Irwin's Journey 464: One hand at a time

"Do you think he will be back again tonight?" Brecka asked, arms crossed as she stared down the enormous gorge far below the tree. 

She didn't notice the worried glances of Rinbus, who was standing a short distance away.

"I don't think so. He told us he was going to go a lot deeper today," the Accenti said, visibly holding back a sigh.

Yeah, Brecka thought, her hands clenching around her upper arms tightly. I still don't like that.

After a few moments, Rinbus left, leaving her alone as she continued to stare out across the gorge. 

Four days! She could barely believe that they had been here that long already, mostly because of how boring the last two had been. Oh, insectoids still occasionally tried to attack their small enclave, but it was so few that most of the time they got wiped out by the Ignitizian guards. No, only the first two days had been interesting. Insectoids had rushed out constantly, trying to get to them, and she'd finally been able to let loose a bit. 

A weak grin came to her as she recalled how she even managed to get in a few hits on the queen before Irwin had wiped it out with two hits.

Her gaze lingered on the center of the gorge, too deep and dark to see the bottom. Only the deceptively thin pillars of rock that rose from its depths showed that there had to be one. 

After a minute, she sniffed and stared angrily at the left-most wall of the enormous rip. The sharp rocky edges of the rip in the ground dominated the entire area, with stone ridges and columns higher than some of the trees beyond. Following it into the distance, she couldn't see the end of it. Before they had come here, she'd heard some people called it a scar within the World Grove, and she understood why now that she'd seen it. 

The enormous area was surrounded by towering trees that had grown large enough to rival those in Cinder Grove, drinking greedily from the excessive ambient soulforce pouring out of the depths of the earth. With everything around it green and lively, the long black gorge did look like a scar. According to Rinbus, who had scanned it from above during the night, the edges looked oddly uneven, almost like finger indents. Apparently, he said it looked like two hands had ripped the ground open.

Irwin said not to worry, she reminded herself, her fingers clenching around her arms.

Trying to distract herself, she continued to examine her surroundings. 

A narrow band of rock separated the gorge from the treeline, though only narrow by comparison. She knew it was close to a mile wide and devoid of any life. Just like the walls of the canyon and the sides and tops of the pillars rising from it. No green. No birds. Nothing.

I still don't understand how too much soulforce can prevent growth, she thought, taking a deep breath.

She jolted as something poked her in her arm, and she spread her arms around, looking around.

Nimlarel stood a few steps behind her, her silvery eyes sparkling above a wide smile.

"There's nothing down there that can hurt him," she said. "He said so, and you told me so yourself."

Brecka snorted, wondering if she should poke the Occarite back before deciding against it. It would likely leave the weaker woman bruised. Besides, Nimlarel had finally started warming up to her, and she didn't want to risk scaring her.

"I know," she said. "But I just wish he had let me come along."

"Everyone seems to think that," Nimlarel said as she walked beside her. "Nilish has been standing at the lower walls for hours now, grabbing any insectoid foolish enough to still try and get in."

Brecka couldn't stop herself from ginning, even if only for a moment. The Blademother had been the only other one as vocal as her in her dislike of Irwin's choice to go down to clear up the nests.

"What are you worried about anyway?" Nimlarel asked.

Brecka glanced back at the depths, shrugging. "Mostly that there's more of those giant Insectoids," she said lamely.

"At which point none of us can help him," Nimlarel said.

Brecka sniffed. It was exactly what Irwin had said, but she still-

A tremor ran through the entire area, trees swaying, leaves rustling, and far away, she saw one of the pillars of stone crumple down into the depths.

"What-" she hissed.

Another tremor came, stronger this time, and she saw another two of the pillars, including the one only a few hundred feet away, crumble. This time, the cracking and rattling was loud enough to be heard over the rustling leaves.

Rinbus appeared a few steps away, looking around worriedly.

The tremors began following each other in non-stop, close succession, and Brecka saw others begin appearing on their lookout platform.

