Chapter 194: The Long Way Finale – Trembling Demon

The gate opened the view to a schizophrenic room. Crystals, bricks, solid stone (smooth and like a cave in equal measures), and cobalt rock bled water and liquid light, running down the walls whose shape differed depending on segment or side of the room, with no clear pattern to it. Floor and ceiling were just as confounded with dripstones, artistically designed temple ceiling, and flat roof all existing next to and within each other above, and dripstones, water pits, and several styles of walkways all existing next to and within each other below. The final result was stark, raving lunacy, with a room whose shape may graciously be described as rectangular.

Opposite of the entering trio, about fifty metres across, was the far side and on it the only point that made a modicum of sense. A ring of metal, unlike anything seen in previous dungeons of this Leaf, covered in complicated, golden runes, stood there, encapsulating nothing and a series of steps led up to its lower curve. That was the end of the Long Way, the portal that only opened if the group had conquered every other dungeon on Azenia-Ra. For Apexus, Aclysia and Reysha, only one boss remained between them and the end.

That boss fell from the ceiling, a batch of greyish white goo that splattered on the floor and then hovered up, forming a head-sized sphere. “Hehehe… HAHAHAHA!” it laughed from a mouth that tore itself open with a squelching sound. Two eyes, large as teacups, followed immediately –  a sulfuric yellow iris within a bloody red sclera.

This kind of creature was commonly called a Delirium demon, a specific kind of demon family that specialized in confusion and combat fluidity. The family derived its name from the Tharnatos class demon simply called Delirium. Not even a sadistic god would have placed a creature equal to the Deathhounds at the end of a dungeon. The demon they were facing was, instead, the Tempths class demon along the evolutionary chain: the Jitterling.

The cackling stopped as suddenly as it had started, when the trio charged their opponent. They had no idea what it was, the guide had not covered the boss, just as it had covered little else over the Long Way in detail. Usual strategies and carefulness had to be discarded though. The stone gate behind them shut and it would be the only barrier between them and the Deathhound on their tails. Aggression was the only way forward.

Reysha was the fastest and sunk her dagger right into the boss’ body. The face of the Jitterling contorted, its entire body twisted, then suddenly pulled into a thin, vertical line that consequently vanished. An unnatural sound, like a slowed down whistle rung through the room upon its disappearance. Then that same sound rang through the room again.

A nervously quivering copy of a Thornspitter, maintaining the greyish white colour of the Jitterling, appeared underneath the roof and pulled its head back. Aiming at Aclysia, its projectile went up in flames before it could hit its target, colliding with a Sunlight Bolt. The boss disappeared again, teleporting right in front of Apexus, now the shape of a White Ice Bear, its yellow-red eyes focused firmly on the humanoid slime.

It opened its maw, unnaturally white from the teeth to the gums, to maul Apexus, but the slime ran on pure instincts. His thoughts were empty, his limbs moved on their own with nothing but purpose and control. The open maw was clenched shut between a raised knee and a descending elbow.

Leaping on the back of the Jitterling, Reysha repeatedly stabbed the demon until it thinned out and she dropped to the floor. The slowed whistle acted as both their warning and their clue for where the boss was now. Once again a Thornspitter, it spat one thorn at Apexus, who dodged just in time. Then the Jitterling teleport elsewhere, attached to another piece of the schizophrenic walls, keeping the form of the Thornspitter. Another thorn, this time aimed at Reysha, disturbed the surface of a water pit when it sailed past the nimble tiger girl.

Suddenly the centre of the room was filled with a huge, grey blob, belching slime into the air – a copy of the boss that had awaited them at the end of the Myrm Nest. Apexus and Reysha dodged the slime, leapt over the slippery trails, and rammed teeth and steel into the soft, pale flesh. More slime was belched into the air, until they had dealt enough damage to force the demon to teleport again.

It was a fox running in circles, conjuring icicle paths.

It was a batch of slime, grappling the members and trying to choke them.

It was a rodent with massive incisor teeth that mercilessly pursued Aclysia.

It was a being of twisted, baleful light, moving at an absurd pace.

It was chaos. It was chaos. It was chaos.

