Dark Matter Ascension

Jace, Dee, Priam, and Greg were all warped back to The Cosmic Corridor and headed into Harkon Secundus. They emerged into the black, destination-selection void of nothingness, save for the terminal before them. Xera's voice came over the comms once more, "This is going to sound very, very weird – but you are not going to be swimming through this vast underground sea."

"That's a relief," Priam said. "Not that I'm too concerned."

"The world is made up of layers," Xera continued. "It has a surface which you have visited and then a liquid layer until you hit a rocky core which has a hollow space in the middle. Scans cannot penetrate that deep, and there are enough life forms in the water that I can't get a good read even with probes. But there is a…cord, if you will call it that. An enormous tunnel that goes from the surface down to the center."

"A secret tunnel?" Dee asked.

"Yes," Xera replied. "It is hidden under Hualong's temple. Head there."

Jace punched the button for The Blossom Peaks and exited the portal. The enormous green eastern-style dragon was curled up, and she raised her head before nodding slightly and setting it back down.

Quinn's voice took over, "Xera had to deal with something. Go to the edge, and you're going to descend about halfway down the mountain. You'll then look for a waterfall – I'll mark it on your HUDs when it comes into sight. The passage begins behind that."

"What are we going to encounter in there?" Greg asked whilst Dee pulled out the kite.

"I don't know," Quinn replied. "The probes stopped working once they got past the waterfall. But we know the spire that runs from the hollow core runs 'up' from the center and ends under this temple."

Jace looked at his allies who were taking their positions on the kite. "Only three spots to stand," he commented.

Greg tapped his shoulders, "Hop on. We'll keep the center of the kite the center of gravity."

Jace did as he was told, straddling Greg's shoulders as the man tapped the control button on the kite. It lifted off the ground and they began their descent over the edge of the cliffs. Just in case, Jace thought, Void Stalker (Rank 1) [Group]. He saw the thrum of white-grey energy cascade out and surround them, making small contrails as they kept heading down the mountainside.

From one fire to another, Xera thought. Thankfully, worlds were still keeping their portals locked down for fear of Troxanir's meddling and suicide bombers. She had let reports get out about the massive attacks, and the various localized administrators were rightly afraid.

However, that meant Troxanir's target was only Khrox. And Xera had no clue how he was getting them into Khrox. She kept warping them out to deep space – but they kept coming back. Must be some Astral System Skill, she thought. But then why doesn't he just come here himself? Is it that he can only send other things? Maybe his Astral System Skill needs a higher Rank to allow himself to teleport?

She had questions – plenty of them – but no answers. Another alert went off, and one of her several Wayfinders immediately responded; sending the Conclave Signer off into deep space. I need a way to keep them out…but I can't do that without admin permissions! She let out an exasperated sigh and began drafting off messages to the Pulsar Coalition. They need to get ready for an assault on the black hole at the center. We need to put a stop to this. Maybe if we can get the pressure up on Troxanir, he'll knock it off with trying to bomb Khrox.

The waterfall was difficult to spot, and without Quinn's help, Jace was sure they would have missed it. It was small – only wide enough for a single person at a time to squeeze their way in – and Greg would have to lose the armor.

But they had Dee, and she just blasted with acid to bore a larger hole, and they flew the kite through the water and into a dark cave. Jace could see perfectly as his vision shifted to a greyscale hue, and glancing at his allies he saw that they, too, had eyes that shifted coloration. Well, he couldn't see Greg's eyes because of the helmet. But he imagined they were deep, brown orbs given his Planet Cosmic Power.

The cave was shallow and full of moisture that constantly dripped from the descending torrent. Jace spotted the broken bits of drones, and crouching down tried to discern the cause. "Any thoughts?" he asked over the comms.

Quinn replied, "None I can detect from a simple scan. Just be cautious."

Jace stood up and pulled his sword, "Skills up," he ordered. Void Shield (Rank 6) [Reflecting], Void Blade (Rank 17) [Rending].

Priam's golden barriers surrounded them, and the golden hourglass representing his [Conditional] healing Skill gave Jace a sense of reassurance that he hadn't realized he'd missed since going off solo. Small shields appeared above each of them from some Skill Greg activated, and the man commented, "Eternal Guardian up," in his no-nonsense, work voice.

Dee shrugged, "I got nothing."

Jace took the lead and made for the small corridor at the back of the damp alcove. It was a rough, gradual slope that corkscrewed down, and he followed the only path available. Ollie was wrapped around his shoulders; partially inside the armor and partially phasing through it. "This is exciting," the otter commented. "Going deep underground on a multi-day journey to the center of a world!"

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"It is so neat," Priam replied. "I've not been in many caves, but the walls are fascinating types of rock I've never seen before."

Greg chuckled, "The bunny boy priest is into rocks of all things."

"Why shouldn't I be? Rocks are neat!"

Jace kept his eyes forward and down as he slowly descended, keeping his Edge's Intuition [Danger-Sense] on high-alert for anything that was not his allies. And he felt that awareness acutely as they descended. Almost like a second sensory capability that expanded his awareness of his local environment.

A thousand feet deeper and the tunnel widened to the point that Jace could walk side-by-side with Greg. The larger man joined him at the front and held his two swords at the ready – the Beamblade not active but ready to be used, and the straight sword held in an iron grip. "How does tech work on this world?" Jace asked him.

