Chapter 044: It is a travesty

Thankfully the Eldritch Knight seemed to be a ‘commander’ for the unknown evil forces that guarded the other side of the acid moat. He was the strongest being around, certainly. What’s more, his unfortunate demise seemed to cause a complete paralysis of decision-making in his little army.

After we ate the cookies (quite tasty, but they lack some additional sweetness) and had the penalty on the fallen adventurers go away, we returned to battle. Three more squads (each made up of two Devoured Knights and ten Devoured Warriors) were dispatched without further troubles.

Syna actually stopped using her rifle. More training to Kovacs group. Necromancer summoned her little bone army, having it focus on the Devoured Warriors. In the same time the rest of the group took down Knights. Standard tactic - Warforged and Blood Knight tanked them, Blade maneuvered around them hoping to score a mordhau on their heads (they were vulnerable to it… rather significantly). Daggerer diverted their attention by pushing daggers here and there. Hexer debuffed. Metalist fired metal projectiles at their heads. With lesser velocity than a rifle, but still enough to score a lot of damage.

Of course they ended up pretty beaten up each time. But they also scored up some level ups. And I got to level up my buffs and debuffs (Ominous Chant, Hex of Vulnerability, Touch of Entropy), since I used them from safe distance.

Normally the whole ‘army’ would respond to our initial assault by storming us. Fifty Devoured Warriors, ten Devoured Knights and one Eldritch Knight would be a major pain to deal with. But their commander seemed to have thought he would deal with us easily. After all, he was going to smite the Kovacs group easily. But the Destroyer Skeleton took him off guard, and he was beaten up by the Metalist attack and the Warforged reckless charge.

Then we finished him before he managed to call for backup.

One more case of overconfidence being a slow and insidious killer.

Without him around, there was nobody to order the Devoured to do a zerg rush on us. So we simply took out separated squads. The entrance was quickly cleared off, and then…

“Oh dear.” I said, breaking the sudden silence.” I think this place is bigger than I thought.”

A cave. Big. Mostly open. WITH A FUCKING LAKE IN THE MIDDLE. Ok, more like a big pond, but still. There was a fucking river going right through the cave. One that seemed to expand wide enough to form a large pond. Twenty or thirty meters wide in the widest place. With few rock columns supporting the ceiling on it. It seemed like someone carved a few platforms on them.

On the left side of the cave there was an opening. One obviously leading outside. The river went through it.

“Seems like we found one of the waterfalls that can be seen from the ledge before the Hold.” Leria commented.

Now that she said that… it’s pretty obvious. There were two, more or less on the same level, to the right of the entrance. But there was only one river visible here, so… this place was even bigger.

Wonderful.

There were a few Devoured (Workers and Warriors) here and there, but quite obviously nothing even nearly on the level of what we just fought.

“Well, let’s clear the place.” I said. “We go right, Kovacs group goes left. We meet on the other side of the room.” The rest nodded.

***

It took us maybe a few minutes to clear the place completely. There was no organized defense, we destroyed most of it near the entrance.

We found three closed doors leading to what we presumed to be three sets of buildings. The Ardent Flame probably ‘mined’ their installations in the walls of the place. There was one corridor exactly on the other side of the cave from the entrance that was completely open (while obviously artificial) and it ended with another cave-in.

Judging from the way it went… it probably led to the second river. Deeper into this dungeon. One of the closed doors was there, before the collapse. The other two were in the main cave.

It took me a while but I decoded writings by the door. The one in corridor was a Prison, while the other two were Storeroom and Graveyard. No ‘Living Quarters’, no ‘Headquarters’, no ‘Mine’ or ‘Agricultural Zone’ that I expected to be there.

Seriously, just how fucking big this place was? You could fit most of the upper level into the part of the lower level we managed to liberate.

We decided to rest for a while. Recovered our manapools. Kovacs turned out to enjoy fishing and spent the time trying to catch something in the river. Mostly to find out if it was somehow corrupted.

The fish he caught was obviously blind, but that seemed like something caused by evolution rather than transdimensional corruption. We had Simea run back with it and show it to our resident priest. It sounded pretty stupid, but if it turned out to be edible… the idea to have the Sewer Rats settle this place would be even better.

If we could gather some food on our own… well, decreasing our spending was always pretty neat. And, to be honest, the Sewer Rats could certainly use some variety in their diet.