The more they pummelled the creature, the more erratic it became. Its transformations grew more frequent, always occurring simultaneously with its teleportation. Its quivering, spasming, jittering display grew more quivering, spasming and jittering. A two-metre-tall bear twitching like a drug addict and laughing like a maniac past curved canines was not an image for the sane mind.

“AHAHAAHA!” laughed the fish that flopped away from Reysha’s dagger with repeated, chaotic bounces, only to disappear into a strike of its own mass and be replaced by a massive crocodile.

Reysha skipped backwards, almost stumbling into one of the holes in the ground. Stressed focus allowed her to react to the boss’s rapid developments acutely, but her environmental awareness suffered. It was her luck that Apexus was there to catch her. He pulled her to the side as the grinning crocodile launched forwards. The jaws snapped.

“Pick,” Apexus said his first word in a while and the command was understood. He charged at the crocodile, while Reysha pulled her warpick out of her bag.

The slime got a single punch on the crocodile, and it already vanished again. Appearing back in front of the portal, this time in its original shape, the Jitterling bounced on the spot. It vibrated with such frequency that its eyes were a blur. Only the sulfuric yellow of its eyes was clear. Laughter, manic laughter, was distorted, “…hehehehehehehehehe…”

The sound stopped when a Sunlight Bolt hit the boss. Aclysia, feeling just a moment of pride between the paranoia and concentration, was immediately threatened by the boss. One whistling sound, a short delay, then the second one, and the boss was before her as a Frozen Wraith, wailing at her with sharp claws and chilling screams.

Aclysia blocked the strikes with her forearms, letting her skin be broken and the divinely created magical blood underneath flow from the gashes. The liquid froze on her skin before it could drop, her wings grew heavy and she sailed towards the floor.

Piercing the back of the demonic shapeshifter, a throwing knife caused the Jitterling to back off and once more teleport. A series of harmless and disorienting teleportations occurred. There was the bouncing head again, the fish on water, a small snake slithering, and then a tentacle. A white tentacle, a downsized version of those that had guarded the sky in Verdany, slamming down randomly at the point of the room the boss was at. Once it was struck, it teleported and struck again – and again and again.

Often, the trio was nowhere near even where the boss operated. They tried to chase it, but it wouldn’t stop teleporting. Whenever they were close enough from the start, they had a tentacle lash to dodge before they could even attempt to strike. Only Aclysia managed to get a couple more spells in.

Then Jitterling’s transformations settled on something massive again. A six-legged lizard appeared, four of its legs optimal for sprinting, two equipped with thick claws on large paws made to tear open the side of volcanoes. A long tail and neck gave the creature the remote appearance of a dragon, even if its status as such could be questioned in the wild and most certainly wasn’t truthful when mimicked by a demon.

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The fake Volcano Tearer reared its front legs and swiped at Apexus, who concentrated entirely on dodging. He could have struck, caused the cackling being to transform again, but why go for the simple punch when a tiger girl with a pickaxe was charging across the room?

Leaping from one of the elevations on the unsteady floor, Reysha slammed the point of the warpick into the Jitterling’s torso. It let out something that could be understood as a pained sound, the first one they had heard since starting this fight. A gush of black demon blood spurted around the edges of the weapon, before the being teleported again.

A humanoid figure appeared elsewhere in the room, screaming and gargling out of a mouth filled with pointy teeth and tentacles – like an anglerfish crossed with a squid. Thin limbs, a bioluminescent lantern extending from its forehead, a ribcage covered in spiky protrusions, and large, hateful eyes, all of that marked the horrific appearance of the Laghast mimic that now screamed and screamed, trying to induce fear into the trio that feared something more than the creature.

And the reason for that fear banged on the stone gate.

The group noticed it even over the scream, the sound of rock grinding against rock. A steady drum, a maddening pounding, made the sealing stone quiver at the force of the four arms slamming into it. A chunk of rock fell out and Turlesh spied through the gap. It was sheer chance that their eyes met, a moment of weakness that made Apexus rear his head despite the additional haste that was truly warranted.

“I SSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!” the triumphant roar of the Deathhound echoed through the gap.

For a moment, the trio was paralysed by the sound. Then every last emergency system the body was capable of simultaneously flared up. Priorities were set, any emotions that weren’t fear, resolution and care for their loved ones completely shut down. There was only the now, the certain future of death and the uncertain possibility of life. Two barriers were between them.

