AbyssalRoadTrip
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Abyssal Road Trip - 361 - Monsters
🕑 Added 2023-11-22 04:37:57 +0000 UTCAmdirlain’s PoV - Foundry
The pair sparred for nearly six hours, and Amdirlain’s mind steadily regained a clear focus. When the last fuzziness had cleared, Amdirlain called a halt and used Analysis to retrieve Gideon’s work list. There was no sign that the work would end, with just as many items on the list as previously. Yet the work required the performance of increasingly complex melodies that stretched her limits. For a few of them, Gideon provided the details of the problem but no song to resolve it.
Scrying on the drop point with Naamah, Amdirlain found the funds had been taken since she last checked and a message inscribed in Celestial on the hidey-hole’s wall.
‘That pays for me to hear your requests, but you’ll need to discuss them in person. Mother gave me her fondest well wishes to pass along and expressed a strong desire to talk to you.’
Silpar snorted at the message. “Ori dealt with both of them?”
“She also dealt with thousands of divine beings—fair and foul—on all the worlds she repaired,” advised Sarah. “Nam’s mother isn’t quite the villain many believe her to be. However, she finds Hell convenient and is too ruthless by far.”
“I should send my messengers their reward,” murmured Amdirlain, not wanting to get into the topic.
“That will surprise them,” said Silpar, and put away the training weapons they’d used.
Amdirlain created two sets of swords and daggers enchanted for slaying demons with a crystal in each to tag any mortals they encountered in the Abyss. After checking each blade’s balance, she dispatched them to the succubi.
“That was an interesting styling for the blades,” observed Silpar.
“Vines with roses and thorns have a special meaning to me,” explained Amdirlain, and she opened a Gate to begin work. Amdirlain was only on the thirtieth stop along Gideon’s latest list when an orb of greenish Mana appeared beside her and echoed an elven Celestial’s song.
His theme having already given him away, Rana’s voice didn’t surprise her. “Amdirlain, there is a world that could use your help. The local celestials can’t presently contain an Eldritch incursion. The Pantheon is a young elven one and, even if they had the celestials with sufficient strength, their priests couldn’t summon them.”
Amdirlain looked at Silpar thoughtfully. “Would you care to help a world against some Eldritch?”
Silpar nodded eagerly, and his claws unsheathed slightly from his fingers.
“Get Livia to bring you and Goxashru to Foundry. I’ll meet you there and make some fresh devices,” said Amdirlain, and she released a Message Spell.
Another Message orb appeared with a single word. “Some fresh devices? Who else is going?”
Amdirlain grinned at Silpar as she replied. “My Fallen mentor has agreed to help as well. We’ll be there shortly, so don’t drag your feet.”
Not giving Rana time to reply, Amdirlain shifted Silpar with her to Foundry.
Sarah snorted at the pair’s reappearance at Foundry. “What’s going on?”
“Eldritch,” replied Amdirlain. “Rana, Livia, and Goxashru will be here shortly to provide the details.”
The trio took about an hour to arrive, and Livia’s sleep-tousled hair told the tale of why. Though her hair was dishevelled, she wore tidy, loose cotton pants and a multi-layered shirt and jacket atop it in a Persian style in earthen tones.
Goxashru’s hulking form looked sturdier, having put on extra height and muscle. He now topped at three metres tall despite his slightly hunched posture. He wore mithril plate armour that shone a polished, gleaming silver instead of the True Song Crystal armour she’d made for him, and Amdirlain realised her mistake in making it.
I hadn’t worked out the theme to cause items to adjust in size; I’ll need to apply that to his armour.
Amdirlain took in the sharp increase in Goxashru’s strength and gave him a nod, prompting Goxashru to give a happy bow in return.
Rana wanted to repay me for freeing him from Set’s altar, but whatever task Goxashru helped him with might have increased the perceived debt.
Goxashru took in the pavilion and the pathways without comment, but he bowed low when he spotted Sarah on her treasure bed. The nod he received in return had him straightening proudly.
Rana was dressed in his usual silken green outfit and wore various items with protective enchantments. His caramel skin looked accented with a dusting of mint green and sat taunt across flawless elven features.
