The Grand Weave

The night passed with relative calm. There were bouts of random quakes, but nothing near the level of power the first earthquake had. The parents, who now completely trusted me, were much more approachable and talkative.

They showed me the hidden rune near the seam and the correct way to power it. It was a fascinating usage of the enchantments. It created a magical lock by forcing the rune only to work if powered in the correct sequence.

The added security was a good thing, and when the door slid open to reveal the rest of the basement, I was surprised. It was about as large as the main room and sported three beds in the top left. There was even a tiny kitchenette powered through the familiar gemstone-enchantment system.

I was initially concerned about where smoke or steam would go, but the mother, who told me to call her Osilla, showed me the hidden air filtration system built into the walls.

Poltor, the father, placed his hand on another hidden seam beside the beds. It opened into a small space about the size of a closet. Inside was a bowl that had a hole in the middle. On the ceiling was a singular blue gemstone. The setup was bare-bones, but it worked, and that's all that mattered.

With bathroom and shower concerns alleviated, I ended up brainstorming the entire night. There was so much to do now that morning had come, and I felt ill-prepared. I had my supplies and training, but it felt underwhelming compared to the possible task before me.

My first goal was to get a lay of the land, figure out what was happening, and how the city stood after the wave of monsters. The second goal was to find what caused the massive earthquakes. If more earthquakes could happen at any minute, all my plans for shelter could be washed away under a wave of mud and rocks.

My third goal was to find other adventurers. The odds of finding someone with a good set of skills would prove invaluable for the rest of the rift. I thought back to the group I saw last night. I didn't particularly care for the strangers but hoped they managed to find shelter. I doubted there were many buildings with enchanted bomb shelters built in.

And my final goal was to search for more families or people who needed a place to hide. I wasn't an idealist; I understood many would be dead and that I couldn't save everyone. There simply wasn't enough room inside the cellar. But I had promised Osilla I would at least try to find her friends. Failing that, being able to confirm their deaths would help ease her worry.

Standing up slowly, I spent ten minutes stretching to limber myself up. It was just Áine with me this time; I had sent Erebus back so I could recover my mana.

"Are you ready to go? Things might get a little rough," I asked.

"Always, Master," she replied.

I smiled and activated Resplendent Inferno. Zharia appeared, and I set her on my shoulder. Through our connection, I could feel the excitement running through her, and I shook my head.

Such different personalities, you two. A peaceful forest meets an aggressive flame, eh?

I received a light boop on my ear and a peck at some of my hair. I faked an indignant outrage as I picked up my spear. Now I knew my thoughts were muddled, considering it bled through so easily to my familiars.

"Alright, enough delaying. It's serious mode from here on out. Okay?"

"Yes."

"Yes!"

I pushed past the barrier and sighed at the mess that was the stairs. Four boards were outright missing, and cracks marred another two in multiple places. Thankfully, I was pretty light. Someone like Igas or Teddy would have fallen through if they tried climbing this. It was another thing to remember if I managed to find people to bring back here.

Placing my feet on the steps carefully, I managed to climb out of the cellar and set aside the metal bar I had used to block the outside. Slowly, I pulled back the right door and revealed bright daylight streaming through. It took a moment for my eyes to stop squinting, but when they did, I stopped to take in what I saw.

Already, the destruction was everywhere. One of the buildings across the street was burning with a blue flame. And smoke and ash clogged the air. Stepping out of the cellar fully, I noticed pools of dried blood marking the ground. The splatters followed a line up and over some of the remaining buildings. Given the amount of blood shown, whatever creature could jump from roof to roof must have carried a corpse in its mouth.

After sending Zharia into the air and receiving a confirmation that there were no monsters in sight, I carefully made my way around the building.

Surprisingly, the house on top of the cellar was primarily intact, although I could see where several of the windows had shattered.

Stepping my way around a massive pool of what looked like roadkill, I glanced down both directions of the road. The lack of monsters was worrying. With the amount that I saw pouring out of the portals, this city should have been teeming with them.

That meant they were most likely hiding somewhere.

I pushed open the manor door and stepped inside the house. I debated closing the door but wanted an easy way out if I needed to hightail it out of here. The first thing I went to check was the kitchen. There was food in the cellar, but not much. Whatever I could scavenge would go a long way towards surviving the next fifteen days.

Finding the coldbox was easy, and most of the food was intact when I opened it. A couple of bottles of drinks had fallen over and spilled their contents everywhere, but outside of that, the rest of the food was useable. It was through sheer luck that they had recently gone grocery shopping, and I had Chomperz suction up everything.

When Chomperz finished being a limitless vacuum, he paused and sniffed the air. The dragonling drifted closer to the windows and stopped to look outside. As soon as he was satisfied, he rushed back into my chest and returned to my soulspace.

Chomperz's actions left me slightly paranoid, so I had Zharia do another round of scouting. I waited and surveyed the living room as she circled the area.

