Chapter 145: Not in Kansas

James emerged into a discordant and overwhelming world. His mouth and sinuses immediately began to burn, and he squinted against the sulfurous light that suffused the air. At first he didn’t know what to look at, what to take in, but burying his face in the crook of his elbow he blinked against his tears and took in the hellish landscape.

They stood on black, whorled rock that sloped down to a smoking ocean. Sharp peaks rose about them, the largest of which was in the process of erupting, belching a towering plume of dust and ash into the sky and hurling flecks of burning orange in every direction even as rivers of lava poured down its steep flanks.

A vast moon hung in the sky, a hundred times larger than that of Earth. Its pallid face was muted by the caustic clouds that choked the air, though it betrayed hints of pale white marbled with aquamarine.

A flock of leathery-winged birds flew overhead, each as large as a car, but no, they weren’t birds, they were fucking dinosaurs, pterodactyl-looking monsters whose screeches were lost in the distant rumble of the volcano.

“Fuck!” shouted Yadriel. “Forget this shit, I wanna go home!”

Were it not for their Indomitable Resilience and high Corporal Perfection scores James was sure his skin was be bubbling off his body. He couldn’t see any vegetation anywhere. Just an unending hellscape, a palette of blacks, lava-orange, and grays.

Serenity coughed by his side, face buried in the crook of her elbow as well, then shifted. Shadows streamed toward her, flowing from the cracks between the rocks, from all around. They hid her figure, making her larger. She swelled in height, growing to some nine, ten feet, monstrous, otherworldly, and made of pure shadow.

“Everyone, Black Apotheosis,” said Serenity, her voice distorted, made menacing and hollow. “So much better than being human.”

It looked as if she was wreathed in living black flames that endlessly coursed about her. Her arms had elongated, her hands grown, and each finger was now tipped with a six-inch curved blade of pure night. Her face was almost completely hidden, but it looked vaguely like a bull’s skull if one had been dipped in oil, with backswept horns.

James didn’t hesitate. He activated the Benediction for the first time, and felt soothing coolness wash over him. His form grew and a message appeared before his eyes:

You have Activated Black Apotheosis

+20 to all Stats

Shadow Resistances Active

Everyone around him swelled in size so that in moments James stood amongst a hellish pack of monstrous creatures. It became impossible to tell folks apart visually, but perhaps due to their bond as a team James realized he could intuit whom was who.

“Oh, so much better,” said Kimmie, her voice sepulchral. “But urgh, so overly dramatic.”

“What is this place?” asked Denzel, his voice also hollowed out. “A layer in hell?”

“Aargh,” cried Star Boy. “Someone give me a Reservoir Cube!”

“This isn’t going to work,” gasped Jessica. “Gotta get back. Burning up.”

She hit the Bifrost’s keys and the burning white portal opened up once more.

James activated Healing Grace and the scarlet tinge to their skin receded, blisters smoothing away. “Wait, wait - how do we get back?”

Someone else hit them both with Healing Grace.

“Here, Kimmie, look: you press this key, then this one, then this one. Use Aeviternum to power the opening. It’ll bring you back to Earth.” Jessica shoved the Bifrost into Kimmie’s hands. “How do you all stand this? The air blinded me in seconds.”

Another pulse of Healing Grace hit them both.

“Be safe,” said James. “We’ll return when we’ve made progress.”

“Fuck, next time I’m coming back with a space suit. Good luck, you dirty shadow animals,” rasped Star Boy, and fled through the portal.

“Good luck,” said Jessica, staring right at James, then she, too, retreated, and the portal closed.

“Tell me you got that,” said Denzel. “Kimmie? Tell me we’re not stranded here.”

Kerim stepped up to her. “Show me the keys.”

Kimmie did so, tapping each one in quick order. “I think?”

“Got it,” said Kerim softly. “Now let’s show everyone else so that we can all use it.”

They took a moment, and once everyone was confident Kimmie lowered the Bifrost and looked around. “You think this is what happens to a world once the Pits are open long enough?”

James grimaced. “I sure hope not. But fuck, yeah, I could see that being an eventuality. The demons would even see it as motivation.”

“Well, we’re here now,” said Serenity. “So what’s the plan?”

“Find locals,” said James. “If there are any left.”

Jason rose into the air, followed a moment later by Denzel and Olaf. “We’ll see what’s around.”

“Be careful,” James called up. “Those dinosaur birds looked lethal.”

Jason grinned down, his bull skull face making the expression look like a leer. “Not lethal enough. Be right back.”

James watched the trio climb higher, fading out as wisps of toxic clouds floated between them.

“Fuck, I wish I’d chosen flight,” said Serenity. “Never thought we’d be without the Wings.”

“Don’t worry,” said Yadriel. “You got Dimensional Anchor. That’s sure been useful so far.”

“Ass,” said Serenity.

“Let’s head down to the water,” said James. “Life came from the oceans in our planet. Maybe we’ll find something down there.”

He led the way. The ground was easy to traverse, the congealed lava smooth and curdled like spilled black gravy. The ocean’s edge was only a half mile away; they reached its shore and there stopped to look out over the grey metallic waters.

