Chapter 134, 1/2

Chapter 134, 1/2

One thing to know about Veird was that it was rather large. Much larger than Earth. The mountains were twice to four times the size of Earth’s. The distance from the land to the sky was, first of all, measurable, which was a difficult concept to grasp at first because the atmosphere of Earth was a nebulous 50-800 kilometers from bottom to top, depending on who you asked. On Veird, the atmosphere above the surface was an average depth of somewhere between 90 to 110 kilometers, depending on the landscape, and ended at the Edge of the Script. The oceans of Veird were a whole different existence than the oceans of Earth, altogether. The average depth of the Pacific Ocean was 4 kilometers, but the oceans of Veird often had large parts of them that simply continued down into the Underworld, and then all the way to the Core. The Underworld of Veird to the Core, both of which had no equivalent on Earth as far as Erick knew, was 6000 kilometers deep.

The singular surface continent of Glaquin, which was the smallest surface continent, and the only one that Erick had been on, was the size of several Asias.

In most parts of Veird the trees were all normal, Earth-sized. But in some places, when they wanted to be, the trees were pretty damn big.

From his position on the southern deployment zone of the Castle, Erick looked down upon a land of green trees. None reached up this high, of course, but ‘this high’ was actually two kilometers above the surface. The surface, and the path to the start of the Green Labyrinth, started two kilometers down, past a dense canopy, which was itself, almost like a second ‘surface’. In some places, the branches and leaves were so thick that they provided places for various animals to stand upon. In one spot, just down there, actually, the canopy gave one orangutan-like animal a good vantage for him to throw his crap.

Those tiny turd missiles actually managed to reach the [Air Shield] surrounding Tenebrae’s Estate. They didn’t do anything, but still! What a throw! At least two hundred meters, or more. Erick watched, as the furry thing was joined by another furry thing. The second furry thing brought rocks. A third furry thing brought a boulder.

The boulder hit the [Air Shield], too, but it broke up into sand and whipped away on the wind.

“What are you looking...” Tenebrae frowned at Erick, then pointed at the animals. “You’re not going to kill them?”

More and more six-armed furry animals climbed out of the canopy. They hooted with grey annoyance, but Erick only heard them when a rock or pebble clipped the [Air Shield] and briefly allowed their calls to enter the Estate. They were loud.

“This is going to sound stupid, I’m sure. But they’re animals...” Erick asked, “Aren’t they harmless?”

“You’re right! Those were stupid words!” Tenebrae said, “They aren’t getting those rocks from the canopy. They’re making them. Only the young ones throw feces. The other ones conjure stone. Elder Furred Rockers are actually a threat— Speak of the Darkness. There’s one now. Ha! Pests.”

Tenebrae lifted his hand and pointed, right as the rockers hooted very loudly and all of them scattered, giving the new arrival their space. A giant orange thing lifted through the trees. It was easily the size of a house. Arms unfurled, like a lotus blooming, revealing a slightly-larger rocker at their center, with each of its many arms holding a javelin of stone.

Tenebrae shot a marble-sized stone of his own that ripped through the air, supersonic, then passed through a hole in the [Air Shield] that only appeared at that moment, letting out the stone and letting in the sudden hooting cheers of the smaller rockers. Tenebrae’s marble impacted the elder rocker’s head, cracking the air with a sudden spack. Javelins dropped from the elder’s arms. It screamed, then raced back down, into the safety of the Green.

All of the smaller rockers scattered when their big brother was defeated.

Tenebrae said, “Their monstrous cousins are probably around here somewhere, so they’re going to be a problem, but this is the easiest place to enter, so we’re going in here. Use whatever spells or Domains you have until I say so, then we will be going in under stealth.” He added, “And those Rockers are harmless, unless you’re weaker than them. Then they’ll eat you up. Animals kill and eat people, too, you know.”

Without another word, Tenebrae stepped off of the side of the Castle walls.

He dropped like a stone. A pair of Rockys followed, also dropping like stones. The [Air Shield] opened, briefly, as they passed. Tenebrae fell right through one of the less-dense parts of the canopy, and the canopy swished out of the way of his passing, then closed right back up. The Rockys just crashed through, breaking branches.