Amdirlain smiled at Livia. “Did they wake you up?”
“You couldn’t have just drawn them here?” asked Livia as she suppressed a yawn.
“I didn’t expect them to drag you out of bed,” apologised Amdirlain.
Livia gave a relaxed shrug. “I’m sure you didn’t. Did they disturb your plans, so you decided to pass the joy along?”
Amdirlain lifted her nose haughtily. “I can’t have my plans being the only ones disturbed, can I?”
Livia snorted, stepped close to kiss Amdirlain and hug her. “You went silent on me, Móðir. It’s a good thing Sarah told me you’ve been occupied with scrubbing your brain with new knowledge. Cyrus said it’s interesting how much closed-door meditation you can manage with a place filled with people coming and going.”
“Roher at least came in handy. The rest of them were curious bystanders,” said Amdirlain.
Snorting, Livia turned and fixed Silpar with a raised eyebrow before she extended a hand. “From the description I’ve received, you must be Silpar.”
“White hair and skin, blue eyes that look like faceted crystals. You can only be Am’s daughter, Livia,” replied Silpar. “I’ve never met another of any species that appears as you do. Your aura is remarkable.”
Livia laughed. “Móðir had a unique influence on me.”
“And your journeys increased your uniqueness from what Master Cyrus said,” countered Silpar. “He also speaks well of you.”
Amdirlain sighed. “Who has been sharing out of turn again?”
“Your friend Isa is quite the talker,” agreed Silpar. “Unlike you, she changes the topic based on random thoughts, not discomfort with the subject.”
Sarah grunted. “So far, she’s kept her lips zipped about some matters around the Lómë.”
“You might want to consider that you both go off and have many adventures without her. Her helping Sarah was the most time she’d spent with either of you in years when you three used to be almost inseparable,” commented Livia. “Life sent you down different paths. However, when she misses you both, she talks about you and those in your lives. You worked on your skills, but your mind was distant even while she was here with you.”
I haven’t been a good friend to either of them since they got free.
“I’ll look to be better about it after we get this Eldritch issue sorted out,” said Amdirlain.
Livia patted her shoulder. “And not to mention your poor Talon.”
Goxashru’s sickle-like claws scratched at the pathway’s stones as he bowed. “Elder.”
“Goxashru and Rana, I’m glad you’ve both prospered,” offered Amdirlain.
Rana smiled. “Likewise Am. We were informed your training efforts were strenuous. I’m glad the news we bring didn’t disturb them.”
Amdirlain conducted introductions with Silpar and then gave Goxashru an embarrassed smile. “I’ll adjust the armour I made for you.”
Livia laughed and thumped Goxashru on the shoulder good-naturedly. “He was worried you’d be upset, Móðir.”
“You were still coming into your full growth, Goxashru. I should have considered that when I made your armour. I’ll add enchantments to adjust it going forward to any sort of change in shape,” consoled Amdirlain. “We’ll take care of that before we go anywhere.”
“My thanks, Elder,” rumbled Goxashru.
“Next time, tell me if you have trouble with weapons or armour,” instructed Amdirlain gently.
Goxashru dipped his snout bashfully. “Yes, Elder. I wanted to prove myself worthy of any further efforts.”
“It’s my duty as Elder to ensure you’re properly equipped, Talon Goxashru. You’ve done well to progress to four classes into their sixties,” observed Amdirlain. “How much trouble did Rana get you into?”
Rana laughed. “Perhaps you inspired me to find trouble for us to learn from, Am. It has been over twelve years since Goxashru entered your service. You got four classes over a hundred in how many?”
“That’s beside the point,” laughed Amdirlain. “What information do you have on this problem?”
Amdirlain’s question cut off the amusement in Rana’s gaze. “They’ve encountered entities that number immature Void Spawn among them. While they held their own initially, things have taken a turn for the worse, and dozens of celestials died. Two of those were corrupted and destroyed.”
“How strong are these celestials?” asked Sarah from her bed of treasure.
“The Pantheon, as a collective, is less than two thousand years old. Among their oldest servants are entities of nature that aren’t able to combat the Eldritch and their distortions,” clarified Rana.
