive behind his actions. A motive Rieren was beginning to think involved the Abyss Rent itself. Something she could use to her advantage.
“Stand back,” Essalina ordered.
The soldiers marched backwards in step with one another. Rieren, the other disciples, and the guards all had to shuffle backwards quickly.
Essalina had stepped forward and raised her sword high into the air. Flames whirled around its edge, dark and flecked with gold. Rieren didn’t even have to try to sense just how much Essence was gathering around that blade. A concentration of Essalina’s powers, but far from a showing of her full strength.
Once the sword was entirely swathed in a tornado of black-and-gold fire, Essalina slammed it downwards. A torrent of her magical flames burst forwards. The fiery geyser struck the mountainside and carved a hole right through, gouging out a new tunnel into Lionshard mountain’s depths.
“Let us proceed!” Essalina said, pulling her sword back and stepping forward into the tunnel she had just carved.
Amalyse stared. “Really? She couldn’t use any of the other openings all over the mountainside?”
“I doubt there are that many,” Rieren said. “The one we found on our first foray, the back door entrance we used, and now this one we exited through. There are one or two more, as far as I am aware.”
“Rieren, why are you taking Essalina’s side? We must always be salty at every single decision she makes, regardless of how sound it is.”
Rieren snorted, then began following Essalina. “She likely has some sort of plan on how she intends to tackle this, independent of the dungeon, and whatever else she might be, she is not unintelligent. As such, it may be worth our time to observe how she conducts her foray.”
Amalyse rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, I’m aware. Won’t stop me from calling everything out, of course.”
“Excellent. That means I can leave you to it.”
“What?”
“Keep your voice down, please.”
Some of the soldiers nearby had looked back at Amalyse’s exclamation, and their closer companions were trying to eavesdrop without giving it away.
“Where do you think you’re going, Rieren?” Amalyse asked in a whisper.
“I must find a nearby Abyss Rent, if you must know,” Rieren answered back just as quietly.
“For what?”
“For cultivating.”
Rieren didn’t need to explain why. It had been a while since she had properly cultivated. The longer she waited, the more the various achievements and level-ups were taking her class well beyond her cultivation and hampering her ability to use her skills to their best effect. In the next battle, Rieren might just tear herself apart before she could kill her enemy.
Now that she had potentially found a perfect way to cultivate without sacrificing any significant time, she had to take advantage of it. Time was broken around the Abyss Rents. It would be possible to make use of that and cultivate as much as she needed, thereby returning to the rest of the dungeon in time to assist the Sect against it.
The only problem was finding such an Abyss Rent and securing it against the Abyssals who would surely not enjoy having a cultivator blocking one of their doors to the Mortal realm.
First, though, Rieren had to leave this little party.
“I’ll keep them distracted then,” Amalyse said resolutely. “And can keep an eye on them too, of course.”
It wasn’t right to leave her alone with Essalina. Though, it was also highly unlikely that the Arteroth woman would dare to take any action against Amalyse with her mother just outside on the mountainside. Not when there were unbiased witnesses here, too.
As they began delving into the dungeon properly, Rieren found that the tunnel Essalina had carved wasn’t alone. It was arrow-straight, possibly aiming for the heart of the dungeon itself. But it also intersected several other tunnels and passages, some of which didn’t even look like ones created as part of the dungeon.
No, those were holes carved out by the Fellserpent.
Some moments later, the troop came to a halt as they reached the end of the straight tunnel Essalina had dug.
“Strange,” she said from her position at the head of the group. “I was certain I had carved a deeper passage. Hmm.”
“The dungeon will not allow anyone to simply destroy their way through its corridors,” Rieren said. “That isn’t how it works.”
“Is that so? Well, I suppose it can’t hurt to verify that supposition.”
Essalina performed the same little manoeuvre as she had done on the mountain’s slope. She raised her sword, wreathed it in black-and-gold flames, then stabbed forward. It did carve a deeper hole into the wall, but it didn’t go far. In fact, as Essalina put her dark blade away, the tunnel began collapsing inwards.
With a little curse, Essalina stepped back before the rocks crushing down from above caught her too. When things had settled, the wall was as closed off as it had been before.
Essalina glanced back at Rieren, likely speaking before she could gloat that she had been right. “Well, it would seem you are correct.”