The Jitterling took their momentary freezing as a sign that the fear-inducing scream had worked and charged at Apexus on all fours. A flying knee was the response to that. The boss teleported, turned into a Thornspitter, and before it could even pull its head back it was bashed over the head by a metal staff. Even if it was meant to channel magic and even if the angel wielding it was physically weak, a strike was a strike and the demon relocated yet again.

The warning whistles were reacted to with unsustainable adrenaline. A tentacle lashing out. A Laghast charging. A bear swiping. A crocodile snapping. One form after the other, existing only for a couple of seconds before being eliminated.

One rock after another fell out of the magically reinforced stone gate, as the energies sealing it shut weakened from the physical strength it wasn’t meant to withstand. Turlesh started to pull the gate open. It slammed shut and he screamed with frustration, digging and striking further at the door.

Once more the Jitterling turned into its true form, now a gooey, unclear shape that laughed and screamed and cursed, “Dungeon delver. Deep seeker. Creature killer.”

The only retort any of them had was a panicked cry by Reysha when the monster of her nightmares caused a particularly large chunk of the gate to fall into the room. The demon hand she so loathed, it manifested on its own once more and granted her the strength to throw her pickaxe across the room.

Luck, instinct driven accuracy, unquestionable aiming talent, all three of these factors played into the pickaxe skewering the boss monster, nailing it onto the floor in front of the portal. A shiver went through the entire room, the runes on the metal circle lit up among a metallic hum, as if one was rattling hundreds of sabres.

The trio all sprinted towards the portal. Swirling magic flowed towards the centre, gradually consolidating into a surface. The gate behind them shattered completely and Turlesh charged after them. Elongated head parted, boneless maw open, the six-limbed monstrosity was ready to grab the angel or the slime by whatever means necessary. Only they were important. Only they had to remain alive – albeit not intact – and to be brought back to Turlesh’s master.

The surface of the portal calmed to show a path of silver among a midnight blue world sprinkled with stars. Details were not important for any of the three aiming, only that they got through.

Aclysia dropped her staff to fly quicker. She was the tail end of their flight, following after the two physical fighters. They ignored the pickaxe, just as they completely ignored the chests of loot that appeared along the sides of the room. None of that mattered.

The gap between them and the Deathhound narrowed. They had a head start of more than half of the room, but that only counted for so much. Reysha made it through the portal first. Then Apexus. Finally, Aclysia touched the swirling magic.

With a massive leap, Turlesh bridged the remaining distance. One arm extended in front of him, he was certain to land on top of the metal fairy. His victorious cry was turned into one of raw rage when he slammed against the portal as if it was a solid wall. His hands and feet caught the impact and he slid down the ephemeral barrier.

The trio collapsed, each of them staring at the demon that was bashing the portal with unfathomable rage. “COME HERE!” the Tharnatos class demon screamed, clawing at the portal he had not earned his entrance to. His maw opened completely. A rim of equally sized canines, set in a fleshy maw each the length of a human arm, pressed against the portal. The long tongue of the monster lashed around, its five fingered hands, two of which were opposingly located thumbs, scratched over the surface of the portal. At the bottom of its maw, the silently quivering trio could see something resembling a flat beak – the voice box of the demon. “MASTER HATED! SPARK EATER! SPARK EATER!”

Turlesh continued to bash against the portal for several minutes. Each of the three was terrified beyond movement and yet there was something liberating in this moment. To see one of the primary cause of their trauma impotently hammer against this final barrier between them, to see that even it had hurdles it couldn’t destroy, it diminished their possessing fear. The monster their experience had made out of the Deathhound was even larger than the Deathhound itself. Each of their heartbeats was taken with less mindless panic and more reasonable terror.

Eventually, Turlesh backed away from the portal. Prowling up and down in front of it, one of his four eyes focused on each of them, with the last one scanning the runes, the monster growled. His long tail lashed against the surface, causing nothing more than a temporary disturbance.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!” the Deathhound roared, then turned around ran back out the way it came. It vanished past a curve in the distance.

And the trio collapsed into a deep, necessary sleep.

End of Season 2

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