“Who wants to handle summoning Silpar and myself?”
Goxashru immediately twitched his head upwards and motioned with his tail.
At his contained excitement, Sarah huffed in amusement. “You should let your Talon lead the way.”
“It might be best if I get summoned first. While there are some Lizardfolk, they are nothing like Goxashru; if someone spots him, they might react badly,” proposed Rana.
“While I missed you, Móðir, I do have duties at the monastery’s construction site,” advised Livia.
“Cyrus roped you into helping with that?” asked Amdirlain.
Livia smiled. “It was my idea since he and Kadaklan are the ones who primarily teach classes. Add Rana into the wards for this demi-plane so he can come back and forth with your Talon. Not that I believe Goxashru needs anyone to hold his hand opening a Gate anymore.”
With that, Livia hugged her again. “I know something important has your attention, and I’ve time, but I hope you’ll visit, not just send me messages or ask me to help someone else.”
“I’ll do my best to set aside a stack of time,” agreed Amdirlain.
“Good, I’ll hold you to that and expect you around for a few years—maybe even centuries—once you’re free of your curse,” said Liva, and she gave Amdirlain another smile before she vanished.
Rana’s expression turned serious. “Is there anything you’ll need to do to prepare?”
“I still need to make the summoning devices and adjust Goxashru’s armour,” replied Amdirlain.
Silpar gave Amdirlain a curious look. “Are you sure you can get me onto this world? I wouldn’t want to put anyone at risk.”
“It’ll either work, or the crystal will just break,” reassured Amdirlain. “The idea wasn’t an original one of mine; Ori used to give them to individuals to summon help against the Eldritch. It’s far more reassuring when you can call on a Deity’s strongest solars for aid.”
Amdirlain considered Silpar’s theme and sang three crystal devices for Goxashru. The differing hues in the crystals made determining who they related to simple.
Goxashru looked at one ash-coloured crystal prism, and his gaze flicked to Silpar.
“Please ensure no one is close by, as the summoning strips the concealments from my aura,” advised Amdirlain.
The forked tips of Goxashru’s tongue flicked across the end of his snout as he nodded. “Yes, Elder. I remember the presence you had in the first summoning circle.”
“Now it’s time to see to your armour,” instructed Amdirlain.
Goxashru retrieved the armour from a storage bag and laid it on the pavilion table. Though the material wasn’t worn, Amdirlain tweaked the enchantment to match his new strength and added the transformation effect to allow it to resize to the wearer.
When Goxashru hesitantly collected them, Amdirlain smiled. “There is a space you can use to have privacy to change if you’d like.”
“Yes, please,” replied Goxashru.
While Goxashru got changed into the armour, Rana briefed them on the local deities. Upon Goxashru’s return, the Gate he opened provided a view of a plain covered in thigh-high grass. In the distance, herds of shaggy-looking bison grazed, picking out the greenest grasses among the mixed foliage.
Stepping through, Goxashru paused just beyond the threshold and let the Gate close only once he had finished scanning for dangers. Rana and then Silpar disappeared, but Amdirlain only had a moment to wonder about Goxashru’s choice. When the summoning notice appeared, she activated it without hesitation and found herself in the rainbow-walled tube between planes that reflected her True Form. The black and red in her wings were more ominous than before, yet Amdirlain didn’t feel any different. She rushed towards the light at the far end, hoping to arrive before Silpar, but in the trio of summoning circles that had formed, Silpar occupied a larger circle to her right. At twelve metres tall, the older Fallen towered over everything in their surroundings. The ash of his form manifested as a haze around him, as if someone had set fire to the grasslands.
In the grass at Goxashru’s feet lay the shattered remnants of the device Amdirlain had created to let him summon Silpar.
“You’ve got a hefty weight there, Silpar,” noted Amdirlain.
Silpar huffed in response but didn’t dignify her remark with further response.
Amdirlain absently took in the greenish-blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds and the cheerful yellow sun overhead. “What are the local elves like?”
