Chapter 199: Version 2.0 (1/2)

The vast waves of purple muck pushed away from us, my magic letting us dive into the abyss. After a few minutes of sinking down, Krog murmured,

”You'd better not overstretch your mana reserves. I doubt we'd be able to crawl out of this before drowning.”

I waved away his concerns, ”I'll be fine.”

”I pray to Emagrotha your right about that,” Chrona whispered.

Two hours later, we reached deep into the depths of the grimy tides. Thousands of feet down, we landed onto gelatinous mud. Gross, but we managed. After a bit of searching, we happened across some sort of pulsing through the depths.

Assuming it came from the life signatures, we walked towards the source. We found a compound at the bottom of the ocean, a plume of sludge rising from its center. As the ripples ebbed along with the edge of our capsule of air, Althea frowned,

”It smells so bad here.”

Chrona nodded, ”It reeks of the silver's lifeblood, fresh as the day Lehesion destroyed a portion of the continent.”

”It's oozing from beneath some sort of facility,” I murmured. ”It's hard to make out, but I can get an idea based on how the sludge is moving.”

Krog scoffed, ”How is that even possible?”

”Look closely at the way the waves flow off the bottom of our air bubble. They're shallower than the ones at the top of the sphere. Something is blocking the flow of liquid to an extent, slowing it down. The bottom isn't colder than the top flow either, meaning this isn't some natural current. The colder muck should both sink and be harder to move.”

”That explains how you understand that something is there, but how do you know it's a facility?” Chrona said.

”Well, that's because the interference in the flow is too even. A jagged rock would create a more chaotic flow, and the temperature would be more variable.”

Althea pointed at the ground, ”I can sort of tell too. The ground here is warmer than the ground we walked on earlier. I'm not a detective, but there's a source of warmth here. Considering what we're looking for, it's not that big of a leap to assume its the facility.”

Chrona and Krog looked at each other. They stared back at us, ”Your group's tracking is remarkably...detailed.”

I didn't tell them about how Torix and I spent days and days looking for a giant Skyburner in a mountain. Keeping them in unjustified awe worked fine for me.

With the facility found, we planned out what to do before entering it.

”Several environmental hazards may be present,” Torix pulled out a gas mask for Althea, ”Spores and other hazardous conditions could be present as well. It would be better if we filtered out any kind of debris in the air as well. Perhaps creating our own personalized rebreathers would assist us as well.”

The gialgathens stared at him, both of them nervous. Torix channeled some mana into his hand, ”Fret not. There's little need to worry. I researched a spell for just such a purpose. I waited as long as possible before using it as it has a time limit before it expires. Simply channel your mana into this mana construct, and it will maintain a small area of air for you to breath.”

Torix generated two semi-translucent bubbles of mana.

”That being said, if the facility collapses and Daniel is not nearby, you will come into contact with this...mush. While I no doubt trust that you both can tolerate it for a while, getting out from the bottom of this ocean might be impossible. Stick near us, and there will be no need to worry.”

Torix pushed each contruct to them. Althea locked her hands behind herself, ”Uh, thanks for coming here with us. I know it's a lot to ask for you to trust us.”

Chrona guided one of the constructs onto her face with her tail, ”He's here for the goodwill of our planet. It would shame us to let him do so on his own.”

”Good.” Althea smiled, ”Still happy you're both here though.”

She put on her mask, appearing downright menacing in combination with her suit of black wires on. It contrasted her politeness, sending a wave of dissonance at me. I shook the sensation as Torix cupped his chin,

”You won't be needing a mask, will you?”

I shook my head, ”If the spores can kill me like that, then I doubt the masks and magic will stop them either.”

”Excellent. That saves me a bit of mana. Now, It will do us good to scope out the facility before entering it. The chance of them discovering our presence is low, and we have much to gain if the facility is of notable size.”

I gave him a brusque nod, giving him my approval. The others must have too as he opened a screen,

”I've already added some extra functionality to my one of my statuses. Using one of the Speaker's software updates, I can map out new dungeons and areas three-dimensionally. Based on your descriptions, we should be able to get a good grasp of the entire area, allowing us to efficiently peruse it. Whenever your ready, Daniel.”

With his signal, I lifted us up into the air, carrying our air bubble around the first wall. I described the proportions of the walls and where they ended, using Hunter of Many as a reference. My depictions were foggy at best, but Torix drew in the details I missed, creating a graphic image in front of him. Althea murmured, ”Did you practice with that before now?”

”Ah, you noticed,” Torix gloated. ”I spent several hours on this task, ensuring I owned the tools to create something of value. My skills are by no means perfect-”

Torix pressed his four fingers together, pulling them apart, lines drawn between each bony of his hands. He let his hands stay still for a second, allowing the rectangle to sync into place, becoming a part of the hologram.

”But they should be acceptable for this purpose.”

We mapped out the rest of the facility in relative silence, everyone watching us work. This took some time and effort as we positioned ourselves around the facility. It was a good thing we did too; the facility was massive considering where it was. The map could be invaluable when exploring the inside of it.

It turned out to be a fully functional headquarters. A dozen warehouses, hallways, and rooms littered the structure. It left us scratching our heads as to how the hell they kept it running, though Torix had a few ideas. Without any clues on the surface though, we explored our final option.

Going inside.

We selected the best place to enter with the lowest probability of being found on entry. One of the buildings was connected by one hallway to the rest of the buildings. That meant less sound would leak out into the rest of the place. It looked like a storage warehouse as well, saying fewer people were likely to visit the site often.

