“Do I even need to say anything?” Staring at what could only be described as a small tunnel entrance, I can honestly say that the last thing I want to do is climb in.

“A small space, probably full of traps, where our numbers and mobility don’t matter as much, and your sword is useless? Nah, I think it’s pretty clear. However…” She gestures at the literal wall of trees that the tunnel proceeds through and turns to me. “This?”

I wince. “We could go over?”

“I do not believe that is wise, nor that I would be effective in that manner.”

“Plus we’d probably lose the trail. Who knows where this lets out?”

“I know, I know… I just really don’t want to go through there.”

“Look on the bright side, you can shamelessly feast your eyes while you crawl behind me.”

I give her a pointed look. “That would be an option, if you had any way to light the passage.”

“We don’t need light, we can see anyway. Besides, what do you have to li-... oh, right, the twinkle fingers Energy nonsense.”

The pointed look becomes a glare.

“Hey, if you want to lead the way, be my guest.”

“I don’t, that’s the fucking problem.”

“Cease your bickering. As it is, I will barely be capable of moving in there, and should we be attacked from behind, I will be unable to turn to face the threat.”

“You also can’t disarm traps, so you can’t be in the front. Go second, Lauren, protect our asses. Your dark vision should be good enough to notice anything coming to attack us.”

“I’m always in the back…” She mutters, ignoring the fact that she had been leading us on a wild goose chase through the forest for several hours, following some tracks that only she could make out. Tracks that exploded on occasion, as if to let us know we were headed in the right direction. It didn’t seem like it, but my map indicates that we traveled quite a distance through the ever thicker forest. The path was winding, seeming to double back on many occasions, but looking at the small revealed line that marks the path we followed, I can see the effectivity of it.

That, and there was a lot of actual doubling back. Whatever this thing was didn’t want to be followed, and if it was going to make its stand anywhere, it would be here, in a confined space.

I take a deep breath and crouch down, pushing my Light to the tips of my fingers, and directly around my eyes. It takes some work to make sure it isn’t actively blinding me, but I quickly find a balance and start to move forward, before freezing immediately.

With the extra light, The texture of the tunnel becomes more apparent. It begins rough, as though something bore through it, but for no particular reason, it transitions to a polished smoothness only a foot or so in. It’s that way all the way around, as well, and I don’t trust it. I gesture for the others to back up before very gently touching the floor. It feels rough, coarse, as it should, and it’s true nature is only revealed when I press harder. Though it has enough initial resistance to hold its own weight, the added pressure from me causes the paper mache-like substance to give a little, then collapse suddenly.

I recoil at first, but opt to indulge my curiosity about the nature of the trap by peaking over the edge and watching the cover fall down. It falls rapidly, contorting as it passes some spikes, and ultimately lands in some kind of liquid that immediately engulfs it. The last sight I have of it is it quickly melting away as it’s swallowed. The spikes, I realize, aren’t there to gore you on the way down, but are angled in such a way that getting in is easy, but getting out would tear you apart. They’re nothing complicated, just rudimentary sharpened wood, but I have no doubts that falling down there would have killed even me, and definitely ended the life of anyone else.

I turn to Lauren. “Did you notice that?”

She silently shakes her head.

I reach over and press against the walls and ceiling, and find that the roughness all comes from a thin veneer of the paper mache material.

“I…” My voice comes out as more of a croak as a pit of dread forms in my stomach. “-really don’t want to go in there.”

Nobody says anything, and Lauren stares at a nearby tree, studying it awkwardly while she thinks. Of course, Cerberus stares directly at me. The silence lengthens, and I start to squirm under his stare.

“Maybe we can-” Lauren starts, but I interrupt. “WHAT?” Lauren starts for a moment, thinking I was yelling at her, but realizes my eyes are locked on the hellhound’s, annoyed with his refusal to break his stare.

“Human, I have suffered death countless times, and pain is nothing to me. Less, even. I shall lead the way. I shall endure whatever hardships the creature has planted for us, and you will use your strange power to heal me. Do you agree?”

“I…” He wants to face tank the entire way? “Why? It’s not that important that we track this thing.”

“It did not wish us harm before, but the next time would certainly spell the death of one of us. We must find this potential threat and eliminate it, one way or another.”

I don’t like it, but I nod my head anyway. He’s massive enough to block the whole passage, and he can’t get caught in pitfalls the same way we can; he’s too big.

He steps into the abyss, and I follow right behind him. Carefully, I push some of my light into his hulking body, and immediately notice a problem. Problems, actually. There are some serious Energy blackout areas in his body, the body itself doesn’t match up with what he looks like in reality, but instead what he looked like precompression, and there are multiple Energy black holes littered throughout his body.

