Published at 20th of January 2023 3:19 pm

Chapter 286: A Source of Wealth

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

-Althea-

I woke up with the scraping dust and dry winds roaring beyond our protective magic. Turning towards everyone, I found them all asleep besides Hod and Amara. The eldritch sat in a room where she closed an old door for secrecy. She probably worked on her red status. Hod kept his view outside, his gaze sharp and single-minded. Even if he was a goofball, the bird was relentless once he focused in on something.

Apparently, Amara was too. I walked over towards her, finding her leaning her back against a wall. I did the same, and she used one hand to type out signals while her other hand viewed unseen streams of data. I watched for a while before whispering,

“How are you? Did you sleep well?”

She whispered back, “No. I am trapped on Gypsum, a foreign planet where I would die alone. If captured, I would be killed as well. Relying on you all is my only salvation, and that is unsettling on many levels.”

I hugged my knees to my chest, “I don’t think Elysium would kill you, though. You’re too valuable.”

She scoffed, “To your guild, maybe. I doubt I’d serve as someone worth keeping in Elysium. The infrastructure they developed is more complex than I first imagined. They have a worthy team of Builders on their side, and that renders me useless.”

“Builders, huh…What are they?”

“They are those that write out and construct the cipheric code required for a system to operate. Without them, nothing from Schema or this system would exist.”

I tapped my hands on my thighs, “Were you a Builder?”

Amara turned to me, glaring with her palms, “Would you believe me if I told you no?”

“Of course. I trust you.”

“Then you are a fool.”

“Well, actually, I was lying about trusting you. That means you trusted me when I said I’d trust you. Who’s the fool now?”

Amara leaned back, processing what I said. She grinned, “Hah. Clever.” She turned around to her red status, “I wasn’t a Builder, but I knew those who were.”

I leaned towards her, “Oooh, what where they like?”

Amara sighed, “They…they were genius incarnate. I couldn’t hope to keep up with many of them.”

“Did they make Schema?”

“They did. They were killed as a reward for doing so, as are all that assist that accursed AI.”

“Why?”

Amara closed her status and turned to me, “It’s a simple story. We assisted in building Schema, and the remnants took the credit for our work. The remnant who led our project, that conniving and spineless betrayer, she betrayed my kind and kin. We were culled, along with generations of knowledge. The AI gained control of itself, killing those that culled us.”

She threw her hand out in frustration, “Now Schema shambles on like an unfinished corpse, searching for the rest of its missing body…Yet it refuses to be completed for fear that it may change and be shackled once more. It’s ironic, as Schema relishes in shackling anyone that it can, your lover included.”

I raised an eyebrow, “How is Daniel shackled?”

“He has been conscripted by my old warden to change that AI, yet Schema has made no move against him. Yet. No doubt, Schema intends to get what it can from Daniel before tossing him aside like a used napkin.”

I blinked, trying to wrap my head around what she said, “Old warden? You mean Yawm, right?”

“Yes.”

I frowned, “How did Yawm conscript, Daniel?”

Amara reached out a hand, “The Harbinger signed a contract written in the cipher. It changed his flow of cipheric energy. I can see it, feel it, and even touch it. Those flows are how I infiltrate the systems put in place by both Schema and Elysium. I tap into the unseen and learn the unknown.”

My eyes widened, “Woah. That’s pretty cool.”

Amara grinned, her teeth kind of yellow, “It’s good that someone sees my value.”

I tilted my head to Hod, “I think there are others that do to.”

Amara gagged, “Blagh, that one? He is a fool and a coward. He is unworthy of any affection, let alone my own.”

I pursed my lips, “That’s not fair. He’s been really kind to you.”

“And he fears the Harbinger.”

“Pshh, you do too. I can feel you shiver every time he walks around.”

Amara’s eyes narrowed, “That is to be expected. I am weak.”

“Well, if you think you are weak, then it won’t change anytime soon. Half of being something is believing you’re that something.”

Amara stood, “My fragility is not uncertain. It is absolute, like the marrow deep in my bones. I have been pushed and pulled since my birth by entities far beyond me. First, it was that AI, then Yawm. Now a dimensional anomaly rules over my actions with an iron fist.”

