"So, the next closest structure?" Rory asked as they made their way out of the temple, already preparing their undersea 'submersible.' The key and chain link were nowhere to be found, as the moment Rory had touched the items, they'd vanished. Had it not been for the fact that Rory could feel the two items like an itch at the back of his neck, he would have feared they had made a mistake.

"Not quite as close as this first one. About a third of the planet away."

"Wonderful," Rory sighed, his tone clearly disagreeing. "Alright, let's just get on with it."

Repeating the earlier process of undersea travel, the two of them sat within their bubble just shy of an hour when the very thing they were hoping to avoid happened at last.

They heard something.

Like a creaking floorboard far in the distance, the sound slowly transformed into a crackle of clicks.

"Ominous," Zoey muttered. "It's getting louder."

"Yeah, I can hear," Rory grunted. The crackles were gradually growing louder before suddenly going silent.

Looking around, Rory felt a shudder down his spine, having a bad feeling.

Which was, of course, when it appeared, a massive jaw wide open, rushing toward them in the depths like a leviathan of storybook.

"Holy fuck!" Rory shouted as massive teeth and a guttural, dinosaur-like roar rocked his body to the core, the teeth clamping down upon their protective bubble.

"Oh shit!" Zoey joined Rory in shouting as the massive mouth filled with sword-sized teeth thrashed their bubble about.

"Not good!" Rory clamped down on the gems holding the bubble together, reinforcing it. "I can't hold this for long; this fucker is really strong."

It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened; the Queen of the Hidden Depths had found them.

Rory thrust his hands out, pushing with every ounce of strength he had. "Zoey, do something! This isn't a tier seven monster!"

Tier eight. There was no doubt about it in Rory's mind, and not a weak tier eight either.

"How long can you hold a smaller dome?" Zoey asked, voice urgent.

"If it's being chomped down on? Thirty seconds. This dome? Maybe a minute more, max."

Zoey's mind scrambled, forced to do the thinking as Rory spent every ounce of his focus on simply holding back the monster.

"Alright, new plan," Zoey said. "Drop the dome. We can move fast through the current without."

"Sorry, big fuck off dinosaur is trying to eat us!" Rory snapped back.

"Then hold it back! Aren't you the Architect?"

Rory wanted to argue, but he couldn't see another answer. On dry land, they could have reasonably put up a fight in some fashion, but they were in its domain.

"Damn it, fine!" Rory yelled. "No time for second-guessing!"

"Three…two….one!" Zoey said, before two things happened at once. First, the dome around them vanished, and second, the current carrying them concentrated, now only large enough to whisk away a single body, single file, as they shot between the jaws snapping shut.

Instantly, Rory felt as if he had been dunked in an uncomfortably warm hot tub. It wasn't straight up scalding, but it was far from comfortable as the terawa surrounded them with no protection to speak of.

With Zoey ahead of Rory, given she had no way to defend them from a distance, Rory gritted his teeth, ignoring the burning liquid as he looked behind them.

Yeah, that tracks.

The Queen of the Hidden Depths was chasing after them, hot on their heels, gaining ground even with the accelerated current dragging them along.

Bringing his hands together like he was holding the grip of an oversized gun, a barrel began to appear as Rory scowled at the monster.

Right, a little faster!

As much as Rory wanted to hurry along the projection, it needed to be woven of the highest stage pneuma that he could handle, else it would be torn apart under the pressure of the terawa sea.

Faster!

The barrel of what looked like a harpoon gun was rapidly spinning into existence like 3D printing out of thin air. Still, Rory feared it was too slow, the giant sea monster opening its cavernous jaws only thirty feet away and gaining.

Faster!

Twenty feet.

Faster!

Fifteen.

Faster!

Ten.

There!

Harpoon gun projected, Rory instantly smacked in three gems into what looked like a chamber for ammunition as the entire projection began to shake.

Probably not a great idea, but I don't see much else I can do!

Able to see the inside of the monster, its teeth barely four feet away, Rory pulled the metaphorical 'trigger' as a spiral blast of energy shot forward in the shape of a harpoon. As close as the Queen of the Hidden Depths was, there was no dodging the energy harpoon spearing directly inside her mouth.

Against most tier seven monsters, such a powerful attack delivered directly inside a monster's vulnerable internals would have been enough to one-shot all but the sturdiest of monsters.

Against the floor guardian? Not quite so much. The undersea beast roared out in pain, blood spewing profusely as it veered off course, gaining them precious distance. Yet it was far from dead as it turned back to glare at Rory with its beady eyes.

That is not good.

Next to the monster, what looked like swirling vortexes —miniature whirlpools —spun up.

"Swap!" Rory shouted, whipping a hand back as a lasso of pneuma caught Zoey's ankle and yanked her down as he shot past her in the lead.

"Hey, what the fu- oh shit!" Zoey yelled as the two spinning vortexes shot at them. Her shield appeared instantly as they struck it directly, blood spewing as she bit her tongue in an effort to hold back the two magical attacks.