With our point of entry scoped out, I floated us towards the wall. Althea cleaned through the two-foot thick steel wall with ease, her spacial slicing ludicrous as always. There was something strange about watching her grow a blade of bone over the rifle I made her then cleaving through iron with it. It was one of those moments where I realized how insane what we were doing was.

I shook off that feeling as we went inside. We found no one left alive, as Torix suggested. Blood was spattered onto the walls, though no corpses were left to linger. The lights blinked on and off, giving an ominous vibe to what looked like a pantry. Well, was a pantry. Something had eaten large swaths of the food stored here, and they did so by mauling any packaging the food was stored in.

Along the paths of its destruction, circular imprints were embedded in the concrete floor, marking the size of the killer. They mirrored Althea's foot size. Damn. Smaller then I expected.

Before leaving, I channeled mana, heating the steel wall into molten metal. After fusing the welds, I cooled it by pulling the heat out of it. Without needing to hold the gunk off the wall, I slowly shut down my gravity well. It was like setting the pressure of the ocean back onto the base. We all waited for a minute, making sure the wall would hold.

It did before Krog, and I paced forward and scoped out the area. It didn't take long to for me to verify that the facility was, in fact, empty as a ghost town. Everyone following close behind us came to the same conclusion not long after us.

Krog murmured, ”It smells like death.”

”Do tell us what death smells like?” Chrona said while rolling her eyes.

”Like dry blood and stale air,” Krog said.

Chrona took a whiff, ”Hmmm...It does.”

The entire building smelled like a butcher's store. It was clean and sterile in most place, but every now and again, there was the curdling smell of a fresh corpse still here. The entire mood of our journey changed at that point. Everyone sobered up, getting on guard. Without wanting to wait any longer, we moved into our formation.

Krog and I stayed out front, both of us survivable. Chrona readied one of her massive blue orbs above her, keeping it contained. Staff and magic prepared, Torix marked into his 3-d map in his obelisk as we walked. Althea held her new rifle out, ready to obliterate anything in sight. With my back covered, I kept my eyes facing forward.

I reached the end of the food warehouse, finding doorways large enough for gialgathens to step through. Surprised but undeterred, I stepped ahead of Krog, ready to take the brunt of whatever infested this place. I knew I was the least likely to die if something hit me without warning.

Despite our worry, we found nothing in the vast hallways outside of more blood splatters. There were no signs of fighting, no bullet casings or chipped concrete, and especially no corpses. It was unnerving, like walking through some surreal nightmare. Despite our unease, we made steady progress through the facility, stepping through dozens of warehouses and corridors.

The spotty lighting from the flickering lights was fixed when Torix created a ball of white fire. In tandem, he and I kept our guard up the entire time, even as minutes of searching turned into hours. The others faltered at times, unable to handle the constant tension of the situation. It wasn't much of a problem, however. Torix was right with his reading that nobody was here.

We sped up our search from then on out. Even if something was here, it wasn't the most perceptive creature. Either that or it didn't find us to be a threat worth taking on. If so, I reveled in proving the damn thing wrong. After eight hours of searching through offices, cafeterias, and educational facilities, we hit the jackpot - we found the research labs and an open rift.

Turns out, the facility was connected to an active dungeon just like the last research lab. We explored the open cavern first, an entrance made for it and everything. What we found were harvesters identical to the ones I saw with the Hybrid from before. They were creating artificial dungeons and harvesting the denizens inside them, somehow. Either that or this place conveniently had a dungeon right were Emagrotha died.

I wasn't quite gullible enough to believe that though.

With the threat of another hybrid on our hands, Althea and I warned the others about the likelihood of facing another one of the abominations. It set Chrona and Krog both at ease and on high alert. On the one hand, we kicked one's ass already. On the other, it shocked them to discover that one hybrid killed an entire troop of Skyburners.

Krog took that last bit particularly hard. He was a Skyburner after all, so hearing that he was among fodder was hard to understand. As he stared in the distance with hollowed eyes, Althea walked up beside him. She laid a hand on the beast's side,

”That thing caught them by surprise. That's the only reason they didn't win.”

Krog shook his head, ”I never imagined that the eldritch could destroy us so easily given a chance...It's harrowing.”

I waved a hand, ”Not quite the eldritch, but yeah, it can happen to damn near anybody. That's why Schema's so adamant about everyone getting off their asses and killing them.”

”I've heard it from weaklings, but to hear the same adage from someone I respect puts it in a different light.” Krog sighed, ”We must rethink our approach if we are to remain living on Giess.”

I pointed at him, ”Now that's what I like to hear. We can't save your planet on our own no matter how badass we are.”

Chrona nodded sagely, ”When we go back to Rivaria, we shall spread the word of what we found here. Krog and I will scour the land of these eldritch, though we will need help to find them. Our tracking isn't as advanced as yours.”

I cupped my chin, glancing up, ”Hmmm, I know a guy who might be able to get you into Schema's system. God knows he owes me some favors.”

Althea walked up beside me, ”You're talking about the Overseer, aren't you?”

I smirked, ”Bingo. Who knows. They might even let gialgathens into the system after they start clearing out enough eldritch.”

Krog shook his head, ”Few of our kind own the work ethic necessary for that kind of task. It would be like throwing jewels to lightning elk. They would just eat them instead of understanding their value.”

Torix clapped his hands behind us, ”We have a base to uncover. Back into the formation everyone.”