Chapter 228: I Will Not Fold.
“Hey, Moonwash–” I dropped from the ceiling, only to promptly catch an explosion to the face!
I tumbled in the air and ruined my landing, and what I was about to say!
“What happened?” I questioned. I looked around, and found my girlfriend safe behind a barrier that rose from the ground. “Great job, Pandemonium! But where’s my shield?”
The walls of the lab shrugged.
I clicked my tongue and shook my fist at it.
“Haell, how was the Folded Planes?” Moonwash walked over to me as I stood back up.
“It’s still there,” I snarked. “How about you? What was that earlier?”
“I was trying to make a new potion.”
“What? The potion of exploding?” I cackled.
“Yes.”
“Oh. So that was your intention?”
“It was. But not this soon. It’s unstable, and very weak.”
“Yeah. That’s true. I only played along for the laughs, but it would’ve done nothing to me if I actually braced myself. I don’t think it would’ve been enough to hurt you either.”
“No. But what about those guns you mentioned? Maybe this would be enough to make them?”
My face darkened. “I… don’t know if making guns is the best idea.”
She shrugged. “I’ll make them eventually. But I won’t sell them to the open market if you think it’s a bad idea.”
“Well, that’s fine then. Might be nice to shoot one for the first time in a looong time.” I dropped the subject. “Anyway, I came here to tell you about what I’ve been working on for the past weeks. I think I've got it! The way to teleport!”
She dropped the vials of different substances she’d been looking over this entire time.
“Tell me everything.”
~~~
I did just as my lovely girlfriend asked. I told her about all the creatures I fought, but Moonwash was very uncharacteristically insistent that we temporarily skip that knowledge to get on with the teleportation stuff.
I obliged her wishes, and spoke about the telemanter. I told her about my theories, of how it was creating a temporary yet fundamental change in space, if not creating an entirely new dimension overlaid on top of our usual one. With a tether in place, those mantis creatures were then able to translocate from one semi-dimension to another.
My girlfriend took her time thinking over this new information, writing it down, collating it all.
Her hands then suddenly paused as she blurted out, “It’s like the Extra-Dimensional Demon-Blood Storages that you have.” Now she scribbled faster, both her pencil and paper made of the good stuff, else they would’ve broke. “Those are more separate from our reality, so it’s different. But we know that those spaces have different properties than ours. They have materials they’re highly compatible with and not. But what if that isn’t the extent of the different properties a separate dimension might hold? I remember that Illusion Dragon speaking of a hypothetical spatial dragon maybe being able to fiddle with the way mana works. I think that’s just about what’s going on with what you described.” She stared at me with bland and unremarkable intensity. “Haell, we need to go, right now.”
“Already ahead of you.” I grabbed her by the waist and burst through the wall! I repeated this over and over and through the ceiling too, until we arrived at the teleportation room. What we found there was a big pile of native Folded Planes creatures all sliced up in many places and leaking their blood all over the floor.
“Ahhh… I used a dagger! I tried to take them out as unblemished as possible! And I actually succeeded at that!” I explained to Moonwash. “But it’s the travel back home that got to them! My Mark of The Beast’s long range teleport experiences some issues working inside the Folded Planes. And after all my self-satisfaction about leaving the carcasses intact for once… Oops.”
“I see. Don’t feel bad, Haell. It makes sense. Space was in flux, and you affected such a massive area, so it’s only natural for the process to become more unstable.”
“Moonwash…” I stared into her eyes. “It just occurred to me, that maybe it’s not the best idea to teleport back there, if my mark is right in the middle of the wonderzone.”
“No. It’ll be fine,” she denied.
“It might not be!” I picked her back up. “Come on. We’ll fly there. I’ll carry you.”
“Fine,” she allowed. “Pandemonium, store the new materials for me.”
The many layers of ceiling saluted us as we flew right through them.
~~~
It didn’t take long until we hurtled right back into the Folded Planes Wonderzone. I landed with my girlfriend, and she swiftly started looking for a telemanter. I picked Moonwash up and carried her around again, so we could find this elusive creature.
I did a sweep of the region, dodging all the other monsters who sought to pick a fight. So violent. I passed through rocky terrain, some with cloying grass, and others with shrubs and a sparse few trees. Something teleported from right behind the trunk of one, and I knew that I finally found my prey.