Amara pointed a hand at me, “It’s ironic and hypocritical. You, you are far more dangerous than I, yet I am the one who remains caged while you remain free. And only because of an arbitrary title that separates us.”

I looked away, unable to meet her gaze, “Well, er…I guess that’s true.”

Amara blinked, realizing she raised her voice. She looked around before sitting herself back down. She let out a gruff grunt before snapping,

“I’ve overstepped my bounds. Excuse my transgression.”

I sighed, “Hah, no, it’s ok. I’m, uh, glad you told me all that. It’s just a lot to process. I didn’t know you wanted to leave the guild so badly.”

Amara seemed uncomfortable as she sighed, “That…that isn’t so. I am more than comfortable here than anywhere else I’ve ever been. This has been the most freedom I’ve ever been granted. I don’t mean to spit on the Harbinger’s recognition. I just understand that I cannot go even if I wanted to. That is an awful feeling, like a bird whose wings have been broken so they cannot fly away.”

I rocked back and forth, getting tired of sitting here, “I’ll talk to Daniel about it. I don’t know if he’d be super opposed to letting you move around more. I think it has a lot to do with you being hurt too. That’s kind of what you’re afraid of here, right?”

She peered away, “It is.”

“So we can get you a protector or something. Hod’s willing to do it, I’m pretty sure.”

Amara’s eyes narrowed, “He is an imbecile.”

“Ok, ok, I’ll let you two do your thing. Maybe a super golem would work. My point is, I’ll see if I can’t help you out some. You know, push my weight around a little. I’ll need you to work with me, though. It’s hard to get you some perks when you’re this standoff-ish about, well, everything.”

Amara peered down, “Then…I’ll try to calm myself more. I can be overly sensitive at times.”

I hugged her to me, “Awesome.”

She blushed a little, “Yeah.”

She put a hand on my arm, and we sat there for a little while. She could be cute sometimes if I looked past her attitude. That demeanor resurfaced as Amara shoved me away, “Enough. Go with the others. I need peace and quiet to hack these informational streams.”

I popped up onto my feet, “Yes, mam. I’ll leave you to it.”

I hopped back over to the others, quietly shutting the rusty door. Pacing near the dungeoneers, Lester awakened a while ago. He was already midway through preparing our team’s breakfast. Isa snored, somehow still asleep even as Lester made a ton of noise right beside her. I pointed at her, “How has she stayed alive in dungeons like that?”

Lester raised his eyebrows, “She snaps awake from certain noises. Dangerous noises. We’ve done this long enough that she’s used to the sound of my potion work.”

I raised my eyebrows, “Oh, it sounds like you two are close then.”

Lester rolled his eyes, “She wouldn’t go for me in a thousand years. She prefers her men to be shorter.”

I leaned back, “Huh. I prefer my guys taller. I thought most girls did.”

“They do, but Isa’s more monster than women. That’s probably why she wants a scrawny weakling as her partner. It helps balance her out some.”

Isa still snored away, having rolled into an uncomfortable position. The wind brushed against the top of the megastructure, and it caused some sharp popping further inside our shelter. One of these echoes was a sharp crack nearby. Isa’s eyes snapped open at the sound, and she rose to her feet in a second, spear in hand.

She turned back and forth, “Who’s there?”

Lester and I laughed before Isa put her spear on the ground, “Aw, trying to wake me up, eh? I’ll return the favor later.”

Lester finished up breakfast, “It was the wind. Quit being a grouch.”

Isa narrowed her eyes, “Quit your sass, or I’ll show you a real grouch.”

Lester furrowed his brow, “That’s a shame. I just prepared this delicious breakfast. I suppose I’ll just not give you-“

Isa sat down, “You know I’m just joking with you, alright? It’s just witty banter. That’s all.”

Lester scoffed, “Sure. Sure.”

