SOM - Chapter 37 - Mind The Gap

As Luke stepped through the rift into Paddington station, he took a moment to survey his surroundings. The normally bustling station was barren, with not a soul in sight. For all Luke knew, it could be the middle of the night, but the digital clock on the wall displayed midday. At least the power was still running, even if the lack of people wasn’t a good sign.

Turning back, he saw an empty train behind him, save for another crack in reality near the driver’s carriage. This second crack was just a tad smaller than the first, and looking around again, Luke could see several micro-fractures, only an inch or two thick, spread throughout the platform.

Creeping closer to the large crack near the front of the train, Luke heard the unmistakable sound of crunching bones. It was a sound he had grown familiar with. Peering inside, he spotted Charon in the driver’s seat of the train, snapping a bone in half and sucking out the marrow.

For a fleeting moment, Luke considered attacking the ancient aspect; who knew what kind of epic loot he would drop? Fenn pulsed in approval as he tightened his grip, but Luke made no move to attack. He had grown a lot since their last meeting, but knew his limits.

A lazy pale eye met his gaze, reminiscent of their previous encounter. “Hello, monkey,” Charon greeted, his tone amused, and clearly having been aware of Luke’s presence the entire time. “I must admit, I didn’t expect you to make it this far; I expected you to perish within a day. Such growth with so little effort, your [System] makes a mockery of the Infinite Paths.”

Luke exhaled. He was fairly certain that Charon wanted him dead, but wouldn’t do the deed himself. It wasn’t a theory he was willing to test though. He controlled himself.

Barely.

Wisely choosing to remain silent, Luke watched as Charon smiled knowingly. “I can sense the golden tickets on you,” he said. “You may have left the dungeon, but perhaps you’d like to go somewhere else? Maybe a cultivation dive to the gravity fields of Jak’ll Centauris?”

Edging backward, Luke declined the offer. “Maybe later, I have things I need to do first,” he said, before turning to leave. With his back exposed, Luke half expected the saint of [Undeath] to strike him down, but the mercurial monster let him be. 

When he was out of sight, Luke let go of his held breath, and he ran up the steps. He was on the clock. Outside the dungeon time would flow at its normal pace, so he had hours, not days, until the second wave arrived.

Only moments after reaching the underground ticket booths, a trio of zombies greeted him. These were human undead, not the echoes of long-dead dwarves he faced in the dungeon. This wasn’t a good sign.

Luke dispatched the zombies casually, not even bothering to take Fenn out of his soul space. He ran past them, jumping over the ticket gate, while crushing one against the wall. As he passed the other two, he snapped a neck and kicked the last one down to the floor before stomping its head.

The notifications he received stated that all three zombies had only been level one, and thus, not worth his time. He didn’t even get any coins. Luke took a moment to search the bodies, finding a locked mobile phone at least told him the time, but had no signal. He threw it into his soul storage.

As he made his way up the non-functioning escalator to the main promenade, he noticed signs of struggle, with dried blood smearing the metal stairs. Nearer the top he saw bodies strewn about.

His stomach clenched.

Despite spending the last two weeks up to his elbows in blood and gore, Luke was still capable of feeling disgust. It was different when the gore came from real people. Almost everything in the dungeon had been trying to kill him, and ultimately artificial.

The image of Rurik dropping to his knees briefly flashed into his mind. 

Luke’s stomach turned again.

Taking the steps up to the main station promenade, Luke found more destruction. In the middle of the building, a giant worm creature lay curled up. It was as large as a train. All over its colossal body it was covered in shimmering scales that looked like mirrors, giving Luke a headache just looking at it.

The creature seemed to be asleep, and in its shadow, a group of a dozen of what could be best likened to giant centipedes sat around in a cafe. They had long segmented bodies, and their carapaces glimmered with an assortment of vibrant colours. 

Even though the aliens hadn’t noticed him, Luke was going to have to deal with them in some way, because the worm was blocking the exit. Piled around the worm were a number of dead humans, as well as a giant humanoid shaped [Bone Golem]. 

For two precious minutes Luke crouched down in the stairs, observing the bugs and peeking around the station. After failing to see any other obvious exits, Luke focused his aura sense, and delicately reached out.

[Level 22 Quelveras - A Psion with an obscured path.]

[Level 16 Quelveras - A Psion that walks the path of the Brilliant Prismancer. Core domains are obscured.]

[Level 7 Orvorni - An aetherling primarily aligned with Light.]

After a few tense seconds waiting for the aliens to react, Luke relaxed. His touch hadn’t been noticed. Gradually he poked more of the Quelveras bug people, and found that besides the level twenty-two bug, they were all similar to his own level. It was reassuring, but he knew full well that levels were only rough approximations for the power of souls.

Case and point was the giant worm beast, which was half Luke’s level, but could crush him with its sheer bulk. 

Luke was dying to see what loot the shiny bugs would drop, and he felt an odd wave of xenophobia towards the invaders. Looking inwards he attributed the feelings to his [Murderhobo] and [Apex] domains respectively. While he wasn’t opposed to purging the aliens from his city, there would be time for that once he knew his brother was safe. 

