Chương 15: Book 8 - Chapter 13 - Setting the stage

"Keith. To'Sefit selected this biome in order to stage an attack for a reason." Wrath said.

"You would be attempting to defeat her in her chosen element. I would recommend we avoid her range, or find an alternative biome to travel."

"Where's she at right now?"

"She is advancing two miles off of our position." Wrath said.

"Her speed is rapid for a few seconds, and then halts for five minutes, from what I can see on the history log." Odd pathing, was she laying down traps with each rest point, or possibly equipment of some kind?

"Timing also feels a little too good." I said, "We're only minutes into this biome and she's already in near perfect position?" They really had guessed correctly the general path. Thought we could lose them in the Expanse. But we did somewhat at least; Two miles was still a large distance, so there was some wiggle room here…

"Can she track us or are they just following the last known tunnel exit location based on where we were last spotted?"

"Only one way to find out." Cathida said, while Journey's HUD pinged and highlighted the bridge. Good as any to start with. Faster we were away from our starting point, the harder it would be for To'Sefit to catch us. I took a step out, and then started on a light jog. The others followed behind. The suspension bridge took the weight of two Feathers, and one human in relic armor without any difficulty. It creaked slightly and swayed, but no signs of true stress happened to it.

Even the wood portions seemed resistant. The problem came at the middle part of the bridge. One moment I felt fine, and then next I felt… exposed. The Odin had been semi-correct. I had a hunch there might be the stink of the occult in this zone, and that guess was on the nose. I thought it might have been a moving concept of Death itself floating randomly around in this zone like a shark somehow, and would seek us out the moment we were in safety. No, instead it was the entire region itself that was a vacuum.

I underwent the same experience of having my soul exposed outside the soul fractal. The world began to pick apart at my essence. It was everywhere. I withdrew completely to my body, seeking warmth and protection from the outside world, and found it still lacking. Wrath and To'Orda were jogging behind me, and didn't seem to feel any discomfort. But the Odin clearly did, all of them bunching up together the moment To'Orda took one step past a threshold. They started to croak out warnings.

A flash of fear ran through me: Artificial souls can't feel this effect. They aren't aware of their souls because they can't move them around. And they don't have a body to start feeling the side effects of a soul eroding from the body like the Odin did. I had an advantage here. I'm constantly feeling some minor effect of this on my soul tendrils, the ones floating out of my body into the different fractals I had all over my armor. I could probably last a good five minutes.

It wouldn't be fun, or comfortable in the least, but I could do it in the same way someone could hold their breath longer; if they've been constantly training for it. Father would probably laugh his way walking through the entire biome and make it on the other side still alive and angry enough to spite god all over again. I'm adequate enough by now. Wrath and To'Orda? They'd die for good if they weren't careful. This biome was a deathtrap for Feathers. No, not just Feathers. Journey too.

I looked over my armor and saw the world outside equally dissolving its soul at the center chest. Some protective instinct in me leaped before thinking. I dove into its soul fractal with a tendril, and forced myself to expand around it, wrapping it up in a bubble. It seemed confused at the intrusion, until it sensed my aim. It wasn't happy about that, because while the world stopped picking away at its essence, it turned to continue dissolving mine. Which meant the user was exposing himself to danger.

I could take it. The rate of decay on my own soul was significantly lower than what the armor had been dealing with, and Journey couldn't do anything other than complain. But I couldn't protect Wrath at this range. No way I could move a tendril of soul that far off myself.

"We're in range of Death, start running!" I called out, turning my jog into a sprint.

"We are?" Wrath asked, but seeing me sprint ahead was all the info she needed. Over a few breaths I let them all know my findings. The effect here wasn't as strong as being completely exposed to the outside, but it was there. The suspension bridge steadily vibrated with each heavy footfall as I tunnel visioned to the other side. A platform like the one we'd left, connected to the rock spire here, with a lantern of its own waiting.

"Kres, the other two can't feel when they're stepping foot into death. You and your squad need to stay with them at all times and warn them anytime they're too far from the light. Wrath, To'Orda, set a timer for thirty seconds anytime you see the Odin start shouting a warning. I wouldn't risk going any longer than that." The group confirmed my orders, and our quick sprint across the bridge let us reenter the light.

Now that I knew what to look for with the soul sight, I could see why the lights around the lantern were safe: It was a bubble of willpower, passively holding back the darkness around. The same type of willpower I'd need to use for myself, except somehow projected outwards indefinitely. Frozen in place even. Which meant the lanterns were sentient, or connected to something sentient. I reached a hand over to Superior, tugging at the faint traces he'd left behind inside the mite lantern.

