Book 8 – Chapter 13 – Setting the stage

“Keith. To’Sefit selected this biome in order to stage an attack for a reason.” Wrath said. “You would be attempting to defeat her in her chosen element. I would recommend we avoid her range, or find an alternative biome to travel.”

“Where’s she at right now?”

“She is advancing two miles off of our position.” Wrath said. “Her speed is rapid for a few seconds, and then halts for five minutes, from what I can see on the history log.”

Odd pathing, was she laying down traps with each rest point, or possibly equipment of some kind? “Timing also feels a little too good.” I said, “We’re only minutes into this biome and she’s already in near perfect position?” They really had guessed correctly the general path.

Thought we could lose them in the Expanse. But we did somewhat at least; Two miles was still a large distance, so there was some wiggle room here… “Can she track us or are they just following the last known tunnel exit location based on where we were last spotted?”

“Only one way to find out.” Cathida said, while Journey’s HUD pinged and highlighted the bridge.

Good as any to start with. Faster we were away from our starting point, the harder it would be for To’Sefit to catch us. I took a step out, and then started on a light jog. The others followed behind.

The suspension bridge took the weight of two Feathers, and one human in relic armor without any difficulty. It creaked slightly and swayed, but no signs of true stress happened to it. Even the wood portions seemed resistant.

The problem came at the middle part of the bridge. One moment I felt fine, and then next I felt… exposed.

The Odin had been semi-correct. I had a hunch there might be the stink of the occult in this zone, and that guess was on the nose.

I thought it might have been a moving concept of Death itself floating randomly around in this zone like a shark somehow, and would seek us out the moment we were in safety. No, instead it was the entire region itself that was a vacuum.

I underwent the same experience of having my soul exposed outside the soul fractal. The world began to pick apart at my essence. It was everywhere.

I withdrew completely to my body, seeking warmth and protection from the outside world, and found it still lacking. Wrath and To’Orda were jogging behind me, and didn’t seem to feel any discomfort. But the Odin clearly did, all of them bunching up together the moment To’Orda took one step past a threshold. They started to croak out warnings.

A flash of fear ran through me: Artificial souls can’t feel this effect. They aren’t aware of their souls because they can’t move them around. And they don’t have a body to start feeling the side effects of a soul eroding from the body like the Odin did.

I had an advantage here. I’m constantly feeling some minor effect of this on my soul tendrils, the ones floating out of my body into the different fractals I had all over my armor. I could probably last a good five minutes. It wouldn’t be fun, or comfortable in the least, but I could do it in the same way someone could hold their breath longer; if they’ve been constantly training for it.

Father would probably laugh his way walking through the entire biome and make it on the other side still alive and angry enough to spite god all over again. I’m adequate enough by now.

Wrath and To’Orda? They’d die for good if they weren’t careful.

This biome was a deathtrap for Feathers. No, not just Feathers. Journey too. I looked over my armor and saw the world outside equally dissolving its soul at the center chest.

Some protective instinct in me leaped before thinking. I dove into its soul fractal with a tendril, and forced myself to expand around it, wrapping it up in a bubble. It seemed confused at the intrusion, until it sensed my aim. It wasn’t happy about that, because while the world stopped picking away at its essence, it turned to continue dissolving mine. Which meant the user was exposing himself to danger.

I could take it. The rate of decay on my own soul was significantly lower than what the armor had been dealing with, and Journey couldn’t do anything other than complain. But I couldn’t protect Wrath at this range. No way I could move a tendril of soul that far off myself.

“We’re in range of Death, start running!” I called out, turning my jog into a sprint.

“We are?” Wrath asked, but seeing me sprint ahead was all the info she needed.

Over a few breaths I let them all know my findings. The effect here wasn’t as strong as being completely exposed to the outside, but it was there.

The suspension bridge steadily vibrated with each heavy footfall as I tunnel visioned to the other side. A platform like the one we’d left, connected to the rock spire here, with a lantern of its own waiting.

“Kres, the other two can’t feel when they’re stepping foot into death. You and your squad need to stay with them at all times and warn them anytime they’re too far from the light. Wrath, To’Orda, set a timer for thirty seconds anytime you see the Odin start shouting a warning. I wouldn’t risk going any longer than that.”

The group confirmed my orders, and our quick sprint across the bridge let us reenter the light.

Now that I knew what to look for with the soul sight, I could see why the lights around the lantern were safe: It was a bubble of willpower, passively holding back the darkness around. The same type of willpower I’d need to use for myself, except somehow projected outwards indefinitely. Frozen in place even.

Which meant the lanterns were sentient, or connected to something sentient.

