Chapter 32: BII: Chapter Four

Space seemed to thicken around them as they dropped. Eli glanced at his status with his fledgling Spatial Dominion and decided risking an untested evo-0 power fighting literal monsters was unwise. He swapped it out for Voidspace Mastery and almost sighed with relief at feeling himself reconnect with the void full of his hoard of spatial bubbles.

"Alright. We'll do this in pairs." Nora tapped her foot with her arms crossed while they waited for the elevator to reach their destination. "Dorian and I and you two or I'll be with Eli."

Eli shrugged while his mind was a storm of thoughts that spun faster than his internal maelstrom of Lumencloud Invigoration. Why couldn't he be with Dorian or Roman? Was it because of personal preference, some other reason, or pure strategy?

"Eli and Les have the best teamwork together, so I'll take Les and see how he does with that tin can of his." Dorian grinned as armor winked into existence around him, along with massive gauntlets ridged with spikes darkened with bloody stains. A massive spear flopped into his hands with a heavy broad spearhead at the tip. Rows of grooves were notched across the shaft. Eli winced at the tiny, sloppy ripples of spatial distortions that echoed around the appearance of each. It was like watching someone wipe shit over his clothes. He did not like seeing spatial powers bastardized around him.

"Fine, but don't summon your weapons in a fucking elevator." Nora glared at him and the spear vanished. Metal squealed as the elevator lurched to a stop. Dorian caught himself with a thump as his left hand crashed into the wall of the elevator to stabilize himself. They swayed as the elevator rocked.

"Don't say it," Dorian sighed warningly while they stepped out of the elevator into a sort of chamber like an airlock with another set of overtly secured double doors. Twice as many bolts and bars barricaded it from exit or entry. "Don't you—"

"Looks like I don't have to." Nora winked at the blushing Dorian, whose face disappeared as a sturdy helm appeared over his head. "Alright, guys. Do last minute checks, then we'll head in."

Eli and Roman looked at each other in horror while Dorian continued to summon belts full of sheathed knives, hatchets, and other weapons. Nora hummed to herself while she summoned a resplendent emerald dress that shimmered as it flowed down her shoulders to her now gloved hands that left her fingertips bare. A few more notes and a dark forest green vest popped into being buttoned over her torso. Her hair strung itself into a ponytail at the same time an old fashioned cap crowned her head.

Were they going to fight or perform at an opera or concert?

"Aren't you guys going to summon your equipment?" Dorian asked with an echoing puzzled tone. Roman's eyes bugged out at that as he glanced at the other two before he turned his now pleading eyes to Eli.

Eli reached into his voidspace to the spatial bubbles filled with Roman's powersuits and armor he'd shoved into there at the beach... was that really only three days ago? He restrained himself from shaking his head at the incredulity of that and with a careful precision he teleported the armor around Roman, letting none of the matter overlap.

Without a body enhancing power, it'd be all too easy to explode his friend, and he wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

Roman towered over everyone in a suit of menacing armor filled with lines of ominous red light. The metal was a rough burnished steel full of warped curves and ridges to deflect any attacks. Power gathered in the gauntlets Les had made, but Roman spent most of the last night tinkering with after they finished some assignments. Eli smirked at the imposing badass display—

"That's it? Did you get a new power that you're trying to level, Les?" Nora's voice had a haunting melodic quality to it. "This is bizarrely underwhelming."

"New prototype suit I wanted to take for a spin," Roman said with a digital crackle.

"Alright." She shrugged, then turned to raise an eyebrow at Eli, who had no idea what sort of powers he should use. All he knew was that Herbert had a water power. He was clueless still, since he didn’t have access to the System Portfolio app. "Going to fight in your civ clothes? I know you have an Ice Armory type of power, but still. That's pretty bold, even for you."

"I'll be fine. I'm trying out something sort of new, too." Eli shrugged while he desperately slammed spatial bubbles together full of water and air in his voidspace that he froze into shields and spears. He nested hardened voidspace constructs into each of them that glowed with violet light before he used Body of Light to turn it invisible. Mist curled around his body as he devoured as much light from each strand of fog he could before he froze it into armor that he insulated with carefully hidden plates of voidspace armor.

"Whatever. It's not like we don't have the literal championship and Tri-Delve cup in five weeks or anything. Do you want to try out anything new and different, Dorian?"

"Actually, I've been thinking it'd be fun to fight with—"

"I was joking. If you want to try anything new, do it during your individual tests. We'll be busy covering for Mr. Cocky and Spontaneous over here." Nora rolled her eyes before she sighed and summoned a violin with a metal bladed bow that had a tiny bell hooked to the end. "Ready?"

