The infinity dungeon 212

Chapter 212

The Renegade turned towards the strange vat filled with green liquid. Infy, the dungeon spirit, was floating inside it. She was hooked to all sorts of tubes and strange machines, and the spiral pattern glowing at the base of the glass cylinder illuminated her from below.

The Renegade cocked a fist, not even bothering to coat his hand with magic, and punched the thick glass. The impact rocked the forest with a boom strong enough to kick up dust and disturb the leaves of the nearby trees.

Michael knew that one such punch could obliterate him, and he wouldn’t even be able to put up a fight. He didn’t have an aura, he didn’t have passive enhancements, he didn’t have his statistics. All he had was weak magic, barely stronger than when he had lost against the Renegade’s projection. How could he deal with the real thing?

Indeed, the Renegade ignored him as he focused on destroying the object of his hatred. He cocked an eyebrow at seeing that his punch had only chipped the glass, causing minor damage. Snarling, he unleashed a flurry of attacks, each more powerful than the previous. Fueled by rage and a great thirst for revenge, his blows soon began to weaken the glass until a spiderweb of cracks started to spread from the point of impact.

The spiral pattern glowed. All around, the forest dimmed; the magic in the air syphoned and sucked into the many spirals that littered every inch of the place, flowing into the ground and then along unseen pathways until it reached the vat. Some of the damage the Renegade had caused receded, but it only enraged him further.

More and more attacks came. The spirals brightened, sucking up the last of the mana in the air. Seeking more magic, they cannibalized the very forest. The plants withered, the dew evaporated, the air grew stale with the dusty smell of death. Then they began to eat themselves. First, the spirals on dead things dimmed and disappeared, then, even those on living things began to be consumed, speeding up the decay of all things. Even the rocks suffered, losing their color, turning a dull gray that reminded Michael of the concrete buildings on the surface.

It only delayed the inevitable, for the Renegade kept attacking without pause.

Michael let the feeling of powerlessness wash over him as he looked inward. With exceptional clarity, his mind’s eye immediately found the cage of Demiurge Particles keeping the spiral cloud-mass that had attacked him trapped in a cage of stillness.

Then he looked at the Renegade, and finally at the dungeon spirit. Infy was pale, and some liquid was beginning to drip down the glass where the cracks were thickest. All around, a ring of death had spread with the three of them at the center, and the forest was now a barren wasteland. The flow of magic was minimal, and with each blow it only diminished further.

With less magic to repair the vat, the Renegade was beginning to deal real damage to it.

Infy was dying.

The thing was, Michael would die with her unless he did something. As soon as he was done, the Renegade would turn to him and smite him with the same ease one squashes a bug.

“Fuck you, asshole,” he growled in defiance, reaching within himself and pulling.

He did not know if he would have done such an extreme act without the threat to his own life.

Then he looked at the dungeon spirit, at the mad Renegade seeking to end her life, and he did not feel like he was staring at a strange, enigmatic alien entity but a person. He certainly felt the empathy and compassion one usually feels when witnessing the misery of fellow humans.

Still, he paused. This was going to cost him his life, after all.

“Michael,” Icarus’ voice cut through the silence. “Do it. Trust me.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. Perhaps, he thought, he didn’t need to be told at all. Perhaps he would have done it anyway.

With one last pull, he unraveled the cage keeping the spiral cloud-mass contained. The Demiurge Particles rioted and exploded with unspent force, but Michael found that in that moment, his will was iron. His word was law. The Demiurge Particles stilled, forced to obey by his immense need to control them. To use them. He coerced them, feeling the last of their riotous resistance give way to begrudging obedience. Perhaps it wasn’t the best way to use the powerful magic, but it was all he could afford to do given the limited time.

Pulling on a strand of the immensely powerful, yet finite source of magic, he banished the Renegade. One moment the man was attacking the vat, the next he was flying towards the far wall of the gigantic cavern with a look of confusion on his face.

Inside his inner space, the cloud-mass glowed with the shape of the spiral pattern. It zeroed in on the star at the center of it all, the source of Michael’s magic, and began to move.

Ignoring it, Michael propped himself to his feet, burning silver mana. He had not even realized that he had fallen to his knees, but it didn’t matter. He approached the vat, using a Demiurge-infused hand to finally break the last of the glass and free the woman trapped inside from machines that had once kept her alive but were now killing her.

She was small, he realized as he cradled her in his arms. Pale, slick with the green fluid residue, she looked fragile and so, so tiny. She was very light. Without the vat’s support, she was fading rapidly. Michael could see the color draining from her face, what little was left of it at least, and her body hollowing out as the magic vanished.

He directed a warm, gentle flow of Demiurge Particles towards her. The changes were instantaneous. Immediately her complexion brightened and while still white as a ghost, her skin was no longer ashen and almost transparent. The rest of her body filled with a vitality that was hard to describe, healthy and vibrant.

