Chapter 153: Distress Beacon

James hadn’t known what to expect. The very term ‘facility’ had evoked vague notions of a factory, perhaps a metal futuristic building with gleaming windows, an alien building with security doors and featureless parking lots around it. An installation they’d have to charge and break into, overcoming defenses so as to get to a central storage room.

The reality was completely different.

The nine of them appeared within a huge white geodome, its faceted interior large enough to encompass a ten-story office building. Each of its facets extruded a mesh of gleaming threads that twined into thick, revolving ropes that extended to the center. There they wrapped around a mass of spindles that shrank and collapsed upon each other the closer they got to the geodome’s exact center; James had seen enough of this nonsense by now to realize that there was dimensional stuff going on in the core.

All was shifting white lights and pristine ivory surfaces. The air was frigid, shockingly so, and a bright flash of golden light appeared just beneath the dimensional knot of spindles: a Reservoir Cube appeared, glowing as if drawn from a forge, into which a bead of pure sunlight dropped and was enclosed.

All this he observed with a glance, but his focus immediately locked on the entity that hung suspended over the central node, a massive orb spider of silver and white marble, filaments of gold inlaid in complex patterns over its body, its dozens of legs which phased in and out of view. It was the size of a cement truck but indescribably beautiful, alien in its movements, its thorax a liquid, oily black beneath the shining glory of its bulbous abdomen, its reflective silver legs, and its insectile head with golden pedipalps and endless onyx eyes.

Olaf’s Circle of Protection was up the moment they appeared, enveloping them all in a dome of perfect cerulean blue; even so Kimmie cried out and clutched her head as she executed her role of Sentinel and defended them on the substrate.

Everything happened very, very fast.

James evoked his Death Attack and hit the orb spider alien with 300 billion points of damage, infusing his attack with one of his nine Aeviternum points.

What/indelible heretical insertion against/rebellion -

The words appeared in James’s mind even as his attack hit the spider at full force and caused its interior to glow brilliantly as if a sun had ignited within, its body blasting apart a second later -

- only for time to reverse itself, the spider’s corpus flowing back together seamlessly, with Crimson Hydra frozen as the Death Attack was undone.

Interiority declension variable | inadequate surfeit of declaration of

intent

ambition nuncupatory

Eradication/Deformation removal execute

Engaging Seraph protocol

Kimmie screamed. Blood was flowing from the corners of her eyes, from her ears.

A thousand smaller spiders phased into existence from within the main alien and leaped forth in every direction, clinging to ropes of thread but Serenity activated her crowd control attack and the dome flashed crimson.

The thousands of smaller spiders shriveled and disappeared.

James cast his Death Attack once more. The ray of power flew forth, Aeviternum blessed, but hit a forcefield that flared into view around the spider and failed to harm it.

His attack was returned.

A beam of golden as thick as his wrist speared against Olaf’s Circle and shattered it. The beam split into four and Denzel, Serenity, Jason, and Olaf were cut down, their bodies sliced into great bleeding chunks of -

The chunks reversed their trajectories and flew back together, gouts of blood returning to the wounds that sealed themselves up as James found himself reversing the small movements he’d made.

Kerim had his hand up, spiraling white light fluctuating between his palm, his thickly curled black hair writhing against his scalp, his spectacles flashing white.

Resistance/space-time violation interesting | pretty

Declare intention and identity, transgressors

Fluctuations manageable | eradication eternal

The whole geodome pulsed with invisible power of such magnitude that even without Spiritual Exaltation James could sense it.

Kimmie screamed as blood burst out her nose and both eyeballs popped free of her ocular cavities. Denzel barked his negation and she reared back up from mid-fall, her eyes restoring themselves.

James launched his Death Attack once more, burning his third point of Aeviternum. It hit the forcefield and once again failed to penetrate, but this time Serenity unleashed her own attack which layered over his own and caused the shield to shatter.

The spider flared gold from within again, burst out like a sun going nova, only to freeze and restore itself as before.

