Nightmare Realm Summoner

It came as little surprise to Alex that he and Claire didn’t manage to share any more fruitful conversation with Absolution. They stayed by their campfire and he stayed by his. Nobody even suggested trading off watches. The mere idea of trusting Absolution with his back made Alex nearly burst out laughing — and he got the feeling that the Outworlder felt similarly.

Instead, Alex summoned Princess to keep an eye over them while he and Claire traded off getting a little rest. He would have summoned more monsters, but Alex didn’t have a single emotion that could even be considered adjacent to trust for Absolution.

Giving the other man time to study his monsters was definitely a bad idea. Especially one like Glint.

Fortunately, the night passed without any incident, and it wasn’t long before the sun rose the following morning once again. Alex spent a little time kicking down the miniature castle he and Claire had built up around their campfire down.

“You do realize that our path cannot be tracked,” Absolution said, watching him with a flat expression. “There is no need to cover your tracks. And you are not doing it very well.”

Alex shook his head in disappointment. If there was one thing that was certain, it was that Absolution definitely hadn’t had much of a childhood. “Who said anything about covering my tracks? I’m kicking my castle over. It’s the rules. You don’t make a castle and not smash it afterward.”

Absolution stared at him for a moment. But it seemed that the Outworlder had long since learned that questioning the stupid shit that Alex did was a pointless rabbit hole that would only lead to even more frustration.

“I am leaving now,” Absolution said flatly. “It will be up to you to follow in a timely manner. Do not delay unless you wish to be trapped here.”

“We’re ready,” Claire said, giving the remains of the dirt castle a good kick herself before the two of them made their way over to join Absolution. “How many more jumps will you need to get us to the Empty Court? Two?”

“Two, if we are fortunate,” Absolution replied. His lips thinned and he raised his scythe. “Three if we are not.”

Then he brought it down through the air. It caught, tearing through reality and leaving a oily path of molten purple magic in its wake. Then he stepped into the portal, vanishing without another word. Alex and Claire followed after him.

The world shifted.

A thick, acrid scent drove into Alex’s nostrils. It was rancid enough that he gagged on the spot, nearly tripping over himself in surprise. Just inches before his face, a plume of yellow-tinged steam belched upward from a gap in the craggy burnt orange ground beneath his feet.

It was scalding.

He jerked his head back, cursing, and narrowly saved his face from getting parboiled. Another hiss cut through the air just a few dozen feet to his side. Alex spun toward it, reading his magic as he took in his new surroundings.

It was about as far from the lush field that they’d been in the previous night that one could get. As best Alex could tell, they stood at the bottom of a deep valley completely riddled with active, sulfurous vents. A burst of rancid steam would tear out of one with a nasty hiss every few seconds, rising to form a thick yellowish cloud overhead.

“The hell is this?” Alex asked, his eyes watering as he turned to glare at Absolution. He squinted, but it did little to help. The very air seemed to be completely laden with acid.

“The closest location to our target that I could get to,” Absolution replied. Even he seemed somewhat disgusted, though he was doing a good job of keeping it from his features. The Outworlder’s gaze tracked across the ground, rising up to a raised platform of rock several dozen feet away from them. Then, without a word, he leapt.

Absolution soared through the air, landing on the stone without anything more than a gentle scuff. Alex narrowed his eyes even further.

Show-off.

He and Claire both leapt as well, landing on either side of Absolution. Alex made considerably more noise with his landing than the other man had — and something in the look that the Outworlder sent him made it quite clear he had noticed. Claire, however, landed as silent as a night breeze.

The smell here wasn’t any better than it was on the ground, but at least there didn’t seem to be any vents in the immediate area. Their platform was about twenty feet long and half as wide. That was, unfortunately, considerably smaller than their last campsite.

Then again, literally everything about this location was worse than the prior one.

“Can you not get any farther?” Alex asked. “Surely we can do better than the fartlands.”

Absolution sent him a flat look. “Do you think I enjoy it any more than you do?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Claire said. “You seem like the type to enjoy suffering.”

Absolution’s lips didn’t even twitch. He just sent her his signature flat look. “I would have taken us further were it viable. I did not. We will rest here. If half a day passes, I will be able to take a half-step. It will likely be less offensive than the current location.”

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“Good enough for me. As long as we don’t have to sleep here,” Alex said through a grimace. “Better get some rest. The faster we’re out of here, the...”

His sentence died on his lips.

The hair on the back of his neck was standing on end.

Alex wasn’t even sure why, but gooseflesh had raced down his arms. He suddenly felt hyper-aware. Something was wrong. His eyes darted around as he turned, scanning for what had put him on edge.

Claire and Absolution did the same. Whatever this was, they’d all felt it.

“Is the steam hallucinogenic?” Claire asked warily. She drew her black whip from its tattoo, readying it. “Be careful. Don’t suddenly attack anything directly next to you. This could be a monster trying to confuse us into fighting each other.”

Alex summoned Princess with a thought. The ground at his side bubbled as the Mire Matron rose up to loom over them, her three heads swaying as she searched for their opponent. Alex drew on his magic again, but he didn’t summon any more monsters. He still didn’t want to give Absolution any more time to study his abilities than he absolutely had to.

