II-84 No Demon’s Land

Staying out in the open is suicide. Even if you are a Duke of a Circle, someone will have a Skill—or more likely, an entire group of people will combine their Skills—and make a corpse out of you. That is, if you can even stand out in the open. There is always some kind of attack going off, a massive blast sweeping over the lands, leaving things twisted and barren…

Survival lies in the trenches. Survival lies in moving, pushing, linking, claiming, and avoiding the threats you cannot eliminate.

The Heights might have presented a facade of a grand metropolis, but make no mistake: the truest masses of the Claimed Hells fester down here. Here in their countless legions. Here, where the bitter and broken and exiled are forced to fight to earn their way back up. Here, spending their lives in a perpetual struggle to feed the Archdevils and Mepheleon.

And here… here is opportunity for those mad enough, for those seasoned enough to tread the damned channels. For when there are no rules, anything can happen…

-The Trenches, An Examination of the Base of the Claimed Hells

II-84

No Demon’s Land

Aspect Advancements Available [84]

Concept Core Advancements Available [21]

“Why are there so many of these creatures,” Wei snarled as he channeled another burst of flame through his glaive. The demon impaled upon his Eidolon wailed, clawing at him in a last expression of hate. The wail rose to a hissing shriek as its back burst apart. Waves of flame carried upon Divine Winds gushed down the narrow pathway like sweeping gales. They struck a wave of charging monstrosities and dissolved them, flesh and spirit.

Even so, that didn’t stop more from flooding in. More demons coming from the slop above, most of them abandoning the cages they were carrying, allowing the slaves within to slam against the bars as they crashed to the ground. More, Wei was encountering more variety in his foes. Some possessed Skills comparable to his father—merging with shadows to assail him from the dark. But though they could avoid his glaive, they could not hide from his scythe. With weapons in both hands, he cut and claimed, feeding his System with more shards, filling his heart with more violence.

“Just keep going. Not much further ahead before we hit the outside,” William said. Wei kept an eye on his father using his Omniscience, and found him always nearby. He was fighting his own little war in the darkness, shoving demons out from the dark for Wei to slay, keeping Aerea and her carriage protected. He sounded calm—almost bored about the entire affair. Wei got the notion that his father already considered this mission of theirs to be concluded.

It wasn’t a feeling the young master shared. He still had little idea of where they were going, and what they were to do after this. He flung his glaive out, and it zipped forward as a bolt of lightning. A thunderclap sounded as it impacted enemies afar, and a blossoming tide of Celestial Flame rendered them absent from the world. Further beyond, at the edge of this long path was the lip of a ramp. From there came more moving shadows, more Essence Signatures of demons, slaves, and light.

“We’re coming up on the exit. We’re going to need you to keep their attention on you a while longer. But after that, I’ll pull you into the dark. Stick close. Do not get separated, and whatever you do, don’t stand in the open.”

Wei shattered a beam of energy and resummoned his Eidolon. “Open?”

But his father said nothing. And the young master didn’t ask. His blood was high, and his System needed to be slaked. By the end of this, he would indulge in a long overdue Core Advancement for his System.

The killing that followed was just that. A killing. His scythe served both as symbol and tool of function in the work as the demons were but wheat to feed his power. The might have matched him in Essence, but his skill was sharpened since his time in the Black Tower, since the Shell began to guide him. And guide him still the Shell did. Even now, he could hear it whispering to him, chastising him about the angles of his cuts, the slowness of his responses.

War was a whetstone, and it ground Wei. Ground him to finer and finer perfectio—

He pulled his glaive out of the last demon, and found himself emerging from a dreamless stupor. There were no threats alive before him, and behind were naught but slaves and mostly dissolved corpses. He stared, and saw hordes of unwashed, malnourished bodies charging behind him. They carried weapons once held by the demons, but they were lacking in power and endurance.

Ahead, the ground evened out, and Wei felt it before it saw it: the hammering concussion of a distant explosion. The crackling rain of falling dust and debris. A flash followed by grand columns of flame climbing high into the air. As the path led outside, Wei found himself at the entrance of some kind of tunnel, which itself was connected to a series of trenches. Overhead, a dense and protective field shaped from Essence rattled and pulsed as a shockwave crashed over it.

