Regardless, I counted my blessings that these were Dolls, and possessed of superhuman strength. I'd much rather suffer the indignity of being luggage than having to climb above a pit of boiling lava on my own measly merits. Knowing me, I'd just end up as an ingredient in some primordial stew.
Just like that, Will and Diana pounded their fists into the rock walls when they couldn't find suitable holds. I closed my eyes, reluctant to look down at the growing distance, or up at the nearing stalactites looming above our heads like the nails of an iron maiden.
The world rumbled, and though the Dolls didn't have beating hearts, I'm sure that whatever served as a substitute as a pulse stopped with my mortal one. The Salamander Nest was always trembling to an extent, but what I'd taken for the presence of magic was actually the movement of earth.
This wasn't just a hotbed beneath the Howling Desert -it was a volcano.
Leo's tan features grew pale as he shared my conclusion. I started to notice imprints against the rock; fossils from an ancient explosion. Now I was determined to get the Eyes so I could get the Hell out of here.
We climbed for the better part of an hour before reaching our destination. The peak of the Salamander Nest was a disc approximately thirty feet across in every direction.
At the heart of this platform was a hole, fuming with thick white smoke. It was in that smoke that I saw the glint of gems, hovering on the pressurized air.
"Those are the Eyes?" Leo asked with the measure of disappointment that everyone felt. After all the trouble it took to get here, the object of our quest was an unimpressive sight indeed.
"Whatever," said Diana, preparing for a running jump. "Let's get the Eyes and get ourselves back to Purilo's."
She charged towards the geyser and grasped the Eyes in the palm of her hand. We ran around the hole to see her safely on the other side.
I approached her, eager to get a better look at the artifact set. Diana dropped the gems into my hands so I could study them to my leisure.
They were unlike any stones I'd seen in my entire life, and considering Nethermount was just one giant mining cavern, that was a bold claim indeed.
The Eyes of the Leviathan didn't even look solid. It was as though I were holding two perfect spheres of water with bright red oil in the center, and yet they felt as hard and cold as ice -a fact made a thousand times more impressive considering the environment we found them in. I couldn't tell whether it was their temperature or the magic within them that caused my fingers to go numb, but they were special -there was no doubt about it.
All of us felt a chill in the air at that moment, and we watched as Koronos, clad in his human guise, stepped out from the steam vent to stand before us. He clapped politely at our successful venture, inhaled deeply as though the scent of molten rock was the most refreshing thing in the world, and smiled.
"Did you know that the acid pools found throughout the Moor also run through the Salamander Nest?" he asked us. "The lava covers the vast majority, but you can see come oozing in the cavern walls, I believe."
We looked around at pockets of green slime plopping into the flames like broken waterfalls.
"What are you trying to go, Koronos?" Diana demanded. Experience was the only thing staying her hands at this time; this was not the place to fight him, and she would lose even if it were.
"Trying to do?" he asked innocently. "In such a scenic destination, all I wish is to impart some knowledge so you can better appreciate this setting."
The demon clasped his hands behind his back, strolling along the edge.
"The gas that this acid produces has pressurized this environment, you see. It's exquisitely hazardous. The Salamander Nest has been teetering on the edge of eruption for decades because of this tenuous balance."
We tensed. I didn't like where this conversation was going. Koronos noticed our physical response and mustered up his most reassuring laugh.
Needless to say, it made matters worse.
"Don't be so concerned, my friends!" he grinned. "The only way to get a volcano to erupt would be to flood this cavern with water! Or suddenly change the pressure, but for that you'd need some very dense gas, almost to the point of being solid."
We watched as his hand grew to its demonic size, tearing straight through its mortal flesh in the process. In a split second, it had become large enough to grasp a small dog in its entirety.
I felt sick, because I knew what he was about to do.
"UHH, DODGE!"
But my golem could only respond fast enough to see the open palm coming his way. Koronos slammed into his body so hard that it flattened his side. My heart plummeted as I saw him get thrown across the length of the platform, and nearly ten additional feet into the air beyond.
"Oops," said the devil. "Now that might be a problem."
Diana and Will, rather than give into their rage, were too stunned to react. This was not the time to be inactive.
Lava sputtered violently below us, and the Salamander Nest rumbled to life.
I recalled the fossils I saw on the way up, glanced at the Eyes in the palm of my hand, and prayed that I knew what I was doing.
I linked hands with everyone in a flurry of motion and ducked low to the ground. Runes spilled across my tongue like a river of gibberish.
We didn't have time to escape the explosion -but there was a chance we could survive it.
26: Loophole
I don't recall much of my childhood, but I can guarantee that I was never one to push certain boundaries -specifically those that would spell injury if I were to cross them.
I never touched a burning stove. I shied away from white-hot crucibles; my only experience dealing with the excess of heat would be from the few times I fell asleep in the attic and received a minor sunburn.
Like most denizens of Nethermount, I was of a fair complexion, and from these little naps of mine I determined that my skin was exceptionally sensitive.
Those burns would equate to angry red welts wherever the light ended up falling. At the risk of sounding crass: they stung like a bitch.