Greg shrugged, "I haven't questioned it."

"I thought it couldn't. Tech doesn't work on non-tech or non-magitech worlds."

Ollie shook his head, "That is true, but local administrators have final say. The default setting The Cosmic System imposes is that magic-based 'stuff' except for Skills does not work on technology worlds, and vice-versa. Magitech gets around that limitation. But, local administrators can make adjustments. Normally, those administrators are factions, but sometimes they are deities or something equivalent. In the case of this world, the Divine Beast Hualong gave us permission to use the technology-"

Greg began to put his sword away, "I can finally use this gun-"

"Except firearms," Ollie finished.

Greg grumbled a little under his breath and kept his swords in his hands. "I still haven't shot something with the new gun…"

Priam coughed slightly, "So how long is the journey?"

Quinn replied, "Seven days at this pace."

Dee groaned, "Boooorriiing! Is there anything we are going to fight down here?"

"Possibly," Quinn answered. "Just keep on your toes."

Jace and Greg kept going deeper at the front with their two allies behind them. The air was stale, and there was no sense of motion to it. Stagnant and dusty. But Jace's Edge's Intuition Skill picked up movement, and he held his sword out horizontally to stop Greg. Pointing forward with his other hand, he whispered, "Something moved."

Greg strode forward confidently, descending down the slightly sloping corkscrew passage. "I don't see anything," Greg replied.

Jace focused his sense of spatial awareness from his Skill to include Greg, and he felt the presence directly above the man. "Greg! Above you!" Jace ran down the corkscrew only to see Greg being lifted off the ground by some type of light-brown jelly creature. His head was fully encapsulated, and it seemed to be eating through Greg's armor – agonizingly slowly.

Dee and Priam got right behind Greg, and Dee hissed. "Slimes? Here?"

"Relative of yours?" Priam asked.

Dee scoffed, "They're dumb. Like pets. Greg will be fine, I'm sure."

As if on cue, Greg brought both swords up and cut the slime in half with a scissor-like motion of the two weapons. The Beamblade sizzed and seared, whilst the straight sword cut cleanly, and Greg dropped down to his feet. The ooze surrounding his head began to streak down like he had been plastered with jelly. "I'm good," he stated. "Weird thing, though."

Jace eyed the slime warily, as he detected more movement along the ceilings deeper down. "There's a lot of them," he said bluntly.

"Let's see how they like natural light," Priam stated as he held up his hand with his Cosmic and Ascended power symbols. The gold and white center dot flared up with the light of a sun, and the slimes began moving to the sides of the passage to try and escape the glow. "See? Things that live in the dark don't like light."

Dee nodded, "Very true. Good mind there, Priam."

Jace felt something else moving deeper. Something much larger, heading up the passage to them. "I think we pissed something off." Jace moved to the front of the group and began descending to meet the unseen foe. But he saw…nothing. He felt something in front of him – blocking the entire tunnel. But visually there was nothing there. Strange, he thought. There's definitely something ther-

Whatever it was lunged out at him, and instinctually thanks to Swordmage Stance he stepped back and swung out with a sideways chop. The blade stuck into something, and the white-grey of void began to spread. "Giant slime!" Jace shouted. "Transparent, too!"

With the white-grey of Void consuming it, and the crimson nebula of [Rending] slowly bleeding it, Jace could see the shape quivering ever so slightly on the periphery of his vision. The thing surged forward, and he backed up further, hacking away at it. He backed up into Greg, and the larger man began swinging above Jace's head. Reckless, wild swings at a foe he could not see.

There was a surge of violet energy as the whole form of the slime shuddered and exploded outward; throwing Jace back into Greg. The larger man was bowled back by the force of Jace slamming into him, and both men were tossed to the ground as the slime encompassing the whole tunnel became visible. A frothing, gelatinous blob that was a sickly, decaying green color like chemical sludge. Priam's barriers crackled as acid was ejected out and covered them.

"Can slimes cultivate too?" Jace asked, annoyed, as he extricated himself from Greg's prone body and stood up.

"Yes," Quinn replied. "Annoying mechanic of this world's creatures. Just keep hacking away at it."

"With pleasure!" Greg roared out as he dashed ahead of Jace and began swinging with ardor into the goop. But his blows seemed to have very little effect. The slime moved forward, sucking Greg into its mass, and it began to attempt to dissolve him. But Priam's barrier held, and the man inside continued to hack away – albeit slowed thanks to his status of being in the thing.

Jace got up next to it and kept spreading the Void Blade effect with his swings. The crackling green energy within the slime surged out and slammed into Priam's barrier.

"Incoming!" Dee shouted as she unleashed a torrential blast of her damaging Skill. The freezing, biting cold slammed into the slime and it began to harden, letting Jace and Greg cut slices off and begin to pulverize it into chunks. It wobbled, lost its cohesion, and became liquid that slid down the tunnel into the depths, depositing Greg on the ground.

The man stood up and leaned his head sideways, eliciting a loud crack from his neck. "Annoying thing," he stated.

"We didn't kill it," Jace replied as he sensed it retreat beyond his detection radius. But something else was approaching…from outside the tunnel wall. "Quinn…are we deep enough to be in that underground ocean?"

"Looks like it," Quinn replied.

"Void Shield (Rank 6) [Sphere!]" Jace shouted out. His barrier expanded out and encompassed the whole group – right before the tunnel imploded in on them.