Chapter 135: War

Chapter 135: War

It was so, so suffocating. The anguish of the roiling tar, the harrowing reminder of yet another purge, boiled and sizzled as it created the passage through the searing hot lava.

Soon, they would arrive at their destination.

No movement could be seen through the thick tar, but plenty could be felt. They squirmed, part in agony and part in anticipation.

Blood. Soon, something but black ooze would be spilled.

The river of black shifted through the thick magma, creating a passage to their destination.

Once they believed they were where they were meant to be, they started moving up. The lava thickened and gradually went from runny liquid to semi-solid stone.

The whispers traveled through the viscous liquid, and one of the three in the front stepped forward.

With a single touch, eyes, mouths, and bleeding wounds appeared all over the stone. Then, with a wail of agony, it, too, melted into the black ooze.

Three creatures, all bald, grey-skinned, and wretched, stepped out of the ooze and into the space they had broken into.

All of them had black eyes. The first of three was short and stocky. The second one was the size of a regular human. And the third was large and gangly.

Behind them, hordes of demons and monsters poured out.

They all found themselves in a large, empty room. The ceiling wasn’t too high, but the room itself stretched seemingly endlessly in all directions, interspersed only by thick support beams. And among these support beams...

Wrrrooom...

A deep, echoey sound reverberated through the room, and the eyes of the countless golems lit up.

***

Gabrias stood above Xurbon, grasping its hand and comforting it. The others paced around restlessly.

Dukean swore and cursed at Neave’s lack of communication while Harel silently seethed. Hunter sat beside Gabrias, trying but failing to make any difference at easing the distressed avatar of the glass shrub.

Marven stood silently to the side.

The large cracks that had spread throughout the glass shrub’s body were already sealing. It kept trying to say something but failed repeatedly.

Gabrias observed all of its movements and gestures intently, and eventually, his eyes shot open in surprise, “Guys! We have a problem!”

Harel and Dukean instantly turned to him, and Dukean rushed toward them, “What is it!?”

“Below! Demons are trying to break into the fortress!”

***

It was supposed to be easy to get to their destination. It wasn’t supposed to go like this.

The golems yet again rushed at them, a seemingly endless horde appearing from behind the damn support beams.

One invader after another was ruthlessly torn apart, and not even the three leaders could handle them easily.

The short one grasped yet another golem, and eyes appeared all over its surface. However, rather than melting the golem into a runny puddle, the eyeballs exploded.

The golem swung a bladed arm at the short creature, and the tall one had to step in to end the fight by launching countless thin, black spikes at the golem and shredding it to bits.

The golems couldn’t seriously damage any of the three leaders. Still, the hordes of monsters that were supposed to accompany them were mercilessly culled by the endless stream of metal constructs.

The second of the three yelled out, “Never mind the rabble. We will handle them alone.”

The first nodded and jumped toward the ceiling. With a single tap, the metallic ceiling was enveloped in countless bleeding wounds, yet...

The second clicked its tongue, “That will take too long,” It frowned and faced the other monster, “Third, assist.”

It nodded, and sharp spikes soon accompanied the first in breaking through into the metal fortress.

***

Neave stood before Astrador, eyes narrowing, “Soul oath, and tell me what you mean by that.”

“I can’t say! You mustn’t know why.”

“Okay then. Discussion over.” Neave gripped the handle on the sledgehammer and rushed at Astrador’s avatar.

The moon was far too large to traverse easily. Neave found himself rushing down its surface, endlessly running forward as it spun out below his feet.

He took a deep breath.

His lungs inflated to an absurd degree, and his body morphed into a rough ball. An intense rush of powerful fire spewed from his mouth, and he flew off the moon's surface.

Landing rather far from Astrador, he stepped forward once, twice... And appeared right in the path of another powerful pulse.

It struck the top of his head, and even through the thick slime suit, he could still feel his vision darken. But it wasn’t enough.

The sledgehammer shot out and slammed Astrador’s side, shattering a rune on his hip.