“They possess a reverse of the skin tones to the Wood Elf form you commonly use, mint green skin with a dusting of other hues,” advised Rana. “Most commonly dark to caramel brown, though some have dull amber tints across their skin instead. Their hair and eye colours are like spring to late summer leaves, though your usual reddish-brown hair would fit among them from the petitioners I saw.”
“I can work with that,” said Amdirlain.
With a nod, she took on her usual Wood Elf form and adjusted her dusky skin to a spearmint tone, keeping her normal auburn-hued hair. Silpar adjusted to a bipedal Lizardfolk form, with greenish-black scales.
Rana offered him an unbothered shrug. “You look more like the local Lizardfolk than Goxashru does.”
“Because I’m Dragonkin, not a Lizardfolk,” corrected Goxashru.
“We’ll likely only be dealing with the summoned celestials,” stated Rana.
Amdiralin tilted her head back to enjoy the feel of the sunlight and the wind through her hair. “How many locations are we dealing with?”
I need a beach day. Lay somewhere, soak up the sun, read a book or do something fun.
“The Eldritch all seem concentrated in a single site,” replied Rana.
Amdirlain gave a satisfied grunt. “Hopefully, it means we’ve got an isolated issue and not a lot of undetected trouble.”
A set of surveyors appeared before them, and Silpar regarded Amdirlain curiously.
“Are you going to scan the site like you did the Demon Lord’s city?”
A smile quirked into place briefly before Amdilrain motioned to the spires. “Once I adjust them, they can scan the planet for Eldritch distortions. It’s not an instant result, so I’ll set them up now. Rana, would you please Teleport us to the site once I finish the changes?”
Then we’ll be ahead in the search if Gideon doesn’t say something about ending the incursion.
“Of course,” replied Rana, with a bright smile.
When the spires vanished, Rana waited for her nod and moved the four of them to high on a mountainside at the top of a long slope. Stretched out before them for over a hundred kilometres was a dead forest. Amdirlain could make out the screeching distortion of thousands of Eldritch within the blighted area. Among them were five mature Void Spawn and a range of immature ones, but with potentially a dozen on the edge of maturity.
“How many do they think are responsible?”
Rana’s gaze hadn’t left the dead forest as he answered quietly, “They believe there are a few hundred left, but they’ve lost their best fighters able to be summoned.”
Amdirlain swept Resonance through the mountain in a narrow beam until she found what she sought. Taking in the shrill and distorted music rising from the tunnels, Amdirlain focused on the strongest.
[Species: Loathsome Void Spawn
Primordial Tier: 2
Health: 1,923,882
Melee Attack Power: 8,123
Details: One of a trio that had drifted between stars in an inert state for a few aeons before arriving here. The passage of time has covered the impact crater left by their arrival. It was long forgotten about even by local tribes until accidentally awakened a hundred and thirty-five years ago. Since then, their matings have given birth to thousands of young who carved a honeycomb within the mountain’s rock.]
“You three should meet up with the celestials,” instructed Amdirlain. “The void spawns the celestials have been fighting aren’t intruders. They’re the local offspring, and they number in the thousands.”
Silpar hissed in disbelief. “I’ll stay and fight them with you.”
Amdirlain shrugged. “Not like I’m going to order you to leave or something fruitless. Rana and Goxashru, please make sure they know to keep their distance.”
Rana nodded, and a chime sounded through him as the pair vanished in a shimmer of energy. Then Amdirlain could feel Goxashru’s presence over 700 kilometres to the southeast through the summoning bond.
“Is there an entry point nearby?” asked Silpar.
“There is, but they’re sized for the immature ones. They look like bundles of churning tentacles that extend from a central mass and come up to about knee height on me,” explained Amdirlain.
Nodding slowly, Silpar gained a thoughtful expression. “I believe I’ve seen such a creature before, though no one named them.”
“They didn’t get summoned into this realm. They arrived on this planet like a shooting star and have been sleeping,” advised Amdirlain. “There are other entities in there as well, some more focused on energy use, so be careful of Eldritch energy being thrown your way.”
“You can’t just seal them away from up here?” enquired Silpar.
Amdirlain shrugged. “And here I wanted to use them as a whetstone to hone my skills. I could seal all the ones I hear, but I then wouldn’t have any dance partners. Do you know if you have any Eldritch Resistance?”
