Book 2 Chapter 40: Ancient Evil, Part Two

Eliza

Passing through the wormhole, they landed inside a round room with stone walls, but open to the skies. A large group of people was preparing to pass through. The champions. Seeing the newcomers, they moved to surround them, evidently preparing for the possibility that they might turn hostile. They had Tristan fight in the Arena as a prisoner.

"We're friends, don't shoot!" Eliza shouted, albeit no one had made any sudden move.

Isolde was just arriving, in flight, carrying another woman. As soon as she landed, the Warg rushed forward, howling.

"Noodles!" Isolde screamed, and the Warg rushed to lick her face while she was hugging it.

Noodles? Eliza sighed. There must be a mental disease associated with dog owners. She herself was a cat person, even though she didn't have one at the moment.

"This Mana signature… I can recognize it everywhere. Koschei? Is it really you?" a giant of a man exclaimed.

"Yes, Volwodyn, it's me," Koshchei said.

"You know each other?" the woman Isolde had carried asked. She looked tough and stout, the typical tank.

"We were friends once… Until the day he hit on my fiancée. Then I killed him after three days of fighting. As his nickname says, he doesn't like to stay down for long. But let bygones be bygones. I'm glad you're alive, old friend," Volwodyn slapped the Gundam's back. "And look at you now. You have grown so big. Your armor suit is neat."

"It's not an armor suit. How is—" Koshchei tried to ask.

"Leave the pleasantries for later. We have to run. That Slime is unkillable. It's a Legendary monster," the tank said.

"Legendary? I thought it was Mythical. How come so many champions weren't able to kill a mere Legendary?" Koshchei asked.

"Size matters," the tank snapped, stepping toward the portal. A second before she reached it, Isolde grabbed the woman's arm. "Gurt, stop! Something's off."

"Whoa!" the tank yelled, jumping back.

The portal's color had transformed from blue into pond-silk green. A filament darted through the door, trying to grab the woman Isolde called Gurt, but Volwodyn's axe cut it in time. The next second, the portal closed.

"Don't tell me we're stuck here!" Eliza screamed.

"I'm afraid we are," Tristan said.

"I told you not to tell me that."

"The Slime interacts with the portal. It won't reopen if we don't clear the floor. We're toast," Gurt said.

"Unbelievable!" Koshchei said. "A bunch of grown-up champions whimpering like kittens. Where's that legendary slime? I'll beat it to oblivion with my own fists… Err… Or maybe not… We're definitely sticking to plan A."

Turning to look in the direction the Gundam looked, Eliza skipped a heartbeat. There was an arch in the wall, a door, and through it, she could see the immense green Tsunami coming toward them, closer by the second.

That's some big motherfucker slime… How did it grow so much?

"If Isolde takes me up, I can taunt it from the air, running in circles, and the two big guys cut it piece by piece," Gurt said.

"Except its minions will overwhelm us," Volwodyn said. "Run and find a place to hide. I'll keep them busy."

"There's no need to run. We'll take care of the Slime," Koshchei said.

"How?" the half-giant asked.

"We'll blow it up. Semtex. I have a ton of it in my spatial storage," Eliza said.

"And what would be that?" Gurt asked.

"An explosive with powerful shattering power."

"See? We have it covered," Koshchei said.

"I'm afraid it won't be enough," Gurt said. "The monster has more than one core. Hundreds. If we blow it up, we end up with an army of slimes."

"Yet an army of smaller slimes, we can deal with," Volwodyn said.

"What he says," Koshchei said. "It's a sound plan, believe me."

"Is that explosive powerful?" somebody asked.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on NovelPhoenix.

"A ton? Plenty," Eliza said. "We repelled an army with less."

"Then it's a matter of surviving the blast and the acid rain that follows. How many force fields can we count on?" Gurt asked.

"Don't look at me, my Mana is drained," a woman said, with more champions nodding.

"Monk?"

"I can fully restore the Mana of one person," a man with metallic gloves said. "Who has the stronger shield?"

"Don't worry about shields," Koshchei pointed at Tristan. "He'll protect you from the explosion.

"I have a pocket universe AOE. We'll be safe," Tristan said.

"Would I fit inside?" Volwodyn asked.

"Yes, it stretches up if there's someone tall inside. Koshchei, for instance. The rest, just stay close to me."

"So, no one needs Mana?" the Monk asked again.

"Moment. Do you still have that Dire Jump, Isolde?" Koshchei asked.

"I have a thing called True Road now. It's a Warp."

"Is it fast?"

"I suppose. Feels a bit faster than a chopper, but less than a jet," Isolde said.

"It will do. Please restore her Mana."

The man approached Isolde and sent a heavy cross in her ribs. For a second, she bent in pain, then straightened up, smiling. Eliza couldn't believe her eyes, but swallowed her questions.

"Here's what we'll do," Koshchei continued. "Tristan will shelter all of you, while Isolde and Eliza come up with me. We throw the explosive into the slime, and Isolde uses her displacement skill to take us as far as possible. Then, we kill whatever slimes remain one by one."

"I can use my AOE repeatedly to trap a few of them at a time," Tristan said.

