The Infinite Bk. 01 Ch. 09

"Let's go."

The doorway brought them to a winding staircase. However, unlike the tight spiral past the dungeon entrance, this staircase spun down the walls like grooves on a drill bit. It was too dark to see the ceiling or the floor, but there was a twinkling star in the blackness. It was far below their feet when it should have been above their heads.

"Everyone, be extra careful and step quietly. I think we've reached the bottom of the shell."

They proceeded down the staircase, this one having actual stairs. The darkness swallowed them from the lack of cave worms, but Noah lit his torch, easing everyone's fears. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, their fears came rushing back like a flood.

'Of course,' Noah thought bitterly.

Some kind of massive slumbering monster occupied the bottom of the room. This circular chamber was more than a hundred feet wide, and the beast was coiled up all over itself like a snoozing boa constrictor. There was no telling what its actual size or form was, and Noah's torch couldn't provide enough light to reveal its appearance. The walls and staircase were solid shell, but the floor under the monster was flesh, and in the middle, in a raised basin, was a pool of powdered metal with a turquoise gleam. It was avenium, just like on Noah's ring. It was so close, but the risk before them was giving everyone doubts.

Oath stepped forward. "I'll go," he said as quietly as he could.

Noah grasped his shoulder. "No, I'm better at stealth, remember?"

Oath turned to him, loudly whispering. "Please, it has to be me! The whole reason why we made this journey was so that I could become a noble! I need to be the one to get the avenium. Let me earn my title."

"None of that matters, not in here. All that is important is getting the job done and getting out of here alive. If you want to do things the "right" way, do it on your own time. I'm going to do things the smart way. If this thing so much as twitches, leave me behind and run as fast as you can up the stairs."

Noah didn't wait for him to reply and activated his invisibility. True, this monster slept with its eyes closed, but he couldn't discount its sense of smell and hearing. He moved past Oath and stepped onto the fleshy ground. Whatever this thing was, it had a lot of tentacles, and they were spread everywhere. He stepped lightly, double-checking every spot before putting his weight on it. Noah had not been able to escape the ravages of fatigue, and his muscles were becoming unreliable.

It was nerve-wracking for Oath and the others, as they couldn't see Noah, just the torch he was holding over his head. Every time the light trembled, they imagined him fumbling, stepping on one of the monster's tentacles, and waking it up. When the torch finally reached the basin, they released their held breaths. It was a substantial amount of avenium, at least two liters of the glistening dust. Perhaps it was expelled from the crab like a splinter, and it would accumulate in the basin over time.

'If this ends up like that scene from Raiders, I'll just kill myself here and now.'

Noah rested his hand atop the avenium and sucked it all into the ring, every grain. There was no reaction from either the monster or the basin. Noah waited a few moments to be sure, then turned and returned to the staircase. Once he reached Oath, Beth, and Mira, they resumed breathing and began the silent climb back up the stairs. When they reached the halfway point, a terrifying roar shook the chamber, coming from above instead of below.

The group looked up in horror, seeing a second monster descend toward them. It appeared to be the same species as the first, looking like a colossal lion with a teeth-filled beak, and tentacles growing from across its back that it used to climb. It was like some kind of Lovecraftian griffin. Just one swing of its paws would kill a sledgepaw bear. Had it also been nesting in this chamber? Perhaps the mate of the one down below?

"Beth, take it down!"

"Too late!"

It swung across the chamber with its tentacles, and the group scattered, managing to avoid its beak, though Beth lost her bow over the edge of the staircase. One of the talons on the beast's forelegs clipped Mira's face, which was all it took to obliterate her skull.

Oath and Beth, seeing her headless body slump to the floor, were left in stunned silence. Noah stabbed the beast in the eye, and it jumped back with his sword pulled from his grip, howling in agony. Beside him, Oath and Beth cradled Mira, sobbing and screaming as her blood soaked their hands. Noah could understand Beth, but Oath's reaction stood out.

'Goddammit, don't tell me he loved that girl.' "We got to move! There is nothing we can do for her!"

"No, I can fix this!" Oath sobbed. "Give me all the healing potions we have!"