“Lead the way,” instructed Silpar.
“You don’t,” grumbled Amdirlain.
Silpar scowled, but Amdirlain determinedly folded her arms and scowled back.
“Celestials have risked themselves while not possessing such protections previously,” chided Silpar. He retrieved a pair of hooked swords from a storage ring and motioned at the ground. “Every battle holds some measure of unknown risk. You can hear the tunnels. Is there room enough to manoeuvre and fight within?”
“There is sufficient space in the deeper tunnels, but it’s also a hiss of Eldritch energy against my senses,” advised Amdirlain. “Have you experienced the agony of Eldritch energies trying to twist your flesh previously?”
“I have not,” admitted Silpar.
Amdirlain frowned. “I experienced that agony and almost paid the price for it. You don’t have Protean. Do you?”
Silpar glared in frustration. “I do not.”
“If you work down this slope, there are plenty of immature specimens to slay near the surface, and a few spells will provoke them to attack you. That will still allow you the option to retreat if your body starts to feel wrong,” advised Amdirlain, and she disappeared without him.
Black rock hissed with a familiar distortion, and the slightest breeze of displaced air from her arrival caused the mists in the tunnel to swirl around her. They had turned the mountain’s interior into a chaotic rat warren of warped tunnels that spread out as it approached the molten mantle. Resonance reached through the planet’s crust beneath her, but Amdirlain couldn’t detect corruption in the molten regions.
They’ve corrupted a few hundred kilometres along the mantle’s edge but not into it; it goes further than I had expected from the forest.
Phoenix’s Rapture flared to life, and as the primordial flames ravaged the chill mists around her, Amdirlain ran. Ahead of her lay a quintet of Eldritch, whose strength promised a suitable challenge. Yet, rather than charge at them directly, she raced through the surrounding tunnels. The notes generated by her graceful strides turned hound-sized entities to ash or trapped them in crystals. The mature Eldritch sensed the rocks turned molten by her passage, and they pursued along adjoining tunnels.
Hundreds of their offspring were dead before the lead purser caught sight of the white flames within their mist-choked tunnels. As it raced forward, its form shifted in and out of indescribable dimensions, and she mirrored the part of its chaotic presence that she could sense in song. Layers of reflection clamped around that fragment to prescribe its reality and the limits of its motion. That restriction became a vice and a coffin that allowed it nowhere to run or twist beyond the prison’s boundaries. As another smashed vainly against the strange material it could only partly perceive, the prison vanished across the planes.
It forced itself to echo that passage in pursuit of the prisoner but found that, in transversing the planes, it had set limits upon itself. Limits that were perfectly mirrored by the energy it had followed. When the duo arrived at the other end, there wasn’t one coffin but two. The compression continued until they couldn’t shrink further and ended with each constrained to a metre-long tube; they had nowhere to move.
The three left shrieked and raged, and Amdirlain heard hundreds of immature void spawns charge upwards from the depths; she plunged through the tunnels to meet them. Horde after horde surged into detection range and sought to smother her flames with a mass of bodies. Amdirlain continued to race along, sliding and dancing through the tentacles that sought to choke her path. Her continual song manipulated her aura, lanced it down tunnels, and speared thousands of needles into neighbouring dimensions to sear foes that tried to evade her. The underground pressure and heat continued to grow without a lessening in the distortion.
Once her flames had laid waste to their swarming young and no more approached, Amdirlain warned Silpar to fall back towards the forest’s edge. Her path turned back along passages that allowed the trailing Eldritch to switch routes to intercept. As its limb morphed between tentacles and blades, she spun through the gap and let it strike only the tail feathers formed of flames. Amdirlain flared the fires of creation across its flesh, and notes rose to drill furiously through its essence. She converted its body to pure energy, and the blast speared upwards in a faint mimicry of a solar flare that vaporised stone to burst skyward. The cone-shaped path it cut destroyed scores of its fleeing children and brought sunlight into the dark tunnels where the beings lurked.