Giving him a signal to return. That was faster than I expected, what's blown up this time? Do you know what's up with these lanterns? I asked him, taking a few steps to the one at the center of this platform. I could count seven more platforms above me, each with a lantern post just like this.

Journey was running a spectrum analysis on the composition, and Superior stretched his own sight into the real world, looking at the lantern's effect around us with his own soul sight, then digging back down on the other side. Well, I can tell the barrier comes from the mite side, while the darkness and… death thing comes from your side. Looks to be some kind of balance. Might take me a bit of time to find the source behind these lanterns, but I'll give it my best shot.

The digital sea on the mite side is really big. Good talk, and good luck. I'll see what else I can do on my end. By this platform was a wrapping staircase leading up to another platform on the other side above us. No lantern light on the stairways, but we could sprint up the spire here quick enough.

"Going to do another test, let me know when you all feel rested enough."

"All systems show nominal." Wrath said, flicking droplets of water condensation off her wings.

"I should theoretically be able to proceed?" I was already reaching out a hand to hold Wrath from starting on the next bridge, "No, all systems not nominal." We'd been inside the darkness for under ten seconds, and the soul sight made it clear what was going wrong.

"I'm seeing some heavy damage that's still regenerating. Same as when you heal things, but far more harsh." She frowned slightly.

"Triggering my healing fractal comes with feedback and feeling, if the damage was similar, why did I not sense anything?"

"I don't know." I said, and that was the truth of it.

"If I had to guess, it's because you're triggering the fractal yourself? More control over it maybe? Direct connection?" Or this biome was made to be a silent killer.

"How long should we wait?" Wrath asked.

"To'Sefit continues to move."

"Two to three minutes, maybe?" I said, looking over her soul again. It was steadily repairing itself. Same with To'Orda.

"Well I ain't feeling anything wrong with my systems." The rock said, running through a few tests with its projectors, making quick doodles in the air.

"Journey would run a sanity check on me if I thought the same thing." Cathida muttered.

"Funny, I feel the same way about you." The rock shot back.

"What's To'Sefit's distance roughly from us?" I asked, trying to get ahead of Cathida and the pet rock.

"Nine point seven three miles." Wrath said.

"She is currently paused." She's hardly made any good distance towards us.

"She's in the same airspeeder we are." I said, raising a finger.

"I remember you mentioned she kept taking five minute long breaks before crossing bridges. Now we know why. She doesn't have anyone to warn her if she's in too deep or the state of her soul, so she's making the conservative choices. This place is more dangerous for her than it is for us." Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. We had a deadline, because effective range for To'Sefit would be half a mile or so.

Unless she could get a lock on us with a spotter, and shoot through the walls here. Given she hadn't yet done so means one of these two items is on point. It would take her a bit of time to get in range of us, but she'd be relentless about it. We just had to keep moving and shaving off more minutes away on each rest point, and we'd keep ahead of her indefinitely. And we couldn't afford to be caught in her range. Wrath was right, To'Sefit had picked this biome as her ambush point for a reason.

And I had a sneaking suspicion on why. So we hurried up and got to waiting for both Feathers here to get the all clear bill of health. As they started up the stairs, I turned to the lantern that'd been steadily providing us shelter.

"Two questions, how fast can you run up these stairs if things go wrong? And second question: do you see anything bolting this down to the ground?" She turned around to look right as I sliced the pole in half using my longsword, one hand already reaching out to grab the lantern.

"Rhetorical question, still stealing this." Unfortunately, my plan to carry around my own personal torch failed, as the light winked out a few moments after I cut the pole. Well, science requires sacrifice. Kres and the rest of the ravens on To'Orda's back immediately spooked and took off from his back, almost like a primal reflex. But they got hold of their senses just as quickly, aiming their panicked flight up to the next platform directly.

And as for the rest of us: The answer to my first question was three seconds, and most of us skipped the steps entirely. To'Orda landed last on the platform, immediately taking a few quick steps past me to position himself directly by this platform's lantern. The golden shield had been unhooked from his back and made a quiet but solid thud on the ground, angled against me, protecting the lantern, while he took position behind it, violet eyes keeping me in vision at all times. The message was clear.

And the effects of being in the shadow was even more clear. Death curled its way from the darkness beyond, into the shadow of the mite doorway, and sized at my leg and chest. Once more allowing reality to eat away at my soul despite my safehouse. I rolled out of the doorway's shadow, "Truce-truce-truce! Shadow's deadly out here! We need to be in direct light!"

