Rieren held back a curse. Of all the times to have her sword out of her hand. She was about to dive into the System Shop and pull anything out to stop the discus from hitting her head-on, but its path was interrupted.
Kervantes had thrown one of his torn arms at the thing.
The collision of his arm and the discus let loose another powerful blast throughout the area. Rieren was struck by the shockwave too. She had reoriented herself to land right, but the latest blast was strong enough to make her lose her posture. When she struck the ground again, with no water to cushion her fall, the hit undid much of Divine Resilience’s work so far.
Groaning at the pain in her arms, she pulled herself up in time to see the golden wings of light spreading outwards from the Aetherian’s body. The halo around its head was spinning and flashing brilliantly too. None of which were great portents.
Well, it seemed even with Reaver Stance, Rieren hadn’t truly been able to stand against a B-Grade Aetherian. Not that she’d had much hope after the last encounter.
But it had been a good estimation of her growth in strength. Without the element of surprise as last time, and without the benefit of the dead Anachron’s Essence weakening her foe, she had still lasted a good bit of time.
Until she had been nearly killed by a combination of abilities she had no counter to.
Rieren had been rushing to her sword, intending to pick it up. Earthfell Blade would at least provide a modicum of protection. But she wasn’t going to reach it in time. Not when the Aetherian was lowering its wings with blistering, shattering light.
Fortune had seen fit to throw her towards that little pit that had been dug in the ground, the one that gave a glimmer of lava underneath. Rieren was close enough that she could dive into it. Just in time too. The Aetherian’s wings burst outwards in long bars, beams of light as thick as tree trunks coruscating through the chamber.
The large room started shaking even worse than last time. Entire chunks of the ceiling crashed down, heavy rocks that would have easily crushed Rieren had she been under them. Thankfully, none fell into her pit.
Besides which, the Aetherian’s light was blindingly bright as well. Rieren had to turn her eyes to slits to see without losing sight completely.
When it finally ended and she was able to peek her head over the rim of the hole, Rieren found that the much of the entire chamber had been restructured by the Aetherian’s ability.
The beams of energy had destroyed a lot of the walls, melting them right in place to flood the edge of the area with lava. She couldn’t tell if the others had survived. There was too much smoke and dust. Though, she certainly hoped at least Batcat had managed to come out unharmed. It was small enough.
Her sword. Rieren needed to find her sword. The Aetherian was already moving, likely determined to find and end whoever remained to stand before it.
And then it was slammed back by a wall of thorny vines bursting from the ground.
Rieren grinned. The Elder was alive.
Scrambling out of the pit while biting back the pain, Rieren made a beeline for her Receptor sword while the Aetherian was distracted. She grabbed it up by the hilt, readying her defensive posture as she looked around.
Somewhere in the dusty gloom, she could make out the figure of Kervantes bumbling about. The automaton was far enough away from their enemy to be in no immediate danger. She couldn’t find where Folend or Batcat was, however. Rieren pushed down the spike of worry. If they were safe, they were safe. Her ceaseless fretting wasn’t going to magically keep them alive.
“Enough,” Elder Veylie said.
Her ringing voice pulled Rieren’s attention back to the fight. The Aetherian had torn itself away from the vines with its wings, but more kept on coming. Now that the Elder had finished setting up her Enchantment—the deep glow of the lines of ground proving that it was ready—she could turn her full attention upon their enemy.
“The thorns of your deception cannot hide the certainty of my victory,” the monster said.
It seemed the Elder wasn’t at all interested in any of that. She raised her arms, smaller versions of her vines now encircling her wrist and fingers. “The only truth you need to know is that your kind do not belong here. They have never belonged here. And I will ensure that you do not endanger my home any longer.”
The Aetherian had been bashing away the Elder’s attacks. All the thorny vines around her arms multiplied, however, and several more of their larger variants shot out of the ground. The monster was still too powerful. It ripped and tore through the rising thorns, the combination of its bursting stars, spear, discus of light, and the blitzing wings keeping it free for the moment.
But even then, the vines were increasing in power and ferocity. For every single one that the Aetherian tore down, another rose to take its place. The ones that were broken apart were healing rapidly as well. Elder Veylie was determined to wear down the monster.
Rieren turned to her. That sort of power was incredible, even for an Elder. Especially when she looked down. The crumbling chamber’s shaking had finally stopped, but only because Elder Veylie had extended her Domain so that her thorny vines were stitching the whole room together.
How was she doing that? She was at the Exalted realm, which was powerful enough to handle most B-Grade monsters. But even then, she was displaying too much strength, sending it to so many different directions.
There was the Enchantment that must have taken a great deal from her. Then there was the way she was using the majority of her Domain to keep this chamber up until they had finished dealing with the monstrosity before them. And all that didn’t even include the continuous output she was throwing against the Aetherian.
Rieren frowned again at the thorny vines wrapping around Elder Veylie’s arms. More had erupted around her legs and neck too. Rieren’s eyes went wide as she noticed a strange detail.
