by Ramy Vance
The gnome world was burning. The Netherverse Gate had opened and unleashed a wellspring of fire elementals infused with the Dark Melody. They had sprinted from the darkness, the Gate opening before anyone had realized it, racing about and setting the land aflame.
Persephone quickly ended them. Both of her arms now dozens of tentacles and her many eyes watched for the next attack. Nothing came for some time, so she reverted to her more subdued drow appearance.
Kravis and Boundless were coordinating their next defensive move, and Persephone joined them at the war table while a group of gnomes and dwarves watched over the Gate.
José, who had come through the Gate with the fire elementals, needed no introduction. Kravis knew the man, and the rest of the team had received an update through their HUDs.
Alex filled the MERC in on the details of what they were up against. She was surprised they'd only seen base-level ghouls. The elementals had been a pleasant surprise. They meant the Dark One was going to get this fight started.
José listened intently to Alex's words. When she was done, he gave a hearty laugh. "It would seem that even the children here are experienced warriors."
Alex, who was working on her bionic arm, smiled slightly. "Yeah, we all had to grow up pretty fast."
"Hopefully, not grown up enough to want to throw your lives away."
Kravis stared uneasily at José and Alex. "I'm not planning on dying today. I have a wedding to go to after this."
Persephone nodded, her eyes resolute and her jaw tight. "Neither am I. We all walk off this field today, and this planet stays free."
Kravis laughed, slapping his knee and nearly falling out of his chair. "That's easy to say. Not all of us can turn into an eldritch god!"
"Rasputina was exaggerating; I'm not a god. But it is draining since the form consumes my life force. If I stay like that for too long, it will take years off my life."
Alex went sheet-white. "Shit, why didn't you say something earlier? Let's not have you pulling that shit every couple of minutes. We'll be conservative with what we have. Same with the dragons. We don't have the tech to replace our augments, so we’ll mostly rely on breath weapons and our anchor weapons. Looks like Persephone and me are our heaviest hitters. What else do we have to work with?"
Kravis jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Got a pretty sizable army, and I can get into places pretty quickly and silent-like. I don't see how that would be helpful at the moment."
"Good to keep in mind. José?"
José was eyeing a glass of mead on the table. "Might I?" he murmured as he gestured toward the mead. "It has been some time since I've had a body."
Alex shrugged. "Knock yourself out."
José grabbed the glass and downed the mead, then let out a belch nearly as loud as his previous laughter. "As for me, I will be where the most enemies are. I don't know how long I will be able to stay on the physical plane, but I plan on taking a bunch of those sons of bitches with me."
"Good. I guess we just have to wait then. Fortify our defenses. Prepare for the worst."
Kravis, who was pacing, jumped up on the war table to get a better look at the map. "What are you riders going to do if there aren't any airborne nemeses? We can probably—"
His words were cut off as a steel crossbow bolt hit him in the shoulder.
Persephone rushed to Kravis' side and pulled the bolt out. "Any higher and that would have been your throat."
Kravis grabbed a handful of herbs from his pouch and slapped them on the wound, healing it instantly.
The Gate had opened.
The dwarves and gnomes guarding the Gate unsheathed their weapons.
It had happened faster than anyone could have seen other than José and Persephone.
Dozens of sprites, fae creatures larger than pixies and fairies but not nearly as large as gnomes, zoomed out of the Netherverse Gate, their faces rotted and sullen and gray, wings half eaten through. They were firing crossbows infused with the Dark melody, powered by Tesla's dark tech.
The first line of defenses fell as the sprites retreated toward the Gate, holding the line as orcish ghouls lumbered through the portal.
"Gods be damned," Kravis shouted. "What manner of creature won't we have to fight?" He pulled up his HUD. "First fleet to the Gate! The fight is here."
Alex leapt on Chine and spoke into her anchor. "Boundless, we have fast-moving bogies. Damage control now. Everyone in the air."