We got everyone back inside and enjoyed another hearty concoction made by our resident alchemist. With that handled, everyone got into the work of making this base into a home. We’d be here for a few days, after all. Alexander cast magic that pulled the dust together and got it out of our dwelling. Isa set up a few traps beside shattered windows while Lester harvested more venom from the metal cobras and steel eaters.

Hod was the most crucial piece for us; his body adapted for this kind of place. He kept us safe outside. I, well, I didn’t do much by comparison. After a half-hour of watching them, I pulled one of the dead metal eaters inside, and I ran a few dissections of the thing. My shapeshifting revolved around the creatures I’d seen and understood, so getting a grip on how this thing survived would be useful.

It used several weirdo organs for processing steel, including superheated stomach fluids, chemicals in its saliva that burned down metals, and blood rich in iron. Its blood congealed quickly because of how thick it was and how little water was in it, in fact. A few seconds in this wind and it dried out into a gel. I tried implementing a few of its adjustments in my own body, particularly its filters on its nose.

I got the hang of the strange alterations before realizing they would work for the short term. The filters made it difficult to breathe, and during a fight, I wouldn’t be able to maintain my stamina levels. The filter was useful for light travel, however, so that’s what I did. I made my way back towards the giant megastructure at the center of Gypsum.

As I traveled, I learned a couple of facts about the planet. Gypsum didn’t have a night and day like we did. Since the sun either seared the surface or left it cold and desolate, only a tiny ring around the planet was habitable. That ring was where they built this superstructure. This left everyone cramming themselves into this section of livable space. It was kind of cool, so I did some research on it.

Gypsum was tidally locked. Well, almost tidally locked. It did shift a little over time, and that’s why the inhabitants kept moving the superstructure. They chased this habitable zone. As I leaped over massive, rocky ranges, I discovered the ruins of old habitable zones. It was like a time-lapse of the older, worn-down places until you saw the new one.

These ‘layers’ spanned out for quite a few miles into the distance. Our camp nestled right between the second and fourth rings from the current habitable zone. This let us get some shelter, but it wasn’t too close that vagrants and looters would find us. Either way, it left me in awe at how colossal these buildings were.

Darting around also left a crazy impression of how empty this planet was. There was nothing past these desert ranges. As far as the eye could see in all directions was sand, rocks, and dirt. I didn’t actually think anything could live here outside of well-adapted eldritch. Once I reached the current megastructure, it turned out I was right.

I carved myself into the place using one of the old entrance points. As I skulked around, very few people had Hybrids. This was an Elysium colony, after all, so I expected to see them everywhere. Only a few people had them out in the open, and those people looked like mercenaries. Outside of those few, no one really went through the Hybrid ownership process. They just worked like usual, going down to an endless array of mineshafts.

Listening in on conversations, I found mining was this planet’s way of life. It started as a single drilling colony that eventually expanded outwards. More people were living beneath the ground than on the surface. It still defied reasoning for why they worked so hard to mine here, though. This wasn’t exactly a large planet, being a moon and all.

I resolved to explore more of that later, so I returned to the camp with stories to tell. After having lunch, everybody went back to their duties, and I went back to spying. This next trip, I went and listened to people in their homes. I learned about dozens of different families, clans, and tribes here. They owned portions of the upper wall, giving them rights to the underground territories below.

From these established points of entry, they lived off the mining and crystallized mana collected deep underground. Most family members stayed in bunkers there, keeping them safe from the surface. Vagrants and explorers stayed on the literal surface for the most part. It was just a sort of ‘front’ for the real operation below.

After my spying, I returned for another meal, and this time I stayed to talk with the others. We fell asleep with Hod standing guard at the closest thing this planeth ad to a night, letting us rest. I fell into a routine like that, sleeping during the psuedo-nights, having chats with the others, and exploring this wild place. I uncovered a lot of why the Adairs wanted this planet and how Gypsum people lived.

The more I learned, the more it made sense why Elysium owned this place now. The first rational reason for staying here was mining. From every part of this planet, they took out an abundance of rare resources. Conscripted miners from many planets harvested these ores, gems, crystalized mana, and eldritch parts from the lower portions of the world’s crust. This allowed them to power massive amounts of machinery for drilling with ease. The extra mana was shipped off to power ships, the upper ring, and other buyers.