The avatar grasped the sledgehammer, and yet again, Astrador yelled, “Please just leave this place already! You can not stay here much longer! I have already told you through a soul oath that you risk destroying your entire realm! Why must you be so bloody stubborn!?”

The ogre slammed a tectonic smash directly at the head of Astrador’s avatar, and yet another rune cracked under the force. Neave wrangled his sledgehammer out of Astrador’s grasp and slammed it into his head.

“Because of your fucking son! I have no choice, you stupid bastard! Swear under soul oath that you will tell him to fuck off away from me, and I will consider leaving.”

Astrador’s avatar reeled, “Hosolar!? You bloody fool! He is there in a mere temporary avatar. At your level of power, he doesn’t stand a chance!”

That made Neave pause, but he soon followed up with another strike, but yet again, it was naught but a distant speck on the surface of the great moon.

Neave cackled, “I’m surprised you would so readily surrender that information!”

“Listen to me, you foolish child! The thing inside this realm can not be released under any circumstances! It is an ally of corrupt corruption, an abomination from beyond that has arrived to usurp our ancestor's glory and leave nothing but darkness behind! Don’t you get it!? This is bigger than some petty quarrel!”

“Then just tell me what it is!”

“I fucking can’t! I literally can not, even if I desire to!”

Neave squinted and rushed at Astrador again, “Sorry, oh Great God from the heavens, but I’m not buying anything you say.”

He stabbed forward, looking to free her from the spikes, but he couldn’t use any potent attacks, as he risked hurting or even killing Harel.

Hunter limped back, his wounds healing far slower than they should be due to his lack of life force.

The corpse of the short creature was still gushing black liquid, and Marven was getting caught up in more and more ooze as the moments passed.

From within the pile of black liquid, Harel crushed the spikes, one after another, freeing herself from their grasp with willpower alone.

Gabrias fired countless arrows, looking to freeze the black ooze, but it was futile. Every time he froze part of the surface, it was instantly enveloped in eyeballs and melted right back.

Suddenly, a tentacle appeared from within the black ooze next to Gabrias' feet, and he was forced to dodge several times. The tentacles focused on Hunter, and Gabrias couldn’t afford to run. Forced to put his bow down, he imbued one strike after another with his life force as he fended the tentacles off and protected his friend.

Marven kept slashing through the ooze and spikes and finally got a moment to speak, “Dukean! Get rid of the spike demon!”

It was the most problematic of the bunch, as it restrained their movement and made it damn near impossible to maneuver around the room.

Dukean nodded and rushed toward the center of the spikes.

His sword, moved by the wind and metal manipulation, slashed away at the spikes, and he gradually cut his way toward the middle. Short bursts of ice froze the spikes over and over, and before the ice could be melted, he used the moment to crush the spikes to bits.

However, the closer he reached to the center, the more spikes there were to destroy.

More and more tentacles were appearing from the black ooze, and he was starting to find movement difficult.

“You damn fucking demons!” With a defiant roar, every inch of Dukean’s body was enveloped in fire.

An intense inferno spread around him, and the temperature in the room increased sharply. The spikes burned away, and he gradually waded through the ooze. The heat turned the ooze sticky and made movement even more cumbersome, but he cut a path through it and kept moving.

Gabrias was looking more and more wretched by the moment, and Hunter soon had to join in defending himself, despite seriously lacking the energy to do so. Marven could defend himself but was effectively stuck in one place. Harel kept demonstrating supernatural bursts of strength as she ripped the spikes to pieces to free herself and waded forward through the thick ooze, looking to counterattack.

Witnessing his comrades’ determination, Dukean grinned. And turned the heat up as far as he could.

His skin boiled and blistered, and his regeneration couldn’t keep up with the rate at which it was being melted away.

The intense fire kept burning the spikes away as the rest of the room was lit ablaze. Dukean made one step forward after another, fending off tentacles and pushing through spikes as he reached his goal.

However, just as he was about to reach the demon, the spikes rapidly retracted, and it began moving again. With speed far above what Dukean had expected, it punched straight into his face and knocked him back.

His arms were charred, and he could barely stand, but he ignited his life force and stood anyway, “If any of us die, it's no big deal.” He took another step forward, “We are here temporarily, and death will merely bring us back to reality.”