“Christ Cerberus, what happened?”

“I am uninjured.”

“Maybe on the outside…”

Thinking back, I realize Lauren’s own black hole had vanished. In the heat of everything, I’d overlooked it and just gotten to work fixing things, but… I guess she finally managed to fix whatever was wrong. Something I should probably talk to her about.

“Down!” The voice rings out and shakes me from my musings. I drop to the ground with Cerberus, and the roar of an explosion deafens me. I feel multiple foreign bodies pierce Cerberus’ hide, and an entire chunk of his flesh is ripped out near the source of the projectiles. Cerberus body heaves, but with my hearing gone, I can’t tell if he even made a sound.

My hearing comes back with a pop, and I hear snapping and yawning coming from behind me, but nothing else. Lauren, testing her hearing to no avail. She’ll be fine while I get Cerberus back in shape.

He’s missing a chunk of flesh on his chest and neck, though it seems his breathing is unaffected. Most of the foreign bodies entered his torso, but several tore through his mouth and bit further into his neck. Several of the shards tore through his heart, but his natural healing seems to have already worked to seal them, and the blood inside. Or, at least, I assume it’s a heart. The colors wreathe it in yellow and red, outlining the organ and the path the shards took to get there. It’s a beautiful display; a stark duality when compared with what it actually means.

It’s struggling to continue pulsing, as can be seen with the yellow color I equate with infection and corruption slowly growing in intensity.

At the same time, the missing flesh glows an intense blue, and my heart drops as I realize that Cerberus doesn’t contain Power in the same way humans do. It’s almost as though I can sense its presence everywhere in him, like his entire being is suffused with the stuff, but it isn’t doing anything. I bet if our bond was strong enough for him to become a summon, he would instantly consume it to level. Instead, it probably sits around, then transfers to whoever kills him…

Regardless, in that weird form, I can’t use it, so I have to start ferrying in my own Power. It doesn’t get sucked into the Energy sinks (thank fuck) but the fact that it slows down my Energy makes it a difficult process, even with my ever-growing control and speed. At least half of what I send succumbs to the pull of the five holes arrayed across his entire body, because of course the wound is at the front of his body. Fortunately, having suffered no damage myself, my regeneration rate is able to keep me steadily working without having to worry about exhausting myself.

I should have realized this would be a problem. He’s been tortured for countless years, dying thousands of thousands of times… he wouldn’t be able to just tough that out without some scars. I healed him once before, but it was small, and I hadn’t used Light… stupid, should have checked anyway.

“What are you doing, human?”

“Healing you.”

“It feels… different than before.”

The mental effects of Energy exposure, right.

“I’m having to replace missing flesh, it involves moving Power into you to use as a basis I can then convert into your tissue.”

“I see.”

Not totally a lie, Power does feel nice to have… just not quite like this. Part of me feels like I should explain it anyway, but another part is too tired of waiting for the dumb beast to come around to being a team player. Maybe one day he’ll find out and hate me for it, but I hope that by then he’ll understand he was being a dumbass, and needed to be tricked.

---

“Took you long enough.”

“I was putting an alien’s chest back together, sue me.”

“Oh, well I’m certain I’d have been more patient while waiting if I could have heard that.”

“Asshole.”

“Fuck you.”

We flirt in such a strange way. I can’t blame her for being annoyed that we’ve had to stop so I can play doctor and heal everyone a couple of times now.

*Thunk* “Grrh. Amadeus…” There’s anger in his voice, but more exasperation than anything else.

“No worries, I got it.” Lauren and I back up so he can unstick himself from yet another javelin hidden in the floor, and I set about healing the wound. Again. The mechanisms that launch the traps are ridiculous, based on wood held under tension, much like a bow. The weird thing is, I have no idea how they manage to last for any amount of time like that. Bows have to be unstrung and stored without tension in order to not constantly degrade. Yet, not one of the past eleven of these traps has failed to work exactly as intended. Maybe the thing we’re chasing armed every one of them on its passing? But that would be a ridiculous level of neuroticism… plus, slow it down probably as much as it slows us down. Granted, these traps would have long killed off anyone who didn’t have Energy to heal or a massive supply of healing potions and luck.

“Light ahead.”

“Outside light or fire? Magic?”

“Smells of forest.”

“Extra slow, then.”

But, oddly, nothing more happens. We emerge without issue into the blinding twilight of a small clearing of trees, with several obvious paths forward… and one entity with skin the color of a leaf, with what looks like bark for clothing, riding casually on top of a giant… Cathid, I think, which is wrapped around one of the trees.