Jane giggled as she stepped past Erick and dropped off the edge. The [Air Shield] opened at her passing. She didn’t transform into shadows until she got too close to the canopy for comfort. Teressa followed; a smile upon her face, and hard grey [Conjure Armor] on her body. She crashed through everything, and she seemed to enjoy it, too.

“Nothing to worry about at this point.” Poi said, “The only one who hasn’t spent most of their life doing this sort of stuff is you.”

“Right right.” Erick turned into his sunform. “This is probably just War Fatigue, isn’t it.”

“Yup. We’ve all dealt with it, too. If you need to talk to someone, I could help, or I could find someone else for you to talk with. The Mind Mages have gone to Candlepoint, and though not many are partaking of their services, some are.”

Erick nodded as he held Poi in his sunform, and then stepped off of the Castle walls. He descended in a controlled manner like a fast boulder, through the [Air Shield] and then into the canopy, brushing aside thick branches as he moved. Leaves swung back overhead as he passed. Shadows swallowed them.

Ophiels swarmed, providing eyes in every direction and Sights of all kinds. The mana and blood and souls of creatures glowed, like Erick had stepped into a blacklight rave.

Small glowing animals huddled against branches that wound like roadways through a tangle of green that supported a million swarming insects and those that lived solitary lives, both flying and not, each of them a slightly different brightness and color, while larger animals were like great, singular glows that preyed upon all the rest and were preyed upon in turn.

Erick and Poi descended faster now. These trees were massive, after all. At any sort of slow rate it’d take ten minutes to reach the bottom. Erick moved smaller branches out of the way as he and Poi passed, racing toward the bottom, avoiding the larger beasts in the trees—

And then, they were out of the main canopy. The topmost layer of Green was up there, and they were in the trunk-space, where smaller roadways of branches snaked through here and there, but mostly, it was just up-and-down trunks, each the width of houses. Here is where the real monsters roamed.

Far to the left, an Ophiel spied the beginnings of a spiderweb similar to the ones that laid across the Weaver’s Quarters in Ar’Kendrithyst. A mother spider was curled around a tree trunk, looking like a bulge of brown bark half-again the size of the tree she clung to. Her eight eyes seemed to shift toward Ophiel, but Ophiel kept himself well out of reach. As Ophiel moved around, he saw a horror in the spider’s web; the carcasses of countless red-furred rockers, and other, desiccated things.

To the right, the trees had been damaged by large slashes in groups of threes. Some large, 3-clawed monster had marked its territory, here. Mushrooms sprouted in the slashes, like brown shelves, the same color as the trees themselves.

Erick and Poi continued down, down, into the darkness, for the light of the canopy was far, far above, and the brightest thing in this whole place was Erick, and all of his Ophiel; a central sunform surrounded by smaller scouting planetoids.

After a minute of descent Erick and Poi reached everyone else. The party stood upon loamy land covered in soft moss. Most of it was stable, but there was a lot of deadfall in some of that green Forest floor. Jane and Teressa stood upon part of a fallen tree, partially reclaimed by the Forest. Tenebrae and his Rockys stood upon the mossy ground. The old archmage looked peeved.

Tenebrae said, “Took you long enough! And turn off the lightshow and use your actual eyes without Meditation. You’re missing all the beauty of the land!”

Jane smiled, as if in anticipation. Teressa grinned, as she turned her eyes outward.

... Erick did not turn off his sunform, but he did retract it to the middle of his back. Each Ophiel retracted their own sunforms down into tiny dots in their centers. The light of their temporary solar system vanished as Erick used his own, normal sight, to see. He even lost track of the manasphere, when he let Meditation drop.

The Forest was dark and full of unseen terrors. It was almost worse than the eyes and the flows of the manasphere.

And then a million small things happened all across all of Erick’s vision.

The Forest came alive.

Ferns unfurled with bioluminescence, glowing green and teal. Fireflies flickered reds and oranges. Small blue-glowing animals darted into the darkness, attacking other pink-glowing animals.

Jane giggled.

Erick went, “Huh.”