Unlike the kitchen, the main living room suffered heavily from whatever stomped its way through. With a massive hole letting in the sun's rays, there was a circular area several arms wide. The flooring underneath had turned to rubble, and colored dust replaced the tiles.

"Hey Zharia, everything okay?"

"Yes, Master. Flying low, no signs of monsters. More destruction, lots of blood."

I frowned but accepted the lack of monsters as a good sign. Not having to fight would be for the best.

"Do me a favour. When you return, can you fly above the living room ceiling? There's a massive hole here, and I'm curious if other buildings show the same damage."

I received a mental chirp in reply and continued my inspection of the first floor. After two minutes, Zharia was approaching, so I stopped searching and waited. It was only mildly reassuring I had not found blood stains anywhere in the house.

When Zharia flew through the ceiling, she landed on my shoulder and started relaying all that she had seen. The damage to the city was extensive. The outskirts were all but destroyed, and my chances of finding Osilla's friends went from abysmal to all but impossible. Each house or building that bordered the wall was gone, piles of rubble or ash the only remnants of what once was.

What interested me the most was the secondary barrier around the northern district. Zharia didn't want to risk approaching it in case something happened, so she could only convey what she had seen from afar.

The barrier itself looked like water, flowing in multiple directions. Each stream making up the barrier measured about one foot across. To confirm, I sank deeper into the mental space and saw the water constantly shifting. The barrier's rotation speeds could skin you alive.

I then asked her if she saw any signs of other adventurers or people, but I received a negative chirp. Plenty of corpses littered the city streets, but no signs of the living. My only guess was that most people were hiding underground or in the buildings that had been left standing.

With a weary breath, I dusted myself off and walked to the end of the house. According to Poltor, the second floor consisted of four rooms and two side rooms. The side rooms were bathrooms, and one of the four rooms was an office space. The final three rooms were bedrooms, two for the kids and one guest.

I just needed to sweep the house for a final check and then set off deeper into the city.

I went to the second floor and found more structural damage than below. Several cracks appeared along the walls, and one door hung nearly off its hinge. Seeing no reason to delay, I started with the son's bedroom.

It was a simple thing littered with toys. What caught my eye was the easel in the corner with a half-finished drawing on it. It was crude but surprisingly good for a kid his age.

Maybe I can show him my sketchbook later. I'm sure he'd like that.

After finding nothing hiding under his bed or closet, I moved to the guest bedroom. It was even more straightforward, a nearly undecorated room with a bed and a wardrobe. The sheets probably started clean before last night, but now debris and dust covered them.

If toys covered the boy's room, a sea of stuffed animals filled this one. Giant teddy bears and tiny fish occupied more than half the bed; the cuddly plushes dominated the space.

I used my spear to knock some of the stuff aside, but like the other rooms, nothing living was hiding under the bed. I did summon Chomperz again to suck up a few of the especially cute plushies. The little girl could use some comfort.

Finally, I poked my head into the bathrooms, and when I found them empty except for the spilled and broken bottles on the floor, I turned and walked up to the room with the barely hanging door.

I carefully pushed the door to the side, making sure it wouldn't fall on me the moment I tried to pass through the doorframe. The room itself was a mess. There were papers and diagrams tacked to the wall, while a good majority had slipped from their pin and lay scattered on the office floor.

It was when I put both feet through the doorframe that something in my head screamed in alarm. I raised my spear when I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Zharia lit up like a miniature sun, her feathers blazing with golden flames, and Aine wrapped her arms around the back of my neck.

"Watch out. Something is wrong."

The girls nodded, and I began channeling my mana. Zharia was amazing at turning things to ash, but the room was one step away from becoming a raging inferno.

Magnus appeared, and his paws hit the floor. He lowered his body, and his fur started to rise as a crystalline material began to cover it. Before his skill could complete, the room darkened by several shades.

Then I felt it. Magnus' crystal fur lit up, and space distorted around him. With a very adorable roar, he opened his mouth wide and then sucked in a cloud of strange mana.

As reality shifted, there was a popping sound. I flinched and crouched low but had to step back as a pool of blood flowed beneath my feet. Jumping backwards, I looked up and raised my spear as my eyes widened.

Where was once an empty room, messy but empty all the same, there was now a dark figure dressed in tattered robes. The floor beneath them was wet with bright blood that seeped through the mound of tatter cloth.

They stood there, silent, unmoving, their body covered beneath the robe. Magnus wobbled as he took a half-step back, nearly slipping on the blood puddle. The figure took advantage of my brief distraction by lunging at the cat with an obsidian dagger in its hand.

"Magnus!" I shouted.

I extended my arm and pushed my spear in the figure's direction, but the blade met hollow cloth and pierced through ineffectually. The person continued, and I had to step forward. They lunged, and I dodged it by barely rolling to the side.