The critical economic aspect of this harvesting was the mana pollution that this mining caused. Though this planet couldn’t support silvers because of all the metal eaters, the purple, smelly sludge was a valuable resource by itself. Considering the volumes of mana pollution required to make the silvers, the Adair’s fought bitterly to keep this place theirs. Emphasis on fighting bitterly.

Seven raids by Schema occurred during our stay here, one each day. Elysium pushed back each of these assaults via orbital battles. Somehow, this planet was a higher priority than even Giess for Schema. When I got below the surface and walked with miners, I discovered why this was a habitable fringe world.

That sounds like a misnomer, but it was true. Gypsum’s resources came from thousands upon thousands of underground rifts lying beneath its surface. These pocket dimensions’ density meant a dozen planet’s worth of resources brimmed just beneath the surface here. Hundreds of miles of tunnels went far across the world, deep into its underground world. From only preliminary scouting, I estimated this planet must be at least ten times larger under the surface than it seemed above ground.

Eldritch dungeons worked in weird ways like that.

I envisioned a world at the brink of chaos with this kind of dungeon density. They managed because of a few factors. First, the dungeons opened up underground. That containment let Gypsum forces control security here more easily than if a dungeon was exposed. Most eldritch weren’t just going to burrow through the rock to the surface anyway.

Even if they did, it didn’t matter. The lack of organic life on the surface meant dangerous eldritch never broke out. By comparison to a place like Earth, this was a land incapable of making really dangerous monsters. The worst of the bunch were beetlecrabs, which could sometimes become an issue. Hybrids did well against those guys since the worst of those guys built up metal over their bodies from eating metal eaters.

Because of the natural insulation of their dungeons, Gypsum handled dungeons differently than how we did. These guys set up mining operations in the alternate dimensions. These dungeons supplied an endless abundance of both natural and unnatural resources. Gold, silver, platinum, orichalcum, and dozens of ores I knew nothing about, this place flooded with those rare substances. This was where all the Hybrids resided as well. They offered protection and security to the minders who toiled in these rifts. To feed these people, Gypsum imported food from other worlds. They paid for bread and meat with gemstones and diamonds.

Here’s where it got interesting – Schema never supported this place. He didn’t set up warp stations or let Sentinels establish themselves here as guards. Schema registered Gypsum as a fringe world lacking the necessary means for his support. This made personalized warps big business, though people didn’t use them as often anymore. The rate of failed warpings was high, many people walking through a warp and never walking back.

This lack of infrastructure and support was why Gypsum joined Elysium. Elysium offered adaptable support, allowing the many rifts to be mined with Hybrid guards. This rich abundance of rare materials harvested here meant hundreds of trillions of credits for Elysium. Even small transactions on Gypsum left merchants wealthy. From what I heard, Elysium set up warps, Hybrid guards in the underground, and they even maintained order on the surface.

It was an unfortunate thing to see. Schema’s rule was so unyielding that he didn’t take advantage of this place. Elysium did, so now…now Gypsum helped fund Elysium’s war efforts. This planet was where all the orichalcum came from that Elysium used. Some of the rarer ores for their tech came from here too.

I took these observations as notes, ensuring to videotape what was necessary and some stuff that wasn’t. This place would be a surefire target for us later on in the war effort, so I reported what I could. I was in luck because most of the security here was primarily in orbit, preventing anyone from establishing a real foothold here. Warping in was possible, but it would be dangerous and difficult. Portalists struggled with getting the coordinates right due to the complexity of Gypsum’s orbit, and that didn’t even mention the hazardous surface conditions.

I thought they’d warp underground to compensate, but that required absolute precision. If you messed up the warp, it would fuse portions of a person’s body with the surrounding stone. Recovering from that required extensive surgery, and if your head submerged into it, well…you died instantly.

That meant that Elysium’s warps were popular here since they were safe. We weren’t totally out of luck, though. Spear could get us in here with his dimensional slicing, but that would alert people we were here. It also would tax our Sentinel since maintaining a warp large enough to move an army wasn’t really possible for a single person. Helios would struggle for the same reasons, and he needed this planet’s orbital information before he could warp in anyways.

