That distraction was enough for Decorum to launch a follow up strike. Given the gashes Artorian’s claw had made through the Ironhide protections, he had a clean target. Decorum’s Gale Claw widened, the injured liger doing his best to strike the exact location of the prior claws. One of the pressured lines of air may have missed and sliced against the nullifying Ironhide, but the others all scored critical damage.
Mokono released a final, dying motor-screech, and burst into confetti particles as Decorum leveled up. Ascending above the maximum Midgard cap.
Slumping to his butt, Decorum formed into Gomez, taking on a humanlike guise as Artorian zipped back to him for immediate healing. The scars he’d attained from this fight could have been deathly dangerous, but the brother who had taken him out hunting was a very skilled healer. Odd how a single person could hold such varied positions. Still, that was how it worked with Artorian. He would be what was needed, regardless of that being a friend, a brother, or a father.
Laying a digit on the stately man, the youth spoke in a hurry. “[Full Restore].”
Artorian watched Gomez’s health bar fill right back up. The scars, wounds, battle damage, and residual status effects all vaporizing to nothingness. Bleed statuses poofed, right along with bone fractures, muscle tears, fatigue, infections, a venom counter, and some disease called tetanus. Decorum sighed with relief. “Ah… that feels so much better.”
*Ding*.
Artorian looked around, having heard the noise. He didn’t see a new notification, but Gomez did, and moved his hand to point at it. “My friend, I have received an ultimatum notice. I can choose to immediately move on from Midgard, as I have so far refused to. Or I can become a part of the place permanently and take up the boss position Mokono had. I do not wish the latter, and this one has a timer. I have ten minutes.”
Artorian nodded, understanding. “I think you’ll be able to come back, somehow. I need to remember to look into it more deeply. Seeing as you’re currently in a state of undress… let me give you a parting gift as congratulations for removing that iron-tusked pain, and to celebrate the start of your new life. Don’t worry about where you pick to go next. I’ll find you when I can. Let me just…”
Opening the shop again, the youth sifted through relevant sections until he found what he was looking for. “Modsognir-style suit. Sized to touched creature. Select. Purchase. Confirm.”
A box materialized next to him. Artorian dismissed the system prompts, and picked the gift up, handing it over with a smile. “This is for you, my friend.”
The dark, black vest and red undershirt alone were beauties. Gomez’s eyes sparkled, and he slid on the entire outfit under a few minutes. The youth conjured a temporary mirror, and the broad-smiling stately man beamed. “Cara mia.”
As Gomez dressed, Artorian ‘spoke’ a fencing blade into being, weaving the energies while mumbling relevant Pylon names under his breath. He didn’t know if they were right, but he supposed that was the joy of figuring things out. Using Mokono’s tusk as a basis, the guise of a walking cane formed around the blade, doubling in function as a scabbard. Pleased with his work, he handed it over. “Best of luck in the next realm, my boy.”
Gomez sucked in a breath. This was all happening so fast for him. Rising up to full height, he tested the walking cane, digging the butt end into the ground as he posed. “How do I look, Father?”
Artorian hovered into the air and adjusted the bowtie. “Like a thousand good souls packed into one. Ready to bring culture wherever he treads.”
Gomez hugged the youth, the timer down to the last minute. “When you visit, my next domus shall be grander than the one I leave behind. So say I, Gomez of Decorum!”
Artorian smiled, and gave a gentle nod.
Gomez steadied himself, winking with accompanied salute. The timer blinked down into the ten second region. His cane twirled, spinning through the air as he used the end of it to press accept. Gomez blinked out of being, leaving behind Artorian, a wrecked landscape, a family of distraught beavers, and one very, very pale Imp.
Chapter Thirty-One
In fluent scree-scree, Artorian addressed the Imp as part of the landscape behind him cracked, collapsing in on itself with quaking cacophony as underground caverns structurally failed. The Horror and Terror status marks couldn’t be increased further, but the Imp would swear up and down that they had as the scary youth spoke. “Now. How many of you are there, and where?”