"Her head is gone, she's dead. No potion can fix that."

"Please, don't ask us to leave her," Beth whimpered.

Another roar echoed through the tunnel, this one from below. It seemed the first monster had woken up. Oath scrambled to his feet and grabbed his sword with furious tears streaming down his face.

"I'll kill them! I'll kill them both!"

"This is no time for heroics! We're leaving!"

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Oath howled while throwing a punch.

Noah deflected and countered with a jab to the throat and a knee to the stomach. Oath collapsed like a house of cards, and Noah grabbed and hoisted him over his shoulder. He turned to Beth and handed her his bow to replace hers. "Keep those things off our tail. If you run out of arrows, I'll give you more. Now move!"

They raced up the stairs as fast as they could. Noah was struggling under the effort of hauling Oath and everything they both carried, and he had to hold the torch as well. Ahead of him, Beth was raining arrows down on the two monsters to the best of her ability. They seemed aware of the poisoned tips and kept a safe distance, but they still followed them up.

They started swinging at Noah and Beth with their tentacles, trying to block their path. Beth would slash at them with a knife to make them retract, but it was just getting worse and worse, as ahead, they could see the centipedes swarming down the staircase, following the group down.

"Noah, what do we do?!" Beth exclaimed.

"Run and fight! That's all we can do!"

They continued their charge up the stairs, stomping on the centipedes and ignoring the feel of their pincers digging in and not letting go. Their bites didn't appear poisonous, but they put bullet ants to shame on the pain scale. Not even Noah could maintain a poker face with them biting down on his legs.

With luck on their side, they escaped the chamber, running down several corridors before arriving at a chamber where they could rest. Noah dropped Oath on the ground and began ripping off the centipedes biting his legs. It was strange for Beth to see Noah so winded and injured. He collapsed near the wall, downing a healing potion to stop his bleeding. Oath, having regained consciousness, got back to his feet and approached the doorway with his sword.

"Don't even think about it," said Noah.

"I refuse to leave her body down here. I'm going to get my revenge on that beast and bring her home to bury her."

"It's a monster, it doesn't understand your feelings. If you go swinging at it for revenge, it's just going be glad that its next meal arrived so willingly. Besides, Mira has probably already been devoured."

"Don't say that!" Oath shouted.

"Noah!" Beth added her voice to the outrage.

"You just need to accept it. She's gone, there is nothing you can do to help her. Nothing can be done to change what happened. I'll say it as harshly as I need to if it gets the message through your thick skull."

"What would you have done if it was Tin who died in there instead of Mira?"

"I would have left her. I've seen plenty of people die. This isn't my first time leading people into combat, and casualties are to be expected."

"So you were just waiting for each of us to die?!" Beth exclaimed.

"As long as I could fulfill my contract, I was prepared for all possible losses, though I'm honestly disappointed that you two all came here expecting to do this without losing anyone."

"Is that all we are to you? Just future losses?"

"Yes, that's right." Noah got to his feet. "Look, we've got the avenium, so the hard part is done. Now we can head home."

"Two of our friends are dead and we're in the bottom of a dungeon crab! How is that not the hard part?!" Beth screamed at him.

"Because I have an idea on how to get us out of here." He took out a water skin from his backpack, poured in some powdered avenium from within his ring, then shook it up and handed it to Oath. "Both of you, douse this on yourselves. Try not to let any go to waste."

"What will this do?" Oath asked.

"When I activate my invisibility, I wrap myself in mana, as well as anything I touch or hold, but for some reason, it won't work on anything living. The mana just won't stick on, like it's being repelled. However, I did some research on avenium. It is a metal, but it bends light like a crystal, and it manipulates mana the same way. I can't apply my invisibility to you, but if you're covered with powdered avenium, it may help me conceal you a bit. Try it."

Oath sighed and poured some of the concoction on his head, then went to work rubbing it into his skin and clothes. He handed the rest to Beth, and she did the same. Noah activated his magic and grasped their hands. The air around them shimmered, and their bodies became faint like they were shrouded in a heat haze. They were like mirages of their true selves. Oath and Beth voiced their shock as they looked at each other, but the fact that Noah could hear them was concerning. It was a far cry from him completely erasing his presence, but at the very least, it would make them less noticeable.

