Chapter 380 - Riddles (Patreon)

“Sit, sit!” said one of the women.

“Join us!” another added.

“We’ve been waiting for you!” the third exclaimed, clapping her hands together with glee.

The fourth just grinned, the expression stretching obscenely across her face without touching her eyes. On the surface, each of the women looked different, with varying hair colors, facial features, and complexions. But there was something about them that marked them as all but identical. To call it unnerving would have been a gross understatement.

“Please open the door,” Zeke said, his grip tightening on the haft of his hammer.

“How rude.”

“Indeed. Shall we teach him some manners?”

“Certainly.”

Zeke was about to respond when he felt some indefinable force clamp down on him. Before he could even identify what was happening, he felt his active [Triune Colossus] skill melt away. In the space of only a moment, he shrank down to his natural size.

More than that, though, he felt that unknown power squeeze him even harder. The four women, each in their elaborate gowns, looked on as Zeke’s strength faded away. He stumbled, nearly falling as weakness assailed him.

“W-what…”

“Suppression field. The strongest I’ve ever seen,” said Eveline.

“Is this…”

“Yes,” she said. “Your attributes are…reduced, likely to the baseline for your race.”

“How?”

“I don’t know,” the former demoness answered. “I never studied it, but it’s an effect that is only possible in very specific circumstances. The Grand Arena in Noth Gar is like this. People – and by that, I mean other demons – use it to pit two combatants against one another in a brutal melee where they only have their martial skill available. But this…this is worse. More oppressive. Look at your status.”

“What the…”

“Suppression. The most thorough I’ve ever seen. I’m sorry, but…this doesn’t look like a problem you’re going to solve your normal way,” Eveline said. “I don’t –”

“He speaks to himself within his own mind,” said the blonde woman sitting at the table. She sipped what Zeke hoped was tea. “Curious.”

“Indeed,” was the brunette’s reply.

“Delicious insanity,” the redhead added.

“Or perhaps something else we cannot see,” the raven-haired woman suggested before sipping from her own cup. She waved her hand, saying, “Reveal yourself.”

Zeke felt an explosion of pain in his mind as Eveline screamed in obvious agony. And the next moment, her projected form materialized beside Zeke. As always, she was clad in black dress that clung to her demonic form. For a moment, her hooves dangled a foot above the ground before she crashed to the floor.

By instinct, Zeke knelt beside her, but when he tried to help the demonic woman to her feet, his hands passed through. She locked her eyes on his and gave him an indiscernible look before pushing herself to her feet.

Zeke stood as well, and when he glared at the four women, each one wore the same, disturbing grin.

“Why?” he demanded.

“It’s fine,” Eveline said. “They’re just acting according to their natures.”

“You know us?”

“A spirit untethered.”

“A demon displaced.”

“And something else.”

“Something delicious,” said the redhead, licking her lips.

Getting tired of their schtick, Zeke turned and aimed a kick at the door. And for the first time in a long while, his strength wasn’t up to the task. His foot bounced off the door, and he rebounded, barely maintaining his balance. That’s when his weakness really felt real. It was one thing to see it represented on his status sheet, but it was another thing entirely for it to play out in his actions.

And he didn’t like it.

He’d spent so much time and effort building his strength. He’d bled. He had wept. And he’d endured far more than most people would consider reasonable. The only thing that kept him going was knowing that it wasn’t for nothing, that all that effort would, in the end, pay off.

But now that it had all been yanked away – even temporarily, as Eveline had suggested – something within him broke. Anger roared through his mind, and it wasn’t the artificial rage that came with embracing demonic mana. Instead, it was genuine fury the likes of which Zeke hadn’t felt in ages.

He strode forward, his fist tightening around his hammer. He didn’t think about it, but if he had, he would have been grateful for the weapon’s ability to adjust its weight. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have even been capable of lifting it. However, because of that characteristic, the weight was familiar.

And in a way, comforting.

No matter what else happened, Voromir would be there with him.

“What is this?”

“He approaches.”

“The spirit screams.”

Indeed, Eveline was shouting for Zeke to stop, but he heard nothing but white noise as he strode toward the table. When he reached it, he embraced his Will, letting the dark green energy envelope his body and smother his mind. His skin cracked. His bones felt like they were on the verge of shattering. And his mind – well, it might have already broken.

