by Ian Rodgers
Despite the maddening layout of the world, there were still several parts that remained more or less the same in spite of the constant shifting. As far as Dora could tell, for this particular stretch of demonic territory, it was the plants. They never shifted into anything too unusual, merely changing colors or size. That gave the Healer a chance to puzzle out where they were.
“Any ideas where we landed, Dora?” Ain asked as she was in the midst of figuring that very question out.
“I think we’ve ended up in the Doldrum Fields,” Dora said, uncertainty lacing her voice. “Based on what I know about this realm – which, admittedly, is very little – this is one of the Outer Layers of the Abyss, a relatively peaceful and calm domain ruled over by no single Demon Lord, and is instead treated as neutral ground. From here, we can get to practically any other territory.”
“Okay, that’s helpful,” Ain said, nodding slowly. His hand never strayed from his blade, though, and he kept it unsheathed.
“Ugh, the air here is so vile,” Enrai complained, sticking his tongue out. “My magic feels sluggish and sick. This is like when we first arrived in Gaeum, but worse!”
“Yeah, that’s the Abyss for you,” Dora said, wiping her forehead. She was sweating a lot all of sudden due to all of the Miasma that was being generated by the Dark magic in the surroundings. The potency of it was making her feel feverish. It was worse than the days she’d spent purifying Undead in Rahmal’Alram. It was even more noisome and potent than in the region surrounding Vord the Undying’s secret lair! Thankfully, her Light magic fought off the worst of the symptoms.
Feeling the power of Darkness around her reminded Dora that her friends didn’t have the same protection that she did, and quickly laid her hands on their shoulders.
“Protection from Evil!” she intoned, coating her companions in a barrier of Light magic to protect them from the effects of the Abyss’ Miasma.
“Wooo! I feel a lot better, now!” Enrai cheered as the invigorating effects of the Healer’s spell took hold.
“This should keep us going strong for a while,” Ain agreed. “Now, where to?”
“According to my theology lessons, the Queen Swathed in Vermillion dwells within a place called the Wailing Tower, located in the Vale of Screams. Odds are that’s where we need to go,” Dora said after thinking hard to recall the lectures her mother had given while training her to become a Healer.
It might seem odd to an outsider for a Healer to bother learning about the specifics of demons, but Healers were closely tied to the Divine Family and often played the role of Clerics when banishing dark entities from Erafore was required. As such, a firm grounding in theology was necessary for a fledgling Healer. That way they could recognize the signs of demonic possession, and if need be, know the location of where to send the demon once it was detached from the material plane.
All of Dora’s knowledge about this came from her mother and a handful of books, however. She knew the names of important demons and places in the Abyss, how to get said locations while already inside the Abyss was another matter entirely. Upon revealing this to her friends, the duo shared a look before shrugging.
“Can’t be worse than when we wandered aimlessly into the Cracked Land,” Enrai said. “And hey! We got lucky there when we ran into you. Maybe we’ll have that same luck here!”
“I’m flattered that I’m such a lucky charm for you two,” Dora said with a roll of her eyes. A grin was on her face all the same, though she quickly lost her jovial mood as she looked out at the Abyss’s wilderness before them.
“We should move before we attract any demons,” Ain suggested, his eyes locked onto the ground. Dora and Enrai followed his gaze before wincing.
“Yeah, good idea,” the half-orc muttered as she watched the dirt and rocks, once blackened to charcoal, slowly start to return to their normal state. From cracks in the ground, green ichor oozed which reformed into grass and other lesser plant-life. What was once little more than ash squirmed and molded itself as if it were clay back into stones and pebbles. The burn marks were overwhelmed inch by inch as the Abyss healed itself from the trio’s dynamic entry.
What was a touch more concerning was the growling coming from the ground, as if the Abyss itself was angered by the trio’s arrival and subsequent harming of it. That, and the ominous bulges getting bigger by the second that were swelling up like obscene earth-tumors all around them.
Without further ado, the gang booked it, running from their site of impact with speed and grace and fear.
