Chapter 391 - The Fury of Grief (Patreon)

Zeke seethed, but he managed to keep his emotions under control as he climbed the giant cyclops’ neck. It swatted at him, its hand hitting with world-ending force. His body cracked under the impact, sending a cascade of rock, metal, and crystal tumbling down, and yet, Zeke persisted, relying on his enhanced endurance and strength to see him through.

Vaguely, he was aware that Eveline was trying to get through to him, her mental voice having become more of a screech. He ignored it. He also pushed the whirlpool of emotions aside, lest he be forced to confront the memories he’d long tried to bury. He’d never quite gotten over leaving his little brother behind, and instead of dealing with it, he’d sequestered his feelings in the back of his mind.

Now, though, they threatened to return to wreak havoc on his mind and emotional state.

If he’d have thought about it, he wouldn’t have been capable of figuring out why he was so angry. After all, the dungeon wasn’t sentient. It was just following a script that forced it to use his personal memories to construct various scenarios. But to Zeke, those memories were supposed to be off-limits. He could endure ridiculous degrees of physical pain and discomfort, but assailing the memories of his family on Earth was crossing a line. He refused to tolerate it.

So, Zeke climbed, his fury roiling so violently that nothing else could get through.

Still, the neck was huge, and it took quite some time to find his way to his destination, which was the monster’s cavernous ear. In the beginning, he’d intended to use a completely different, much less enticing orifice, but after the giant cyclops had picked him up, he’d shifted his plan.

A good thing, too, because he hadn’t looked forward to using that point of ingress.

In any case, Zeke eventually reached the creature’s beard, which loomed above him like a forest of tangled trees. Most grew diagonally, but many were horizontal, and a few managed to descend like vertical shafts. Zeke continued to climb, using the cuticle-covered structures to ease his passage.

Hair was strange. From a distance, it looked smooth and sleek, but up close, its surface truly did resemble the bark of a tree – which was fortunate, because it gave Zeke the handholds he needed to quickly traverse the beard forest. However, his good fortune didn’t last long, because only a few dozen feet into the tangled mass, a quick flash of movement caught his eye.

He whipped around in that direction, but by that point, he couldn’t see anything. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another flash of white. But just like the first, when he turned to give it his attention, there was nothing there.

Nothing visible, at least.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Zeke continued on.

He only got a few more feet before the residents of the beard forest made themselves known.

Something hit him with enough force to dislodge his grip. He fell, hitting one of the hairs, which sent him tumbling into the next. Meanwhile, his attacker tore into his metallic body with rigid mandibles. Ignoring the pain of its attacks, he slammed his hand into another tree, arresting his momentum.

That’s when he saw the monster – which was the size of a large dog – for what it was. He recognized it, but he still remembered to use [Inspect]:

Monstrous Flea – Level 51

Gripping the hair, he only had one free hand, which he used to awkwardly grab the berserk insect’s leg. It let out a high-pitched squeal of pain, but Zeke didn’t pay it any attention. Instead, he ripped it away. Carapace broke, and the leg almost tore completely free of its body. But its mandibles never stopped moving. With a herculean effort, Zeke tossed it away.

It hit one of the hairs with a sickening crunch, but the thing still managed to grab hold, then spring back in Zeke’s direction. He reacted quickly, aiming a punch at the leaping insect. It couldn’t alter its course, so it took the blow directly in its insectile face. Its head cracked open, and his fist was buried up to the shoulder as he was showered by the creature’s innards.

For the briefest of moments, he relaxed.

And nearly died because of it.

Only a second after he’d killed the first flea, a half-dozen others descended upon him. Normal fleas primarily consumed blood, but the monstrous versions were a lot less picky. And they were equipped for a much broader diet, with slashing mandibles that could cut through even Zeke’s metallic body.

It wasn’t easy, but with their fury as well as numbers, the creatures were extremely effective at slicing into him.

