157. Beyond the Sky (XII) (Patreon)

It was a tail. A big black spike-rimmed tail so big it nearly tripled Dorian’s height, coiling around him. Where he sat he couldn’t make out either its end or its beginning. The creature the tail belonged to was hidden from view too, but he didn’t need to see it to know what it was. His Resonance told him. It was a Resonance he felt at the Sinkhole, and a Resonance he’d felt whenever he found a scale in the Oasis, and a Resonance that struck him when he first laid eyes on the Heilong Javelin.

…Fuck.

He was almost positive that he sat frozen right now right next to the creature known to him only as the Dweller in the Deep.

It was surreal finding himself all of a sudden next to a fallen god on a mortal plane. A god whose life seemed to intersect with this run so deeply that even being in its presence now made him feel a mite feverish. On the one hand he could hardly believe it. On the other he could totally believe it. He’d been drawn all along down the most powerful path he could find in this run—the Torchdragon’s Bloodline.

And now, if he was right, it’d led him straight to its origins!

He was still frozen here, out of shock or fear or caution he wasn’t sure. The thing was so close to him it could probably roll over and squish him! And it was without question the most powerful thing he’d found on this plane. Even here, sitting in its presence, he felt its aura slightly pressuring his own. It was a feeling he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

He licked his suddenly dry lips. There was a difference—a nearly insurmountable difference, a difference in kind—between a mortal and a god. Even a quasi-god and a fallen god. Once a mortal ascended their body was bathed in Law changed them at a fundamental level. Dorian might wield great power, sure. But this thing, even crippled as it was, might be able to command the Multiverse to destroy him with but a thought. It was simply different. Different in a way he dared not test. Not as he was now, at any rate!

Any moment now it’d wake, surely. Any moment the scaly walls about him would constrict and a sleek draconic head would peer over top at him with two slitted eyes like orange moons. Any moment a hellfire of acid ten times stronger than what those young Torchdragons had spat at him would descend upon him. He hardly dared breathe.

Yet as the seconds went by nothing of the sort happened. The rhythms of the lava flows went on in the background. The walls swelled and fell, breathing in and out. A giant snore echoed up and down the space. That was all.

Slowly, gingerly, Dorian got to his feet, eyeing the tail as he did. Then soft as a grasshopper he leapt atop it.

He’d seen a Torchdragon before. He’d seen it here and in the godly realms. But up close, seeing it from such a small body, perched atop its tail, he was still struck by the scale of it. Even by Godbeast standards this thing was a chunker. It was like the adolescent Torchdragon’s he’d fought before, its body thick and slick and serpentine,, but this had six pairs of leathery wings sprouting from its back—wings poked through with holes. Scars. From afar, he could’ve mistaken the beast for a small mountain range if not for the tendrils of smoke rising from its nostrils. It was curled up, sound asleep.

He took a few light, testing steps. No reaction.

And then a light trembling spread through the ground, rattling all. Shit! He whirled around, searching for the source of the sound. He found nothing—it seemed to come from the volcano itself! There was a low rumbling, a growling of stone that seemed to come from all around him.

The world erupted in fire.

Geysers of lava flooded the air, walls of fire gushing up from all sides. Dorian hardly had time to react before he was ensconced in a molten cocoon. There was a spike of fiery qi. Then the burst crashed down upon him and the Dweller both; it left him spluttering, spitting out coals. It was a miracle he’d kept his footing. Then the lava receded like a falling tide and all was calm again.

Dorian stared at the Dweller with wide eyes. Surely…?!

But the creature remained stuck in deep sleep. He let out a breath.

He was somewhere in the depths of the volcano. Some lava flooding was to be expected. If that didn’t wake the beast, he was probably free to move about. Where was he, anyways? He glanced about, squinting.

Seemed to be a chamber. A cave—the Dweller’s lair, but it was bare save for its sole occupant. No treasure hordes here, just coal and stone and ash. The only decoration was an impressive sum of bones littering the grounds.

