Divine Apostasy Book 7 - Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Ruwen exited the tunnel at three hundred miles per hour and soared directly over a massive new magma pool, the heat from the liquid rock striking him like a blow. He had two seconds until he struck the ground, and tightened his stomach, pulling his legs forward. Reaching down, he removed the centipede scale from his left foot, but it remained attached to the bottom of his shoe, and the entire thing came off.

With only a moment left before striking the ground, Ruwen tossed the centipede scale-shoe combo into his Void Band, along with the orange belt fragment and scale from his right hand, which also didn’t separate.

Ruwen closed the Void Band and relaxed his body, preparing to use his one hundred ninety-two levels in Tumbling to ease the impact of his landing. His right foot stuck the pumice floor of the cavern, and he shifted his center-of-gravity forward to complete the somersault caused from the friction of his foot touching something solid.

But Ruwen’s right foot, like most of his body, remained soaked in the black liquid of the Lubricating Potion, and instead of flipping forward, he slid, with no apparent decrease in his velocity. Without the reflexes of a Diamond body, he would have never remained upright.

Sift and the Adepts had their backs to the warehouse a hundred feet away and a half ring of demons surrounded them. Ruwen drug his bare left foot behind him, creating a furrow in the pumice. It slowed his advance, but not quickly enough, and he crossed the hundred feet in a quarter of a second.

Just before Ruwen struck the outer ring of demons, he shifted his bare left foot forward and launched himself forward in a shallow jump. He flew over the demons’ heads and then the inner circle containing the Adepts. Only Sift had the reflexes to see Ruwen’s flight, and he followed Ruwen’s trajectory while fighting the Scourge Queen.

Ruwen had time to use his Gravity Shell and stop his movement instantly, but the gravity wave that generated might create even more instability down here and he knew surviving at these speeds was trivial. Despite the velocity, he wasn’t in any danger.

Ruwen crashed into the warehouse at two hundred miles per hour. The demons had built the structure from hardened rock, which only spread the effect of his impact to the entire structure.

The warehouse vibrated for a moment and exploded outward, away from Ruwen and the Adepts. The impact had drastically decreased his momentum, and raising his lubricant covered right foot in the air, he slid to a stop on his bare left foot.

The destruction of the warehouse caused the entire room to pause their battle and absorb what had just happened. Ruwen channeled ten Energy per second into Scrub and the lubricant on his hands disappeared. He lifted his right foot and cleaned the potion off his shoe.

Ruwen walked between the four large Infernal Crossing Gates that lay on their sides amid the destroyed warehouse. None of them had the white centers and appeared like large black circles on the ground.

Across the chamber, Ruwen noticed a large red splatter on the wall, about the same height as the shaft he’d created when he’d exited this room. It appeared the Scourge Commander hadn’t survived the blast that had thrown them both outward.

The demons had stopped shouting and only the bubbling magma filled the silence. Ruwen strode between the Adepts and up to Sift. The Scourge Queen stood ten feet away, her posture displaying frustration and anger.

Sift’s forearms had multiple bruises, probably from blocking the Scourge Queen’s strikes. His Gold Fortified body would not fare well against direct punishment from a Gem level fighter. He locked gazes with Ruwen, his eyes containing a slight tinge of white. Fighting the Scourge Queen for so long had required Sift to supplement his body’s Metal strength with soul power.

“Hey,” Ruwen said to Sift.

Sift glanced at Ruwen and did a double take, laughing as he turned back to the Scourge Queen.

“What?” Ruwen asked.

“I guess you saw a familiar face,” Sift said as he defended himself against the queen.

How did Sift know that? Ruwen wrinkled his brow in confusion, causing the small healing bandages Blapy had placed on his cheeks and forehead to crinkle. The Adepts were smiling, despite the terrible circumstances, which confused him even more.

“No,” Ruwen whispered, “she wouldn’t have.” He reached up and peeled a bandage off his cheek.

In bright yellow letters, easily readable, a phrase Ruwen had seen before: I pooped today! A large happy face filled out the rest of the bandage. He quickly pulled the rest of them off his face, and just as he feared, they all said the same thing.

“Curse that wyrm,” Ruwen muttered.

“Welcome to my entire life,” Sift said as he blocked a thundering kick with his shin. “That is, until I met you, and things got even worse.”

“Sorry about that,” Ruwen said. He pointed at the Scourge Queen. “Why are you messing around?”

Sift frowned. “Because you disappeared again, and I didn’t have a Plan B.”

“Again, sorry about that. What is Plan A?”

“Delay until I thought of Plan B.”

“Ah,” Ruwen said with a nod. “Our usual method.”

“What did you do?” shouted the Scourge Queen, taking a step closer to Sift and Ruwen.

“I’m curious about that myself,” Sift said.

Ruwen shrugged. “Never judge a pastry by its frosting.” He held up the bandages. “Let’s just say I bit into a poop pastry.”

“That is really gross,” Sift replied. “You aren’t allowed in my bakery.”