Luke debated causing trouble for the alien centipedes below and looked up at the glass ceiling above him. He didn’t have to fight them directly to make a nuisance of himself, and there was a second way out of the building right in front of him.

Smiling, Luke searched the marketplace for the biggest item he could find for cheap. There wasn’t a hard size limit, but for practical reasons, very few large items were listed.

During his time in the dungeon, Luke had figured out that to place an item in storage, he had to have some kind of ownership over it. Larger items were harder to claim in this way. He didn’t understand why. However, it explained his difficulty storing random furniture from the dungeon.

Large, bulky items were a rarity, but after another minute of searching, he found a [Statue of Zeus], being sold by ‘Yiannis Alexopoulos’. The description said that it helped psions cultivate [Storm] and other related domains by praying to it. It was not as cheap as Luke would have liked, but well within his budget; any of Rurik’s items would sell for tens of thousands.

Luke climbed along the roof until he was directly on top of the aliens, bought the statue, and flared his [Singularity Aura] so that its mass increased on its way down. He then brought Fenn out of storage and, when the statue landed, swung as hard as he could at the glass roof.

To his surprise, it didn’t shatter.

He had assumed it was regular glass.

Shit, Luke thought.

Looking down, he saw his statue hit one of the Quelveras and got a kill notification, but the others just flickered like holograms. Before he had much time to process this, one pointed up at him and the giant worm looked up and opened its mouth.

All the scales on its giant body went translucent, and for a second, he could see inside the beast. What looked to be an intricate biological design of flesh and mirrors rippled as it aligned itself. Thousands of light beams collected and magnified into one huge central beam, which pointed straight at him.

Lundheim’s heat barrier kicked in and was surprisingly effective against the light energy. Even so, Luke felt the stored aether draining quickly. He swung twice more against the glass with [Kinetic Strikes] before the glass smashed into large chunks and fell onto the aliens below.

Free at last, Luke activated [Null] and shot out into the sky. He had to rely on his already drained power armour to get him clear of the building because he had no stored momentum to work with.

Luke let himself drop to the ground outside the station and used [Brace] to store the impact of his fall. He then flew up into the sky like a rocket. Once Luke was higher than even the tallest building, he looked down.

At least I’m not afraid of heights, Luke thought, as he took in the view. He could see St Mary’s hospital and was relieved to see what looked like a barricade of giant vines at the entrance, with humans standing guard outside. 

He was less relieved to see several lorry sized flying vehicles coming towards him. They were made out of a similarly luminous chitin as the centipedes, so he guessed these were Quelveras veilcraft.

From above, Luke’s bird’s eye view was familiar enough that he could roughly work out where Nate’s apartment was. Using the rest of his stored momentum, Luke hurled himself through the air towards Kensington, where his brother lived. He only made it as far as Hyde park before his aether ran dangerously low, and he dropped his [Null] ability.

Once a historic park home to many of London’s live events, the place was practically a warzone. Hordes of undead poured out from a giant tree made of flesh, ringed by the familiar waters of the river Styx. The sheer size of the horde made the little gatherings of zombies Luke faced in the dungeon look pathetically small by comparison. 

By the large round pond in the middle a smaller force of giant twelve legged squid-like creatures cut through the horde with water jets, and formed icy barricades to keep the horde at bay. 

Luke wasn’t sure who he wanted to win the skirmish, unless mutual destruction was an option.

This is just from the first wave, he thought.

Skirting along the edge of Hyde Park, Luke kept a watchful eye on the unfolding battle between the undead horde and the squid-like creatures. He found it fascinating to witness the deployment of such powerful concepts on a grand scale.

The undead seemed relentless in their assault, summoning an endless stream of grotesque creatures from the winding river that encircled the fleshy tree at the heart of the park. They threw wave after wave of bodies into the grinder, heedless of the mounting casualties.

Once he was out of sight of the battle, Luke broke into a run toward Nate’s apartment, occasionally utilizing [Null] powered jumps to hasten his pace. Along the way, he spotted several more cracks in space.

Instead of the undead emerging, a range of aetherlings poured forth. However, he also noticed more human survivors containing these breaches, employing a mix of knives, blunt weapons, and aether-derived powers.

He didn’t stop to chat.

Approaching Nate’s building, Luke utilized [Null] once more, propelling himself straight through the window and into the apartment. But what he found within shattered his resolve. The place was empty, with unmistakable signs of a struggle.

Expecting to find Nate waiting for him had been wishful thinking, but he was at a loss for what else to do. He had killed his mentor and friend, and Nate wasn't even home.

Thoughts of Nate, Rurik, Chrissy, and even the man he had killed came crashing down upon Luke all at once.

His heart twisted, stomach turned, and fists clenched as an emotional dam broke.

In frustration, he grabbed Nate’s bed and smashed it through the wall.

Despite all his [Will] couldn’t get control of himself.

He sank to his knees as sobs racked his body.

I'm alone.