The Imp shakily rose that same stubby digit. Pointing up to the sky. Following the direction, Artorian thought he was going to catch fire when the creature motioned straight for the moon. The new moon here in Eternium. He had no idea what happened to the old one, the one in Cal’s Soul Space which he liked the outside of so much. The inside… *Eh*. That was the kind of clinical discomfort he needed to learn how to stomach.
Holding that cold, unpleasant feeling, he channeled it into his words.
“How. Many?”
The Imp panicked, attempting to count on his fingers. Unfortunately, as good as he was at stringed instruments, he was a sore shot at math. Artorian started wondering how to go from here when Cal very loudly exploded in the Eternium version of the senate.
Glancing at the Imp, Artorian made his retort laconic. The Imp just wasn’t going to have the answers he needed. From the sound of it, ‘upper management’ just might. “I’ll deal with you later. You are free to go.”
Verbally released, the throne shuddered as the Imp wanted it to be anywhere but here. The seat popped, porting out of Midgard and vanishing with the seated Imp entirely.
Artorian went right back to paying attention as Cal simmered with anger, vocally carrying on.
The connection cut, and Artorian slated the Eternium moon problem for later. Better yet, this was likely connected. Best to focus on more immediate issues. Would his body remain here if he shifted locations? Probably. He didn’t want that family of angry beavers to whack him. Better to pay some compensation.
Opening his shop, he left some beaver-related goodies and treats behind, plus enough raw material for a whole new dam. After leaving them a small, apologetic note, Artorian zipped back off to the domus. He loved that Decorum had opted for the open-air addition smack in the middle of the structure. The central portion of the peristyle was the site of a decorative garden, adorned with gorgeous fountains. It let him cut right through the structure without harm, and zip into the room he’d been previously designated.
Bentley hopped along in a hurry, supremely displeased with this lack of manners as Artorian made his way inside. “Sir! It is uncouth to arrive and make oneself present without proper prior announcement. Sir! Do you hear me, young master?”
When the butler bunny reached the stilled form resting in bed, Artorian had long left it.
Waking in Cal’s Soul Space, Artorian found his hunch was correct. He was not able to take that specific body with him. For just a moment, he enjoyed familiar comforts per the body of an elder. Though only for a moment as his form went *clap*, snapping back to that of a youth. “Crackers and toast!”
Rubbing his forehead in defeat, he dropped the matter and instantly teleported to the inner circle space at the top of Niflheim. Artorian arrived in the midst of a full-on spat between Occultatum and Cal. Snapping at one another, the argument was both loud and heated. Their arms flailed, hands speaking as wildly as their clashing words.
A very meek, odd-shaped orb floated nearby. Clearly trying to stay out of it.
Artorian recognized the consciousness as Eternium! Oh, this was going to be a doozy. He slid into his chair, but Dawn held her hand out towards him. He thought better of it, and hovered over to sit in her lap instead. She was quite pleased to hold him, and he wouldn’t deny her that smal
l comfort. Some people had not yet seen Artorian in this new child form, but they said nothing about his current appearance.
Actual problems were afoot.
Tatum was energized, and didn’t hold back. “I told you, millennia ago, that Barry was going to be a problem. You ignored it until now, when he has figured out a way to influence the world without a body, complete sensory deprivation, and a zone around him that blocks Essence and Mana. Did you forget to block Spirit when you Incarnated? Now we have a whole mess!”
Cal angrily pointed at the orb representing Eternium. “I knew about the other S-rankers, but not that he was harboring demons. Nor that one of the S-rankers in question is one. I do not have to explain, to you of all people, why that is a problem. Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
Eternium meekly hovered backwards, and Tatum stamped his foot on the soil, sending a tremor through the land. “We tried, Cal! We did! You wouldn’t even take Barry seriously! This time, you’re no A-ranker that can afford to push the problem to the next millennium. You have gone through the first step’s life, and you are a hair away from the second step. I am in your soul, Cal. You can’t hide this from me. One more hair and I will be all back to normal, and you will be forced to let all those S-rankers out or your own promise will crack you. Even if I still don’t know the full details of the deal, because you have been painfully vague about the exactness of it all.”
