Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

Jae-Hyun led us into the ruins casually while the rest of us followed with anticipation, weapons out. Walking through the windswept alleys and disused buildings all alone was a surreal experience, especially coupled with the fact that we were all in the air. Our footsteps echoed between the huge monoliths and crumbled archways, giving the whole journey an eerie feel.

“You don’t have to be so on guard,” the Regressor assured us, “There’s rarely any enemies above ground.”

We relaxed a bit, but still had our weapons at the ready. Rarely didn’t mean ever, after all. Nobody but the Regressor felt comfortable being so out in the open on unfamiliar ground.

“So that means we’re, what, going below ground?” I reasoned.

“Yes, we’re headed to the middle of this island,” he continued, “There’s an entrance where we can head below ground.”

“Wait,” Vadeem furrowed his brows and interrupted, “How’s there a below ground when we’re not even on land? Won’t we just fall through the sky?”

Jae-Hyun gave a small laugh, “It’s called Mount Olympus for a reason, we are technically on a mountain.”

How was that possible? When we were landing here, I could swear that I didn’t see any mountains around us, although the low clouds did obscure some of my view. Still, when we were near the edge of the island structure, it was just a vertical drop-down, with no mountain ranges or the like in view.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said again, “It doesn’t look like any mountain you’ve ever seen, but it is one. Think of it like taking a huge chunk of land and placing it on top of a very tall, narrow rock.”

“Well,” Yoona added, “I guess the Greek gods didn’t really have to bother with common sense when they built the place.”

Vadeem chuckled, “No kidding, who needs structural engineering when you have magic?”

Noel smiled, “Like I said, everything here’s just magic! The faster you peep except that, the fewer times you’ll all be surprised by stuff like this pops up.”

That’s true, I’ve seen some of the insane stuff that Central’s people have created, and having an island balanced on top of a tall rocky skyscraper was the least outlandish piece of architecture I’ve encountered. Pity though, because I really wanted to explore an actual sky island for once, but maybe I’ll have a chance to do that one of these days.

“So where are we going, boss?” Noel added.

“To the middle of the island where we can head down.”

“Wait,” I asked, “Why are we going below ground in the first place? Shouldn’t we explore these ruins for stuff first?”

Jae-Hyun shook his head, “Everything above ground has long been scoured clean at this point. We’re not the first people to have explored these ruins, but very few have traveled Mount Olympus’ underbelly.”

“Because they couldn’t find it?” I asked hopefully.

“That,” he answered, “And because that’s where the gods left their unwanted kin behind. You heard of Tartarus?”

I recalled my knowledge of Greek mythos and remembered it faintly, “Something like a big hole where they stuck the Titans?”

Vadeem frowned, “I see… you think there’s any titans left down there?”

“It’s not just the Titans that were housed there, it was everything that displeased one of the gods, and a lot of beings displeased them.” Jae-Hyun explained, “But no, Vadeem, they took the Titans with them when they left.”

The big man nodded slowly, seemingly lost in thought. I guess he had a deeper connection with them than I thought. The twins noticed his unease and moved closer to him, almost as if they were doing their best to guard the man while he was feeling down. It was kind of cute seeing them so attuned to Vadeem’s emotions, although I still wished they would interact with the rest of the group more. I’m sure that will come with time though.

“So it’s just the minor stragglers that’s left behind?” I inquired.

“Something like that, at least close to the surface. I’m not sure what’s housed deeper down.”

“Huh,” Vadeem said, “Didn’t think there was anything that you didn’t know about.”

“Yes,” Jae-Hyun answered with a sigh, “There are things that even I don’t know about. But enough chat, let’s move on, we’re close to the entrance now.”

We traveled for another ten minutes or so before the Regressor stopped us and led us into a seemingly ordinary pile of rubble. How he’s able to remember all of these things is still a mystery to me, the man must have thousands of points in intelligence if he’s able to recall information this well.

“Vadeem,” Jae-Hyun said as he pointed to the fallen debris, “Can you clear that for us?”

The other man grinned back fiercely, “You don’t even have to ask.”

Almost casually, Vadeem chucked the huge stone fragments off to the side, with some pieces larger than SUVs, and he didn’t even need to transform to do so. In less than 30 seconds, the pile of broken buildings and other stonework was clear, and I could make out an opening.

We walked closer, and after clearing away the last of the loose rubble, we peered down to see an ancient set of stairs that spiraled ever deeper into the earth. I couldn’t see how far down it went, even with my enhanced vision.

The Regressor then turned his attention to me, “Walter, can you still use that halo of yours?”

I nodded and turned the thing on. I peeked my head into the opening and saw, much to my surprise, that the halo’s light reached much further than what I had experienced in the last Trial. Makes sense, now that I thought about it, since I was fighting supernatural darkness then, and I’m just dealing with normal darkness now.

What was even more surprising was that although my light was bright, brighter than it had any right to be honestly, it was not blinding. None of my friends had to squint their eyes when they saw me, which would have been annoying if that hadn’t been the case.

My friends joined me at the entrance of the hole in the ground, all trying to see just how far down it went. We couldn’t tell. It must extend pretty far down if even I couldn't see the end, what with my title giving me perfect night vision and all.

“Looks ominous,” Vadeem muttered, “But I guess it has to be if it leads to Tartarus.”

Noel sighed, “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of tight spaces as well as heights.”

“No,” he answered, “I’m not, but I am worried about how well I can fight if I can’t move without collapsing the damn roof.”

