“I am not speaking of Paskunji.” The angel’s hand curled on the arm of the couch. The frame started to splinter. “I am speaking of you assisting Lamashtu in her quest to create a child. You do not know what you have done.”
My anger deflated like a balloon. “So you know about that, huh?” I said.
“Do you know why some of my siblings were cast out?”
The question surprised me. The angel looked at me expectantly. He wanted an answer.
I shrugged. “Because they were assholes?”
“They wanted the same power as you humans. They wanted to procreate.”
That took me aback. “Wait, the fallen angels got kicked out of heaven because they wanted children? That’s a bit fucked up. Why can’t you guys have kids?”
“My job,” Raguel continued, “is to mete out the law of the Creator once Jeremiel strikes a deal. Paskunji’s job is to stop the demons from advancing in case they decide to attack. Since both of my siblings are out of play, I am forced to take on all three jobs. We are willing to accept some of the abominations created in the time after the fall. We agreed to accept them because none are true children, not in the human sense.” I thought of Fronz, still sitting in a lantern in my pack.
“But this creature. Miftah. He is something else entirely. Once he reaches his maturity in less than two days, he will have the ability to tear all of this down. He won’t need to invade the heavens. He can make the heavens cease to exist with a thought. There will be no peace as long as he lives. He must be killed before he is fully evolved. A flower like the one you used on Paskunji will not work on him. We must wait for him to travel to the other side of the rift, and then we will follow. We will kill him there, where he is vulnerable.”
The world rumbled. The entire room shook. My base usually didn’t reverberate like this. I glanced at the Shrill’s stats, assuming he was under attack again. But that wasn’t it.
“Zagan is disquieted. Killing Miftah will be a problem for him. It is his son, after all,” Raguel said. He closed his eyes, moving his lips. The angel kept his eyes closed, and I had the distinct impression he was speaking directly with my kaiju.
“This is why we mustn’t have children of our own. This is what procreation does. You forget your duty. You are no longer whole, no longer what you once were. Having children is much more a division of strength than a multiplication. I don’t understand why anyone would do that to themselves. This is what you have done, worm surgeon. By forcing this, you have damned the one you swore to protect. Zagan doesn’t fully understand what is happening. But he knows Miftah is his son. He won’t assist.” Raguel’s eyes snapped open. “You will have to do this without him.”
Timed Quest!
Kill Miftah.
This is a group quest!
Note: All players will receive this notification.
You have 12 hours to complete this task.
Player Duke has made a terrible mistake. All players must come together to help right this wrong.
Follow Miftah into Hell. Using the assistance of the angel Raguel, defeat the renegade hell guardian and all who have sworn allegiance to him.
If successful, you may proceed to the gates of Baal’s pavilion.
If you fail to complete this task in the specified time period, Miftah will reach full maturity and gain the ability to cast World Reset. Miftah will auto-cast the spell if he is killed or severely injured after the timer for this quest reaches 0.
World Reset will revert game progress to the moment of Miftah’s birth.
Note: Non-quest inventory and level progress will not reset. However, consumables with a purchase value of <500 teeth will not transfer.
Note: Players under incarceration will be credited for time served.
Note: The Shrill may not be used for this task and may not enter Hell as long as Miftah is alive.
“Fuck,” I said. “Damnit.” This was all my fault. If I’d ignored the damn egg fertilization quest, surely I’d have received another path to opening the rift. If everything else had gone as it had, we’d be at the finish line in just a few short hours. But no, I’d had to go and screw it all up.
You're too hard on yourself, I thought. You couldn’t know this would happen.
Even if Jenk happened to log in just for a second, he would see this quest. I was holding up hope that he’d stay away from the game. And if he hadn’t, he’d be oblivious of everything going on outside of his jail cell deep under Medina. That hope was now gone.
We needed this done, and we needed it done now. Failing the quest, even once, was not an option. Failure was death.