"Do you think any of those stone platforms will survive?" Nimlarel asked.

"Let's hope so," Flowrishin said. "Otherwise, the only good building space will be the edges and the walls of the ravine. The Desolate Stretch only-" 

A far more powerful tremble than all previous ones caused them all to stumble, while a few more of the pillars crumbled down into the depths.

"-The Desolate Stretch only covers the areas up to the forest and the first line of trees," Flourishing continued softly.

Nobody answered as they all looked and waited.

Brother, you'd better come back safely! Brecka thought, gnashing her teeth.

--

Irwin took two staggering steps back, drawing ragged breaths as he let his flame fade away. Immediately, tiny insectoids rushed out of holes and cracks in the wall, chaotically moving all around him, but he ignored them. His entire focus was on the two charred and unmoving shapes before him. His senses told him they were dead, and their soulforce was swirling around chaotically. After a few moments, the soulforce within one of the bodies dissipated, leaking out into the already ridiculously dense ambient soulforce. 

As the other one faded slowly, Irwin was about to write both off when something changed. With what almost felt like a snap, the soulforce of the second dead Insectoid Behemoth began coalescing rapidly.

"Finally!" he shouted.

He leaned forward as a tiny card sparkled into being a foot above the body, quickly putting his giant hand below it. As soon as the card finished and began falling, he moved it into his soulscape, causing it to land on the table where his regular-sized self was sitting.

-- Irwin's Soulscape --

"That's three," Irwin said, snatching up the card excitedly.

He scanned the card as best he could and felt his joy grow. 

"Is this what I think it is?" he asked, staring at the red-bordered ruby card that showed a tiny version of the titanic Insectoid his otherself had just killed.

"It definitely is," Ambraz said, sounding curious. "A summons for one of those big ones, though remember what I told you-"

"Yes, yes," Irwin said, raising the card. "They start small, and the stronger a summon is, the longer it takes for them to be fully grown."

"Good," Ambraz muttered, before landing beside the other two cards they had found. 

One was from their first encounter, the other from half a day ago, and both clearly showed insect-type abilities. The left one was a body-improvement one that gave an exoskeleton of armored plates; the other gave a user the ability to create an acidic cloud. 

A few handlengths away stood multiple high stacks of regular cards that they had found from the massive amounts of common insectoids.

"I'm always wondering if we should leave them alive so we can farm them for cards," Irwin muttered, before grimacing. "That makes me sound like those merchants who were using Giard as a farming world."

"It's not a bad idea," Ambraz replied. "Only those queens seem to have any level of intelligence, and those have only one thing on their minds."

"Food," Irwin said.

He agreed with Ambraz, thinking back to the few hives he'd destroyed so far. Each had been filled to the brim with bones, both of creatures he recognized and those he had no idea what they were.

He absently focused on his otherself, who was moving through the dark depths, occasionally killing a few smaller Insectoids as he headed to where the final and largest hive was. It sat far below the gorge, beside a beacon of soulforce, and he'd destroyed all of the smaller hives that led down to it. Most had either a smaller queen or one of the Insectoid Behemoths to guard them, but as he went deeper, they had begun to become more prevalent, culminating with the last one having two.

'I wonder how many defenders that big hive has,' he asked Ambraz, sensing the Ganvil's attention focused on him.

'I still can't sense any details, but kid… that ambient soulforce concentration down there reminds me a lot about that ancestral coperion spot.'

Irwin nodded as he ducked below a lower ceiling to move into a spacious corridor that led him further into the depths. So far, he hadn't needed to return to his otherself yet, and he hoped it would stay that way. The paths seemed made for the Insectoid Behemoths, which meant he could move through most areas easily enough.

If there's another pool of ancestral coperion that would be fantastic, he thought. 

He'd discussed it with Flowrishin and some of the others, and the headteacher had agreed that something was likely drawing them there. Apparently, there were more than a few of those ancestral copperion ponds around, though most were only a fraction of the size of the one with the fire elemental snakes. 

