No one had co up with any solutions to our problem, and I was getting increasingly anxious as the seconds ticked by. I had no idea what we would do if we ended up stuck here. It seed unlikely anyone else in attendance would let us go to their howorld and borrow a gate there. As these thoughts doom spiraled their way across my mind, a chat window popped up.
Karlinovo: I have good news, and incredibly bad news. Communication has resud with the city. Well, at least with Quarilyn and Grant. There was a full jester invasion of the city. I do not have the complete details, but I think it is a safe assumption that the soul knots made us an easy target. They likely had so way of detecting you had gone off-world and used that as a mont to attack. The good news is sohow l had also picked this mont to return. I’ve been told he is the only thing standing between the jesters and the end of our city.
Dave: Fuck… Okay, the fact that you have communication back, let’s treat that as the good news. How do we get the gates back online?
Karlinovo: That is a problem for us. You just need to be ready the mont it happens. The plan right now is that Quarilyn will get the gate up to the dungeon. Apollyon will keep it up with dungeon energies while Bert, Johan, and I attempt to get your return gate operational.
Corey: None of you have cores or offensive capabilities. This seems extrely dangerous.
Dave: I agree with Corey. Is there any other way?
Karlinovo: No, and we are all very aware of the possibility that we don’t live through this. But doing nothing guarantees we won’t. This gives us a chance. These orders ca through a ga of telephone from l, so that ans he knows he can’t hold the line forever.
Beta: The empire will honor your sacrifice for all ti. I promise to follow in your footsteps one day. It is an honor to have t you.
Dave: As heartfelt as Beta’s words are. Please try to stay alive. I really don’t want to have to bury any of you.
Apollyon: I will attempt to use dungeon energy offensively during their work, but I cannot promise that it will do much from this distance.
Gamma: Try channeling so into mana crystals if you have any spare. They should allow you to better use the energy. They will overload quickly, though.
Karlinovo: Well, I appreciate the sentints. We are out of ti. If all goes well, your gate should open within minutes. Co through prepared for a fight.
I closed the window on that ssage, not knowing what else I could possibly say. They knew the reality of their situation better than I did. I just wished I was there to help. I took a deep breath and started to explain what had happened to Timon and Pryte
Karlinovo
“Each of us takes one of these, and one of these crystals. I have no idea how long Apollyon will be able to defend us at all, and I also have no idea if l will be able to do anything if the jesters spot us. Grant is going to attempt to give us cover fire if he can, but if we go down, then he and Quarilyn have to figure out a way to do this without us, so I don’t want them joining us in this run,” Karlinovo explained.
The best plan they had was that the mont the gate ca online from their side, they would run through and all make a mad dash for the one-use gate. Karlinovo had managed to put together three mana shards that should function with the sa instructions Dave did when he turned it on for the first ti. The operative word being should. He was deep into theoretical territory on both a titable and a potential death sentence. They weren’t the best conditions to work under, even if it wasn’t the first ti he had been forced to work with a sword dangling over his head.
A small electrical hum grabbed his focus as the gate thrumd to life. “Well, gentlen, I hope to see you all for a drink in the future!”
Dave
“The second that gate cos online, I’m flooring the bus through it. Once we are on the otherside, well, I guess that depends on what we see, but it’s gonna be a ss. I’ll open the door right before we pass through, be ready,” Timon said, uncertainly clear in his voice.
I shared the feeling. While it was a relief that l was back, the fact that he was all that was standing between the city and death was not a thought that helped calm . Once this was over, we would have to assess the entire city for new soul knots and then make it a priority to remove the existing ones. It was sothing I wished we had found a way to do already, but the damage there was already done, and now it was ti to clean it up.
“For l to be tied up, he has to be fighting a ‘great’, hopefully just the one. If there is a ‘best’ involved, we are going to be in real trouble,” Pryte said.
“How can I tell them apart?” My only encounter with the jesters remained the hazy one experience I had in the Arena with the two.
“The ‘greats’ are bigger than normal jesters. I don’t actually know what a ‘best’ looks like. I’ve only heard of them,” Pryte answered.
“They are the things of nightmares. Hard to put into words, but trust , you will understand it if you see one. God, I hope we don’t. I’ve only ever t one once, and the fact that I lived through it amazes even ,” Timon added.