It was pretty, for sure, but Erick had already seen this when he used all of his Sight spells in the canopy above. It was kinda nice to see it without magical aids, though.

Teressa said, “A Forest-Crowned Stag came through here a day or two ago.”

“Hours ago, I bet.” Tenebrae said, “Okay. That’s enough of that. Turn your Ophiels back on, but not yourself. With any luck, the monsters we find will attack the [Familiar]s first.”

Erick rapidly had Ophiel pop back into full sunforms. The glowing Forest vanished, hidden, as Ophiels moved out into the darkness, dispelling much of the oppressive gloom. They would let them know of encroaching monsters or animals that were too dumb to know to run the other way.nôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.

Tenebrae pointed south, saying, “That way. About a thirty minute walk because we have to approach it on foot or it won’t appear. Mana senses active. Watch where you step. Not all of this land is land; a lot of it is deadfall.”

A Rocky jogged forward, taking point. Teressa went next. Poi, Erick, and Tenebrae went somewhat together, as they were the mages of the group, while Jane and the second Rocky took rearguard.

Poi offered, “Shall I connect us?”

Tenebrae hummed, then said, “Voices won’t attract anything. Yelling might... Yeah. Connect us.”

‘Connected,’ Poi sent to all of them.

Tenebrae sent, ‘The path I plotted to the Gate should be empty of any real dangers, but I suppose there’s no harm in correct protocol.’

The Forest floor was a land of darkness and depth and the calls of animals and monsters, seeking mates or declaring their territory. It was more than a little scary; if Erick had been here without all of his people... He would have never gone to a place like this. Erick felt sweat drip down his neck. As he walked forward he felt as though he was walking through some amalgamation of the Jungle in Ar’Kendrithyst, and also the towers of the Dead City, but hyped up to a whole new level of danger. At least the Dead City had lights everywhere and relatively known terrors. Can’t have shadows without light, after all.

And then there was the fact that Ar’Kendrithyst and the Forest both spat new and unknown monsters out all the time, but the monsters that came out of the Dead City were mostly able to see and gauge the power level of any particular person-sized morsel walking through their territory. The monsters of the Forest...

They saw a thing, and they wanted to eat that thing.

Tenebrae’s prediction of an ‘empty path to the Gate’ turned out to be nothing more than fiction.

Three minutes into their journey, a monster appeared.

Twenty meters up, and to the right, out of sight of the party but not out of sight of an Ophiel, a trio of curved claws curled around one side of a house-wide tree trunk, followed by another that curled around on the other side. Some massive creature was gripping the trees, and coming closer.

Erick was suddenly terrified, but he had dealt with monsters before.

Poi stiffened—

Right as Erick sent, ‘Monster or something, ahead and up twenty meters up; claws surrounding a tree trunk—’ Erick moved that Ophiel around to get a better look. A smashing trio of claws, their points held together by the monster beyond, crashed into Ophiel’s expanded sunform. Ophiel gave a surprised guitar twang as he spun away from the attack and gazed upon the attacker. ‘— a giant fucking...? Twenty-limbed very-furry moss-covered... sloth?’

Everyone had paused their forward walk.

‘Ah.’ Tenebrae said, ‘Kill it, Erick. Extreme force. It can—’

Several quick lightsteps by Ophiel later, and Erick had the thing surrounded.

It was a sloth of epic proportions with a face four meters wide and eyes as dark as the darkness all around. Greenery grew upon its deep fur, like shag carpets and green garlands. Twenty arms, maybe more, supported it as it hung in the middle-tree layer. Whoever designed the monsters around here must have loved the many-arm approach!

(A more rational part of Erick’s mind connected the Rockers he had met earlier with the Sloth he met now; the rockers were animals, but this was a monster, with a monstrous form.)