From all over the camp came the roar of dragons as Boundless took to the air, Jollies the pixie leading the fight. The sprites were zooming across the battlefield, sniping as many gnomes as possible.
José unsheathed his sword and stretched his shoulders. "Come, my drow friend. Let us make memories on this glorious field of death."
Persephone's five eyes opened as her arms transformed into tentacles. "Yeah. Let's."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Anabelle and Terra approached the army of ghouls that lay before them. The elf was brimming with nervous energy. She still wasn’t used to being on the Path of the Lost. Her body felt like it was made out of raw power.
Even with all that power, what lay before them seemed impossible. There was still so much distance between them and the Dark One's tower. She'd hoped Myrddin would have stayed to guide both her and Terra to the tower. She wasn't sure if the two of them could do it on their own.
Strength was what Anabelle needed since fear wasn't going to help her. Terra was at her side, seething with power as well, yet there was something about the multitude of eyes that stared at them from the Dark One's tower that made Anabelle hesitant about blasting through the ghouls to get there.
The Dark One had conquered multiple universes. What could Anabelle and Terra do to stop him once they got to the tower?
The sound of Terra's knuckles cracking brought Anabelle out of her thoughts.
Terra glanced at the elf, a wry smile on her lips. "I bet I'll get there first."
"You're not worried?"
"Fuck, yeah, I'm worried, so let's get to it. I'm tired of standing around all pensive and shit."
The ground beneath her exploded as she sprinted toward the oncoming horde.
Anabelle couldn't help but laugh. There was something irresistible about Terra's lust for a good fight. It was infectious. She raced after Terra, trying her best to catch up.
Terra flung herself at the first wave of ghouls. She hadn't bothered with her axe or sword. Instead, she grabbed one of the ghouls and spun with the creature in her hand, smashing through the others that surrounded her to make room to breathe.
Anabelle hit them as well after charging her arm with mana. The electricity running up and down her body connected with a ghoul, causing lightning to chain to ten other ghouls, frying them on the spot.
They carved their way through the creatures, the two of them fighting in their own style. Anabelle slipped between the different forms of a Traveler, drawing more and more power from the Path of the Lost, losing herself in the fight for the first time. She let her body speak for itself, guiding her fists, her eyes constantly roaming, looking for the next kill.
So this is the Path of the Lost, she thought. It was different from the frantic, psychotic energy she'd felt when she was trying to kill Grok or even what she felt when she and Terra had fought their way through the spirits of the Hands. This was more than peace. Part of her soul came alive as she glided between scores of ghouls, slipping through their shadows and tugging them into the blackness. Then she erupted forward, her body taking on the consistency of lava as she shot flames from her palms, catching up the ashes of the fallen with a whirlwind before bringing her fists down and converting them to water and then ice, impaling the ghouls around her.
Terra didn't use magic. Her power came from the deep wellspring of will within her. Every time a ghoul's Dark Melody claws slashed her and cut her skin open, her will grew stronger, and more power flowed through her muscles. Her vision was the clearest it had been in her life. She sa
w the world moving before her and she was one step ahead of it, flipping over the bodies of the dead, snatching a ghoul up, cracking its neck, and kicking it into another before taking hold of another, ripping its sharpened arm off, and launching it into a crowd like a spear.
The elf was hardly paying attention to the destruction she wrought, she was so consumed by the pure joy of battle. There was only one thing wrong; in the back of her mind, she felt a whisper, and it was growing louder with each fallen ghoul.
What if someone here was a real challenge?
Anabelle pushed the feeling away. That wasn't why she was here. Defeating the Dark One was the point of the mission. But the thought persisted, calling to her.
She pulled mana from everywhere around her, channeled it into her fists, and slammed it into the ground, sending a rippling energy attack through the mass of ghouls.
Terra glared at Anabelle as she punched in the face of a ghoul. "Hey! I was still enjoying this!"
