Chapter 309: The Unfamiliar (2/2)

Below this wide, expansive skyline, the pressure here mirrored a moon more than a planet. It wasn't as decompressive as space was, though it came closer than Giess or Earth did. The gravity proved looser here and less of a constant pull, more of a slight tug.

I spread my right hand out, lifting one of the stones below us into my hand. I crushed it to powder before the dust lingered in the air. Taking a step forward, the crisp, crunchy ground let out a soft warble of sound. The thin air didn't carry noise well.

Amara hissed, her voice muted, ”This world is uncomfortable. Why they live here is a mystery to me, for there is little here beyond dust.”

I gazed at endless, rolling hills of white stone, ”Tell me about it.”

Using my sharp sense of pressure, I created tiny gravity wells over each of my team members, mirroring Earth's atmospheric pressure. Florence gasped in relief, ”That is much better, thank you.”

I rolled my shoulders, ”No problem. Let's go.”

Helios raised his eyebrows, ”Where, exactly?”

Peering around, I had no idea. Little exposed itself here, outside of endless wasteland. A piercing quiet crushed in from all angles, creating a heavy cloak both comfortable yet suffocating. It dulled my senses, but I leaned onto my gravitational awareness to compensate. Bending my knees, I pushed my heels into Svia to jump.

The crackling rock crumbled under the pressure of my feet, enormous cracks radiating from the ground. I lifted myself further with gravitation before inspecting at a higher vantage point. Everywhere on this dead rock mirrored what we found below, all except specific burrow openings.

These apertures glistened from the intense solar energy that reflected off their surfaces. Something caused that blinding sheen, but the glow masked the details of the chasms. Landing back below, I stifled my meteoric impact by lifting myself upwards.

This prevented me from hurting my team. Once down, I pointed where one of the burrow openings exposed itself, ”There's something out there. Let's go.”

Having practiced with my rings, Helios and Amara propelled themselves from the ground. Helios did so with ease, having mastered their use already. Florence floundered behind us before failing his enchantment altogether. Without turning back, I stopped his faceplant into the white stone with a smile,

”You need to practice.”

Florence smiled back, ”Oh, but I'm simply too busy working for your guild. There's no time for developing the ring's use, and I'm certain you understand the sentiment.”

Helios massaged his temples with his fingertips, his fur bristling along his face, ”And to think I ever believed you competent.”

I picked Florence up before setting him down. He ran below us while we hovered above. We slowed down for Florence, but I didn't mind the downtime. I moved a book under my helmet out of my view for a minute or two while we flew. With my actual eyesight, I relished in the spectacle of stars, galaxies, and nebulas above.

By now, my eyesight mirrored a weak telescope if I genuinely focused. That gave each glowing sphere depth, and I lost myself in those sights. Well, I did that while reading reading the ancient book hidden under my facemask. And I also channeled the elemental furnaces. Oh yeah, and I poured that mana into my cipheric carvings as well. When I say it like that, it seems like a lot.

But I got lost in those stars, let me tell you.

Anyways, we landed near one of the reflective patches. This sheen spawned from a thin membrane lying over a burrow's opening. It was the colony entrance for the ahcorus. Considering how thin this atmosphere was, it made sense they wanted some shelter. Around the membrane rested smooth, tan-colored stone. It looked like a patch of polished teeth, both grotesque and pleasing to the eye at the same time.

I walked through the membrane, always leading our group in case traps erupted from the cavern's walls. I figured if those snares or pits killed me, then everyone would've died disarming them anyways. They'd need to be rather explosive either way.

No traps triggered, but the membrane did cover me in a sterile, clean smell like rubbing alcohol. I absorbed the organic sheathing, but the others didn't. Peering at the tunnel below, I found struts of smooth, flowing enamel interlacing polished stone. It looked like someone installed bones into a dug-out tunnel before smoothing the rock with a chemical.

It lent itself to an alien but fascinating design. I rubbed a palm against this silky stone, the minerals smoother than glass in some spots. That polish exposed the rock's true beauty underneath. The mineral layers piled together like a tall cake of crystal.

Interrupting my inspection, several green blobs rolled up nearby. They showed see-through membranes covering their gloopy centers. Suspended in their bodies, they carried rocks, debris, and some kind of fungus that glowed. That same fungus offered light throughout this expanse and the tunnels below.