Then the Renegade was back, furious. Now that Infy was detached from her machines, he could use his magic freely. The spiral shape on the ceiling of the cave, and everywhere else, was dim, save for the one inside Michael’s inner space. The one on the cloud-mass. It, unlike the others, was still very active. It reached something solid, something big, perhaps an unexplored planet, and tore it apart. Inching ever closer to the central star.

Michael could not afford to split his attention, however. The Renegade attacked him, and he conjured a shield which he reinforced with the power of Demiurge Particles.

The Renegade’s magic washed over it like soft rain on an umbrella. Snarling, the slender man began punching the shield with all his might, but his attempts proved futile. The shield, powered by magic much stronger than what the Renegade could wield, looked utterly impenetrable. Each second that passed only enraged the man further, though, and he redoubled his efforts.

A quake shook the desolate area, which was all that remained of the once lush forest. It seemed to originate from all around, cracks spreading on the cave’s walls, reaching the ceiling, climbing up, converging at the center. Chunks of stone and rock began to fall, the city up above being swallowed up by the collapsing cave.

“This Floor,” Infy said weakly, her voice low and soft. “It’s going to collapse soon. You need to leave. But you… can’t… save me.”

Then her eyes closed again. Her body went limp. She was unconscious.

The Renegade seemed to sense the impending doom as well. For a moment, as he looked around, it was as if he could not believe his eyes. Then he refocused on Michael, and then on the girl he was holding and protecting with his body. He snarled. His mouth moved, forming words, but no sound reached inside the shield. He was obviously angry, and the power of his attacks reflected that.

Inside Michael’s inner space, the cloud-mass with its glowing spiral approached the star. The spiral glowed blue, white, and a myriad of colors, like diamonds scattering the light. It was as beautiful as it was deadly.

Outside, the shield held but Michael knew that his stash of Demiurge Particles was being depleted with every strike of the Renegade. The man seemed to have infinite magic to throw at them, and it might very well have been true, given how many eons he had spent gathering power.

Another quake, and now in the depths of the cracks on the walls Michael could see the very same nothingness he had seen beneath the veil of reality back when Infy had saved him from the Renegade’s projection, preventing the reset of a Floor.

Like before, once again the Renegade used the time element to momentarily stop the destruction of the Floor. Like before, he failed.

Now panic was beginning to show on his face. It lasted a moment, then it was replaced by determination. Michael could make out his words:

“If we are to die here, then I will make sure you die first!”

His attacks resumed. Michael looked around, frantically. If not even the Renegade could stop the Floor’s collapse, how could he? Inside his inner space, the cloud-mass and its spiral were almost at the star. Once it consumed it, his magic would wink out.

The shield disappeared. Michael used some of the precious few Demiurge Particles he had left to once again throw the Renegade across the cave. Then he used some more to conjure up a portal. The powerful magic clashed with the rules of the dungeon itself, but Michael simply pushed more of it into the portal until something, some fundamental structure of the dungeon itself gave way.

It snapped open, but already the dungeon was working to repair the damage. The portal had been small when it formed, and it was closing quickly. On the other side, the verdant vegetation of the Misty Valley was like a beacon of hope.

Behind, he could see the Renegade flying towards them. His aura was at its maximum, flattening the very terrain around him and creating a tornado of debris in his wake. Without the Demiurge Particles, Michael could not defend himself from it, but he needed them to keep the portal open.

“Fuck!” he cursed, and threw Infy inside. “I hope you will forgive me for manhandling you.”

Then he directed the Demiurge Particles to make another shield, just in time to see the edge of the Renegade’s aura reach what remained of Infy’s vat and flatten it. It washed over him, the Particles diminishing quickly as they were expended to ward off the continuous attack.

The portal winked out, spent. Curiously, the Floor seemed to stabilize. The cracks did not recede, and the void of true nothingness could still be seen in their depths, but they stopped advancing.

“Well, so this is what she meant when she talked about sacrifice. The sacrifice was being stuck here, wasn’t it?”

The Renegade arrived. “What did you do?” he demanded, furious. “You set the monster free. You! Your world will die and YOU will be remembered as the scythe that culled your own civilization.”

The man’s ravings were cut short by magic gathering. A woman, small and pale, clad in dark gothic clothing and wielding a scythe of all things, appeared like a hologram.

“I am truly sorry, Michael,” Infy said. “I will remember this. I will watch over your world for as long as I live.”

In the inner space, the spiral cloud-mass touched the corona of the star that kept Michael’s magic system alive. Without the star, Michael would be left utterly defenseless against the Renegade. The man was stunned into silence by Infy’s sudden appearance, but as soon as she left, he would turn to the only target he could vent his anger on: Michael.

“I am truly sorry,” Infy said again. “Goodbye, my champion.”

She started to vanish.

Instead of panicking, however, Michael had a grin on his face. “Looks like you haven’t been paying attention lately, have you?”

After all, there was a reason Icarus had been so silent during the whole fight.