The Grand Weave

A glass jar appeared, containing a brackish liquid with an unidentifiable grey mass inside.

Bingo.

I presented it to Erebus, who inspected the glass by tapping it. He nodded and crawled up my arm to return to my soulspace.

"Yeah, it looks like my new perks are working correctly."

Sereza made a face while the guards stepped closer and peered at the jar.

"What is it?" Orlun asked.

Beneath my mask, I grinned, but I kept the outward appearance neutral. Sereza glanced over and shook her head.

Sadly, I contained my mischievousness and looked around the room. I couldn't sense anything dangerous, so I summoned Chomperz, who appeared and scared the guards. He quickly swallowed the jar and left before the others could ask questions.

"As much as I want to satisfy my curiosity, I'll wait until we're done."

"Are we to continue?" Orlun asked.

"Give it a minute. I want to confirm one last hunch."

The expanded space, the strange walls that led to nothing, and a random creature hitched to a wall; if we were still in the normal world, I had a lot of questions for Cal.

It took a moment, but the corpse began to melt, its deflated body losing the last of its form and becoming a puddle of rainbow goop.

As it sank into the floor, I watched the others for their reactions, and Sereza was the first to widen her eyes.

"That explains a lot," she said.

"But there was no portal. How did we enter a dungeon?" Orlun said.

I crossed my arms and stared at the remaining flesh wall. The tubes had shrunken into the wall, leaving it smooth.

"No clue. Let's hope there aren't too many floors."

We exited the room and entered the hallway, coming toward the end where we would have to take a turn.

"At least there's one good thing about being in a dungeon," Sereza offered.

I raised an eyebrow. "That is?"

"Safe zones."

"Only if this dungeon works like normal and safe zones are actually safe."

She stuck out her tongue, and we got into position.

We turned the corner with Rello and Orlun rushing ahead, and he held up his hand and signaled that it was safe to proceed.

It was another hallway, but there were no side rooms. Instead, it opened into a large hall near the middle and seemed to continue into another one near the end.

My perks didn't whisper a warning, but I tried to feel around and activate my mana.

Nothing happened.

"Hey, look closer. Can you see the distortion in the air?" Aleena whispered.

I narrowed my eyes and didn't see what she was talking about, even with my eyesight being perfect.

Shaking my head, I turned to the guardswoman. "No. Can you describe it?"

She nodded. "I have a perception passive. Eagle Eye. It looks like the air is waving? Like reality is bending around something. Small, about the size of my fist."

"Chances are I'll feel it with my mana sense when we're close. Might be a hidden monster or another space."

"Dungeons shouldn't have dimensional pockets inside them... Everything is broken," Sereza complained.

She glanced toward me, and it was my turn to stick out my tongue; then I realized why she didn't react and made my mask replicate the gesture.

"Form up. We'll continue until I feel the distortion."

"If we don't?"

"Then we prepare for a fight like usual."

This time, Rello took the lead. The idea was to create a massive spike in case anything charged at us. Sereza followed next, her having the mobility required to move past. And Orlun guarded the rear, sandwiching Aleena and me in the middle.

We moved ten feet, then twenty. We were halfway to the distortion, and I could finally see it myself. It was subtle, very subtle. Each bend in the air only occurred after a long delay followed by a brief burst of erratic twisting that strained my eyes.

It didn't hurt; I was long used to the distortion of dimensional space. But it wasn't pleasant to look at.

Ten more steps, and we stopped.

I closed my eyes and inhaled.

There.

"Yeah, I can feel the spatial mana. I can try popping it."

"Should we enter the room or bunker down in the hallway?" Orlun asked.

He looked at me like a soldier ready to receive his orders, and the flare-up of annoyance squirmed free from its binding.

Thankfully, my mask hid my grimace. "Let's get close, but not enter the room. Rello, make a few spikes wide enough if you can. Aleena, can you conjure the vines?"

She shook her head. "I need a target."

Damn. Welp, work with what you got.

Rello conjured his spikes, and Sereza crouched low behind one. Orlun had his sword out, and I saw the blue sheen on the edge of his blade as well as his feet.

My familiers were ready, and my spear was positioned between the spikes.

"Starting."

I reached out my hand and felt for the mana. It was like a constant pulse that brushed along my fingers. When I activated Magnus' skill, the crystal covering my arms reacted like a sponge, greedily trying to soak it in.

"Here we go, Magnus."

He sent the thought of a roar bouncing between my ears, and I smirked.

The first thread of mana sank into my palm, and I wrapped my hand around it, pulling—devouring the spatial distortion.

It was mine.

The mana rushed in, and I felt the pulses sputter, the constant song rising into a sharp pop that rang in my ears.

In a blink, the world expanded. The tunnel stretched, widening by several feet and extending past my vision.

Before I could think, Orlun slashed diagonally and stepped in front, deflecting a bright flash. His body jerked, and he crashed to one knee while Sturmrorex released his lightning bolt and sent it between the rocks.

Sereza sprang into action and sent a fan of daggers while removing one of the steel ones from her belt and chucked it.

"Enough with your lies!" came a familiar voice.

Was tha-

A strong gust of wind sent me into Aleena, and I began rapidly absorbing the aggressive mana in the air.

Before I could breathe, the bolts of azure blue zipped across my vision, and Sturmrorex rose to meet it. He commanded the lightning and tried to take control, but I felt him strain.

The mana inside the bolts was stronger than him. He took a bite out of its power, and I held up both arms in a crossblock.

One pierced into the crystal covering and burned my flesh beneath. The second deflected off my forearm and dissipated into the wall.