It took him close to an hour to make his way down to the final hive, a large collection of smooth, oddly rounded stone pillars filled with holes in the center of a massive chamber. Like the others, it faintly looked like a town or city and was swarming with Insectoids. A single, towering pillar stands in the center of the chamber, the tip touching the ceiling.

'Three Behemoths,' Irwin said as he let his soulforce scan around. He didn't worry too much that the Insectoids could sense it, as so far they had proven to have very weak soulforce senses.

'Yes, but one of them is stronger than the others you have found,' Ambraz agreed. 'There's also multiple queens instead of a single one in that central tower.'

Irwin nodded as he moved back, pondering what the best course would be. Even since he'd found that his flame worked on them, he didn't have too many issues with the insectoids, but that didn't count for the behemoths. Besides being able to pierce his skin, their acidic attacks were dangerous, and during the previous fight he'd constantly had to dodge around while keeping them both wreathed in flame. It had taken a long time, though it had taught him something new.

'I think I'm going to go to the nearest one and use my earthquake stomp to bring the building down around us,' he said. 'That way I can kill it before the others reach us.'

'Don't forget how fast those things can burrow through the ground,' Ambraz said. 'It's slower down here because of the rock composition, but you will only have a few minutes.'

Irwin rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

'There's not really another choice,' he said after a while. 'There's nobody else that can help us. Besides, if it gets too dangerous, I can just flee.'

Ambraz was quiet for a few moments before letting out a weary sigh.

'True. You could try what I suggested?'

Irwin frowned, trying to recall what he meant.

'Try and forcefully bring one with you through the soundwaves?' Ambraz exclaimed in annoyance. 'Remember? I was shouting that at you during the previous battle?'

Irwin grimaced, faintly recalling something like that. He'd been somewhat preoccupied at the time, however.

Still…. Ambraz's idea wasn't too bad. Normally, he'd never do it because it would drain his soulscape really fast, but he could just replenish it by using his flame.

'Okay, let's try that,' he said, spreading his senses as he searched for the place to bring the Insectoid.

It took him a while to find the perfect spot, not too far away, deep below the ground in a chamber that had only narrow corridors leading to it. If one of the other Insectoid Behemoths wanted to join, they would have to burrow down, which would likely slow them down enough for him to deal with the first one.

As Irwin focused on his target, he grinned.

 If it fails, I'll try stomping on it with an earthquake stomp.

He clacked his tongue and shot across the soundwaves.

--

"What is he doing?" Brecka asked, staring at another pillar crumbling down.

The shaking had been going on for an hour now. There had been two short pauses, but after the second one, it had grown in intensity, causing the trees surrounding the gorge to start swaying slowly.

"Maybe he is forging a card?" one of the Ignitzians asked.

Brecka snorted and didn't reply. If Irwin was doing that, they should have heard his song, and the shaking and thudding would have been in some rhythm. This felt more like chaos.

Brother, what are you doing?! she thought for the umpteenth time.

--

Irwin stomped down on the shell below, as his flame raged all around them.

'He's weakening, keep it up!'

He better be, Irwin thought, feeling the soulforce flooding his soulscape. As soon as it was filled again, he stomped down, waited a few seconds, and did it again.

Every time he did, he sensed how his soulforce shaped into a resonance that caused all ambient soulforce to resonate with it. The tremors were now constant, almost as if the ground had decided it liked moving. Cracks covered the building all around him, and he barely understood how the entire construction hadn't collapsed on their heads yet. That said, it likely wouldn't last much longer. 

He risked a quick glance up at the long tear that had formed in the top of the dome, stone and debris clattering down like a sharp and gray rain of deadly rock.

A movement from the back of the building's central room showed another queen rushing inside. 

'There's the last one,' Ambraz shouted, but Irwin was already spreading his flame forward.

