Chapter 6: Chains

Derivan caught and strangled the flare of panic as his Skill failed. What did that tell him?

There were only a few possibilities. One, somehow, the Overseer still had access to its skills, and one of them allowed it to mess with [Consume]. Two, it was at such a high level that it could simply ignore the Skill. But... no. That didn't make sense. Skills were generally fairly absolute, the rules of the system inviolable. Sheer levels were rarely enough to allow their effects to be broken.

No; it had to be the first possibility. Whatever principle escaping from [Consume] operated on, the Overseer had done something to it. It couldn't have been [Creature of Mana]; [Consume] cost mana, but it wasn't a spell effect. And besides, the Skill had succeeded.

That left [Overseer] and [Creature of Chaos]. [Overseer] was a dead end for speculation —

"It's [Creature of Chaos]," Vex sent him over the system. Derivan risked a quick glance at the wizard, who still seemed deep in [Meditation], but seemed perfectly capable of typing on the system interface while doing so. "Entropic progression is how the system talks about skill cooldowns."

Ah. That explained things.

"Misa," Derivan said. "I will need your help for this. I cannot take it alone. I am sorry."

The half-orc nodded. "You have a plan?"

"I need you to taunt it," Derivan said. "I will do the rest."

The Overseer had taken a moment to recover from stumbling back into realspace, but now it roared, charging towards them. Clearly, it hadn't liked being trapped. Derivan readied himself — he could minimize the harm that Misa would be exposed to if he was quick.

The spot he'd clung to on the Overseer's back was still a weak point; it hadn't changed shape, and couldn't reach its own back. The problem was that it knew what he could do, now, and wouldn't risk that happening again.

Sure enough, even as he tried to run around it, the Overseer rotated, keeping one of its many eyes on him.

But that was where Misa came in.

The trick with [To Fall Yet Hold the Line]was one that they had taken a while to figure out — that was the problem with Skills that were vaguely worded. They had specific mechanics that needed to be tested to be really understood. Misa could block any attack at a flat cost of only ten percent of her health, but only if she would otherwise fail to block it. A partial block didn't count as a failure, which, oddly enough, made it less effective against monsters of her own level.

But it was good at holding the line against a limited number of enemies. It was even better at defending one ally, because — as they had discovered — she could keep adjusting the metaphorical 'line' for her Skill.

Derivan dashed forward. An attack came, this time not a physical blow he could dodge; he felt it before he saw it, the way the mana around the Overseer twisted in an ugly, impossible way. He felt something in his soul begin to twist in response—

—but then Misa was there. Her focus glowed.

If you would fail to block an attack, you do not.

It was an attack she would have failed to block. She did not.

Derivan leapt past her.

The Overseer reacted, surprised but not wanting to be caught off guard again. This time it reached for him, hand reaching forward in an impossibly fast grab — and once more Misa was there to block it.

If Derivan had been hit, he would have been sent flying. With Misa, a steady reverberation rolled through the air instead, her body staying perfectly in place — what she needed to do to fully block the attack. Derivan took the opportunity to latch himself on to the Overseer, even as instinct forced the mana abomination to try to overcome the sudden barrier set before him.

He just needed one second. But the Overseer seemed prepared and spun just before the timer ticked down, fast enough that sheer inertia threw him off.

Then Misa did something he hadn't expected or known that she could do — she blocked him, appearing just behind him with her shoulder to his back to steady him, leaving him just within range to land on the Overseer again.

This time, Derivan grabbed the Overseer's head. It had the reach to attack him, but Misa blocked both attacks at once, somehow, her body twisting in an impossible blur even as a roar of pain bellowed out from her lungs. While she was distracted, mana pulsed around it, charging with lightning and slamming into his body, and he watched his health drain rapidly.

But not fast enough.

[Buff [Satiated] applied!]

The Overseer vanished for the second time in a blip of dark light; Derivan reacted instantly, reaching for the new skill hovering in the back of his mind. [Creature of Chaos]. The entropic progression portion of the skill required concentration, so he concentrated on slowing down the escape interval for [Consuming], and—

—Maybe using [Creature of Chaos] counted as an attack?

"Misa," Derivan said. "Please try to block him. If you have enough health."

He didn't see what she did, or listen to what she said in response. He dove deeper into his soul, concentrating; he felt the skills ticking inside him. One temporary, one permanent. One holding back another, but slipping.

He held.

Five seconds passed.

Six. Seven.