The third pushed into my shoulder, but Sturmrorex bit down and redirected the flow to the ceiling.

"Damnit! Eodyne, stop!"

"Stop using their voices. I'll cull you like the rest!" Eodyne retorted, her voice reverbing through the air like a hum that filled your ears.

"Rello, try to pin her down. Sereza, we need to stop her."

Rello slammed his hand down and slid it forward.

Another gust of wind pushed me back in response, and I raised my claws.

Mana surged from the receptacle and rushed down my arms. I slashed the air, and five transparent lines whistled across the spike barrier.

Sereza stood up and released a barrage of yellow daggers. They zipped, but she ducked and cursed.

"She has a wind barrier up. I can't penetrate it."

"Eodyne! It's not an illusion!"

"Silence."

I expected another gust, but instead, I felt something leave—a different feeling akin to a vacuum pulling at my clothes.

A faint pop rang through the hallway, and the temperature changed.

"Sturmrorex."

He uncoiled from my neck and flew before me, away from the others. It was tight, but he started spinning as if chasing his tail. The pulling effect stopped, and my lungs sucked in air.

Eodyne said something in her own language, but the fierce wind distorted the sound too much for me to make out.

"Rello, spike. Aleena, vines."

I sent Áine to Orlun, who stayed crouched, but he raised his sword and nodded.

This is going to hurt.

I stood up and peeked out from behind the spike.

Fuck.

There was a massive arrow, large enough to impale me all the way through, strung onto her bow. Eodyne looked like a storm goddess, with her hair whipping behind her. Her eyes were a brilliant blue, and she snarled with blindingly-white teeth.

"Eodyne! Stop!"

Mana rushed out of her body, and a flash of pure white burned my retinas. I ducked down, but it wasn't enough.

The stone behind me became shrapnel that shredded my back and cut lines into my flesh. I activated Magnus' skill and felt the mana skip over me.

She held dominion of the air.

And my perk screamed its warning. The hairs exposed under the back of my neck stood up. I smelled ozone.

A massive spear pushed into my back. A barrier appeared as the emergency protection item activated, absorbing the damage. I tried to slip away. But then a second spear slid into place.

It sank its claws deep into my tissue and boiled my blood even as Sturmrorex roared in outrage inside my mind.

The force was too much. I could barely control my fingers as they seized my spear with a death grip.

The electricity surged through my neck and up my jaw, where my tongue danced across my teeth.

Just as the hellfire inside my back rose to the surface, a second burst of energy slammed into it from behind. I felt my ribs chip as the power knocked it out of the way. Plasma tore through me, penetrating all the way through—the screaming missile crashing into the ground in an explosion of purple light.

I began to collapse, but Sturmrorex slingshotted around my neck and dragged me backward. There were no words exchanged as I crushed him beneath me, and his scales cushioned my fall.

The heat that seeped through my muscles and continued to electrify my blood was sucked away like a whirlpool into my core.

I opened my jaw and let it surge into my neck.

I tasted burnt copper and rusted iron.

Like a cannonball pushing its way out of my throat, I released the absorbed energy and screamed my fury.

A beam of bright purple zipped through the hallway and bounced off the walls.

Eodyne dodged and jumped out of the way, landing on the ceiling, but the bolt followed. She continued to move, blurring through my vision as tears began to cloud my sight.

I blinked them away, willing them to stop.

The deadly game of high-speed tag continued as I struggled to follow the chase. But Eodyne stopped in a corner and held out her hand.

She caught the purple javelin and began to spin, zipping across the wall like a top from right to left as the javelin dug furrows into the stone. She tumbled through the air and landed with her back hitting the ground.

As she lifted into the air, a massive stone spike cut across her hip and toward her shoulder, pinning her down.

Vines rose from the base of the spike, wrapping around her arms and legs, and tugged tight across her body.

Orlun charged forward, the mana beneath his boots launching him across the room like a battering ram, but before he could reach Eodyne, she opened her mouth and shot a ball of compressed air into his chest. He smashed into the far wall and whipped his helmet into the stone.

It didn't matter.

Sereza appeared. Her arms whipped forward and deposited two daggers through her shoulders. Another dagger stabbed into her thigh, but that was all she managed as Eodyne released a burst of electricity around her body.

The vines burned, and she kicked her leg free.

She wordlessly hopped up, jumped, and spun, winding her arm to the side and smashing the stone spike.

Shrapnel hit Sereza, and she went down, but so did Eodyne.

She collapsed to the floor and squirmed.

This time, the vines wrapped around her wrists and wrenched them backward, connecting her hands to her feet. Even as she raised her chin and began to open her mouth, a stone spike grew over her head, pinning her face to the ground with no wiggle room.

Sereza flicked a lazy dagger through the air, and it stabbed into her neck.

"That should do it..." she wheezed.

I felt a charge through the air and tried extending my arm, but Sturmrorex moved out from beneath me and shot to where Eodyne lay. Like a viper, he bit down and absorbed her mana, calming it inside his body.

"I'll do this over and over! Do not make me regret exchanging our spark, Child of Grounded Sky!"

"Mmmng."

Sereza walked up and pulled out a new knife along with a different bottle from her bandolier. She quickly coated the blade, pushed it into Eodyne's arm, and jumped back.

Eodyne tried to move and summon wind to her side, but Sturmrorex dispelled her hold.

"Enough!" he roared.

He needn't have bothered—Eodyne collapsed, and I felt her mana dim.

"Now it's enough... Fuck! Cyrus!"

"Uunnghh," I moaned.