They all looked at each other and nodded. Ice flexed and popped as it cracked, then resealed in Eli's impractical suit of ice armor. Who the fuck fought like that? He wished he had found footage of anything about how Herbert fought, but all he'd found were general videos from past Tri-Delve Cups and other standard delves.

He felt woefully unprepared.

"Crucible!" Nora kicked the toe of her sleek boots against the door with an echoing bang that resonated in his chest. "Two instances of a three tiered dungeon, same format and seed. Progressive difficulty starting at Hard. Timed for an hour. Simulated injuries and death."

Eli furrowed his brow with bated breath while he stared at the unchanging doors.

Space thickened and air sharpened to a storm of humming needled shards. Whispers grated. Stains of color seeped from the ceiling as it dripped down the doors like oil paint. Embers of power sparked with trails of distorted light in its wake.

A portal melted into the doorway, leaving none of the metal behind. Eli reached out with his spatial field and marveled at the sensation of overlapping space. The portal itself was a flat plane of mist that glowed with a faint blue light. A barren, rough-hewn tunnel of stone ascended to some manner of ruins.

"With me, Newton. Let's see if your new methods are better." Nora marched into the swirling portal with a ripple of space as she rocketed somewhere else, but her impression remained within the localized spatial field where the portal remained. Eli's eyes widened at the implications. Could he do the same thing without linking through the void like he normally did? It felt like it was almost a bridge... like a bridge between two airlocks.

Eli stepped through with a grin. A different kind of space brushed against him like a purring stray cat already loosely familiar with him. He sank through the portal, which had a sort of in-between loop that guided him through the bridged corridor in space smoothly, so his foot landed on the solid cave floor.

Eroded stairs webbed with cracks and chipped with holes, also covered in literal webs. It raced up to the top, which gaped to show a horizon studded with desolate ruins of cobblestone buildings like an old castle town.

Eli checked his status again to double check that his equipped powers were combat ready. Yes, Voidspace Mastery, Restoration, and Lumencloud Invigoration were all equipped and ready to go still. He frowned, hidden by his doubled helm of voidspace and frozen lumencloud. Eli had to max out Spatial Dominion sooner rather than later so he could merge Augmentative Elemental Absorption and Lumencloud Invigoration. The sooner he got that up to evo-1, the better. Not to mention once he maxed out‌ Spatial Dominion he could decide what he was going to do with the pending powers he'd gotten for killing Daniels.

"You with me, or are you daydreaming about that new girlfriend of yours?" Nora snapped her fingers with a harsh click.

"Sorry. Let's go." Eli stepped forward while Nora shadowed him by a few paces. Echoes clattered around them as they climbed the stairs.

Okay, so, he knew Herbert had a water stat and another power that let him use ice weapons and armor. Either the original power let him heal with water or he had Body of Water. Like his run with Hazel, he'd need to use everything he had to emulate what he suspected Herbert's actual strength was.

But Eli was effectively crippled. No real spatial tricks or teleportation, so that robbed him of his mobility entirely. Lumencloud Invigoration would also weaken him physically the more he pushed it toward strengthening his ice armor and weapons. He did not know how good Herbert's healing was either. He didn't want to lose a limb and regrow it easily in a few minutes or less if Herbert would've actually lost it.

Godfuckingdamm. He wished he'd been able to get into the System Portfolio app so he could just figure this out.

Gray sunlight washed over everything the moment they stepped out of the cave onto a path with dilapidated stone arches. The path wound up and around farther up the mountain or down into a valley that swirled with mist. Wrong spatial energy rubbed against Eli as they stood under the gray light. It wasn't natural. And it felt like a chained beast left to starve in the winter.

"Which way?" Eli grunted as he pushed out with his spatial senses and nearly hissed as the spatial energy grew thicker with that awful sensation. It felt damp and sticky as it stirred around him in eddies and flows. Waves of mounting horror threatened to swamp his mind, but Restoration soothed him with its peace. For now.

"Up first, then down. I want to make sure your head is in the game."

"Got it." Eli turned to climb, even though he fumed on Herbert's behalf. She did not think highly of Herbert, did she?

Space weighed heavily on him with his every step as they climbed up the path. Light seemed to twist and bend with a malevolent edge to it as they climbed. Thin fingers of gray mist wafted around them as they followed the winding trail.