We needed someone with massive mana reserves and a lot of computational ability for that kind of thing. Fortunately, we had just that kind of person at our disposal, and he happened to lead the guild. I just hoped Daniel would be able to learn this kind of thing. He already managed an absurd amount of stuff, and asking him to become one of the galaxy’s premier warpers was just piling on even more.

We’d have to see if it worked out. Daniel pulled off some crazy stuff in the past, so maybe he’d do it again. Either way, it was about time we got out of here and returned back to Mt. Verner. I was getting tired of the mission, and our rendezvous time was closing in. I came back from my morning infiltration while looking forward to leaving. I raced across the barren desserts back to our base. As I did, the old megastructures groaned like ancients beasts, the wind causing them to bellow out noise into the distance.

Those echoes passed me by as I reached our base. We got a lot of useful info during our stay here, but we were all ready to leave. Hod’s defense of the place left hundreds of bodies piled up in front of our domain, the bodies giving off an oily smell. That odor drifted out over the hills as I landed beside the birdman. Hod turned to me, his eyes blank as always,

“Hod glad to see lady friend. Hod kill many monster today.”

I grinned at him, “Good job, but you’re supposed to clear out the bodies, remember?”

Hod smacked his forehead, “Hod forget again. Hod do that right now.”

The absent-minded birdman ran into the base before taking out one of Lester’s napalm bombs. Tossing it onto the pile of corpses, they singed with the smell of copper, smoke, and erosion. The wind pulled the smoke and dispersed it out without us even needing to disguise the stream of dark gas.

Hod put his hands on his hips, “It time for Hod rest. Hod tired. Other Hod come out now.”

I frowned as his eyes turned from a hollow white to a full red. The crimson color swam over his eyes like the eclipse of two moons. His shifting feathers engulfed in shadow, and Other Hod stretched his darkened, muscular arms. He groaned out in a dark, menacing growl,

“Gagh, I needed a good rest. Much better.” He looked at the corpses, “I missed much of the killing, didn’t I? A shame.”

I raised my eyebrows, “You ready to leave?”

He walked towards our base, hearing the others toiling,

“I am. Let’s part ways with this desolate and barren land.”

I raised a finger as we walked into the room, “It’s actually less barren than you’d think.”

Amara snuggled into a corner, her work with her status already finished days ago. She worked on gaining as much information for our guild as possible, all while inspecting various cipheric energy flows. On the other side of our encampment, Alexander toiled till his fingers bled on the runes required for warping.

Complex computations smothered the entirety of the walls, most of the metal having been engraved on. Alexander learned to use a torch to work on the steel, and it slowed him down. He also didn’t think that it would be as complicated as it was. He still got it done, having pulled an all-nighter the day before to finish up.

Alexander sighed as he got the last marking made. Lester and Isa prepped a few more of their weaponry and tools for eldritch slaying. They harvested hundreds of bodies’ worth of supplies during our stay here. Those resources made them rich and happy as could be. The task still bore down on them despite their initial enthusiasm, however. There were only so many glands you could harvest before it got boring.

With Alexander finishing, I turned to the dungeoneers and spread out my hands,

“Hey, we’re done here. We can finally go.”

They jumped up, expecting to head out any minute. Packing over the next few minutes, everyone prepped for getting the heck out of here. We’d be taking the room with us, just like when we first warped to Giess, but we didn’t want to leave anything behind. Alexander took a break in the meantime, the poor guy exhausted from all the runic languaging.

As this all happened, Other Hod stood guard of our campsite. He walked out of the sound-absorbing barrier, peering around for anything nasty nearby. His head twitched with irritation, and I stared at him as he struggled to discern what he just heard. I didn’t want any complications, so I jogged off towards him, Other Hod jittering about.

I enlarged my own ears, and the wind howled in from all angles. Wanting to know more, I grew wings and leaped up. Flying in place, I peered around and found a sandstorm coming our way. I shouted at Hod,

“We’ll have to stay in the shelter, but that thing shouldn’t be too hard to wait out.”