The thorns on the vines were embedded into Elder Veylie’s skin.
Ah, so that was it. No doubt if Rieren approached and looked even closer, she would find the thorns sucking in energy from the Elder directly. She was sacrificing her own life force, practically killing herself to defeat their enemy. Nothing wrong with that, in Elder Veylie’s mind, since she was going to have to give up her life for her Enchantment anyway.
The technicalities of the feat didn’t escape Rieren. Such sacrificial techniques always required giving up something vital.
For instance, Reaver Stance used her wounds, her pain, the loss of her physical form to empower herself. Elder Olg’s True Summons needed an even bigger sacrifice, though his Ashflame was quick to regenerate it.
In much the same way, Rieren believed that Elder Veylie’s thorns were pulling away her own innate channels of Essence from within her. A quick focus of Essence into her eyes confirmed it. Meridians were being pulled into the vines, turning them, for all intents and purposes, alive.
Stolen novel; please report.
“The bounds of strength may seem endless,” the Aetherian said it rose higher in the air on its wings of molten light. It slashed and ripped apart more of the vines, though they returned immediately to attack and pull it down. “But the bounds of your life is not!”
It wasn’t wrong. Even now, the Elder was weakening in her efforts. The Aetherian was having much better luck at tearing through the black tendrils.
Not for long if Rieren could help it.
“Kervantes,” she shouted as she ran at the automaton, releasing her Domain. “Hold still.”
The Ceramic Automaton didn’t ask questions. Instead, it petrified itself as she reached it and used it as a platform to raise herself higher to leap upwards. If her shout had alerted the Nebula that she was up to something, the Elder’s vines kept it too busy to respond.
Which was perfect for Rieren as she was able to boost herself with Fray Passage as she flew towards the Aetherian’s back. She twisted in mid-air so that she was kicking at the monster’s back, summoning her Domain again. The water materialized between her and her target by the time they connected.
With the Aetherian distracted by the vines, it was unable to defend itself against her attack. Perhaps it had thought that all she would do was land an ineffective slice. But that wasn’t the case.
Rieren’s kick hit hard and flung the monster off its aerial perch. Normally, her legs would have punched through its body made of amorphous cosmic matter. But with her improved Domain, she could strike at monsters that didn’t have regular corporeal forms too. So it was that the Aetherian was flung several paces ahead to the ground, its wings and halo unable to keep up.
Elder Veylie shouted. Rieren had granted her just the opportunity she needed. It wasn’t just more vines appearing to gobble up their monstrous foe. No, the Elder brought in the entire chamber like a trap.
More black, thorny vines burst out of the ground and the ceiling as well, all of them bringing in their assorted pieces of the chamber along. Before the Aetherian could recover, it was trapped in a cage of rocks, heavy earth, and of course, all the thorny vines. It seemed the Elder had the trap prepared long before hand.
Rieren looked around. At this rate, the chamber consists more of Elder Veylie’s vines than natural earth.
The separated halo and wings shot towards their master, but the Elder was faster. Her chaotic storms of tendrils pulled the trap towards her, and towards the Abyss Rent. All the lines of her Enchantment were glowing more brilliantly than ever.
This was it. The time had come to pull the monster back to where it had come from and then seal the doorway so it and its kind couldn’t invade again.
Rieren’s heart pounded at the sight. The monster was still attempting to break out of its impromptu prison. Heavy crashes and muffled roars thundered out of the ball of rocks and vines. But the Elder had it under control. Her vines secreted the same suppressing purple Essence that they had on the Nebula before it had combined with its companion.
It was enough to give her the time she needed to pull the monster into the Abyss Rent. Enough time for her to evade the destructive wings trying to rejoin with the main body.
As the vine-wrapped prison swung through the Abyss Rent, the Elder stepped up to the centre of her Enchantment. The wings attempted to collided with her, but her wall of thorns was impenetrable. At least, when considering the rate at which they regenerated thanks to her powerful Essence. They were shattering the thorns, but not able to pass on through to the rent.
The light around the Enchantment was intensifying, growing brighter and brighter as the Elder’s sealing of the Abyss Rent took effect.
Batcat’s sudden yowl jerked Rieren’s head to the left. Folend had dropped the kitten, and his mace too, deciding to run straight for the Elder. Rieren shouted at him in warning. He would just get himself killed by the exploding wings at this rate.
But Folend displayed a surprisingly sharp presence of mind. He didn’t have to worry about the wall of thorns. Folend timed his run so that he could jump through the hole in the thorny wall created by the Aetherian’s wings before they could regenerate a moment later.
Rieren didn’t get to see what happened next. The wall of thorns closed up. It was destroyed again by the wings again, which would have let her catch sight of whatever was going on closer to the Abyss Rent, but she was running towards Batcat. For some reason, it had begun running right after Folend.
