197 (II)

Morsel [II]

She made the other matters known by flipping through her tome again. On the pages, he saw Rebis, still clad in Adam's Legendary-Tier armor, clutching the Gate Lord's arrow, armed with his gauntlet, and even with the scepter water wand left beside his body.

The mutilated prisoner was lying face down on the ground, and through the gaps in Adam's helmet, Shiv grimaced internally as he saw just how badly he had wounded Enoch's special Avatar. Part of Rebis's face had been completely caved in. It was a brutal wound, exposing gaps of inner tissue fused with wiring and silicone rods.

On the page right beside Rebis was another prisoner Shiv recognized: Threshold. Another one of Udaral's so-called experiments. His half-sibling, so to speak. Their body glistened at the center of the page, and even upon paper, he could see the mana seeping out from the portal that constituted Threshhold's form. Just like Rebis, the power bound to Threshold remained evident, but they were helpless within the tome.

"See, you're just going around and collecting people for Udraal," Shiv muttered. "It's a hell of a thing going from a god to someone doing errands for an Abyssal Lord."

"Errands?" the Educator deadpanned, raising a thin eyebrow. "Is that what you think this is? No, this is simply gathering valuable resources permitted by an unexpected occurrence. Now, if we are to leave, and if I am to ensure the success of our mutually-interested endeavor, I suggest that you begin cooking again and feed our associate here his due course. That shall be your errand, I suppose."

A loud whimper came from Solzimort, and as the large Hydra shuddered, Adam comforted him. "There, there," Adam said with a sigh, glaring at the Educator. "You're all right now. We'll make sure you don't go back into the mean woman's book."

"I won't. I won't. It's really, really tight," Solzimort moaned. "Why? Why'd you do that? I was just trying to be friendly, and then you whipped your brush out and painted me."

"That's because she's a bastard, just like all the other Ascendants," Adam answered.

"Not so much like the other Ascendants," the Educator said under her breath. "After all, some of us know there are only a few ways to escape degeneration, and some of us succeed more than others. And right now, you should feel privileged to be in my presence. How else do you think you have avoided the notice of the Avatars for so long? They would have found you immediately after the blast without me. Especially with how one of them is so desperate to reclaim their delicate vessel."

And that was a veiled insult directed at Enoch. Shiv shook his head and proceeded to the task. They were another step closer to completing this escape, but they were also a step deeper into treacherous territory.

Yet, despite the Educator's presence, Shiv still had a final trick up his sleeve, for within his cape was Radio, Cripple's reserve Avatar. For all the posturing the Educator was doing right now, she didn't know about Radio or Shiv's deal with Veronica. If the Educator wished to do anything untoward, she would find herself facing a bit more than she bargained for.

But invoking the Ascendants was an ugly choice for everyone involved. He felt like he was currently at the bottom of a valley, but both cliffs above him were caving in and pressing against each other. He needed to move carefully, or the slightest misstep could cause one side to grow entirely imbalanced and bury him in a crushing avalanche.

Shiv prepared a new meal, this time incorporating bits of shadow, harvested chunks of magma, and a heavy dose of Chronomancy as well. As the meal finished cooking after a few minutes, he held it out in front of Solzimort, and the entire pan swelled to the size of a small shack. The Hydra's twelve heads circled around the pan, and Solzimort sniffled. "It doesn't smell too bad, but I don't think I've ever seen someone cook magma before. Won't it burn me?"

"Didn't burn me earlier. You're pretty big, so I don't think it'll hurt you."

"Are you sure?" Solzimort asked. By this point, Shiv had a feeling that this Hydra had generalized anxiety problems.

Psycho-Cartography: There's also something wrong with him, and I don't mean the anxiety. He's a Legend, and Legends usually have to be extraordinary. Right now, this Hydra seems childlike. I can't think of a way he could have possibly lived long enough to get to his level of power. Keep an eye on him as well. He might be another one of Cripple's agents. The Ascendant isn't the deceptive type, but after so long spent among a pack of wolves, even a sheepdog would revert to their baser nature.

Shiv made eye contact with Five then, and noticed how the wolf-man was staring at the Hydra suspiciously as well. Both of them shared a slight nod. More allies; more questions.

The bravest of Solzimort's heads dipped down and scooped up a mouthful of fist-sized beads of dark-gold with his forked tongue. Shiv hissed and held out a hand. "Wait, Solzimort, don't swallow yet. Absorb us first. We're going out with you."