Moonwash took out her wand, saturated her mind with space mana, and then spread the element all around us. This environment was actually the best for her to be able to perceive dimensions at all, given its nature.
I settled in to watch the telemanter with her, to see regular teleportation in action. The telemanter blinked all over the place, attempting to attack us. I knew my girlfriend was fine with the level advantage and her own armor, but I still frowned and taunted the telemanter. Now the dumb animal only cared to poke me with its toothpick arms! Problem solved.
“How can a mere gold-ranked creature even teleport when I still can’t!” I complained.
“Its brain is built for that one thing and one thing only,” Moonwash explained. “That’s how it can cast a spell so complex.”
“It’s stabbing me right now,” I pointed out. “Clearly it knows more than that.”
“Okay. You’re right. I misspoke. The telemanter does know a little more than I implies, but it’s really really dumb, even for a non-sapient monster.”
“I can see it,” I shrugged in agreement. “I don’t even have to taunt these things, usually. I don’t think they know about the concept of fleeing.” I chuckled. “Bravery at its finest.”
“It’s believed that their population is in jeopardy because they often forget to reproduce. It’s only their inherent strength that keeps their number above extinction. Although I suspect the wonderzone or the world could always make more.”
I snorted. “Seriously? They forgot how to have sex?”
“They barely know it to begin with.”
“Scathing.” I laughed.
~~~
I marched deeper into the Folded Planes. I was alone once more, for I’d dropped Moonwash back at Bessiahorn so she could pass the time there while I rushed off into certain danger. The upper range of the monsters here were so dangerous, that I might only be able to escape if I were on my own. Moonwash could be killed without me ever getting the chance to save her… like what happened at that party to happen again. I might not be able to save her a second time.
I would feel that helplessness again. A great triumph, so abruptly inverted into despair. I revived in a land of death. My friends suffered that same fate. Only I am able to come back from the dead.
My eyes hardened, and I gritted my teeth. I expunged the echoes of that fear. I did not stop, I marched on to kill.
Through rocky terrain, gray deserts, and obvious deposits of spatial Materials. I saw other teams of dwarves and harpies hunting the creatures of this realm, and availing themselves of the crystals and ores grown out of cliffs and plateaus. Some stared curiously, others called out in greeting, but I did not stay long to chat.
I came across a Level 80 spaceater, one of the most sought after creatures here. A mix between an elephant and anteater about my height but several times in volume, the monster immediately turned around and started running away! Space compressed in front of it, and then enlarged behind, letting it run faster while delaying me in my pursuit!
I employed my own space magic. I charged right through the shifts in trajectory, and then counteracted the expansion with my own compression. I reached the enemy, and it trilled in alarm. The spaceater tried to protect its whole body in an expansive barrier of curving space, but my Atrocity pushed through it to rake across the enemy’s side!
It’s still impressive that the monster was able to redirect my attack at all. It would’ve been outright crippled had Atrocity hit where I wanted, but now it only limped.
The spaceater tried to attack me with its long snout, only to recoil and cry when I cut it right off! The creature did have the strong body of a Level 80, but it really didn’t have many offensive options, hence why its first instinct was to run. Now I look like the bad guy and the bully here!!
My enemy used its last resort, and unleashed a chaotic spatial storm. It was far less powerful than mine, and I slammed atrocity through it even as I was scratched up by the aimless dimensional blades. My greatsword sliced through the creature’s neck at an angle, and the spaceater lost its focus, thereby stopping the chaotic magic.
The… honestly cute monster screamed and whined as it died. I winced, for I didn’t intend for it to be like this! I wanted to end it in one shot, but the monster struggled to survive far too much.
I raised Atrocity high into the air, and then melted the blood inside my body for one powerful and clean strike that finally put the spaceater out of its misery.
~~~
The journey to the center continued. I began to feel nauseous again as the space around me became ever more twisted. A wasteland where even this realm’s natives dared not tread. I could not comprehend my surroundings, for even the sights around me had become an incomprehensible blur.