Cal conjured a flat rock just to throw it into the distance. “That’s because I purposefully kept it vague! I don’t want to talk about it because then you can prod me about it, and if you prod me about it, you’ll change the patterns of how I interpret that vagueness! My current interpretation gives me all the wiggle room. I like wiggle room. There! Are you happy?”
Tatum buried his face into his hands and doubled over from imaginary headache pain. “Ca~a~a~l. No matter the interpretation, if you cross your own rules of the promise then it still counts as breaking the promise. You are going to need to let them all out of stasis, and let them live lives. The chains of chaos haven’t shown a hint of weakening, you are stuck. We still cannot get out. You cannot wiggle-room this in the hopes that they will fade because you make the second step. The odds are not in your favor!”
“Never tell me the odds!” Cal snapped back, and a thousand screens dropped into full projection around them, arranged as a dome. “I know about all the odds, and now this one is listed too!”
The relevant screen was pulled, and he pointed at it. Upset. “This is the odds screen for the Barry-problem, and look. It’s fine. It says…”
When Cal actually looked—really looked—his words died in his throat as his human face paled. “Oh sweet, merciful myself. That’s… that’s bad. That’s so bad.”
Tatum motioned exasperatedly, as if to say ‘I told you so! Doofus!’ then walked away just to collapse in his chair. His fingers pressed hard to his brow, as he didn’t want to talk anymore.
Cal turned nice and pale. The dungeon steepled his hands and pressed digits to his lips. “Celestial Feces.”
Chandra’s hands were also steepled, her brow in a deep furrow. “Let me see if I understand this correctly. Eternium, the dungeon Core you picked up from the real world, is a Third-Step Incarnate that refused to ‘go further.’ I’m not pressing that right now. He has a Soul Space equivalent to yours, but a vastly differing Law, and outlook on how things should be done. Because Order is all-important to him, there had to be a balance in what he ‘saved.’ For lack of a better term.”
She dropped her hands to the table, speaking calmly in her fully human guise. It was just easier. “Of those balancers, Eternium included: Several S-rankers. Demons. Hordes of creatures no reasonable individual would have ever picked up or associated with, and those bark-cracked mosquitos!”
Chandra was clearly miffed at their mention, but didn’t halt her stride. “This hasn’t been a problem. Until now, when lives and people were moved into Eternium to function under the ‘system’ Cal is implementing. Piggybacking on Eternium’s Law for both convenience and structure. Unfortunately, because of that activity, and Cal’s own Incarnate step. Entities in Eternium can exit stasis, or were made to exit stasis, and now roam free in Eternium. They’re bound to the system, but they exist.”
The dungeon was going to interrupt her, but Chandra doubled down on her sharp tone, cutting him right off. “In addition. Barry, the abyssal devourer and most royal of grievances, not only exists, but lives, and is influencing most if not all the demons somehow. Since someone forgot to seal off Spirit energy access. I was so confused about what that bar in my status screen meant. I can cycle between a measurement in Essence, and a measurement in Mana. Yet measurement in Spirit has always shown as zero, and I just didn’t understand until now.”
Artorian raised his young hand.
Chandra wanted to keep biting chunks out of their dungeon overlord, but huffed and threw him a ball. That ball was Eternium, but Artorian grasped the point of what Chandra meant by it. He nodded thankfully. “Let me please deter the course of this event, just slightly. I currently don’t understand the full extent of the problem, and am aware that demons in Eternium exist in or on the moon. Is Cal’s moon safe? Memory Cores being in danger is not an aspect I even remotely wish to chance. One problem at a time please.”
Minya raised her hand, and Artorian passed the orb. Her cheeks were full of color! Minya’s voice had pep, and she seemed much happier about life in general. “I can confirm that Cal’s moon is entirely unaffected. No demons. No damage. No changes save for the continual child improvements. Now that I am feeling a little better, and have a helper, we are working on improving the inside of the moon to be teenager-friendly with many hidden secrets to find. It’s also where we’re installing the classrooms and such. We want to allow the older children some space from the younger ones, if they need it. The deeper into the moon they go, the more arduous the challenge. If they can reach the center before a set age, they will be allowed to enter Eternium early. We’ll have nothing left to teach them if they do.”