The Forest up ahead, where the monster was approaching from, briefly turned into daylight, as several Ophiel each unleashed [Luminous Beam]s. Meter-wide flood lights of deadly light impacted the beast, spilling away from it as it reacted, trying to protect itself with its arms while it simultaneously attacked the tiny Ophiels. Ophiels dodged; easily. The monster flailed. Lights as though from a pulsar rapidly burned through the monster’s resistance, cutting it to bits. Bony arms dropped to the deadfalls below, like so much meat. The rest of the burned and severed monster dropped from the tree trunks, crashing into the mossy loam. Ophiels tracked the falling monster to the ground, [Luminous Beam] trained on the monster’s core, ensuring that the beast was very dead.

Tenebrae softly continued, ‘— It can attack the Castle and maybe injure someone.’

Nervous laughter escaped Erick’s lips. He shut that down as soon as he recognized what he was doing. A notification appeared for ‘Lesser Armed Sloth’. It wasn’t a high level. Maybe 52.

As the heat of the moment died, the large gouges from from stray [Luminous Beam]s caught fire. Those fires did not last long. Erick watched as the trees themselves seemed to flex in the manasphere. Divots and damage repaired; living wood flowing back into normal positions.

Tenebrae started walking again, faster than before, sending, ‘The meat and the kill and the light, for sure, will attract larger monsters. We will hurry and avoid all of that.’

Rockys, Erick, everyone, picked up the walk again, but this time it was almost a jog.

Ten minutes later, there was a giant lizard that seemed like Tyrannosaurus Rex’s larger, uglier cousin, but with arms. Long arms, with large claws. Only two arms on this one, though!

Tenebrae killed it with a stone bullet through the head while it roared and charged. His tiny bullet splattered brains and blood over a good twenty meter space behind the beast. And then he shot it again, and again, because T-Rex’s cousin felt like regrowing its head, its chest, and then its head, again. Its head flopped on its broken neck, and then it used its arms to hold its head in place while the neck fully regrew.

It roared again.

“This is ridiculous...” Tenebrae mumbled. “Why is that here?”

And then he cast again, and the ground swallowed the wannabe-threat.

There might have been a roar, but it came from the other side of several hundred tons of rock. The roar cut out soon enough.

‘There we go. Dead.’ Tenebrae exclaimed, ‘And what the damn! An Armed Sloth I can understand; rockers live around here and the Worldly Path is a causality fucker. But that lizard was thirty biomes from his home!’

Twenty minutes later, Erick and everyone else was still on high alert for something else to jump out at them.

Nothing did.

There were a lot of bugs, and a lot of smaller animals eating those bugs and each other. The cool Forest remained dark in the distance, but here, around every Ophiel, lay pools of light that drove back some of the fear coiling in Erick’s guts.

Tenebrae suddenly said, “We—

Erick startled.

“—’re here!”

Erick breathed out. Nothing to worry about! It was just Tenebrae speaking aloud for the first time in a while and causing a minor, unable-to-be-stopped panic. No worries!

Erick looked around. He wasn’t the only one who had a sudden bout of panic. Poi, wide-eyed, breathed out hard through his nose. Jane whipped around toward the sound. Only Teressa was cool as a cucumber on ice; Erick was glad to see one of them was.

The Rockys seemed to know what was going on, though. No panic there, at all.

Jane sent, ‘Where is here?’

Tenebrae gestured forward, to a path between the trees which was the same as all the other paths between the trees. He sent, ‘Look at those two trees, there, to the left and the right. Tell me what you see.’

Erick looked— Oh.

To the left and the right of a flat bit of mossy ground, same as all the rest, were two trees, each slightly wider than a house, same as all the rest, each stretching up into the dark above, like all the rest. But the tree on the right had this rather picturesque root that stretched out from the trunk and buried into the ground, just like all the other trees all around. And the tree on the left had the very same root, except mirrored. As Erick glanced across both trees, he matched up parts that were the same on both trees, except opposite. The same knots, but flipped. The same moss patches, but flipped. The trees were mirrors of each other. The same tree, but flipped.

