Unbound

Some time later, Archie sat himself a fair distance from the central glowstone; far enough away that he didn’t have to listen to Beef’s incessant questions, but close enough that he wasn’t tempting some monster to sneak up and eat him. It was a delicate balance. Yet the longer Beef spoke to the Chanter, the more Archie was tempted to walk off into the dark and hope for the best.

He’d left the conversation when Beef got into talking about necromancy. The guy loved it, apparently. Everything Archie knew about it was from movies and old video games he barely remembered playing. Necromancers raised the dead, from skeletons to zombies. It made him uncomfortable, especially in the hands of what was clearly a teenager.

I was a piece of shit as a teen. I’d sooner jump off a cliff than trust my teen self with so much power. Archie toyed with a dagger. The same one that had been pulled out of his shoulder. It was big enough to seem like a short sword to Archie, but then he was barely four feet tall in the first place. The dagger wasn’t nearly enough to deal with Beef’s Risen, if the Minotaur turned against him.

If any of them turned against me, I’d be dead in seconds. Legless or not, even that old warrior would probably wipe the floor with the thief. What have you gotten yourself into, Arch?

The longer Beef had talked about magic and core spaces the more Archie found his Mind wandering. His feet followed soon after. The Ruin sounded scary as hell at first, especially the way those rock robots talked about it. Archie could admit their descriptions had driven a cold wedge of ice into his spine that had been hard to shake loose, so he’d asked the questions he could about it. Yet the more the Elf talked the more he found the whole thing laughable.

The guy couldn’t answer a single question with certainty, claiming most information on the Ruin to have been conveniently stolen by the Ruin itself. Instead, the Chanter just talked more about the Hierocracy, how they summoned Archie, Beef, and Felix to fight the Ruin on their behalf. The Elf also spoke of the Titan, explaining again how she was the only one the Hierocracy had gotten their hooks into—that caught Archie’s attention. He shifted ‘stay away from the redcloaks’ a little higher on his priority list.

The last thing he wanted was to end up like her.

The Titan…Archie breathed hard through his nose. The Titan was strong; there was no denying that. He’d missed a lot of the battle in the vault when blood loss and Pit’s explosive transformation knocked him out, but she had hunted him through cities and mountains and snow-clogged forest. He knew what the lady was capable of, knew before he’d heard the whispers of what occurred, when the tide turned on their small party and Felix had to bring out the big guns to even knock the Titan down.

She’d still gotten back up. They didn’t win.

Blindsense is level 74!

END +2!

Archie swiped away the old notifications. He’d earned them while tunneling with Felix. Apparently his stats were shit compared to everyone else, because he was the only one who’d stumbled into this cavern sweaty and trembling. Archie narrowed his eyes as he watched their leader reading from a small book. I haven’t even seen him sleep, once. Just how high is his Endurance?

Gains were gains, though, and that latest Skill level meant his entire Mind was on the cusp of Adept Tier. Just two more Body Skills and he’d be fully Adept, which would hopefully make up a number of his deficiencies. Hell, he’d even gained two levels! Archie hadn’t gained a level in months. As bad as things were, shit was looking up.

Core space is…fine, I guess. Archie considered his hands. Could be better. The way Beef had been talking about his weird bug-house made Archie feel like he was missing something. Maybe I could ask the spear lady to look at it. If she can help that kid, imagine what she could do with me.

A sharp shattering broke the silence, and Archie flinched.

“Haha! You missed!” Beef crowed, lowering the immense bulk of his ice hammer.

The Homunculus bowed slightly at the waist. “You shielded yourself with the hammer head. Very good. Again.”

Beef rushed the tiny creature, hammer lifted high. Hallow zipped forward almost faster than Archie could follow, ducking below the first swing and popping up onto Beef’s chest with two daggers made of blackened-green crystal. The kid jolted, but instead of panicking he threw himself down onto the ground, chest first. Hallow hissed and leaped away, daggers unused, while Beef rolled back to his feet.

“Hmph.” Archie got up and walked away from the pair, distancing himself from the pointless violence. Fighting was for chumps, especially the way those two did it. Pummeling one another, taking hits that would crumple a car back home. It’s stupid. The key to fighting was in avoiding it entirely. And if you were truly pressed and without options, you had to win them with a single strike.