The last two turned to run together and found Amdirlain ahead of them in passages she’d already travelled and marked. An extrusion of flesh shot towards her face, and Amdirlain’s sprint became a dance. She spun inwards along her partner’s outstretched arm; the touch of her hands left ash in their wake. Guided by the Eldritch’s motion, she took in a fleeting expression of its theme and turned its energy upon itself. Rather than encasing it in a crystal coffin, it became the beginning and end of its prison rather than the crystal being worn down by holding it; being contained consumed the Eldritch. Where one in the past had tried to corrupt her, she turned it into an ouroboros swallowing its own tail. The song’s difficulty made it something she couldn’t try en masse, but it held promise for later if the prison held.
A slide took her under the last foe’s thrust. Her aura enfolded it completely, and the aura’s internal gap highlighted the Eldritch’s flesh. With it defined by the gap within her aura’s flames made it easier to seal the Eldritch away. A tumble took her clear as tonnes of crystal crashed to the ground and quickly contracted.
Bait, set, and match.
Poised deep in the tunnels, Resonance could feel the limits of the tunnels and sensed the moving distortions within. Thousands of melodies reached out to cage swathes of void spawns.
[Combat Summary
Immature Void Spawn Larvae x 2,047
Loathsome Void Spawn x 4 (Imprisoned)
Loathsome Void Spawn x 1
Total Experience gained: 182,727,360
Ostimë: +91,363,680
Ontãlin: +91,363,680
Dance [S] (198->199)
Mental Hardening [M] (76->77)
Perception [S] (26->27)]
Amdirlain waited a dozen beats before she exhaled in frustration.
Or not? No incursion completed notice.
“Silpar, are more still near you?” said Amdirlain, and she released the Message Spell.
“They retreated into the tunnels a moment ago,” advised Silpar.
Amdirlain moved all the cages into an empty demi-plane and teleported back to the mountain slope. She found Silpar among some toppled trees, bloodied blade in hand, and the ground littered with nearly seventy dead void spawns. Catching hundreds more plunging deeper into the mountain, Amdirlain growled in frustration. Fortunately, weaker than the ones she’d already sealed away, she quickly secured them. The experience notification she brushed aside, noting in passing that it shared that success with Silpar, but there was no message about the incursion being ended.
“I had hoped they’d all join the chase when I led their parents around, but we’ve still got some on the loose,” advised Amdiralin.
Silpar pointed his sword at the open hole. “I hadn’t needed your warming to get to the edge, as I hadn’t gotten past it. When you left, I teleported to the first of the dead trees, and they came bubbling up out of that hole. The tunnel made killing them easy until they emerged from other places.”
Amdirlain brought out a plate and tuned it to the surveyor directly overhead to display an image of the dead forest. “Do you want to handle teleporting us to the locations I show?”
Silpar nodded, and the pair bounced between a dozen spots over the next twenty minutes, and at each, Amdirlain secured more void spawns. She also found old and new traces of Eldritch distortion passing through numerous caves.
“The celestials have been tending to the surface’s sore while the cancer spread deeper underground,” advised Amdirlain, and she put the plate away.
“How many did you deal with?”
“Thousands but not enough. I tried different songs with the strongest of them. While they were all effective, a couple took more effort than they were worth or required getting too close to them,” said Amdirlain.
“What is the immediate risk from those that escaped?”
She tapped her fingers against the crystal plate and gave a helpless shrug. “None of the energy traces felt like the mature ones. I don’t know how many they need to reproduce, and I think some left this area weeks or even months ago.”
“I’m surprised you can tell at all,” admitted Silpar.
Amdirlain sighed. “I wish I could do better, but the Eldritch’s nature makes nearly everything about them unpredictable, and their energies don’t fade consistently.”
“They could have returned to the lair,” offered Silpar. “What you’re detecting could be the hunting trails.”
“In that case, some of them could be out hunting away from here,” argued Amdirlain, and she clenched her teeth.
Silpar put his sword away. “A condition that could have occurred whenever you choose to attack. You’ve removed this many and got your surveyors in place. We should advise the celestials of your progress and see what knowledge they can add while your surveyors gather information.”
Amdirlain projected a spot near Rana and Goxashru to him.
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
Peter Gerganov
Get well soon, Redhand. Thanks for the great work you're putting in
