Chapter 120: Engagement

Pits are Now Open

Layer 1, The Fallen Plains, Unlocked

Denizens of Layer 1 May Emerge

Deeper Layers will Unlock Every Subsequent Day,

Releasing Its Denizens

Humanity Must Defeat All 27 Layers to End the Apocalypse

Advance Access to Deeper Layers is Possible

By Destroying Each Successive Layer’s Crimson Diamond

The Pit was almost 1,000 feet across. The walls were vertical, rough, circular. It dropped perhaps another 1,000 feet before terminating in a skein of roiling mist just thick enough to make what lay beneath indistinct; James got a sense of red sands far below, but he couldn’t pierce the veil with any certainty.

What was obvious were the denizens of the Fallen Plain as they began to writhe and crawl up the sides of the Pit, emerging from the mist in their endless thousands.

They were huge pale maggots, easily three or four feet long, their backs covered in charcoal armored plating, their heads little more than fang-rimmed holes about which clacked razor-sharp pincers a foot long.

Everybody opened fire.

Both of Serenity’s guns went BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, the barrels revolving, and endless stream of Smite-enhanced bullets flying through the Pit to rake the far walls and cause the maggots to burst.

The four Vault Cannons mounted atop the Castrum blazed to life, each operating independently as they swiveled and unleashed hell.

Countless Operators and soldiers with Smite opened fire as well, shooting from behind their barricades or moving to the edge of the rooftops to aim down into the Pit.

James summoned his Wing, sat, and then urged it forward and into a vertical dive. Down he flew, down to the rising tide of demons that were undulating up the Pit’s wall. At the last moment he extended his Diamond Aura, forming a lattice that mimicked the Seraphic Web, and pulled up and followed the curvature of the wall at a distance of some fifteen feet.

His Diamond Aura caused the maggots to burst.

He extended its radius, expanding the lattice to some thirty feet below him as he sped around the inside of the Pit, leaving behind a broad swathe of death.

Everywhere bullets were raining down. But for Serenity everybody else in Crimson Hydra had followed James’s lead; they sped along on their Wings, skimming over the armored masses, detonating hundreds of the demons every second.

James completed a loop, his Aureate Buckler deflecting the occasional real bullet enshrined within Smite that would have hit him.

The number of demons continued without abating. An endless army of maggots, climbing with uncanny ease as they fought to gain the Pit’s edge.

James circumnavigated the Pit a second time. The air was filled with milky white ichor and demon chunks as thousands of them ruptured and fell into the Pit.

But there were evermore ready to take the place of the dead.

“Hydra!” roared James. “With me!”

And he turned the Wing back into a steep dive, aiming for the mist.

A shuddering roar of such awesome nature filled the air behind him, and James looked up to see the Castrum unleash its massive Empyreal Gun. Incandescent Aeviternum plasma washed down to immolate entire blocks’ worth of demons, incinerating tens of thousands of them at once and clearing the upper two-thirds of half the Pit.

There was no time to marvel. The misty bottom was rushing up. James braced but there was no resistance when the Wing punched through and into a different world below.

You have entered Layer 1, The Fallen Plains

An endless plain of red sand rippled toward the hazy horizon. The temperature leaped up as the air took on a sulfuric sting. Ruined buildings rose obliquely from the sand, uniformly jet black and gothic in appearance: towers, shattered cathedrals, brutal fortresses and more. All were abandoned, half-sunken into the sand, their windows dark, the wind howling about their roofs and turrets.

The maggot demons were swarming out of a huge edifice that dwarfed all the others about half a mile away. Its base was the size of several football stadiums, endless alcoves and galleries, and rose, level by every smaller level, to form a tower that would have loomed three times the height of the Empire State. The demon maggots waterfalled out of a huge alcove two thirds of the way up the leaning tower, dropping thousands of feet to the sands and then swarming in an endless carpet to the space beneath the Pit’s opening, where red light shimmered like some hellish Aurora Borealis and which levitated them up to the base of the Pit’s walls.

