Blue Hell And Alien Fire (Middang3ard Book 4)

by Ramy Vance

  Diana narrowed her eyes at Beth. Her eyes darted to Chip, the T-rex, and then back to Beth. “We’re not really in the habit of sharing intel with the military,” she said. “They have a less-than-stellar track record of giving us useful intel. In fact, we’re often given the opposite. If we’re given anything, I’d think they’d have already found a sample worth working with.”

  Beth made a sound as if she were trying to hold back a laugh. “Are you seriously pulling that bullshit right now?” she asked. “We’re in this together. All of us—elf, human, gnome, military, and MERC. It shouldn’t matter who finds what. We still need to be sharing information. What if they find something we aren’t aware of?”

  “I think as a show of good faith, the military should start providing information first. They have a host of technology we’ve only received secondhand, valuable military recon, not to mention the sheer amount of research on healing spells, the libraries—”

  Beth’s face was beginning to turn red as she shouted, “We’re at fucking war! Is this really the time to—”

  There was the slightest change in Diana’s face. Her skin showed the beginnings of decay from constant magic use, and the area around her hairline and on her neck looked to be cracking around the edges as if powerful energy sat right beneath the surface of her epidermis. In an instant, it was as if that energy ceased to be contained. A rush of blue light pulsed through the air, knocking Beth over.

  Diana floated in the air, her eyes white, flashes of energy coming off her as if she were an atom waiting to split. “Do not lecture me on war,” Diana’s voice boomed, sounding as if it were composed of hundreds of voices speaking at once. “I have known war beyond your understanding. A millennium of war. Do not fucking question me.”

  Another blast of energy tossed Beth across the ground, flooring the rest of the Mundanes. Suzuki didn’t know what to do. Whatever’d happened to Diana happened so fast he wasn’t quite sure what was going on. He slipped down his HUD, thinking for a second he might have to defend himself against Diana. His HUD said he had a -67% chance of success. Was she really that powerful?

  Whatever was happening to the former Horseman was difficult to understand. It was as if her entire body had ceased to exist in the physical sense. She still had the shape of a human, but pure energy radiated off her, distorting the air around her like she was reshaping reality. The sky was darkening, and yet there seemed to be two suns in the sky. When Suzuki looked down at his hand, he saw multiple versions of it stretched over each other. As he looked at Diana, he had a sudden feeling of falling. What he saw looking was even more confusing. There seemed to be dozens of Dianas, each in a different position—some of them running, others screaming, and yet others calm and distinct, each of them a glowing being of pure energy.

  Chip reached out to Diana and she grabbed her hand. “Dee, it’s going to be okay,” she whispered, and just like that, it was over.

  Diana fell next to the dinosaur corpses, dressed in her robes, made of flesh and bone again. “Oh, my God,” Diana murmured, her eyes wide and frightened. “I am so sorry. I am so sorry.” Her eyes widened further, growing frantic as they searched around, deerlike, as if she were afraid not of what she had unleashed but of what her teammates might have thought of her.

  Beth was already back on her feet, drawing her sword. “What the fuck was that?” Beth shouted.

  Diana raised her hand, wand between her fingers. “Hold on,” she said before placing her wand on the ground. “I can explain.”

  Suzuki stepped between Beth and Diana. “Everyone needs to chill the fuck out right now,” he said. “Beth put your sword away. Diana—”

  Beth pushed Suzuki away and stalked toward Diana. “The fuck I am,” she shouted. “Did you see what just happened?”

  Diana was backing up, her hands still in the air. “I can explain,” she pleaded.

  “The fuck you will.”

  Suzuki didn’t think. He reached out and grabbed the back of Beth’s armor and yanked with everything he had, pulling Beth behind him. He whipped around, his voice loud and commanding, and shouted, “Stand the fuck down, Beth!”

  Beth glared at Suzuki. She looked like she was prepared to fight him, then she spat on the ground and sheathed her sword.

  Suzuki turned to Diana, his gaze and voice just as firm. “Explain.”