Three standing monolith stones enmeshed in red moss that coated the mountain top overlooked the valley below. In the center was a massive sword plunged into the massive corpse of a ten foot tall giant body. Eli blinked and he felt how the spatial energy wanted to stream toward the center. How the mist billowed not from the air or light, but from the corpse of the giant.

"Ready? Try not to kill it too fast this time."

Eli nodded while he snapped out swirling orbs of frigid lumencloud filled with restrained light as they froze into a jagged volley of spears. Inside of each was a rigid blade of voidspace wrapped around an inverted copy of itself.

Haunting notes twanged as Nora plucked at her violin, while Eli walked closer to the slumbering giant. Red light flared throughout the red moss like kindling lit ablaze. Cracks cleaved through the decrepit face of the giant as it opened its petrified eyes. A symphony of pops of shattered stone rang as the giant rolled to the side on to its feet in a single motion.

Broken stone floated in orbits around it while it regarded them with pure gray eyes. Its sword vanished, then reappeared in its hands as it swung back straight through the monoliths, exploding them into powder and dust.

It narrowed its eyes, then burst through space as it teleported right beside Eli while its sword scythed through the air. Eli panicked as his instinct urged him to teleport, but when he was almost into the void, he remembered he wasn't supposed to be Elias but Herbert.

He ducked while firing a wave of lumencloud that covered the giant in sheets of ice.

Wind howled as the massive sword flew toward his chest.

Boom!

A shockwave blasted into Eli, knocking him away in a bouncing roll until he caught himself flipped back to his feet. The giant buried its sword into the mountain with a crash so hard he bit his tongue while he pinwheeled to keep his balance. Blood welled in his mouth.

Nora continued playing her violin at a frenzied pace, each haunting note nearly silent to Eli's ears, but bracken blood spilled from the giant's orifices. It let go of its sword to dash over to her while it swept its boulder of a hand toward her.

She flicked the bow in her offhand toward it with a jingle from the bell at the end. Another sonic boom blasted out, knocking the giant back a few paces to its sword. Blood dripped from its bare chest as her sonic attack struck it.

"Leave!" roared the giant as it tried to free the blade.

Nora glared at him with a tilt of her head.

Eli shook himself mentally. He crouched down while gathering power from his hidden stores of violet light from his voidspace armor before he leapt with a gale of lumencloud. Blades of frozen lumencloud hailed around before he landed on its shoulder with a series of harsh cracks as the ice and solid voidspace inside break on its hide.

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Small gashes weep trickles of bracken blood.

Eli dug his left hand into the skin above its collarbone while sharpening his hybrid gauntlet of ice-and-voidspace into needlepoints. His fingers pierced through before he transformed them into concealed radiance while he shoved icy lumencloud power into the wound.

"Agh!" screeched the giant as tried to shake him off and pull the sword at the same time. Eli straddled the giant's arm with his legs while honing the bottom of his ice armor into a blade that he teleported into its arm. Steam hissed from the murky flow of its bracken blood.

Metal snapped as the giant wrenched to the side, breaking the sword in half.

It glared at Nora as it raised its jagged halved blade before that sense of violated space flooded in.

It was about to teleport!

Eli stabbed and cut with nothing to show for it but gouts of sticky blood that melted his ice armor. Dim violet light glowed before he refroze it. Rage and horror mounted as they slipped in between the contours of space to somewhere else.

Space was his and no one else's.

He shoved his fingers and leg blades deeper into the giant's body as he rammed his will into voidspace until he felt all the empty pockets of space in every cell, joint, and cavity. Rage darkened to wrath at how normal spatial energy corrupted into its abomination of his power. Violet light shimmered beneath its skin for half a second.

A series of booms rattled Eli on its body while he used a series of teleports to summon vast amounts of frozen lumencloud into its body.

Glacial knives and arctic spikes ripped through the entirety of its body as it froze. Bones, muscle, organs were all shredded as icy lumencloud sundered the giant in a flash of power. It topped over with a harsh crack as the ice holding it together broke.

Eli landed with a hard thud that sent stars bursting across his vision before Restoration healed him. He pushed himself up to his feet and turned to study the hoarfrost covered slush of the giant remains. Space returned to normal around him, loosening all the tension that had built up in his muscles.

"What did it have?" Nora asked while she crept over carefully to study the still buried blade of the sword before she turned to the other half.

