Without especially trying to, the ancient had managed to find the boy’s sore spot. Tailyn’s breathing quickened as he gazed unpleasantly at his partner. Already thinking of himself as a great mage capable of getting his hands on something no one else in the world had, as soon as an emergency arose, he’d pulled out the same old cards rather than relying on his new power. And the green-faced bastard had rubbed his face in it. For a moment, he considered dropping Valrus into the waiting arms of the Cleaner.
Get us out of here, Tailyn said to the dragon, though he frowned when he saw what their enemy did next. The Cleaner had filled the corridor without finding anything, and so it was moving on to the next stage of its plan—slender strands of dough began drooping from the ceiling to pierce through the corridor. The same as when it had been blocking off the passageway, the only difference was that there were far more strands that time. Apparently, the monster had come across flying food, and it took so long to dodge the hanging droplets that Tailyn barely had time to pull Valrus through after him. The passageway the pair had arrived through had been reduced to a thick and impenetrable forest.
While Tailyn’s map showed another hall half a kilometer ahead, he was in no hurry to rush off in that direction. Soon, there was going to be another labyrinth update, and he wanted to cover their tracks a bit before that happened. Pausing not far from the entrance, he used his binoculars to zoom in to the end of the corridor and activated his ice barricade to block off the entrance from the other side. Vargot suddenly flashed red; the boy involuntarily shot upward. Rolling itself into a ball, the Cleaner rushed off toward the chunk of ice, knowing full well that its food was on the other side. Controlling the hall was no longer a priority. All the creature wanted to do was fill whatever stood in for its stomach.
The update timer ticked down, and the lab began to modify. The corridor the Cleaner had rushed into disappeared, as did the one the boy had been planning on heading into. On the other hand, a few smaller ones appeared, one of which led right to the edge of the lab’s underground part. And that was where Tailyn wanted to be.
“Go!” Tailyn ordered, deactivating his card and inviting the reptiloid to jump onto his back once again. “The monster is going to figure out soon enough that it was tricked.”
While it wasn’t that far, it took Tailyn an hour to get through the corridor. There were far more traps there than there had been elsewhere, and the boy didn’t know how a few of them worked. He had to constantly ask Valrus. By the time the next update was about to happen, they hadn’t gotten out of the corridor, so Tailyn hurried up and just about clipped a brace by the way out. They all tumbled into the hall, Valrus dragged behind Tailyn. Leaping to his feet, Tailyn grunted. For the first time down in the depths of the lab, there was light—gloomy and barely noticeable, but light driving away the millennia of darkness regardless. It was coming from a strange construction in the middle of the space that looked like two long teeth reaching out for each other. One was coming down from the ceiling; the other was coming out of the ground. Both were tipped with metal knobs, and there was something between them that wasn’t letting the teeth close. Enclosed in a protective force field that was giving off the light, a strange knife made out of a piece of snow-white bone hung in the air. Tailyn gazed with interest at what was yet one more thing the Cleaner couldn’t handle, and that was when he heard the reptile’s murmuring. He glanced over and immediately braced to take on whatever was about to happen. Not just croaking and muttering, Valrus was shaking in fear. Even through the face guard, Tailyn could see the genuine terror and almost crazed eyes set in what had once been a green face. The light in the room was enough to see that the reptiloid had turned gray. And with the reptiloid’s gaze fixed on the hovering knife, Tailyn’s perception finally kicked in to tell him what they were dealing with.
Fang. Description only available to owner. Current owner: none.
“What’s so scary about that?” the boy asked dubiously. He wasn’t particularly counting on an answer, though he got one anyway. The reptiloid’s muttering took form.
“The Absorber’s weapon. That’s the Absorber’s weapon. But how? What’s it doing here?”
Just then, there was a deafening roar, and Vargot highlighted in blue a mass moving at the speed of galloping horses. The Cleaner had quickly figured out where its prey had gotten off to and sent one of its parts after it. Vargot lifted Tailyn up off the ground, the dragon pulled its master and his rider away from the passageway and toward the strange knife, and that was when the Cleaner burst into the hall. From three directions at once, in fact. And it only took the dough a few moments to figure out where its target was.
Valrus croaked in fear, and Tailyn felt his usual calm settle on him. The first thing he realized was that there wasn’t time to teleport back to Mean Truk. He was going to have to fight.
But how?
Chapter 11
FORIAN WAS THINKING ALOUD about how to manage their construction, only Valia wasn’t listening to him. A few seconds before, something inside her had jerked, and she couldn’t figure out what. Was it something with the city? No, the guards hadn’t reported any danger. Something with her personally? Again, no. Nobody could get into the tent—the god wouldn’t have allowed it. Tailyn pulling something one more time? From the looks of it, everything was fine on his end—his virtual copy was in the smithy telling her yet another tall tale he’d heard from Valrus. Soon, of course, she was going to read it herself so she could get the ancient’s story down on paper, but she enjoyed listening to her boy, nonetheless. He told the stories with such fervor and excitement that she found herself involuntarily drawn into them, really feeling for the heroes of old. Still, there was definitely something giving her an uneasy feeling. Tired of trying to figure it out, she decided to just go ahead and ask.
