Chapter 27 - Deathvine (Patreon)

The bridge over the cavern seemed to go on endlessly. Echo lost track of time as they continued into the darkness. Hours must have passed before they arrived at a large metal door.

"If Deathvine is one of your main trade goods, why did you grow it so far away?" Echo asked.

"It is addictive." The raw plant was akin to a drug that dulled the senses. She pulled a large key out of a satchel on her waist that blended with her attire, fitting it into the lock and turning it. "There is another exit on the far side of this cavern that leads to the ocean. One key ingredient to growing Deathvine is an ocean breeze. It needs salty air."

As she opened the door a gust of wind blew towards them and thanks to Feral Instinct Echo could taste the ocean breeze, despite having to be kilometers away from the closest body of water.

Rose continued forward down the rough tunnel as they passed small hovels. “These were not here before. It must be where Tiberius stored his surprises.”

Fumi pulled her weapon out and moved to the front of the column, pacing forward in a battle-ready stance. Echo retrieved his weapon and followed behind as Rose took the back of the trio.

The tunnels were gouged by some type of claw or talon - the deep grooves jagged and torn asunder. Fumi knelt and ran her hand along one of them and pulled her hand back, rubbing her fingers together. "Whatever made this had some toxic substance."

Rose tilted her head, "And you're not affected?"

Fumi grinned and looked up at her, "We're monsters." She advanced further. Echo looked at Rose, shrugged, and followed.

Something was off, however. Echo felt a strong vibration in his feet and Fumi met his eyes, signaling she had felt it too.

"Rose, dodge!" Echo jumped to the edge of the tunnel and flattened himself against it as Rose leaped backward. Fumi stood her ground with her katana ready to strike.

The floor rumbled and both Fumi and Echo activated Alacrity as a toothy maw erupted from the earth below and shot upwards, tunneling right through where Echo was standing moments before.

The two monsters swung their weapons several times at the creature, scoring slashes across its body as it vanished into the ceiling.

"I'm assuming that's the thing," Echo said with a hint of sarcasm.

"How do you plan on killing it?" Rose asked, her perfect demeanor cracking with some hint of fear.

Echo looked at Fumi who shrugged and placed a hand against the wall, closing her eyes. "It's still above us, coming around for another pass."

"Right. Okay Rose, time to show off what you can do," Echo stated.

"Eh? You're the monster killers."

"And if you want to come with us, you'll deal with it. Show you aren't deadweight." Fumi replied.

"Fine. I'll do as you ask. Please tell me when it's six seconds away." Rose closed her eyes, and her body was surrounded by a nimbus of pale blue light as the air began to cool to the point frost crystals began to descend around her.

"Ten…nine…" Fumi began counting down as the vibrations grew stronger.

Echo drew upon his own Quintessence, preparing to cast Worldbreaker if Rose's spell wasn't strong enough to stop the creature.

"...Three…Two…One."

The tunnel wall burst, and Rose opened her eyes as the creature began to enter the tunnel at blinding speed.

"Cover all in endless frost, Glacial Prison." Frost crystals appeared around the creature and hardened, growing, and expanding within microseconds as the tunneling foe was encased, crashing into the opposite wall.

Fumi launched into the creature and began chopping through it with a blinding speed that Echo only tracked due to Alacrity.

These two ladies have it handled.

He let his Quintessence go, his spell not being required.

"Pierce my prey, Razorice." Rose released another spell as her stone scepter flashed with the same pale blue light. The ice turned to a deep blue in response as it tightened around the creature; spikes forming on the inside and driving into flesh as it wriggled around before dying.

Fumi stopped her attack and looked up at Echo. They shared a thought.

This isn't Tiberius's monster.

Rose sighed, "Have I proved myself to you?"

Echo shook his head, "That isn't it.”

"How do you know?"

Echo glanced at the beast and didn't feel the drive to consume it.

"Trust us, it's not one of his. We'd know."

"Hmm. I've never seen this creature before. I didn't know such a thing existed."

Fumi sheathed her weapon and used the pommel to crack open the ice near the mouth. "It's a Boreworm…used in sieges…it's young."

Echo put his palm to the ground and felt some distant rumbling thanks to his improved senses, "There's more coming. I'll handle it."

He focused his Quintessence and envisioned what he desired, crush these things, as his silver magic pooled onto the floor, crackling with crimson sparks, before seeping into the ground. "Transmute Substance - Burial."

