Chapter 102 - CII. | The demon in the mud... (1/2)
Dust trickled down from the ceiling with each successive tremor, and Ibai Blackburn bit his lip as he stared up at it.
He'd been trying to ignore the shaking. He really had. But it just kept reminding him that a battle was going on out there. A real battle. And so close.
But Mama and Papa would be so cross with him if they found out that he left the room. Worse, they'd be disappointed in him. And of course, if he ended up having to explain precisely how he managed to get out, that would only make them even more upset.
But it had to be done. These quakes were simply too enticing to go uninvestigated. Maybe if he was sneaky about it, no one would find out.
The walls had been soul-empowered by Papa and then later overridden even more strongly by Mel, so Ibai already knew that he couldn't simply bust his way out. What Papa and Mel didn't know, however, was that Ibai's ability had manifested a long time ago. He'd kept it a secret for nearly two decades now, knowing that it would only upset his family and make them look for a way to counter its effects. And that would've sucked all the fun out of it.
He had the layout of Marshrock more or less memorized. He'd probably spent more time here than anyone else in the entire world.
So teleporting out of this room was not going to be difficult.
He stood in the middle of the chamber, thought about where he wanted to be, and then wrapped himself in the brown shadow. It swirled around him and then winked out of existence, taking his body with it.
And for an instant, he could see.
The infinite void.
Everything and nothing. Life and death. A trillion burning stars in the sky and all around him. Souls suspended in space. Eleg, too, spinning and breathing and alive.
And all of them, ethereal. Massless shadows of reality. The universe of zero weight, where space itself was of no consequence.
In a flash, it was all gone, and Ibai reappeared in the next room over, stepping from his muddy shadow onto Marshrock's dark stone again.
Ibai frowned. No one was around. But wait, no, that was probably a good thing. He was supposed to be sneaky. He jumped through space again, this time reappearing on the next floor up. Still no one. He jumped again, and this time there was a group of strangers looking directly at him, including several reapers. Many of them carried guns.
”Hello!” said Ibai.
'An aberration!'
”Kill it!”
He teleported away as the gunfire erupted, reappearing in a bedroom a few floors down. ”Well, that was unfortunate.” He shrugged it off and looked around.
He saw a girl with four horns on her face. She was staring at him with wide gray eyes.
”Hello,” Ibai said cheerily. ”You don't look like you want to kill me. What is your name, young lady?”
She stood up from the edge of her bed, hesitant. ”...Who are you?”
”Oh, my name is Ibai. And yours?”
”...Emiliana.”
”What a pretty name,” said Ibai. ”Why are you in here all by yourself?”
Emiliana lowered her brow at him. ”Shouldn't you know that already?”
”Mm. Probably. But I don't. Do you know what is going on outside?”
”Some kind of battle.”
”Right. It's dangerous. You shouldn't be here. So why are you?”
”...I'm being held prisoner.”
”Prisoner? Why? Did you do something wrong?”
”No.”
”Oh, so like a hostage, then?”
”I suppose so, yes.”
”Well, that seems pretty unfair. Not to mention boring.”
She only squinted at him.
Ibai laughed suddenly. ”I understand! Not being allowed to leave! You can't possibly know how much I sympathize with you! By the way, what's wrong with your face?”
Emiliana chose not to answer that.
”Oh, I bet you're a servant, aren't you? You're one of those super-rare mucus users I heard about, right? Do you fight using snot bubbles? Could you show me?”
”Er, I think you mean mutation users...”
”Do I? Well, that sounds way less cool. Hey, where's your reaper?”
”I don't know, actually. She's being kept somewhere else.”
”Oh, should we go find her, then? I bet I know where she is. Ooh, and then we could all go on an adventure together!”
Emiliana hesitated again. ”What do you mean by adventure?”
”I don't know. That's how adventures work, right?”
”Uh...”
”Sounds like a plan!” He grabbed her hand and teleported them both into the next room. They appeared in midair, having to fall a few inches before touching the floor again, and Emiliana ended up stumbling forward.
”What in the world was that?!”
”Neat, eh?”
”But--all that--?! What was all that stuff that flashed by?! All those lights!”
”Oh, those?” A beat passed, and then he gave a lame shrug. ”Anyway, let's keep going. It'll take a couple more jumps to reach the dungeon.”
”Dunge--”
They teleported once more, three floors down this time. Another troupe of armed strangers with reapers was right there to greet them.
'It's an aberration!'
”Hellooo!”
'It's got an Elroy!'
”Bye-bye!”
And they vanished behind a muddy curtain. When they reappeared, there was no light, and Ibai had to fumble around in the dark for a bit before finding the switch on the wall.
The ceiling lit up in intervals, revealing a long, arching corridor full of musty prison cells, all wrought from ancient rock and steel but still airtight even to this day.
”How do you know she is here?” Emiliana asked.
”Well, I don't, but the cells on this floor are super old and were designed specifically to hold reapers. Normal cells won't work even with soul-empowerment, because normal cells have to allow air in, and reapers can squeeze through even the smallest of physical gaps. Unless you're using a soul net, I suppose. But those require added maintenance since they need electricity and other science-y stuff. Which didn't even exist way back then, anyway. Or hadn't been discovered yet, I guess. Whatever.”
”You... seem to know a lot about it.”
”Do I? That's cool. Studying is boring, but knowing stuff is fun. Hey, what's your reaper's name?”
Emiliana seemed reluctant, still, but said, ”Chergoa.”
”Lovely. HEY, CHERGOA! CAN YOU HEAR US?!”
After a beat, Emiliana blinked. ”She can.”
”You lead the way, then,” said Ibai.
Emiliana proceeded down the length of the hall, shouting out to Chergoa intermittently, and soon, Ibai could hear the reaper's responses.
'You sound really close now.'
Emiliana stopped in front of a cell on their right. ”I think she's in here.”
”Okay,” said Ibai. ”Be right back.” And he teleported inside on his own.