B4 Ch51: Warp Zone (Patreon)

"No," Arthur said.

Everyone turned to star at him, puzzled. Well, everyone but Marion who was gazing at his dragon with a look of utter defeat on his face.

"No," Arthur said again, stepping forward to place a hand on Marion's shoulder. "Remember, we're in the Dark Heart. Rules can be changed here."

"Arthur..." Cressida started, but then trailed off. She looked like she didn't know what else to say, as if she hardly dared to hope.

"Stand up, Marion," Arthur said. "This isn't over yet."

Marion looked up at him and must have seen the firm resolve in Arthur's expression. He sniffed once, nodded, and stood. When he spoke, his voice was wobbly.

"Y-you're right, of course. There are more challenges ahead." He gestured to the nearby wall.

Arthur followed his gaze and saw that the challenge doors had been reset again. Now they looked like they were made of steel, and again over them were the signs: Utility, Puzzle, Combat.

He thought of his weeks in the last challenge. Of getting to know people he didn't even know were real or not. The gains... but also the emotional sacrifices.

And Marion would have to do it with his heart ripped in half.

"No," Arthur said, for a third time. "I don't know about you guys, but I’m tired of waiting for my reward. I want it now."

"As do I," Brixaby piped up. "So, we shall defeat the next challenge together and show his place what we are made of."

"Or," Arthur said, "we bypass it all together. You have a dungeoneer card, Marion. Why don't you make another door straight to the core of the Dark Heart."

Horatio whistled. "Is that possible?"

Everyone looked at Marion who bit his lip and stared at the wall in thought. "I believe it should be."

"Wait, if this was possible, why didn't the bandits do it?" Cressida asked.

Sams' answer dripped with scorn. "Because they were thieves who were only interested in hunting down other people."

"He's right," Horatio said grimly. "We're putting our lives on the line with every challenge. So why do that when they can just hunt people they see as weak or exhausted after coming out of another challenge? Yeah, mana and stuff is renewed when we come out, but I don't know about you guys -- I'm tired. It takes a bite out of you, every time."

"I said it before," Marion added. It looked like he was warming to the subject. "The last man who had this card wasn't exceptionally creative.  He could mold this world almost any way he wanted, and he used the card to simply move the land around us."

"He did almost get the drop on us," Horatio reminded him.

Cressida held out a hand to stop the conversation before it could go off the rails. "Wait, if we do this... won't it be cheating? Won't there be retaliation?"

Arthur shrugged and smiled at her. "I've learned more and more that some rules are meant to be broken."

"Yes," Brixaby agreed. "Especially when there are rewards on the other side."

Cressida turned to her dragon. "Joy?"

"I... don't know," Joy said cautiously. "It's not like I can tell the future. I just have a stronger sense of intuition, and it's not telling me one thing or another."

Brixaby opened his mouth, but she preempted him and said, "No quests, either."

Marion looked down at his little dragon who stared up at him with pleading eyes. "You can fix it?"

"Yes," Marion said and strode forward to the blank wall to the side of the doors. Placing his hand flat on the wall, he bowed his head as if he were concentrating fiercely.

"It isn't going to be easy, and there will be limits to what I can do. It feels like I can only get us to the outer edge of the center, and it will be up to us to do the rest," he said after a minute. "And I'm sorry, Joy and Sams, but I can't make the way big enough to fit you."

Sams shifted in place. "The Dark Heart took us to the challenge even though we were standing outside the trap door earlier."

"That was the Dark Heart's door. This is mine," he said and spread his hands across the wall. A doorway grew in the middle -- pitch black with a gold knob.

Arthur thought Brixaby would be able to just squeeze through if he sucked in his breath.

"You will go in," Sams said to Horatio who was looking doubtful. "And get a reward that complements our decks."

He visibly shook himself and said, "Yeah, of course, buddy," casually as if they weren't about to face the very core of the dark heart, which likely meant the hardest challenge of them all.

"You too, Cressida," Joy said. It was clear she was putting a positive face on, but she wasn't going to stop her rider. "I'll protect the pavilion."

Cressida came over to give her dragon a quick hug.

Arthur looked to Solidad. "I want you and..." he paused.

"His name is Equinox," Solidad said proudly.

"Yes," Equinox said. "The balance between day and night."

