Chapter 613: Invading the Depths

For a while, Raghi had felt like he was doing important work, gathering valuable intelligence for the elites. Now, as they headed into the Frontier, he no longer had any idea what was going on.

Why was the Prince of Pebbles pushing the invaders into the wasteland? Surely no one could be short-sighted enough to promise them anything to get them out, and it would be unbelievably malicious just to move them to another nation at all costs. Then again, the Prince of Pebbles had seemed to betray his own people and made common cause with the invaders. Raghi had tried to speak to him, but he was scorning everyone from the continent.

Now they traveled south in a great caravan, on flying vessels stolen from the Water and Wind Unions. Raghi had gone ahead, begging them to give in to the demands instead of throwing their lives away, and had at least avoided a slaughter. This way, the invaders had flying yachts with all the luxury they could want, keeping them happy a little longer.

Occasionally they were attacked by monsters left over from the incursion, and of course they were blown away by the invaders, who laughed at the weakness of the continent. Once they had made Raghi fight one of the stronger ones, just to prove locals would really struggle. He'd barely made it through alive, even with one of of Juray's potions. If they did that to him again, with a stronger monster, he might not survive.

Was this the time to retreat and tell the elites everything he had learned? Raghi knew they'd be smart enough to evacuate, if the caravan moved toward any elite outposts in the Frontier, but he might have done all he could. If he stayed on this strange expedition, he could easily end up dead and all the information he'd learned - including the invaders' horrible plan - would die with him.

Instead he stuck around, losing to the invaders in arm wrestling and watching their arrogance miserably. Raghi wasn't a spy, and he wasn't built for this. Maybe this was a horrible mistake, or maybe he just wanted to abandon his mission and get back to Juray.

He didn't find any solution: pushed by the invaders' strange power, the caravan reached the abyss at the heart of the wasteland.

"Holy shit!" Quorthix leapt off his ship, gracefully landing beside the pit, and the other invaders clambered after him, shouting in surprise.

They had been mildly surprised by the Frontier wall, but this was the first time that Raghi had seen the invaders truly shocked by anything on the continent. He personally found himself awed and discomforted by the enormous pit every time he visited, and perhaps it existed on a higher phase. Whatever the reason, it didn't have the same effect on the invaders - some of them began to hurl rocks over the side, while another pissed over the edge laughing.

"This is where all the monsters come from?" Fodajix knelt by the edge, scowling into the depths. "What's down there?"

"None of us know," the Prince of Pebbles said, rubbing his hands together anxiously. "Please, my lord, be careful. Even our strongest fear to tread h-"

"Silence, fool." Quorthix stepped up beside them, staring down into the pit. "It's insulting to compare us to any of you."

"Of course you're right, my lord." The Prince of Pebbles dropped to the ground, his forehead touching the earth, a picture of abject subjugation. "All of this is far beyond me. I do not know if the treasures below will be worthy of you, all I can say is that the items our strongest brought back were more glorious than anything I've ever seen. They make the greatest glories of my court look like trash by comparison."

The invaders, particularly the five leaders, began to talk to one another. All the antics of the others had drawn some more monsters out of the pit, but they were cut down scornfully, and the invaders didn't seem to notice that they were becoming more common.

As he watched, Raghi wondered if he really was stupid. Everyone thought of him as dumb because of how he looked, but he had been angry with the Prince of Pebbles for days and it had only just occurred to him that the man could be faking it. Faced with an overwhelming opponent, he hadn't joined them, he had slipped inside their trust to undermine them.

But here, at the end... would it work? The invaders were arrogant, but even they weren't going to throw themselves into a bottomless pit. There was a lot of disagreement about whether or not to go, with Quorthix pushing them to seek these imaginary treasures while many of the others didn't want to bother. Monsters continued to attack, being treated as little more than distractions or amusements by the invaders, but Raghi began to back up instinctively.

The Prince of Pebbles couldn't do the same, in the midst of the invaders and still trying to manipulate them. Now that Raghi understood him, he thought he saw the anxiety behind the man's exaggerated sycophantic praise. He was playing a dangerous game that could get him killed in an instant if one of the invaders suspected him.

At last some of them agreed to venture down on one of the ships, while many of the others just had a feast on the remaining ships. All the servants they'd brought along with them rushed to take out the extra supplies, and Raghi realized they were even more helpless than he was... if the monsters did come pouring out, what would happen to them? What could even be done to help?

Well, he had come this far, so he wasn't going to leave yet.

He stayed around the edge of the feast, staring toward the group slowly lowering themselves into the abyss. Watching wasn't suspicious at all, since many were doing the same. Soon the invaders disappeared into the darkness, but Raghi focused on their souls to track them. The invaders didn't seem to have anything but instinctive spiritual sight, so as far as they were concerned, the expedition had vanished.

Raghi could feel them fighting as more monsters climbed up the walls of the pit. Or, if Kai was right, the pit was actually creating them in response to the attack... and in proportion to the attack. The invaders had an overwhelming advantage over the monsters, but for how long?

Then one of the invaders' souls disappeared.

As a second and then a third disappeared, Raghi rushed to the side of the ship and stared over the edge, desperate to see what was happening. He couldn't properly sense the monsters they faced, other than an impression of mortal danger. Then suddenly he felt Quorthix leave the others, sprinting up the side of the pit with unnatural grace, vaulting back to the surface.