“Looks like mercury,” said Kerim softly.

“The planet?” asked Jason.

“No, the metal. I doubt anything lives in there.”

Kerim was right. The ocean looked to be made of liquid metal, heavy ripples washing up on the black shore without ever actually breaking into waves. Thousands of rough circular rocks lined the shoreline, their tops yellow and fibrous looking.

“Those look like stromatolites,” said Kimmie brightly. “You guys know of those? They’re like the oldest living organisms on Earth. No, those yellow rock things right there!”

“Those are rocks, Kimmie,” said Yadriel. “Rocks ain’t living shit.”

James expected Jelly to make a comment, and the silence hit him like a punch.

“They’re not rocks, dumb ass,” laughed Kimmie. “Well, they are. But they’re more like coral? Bacteria make them somehow, I forget. Anyways, they’re off the coast of Australia. They’re meant to be…” She trailed off uncertainly. “Hundreds of millions of years old?”

Serenity’s impatience was obvious. “Something tells me those aren’t the life forms we’re looking for here.”

James cast his gaze about the shore. Here and there a large pool bubbled, its edge vivid with bright yellows and blues that gradated into each other like the geysers in Yellowstone. Rocky ridges rose from the mercury ocean’s surface a stone’s throw out. Was the water shallow? Was the ocean more of a lake? Impossible to tell.

A huge crack sounded and everyone flinched. James turned to see a huge gout of lava hurled up from the distant volcano, the sight awesome, the orange spray falling slowly to spatter across the slope.

“This place is awful,” said Miriam quietly, watching the sky. “What kind of creature would live here?”

“Dinosaur birds,” said Yadriel matter-of-factly. “Old-ass stone things. That’s about it.”

“That’s all we’d need,” said Serenity softly. “For the demons to kill off humanity and then wreck the planet. Maybe we’re too late.”

“We’re not too late,” said Kimmie firmly. “I sensed a strong presence here. We just haven’t seen it yet. We need to keep our hopes up and remain confident that we’ll see this through.”

“Damn girl, I’ve missed you,” said Yadriel, throwing a shadow arm around Kimmie’s shadowy shoulders. “Now use that voice to tell me how hot I am.”

Kimmie laughed, the sound incongruously pure and light in the dour air.

“Here they come,” called Miriam.

The trio descended through the smoky air, feet first like Superman, and landed before the group.

“There’s a settlement not too far away,” said Jason. “It’s… definitely alien-looking. Looks like…” He trailed off, unsure.

“Like a weird-ass greenhouse,” said Denzel. “Like a huge igloo greenhouse built into the ground, all organic curves and shit, about the size of a stadium.”

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“Any sign of locals?” asked James.

“Not that we saw.” Denzel rubbed the back of his skull-head. “But we could go knock?”

“Let’s go knock, then,” agreed Serenity. “Lead the way, boys.”

They followed the shoreline. Occasionally a geyser burst upward from a brilliantly colored pool, spraying metallic water into the air. Everybody scattered whenever this happened, as nobody seemed intent on figuring out how resistant they were to the water’s touch.

“Hold,” said Olaf, reaching out with a straight arm to block Kimmie’s passage. “Out in water. Something coming.”

They all froze. Olaf was right. A half dozen figures were emerging from the metallic water, unhurried and ponderously steady, as if they could walk through hurricane force winds.

They were humanoid but clearly not human.

They were massive and powerfully built, but James couldn’t tell what was armor and what was their actual bodies. They had huge sloping shoulders, deep chests, and relatively narrow waists that swelled out again into massively muscled legs, all of which was encased in lead armor edged in cadmium yellow like the mineral deposits in the geyser pools. Some of the armor plating was covered in crystal, making them appear surprisingly delicate, while the joints were a mottled crimson and black material that could have been flesh or simply more flexible connective tissue.

But their heads. If a turtle were to be dropped into a pool of lava, completely submerged itself and then climbed back out, it might look something like this. A crystalline helmet covered the crimson turtle-shaped head-skull within, its facets edged in yellow, with the mottled burgundy and black material encasing the almost non-existent neck. The alien’s eyes were large diamonds, each the size of a quarter, and floated in the ocular cavities.

They moved slowly but James had no trouble envisioning them breaking into a sprint at a moment’s notice; they were not just powerfully built, but athletic despite their size; the narrow waist, the long legs, the obvious contouring of the armor indicating advanced musculature hidden beneath.

The six figures ceased their emergence when they were only knee-deep in the silver water. Either they’d already been aware of Crimson Hydra’s presence or they were deeply unflappable, because they displayed no alarm or surprise at all.

“Fuck me,” whispered Yadriel. “They the good guys or the bad guys?”

“Hello!” James raised one clawed hand and stepped forward. “Do you understand us? We’re from another world. We’ve come to talk.”

The six massive aliens remained still.

“What are the odds they speak English?” whispered Serenity tensely.