Tenebrae breathed in deep. “Ah...” And then he frowned. “Maybe. If it was spooked... Maybe.” He said, “The problem is that what we saw we should not have seen until a few hundred kilometers into the Vision, or if we killed some random roaming monster on the edge, and then continued to do so against every monster that we saw. Then we would have gotten a response like that, and not before. And then, the Vision copied the sloth right on top of us! Both of those were very large responses... Too large. I don’t believe that this was a Worldly Path problem, but it either is a Worldly Path problem, in which case this is doomed to failure, or something has the Green Labyrinth spooked, or... Something else.” He shrugged. “I expected failure right away, but not that sort of failure. We’ll try again tomorrow.” He rounded on Erick, his eyes narrowed, but his voice even, “You didn’t have a Domain running, did you?”

“Nope.” Erick asked him, “Did you?”

“I did not. Odd.” Tenebrae frowned. Then he shook his head. “Anyway! The Castle’s full defenses and obfuscation magics are active now that we’re done for the day, and we’re ten kilometers above the Forest. We shouldn’t be attacked, but if we are, we’ll be fine. Don’t [Teleport] away. You won’t be able to get back without the proper telepathic codes and I’m not giving you those. Just read a book, or something. Make some more magic.”

- - - -

Back in the room, Erick received a ping from Jane, which included Poi and Teressa in the group-think.

She asked, ‘Should we be worried about Tenebrae trying something? Or is this Worldly Path shenanigans?’

‘I don’t know about the second one,’ Erick said, ‘But if Tenebrae is trying something, I don’t think he’s even aware that he is trying something. As to what ‘things’ could be ‘tried’, I have no idea about those, either.’

‘Delay tactics.’ Teressa offered.

Jane frowned.

Erick reflected on that idea, then sent, ‘Okay. That’s plausible. What for, though?’ He added, ‘And besides that, I didn’t see any Vision-tripping magics come from him or from anyone else.’

Jane sent, ‘Could have had a Rocky come in when we were kilometers from the start point. That third Rocky could have alerted the Vision.’

‘While plausible, I won’t start second-guessing Tenebrae.’ Erick sent, ‘He’s been awful, but also informative. If the Rockys did that then they did it on their own.’

‘Okay...’ Jane sent, ‘I agree. So. Maybe it’s not Tenebrae at all. How much have you paid attention to the Rockys?’

Teressa sent, ‘They’re omnipresent, but otherwise compliant to Tenebrae. They wouldn’t do something without his consent, would they?’

A thought clicked.

‘Ah.’ Erick said, ‘I told Tenebrae that if he went with us, there was a high chance of him dying. A Rocky was there to hear that.’

Teressa and Jane paused as they digested that information.

‘Eh. Don’t worry about it.’ Erick sent, ‘If we get chased out again then we will have to change tactics. Other than that, Tenebrae believed himself when he said that the unexpected monsters were not because of the Worldly Path. So this is either a Worldly Path thing, or a Rocky thing. Or some outside force.’

‘Or just bad luck,’ Poi sent, deciding to join the conversation.

‘Or just bad luck,’ Erick agreed, then he asked, ‘Anyone able to talk to the Rockys? Aside from a few early talks, I think they’re avoiding me.’

‘I talked to a pair of them once, but they’re avoiding me, for sure,’ Jane sent.

Teressa sent, ‘And me.’

‘And me,’ Poi sent.

- - - -

Dinner was great. It was hamburgers with lettuce, onions, and the red tomatoes that Erick had made in response to the purple tomatoes in the marketplaces of Spur. Piles of thin-cut fried fries sat in a large basket in the center, while everyone had a strawberry milkshake. It was absolutely decadent. It reminded Erick of home in a way that he hadn’t known in a long time. The food truly was perfect.

Erick took his third bite of the burger, and had to stop to wipe away a small tear. Tenebrae watched him, silently, as Erick swallowed his food and said, “This is really good.”

Jane sipped her milkshake from a waxed paper straw. She had needed to wipe away several tears already.

Tenebrae nodded, but did not comment, though a smile did briefly appear behind the hidden cover of his white beard. He ate his hamburger with a knife and fork in the same way that Poi ate his, and though Erick wanted to call them out on their sacrilege, he did not.

Teressa ate her four burgers like they were sliders. Two bites! Gone.

Erick commented, “Even got the straws, too.”

Tenebrae said, “They use straws for cold drinks over in the Wasteland.”

