The Ethersmith

Vivi woke up in the dark, disoriented and head spinning. Lucius hadn’t taken her to Paradise. The cave came to her with dizzying perspectives. The ground was hard, yet it felt unstable at the same time, as if she was on top of some solid smoke.

She requested ether, but Lucius didn’t provide. He was awake, though, eyes wide in fear as he hid perfectly still in her core, as if trying to hide from something.

Lucius? Vivi asked in her head. Where are we?

“Don’t move,” Lucius said. “Don’t call for ether. Stay absolutely silent.”

What is it?

“We were hit by a legendary skill. That was Banishment Portal.”

They were in a large and open cavern. The ground and walls were coated with a misty layer of pitch black ether, but she could make out the shape of the walls as the mist shifted around, moving. Occasionally, she could see the stone beneath until the dark layer shrouded the wall again. The ceiling was completely dark as the wisps rose there, creating a thick layer of pitch blackness. Within were tunnels, though those were completely dark. There were no light sources except Vivi herself, shining just enough to see.

It looked like Vivi wouldn’t have to worry about balls and political squabbles any time soon.

So… Vivi thought. Were we banished to damnation?

“I don’t know where we are!” Lucius said in a flurry of words. “Could be the tenth level, could be a dungeon, I don’t know!”

Let’s calm down, Vivi thought. I don’t sense any monsters. What does Banishment Portal do?

Lucius shifted his paws uncomfortably, while nervously eyeing their surroundings. “It creates a portal to the most dangerous part of the world, where the most ether is currently building. Anyone who falls inside is banished there to die.”

Vivi’s head perked up. So… the skill sent us to the place in the world with the most ether?

“The most ether currently building in any part of the levels,” Lucius said. “So the most dangerous place in the world.”

We’re on top of a storm zone, then?

“It could be a storm zone, or a dungeon, or whatever is the most dangerous place to teleport us into,” Lucius said. “Maybe some disaster is about to hit, or it could be a boss monster here.”

The most dangerous place in the world… Fantastic. Not quite what Vivi expected to end up in after her first royal ball.

Around her, the ether on the walls continued shifting, calmly and with no signs of danger. Do you know what that’s about?

“Probably a dungeon effect,” Lucius said. “I don’t feel any explosive storms building. If we’re lucky, ether releases slowly here with respawning monsters.”

Send three signals to Essi, Vivi thought. Let her know we’re alive. We’ll talk to her in Paradise soon. She’ll need to get the demons back to the fifth level.

“Uh, there’s a problem…” Lucius said. “I can’t access Paradise. My connection is completely cut. I can’t contact anyone.”

Vivi blinked. So how deep are we?

“It’s not the depth. Something is just blocking my access. I don’t know what it is, Vivi, I don’t know! Everything is hazy. I can access translation magic and spatial storage, but I’m not connected to Ythar.”

She bit her lip, thinking. What about the attackers? Demons raided the palace. Actual demons with runeswords. Do we know who they were? They tried to kill Helegar.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“I don’t know, Vivi, I don’t know…” Lucius said. “It could be anyone. Banishment Portal has been missing for a long time. If someone finally collected it, they could easily keep it a secret.”

Vivi bit her lip, thinking about the leader of the attackers. His aura hadn’t been that imposing. He must have been a concealer. Banishment Portal, however, had felt way worse than any skill she’d lived through before.

Maybe Lortel would know where we are. She was banished into the portal with us, right? Along with everyone else. And Helegar…

Vivi studied the ground around her for anyone who could be hiding within the mist of dark wisps. Her boots were submerged in the coating. Someone of Eem’s size could probably lie flat and hide underneath. She couldn’t feel any ethereal presences underneath, except for the ambient wisps themselves, of course.

Behind her, the wisps shifted, and Vivi spotted something red. Fabric?

A woman sat up. It was Aolinn, who’s fallen in while holding Vivi’s hand. The noblewoman coughed, disoriented. She squinted at her surroundings.