Archie walked close to where the Eidolons had gently laid down their burdens. The old man was nearby, his legs newly bandaged and that Dwarf hovering over him with her hands all glowing. There was also a number of leather satchels, each of them filled to bursting with gold and treasures stolen from the Vault of Nine Kings. Despite his tiredness, he couldn’t help but feel a tingle of anticipation in his fingers as he drew closer.

“You do not approve of their spar?” asked a voice, and Archie just about jumped out of his skin.

“Wha—?” Yintarion, that talking snake thing, sat coiled atop the molten core they’d stolen. “God, you scared me.”

The Wyrmling tilted his head, white goatee fluttering in the air. “You’ve poor Perception for a thief.”

Archie snorted. “You’re hard to spot.”

“True. I cannot blame you. Dragons are only noticed when they wish to be.”

The golden snake settled atop the boulder-sized core, cozying up to its orange-brown light. Bits of…something rose up, coiling around Yintarion’s crystalline antlers before wafting into his nostrils. It wasn’t something Archie could see with his eyes, but his Blindsense picked up a lot.

“Are you eating that thing?” he asked.

“I am.”

“Why?”

“To push myself to Evolve.”

Right. Beef had mentioned that, said his Hallow worked in a similar way—but different because it was his soul? Something like that. Archie wasn’t sure how much to believe. That kid said some weird stuff sometimes.

“Is that what’s happening to Felix’s dog?”

“The Chimera? Yes. His own Evolution is being fueled by the Mote of Frenzy he consumed…though I worry at how long it has been taking him to settle.”

Archie’s stomach twisted. “Worry? Why?”

“A great many things can push a monster to Evolve. Consuming flesh, cores, and natural treasures are the surest ways…but the process is unpredictable. I have designed my path toward Evolution through many Ages of research and contemplation. The Chimera is a child, if a powerful one. He did not know what might happen when he consumed the Mote, and had I been present I would have stopped him. Its power is immense, perhaps more than this core I stand upon now, but it is also chaotic. Contradictory. Too many elements, too many permutations to compress into one’s core.” The Wyrmling wriggled in a snake-like shrug. “I fear the tenku might never wake.”

Guild stabbed at Archie, but he shoved it away. It wasn’t at fault. The dog had asked him to open the box. He didn’t know what would happen. Archie looked over at Felix, still reading calmly, but for the occasional small wince. Somehow their leader carried the dog in his chest; Archie could hear it, if he listened close enough. Vibrations shook through his Blindsense, and they felt like earthquakes inside the man.

“Hey, you two. Busy flappin’ gums when we could be trainin’?” Evie walked from the deeper shadows, one hand gripping the chain around her waist. She jerked a thumb toward Beef and Hallow. “Why not spar with me?”

“No.”

“Psh, too busy suckin’ on that oversized marble, eh?”

“Indeed.”

“Then that leaves me an’ you, thief. Fight me.”

There was a dangerous glint in the girl’s eyes, and it set alarm bells ringing in his head. “I’ll have to pass. Fighting isn’t my style.”

Evie looked up over slowly, and that dangerous glint grew into something uglier. “I should’ve known. Willing to risk everyone to steal somethin’, but can’t be bothered risk yourself.”

“Evie.”

The spear lady showed up, though Archie didn’t see where she had come from; she’d simply appeared. Evie didn’t look at her. “What?”

“Walk with me. I think I’ve found a small nest.”

That got her attention. “Monsters? Good.” She unraveled her chain and twisted it, setting it coiling around her left forearm. “I need somethin’ to hit.”

The two vanished, off toward the far end of the cavern. Archie let out a small, relieved breath.

Yintarion shook his head. “Watch yourself, child. That one is angry at everything right now.”

Archie wasn’t stupid; he knew she was pissed off, and he knew why. I didn’t ask them to follow me onto the Undermount. And I didn’t ask them to help me in the vault, either. All I needed was the array to go home.

How was it his fault that her dad got hurt? Uncle? Whatever. It didn’t matter. Archie wasn’t ever gonna fight her—he had no desire to be cut up into little pieces by that chain of hers.

Archie had spent months learning to survive in this stupid world. He’d crossed cutthroats in the gutter and in ballrooms. Time after time, he faced death by butchers and cops, but every time he got away. He’d taken every advantage he could, eking out a life in this hellhole they called the Continent. For a long time, survival had been enough.

That time was over.

Archie needed to escape for real. Back home. To Earth. He eyed Iiana, sitting in a circle with her fellow Eidolons. Inside of her was the array he’d worked so hard to steal. His way out.

He just had to bide his time.

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