“Ha! Yet another reason to visit that place,” Erick said, “So many places to see! It’s kinda nice. Did you ever go on the Worldly Path?”

“Tried it.” Tenebrae cut another bite of burger off, saying, “Didn’t care for it. I experienced a choice that wasn’t a choice at all, and I chose to abandon the Path.”

“How far did you get?”

“Several steps past the start, a few more toward the end.” Tenebrae said, “You’re only on your... What? Third step out of... how many?”

“At least a dozen.” He asked, “Do you think it would rile up the monsters if I sent an Ophiel into the Vision?”

“You can try. You won’t get far. Your connection to Ophiel will vanish after several kilometers.” Tenebrae seemed to struggle with something for a moment, then he said, “If you wish to enact your own series of experiments on the Vision, without damaging it, then you can do so. Don’t kill too many monsters. If you alert anything as big as that Armed Sloth then you will set us back another day. Whatever you feel like doing, I tell you now that the only way to actually proceed in there is to go in your own body and to be as stealthy as possible.”

Erick smiled. And then he went back to enjoying his hamburger.

- - - -

Seven Ophiel fell off of the side of the Castle, while the sun set in the west, bathing the Forest in menacing oranges, and the east was filled with darkness. The moons rose on the horizon, as Ophiel knifed through the sky, aiming for breaks in the Forest below. He did not lightstep, for there was no light to step upon; he just descended. The canopy proved no barrier. Ophiels slipped through leaves.

The sounds of the Forest echoed across the dangerous land, soaking into the leaves, giving credence to the idea that some hungry thing was around every corner. Monkeys howled. Birds squawked. Bugs buzzed. The canopy was as alive as things hunted in the darkening twilight.

Smaller things lived high in the trees, hoping that the larger things could not get them on the fragile branches. They died instead to other smaller things, like ants, spiders, and carnivorous birds.

Larger things hunted in the deeper canopy, feeding off of each other and whatever fell from above, or wandered too far into the dark.

Ophiel dodged grasping arms. Monsters or animals, Erick wasn’t quite sure, reached out to catch the glowing thing that passed beside their hiding holes. One grasping hand was too fast, but Ophiel was untouchable, liquid light. A roar of frustration followed the escaping Ophiel down through the tangled branches.

Ophiel passed straight through spider webs like falling rain, his glowing bodies catching on the dark eyes of the spiders of those webs. The spiders just watched Ophiel pass, not bothering to move because Ophiel had not disturbed their webs.

A cat, or a jaguar, or maybe it was a frog, leapt, and caught an Ophiel in its maw. Erick checked for a rad; the rad was there. This was a monster. That Ophiel burrowed through the frog-cat with a carving of [Force Shrapnel] made extra sharp. Ophiel left the scene of the attempted eating; a body remained behind for scavengers to find.

Erick had all of them switch to their infrared, invisible forms; he had not expected any trouble at all to get to this point, but maybe he should have.

And then Ophiel was past the canopy.

Ophiel spied larger monsters hanging on the sides of trees. Another spider. Another web.

Something moved far below, like the darkened space in sight that happened whenever Erick had seen a bright flash and experienced a temporary light blindness; the monster was both glowing, and the exact opposite. It moved away from Ophiel’s path; there was no bother.

Somewhat invisible, Ophiel descended to the Forest Floor.

Erick’s Perception and Intelligence, and several Ophiel floating around everywhere with eyes in every direction, helped him to find the path he had traveled earlier in the day.

Three minutes later, Ophiel came to the Twin Trees. Each Ophiel cast an [Animadversion] for themselves, which a few wore like hats, a few wore like a buckler either on their left or right side, and one wore like it was a platform to float upon. Each Ophiel was only as large as a hand; Erick thought they looked very cute. He almost asked if Jane wanted to see one, but she was busy with gridwork.

Erick focused on the mission.

One by one, Ophiels used their lightforms to give themselves a semblance of legs.

... The Ophiel with the ‘platform’ buckler turned his shield into a ‘backpack’ buckler.

And then they walked inside.

They walked, and walked, and wal—

Erick felt his connection grow faint. He had an Ophiel hoof it to the entrance, which was...