But the real danger was the shifting weight that very nearly tore him free of his tenuous grip on the hair. He narrowly managed to maintain his position, but he knew that it wouldn’t last.

Because a dozen more fleas had just appeared.

They buried him beneath the weight of their numbers. Each bite chipped only a little of his body away, but there were so many of them that it wouldn’t be long before they finished him off.

He needed to do something different.

So, Zeke embraced [Weight of Two Worlds] while decreasing his own weight. The increased gravity tore a few of the fleas away, but most of them used their sharp feet to dig into his body.

Not ideal, but expected.

He shifted his skill’s focus, and instead of simply increasing the gravity, he created two opposing forces. One pulling upward, and the other going in the opposite direction. As he did so, he infused it with the barest amount of his Will. The destructive power ripped through him, which he endured just long enough for the enhanced skill to do its work.

All around him, the fleas were ripped apart. Insectile innards rained down the cyclops’ beard, and Zeke was coated in the same. But all of them – every single one – perished under the conflicting weight of his ability.

He only let it run for a moment, but even that much of his Will threatened to rip him to pieces. Fortunately, he let it go before it could do any real damage, though he still pulsed an unattuned [Cambion’s Awakening] to soothe the harm he did inflict upon his own body.

Still, it did enough damage that he nearly lost his grip, though the strategy had done the job, which was all that really mattered.

In any case, he needed to develop some control over his Will. Otherwise, he’d never be able to use it without ripping himself to pieces.

“This is not the time to experiment,” Eveline said, her exasperation evident.

Zeke ignored her. Instead, he set his mind to continuing his climb. And slowly, he traversed the beard, which eventually thinned as it became the hair on the cyclops’ head. When he judged that he was roughly even with the monster’s ear, he adjusted his trajectory. Leaping from one hair to another, he gradually covered the distance until, at last, he saw the yawning ear canal below him.

Fortunately, he hadn’t been attacked by any more pests. He didn’t believe they weren’t there. Where there were a few fleas, there were almost assuredly more. But they hadn’t shown themselves, which was fine by Zeke. He could repeat the same maneuver, but he had no interest in tempting fate.

His Will was still incredibly dangerous, and any minor slip in control could leave him incapacitated. And given his current location – not to mention the fact that he was alone – if he lost consciousness, he would almost certainly die.

Zeke gripped a hair as he gazed out across the kitchen. The cyclops was preparing some sort of disgusting-looking food, which meant that its head was mostly stable. That gave Zeke plenty of opportunity to study the setting. By that point, his anger had dissipated, going from a raging inferno to a slow simmer.

“Have you calmed down yet?” Eveline asked.

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I really don’t,” Zeke answered.

“You should, though,” Eveline persisted.

“Pass,” Zeke said.

“Ezekiel, you need –”

“Fine. Okay. Sure. Let’s talk,” he growled. “I’m standing on a freaking hair the size of a pine tree, but sure. Let’s talk about my feelings. That makes tons of sense.”

Eveline sighed. “If not now, then when?” she asked.

“Later.”

“Just later? No specific time?” was her next question.

“When we’re all safe,” Zeke said. “Once I tear this dungeon apart, we can talk until my ears bleed. I’ll bare my feelings and cry and everything.”

Eveline gave the impression that she was shaking her head. Then, she said, “Just promise me you’re not going to throw your life away on this.”

“What?”

“I can see inside your head, remember? I know what you’re thinking,” she responded. “And right now, you’re so focused on destroying this dungeon that you don’t care how it affects you. I’m asking you to consider the fact that you’re not the only one in here.”

“Selfish to the end, huh?”

“I’m not talking about me, idiot. I’m talking about your friends,” she spat. “Or did you forget them? They’re still out there, and if you tear this place down, they’re going with it. And what about the kobolds who depend on you? What about Talia? Or Tucker? They’re going to need you, too. You’re not an island, Zeke. There are people out there who care about you. There are people who need you.”

“I’m aware.”