I reached a hand over to Superior, tugging at the faint traces he’d left behind inside the mite lantern. Giving him a signal to return.

That was faster than I expected, what’s blown up this time?

Do you know what’s up with these lanterns? I asked him, taking a few steps to the one at the center of this platform. I could count seven more platforms above me, each with a lantern post just like this.

Journey was running a spectrum analysis on the composition, and Superior stretched his own sight into the real world, looking at the lantern’s effect around us with his own soul sight, then digging back down on the other side.

Well, I can tell the barrier comes from the mite side, while the darkness and… death thing comes from your side. Looks to be some kind of balance. Might take me a bit of time to find the source behind these lanterns, but I’ll give it my best shot. The digital sea on the mite side is really big.

Good talk, and good luck. I’ll see what else I can do on my end.

By this platform was a wrapping staircase leading up to another platform on the other side above us. No lantern light on the stairways, but we could sprint up the spire here quick enough.

“Going to do another test, let me know when you all feel rested enough.”

“All systems show nominal.” Wrath said, flicking droplets of water condensation off her wings. “I should theoretically be able to proceed?”

I was already reaching out a hand to hold Wrath from starting on the next bridge, “No, all systems not nominal.” We’d been inside the darkness for under ten seconds, and the soul sight made it clear what was going wrong. “I’m seeing some heavy damage that’s still regenerating. Same as when you heal things, but far more harsh.”

She frowned slightly. “Triggering my healing fractal comes with feedback and feeling, if the damage was similar, why did I not sense anything?”

“I don’t know.” I said, and that was the truth of it. “If I had to guess, it’s because you’re triggering the fractal yourself? More control over it maybe? Direct connection?”

Or this biome was made to be a silent killer.

“How long should we wait?” Wrath asked. “To’Sefit continues to move.”

“Two to three minutes, maybe?” I said, looking over her soul again. It was steadily repairing itself. Same with To’Orda.

“Well I ain’t feeling anything wrong with my systems.” The rock said, running through a few tests with its projectors, making quick doodles in the air.

“Journey would run a sanity check on me if I thought the same thing.” Cathida muttered.

“Funny, I feel the same way about you.” The rock shot back.

“What’s To’Sefit’s distance roughly from us?” I asked, trying to get ahead of Cathida and the pet rock.

“Nine point seven three miles.” Wrath said. “She is currently paused.”

She’s hardly made any good distance towards us. “She’s in the same airspeeder we are.” I said, raising a finger. “I remember you mentioned she kept taking five minute long breaks before crossing bridges. Now we know why. She doesn’t have anyone to warn her if she’s in too deep or the state of her soul, so she’s making the conservative choices. This place is more dangerous for her than it is for us.”

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author’s consent. Report any sightings.

We had a deadline, because effective range for To’Sefit would be half a mile or so. Unless she could get a lock on us with a spotter, and shoot through the walls here. Given she hadn’t yet done so means one of these two items is on point. It would take her a bit of time to get in range of us, but she’d be relentless about it. We just had to keep moving and shaving off more minutes away on each rest point, and we’d keep ahead of her indefinitely.

And we couldn’t afford to be caught in her range. Wrath was right, To’Sefit had picked this biome as her ambush point for a reason. And I had a sneaking suspicion on why.

So we hurried up and got to waiting for both Feathers here to get the all clear bill of health. As they started up the stairs, I turned to the lantern that’d been steadily providing us shelter. “Two questions, how fast can you run up these stairs if things go wrong? And second question: do you see anything bolting this down to the ground?”

She turned around to look right as I sliced the pole in half using my longsword, one hand already reaching out to grab the lantern. “Rhetorical question, still stealing this.”

Unfortunately, my plan to carry around my own personal torch failed, as the light winked out a few moments after I cut the pole. Well, science requires sacrifice.

Kres and the rest of the ravens on To’Orda’s back immediately spooked and took off from his back, almost like a primal reflex. But they got hold of their senses just as quickly, aiming their panicked flight up to the next platform directly. And as for the rest of us: The answer to my first question was three seconds, and most of us skipped the steps entirely.

To’Orda landed last on the platform, immediately taking a few quick steps past me to position himself directly by this platform’s lantern.

The golden shield had been unhooked from his back and made a quiet but solid thud on the ground, angled against me, protecting the lantern, while he took position behind it, violet eyes keeping me in vision at all times. The message was clear.

And the effects of being in the shadow was even more clear. Death curled its way from the darkness beyond, into the shadow of the mite doorway, and sized at my leg and chest. Once more allowing reality to eat away at my soul despite my safehouse.

I rolled out of the doorway’s shadow, “Truce-truce-truce! Shadow’s deadly out here! We need to be in direct light!”