That way! Still directly behind them. They were only a kilometer in; they hadn’t gotten turned around too bad, yet. Once that Ophiel was back beside the Twins, the others moved forward. A second Ophiel was left behind after two kilometers in, creating a connecting bridge to the rest. That Ophiel hunkered down in the moss, holding his buckler over him and retreating to his smallest form, closing the [Animadversion] over himself like he was closing the hatch in a submarine.

Two more kilometers later, a third Ophiel did the same.

Erick constantly checked the direction and the flow of mana to ensure that his Ophiel were moving forward, all the time, and that to look backward was to truly gaze back toward the entrance.

Erick reached the end of his Ophiel. 14 kilometers in. That’s as far as he had gotten. He could have used the ones around him in the Castle, but that seemed like a mistake.

Back in the Labyrinth, and for every single Ophiel therein, nothing appeared out of the gloom. Nothing attacked. Erick had kept his Ophiel as small and as dim as possible. They peeked out from their hiding spots occasionally, seeing if they could see anything, but there was nothing in the Vision save for darkness and house-sized tree trunks, covered in moss.

Okay. Time for tests! Here’s the big one.

Erick had one of the forward-most Ophiel enact his [Lodestar].

Briefly, the world flickered, as the forward-most Ophiel expanded out into a tiny sunform, barely half a meter across. His twisted silver buckler hovered in the air behind him.

The mana of the Green Labyrinth churned with sudden intent.

No one blinked, for Erick was seeing through [Scry], and Ophiel had a hundred tiny eyes trained upon the world beyond. But still, something appeared that wasn’t there before, without warning, without sound.

A flickering fire. It was green around the edges, with a white core, and pink accents. That fire shifted into a solid sphere that twisted around to reveal a pupil made of darkness. Another eye opened three meters from the first. And then came a smile, wide and bright as a crescent moon, stretching beneath the inquisitive eyes.

Erick wondered, briefly, if he had made a mistake.

The smile vanished. The eyes closed.

Three Armed Sloths descended on that Ophiel, like three trains converging onto a point. Arms and massive claws came out and crashed into Ophiel’s sunform, battering him around like he was a soccer ball. His silver buckler became a full-body snowflake-like wrapping, with dozens of thorns directed outward. Red claws broke as they tried to break Ophiel’s sunform, and only managed to hit [Animadversion]. Arms with broken claws retreated, only to be replaced by countless more claws and the addition of another Armed Sloth.

Erick expected Ophiel to break. Ophiel whined in flute sounds, expecting himself to break, too.

But that didn’t happen.

[Animadversion]. [Greater Lightwalk]. [Lodestar]. These were enough for simple melee attacks, and to negate most magics.

Ten minutes passed; the attacks never stopped.

Claws broke upon Ophiel’s [Animadversion]. [Stone Lance]s turned into reflected shrapnel. One [Stone Lance] actually fully reflected, hitting an Armed Sloth in the face but breaking at the contact.

Without warning the Armed Sloths retreated into the gloom, vanishing from sight and every Sight that Erick tried. The fiery smile didn’t return. The eyes did not appear. The world seemed to still. Moments became minutes.

Erick called out, “Hello? Are you t—”

Gloom vanished. The mossy Forest floor wheeled underneath Ophiel, like the world’s fastest moving tram. Without moving, Ophiel was suddenly far ahead of where he had been.

Erick briefly saw a Gate standing in the middle of a clearing. It was a bright silver metal, with each of its four sides maybe a meter thick, while the whole thing was rather blocky. He guessed it was about ten meters tall and maybe that much wide, while it sat upon a platform that was double that size. A small ramp of the same silver metal arced into the active magic in the center of the Gate.

The Gate was active.

The sun shone on the other side.

There was a city. People. Waterfalls. Buildings made of airy levels of carved stone. A market.

Someone in guard-armor yelled at the direction of the Gate, while other guards ran toward the Gate, and the people beyond suddenly stared at the Gate. Some ran away.

Erick lost his connection to Ophiel.

He sat up on his chair.

Thirty seconds later, he went to find Tenebrae.