by Prax Venter
The whole assault party each lost exactly 37 points of their life before they passed the next threshold of infestation. There was no real change in the landscape, but they all felt the new status effect. Jack inspected the icon in his peripheral vision.
Corruption Drain -
Lose 3 HP/60 seconds | Active while touching corruption
~ It is consuming you
“Ugh, this is disgusting,” Blim said, holding his stomach. “I seriously hope this is worth it.”
Guardian Jarku turned to face him. “Taking back a Dark Tower is worth much more than a slightly twisted gut.”
“We’re making good time,” Farah said, then pointed up into the overcast sky. In front of the mountain range ahead of them was a thin black line piercing the gray layer of clouds miles above them. “At this pace, we should be there in thirty minutes.”
Jack heard Haylee utter the words, “A Dark Tower…” as she ran next to him. She turned her observant gray eyes on his when she caught him looking. “Can you still hear him?” she asked.
He gave her a smile. “Loud and clear.”
“I was worried that being in the Corruption might… I am unsure. Perhaps disrupt your connection.”
“No. He’s proud of what we are doing yet misses his opportunity to speak with you today.”
She nodded and turned to face forward again and they both focused on the distant corrupted Tower. Despite Lex’s confidence, there was still the chance that Emberstone would be overrun with powerful Demons, or that the Fire Mage was right and the ground near the supposed heart was so tainted that they couldn’t stand near it without taking damage.
Jack shook such defeatist thinking out of his head. If they couldn’t melee it, Haylee would blast it from a distance. They would figure something out. As long as they didn’t take any foolish risks-
His thoughts about taking the Town were shattered when his boot caught on a rocky outcropping. Luckily, Jack was agile and didn’t end up on his face but resolved to keep his eyes on where he was placing his feet.
The closer they got to Farah’s home, the stonier the pus-covered terrain became, and sooner than Jack expected, the party of nine Heroes were moving among rocks bigger than Kron.
After they’d all taken 90 points of slow, nauseating damage from the infested land, Farah called for a stop.
“We’re very close now and, no offense, but some of you might ruin our chance for a surprise attack.”
The blackened stone Tower was now much closer, and Jack could make out throbbing pulses of dark shadowy clumps racing down its length. The odd energy seemed to originate from above the clouds.
“It’s converting system resources…” Alt whispered in his mind.
Farah continued. “Jack and I should sneak up close and scout it out. If it doesn’t look as if we are facing impossible odds, he can start climbing while the rest of us get into position.”
“Gather near before you go,” said the Hero named Kash in the white gown holding her arms out wide. When the whole group was in range, her green eyes began to glow with a white inner light.
After a short casting time, Kash dropped her arms and a perfect translucent sphere snapped into existence around them all. Then his vision filled with repeating health-gain notifications.
Jack +25 | HP 456/558
Lex +25 | HP 661/763
Haylee +25 | HP 287/389
Farah +25 347/449
Over the last fifteen minutes or so, the stones around them grew larger and the area became a maze with armies of monsters possibly waiting for them around every step. Topping off their health was a good idea for many reasons.
Jack and the Emberstone refugee waited until they were fully restored, then she nodded toward the Dark Tower. With a last glance at Lex, Jack followed Farah as they tiptoed through the switch-back path. They reached a point where it appeared someone had carved shallow stairs into the ground and Jack almost missed Farah’s raised fist.
When she had his attention, the Shadow Blade pointed up at a massive crescent-shaped boulder reaching up toward the sky, then she turned to him and made air quotes. It didn’t take him long to realize she was telling him that it was one of The Fangs.
Jack -3 | HP 555/558
Farah -3 | HP 446/449
He nodded and Farah then opened her hand, showing him her palm. She wanted him to wait here while she used her ability to get a closer view of the Town. Jack nodded again.
The Shadow Blade silently padded forward through what must be the narrowest pass into Emberstone while Jack tucked himself behind an infested gray boulder. He looked at the writhing mass of bizarre tendrils only inches from his face and took a moment to acknowledge that he’d somehow gotten used to it already.
