Grand Game 483: Pit Stop (Patreon)

We couldn’t head directly to the tundra, of course. 

With the sector being in a dungeon, we had to use the nether-infested sector as a stepping stone. A few minor preparations were necessary but completing them took only a matter of moments.

Ghost has unmanifested.

You have acquired a Blood Talisman, and a small bag of hiding containing 100 possessed finger bones.

You have unequipped Tyelin’s farspeaker. 

You have lost 2 x rank 4 nether protection crystals. 

You have concealed your Powerful Initiate Mark. 

Despite removing the Blades’ farspeaker bracelet, I did not replace it with Safyre’s, finding myself strangely reluctant to have our first words spoken from afar. It would be better, I decided, if our reacquaintance occurred face to face. 

For much the same reason, I hid my Power Mark. Until I got a chance to explain my new status, I didn’t want any of my former companions to see it.

“Break your crystals,” I ordered Nyra and Adriel. 

Ghost, much to her dismay, would be making the trip to the tundra sheltered in her Cloak. She’d fought me on the issue, but it made no sense to needlessly expose her to the nether, and I had brooked no arguments on the matter.

 “Do you remember what to do?” I asked, fixing Nyra with a stern look.

She nodded. “Step out of one portal and directly into the other.” 

“Don’t delay for anything,” I cautioned her again, “no matter how many stygian creatures are nearby.”

“Got it,” she replied.

Thankfully, as a New Havener, Nyra was familiar enough with the nether that I didn’t need to further impress on her what the dangers were.

I glanced at Adriel. I was less concerned about the lich, she being more able to take care of herself. Besides which, the danger to Adriel was much less. While both Nyra and I risked final death—there being no safe zone in the nether-infested sector for us to resurrect in—the lich still had her phylactery.

“She’ll be fine,” Adriel assured me.

Nodding mutely, I withdrew a portal scroll. “Then, here goes.” Cracking the seal binding the scroll, I drew on my magic. 

Unlike the previous time I’d tried using it, no Game message interrupted me, and my mana flowed smoothly into the spelled parchment. It took longer than I expected, but eventually the scroll was replete and refused further magic. 

“It’s ready,” I murmured to the others, not looking up. Releasing the enchantment in the scroll, I directed its spell weaves to the nether-infested sector—and specifically the location of the Guardian Tower’s portal. 

Item consumed. 

You have opened a greater portal to sector 18,240. This portal is large enough for 4 entities to pass through and will remain open for a maximum of 30 seconds. 

The scroll vanished from my hands, and a moment later, a shimmering curtain materialized appeared before me. 

“Nice work,” Adriel said approvingly. “If I didn’t know better, I’d almost believe you a mage.”

“Only almost?” I quipped as I advanced on the portal. All my buffs—minus vanish—had been cast and I was ready as could be. 

As the one best equipped to face the nether, it was up to me to draw off the stygians while my companions escaped to the Guardian Tower. To that end, we planned on stretching out the interval between our respective passages through the portal as much as possible. They would delay their entries even as I rushed mine.

Hands on the hilts of my stygian blades, I dashed into the portal. “See you on the other side,” I called as the shimmering curtain of white swallowed me.

Transfer commencing…

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…

Passage completed! 

Leaving sector 12,560. Entering sector 18,240 of the Forever Kingdom.

✵ ✵ ✵

You have entered sector 18,240 of the Forever Kingdom. 

Warning: this region is under assault by the nether and is in impending danger of being pulled into the Nethersphere! 

A young void tree has taken root in the sector, establishing a permanent ley line to the Nethersphere. Until the void tree is destroyed, the safe zone will not form and the nether toxicity in the sector will continue to rise.

I rolled out of the portal, barely paying the Game message any heed. The nether was a known danger. Less known were the stygian creatures in the area.

Bouncing back to my feet, I pivoted on the heel of my foot and scanned the surroundings with both my mindsight and physical senses.

And found nothing.

I frowned. There was not a single stygian in view. 

It was not that they were shielding their minds or hiding. I had nethersight now and could see through the cloying yellowish mists as easily as I could in the dark. And what my eyes were seeing confirmed what mindsight was reporting.

There were no stygians around.

Where are they? I wondered. I’d been expecting the Guardian Tower’s portal to be besieged just like it had been on the two prior occasions I’d come this way. That it wasn’t… 

I shook my head, not knowing what to make of the fact.

The curtain of white behind me parted and a shape emerged—Adriel. Her hands brimmed with power, but no shield bubble surrounded her. We’d agreed it was best for her and Nyra to be as inconspicuous as possible. 

The lich’s eyes passed unseeing over me before jerking back, and I knew that even though only a few yards separated us, she was having trouble seeing through the thick mists.

“It’s safe,” I pronounced.

“Safe?” she echoed disbelievingly.