Once they sensed us, these tiny green slimes rolled away, their outer membrane circling an immobile center. This moved them along as if they were encompassed by a moving treadmill track. I gawked at the sight, mystified by the creatures. After they disappeared, two enormous, azure-shaded slimes came from the tunnel below.

These monsters stood twelve feet tall, carrying enormous claws, plates of bone, and thin tendrils that served as antennas. They pooled themselves into four limbs, their front paws swelling as they neared us. Those swollen limbs generated spikes and serrated teeth in the slime centers of the beasts. These weapons emerged onto their epidermal linings, likely for smashing us.

The thorny limbs paired well with the acidic drool dripping from toothy openings in their cytoplasmic innards. They charged us, but I encompassed them in Event Horizon. I eliminated the damaging drain of the aura, keeping the pressuring effects unmitigated. Despite the dimensional wake, their will to fight didn't wane in an instant.

The guards of this colony worked with a tireless pursuit, and they kept moving forward until they crashed into my opened hands. Like a child running into a steel wall, their bone plates shattered, and their charges ceased. I leaned over them, their hulking frames smaller than mine,

”I said stop.”

And they did.

Their forms shivered before they pulled away from me. I pointed deeper into their tunnel, ”Take me to Reason. I'm here to meet your queen.”

The two defenders stared at one another, no eyes or sensory organs in place for understanding me. Their thinned tendrils sprinkled against each other before they turned back to me.

Knowing words wouldn't work, I created a telepathic connection with them both, their minds relentless and hungry. It impressed me to find them so defiant despite the overwhelming odds against them. I nodded in approval, sending over my impression of them. They sent vague appreciations back, finding me a fierce warrior in my own right.

Instead of giving them a message to meet Reason, I sent over the urge to see others like them. Understanding the simple statement, they ambled back into the tunnel, urging me to follow. I stepped forward while Florence frowned,

”Hm, they don't seem like a very social sort.”

As we wound our way down, we traveled deeper into the colony. With each step, airflow grew denser, and oxygen came with it, along with activity, abound. Jade shaded blobs rolled across the tunnel's surface like a moving forest, each of them carrying a different green coloring. They managed and expanded a complex tunnel structure around us.

This inner sanctum dwarfed Mt. Verner. Even with my height and size, this underground space gave me plenty of breathing room. Many massive tunnels linked into this vast cavern, and with those tunnels came swarms of other slimes.

And the deeper we went, the greater the density became. Most of them were the worker slimes we first encountered, each of them green. These drones always encompassed rock, ores, gems, and enamel sheets. Those toothy sheets coated the tunnel's surface with greater density until no rock exposed itself at a certain depth.

Additional struts and supports offered stability at greater depths. Light radiated from blue, green, and mauve fungi attached to the burrow's ceiling. These lichens symbiotically thrived on several of the slime's oozes, the workers feeding them to exchange light.

Besides these basic, greenish drones, other slimes toiled. Lumbering bruisers, like those we followed, trudged through this underground maze. They carried the carcasses of eldritch, the different monsters covered in slashes and acidic burns. These guardian slimes threw these corpses to the other blobs to feast, who did so in seconds.

More slimes showed themselves in these feeding frenzies. These slimes carried all kinds of colors, and they often led groups of green drones. These specialized slimes applied adhesives, sprayed acid on rocks, or coated eldritch in enzymes for digestion. They always ended up producing something in their plasmic centers, and whatever they made helped the colony in some way.

This made the entire expanse mirror a beehive, fervent with activity but organized by intent. Most of it, anyway. The giant slimes took us to a cavern lined with even more fungi. Here, the lichens expanded with drooping vibrissae. They ended up swollen bulbs of the liquid light, and they waved around as if blown by a gust of wind. When a bulb hit another bulb, the glowing spheres clanked out a bell chime.

This gentle sound contrasted the brutal display below. Many specialized slimes watched an arena of sorts where other blue slimes mauled one another in a carved-out space. Two of them did so now, each of them dripping acidic innards. A brighter, cerulean blob sat along a far wall of the colosseum. There, it generated spikes of enamel and lobbed them out at its enemy.