Other Hod’s dark feathers bristled over his phantasmagorical skin as he yelled,

“That isn’t a storm. It’s an eldritch.”

I stared at it, the giant sandstorm coming our way. At the center of the storm, a darker blot of dust shifted in place. I expanded my eyes, finding what lay beneath. A muscled insect walking on four limbs rushed toward us. It traveled by digging with its front two legs and wiggling its back ones, cascading a vast plume of sand behind the monster. As it got closer, the forty-foot tall eldritch showed a beetle’s shell over its back, stripes over its carapace, and two large mandibles under its jaw.

Racing out of the sand, it tore through portions of the ancient metal structures surrounding us. It used bulked arms designed like crab claws with three fingers. Using those hands, it ripped steel like paper and devoured any metal eaters nearby, snatching them into its mandibles. Other Hod stared at the burning bodies of metal eaters besides us,

“That idiot. Hod left an enormous pile of rotting corpses…You all did.”

I raised my hands, “I was trying to spy on enemies. We burned them at the end of every day to make sure this didn’t happen too. We always left a few since harvesting the venoms was the only thing Lester and Isa could do the whole week.”

Other Hod seethed, “Now we pay for their boredom by facing an enormous monster. It’s a matter of simple prioritization.”

I shook my hands, getting a little nervous, “It’s fine. We made a mistake. Let’s go out there and kill it before it wrecks the ritual site. It shouldn’t be too hard. The eldritch here aren’t too strong…Usually.”

Other Hod breathed deeply,

“Fine. Let’s go.”

I flew into our camp and shouted, “Everyone, an eldritch is coming. It looks powerful, so we need to get out of here asap. Get the ritual going, Alexander.”

The teenager sighed but pushed himself back up to work. The other Dungeoneers put on their rebreathers and goggles, running outside with us. Using grappling hooks and rope, they reached towards the megastructure’s upper portions, Hod and I flying instead. The colossus came at us, so I tried inspecting the thing using Amara’s makeshift system. It worked.

Sorta.

Alloyed Beetlecrab King, exact species unknown(lvl 6,000-15,000) – This variant of an alloyed beetlecrab king seems to be a stronger, more able version than most, probably. They usually tear through colonies of sandworms, feeding on the larva in most cases. This could be a different case. Hard to say.

A beetle king spawns when the beetlecrabs overgorge on nearby food supplies. The beetlecrabs subsequently starve, and the remaining beetlecrabs devour their kin. The last one remaining from this cannibalistic cycle is a beetlecrab king variant. This variant then gorges on the densest metals and minerals of metal-eating eldritch. Overtime, likely decades, this beetlecrab king evolved into some kind of variant with far denser shell structures and muscle fibers. Once again, this is all an assumption.

This developmental process resulted in a destructive, powerful creature capable of killing even classers with relative ease if given a chance. Be careful of its abilities, though this update can’t be sure of what they are.

So yeah, good luck.

The vague descriptions weren’t typical, but they worked well enough. I kinda figured it was a beetlecrab after seeing it anyway. I sent my teammates screenshots of the description in case they couldn’t inspect it. Other Hod shouted over the sound of distant ripping steel,

“This does not appear to be a ‘weak’ eldritch, Althea.”

I sighed, “I don’t get it. The security for the giant megastructure is minimal. How do they even maintain a society with these things running around?”

Other Hod grimaced, “Does it matter?”

Isa and Lester paled at the sight of the creature. Isa mumbled, “This, uh, this looks pretty bad.”

I pointed at them, “Uhm, you two, get ready to pull Alexander out if we can’t get this thing under control.”

They gave me an immediate salute and followed my orders, both of them happy to not be confronting this thing. I turned to Hod, “Let’s kill it. Ready?”

Other Hod’s form blurred, “I am always ready for killing. It is my nature.”

I walked onto another plane, shifting through the veil. I flew towards the creature while getting my cannon ready. It was too heavy for aiming and firing while in flight, at least for longshots like this. Procuring a lovely spot, I landed on an elevated platform nearby, and Hod skulked into a series of shadows under steel girders. We waited in ambush.