<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have slain a GIANT with the power:

Corruptive Mist Ev. 3/Lv. 5

Slipspace Ev. 3/Lv. 2

You may now select from one of the following options:

Siphon Power Experience

Gain a Power Perk

Obtain Power from the Conquered >

He read the screen in disbelief. It had been that strong and it didn't have any stat powers or body enhancement? Maybe he could've killed it quicker if he could have fought normally, but he knew that Nora's music and sonic blasts had weakened it severely.

"It had an evo-3 Corruptive Mist and Slipspace power. No stats."

"Hm okay." She frowned at him with evident confusion. "But why would you expect it to have stats? It's not a boss."

"Oh... right." He shook his head like he was being silly, then tried to change the subject. "I'm excited to have the option of getting a teleporting power."

"I suppose Icewraith would synergize well with it." She hummed in thought. "Are you going to take it? I know you've always been jealous of your sister's power, but it could sell pretty well."

He stared at her while his head spun a bit. What the fuck was Icewraith? And Herbert's sister had a teleportation power? Eli wanted to seethe at how every discovery threatened to betray that he didn't belong here. What powers did Herbert have? And what would happen if people found out he wasn't him? He really hoped they wouldn't try to kill him on sight because they thought he was some sort of shapeshifter monster or something. He made a mental note to look that up.

"What? You'd make about ten grand after you sold it, depending on where you went. Spatial powers are rare enough outside of Initializations and legacies."

"Right." He said haltingly while he realized more and more how lost he truly was in this dimension. But he had to wait to panic later. "I might take and keep it. It'd be pretty nice to be able to teleport around though."

"Sweet. Alright, well are you ready now that we finished with the warmup?

"Yeah, let's do this." Eli smiled reassuringly while Restoration kept him from losing his mind. That was only a warmup? What the fuck was Herbert into?

The more and more he lived Herbert's life, the more he had to judge him a little bit. Eli had problems, but he wasn't a masochist like that. He was more into his familiar internal misery than external.

"Let's go." Nora gestured for him to lead the way down. While they walked, he thought about whether he should break down the giant's power for a perk or use it for experience. Spatial Dominion was close, but still not close enough. And he didn't want any penalties from it.

He selected the Gain a Power Perk option.

<Slip-In

Subspace

Slip-Out

BACK>

Subspace? Now that sounded interesting. He accepted it and slotted it into Voidspace Mastery and shivered while he felt a whole new orientation slide into his perception. He toggled with Subspace and it felt almost like when he expanded space, but instead of ballooning it out, it created another equal amount of space nested inside.

Eli grinned as they descended the path. Enough experimentation with this and he bet he'd be able to figure out the trick on his own without the perk and figure out the secret to other dimensions with enough practice.

Now he had an out for using a bit of teleportation for real too.

They reached the plateau and passed under the arches without saying a single word to each other. That suited Eli more than fine. He knew nothing about Nora and every conversation felt like a minefield of hidden depths and meanings that he had no context to even try to navigate.

Eli stepped through the archway and gasped as an arrow plinked through his ice armor before it shattered against hardened voidspace.

A horde of crocodile scaled goblins with bone bows in their hands pulled back more arrows before they loosed in a volley. He shoved out a frozen wall of lumencloud before he darted to the side where a troll rose out of the ground. It reached out to grab him with a snarl. Violin music thrummed in the air while bows cracked and goblins screeched in pain.

He rushed forward to stab the troll with a dagger of ice. It chuckled from the blow before it rammed its knee into Eli's groin with enough force to explode his armor and lift him into the air.

Eli wheezed as he hit the ground. Restoration calmed the nauseating turmoil and pain while the troll lunged for him with his maw open wide enough to fit his head and shoulders in. He teleported to the side as gradual as he could before he reabsorbed all his icy lumencloud armor to flood his body with strength.

Eli lashed out with a wild kick into its knee with a splintering crunch as the troll screamed in agony. He twisted away from its grasp and grabbed its arm to wrench it over his shoulder. Bone cracked with a wet crunch as he slammed the troll's face into the ground.

It struggled to rise. Thick knobbed fingers clawed at the dirt. Eli created a blade of frozen lumencloud that he thrust into the back of its skull.

Nora screamed with a sonic boom that pulped his eardrums with a pop.

He stumbled while he turned toward her.

Goblins swarmed around her and over the mound of their murdered kin.

Still, she sawed at her violin with a storm of notes and sonic blasts that mangled every goblin that drew near. If they got even closer, she'd whistle or flick her violin bow to jingle the affixed bell. Any noise she made separate from the violin eviscerated them with a shockwave.

More goblins and trolls rose from the ground.

Eli created a fresh suit of frozen lumencloud armor and teleported into battle.

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