James flew at the curtain of uprising demons and opened a path with is Diamond Aura, forming a horizontal beam into which the rising demons exploded, opening a gap through which his Wing flew.

His mind was racing. There was no end to these demons. Anybody who wasn’t completely prepared would be overwhelmed by this level alone.

Advance Access to Deeper Layers is Possible

By Destroying Each Successive Layer’s Crimson Diamond

A diamond. The heart of this layer, or something like it. Where? The monstrously huge tower. It had to be. The rest of this world was dismal and dusty, endless and without distinguishing feature.

James raised his arm to signal to the other Crimson Hydra’s and pointed at the tilted tower. He pushed his Wing to fly faster and sped over the endless army of maggots several hundred feet below.

Thank holy fuck they couldn’t fly.

The gargantuan tower grew ever larger. It was nearly impossible to come to grips with its size. An entire city could have been housed within its walls. The superheated wind beat against James’s face, and only Indomitable Resilience kept his mouth and throat from burning due to the acidic air.

More details became clear as he flew closer. The great level from which the maggots waterfalled was far smaller than the base, though the alcoves that gave access to its interior were still large enough for the Castrum to walk through. The maggots were flowing out of the lowest alcove which was tilted 45 degrees from the sand far below.

The others had fallen in behind him forming a flying ‘V’. James swerved out wide to come at the tower from its raised side, opposite the maggot alcove, and as he drew closer he couldn’t help but marvel at the huge tower’s scale and complexity.

The edifice was biblical in size, ornate and endlessly detailed as if a million mad sculptors had spent a thousand years carving murals and statues and endless follies into its facade. It gleamed obsidian in the dull red light, sand having blown into many of its balconies and nooks and crannies, and its interior was opaque until James activated his Dark Vision.

Closing in on the huge alcoves, James saw a writhing sphere of maggots hovering in the center of the level. The sphere was the size of a tennis court, an endless explosion of these demons that fell to the ground and then swept down and out the far alcove.

What was birthing them?

Could it be destroyed?

James flew his Wing into the alcove, slowing down as he entered, and activated Nova.

The white sphere of Diamond Aura blasted out, washing over the maggot explosion, washing them and revealing a crimson diamond the size of a pirate’s chest in the center.

The second Nova evanesced, the maggots once more resumed exploding out from the diamond’s heart.

Easing his Wing to a crawl, James discarded the idea of summoning a Heavenly Assault. There was no telling if it would pass through the many obsidian ceilings. Instead he eased forward and extended his Aura into a great lance. Maggots ashed as they touched it, and with flex of his will James speared the crimson diamond within, passing his lance through its core.

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The diamond shattered and the maggots ceased to manifest. The last of them flowed down the sloping floor and out the far alcove, and then all was still.

Layer 1, The Fallen Plains, Defeated

Layer 2, The Corroded Woods, Unlocked

The others floated up beside James.

“That was it?” asked Yadriel. “We gone defeated this layer already?”

James stared at the huge shards of glass gemstone on the floor. The largest pieces slid down to rest against the far wall, while some lay trapped in the cracks between the obsidian flagstones that composed the floor.

“Guess so.” James inhaled deeply, protected by his regeneration from the burn. “I was afraid defeating this layer would give the next one’s demons access to our world, but it looks like… maybe not?”

“It’s daily, right?” Jason wiped sweat from his brow. “Layer 2 denizens get access tomorrow.”

Miriam’s face lit up. “So as long as we keep defeating each level before they get a turn, we should keep everyone up top safe?”

James couldn’t resist a savage grin. “That’s right. I think.”

“Next layer will be harder, right?” Yadriel looked from one of them to the next. “’Cause this was a cakewalk. I didn’t even have to do nothing.”

“There are twenty-seven layers,” said Olaf grimly. “I think soon we have bigger fight.”

Jason shifted around on his Wing. “So where’s the way down to Layer 2? We have to hunt for it? This place is huge. Just finding it could take till tomorrow.”

“We need to collect Serenity,” said James firmly. “Then we’ll search. We’re not splitting up, either. Let’s head back, get her on her Wing, then look for it.”