“By the way, master.” Lena spoke to me when we were waiting for Simea to return. “I have a question.”

“About what?” She seemed… troubled, I guess?”

“About Overtyrant.” … I could see Leria suddenly turning her head towards us. Interesting. “Uhm… I’m not sure how to describe it, but…”

Her questions turned out surprisingly complex. It was mostly several complicated scenarios - complicated from a a moral point. She wanted to know what would be the Overtyrant’s approach to them.

It was… weird. I wasn’t sure where she was going with that.

Leria was useful. She was a Chosen One, so she obviously couldn’t be wrong about her God. He wouldn’t choose a potential heretic. Sure, she didn’t speak with him in real sense of the word, but after she basked in his power… well, I doubt she could have a different opinion than him in any important matter of morality.

“Ok. So… I decided.” Lena straightened up and took a deep breath. “I want to convert. How can I make this official?”

…

...

I almost shouted BUT YOU ARE A PLAYER. But… if this really was a real world… what was the difference? Sure, it was quite weird, but...

“So… you are a part of the ‘This Is a Real World’ group?” I answered. She nodded.

“Yes, master. The more time I spend here… the more I’m sure that this couldn’t be created by our technology. The mechanics and NPCs… maybe, but on much smaller scale.”

That was something that bothered me as well. This world was about the size of Earth. And… it wasn’t the only one. Long War, a sci-fi game that was a part of Infinity as well, was supposed to cover the ENTIRE MILKY WAY. For some reason I doubt that the Gates of Eternity were the only game to imprison its players…

“It took me a while, but… I think that this world is real, and I think that what Overtyrant wants us to do is a good idea, so…”

She was interrupted when Leria suddenly came closer and grabbed her in a bear hug.

Yes, well, I guess that was to be expected.

***

Not long after that Simea returned. According to priest the fish carried no sign of being corrupted in any way. Which he considered extremely weird, since judging from everything he knew about the matter, it should be corrupted.

The group started to discuss best methods of cooking it and asked Kovacs to catch more. That’s where I decided that it was enough.

Kindergarten, ugh.

We decided (well, I did so mostly) to check the Storeroom first. It sounded least terrible from all the places around. Both Prison and Graveyard had some negative connotations.

There was a deeper layer to my reasoning.

The doors obviously weren’t what they looked like. They were made with wood and bound with metal… which on first glance made it look like a common even if quite strong doors. But when you inspected them with Sense Magic…

Damn, there was a lot of magic in them. The metal seemed to be a symphsteel. An alloy whose creation was a secret of khardics. Nobody was even sure if it really was a steel, but it truly was a bit similar.

It worked on Aberrants and all Beyond-aligned daemons like holy water. Or, to be exact, even better. Much better.

And it seemed that at least some of said metal was used to cover mana crystals, with Overtyrant’s holy magic hexes anchored into it. Touching them would be… unhealthy to any evil being. Even trying to stand close to them should make them feel as if every part of their body was put inside a meatgrinder working on at full speed.

It was some really advanced magic.

Since all of them were closed shut, I made a theory that the whole facility was in a sort of lockdown. The Ardent Flame probably activated it during the battle, hoping to limit its mysterious vanquisher’ movements. If they did so, they failed.

On the other hand, perhaps neither of the creatures we fought were actually connected to the mysterious attacker? It attacked, massacred most of the Order that managed to lock down the place before being wiped out… and after some time it was pushed out from most of it by newcomers? Like the Aberrant… or the Eldritch Knight?

Interesting.

Simea gave me another of her side jabs to make me return to the subject.

“Yes, darling. I know. I know.” I answered. “What were we talking about?”

“About the method to open these doors.” She answered. Oh, right. I forgot.

“Ah, yes.” I responded. “That will be easy. The switches are right beside them, but they got shut down by the lockdown. But it’s obviously all heavily bound by Overtyrant’s Magic. Leria, just order the lockdown to cancel. Only these doors, the last thing we want is entire lockdown being lifted. We might get some nasty visitors.”

“Sure. Door, l want your lockdown lifted.”

It was just like her to talk to a door. Ugh.

There was a quiet… knack coming from the door. Leria touched the button.

Of course, the door opened. Having a Chosen One was handy. With the level of security this place had, we wouldn’t have made it too far. I would have said that the Ardent Flame was paranoid… but surviving as a khardic adherent in the Dragonspine Mountains required a lot of paranoia.

