Myth//OS - Chapter 62

Aggronaut got about halfway across the rope bridge before something investable went wrong. To be fair, it wasn’t the bridge’s fault. Just Aggronaut’s poor luck.

On the other side of the rope bridge, a Wind Weasel appeared. Before any of us could even react to it, the thing cleaved straight through half the ropes suspending the other side of the bridge. Aggronaut barely managed to grab onto the rope railing just as half the bridge dropped out from below him.

Bang!

Rabbyte fired a shot directly into the thing’s skull. It flopped back onto the island and dropped dead, leaving Aggronaut hanging on for dear life to the bridge. “Did ya’ see that?! Damn, I’m such a badass. Can’t believe I hit that shot.”

”…” I flashed her a thumbs up.

She bounced around for a moment and then grabbed her mascot in a vice grip and brought it up to her helmet. “You did record that, right?”

The little director bunny rapidly nodded its head and hefted its camera up. Its ears drooped tragically, and it looked up toward me like some kind of mistreated pet. I thought mascots were just programs, but maybe I should rethink that sentiment…

Speaking of mistreated pets—“Help!”

Aggronaut dangled from the side of the rope bridge. He was completely stable wrapped up in the ropes though, so there wasn’t much of a reason to panic. If anything, though, he should be worried about the cloud unnaturally rising beneath him rather than falling. Some people were just scaredy cats.

[Nighteye glares at you. Oh, so you know that one?]

I know all of them. My mind’s like a steel trap. I formed another javelin of white Ebonshroud and hefted it in my hand. A tether of Will Wire entwined around the haft of the javelin. About… about this angle? Was that right? I felt the wind blow through my hair. Maybe a bit more and to the left. 

Once I got the angle just right, I boosted my strength with pulses of Ether Physique. The raw might pouring through me was a slightly addictive thing, and every muscle in my body felt like it could just go that little bit further than it used to. I took one last look at the bridge and then flung the javelin with all my might.

The streak of white lanced through the sky, slightly dragging thanks to the Will Wire tether wrapped around its base. It flew true, though, and slammed into the other island just next to the supports for the rope bridge. 

“Woah, nice throw!” Rabbyte bounced forward and raised up her thumb as if trying to estimate the distance. “We, uh, we tight-roping across the sky?”

”Just watch.” Tendrils of Ebonshroud flowed down the stretched out Will Wire and dropped down all across its length like vines. Said vines dropped down and entwined around the wooden slats of the original bridge, pulling them back up to a horizontal position.

My head throbbed lightly as the bridge fixed itself, and Aggronaut flopped onto the wooden slats of the bridge. “T-thanks, Moon. Preciate it.”

“I see, I see.” Rabbyte moved ahead of me and crouched down on the side of the bridge to inspect the new support beams of pure white. Her long robotic ear tilted in my direction. “How much ether does this drain?”

“Not much.” But it was draining more and more the longer I kept it up. I stepped past her and headed down the length of the bridge. “Coming?”

”Oh! Right.” She shot to her feet and moved along behind me. 

Aggronaut shakily stood up and moved just ahead of us. He held a vice-like grip on the rope railings of the bridge as if he was worried about falling. Honestly? Fair enough. Now that I was actually on the bridge, it was a bit painty.

[Nighteye covers her ears. Painty?]

Is that not the saying? You know—this place is super painty. I thought I got that one right. Hmm… maybe I should pull up one of those modern slang books that Nighteye seemed to use.

[Nighteye shudders. She does not use slang books. Did you, by chance, mean sketchy?]

Ah, right… sketchy. It was close enough, yep? You still got my drift. Sketching and painting weren’t that much different from each other, anyway.

On the other island, we followed the trail of ether blooms toward a mountain sticking up tall and proud. Several Wind Weasels and Fel Winds attacked, but it was quite frankly a poor matchup. The Fel Winds literally couldn’t even get near us thanks to Radiance, and the Wind Weasels were blown apart every single time they attacked. 

We followed a trodden path along the island and wrapped around the mountain to a sheer cliff on its back side. A central temple was built into the sheer drop down into the void. Waterfalls flowed off of the temple’s brickwork and dropped onto a floating island with a picturesque lake in the center of it. Lotus flowers bloomed brilliantly from said lake.

A long, windy path trailed up the side of the cliff toward the temple’s grand entrance. Gates of red wood flanked all around the winding path up toward the top of the place, and ether blooms clung to recesses all the way up the path.

”Think it's up there?” Aggronaut nodded toward the winding path. “No, who am I kidding? Where else would it be?”

”Could be on that island. Doesn’t that look like the perfect spot to hide some treasure?” Rabbyte bounded over to the side of the cliff and leaned out over the void to get a better look at the lake island. 

“Yep.” Guiding Moonlight was silent though. There could be something there, but somehow I doubted it. Previous adventurers probably already checked it, anyway. If hidden treasure was anywhere, it’d be down below the clouds.

I held my hand up and Radiance poured forth from between my fingers. The brilliant silver moonlight sizzled through the air and cleansed the faint poison in the air. Aggronaut nodded to me and took the first step along the long path.

The wind changed half way up the winding path. The tori gate opened up onto a balcony overlook facing off toward the endless expanse of clouds beyond the flying islands. Lighting flashed in the distance, and everything abruptly grew quiet.

”Uh—where’d the wind go?” Rabbyte stopped bouncing next to me. Indeed, the wind had completely stopped. It’d been constant throughout this entire gate up until this point. There wasn’t even the slightest trickle of a breeze through the air.