At least I have Moritasgus. I pulled up my menus, and I switched my regen spot to the Oblation Chamber in the badger guardian. In the meantime, I would put the Shrill on guard duty. Once his child entered hell, I’d have him guard our back.
I spent a few moments looking over Banksy’s stats. As long as he remained under 50, he’d be able to accompany us. He was still in the lower half of level 48. I briefly entertained the idea of trying to power him to 50 in the few short hours we had, so I could use him as a guardian instead. I quickly decided against the idea. Even if it was possible, it would be better to have him and the badger instead of just him.
Duke: Get to the rift, but then I need you to burrow yourself and stay safe. I don’t want you leveling or getting hurt. Stay put until I tell you what to do next.
Banksy: I’ll be there in a couple hours.
I looked up from my menu, and Raguel was gone. He’d vanished just like that.
We had a couple hours before Miftah would breach the gate. I headed toward the cockpit. I would spend that time making sure the child hell guardian had a clear path. And once he was through, I’d follow him right down the hole and stab him in the back.
Chapter 66
I grasped the flying goat kaiju with a tentacle, body-slamming him to the ground. I felt the soul power leach from the massive corpse as his bones shattered.
Seal of Furfur added to library.
I was collecting a large number of demons, most of them lower tier.
Raguel was on the field in his huge angel form, and he was playing shepherd, keeping the uncontrolled guardians from besieging and harassing Miftah, who now sat directly on top of the glowing tear in the world. The ever-changing kaiju looked as if he was floating or standing on glass. His off-center, giraffe-like neck was the only constant in his form, and it waved up in the air, glowing. He was casting the spell that would shatter the one-way protection of the rift.
As soon as the Shrill or Avvinik took down a hell guardian, Raguel sent a guardian to guard the corpse, and the moment it woke up, it would be set upon. We found the respawning monsters were vulnerable for about thirty seconds, and killing them a second and a third time was especially easy. I gained meager experience while driving the Shrill, but I received absolutely none for killing a hell guardian in that first half-minute upon regeneration.
None of the hell guardians regenerated a fourth time. The moment they died the third time, their bodies reverted to their smaller forms and then disappeared when the timer ran down. I hoped we weren’t sending them to Hell, where we’d have to face them all over again. I didn’t think that was the case.
I noticed the nearby pavilion of Asmodeus had disappeared from the world map after he turned hell guardian and assaulted us, but it returned after he died a third time. It was the game’s way of keeping players from farming high-experience boss kills over and over.
I didn’t spend the entire time in the cockpit or even in the Shrill. I noticed several kaiju were moving slowly on the field, so I pulled up right next to them, dropping out of a tentacle mouth and right onto their skin or carapace or whatever else they had. I healed any major exterior wounds, and then I cut my way inside, doing a quick Antiparasitic, which had the tendency to increase their strength by 50% in some cases. Then I’d teleport back, only to do it again.
Clara finally noticed what I was doing and came out to
join me on the field. I quickly filled her in on the new plan.
And then, just like that, midnight came, and Miftah plummeted into the hole. The world blinked, and I knew I missed yet another cutscene. Other than a puff of white light and a loud crack, the event was anticlimactic.
The rift is now open to two-way travel!
Warning: Only guardians under direct control may enter the rift. While you may relinquish control once you are within the realm of Hell, you may not exit deep dive for more than ten minutes at a time before the guardian will teleport back to his regeneration spot. If you teleport out of or otherwise leave Hell, your controlled guardian will immediately return to his regeneration location.
Shit. There went that backup plan. I’d suspected that wouldn’t work, though, and I hadn’t been counting on it. One of our original plans was to stack the guardians inside the rift. Get as many controllers as we could, driving them in there one by one and then teleporting back out to the next one. I’d suspected that wouldn’t work, and now I had confirmation. They wanted one guardian per player. Period.
As planned, I set the Shrill directly outside the rift and put him on guard duty. From there, I teleported to Moritasgus, who waited next to Avvinik. I rode the veins to the cockpit, and I took control of the badger.