“No, Batcat!” she shouted. Her yell made the winged kitten stutter in its run. Rieren caught up to it before it could reach the chaos, then picked the cat up and cradled it in her arms. “You do not belong there.”
Batcat squirmed for a moment, but when it found that Rieren wasn’t about to let go, it calmed down.
Rieren frowned down at it. “What were you thinking, Batcat?”
It only replied with a soft meow as it settled down and appeared to go to sleep. Rieren was about to place it upon her head as usual when a shout tore through the shattering chamber.
“No, Folend,” the Elder screamed in much the way Rieren had done to Batcat. “You cannot!”
Rieren had a good idea of what Folend might be doing—might already have done, in fact, going by the shift in the colour of the Enchantment’s light. The glow was as red as a sinking sun.
Elder Veylie shouted again, which was rapidly cut off by a brilliant flash. Rieren had closed her eyes and averted her head momentarily, but the blinding illumination died quick enough to let her see the fallout.
The Abyss Rent was gone. So was much else in the chamber, including the Aetherian’s wings and much of the black vines that had been blocking Rieren’s view.
But in place of the rent was a strange construction of twisted rocks. It looked like a rope made of stone that had been twisted as it stretched from the chamber’s floor to its ceiling. At its centre was a glimmering shiny orb. That indicated the location where the Abyss Rent had been trapped by the Elder’s Enchantment.
There was no sign of Folend anywhere. Instead, the Elder stood staring at the spot where the Abyss Rent had been with a muted, faraway expression.
“It is finally done, yes?” Kervantes asked as he hopped towards Rieren.
She nodded. The wound on her head made her wince, though it was much better than it had been before, thanks to Divine Resilience. The rest of her injuries were rapidly healing as well. “We should get going. Though…” She glanced at the automaton, noting his wounds. “Will you be able to continue without trouble?”
“That is an excellent question.” Kervantes took note of his missing limbs as though he had been ignoring them so far. The gears in his head seemed to click louder when he spotted the stumps that his arm and leg ended. “Perhaps I do need to recover.”
Rieren considered the crazy idea of pulling the Ceramic Automaton indecently close to her in much the same way she had done to Amalyse when they had first entered the dungeon. But that was silly. Divine Resilience wouldn’t work on Kervantes. It might fix inorganic matter such as her clothes, but that was because they were related to her.
Just to make sure, she took his permission before holding the stump of his arm where it was wounded. Nothing happened. Rieren’s perk didn’t magically start reforming the complicated array of wires, gears, and other metal and ceramic bits that made the automaton work.
“How can you recover, Kervantes?” she asked.
He pulled his arm free. There might be no expression to go off of, but Rieren got the sudden feeling that he had become rather shifty.
“The dungeon can fix me up without trouble,” he said. It seemed he wasn’t willing to go into more details.
“How long will it take?”
“Not too long. But if you wish to continue, go on farther ahead. There is only one path to take. But once you come across the fork, our route will go to the left. I can meet you at the top of the chamber.”
Ah. So he didn’t want her seeing the dungeon’s secret way of healing its guardians. She certainly couldn’t blame his suspicion. Their alliance was one of convenience. A temporary, necessary cooperation. Neither of them was sure how long it would last.
“Then I will see you at the end of the path,” Rieren said. “Provided I do not meet with any complications along the way.”
Kervantes turned around. “I will try to be as fast as I can since we have little time to waste. However, I might need a moment or two to get back to my regular self.”
“Take what time you need. Fighting the Abyssals without being in your best condition could become fatal.”
Kervantes performed a strange gesture. He closed his remaining hand into a fist with its thumb raised high. Then he thrust it at her as though he intended to punch her, but only lightly so, though the fist didn’t reach her. “Farewell.”
Rieren blinked at the fist with the raised thumb, then at his swiftly departing—and undulating thanks to his hops—back. “Farewell.”
She decided not to think too much of whatever that gesture was supposed to mean. Just further proof that the automatons weren’t human.
Rieren walked towards the Elder, who was finally getting away from the spot where the Abyss Rent had stood. Veylie caught sight of Rieren and began making her way directly to Rieren.
“I am glad you survived, Rieren,” Elder Veylie said by way of greeting.
“I would like to ask what in the world happened here,” Rieren said. “And I would also like to know what the context of all this was, but I do not think we have time to waste on discussions.”
“Correct. We do not have much time, lest we wish to miss what the others are about to start at the main chamber. But worry not, I will explain to the best of my abilities.”
Elder Veylie spared one last glance at the location of the former Abyss Rent. The knot in the middle of the strange, stony rope glimmered again. Rieren frowned at it too. Folend was locked in there. He had sacrificed himself to close the Abyss Rent. To protect them and the Sect, to an extent, but also to protect his brother.
Batcat had woken up and was looking mournfully at the tall, twisted rocks. Rieren patted its head, then followed the Elder out of the crumbling chamber. It was time to face the Dungeon Core and the source of all their problems.