"So be it," Gurt said. "We'll try your way, Old Magic man. I hope you know what you are doing."

"That thing is almost here," Koschei said, looking above their heads toward the opening in the ruins. "How long can you maintain your domain, Tristan?"

"An hour."

"Then start it as soon as we go up. Ladies, please go inside," Koshchei asked, kneeling.

The Gundam's door opened, and a metallic ladder descended. Eliza went up first and looked around the cabin. It had two large and comfortable leather chairs, one behind the other, with controls she didn’t understand.

"Where's Dorian?" Isolde asked.

"He's protecting Queen Sensibility. Take the front chair; it's for the pilot. I'll handle the flight, except for the Warping skill. When I say go, touch the yoke and activate your ability."

Since it was the only chair left, Eliza sat in the back. A screen lit in front of her, and a joystick with a trigger emerged from the controls. On her right, a small door opened in the floor.

"Place your storage in the opening," Koshchei said. "It's the cannon's feeder."

The spherical storage materialized before Eliza, and she willed it into the empty space. It was weird to manifest something normally invisible, and she regretted not having practiced with it until now.

"Put on your seat belts," Koshchei said. "Five… four… three… two… one… Take off."

The ascent began slowly, like a rocket's, gaining speed each second. They passed through clouds, then still climbed. Through the lateral window, the ground looked farther and farther away. The slime was just arriving near Tristan's pocket universe and was crawling all over it.

Those guys inside the Dark must be terrified… Eliza shivered.

"Take the joystick, zoom, aim right at the center of the slime, and when the lines turn green, press the trigger," Koshchei said. "Then just let it be; don't try to control the trajectory."

"You're sure?"

"Absolutely. Trust me, as long as you're in those chairs, I can interact with your skills."

"Firing," Eliza said a moment later. The storage shot out, leaving a bright trail in its wake.

The Gundam turned and accelerated. "Isolde. GO!"

Isolde's skill resembled Eliza's Shimmerwalk, in a way. The outside space was still visible, yet distorted. The distance was increasing. The orb was now approaching the slime's surface.

"Is it far enough?" Isolde asked.

"Keep it on if you want to live," Koshchei screamed.

"Merde!" Eliza yelled when the bright light hit. A mushroom cloud grew behind them, glowing ominously, rising higher and higher until it towered over them. Successive rings of pressurized air and heat spread with terrifying speed at multiple altitudes.

The Warp continued for a few more seconds before the shock wave hit, and the skill stopped on its own. A giant slap projected them forward. The Gundam entered a tailspin, falling abruptly. They rolled for what felt like an eternity, Eliza screaming, before Koshchei launched three giant parachutes, managing to stabilize himself. After that, he released them and began flying back. The mushroom cloud was still rising, but there were no more shock waves.

"Semtex? That's no Semtex," Eliza yelled, pissed off. "That was a nuke!"

"You lied to us. You're still evil!" Isolde

"Hey, give me a break. It's a process," Koshchei said. "I was not sure until the last moment. Maybe Georgescu took a Soviet thermonuclear nuke case and replaced the contents with Semtex. Right?"

"You're lying," Isolde hissed, and all the controls and lights in the cockpit flickered.

"Fine," Koshchei said. "I knew it was a thermonuclear bomb. I detected the radiation."

"Why the pretense?"Eliza asked.

"To skip all the boring explications and solve things faster."

"What's that?" Eliza gasped and pointed. A few miles away from the Inner Sanctum, there was… or had been a city. Now it was burning, with smoke spreading over the place. A few scorched structures still stood, but most were reduced to rubble.

"The harghuz colony," Isolde said.

"Sorry?"

"The mimic human-sized insects Georgescu and the king planned to use to take over the world," Koshchei said.

Ah, yes, that… Eliza remembered.

"My engines need to cool down. Let's walk," the Gundam said as they touched ground a few hundred yards from the ruins. The walls were totally gone, but the columns and the podium, protected by Tristan's Dark Void, had survived. The AOE had been dismissed, and champions and the Knight were arguing.

"What kind of spell was that?" Gurt was yelling at Tristan.

"I told you, I don't know, okay?" Tristan waved his hands.

"Are you calling me names?" the woman frowned.

"Okay means all right," Koshchei said, kneeling to let Eliza and Isolde out.

"Do you have a radiation meter?" Eliza asked.

"Everybody here is immune to radiation," Koshchei said. "Some even feed on them."

"What was that skill, old friend? How did you become so overpowered since we last met?" Volwodyn asked.

"It was an explosive, only one more powerful than I anticipated."

"He knew, but he lied, because lying is his nature," Isolde said matter-of-factly.

"Why lie?" Volwody asked.

"To speed up things. Explaining what a thermonuclear bomb is would have taken too long."

"Never mind that. How do we restart the portal?" Eliza asked, looking at the stone arch.

The text that followed appeared both in front of her eyes and boomed in her ears, like the giant bass speakers at a rock concert.

The Tower's admins are currently working to regain control of the floor and access the logs. The Portal will reopen after the rewards for clearing the floor are granted.