"We're not here to have a good time. We're supposed to be making our way to the Dark One."
The smile left Terra's face. "Oh, yeah. Guess I kind of forgot."
"There will be more. Come on. Let's go."
The two of them headed toward the tower. All around them, the texture of the world was beginning to change. The bodies of the defeated ghouls melted into the earth, which was becoming more liquid while also seeming less tangible. "We should probably get off this," Anabelle suggested, pointing at the rocks floating above.
Terra went for them first, leaping onto one and then bounding to the other. Anabelle followed closely.
Even in the Netherverse, the wind felt great on Anabelle's face. She wished she could feel like this all the time—confident and consumed. It was like the rest of the world had faded. There was only the battle at hand.
She knew it couldn't last, but she could enjoy it while it did. That was enough. And maybe it shouldn't last. Its rarity was what made it feel so special.
"I've never felt like this my entire life," Terra shouted.
The elf laughed, letting herself fully embrace what she was experiencing. "Me neither. I love it."
The rocks started to fall.
Terra's eyes sparkled with delight. "Oh, what is this?"
The ghouls’ corpses swirled into a vortex, combining with each other to form a giant worm. The thousands of mouths on its body were screaming, and more ghouls rose as the Dark One put more bodies between the two women and the tower.
"Looks like the Dark One might be getting scared. He's pullin’ out all the stops," Terra joked.
Anabelle could hardly contain herself at the sight of the worm. "I wonder what its guts look like?"
"Only one way to find out."
The two of them leapt at the corpse worm and drove the creature to the ground, where it writhed and screeched as it floundered, its tail slapping and crushing ghouls beneath it.
Terra grabbed the worm’s soft skin and tore it open, sending viscera and blood flying everywhere.
The two were ecstatic in their power, watching the worm wiggle in its death throes.
As the worm's soft body exploded, its guts falling out like a black tidal wave, the Dark Melody animating it lashed out and grabbed any nearby souls. It sucked the spirits into its body, causing it to grow larger and stretch out. The Melody contorted and squeezed material out of its orifices and open wounds that solidified and became legs, giving the creature the look of a demonic centipede. Eyes opened all over its body, searching for Terra and Anabelle.
`The creature thrashed, collecting souls in its ever-expanding skin and growing larger still. Another head appeared in its back end, its teeth sharp and vile, black gas leaking from its mouth.
Terra pulled her axe from her back. "That's disgusting."
Anabelle examined the worm. The section she and Terra had attacked earlier had hardened and had a crust. ""Do you want the worm or the ghouls?"
"We should both take the worm. As long as there is an infinite number of bodies, we're going to have problems with that long, disgusting, freakish sack of crap."
"Sometimes I forget how elegant you are with words."
They headed toward the creature as its heads whipped around, both sides exuding noxious fumes.
Anabelle hit it first. She drove her fist into the closest head and broke its jaw.
The creature recoiled, its broken jaw splitting down the middle, then two more heads formed from the jaw fragments. One of the heads snapped at Anabelle, who fell to the ground, dodging to the side as the other surged forward, its neck elongating, and narrowly missed the elf before driving itself into the ground.
Terra ran up the length of the worm, sidestepping the ghouls crawling up the sides of the beast.
One slashed at Terra's shin.
She tossed her axe at the ghoul almost as an afterthought. The blade sliced through it, and she had to turn back to grab her axe.
The worm rolled onto its side, trying to knock both Terra and Anabelle off its body.
Anabelle gripped tight, letting the flaming aura around her die so that she wouldn't scorch the skin she was holding onto.
Terra, near one head, held on tight as well, screaming. Anabelle was unable to discern if it was fear or joy.
The worm's underbelly was on top now, and hundreds of skeletal hands reached up from its quivering flesh. As Terra crawled up the worm, she ripped out arm after arm as well as beating them back lest they take hold of her.