Tailyn, is everything okay over there? Any problems?
Well... The virtual Tailyn stopped in the middle of his story and reddened. The sense of danger intensified.
Tailyn! What happened?!
Just a little something. I’d like to tell you it isn’t a big deal, but I’m not going to lie. This is a hole I can’t figure out how to get out of no matter how much I think about it.
Get back to the city! You’re more important than Valrus, Valia replied, though she suddenly realized Tailyn wasn’t going to make the jump. And it wasn’t because he didn’t want to leave the reptiloid behind; it was because he couldn’t.
The girl was right on the money. Once again, Tailyn triggered the magic and agreed to the condition that he was going to be heading back to the city alone only to find himself staring down an unpleasant message from the System:
Note! There’s a remote communication suppression device active in the Ancient Experimental Laboratory location.
You can’t use two-way portal cards or your Return ability.
“No good,” Tailyn mumbling, finally giving in. “I can’t get back, either.”
Valrus just cast an annoyed glance at the boy before returning to the Cleaner, trying to find the tiniest weakness. Still terrified by the white bone knife, the reptiloid was seriously considering committing suicide by Cleaner. Spending more time next to the terrifying weapon was too much for him—it was what had bereft him of the ability to respawn in the game.
But there were no weaknesses. The Cleaner completely filled the space, leaving just one small cavity around Fang. Having let Tailyn and Valrus through without a problem, the force field was an impenetrable wall for the experiment, though the monster kept backing up a few meters and hurling itself at the obstacle. It wasn’t working.
“What’s so dangerous about the knife?” Tailyn asked as a way to pass the time. From what it looked like, he and Valrus were going to be there for a while. The store was working fine, so they weren’t going to have an issue with food, and the boy’s only hope was that the monster would get tired of attacking futilely a couple hours, days, or even weeks or months later. There was more readily available food to be found. But with no sig
n of that happening in the near future, they had plenty of time to talk. Back at the beginning of their confinement, Tailyn had tried to grab Fang, though he couldn’t get through the protection. Another force field kept the weapon safe from interlopers. Even the dragon and its flames couldn’t get through. Apparently, the construction didn’t care in the least what the miserable little group could threw at it.
But there was no answer forthcoming from Valrus. Busy working through his own fears, he wasn’t in the mood to let the idiot boy distract him. Tailyn sighed, not sure what to make of his partner’s state of mind, though that was when he frowned. Raptor was showing some movement. While the accessory had shown a clear front within the nearest hundred and fifty meters save for the Cleaner, it was suddenly announcing a new presence. Again, there was no description, though it was clear the newcomer was heading straight for them. The scanner showed the Cleaner’s mass disappearing in front of their uninvited guest. Soon enough, the experiment twitched so violently the mountain shook, and Tailyn watched as it took off at its usual speed, leaving Fang and the two tasty morsels behind it. But it was moving in the opposite direction of the new guest. A few moments later, the Cleaner had left the hall without leaving behind so much as a trace.
“What’s going on? Why did the monster leave?” Valrus had to take a few steps away from Fang before he could find the nerve to ask the question.
“It didn’t leave; it ran away,” Tailyn replied, his eyes fixed on the far corridor. The reptiloid followed his gaze and froze. Out of the passageway came the lone figure of a person hovering half a meter above the ground. Unlike Tailyn, the newcomer was able to move in all directions—and he wasn’t walking. He was flying. Himself, with no companions to speak of. The boy’s perception sized up the new character and threw up virtual hands, unable to get through to anything beyond the most general of information.
Mark Derwin (Absorber). Parameters hidden.
Regardless of the reptiloid’s fear, Tailyn studied the legendary ancient with interest. Vargot was easy to recognize—the boy had one of his own. The same held true for Raptor and Valkyrie, both right where Tailyn wore them. That, however, was the end of the similarities, as the Absorber was littered with all kinds of attachments. He looked like a horse might after riding through a burdock bush. But while Mark’s face guard covered him completely, Tailyn could tell he was human. Two legs, two arms, one head, and a human build did the trick. There were no wings, no tails. Stopping a few meters away from the energy dome protecting Fang as if realizing he couldn’t go any further, he turned toward Valrus and spent some time studying the reptiloid. Then, the absolute silence in the hall was broken. His voice was deep, enormously powerful, though incredibly calm and emotionless. It was almost as though a machine were talking. Even One’s voice had been more lifelike than that person’s, although...was he still a person?
“Valrus Po, Villian Po’s second lieutenant. Traitor, condemned to death. Robbed of your birth name. How are you still in the land of the living, outlaw? Your kind shouldn’t be able to make it three thousand years without the game. Did it take you back?”
It was painful to look at Valrus. From what Tailyn could tell, the ancient had been robbed of every last bone in his body, leaving him to droop onto the ground without the strength to lift his head and reply. His fear of the Absorber was so intense he’d completely lost control over himself. All he could do was wheeze something in reply, knowing full well that he had to say something. If he left Mark Derwin hanging, the three thousand years he’d spent in the red acid were going to seem like a ride in the park.