Just in time, too, as the ground ruptured moments later, and the bulges spewed out a dozen dog-sized ant-like demonic creatures, their carapaces bright red, and their distinct cat-like eyes glowing bright yellow while bubbling green acid dribbled from their maws.
The newborn demons swiveled their heads around for a second, as if tasting the air. Then, mandibles clicking, they charged after Dora and her friends, homing in on the intruders with impeccable accuracy.
“Son of a sword!” Enrai swore, kicking the head off of one of the demons as it got too close for comfort. The severed appendage immediately grew back, though this time in place of pincers, it had spike-studded tentacles.
“How about this, then?!” Ain shouted, stabbing downward and impaling one of the ant demons with his saber, then pumping it full of electricity.
It screamed, but as its flesh burnt and its carapace smoked, thin, stiff spines grew out of the thorax. The electricity then began to leap away from the wound and was drawn into the biologically grown lightning rods the demon had made for itself!
“Okay, what?” the Spellsword uttered in confusion. His moment of surprise nearly cost him his life as the now lightning-resistant demon ant lunged at his throat with its sharp mandibles.
“Purge!” Dora screamed, and Light magic slammed into the demon about to chow down on Ain, vaporizing it with a distorted screech that was echoed off of the surrounding rocks and plants.
“Don’t you two know anything about theology or demonology?! We’re on these things’ home turf! While in the Abyss, demons are functionally immortal, recovering from nearly any damage they take! Only Light magic or another demon can permanently kill a demonic being!” Dora scolded the two older and more experienced individuals. As she did so, she pummeled the remaining demon ants with bombs of Light magic, obliterating them.
“But, back in Gaeum, and on Erafore, they died easily enough,” Enrai protested.
“They were outside of the Abyss, and thus had to follow the rules of the reality they were invading! And it’s not so much ‘killing them’ as it is merely banishing their physical forms back to whence they came. Which is here. Come on, this is basic Conjuration and Summoning! Did neither of you ever learn this?” Dora demanded. When both shook their heads, the Healer sighed in disbelief.
“Okay, Enrai, I can sort of buy, he was raised in a different magical environment from us. But you, Ain, have an X-ranked adventurer as your mentor! How did he not teach you any of this?”
“In my teacher’s defense, he mostly focused on the Way of the Spellsword, and on the more physical aspects of fighting, not the ‘how’ or ‘why,’” Ain replied.
“Yeah, not to cast shade on a man who can cut down mountains as if they were trees, but Tein Huntersteel is sort of… a muscle head? Is that the right term? He stabs first, asks questions later. If he remembers to do so afterwards,” Enrai added.
Dora sighed in defeat upon hearing that. “Just my luck!” she grumbled, before looking around. The Abyss was silent, only the rustling of the newly manifested leaves and grass audible.
“Okay, new plan: We just keep walking in a random direction until we hear screaming, at which point we follow that sound to its source. Hopefully, that will end up being the Vale of Screams, and from that point we can make it to the Wailing Tower,” Dora announced.
“Is wandering aimlessly such a good idea?” Ain asked, a note of worry in his voice. The half-orc could only shrug.
&nbs
p; “This is the Abyss, Ain. A realm of madness and chaos. Odds are if we actually try to look for the Queen Swathed in Vermillion the Abyss will just lead us in circles. But, if we don’t try, the random, chaotic nature of the place might just work in our favor,” she replied. Enrai shared a thoughtful look with Ain.
“It sounds reasonable,” the Monk said after a bit of contemplation.
“Wonderful!” Dora grinned. “Onwards to somewhere!”
∞.∞.∞
The Abyss was not at all what she had expected, the Healer mused as she and her companions traversed the seemingly endless Doldrum Fields. If not for the ever-present Miasma and demons, some parts of the otherworldly realm would be quite vacation worthy.
The temperature was consistent, never being too cold or too hot, but always a few degrees shy of comfortable. The weather was pleasant so far. No storms or squalls or showers of flesh-rending rain yet! And there was always something interesting to look at, if you were willing to risk your sanity.
Take the clouds, for instance! In the Abyss, instead of being fluffy and white, they were all the various colors of the rainbow, and in a wide variety of shapes as well.