  Diana spoke, her voice trembling for the first time Suzuki had heard, stumbling over words, and stuttering. “It…it wasn’t me. Not really me. You see, I lost control a little bit. Not enough to be worried about. I would never hurt any of you. Never. It’s just, sometimes when I’m too… But, you see, it rarely happens, and—”

  Chip walked up behind Diana and rested her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Dee, darling, allow me,” Chip said. “She’s afraid. Afraid for me. There have been comms that the military’s thinking of getting all mad scientist like on my body. Thinking about it enough to send someone after me to nab me and all my goods. She’s just righteously spooked, that’s all. ‘Tis the reason she don’t want to be sending any recon to the uniforms.”

  Beth had calmed down some but was still noticeably angry. “And that’s what fucking happens when she gets a little upset?” Beth shouted. “So, we have two fucking berserkers in a party, and one of them is capable of whatever the fuck that was! What the fuck?”

  Diana pushed her glasses up and took a deep breath. “Please allow me to explain,” she said, her normal calm returning to her voice. “Years ago, I spent an extended time in the realm between realms. There were some ramifications. I came into contact with beings of higher planes of existence than I was prepared to handle. I was young, naïve, and arrogant. Through a series of poorly thought out decisions, I was forced to embody one of the spirits within my own body to return home. For the most part, our personalities have assimilated due to my…restraint. But…there are times when I struggle with control. It is impossible for the being to act outside of my own desires, but it does make it difficult for me to communicate in a fashion that is…less confrontational.”

  “What kind of being is in your fucking body?”

  “The easiest way to say it is that a trans-dimensional god is held somewhat captive in my body.”

  Suzuki shook his head, trying to understand what Diana was saying. “Wait, you mean like what the forest spirit was saying the Dark One is?” he asked.

  “Yes, very similar. I assume you saw the reality manipulation radiating from me. That was the effect of multiple dimensions and alternate realities conflating upon themselves. They show themselves as echoes on our plane of reality.”

  Suzuki sat down as he rubbed the back of his head. “Holy fucking shit…”

  “How do you think I became the most powerful mage in the realm?”

  “Why don’t we just sic you on the Dark One if you’re so powerful?”

  “Because I’m not nearly as powerful as him. By keeping this being in me, I substantially decrease its power.”

  Stew was the next one to speak, although his voice was shaky and frightened. “That’s where you sent Sandy?” he asked. “You sent her to a place like that?”

  Diana looked ashamed but did not back down. “I told her what to expect, what was possible, and how to avoid it. We are remaining in contact, and I will not let anything happen to her,” Diana explained. “I promise.”

  Stew didn’t look like he trusted or believed Diana. Suzuki could understand. The brief lapse in Diana’s control had frightened everyone. Suzuki was surprised that he had been so ready to attack Diana. He was even more surprised that he had broken up the potential fight between Beth and Diana. How was Beth going to take that?

  While Suzuki was lost in his thoughts, Stew stepped up to Diana. He was staring at her, and she returned the gaze with just as much intensity. Out of nowhere, he extended his hand to Diana. “Do you promise Sandy will be okay?” he asked.

  Diana took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I can promise I will do everything in my power to make sure
she’s safe,” Diana finally said. “Everything in my power.”

  “That’s good enough for me.”

  Diana clasped Stew’s hand, and they shook. When the two broke apart, Diana walked over to Beth and extended her hand. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I really don’t bear you any ill will. And I want you to know you can trust me.”

  Beth was still glaring at Diana. She looked like she would hit Diana at any moment. Instead, she laughed caustically and took Diana’s hand. “Jesus Christ, this is the most touchy-feely group of douchenozzles I’ve ever quested with,” she said flippantly. “Are we going to have to have a group therapy session every time we disagree with each other?”

  Suzuki let it out a sigh of relief. It seemed like everything had blown over just as quickly as it had erupted. “All right, if we’re all done being emotional, how about we go find where those dinosaurs came from.”