Alt decided to fill the time with some of his observations. “I would love to scan the area and give you more information, but I don’t dare. Even a passive glance this close to a coherent-level contact point might give my presence away. However, as such, I believe I have learned something about the Corruption’s nature. Its driving philosophy.”
Jack raised his eyebrows, mentally encouraging the AI to get on with it already.
“The Observer Effect. I’m not sure how much you know of quantum physics, but the short of it is that an experiment can have different results if its process is observed or not. Or to put it differently, an instrument designed to measure an event can alter the outcome of such events by simply recording a measurement. A famous physicist named Mandelbrot coined the term, ‘Spooky action at a distance.’”
“Mandelbrot?” Jack whispered a bit too loudly.
“I know, it sounds like nonsense, but trust me, it’s the truth. I believe the multi-dimensional entity known as the Corruption reacts to this phenomenon somehow. As if it naturally flows toward the complexity of an Observer. My earlier assumptions seem to be correct; the more entities of a universe are aware of their true nature, the more uh… Observance they will possess. The Corruption is… like some sort of regulator for emergent complexity.”
Jack wondered what this all meant to their situation.
“It means I have much to consider about what underlying substrate connects the multiverse to itself, but you should keep doing what you are doing.”
Jack rolled his eyes as Farah returned to his position hidden behind a rock, and she appeared to be shaken by what she saw. Where there was usually a cocky half grin, her lips were tight, and her face was a pale white. She pulled in a shuddering gasp as if she’d forgotten how to breathe and then whispered her report.
“The enemy is far enough away that they will not hear if we are quiet. I believe they are not anticipating an attack, yet I dared not push my luck and didn’t see every corner. I will never sleep again… that terrible beating mass of flesh and eyes that you called a heart. Oh, I hope it didn’t see me. I’ve fought endless monsters in the Tower for years and years and yet that thing is more… real somehow. What we are doing, I-”
Jack put his hand on her shoulder. “Pull it together.”
They both winced as they were hit by the Corruption Drain once more.
Jack -3 | HP 552/558
Farah -3 | HP 443/449
“At least we aren’t taking 100 damage a second,” he said with a grin, then turned serious. “Look, we made it this far. You’re closer to any Dark Tower you ever thought you’d be, and yet we’re still alive. Now, we’ve got Emberstone’s Floor to clear and a Boss to defeat. What did you see out there?”
She took a deep steady breath and started again.
“All we have to deal with is maybe 100 lesser demons and stalkers. There is another Behemoth in there, but I still think your plan is best. If you can take out most of the lesser ones from up there, the rest of us could handle the big guy. All this being said, I don’t like that the Emberstone’s Boss is in the middle of everything. We don’t know what that Demon Heart can do, or if it’s mobile.”
“The Demon Heart is over the Fountain, right?”
Fara
h nodded.
“Okay, I’ll start off the attack,” he said, pointing up to the top of the Fang. It looked as if he had a few yards of level space up there to stand. “Everyone else should wait between this path and the next one over. That one’s big enough to fit the behemoth, right?”
She nodded again and Jack continued.
“No one goes in until I come down and everything else is dead. I’ll launch my attack, then everything left alive, hopefully only the Behemoth, will run out to climb up. The rest of you should be able to take it down easily.”
“Climb high, Hero,” the Shadow Blade said before they split ways and Jack began his ascent.
The rock’s entire surface was coated with Corrupted muck, but he had gloves on, and in this universe the disgusting stuff didn’t attempt to permanently worm into his body. Also, Jack had scaled the slick rocks of wet cave shafts hundreds of times- and usually with equipment strapped to his back. It still was more difficult than it needed to be, so he scanned down the rows upon rows of items arrayed in his inventory for a dagger and then swapped it into his Off-Hand. He displaced the jewel that granted extra coin, but he’d rather have the stability the weapon gave him.