Facing it, a steel blue slime swung large, blunt hammers of bone at the incoming spears. It deflected the masses of spikes, being pierced many times as it closed the gap. Those gushing impacts made the other slimes slither in appreciation. Even without sight, the living goos experienced the vibrations of power and the series of collisions.

Once the steel blue slime reached its brighter opponent, it swung its hammer down. The other glop splattered across the arena, coating the environment in sizzling acid. The surrounding oozes leaped down, devouring the corpse of their fallen warrior. I gawked at the display, ”That's...pretty brutal.”

Florence typed into his status, ”Noted, casual cannibalism. Fascinating.”

A familiar body rolled up to us. Turning before it spoke out, I raised a hand, ”Yo, Reason, it's good to see you again.”

Reason turned from a ball into a snake shape, slithering the last bit of distance to us. Two large, lumbering guardians trailed beside her. She sent out some kind of pheromone mist, and the guardians bowed to her in reply. They stayed behind her while Reason came up and spoke out in our language,

”You infiltrated my domain via the surface. Interesting. I would've estimated our warp would've been a simpler point of entry, but perhaps you did so to throw Plazia off your trail.”

Our group stared at Helios, who shrugged, ”I never said that warping was necessary. I merely mentioned I could.”

Amara stepped forward, and the guardian slimes beside Reason gurgled out with sizzling spit. The Razor queen swelled up beside her guardians, getting close to our friendly eldritch. Reason chimed, ”You are not of the Harbinger's kin or any sentients for that matter. You are the one who walked about at the party.”

Reason shivered, ”Is she your pet, Harbinger?”

I sighed, ”No, she's not. She's our technician.”

”Oh. I never realized an eldritch could be technical.”

Amara hissed at the arena behind us, ”And I never estimated that races could be more primitive than even the lowest eldritch. We are both surprised this day.”

Reason's inner green markings trembled, ”Those are my children. Speak well of them, or I will allow them to speak poorly to you.” The guardians beside her presented their claws for Amara's viewing. Reason grumbled, ”And they prefer speaking with action.”

I raised my palms, ”We're not here to fight. You know that.”

Reason kept her form near Amara as a tense moment passed. My helmet's aura flared red before mana oozed off my frame,

”Unless you'd like to, of course.”

Reason shifted away from the energy before shivering, ”No...Not at all. We'd rather not.”

Florence pointed at the colosseum behind us, ”They seem as though they'd love to. Perhaps an explanation is in order?”

Reason coursed her way along the floor, her form stretching into a thin line before collecting back into a more giant ball. Crystalline shards pierced and submerged into her skin as she gazed at two more of the blue guardian's battle.

Reason pointed with a see-through claw, ”They battle for mating rights with me. The strongest of them holds the right to create our next brood. After we have mated, I devour them to fuel the next batch of offspring.”

Amara pointed her hand at the battle, ”That seems brutal and unnecessary, hm?”

Reason laughed with a cutting edge in her voice, ”No, it is the opposite. Eldritch devour each other for their own gain. We do so for a different reason. You see, there is no greater honor than bringing the colony to greater heights. Many methods exist to do so, but few are as pronounced as strengthening the next generation of our young.”

Reason spread herself thin, making herself appear enormous, ”But that kind of sacrifice is lost on your kind, isn't it? Perhaps that is why you believe it unnecessary, hm?”

Amara scoffed, ”The eldritch fight to uncover who is the strongest amongst us. Look to Plazia if you must remind yourself of how effective that strategy may be.”

I turned to them both, ”We get it. You hate each other. Deal with it until we leave.”

Florence shook his head, ”Gah, right as it was getting interesting.”

Helios spread his arms, ”Could we, perhaps, be pointed to the direction of our mission? Is there a colony that is closer to Plazia's home, or is this the nearest one? I'd like to finish this quickly if at all possible.”

Reason recollected into a ball, her form trembling before she laughed. The snickering expanded and echoed through the cavern, many of the walls rebounding it into a maddening cacophony. As her outburst abated, Florence pulled back some,

”So...what does that creepy laugh mean, exactly?”

Reason rumbled like thunder in the distance, ”There is no colony where you will not find Plazia.”

Helios tilted his head, ”Does Plazia carry that many spies?”

With a crystalline claw, Reason pointed down, ”No. Plazia is the ground beneath us.”