Aggronaut likewise pulled to a stop just before the last step out onto the balcony overlook. “I don’t like this. Something feels wrong.”

The air felt heavy with a certain familiar pressure. It weighed down on my shoulders and a foul feeling welled up in the middle of the balcony. Something was wrong—I could feel it down to my very bones. It felt like we were being watched by something absolutely massive.

”…” Ebonshroud trailed out of me and formed a javelin of pure white. Ether thrummed through the air and reinforced it with a Frost Fang string. Crystals of ice blossomed along the length of my blade.

The three of us held our position instead of rushing headlong onto the balcony. A lone breeze blew through the area and trailed along the grass. As if that was the last straw, the wind stirred back to life and roared over the balcony’s railing. Noise abruptly came back alongside the wind.

The heavy and uncomfortable feeling completely disappeared, and the gate returned back to its normal state like nothing happened. There was no denying that all three of us felt it, though. 

Rabbyte’s rifle shook slightly in her hands. “What the hell was that?”

”I’m not sure.” Aggronaut looked equally as shaken up. “I—I haven’t felt anything like that when raiding gates before.”

The frost along my javelin faded away, and the white weapon receded back under my skin. Heh—so much for using magic only. Weapons were just too baked into my style to completely give up.

“I have. Once.” It felt eerily similar to when I raided that gate with the giant snake. There was just—it felt like there was something more than met the eye. Something profane in all the worse ways. A bit similar to them, now that I thought about it…

“L-let’s just keep moving.” Our vanguard took a breath and nodded his head sharply to himself. “We can report it when we get back.” 

“R-right. A-after you.” Rabbyte took a step back and hid behind me.

”Again?” He shot us an annoyed look and then moved past the gate. To my surprise, he didn’t immediately summon out some kind of monstrous entity just for existing. Nothing happened. He just kept walking forward with his shield raised and ready for whatever was to come.

He kept that posture the entire way up the path and to the temple at the top of the cliff. The way up was almost completely uneventful. The most exciting event was a third of the way up, when the wind surged with overwhelming power once more. We all had our ways of taking care of it though, so even that fell flat.

The path ended in a small courtyard right before the main temple itself. A set of heavy doors blocked the way forward—or they had at some point blocked the way. Now, they lay broken off their hinges and folded onto each other, creating a rough A shape. Ether blooms were scattered around the courtyard. Each of them pointed toward the central temple as if it wasn’t obvious enough.

“Everyone ready?” Aggronaut stopped right before the heavy doors, grinding out progress to a halt. “The strategy guides I read indicated this guy doesn’t fight fair.”

“We probably all read the same guide.” Rabbyte moved up beside our Vanguard and looked into the temple beyond the doors. “The guide didn’t say anything about wind-stopping mega-evil presences, though.”

”No, no it didn’t.” Aggronaut fell silent for a moment and then nodded back to me. “What about you, Moon? You good?”

”Yep.” Nighteye hadn’t spoken to me in a while, so I was maybe even better than normal. I checked all of my gear. Ebonshroud was right where it belonged. My ether was still stable. My mascot—

Oh… I looked around the area. It’d disappeared at some point. Probably in the first or second wind burst, now that I thought about it. So much for getting footage… Hopefully, Lucia wouldn’t be too upset that I lost the mascot she gave me. Wherever you are, my little friend, rest in peace.

“Then let’s do this thing. Stay behind me, and we’ll take care of this cleanly and professionally.” His hand tightened on the sword. “With any luck, we’ll all get the drops we want the first time and get out of here.” 

“We’re right behind you, my man.” Rabbyte lifted her rifle and nudged him with her arm. “Now get in there and meatshield for us like a proper Vanguard.”

“I knew I should’ve been a Striker.” Aggronaut sighed and finally slipped between the two doors. We followed right after.

The temple itself opened up into a massive prayer hall. Or maybe some kind of ancestral hall? The large space flanked by wooden pillars ended on the far side with an altar and a massive stone statue. The statue was ornate, and set up in a valiant pose as the obvious centerpiece for the temple. It was defaced, though, and its wrists were cut off like some vindictive vandal had come through here. 

Said statue had two massive braziers sitting on either side of it. Both burned with a gentle blue flame, casting light across the entire hall. The empty hall. The boss was nowhere in view—

“Heat signature above!” Rabbyte called and dodged backward to create space. 

I instinctively followed her lead and likewise slid back, leaving Aggronaut to do his job in the middle of the temple. A shadow flicked across the hall from the pagoda windows above and slammed down onto the statue.

A man—no, not quite a man. Some kind of orc-like creature dropped and dangled from the outstretched arm of the statue. It was almost as large as the statue and broad-chested. It had skin the color of stormy jade, and was etched with countless scars. The creature’s ratty hair whipped back and twisted around like it was underwater.

Its face was fully covered by a mask, and a massive bag was slung over its shoulder. It was a massive, bulging sack stitched together and tied up with sacred knots. Wind faintly leaked from it as the creature loosened its hold on knots.

Wind picked up throughout the entire pavilion and created a weakly, cylindrical vortex that tussled my hair. A small bolt of Ebonshroud pushed out of my skin and restrained the unruly streaks into a tight pony tail.

“Oi! You use sea scum as lotion?” Aggronaut shouted and activated his taunt ability. “I can smell you all the from here!”

“RAAAH!” The creature let out a wrathful cry and lunged off the statue right toward our Vanguard.

— - —

AN: It’s about time, right?