Behind him, all the other invaders were snuffed out at once.

"Get ready!" Quorthix shouted and his warning was the first any of the others realized that something had gone wrong.

The other four leaders leapt to their feet, instantly alert and ready. Most of the others split into different reactions, some laughing at Quorthix, some panicking, some continuing their feast. A lot of them jumped off the ships, but within the chaos, the Prince of Pebbles sat as still as a statue.

Amid the confusion, Raghi retreated to one of the flying ships used for supplies, finding the controls. He had planned to signal to the servants and other workers to join him and help evacuate. Before he could do so, the monster emerged and all other thoughts left his mind.

Even though the abyss was unbelievably wide, the monster scraped its way out. It looked like a bulbous, misshapen sphere of incredible proportions, which might have looked absurd if it hadn't been covered in a riot of jaws and crimson eyes. Just one of those eyes looked like it was larger than Raghi's entire body, and the jaws... they varied in size and shape, but some of them were actively chewing on the bodies of invaders.

"All together!" Quorthix gestured to the others. "Kill the thing!"

As the monster scraped its way free, the invaders attacked. Their blades cut through it, just like they cut through everything else... but it hardly mattered, not to a beast of that size. Some of them were carried by their arrogance, but others began to succumb to the natural human fear of such a monstrosity.

Yangix raised his hand and one of the eyes exploded in a bloody mess. Budajix joined him, sending flying punches into the monster's flesh. Jonijix assaulted the jaws with a wave of vicious water. But as Quorthix pushed in, striking at the wounds, it didn't seem to matter.

One of the maws opened like a cavern and black smoke rolled out. Quorthix was swept up by it in the middle of his attack, spinning gracefully surrounded by an aura that vanished in the darkness.

When the smoke faded, his bones and weapons clattered to the ground.

That triggered the panic: as soon as the invaders realized they weren't invincible anymore, they became cowards again, screaming and fleeing. The monster was only just fully emerging from the pit, but its eyes were twitching wildly, as if searching, and suddenly they glowed.

The counterattack seemed instantaneous, all Raghi saw was the aftermath. His eyes ached with the echoes of crimson beams that had shot from the monster's eyes, but it was worse for those near the pit: many of the invaders collapsed screaming, parts of their bodies burned away.

Jonijix summoned a sphere of water that defended the main group, but the water evaporated under the assault of the red beams. Underneath it, the four surviving leaders looked shocked, and then they blurred away, fleeing faster than Raghi's eyes could follow.

It was a complete rout, the invaders scattering in all directions. If the monster had been more aggressive, they might all have died, but the enormous beast moved ponderously. As it left the abyss, it floated into the air, rising like a ravenous moon. Faced with such a thing, who could possibly fight? What could they do if-

"We're evacuating, right?"

Raghi was startled by the voice just beside him: it was one of the women Jonijix had been preying on. She wasn't frozen by the monster, because everything was a lethal threat to her, and she had brought a lot of the servants with her. Now they stood beside him, grimly determined, and that shook him into action.

"I'll help the others," Raghi told her. "Fly toward the wall and don't turn back."

She nervously gripped the controls, but to her credit she didn't flee immediately. Raghi jumped to another of the ships and helped the other servants retreat. Many of them were clambering between ships or daring to jump, but he tossed those who couldn't. The invaders hadn't taken so many servants, and the enemy was thoroughly scattered now, so they might be able to evacuate.

There was still one man unmoving, transfixed by the monster... the Prince of Pebbles. Raghi looked back to the ship and waved to the woman, who hesitated a moment before nodding. The vessel pulled away, fleeing from the monster at top speed, leaving them alone.

Raghi turned back, jumping between ships toward the thin man. He knew he was taking a huge risk - the enormous monster might be floating south, but it was still too close for comfort. But after everything that had happened, he couldn't just leave the man there.

"Come on, let's go!" Raghi grabbed the Prince of Pebbles by the shoulder, but the man was completely limp.

"This will be my end," the Prince of Pebbles spoke softly, just above a whisper, his eyes locked on the monster. "I knew I was taking a risk, but this..."

"No." Raghi threw the old man over his shoulder and rushed to the controls of the ship, desperately flying them north. He couldn't help but look back over his shoulder, where the monster still loomed in the sky, its jaws and eyes twisting unnaturally. It seemed so sedate, but if a single one of those beams struck him, it would be over...

There was nothing he could do about that. Raghi fixed his gaze forward, concentrating on pushing the ship as hard as he could to put some distance between them. For a while it seemed like they might actually escape, then there was an explosion of pain and he was tumbling across the rocks.

At first he lay on his back, thinking that the monster must have targeted them after all. As his disorientation vanished, Raghi realized that it couldn't have been the monster: its attacks would likely have been instant death, and the creature was now a distant sphere in the opposite direction. No, they had been struck by something from below that made the ship crash...

"Did you know about this?" One of the invaders stomped toward him, a man Raghi recognized from their arm wrestling, his face furious. "You did this, didn't you? You lied to us!"

Raghi smiled bitterly. He had come so far, seen the apocalypse crawl out of the abyss, and now he was going to die to a fool.