I swallowed uncomfortably, a new anxious worry born in my head. “What do…” I started to say as the gate initialized in front of us. It seed to surprise the creature who had been directing us for a mont. By the ti I spotted them giving us a signal to proceed, Timon had already slamd on the gas, and we were nearly into the blue vortex.
The mont I felt us enter it, I placed shields around everyone, myself included. The sight that greeted us as we returned to Alexandria made glad I had. There was damage everywhere. Several buildings had holes in their walls. I leaped out of the front of the bus before Timon even had ti to bring it to a stop.
Before my feet landed, all of the tools had been freed from my System storage. I spotted Karlinovo slumped over a railing near the gate. Johan was on the ground, covered in blood. Bert had been the one who actually made it to the gate and looked the worse for it. Sohow, despite their wounds, all three of them were still clinging to life. So of the pressure in my chest released itself as I poured healing magic into them.
A new ssage window popped up while I worked.
Gamma: l is in the air, fighting what I assu are three of the great jesters.
Dave: Beta, Gamma back up l. I’ll be there when I finish down here. Alpha start finding and locating other jesters and anyone who needs dical attention.
Corey: Dave, I can feel sothing dangerous in the city. I do not know what it is.
Dave: Yeah, I feel the sa thing. It’s like it’s pressing on our soul chat sohow.
Stolen novel; please report.
Karlinovo: I felt that as soon as I hit the city. I believe it is their leader.
Dave: Glad to see you’re alive. Apollyon, please keep things out of my head.
Apollyon: Absolutely.
Dave: Thank you. Let’s save our ho, everyone.
Timon had already vanished from the bus by the ti I closed the ssage window. Two of the jesters I had seen out of the corner of my eye while that chat was up were moving closer. I blasted away with several fireballs before they got the chance to close the distance.
It was ti to help l. I placed a shield around him, while reversing gravity on one of the jesters he was fighting. It ca crashing to the ground right where Beta was hovering. I joined them with my own attacks, mixing fire and lightning while Gamma fought side by side with l. How would he feel about that, considering his old distrust of dungeon cores?
“Dave, there’s a ‘best’ in the city, haven’t seen it yet, but the mont these three go down I’m sure it’s gonna rear its head, so be careful!” l scread from the sky.
“Okay!” I yelled back, not really sure what else to say to that news.
I reversed gravity again, first under one of the jesters, and then under the second, causing it to crash hard into the first. Beta, Gamma, and I each hit a different one with a powerful blast of magic as a rain of halberds fell from the sky. Monts after each of the jesters were impaled by l’s attack, a horrible wail ca from their mouths, all of the screams matching the others in a terrible cacophony of misery.
“Dave, get back!” l scread as he zood toward the ground.
The warning was barely enough ti as I felt my shield’s strength rapidly drop. Soul mana started pumping through my channels, reinforcing all of us, but even that had barely been enough with how close I was to the creatures. The mind-piercing dirge had finally stopped.
The husks of the jesters lay lifeless on the ground. In between them stood so sort of transparent energy monster. Its form was similar to our invaders, but not quite the sa. The fear it emanated was a wholly different monster.. It was feeding on the energy from the shields, rapidly growing as it drained them.
“Dammit, it’s so sort of death curse, never seen it before though!” The hoarseness in l’s voice made his words sound more like a bark than actual speech. The man was clearly more drained than he was letting on. How long had he been fighting these things alone?
I pulled up a ssage window, the barest hint of a plan hitting . How the hell were we going to fight sothing stronger than this?
Dave: Put shield after shield around this thing, do not let up. We can’t let another death curse loose on the planet.
Corey: What do we do once it eats through them all?
Dave: While you all do that, I’m going to take it apart piece by piece.
Karlinovo: You can do that?
Dave: I hope so.
Beta: For the Empire!
I felt the mana leave my core as the shields began to wrap layer after layer around the jester’s curse. While they did that, I triggered overclock, mana tinkering, and universal bonds. A ssage flashed before my eyes as I felt a surge of my mana flow from my body.
Analysis in progress…Soul Resonance detected
I focused on the creature with mana tinkering as I held the other two abilities in place. There was a strange stabbing sensation in my head as it felt like my mana channels were moving. My vision burned as sothing clicked in my mind.
New Blueprint Unlocked~\Crafting Blueprints\Soul CageRequirents: Soul Energy, Dungeon Core, Soul RemnantThe Soul Cage uses a dungeon core to trap the remnant soul of a creature. Sealing the soul within the core does not prevent it from acting, but it does cage it, allowing the person possessing the cage to impose their own will onto it, assuming the will is strong enough.
