Divine Apostasy Book 7 - Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Ruwen had no idea how or where to start. To buy time, he pointed at the dining hall. “Let’s eat first.” Many of the Adepts, while not exhausted, were very tired from staying up all night. “I also think we should sleep a few hours, so we start this trial with fresh minds.”

Many of the Adepts nodded, relieved they would get a break, and the group headed for the dining hall. Echo didn’t say anything but moved in the opposite direction, toward the wall. When she reached the base, she crouched and then easily leaped over the twenty-foot wall.

Sift turned to Ruwen. “That is an opportunity.”

Ruwen frowned. From the beginning of their friendship, Sift had kept the same worldview. He believed that what you gave the universe you got back. Ruwen didn’t care for that philosophy, probably because it seemed too simple.

From Sift’s perspective, Echo had proven herself a threat, and remained one now. He clearly meant “opportunity” as a way to even the scales with Echo. Probably by helping her into whatever trap might keep her here for good.

By now, Lalquinrial and the other gods would know Ruwen had escaped the Infernal Realm dimensional trap. The fact that Echo knew as well didn’t matter. When they left these trials, she would lose track of him. The reasons he had wanted to trap or incapacitate her no longer made sense. Was she dangerous? Absolutely. But the knowledge he’d attended the Master’s Trial wasn’t valuable. While he agreed with Sift that she deserved some bad luck, Ruwen no longer had the urge to provide it.

Not because Ruwen believed Echo lacked the ability to harm him. He’d been wrong about that often enough not to trust his own judgment. But because Blapy, who always chose her words with care, had made a point of discussing Echo’s path in front of him. A path he hoped had already changed from his efforts.

“You’re right,” Ruwen said. “That is an opportunity.”

Sift looked at the sky and sighed.

Ruwen patted Sift’s shoulder. “I’m aware of the danger, and I appreciate your advice. But a questionably wise man-child once told me, don’t judge a pastry by its frosting.”

“Oh, that’s low. Throwing a man’s wisdom back in his face.”

Ruwen raised a finger and grinned. “Questionably wise.”

Sift laughed.

“Will you keep an eye on the Adepts?” Ruwen asked. “I want to look around. Maybe it will give me an idea. Because right now, I’m clueless.”

“Just right now?”

“That’s fair.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll stay. I am kind of hungry.”

“Thanks. Be back shortly.”

Ruwen didn’t bother walking to the wall’s base. Instead, he stepped away from Sift and jumped the fifty feet to the fence, sailing over the barrier. He landed ten feet from the island’s edge, his feet sinking into the soft mossy ground.

A small biting insect landed on Ruwen’s hand, but its stinger couldn’t penetrate his skin. His distaste, and maybe a little fear, of insects and bugs seemed irrational at this point in his progression. Like Sift said, Ruwen probably needed to let those fears go. But not today.

Ruwen considered activating the level eight Worker ability Insect Repellent. He had created massively powerful versions of this ability with Spirit, but he didn’t need those right now, and he couldn’t cast them, anyway.

Insect Repellent only had one ability point assigned to it, and Ruwen rationalized a barrier that weak wouldn’t offer enough protection to count as a benefit. It would, however, keep the crawling and flying things in this swamp from touching him.

Ruwen triggered the ability and a one-hundred-foot invisible sphere appeared. He pulled the shield inward, the barrier allowing the bugs to pass through it as it shrank, until it just hovered over his skin.

Glancing at the map, Ruwen strode toward the nearest resource location. He had bent the rules a little to trigger Insect Repellant, but it only provided him peace of mind. Using Survey or Sixth Sense to get an accurate picture of the surroundings would go too far in his opinion, giving him an advantage, so he relied on his Perception to inform him about the environment.

Echo had not moved far from the fort and stood two hundred feet away. Her heartbeat the only thing betraying her presence. Ruwen wondered if she planned to attack or force him into a trap. That would be ironic, considering the conversation he’d just had with Sift.

More likely, Echo knew that exploring alone made her vulnerable, and she merely wanted to see if anyone followed her. A sound strategy, as she could quickly return to the safety of the fortress and other Adepts.

Ruwen waded into the swamp, his feet sinking in the muck as the stagnant water reached his knees. Two minutes later, he stopped at the location his map displayed a resource. With a sigh, and thankful for his Insect Repellant ability, he bent and stuck his hands into the brownish-green liquid. This close, the swamp water, full of decaying plants and animals, nearly overwhelmed him, and he considered casting Fresh Air. After a moment, he decided to suffer like everyone else, and pushed the thought aside.

Running a hand underneath a fallen log, Ruwen paused as something tightened around his finger. With effort, he kept his heart rate steady, reminding himself nothing could hurt him here. He gently pulled upward, using his other hand to pull the plant from its anchored locations.

With Diamond senses, Ruwen tracked an arm-sized creature as it moved from a distant tree toward him. It wasted no time in attacking and leaped at his exposed neck.

Ruwen tilted to the side, just far enough to avoid the short-haired scavenger.

The creature crashed into the water next to Ruwen, splashing him, but the water slid off his barrier, keeping him dry. He gave a curt nod, using enough force to create a powerful pressure wave.