  There were no disagreements, so the Mundanes made their way back to the clearing they had been chased from. Suzuki made sure to get as close to Beth as possible. He couldn’t gauge how she was feeling, and he figured it was better to ask now then wait for it to worsen. As they walked, Suzuki brushed his hand against Beth’s to get her attention. She jumped in surprise, flinching from his touch. “You okay?” Suzuki asked.

  Beth looked at Suzuki and her face was tired. She smiled nonetheless and nodded. “You mean, because of the way you manhandled me back there?” she asked.

  “I wasn’t trying to man—”

  Beth gave him a loving punch on the shoulder. “Just fucking with you, Suzy. I know what that was. Didn’t like it at the time, but I know what it was.”

  “What was it?”

  “You diffused a dangerous situation like a good leader is supposed to. What, did you think I was going to give you crap about not taking my side or something?”

  Suzuki sighed in relief. “I don’t know. I thought you might be pissed off at me.”

  “I’m not gonna say I’m in a really great mood and want to cover you in kisses or anything at the moment. But I’m not pissed. It’s what any of my captains would have done. I don’t like being told whether or not I’m right or wrong, especially when I know I’m right. But I’m also not stupid. We can’t be wasting time fighting each other. Especially when everyone’s got such specific reasons for fighting each other. Someone gets their brain hacked. Someone else is the containment vessel of a god. And I heard through the grapevine that you almost killed each other because you were being poisoned by a witch?”

  Suzuki nodded, remembering one of the Mundanes’ first real quests and how close they had been to ripping each other’s throats out. Apparently, MERCs trying to kill each other due to outside forces was such a common thing the MERCs even had a name for it: aggressive friendship. Diana had once said if MERCs held grudges about every MERC who had tried to kill them, they wouldn’t have anyone left in their party.

  Beth wiped the sweat off her forehead and spat. “Yeah, so don’t make a habit of throwing me around,” Beth said. “Though it was a little hot. Just a little. Now come on, Fearless Leader. Get your head back in the game.”

  Chip went to the front of the party’s formation. She motioned for Beth to come up and join her, which Beth did. Once they were standing together, Chip knelt and pointed to the ground. She showed Beth the indentations that had been left by the T-rexes and the other dinosaurs that had gone stampeding through the jungle. The indentations were faint, and Chip explained how one could find them; how one allows their eyes to find the natural pattern. Suzuki was glad Chip was still planning on mentoring Beth. Even with the brief bit of tension, it didn’t seem as if anything had truly changed.

  After a few minutes, Chip and Beth stood. They spoke with each other for a bit, figuring out which direction was best to travel.

  Chip encouraged Beth to lead the Mundanes along the trail, and they set out in the direction of the mountain. The trail went cold a few times and Beth walked back and forth, growing more and more frustrated. She finally kicked up a clump of dirt and slashed it apart with her sword.

  Chip took a second and took Beth away from the rest of the Mundanes. She spoke to her quietly, speaking with great care, and Suzuki wished he could have heard what they were saying. In the last twenty minutes, he had seen sides of Beth he had never known.

  As far as he had known, Beth was a cool and collected person.

  That was not what he had seen today.

  Maybe there were things that set her off he had just never experienced. This was the longest time they had ever spent with each other.

  Once Beth was calmer, Chip and Beth returned to the path. It did not take long before Beth picked the trail up again. This time, instead of relying on the markings in the grass, they tracked based on the stools that had been dropped during the stampede. It took them about twenty minutes, but the Mundanes eventually circled around the volcano until they found what looked like a camp.

  Beth looked it over and then began to pace, scratching the back of her head. “I don’t understand,” she said to Chip. “We followed the trail. There’s nothing here. Just some abandoned shit.”

  Chip checked around the camp while the rest of the Mundanes watched. As Suzuki watched Chip and Beth work, Stew cornered Diana and was asking her about Sandy. There didn’t seem to be any reasoning behind his questions; they were open-ended, grasping at concepts he didn’t understand. His fear came through in each of the questions. Even if he didn’t understand, he was terrified of what could happen to Sandy.