“If only it was that easy,” Amalyse said. “We’ll need to take the side passages. Just like everyone else.”
What need did Rieren have to gloat when Amalyse’s cutting words did enough already? Essalina hid her reaction and simply turned back to take the nearest side passage. Rieren wasn’t certain that was the correct way to go since that was clearly a tunnel dug out by the enormous dead Fellserpent. But it didn’t matter. It ought to allow her a better opportunity to slip away.
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An opportunity that arose not long after they took the winding passage. Rieren had begun to hang back as the others progressed farther. Eventually, they arrived at a point in the tunnel where it curved too sharply upwards, though there was a point they could jump out nearby as well.
As the others left, Rieren hung back. It was easy to wait in the dark until they had all passed on.
She wished she could have pressed a hand to Amalyse’s shoulder or say farewell in some other way, but that would have drawn too much attention. Her friend had decided to stick closer to the middle of the group. That was fine. They’d meet up again, eventually.
Rieren waited until they were eventually long gone. It wouldn’t do to rush and let her footsteps be heard. The others might be lacking in the senses department, but Essalina would likely have heard. Once Rieren was certain that she could move freely, she walked back the way they had come.
There was essentially no point in trying to bumble her way through the dungeon’s many tunnels. Without some sort of guide as she’d had so far, all she would accomplish was lose herself in the warren. After all, this tunnel dug out by Essalina wasn’t a natural part of the dungeon she knew, nor were the tunnels created by the Fellserpent.
Instead, Rieren hurried back to the opening that led outside onto the mountain’s slopes. She paused a moment there. Despite Essalina’s absence, the encampment still looked collected and calm. It seemed no one had made any surprising moves to take it over.
Strange as the thought was, she certainly wouldn’t have been surprised if one or more of the delegates had taken some action.
But none of that mattered to Rieren. She hurried away further upslope on the mountainside, wending her way over the broken ground until she eventually reached the same hole she and the others had popped out of a few hours ago.
It didn’t long to return to the spot where they had found the Abyss Rent. The fact that none of them had bothered to try and close it when they had exited it was a little concerning, but then, there wasn’t much point to it. After all, the dungeon would simply pop open another one, perhaps right where this one had stood, just to spit spitefully in their faces.
Rieren used her Credits to purchase the Malformed Root again. She began channeling corrupted Essence through it.
The item description had stated that the strange tool converted all other Aspects of Essence to Abyss-Aspected Essence as well, so it ultimately didn’t matter what other Aspects were present here.
More importantly, Rieren was certain this wasn’t the Abyss Rent she ought to be using for her cultivation. With the variety of tools and resources she could buy after having taken the remains of the B-Grade Abyssal’s corpse for herself in her storage ring, she ought to be able to get the exact Aspects she needed.
What she needed to discover, though, was an Abyss Rent that distorted time by slowing it down. She was sure one or more those existed somewhere in the dungeon.
After all, the Abyssals had mostly like used that property to gather a great number of monsters before launching their assaults upon Lionshard Sect. It explained how they had been able to invade with such strength and ferocity with such frequency too. The process of creating more Abyssals was time-intensive, depending on the Grade, but an Abyss Rent could hasten it.
In the same manner, the temporal weirdness might also explain that temple they had seen on their first foray. Where and how the temple itself had popped into the Abyss was a question for later.
First, Rieren needed to find herself a proper Abyss Rent.
She dived into the Abyss Rent. When she arrived back in the Abyss, it was the same as she had left it. The ground had returned to its natural white sand now that the Masked Avatar’s Domain was gone, though the effects of the last battle could still be seen here and there.
Rieren wasted no time poring over the various orbs floating around. With the corrupted Essence granted by the Malformed Root, she could manipulate some of those orbs now, if she had any wish to do so. But the only things she sought were the strangely coloured orbs of the kind that had been in Elder Olg’s severed hand. That was what indicated it was an Abyss Rent.
Of course, randomly trialing different orbs was going to take too long. So, Rieren popped open the System Shop again and quickly purchased a little hourglass. It was more difficult to see the effects of time upon herself, which she was beginning to suspect might not affect living, organic matter to the same degree it might affect something more instantaneous as falling sand.
So, Rieren began looking and jumping through the various orbs before her in order to find the right Abyss Rent. All the while, she kept an eye on the hourglass to see how the way the sand fell changed.
