175 - Book 3: Chapter 40: Time

175 - Book 3: Chapter 40: Time

The ominous red door loomed in front of them. Vex had chosen to deem it the ORB, for "ominous red boundary". No one had really taken on the name yet, but they hadn't disputed him on it, either, so he was confident they'd pick up on it eventually.

"About time we go through," Misa said, eyeing it.

"If we do, I'm not sure we're going to be able to help the rebellion if anything goes wrong," Sev said. "This thing"

"The ORB," Vex supplied.

"Yes, Vex," Sev sighed. "The ORB. It looks like... it looks final? It looks like when we go through it, we're going to face the last trial of the bonus room, and then we'll complete it."

Derivan patted Vex on the head, and the lizardkin gave a low trill of pleasure. "I do not think we should delay," Derivan said. "There is an advantage to remaining here, certainly, but we are aware that it pulls resources from the Elyran anchor. It is possible that by staying, we are accelerating Elyra's eventual fall."

"Elyra's going to fall anyway," Vex said. Some of his earlier humor faded from his eyes he was trying everything he could to distract himself from everything happening in his home. A large part of him wanted to go back and do everything he could to help, but...

He was more valuable here, with his friends.

"You want to go back, though," Derivan said, observing him closely, and Vex sighed as the armor pulled him into his arms.

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They still hadn't fixed that.

"I do," Vex admitted. "It doesn't feel right to be... I don't know, safe? Not that it's safe here, but Elyra's in danger, and I'm not there. Helix is trying to protect it, Riss has no idea what's going on. I don't think the nobles are going to agree to work with the rebellion, so if the rebels just leave, Riss is going to be stuck there..."

"Do you really think Helix would leave your little brother there?" Misa asked, raising a brow. "That doesn't seem like him."

"No," Vex said, shaking his head in frustration. "But my father..."

He trailed off.

Karix was powerful. Helix couldn't fight off the man even at his best. If Vex helped...

But that was their conundrum right now, really. If they went through the trial and it somehow prevented them from working with Elyra from keeping an eye on everything happening with the rebels and the nobles then they would effectively be on their own. If they waited, they might accelerate everything that was happening, and no matter what they'd have to enter the door eventually.

The ORB. The joke seemed a little less funny, now, but sometimes a little levity was... needed, Vex thought.

"Sooner rather than later, I think," Misa said, and her words were surprisingly gentle. A strong arm landed on his shoulder, and Misa smiled at him. "No matter when we go, we're going to end up indisposed for a while. The sooner we get it over with, the sooner we can help the rebels if anything comes up. And knowing those noble fucks, something is gonna come up. Right?"

Vex nodded slowly. She was right. It was pretty clear, even, in the way Rakka had fought back against Helix with his own children. There was... something going on there; he just didn't know what.

Better to be ready by the time they did something. Derivan's portal time was limited, anyway, and if they were forced to retreat in the middle of a fight or let the portal close on them Vex doubted the results would be pretty.

In one universe, Misa opened a door.

It was only practical that she tested out what was behind the door first, with an application of Endless Echoes. Just in case they were wrong about what the door was, and it was a trap.

"Is it not just Elyra?" Vex frowned. "I'm sure she would have said something if any place was as bad as Elyra."

"I doubt any individual settlement has it as bad as Elyra, but a lot of smaller things can ruin a settlement without the supplies to keep it going," Misa said, frowning. She glanced at her own system. "Things are... apparently going well in Teque and Fendal. J'rokksur is assisting as best as it can with the Guild many of its guards have joined up, so they're fighting the manpower shortage for now. Mom says that she's helping to keep track of the numbers, and she's pretty sure at least five adventurers have gone missing with no record... Shit."

"Let us hurry," Derivan said, and no one protested.

The first place of significance they encountered looked something like a ruined palace. Most of it had crumbled to dust, leaving very little left to indicate who or what might have once lived here.

"Noram said something about how the world began to crumble and fall apart, and the mana put it back together," Vex said softly. He knelt, letting some of the dust trail between his fingers. "This was someone's home."

"It's just dust, now," Misa said, though her voice was gentle. "Let's move on."

The second place they encountered was a little more intact. More of the walls were left behind, though they swayed dangerously in the wind. Vex walked up to them and brushed his fingers across the faded murals, a faint sense of recognition sparking in his mind.

Why did this place seem familiar?

He didn't know, and there was nothing else here for him to find.

They'd been wandering for almost a day, now, and had yet to find anything that might give them a hint as to what they were supposed to do here. Food and water was at least abundant, if strange-tasting; Sev made sure to purify any of the food they came across, just in case.

The second day saw a new message from Helix, and one from the Guildmaster.

[Nobles didn't listen,] Helix said. Vex imagined him typing the message and rolling his eyes as he did so, like he'd known the whole time it would happen. [Not even dad would listen. Didn't expect any different, but it's still frustrating.]

[They didn't try to spring a trap?] Vex sent back.

Helix took a long half-hour to respond three minutes, in his time. [Of fuckin' course they did,] he said. [We were prepared. No casualties. Took a little souvenir with us, too.]

Vex managed a small smile. [Any update on what the deal with Rakka is?]

Three hours before the reply on that one. [No. Rakka still won't talk, and all his kids won't either. We think it's a Wisfield compulsion, so we're asking the Guild for help removing it.]

The Guildmaster's message explained why the Guild hadn't already sent them that assistance. [Guild's overloaded right now,] she sent. [Dungeon breaks are getting more common, even when the dungeons themselves are getting cleared. System seems to be stabilizing for a bit, but no guarantee it'll last. Any recommendations?]

[Wait for us,] Misa had sent.

J'rokksur had thus far not experienced any of the problems with the system that many others had. The prevailing assumption at the moment was that Misa's particular anchor was immune, or at least protected, from whatever degradation was affecting all the other ones. They'd told the Guildmaster how Misa had ended up binding the anchor to herself, but the Guild had had no luck replicating those particular circumstances so far nor did they want to risk their already limited adventurers on broken dungeons.

The best thing they could do was to find a way to link everyone to Misa's anchor instead. With enough reality shards, they could handle the load, at least for a little while, and they'd managed to stock up a bit while they were here.

And yet they still didn't know what the objective was. What did the bonus room want them to do?

The third significant location was a good three days away. This time the ruins were intact enough that Vex recognized a small piece of architecture, and the lizardkin caught his breath.

"This was Elyra," he said. "I should've realized. Everything was so broken... but this place was Elyra."