"Tier eight! Definitely tier eight!" She shouted, her entire body quivering from the strain of holding back the attacks.

The two of them had risen past level seventy-eight, damn close to level seventy-nine. In that time, they had developed their skills, both literal and metaphorical, and better tapped into harnessing the full depth of their attributes. Even if their overall attribute density hadn't changed since the day they had first crossed into tier seven -ignoring the durability brews Rory had made- they were still considerably stronger, even 'point' worth more now than so many years ago.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

But a tier eight Alpha Variant, monster, that was a different beast entirely.

"Zoey, how long can you hold that bitch back?"

"If it keeps hammering us with hits like that?" Zoey yelled, her body covered in lesions as her muscles had torn themselves apart. "A few minutes, max!"

"Do that then!" Rory shouted. "I'm going to hit it hard enough that it hopefully pisses off!"

Without relying on an oblivion strike —which defeated the purpose when it would kill them as well— or having a convenient weapon of the same significance as his spear to sacrifice and several minutes to set up a cataclysmic booby trap, Rory's next best bet would be tying everything he had together as best he could.

I need a better vessel.

Pulling a bow from his inventory, Rory also withdrew a gem he rarely utilized, a burn gem. Activating it, the bow glowed green before exploding into a burst of green sparks. Not giving those same sparks a chance to escape, Rory recycled them, adding them into his projection as a new harpoon gun was projected, a sense of 'depth' or realness that the last one had lacked.

A bigger bullet.

Another burn gem, this time with a monster core. With only a thought, the monster core went up into green sparks, much like the bow.

And some 'black powder.'

Several more gems appeared, ranging from spin gems to burn gems, which Rory quickly slotted into the harpoon gun.

"Form of Violence, Stage One, release."

Energy began to spark through his body as he manually 'lowered' automatic restraints on just how much pneuma he could handle at any given moment.

"Form of Violence, Stage Two, release."

Zoey was a bloody mess, vortexes like spinning drills constantly hammering into her; if not for the cleansing terawa, she would have looked like a tomato that had been popped.

"Form of Violence, Stage Three, release."

As bad as Zoey looked, Rory joined her a moment later as he fully lowered his restraints to the max. While a Stage Three release didn't automatically cause the instant level of self-damage that Rory suffered, the sheer degree of pneuma he called upon was like going from zero to eleven in an instant.

Chant boosting the attack, Rory wasn't done as electricity began to course through him and into the projected harpoon gun.

"Surging Waves: Typhon!"

The attack that erupted from the barrel of the harpoon gun was second only to the likes of his paradox bomb and projection of a true concept. Empowered by the conceptual ignition, runic inscriptions upon the projected barrel, chant boosting, elemental imbuement, and the standard magic circle, what appeared wasn't a mere energy blast. Instead, an image shot forward, appearing as if it were a living creature. From the front, it seemed like a Pegasus straight out of Greek mythology; yet, the back half was more akin to that of a fish, the size of a killer whale. It was vaguely familiar, a subconscious stylistic choice from some memory or another from his childhood. Still, the origin of the appearance wasn't important.

No, what was important was that it charged forward, colliding with the Queen of the Hidden Depths. For a moment, it appeared as if the two forces were at a stalemate, until, raising its head, the aquatic horse slammed it down against the Queen's face and exploded.

Taking the brunt of the explosive force, the Queen wailed as huge gouts of flesh were torn asunder, the orange sea turning scarlet, its titanic fins badly shredded as it began to flounder, sinking away as it continued to screech and roar.

Rory, meanwhile, had long since come to recognize when his consciousness was on the verge of slipping.

"Zoey," Rory forced himself to speak, darkness rapidly encroaching on his vision. "Get us out of here."

Eyes fluttering open, Rory suddenly bolted upright with a gasp, feeling himself over as his brain rebooted.

"Wha, how, where?" He stuttered, looking around in sudden panic.

"Relax," Zoey held her hands out, easing Rory, sitting nearby. "We're alive."

"Right," Rory finally relaxed as his brain finished rebooting. "What happened?"

"Well, I got us the hell out of dodge," Zoey said. "The attack you launched at the end caused some major damage, but I didn't want to investigate if it was enough to kill the Queen."

"Did you get any ascension energy?"

"No, so I'm led to believe that while you did a number on it, it survived."

"Fuck," Rory groaned. "Not that I'm surprised."

"Yeah. With you passed out, I grabbed you and shielded you from the effects of the terawa as much as I could, but it did a number on you. Thankfully, I managed to rifle into your inventory and snag a barrier gem. It wasn't enough to last the remainder of the trip, but it gave your body a chance to stabilize naturally. I kept us on course, and here we are at the next structure."

"We're going to need that completed oblivion chain," Rory sighed.