Duke: Banksy, we’re going in. Follow us.
Banksy: I am right behind you.
I really wished I had a method of directly speaking with Clara, but for whatever reason, that wasn’t in the cards. She knew the plan, and she formed up next to me. The icon floated over the panther’s head, indicating he was under her control.
I shuffled forward to the rift. The rent in the world was hot, glowing, almost a half-mile across. All around, smaller demons, having seen that retreat was now available to them, flooded into the crevice.
Raguel floated down, clutching his glittering, ice broadsword. He saluted us, and he disappeared into the rift. Behind me, I heard a vicious clash, and I turned to see the Shrill launch himself toward the chimera form of Lamashtu, who had been attempting to slink toward the rift.
It didn’t feel right. I should be going in here with the Shrill, not the groundling kaiju.
We were out of time. Beside me, Avvinik leaped forward, disappearing the moment his front paws touched the glittering rift.
I leaped.
Part 6 – Hell
Chapter 67
Entering Hell.
All soul power-based spells are 10% more effective in this realm.
We didn’t fall like I was expecting. This was more like stepping through a portal. Smoke swirled, then parted, and I found myself standing upon a wide, hilly plain similar to the hinterland before the war had scorched all the grass away.
I looked about, surprised at what I saw. The twisted map of the area was shaped like a rendition of a tornado, a cone that swept back and forth. We were at the narrowest point, the bottom tip of the cone. Behind us was the edge of the map, a wall of swirling and flashing smoke. A portal about two miles wide. The light was low, like an eternal twilight. The plains were covered in a thick, colorless grass that felt soft under my paws. A raging river crossed ahead of us, and several miles beyond that, at the far end of the hell map stood a white, gothic-style castle that had to be fifteen miles across. The castle was lit like an amusement park, a beacon in this dusky world of multicolored moving and flashing lights.
All around us, small demons appeared, popping into existence through the fog. They ran from the four of us—Moritasgus, Avvinik, Raguel, and Banksy. They swept over the hills, running away toward the army forming on the far side of the raging river.
Banksy: Duke. Father. I do not like this place. I can feel them coursing through the earth below me. A constant stream of souls. The damned haunt this world, writhing below us. I do not dare go down there.
I glanced at my soul power meter, and sure enough, it glowed yellow. Huh. I had unlimited soul power while in hell.
Raguel strode forward, moving toward the gathering army several miles away. We followed.
I turned my attention to the group of demons, and I realized with a start that they were fighting one another. The two sides seemed equally matched, but at this distance, it was difficult to truly tell. It was an army of ants smashing against another.
“Who is fighting who?” I asked. The words came out as grunts and squeaks from my badger mouth.
To my surprise, Raguel answered me. “Miftah is asserting control. King Paimon, Emperor Baal’s second, is leading an assault against the upstart. Paimon will lose. He was always more show than substance.”
We crested a hill, and I gazed upon the form of Miftah. He was even bigger than before, if that was possible. Bigger than Baal. Bigger than the four of us combined.
Holy shit. We are fucked.
Only one other kaiju currently fought in the distant battle. This was a gigantic, armored, camel centaur thing with spider legs. The human torso of the camel was that of an overly muscled man, but the face was distinctly female. He or she or whatever was armed with a war hammer the size and shape of a nuclear power plant cooling tower. I could see the blazing crown at this great distance, but I couldn’t read it. I assumed this was King Paimon. The hell guardian was tall, about the height of the Shrill, but it was not even half the size of his opponent.
The camel had a structure on his back, a towering, multi-leveled, armored fortress of his own made of wood and copper. The fortress appeared as a town on my simple map overlay. A town named “Labal.” Dozens of demons rode within and upon the walls of this fort. These demons were armed with automatic pulse rifles, and a stream of red and blue fire poured into the flank of Miftah, who didn’t appear to even notice the assault.
Miftah did, however, shrink back at the strikes of the giant war hammer. The world reverberated with each attack.