Jack’s skill came back swiftly, his feet finding solid holds to push up from as his experienced eye probed ahead for the next gap or crack. The quiet game of balance and strategy helped to calm his mind as it struggled to comprehend where he’d ended up in his life. This was his first major move in a game to save all of time and space.
To his left was a drop off into the narrowest path through The Fangs and then the sheer face of a stony cliff. To his right was one of the wider paths and another of the four stone outcroppings. And if he looked up, he could see that he was almost to the top. He paused a moment to try and see the eight heroes waiting for the battle to start, but they were hidden from sight as they pressed against the base of the rock.
A few more slippery holds later and Jack was able to get his feet under him on a relatively level surface. He switched his Mote of Sunlight back into his Off-Hand for the extra 20 fire damage and then crept forward, crouching as low as he could.
There were a few yards of upward-sloping rock before he was at the very tip and could see into the fallen Town below, but he could see for miles in other directions. The dark clouds still cast heavy shadows over the landscape, but if he squinted hard enough, Jack thought he could see a glint of the silver Tower linked to Blackmoor far behind him. Everywhere else were jagged mountain peaks covered in writhing purple Corruption.
From this height, there was nothing blocking his exposure to the impossible structure stretching infinitely upwards and the pulses of dark energy racing down its length had become audible. The sound was a deep and distorted- almost electronic as the terrible noise echoed to him from the mountains that cradled Emberstone.
With every step, the sound grew louder and more of the Tower was exposed until he reached the end.
Farah was right. The Demon Heart throbbed like one, but that’s as far as the resemblance went. Long fleshy stalks tipped with red, lidless eyes waved around the black organ growing near the base of the Dark Tower and they each moved… wrong. Jack couldn’t find the words in his brain to describe how wrong this thing felt. Some of the countless eyes moved too fast, vibrating in place with unnatural speed, while others remained impossibly still. Thick, black and purple veins connected this Demon Heart directly to the Corruption that covered the ground, and with every pulse of dark energy that reached the base of the Tower from above, the organ would beat once. There was no doubt that this terrible thing was what spread the Corruption outward across System Sana, and Jack felt unnatural terror freeze his blood solid just looking at it. Slowly, he backed down the precipice and put some of the Fang between him and that nightmare’s many roving eyes.
After he’d broken the line of sight, he felt some of his sanity return. Looking at it felt as if he were a child again, locked up with terror over the monster he knew was inches from the blanket protecting his face.
With a force of monumental will, Jack pushed the desire to scramble back down the rock face and bury his nose under Lex’s golden hair out of his mind. As he crept forward again, he tried to keep his eyes off the Demon Heart. That was not his target.
Emberstone was a huge open area surrounded by sheer cliffs on every side. On the right, Jack saw a dark cave entrance carved into the stone and on the left was a waterfall that created a pond that appeared to empty into another cave. The Tower was at the back of this enormous bowl, wedged halfway into the mountain. Everything else was empty except for scores of Demons standing in ordered rows as if they were pieces on a chess board. The Behemoth stood at the back, near the base of the Tower and everything but the Heart stood motionless. Every Demon Spawn he’d seen before were drooling, savage, violent forms of aggression, yet these all simply waited.
It was time to draw his sword, but as his hand clasped its hilt, he hesitated. Was this the right time to attack a fallen Town? Should they wait until all of them were over Hero Level 50? He’d made a vow to himself and everyone he loved never to rush in again.
Movement caught his attention, and Jack was forced to look back at the beating madness that was the pulsing heart. It wasn’t much of a surprise when he saw one of the bone-armored versions of Demon crawl out from the thing’s pus-covered folds. The newly birthed creature shook itself off and then moved to take its position among the others all waiting to attack the people of this world.
Jack had seen enough. Now was time to take back Emberstone.
