PreCursive
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Chapter 266 - The Gate of the Underworld
🕑 Added 2024-12-06 18:00:11 +0000 UTCThankfully, my stamina held out as I helped to row us to the mountain. Probably entirely due to the Energy potion, honestly. Nonetheless, thanks to the powerful winds kicked up by Tatsugan’s storm as the Wyrm raged above us against Shacklock, we reached the mountain shore in about forty-ish minutes. I actually think the trip was so short because the sea was visibly rising around us as we sailed towards the mount, ever so slightly reducing the distance to our destination.
Halfway there, all of us had been startled by an unusually large rumbling noise coming from the rim of the caldera. We’d momentarily stopped at the noise and followed it to its source. What we found was that the rim of the caldera had failed once again and was fracturing in real time before our eyes. The group stared in silence as great chunks of rock and stone fractured into the sea in chunks larger than entire castles, sending waves cascading across the surface. We’d needed to retreat to the wheelhouse in order to avoid being swept from the deck of the barge, fearing all the while that it would break as well from the force of a wall of water. However, in an almost supernatural manner, the barge barely budged from the force of the wave and was entirely undamaged when we emerged.
What we found instead was that entire lakes worth of water was pouring in through the breech in the caldera walls. Because of that, the inland sea rose gradually all around us as we sailed towards the mountain.
I could only hope the bunker had yet to be submerged.
Once there, we all stared upward at the gigantic rock face that loomed above us. Not just because of the sheer size of Gorenzen.
But because we were searching for our goal.
It was hard to see through the storm, but the map indicated that the impenetrable door should be somewhere within our line of sight.
Liora was the one who spotted it first. “There!” She yelled over the storm, pointing up with one leather-clad finger. I, and the rest of my companions, followed the digit up to where it was pointing at a seemingly innocuous section of the cliff face, maybe a hundred yards above us and to the right. I couldn’t see what she was pointing at initially, although I heard Renauld sigh next to me. I focused harder.
And then I saw it.
Briefly visible in a flash of lightning a single, reflective gleam in the darkness of the storm. It vanished a moment later, but I’d seen it.
That had to be the door.
Azarus voiced what we were all thinking, a grimace on his bearded face. “We’ll have to climb.”
“Up that?” Renauld said, apprehension in his voice. “In this?”
“It’s a short climb,” Venix said shortly, ignoring the side-eye he received from the Healer. “There is plenty of purchase along the way, and at this point upon the mountain, it is not altogether steep.”
I glanced back at the cliff face. I…suppose it wasn’t quite vertical, but it was still a damned mountain.
If only I could fly through the storm. I could just fly up and drop a rope down for the rest of-
Wait a second.
Venix must have been reading my mind because upon seeing the apprehensive looks on more than one of our friends faces, he sighed. The Antium man bent down and picked up the small sack of climbing gear we had brought along with us, ostensibly for this exact purpose. “I will go,” He said with finality. “And cast down a rope for the rest of you. My greater strength and familiarity with Gorenzan makes the climb less hazardous.”
Well…if he was offering…
I don’t think I was the only person a little relieved at the sensible offer. But I still had to say something.
“I guess the other option is we just wait till Shacklock kills Tatsugan?” I said, glancing around at the others. “My understanding is that the storm will stop with his death, and the climb won’t be quite as dangerous.”
Kazuma shook his head. “No…that is not an option. With the Wyrm’s death, the sea shall rapidly drain. Then we would have to climb from the very base of the mount, and it is meant to extend for quite some distance. I do not wish to spend days traversing miles worth of mountainside, simply to reach this very spot once again.”
Oh.
Bella cut through the conversation by clapping her hands together. Coincidentally, at the same time, a rattle from Tatsugan sounded out another peel of thunder. She just ignored it. “You boys have fun with that!” She shouted over the noise. “Quit gabbin’ and get on with it!”
Wait, what?
“Bella, what do you mean?”
The pirate Captain grinned at both my question, and the looks from everyone else. “I’ve gotta stay back and watch the barge. If I don’t keep an eye on her, then this tub is gonna get dashed on the rocks with the risin’ waters. Then we’re all really screwed.”
“But-”
She held up a hand. “I made up me mind,” Bella said with finality. “I’m stayin’, and that’s that. Ye can just tell me all about what ye found in there later, Nate.”
I…had been really looking forward to exploring the bunker with her…
But I understood her point. I sighed and nodded my head.
However, that wasn’t all. To my surprise, Liora stepped forward to stand next to Bella. At the woman’s surprised look, the Gnoll smiled slightly at her. “I shall remain behind as well. It takes more than one pair of hands to man a ship, after all.”
Bella grinned at her friend and then slugged her on the shoulder. The former assassin’s smile took on a brief pained cast, but it didn’t last.
I see.
And then there were five.
At least…that’s what I thought.