As soon as it touched the queen, she let out a high-pitched screech that would have likely caused any normal person's ears to bleed. To Irwin, it was just annoying, but he ignored it as he felt the Behemoth below his feet try to shift. Stomping down to keep it in place, he almost felt bad for the Insectoid Behemoth. Each stomp caused it to be stunned momentarily, but the constant barrage kept it pinned below Irwin's feet. It couldn't even stretch its long legs to attack him.

With little to do but trigger his earthquake stomp, keep up his flame, and watch the amount of soulforce in his soulscape, Irwin lost track of time.

Only when the soulforce stopped pouring in did he snap out of it.

A quick look showed the thick plates on the Behemoth's back had been cracked inward into a deep pit, and an almost glowing white ichor flowed out. The being that had likely ruled these depths had died, almost anticlimactically, and Irwin waited for the soulforce to start swirling.

Seconds turned to minutes, and he frowned. 

The Behemoth was definitely dead, but its soulforce was still roughly equally suffused through its body, only slowly moving towards a section in its head.

'What-?'

'It's condensing into an unfinished heartcard!' Ambraz shouted, excitedly. 'Quick, get your small body out here so you can grab it!'

Irwin's eyebrows rose, and he quickly looked around the domed room. Half of the ceiling had crumbled down, showing the ceiling above, but there was no sign of any more insectoids. Those he felt were all small, and seemed to be mindlessly moving about outside.

Taking a quick breath, Irwin pulled his smaller body back outside, something that was far easier than pulling his large self into Scour. Even then, he felt his soulforce drain rapidly, and he was glad when he could allow his large self to move back into his soulscape.

As the world around him seemed to jump in size and scale, Irwin whistled. The true scope of the Behemoth and its chamber had been somewhat lost to him when he was in his own giant body, but now he could truly appreciate it. The Behemoth was roughly twice the size of the others. Massive, though nothing compared to the Earth Titan's he knew, still roamed the depths of the deserts. 

Small streams and puddles of glowing white ichor had formed around the body, more still flowing out and into the enormous indent below the body. Large cracks in the floor made him realize he'd actually been close to kicking it through the ground, which might have been an issue. He let his soulforce senses flow down, trying to determine what was causing the intense soulforce signature.

He still couldn't be sure it was ancestral coperion, but whatever it was, it was definitely something similar. 

'Kid, get that card before it starts drawing in predators,' Ambraz grunted.

Irwin sniffed, instantly regretting it as the sharp and sour smell assaulted his senses. 

'There's nothing bigger than some insectoids within miles,' he replied as he walked up to the Behemoth. 

He pondered how to enter it when he saw its mouth, gaping wide as if it was still angrily screeching. 

Great, he thought, walking forward, trying to ignore the ichor. The stench from its mouth was enough to make him hold his breath, something he was glad he could do for hours if he had to longer if he used his steam ability to create breathable air. Well. Breathable to him, at least.

The inside of the mouth was surprisingly simple, smooth flesh that led to a tube-like throat big enough for him to walk down standing up. Sticky with fluids, it didn't look at all inviting, but as he sensed the soulforce slowly condense in a point deeper in the body, he continued forward.

It took him a short while to navigate the slimy throat to the spot nearest to where he sensed the condensation. Staring at the fleshy wall, he cocked his head.

'This reminds me of the first time we were on Scour, when we were in that Earth Titan,' he said.

'Well, let's hope you find a card just as good as your sweltering card,' Ambraz said.

Irwin nodded, feeling his excitement grow. He poked in the sturdy flesh, then shrugged and slammed his hand in it, fingers stretched. His hand dug into the flesh with some effort, and he ripped a chunk out. Looking at the tiny hole, he wondered how long this would take.

Close to an hour later and covered in bodily fluids he tried to ignore, he leaned through the semi-tunnel he'd dug, staring at a motionless dark gray organ with a squarish card shape attached to it. Both were attached to the sides of the chamber with tendrils of flesh similar to how he had seen it before. 

'Grab it quickly, it's weaker than the one from the Earth Titan and leaker soulforce,' Ambraz said.