She shrieked, falling back on her butt, and her eyes shot open, as if she’d woken up in a nightmare. She crawled backward, only for the dark mist to get into her lungs. She coughed. For a while, she whimpered with her hands buried in the mist, holding her weight.

“Quiet down,” Vivi said. “We don’t know who’s listening.”

“Vivian?” Aolinn asked, voice panicked. “Where are we?”

Vivi just stared at the noblewoman, wondering what to do. The thought of taking care of this noblewoman felt like a chore more than anything else. Should she have felt bad?

“Looks like we got banished,” Vivi said. “If you want us to survive, quiet down. There will be monsters here.”

Shock remained on Aolinn’s face, but she managed to push herself up. Right away, she straightened her dress. That seemed to come out of habit. Her ball outfit was in one piece, though the dress had small stains now, as if it had scrubbed dirty stone.

Then Aolinn nervously stepped closer, as if she wanted to hold her hand. “Help me out of here. My father will reward you.”

No apologies? Vivi thought. Not even a ‘please’?

Well, that was about what she could expect from Helegar’s daughters. Aolinn was far from the brightest companion Vivi could have for a trip. At least Aolinn didn’t sound demanding. She seemed genuinely afraid for her life, with Vivi being the only safety she could cling to.

Vivi didn’t really feel safe herself. She’d be insane if she felt comfortable in a place like this. But after surviving so many unfamiliar situations, she wasn’t scared either. She had a lot of energy right now. That had to be spent wisely. Panicking was the quickest way to die a stupid death.

“You can follow me if you want,” Vivi said sternly, hoping she would only have to say this once. “I won’t abandon you, but I won’t risk my life to protect you. If you make yourself too difficult to protect, I can’t guarantee you’ll survive.”

Aolinn nodded. She breathed in, trying to make herself calm. “What happened? Why are we here?”

“We got hit by Banishment Portal,” Vivi said. “And no, I don’t know where we are.”

Aolinn’s face paled. “Isn’t that a legendary skill?”

Vivi didn’t respond and instead thought about her next options, gathering all the information she knew. There was a crazy amount of ether all around her, possibly respawning monsters or a storm break, and for all they knew, she could be well into the depths of the levels, deeper than humanity even knew the levels extended.

All the while, Essi and Anthony were stuck on the surface with Patryn and the ballistics team. Veronica Lifeweaver, their only ally, was dead. Helegar had been banished as well, leaving the city in the demons’ control. Vivi could only trust that Essi could teleport everyone out of there.

Hell, she hoped the demon attackers hadn’t banished or killed Essi as well.

Vivi decided to push her ethereal aura outward quickly in succession, giving a signal to her immediate surroundings. If Lortel or one of the Darkwind hunters was here, they’d sense it and could respond. Lucius agreed to her request and let her use ether as normal.

No response came. No monsters either, thankfully, but no signs of her allies.

“What will we do?” Aolinn asked hesitantly.

“Our first goal is to make sure we don’t die to monsters,” Vivi said. “We’ll have to hope I’m strong enough to defeat whatever attacks us. Second, we’ll have to find food and water.”

“What about the exit?” Aolinn asked.

Vivi frowned. Not at Aolinn, but at the dark tunnels around her. There were four of them, the smallest being low enough that Vivi would have to hunch her head, and the largest was the size of the double doors in Helegar’s ballroom. It looked like she’d need to pick a lucky direction and hoped she found food or an exit.

“We’ll explore until we find it,” Vivi said. “Your dress will get in the way. Let me cut it.”

Aolinn hesitated before biting her lip. “Yes, that’s smart.”

Vivi summoned Dawnpour out of spatial storage to cut the hem. Just as she added ether to the giant sword’s runes, however, the wisps on the ground rose, enveloping the room in total darkness. “Vivi?” Aolinn cried out as every light source cut from their vision. Vivi couldn’t see the glow of her sword despite it being directly in her hands.

“Stay right there, don’t move!” Vivi ordered.

She reached into her void core and entered Death Sense, where she finally felt a clear map of the cavern around them. All the walls, the dangers, and the ether that made up the most dangerous place in the world.

Monsters approached from all four tunnels around her.