The Ethersmith

Death Sense still threatened to turn Vivi into a monster as she allowed void ether into her body. The void realm was how monsters viewed the world. Not with the five senses humans usually had; everything in her surroundings registered from the ambient ether in the air. In her head was a perfect map of every object and every little detail of the cavern, at the cost of losing her other senses.

Most importantly, Death Sense could judge ethereal auras by the danger they threatened her with. A regular sharp steel arrow was a mild threat, not something that Vivi had to immediately react to, while a runesword crashing down on her head was a grave threat; something that Vivi would deal with by instinct. She could also feel moods and emotions in the void realm. Aolinn’s fear, and the liquid puddling under her feet, was clear despite her lacking ethereal presence. The ambient misty ether in the air was thick but surprisingly calm.

The four monsters were pure evil.

They had spikes all over their bodies, a mouth larger than their face with sharp teeth, scraggly arms with pointy hairs, with rotten ethereal auras. She couldn’t see them, of course, but she felt the thousands of ether concentrated into each monster—not quite as much as with the godslayers she’d fought—but something about the ungodly feeling of these monsters was worse, as if they’d eaten a thousand humans, using their screaming cores for power.

Vivi activated Ascension Of Divinity, bringing her ether count to ten thousand and pushed ether through all seven of Dawnpour’s runes, including the shockwave rune, and slashed in a wide arc, hitting three of the monsters.

They were staggered but didn’t die instantly, while the fourth one shot out its sharp tongue as a projectile.

Major threat, Vivi thought, but the tongue wasn’t aimed at her. Its path was to pierce Aolinn’s heart. Vivi’s life wasn’t in danger. She wouldn’t need to react.

Goddamned monsters! she shouted in her head and hit the tongue with her sword.

A heavy impact followed as if she’d hit solid steel. Her sword won, and the tongue was cut in half, the remaining bits being blown back like whips.

Vivi grabbed Aolinn with her left hand and dashed at the same monster, slamming Dawnpour with a heavy overhead swing. The cursed creature opened its mouth, as if to block the sword with its teeth, or eat the blade.

The mouth was crushed to bits by Grandpa’s masterpiece, as the monster couldn’t survive the best runesword in the world. Its intestines burst open and were pushed to the ground by the force of the shockwave runes.

She ran past, into the tunnel, while three tongues shot at her back. Two clearly missed, and the last ran out of range, the tongue falling on the ground before hitting her. She continued running with Aolinn on her arms.

Why am I helping this girl! Vivi asked herself. Keeping Aolinn with her would only drag her down, and seeing the girl, or hearing her voice, irritated her. Aolinn and her father were pests in their own country.

So why did she feel such a strong urge to protect the evil little thing?

She didn’t know, but she ran deeper into the tunnel, Aolinn in her hands. The monsters behind didn’t seem to be very fast, if they chased at all. Vivi was more concerned about what lay ahead. If she ran blindly into a full nest of these things, that would be catastrophic. She had to find a safe spot fast.

There weren’t many options to choose from, as the tunnel ahead opened up, and the air grew hotter, and a colossal feeling of ambient ether down below. Something huge rested here.

The path ended in a cliff. Vivi cut off her void core, eyesight returning, and she found herself on a cliffside near the ceiling, overlooking an enormous cavern of lava, hundreds of feet below. Islands floated within, little roach-like critters drinking lava within. The lake continued, until it ended in a waterfall, or lavafall, continuing below.

Atop the lavafall, pinned to the ceiling with a giant stone spear, rested a petrified monstrosity brimming with concentrated inactive ether.

It was a giant but wretched humanoid figure with wings, wearing a rusted helmet On its back was a greataxe with a shaft as long as the monster was tall. Its skin appeared to be petrified; it wasn’t moving, though Vivi could still sense the ether inside it. The number must have been well into the millions. If it awoke, she’d have a serious battle at her hands.

The most dangerous dungeon in the world…

Thankfully, the monster wasn’t moving. Aolinn was still crying with her eyes closed. Vivi looked around herself, spotting another tunnel that led back into the dark caverns.

The dark place is probably safer for now, she thought. The monsters there were defeatable with void ether.

With Aolinn still in her arms, she headed into the next dark open cavern. She pushed her void core active again, feeling the new area and the tunnel below to see if the monsters from before followed.

Nothing happened after half a minute, so she forced her void core shut, calling off her ascension skill.

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Vision returned, and she once again found herself in a very similar cavern. She could see again, the mist having settled. Aolinn was crying in her arms, holding onto her raincoat. Lucius didn’t say anything either, but kept watching their surroundings, as if expecting something to blow up.

Vivi let Aolinn down. “It’s okay. We lived. Can you stand?”

Aolinn continued crying. She struggled to get words out through her sniffles. Her heels had fallen off, and her dress had rips in it, but she stood.

Vivi studied the cavern. It was really quite monotonous, with only minor differences in the layout and shape of the walls. The void realm had revealed all that was beneath the mist: nothing. Well, a few pebbles and dirt, but nothing of note. If plants had lived there, they had all died. There didn’t seem to be much nature’s ether here. Just a whole bunch of creepy evil.

“What happened?” Aolinn managed to blurt out. “It all went black, I heard a screech, and…”

“Just monsters,” Vivi said. “We got out. I killed them.” A small lie, but maybe that would calm her down. I’m surprised a monster screeched though. They’re usually silent.