- 14 -
With the entire army of his mortal enemy held within his gaze, Jack rose from his kneeling position and drew ARV Alternis across them all- twice. His vision instantly filled with Defeated notifications, and he willed them out of sight, but a pair of panels with a glowing red text drew his eye immediately.
Mother of Demons -112 | 10.4K/10.5K
Mother of Demons -112 | 10.3K/10.5K
The giant, inside-out panther that was called a Behemoth roared into the bowl-shaped area, nearly deafening Jack. But when the eyes of the beating heart all turned to focus on him, he almost vomited from terror. The effect was so strong he checked the upper corner of his vision for a new negative status icon but there was still only the Corruption Drain.
One of its eyes shifted from orange to a violent red, and a bolt of sanguine, smoky lightning struck the rock behind his feet. Jack spun to find a newly spawned Lesser Demon moments from tearing his throat out.
On pure instinct alone, he performed the forward spinning-dodge he’d first used on an Angelic Lizardmen. The move ended up shoving the twisted, bile-coated creature off the 100-foot drop. Jack tried to calm his throbbing heart, but the Mother of Demons spawned another of her children before the first one had even hit the ground.
Jack kicked out his foot as the creature spawned, and the surprise move landed squarely into the chest of the higher-tired, armored Demon. The attack forced the densely packed pile of muscle back a step but not quite tumbling off as Jack had hoped.
It drew its claws downward before he could retract his leg and its excruciating slices turned his flesh into lunchmeat.
Jack -55 | HP 479/558
Stimulated to act quickly, he lunged forward with his sword for the creature’s unarmored throat. The swift attack met its thick hide with a resistance for a moment before Jack’s forward momentum thrust it through.
Demon -112 | Defeated
The Mother of Demons flashed another of its terrible vibrating eyes and another arc of red lightning struck the precipice. Jack continued a step back toward the far edge and spun to activate his Mining Laser on the new threat. The burst of vibrant plasma blasted the thing in its horrific eyeless face before reducing it to swirling dust.
Demon -152 | Defeated
Jack backed right to the edge. He got down into a crouching position as another bolt of Demon-Spawning Lightning struck in the same spot where the last one had been standing. Jack activat
ed his death ray again before the monster even knew it existed. Could the Demon Heart only spawn them on surfaces it could see?
He heard the Behemoth’s savage roar echo through the Fangs, and Jack had a feeling that it had met his friends.
Jack -3 | HP 476/558
The Corruption at his feet still leeched his life essence, but a grin split his face as he vaporized another spawned Demon with his Mining Laser.
After two more attempted spawns, the red lightning struck something on the ground near the Tower instead.
Still in a crouching position, Jack scrambled forward until he could get a glimpse at what the Mother of Demons was doing. A second bolt of lightning struck near the Tower, and he saw that it had now shifted strategies toward forming a new defensive line.
Alt quickly whispered some information into Jack’s mind.
“Those ability-spawned Demons only last for 10 minutes before dissipating.”
Jack nodded for no reason and then pulled back out of sight again. As long as the enemy wasn’t running out to attack his friends on the ground, there was no reason to waste his overpowered synergy of obliteration until there were more targets.
The beating heart and worming eyes spawned five more armored demons and two lesser before Jack saw the first Light Ray trace a line from the main threat and Haylee’s bow.
Mother of Demons -283 | 10.1K/10.5K
The small army of summoned enemies began sprinting for the Heroes below, and with a rising sweep from his bade, he wiped everything out again.
Mother of Demons -112 | 9,989/10.5K
Mother of Demons -112 | 9,877/10.5K
The demonic heart turned all its eyes up toward Jack as it charged another summon, but a flaming ball of fire launched in an arc from the right drew its attention once more. The writhing eye-tentacles tried to squirm out of its away, but the vile organ infesting Emberstone’s Fountain had no choice but to take the burning explosion, and he heard the hiss of searing flesh from where he stood up on the edge of the Fang.
“Take back what was taken from you!” Jack shouted as he thrust his sword toward the dark sky above.