Chapter 134: Backrooms

Chapter 134: Backrooms

With a grunt James slipped through the seam and out into he couldnt make sense of what he was looking at.

The golden seam hung behind him, fading away for good now, Jellys last cries going with it.

Instead of black rock walls and the dour reality of the Hopeless Tower, James now hung suspended in a great starfield, every direction revealing endless motes of bright light, an infinitude that beggared his mind with its endless scale.

Yet there was a structure here, an object hanging in space to which he desperately turned his attention like a man jerking back from the edge of a precipice.

A tower.

No, a collection of floors both descending and rising past him.

A wave of vertigo washed through him and crashed against his Mental Dominion. Were it not for his enhancement, he was sure hed have collapsed.

For the floor above him was a great crimson canyon, its entirety contained within a space the size of a football field, everything shrunken down, including the huge wall that blocked off one end. The Jormungandr dragon lay dead in its heaped up coils, and even as he stared James saw a wind blow red sand up against is form, beginning the process of burying the dead demon.

Above that? A second layer, a world contained and constrained by impossible physics, the Ruby Grove, the great trees reaching up to form its ruined canopy, its massive size shrunken down to rough the same areas as the Sinister Blockade.

The rest of the levels ascended above them; the Onyx Crypt, the Crimson Swamp, the Hollow Hill, up and up to the Fallen Plains and the great funnel of power that rose to Earth.

The portal to which appeared as a vast glowing circle of blue and white light, opaque and brilliant against the stars.

Around these plains, these stacked realms, was a helix of gray light, like complex stairs or channels that James intuited were a means of travel. He stood within one such tube of gray light now, ephemeral and barely discernible.

Below?

James stared down, his stomach plastering itself against his diaphragm, breath caught in his throat.

To gaze upon an impossibility.

Nine layers, almost identical, superimposed so that they blurred, yet also distinct, stacked.

His mind rebelled. The layers couldnt be simultaneously overlaid yet above and below each other, yet somehow they were, and he felt his thoughts stretch to breaking to encompass that reality.

In all nine layers a huge castle featured, cyclopean and beautifully built, a gothic masterpiece of blue roofing, pale yellow walls, spires and towers, galleries and great chambers like lighthouse lantern rooms.

Yet in some layers the castle was ruined, in others it was restored; in mid-layers great beams of blue light encircled it like some light show, while in others small angelic figures rushed about.

And in all of them the castle was besieged.

Gorge rising, James tried to force his gaze deeper, to the layers hidden below these nine, but it was then that a voice rang out.

Hey! The Angelic Host angel had turned back to him. A new, horizontal seam had appeared in the starfield before James, akin to a platinum and golden Aurora Borealis, and it was in this great slash that the angel hovered, irate, almost departed from the Pit helix and its layers. What the fuck are you doing in here?

James tried to gather his thoughts. He felt completely discombobulated, overwhelmed, nauseous.

Past the Angelic Host, through the great shifting and horizontal seam, James could make out an elegant chamber, as large as the ballroom back in the Marriott, in which dozens of other angels mingled, drinks in hand. They were varied in kind, with one in particular at the back being as effulgent and glorious as a living sun.

One of the walls was translucent, a view of an impossible world beyond it composed of waterfalls, hanging greenery, shimmering rainbows, yellow skies -

How did you get in here? The Angelic Host flew right up to James and got in his face, clutching a fistful of Jamess shirt. You followed me? You brazen little bitch!

I what is this I mean -

The angel reached out and a new portal slashed itself open in the air.

Dont speak a word about this, hissed the angel, glancing back over his shoulder. To anyone. If anybody finds out you were here well both be destroyed. Now forget everything you saw and get!

And the angel flung James through the new portal. He crashed onto the obsidian flooring of the circular chamber in the Hopeless Tower.

The Host Angel glared at him, zippered up the portal, and it vanished from view with far greater alacrity.