And suddenly, the Hydra was smiling, his lips curled wide. "Oh, finally. Trust me, this will be safer for all of us. Goblin! Can you make me go fast again?"

Gone gave a quiet sigh. "Sure. All I'm good for, I guess."

Shiv wasn't entirely certain about that, but he was more than tired of this prison, and he would let Solzimort do any number of things to him if that meant they were going to get away. As he pressed his hand against Solzimort, he felt his flesh fuse with the Hydra's. He was dragged through the scales in an instant, but rather than being entwined with Solzimort's biology, he was simply placed in a strange pocket. It was like being glued to the Hydra's spirit somehow, rather than meshed into its body.

Shiv also discovered why all the trapped wardens were struggling earlier. It was hard to breathe inside Solzimort. The Hydra was most definitely wrong about why the wardens were kept alive. Its spirit was keeping them nourished, keeping them sustained. And soon the space around Shiv grew cramped as more orcs filled the small pocket.

"Shiv," Adam said. The Deathless turned as much as he could and found his friend right behind him. Their heads stuck out from the corner of Solzimort's lip like skin tags, and dozens of orcs were meshed with the still-moaning mounds of trapped wardens along the rest of the Hydra's body.

At the same time, Solzimort let out a groaning sound. "Can I swallow now?" he asked through a mouth full of unchewed food.

"Yeah," Shiv said. "You can swallow now. What, Adam?"

"When you got your frying pan, was there... Was there anything else?"

Shiv paused for a moment. "Nope. I think it consumed my orichalcum dagger. But, uh, no. Just this."

The Gate Lord stared. The stare grew intense enough to burn a hole in Shiv's head. "Oh, you're feeling jealous?"

"Jealous? Jealous is not a strong enough word, Shiv. I nearly died several times over in that fight. I was practically the only reason we succeeded by the end."

"And who broke the mana core?"

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"And who allowed that to be possible in the first place! I literally gave you the skills to make that possible," Adam seethed.

"And I thank you for it. Someday, I think I'm going to name the main course after you," Shiv frowned mockingly. "Or maybe, you know, a side dish seems more appropriate. Wait, no, a main course I'll call The Side Dish. I'm generous that way. But hey, at least the Educator got you your armor back."

Adam kept glaring at him until they promptly flattened along with the rest of Solzimort's body into a veil of quivering shadows. "Oh, this is really, really weird," Solzimort said aloud. He drew his altered body back and launched himself at a nearby wall. "Welp! Out of here we go! Up into the burny-stuff!"

Shiv tried to find where the Educator was. He realized she was absent. Missing. But something told him that she probably wasn't far at all. No, he thought to himself. She managed to ambush Adam and the rest of us by jumping into his Awareness. Right now, she's probably taking a piggyback ride in either my senses or his. The Deathless's paranoia triggered. He cast his Psychomancy out to his friend.

"Hey, Adam."

"Yes, I get it. Your special boy," Adam said, with a snarl of annoyance. "No need to keep rubbing it in—"

"No, not that. We're probably carrying the Educator with us. She's in our Awareness. I'm almost sure of it."

Adam's thoughts came to a standstill. Any heat of playful anger faded as a rising dread spiked. He remembered how the Educator ambushed them back in Gate Theborn. "How long do you think she's been with us?" Adam asked.

"I don't know," Shiv replied. "But since she's working with Udraal, she might have hopped into us from the very beginning… Wait, no. She doesn't know about Radio. Or Veronica."

"Then it's more likely she's clinging to my Awareness," Adam said, slightly sour.

"I suspect that might be right," Shiv grunted. "So what do we do with her? Aside from killing her the first chance we get."

"Nothing yet. We observe, and we try to figure out what she can and can't do. So far, she doesn't seem as dangerous as Veronica. The Councilwoman managed to stop your soul from going off, while the Educator's tome got set on fire. But it might not be a strategy that can work twice, especially since she's had a chance to plan for us now."

"Well, worst case scenario, we bring out Radio and use Cripple against her, but I'm not exactly fond of that idea."

"Me neither," Adam said. "I'd like to leave the prison before we're forced to invoke the people trying to keep us here."

"Alright," Solzimort said, his voice naked with worry and muffled through the slurry of matter it rushed through. "So we can go out and do the burning stuff outside now, right? Right? Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Shiv said. "You'll be fine. Just keep going up and get out of the volcano. After that…"

"After that I will give the directions," the Educator's voice echoed in the air.

The Hydra shuddered. "But I don't like you…"

"We don't like her either," Shiv said. "So, maybe she might wanna explain why we're going to listen to her?"