"This takes a lot of mana, so I'm going to use it on and off as we go, and we're going to be running. If there is anything you don't want to carry, leave it here now."

Beth and Oath couldn't see Noah, but they stared at the space he occupied. He could see it on their faces, the distrust, the frustration, the fear, the sorrow, the exhaustion. They'd just have to suck it up.

"Let's go, and step lightly."

They left the chamber and began their journey back to the surface. They no longer moved in formation and struggled to keep a quick but quiet pace. When monsters were nearby, Noah would activate his spell, and they'd do their best to avoid detection. Unfortunately, it didn't always work. A pack of bipedal carnivores, like the ones encountered outside, chased them down the corridors. It was too many for them to take on, and the longer they stayed in one spot fighting, the greater the chance more monsters would be drawn.

Noah, pulling Oath and Beth along, activated the spell in his right eye.

"What the fuck?!" Oath said in shock as he watched the clone fall back while the real Noah pulled him along.

"It's another illusion I can create, just keep moving!"

As they ran, Noah had the clone start waving his arms and shouting at the approaching monsters, doing whatever he could to draw their attention. They passed through the clone in utter confusion, turned around, and tried again and again. Their eyes, ears, and noses were all telling them that prey was standing before them, but no matter how many times they tried to bite down, their jaws closed around nothing but air. They were so distracted that Noah and the others managed to get away.

"Why didn't you tell us about—"

"Shut up!" Noah barked back. "If you can talk, keep running instead!"

----------

Spring was planting season, so the farms on the Fault estate were in a frenzy. Oath, the baron's third son, was the "lord" of this task. He and the slaves spent their days working the fields, though little distinction existed between them. He lived and ate his meals with his father and brothers, at least when they were at home, but his ranking in the family was just a step above "bastard." His father lauded all of his praise on his brothers, with the younger always trying to surpass the older.

The oldest was a soldier, a squad leader, one step below a true knight. He would be gone for months at a time, then return home and brag about the battles he fought for the glory of Uther, and how he bolstered the reputation of the Fault household. The middle son was a proud hunter skilled in magic, a talent he often lorded over the older brother. He claimed magic to be infinitely superior to swordsmanship, meaning he, the magically affluent, was the future of the bloodline. Neither brother liked Oath and simply treated him like one of the servants. He was just another laborer. On the other hand, his father wasn't cruel like them, but he didn't care beyond paternal instinct. His mother was long gone.

Oath had been resting outside when he learned of their deaths. Lying on a sun-warmed grassy hill, he watched the clouds pass overhead. As the third son, he kept his head down and focused only on the task in front of him so as not to rock the boat. Skygazing was the only time he'd break that rule, abandoning the fields to instead focus on farming his mind, forgetting about his life and responsibilities and trying to figure out what was left.

He knew nothing of the world beyond his home and village, couldn't even read, and most of his socialization came from talking with the slaves during work. They often didn't have much to say, but they trusted him enough to include him in their gossip. He wasn't like the baron and his oldest sons; his feet were more used to the soil of the field than the floorboards of the Fault household.

Those conversations were the only time he could learn of things beyond simply swinging a hoe or scythe, to discover that there was more to existence than just crops and livestock, and when he gazed at the sky, Oath would use that glimmer to try and develop himself, find out who he was. That was the plan until he was disturbed by one of the maids.

"Master Oath, your father requires your presence immediately."

The applied honorific was just a courtesy acknowledging his bloodline. There was no honest respect in her words.

"Understood." Oath got up and followed her to the house, where she led him to his father's study. As he approached, he heard nonsensical shouting and things falling over.

Inside, the baron, Ivan, was pacing back and forth, unhinged and drenched in tears. Papers and items from his desk were scattered across the floor, and he gripped a wine goblet with a shaking hand.

"Father, what is it?"

"Oath, Colt and Victor have perished." Ivan picked up a letter with a broken wax seal. "Colt was killed in battle on the Petosic Steppes." He threw it aside. "And Victor was killed by a bear while hunting. His remains were found this morning." He emptied his cup in one gulp and staggered, looking like he was on the verge of collapse.