This feeling I had now wasn't so different from back then... if one were to multiply it by a thousand.
I looked like a freshly boiled lobster. Jiki's armor cracked, leaving Purilo's enchantment in similar pieces. I felt the last vestiges of magic leaving the metal like a gust of arctic wind, and after that there was silence.
All around me were chunks of steaming rock and bone -and oil, thanks to those brilliant fossils. The Eyes granted me the power I needed to drag their organic matter through the earth, shaping it in a protective bubble. The lava shot up through the oculus as the fastest way to go up. We were already so close to the cavern ceiling that I gambled on us getting shot to the surface.
Judging by the moonlit dunes, it must be my lucky night.
I tried to stand, but unleashed a pained groan. I needed to find Diana, Leo, and Will. I needed to stay alive. I needed to keep moving.
"Aaargh!"
"Marvin!" I couldn't muster the strength to look behind me, but I felt Diana's porcelain fingers touch my scalded back. "Marvin, don't move."
"Di-"
"I told you not to move!" she shouted. Her voice sounded so far off in spite of her closeness. This finally made enough of an impression for me to know that something was very wrong. "LEO!" she called behind her. "Hurry!"
Diana turned me in her arms. Her beautiful face was charred and covered in soot. Petal pink eyes shone out from the darkened mask like the bright orbs of a panther. Cracks littered her arms and shoulders. Pieces fell inside her hollow shell, and I heard them rattle with every movement she made.
"Marvin, you're going to be alright."
"Keep him still." Leo sounded serious -a reason for concern in and of itself. "Here, you know what to do with this."
He handed Diana a damp cloth towel. She pressed it over my nose and mouth.
"I need you to breathe deeply, Marvin." She imitated the motion I needed to make, and I laughed at how ridiculous
she looked doing it. Diana was human at heart, but her body hadn't been for centuries. There were certain things a flesh and blood person could do that she simply couldn't. Pretending to take deep breaths was one of them.
But the laughter did its job. I felt so light in the head that I barely detected the itching of healing magic at work.
"Dia-" I tried to speak, but I couldn't hear my voice, not even in my own head. Thankfully I didn't have to.
While our friendship might have been a lie, our empathy wasn't. Sensing my silent question, Diana set my hand against her abdominal cavity. My numb fingers traced the angle her body was cut -reached through until I could wriggle my fingers on the other side.
Oh, I see.
I'd been pierced by something. Rock, probably. I mentioned earlier the hazards of using Runes incorrectly -this was definitely one of them. In my haste to shield us I must've slurred somewhere.
Rationally speaking, I understood how close I was to death by how blasé I was being about this whole affair.
My fingers twitched towards Diana's face, and she put them there to keep me from straining myself more than I already was. I did my utmost to wipe the soot from her features, but the damage was deeper. And it came as a grim realization that my face must've been in a similar state -burnt into some hellish caricature of a human male.
Her frown reflected my own, and there it stayed until Leo, heaving with his laborious task, announced that my life was no longer in danger.
Miraculously, I felt the space where Diana had my palm earlier, but in place of a hole there were only cracked pieces -tenuously being held together as though by watery glue.
How is it that I am capable of fainting in nearly every other situation, yet I'm able to remain awake the entire time during life-saving surgery?
Or was I awake?
When the hell did it become morning?
It seemed that in the space of seconds the sun decided to glare at my broken body over the horizon. I thought of Purilo and his golden middle finger, and felt as though this was the world's equivalent of telling me to fuck off and die already.
"Marvin?" Diana's fingers waved in front of my face. I squinted at them. "Marvin, I need you to try and drink this."
She held some foul smelling resin paste beneath my nose, instantly waking me up with its putrid stench. That was a healing concoction from House Soma all right; the awful smell and bitter taste was proof of their absurd ideology that nasty remedies worked better to improve health and stamina than anything else.
Either this would save my life or give me that little extra push to Hell's doorstep.
I grimaced and slurped the thick mush, convinced I could feel it sliding down my throat and into my stomach, punching my insides as it went. I shuddered violently once it was all down.
"Urgh, gross."
"Would you rather be dead?" Will asked sourly. I caught his cross-legged frame glaring at me from a spot on the sand.
"Shove it," I coughed, not in the mood, and too close to death to give a damn even if I was. "Are you all alright?"
Everyone was caked in superficial cuts, with Leo having a number of severe bruises. He waved off the damage with a wince and a grin.
"We are thanks to you. Not bad... for a failure."
The word that had caused me so much grief now sounded like a joke, and I laughed before I could stop myself -Leo joining in almost as soon as I started. I also felt Diana shaking as the joyful sound bubbled from her lips. Only Will, who was left out of the fold, remained quiet throughout. But, if the heat wasn't deceiving me, I swore I saw the ghost of a smile.
"So... what now?" I asked.
The question sat there.
Diana looked to Leo. Leo looked to Will. Will didn't look at anyone, so Leo looked back at me.
"I dunno, Marv. The Crone said to get the Eyes and bring them back but... that's just the thing. Nethermountain made you miserable. Do you really want to go back there?"
My lips parted. Diana sat me up so I was leaning on her shoulder and not on her lap.
