I gestured for Mortician to get behind me as I summoned the cruel world’s partition. The slab of a shield slammed down between us, and Mortician peeked out from behind it as they flipped to a new page in their book.

“Words of molten gold, spread your influence through us.” They declared as a shimmering black-gold aura emanated out from them. They gestured at Jun, then at me. “Grant your blessings to those we treasure most.”

//BUFF GAINED: Gospel of Molten Gold. As long as the source of this buff perpetuates it, their allies within range of a golden aura have a small protective barrier applied to them that regenerates at a rate based on the source’s recovery and has health based on their power.

Current Shield Strength: 11/11.

“That’s a new one.” Jun tapped her arm and watched as a slight golden shell appeared over her armor. “How many of those ‘words’ do you have?”

“Only three. The one we have been using, this one, and a combination that we have yet to need to access.” Mortician informed us. “It draws from our treasures, which only grant bonuses when consumed, and translates them into combat effects in the form of weapon functions.”

I raised an eyebrow at their explanation. “I thought you said you didn’t know how it worked.”

“We didn’t! But from using it, we have been able to identify that this is, indeed, how it functions alongside our core.” Mortician explained. “Our core has access to two different treasures, and this book grants us a function for every possible combination of treasures available. It can currently only pull from two treasures, so we do not know if a combination of two of the first treasure and one of a second would grant a differing effect from one of the first and two of the second.”

Jun mumbled to herself and flicked up three fingers, pressed one of them back down, and nodded. “Okay, I think I get what you mean, but you explained it kind of confusingly. You don’t know if 112 works differently from 122 or not. Or if it can even take that as an option.”

“Yes. That is what we said.” Mortician agreed. “Oh, and we cannot use two of the book’s functions at once. So the power increasing function will not be active during this fight unless we turn the page back to it.”

I scanned the still empty combat area, which was taking longer than the other four to send in its enemies. I swept my hand through the air, trying to lock on to any invisible and core-less enemies with wipe-away or slykened-sight, but still there was nothing. It must’ve been giving us a moment to get ready, or to process the very small buff and debuff it had placed on us.

Two minutes passed in stiff silence. I turned to Mortician and shrugged, shifting my weapon into a shield just in case something huge appeared from the sky. Petal-scales flowed from it, coating my upper arm in the things and giving me a perfect grip on the thing. That was a slight improvement over what it had done before, and I chalked it up to my weapon gaining a few levels since I’d seriously used a shield.

Even then, nothing appeared. I started to get antsy, activating all of my oil-based functions in anticipation of the worst coming to pass. The only thing I didn’t currently have active were my consumables from //endless, and they were right there on the corner of my mind. Just waiting for me to call on them. Whatever was taking this long to process couldn’t be a pushover.

Jun shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t like this.” She muttered as she fiddled with her gun. “Why announce that we’re about to fight and then not summon anything for a few minutes? Is the hazard trying to get in our heads?”

“That’s a real possibility.” I admitted, though I didn’t want to. Any hazards that actively screwed with you were ten times more dangerous than ones that threw danger at you willy-nilly. “Mortician, can you see if there were any notifications we missed?”

They swiped open their interface, then shook their head. “Nothing new, nothing old, and nothing for the situation at hand. It would seem that there was simply a long delay between the announcement and the arrival of whatever enemies we will face.”

Great. I backed up a few steps, signaling for Jun to do the same. My boots were heavy against the blasted landscape of the hazard, but I couldn’t tell if that was from anxiety or something external. I beckoned her even closer when she took up a spot a few feet to Mortician’s left, then called my petal-scales into a protective dome around us.

“I didn’t know you could do that.” Jun murmured as she dropped her defensive stance. She looked to Mortician and knocked on my function. “Did you know he could do that?”

They nodded. “Sebastian used this part of his function once before, when we first made contact with him. Though the dome was a fair bit smaller that time.”

“Has it really been that long?” I wondered aloud, trying to recall exactly when I’d last transformed my weapon into a shield. Nothing came to mind right away. “Huh. Maybe it has. We’ll be safe in here until whatever the hazard’s going to throw at us shows up, so get cozy.”

“...And that’s why Okeria refused to let Culla come with us, no matter how hard she begged.” Mortician said somberly. “He’s still keeping the truth about what happened from everyone else, too, so as not to cause a panic. Only us three, Okeria, Thorn, Ambus, and Gloriosa know the truth about what has happened.”