"You know what else we fuckin' need kiddo?" The rock said, projected doodle puffing up wide and angry.

"The lantern poles unsliced and unlooted too! Go fondle a pole somewhere else, you little pint-sized kleptomaniac menace to society." It was like the rock's wording summoned Cathida directly from the ether, because she immediately swung in my defense, "Orda, be a dear and control your doorstopper before my squire gets some more practice on looting." To'Orda shuffled, trying to move his pet rock. The plan failed.

"I'd be more worried if your boy here could actually loot shit without triggering some kind of dumbassery on the rest of us every single time. No wonder you think he needs practice."

"You're looking exceptionally aerodynamic to me for something that can't move." Cathida hissed.

"So, be a good little useless garden decoration and behave before we start testing out better jobs for you." To'Orda held the rock slightly closer to his body, turning his chest around as if protecting it. The rock, of course, just made its projection bigger so it could look over the shoulder and keep shittalking in peace.

"Hah! Useless? Least I've got presentation, you crazy old skank. What have you got, on-off switches for the headlights?" Cathida's voice returned even more heated.

"Your light show's about as impressive as your personality and size. Dull and microscopic." Ah, there were the vulgarities. Cathida had been a little too civil so far. The rock's projection seemed shocked on the other hand. I think she hit a nerve.

"You take that back." It hissed.

"I'll take it back when you can take yourself anywhere without someone else's hand doing the job. Must be exhausting being the only one who gets around. Newsflash, everyone would love if you'd acted more like a real rock. You know, good for throwing."

"Newsflash back," The rock basically screeched out.

"The only idiots that love hearing you talk are fuckin' deaf. Everyone else just wishes they were."

"Big talk from something that needs to be carried everywhere like a toddler's security blanket."

"Look, it was a one-time test!" I said. Felt like I was stepping in between two dogs barking at each other, with barely controlled leashes.

"And I got a lot of useful info just from that, plus we all saw the platform here was a single wall jump away. I'm not going to cut down our only light source a second time. You can trust me."

"That's an outright lie and nobody here needs the software to tell." The rock said.

"Except maybe miss has-been here, she might be the only one dumb enough to fall for it." Of course, Cathida was outright compelled to bark back.

"Keep talking doorstopper, maybe someone will mistake you for something important someday."

"I didn't even do anything this time!" I said, holding a hand out for peace.

"Wrath, back me up here."

"Statistically speaking, you do engage in such behavior at nearly every opportunity that I've seen. Including in your first encounter with To'Orda." She said, sending me a video. It was a compilation. Huh. I really do end up in a lot of vents looking back on all thi-wait-wait-wait.

"Who's side are you even on?!" I hissed back, then turned to To'Orda, a hand out asking for peace.

"Look, we all learned these lanterns are destructible, a very important detail considering they're the only things keeping us alive out here." And the deeper we went into this region, the more we'd rely completely on being around these lanterns." This is why she picked this biome, she's planning on shooting the lanterns all around us, and then letting us suffocate in the dark. We'll need to figure out ways to defend them from now on." And I had to figure out some way to carry one of these things with me.

Defense would only get us so far up against an opponent that could snipe up from half a mile.

"Oh they need to be defended all right." The rock said, projected eyes from its doodle narrowing down. And the word 'accusing glare' floated right behind it. In bold neon red too. Wrath finally stepped in on my side.

"How long do we have before we can depart this platform?" She asked.

"To'Sefit has completed another run across a bridge and is now in her rest period of five minutes. We need to be moving, soon." I gave her a quick check, "About a minute at this rate?" She'd been exposed for less than three seconds, but the regeneration was far slower compared to how fast the world here ate at it. Still a lot of soul left though.

"We could probably pass the bridge right now and make it on the next side without much issue. Let me confer with an expert about our options here first though."

"If she's your expert, we're doomed." The rock rolled its eyes.

"Least I don't get lost in someone's pocket." Cathida hissed right back before I could shush her.

"Sorry about your size issue, too bad this is the hardest you get as a rock."

"Between us sweetheart, do you come with a mute button, or do I gotta find out how you like to get choked myself?" The rock shot back.

"Oh he has such a way with words." Cathida quietly whispered in my helmet with a tone of voice I found… borderline treacherous. Uh oh. She took a deep breath to start barking back and I had an ominous feeling I needed to shut this down immediately before things got worse.

"Not her, I've got an occult expert on reserve I can talk to." I said, looking over to To'Orda.

"Operational security, can't say who. Now, you leash up the rock, and I'll handle Cathida."