Nyra staggered through the curtain. Before she could wander astray, Adriel’s hand flashed out and latched onto the younger woman’s arm. 

“Safe,” I repeated for Nyra’s benefit. “There are no stygians for miles.”

My words failed to comfort either woman.

“How can that be?” Adriel murmured.

I shrugged. “I don’t know.” Lifting the bare stygian blade in my hand—I must’ve unconsciously drawn it at some point—I gestured to a bright glow only a few yards, “but there’s the entrance to the Guardian Tower. Open and unprotected.”

“So why aren’t we going through?” Nyra asked, her tension unmistakable. “I don’t like the touch of this mist. It looks even worse than the nether clouds near New Haven.”

Adriel ran her free hand lazily through the air. “The nether here does feel more concentrated than most of the mist in Draven’s Reach,” she agreed. “What did you say the nether toxicity was?”

“I didn’t. But it should be tier two,” I said, quoting from memory before double-checking with the Adjudicator. 

The nether toxicity at your current location is at tier 4. Your health, psi, stamina, and mana are degenerating at a rate of 0% per minute (damage reduced by 100% due to void armor).

My frown deepened. “It was tier two—on my previous visit,” I corrected. “Now, it’s at tier four.”

“That’s not good,” Adriel observed.

I nodded. The free-floating nether in the area had increased, which could mean the sector was closer to falling to the void. But how close? I wondered. And if the nether had tightened its grip on the region, where were the stygians? Calling up the initial Game message, I scrutinized it more closely.

It didn’t take long to spot another discrepancy. 

“…is in impending danger of being pulled into the Nethersphere,” I repeated aloud.

“‘impending danger?’” Adriel asked sharply. “That’s the exact phrase the Adjudicator used?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” The Game’s warning message about the sector had changed since my first visit. While the variation in wording was slight—only the word ‘impending had been added—the implications were potentially catastrophic. “How much time do you think we have?” I asked quietly.

“Months at best,” she said definitively. “Weeks at worst.”

I swallowed. “That little?”

Adriel nodded. “It could be worse, though. The level of corruption in the sector hasn’t reached the final stages yet. If it had, the Adjudicator would’ve described the danger as ‘imminent.’”

“Well, that’s something at least,” I muttered. Still, there could be no doubt that things in sector 18,240 were worsening and at a faster rate than I’d hoped. 

Another complication I don’t need.

“What happens when the corruption is complete?” Nyra asked, studying the surrounding nether in horrified fascination.

“The young void tree reaches maturity and the void rift sustaining it becomes redundant,” Adriel replied. “A mature void tree is capable of not only producing enough nether to sustain itself but also of polluting the surrounding aether. Once that happens, the sector will be lost to the nether.” She sighed. “And no one, not even the Primes, have ever managed to claw back a sector from the void.”

“So, there is a rift?” I asked. I hadn’t been sure there would be one. “There wasn’t any in Draven’s Reach.”

“That’s because Draven’s Reach was a dungeon sector—and already in the nether. A rift was not required there; free-floating nether could simply seep in,” Adriel explained. “This is a Kingdom sector, though. The rift is necessary to bring nether in.”

“If we close the rift, we save the sector?” Nyra asked.

Adriel nodded. “Essentially. But it’s the tree that anchors the rift. So, to close the rift, the tree must first be destroyed.”

I sighed. Adriel’s explanation made for a grim picture. But as much as the state of the sector worried me, now was not the time to address it. 

I turned to face the Game portal waiting nearby. “Let’s move on. Once we’ve rejoined the others on the tundra, we can decide what to do about this sector.” And hopefully, we’ll find them still there. And safe.

Adriel gestured me forward. “Go on, then. We’ll follow on your heels.”

I shook my head. “You know I have to enter last.” Partly this was to act as a rear guard, but mostly it was because of the Guardian Tower’s player limit. Only six players could be in the dungeon at any one time. Adriel would have no issues passing through, but Nyra and I might. And while I didn’t foresee any problems, there was no point taking chances. 

If anyone was going to end up being stranded in the nether-infested sector, it was going to be me.

Adriel threw me a stern look. She knew my reasoning—we’d gone back and forth on the matter more than once—but she didn’t agree with my decision. In her view, I was the least expendable. Still, she didn’t argue. 

Pulling Nyra along, Adriel entered the shimmering curtain—

—and passed through without hindrance.

I exhaled in relief as the pair vanished. Clearly, the possibility of something going wrong troubled me more than I’d been willing to admit—even to myself.

Now it was my turn. Striding forward, I faced the portal. What were the chances that there were more players in the dungeon than I expected?

“None,” Ghost said firmly.

“Let’s hope so,” I murmured and stepped forward. Because if I was wrong, things were about to become inordinately more complicated.

Transfer through portal commencing…

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