Ok, that’s a pretty logical concern. Vadeem wasn’t known for his grace and subtlety, and I’ve seen what he could do to buildings and infrastructure.

“You don’t have to worry,” Jae-Hyun explained, “It’ll open up once we go down. There’s some narrow passages we have to pass but we won’t be fighting there.”

“It’s still ominous…” Yoona muttered as she squinted to see if she could see a little better, “But I guess we have to get used to situations like this. Just going in the dark reminds me of that last Trial… I’m sorry I wasn’t of much help then.”

“It’s fine, Yoona,” I assured, “We all got out of it fine in the end, and you did save Vadeem’s big butt at the end.”

“That she did!” Vadeem grinned, “The damn rock monster almost had me if she didn’t kill that barrier thing.”

Noel sighed again, “Sometimes I wish she hadn’t…”

The twins glared at her again, I’m pretty sure they had some choice words for her if they could talk. Noel chose to ignore them.

We gathered our courage and stepped into the void. The stairs were steep, and the shorter members of our party had to practically climb down each step given how high they were. Once again I was reminded that his place wasn’t designed with humans in mind. Still, Yoona and the twins were nimble enough that it didn’t pose any problem for them.

Step after step we went down, further and further, and even my superhuman stamina was starting to feel its limits. These damn stairs seemed to go on forever, ever spiraling downwards, and I almost slumped to the ground when they did come to a stop eventually. The expertly carved stairs leveled off and opened up into a massive chamber.

This new place was so huge that my halo’s light couldn’t illuminate the other side of the cave clearly, but what we could see was a huge chasm that seemed to descend into the very depths of the earth.

There wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver as we found out rather quickly. Our exit ended on a very narrow ledge, maybe only a few feet wide, facing the sheer drop. Vadeem looked like he would drop to the ground at any moment before he quickly made his way back into the safety of the stairway.

“It’s like dragging along a big baby,” Noel chuckled as she sneered at the cowering man, “So do we head down there, boss?”

“That’s the plan,” he affirmed.

Noel shrugged before hopping down into the abyss. I thought she’d fall to her death as I peered down after her, but she had transformed halfway down and floated to the bottom, and, as if to spite Vadeem further, she flew back up and gave him a huge smirk of triumph.

“It’s not that deep,” she said with a shrug, “I say we throw Vadeem down, I think he’ll survive.”

I actually agreed with her assessment but didn’t voice it out loud. My big friend was giving the redhead the most scathing look I’ve ever seen.

“We climb down,” Jae-Hyun said firmly, “Take out your flashlights, Walter’s halo might not be able to illuminate everything.”

Yoona and the twins did just that, although Noel didn’t seem like she needed to. I heard Vadeem mumble something not quite appropriate under his breath, but he did what was asked of him, despite his fears.

“Alright,” Noel said once everyone had their lights pinned, “I’ll head down first. Meet you there!”

And just like that, she jumped off the ledge and disappeared into the depths below once again. I followed after, using my feelers to impale the rocky surface of the cliff to repel down safely. It was kind of fun.

Yoona and the Regressor came down next. Yoona’s feet seemed to glow ever so slightly, which I can assume was from the use of mana, and she gracefully hopped down, her feet sticking supernaturally to tiny imperfections on the rock. However, while Yoona was all grace, her brother chose the direct approach and just jumped down. He took out his spear and dug it deep into the wall to slow down his descent when he neared the bottom.

Which left only Vadeem and the twins. The two girls had coaxed the big man to the edge of the cliff, urging him with their gestures to climb down. Eventually, Vadeem was able to overcome his fears if only so that he wouldn’t look so lame in front of the kids, and slowly, ever so slowly, he planted his feet on the rockface and started to climb down. The twins were cheering him on silently in the background. Soon Vadeem was able to get all four limbs on the wall and all seemed well.

“Oh my god Vadeem!” Noel yelled from below, “Hurry up! We’ll be here all week if you don’t move your big butt! The damn dragon will leave without us at this rate!”

That slight distraction was all it took for things to go downhill. Vadeem must have gripped a little too strongly because he pulverized his only handhold. He lost balance quickly after, and he fell. He also shouted some not-very-nice things on his way down, which got more chuckles out of the redhead.

Vadeem came crashing down like a meteor of muscle, the impact of his fall sending tremors down the ground. The twins saw what happened and quickly climbed down themselves to make sure that he was ok. They were fast and moved like a couple of spiders going down. It was honestly a little creepy.

They ran up to him and started to slap his face. I wasn’t sure how that was supposed to help an injured person, but Vadeem did seem to be receptive to whatever they were doing and quickly composed himself.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he grumbled and dusted the dirt off his clothes, “Honestly thought that fall would hurt way more than it did.”

“Told you it would have been faster if we just chucked him down here in the first place,” Noel added with a smile, “Let’s go with my plan the next time we need to go down a cliff.”

“Quite!” the Regressor said, “Get ready, something’s coming this way.”

I nodded, I’d have been surprised if nothing was coming this way after Vadeem’s fall. It probably alerted everything within the damn cave system with his fall.

“Good,” Vadeem grumbled, “I need to work off some of these nerves. I’ll just pretend each foe has Noel’s stupid face, that’ll help with motivation.”

The twins nodded their agreement as they stared daggers at the offending woman.

“Alright, I’m sorry,” Noel said, “Sheesh, it’s not fair having kids defend you, Vadeem.”

“Enough talk,” Jae-Hyun said again, “Here they come.”

 

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