Derivan didn't let the elation distract him. He kept his focus on the skill, feeling it tremble in his grasp. He felt almost like he was in a trance, balanced on a razor's edge; it was on the verge of collapsing, and he knew he would only be able to hold on to it for the barest second longer—

"Derivan!" Vex called out to him, and his eyes flared to life in his helmet.

That was a signal, if he'd ever heard one. He let go of the skill.

The Overseer burst into existence again, this time with a roar of fury that turned into a solid wave of sound; he saw barriers that Vex had placed shatter even as his body was physically rebuffed by a compressed wave of air. Too many eyes on the mana abomination's body fixated on him, narrowing with anger.

The air trembled with chaotic mana. Derivan saw Misa lying next to Vex; unconscious or dead, he couldn't tell. He saw Sev with his eyes screwed shut, still chanting. He saw Vex shouting something, determined —

He saw an incomprehensible lance shoot forward. The mana abomination staggered backwards with a cry of something that sounded like shock, though the sound was alien to him. An impossible fire burned into a being that was equally impossible, ripping ephemeral holes in an ephemeral body.

For a long, eternal moment, everything seemed still and frozen.

Then he saw Vex collapse. The Overseer crashed into a wall of the crater, but that was a distant thing; his senses went numb as he began to run for his friends. Sev was the only one left standing, still speaking a silent prayer. That, more than anything else, told him this wasn't over.

Derivan ran forward as fast as he could. The Overseer burst from the dirt, angrier than ever, wounded but not dead. Vex had done more damage than should have been possible with mana, and yet...

A massive spike of chaotic mana formed in front of the creature — not aimed at him, but aimed at his friends. He ran harder, almost praying.

But he already knew he couldn't get there in time. He didn't know what he would do if he could.

The mana moved faster than he could, a lance almost the same as Vex's blasting back towards them.

Sev opened his eyes. They shone with a brilliant blue.

"[Divine Communion]," he spoke.

A rift opened.

It was somewhere, nowhere, and everywhere, all at once. In its wake, reality seemed to bend, and then fracture.

The Overseer, the crater, and the mana crystals vanished. The system interface cracked. The rift grew.

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And then they were in a void.

But that void was not empty.

Chains stretched into the sky; rusting, burning chains, with fire flaking off the dense, dusty metal. Chains were scattered around on the floor, too, all of them burning with the same strange, impossible flame. They cast an eerie glow onto the nothingness that was the ground Derivan stood on.

They led to an odd, dark speck floating in the air, too far away to properly see.

Derivan stared. None of this made any sense to him.

"...What is this place? Onyx?" Sev's voice echoed in the emptiness. It was the first time Derivan had ever heard their cleric sound so hesitant. It was enough to snap Derivan's attention back in the direction of his friends, and he breathed a small sigh of relief to see that everyone was fine. Vex and Misa were both slowly getting to their feet, looking around in no small amount of confusion.

None of them had the chance to say a word before Sev began to walk — then run towards the figure in the distance.

"H-hey!" Misa called out, but Sev seemed to ignore her; she cursed under her breath, reaching out to steady Vex as Derivan slowly approached them.

"You are both okay?" he asked, a little uncertain. "I was... I am worried. I did not see what happened."

"Honestly I have no idea what the fuck happened either," Misa answered, grimacing a bit as she looked at her status. "My health is still shot. I'm not dead, but I'm also not regenerating. Sev never mentioned[Divine Communion] slapping us all in a big fuckoff void, did he?"

"I believe I would have remembered it if he had," Derivan said drily, but the humor helped. Misa was... not okay, perhaps, but she was feeling well enough to make jokes, and that told him enough.

Vex, on the other hand, wasn't paying attention to either of them. He was kneeling down next to the chains, staring at the fire that was slowly eating away at the false metal. It took him a moment to realize that both Misa and Derivan were looking at him questioningly, and he shook his head helplessly in response. "This fire is weird. I think it's... I think it's my magic?"

"...Your magic?" Misa asked, raising an eyebrow — but she looked up as she spoke, and her eyes sharpened. She let out a sharp curse. "Shit. Okay, questions later. We gotta go after Sev."

Derivan glanced in the cleric's direction. He was still running full-tilt towards the speck in the distance, heedless of any potential danger. With a curse and a quick apology, he grabbed Misa and Vex, the former grumbling and the latter letting out a high-pitched yelp.

It was the only way they'd catch up with Sev, though.

Even then, by the time they caught up with the cleric, he was already there, standing just in front of the figure they'd seen in the distance. Sev was apparently capable of running very quickly when he wanted to.