There was a light source: at the far end was a cave mouth veiled by waterfall of shining magma—a waterfall flowing upwards. It seemed to be the only way in and out of here.

A few hops took him near a wall. Up close he saw the material: not stone, actually, but a purplish crystal so dark it neared black. On a whim he pulled out an Artificer’s tool from his Interspatial Ring—a pickaxe of reinforced steel—and gave it a crack.

The pickaxe’s sharp head became a flattened nose. The wall wasn’t so much as dented. Dorian frowned. He called out the Javelin and tried carving an indent into the wall. He had a little more success there—a screech of bone later and he’d scratched out a clear white line—but he’d seen enough to know that tunneling out was off the table.

Next he inspected the entrance, veiled by the magma waterfall. This magma was different from all the rest—far brighter, glowing nearly pure white with strips of shocking yellow. It was far hotter too; it had his skin shriveling up as he neared it. It looked like the stuff one might find at the center of a star. It blistered his eyes just to look at it. Perhaps it was because it rose up from the core of the volcano? He probed it with a finger.

There was a hissing sound, an acrid scent. There was a warbling of air—the workings of a natural Law. Remarkable. It’s infused with the Laws of Fire!

He pulled out his finger, blinking. Hmm. All that was left was a stump. …Point taken! So that way’s out too.

He gave the cavern another once-over. Couldn’t go through the walls or the ground. Couldn’t go out its one exit. He appeared to be quite trapped.

He gave the Dweller’s sleeping body another side-eyed glance, helpless. This chamber was very nice. In fact its combination of qi pressure, heat, and Bloodline stimulation made it the most suitable place to attempt a breakthrough he’d yet found! But he was hardly going to try it next to this beast. Screwing around with his Javelin was one thing. A full-on breakthrough, with all the qi and Bloodline ripples it’d induce, was another entirely—and he had no clue just what advancing down this new path even meant! He was hardly about to risk waking it up mid-breakthrough.

Then a peculiar thought floated across his mind. He frowned.

Can I just… kill it?

He scratched his chin. It was still sleeping. If he was to try it, now was the time.

But it was one thing to string his Javelin through the body of a baby or adolescent Torchdragon. This thing was simply too big! And it hardly presented him any opportune holes. Maybe he could try jamming his Javelin up its nose? But what if it got stuck, and then woke up, and then promptly caged him with its Darkness Laws and burned him alive with its Fire ones? He’d have to kill it without giving it a chance to strike back. Was he really about to one-shot this thing with its own tooth?

He wrung his hands. Yet what else was he supposed to do?! He couldn’t leave. He could sense it wasn’t just a matter of qi quantity. He was a being void of Laws. He could sense that that exit wouldn’t let him through unless he could match its Fire Laws with some of his own.

Then he had another peculiar thought. A thought that was perhaps even more daring than his last. He blinked.

I mean…

I can just sit down and try to break through. Right here, as it’s sleeping. In its embrace.

He’d simply have to swallow the idea that it might wake up. It was hardly riskier than trying to assassinate it, right?

Now that he thought about it, this place, the heart of an active volcano, was so rich in Fire and Darkness that he could try to weave them into his core as he ascended.

Which also meant that if he did manage to successfully ascend, he’d have Laws of his own to wield! Laws that would not only let him pass through that lava waterfall, but also perhaps even let him stand his ground even if the thing did wake. Or at the very least resist it well enough to escape. 

Because frankly this was uncharted territory! Who knew how strong he’d be when he broke through? He certainly hadn’t a clue! And he was getting more and more impatient to find out by the second. Enough with the running. 

Still he had his qualms.

Was he really about to attempt to break through right next to this sleeping beast? A beast that would without a doubt kill him as soon as it woke?

But the environment was so good, so rich with qi and pressure and Laws—and his Spiritual Sea was so full, churning with untempered qi—and oh, who was he kidding? He could feel himself talking himself into it already!

He’d already charged into so many dumb gambles. What was another?

Oh, to Hells with it!

He sat his ass down and closed his eyes.