He felt the magic respond as the vibrations grew stronger for a moment before ceasing. He turned off Alacrity and smiled, "Dealt with."

"What did you do?" Rose asked.

"I crushed all of them."

"Using Transmutation?!"

Echo nodded, "It's amazing what some knowledge of geology can do for you when you can manipulate substances on an atomic level.” He had simply increased the density of the substrate surrounding the creatures, and their own speed caused them to perish on impact as their heads effectively exploded. That, combined with the crushing pressure from above served as a lethal option to deal with tunneling foes.

She shook her head slightly, "I was right to assume you were smart."

Echo shrugged, "I just liked learning in school and paid attention."

Fumi came over and kissed him on the lips before looking at Rose with a smug expression. "And he's mine."

Rose smiled, "Of course. Before going on, one question. Why did you cast a spell without an incantation? Or a staff?"

"Perfect Casting," Echo held up his adventuring identification for Rose to see.

"Very interesting." Rose looked at him thoughtfully.

The trek continued as the trio entered a large cavern as the scent of the sea grew stronger. A faint light could be seen as a green lichen - like the stuff inside the necropolis - illuminated the surroundings dimly.

There were hundreds of pillars that rose to waist height, and they were covered in yellow vines. Rose pointed, "There's your plant. I hope you have a way to keep it fresh, it's only good for about a day once harvested."

Echo reached into his pocket-dimension and retrieved the cold bag that Pomentar had given them. He and Fumi set about collecting as much as could fit in the container.

"Rose, can you cast a spell?" Fumi asked.

Rose nodded, "Sure. What do you need?"

Fumi held up her sword and the hilt glowed deep green crackling with red sparks. "Give me a new place, Open Dimension." A hole in space appeared and remained open. She pointed to the point in space, "Make this cold."

Rose chuckled, "Space Affinity? You two are really special." She held up her rod, "Hear my call northern winds, Freezing Mist." A flare of pale blue traveled from her rod into the opened pocket dimension before spreading and crystallizing in the air.

"Echo, get all of it,” Fumi instructed.

Rose looked at Echo, "You should listen to her. This stuff is valuable. The more you have, the better."

Echo activated Alacrity, dashing through the entirety of the cavern, gathering every vine, and chucking them into the pocket-dimension. After fifteen minutes Fumi began to show a little fatigue, taking a staggering step back as she released the spell.

Echo went over and held her up, "Good job. What do you think? Want to let Rose come along?"

"She's useful," Fumi said as she laid back in Echo’s arms.

Echo smiled at Rose, "You heard her! Welcome to the team."

Rose grinned and bowed slightly, "Excellent! What are we called?"

"Umm…we don't have a company."

"I thought all you adventurers teamed up in companies."

Echo scratched his head, "We could make one once you become an adventurer. We can do it when we get to the Guild Hall."

Both Echo and Fumi froze as they felt the instinct hit them. Not towards each other, but from behind.

Kill…

Consume…

Evolve…

Echo set Fumi down and wheeled around, pulling out his sword and shield as a black shape descended from the roof. He barely parried the blow as the figure spiraled away in a graceful arc. Dark red Quintessence rose from its frame mixed with crimson sparks. The black eyes were even more confirmation that this thing was one of Tiberius’ monsters.

It was a cross between a spider and a humanoid, but each additional arm was tipped with a wicked claw. It swung at Echo in a rapid flurry.

It has Alacrity too?!

Thanks to his sparring with Fumi, he could keep up even without activating the Ability himself, but he was pressed back.

He caught another one out of the corner of his eye as Fumi dodged and engaged with it. Sparing a glance behind, two were advancing on Rose as well. "Look out behind you!"

Rose held up her rod and for a moment her undead form was visible as whatever spell she cast deactivated her ring momentarily. "Ceaseless winter guard me, Armor of Ice - Absolute Zero." Existence froze around her as the two creatures backed away: sensing the danger as the temperature dropped to well below freezing.

Echo had to return his attention to the monster in front of him. He parried as quickly as he could but felt pain in his arms, as cuts and lacerations began to open up along his shoulders.

Damn, Fumi is getting hit.

Echo activated Alacrity and tried to dash behind the spider-thing, swinging wildly as he carved off several chunks. It turned on him and he blocked the flurry of attacks, before bashing its face with his shield and carving it in half vertically.