"Because if you don't, you won't be able to reach the rest of your companions at Blackedge in time."

"In time for what?" Adam growled.

"In time for several things. To stop the Outside from claiming the town entirely. To halt the Ascendants from tracking and capturing the town to use as hostages and force you two to surrender."

Neither Shiv nor Adam said anything for a beat. "Play along for now, or force a fight as soon as we get out?" The Deathless asked Adam.

"Play along. But only for now," Adam said, adding heavy emphasis to his final few words. "Udraal's not going to be easy to avoid, and though I don't trust her in the slightest, I want her nearby, if only to figure out her larger strategy."

"Fine," Shiv said with a snort. "Solzimort. Go along with the bastard woman."

"Okay," Solzimort replied shakily. And with a deep shudder, he accelerated. A rush of golden lightning coursed within the darkness. Shiv couldn't see the colors, but he could feel the Chronomancy—hear Gone vibrating somewhere. From the outside, however, they were just a splash of blackness shifting through the world.

The Hydra phased through countless walls, and they were gliding through a slurry of messy material in an instant. Shiv flinched as he saw a mess of orcs and wardens flow through him. Most of them were unmoving. The devastation of the mana core had left them trapped within the mangled architecture, and so they likely suffocated or were simply pulped and bled to death internally.

"You know, just once I'd like to walk away from a fight without mass casualties," Shiv commented.

"It's bad, but I think we're improving," Adam muttered, though there was a faint sourness to his tone as well. "It's better than what happened to Blackedge and also what happened to Theborn."

Both of them fell silent thereafter. The System demanded strife, and with strife came the loss of life. Shiv was getting very, very tired of watching so many people die.

With a final thrust of motion, the Hydra burst through the outer wall of the interconnected cubes, and then it was in a deep sea of searing light. It glided from place to place like a patch of coiling darkness, hard to notice due to the oscillating waves of crashing magma. All around them, separate pieces from the Rubix Well crashed and tumbled in the depths of the supervolcano, as if pieces spewed out from the hulls of dying ships. Dense gears and heavy chunks of cube-walls sank down while pieces of plastic and certain Pathbearers rose up in the dense slurry of magma.

Though the Pathbearers didn't seem to be burning, they struggled with every kick and paw. Magma wasn't water. Magma was like searing-hot mud—not good to swim in at all.

Comparatively, Solzimort was a mess of flattened darkness—and he darted through the magma without suffering issues from heat or viscosity, and would remain in this shadow-shaped state for a good few minutes longer. "Hey, this actually feels pretty good."

Spell patterns flared above. Massive swells of Divination, Chronomancy, and Dimensionality rained down from a huge hexagonal mana construct that resembled some kind of interlocking gate. Shiv caught sight of it between all the drifting detritus and felt his heartbeat pick up. The Ascendants were looking for them, scouring the wrecks to secure their most valuable prisoners.

But Shiv and the others weren't the only prisoners of interest. Massive forms surged through the depths. One seemed to be a colossal worm of some kind that unleashed a storm of telepathic power around itself. It released lashing bolts of psionic power at the magical gate and shredded pieces away from it.

Okay. Psychomancy and Magical Resistance mixed in together, Shiv realized. Wait, is that the psionic presence I encountered when I first fled into the crawlspace?

He was then distracted by a few dozen other bodies ripping past them. Prisoners of all kinds were surging through the magma, and they were coated in violet energies—traced by Divination.

"Looks like we're not the only ones making a run for it," Shiv said.

"No. We're among the most subtle. But not nearly the stealthiest either." Adam noticed a few things Shiv didn't, and the Deathless only realized that while bound to his friend's mind. There were distortions in the magma. Disturbances. Some prisoners had blended into the heat with Stealth-Pyromancy Skill Fusions. Others were outright invisible. "Whatever the case, the Ascendants will have their hands full soon. If I were them, I would lock the entirety of the capital down by whatever means possible and have the Prismatic Guard positioned at the top and along the sides of the supervolcano. Underground too."

"So. No way out but through, huh?"

"Yes. But for the other prisoners. Not us." Adam cleared his throat. "Solzimort?"

"Yeah?" the Hydra said, sounding slightly nervous.

"Go through the walls of the volcano. But stop before you pass all the way through. We're going to wait."

"Huh?" Solzimort asked. "For what?"

"For some other poor fool to get into a fight with the Prismatic Guard. When they do, move flat across the ground. We're going to blend in with the shadows."

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