Jason grabbed hold of Yadriel’s arm and they both appeared above the spider, forty or fifty yards up in the air. Yadriel’s whole body changed into a single spike of metal which fell and bounced off the forcefield. The field, however, deformed beneath Yadriel’s touch, and then a huge patch flared green and disappeared.

A filament of gold speared out from the spider and punched clear through Jason’s face, killing him instantly.

Yadriel fell through the forcefield and speared into the spider’s huge fleshy abdomen, sinking into it as if it were made of Tiramisu. The spider keened on the substrate, which caused Kimmie to scream and clutch at her head again.

James hit the spider with his fourth attack. The forcefield, weakened, shattered, and his beam lanced straight into the spider’s head even as Jason fell limply through the air, Miriam’s keen of horror joining Kimmie’s scream.

Yadriel was infecting the spider’s very body, causing its abdomen to rot and fall apart. The Death Attack caused the spider’s head to blow apart and for a second James felt a surge of victory.

Valence variable (surprise|shock) Void Sublime aura

Alternate pathway adopted [initiate]

The spider’s form flew apart, not explosively, but as if its image were a reflection in a mirror that had suddenly been shattered. Fragments of its body were visible throughout the dome, repeated, overlapping, kaleidoscopic.

Yadriel’s metal spike, no longer supported, fell.

Denzel shouted in fury and Jason sat up where he lay, hand to his head, eyes wide.

Serenity unleashed her attack. The geodome flared crimson and half the disparate images flickered and disappeared.

But the remaining partial images loosed a thousand filaments of gold at their group. Olaf grunted in pain and dropped to one knee as the filaments played over his dome of blue light like carnivorous worms seeking entrance into a freshly killed corpse. Miriam placed a hand on his shoulder and the blue light strengthened.

Serenity pulsed her attack once more.

More images disappeared, but then Kimmie shrieked and fell over again, the spider’s mental attack overwhelming her anew.

Kerim lowered his chin as he thrust forth his palm, that tornado of starlight appearing in his hand once more, and everyone within their little bubble reversed and undid their actions, Kimmie rising up, restored to health.

“Please,” she cried, “I can’t keep -”

Serenity pulsed her attack once more and the last of the images disappeared. The spider didn’t re-appear, but instead a bowling ball of purest steel manifested where it had been before. Somehow the bowling ball was larger than the geodome, but it was wrapped up in itself so that it appeared contained.

James hit it with a Death Attack, but felt his assault fly around the sphere, not blocked, nor dissipating, but lost, as if the closer it got to the entity the more complex its path became, growing infinitely more convoluted the closer it became so that it traversed light years without ever getting closer.

“Fuck this!” shouted Yadriel, who’d risen to his human form once more. The ground beneath his feet began to change, at first slowly, then shooting out all at once, the marble changing to mud, the change racing up the walls and corrupting panels and their thread extrusions.

Alarm

Curtains of light flew forth from the steel sphere to play over the corrupted segments but in doing so the spider entity returned to their dimension or otherwise made itself vulnerable because James felt his meandering Death Attack suddenly punch home.

The steel sphere duplicated itself, sacrificed one of its selves to the attack, and continued healing the corrupted walls, the shimmering curtains of light undoing Yadriel’s transmutation.

Serenity and James both launched their attacks simultaneously.

The sphere divided itself once more. James destroyed one of the duplicates with Serenity’s help, but her assault only blackened the second, which then split into nine and flew out across the geodome.

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All nine launched beams of golden light at them. Olaf grunted as the beams scorched the exterior of his dome, but the attacks didn’t relent.

James didn’t wait for his divine pool to refill; even with the Void Sublime regeneration rate making it near instantaneous, that wasn’t fast enough. He tapped his remaining three Aeviternum in quick succession, hitting three of the spheres in quick succession even as Serenity blasted all nine at once.

The three spheres disappeared and a scorched fourth fragmented as well.