Fumi was having an easy time with the spider thing she faced; being able to recklessly strike without worrying about being injured or slowed down by damage made her quite dangerous. Echo winced with pain as he watched her fight with the creature as she suffered several cuts that were transferred to him. She finished it with a series of vertical strikes before wheeling around looking for more targets.

Echo smiled at her and gave her a thumbs-up before looking at Rose. The two creatures near her spread out behind and began probing at the frozen space around her, their extremities turning to ice as they came into the area of effect.

"Aren't you going to help?" Rose asked with an eyebrow raised.

Echo chuckled, "We dealt with ours. You have to beat yours."

Rose raised a hand and pointed at one of the monsters, "Give me your essence, Life Siphon." The spider thing withered into a husk before collapsing. She repeated the process for the other one and soon all was still.

Echo was stunned. He knew her Magic Potency had to be way higher than his own. She was a whole different tier of mage.

"Neat," Fumi commented.

Rose pointed behind the two, "Looks like you didn't beat yours."

Echo looked back as the two spider-things stitched themselves together; the pieces of their corpses joining together until what stood before them was a horrid facsimile of a conjoined twin. Two torsos fused, dozens of arms tipped with claws, and four legs. The monster roared in pain and rage, dashing towards the trio.

"Disgusting," Fumi said as she drew her blade, "Spatial Sever!" The black line rippled out and neatly cut it in half, but a sticky substance shot out from the two halves and latched them back together.

Echo stepped in front of Fumi and began parrying the multitude of strikes; barely keeping up and even getting hit himself a few times. "We can't cut it to death."

Fumi stepped back and looked at Rose, "Why aren't yours getting up?"

"They are living things. I drained the life from them. Unless they can regenerate, then I don't see-"

Fumi stepped over and started chopping the two husks up into bits as their bodies began to fix themselves, the pieces crawling towards each other and trying to reconstitute the monsters. "Echo, they heal!"

"Then we just keep killing them until they stop moving." Echo gritted his teeth as his Alacrity was pushed to the limit. He felt his prodigious Quintessence reserve depleting at a steady rate when a thought occurred.

What if I dumped more Quintessence into Alacrity?

He grinned madly as he poured more Quintessence into the Ability as time slowed down even further. Even to the point where Fumi seemed to move in slow motion, he could feel his reserve draining even faster than before. Silver vapor mixed with crimson sparks rose from him as the sheer amount of Quintessence being expended formed an aura around him.

He had unlocked an upgrade for Alacrity – Overcharge.

I can only do this briefly.

It was churning through his Quintessence at a prodigious rate. He knew he was nearing his limits.

But those few seconds seemed closer to five minutes to his enhanced perception and reaction time. He moved as a blur and carved the creature in front of him into tiny bits, centimeter-wide slices as he sliced it through and scattered it to the edges of the cavern.

To an outside observer not moving at his same speed - such as Rose - Echo had vanished. A silver blur - not unlike a blender on the highest setting - whirled around the creature for a fragment of time before meaty chunks flew outward.

Echo turned off the Ability and panted as the pieces of the creature attempted to form together. But he had dealt enough damage, and it was low enough on Quintessence, that it was unable to recover, and the pieces lay still.

Rose held up her rod and pointed at the husk that Fumi was not chopping into, "Burn in the cold, Flash Freeze." The pieces of the creature froze instantly into little cubes of ice. She smiled as Echo joined Fumi in chopping the other creature over and over until it stopped regenerating.

Both were low on Quintessence and huffing in exertion.

"Impressive display," Rose said as she released her armor spell, and the air of the cavern returned to normal. "I applaud-"

Echo and Fumi both popped heart pieces of the creature into their mouths and swallowed them. As always, Echo felt the searing pain in his stomach - doubly so - for both him and Fumi as their bodies went through forced evolution.

He collapsed to the ground and screamed as Fumi rushed over to cradle his head as he went through the pain of evolution for both of them. He felt thousands, millions of crawling insects inside of his body. Biting, stinging, choking him. He had fallen into an ant hill as a child, and this pain was just like that but amplified to the utmost pain level possible to experience. Trillions of tiny pincers tearing him to shreds. The sensation was not just pain, but also intense disgust.

After a few minutes, the sensations faded, and his breath returned to normal. But the revulsion that he had just eaten another used-to-be-person surged through him once more.

Rose looked aghast, "You weren't kidding, you two are monsters."

Echo stood up and rubbed his stomach, "It makes us stronger. And gives us new Abilities."

"...Mhmmm."