Now that they were closer, they could see what Sev had apparently realized long before them. The chains led to a person, a figure cut out of pitch-black stone whose arms and feet were bound in layered, twisting chains. The chains here didn't burn; the fire was still moving slowly, inching up the chains from what might have been miles away.

The slow rise and fall of the figure's chest — and the blood dripping from him, a thick, viscous fluid — were the only indications that he was anything more than a chiseled sculpture.

"I don't understand," Sev said softly. He reached out, but whoever this was hung too far up for Sev to reach. His fingers grazed the chains leading up to his feet, instead. The cleric seemed deeply shaken. "I thought..."

"Who is Onyx?" It was Misa that spoke, but her voice was surprisingly gentle. She placed a hand on Sev's shoulder, and it seemed to startle him enough to nudge him back to reality.

"He is... the god I work with," Sev answered, looking helplessly at Misa, then at the rest of the party. "I mean. I don't know if that's the right way to put it. But I don't — that's not the point. This is him, I think. But I don't..."

I don't know what happened. The words were left unspoken, the cleric staring up at the figure of his god mutely. All of them were briefly silent, taking in the sight.

This was supposed to be a god?

Derivan didn't know much about the gods, but the idea of anyone or anything doing this to a god chilled him.

Vex was the first one among them to speak.

"The notification. When the Overseer was called. The second one, that was red — remember what it said?"

"'Repent, sinner, for ye are but a lamb before the slaughter'," Sev answered almost automatically. His face was ashen. Vex nodded.

"I... I thought the singular use of sinner was a mistake, or a reference to just one of us. But... maybe it wasn't talking about us." The lizard knelt, a finger brushing along the chains. "That fire was my magic," he said quietly. "It shouldn't be here, wherever this is. I cast it on the Overseer. The only way my magic could be here is if these chains are somehow... linked."

None of them knew how to react. They shared concerned gazes, with Sev's expression looking a little more distraught and distressed as they stood beneath the unconscious god. Derivan placed a hand on the cleric's shoulder.

"Perhaps you could heal him?" Derivan suggested softly. Sev looked like he was aching to do something. Even now, a dark fluid dripped down onto the ground from Onyx's body, slowly evaporating into nothingness. Sev grimaced a bit, looking up at the figure hanging in the air. "Or we could try to break the chains."

"I... maybe. I don't know what would happen if I tried." Sev bit his lip, looking conflicted. "Skills don't work properly here. They're stronger sometimes, weaker other times. Sometimes the effect of the Skill is completely twisted. I'll try to heal him, and then hopefully he'll have some answers for us, and can help us break the chains."

Sev seemed to feel a little better as he spoke, at least. He was the kind of person that worked better when he had a plan to follow. He took a steadying breath and focused, reaching for a place within him that Derivan couldn't see.

Derivan could feel the power gathering, though. Sev spoke, his voice reverberating: "[Divine Inhalation]."

It was a strange name for a healing spell, Derivan thought, but he hardly had time to focus on it. There was a sharp flare of light, almost glaring in its intensity.

And yet — for all the power the spell seemed to have, and for all that it sent Sev staggering backwards, panting like it had torn out some vital piece of him — nothing seemed to change.

The god continued to bleed. The chains continued to burn, the fire slowly inching closer.

Sev seemed to sag, something inside him folding in on itself. Derivan was about to suggest trying to break the chains anyway, but before he could, Onyx spoke.

His voice was quiet and weak, far from what Derivan imagined the voice of a god would be — and yet beneath that weakness was a quiet fortitude and a well of preserved strength.

"Your friend has weakened my chains," he said. Sev startled, almost reaching out — but he couldn't reach Onyx any more than he could before. "And you have restored some small part of me. I can... pull this form away. Back into the upper planes. You must... leave. The dungeon will form. It will have answers."

"We are here now," Derivan said. "Can we not help you?"

"We could smash up the chains," Misa said, eyeing them critically. "They don't look that strong."

"I can burn them again," Vex offered.

Onyx offered them all a small, pained smile. "You cannot break them now. Not... as you are."

"I thought I saved you," Sev said, his voice small.

Onyx paused, and spoke gently. "You did."

There was a sense of finality to those words; a sense of an ending. A goodbye, perhaps. But there was no time to make sense of it, for there was also the sense of a Skill petering out; of a god leveraging what limited strength he retained to drag a metaphysical body through an impossible distance.

And then they were back, just outside the crater that had once been the Mana Nucleus. It was home to a freshly-formed dungeon made of towering blue stone. None of them spared it a second glance; it was all too... normal. Pristine. Shining there like nothing had happened.

They'd won an impossible battle.

But somehow, it didn't feel like a victory.

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