“Then act like it. Be smart. Destroy the dungeon, sure, but don’t do it until you conquer it. Do it from the outside.”

Zeke didn’t respond – not with words, at least. But he did consent, which was all Eveline really wanted.

A moment later, he took a deep breath, then began his descent. After leaping onto the top of cyclops’ ear, he slid down the ridge until he was even with the gaping canal. It was festooned with dingy, yellow earwax, but Zeke ignored it. He’d seen worse. In fact, given that he was still coated in dried flea innards, he had no room for further disgust.

So, he trudged through it and into the ear canal.

The giant colossus clearly felt Zeke’s entry, because its thick finger followed him a moment later. However, by that point, it was too late. Zeke was in.

To Zeke, the canal was like a huge, fleshy tunnel, and it took him some time before he reached a dead end. Or that’s what it looked like. However, he knew anatomy well enough to recognize it as the ear drum – a thin membrane that vibrated with every sound. Regardless, it was still an obstacle Zeke needed to overcome. And given that it stretched all the way across the canal, he had only one choice as to how to accomplish that feat.

So, without further hesitation, he summoned his hammer, then attacked. The first strike bounced off the membrane without leaving a mark. Seeing that, Zeke adjusted his aim and used the hammer like a makeshift pickaxe as he dug at the edges. Slowly, he made progress, though that quickly came to an end as an extremely loud sound set the eardrum to violently vibrating.

To Zeke, it felt like an earthquake, but it only took him a second to recognize what was going on. The creature had been hurt by Zeke’s actions, and it reacted to that pain by shouting. That sound had vibrated the eardrum.

With that in mind, Zeke had no choice but to wait it out as he held himself in place. Eventually, it passed, and then he continued his work. This time, it only took a few swings before the creature once again shouted, and like that, the process repeated. And over time, Zeke managed to work his way through the eardrum. He only opened a thin slit, but, once he let [Triune Colossus] lapse, it was wide enough for him to slip through. After he managed that, he reengaged his skill, then looked around.

His limited anatomy knowledge had found its end, because he couldn’t even begin to identify what he saw. It was a gaping and fleshy cavern, but beyond that, it was unrecognizable. So, Zeke resolved to simply do what he always did – go forward, one step at a time, until he reached his destination.

And if something got in his way? Then he would go through it.

Like that, he continued to progress. The ground – or the flesh of the giant cyclops’ inner ear – continued to shake, but the further he went, the less severe it got. The first obstacle was a long, vertical shaft that stretched at least a hundred yards across. On the other side was a wall of solid flesh.

“Is it not possible to reach the brain through the ear?” he asked aloud.

“You ask as if I know,” Eveline said. “But with the evidence in front of us, I’m guessing the answer to that question is no.”

“Shit.”

It had been a decent plan, at least as far as Zeke was concerned. However, it was ruined by his lack of anatomical knowledge.

“Well, nothing else for it, then,” he said, backing up.

“What are you doing?” Eveline asked.

“I think you know,” he answered.

“I know what you’re thinking. I’m just hoping – oh, you’re doing it. You’re actually doing it.”

Zeke ignored her as he sprinted along the surface of the inner ear, using every point of his strength, dexterity, and agility to propel him forward with unnatural alacrity. He achieved top speed in the space of a second, and a couple of moments later, he reached the edge of the chasm.

Then, after reducing his weight as much as he could manage, he leaped.

Even as he sailed through the air, Zeke knew he wouldn’t reach the other side without losing significant altitude. That was okay, though. With his momentum, he would eventually find the other side before the minimized gravity asserted itself. A few seconds later, he slammed into the wall, rebounding slightly before he shoved his hands into the flesh, creating his own handholds.

From there, he hung for a long moment.

Then, at last, Zeke started digging. At first, it was only a handful of gooey flesh at a time. But once he was through the top layer, things got a lot easier. And just like that, Zeke commenced with digging a tunnel that he hoped would eventually lead him to the monster’s brain.