When I turned back around to face the others that were coming up with me, I found that Venix had already started his climb while we were speaking. Well, I say climb, but it was really more like bound. The Antium samurai was leaping up the slick face of the mountain with unsurprising acuity, rapidly leaping from foothold to foothold as he ascended towards the outcropping that the bunker entrance lay tucked into. There was a brief moment where even his enhanced Dexterity wasn’t able to maintain footing on such treacherous ground. His foot came down, and it slipped right under him. For a moment, it looked like Venix was going to fall and plummet back down the mountainside. However, he recovered by burying his entire first into the stone of the mountainside and gripping onto the handhold he had created.
Alright, I was feeling a little vindicated about ‘letting’ Venix make the ascent alone. If someone so much more powerful than I was had slipped even once on that climb, the rest of us would have probably been sliding around like we’d been on an ice rink.
Eventually, Venix reached the outcropping with the door and disappeared over the side of it. Moments later, the long, snaking form of the rope bundle we had bought back in Hinaga fell over the side. We had actually bought such a lengthy ream of rope that it turned out to be overkill. As a result, it reached all the way down to the barge and thumped onto the deck.
Azarus, Renauld, Kazuma, and I simply stared at the rope for a second, before our second samurai walked over and picked it up. Without a word, he secured his katana to his waist with a spare length of cloth so it wouldn’t bounce about, and then got to climbing. It wasn’t really a good idea to stress a rope, especially a wet rope, with the weight of more than one person. So all of us stood by and watched as the presumptive heir to the Order of Solstice’s Flame shimmied his way up to the outcropping. When he reached the top, Venix grabbed his forearm and hauled the other samurai over the edge. I could see Kazuma accept the help with a nod, and then toss the rope back over the edge.
Renauld picked it up and followed him, and when the Gnoll was finished, Azarus raised an eyebrow at me. I just shook my head. My dwarven friend shrugged and hopped on the rope as well for his own climb.
I spared one last glance at the women who were staying behind before I made my own ascent. I received a raised eyebrow from Liora and a ‘get on with it’ gesture from Bella for my trouble. I couldn’t help but huff a small laugh that, and then grabbed the rope.
And climbed.
It didn’t take me long. Thanks to the rope, I was up and over the edge of the outcropping in mere minutes, accepting a hand up from Azarus. At the very least, it was nice to be out of the rain again.
I can’t even describe how tired I was of rain by this point.
All other thoughts were wiped out of my mind, though, when I finally laid eyes upon the door I had traveled so far to find.
Days of sea travel to reach this damned island.
Even longer trekking through steaming hot jungle, followed by arid, stony plains.
Spending the night in a volcano of all things.
And then hiking across rain-slick mountain tops.
All for this.
Set into the far wall of the alcove was a metallic door, perhaps ten feet in height. Circular in shape, in the dim light provided by the number of different light skills illuminating the small cover, I could see that it had to have been machined. Fine seems were visible all along the surface of the door, too precise to have been smithed by even the greatest craftsman to ever live. The door itself was deep inset into the stone of the mountain, and to my astonishment, it almost looked like the stone was trying to reclaim it. Small, irregular fingers of rock crept inward from the outer circle, looking as if the hands of Vereden itself were trying to break their way in.
Or perhaps…
Hide the door from prying eyes.
The sight of the stone creeping across the metallic surface of the bunker door sent a chill down my spine, and I don’t think I was the only one. The rest of my companions accompanying me stood stock still as we all stared at the object of our quest. There was an odd atmosphere to the air, outside of what I knew to be an ancient bunker of some kind. A…taste, almost, to the Aether of the environment.
It felt twisted somehow.
Tortured.
As if an infinite amount of suffering had been inflicted in this place, staining the very fabric of the world forevermore.
It was so wrong.
Perhaps it was my imagination, but I swore that the gales of Tatsugan’s storm sounded different, playing across the mouth of this alcove.
As if from a great distance, I heard the sound of wailing.
I…knew now, why the Kawamarans called this the Yami-no-Koshi. The Gate of the Underworld. I had initially dismissed the epithet as nothing more than a colorful name given to an extraordinary location. But I was wrong.
I could easily imagine this as the literal gate to Hell. The entranceway into the abyss of infinite, unending despair.
The trance that all of us had fallen into was broken by another rattle of Tatsugan’s tail, sending a fresh peal of thunder echoing across the sky. Venix was the first to break out of the near spell, taking an almost defiant step forward further into the alcove. However, I noticed that he was gripping all four of his blades tightly, with all four hands.
That was the cue for the rest of us to all, and we did.
Albeit, warily.
Before long, all five of us stood in front of the door, easily able to do so shoulder to shoulder. I stood in the center, feeling and knowing, deep in the depths of my soul that something was wrong here.
But I couldn’t just turn back now. Not after all we had done to reach this point. Not with all we, I, stood to gain from this expedition. Who knew what knowledge lay in the depths of this bunker? What history?
We had to find out.
I had to know.
With the way the atmosphere of this alcove had seemed to steal the voices from our throats, I didn’t speak before I did what I needed to. I simply peeled off the glove on my right hand, reached out.
And set it, palm first on the door in front of me.
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