Chapter 130: Kaleidoscope

Chapter 130: Kaleidoscope

It began as a tranquil blush of iridian luster rising from the dark like a warm morning star. A crystalline structure at the center of the room caught the light and its endless facets glittered, casting trails of color across the floor. The 12-foot-high gem had replaced the dark pillar of the Delve obelisk. A warmth bloomed at its center, pulsing with the on-and-off rhythm of a firefly.

The edges of the space remained lost in inky darkness. The ceiling above became a soft sky of drifting, prismatic clouds seen through a solid dome of translucent polygons. As the meandering puffs of vapor drifted above, the reflected trails from the gemstone rolled across us like the guiding beacon of a lighthouse. Where the System hadn’t identified Clockwork Alpha, an identification did pop up for the grand crystal.

Subject C-209, “Kaleidoscope”: Extradimensional Entity, Grade 20.

Xim leaned toward me and whispered, “Friend of yours?”

“Some might find that offensive, Xim,” I said. “We don’t all know each other. In fact, this is the only other extradimensional entity that I’ve met.”

“What about that thing in the in-between space when we came into the Delve?”

“Eldritch deities don’t count.”

The crystal rose from the ground and slowly spun in the air, the refracted beams of light moving with more urgency. I began to feel like I was in a roller skating rink. Part of me expected to be treated to the thumping beat of the 1993 hit single, What is Love. Sadly, the worldly baritone of Haddaway did not grace our ears. Instead, I felt a familiar twist in the pit of my stomach as something tried to teleport me.

You are being subjected to a non-consensual dimensional effect.Upstodatee from n(0)/ve/lbIn/.(co/m

Your resistance has been overcome!

Space twisted, my vision blinked, and I was suddenly within 20 feet of the crystal. The rest of the party was spread out in even intervals around the entity, but their forms were gray and washed out. I blinked, trying to see if it was a trick of the light, but they looked like ghosts. Now it was less of a skating rink and more of a haunted disco. I checked my interface, seeing that no one had lost any health.

“Everyone okay?” I shouted.

Each of my party members was looking around, taking in our new positioning, but no one answered. Xim turned and said something, but her voice was silent. I transformed Somncres into its throwing hammer form and strafed around the edge of “Kaleidoscope”, keeping my distance and heading toward Xim. She kept talking but made no sound. As I drew closer, I noticed that she was semi-transparent. She reached out to poke me with the tip of her scepter, but the weapon passed through me.

I gave the situation of firm “Hmm.”

[It appears we have been shifted to a realm adjacent to the others,] Grotto thought to me. I turned to find the mini-c’thon floating six feet away.

“Geez, you crept up on me,” I said. “Why didn’t you get separated?”

[Likely because I am your Bonded Familiar, an extension of your power.]

I considered the theory, then looked around to find Shog. He was across the room from me, washed out like the others.

“If this effect cares about our familiar bond,” I said, “why wouldn’t it keep my summon with me?”

[Yes, it is curious.] Grotto’s feelers undulated while he pondered.[Shog’tuatha has not been treated like a typical summon during these encounters.]

I furrowed my brow.

“The personal loot. I’m guessing summons don’t normally receive customized rewards from the System.”

[Indeed. Such an award is reserved for Delvers.]

I scratched my chin and a flash of irritation hit me as I realized the inferno inside Clockwork had completely burned away my beard.

“The System is treating him like another Delver?” I said, wiping away some gritty residue from my chin. “Why? How does that make sense?”

I also wondered whether my beard would have lived had it not been so well-oiled. Did my precise grooming and appreciation for the scent of sandalwood and vanilla increase its flammability?

Before Grotto could respond, the crystal began to spin faster. Its surface bulged and deformed, flowing as though it had become liquid. Large mounds of the crystal dripped off its sides, creating iridescent piles that looked like molten glass. They surrounded the crystal and began transforming as soon as they hit the ground. Several shifted into grayscale, matching my party members, but the one in front of me rose up in full color.

On each side of the original entity, the mounds transformed into crystal monsters of different sizes. A dozen squat, four-legged crystal hounds stared down Etja. Three lithe golems with limbs shaped into sword, hammer, and spear faced Nuralie. Four segmented insectoids shot into the air on shimmering wings before Varrin. Xim’s challenger rose beside my own, a miniature copy of Kaleidoscope, while Shog faced an orb surrounded by balls of crackling energy. Mine was a giant, its wide chest filling my vision. All were made of the same glittering material as Kaleidoscope.