James! James, what the fuck?!Jelly flew in anxious circles around him. What did you just do? Where did you go?

Slowly, carefully, James sat up. His mind reeled. He rested his elbows on his knees, hung his head, and fought to control his breathing. The scale of what hed glimpsed, the physical impossibilities, all of it made him feel as if his spirit were still out at sea.

James? James, what the actual fuck, what did you do, thats not - I mean, that cant be right, you shouldnt have -

Jelly, chill.

Jelly, chill? Chill?! You just antagonized a Host Angel, and now who knows if it will tell anyone -Ñ00v€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

He told me wed both be destroyed if word got out. So no, I dont think hes going to tell anyone.

Still! Jelly waved his sword-arms in distress. That was naughty!

Layer 10, Blackfall, Unlocked

James waited for his friends to express their relief, Denzel and Kerim exchanging a tight hug, and then coughed into his fist.

So Everyone turned to regard him. Ive got something to share.

Oh no, said Serenity. Nobody ever shares good news this way.

What? Jason raked his fingers through his short blonde hair. What gives?

I, ah, well. James frowned at the ground, hands on his hips. After my Angelic Host left, I followed him.

There was a moment of silence.

You followed him? asked Serenity slowly. What the fuck does that mean?

I, ah you notice how the golden portals they use hang in the air for a few seconds after they leave?

You followed him? Denzels incredulity was both sharp and amazed. Thats possible?

No? I mean, it shouldnt be, I dont think. I almost lost my fingers trying to force it open. But then I shoved Hermans bar into it and that caused the whole thing to spaz out.

Hermans bar? Kerim blinked. I dont follow. Like a crowbar item?

No, said Serenity. A real bar. Back in Brooklyn?

I still dont follow, said Kerim.

Me neither, said Olaf.

Denzel and Yadriel both shook their heads.

Ill show you. James activated the demiplane, and to his relief his Aeviternum point was restored to him by Fortuna Aeviternum. The door appeared to one side of the room, old and scarred just like the real entrance.

Oh shit! Your demiplane! Denzel smacked his palm against his forehead. I clear forgot. Wait. You made it a bar?

The best bar. Serenity opened the door. Check it out!

They all filed inside. Bob Marley was playing on the jukebox. Syrupy amber light fell in distinct cones from the spotlights over the bar, and everything else was ambient and gloomy.

Oh shit, said Yadriel, popping behind the bar. Can we just like, stay here forever?

For a moment everyone just looked around.

A dive bar, said Jason.

It could have been anything, right? Denzel raised an eyebrow. A day spa with a sauna?

A Norwegian cabin over a fjord, offered Olaf.

A beach in Bali? offered Miriam. The Maldives?

Serenity glared. Yeah, well you got the best bar in town. So wait. She looked over to James. You shoved the bar into the portal?

Kind of. The door never appeared. But it glitched the portal and allowed me through. Actually James stared past everyone to the backwall of the bar. It was lost in the shadows, but he activated Dark Vision and it cleared up.

The back wall was fucked. It looked like the shelving and decorations, the faded paint and everything had been a glass pane that had been stomped on. Cracks ran through it all, reducing everything to shards.

Oh whoa, said Yadriel. Dude, your bars fucked up.

James stepped up to the rear wall. The original image was there, overlaid on the cracks. He raised a hand to touch it, then drew back. Yeah.

For a moment they all just stared at it.

Should we evac? asked Jason.

I think I think were fine. Nothing was happening. No more cracking. No energy was leaking through. Just maybe nobody touch it.

Yadriel paused. Hed been pouring tequila shots. Thats not reassuring, yo.

James backed away. Regardless. I broke through the portal and emerged into well. Im going to need that shot of tequila before I try to explain it. Actually, I think we all need a shot.

The crew glanced at each other, took up shot glasses, and then as one clinked them together and tossed them back.

Ah! Serenity wiped her wrist across her lips. All right already. Enough with the mystery. Spill.