“That one looks like… a trapezoid!” Dora said, pointing out a yellow cloud with that particular shape.
“I found a cloud that resembles a cat,” Ain said, looking into the air. Indeed, there was a pink, cat-shaped mass up in the sky.
“I think that tree is eating a bird,” Enrai spoke up, causing the group to turn to him in confusion. He just pointed up at the sky where a green, pine tree-shaped cloud was violently fighting a demonic creature with wings. Oddly enough, the cloud seemed to be winning, large chunks of demon flesh being torn apart and consumed by the fluffy mass of vapor. Somehow.
“Seriously? Flesh-eating clouds? Man, the Abyss is weird,” she sighed. ‘I take it back, this place is definitely not fit for vacations!’
“We’ve been walking for a while, now. How long have we been out here?” Enrai asked, reaching for his canteen.
Dora cast her Time Keeper cantrip, only to blink in befuddlement at the result. Instead of giving her the time, all she saw was a bunch of strange symbols and foreign squiggles.
“Err, I don’t know,” she admitted. A dry, hacking cough greeted her words, and the half-orc rolled her eyes.
“I know it’s not the best outcome, but you don’t have to be so dramatic,” she said, glancing over at Enrai. He was shaking his head frantically, however, wiping his lips clean with the back of his hand.
“No, it’s not you, it’s the water!” he complained, glaring at his canteen. “The water tastes wrong all of a sudden! It’s like it’s been replaced by rotten lemon juice!”
“Really?” Ain asked incredulously. “It was fine when we filled up from that still working fountain on Floor Eleven.”
To prove his point, he got out his own canteen and took a swig, only for his face to scrunch up and the water to be spit all over the Abyss.
“Agh! Pleh! Why is the water spicy all of a sudden?!” Ain cried out in confused disgust.
Dora narrowed her eyes as she brought up her own container of liquid hydration, and she took a quick sip. Instead of lukewarm yet refreshing water, all she got was a mouthful of gritty dryness! Spitting the sand-like substance out of her mouth, she glared at the canteen.
“Detect Magic! Analysis!” she chanted, casting diagnostic spells on the trio’s water supply. “Ah, I see…”
“What? What is it?” Enrai asked worriedly.
“It’s the fault of the Miasma. It’s altered the water. And, odds are, contaminated everything else we’ve brought with us,” she said. The group immediately began to check on the items they’d brought with them, worry growing with every mutated and ruined item they found.
“Pretty sure jerky isn’t supposed to try and bite us back when you eat it,” Enrai muttered in disgust, flinging the preserved meat away. It barked ferally at him as he did so, and proceeded to scurry away once it hit the ground.
“My potions are all ruined as well. The damned Dark magic messed them up,” Dora added, pouring the contents out onto the ground. What were once Healing Potions were now black gunk that sizzled and melted the dirt.
“At least everything in our Bags of Holding is safe,” Ain commented in relief.
“Yeah, but as soon as we bring it out, the Abyss will contaminate it. Which means we have to eat or use items while they’re inside the backpacks. And I don’t know about you, but I find it very hard to eat while my head is stuck in a sack,” Enrai retorted.
“Aren’t you the guy who got his head stuck inside a giant oyster back at the Resort because you refused to let even the tiniest scrap of meat go?” Dora asked incredulously, thinking back to the time the Monk had put his whole head inside of a shell just to get at the seafood inside.
Enrai flushed red at the reminder, shooting Ain a withering glare as the elf had the nerve to laugh at him.
“Is that what happened? You said you tripped over a bucket of clams, and that was why your upper torso smelt so fishy that day!” the Spellsword chuckled in disbelief.
“I recall you also laughed really hard at me then, too,” Enrai muttered.
“To be honest, that was mostly because your ‘aroma’ made you appear very attractive to that one bird-woman. I was mainly laughing at your attempts to turn down her advances,” Ain admitted.
Dora was unable to stifle a giggle in time, and her muffled snorts grew into a gale of mirth when Enrai shot her a betrayed look. In the end though even Enrai couldn’t help but laugh along, the humor infectious. It also dispelled the gloomy mood that had ensnared them earlier.