Step by step, I slowly acclimatized myself until I was able to keep going again. As space bent and curved in ever more horrifying ways, so too did I learn. This dimension itself began to fray, until it then began to break, and my armor was struck by this confluence. It was a natural spatial storm of blades that sheared and scratched at my armor, and ever increasingly, flesh.
The environment progressively grew more extreme, until I finally found another wanderer who shared with me this wonderful space.
The being was a vague humanoid taller than me, though they may be quite beautiful for all I knew, their features only obscured by this dimensional anomaly. But from what I could tell, they barely had a face; only one big hungering maw. The known monster’s limbs were long, tipped with an unequal amount of lengthy fingers that were actually all blades.
The severeal immediately attacked once it was in range, and I met its claw with Atrocity. Our blades dug into each other, and then my eyes suddenly widened as I flapped my wings and jumped back. I hurted leftwards, opposed to how I wished to navigate, but that was of little concern. My Atrocity itself was chipped and damaged by that clash!
The severeal gave me no moment of rest, nor the chance to process, for it suddenly appeared right in front of me, its claws already swinging down! I twisted, dodged, and turned, but still a wing was severed, along with the arm!
I frowned and glowered, but kept on retreating. I retracted my remaining wing, and then regrew the arm. The severeal wasted no time in giving chase. The twisted space around us gave way to its will, and allowed it smooth passage. I sacrificed my blood and achieved the power to push right through, but the world remained a twisted mess to all my senses. The severeal eventually caught up, and then kicked with the long blades it also had on its legs!
I slammed Atrocity down, making sure that blade did not meet blade. The monster’s claws scratched up my thigh, but the limb remained attached. I burned through blood and mana to keep it that way.
The severeal teleported again, and appeared right behind me, but this time I was ready! I tracked it through both the semi-dimension it created, and the mana it used to do so. My hellfire surged toward the prick, making it scream in pain!
Atrocity followed, but that, my enemy was able to dodge. My cursed blade went the wrong way, while the severeal slinked away in an unnatural jolt.
The monster disappeared again, and then reappeared beyond striking range! It tried to spear me from afar through a tunnel of compressed space, but this time I interrupted its space magic with my own. The severeal’s claws came up short, and it missed. I smashed Atrocity down in an attempt to sever that errant arm, but I only managed a scratch!
The wound rotted from the inside.
I grinned, for this was the start of my counterattack! I faced the severeal and charged forward. I slashed Atrocity towards my foe, and landed another scratch. The space around us found order in its chaos, hereby protecting my enemy, but that magic too I countered with my own. I pressed the advantage, and a furious exchange of blades followed!
I had to be careful. I now recognized the sharpness of its claws as the result of powerful magic. A dimensional blade was somehow anchored into each individual claw. I wanted it for myself, but I couldn’t possibly copy the spell right here and now. So instead, I came up with a counter! I just had to make sure that the edge of Atrocity did not smash headlong into the edge of those spatial rends, and my greatsword would remain undamaged! Well, mostly. I couldn’t possibly forego my weapon against a foe this strong.
We continued to tear each other apart.
Deep gouges steadily landed on me, but I healed. Shallow wounds peppered the creature, and each one festered.
Hellfire surged towards the creature, and it screamed! The severeal teleported away, right into a storm of curses! I recognized the dimensional anomalies now, those blinks of it would no longer take me by surprise!
“Hellfireball!”
A whole ritual was made in a second, but the projectile predictably missed. The severeal’s labyrinthine barrier protected it from the greater mass of my hellfire, though the heat still aggravated its wounds. My cursed miasma was less affected, turning the monster’s unhealthy pallor into an even more sickly bruise. My enemy missed a step, and I did not miss the opening! I unleashed the confluence of my curse and attempted to suppress the enemy’s teleport, but I failed! My blade buried itself on ragged stone, while the severeal landed another rough slice across my back!
I growled, turned around, and retook the offensive! I bled across the ground as my enemy’s dismemberment steadily progressed. Its silvery-red blood took on a darker shade. It suffered from my vengeance, and was ruined over the blood of mine that it spilled, but my mini-rituals provided no life-ending opening either. I spun around and swung Atrocity wide, to smash apart the stupid monster that predictably went for the backstab again!
“…Eh?”