That didn't make any sense to Arthur -- didn't his card have to do with the seasons, somehow? -- but he nodded anyway. " I want you two to say back and protect the territory until we go back."

"No problem." Soledad didn't seem bothered about sitting this one out. Possibly because her dragon was so small. "It will give us a chance to practice with our cards."

"Ohhh, lava." Joy said. "Probably take that outside when you practice, though."

Arthur thought for a moment before he pulled a bug hunk of bison meat from his Personal Space to offer it to Equinox. The little red hatchling pounced on it right away, though when Arthur tried to offer the Silver the same, she shied away.

Because Joy and Sams were giving him looks, not too unlike an expectant dog at the dinner table, he unstored an entire bison haunch along with a barrel of water.

With everyone ready, Marion opened the door. Unlike with the Dark Heart challenges, they had to step through the door.

On the other side, they found an enclosed staircase that led down into a black tunnel.

Brixaby grunted when he saw the stairwell, which was much too small for him to fly down. Then he dug out a lit torch from his Personal Space.

With a grin, Arthur unstored his LED flashlight and turned it on. The beam illuminated all the way down the steep stairwell.

"What is that?" Brixaby all but ripped it out of his hands and looked at it closely, wincing away when he accidentally shined the flashlight in his own eye.

"It's a tool I picked up from my challenge. I told you they had strange stuff there. Let's move fast -- if this runs out of energy, I don't have a way to recharge it."

Yes, he had stored quite a few flashlights in his Personal Space, but waste not, want not.

 The little Silver hatchling had followed them through and to the landing. Marion extended a hand to her, but she shook her head again, looking miserable.

"That won't do," Cressida said briskly. Then she bent and scooped her up.

The little Silver squawked. "You're not meant for me! You belong to someone else!"

"That's right, but today I'm only carrying you. It's a long way and I don't want your legs to get tired."

The little Silver didn't look happy, but she didn't protest anymore though her gaze was fixed on Marion as they started down the stairwell.

Arthur sensed that with every step they took down, they were coming closer and closer to a source of power. It was a feeling of oppression, of being squeezed and yet still able to breathe. He didn't like it.

"What is this place, exactly?" he asked Marion.

He adjusted his glasses. "As far as I can tell, each step we take bypasses another challenge level."

Arthur was so surprised that he stopped in place, almost causing Horatio to crash into the back of him. "What?"

"I'm sorry, was what I said unclear?" Marion asked, blandly.

Horatio was flummoxed. "There have to be hundreds of stairs! You're telling me that if we wanted to get to the final level the normal way, we'd have to go through all of this? What happened to three or four levels?" He looked at Cressida accusingly.

She shrugged. "I told you that information on Dark Hearts is hard to come by."

"But... but that's not fair!"

"I'm starting to get the feeling that Dark Hearts aren't meant to be fair," Arthur muttered.

And with that dour comment, they continued downward.

Brixaby, of course, had a slightly different take on the situation. “If we received rewards such as dragon eggs and Rare cards from the first challenge, imagine the power and rarity of the hardest of challenges!”

“What’s better than a Rare?” Horatio asked. “I mean, obviously Legendary, but how many Legendary cards can this thing have?”

“I don’t know,” Arthur said. “But what worries me is how much power is represented here. Remember, the Dark Heart ripened ahead of schedule. I think it can afford to give some cards away.”

They were quiet as they continued to make their way down, and the oppressive sense grew. At the very bottom stood a landing with another door. This was not the smooth black as before but gilded with gold and encrusted with gems.

“Do you think these are real diamonds?” Horatio asked. “Hey, Arthur, you got a chisel or something in that Personal Space, don’t you?”

Arthur ignored him and stepped forward with his hand resting on the intricate door handle. He looked at the others. “You ready?”

Everyone nodded. Even Horatio, after a moment.

Arthur opened the door, and even though he did not step in, immediately they were all inside…

… Where they were being oppressed, crushed by a weight that was physical, mental, and spiritual all at once.

Arthur fell to his knees and heard his friends all collapse as well. They were in a dark room without any boundaries or borders or up or down. And off in the distance – so far that it didn’t seem possible, yet he could see it anyway – a pair of red scourgeling eyes watched them and laughed.

He knew in his heart that these were the eyes of a Scourge-God.