Irwin had already sensed it and reached out to rip the card away. As soon as he did, he felt it start to fluctuate and rebel, but unlike the previous times, he knew far more now. He pulled it into his soulscape and surrounded it by a dense sphere of soulforce. It took him a few moments to sense the correct soulforce frequency, but as soon as he did, the unfinished heartcard stabilized, and even the leakage stopped.

Now what, Irwin pondered, looking at the comparatively tiny card hovering in the air before him. 

"We can reforge it into a handcard like we did with the other one, or perhaps try to use the seed?"

Ambraz hummed thoughtfully, hovering around the card before landing on his shoulder.

"I think we should just keep it for now," the Ganvil said. "You could even let it dissipate naturally if you ever have a soulforce shortage."

Irwin's eyebrows shot up as he realized his friend was right. Although the soulforce would be of a different type, his soulscape was so massive now that the soulforce pressure would eventually change the soulforce into purified soulforce, which he could use. It would take time, but in a pinch?

"Alright," he said, moving the wrapped-up unfinished heartcard into a hollowed-out area deep below the surface of his soulscape. It was the spot he kept all the things he felt were too unsafe to keep lying around.

-- Real world --

Irwin walked to the long ramp that led deeper into the building. Part of it had crumbled due to the battle, if one could even call it that, but enough remained for him to walk down.

He sensed a few Insectoids linger behind, barely moving.

It's as if they aren't able to do anything without the Queens or Behemoths, he thought, noticing one that had skittered up a wall and was moving forward, bumped into the ceiling, bounced back, and repeated the same movement.

He ignored it, and the others he found, walking down towards where he sensed the hotspot of soulforce to be. The closer he got, the higher the ambient soulforce density. Thick clouds of condensed soulforce, either metal or fire or a combination, drifted lazily around the ceiling, slowly dissipating as they helped increase the ambient density. 

That's a lot of soulforce, Irwin thought, wondering if he could get a card to absorb this directly.

As he looked around, he walked out into a smaller cavern and stopped with a foot partially raised for the next step. Stunned, he looked at the pool of Ancestral Coperion that sat nestled in a dark section of sharp-edged rock. It was not unlike the one Preg and the other fire elemental snakes guarded, except for one big difference.

Its size.

It was easily three times as wide, and as he reached the edge and looked down, he forced his senses down to find it was also twice as deep. Soulforce leaked up into it from deep below, having completely saturated the rare metal. The extra soulforce pushed what was there up, where it turned into ambient soulforce that rippled from the surface, creating the thick clouds that drifted everywhere.

'That's insane,' Ambraz whispered as his spark appeared beside Irwin. 'You need to find a way to-'

Ambraz stopped talking, and Irwin felt a ripple of excitement flow through him. He waited, but the moment continued, and Ambraz kept silent, his mind buzzing along.

Finally, Irwin couldn't stop it anymore, and he sighed.

'Ambraz?'

'What? I… right! Listen, remember what I told you? About having to choose between Soulscape Auras or Soulscape Projections?'

Irwin frowned, about to ask what that had to do with anything, when a dozen dots connected in a sudden wave. He blinked as he snapped his gaze back to the Ancestral Coperion.

'You want me to move this into my soulscape?' he asked.

'Defenitly! Besides already holding an absurd amount of soulforce, if you can move it inside, it will allow you to hold your own type of soulforce and even move it back out to use while reforging or helping someone replenish their own soulscape!'

Irwin swallowed as he carefully spread his soulforce senses. Due to the ever present pressure of having only part of himself here, he knew there was no way he could move anything big in or out of his soulscape, but even if he didn't have that problem… the intense weight for lack of a better word, the Ancestral Coperion seemed to hold within the ambient soulforce told him everything he needed to know. He wouldn't be able to move this even if he were at his strongest.

'So… you mean I should pick Soulscape Projections after all?' he asked.