Maybe a second after they open, a projectile flew through them. It missed Lena by a hairbreadth, before scoring a headshot on the Necromancer that was unfortunate enough to stand in its line on fire.

Something… slime’y covered her face.

Her scream was muffled, but I could see she was screaming. Right before her face dissolved. For a second her head looked like a skull covered in semi-transparent liquid. Then she fell down, obviously dead.

More projectiles came. But this time we were prepared. Defensive magic, plus most of us jumped away from the door. It was too dark behind it to actually see anything, so I hid as well.

“They aren’t projectiles!” Lena suddenly shouted.

Then I saw that the slime’y thing that killed our necromancer didn’t disappeared and continues devouring her bod… wait, did that thing grow bigger?!

Newborn Spawn of Zhkrkh

Category: Eldritch/Beyond

Type: Daemon/Servile

Threat Grade: Iron V

A newborn spawn of Zhkrkh. While freshly spawned off its bigger brother, it remains a danger to unprepared adventurers. Its mucus can dissolve all living matter, reducing a grown man into a puddle of organic liquid… while using the rest to grow bigger and reproduce.

Holy fucking shit, DFI succeeded in making a fucking SLIMES look and act terrifyingly.

AND HOW THE FUCK DO YOU PRONOUNCE THE ZH… ZHY… ZHYH… Oh for God’s sake. Nothing that’s written like that can potentially be good. It’s like a law of fantasy worlds. The harder it’s name is to pronounce, the deeper in shit you are.

I fired a Destroyer Lance at the growing thing, but it refused to react in any way.

Several more Spawns flew through the door. Oh my God, are you kidding me. THEY ARE FUCKING SLIMES.

Wait, I have an idea.

“Vaera, BURN THEM!” A Dragon Fireball exploded, setting the thing on fire. It’s HP bar began falling down like stock market indices during the Crash. Good. Good!

Suddenly three more Spawns came. Oh for fuck’s… Warforged tried to slice one apart but it actually divided into two Iron I Partial Newborn Spawns of Zpwbgorbgo. I won’t even fucking comment that.

Another two leaped off the ground and somehow… dissolved a way through Kovacs’ Unlife Barrier, a Life Magic counterpart of Magic Barrier. They landed on him and immediately began dissolving him. He was dead after maybe two seconds of screams.

“LERIA, CLOSE THE DOOR!” Two more came. “BEFORE THEY FLOOD THE PLACE!”

She leaped over and pushed the button. The door began closing… but failed to close properly before something moved forward from the darkness behind them and stopped it with its slime’y appendages.

Spawn of Zhkrkh

Category: Eldritch/Beyond

Type: Daemon/Servile

Threat Grade: Silver VII

A spawn of Zhkrkh. Its mucus can dissolve all living matter, reducing a grown man into a puddle of organic liquid… while using the rest to grow bigger and reproduce. It can spawn the smaller versions of itself from its body, using them like a living projectiles.

That’s just…

I cast a Holy Bolt on him. Which seemed to burn him a bit. Just as nearby symphsteel that he made sure not to touch. His position certainly wasn’t comfortable.

Then it immediately fired three more Newborn Spawns right at me. They managed to overwhelm the Bend Reality (it cost them some of their mass though). But I jumped away, so only a single one of them landed on me.

I managed to get him off before he dissolved its way through Inhuman Resilience. The skin that he touched still hurt as hell.

It moved forward, firing more and more Newborn Spawns in every direction. It’s seriously using its children as a projectiles!

The speed with which it created more and more of this little fuckers was… too much. There is no way we can catch up to this speed, not when it’s obviously impervious to physical damage. And Destruction Magic (too bad, Havoc Bolt would swept the floor with them, they don’t have any defensive magic).

Holy Magic does some damage, but there is probably barely any sapience. Without sapience, there are no conscious decisions. Without conscious decisions it’s hard to commit sins. And without sins, this magic won’t work. It probably reacts to an Eldritch nature, but what it causes barely qualifies as bruises.

Vaera fired a Fireball after a Fireball. They could instakill the small ones, but the wounds it caused on a big one were negligible. And if he tried to focus on it, the smaller ones numbers grow too quickly.