  Over in the camp, Chip pointed to an overturned bowl, then to a series of footsteps that looked very different from anything else they had seen. These footprints seemed to accompany those that were obviously from the T-rexes. “Beautiful,” Chip murmured. “One of these toes ain’t like the others. You see that, right? Sometimes you just have to take a moment and look around, see what you can glass with your peepers. You’re a keen bit more observant than you give yourself credit for.”

  Beth nodded as she led the Mundanes along the trail. For another twenty minutes, they walked. It was beginning to get dark, the sun slipping from the sky. In the last bits of the sunlight, Beth pointed to what looked to be an entrance carved into the side of the volcano.

  Chip opened up her HUD and pulled up a map. She scrolled through looking for the volcano on the island. Once she located it, she rendered a 3D image of the map, walking around it, rubbing her cheeks obsessively. “All right, darlings, looks like this ain’t on any of our maps,” Chip finally said. “Got us a brand, spanking new entrance to spelunk with. What’s the game plan?”

  Suzuki looked at the 3D map. “This is the volcano, right?” Suzuki asked. “The one like Verne talked about. The one that goes straight into the middle of the world?”

  Diana pointed at the map and it changed, showing a pathway straight through the volcano down into Middang3ard. “It was closed a long time ago,” she said. “It was briefly explored before it was determined to be too big a risk. There were…magical artifacts. Well, not quite artifacts. It was discovered there was something in the cavern that provided the natives with a large amount of magical power. That was why the Smuggles were able to easily defeat you earlier. They draw their power from within the world. If the Dark One has decided to start messing with whatever is within the hollows of Middang3ard, it could be catastrophic.”

  “So, you don’t know what is down there?”

  “Not exactly. There were theories before the observation spaces were shot down. We believed it might be something. A ley line.”

  Beth threw her hands up in exasperation before crouching down on the soles of her feet. “Okay, can you just assume you aren’t talking to people with a degree in nerd,” she groaned.

  Diana couldn’t help but smile, and Beth returned the gesture, albeit more of a grin. “Certainly,” Diana continued. “A ley line is a point in a geographical plane that aligns with other points in a straight line across the world that are used for magical purposes. From
this volcano, if you were to draw a straight line on the map…”

  The 3D map Chip had produced now changed so it showed all of Middang3ard. The volcano was a sole point. A line cut through the volcano and circled the globe. There were other points on the map that fell on the vector. One continuous line.

  “Each of these points are on what we call ley lines, places in Middang3ard that produce intense amounts of magic. In all honesty, we still aren’t sure what magic is. What is conjuring a fireball or casting a sound-dampening spell? My theory is that magic is nothing more than reality manipulation. All forms of magic boil down to that, and each individual is able to manipulate reality to different degrees, depending on their innate ability or learned skill.”

  Some of the ideas were starting to click for Suzuki. “Like what we’ve been talking about with the Dark One?” Suzuki asked. “He’s in some way trying to control or distort reality, right?”

  “Exactly. We don’t know how. We’re not even sure we know how we are capable of doing it. Familiars, innate racial magic, all of it is a dark forest, and we can hardly take in the whole thing for being focused on the trees. But what we know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that these areas called ley lines produce magic on such a level you wouldn’t be able to find it across the whole realm. They are places that are in flux with other dimensions. With time. You can no doubt see why the research areas were closed down. To say these areas are dangerous is an understatement.”

  Suzuki nodded as he walked out of the shade of the trees to take a better look at the opening Chip and Beth had led them to. The sun was descending over the horn of the mountain. Darkness was coming soon. “We should make camp for the night,” Suzuki suggested. “Do you have any idea how long it’s going to take to get to the center?”

  Diana shook her head and shrugged. “Most of the technical records we have, the very specific ones, were lost,” she admitted. “The military has the bulk of the research, and…well, we already talked about all that.”