“We must hit once the fight is done,” Raguel said. “When Miftah is at his weakest. I would suggest joining Paimon, but he and I have had great differences in the past, and I fear he won’t accept my help.”
I recognized this moment for what it was. The game was giving us a choice. I couldn’t consult with Clara, but I knew what we had to do.
“We should move now,” I grunted and growled. “We’ll attack Miftah from the other side, so Paimon won’t have a say whether you help or not.”
“Very well,” Raguel said after a moment. He swept his sword and charged forward. We followed.
Duke: Banksy. Do not engage directly with Miftah. Keep on the demons supporting him. Keep my back safe.
Banksy: Acknowledged.
We pushed forward, fording the river east of the battle. Multiple, rickety-looking bridges spanned the rushing, mile-wide river, and I inadvertently knocked one over with my passage, dumping hundreds of scrambling zippers into the deep. I didn’t know what side they were on. Banksy struggled with the crossing, slipping over his head at the deepest point. But we made it, and we moved to attack.
Miftah saw this new threat, and he unleashed his reserves on us. A legion of spinning drivets took to the air, their onion shape spinning like a thousand razor blades. Avvinik roared, leaping forward and casting Swords in the Wind, his five-minute attack. The deadly drivets scattered as a wall of silver tips rushed at them, cutting through their ranks with deadly precision. The quick-moving panther screamed again, swiping and crashing through the ranks of the suddenly unorganized demons like a whirlwind of death.
Throngs of cellar hags and another type of demon, called pain seedlings, rushed at Banksy and me as Raguel took to the air, plunging his sword directly into the back of Miftah, who roared in rage. Pain seedlings were small, round, troll-like monsters designed for anti-guardian combat. They stuck to the skin and burrowed, unleashing shrapnel as they tunneled. Just a few short hours ago, I watched a horde of these things take out Blighthorn, the viceroy guardian. They’d killed the guardian faster than a zipper attack. It had been terrifying to behold.
Duke: Banksy, no time to argue. Green Hell. N
ow.
I scattered out of the way, rushing toward Miftah as streams of green goo showered out of Banksy like he was a goddamned sprinkler. Like he had warned, it was a lot of the sticky, green acid. More than I expected. It just kept coming and coming, filling the air with a sweet, vinegar stink that was soon replaced with the overwhelming stench of death. In a matter of seconds, an ocean of green, bubbling acid surrounded the minor guardian. Cellar hags and pain seedlings died by the thousands. Banksy looked miserable as the acid trickled to a stop.
Avvinik roared in outrage as acid splashed upon his tail. He jumped out of the way, circling around to join me as we attempted to take on the massive boss monster.
Raguel’s jab had done nothing to the kaiju. Physical attacks didn’t faze the monster at all. Paimon and his town of defenders pressed their attack from the opposite side.
At the feet of the behemoths, multitudes of demons clashed. I didn’t even know where they all came from because not nearly that many had slipped past us. There was no way to tell who was on whose side.
I cried in pain as a claw formed on Miftah’s side and raked across my body just as I approached the kaiju. My health plummeted 30% with that single hit. The kaiju fought all his attackers, forming limbs and appendages in all four directions at once, lunging, parrying, and stabbing.
I had the feeling he was toying with us, that we were nothing but an inconvenience, not a real threat.
I jammed down on Feral Claw, and the badger snarled, rushing forward with a lightning series of tearing, slashing attacks. Meanwhile, Avvinik was on the massive kaiju, clawing and biting. The panther’s five-hour attack, called Pleasure Slave, wouldn’t be useful against the kaiju. It only worked against targets of the opposite gender. And Clara and I already discussed that it was probably a bad idea for her to cast Hail and Kill, Avvinik’s fatal attack. It would force Miftah to cast his most expensive spell. That usually forced other guardians to kill themselves with their own fatal attack, but we decided not to try it here. It felt like a trap in this situation, not one we wanted to risk. We would keep it in reserve.
Kaiju- Battlefield Surgeon Page 52