Oath took a moment to process the news, but there wasn't much to process. There was no such thing as sibling love in noble households. "I'm sorry, Father."

The baron fell back in his chair. "Oath, you are now my only son. That means that you will inherit my title when I die, unless my conniving brother manages to steal it!"

"Father, I can't be a baron!"

"This is not something you can refuse! I will not allow our house to let nobility slip from its fingers! But you're right. The way you are now, the kingdom would be wise to hand it over to Edwin, so we're going to change that. From now on, I am going to sculpt you into a suitable replacement."

After that, everything changed. From the crack of dawn until late at night, Oath was trained in combat, etiquette, and reading and writing. His grandfather's sword replaced the tools of the farm, and he spent hours hunched over one book after another, studying by candlelight. None of it stuck. Unlike his brothers, he was born without talent and raised without education. He couldn't use magic, could barely fight, and was about as cultured and learned as the lowest peasant. There was little hope for him.

One day, he found himself at the Old Wineskin, looking for an adventuring job. People would post notices, requesting items like valuable plants or monster parts or offering jobs such as escorting someone through the forest. Helping around town would give him some achievements he could use to prove his eligibility for inheriting the Clive barony.

He had also heard some weird rumors about the inn, about some crazy couple with the loudest sex imaginable. From dawn to noon every other day, anyone in or near the inn would hear a young woman's cries of euphoria, along with the knocking of a bedframe threatening to break apart. However, today, the inn was quiet. The only voice he heard was addressed to him.

"Hey you, by the notice board, over here!"

He looked to the source, spotting a table occupied by three youths like himself, a man and two women.

"Me?"

"Yeah, come on!" one of the women said, a tall and bubbly brunette.

Oath crossed the bar to them. "What is this about?"

"You wouldn't happen to be searching for a party to join, are you?" the other woman asked, a cute blonde with short hair.

"Oh... uh, yeah, I guess. But, unfortunately, I haven't been making much headway on my own."

"Well take a seat!"

Oath hesitated, feeling the man beside him shooting daggers from his eyes. He was sizing him up and didn't like what he saw.

"No, change of plans, keep moving. We don't need any more weaklings in our group."

"Shut up, Trevor," said the brunette. "Ignore him. I'm Beth and this is Mira. We're currently in need of a swordsman in our group, and you look like you would fit right in."

"She means you look weak enough that no one better would have invited you to join their groups, and no real adventurer would sully their dignity by joining this gro— Ouch!" Beth had just kicked him under the table.

"You're not allowed to badmouth the group while being a part of it," she scolded.

"Truth be told, none of us are very good, but that just means we should stick together," said Mira.

Oath finally took a seat and put a hand on the sword hanging from his belt. "Ok, sure, I'll join you guys. My name is Oath. I'm actually kind of surprised, I thought this place would be... louder."

"Oh yeah, those stories? We've actually met them, Noah and Tin, the couple who make all that noise," said Mira.

Now Trevor seemed interested. "Really? Were they freaks?"

"No, normal as can be," said Beth, "and they're the same age as us. You'd never think it when looking at them. The guy is actually really smart. He gave us a lot of great advice about tactics and magic. We tried to get him to join our team, but he wanted to work on his own, him and that slave girl. God, I envy her."

"Settle down, you're so indecent," Mira sighed. She then turned to Oath. "Anyway, welcome to the group!" The smile she flashed at him made his heart flutter in a way it never had before.

Oath and his new friends adventured together for the next few weeks, fighting what monsters they believed they could beat. They were often forced to run away and tend to their wounded bodies and bruised egos. But no matter how often they were beaten, Oath was never dejected because it was the first time he felt truly accepted and with people his age, no less. True, Trevor always gave him the cold shoulder, but Beth kept the group's spirit raised, and Mira... she was something else altogether.

She spoke with him, laughed with him, and smiled with him, all moments of confusing bliss that he drank like fine wine. He was drawn to her, pulled by a force he could not describe. Then, one day, after they had managed to kill a wolf, and only just barely, he and the others all collapsed from exhaustion.