The severeal wasn’t there. I swung Atrocity through thin air. Seven claws raked through my waist as I tried to leap away. My lower half was chopped up into many separate pieces!
“Fuck!” I coughed. I vomited blood. I opened my wings again, now fully remade. My legs regrew as well, depleting my stock of blood mana to only two-thirds left. The damned severeal had made a feint, and I fell right for it!
“Retribution of The Absiced!”
I detonated my severed body parts! The severeal recoiled from the flames and the curses that overwhelmed its defenses. The dimensional rends were even worse, as it was paradoxically even harder to defend from using space magic alone.
I took half a step away, and then froze for one eternal moment, just like that fateful day. I should run, I should flee, I knew that this was a fight too risky. I could tank the severeal’s slices all day so long as it didn’t manage to outright sever something completely; but it had done that, multiple times! I needed to leave right now.
But I don’t want to. I already fled with my tail tucked between my legs against the damn archangels. I allowed them to take away even my normal everyday life. My freedom to just move around and exist. So I don’t want to lose again! I can’t! I feel that I will lose something crucial and important to myself if I give up again today, against these odds. I will win and prove my power as the Demon Queen and this world’s sole Devil!
I hardened my glare, planted my hooves, and stood my ground! I screamed and swung Atrocity at the severeal as it leapt away from the result of my self-sacrifice. Finally, I managed a clean hit across its chest, but then the monster once again teleported away. It came at me from the side, and I gave it my all to deflect the stab.
Magic poured out of my body, the maximum my horns could handle. I needed not worry about my capacity, for I had three minds with which to control the primordial force of mana. My courage and bloodlust mixed in a heady mixture, as I once again went on the offensive despite everything that had happened. My best defense was an unrelenting offense, so I pressured the monster. I would never die, but the severeal could be unmade! I will outlast you, I will outlast the world!
The severeal continued to teleport all around me, looking for an opening. It often found what it wanted, but rarely in full. Even when it tried for another feint, I only lost half a single arm. It pained me to not go after every teleport like a berserk goblin, but now I had enough leeway to at least minimize the damage from a feint!
We both suffered, the cost of our conflict. I lost all pieces of my armor somewhere along the way, while not a speck of the monster’s original light-grey skin remained. The severeal eventually began to keep a larger and larger distance away from me, and that’s when I understood how it was now the one who was thinking of fleeing. After all the blood we had already spilled, and the hate that we both held.
I would not let it. I wouldn’t allow this. Stay, you fucking coward! I glared at the beast, and swayed its rationality.
It had minimal effect, and now I was the one giving chase! The roles reversed, as I charged after my prey across this broken space. The severeal navigated with unrestricted ease, while I just barreled through with sheer power. I shot my magic, and inundated the enemy with great waves of agony whenever I got close enough. The creature teleported around annoyingly, and I was barely able to keep up, especially as it made liberal use of feints.
My resolve did not crack. I fought for however long I needed to shave away this creature’s life. The very terrain helped me, as the ambient dimensional storm intensified. My persistence paid off, as the severeal made a mistake, and gave me one opening as it tired and fell apart! I severed a whole arm, for all the times it had cut off my own limbs! Hellfire covered its festering body entirely, and curses invaded its mind. My glare sent the monster into a panic, and I felt it teleport away.
I crushed the entire space around its destination. A dimension already broken, it cracked under my power into ever finer shards of glass. The severeal reappeared right in the middle of the spatial devastation, and I knew more than anyone what the fuck that meant. Its own semi-dimension was torn apart, along with the user inside!
The severeal screamed, as its many many fingers flew off! The monster’s body sagged, as what nerves and tissues remained were severed. It bowed its head in supplication, to me, the victor. But the best has yet to come.
I charged right through the spatial devastation I created. I cackled as I finally got the opening to land a full Confluence of Curse! I relished in the destruction, as I slammed my Atrocity all the way across the length of the severeal’s torso!
“DIIIEEE!!!”
So I commanded, and so did my enemy obey. Every bone in the way of my final attack was shattered, and then the innards that persisted nearly disintegrated. The severeal’s hungering maw yawned open as it finally breathed its pathetic last.
I did not flee. I did not run away. I won.