His Omniscience granted him insight beyond mortal ken. The heat outside was unimaginable. The devastation was mind-shaking. Everything was constantly swallowed by waves of all-consuming destruction, cast by distant Skills, distant powers. 

Even so far away, Wei could feel echoes of their Essence Signatures, like dragons in the deep, shifting the ocean with the merest movements.

Presences entered the borders of his awareness. More demons were moving along the trenches, carrying new slaves in those rusted metal cages. Suddenly, William emerged beside Wei, slipping out from the shadows covered in blood and reeking of offal. In his hand was a dagger of moonlight bright, while ebony cords formed from fluid black danced around his body, connecting him to the nearby shadows. 

“Alright. Fucking made it out of that shithole.” William eyed his son up and down. “You should’t have done that back there.”

“Done what?” Wei asked.

“The slaves. They’re not going to make it. You’re going to leave a trail that leads to us.”

“You would have me leave them in the cages to fester and die?” Wei asked, incredulous.

“You could have just killed them,” William muttered under his breath. “Or used them to feed your System.”

Wei could have done that. Could have, but the thought made his something twist in outrage. “I am no monster. I am not you. And I am not the degenerates the populate this place—this mistake of existence.” The young master looked up and directed a sneer at the heavens. “The fact that this realm has not been struck from existence is proof enough of the Fathom’s injustice.”

“There is no justice,” William muttered. “They’re just going to end up back where they were. Or dead. Or worse. Someone will pull their memories and get intelligence on us.”

“That is where you are wrong father,” Wei said, turning as the boy he freed first came to a stop mere meters behind them. “There is justice. For I exist. And my will calls for me to do what is righteous. If only to assert my will. If only to spite this place.”

He turned to face the boy, and also regarded the approaching demons using his Omniscience. “Where are we going now? You never told me where we are?”

“This is the Base,” William said. “We’re in the trenches running between zones controlled by Wrath and Lust. This is disputed territory—exchanges hands often enough that there really isn’t long lasting presence here. Probably why the Collectress used it to house her Spatial Rift.”

“And the slaves? Why are they smuggled through here? Aren’t they legal to buy?”

William looked at his son like he was a fool. “Taxes, Wei. You get taxed for legal purchases in the Heights?”

“What?” Wei asked. “Wait. Do I have to pay taxes?”

“Yeah,” William nodded.

“That’s… is there no end to this place’s atrocities?”

“I’m afraid not. The Circle of Greed runs the tax system too. Failing to file on time grants them legal access to your likeness.” Wei stared at his father, not understanding. “Means they can make fictional porn of you, mostly.”

The young master’s face contorted into an expression of highest disgust. “Let us continue before I retch.”

“Where are we going?” The boy asked. He swallowed as both Wei and his father stared at him, holding a demon axe close to his chest.

“‘We’ aren’t going anywhere,” William snorted. “Me and Wei are going to be gone. You got let out of the cage, you’re free. Run anywhere you want. And don’t follow us.”

More slaves gathered behind the boy. Each of them looked ragged, expressions torn between drunken hope and utter terror. Wei regarded them with a wince. At some point, he must have destroyed the other cages as well, because there were hundreds of slaves amassing behind them. Hundreds with more on the way.

“Why… why can’t I just take Aerea back to the gala?” Wei asked. “And you can lead these people—”

“Won’t work. She’s legal property. Unlike them. Collectress will have a right to her, and despite everything, I don’t think you can face down a Tribulator. Yet. Also, I don’t give a shit about these people, and there’s nothing we can really do with the most of them.”

“You haven’t even explained where we are going,” Wei said.

“There’s another set of trenches nearby. Wrath territory. We have a deal with someone there. Well, the Lodge does, at least. He can offer shelter and aid for a while. He’ll probably be glad to if it means fucking over the Collectress.”

“And who is this he?” Wei said, patience fraying.

“MacArthur. The trip saves you the trouble of dealing with his champion too.”

“MacArthur?” Wei asked.

But William just started walking. The trenches before them split left and right. William crept close to the walls and went leftward, ignoring the slaves outright. Wei shot them a look and winced slightly. In honesty, he was about as clueless about this place as they were. Perhaps more, but….