“You don’t have a bakery.”

“Stop talking nonsense!” the Scourge Queen screamed. “What did you do with the Commander and the Vicar?”

Ruwen winced. He pointed to the red smear seven hundred feet away. “That’s the only one I saw.” He realized another demon had started stepping out of the Infernal Crossing Ring when Ruwen had destroyed it, slicing the demon’s leg off in the process. A leg that he had scooped up along with the Divine soul explosion. He needed to make sure Sift didn’t find out he had another body part in his Inventory. Turning from the distant red splotch, he faced the Queen. “I’m sure the Advisor is hopping around someplace.”

Ruwen grinned, even though no one got the joke but him.

“Seriously,” Sift said. “What were you doing?”

Ruwen tilted his head. “I inspected some chickens, listened to disturbing poetry, and discovered the meaning of ‘it can always be worse.’ Oh, and I think I witnessed the birth of Tarot’s gong band.”

Sift raised an eyebrow, understanding enough of Ruwen’s clues, along with the bandages, to confirm Blapy had arrived. He looked around, worry on his face. “Oh, no.”

“Yes, that sums it up,” Ruwen agreed. “Plus, I just thought of Plan B.”

Sift closed his eyes briefly, as if fighting off a wave of pain. “I don’t even want to know.”

The Scourge Queen growled and took another step closer. “You will tell me what happened to the Ring.”

Ruwen turned from Sift to the Queen. “You would never believe me.” He turned back to Sift. “I’m grabbing those other rings. We don’t want them lying around.” He pointed at the Queen without looking. “She’s fast. Make sure she can’t follow.”

Sift nodded and strode toward the Scourge Queen.

The Scourge Queen sneered and advanced as well. “I’ve had enough, you Metal infant. Your death will—”

Sift struck the Queen in the throat, avoiding her far too careless defense. Before she could recover, he stepped closer, turning his body, and swinging his elbow into her temple, just below one of her larger horns. The Scourge Queen staggered and Sift advanced.

Ruwen turned and strode back to the four Infernal Crossing Rings, giving the Adepts a wave. He opened his Void Band into a narrow twenty-foot oval and passed it over the rings. In seconds, he’d captured four exceptionally valuable structures, denying their use to the Infernal Realm.

The ground shook from a quake deep underground, causing the wall Ruwen had exited to collapse into the new magma pool. Survey displayed the damage caused by the small piece of pressure wave he couldn’t capture. It had continued downward at a shallow angle. Stone Echo could only reach five hundred feet, and he wondered how far the small pressure wave had traveled. It must have gone somewhat deep to bring this new magma to the surface.

Ruwen strode over to the Adepts. “Everyone ready?”

“Are we fighting our way out?” Prythus asked, glancing at the demon filled chamber.

Ruwen considered. “We could. Let’s call that Plan C.”

The ground trembled again, this time more violently.

Ruwen continued. “Although, I don’t think we have time for Plan C.”

“I’m almost done,” Sift shouted.

Ruwen turned to the area that had contained the four rings he’d just taken. He focused his spell on a flat spot and cast the two second spell. His Mana dropped by two hundred fifty and a fifteen-by-six-by-five-foot wagon appeared, floating on a cushion of air.

“Jump in,” Ruwen said to the Adepts.

Not waiting to see if they obeyed, Ruwen cast the level twenty Gatherer spell Worker Wagon a second time. The second wagon immediately latched itself onto the first.

Ruwen channeled one Energy per second in the level eight Worker spell Climb, and a hundred feet of magical rope appeared coiled around his hand. The ground shuddered and pieces of the ceiling fell. He quickly threaded the rope into the hitch of the lead wagon and wrapped the other side around his waist.

Sift stepped up to Ruwen and pointed at the wagons full of Adepts. “This is Plan B?”

“Yep, which is better than Plan C,” Ruwen replied. He pointed his thumb at the back. “You’re the appah’s tail. Catch any fallers and do your best to keep up.”

“Whatever,” Sift said as he strode to the back of the wagons. “I’m the undisputed champion of the Shelly Raceway. Not even that glowstick could catch me.”

Ruwen smiled and stared at the mass of demons surrounding the dazed Scourge Queen. She waved weakly in their direction and the demons paused, unsure about attacking the people that had just disabled their Queen.

As the ground shuddered again, Ruwen didn’t give them any more time to think. He trotted forward, and in five steps had increased his speed to a sprint.

The first line of demons consisted of the group that had surrounded the Scourge Queen on their run here. They were all Cultivators and would cause Ruwen the most trouble of the demons in the room. As he approached, they struck him, some blows arriving at Gem speeds.

But Ruwen’s clothes remained covered in the Lubricating Potion, and the kicks, strikes, and grabs flowed off him.

As the ground trembled violently, Ruwen left the last of the demon horde behind, and entered the large lava tube he’d arrived in. Something had created a disturbance deep in the planet, and he dashed forward, intent on pulling his wagon full of treasure to safety.