Dave: Alpha, I need one of the lifeless dungeon cores.
Corey: I dislike this idea, but I am not sure we have an alternative.
Dave: Trust , I’m right there with you, but so far we haven’t found a single way to heal them, and I have no clue what else to do.
Alpha: On way.
Alpha: Have it, place in storage.
I closed the ssage window. That was a good idea. I had been expecting them to fly to , but this was much faster. I pulled Alpha into my System storage and felt the crafting overlay change, giving the option to bind the elents together. I selected yes, feeling even more energy pour from into the core.
The remnant inside the shield vanished, and a new voice entered my head for a split second. Apollyon quickly pushed it back out. Had we just created a new dungeon core? There were so insane and possibly horrible implications to what I had just done. There would be ti to figure those ramifications out later.
“Where’s the ‘best’?” I asked as I turned off everything except our shields. My mana pool started to regenerate, but it wasn’t nearly fast enough. The jesters hadn’t fought in a way I could drain their mana back into myself.
“No idea. Only saw it during my first scan of the city. It’s been hiding from since. Don’t think it expected anyone like to show up, and you being back has to have thrown an even bigger wrench in its plans,” l answered, sounding exhausted, but his words seed to co easier than they had earlier.
“What the hell do they even want with the city? Is it so revenge thing for the Arena?” I asked, my frustration boiling out in anger. None of them made sense. How were we worth anything to them? If this was revenge on , why wait until I was gone to attack?
Timon
He had left the bus monts after Dave, in search of the terrifying presence he already felt in the city. A ‘best’ was loose, and they needed the intel. If they ca upon that blind, they were all dead. Hell, they were probably all dead anyway. He didn’t think the city had the strength to fight one of these at the best of tis.
That, of course, begged the question that had been bothering him since he learned about this disaster. What the hell did the jesters want here? None of this made any sense. The ‘best’ should have slaughtered the city or, at the very least, killed l if any of them stood in the way of their goal. So then what was their goal?
“Oh no,” Timon said aloud, as the realization hit him alongside a bit of panic. The jesters weren’t here for the city. They weren’t even here for Dave. They knew about William. They were here for one of the only easy core children they could get their hands on.
Was that the real reason they were in the Arena? Have they been planting soul knots in order to hunt down babies born with cores from the weaker factions? It was the only thing that made sense. That had to be why a ‘best’ was here. What the hell were they doing with the kids?
The answer didn’t matter. What did matter was the need for haste. That ant the ti for secrecy was over. He couldn’t risk covertly hunting the jester leader if it was just trying to make an escape. Channeling mana into his voice, he yelled loud enough for the entire city to hear him.
“The ‘best’ is here for William. It likely already has him. Destroy all their ships, do not let it escape with the baby!” He knew his words had co too late as a small jester vessel rocketed from the planet just as his scream finished. For the first ti in as long as he could rember, Timon felt a true, deep fear wash over him.
I was not sure I could do it at first. In fact, it ca as quite a surprise that I managed to. But despite that worry, finally, I did it. I was able to push my way into lost space. I understood now why the first Spiral was abandoned. The reality that surrounds what is left of it is a shattered blackness worse than so of the dark pits within chaotic space. The creatures that infest what is left of the broken chambers of the Spire were enough to convince to halt my explorations of that cracked tower, at least for now. The fact that I can see where it pierces into the current Spiral reality still taunts my mind, though, and I doubt that is a mystery of reality I can let lie unexplored forever.
If it is as I suspect, then that ans that the bottom of the current Spiral connects to the top of the lost Spiral. What does that an? Is the old universe reality truly a lost space or just sothing that has been purposely hidden from the residents of the new Spiral? And just who is old enough that they could be maintaining such an environnt? While I ponder these questions, their answers are not truly ant for soone like myself. I care little for the motivations of people and only truly for the cartography of all that is.
As I ventured further from the Spire in search of other remnants of the lost space, more strange surprises greeted . There were whole planets still here, connected still to the lost Spiral. Even greater of a shock ca when I found them to be inhabited. Did that an intelligent civilizations still flourished within the old Spiral? While the new question lingered in my mind, I felt for the first ti an awareness focus on my presence. Sothing had realized I was here, and it did not wish to remain. One day, I will return and finish my charting, but for now, I will move on to safer pastures.
Mapping Reality by a Chronicler of Existence
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