“Alright,” I said. “Individual challenges. I think–”

The golem rushed me.

The crystal–still on fire–fucking ran away.

I hadn’t known that a creature made of gemstones and fuckery could experience terror, but it was a pleasant discovery. It only made it a few meters before the divine fire melted it into slag, which flowed back to the central crystal. I turned to check on our final member, Shog.

Shog had eaten his opponent.

His feathers were scorched in places and a layer of frost covered a couple of tentacles, but he was happily shoving a final handful of crystal fragments behind his ‘beard’. I couldn’t hear the tooth-destroying crunch that ensued, but I could imagine it.

“Is that the meta?” I wondered aloud. “Eat the enemy so its essence doesn’t return to the center part?”

[Shog is not a role model.]

Once we’d each defeated our opponents, Kaleidoscope’s body rippled and reformed to its original shape. It began to spin faster and then started shedding new masses of crystal. I sighed.

“This enemy is annoying,” I said. “Let me guess, we each have to fight every version of the crystal monsters.”

As I spoke, a dozen shimmering piles began growing sets of four legs in front of me.

I sighed and prepared to do the fight six times in a row when I noticed Nuralie fire a shot into the side of the main crystal. She was now facing the flying creatures, which dive-bombed at her with gleaming talons, but she teleported out of their path and fired another arrow at the center crystal. Then, the arrows exploded, taking a large chunk out of Kaleidoscope-prime.

Kaleidoscope froze in place, and then each of its sides glowed in sequence. The broken crystal liquified then reversed course and flowed back into the cracks and holes, repairing the damage. The crystal began spinning again, its surface unblemished.

After a moment of annoyance, I realized that each of Kaleidoscope's glowing sides had been facing one of the party members. It looked suspiciously like a hint for boss mechanics. I puzzled over whether that was a natural property of the creature or something that had been added. It was called Subject C-209, so maybe it had been intentionally designed to serve this purpose.

By this point, I was under assault by a horde of shiny, ankle-biting doggos. I cast a quick Shortcut to kite them, then locked eyes with Nuralie and gave her a nod. She nodded in return and I hucked my hammer at the center crystal with a triple throw. The three hammers smashed into its side, creating a shower of prismatic fragments. At the same time, Nuralie fired another exploding arrow which detonated with my hammer strikes.

Kaleidoscope paused and its faces glowed in sequence. This time, however, only one side of the entity repaired itself. Each member of the party had been keeping an eye on everyone else during their fights, knowing better than to get wholly distracted by their individual combats. After Nuralie and I made our simultaneous attacks, everyone else caught on quickly.

We ignored the adds and attacked the boss.

Explosive arrows, duplicating hammers, focused beams of force, infernal scepter strikes, and a whole lot of sword attacks mercilessly plowed into Kaleidoscope.

Its minions tried desperately to interrupt our assault, but there was nothing they could do. Nuralie shadow jumped, Etja kept them at bay with her minefields as she flew, Varrin and Shog simply killed everything within ten feet with their arcing sword swings, and I just tanked the damage because I didn’t want to spend the mana on Shortcut. My health regen was ten times faster than my mana regen, and that was without spending half my mana regen every hour to keep Shog summoned.

In the end, Kaleidoscope was an enemy that had been designed to test for weak links. The problem was that none of us were weak. We all had answers for each enemy type presented.

Additionally, it was a puzzle boss and we had an alchemist hopped up on homebrewed stimulants with 33 Intelligence and a Target Analysis skill. Nuralie also got bonus effects when taking drugs she made herself and a buff to beneficial substances she ingested from her recent Fortitude evo.

Normally this would result in a host of negative side effects, but she even had a passive that allowed her to ignore detrimental effects from shit she brewed herself. It was a pretty awesome combination.

However, to be clear, I am not advocating for anyone to organize their lives around the consumption of mind-altering substances.

Stay in school.

Say no to drugs.

Unless you're a master alchemist with virtual immunity to toxicity and addiction. Then you can do whatever the fuck you want.

I downed potions for all three resources while we waited on our stats and loot, and everyone else made sure they had recovery going for all three as well. We had no idea what we were going to face to take us to level 10, but none of us felt like being conservative. Varrin’s stamina was low, Xim’s mana was around 40%, and everyone else had spent a decent chunk of mana or stamina. We were all nearly full on HP, however, so I felt pretty good going into the next fight.

Yep.

Pretty good.

Overflowing with confidence, even.

No challenge was too big for us to handle.