He roared, cocked back his hammer, and brought it down with every bit of power he could muster. Physically, that wasn’t much. He was currently weaker than he’d been since being reborn. Probably since childhood. But conceptually, his path of Arcane Destruction was just as strong as ever.

The table shattered beneath his blow.

So, too, did the floor.

The four women were knocked aside, though they didn’t go far. Instead, they floated in mid-air as the shockwave of Zeke’s attack tore through the room. Floor tiles shattered, chairs were thrown far and wide. Even the walls cracked.

But the women were clearly unharmed.

“Persist and you shall perish.”

“Without you, your friends shall fall.”

“Death is the constant.”

“It is the end.”

“Ezekiel!” Eveline shouted. It was the fourth or fifth time she’d said his name, but it was the first Zeke really heard.

He whipped around, his body still cracking beneath the pressure of his path. “What?” he growled, the simple word coming out like an natural disaster given voice.

“Release your Will!” she pleaded. “You won’t survive much longer! Trust me!”

Trust.

Such a simple word, and yet, it was also one of the most complicated things in the world. It was easy to say you trusted someone, but when it came down to it, most people would never do it. Not really. There was always a part of them that held back, even if just a little.

Zeke didn’t trust Eveline with his life. But he knew that, above all, she would protect her own. And given that her life was tied to his – without him, she would surely cease to exist – her words held a little more weight than most.

So, he let his Will dissipate.

The moment that powerful force was no longer flowing through him, he collapsed to one knee. His body had endured, if barely – and only because he’d let his path go before it could do any real damage. However, the fact that it didn’t immediately obliterate him, as his weakened stats would have suggested should happen, he suspected that the suppression wasn’t quite as complete as his status would indicate.

His skin still cracked and his bones feeling like a stiff breeze would shatter them, Zeke pushed himself to his feet and faced the four floating women.

“So angry.”

“Such power.”

“But uncontrolled.”

“Deliciously destructive.”

The brunette waved her hand, and suddenly, the room began to repair itself. The walls sealed, the floors pieced themselves back together, and the chairs flew back into place as the remnants of the table rebuilt themselves. In seconds, the room looked just as it had the moment Zeke had walked in.

“Nice trick,” he croaked.

“Tricks, he says.”

“Illusions, perhaps.”

“Magic, I say.”

“Reality remade.”

“What is real?”

“Nothing.”

“Everything.”

Eveline interjected, saying, “Okay, so this little thing you have going on. Very spooky. Annoying, too, but I can admire the commitment. So, how about you just tell us what you want so we can do whatever needs doing, huh? Or my friend can keep bashing the place up. How long can you keep that up? How often can you rebuild your little room before it runs out of mana?”

“Long.”

“Short.”

“It makes no difference.”

“Time is tantalizingly –”

“Oh my Gods. Just stop,” Eveline spat, her hands on her hips as she rolled her eyes. Then, she raised her hands, saying, “Woo. Super scary. Now get on with it.”

“Riddles, three.”

“Answer correctly, and you shall be free.”

“Fail once, and agony awaits.”

“Fail twice, and your companions will pay.”

“Fail thrice, and death will come.”

“We shall begin.”

“That didn’t even rhyme all the way through,” Eveline muttered. “What kind of bargain basement operation is this?”

“Is he ready?”

“To face the –”

Tiring of their antics, Zeke interrupted, saying, “I’m ready.”

Eveline said, “Ezekiel…”

“It’s fine,” he said, glancing back at her. “I like riddles.”

That was a bit of a stretch, really. However, back on Earth, he’d often played video games with his little brother. And one of Tommy’s favorite games had been a roleplaying game where solving riddles was a core mechanic. He felt like those countless hours had to have helped him at least a little.

And if not?

Well, Tommy might have been the smart one, but Zeke had learned to excel by breaking through any obstruction in his way. If it came down to it, he’d once again summon his Will and tear the room apart, over and over again, until he broke free. Even if it tore his body apart in the process.

Which, to be fair, seemed pretty likely.

A new chair appeared across from the four smiling women, and Zeke took his spot. Leaning forward, he said, “Alright. Hit me.”