That was good, and pleasant news. The gathering murmured appreciatively at that development. Odin raised his hand, and the ball passed. “I see not why we cannot simply defeat this Barry in single combat. Once destroyed, it will count as a life lived! He does not need to be brought back if he is such a concern. Ha! Send the goose after him! How mighty of a challenge can one who remains locked up for all eternity be?”
The silence that lay heavy over the inner circle didn’t do Odin any good, nor did it sit well. “Surely you jest. This foe is not one that cannot be vanquished!”
Cal slid into his chair, and his hand waggled in the so-so motion. Odin gave him the orb, and the dungeon spoke. “I… I feel like I can address this. So long as it is one problem at a time. Barry. Right. So here’s the problem with Barry. That title of his isn’t for show. To defeat him the first time, we had to employ some truly devious, experimental, and oh-merciful-heavens-this-might-not work tactics. Infernal Essence cannons on an Incarnate? Had we not been right on the mark with his weakness fully exposed, we would never have gotten so lucky. Nor are we going to pull that off a second time.”
Odin rolled his wrist for more. This still didn’t sound like a problem, so Cal continued. “Barry is an Incarnate. A true Incarnate. Like Dawn and Tatum. So he doesn’t just get the body, like the rest of you do. He gets all the bells and whistles as well. Our current Incarnates have already moved through layers a few times while in my Soul Space, and it gives me a horrible case of indigestion. Except in my soul instead of my stomach. Metaphorically, I mean… well, you get it.”
Odin rolled his wrist more, and faster. Still not relevant! “Barry’s Law is consumption, or the equivalent idea. He has a special method of attack where his ‘soul,’ the intelligent and sapient part of him, can leave the ‘body’ of the Incarnate behind, and attack using the prior. That which is attacked is consumed outright. Entirely. There’s no defense. There’s no blocking. Mitigation
is a joke if you’re in the area of effect he has spread himself to. He just eats you, and gets all your power. You need to be a true Incarnate to be a match, and if that is a battle that happens by jumping through layers, I am not going to feel great. Which is why I said what I did earlier.”
Odin’s wrist-roll stopped. That was less than thunderous news. He cleared his throat, feeling hesitant. “So… Even if we have the superbodies, if we ourselves are A-rankers, we essentially don’t stand a chance. Not even with the system in Eternium? That’s where he’s stuck. Surely it can be done.”
Tatum raised his hand, and Cal tossed him the ball. “You’ve got no chance, even with the system conversion. The difference between an Incarnate and a Mage is the same kind of difference as between a C-ranker and a Mage. You’ve got no hope of winning without some serious gimmicks. Except unless we can use the system for something more, there aren’t any gimmicks that will work. Incarnates are a category of their own; we are something a normal person can’t understand.”
People didn’t like that comment, so he clarified. “Remember that Dawn and I are actually immortal. Only if something harms or kills our souls do we kick it. Otherwise, we will be around forever. Barry also has that bonus, and unlike most all of you, he never needs to sleep in his Seed Core. We can’t even contain him with the best methods we have currently applied. In addition, he was a student of Xenocide. You remember? The madman who was able to damage Incarnates directly, because his attacks destroyed or destabilized the concepts we have of ourselves. It would be foolish to ignore that he might know even an inch of that style.”
Cal lifted his hand, and was tossed Eternium. “Tatum is right. Based on my first few checks, Barry is using a form of parasitic mind control to affect creatures in his immediate surroundings, and those spread his influences to others. It’s like my totems? Except much better. I’m still surprised. Even given all the time he had to figure out how to do that. Especially while confined in Eternium, and limited as he is. I did not expect Barry to have such a burning mind. It’s easy to forget he was a High Elf.”
Anima: A Divine Dungeon Series (Artorian's Archives Book 6) Page 25