Metallist was out of a question, since he also caused physical damage. The two of our Black Magicians were already dead and dissolved, tough luck. I tried a Greater Life Tap and it caused some damage, but…

...each time I tried that, it immediately responded with more Newborn Spawns. Right at me. If I triggered it too much, I was soon too busy jumping around to keep attacking.

I could survive being partywiped by Red Mist or a Watcher, but… BY A SLIME?! While having two whole parties of adventurers?! We are seriously going to be a laughingstock if someone hears about this!

Spawn finally understood that he could stop the fire burning him from time to time by taking Vaera down. He fired so many Newborn Spawns in short succession that it almost make them look like a slime’y ray.

Vaera survived by proving that he certainly was quite… elastic. His moves would made average gymnast pale from envy. But while jumping around he wasn’t able to fire any spell and…

… did he just made a headstand?

This is seriously getting ridiculous.

Wait a second, I have an idea! Why I didn’t thought about it earlier?! Oh, right, because it breaks the Geneve Convention.

Fuck the Geneve Convention. It obviously doesn’t include fucking slimes.

“SYNA! INCENDIARY!” I turned my head towards our sniper and screamed. She quickly took something from her pocket and threw it at the main slime. “TAKE COVER!” I shouted again, and jumped away while strengthening my defenses.

Imperium was really… relentless in its approach to extinguishing threats. It really wasn’t into anything like a Geneve Convention. Sure, it did limit itself when it fought other countries or other enemies that deserved some mercy… mostly because of gods looking above its shoulders and pestering it about being at least a bit humanitarian... but 101st rarely fought enemies that deserved mercy.

Incendiary Grenades were included in its equipment. Ones filled to the brim with white phosphorus. Probably the least humanitarian material in reality. They even added a bit of magic to make it produce even more heat and be even harder to put out. Syna had only two, but it sounded like a perfect opponent to use one.

It burned.

Both outside and inside the slime. It was scorchingly hot and was almost impossible to be put out. Even with magic. It could probably burn under water. It could only burn away on itself. And it did so rather slowly.

The Spawn HP fell as it began trembling and distorting its own fle… slime. It began ejecting Newborn Spawns… but they burned as well.

Oh my God, that’s an overkill. Imperium is insane if it loads so much firepower unto its soldiers.

Fire was everywhere. Choking fumes and heat as well. Burning slimes flying everywhere. Jesus Christ.

“RUN AWAY, FAST!” I didn’t expect it to start… catapulting its own ‘children’ everywhere. It probably tried to eject the burning phosphorus. Even if it could think, I doubt it was in a shape to do so and get an idea of using our own weapon against us.

I couldn’t see anything so I simply ran. Smoke was everywhere, I couldn’t breath. Air was so hot that it burned.

Then I ran into a wall. Ouch, that hurt.

I ran left, without thinking. I remembered how the area looked right after the floor ended and I fell into a river.

Fuck its cold. And the current is strong.

Wait a fucking second, the current is strong BECAUSE THERE IS A FUCKING WATERFALL. Like, thirty meters high!

I was a good swimmer, but the current was really damn strong and I was on a verge of a thermal shock. I almost managed to grab some bulging rock fragment near the waterfall, but the water was so cold that my grip was weak.

Then I flew. Well, at least the view was nice.

YOU DIED!

Cause of death was fall damage and your body being too smashed to continue on working.

RESURRECT

And all of that because of fucking slimes. I seriously hope that the place was worth it. And that we managed to kill this freak.

***

Few minutes later I was back near the battlefield. Where I learned that the battle was, indeed, over.

As Leria described it, the incendiary grenade failed to kill the slime. But it took out like 75% of its hitpoints. What’s more, it weakened him. And he still stood right beneath the door, trying to stop them from closing (I wonder why). The combination of sudden drop in strength and the closing door partially covered in symphsteel led to the Spawn of Zroegoa being split into two Partial Spawns of Zwwejngoer. After the fire more or less burned, Vaera finished the Spawn that remain outside of the door, then they opened them and finished the other.

Of course, what was on the other side was… well… a storeroom. Exactly two rooms, filled with ruined crates. Everything organic was long ago devoured by the Spawn. What remained got done in by rust.

We fought like that for TWO FUCKING ROOMS. Ok, quite big ones, but still.

Ugh.

“Oh, by the way.” Leria looked at me curiously. “How did you die? I didn’t see your body, you just kinda disappeared.”

Uuugh.