Anabelle was in a slightly different position. She could see the arms, but they posed no threat to her. "Hold on, Terra!' she shouted as she fired a blast of fiery mana down the worm's side, tearing up the flesh and unleashing hot geysers of black sludge.
Terra covered her face as the black gunk hit her. "Thanks, Belle."
Anabelle ran toward her compatriot, dragging her right arm across the side of the worm. It cut through the creature's flesh until she got to Terra, and she helped the human to her feet.
Terra wiped off the black sludge. "Okay, my turn. You take the ass head. That would make us even."
Anabelle cast a doubtful glance at where she had come from as the worm's body began to convulse. "Fine, but then we are even."
Terra took off toward the front head of the worm and unsheathed her sword, screaming as she cut down the dozens of ghouls who stood in her path.
Anabelle doubled back toward the worm's ass, occasionally firing bolts of mana, incapacitating the ghouls who tried to slow her down.
They arrived at the same time. Terra drove her sword deep into the soft flesh of the worm's head as Anabelle burst into flames, consuming the other head of the worm in fire.
The worm writhed, screeching in its death throes as it went limp.
The women fell off the worm in a hailstorm of thick, sticky entrails.
Anabelle let out a flash of mana that burned the crap on her to ash. "Whew. Now that was fun."
Terra pointed at the second wave of ghouls pulling themselves out of the earth. "We're just getting started."
Chapter Twenty-Five
The Netherverse spread out before Rasputina, Sarah, and Grok. They'd been traveling for nearly two hours, but the Netherverse that they walked through was much different than the one Terra and Anabelle were experiencing. The Gate had tried to transport them into the path of the ghouls who were invading the gnomish world, but Rasputina was familiar with the Netherverse. She was able to exert a small amount of influence over where it took her.
Now the lich, the assassin, and the disgraced Hand stood on a mountain of souls overlooking the spiraling madness of the Netherverse. The place they were located had a smaller concentration of souls to build upon. More of the elder gods were floating above, which meant the composition of this part of the Netherverse was in a greater state of flux. The realm wavered like water, looking as if it could come apart at any moment or sink into itself like Atlantis.
One could even say the vista the three of them looked out upon was peaceful. Those were the
words that Rasputina would have used.
Grok seemed to think so as well since she took a seat and hung her feet over a ledge. "When was the last time you were here?"
Rasputina tried to remember, but her memories were fractured. She still wasn't certain who she was. At first, she'd felt like she was the old Rasputina, her soul having bestowed her humanity back on her, forcing the insane beast into a pit within her. She had thought that all she had to do was keep the creature at bay. Recently, that had changed.
They had become one, the old Rasputina and the lich. There was no separation between the two, and this Rasputina, as different as she was from the old version of herself, was very much a lich. She was only now starting to understand the depth of her illness. The voices in her head were constantly whispering and occasionally screaming, each saying something different. Sometimes it was her voice, sometimes it was the one she had grown accustomed to referring to as the lich. Other times it was the voices of the dead, those she had condemned to an afterlife with no peace.
"I don't know," Rasputina finally said. "I spent a long time here."
"And you didn't know this was where the Dark One was all along?" asked Sarah.
"By the time I arrived, I was broken and had forgotten why I had been searching for magic and knowledge. I was insane, or at least, that's what I've been telling myself. I don't think that was why. There are many insane people, and not all of them do what I did. Very few do, even on a smaller scale. I wasn't insane; I can say that now. I was just evil."
Rasputina sat down beside Grok and pulled back her hood. "This is a terrible feeling. All of these are. It reminds me of why I distorted myself to begin with. Guilt. The constant guilt of failure. Now I've compounded it. I also have the guilt of my actions reverberating in my head until it's all I can think of."
Grok nodded as she stared into the contorting Netherverse, the bleak sky occasionally brightening before slipping back into a darkness that seemed never to end. "It's good to hear you say that. Hiding behind excuses is weakness."