"He means he's going to be talking to himself again." The rock rolled its eyes, then turned its eyes down to To'Orda.

"Boss, buddy, this human's going to murder you even when you're on his side. Drakonis can't die, he'll be fine wherever he is, we should turn back before we get more involved here."

"Nnn… no." To'Orda said, simple and clear. The rock gave the most dramatic sigh possible. It was technically correct about talking to myself, though I'd never admit to that in a thousand years. I was getting the feeling there wasn't a winning move in starting anything against a rock that impressed Cathida. Speaking of her, she'd once more resumed her usual tirades back at the rock.

I started looking through the mute options on my HUD, but then both the Rock and Cathida instantly agreed to an unworded truce mid-insult and started yelling at me, together. That was frankly terrifying, and I decided whatever they were doing, so long as I wasn't in the crossfire, it'll be fine. So I tuned them out and focused on getting things done. Superior did have some news for me. For one, he confirms the light itself is not cosmetic and figured out why: It serves as a medium in moving willpower.

How exactly that worked, neither of us could guess, but that explained why it being obstructed would be a problem. If light's a big thing, how about what we have on your lantern? I asked him. We had kept the side windows on the lantern closed up, so it looked like it's inconspicuous starting form. But it was still a mite lantern, and it did have mites with lights crawling around on the inside in a geometric pattern. It'll work. Dimmer, less area of effect, but it's functionally the same kind of light.

Problem is the willpower behind it. Right now, I'm the one in the lantern here, so it'd be my own willpower. We could try taking turns to pad out the timer here, but neither of us are Father. I've got a few other options to investigate, stay alive out there until I'm back if you could. What are you scheming? If I can find what's the will behind all these lanterns, I might be able to swap one of these lamp posts with our own lantern here, get that will thinking our lantern is a post.

There's so many light sources in this biome, one swap wouldn't be noticed, right? After that, you'd be able to run around with a light source of our own, so long as you keep the miteseeker windows open for the light to shine out. Oh, nice plan. He gave me a thumbs up, Good luck with the crew there, don't leave Cathida and the rock unsupervised. Then he promptly vanished, back to his hunt. I took his ominous advice to heart. Then steeled myself for what I had to do next because it would likely provoke said rock.

The group was about to start down the bridge, but I peeled off back to the lantern here at the last second. To'Orda paused, then turned to verify what I was doing while Wrath continued ahead. I gave the pole a solid look, then drew my occult longsword out. The rock started screeching about how it was right all along, which in turn immediately baited out Cathida, but To'Orda turned and raced down the bridge, cutting off the rock mid-rant. Have to say, he did have good instincts.

To'Orda was already halfway across the bridge before I'd even started on my second cut into the ground, and by the time I yanked the entire pole out, he was safely on the other side. The post was completely whole, a clump of rock and dirt at the base cut into a small upside down pyramid from my slices. But more importantly: The lantern on top remained lit,. For one fleeting moment, I felt vindicated. Then it sputtered out and vanished.

"YOU SEE?!" The rock called out from the other side of the bridge as I turned and ran for the warmth across the bridge where I was getting a lecture from.

"YOUR BOY'S TERRIBLE AT THIS." It paused. Waiting.

"UNMUTE HER, YOU COWARD." It actually sounded genuinely pissed about that. I had gagged Cathida so I could focus on important things right before I'd run my second test on the lantern here, so it's guess was accurate. As for me, there was an additional item I was testing besides if I could loot the lantern wholesale: How much distance from the light would affect the vacuum itself.

All the way on the other side of the bridge, far off from any light, I felt the cold chill hit me the moment light here vanished, and held it off with practiced discipline. Like having cold water dumped over me. I'd been expecting it to hit harder since I was further, but was pleasantly surprised instead. The difficulty in keeping the void outside from eating my soul wasn't any different here than it was a few inches away from the light's protection.

Which meant the world here was more like bubbles of safety that were binary. Either fully protected, or fully unprotected. But being a mile away from a light wouldn't instantly snuff me out. Which didn't quite make sense given how light was supposed to work, but then again the light itself wasn't what protected us from the outside biome here, it was a dedicated sentient willpower. Still. There had to be some way around this.

Because at this rate, when we ran into To'Sefit, she really was going to snuff out all the lights everywhere and we needed to be prepared for that. I mean, that's what I would do in her boots. Heels, come to think of it. I watched the dead lantern in front, equally testing the limits of how long I can hold myself together. Really did feel like an endurance test in cold water. I was looking for something. Inspiration maybe. A way to carry these with me. Then I had the stupidest idea to date.