"I don't know," I said honestly. "What are you going to do, Leo?"
"Me?" He pulled out Leeroy's eye patch, and I cracked a crooked smirk. "There's a fish I'm after. And where I go, Will goes, so killing you is a no-go."
Will rolled his eyes.
"You and Diana are welcome to come with us, you know," Leo offered.
I thought about it, but I didn't think I could keep up with Leo and his exuberance. I also didn't want to risk tempting Will, who clearly had an axe to grind where I was concerned.
"While you boys figure that out I'll go and grab us something fresh to eat," Diana announced, setting me back down gently. Leo stepped forward and plopped a cloth over my eyes to shield them from the sun.
"What are you going to find here in the desert?" I asked.
"Some vultures are nearby. I need to break the news that you're not dead yet -but they soon will be."
I got stuck on a cough. "Will, you aren't going after her?"
"Because you two are in a state to defend yourselves if shit happens?"
I released a sigh and blinked at the one male friend who still liked me.
"What happened to Tully?"
"You squished him when you brought us topside."
"Oh. Sorry."
Leo snorted. "We're alive, and I can bring Tully back again. It's not a big deal."
We heard the mighty squawk of a vulture's final death throes in the distance. Leo and I both shook our heads at the impending meal.
"If Diana doesn't crush all the bones I think you might get Tully back sooner than you thought."
"Seems that way." He inspected my sliced up legs. Just as Leo was about to wrap them I held a hand for pause. He looked up at me. "What is it, Marv?"
"I think I found something that might work."
"Work?" he asked. "Work for what?"
"Turning Diana back into a human."
"It's not possible," Will said darkly. "You think I haven't looked into it myself?"
"You've looked into it. Purilo looked into it. Inval's looked into it," I listed the names, tired of hearing the same old response. "The only thing you looked into was how to reverse the process."
"Marv, did all that heat get to your head?" Leo wrapped on his skull. "That's what your whole deal with Koronos was about."
"No," I said, remembering everything Purilo had told me about loopholes. "My deal with Koronos was never about finding a cure-all for Dolls who want to go back to their original states -it was about returning Diana back to hers only."
Will came closer, intrigued by my line of reasoning. "Alright, I'll bite. What's your aim?"
"There's a Contract, a physical Contract involved in creating a Doll. No Contract, no Doll," I emphasized to a pair of nodding heads. "Contracts can be annulled, and in certain cases, altered. So why can't it be transferred to someone else?"
Leo and Will exchanged a conversation with their eyes. There was the initial question on whether or not it could work, the skim of the risks involved, and finally, they turned back to me inquiring after my resolution.
"Who are you planning on transferring it to? Yourself?" Will wondered.
"May as well."
"Do you have any idea what kind of nightmare it is to have a body like this? A life," Will spat, "like this?
"No, but seeing how you made that point," I countered, "If someone were to offer you a way out, would you take it?"
Will shut his eyes.
That answered my question.
"Besides," I added. "Whoever said I was going to live out my life as a Doll?"
I now had their highest level of attention. Leo swiped the beads of sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.
"You're transferring the Contract, but not becoming a Doll -that's cheating!"
"No it's not, at least not if I start the process of turning into a Doll, but can't finish it for whatever reason."
"And what, pray," said Will, devoid of his usual s
nark, "might that reason be?"
I looked at my mangled legs and recalled Purilo's words from the lab. The process began at the extremities furthest from the heart.
"One that would allow you to make me suffer, a deal where everyone wins... except Koronos."
Diana emerged from the hill, triumphantly raising two skinned vultures above her head. I'd long since stopped thinking of her battle-torn appearance as frightening. Even covered in blood, she was beautiful. This world, with all its death, decay, and senseless violence, was one bursting at the seams with life.
It was in these pockets that I felt, on the deepest level of my being, "Ah, this is a world worth saving."
And at the heart of all of it was her.
27: Faustian Folly
Leo and I had our first fresh meal in ages, devouring the birds of prey with much gusto. And after Leo had finished picking the bones clean on his end, he reanimated Tully II, vulture edition.
I watched with a bemused smile as the skeleton hopped around our fire before stopping to shiver at the twilight wind.
Diana eyed my legs and furrowed her brow.
"Did Leo forget to wrap these?"
"They're not as bad as they look."
She made a face in my direction. "Marvin, I used to be a necromancer myself. At the very least these need to be cleaned so an infection doesn't sink in."
Before she could grab our dwindling medical supplies, I grabbed her arm and winced at the tenderness of my newly reconstructed abdomen.
"Diana, wait."
She knelt beside me. "What is it?"
I noticed that the ends of her hair, which I'd spent years brushing, had been burnt.
"I'm pretty sure I found a way to make you human again."
I expected some sort of reaction from her. Shock. Anger. Joy. But instead all I got was a blank expression, not unlike those she had before acquiring the ability to speak.
"Marvin. You don't have to lie to me."
Will cut in before I could lose my temper. "He isn't lying, Lady Galatea. There's a chance his plan will work."
Diana stared at him for a long moment before turning back to me. Embers danced in her eyes, filled with hope and terrified longing.
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