“I cannot promise you life. But if you desire to follow, then know there will be blood and death ahead. But at least it might be a death you choose. I will not stop you from following me. Just… know what might await you.”

Wei stared at the slaves. They stared blankly back at him. By this point, he was out of wise words, so he swallowed, nodded, and began jogging to keep up with his father.

“Is she still in the shadows?” Wei asked. He casually lifted his Eidolon, and a few hundred meters away, a row of glowing spikes erupted from the earth, impaling every demon heading in their direction. Cages crashed down against Wei’s radiant stones, and the slaves within them cried out.

“Yeah,” William replied. “It’s taking a hell of a lot of Essence to keep her and the carriage there, but it’s for the best.”

“How is she?”

“Having a baby while malnourished, stressed, and on a battlefield. So. Not great.”

“I can hit her with my Celestial Flame. Restore her body and render her clean of wounds.”

“No. We don’t know what that might do to the baby—and believe me, you don’t want to find out what an overdose of Essence can do to a child. She’s going through her contractions now, but she should last until we get to—”

A heavy weight slammed down on them. A weight that was far too close for comfort. It was the pressure that could only come from a Duke-Tier adversary, and Wei had only one guess as to who was coming after them. “How did he get here so fast?”

“Doesn’t matter,” William replied without too much worry. “We just go a little faster. He’ll be having problems soon enough.”

“What do you—”

Just then, the first of many impacts hammered down on the shielding that veiled these trenches from harm. A chain of other blasts crept overhead, and continued on. Wei guessed they were heading toward where the Duke manifested—the Duke, and a lesser presence.

“The Collectress is here too,” Wei said.

“She is?” William said. “Good. Great, even. We might be able to get rid of her sooner than I anticipated. Fine. We’re going to do something risky and messy. But we should lose them.”

“What are we doing?” Wei asked.

Then, he watched as his father began climbing over the trench. “I… where are you—”

“We’re going straight. You feel like breaking some blasts with that scythe of yours? Because there’s something you can do here that they can’t.”

Wei hesitated for a moment and hopped up right behind his father. At once, he felt a growing sense of apprehension. The protective fields above were groaning and bending inward. It didn’t seem like it could sustain much more under this pressure.

“So here’s what I’m thinking,” William said, licking his lips. “You put me in your Inventory, and I’ll tell you which way to break distance.” As he spoke, Wei noticed some of the slaves climbing up behind them. The young master winced. “Hey, you paying—oh, for fuck’s sake. I told you there’s nothing we can do for them.”

Wei locked eyes with several slaves, and he frowned. “Speak for yourself.”

“Wei. There’s no way you can fit all of them in your Inventory. And there’s no way they’re going to be able to survive once we breach the shielding.”

“I’ll ferry them across first.”

“What?”

“I’ll move them back up to the gala. Leave them with the Bastard—”

“We either keep ahead of the Duke, or he comes over here and liquefies us with a thought. You start moving them across, we hold in place for too long, and we just die. I just die. Aerea gets taken back. And all this is for nothing.” William spoke the words without heat. That was just how things were. Hopeless. Pointless.

But that never stopped Wei. He regarded the slaves and snorted. “We are going the trenches. Were the waves of fire come. Where all is ruined. We head to another place. Another network of trenches. Again, you may die, but…” He flared his scythe and began assigning all his shards into his Aspect of Authority. “But there just might be chance we can walk through the storm. Those of you who wish to take this chance can follow. The rest can seek their own fortunes. I leave this choice to you.”

Both the slaves and his father were watching him now. Tentatively, hesitantly, but ultimately, the boy he saved first climbed up. And then another. And another. And another. William’s jaw dropped slightly as he shook his head. He leaned in close to Wei. “It will hurt you when they start dying.”

William sounded almost pleading. Like a father. That just made the old wound in Wei’s chest ache all the more. “Now? Now you say this to me? Now you want to be my father?”

He glared at William and pulled the man into his Inventory before a response could be given. With hate in his heart and new recruits at his back, the young master when forth. To the boundary of this protective field, toward walls of collapsing flame, where not even demons could tread.