Unfortunately for me, the room was small, and I hit the wall. Scrambling to get up, I received a slash on my arm. Thankfully, the hit met the metal of my bracer, and I pulled back unscathed.

Before they could lunge again, a wave of stomach-twisting energy shot out of Magnus' mouth and hit the attacker in the center of its chest. They froze, vibrating in place as the shadowy strips of cloth retracted into their body before a visceral ripping sound echoed across the confined space.

I raised my arms just in time for the figure's body to tear apart into two pieces as if they were twisted in separate directions at the hip. Crimson blood splattered the front side of my body, and I caught a cup's worth in my mouth.

It tasted not like blood. The liquid was salty and tangy, combined with a pervasive stench of sour rot. I could feel it sizzle in my mouth, and I started coughing. Every hack of blood that shot out met a mixture of my own, with the bright crimson failing to mix with my semi-transparent pink.

Magnus charged at the creature, and I looked up in time to see Zharia fly into the hand with the dagger poised to impale my eye. She battered it aside with fury and hooked her claws into the fingers before transforming into a small pillar of fire. The golden flames banished the room's shadows, and the gore-splattered cloth burned away like dry paper.

Stepping back, I called my familiar off and found my spear. I quickly picked it up, stabbed it into the head of the figure, and twisted it. For good measure, I stabbed down twice more before Magnus gave me the go-ahead. He couldn't sense any more mana, and what was left was already fading.

Summoning a flask to wash out my mouth, I gargled the water and spat out more of my own blood. It would have been concerning, but Áine fixed the damage. I did one last swish, mostly to get rid of the after-taste before I pocketed the flask and stared at the corpse in front of me.

Now that the weird shadows were fading along with the initial pool of blood, I noticed that the actual blood from the corpse was strangely small in quantity. There should have been a small deluge with how much should have shot out, but there wasn't. Most of the blood covered my body while the black cloth on the floor soaked up the rest.

Using my boot to flip the figure over, I frowned at what I saw. Instead of a face, there was a bony skull with flesh sunken to the point of being nonexistent. Tentacles covered the sides of the jaw, and I counted three pairs of eyes near the forehead.

I stomped heavily once, then twice, and finally, a third time before I stopped.

You really are dead, aren't you?

I turned to Magnus, who was staring at me with apprehension. I could feel his thoughts bleed through the connection, so I smiled as I turned towards him. "Something wrong, Magnus? You seem a little concerned."

He lowered his head and glanced between the corpse and my bloodstained armour. "Nothing is wrong, Master," he said slowly. When I took another step, he moved one paw back. "What about you?"

I stopped and held up a finger. "Hmmm, nothing."

I then smiled wider as I began to bend low. He took another step back, and then I made my move. My arms shot out faster than he could react, and I picked up the little cub while hugging him close to my chest. He squirmed, but I did not relent. After a dozen seconds of trying to jump out of my arms, he gave up and pouted mentally.

"Now, I'm covered in goop."

I snorted before raising him to eye level and touching my forehead to his nose. "Don't be so dramatic. Your ability is still active; deactivate when we get out, and you'll be perfectly clean." His pout disappeared, and I shook my head. "So what happened? What did you absorb, and why did it make you dizzy? Your manapool felt overloaded for a second there."

He flopped in my arms and let his body cover my face. "I don't know. The room felt bigger than it really was, and when I went to absorb it, it tickled my stomach. I felt all bloated inside, and everything went upside down. When I sent the mana back at the bad monster, it felt like the room went...weird, and the mana shifted."

I frowned again and lowered Magnus to my chest. It sounded like the mana involved some sort of spatial manipulation. The popping sound came with a weird sense of expansion, so it would make the most sense.

I was curious how spatial mana differed from gravity mana. I knew Magnus had that secondary element built into his skill.

I poked the upper half of the corpse's body. Using the spear's blade, I cut open the fabric, curious to see what was inside. When I did, I nearly gagged as a wave of sea salt and rot hit my nose. Now that there was more, I could smell the brine and the scent of rancid fish. Covering my nostrils, I could feel my familiars whine. Poor Magnus had the worst of it as he desperately scratched at his nose.

I thanked him for doing a good job and returned him to my soulspace along with the others. With just me left alone in the room filled with a biohazard of a corpse, I channeled mana into another pathway.

Erebus appeared and landed with all eight legs poking holes into the floor. He quickly pulled them out and turned around. I grunted, trying not to let the scent pass through my arm and failing as I pointed to the upper half of the corpse. Without delay and with no signs of suffering from the stench, he dove right into the torso of the tentacle creature, and I decided to leave the room.

When he finally came out, he brought with him a loot orb and crawled up my arm. I was about to open it when the rest of the corpse startled to bubble. The cloth turned into a dark liquid, and the blood started to bubble. With the wave of nauseous gas spewing forth, I ran out of there.

Stupid, weird-ass eldritch spawn. Why can't I fight normal things for once!?