Eventually, the group calmed down, their breathing returning to normal. Dora’s expression turned serious as she wiped one last tear of laughter away.
“Guys, I’m sorry about this,” she apologized, bowing her head towards Ain and Enrai. “If I hadn’t been so stubborn and eager to get this mission over with, we might’ve ended up in better shape.”
The Healer gestured helplessly towards their backpacks. “We have supplies, but they won’t last forever. And my mana is eventually going to run dry if I have to keep casting spells to keep us safe. If only I’d been smarter and tried to get more supplies, or information… this is all my fault.”
“Yeah, it kinda is,” Enrai said. Dora and Ain gave him hurt and dirty looks, respectively, but the Monk plowed ahead. “But we’re stuck in this predicament together. So, let’s do our best to finish the quest Lady Nia gave us and go home soon!”
“He’s got a point,” Ain admitted begrudgingly. He gave Dora a soft, sympathetic smile. “We can manage this. I know we can!”
Dora smiled back, her hopes restored. “You’re right. We won’t get anywhere by doing nothing. Oh, before I forget: Protection from Evil!”
Refreshing her friends anti-Miasma barriers, the group set off into the wild lands of the Abyss, wandering aimlessly in the hopes of Divine Intervention. Or luck. Either would be nice.
∞.∞.∞
“Is it weird how these demons keep finding us, or is it just me?” Dora wondered as the trio dispatched the latest pack of roving abominations. The demons of the Abyss seemed to have a preternatural ability to detect where the party of interlopers would be, always homing in on them even if they were hidden. Neither magic nor slathering themselves in the mud and grime of the Abyss seemed to deter the demons’ ability.
“It could be… phew, give me a second… it could be that they can sense the Light magic we’re wearing. I mean, this place is all about Dark magic, right? Can’t imagine a realm of pure evil would take kindly to pure good,” Enrai suggested, panting slightly from the exertion of the fight. With the Dark mana thick in the air, his own magic and ability to fight was limited, forcing him to rely on pure physical might.
“I concur. Or, it could be something completely different.” Ain did not look too good either, his skin pale, with a thick sheen of sweat upon his forehead. He stayed upright, though
, watching intently as the remains of the demons dissolved as if subjected to acid under Dora’s spells.
“You guys don’t look so good,” the half-orc noted worriedly. “Should we take a quick rest?”
“No, there’s no need to stop for us,” Ain replied with a shake of his head. “It’s just… the Dark magic here is so potent, even with your spells protecting us it manages to… weaken us.”
Dora cast quick diagnostic spells on her companions. “We need to rest,” she declared firmly after looking at the two of them. She grabbed them by the arms and started dragging the duo towards a lone tree that looked mostly safe and not demonic.
“What? No way, I’m not even tired,” Enrai bragged dismissively.
“When’s the last time any of us have slept?” she inquired, eyebrow raised, and neither of her friends could answer her.
“It seems the Abyss has more than just demons and messed up landscapes to keep people away. According to my spells, we’ve been awake for three whole days!”
“Wha… how? It’s only been…” Enrai sputtered, trailing off as once again he had no proper answer. Dora nodded sagely at his look of quiet horror.
“The Abyss had been tricking us into thinking we don’t need to rest. The Miasma… even if I block most of it, some of it still gets through the spell’s defenses, and it weakens us. We’ve eaten and drunk things, but we haven’t slept yet. If we keep going, we’ll pass out or die of tiredness regardless of what our bodies may currently be tricked into thinking.”
“Insidious,” Ain muttered. “But how are you not affected by it?”
“Must be due to my Light magic, or my status as a Chosen One,” she replied with a helpless and confused shrug. It was a mystery to herself as well. No matter the spell she used, Dora couldn’t find a single thing wrong with her body. Chalking it all up to ‘it’s magic, don’t question it,’ was the only solution at the moment.
“How are we going to sleep at all, though? We can’t set up camp due to the demons being able to find us,” Enrai pointed out.