'I… not necessarily, but it would likely allow you to move this in even with your current issues, and even if your next heartcard doesn't solve the distance and time dilation issues,' Ambraz said slowly. 'The alternative is to just move it inside one tiny bit at a time. Dip your hand in, and move that much inside.'

Irwin blinked stupidly at the immense pond, then stared at Ambraz in disbelief.

'What? Do you have any idea how useful this stuff is? Even just taking half will probably allow you to do things beyond anything we can do now,' Ambraz grunted, sounding annoyed.

Irwin turned to the pond and, wondering if he could even move a handful to his soulscape, dipped his hand in. The liquid Ancestral Coperion was hot even to him, but not painfully so, and as he raised his cupped hand, he waited for the drops to stop before moving it into his soulscape. He instantly felt a dip in his soulforce, but before he could worry about it, he felt a startling amount of soulforce surge from the tiny bit of Ancestral Coperion. It mostly made up for his expenditure, and curious, he began using his hands to move inside. 

After a few minutes, he stopped, his otherself staring at the tiny indent filled with Ancestral Copperion that he had made. It was empty of soulforce now, but he could feel it slowly absorbing the ambient soulforce of his soulscape.

"So… this works like Aurorium," he said softly. "It absorbs ambient soulforce."

"Not like Aurorium," Ambraz replied, hovering above the tiny indent. "Aurorium absorbs all soulforce and doesn't release it. Besides that, it has either no limit or a very high one. Ancestral Copperion, or at least the liquid form, seems to absorb a certain amount of ambient soulforce. If there's more in it than in the ambient soulforce, it releases it again."

Irwin nodded slowly.

"I know, but what I mean is, we could use it to store far more soulforce than we otherwise could, and reforge something beyond our normal capacity," he said.

"I… yes," Ambraz agreed. "We could."

"We could use it after we create a cardseed and make more cards than we normally could," Irwin continued, feeling his interest growing.

Ambraz hummed in agreement.

"Fine. I'll go back up to explain what I found, bring some of the stoneshapers here to create a safe area, and then try and move as much into my soulscape as I can while the others build the Cardsmith's Guild up."

Irwin felt Ambraz start to grow excited.

"Good! It might take a few months, but-"

"No," Irwin said, cutting off his friend. "I'll move as much as I can until they finish the initial Cardsmith's Guild, and as soon as everything is ready, I'm heading outside to reforge my next Heartcard."

Ambraz fell quiet, his metal lips pursed tight. Irwin felt him struggling before letting out a weary sigh.

"Fine. I guess we have been away from the kids for a long time," the Ganvil said. "Still, you know that if you leave, you will be gone for at least an hour of portal gallery time, right? That means you will be gone from here for… a long time."

Irwin glanced at his other body, the one still on Eluathar, watching how Scintilla was pushing open the door as she had been for the last few weeks.

"Yes, about that," he muttered. "I have the feeling there is something wrong with the time dilation."

"Wrong how?" Ambraz asked.

Irwin stared at Scintilla, as he had for a few evenings now.

"From what I can tell, the current time dilation is one to seven thousand," he said.

"It- you… What?" Ambraz exclaimed, a wave of confused worry rippling from him. "Explain!"

Irwin took a weary sigh. "It gets worse. It's not stable. Sometimes it speeds up, sometimes it slows down. Yesterday I could count to seven thousand before Scintilla had taken a breath."

"How do you even know she took a breath?" Ambraz asked, sounding confused.

"Her nose," Irwin said, focusing on his soulbond's perky little nose. "Her nostrils flare when she exhales."

"So, how-"

"Five days ago, it happened before I reached a count of four thousand," Irwin said. 

"Kid, why are you only telling me this now?" Ambraz grunted.

"We had other things to worry about," Irwin said as he absently continued using his hands to move more Ancestral Copperion into his soulscape. "Either way, as soon as the time dilation is as slow as it can get, we are getting out. Otherwise, half a day won't be a few months, but it might be much, much longer."