"Yeah, my thoughts as well," Zoey admitted. "I got the chance to examine it, by the way. Level eighty, alpha variant, the whole nine yards. Unfortunately, we don't beat that as is. Maybe if we managed to get a hell of a trap set up, but after pulling the number we did-"

"It's not going to be so brazen. And that's ignoring that my big attack knocked me out. Even assuming you inverted your attributes after the fact, whatever phase two it has-"

"Would kill me," Zoey answered.

The two were silent for a moment before Rory spoke.

"So, this is the second structure?"

"Yeah, we washed up about two weeks ago."

"T-two weeks!?" Rory's eyes threatened to pop from his skull in surprise. "Seriously, that long?"

"You did a number on yourself," Zoey said with a shrug. "Your ability to output damage has outstripped your ability to withstand the backlash, you know that."

Rory muttered under his breath, frowning.

"What was that?"

"I was complaining that some of these fights recently have been forcing me to burn up a lot of resources. It's a good thing this is the final floor of the Deep Chambers."

"Yeah…. Well, if you're done sulking about being broke."

"Not what I was getting at, but sure," Rory muttered. "What news are you going to hit me with?"

"Another puzzle."

"Great," Rory said, rolling his eyes. "And you couldn't figure it out in two weeks?"

"Nope," Zoey shrugged as if it were obvious. "Also, in my defense, I don't think it is as easy as last time."

"Uh-huh, I'll be the judge of that."

Pushing himself to his feet, Rory dusted himself off before looking at Zoey.

"So… which way?"

Never even bothering to respond, Zoey simply jerked her thumb over her shoulder down the hall.

"Thanks."

Following her directions, Rory didn't have far to go, ignoring several branching paths. If Zoey hadn't mentioned anything about them, he doubted there was anything of importance to them. Making it to the end of the hall, Rory came to a stop, staring at what was in front of him.

Alright… She wasn't wrong.

Standing before him was a massive wall that blocked his path. Nearly level with his face was what appeared to be a dial, three concentric layers that could be spun. There was nothing of note about the dials, aside from a single black mark on each, which Rory assumed was just an indicator of how much a dial had been turned.

With nothing else to note about the dial, Rory would have been completely lost, if not for words that were engraved in the wall overhead, large enough to read from a hundred feet away if he wanted to.

The words themselves were… odd to say the least.

"A anathema fet_ered of _ig_t."

Odd.

Three letters seemed to be smudged off, except Rory doubted it was by accident, as the wall in front of him wasn't some long-lost artifact of an ancient civilization; it was a puzzle put in place by Eon, as it wasn't quite Aelia's M.O.

Alright, so what letters are missing?

As Rory stared, mind cranking away, the first letter came within moments, only one word matching.

"Fettered. A anathema fettered of…. Fight? Might? Light? Right? Night? Oh, sight and tight also work."

Confirming with himself that he was in a good enough state to push his ocular release to the max, Rory felt his mind accelerate as he did, spooling off two mental threads in tandem.

Cognition enhanced, Rory found himself fixating on a specific oddity, the smudged-out letters, and how there were three letters smudged out, and three dials.

Convenient.

Briefly considering an idea, Rory gave the first dial a twist, then two, then three, finally stopping once he had turned the dial twenty times clockwise.

Efforts rewarded, Rory heard a click as the first dial receded into the wall.

Bingo.

With his theory confirmed, Rory moved on to the following two letters, considering the options he had at hand.

T, S, N, R, L, M, F. Seven options, fourteen possible directions I can spin the second dial, assuming I haven't missed anything else.

Not seeing a reason to wait, Rory began to turn the second dial six times for the letter F. Upon reaching six turns, rather than the same satisfying click, Rory heard a rumble, the first dial popping back out.

I take it that means it's a failure.

Going back to turn the first dial, Rory frowned, finding it unwilling to budge.

Well shit.

"A lockout timer… The question is, how long?"

With no options other than to wait, Rory did precisely that, sitting himself on the ground with his back against the wall, closing his eyes and retreating into his Mind Palace. There, Rory let his mind wander on thoughts of events of the future, nebulous plans, and ideas. Remaining within his Mind Palace for what felt like several days, Rory finally exited, knowing that if it had been several days, at least a day had passed in real time.

Once more back in the real world, Rory was only mildly surprised to see Zoey staring down at him, hands on her hips.

"You've been napping for a day."

"Wasn't napping."

"Uh-huh. Made progress?"

"Think so. Give me a hand?"

Reaching for her offered hand, Rory was pulled to his feet. Walking back to the dial, Rory was pleased to find it movable once more. Rotating it twenty times, he was met with the satisfying click once more.

"Oh, that sounded promising," Zoey said, surprised.

"Well, let's see about this next one."

Without fanfare, Rory rotated the second dial nineteen times for the letter S.

It was, unfortunately, not a sight to behold as the wall rumbled and the first dial popped back out.

"Damn," Rory sighed.

"What's the mean?"

"Means we've got at least a day in between each attempt, and with at least another twelve combinations remaining…"

"Make myself comfortable," Zoey sighed.

"At least it's only a day lockout."

I hope.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.