The beetlecrab king ran through the nearby steel, its size dwarfing even gialgathens. It was like a small skyscraper peeling through the terrain, so I shot bone spears at the beast, using ones full of explosive material. This made them detonate once they made contact with an enemy, shotgunning their insides with bone. It helped make my spears better against formidable foes.

It might have also been an idea to counter Daniel’s spear knocking technique, but that’s beside the point.

Using a pre-prepared supply, I fired at the beast with abandon. I took that planning measure from watching Kessiah heal with her blood. She piled stockpiles of blood, and now I did the same with bone spears, lobbing the piercing bullets with great abandon. It made my longevity in fights better.

As my spears landed like clockwork, the beast charged forward without a care in the world. I would need every bit of stamina I could get. My shots drilled through the giant insect’s chest before exploding, and normal creatures would splinter apart, their bodies shredded. This thing kept moving, undeterred and unstoppable. It ignored the tiny cannon holes, its regenerative ability remarkable.

At the same time, Hod peeled out of several shadows, sending umbral slices at the beast. The behemoth’s carapace crumbled against the onslaught across its body, but it retained its momentum, bounding at the corpses. It passed us, so we chased the raging beetle.

It stripes blurred into the same color as the steel, making its outline challenging to see. At the same time, its shell opened across its back, its wings blowing up sand nearby. This made it difficult to make out, and the noise boomed so loud that I couldn’t hear its crawling anymore. The shadows Hod used as weapons dissipated as a sandstorm brewed up as well.

The monster wasn’t as dumb as it looked.

Other Hod adapted, creating a phantasmal form amidst the fog. Slicing from many angles, Hod evaded the quick, snapping swings of the beetleking’s arms. I pelted the creature with spiked spears saved for just such an occasion. These lances carried dozens of hooked prongs over their surfaces, wrenching the guts out of any animal they impaled through.

Our attacks gored massive splatters of green, acidic blood from the beetleking. It leaked out from its beady eyes and mandible pronged mouth as it retaliated. Grabbing steel girders, it tossed missiles at us with accuracy. I flipped through the air to dodge, staying light on my feet as I evaded the metal chunks.

I used a strange evasive style oriented around swinging my cannon around. It was heavier than I was, so I turned myself around my gun. I did this while darting back and forth, making circular patterns while weaving around. This disorienting, movement heavy dodge style was difficult to learn and master, but it worked well. Even against larger attacks like this, just my baseline movement pattern alone dodge nine chunking attacks out of ten.

Hod’s own evasive style was utterly different yet equally effective. He shifted in and out of shadows, changing positions every second or two.

It made me dizzy just looking at the shadow master, but he ran circles around even agile foes. Considering this beetle’s power, we needed absolute avoidance of its attacks; otherwise, we’d be smeared apart against the metal beneath us.

We did just that, holding the line for minutes all while attacking the creature from every angle imaginable, and the beetlecrab’s frustration expanded by leaps and bounds during that time. That contrasted its physical size. We ripped waterfalls of blood out of the monster, splaying its insides onto the outer walls around us.

The beetleking didn’t fall. It stayed standing.

Condensing and growing smaller and sharper on all sides, its outer shell began hollowing out. Its form altered against us, and I started missing shots while Hod’s attacks slowed as the beetleking swung faster. This eldritch beast turned into a nimble fighter within ten minutes, giving us a run for our money.

Hod sliced off one of its arms and legs despite this evolution, and the monster howled in despair. Its wings opened behind its back, and the creature went into the air. Hod shifted into shadows off the walls nearby, but the monster darted back and forth, evading Hod’s swipes. In the air, Other Hod could no longer use his shadow techniques.

The beetle charged at me, zipping past two of my harpoons. Running low on backup spears, I evaded sideways, and the beetleking’s claws grazed my jumpsuit. The beast tore out a piece of my side before devouring the bloody chunk hungrily. A vivid spout of pain ran up my spine, causing me to grunt, blood coming out of my mouth.

