Luke Everhart
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Chapter 28 - Poison
🕑 Added 2024-11-11 14:10:03 +0000 UTCThe walk in the dark proved uneventful in the end.
After a few more short breaks, Jul called out something in the dark.
“I-I see something,” she said, alerting the others. “I think it’s a wall.”
“A wall?” Kur asked. “What do you mean?”
“Like-Like a wall? The arrows stop at a wall.”
“Like a dead end?” Gad asked.
“Oh… Yes. It looks like that…”
“Let’s just get there first,” Kur said, before anyone could speak. “And be ready for anything.”
A few, tense seconds later, Nar’s [Sight] was able to discern the wall in the dark as well.
It looked just like the wall from the safe room. In fact, it looked just like the walls of the tutorial corridor as well. Blank and featureless, without a blemish or signs of age. That wall could have been built yesterday for all he knew. And the arrows led undeniably into it.
However, before he could tell the others that he too, had spotted the wall, a rectangle of darkness formed on it, and the by now familiar sound of an opening appearing reached their ears.
“Is that…”
“Yes,” Nar said, answering Tuk. “There's an exit.”
“Oh, thank the Crystal,” Cen murmured.
They quickly covered the last few feet to the exit, and after a quick, but cautious investigation, both Jul and Gad declared it safe. Or at least, as safe as it appeared to them.
Inside, a staircase led them up to a cramped room with an open door, past which was a regular corridor.
“I think we should rest here,” Kur said, after the opening down to the staircase closed behind them. “It should be a bit safer than sleeping out in the open.”
The party didn’t have to be told twice, and the unanimous decision was taken to stop there.
Both Nar and Gad were granted a full night’s rest and on the next day, Nar’s scar was nothing but a fine line going down the length of his arm. There was still a very slight tightness when he bent his elbow, but other than that, he was good as new. Ready for another fight.
They wasted no time in getting ready, and the opening to the room closed once they exited it.
Once again, days dragged by.
Fortunately, it was not an endless corridor that awaited them once more.
Winding stairs. Tall walkways. Circular rooms with dozens of corridors radiating out from them. The B-Nex revealed itself to the party, in all its silent, dark wonder.
They even found another safe room, though this one was only equipped with a toilet, like their first one had been.
The arrows guided them without hesitation through that strange, yellow lit and silent world.
Though Nar kept it to himself, he couldn't help but find it all fascinating. He never knew what they would find next. Bottomless void? Endless stairwell? Zigzagging corridor? There was no predicting it.
Tuk, however, was much more open about his sense of marvel.
“Are you seriously telling me you’re not curious about what's down there?” Tuk asked. “Not even a little bit?”
Mul grunted at him. “Can you walk slower? Your stupid long legs are shaking the whole thing!”
Nar looked down at the metal walkway underneath them, and found it as solid and stable as it had been for the past three days. However, by now, he had come to realize that in the lengos’ long list of dislikes and annoyances, heights ranked pretty damn high.
“Come on! Where is your sense of adventure? Your curiosity?” the ring tosser insisted.
“What do you think is down there?” Cen said, joining the conversation before Tuk could further antagonize her brother.
Tuk looked happy that finally, someone was asking. “Well, since you ask, I think it's obviously some kind of machinery.”
“Obviously,” Mul muttered.
Obviously, Nar echoed in his mind at the same time.
The sounds of massive machines were easily recognizable to him, having spent his entire life deafened by them. Often, he even heard them inside his own dreams. That slow, rhythmic thumping, interspersed with the occasional clanking and grinding noise was something that he would never forget…
But looking down, into the impenetrable darkness, he couldn’t see anything.
Though as to what it actually is, who knows? Could be anything down there, he thought.
“Though as to what it actually is, who knows?” Tuk said, also looking down. “It could be anything.”
Crystal, Nar thought with a grimace. I’m spending too much time with these people.
“Any guesses though?” Cen asked.
Tuk made a thoughtful sound. “Well, the one thing that came to mind first, was that it's probably related to aetherium.”
“Oh,” Cen said, surprised. “That actually makes sense?”
“Right?” Tuk said, grinning. “All that aetherium we recycle needs to come to the Plant somehow. And somehow, it then needs to get back up to the O-Nex. It must take a lot of machines and pipes and-and stuff to make it happen!”
“And the second thing?” Mul asked. Despite the gruffness of the tone, Nar knew the lengos was actually pretty invested in the conversation. Otherwise, he would’ve just ignored the trugger.
“Well… There’s a lot of guardians, right?” Tuk said, his tone dropping. “They have to be built somewhere, right?”
“Ah…” Cen made, looking down at the small gaps at her feet.
Mul grumbled something, clearly regretting everything.
Tuk turned back to look at him and Jul. “What about you guys? Can you see anything?”
The trugger had lowered his voice as he addressed them.
A few days back, Nar had been reminded by Jul that he had forgotten to let the others know about the unintentional eavesdropping that came with their new senses.
As he had expected, nobody made a big deal out of it. Everyone was just happy that Jul, and to a lesser degree Nar, was on the lookout. But Tuk was Tuk.
Two days later, he was still at it. He had a blast trying to figure out just how low he could speak and still be heard.
To be fair, it’s not like there was a lot they could do to entertain themselves. And Tuk, in particular, liked being entertained. Between his endless curiosity at even the smallest change in their surroundings, to messing with him and Jul, and harassing Mul, his options were limited. And both Cen and Kur were on the lookout for the latter. They nipped it when things got too intense, to the silent gratitude of the rest of the party. However, so far, Mul had stuck to his promise. He was indeed like a changed man, and once in a while, Nar found himself wondering about their family, and whatever way they had wrong the brawler. Though of course, he never actually saw himself asking about it.
