Knives & Levels - Chapter 119

The light began to dim, and the air grew colder as they descended the tunnel. It was like stepping into the Arctic without a coat. Colt only figured he was still alive because it had been cold above; now, this cold sank deeper, numbing his skin and making his face burn. It was as if any second his limbs and digits threatened to fall off due to the severity of the chill. 

Worse, the cold flared in odd rhythmic pulses that accompanied changes in the light around them as they walked further into the icy hell. It seemed that when the red light intensified and Edicts came in stronger, the tunnel around them was restricted and grew more claustrophobic by the second. The grand staircase of ice narrowed down the further they went, as if someone had gotten lazy carving their way down this tunnel and opted instead to cave less to save themselves time and pain.

Caution and eagerness warred inside Colt. In the absence of fear, all he had was preparation and the will to see this mission finally completed. On his friends, though, he saw an ever-present fear as they ventured together into entirely unknown waters.

"It'll be okay," Colt said, reassuring them. Easy to do since he didn't feel the trace of fear himself, thanks to the sacrifice he'd given up to Cut.

"You don't know that," Sarah said, then sighed. "But we're gonna give it our best. Besides, we've already beaten two bosses. Just how different can this last boss be?"

Colt didn't say anything to that, having already felt the qualitative change in the air around him. When it came to the Edicts, this place was on a different level.

It took a good half hour of walking down the icy slopes, not having to worry about light, given the ambient hellish glow. The ice glowed even red as they went, casting everything with that crimson hue that made it seem like they were in some kind of horror film.

When they reached the base of the stairs, it opened up to a grand chamber. It was evident that this was the magical sealed room Leo had mentioned. From the entrance inward, circles upon circles engraved with what looked to be inscriptions on the floor glowed slightly blue, contrasting with the red all around them. But it seemed they were unhealthy arcane relics, flickering in and out as if under assault from the environment itself.

Colt knew nothing of magic, but based on Leo’s story, he figured these were the failing bindings that would let the seed loose in less than a day.

The circles were centered around the middle of the chamber, which dropped off into a steep pit. The lightest glowing runes were on the edge of the pit.

Colt walked over, careful as he could be, knife in hand, and took a look. About fifty feet down in a pit was a glowing red seed—that's the best he could describe it, since it looked like it had fallen out of some horrible massive demonic fruit; dark hairs lined its surface and roots sprouted from the base in a thick trunk that stabbed into the ice around them.

Now that he focused, if he looked carefully into the ice near them, he saw some of those trailing dark roots from the seed down below. Encased in the ice but somehow still moving within it, those roots leaked the crimson feeding into everything. 

It twitched down there, an odd eldritch thing that, if one traced carefully back, went to the dark, ominous seed below. So much for this being a ‘celestial’ seed, given it appeared downright demonic in nature.

Further complicating the fighting pit was the brackish water in the basin, flooding in from outside and touching parts of the not perfectly straight battlefield with cold water that Colt had no doubt wouldn’t feel good to dip your feet into.

It was a headache, plain and simple.

First was the main headache—they had to get down to the root to fight it, at least for three of them. So far, it hadn't reacted to their presence. Maybe because they were outside of its binding rings?

The second major problem was getting down to the boss. He could throw himself over the side and use Momentum to steal all the energy from the fall right before he hit the ground—Nate… Maybe he could just jump. Colt gave him an appraising look, which Nate didn’t notice. The soldier was focused on surveying the terrain.

That left Sarah and the fact that if things went wrong, he’d want a way out of the deadly pit with the monster.

Colt crept right to the edge and used an Inspect.

———

Celestial Seed - Level 105

Description: The seed of a Celestial Tree; it is said that gods are born from seeds, and the one within this has had its fair share of both blood and cold. The environment in which a seed is cultivated results in which god of Chaos may spawn; though this one is ripe for the hatching, it will likely be the weakest it will be in a long while. A seed can take ages to grow and develop. Seeing it hatch is rare, and here you are coming to wreck that. How awful of you.

When a celestial seed sprouts, it transforms completely, ridding itself of the roots that attach it to its world and into Chaos itself, and becomes more. This results in the first step of a god of chaos.

Noteworthy Skills: 

Hell Roots [Epic] - Level 36

Ethereal Touch [Rare] - Level 25

Icy Shell [Rare] - Level 31

Edicts:

Frost (Superior)

Desecration (Greater)

Thermal Void (Lesser)

Exsanguination (Minor)

———

Colt stared for a long time, his eyes examining each piece of information.

Unlike the Yeti, this one had only two Edicts that were greater or above—also, unlike the Yeti, the above part was critical information here. Since it, too, had broken through the threshold, that took its particular Edict to another dimension, making this thing a deadly threat.

Add in the levels, advanced skills…

However, none screamed out to Colt that they were a direct offensive skill.

Colt scratched the back of his head and turned to his allies. Nate was next to him, also taking a look at what they were facing off against.

“We’ve got to get down there,” Colt confirmed and stretched out his shoulders. The question was how.

He might go and carve handholds down, but the issue was climbing up the icy surface, especially in the middle of a fight. If they had to flee, well, it was dangerous. If he jumped in and didn’t have a way out, that wasn’t an ideal scenario. Thankfully, Julia came up with a simple solution using her control of water and the fact that there was an abundance of mana-rich water to control down near the Celestial Seed.

After they all took positions, readying for battle, she siphoned off some of the brackish water in a controlled ball, pressing it against the side of the ice pit and solidifying it step by step all along the circumference.