The remaining five continued to pour on the attacks. Miriam cried out and staggered back. A split second later Olaf’s blue shield shattered.

Kerim manifested his ability. The shield reformed, Miriam staggered back to Olaf.

But that was as far as he could return them. James’s divine pool refilled and he destroyed a fifth sphere.

Serenity pulsed, weakening the remaining four.

Again Miriam screamed, fell back, and the shield broke.

Again Kerim returned them a few seconds back, but now he fell to one knee, sweat drenching his brow, blood running from his nostrils.

James was forced to wait on his divine pool. A moment later he hit a sixth sphere. Serenity pulsed, but that wasn’t enough to destroy the remaining three.

It took a second longer, but the three golden beams overwhelmed Miriam again. She cried out, fell back. Olaf held on for an extra moment, then his shield broke.

The gold beams immediately speared into Denzel and Kerim, punching pencil-sized holes through their heads.

Both men collapsed as if their strings had been cut.

“Fuck!” screamed Serenity and pulsed her attack.

The geodome flared red, another two spheres cracked and disappeared leaving just the one.

The spider reappeared in the center of the dome, its metallic and ivory form the worse for wear. Several of its legs hung loosely, its abdomen was cracked and oozing cottage cheese flecked with mica, and several of its eyes had burst.

James needed just a second more to refill his pool.

Olaf fought to stand tall. The blue dome appeared again.

A pulse of invisible energy washed over them, terrible and potent as a hurricane wind.

Kimmie braced herself, jaw clenched, hands thrust forward, blood welling up from her eyes again, her whole body shaking.

“There!” James fired off his Death Attack again.

But without Aeviternum it was so greatly weakened.

The blast hit the spider and caused a diffuse golden glow to bloom within it - but the attack didn’t destroy it as before.

A second wave of invisible might poured over them.

Kimmie’s cry barely rose to a scream before she collapsed.

Yadriel hurled himself up at the spider in Nem2 form, his old calling card. He hit the spider’s flank and began slashing his way into it, his scythe-like arms edged with glowing purple power.

The spider twisted about, bringing its entire focus on Yadriel. An ethereal scream sounded and Yadriel’s masked head exploded like a clay flower pot hit with a sledgehammer.

Heaving for breath James and Serenity hit the spider again. James wanted to scream. Only nine Aeviternum? He should have purchased twenty, fifty -

The spider collapsed, overwhelmed, and then time reversed and it reformed. Not completely, however; more of its legs hung limp, half its head was crushed, and rivers of clotted cream fell through the air from its ruptured abdomen.

“One more hit!” cried Serenity. “Just one more -”

Terminate endgame | worthy contest | Insufficient contest

A beam of gold speared through the blue dome like a length of rebar punching through a windshield.

Olaf flew back, arms windmilling, and fell upon the ground.

Jason appeared beside Miriam.

“Wait,” she cried, “what are you -”

They both disappeared.

“Now!” barked James.

Serenity and he hit the spider with their combined attack.

The dome pulsed red.

The inside of the spider bloomed gold.

Its silver carapace turned black. Gouts of milky ichor burst forth, steaming, superheated.

Surprised | Unexpected |Improbable

Activating distress beacon

The spider fell, caught itself on nothing, hung in the air, seesawing back and forth, then lost its purchase and collapsed completely to the ground with a great crunch.

James stared in horror at the great corpse. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think, couldn’t catch his breath.

Serenity pulsed the dome again and the remains grew more scorched.

“Fuck,” she whispered, slowly straightening. “Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.”

James lowered his hand.

Blinked.

Tore his gaze from the dead spider and looked about him.

Kerim. Denzel. Kimmie. Olaf. They lay fallen about them.

He felt like he was going to puke. Feeling stupid, thick headed, he looked up. Yadriel lay still in the middle of the dome, having reverted to his human fault.

“Oh no,” whispered Serenity. “This can’t be real. Not like this. Not like this.”

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