“Vivi…” Lucius said in her head. “I don’t think that was a monster.”

What?

“It didn’t disintegrate. It had guts in it. It screeched. That…”

No, Vivi thought, appalled by the thought.

“That was an animal,” Lucius finished.

Something twisted in her stomach. She took a deep breath, then tried to ignore what she had just learned. Everything Lucius said was right. The monster had indeed had guts inside it.

Those were monsters, Vivi thought. Even if they were alive, they were monsters.

She left it at that and turned to Aolinn. “If that happens again, close your ears with your hands and shut your eyes. I’ll try not to let you die. But stay upright so it’s easier for me to grab you. Understood?”

Aolinn’s whole body shook a little, but she nodded. “Please. I’ll do everything you say.” Another sniffle. “Just don’t leave me here…”

Vivi returned the nod and finished what she was planning on before the monsters attacked. She cut the oversized hem of Aolinn’s dress, giving her legs more room to move. Aolinn had worn light socks with her heels, but the socks were soaked now, and same with the inside of Aolinn’s legs. Vivi helped her take the socks off and used one part of the hem she’d just cut to wipe her feet. The rest of the fabric wrapped well around Aolinn’s feet for some walking protection, because she definitely wasn’t about to go looking for any lost heels.

“From now on, do as I say, and avoid wasting energy,” Vivi said. “We might not have food or water for a long time.”

“I promise to do as you say,” Aolinn said. “If the darkness happens again, I will stand still with my eyes closed.”

She sounded honest enough, though Vivi knew she’d panic anyway when something happened. Vivi had the urge to sigh, but at the same time, she somehow felt bad for this poor girl.

Even if Aolinn really didn’t deserve it.

Vivi picked another direction, one that led upward, and the exploration continued.

***

The good thing about owning the best runesword in the world was that if Vivi hit something, it usually died.

That thankfully included the disgusting animals in this odd dark cave, whatever it was called. For hours, she walked with Aolinn, picking the caverns that traveled up, crossing cavern after cavern of just darkness.

The second time she was attacked happened fifteen minutes after the first attack, but it was only two of them. Vivi charged straight in with her ascension skill active, killing them before they could kill her. This time, they came when the cavern still had light, letting Vivi see their features.

There wasn’t much to admire. They were giant insects, really. Kind of like the fanglings from Zand’s dungeon, except these ones were much more screwed-up. Vivi picked up ether from her kills, around nine thousand each, and she continued on, leaving the dead insects on the ground.

The pitch black darkness came randomly as well. Sometimes it came with monsters. Another time it came on its own, and Vivi just carried Aolinn out of it with void ether guiding the way.

She really didn’t know what was going on in here. The dungeon was just odd. She would have loved to talk to scientists about this place.

Even more than that, she would have loved food.

Or water.

Or anything that wasn’t just endless dark wisps and caverns.

At least the monster attacks were decently rare…

Aolinn stayed quiet for hours straight. That surprised Vivi a lot. The noblewoman didn’t bring up her lineage or try to pressure Vivi. Aolinn actually did as asked, following instructions as well as a human without a core reasonably could. She didn’t bother Vivi or make life difficult, and she kept up with the pace Vivi walked at, even though her shoes were just fabric.

“Still alive?” Vivi asked. “Are your feet getting cold?”

“I’m fine,” Aolinn said, though she sounded tired.

“If something is difficult, mention it,” Vivi said. “I can’t promise I can help, but I can’t have you collapsing either.”

“My feet are hurting, but I can deal with it,” Aolinn said.

Good enough, I guess, Vivi thought, and continued. She worked with Lucius to figure out which one of the tunnels led upward. Her senses were sharper if she used void ether, but that used a lot of her body’s energy. It was better if Lucius spent ether to check ahead. Their ether reserves wouldn’t be running out any time soon. She sent occasional pulses of ether as signals, hoping to reach Lortel or the Darkwind hunters, but nothing came back.

Lucius was much less talkative. He was usually smug about sharing information, but now that he was just as clueless about their surroundings as Vivi, his personality seemed to switch. He observed their surroundings and tried his best to learn.

Aolinn was silent for a minute, until she said, “Vivi?”

“You are allowed to talk to me.”

“Yes…” Aolinn said. After another nervous pause, she asked, “My father fell into the void… portal thing as well, right?”

Vivi kept walking, surprised that Aolinn even remembered the attack. “He did. And so did my friends.”

“Will we find him here?”

“We’re trying to find anything at all,” Vivi said. “Food and water are our first priorities, followed by an exit and everyone else.”

“Yes.” Aolinn’s face pointed at the ground. “People don’t like my father, do they? I know he’s not always right… But he was almost assassinated.”

People don’t like you either, Vivi thought. And it’s not very nice to yell at commoners on the streets.

“Is my father really that bad?” Aolinn asked.

Somehow, Aolinn sounded sincere, as if she genuinely wanted an answer to that. Or at least, she wanted to hear that her father wasn’t bad.

She’s just an arrogant noblewoman, Vivi thought. If she was the one with power, defending me, I’d already be dead.

“We’ll save your father if we find him,” Vivi said. “For now, please pray to Ythar that we find something soon, because if there’s no water or food here, we might have to start eating those insects.”