“Wait,” said Miriam, then blushed. “I’m sorry. I mean, am I crazy for feeling a little hope? If we defeat the second layer today, we’ll be forty-eight hours ahead of the curve, right?”

“Right,” said James. For a second he was tempted to temper her enthusiasm, but he curbed that instinct. “So far so good.”

Miriam beamed, and together they flew out of the tower and back into the acrid sky. Below the carpet of maggots was still swarming toward the cylinder of crimson fire that rose to the base of the Pit, but now it was finite, its rear edge tapering off to the last of the demons.

Without needing to give the order James led the Wings down and together they flew up the length of the swarm, eradicating it with Diamond Aura.

“Yo,” shouted Yadriel. “How come we ain’t leveling up? We done killed billions of these bitches already.”

“We’re too powerful,” James shouted back. “These things don’t count enough for where we’re at.”

“Bah,” said Yadriel. “Punk ass weak little bitches.”

They flew in a spiral up the outside of the rising cylinder of maggots, then punched through the ceiling of mist and back into the overcast light of Brooklyn’s midday air. The cylinder was still alive with gunfire, the walls of the Pit now torn up by the sustained fire, but people cheered thinly from above as they emerged.

A minute later the last of the demons were slaughtered, and silence befell the Pit as the guns went quiet.

James rose up, higher and higher, till he floated free and over the Pit in the full view of the gathered forces.

“Hey James!” shouted Star Boy. “What happened?”

James smiled broadly so everyone could see his teeth. “We beat the first layer.”

For a moment people just blinked, stunned, then everybody let out incredulous whoops and shouts of delight.

The Castrum put up its weapons, white luminous vapor rising from its guns.

James winged his way over the ranks, grinning and giving a thumb’s up to those who cheered and waved, less because he wanted to and more because he felt the soldiers needed it. Serenity climbed aboard her Wing, placed the autocannons on side mounts, and joined the crew as they settled down beside Star Boy. Jessica joined them, and they raised Hackworth on the radio.

James recounted what they’d seen and done, and relayed the news that the first layer was quelled.

“Outstanding,” said Hackworth. “We’re getting reports from pretty much everywhere that all the Pits - I’m talking globally - have gone quiet. It looks like defeating one layer defeats them all.”

“Or perhaps they’re all entrances to the same singular Pit?” asked Star Boy. “Which is kind of screwy. How would those maggot things emerge across the world? Maybe some quantum superposition thing?”

“Doesn’t matter,” said James. “What matters is that we’ve got twenty-three hours in which to defeat the next level. If we can stay ahead of the game, the Pits won’t unleash anything more.”

“Until we run into serious fights,” said Serenity. “It can’t be easy all the way down.”

“I’ve a feeling we’re too overpowered for the first few levels,” said James. “Destroying that diamond was easy. While it probably would have been more resistant to lower level auras, where we’re at it’s no challenge. Which means maybe the next handful of levels will also be a cakewalk, even as they get gradually more difficult.”

“Then it makes sense that you return today,” said Hackworth.

“I was planning to head back down as soon as we were done talking. Serenity will come with, and we’ll scout for the entrance down to the second layer.”

“The Castrum will join you,” said Jessica. “It can handle the jump down.”

“No shit?” Yadriel made a face. “Show of hands who wants the big ass death castle coming with.”

Jason elbowed Yadriel with a smirk.

“Excellent work, Crimson Hydra. You’ve literally bought the entire world a moment’s break.” Hackworth’s smile was audible. “Play it safe as you descend. Work with the time we’ve got. If you need to retreat and re-evaluate, do so.”

“Got it. We’ll head down now.” James looked to his crew who nodded their readiness. “With a little luck we’ll clear the second layer just as quickly.”

“With a lot of luck,” said Olaf, “we clear all twenty-seven levels this week and be done with this apocalypse forever.”

“Amen,” said Hackworth. “Good luck. We’ll be here waiting for you.”

“Thanks, sir.” James caused his Wing to rise up. “Ready, Crimson Hydra? Let’s head back down into Hell.”

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