B3 Chapter 333: Something New, pt. 2

Their exit from the Godsmaw jungle had led them to a wide ledge halfway up a mountain, joined into a small U-shaped range. Cold air rolled down from the ice-capped peaks above, rapidly cooling the sweat that beaded on his skin from the previous humidity.

It was a biome of grey stone dotted with brown tussock and rare patches of softer dirt — growing more and more common closer to the foothills. Kaius didn’t have eyes for any of it, nor the blue sky, or the immense canyon that encircled the cluster of peaks.

His focus was entirely devoted to the sense within him, the one he had since he’d earned Persistent Survivor.

It was pulling him in three directions, where only two should have existed.

The first was normal — the distinctive feeling of a Champion, up and around the inward curving edge of the range. A large cave that hung dark and looming maybe a few hours walk away, judging by the direction.

It was his Guardian sense that troubled him. Against all possibilities, it pulled him in two different directions. An impossibility according to all he had known, and every record he had seen while trawling the guild’s stacks.

The first pulled him upwards, towards one of the central mountains. It was the source of the flowing lava that he had seen when he first approached — a glowing stream that ran free of a wide plateau at the peak. It almost looked as if the very mountain top had been cut free — sliced by some overwhelming sword-stroke.

He leaned on his Truesight — searching for a sign of the beast as a low, rumbling unease started to settle into his bones.

Something was wrong. This was beyond the magnitude of changes he had expected to find in a layer this deep — it completely disregarded the foundation of how the Depths was supposed to work.

One Guardian, one biome. How would two even work? Would they lead to different biomes on the layer below, or just different entrances?

Despite the acuity granted by his skill, Kaius had no luck with searching for the source of the first signal. The ridge was too high above them — his angle causing the lip of the ridge to hide whatever lay at the mountain’s peak.

The other yanking thread pulled him down — far below their ridge to the rolling hills and alpine plateau of brown grasses that filled the central space within the range. His view blocked, Kaius took a step forwards and peered over the edge of their entrance to the zone.

Grey stone interspersed with scree shot straight towards the marker — a chaotic slope of cliffs, ridge lines, and narrow natural paths. He spotted what he was looking for immediately, freezing in place.

Even though it looked as small as a needle with the distance between them, Kaius could see it clear as day. An eight sided obelisk, carved from flawless glossy black volcanic glass. It was a megalith, large enough that it would have dominated the skyline of Deadacre — easily as large as the governor’s tower.

It wasn’t just its size that made it so visible. Runes covered its every surface — glowing with orange fire. They shifted and swam across the glass. System runes, they had to be — they fit the picture perfectly.

More were scrawled on a flat plane of black that extended from the base of the obelisk, almost as if the spire itself was reaching out to its surroundings. It felt corruptive, like an out of place malignity had forced itself onto the biome.

Kaius clenched his teeth, his eyes boring into the black and burning glass. Deep in his gut, he could feel that it didn’t belong — that it was other.

And his Guardian sense pointed straight towards it.

Right as he went to inspect the surroundings of the structure — to try and find the ultimate source of the pull — Kaius felt a nudge at his back.

Porkchop, exiting the cave behind him. His brother was giving him a curious look.

It disappeared as he crossed the threshold, the same anomaly that had given Kaius pause rooting him to the spot.

“What in the hells?”

“What’s the hold up, you’re blocking the exit!” Kenva yelled from behind Porkchop, just visible as she tried to peer around him.

Porkchop hurried forwards, joining Kaius at the edge of the ledge to stare out at the biome, shifting between the plateau and the mountain peak before he stopped and gave Kaius a look of confusion.

Kaius shrugged. He had no answer — likely only more questions, he didn’t know if Porkchop had the eyes to spot the obelisk from this far away.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Still, this needed discussion. Whatever was happening, Kaius was certain of one thing. Change was dangerous, and they needed to be sure if they were going to tackle it anyway.

As Kenva and Ianmus filtered out of the same crack, they smiled with unfocused eyes — reading the system descriptions that appeared in front of them.

Blinking them away, Ianmus took a single look at Kaius and Porkchop and frowned.

“Allright, what is it this time?”

Kaius grunted, pulling back from the ledge, “There’s two guardians.”