Icy steps with gaps between them, leading fifty feet down, weren’t exactly the picture of workplace safety, but dungeon diving as a profession was never going to be all that safe. Step by step, she managed to conjure a route for them to navigate the tricky landscape and get down without having to rock climb on ice, which Colt felt grateful for. This also had the benefit of siphoning off the cold, terrible water from the bottom of the pit, leaving only small puddles by the time she had finished.

It would do in a pinch.

The entire time, though, he kept his eyes on the Celestial Seed. Waiting for some kind of reaction to the things going on around it. It lay dormant in the middle, content to wallow in its brackish water and exist with its foreboding nature.

Colt eyed the freestanding steps and took a deep breath. He’d test it first, since it would be easy to catch himself with his Momentum Edict if he fell.

"Julia, Nick, you stay up here," he said, looking at the sides of the ring, which still contained the containment glyphs that were flickering with blue light. If they had their ranged fighter up here, then the rest of them could proceed down and not have to worry about protecting them. The naturally advantageous high ground would also probably be useful for them to fling down their spells into the pit. Were the worst to happen, at least two could escape. “I’ll go down first.”

Someone needed to go down there and test things out. Given his natural advantage and ability to adapt, it made the most sense to volunteer himself in situations like this.

If this was a trap, only he had the real capability to escape.

They nodded and took positions around the ring as Colt worked his way downward. Paying careful attention to each step around the icy ring and where exactly he was placing his feet. Despite his dexterity, going down steps made entirely of ice was challenging. Each step was like balancing on a tightrope, afraid the wrong angle or way threatened to send him tumbling the rest of the way down. Even if he could jump into the pit and survive, he wasn’t sure his allies could do so just as easily. Surely Sarah would struggle, even if Nate could tank the fall.

With one treacherous step at a time, his limbs grew heavier and colder the closer he got to the Celestial Seed. Every foot deeper into the pit made him live within the cold. It felt like he was on the top of a mountain—or maybe plunged into the arctic sea beneath them, struggling for breath in the dark, black water, feeling every bit of life in him sapped out as if it were a giant leech.

He got the best view of the seed when he reached the bottom.

It hung in the middle of the pit, tendrils pulsing out from the bottom of the seed. Its outer layer was like black armor, thick and made of some form of darkened icy steel. The roots were thicker down here, crawling around below like thousands of worms twisting in the ice. Colt could see them actively growing even now, pushing through the solid ice and somehow coexisting in the same place as it.

Even existing on the same level as the seed left Colt with a lingering sense of discomfort. He waited at the edge of the pit, expecting it to suddenly jerk to life with his presence.

He wasn’t sure if he should feel disappointed or relieved that it only continued to pulse there, existing and uncaring.

It was entirely content to ignore him and simply continue its current growth.

Colt stared for a long while—long enough to receive a shout from Sarah above asking if he was okay, to which he confirmed. And then stalked forward, knives in both hands, waiting for an attack. It didn’t come. Unlike the bosses they'd fought before, he didn't feel a very keen instinct in this one to do battle with him, which meant maybe that simply finding this boss and then taking it out before it grew into something way more dangerous could be the mission itself.

That seemed too easy, but he had no plausible solution as he got within five feet of it with no reaction.

Colt did another Inspection and reviewed the information again, checking it for inconsistencies. There were none, as far as he was aware. With his skill and status, this was what it said on the tin.

Getting so close and not seeing any aggression was a positive sign. Colt gestured for his friends above to come down; Nate made it look easy, sitting on the side of the pit and then pushing off. He hit the ground with a crack but stood as if nothing had happened. Sarah wasn’t so keen to test the strength of her legs and instead opted for the stairs made out of ice, taking them slowly until eventually they all gathered by the seed.

"I think maybe one big attack," Colt said, as he watched the wreathing seed. He still had both of his weapons out, unsure which dagger was better. His Skill lent itself well to being able to use them both simultaneously. But dual-wielding was still an unfamiliar technique for him.

On one hand, this thing had a physical component, so it was feasible that his Skysteel dagger would function better when combined with Cut. Then again, since it had its own powerful cold Edict in the form of Frost, maybe the Yeti’s lingering Rend and Blizzard Edict would be a better match-up. When he scanned the entire area with his sight, it didn't give him a better sense of what would be more effective, but it rewarded him with a terrifying kaleidoscope of colors and swirling Edicts around the seed.

That and another notification.

———

Edict Sight (Basic) has gained a level!

———

In the end, he’d opt to spread his Edict through both blades and swing at the same time. Two Cuts infused with everything he could manage would surely do some damage.

“Use your best shot. I don’t believe this thing will be as docile when we start to try killing it. Most things aren’t.” Nate said, and he hefted his hammer into both of his hands. Colt privately agreed. If he'd learned one thing from life, it was that if things seemed too good to be true, they often were, and that when you got too overconfident and cocky in yourself, something would find a way to take you down a peg. Here, facing off against its home in the middle of some weird mage laboratory, there had to be a reason they didn't just kill it despite studying it. 

There was a quick shout to their allies above to do the same, and then people took to their positions around the enemy. They split up around the seed, doing one last sweep of the ground beneath to make sure things were good.

He took his place in front, both edges of his knives gathering a strong golden Edict as he poured as much of himself as he could, letting the power of Cut grow and sharpen. With his weapons the way they were now, he wondered if there had been anything at all on Earth before all of this that could have withstood a cut from these things.

Nate prepared his hammer with a blazing fire, having shaped the edge more into the form of an axe than a hammer; Sarah was next to them, shuffling on her feet, moving back and forth as she held her hands in the practiced form of a fighter. Up above, Colt saw Nick notch an arrow with the brightness of the sun and the size of his arm. Nearby, Julia had several ice spears condensed and prepared around her.

It was as prepared as they could be.

Nate gave the signal. “Go!”

And then, they started the war.