OP Absorption

blood returning to frozen limbs", "shallow, hitching breath", "stronger", "warmth began to spread outwards", "unnatural chill", "deathly silence", "The castle hummed quietly. Fin sat on the stone floor. Every muscle hurt. His head hurt. The Mark on his chest had a dull red light. His domain felt weaker.

Meg coughed. She pushed hair from her face. "Fin? Are you okay?" Her voice was shaky. She looked scared.

Arachne stood up. She swayed a little. One hand pressed her side. "My Lord," she said. Her voice was tight. "That was the Abyssal Lock. I never thought. The stories are real."

"Stories?" Fin asked. His throat was dry. He stood up. He felt dizzy. "What stories?"

"It is a thing that holds stuff," Arachne said. Her eyes looked far away. "The first Admins made it. To hold things they could not destroy. Things from a long time ago."

Fin did not ask "before what." He needed to know something else. He looked around the main hall. It was empty. Only the three of them were there.

"Scarlet," he said. His voice was sharp. "Mara. Where are they?"

Meg looked confused. "Weren't they with us?"

Arachne looked at Fin. She focused. "My Lord, they stayed outside the room. In the Spire's lower levels. When you opened the door to the Lock, they were still fighting Unit 7."

Fin felt bad. He had thought about Meg and Arachne. He thought about getting away from the Lock. He had forgotten them. He had closed the door. He left them there with Association killers. And other bad things.

He felt angry. It was his fault. He brought them into this.

"Damn it," he said. He closed his hands. The Mark on his chest pulsed red. He felt his domain was weak. He felt tired. Opening another portal now, back into the Spire, would be bad. Maybe too risky.

He did not care.

"Arachne," he said. His voice left no room for talk. "How fast can you be ready to fight?"

Arachne stood straighter. She seemed to push away her weakness. "I can work, my Lord. Give me ten minutes. I will be good enough."

"Meg," he said. He looked at her. She looked scared. But she looked at him. "Stay here. Close the castle if anything tries to come back. Use the main hall control Arachne showed you."

"Fin, no!" Meg said. She grabbed his arm. "You can't go back there! You just barely got out! And the castle, Arachne said your domain is weak!"

"They are stuck because of me," he said. His voice was final. He took her hand off his arm. "I am not leaving them."

He closed his eyes. He pushed down the pain. He pushed down being tired. He thought about the tunnel outside the Abyssal Lock room. He thought about the smell of gas. He thought about the Association armor. He focused on the Mark. He pushed his will into it. He made it respond.

Reality opened in front of him again. This portal was smaller. It was not steady. It moved. It looked like static. It made an angry noise.

"That looks bad," Meg said. She moved away from the portal.

"It will hold," Fin said. He felt himself get weaker. His domain protested. "Long enough." He looked at Arachne. "Ready?"

She nodded. She took out her two dark knives. She looked determined.

"Watch our backs, Meg," Fin said. He looked at her one last time. Then he stepped into the light. Arachne followed him.

The portal closed. Meg was alone in the large hall. It was quiet.

---

The air was hot. It was thick. It smelled like burning metal and gas. And something else. It smelled like cooked meat. Fin stumbled from the portal. The jump was rough. The tunnel outside the Abyssal Lock room was a mess.

The reinforced door to the Lock room was closed. But the tunnel was broken. Walls were burned and bent. Pipes had broken. Hot steam and bad fumes came out. And bodies.

Three Unit 7 people lay twisted on the metal floor. Their armor was black and melted. Their arms and legs were bent in strange ways. They were not just dead. Parts of them were gone. Like they had evaporated.

In the middle of the mess, Scarlet leaned against a wall that was still mostly okay.

Her red hair had blood and dirt in it. Her clothes were torn. She had many bad burns on her skin. One arm hung uselessly. It was broken. She held a big, smoking Association gun in her other hand. Its power was gone. She used it like a club. She was surrounded by more bodies. Two or three more Unit 7 people. Their bodies were hard to tell apart from the melted armor and burned flesh.

She looked up when Fin and Arachne came out. She had a wild, happy, and angry grin on her bloody face.

"Took you long enough, Boss," she said. Her voice was rough. She coughed. She spat some bloody stuff on the floor. "The party got a little wild after you left."

Fin looked at the scene. He looked at Scarlet. He thought she would be dead, or caught. Not this. Not being the only one left after an elite Association kill squad was destroyed.

"What did you do?" he asked. His voice was very quiet.

The portal closed behind them. Fin and Arachne were in the hot, bad-smelling tunnel again. The air had a strong smell of gas and cooked meat.

Fin stumbled. His domain felt bad from the portal jump.

He looked up. The scene made it hard for him to breathe.

The reinforced door to the Abyssal Lock room was still closed. Thank goodness.

But the tunnel was a terrible mess.