“Interesting theory,” Absolution said. He raised his scythe. “I would not have been taken by such a simple poison this easily, though. And I recognize this feeling.”

Neither would I. My Title should prevent something like this from screwing with me too bad.

But the uneasy feeling gripping Alex was only getting stronger. Whatever this was, he was pretty sure it wasn’t just some mental effect.

“What is it, then?” Alex asked warily. He scanned their surroundings again. “Because if we’re all feeling it, then it’s definitely real.”

“A being with a powerful aura,” Absolution replied. “Something whose Mind Palace has advanced to a point where it seeps out to affect the surrounding area. The question is if it’s intelligent or not.”

“What does that mean?” Alex asked with a frown.

“Your Soul Manifestation,” Absolution said, a note of distaste in his voice. “When it grows powerful enough, the aura will emanate from your body. Intelligent beings can limit this to avoid announcing their presence to every fool they pass by, controlling it at will. The ones who are dumber cannot.”

“Why would something powerful ever intentionally reveal the fact that it is this strong?” Alex asked. His eyes lowered to the vents. There was nothing in the air. Nothing on the land around them. And that really only left one place for something to be hiding.

“Drawing on powerful magic is rarely subtle,” Absolution said curtly. His own gaze was directed straight toward the ground as well. It seemed the two of them were in agreement on the location of their enemy. Something about his tone sounded a bit more stressed than normal. Whatever this monster was, it had him on edge. “There are other reasons. But I am not your teacher — and it matters not. We are about to witness the strength of our opponent firsthand. Ensure you stay out of my way. I do not need amateurs in my path.”

Alex didn’t get a chance to reply.

A loud crunch split the air, carving through the hissing of the sulfurous steam vents and echoing through the valley. Another one followed after it, and another moments later. The ground trembled. A crack sliced through the stone where they’d first landed.

The air filled with a keening groan. Yellowed steam whistled out from the growing crack in the earth in a wall that rose tall into the air. Alex gagged as the stench in the air grew even thicker. Whatever the hell was coming was in serious need of a bath.

Another tremor shook the earth. The cracks splitting the ground groaned, even more steam belching out from them in a final puff before it came to an abrupt stop.

There was a bated second of uneasy silence.

Then the vents farthest from them screamed. Steam exploded out along the edges of the valley in a huge ring as a craggy, humanoid hand exploded up from beneath the ground in a spray of pebble and amidst a thick cloud of smoggy yellow fog.

The grayish-brown hand alone was easily the size of a human and covered with limp extrusions that were trimmed with rocklike armor. It slammed into the ground with a crunch, six wicked claws carving into the earth as it found purchase.

A sickly squelching sound came from deep within the earth. A second hand burst up, slamming down to join the first. More tremors shook the earth. The ground behind the crack bulged. It rose, forming into a large hill. Cracks split the rising stone as pieces cracked and fell away, revealing a massive, lumbering form beneath.

Huge chunks of stone fell away as even more hands split away from the main monster’s form, rising up like the tails of a scorpion. It had at least eight appendages, but Alex couldn’t actually tell where the hell its face or ass was. The whole thing was just one blobby mess of arms and rancid, wiggly limbs covered in stone.

Rancid Belcherbeing (Expert 1)

Before any of them could act, the massive monster slammed three of its limbs together over its head.

A shockwave tore out from it. Riding upon it were all all the horrid scents that Alex had been picking up before, but magnified by a dozen-fold. He nearly doubled over in disgust. The air was awful that it literally bit into his eyes and skin. He could feel his body trying to repair itself. If he hadn’t been System-empowered, the mere presence of the awful thing might have been enough to cause flesh to start melting off his bones.

Unfortunately, the monster was far from done. Wind howled through the air, ripping past Alex to gather on either side of the faceless Belcherbeing. The blood drained from his face. He couldn’t even quite muster any excitement for this fight.

No. You can’t be serious. It isn’t…

Unfortunately, his fears were right.

The wind whipping around the Blecherbeing intensified even further. Two tendrils of hideous yellow smoke twisted down from the smog cloud hovering above them, coiling their way to touch down on the ground. Wind made Alex’s hair whip against his face. He had to lower his center of gravity, trying his best to avoid getting blown away even as far away from the monster as they stood.

It had summoned tornados.

Whole ass tornados.

Two of them.

“Is that a fucking Soul Manifestation?” Alex screamed over the wind. “Are you kidding me? What kind of bullshit is that?”

Absolution’s grip around his scythe tightened and he raised his voice to be heard over the howling wind. “It is powerful!”

Alex grimaced.

Gee. You think?

He extended his hand. A white manacle slammed down around his wrist. The links of a heavy white chain clanged into place, followed by a heavy crunch as his metal anchor drove down into the ground. He grabbed onto the closest link of the chain and gritted his teeth.

“Alright, Absolution,” Alex growled. “Together?”

The Outworlder probably hadn’t heard his words. But he didn’t need to. The three of them all exchanged a glance. An Expert 1 was far too strong to screw around with. If they were thinking about fighting each other instead of the monster, all three of them would end up dead — and they all knew it.

One more second dragged by.

Then Absolution gave them a sharp nod.

Alex’s lips pulled back into a determined grin. It seemed they’d found something nasty enough to make even Absolution set his pride aside.

If only just once… it seemed the three of them would be fighting on the same side.