“Damn.” I whistled, leaning up against my dome and shaking my head. “That’s brutal. Poor girl’s probably wondering what happened to make Okeria go from happy to train her to absolutely denying her any involvement. And if everything goes well, she’ll never know.”

Jun nodded in agreement. “I think it’s better that way. If I was in her place, I wouldn’t want to know how horrible Scalovera turned out to be. I left Sotrien to get away from that drowned socio-political mess, not to try a different flavor of horrible.”

I felt a slight knock against my dome. I held out a hand for silence, then gestured for Mortician to ready themselves. Jun already had her gun drawn the second I started moving, and I held up five fingers to start the countdown. I curled them down one by one, anticipation building with each count, and shifted my weapon into a sword when I let my last finger fall.

My petal-scales disappeared immediately, revealing to us a sea of enemies that we’d already fought. My helmet’s function marked each and every one, draining a little more oil than I felt comfortable with, but it told me that none of them were invisible this time. It was a simple horde encounter.

Mortician hummed in interest and summoned a dagger, holding it in one hand as they held their book in the other. “Do not worry about us; we can protect ourselves.”

“Good to know.” I grunted as I swung my blade through a skeletal pitcher plant hybrid, leaving behind a massive slash of petal-scales in its wake. The creature died with a horrible screech that served as a war cry for the rest of its allies, who swarmed in like roaches towards a piece of rotten meat.

Gunshots rang out as Jun thinned the herd, bursts of bleached bone shards flying high in the sky like ossified fireworks. These creatures didn’t die instantly like the others had, shambling insistently onwards as if they had no life of their own. I kicked my slash to give it a little extra oomph, scything through the skeletal creatures without any resistance.

Yet they didn’t die. They separated from their more plant-like bottom halves and pulled at the blasted ground, crawling towards us with a single-minded fury.

“They’re like zombies.” I noted, pulling my slash back through another mass of them, then sending it out along the ground. The creatures didn’t survive being cut in half lengthwise.

Jun stomped on the head of one creature that got too close, shattering it in a mess of jagged shards. She fired off three quick shots into a larger pitcher-plant specimen that had appeared at the far end of the horde, then swiped her thumb down the gun’s barrel. The cacophony that rang out assaulted my ears almost as much as it did her target, which was now missing a good thirty percent of its upper half. It crumbled to the ground, the skeletal body completely unmoving, but the pitcher-plant bottom gurgled and spat out a strange marrow-like liquid that began seeping towards us.

“Watch out for that.” Jun noted, gesturing with her gun at the encroaching puddle. “It’s probably acidic.”

“Or it could empower the creatures.” Mortician offered, swiping their knife to deflect a clawing attack that had been aimed at their book. “These ones seem to be different from the others, and that liquid could be the cause of it.”

I nodded and took a step forwards, activating the scorched bloodcoral concoction as I sent my slash out and created another through a creature to my left. Strength and focus coursed through me as I waded through the creatures, gunshots taking down any that got too close that I didn’t notice, all the while the liquid encroached on the horde. I needed to make sure it didn’t empower them, but I also had an ulterior motive.

Strange liquids were the best bases for consumables. I only needed three more mythical consumables to get that last upgrade for //ENDLESS. Even if that liquid wasn’t strong enough to make something mythical, it would have to be stronger than the bloodcoral concoction. I’d made that with low-level materials, and without any skill.

The ground below my feet rumbled ever so slightly, and a glance down saved me a whole lot of trouble. An oily outline appeared below my feet, snaking so far down the ground that I could barely see the end of it. It looked like a six-armed thing attached to a mass of braided vines, and all six of those arms were raised just below the surface to grab at my legs.

I jumped and maneuvered one of my slashes under my feet, pushing me upwards as the creature burst out from below. The skeletal upper half was mostly the same as the pitcher plant creatures, save for the four extra arms it had placed at its hips and ribs. And the fact that its head was split down the middle, showing a core through its skull like a gigantic cyclopean eye.

“I’ve got that!” Jun called through the clattering cacophony. “You’re better at culling a crowd than I am, so leave the big ones to me.”

I nodded down to Jun, but still sent one of my slashes at the thing’s midsection. Where it connected to a mass of skeletal vines like a naga’s tail. Tiny bone splinters flew from the point of impact, but it only managed to cut an inch groove into the creature.

“I’ll leave it to you.” I confirmed, recalling my slash to dodge a swipe aimed at my head. I set wipe-away on the creature, since it obviously had a core, and started clean-up duty.