Rose grinned, "Fascinating specimens... I don't detect anything else in here."

"Wait, you knew those things were in here?"

Rose nodded, "Of course. I can Detect Life and Undeath. Just like whatever extrasensory abilities you have been using." She cocked her head sideways, showing some confusion, “I’m surprised none of your Abilities alerted you.

"...Speaking of that," Fumi pulled out her adventurer identification which prompted Echo to do the same.

Name (Race / Rank): Echo Asheron (Monster / S)

Strength: 6,210

Agility: 6,210

Fortitude: 6,210

Defense: 6,210

Offense: 6,210

Magic Resistance: 6,210

Magic Potency: 6,210

Equipment: Brightsteel-Kevlar Armored Clothing, Titansteel Shield, Skysteel Bastard Sword, Pocket Dimension Ring

Active Abilities: Alacrity [Overcharge], Bulwark

Innate Abilities: The Dragon God's Blessing, Damage Immunity (Sonic), Damage Resistance (All), Darkvision, Detect Abilities, Detect Magic, Disease Immunity, Eternal Youth, Evolution Instinct, Far Sight, Feral Senses, Perfect Casting, Perfect Defense, Poison / Toxin Immunity, Regeneration [Regrowth], Wallwalk

Affinities: Transmutation, Fire, Poison, Protection, Sound

Name (Race / Rank): Fumi Medrana Soju (Monster / S)

Strength: 5,210

Agility: 7,210

Fortitude: 6,210

Defense: 5,210

Offense: 10,210

Magic Resistance: 5,210

Magic Potency: 5,210

Equipment:  Skysteel Katana, Brightsteel-Kevlar Armored Clothing

Active Abilities: Alacrity, Spatial Sever, Resonating Thrust

Innate Abilities: The Dragon God's Blessing, Damage Immunity (Sonic), Damage Resistance (All), Darkvision, Deathless, Detect Abilities, Detect Magic, Disease Immunity, Eternal Youth, Evolution Instinct, Far Sight, Feral Senses, Perfect Casting, Perfect Offense, Poison / Toxin Immunity, Regeneration [Regrowth], Wallwalk

Affinities: Air, Space, Fire

Still not anywhere close to as strong as Malvir said we’d need to be to fight Tiberius.

Fumi walked over to the cavern wall and began walking along it until she stood on the ceiling and Echo looked up at her, getting a nice visual angle he wasn't used to. "This is neat. I like this Wallwalk," Fumi commented.

Rose furrowed her brow, "And you couldn't do that before eating those creatures?"

Echo nodded, "When we eat other monsters…stuff like this happens."

Echo walked up next to Fumi and reveled in the sensation as he felt his stomach flutter. He chuckled as Fumi pushed him prone to the ceiling like she was pinning him to the floor.

"We should do it like this,” She said with lust in her voice.

Echo glanced at Rose below them who looked amused at the whole situation. "Erm…I don't think right now is a good time, Fumi."

"When we get home." She dropped down to the floor and flipped in the air, landing gracefully on her feet. Echo took the opportunity to do the same but struck the classic superhero landing pose with his fist impacting the ground, making a small crater.

"You said this goes out to the ocean?" he asked as he stood up and dusted his hands off.

Rose nodded, "Yes. I have several boats stashed away in a hidden cove where this cave system lets out. Where do you need to go?"

"Crux Omega. That's where this Deathvine has to get to,” Echo replied.

"Excellent. We'll hug the coast.” Rose raised her staff over the corpses, “Improve upon my form, Siphon Strength.”

The corpses withered to nothingness and Rose seemed to perk up, breaking her icy demeanor. “Let’s get going! I can’t wait to see the sky again.”

Tiberius was in a new cave, surrounded by the fused-together corpses of the Gori berserkers he had transformed into new monsters.

Tiberius laid two more alongside each other, placed the Mimic Cube between them, and watched with grim fascination as the goop tangled the two together in a horrific amalgamation.

“Soon enough, I’ll be able to infiltrate.”

One of his wards went off.

Are they there already?

He raised his hand and incanted his Greater Seeing spell. He felt immense satisfaction and pride as his two monsters were surrounded by corpses.

“Ah, good. That means you’ll be headed for Moonsorrow Bay.”

He willed his focus on one of the monsters he had hidden deep beneath the waves. “Cancel Spell.”

Another monster was loosed into the world, swirling beneath the clear waters his wayward creations would soon sail on.

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