The surge of condensed air struck the floating beast, forcing it underwater. When it resurfaced, it quickly swam to the nearest tree and climbed to safety.

The plant snapped and the pressure around Ruwen’s finger relaxed. He sighed and lifted the now dead plant out of the water to Analyze it, but it came back as useless. It took him two more tries to figure out how to harvest the weed successfully. This time when he Analyzed it, information appeared.

Target: Razor Weed

Type: Resource

Components: Organics, Minerals

Health: Constriction risk

Alchemy: Therapeutic, Anti-Venom

Uses: Filtration Elixir, Constriction, Poison Resistance

Ruwen continued deeper into the swamp. Echo had followed him for ten minutes before moving off on her own. He guessed she probably got bored watching him hunched over in the water. Even though he continued to harvest the razor weed, he kept his senses focused on the surroundings, not taking the Founders’ warning about the dangers here lightly.

The Founders had said this would be the last team trial, which meant it likely was the last of the obvious Step patterns. The first trial focused on the start and stop location, and the second trial on the buildup and release of energy. Assuming he had guessed correctly, that meant this one related to the hard and soft aspects.

The Viper Steps were hard and violent, aggressive and forceful. The Bamboo Steps provided the perfect balance with moves soft and defensive, passive and gentle.

What in Uru’s name could that have in common with this swamp?

When no solutions occurred to Ruwen, he asked Tarot about auras and the Misfortune Golem happily began talking about all the ways people got things wrong. Ruwen listened, rarely interrupting the golem, as he continued harvesting.

Two hours later, Ruwen casually put the thirty-third razor weed in his Void Band and stood up straight. Three of his skills had increased while out here: Herbalism had gone from sixteen to twenty-four, Prospecting from seven to eleven, and Taxonomy from eight to eleven. The advances plus the Razor Weed had made this a worthwhile outing.

Ruwen waded forward, but this time he didn’t head for another resource node. Something or someone watched him, and he’d just noticed it, although he couldn’t say which sense had discovered it.

For the last five minutes, Tarot had detailed a thousand-year argument between himself and a Blessed Fortune Golem named Tassebenidoros. “She contaminated her analysis with spectrums too close to visible light, which skewed the hues and invalidated her conclusions. It ruined—”

Ruwen interrupted the golem. “Someone is watching us.”

“Well, that can’t be good.”

Ruwen smiled. “How often do you say that?”

“Hey, misfortune leads to opportunity and adventure,” Tarot said. Then, after a moment, continued. “And death. A lot of death.”

“Maybe this time it’s something friendly.”

“Yeah, I doubt that. I’ll watch from a safe distance.”

With that, the Misfortune Golem sped away on a deck of cards and Ruwen turned his attention back to the watcher.

The sensory rich swamp made it harder than normal to filter through all the noise. Bugs, water, moss, and creaking trees mingled with the smell of decaying leaves and animals. The air tasted bitter, and the heat and humidity hung in the air like a thin fog.

A single heartbeat behind and to the right of Ruwen went almost unnoticed in all the noise. He didn’t turn, and kept his pace steady, but his mind whirled.

It was possible that the swamp contained creatures that had extremely slow heart rates. Many animals that had adapted to the water and land had such abilities. The other possibility included Gem Fortification and someone capable of complete control over their body, including their heart.

Stopping the heart or not breathing or anything else that damaged the body would instantly heal, using a minuscule amount of the Spirit that permeated a Gem Fortified Harvester’s body.

Ruwen wondered what could be behind him. The only other Gem bodies he knew of that might join him here in the swamp were Echo, the Addas, and the Founders. Echo didn’t control her body well enough yet to evade his detection, which left the old people.

Continuing forward, Ruwen considered what that meant. It suggested the person behind him had allowed the sound of their heart to become audible on purpose. Probably to test the limits of his Perception.

The sheer difficulty of moving through the swamp without leaving a sensory trail of some kind seemed impossible, and it bothered Ruwen that the watcher appeared capable of it. Between pressure waves in the air and water and the sound of moving branches, he didn’t believe he could hide his presence here without the use of suppression magic or his Architect Role.

That left two other options. Either a deity followed Ruwen, or one of the dangerous creatures the Founders had mentioned. He decided to find out.

Ruwen stopped and turned to face his stalker.

And saw nothing.

Frustrated, Ruwen focused intently on the area he felt sure held the pursuer.

Thirty seconds went by and still Ruwen couldn’t find anything. He wondered if his imagination had gotten the better of him. Once again, he considered using some of his other abilities or spells. He guessed a quick peak into the heat bands with either Detect Temperature or just adjusting his own vision, would reveal the prowler. But that felt like cheating.

Another thirty seconds passed, and then a single heartbeat.

Ruwen concentrated on the area and then, finally, ten seconds later, a form emerged from the patterns of the swamp, a deeper darkness in the shadow of a large cypress.

As if sensing the discovery, the creature stepped out of the tree’s shadow, and Ruwen glimpsed, for the first time, what had found him.

Fifty feet away stood what Ruwen could only describe as walking darkness.