The others gradually freed themselves as they were finally allowed to maneuver around the room, at least somewhat.

Dukean screamed out, “However! Xurbon lives here! I don’t know what you bastards have done, but you won’t take the life of our ally that easily!”

Yet another punch flew at Dukean, and he dodged, ducking under it. Golden runes lit up around his fist as he landed a true strike directly on the large demon's lacerated torso, “Even if we die!” Yet another set of golden runes lit up, “We will return!” And another, “And you bastards!” Dukean’s body blazed in crimson flame as another strike flew directly at the monster's face, “Will suffer my revenge!”

The monster shot back and slammed into the wall. Gabrias dodged a tentacle and fired an arrow at it. Hunter threw his sword toward the demon, and Harel wrestled herself out of the mass of black ooze, throwing her weapon forward as well.

And finally, Marven focused, and a thin flying strike flew out, cutting straight into the monster's torso, after which it finally stopped moving.

Dukean, Hunter, and Gabrias looked decrepit, and Harel had suffered immense damage. Marven was the last one standing, nearly uninjured, and he raised his sword, readying himself to tackle their final opponent.

Suddenly, Dukean shook slightly and dropped to the ground. The moment he touched the black ooze, countless tentacles enveloped his body, and he was sucked down into the puddle of ooze.

“Dukean!” Marven screamed as he saw the young man’s body dragged into the same hole the creatures had come from.

He flew forward, diving into the black ooze, and to his surprise, Harel was right behind him, despite her injuries. They both pushed and swam, Marven cutting tentacles repeatedly but were being held back by the squirming mass.

Suddenly, Dukean’s sword swam through the mass of ooze and reached them, and they both promptly held onto it.

Both the two pursuers and Dukean himself were slowed drastically as the monster kept trying to break off from the two of them.

Eventually, the strength with which Dukean was pulling them down weakened drastically, and Harel’s and Marven’s eyes shot open. They still held the chain attached to the sword.

But Dukean wasn’t holding it any longer.

Moments later, they swam into the long chamber beneath the fortress. It was pure chaos down here. Countless golems fought with seemingly endless monsters, and they instantly spotted the unconscious Dukean being dragged away.

Seconds stretched as they both rushed to get him. Marven dashed, and Harel jumped forward.

Dukean’s body was dragged into another puddle.

And without hesitation, they jumped in yet again. This time, no tentacles impeded them as they swam down. However...

Not too long into their swim, they began noticing something strange. The heat was rising. Fast. Soon enough, they found themselves enveloped in such searing heat that they couldn’t continue.

So, with a great deal of hesitation, they returned.

As they swam back out, the decrepit Hunter and Gabrias stood before them, gasping for breath. All around them, the sounds of monsters getting shredded to pieces by golems echoed through the cave.

Marven coughed some black ooze out and looked at Harel with a blank expression on his face, “... I think Dukean is dead.”

***

Crack.

Yet another rune was shattered, and the avatar could barely maintain its balance. Any damage Neave had suffered was long healed, and he was in optimal shape to fight.

Astrador’s puppet, however, was far past merely falling apart. The runes were flickering, and the body was chipped numerous times.

Neave yet again chained several fast strikes, and momentarily the puppet froze. In this moment of respite, Neave raised his hammer and struck down with a slow true strike.

The puppet reeled and dropped to the ground, “P–Please... Don’t stay here any longer. Kill the thing that is spreading the glass shrubs and leave.”

“No can do. I have no interest in those who would bring humans to life for no reason but to dispose of them.”

The puppet gritted its teeth, “I swear, I will do all in my might to put you down if you let this continue.”

“And I swear...” Neave raised the hammer again, saying, " I will do everything in mine to stop you.”

“...As you wish.”

The hammer descended, and a titanic force decimated the landscape around them. The moon disappeared, and the runes finally flickered out.

Neave turned around, only to spot something unusual in the distance. Glass shards floated in the air, creating a giant arrow that pointed right back toward their fortress.

Neave’s stomach dropped, and he rushed back.