“Very well,” said the blonde.

Then, the redhead began, “The more you take…”

“The more you leave behind,” said the raven-haired woman.

Finally, the brunette asked, “What am I?”

Then, they each took a sip from their teacups, which had reappeared when the table had been reassembled.

Zeke’s brow furrowed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eveline start to speak, but a gesture from the blonde woman silenced her.

“He must answer.”

“Spirits should remain silent.”

Evelin clearly didn’t like this, but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. Nor did Zeke feel her presence within his mind, which was incredibly disconcerting.

Four pairs of eyes bored into him as he turned his mind to the problem at hand. As he thought it through, nearly a minute passed before the blonde said, “You must answer.”

“Silence is failure.”

“Failure is silence.”

“Give us your answer.”

Zeke took a deep breath, then, finally, he stumbled upon the answer. “Footsteps,” he said.

The redhead clapped her hands together, clearly elated. “Oh, how joyous!”

“The answer is correct.”

“You are wiser than you look.”

Eveline rolled her eyes, obviously unimpressed. Zeke couldn’t be certain, but he suspected that she’d known the answer from the very beginning.

Before Zeke could congratulate himself too much, the redhead began, “They have not flesh.”

“They have no feathers,” the raven-haired beauty stated.

“Nor scales,” added the blonde.

“Nor bone,” said the brunette.

“Yet they have fingers and thumbs of their own,” said the blonde.

Then, the redhead finished by asking, “What are they?”

Once again, Zeke’s brow furrowed as he considered the enigma. No flesh. No feathers, scales, nor bone. And yet, they had fingers and thumbs.

Perhaps he’d heard a variation of the riddle before, but this time, it only took him a few seconds before he found a solution.

“Gloves,” he said with some confidence. “It’s gloves.”

Once again, the redhead clapped excitedly, but the other three didn’t seem quite so happy with his answer. However, it was clear that he’d gotten the right answer. So, they soon posed the third and final riddle. This time, though, only the woman with the black hair spoke.

“If you drop me, I am sure to crack,” she said. “Give me a smile, and I’ll always smile back. What am I?”

Once again, the riddle was one he’d encountered before. For all of his training as well as the hundreds of battles he’d fought, it was curious that his life now depended on his experiences playing games with his little brother back on Earth.

“A mirror.”

“Correct!” exclaimed the redhead.

“We have waited so long.”

“Endured so much.”

“But now, we wait no longer.”

And then the four women disappeared. In fact, the entire room suddenly ceased to exist, plunging Zeke into featureless darkness that reminded him of the void he’d experienced between his death and being reborn into the Radiant Isles. Yet, it was clearly different because it was still a physical space.

When his chair disappeared, he fell to his backside. However, he quickly picked himself up, ready to fight any number of battles.

But once he was on his feet, he saw something surprising standing before him.

“What the…”

It was a mirror, rimmed in an elaborate gold frame. Despite the lack of light, Zeke could see his reflection clearly. He stepped forward, and so did the Zeke in the mirror. But the mimicry only lasted a moment before his reflection stepped through the surface and planted himself before him.

Zeke was so confused that he never even saw Voromir’s twin swinging through the air. The head of stalwart hammer hit him in the ribs, cracking bone before it sent him flying through the air and into the pitch black wall.

He collapsed, coughing up blood as he looked back at the reflection. The other Zeke grew, taking on the demonic form of [Triune Colossus]. Instinctively, Zeke tried to do the same, but he was still blocked by the room’s restrictions.

In less than a second, demon Zeke was upon him. The real Zeke leaped out of the way, rolling aside just in time to avoid being pulverized by a descending hammer. However, he didn’t escape unscathed, and the resulting shockwave sent him tumbling to the ground once again. A quick side kick from the living reflection ended with Zeke hitting the wall on the other side of the room with enough force to shatter his ribs.

“Pathetic,” rumbled the demonic reflection as he strode forward. “You are weak. Powerless. You will fail.”

As Zeke coughed up blood as he struggled to rise, he couldn’t really dispute any of the reflection’s claims. Still, he wracked his brain as he tried to figure some way out. But he only had a few seconds before the demonic reflection appeared before him.