Walls were black from burning. Metal was bent and torn.

Pipes had broken. Steam came out. Bad fumes burned his eyes.

Then he saw the bodies.

Three of them. Twisted into strange shapes. Their Unit 7 armor was melted.

They were not just dead. Parts of them were gone. Like they had just disappeared.

In the middle of all that, Scarlet leaned against a wall that was still okay.

Her red hair had blood and dirt in it.

Her clothes were torn. Parts were gone. He saw angry, bubbly burns on her arms and neck.

One arm hung uselessly. It was clearly broken.

But in her good hand, she held a big, smoking Association gun. Its power was gone. She held it like a club.

She was surrounded by more bodies.

At least two more Unit 7 guys. Maybe three. It was hard to tell. They looked like melted armor and burned meat.

She looked up when he and Arachne came out of the fading portal light.

A wild, happy, and angry grin showed on her bloody face.

"Took you long enough, Boss," she said. Her voice was rough.

She coughed. It sounded wet. She spat a thick gob of bloody stuff on the ruined floor.

"The party got a little out of hand after you left."

Fin just stared.

At the bodies. At the broken stuff. At her.

He thought she would be dead. Or caught.

Not... this. Not the boss of this terrible place.

"What did you do?" he finally said. His voice was very quiet.

This was not just a fight. This was total destruction.

Scarlet's angry grin got wider.

She tried to shrug with her good shoulder. But she winced. It hurt her a lot.

"Just returning the favor, Boss," she said. Her voice was rough. "They wanted to play rough. So I showed them how it is done."

She moved the smoking gun towards the melted body of a Unit 7 person.

"It turns out," she coughed. It sounded wet. "When you get really, really mad... things just sort of... pop."

Fin stared at her. He stared at the mess.

Pop?

Unit 7 commandos were S-rank tough guys. Scarlet herself said that. They did not just 'pop'.

This was not just a knife fight. This was... something else.

The level of destruction. The way they died. It was like a very small sun had exploded in this tunnel.

And Scarlet was in the middle of it. Burned and broken. But smiling like a demon.

Arachne moved forward. She was quiet. She looked at all the destruction. Then she looked at Scarlet's injuries.

Her face was usually calm. Now it was tight. Her eyes were wide. She looked shocked. And something else. It was like respect.

"Your inside energy is... wild," Arachne said. Her voice was low. It sounded like she was amazed. "The power you got... it seems to have started something more than just a little bit extra."

Scarlet just laughed. It was a harsh, loud sound. It ended with a grunt of pain.

"Yeah, well, tell that to my arm."

She looked down at her broken arm. Then she looked back at Fin. Her smile went away a little.

"Speaking of that, Boss... a little healing power would be good now. I think I am running on empty and pure anger."

Fin nodded. He pushed down his own shock. He pushed down being tired.

Later. He would figure out what Scarlet could do later.

Right now, she was important. She was badly hurt.

And...

"Mara," he said. His voice was sharp. It cut through the smoke and the smell of death.

His eyes looked at the ruined tunnel. He did not see her.

Just bodies. Association bodies.

"Where is Mara?"

Scarlet's smile went away completely.

Her face was already pale. Now it was even paler.

"Mara..." she mumbled. Her good hand tightened on the useless gun. "Shit."

Her eyes looked quickly at the closed door of the Abyssal Lock room.

"When those... things," she pointed at the closest melted body, "broke through the outside defenses, I told her to go inside. Through that door you closed. I thought it would be safer in there than out here with me going crazy with power."

Fin felt a terrible feeling.

Safer?

Inside the Abyssal Lock room?

With whatever ancient, scary thing lived in there?

The scary thing he had just barely escaped?

'No. No, no, no.'

"You sent her in there?" he said. He could barely believe it. A new wave of terrible feeling came over him.

The Mark on his chest still hurt. It seemed to flare up in response.

The Abyssal Lock.

It had felt him. It had reacted to him.

What would it do to a normal person? A normal person like Mara. No power. Nothing to give it but fear.

Scarlet pushed herself off the wall. She swayed. She looked like she might fall.

"It seemed like the only choice, Boss! It was that or let those Unit 7 jerks use her as a damn shield! I was a little busy, you know, trying not to die!"

Her voice sounded like she was defending herself. She sounded angry. But under that, Fin heard her fear.

She knew. She knew what a bad choice she had made with Mara's life.

He did not waste time talking.

He turned back to the closed door. The one with those dark, bad-feeling marks.

The door he had promised himself he would never touch again.

The strain on his domain was huge. From the two portal jumps before. And from being forced away from the Lock. It screamed.

His head hurt a lot. Black spots appeared in front of his eyes.

'I can't. I can't open it again. Not now.'

"Arachne," he said. His voice was tight. "Can you open that door from this side without... me?"

He hated that