“Can’t see anything,” Nar replied.
Tuk looked expectantly at Jul.
“N-No. Sorry!”
He sighed. “That’s alright. Just one more mystery to add to the list.”
Tuk wasn’t one to be defeated though, and soon found himself a new topic of conversation. Mul being, once again, at the receiving end of it.
Nar tuned them out, and let his body carry him forward on auto-pilot.
An undetermined time later, Jul grabbed his arm. “Do you hear that?”
He immediately stopped and focused on his surroundings.
The machines clanged and thumped distantly beneath them, as they had for the last few days. Tuk and Mul bickered away, a few steps from him. Kur was talking to Viy, and Gad’s heavy footsteps echoed metallically from up ahead.
He quieted his own breathing and the two of them fell behind, eyes closed. Jul’s senses were better than his and her [Instinct] much farther reaching and encompassing. He trusted her, which meant that there had to be something that he was missing.
Something small, maybe.
Something like…
That!
He opened his eyes. Once he caught it, it was impossible to miss it. It was like a sigh, or a rustle. Like the brushing sound of clothes… Of many, many clothes.
“What is that?” Nar whispered.
“I don’t know. It’s been like that for a few minutes,” Jul replied, even lower.
Wait! “Is it… Getting louder?” he asked.
Her eyes went wide. “Now it is!”
“Incoming!” Nar said. “Above us!”
Everyone grabbed their weapons and looked up.
“What is it?” Kur said.
“We don’t know. It’s…”
“It’s a tiny thing,” Jul said, looking straight up. “It has legs and something moving fast on its back. It also has… It has… A big butt?”
“What?” Mul said. “Is it dangerous?”
Suddenly, the darkness above them came alive with thousands of tiny pulsating lights, in a bright, sickly sort of green. At the same time, Nar’s [Instinct] screamed at him to move.
“Yes!” Nar said. “Run!”
The group didn’t need to hear it twice, and they sprinted along the walkway.
“What are they?” Viy asked.
“I don’t know, but it's bad!” Nar replied.
“Bad!” Jul said, echoing him.
They ran with all they had, and around them, more and more lights began pulsating in the darkness. Nar traced the wave of lights with his eyes. It formed above them, as more and more of them revealed themselves, and his stomach dropped as he realized they were forming a tunnel around the walkway.
“Are they poisonous?” Cen asked. “That green! I think there’s something about it in that information package!”
“There is?” Kur asked.
“They’re coming down!” Gad said. “What do we do?”
“Keep running! There’s too many for us to fight!” Kur shouted.
The tank raised her shield and plowed head first into a group of stragglers that had flown into the walkway.
They exploded on contact, in a bright green goo. And where they dropped, a fine green mist trailed from their broken bodies.
Gad yelped.
“Gad!”
“I’m okay! But it burns!” she said, not slowing down.
Above them, more of the things exploded, and green rained down on the party. Nar raised his arms to protect his head, feeling the goo corrode through his clothes and attack his skin. His HP started to tick down as it kept him from melting.
“Gad, watch out!” Jul said.
Gad barely had time to spin and cover her right flank with her shield before a big clump of them exploded in her face. Fortunately, the shield seemed to have taken the brunt of the green, but a cloud of its mist surrounded her.
She hacked and coughed, fanning the shield to disperse it.
“Gad!” Viy shouted, rushing to her.
“Careful! It’s also poisonous!” Gad said, fanning harder to disperse the mist around her. “Hold your breath when you go through the green stuff!”
“Can you continue?” Kur said.
“I’m fine! My constitution is high!”
“Keep running!” Jul said, looking up with eyes wide with fear.
Nar looked up and saw thousands and thousands more lights come alive. If they all decided to explode above them…
“There’s stairs! The arrows go down them!” Viy suddenly shouted.
“Then go!” Kur said. “Don’t stop!”
The party turned down the stairs just as the things initiated a chain explosion, filling the air with pops and green. Some of the goo splattered Nar across the shoulder and he hissed in pain, hurrying to climb down the last few steps to the relative safety of having the walkway between him and those poisonous things.
Their enemies began to maneuver to follow them, but they were slow and the party managed to gain some distance. Unfortunately, the walkway had holes in it and the goo dripped down with fierceness, forcing them to keep their arms above their heads.
“Fuck!” Mul shouted. “Fuck! Why can’t we just catch a break?”
“Maybe we’ll get to see what those machines are?” Tuk said. His sleeves were already completely corroded, and rivulets of green were dripping down his arms. Despite all that, he somehow still managed to sound like an excited child.
“Are you serious?” Mul asked him.
“Guys, not now!” Cen threw at them.
Seeing that they couldn’t catch up to them, the living bombs set off another mass explosion. Their corpses fell much faster than they could climb down the stairs, and soon the air began to turn green.
“Cover your mouths!” Kur said.
“Mouths! Head! Eyes! I only have two arms!” Mul shouted.
Nar took a quick glimpse down, to see how far the stairs went. To his horror, they disappeared down into the darkness, with no ending in sight. His HP continued to slowly drain as he quickly got covered in the thick, burning liquid, and it had to be worse for the others.
“Nar, faster!” Jul said. “The poison!”
The poison was hot on their heels. Already it was chasing four steps behind him. If that goo did that much damage just from touching him, he didn’t care to imagine what the poison would do from the inside.
“There’s an exit!” Gad said, her distant shout reaching up to Nar. “Do I…”
“Just go!” Kur said.
“We’re dead here anyways!” Mul added.
Nar could feel the poison gaining on him. He sensed the amorphous mass of it, like a big thing of no-no in his [Instinct].
It was right behind him when he reached the exit, and followed him into the corridor.
“Keep running!” Kur shouted. “It’s following us!”