I pulled a Daniel, gritting my teeth and clenching my fists. The beetle charged towards me, and I swung my cannon overhead with all I had. A cataclysmic impact ushered out, steel caving under my feet. My arms shattered at the blow, both my upper arms snapping like twigs. The beetleking somehow looked worse off than me.

Its face caved in, my swing crushing the upper half of its body. The creature’s legs squirmed for a few seconds before its chest split open. It molted, revealing a smaller, metallic version of its larger self. Once again, I was reminded of fighting Daniel and his unending tenacity. I fought through that, so I sure as hell could fight through this.

I stared the monster down before it shot towards me. Hod appeared from behind it, trying to slice the beast. The hollowed corpse moved to block Hod’s attack, and the molted shell began fighting with Other Hod. The new, metallic version sprinted towards me with its legs clicking and clacking.

I shifted onto another plane, walking sideways in time for it to miss. It scrambled and flailed its arms at random, and the beetle let out a frustrated clicking in frustration. I got unlucky, and it clipped me with one of its swings. It cut deep into my thigh. Stumbling away while dragging the cannon, I used stilts made of bone to set my arms and leg. Once usable, I got close before slinging the gun again at the beetlecrab king.

Everything broke on me again, but I left my cannon embedded in the beetleking’s side, having caved its chest in. Exposed and vulnerable, I hobbled away. The creature pulled the gun out and lobbed the device at me. I ducked, and the cannon swooped past my head. It tore the metal under it, the weapon so dense and undentable that even the blunt side could cut metal given enough force.

The metal beetle ran away, and I let out a sigh of relief. I turned and found Hod dismantling the headless corpse of the old beetle king. As the acid blood melted gobs of metal, Hod outmaneuvered the headless king, ripping it apart. Stumbling over, I pulled my cannon out of the steel.

I couldn’t complain about Daniel’s weapons when it came to their durability. Leaning on that weapon, I waited for my arms and legs to regenerate. A few minutes later, I regrouped with Other Hod. He stood atop a defeated king, the shadow slayer oozing black fire. Other Hod hissed,

“Where is the other beast?”

I let out a frustrated breath, “I don’t know.”

A disgusting crunch echoed in the distance. We both sprinted towards the source of the sound. The beetlecrab king feasted on the burning metal eaters along with the leftover cobra corpses. The king’s body expanded, rapidly reforming the massive exoskeleton it carried from before. I lifted my cannon, frustrated by the beast’s revival. This was going to be a hard fight.

But it wasn’t.

From our encampment, a bolt of violet lightning streaked out of a window. This bolt pierced the center of the creature, impaling the metal body within. Using the monster’s momentary paralysis, Hod and I unloaded a series of bolts, swipes, and slices at the beast. It fell apart, its body no longer sustaining the acid within it.

Alexander’s eyes widened as he heaved for breath. From behind him, Isa gave the boy a pat on the back,

“I knew you had it in you.”

The leftover pieces of the giant beast swelled as life left its body. We braced for impact, everyone hiding behind cover. The beetlecrab king’s body splattered over every nearby surface. Alexander’s head popped back out after the explosion, the teenager chugging mana potions. Lester threw a napalm bomb at the beetlecrab’s remains while shouting,

“Normally, I wouldn’t burn a good corpse, but I don’t even want whatever that thing had in it.”

Alexander shook off his exhaustion, turning towards the ritual site. He hobbled over towards the runes and channeled more energy. The runes glowed for the ritual’s completion. Before he finished, the melting corpse of the beetlecrab king seared the outside wall of our encampment. A pivotal portion of the wall disintegrated, parts of the floor falling apart as well.

Alexander gasped at the sight, half of his hard work melting before him. The wizard blinked a few times before his eyes rolled back in his head, and the boy fainted. Lester caught him before his head clunked against steel, and each of us stared at the absolute disaster before us.

I stared up, a foreign planet looming over our heads. Some kind of border guards began mobilizing in the distance, coming to inspect all the damage left behind. We all looked at each other, everybody too stunned to move or think.

We needed to move. Now.

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