It still wasn’t easy, of course. The orbs had no wish to cooperate, and she had to bring them closer with the corrupted knife at times. In certain pocket dimensions, monsters greeted her as well. Rieren had no wish to test herself against them, so she quickly jumped through more orbs to evade unnecessary battles.
She even came across a few Abyss Rent orbs, but none of those showed any slowing effects on the hourglass. At times, she was plagued by silly doubts about her plan, about the Sect’s and Amalyse’s abilities to survive without her, about what her father might be doing.
Batcat meowed reassuringly from atop her head.
“Yes, I hope they are all alright as well,” she said.
Eventually, she found a strange orb. It didn’t look that different or indicate in any other way that she was observing an orb that held an Abyss Rent. But as she took a peek into its occupants, and as Batcat hissed in confirmation, she found that the orb was filled with monsters.
Most were the E-Grade variety. In fact, there weren’t just Armistice Enforcers there. She saw strange beings that looked somewhat like a weird mix of a slug and a centipede. Many legs wriggling under a spiky shell, barbed claws surrounding a frothy mouth. Shellshorn Buriers—different, but still weak and E-Grade. It seemed the Abyssals intended to mix things up a bit.
But the gathering meant that Rieren had finally found what she had been seeking. The only reasons the monsters were waiting there was because the Abyss Rent was located in that orb. All it took was a moment’s search to reveal where the monsters were going through, the strangely coloured orb that took them to the Mortal realm.
Rieren took a moment to check before jumping into the miniature realm, though Batcat was hissing at her to get moving. Its agitation suggested there was a monster coming up on them. They would need to move.
Taking a deep breath, Rieren channelled the Essence in the Malformed Root and plunged in.
The landing wasn’t bad. As soon as Rieren’s feet touched the white sand, she launched herself at the Abyssals surrounding her. Her Domain was summoned next. Water burst into being around her, newborn waves slamming into and pushing away the monsters. All the while, Rieren’s sword was already flying.
None of the Abyssals lasted long enough to showcase their abilities. She recalled something about those claws being dangerous, about their mouths capable of spitting something acidic or poisonous, but really, they were weak. Rieren needed space, so she carved some out.
She didn’t even need to use any of her skills. A good thing too, considering her body would not have appreciated it. Though, she would be fixing that soon, if no further problems would present themselves.
The corpses weren’t helpful, especially the way their blood mingled with her summoned water and made everything rather mucky. Rieren wasted no time selling every single dead body to the System Shop to get herself a decent chunk of Credits. That also allowed her to find a few Abyssals that had survived her onslaught, so she took care of those as well.
With all that done, Rieren could finally sit on the soggy ground and cultivate.
It felt good to finally be able to turn her thought in other directions. For a moment, she didn’t need to worry about her father, or the Elder, or the Sect’s condition in general. She didn’t—
Batcat yowled. A second later, several of the floating orbs in her vicinity started twisting and enlarging, their surfaces already cracking to reveal their occupants. Ah, yes. Rieren shouldn’t have forgotten about the Abyssals she had accidentally met on her way to the current Abyss Rent.
“Death,” one of the Blightmanes emerging from its orb said. “I smell death. I deliver death.”
“Long have I run,” said a Shadeborn as its girthy body erupted from another orb. “And long may I feed upon your sullied flesh.”
More came in, all preparing to attack her. Rieren could have fought them, could even have won, despite her body refusing to cooperate with her and let her use her skills.
But it would be both dangerous and a waste of time to take them all on in that manner.
For one, this wasn’t even in the right spot to truly cultivate. She needed an Abyss Rent close to a source of water, preferably that location with the steam she had passed before. Right now, all she had was a dwindling idea of where that might be. For another, she couldn’t move this Abyss Rent there. So, in order to open a different one up, she would have to close this one.
The monsters charged with growls and shrieks. There was no time to check the orb. Since it would be pointless to fight off the monsters here where they would be far stronger, Rieren jumped through the Abyss Rent. She could kill the Abyssals on the Mortal Realm side.
She had been prepared to find more monsters there, had been ready to land with her bladed fury and kill everything in sight, but all she found was a single Ceramic Automaton.
Kervantes was kneeling and crying in a pool of dark blood.