“Okay, I’ll deal with you later—first, the boy.” Mark Derwin turned away, and a wave of relief flooded over Valrus. He could breathe again. At the same time, however, Tailyn felt an incredible pressure building. A fire burned in his chest to kindle a mindless fear of the Absorber, his legs began shaking, his body felt like it weighed a couple tons, and he was on the verge of feeling himself smeared across the ground. Everything in him demanded that he submit. That was what it was going to take to find relief, though Tailyn fought back. He shook. He defecated. He stopped breathing. But he stood tall. A few moments later, the head of Mean Truk received a message that told him the sensations weren’t coming from him.
You are under the effect of the Absorber’s Submission ability.
Tailyn didn’t know what the ability did, though it was abundantly clear that submitting wasn’t an option. Trusting the consciousness responsible for his body was out of the question. The Tailyn in the real world had been turned into a pliable marionette prepared to do the biding of the Absorber. But with that said, the boy’s integration was shining in full glory, handing over control to the part of the boy Mark Derwin couldn’t get at. Over in the virtual smithy, Tailyn joined forces with two other projections, one controlling the dragon, and the other handling his magic. The three Tailyns acted as one to help his physical body stay on his feet. There was no consciousness left there—submission had done its dirty work.
“I need the logs from the battle with the black slime,” Mark Derwin said. Tailyn’s body twisted in a painful spasm, though that had no impact on his virtual consciousnesses. And even as the subordinated mind tried to reply, all that came out of the boy’s mouth was foam and bubbles. It wasn’t his body controlling his consciousness.
“Don’t make me destroy you.” A shadow of annoyance flitted across the Absorber’s placid face. Over the previous two thousand years, there hadn’t been a single creature capable of standing up to his advanced ability, and a simple twelve-year-old wasn’t going to be the first. But something was wrong. And that made Mark feel something he’d long since gotten rid of as superfluous—emotions. Of course, the spot where he’d found the feisty kid didn’t help things. His arrival on the planet had taken place in a distant, unpopulated area, and it had taken some work to find his way to civilization. But that wasn’t even the worst part of his trip to Earth-2. Tailyn had turned out to be holed up where Mark had finally lost his humanity, turning his back on the one item that connected him to his past. The knife he’d made himself. Mark had set up the protection, activated the Cleaner, and even set the traps to make sure no other living soul could ever take possession of Fang. Despite the amount of time that had gone by, everything was still just as he’d left it—he’d had to destroy part of the first experiment to get to where he was going. But the spot was intriguing. What had the pair been looking for? And what could have brought two so very different creatures together?
Tailyn wasn’t party to the Absorber’s train of thought. Instead, he was busy trying to connect to his wooden body’s vision, everything still under Derwin’s sway. It worked on the fifth try. In front of the Tailyn in the virtual smithy appeared an enormous canvas occupied by an image, sensing somehow even without the requisite training that he couldn’t rejoin his body. But he could still act remotely.
I can’t try any new spells, just the ones already in the list, called the consciousness in charge of magic.
The dragon can attack, only it won’t last long against the Absorber, said the second Tailyn.
If you need my help, let me know, Valia’s voice rang out coldly. The girl could see all too well what was happening to her betrothed, and she was ready to personally shred the Absorber for daring to threaten him.
“Let’s do what we can,” the central consciousness said after analyzing the situation. There was no shot at winning, but Tailyn wasn’t going to give in without a battle. He was going to fight back until his last breath. “On the count of three, I want the dragon from the right, a water fist from above, a fireball from the left, an earth spike from below, and an elemental from the back. Let’s see what his protection is like. Valia, resurrect me if it doesn’t work out—we’ll figure out what to do with this guy when I’m back in the city. Ready? One...two...three!”
Mark Derwin was taken aback. Nothing was going according to plan. When Villian had asked him to fly to Earth-2, he hadn’t seen anything wrong wi
th the trip. Over the three thousand years he’d spent jumping from release to release, there had been quite a few bookmarks left that were going to pop back up sooner or later. One of them was the black slime, a creature with a particle of reality created outside the game. It was indestructible by default, which made it a surprise for Mark when he got the request from his old commander. But that was fine—things happen. Perhaps, someone had found an unchanged weapon and finished off Villian’s creation. After landing on the planet, however, Derwin had come across something that flummoxed him. The functionality that made him practically god-like wasn’t working—device control, hacking, and even enhancement. They were all blocked. If it hadn’t been for that, he wouldn’t have even bothered talking to the boy, instead just grabbing the logs and returning Tailyn’s consciousness to where it had come from. The game. Then, he would have gotten to work cleaning house—it was dangerous leaving anyone with knowledge that could harm Villian’s reputation in other worlds. What was a dozen natives when there were billions of credits at stake? But even there the Absorber hit a wall. Tailyn was fighting back. Experience had taught Mark how that could be done, though he pushed the thought away. Over the past three thousand years, he had yet to come across a kid who could survive with triple consciousness. Humans weren’t capable of that.
Tartila Mine (The Alchemist Book #5): LitRPG Series Page 15