One of the six figures stepped forward. James tensed. What kind of attack would they launch? Their huge, four-fingered hands were encased in thick gauntlets and looked like they could punch through steel, but if these were the locals then they’d probably been awarded System Benedictions and attacks of their own.

“How do you be here?” rumbled the alien, its English distinct and clear.

“Fuck, they do talk English,” said Denzel. “That’s convenient.”

“Kimmie, raise the Bifrost. We crossed from our home world with this device. We stole it from an Arch Angel. Our species is being destroyed by the demons and their Pits. We’re looking for allies. To share information. To find help in this war.”

The huge alien didn’t respond at once. It just stood there, the mercury sea lapping about its knees. It had no expression, the skull-head under the crystal casing without flesh or eyelids. Its diamond gaze remained trained steadfastly on James.

“Our kind also visited by the System,” rumbled the alien at last. “We have much fight, much death/loss. We not acquire portal key, but break svaghuathua/demon nodes to steal/own Reservoir Cubes.”

“You found a way to break open the nodes?” Hope flared in James’s chest. “We used the Light Eternal to break into one, but the Light broke and we haven’t been able to do so since.”

“Zorathian who given End of Storms/Light Eternal brought it to clan/people. We it studied and learned mechanism. With many End of Storms we open many nodes, acquire many Reservoir Cubes. System… angry.” The alien - Zorathian? - passed its four-fingered hand through the air. “It open Pits early.”

“Ha,” said James. “They did the same to us. Are you all fighting your way through them now?”

“We send dozen clan all clutches/hundreds of System Level 1,000 Zorathian into Pits. Crush svaghuathua/demons.”

“Fuck,” Yadriel whispered behind James. “Level 1,000?”

“Hundreds?” asked Serenity.

James dry swallowed. Even in his shadow form he found it hard to not lose his breath at that revelation. “That’s… fantastic. You defeated the Pits, then?”

“Zorathians stop at Level 25.”

James frowned. “You stopped? It got too hard?”

“Hard, but not too hard.”

“Then… why’d you stop?”

The Zorathian stared at James, implacable, and then as one the six aliens resumed walking toward the shore.

James and Crimson Hydra backed away.

“James?” Kimmie sounded uncertain. “Should I try and improve the mood?”

“Hold off,” said James quietly. “If these guys are twice our level that could backfire.”

The Zorathians were as tall as Crimson Hydra’s shadow forms. James couldn’t imagine a Nem1 being of any inconvenience to these huge dudes. Or were they women? Did they have sexes? Gender? It was impossible to tell.

“You come to Arkhos/Ocean Cradle for help.” It didn’t sound like a question.

“Arkhos?” asked James.

The Zorathian waved its hand as if taking in all of the sky, the land, the sea. “Arkhos. Our home. It means ‘Hands that Cup the World Ocean’. Our planet.”

“Yeah, we did.” James raised his chin. “We can help each other.”

“Perhaps. Come with clutch/us/we. We talk further with Clan Iron Wave elders.”

“Sure. Happy to. Lead the way.”

The Zorathians strode forward once more. Their gait was unhurried, but the length of their steps made it so that they moved deceptively quickly. In moments they were already pulling ahead, moving inland with purpose.

“That’s the way to the greenhouse,” said Jason quietly, falling in beside James.

“James, what the fuck?” Serenity moved up on his other side. “How’d they get to analyze and rebuild their Light Eternal and we got shitty Belanger dead-banging his demon wife?”

“Dead-banging?” asked James.

“You know what I mean.”

“I do. And yeah, looks like these guys got their shit together quicker.” James kept his voice low, though he’d no idea how well the Zorathians up ahead could hear. “Luckily for us. If all we get from Arkhos is the ability to crack open nodes, it’ll be a godsend.”

“Zorathian-send,” said Denzel from just behind.

“Either way, we’ll take it.”

Kerim pitched his voice low so that it just barely carried over the storm winds and distant volcano rumblings. “They’re not allies yet. They stopped at Level 25 and didn’t clarify why. We must remain alert and ready to run.”

“Sure.” James looked back at where Kimmie brought up the rear of the group with Olaf. “Keep the Bifrost handy, yeah?”

“Sure thing.”

They followed the six aliens across the blasted landscape, till at last they crested a ridge of black rock and saw the Zorathian structure embedded in the valley below.

It was massive but built low to the ground, its huge and irregular panes of glass embedded deep within steel and stone seams, their surface opaque and iridescent. Some parts of the structure rose dome-like to the height of some fifteen yards, but most of it was low-slung and with the aspect of a bunker.

“That’s so pretty,” said Kimmie. “The glass is all shimmery like a bubble.”

“Or oil slick,” said Denzel.

The six Zorathians stopped and looked back up at where Crimson Hydra remained on the ridge.

“Come,” said the only one who’d spoken thus far. “You have guest rights in Iron Wave clan nursery/clutchdom/fortress. Do not fear. You will be warned of guest right revocation before being consumed/absorbed/destroyed.”

And with that the six aliens resumed their descent.

“Great,” sighed James. “Just fucking great.”

And without any choice, he led Crimson Hydra after them.

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