"I came here," said Eze, "To check on Zane Walker's progress. Imagine what I find."
His eyes flared. "My attendant. Making a fool of himself. While you are part of my retinue you represent our Faction. You represent me. What are you thinking?!"
"My Lord—" said Tani, cringing. But Eze wasn't done.
"Disgraceful," Eze spat. "And embarrassing."
Tani bowed lower, wincing heavier. "I—"
Eze spoke over him in a voice tight with cold calm anger. "I've allowed you to remain in my retinue in accordance with my Lord Father's wishes. You seem to believe this gives you some status. Some worth. Yet—what are you, in truth? A wastrel. You've never done a hard day's work in your life. You were handed everything you have, including your place here—and you have the nerve. To come out and run your mouth in public!"
It was the most anyone had heard Eze say in one go they were all shocked. Tani couldn't even defend himself then; his face sagged; he looked like he wanted to dissolve into the floor. "My lord!" he wailed. "I've failed you! I'm—"
"You are a nothing-creature," Eze continued, ruthless. "Zane Walker is a transcendent talent, one-of-a-kind. A hundred of you, a thousand of you, would not make up the worth of that man's little finger. You will treat Zane Walker with respect. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes, my Lord!" cried Tani. "I've been foolish! Stupid! I'll—"
"Spare me your groveling." Eze snorted. "And this… ridiculous bet. Bullying a child? Have you no shame? That bet is hereby voided. Get out of my sight."
Tani bowed, and scraped, and ran away as fast as he could all at once. He almost tripped over himself trying to do it.
"Hmph."
Eze had been told he could be too cold at times, too cruel—he did not care. He would treat a man with respect if he deserved it. If Eze did not believe a man deserved respect, Eze would not treat him with respect. It was that simple to him.
In his eyes, the most respectable kind of man was he who had great talent, and worked to make the most of it. Then there were those who had no talent, and yet tried their very best. They did not interest Eze, but he could respect them.
Tani, however… he was a spineless worm of a man. He was the least respectable kind of man—the kind that made nothing of himself. It was doubly a sin since he was given every opportunity. Eze had no patience for failsons—family friend or not.
He turned back to the Array, and studied it in silence. "Hm."
Then— "I've made great strides in my Skills in the past few days," he mused. "I've mastered the first stage of the Deep Earth Hall's foundational Inheritance. And I've consumed two A-grade essence treasures, enough to boost me three Levels. Zane Walker may be a genius, but… I expect it'll be too much. The ninth layer is… nigh impossible. I don't expect he'll defeat me. He'll get there. The low 800s. And no further."
"Um," squeaked Evan. Who was still there, and still rooting hard for Zane. "I think you're wrong!"
Eze paused, blinked, looked down at Evan. He gave a little smile. "Then I'll be pleasantly surprised."
***
𝔽𝕚𝕗𝕥𝕙 𝕃𝕒𝕪𝕖𝕣, 𝔻𝕦𝕤𝕜𝕞𝕚𝕣𝕖 𝔹𝕠𝕘, 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕔𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕕!
Zane blinked. When he opened his eyes again, he stood in a glimmering world. Giant crystals poked up all around him, looping up the walls, studding the ceiling, covering every inch of space. The ground was flat, made of some kind of translucent mineral. Earth Laws hovered everywhere.
He seemed to be in some kind of crystal-studded tunnel. The place felt deep underground…
He heard a hissing. And red dots started popping up on the far end of his mini-map, drawing closer.
They looked like massive pythons made out of geodes, stuck together in a long uneven chain. All craggy and glowing.
ℂ𝕣𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝕊𝕖𝕣𝕡𝕖𝕟𝕥 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟘𝟝
𝕂𝕖𝕪 𝕃𝕒𝕨𝕤: 𝔼𝕝𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝕃𝕒𝕨 𝕠𝕗 𝔼𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙
𝕂𝕖𝕪 𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕤:
ℂ𝕣𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕝𝕓𝕦𝕣𝕤𝕥 𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕝𝕖 (𝔸𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖) [ℝ𝕒𝕣𝕖]: 𝕃𝕒𝕦𝕟𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕤 𝕒 𝕧𝕠𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝕔𝕣𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝕤𝕡𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕝𝕖 𝕒𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕞𝕪, 𝕒𝕜𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕠 𝕒 𝕕𝕖𝕧𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕝𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕞 𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕖𝕕 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝔼𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙 𝕃𝕒𝕨.
ℂ𝕣𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝕊𝕔𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕤 (𝔸𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖) [𝕃𝕖𝕘𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕣𝕪]: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕖𝕣'𝕤 𝔼𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙-𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕖𝕕 𝕤𝕔𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕤 𝕞𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕚𝕥 𝕖𝕩𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕝𝕪 𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕔𝕦𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕕𝕒𝕞𝕒𝕘𝕖.
𝔻𝕖𝕖𝕡 𝔼𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙 𝔹𝕚𝕥𝕖 (𝔸𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖) [𝕃𝕖𝕘𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕣𝕪]: 𝔹𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕤 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕕𝕖𝕖𝕡 𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖, 𝕖𝕩𝕖𝕣𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕠𝕦𝕤 𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕔𝕖.
As they drew near, they opened their mouths, hissing. And he saw two giant spiked fangs jutting out. Big enough to snap a car in two.
He felt that Spittle attack coming.
This time Zane was ready for it. He'd gotten serious now; he'd been watching them with Sage Mind from the start.
But he struck first. Apocalypse Smash!
There wasn't much room to load it; it Smashed straight down the tunnel. And exploded. Crystal shards sprayed out the Serpents" mouths, heavy with Earth Law—they might as well have been raindrops for all the good they did. His Smash brushed them aside. And landed.
BOOM!
The explosion rocked the tunnel, Smashing through all that Earth Law, crushing crystals off the walls. Shards erupted down the tunnel, pinging off the ceiling. But the Serpents were still upright. Their faces were halfway blown off—but they were still crawling at him, hissing, glaring at him from their ruby-red eyes.
Another Smash took care of it.
Two Serpents slumped to the ground, shattered to lolling burning chunks. Solid work.
But more were coming. From the other side too—three of them, nasty and huge. Two more Smashes broke them to bits.
But that was just five of them.
More and more came at him—from either side now. He Smashed one way, Smashed the other, but they weren't stopping. The waves just kept coming—he was caught in the middle. It still took some time to load these Smashes. And in that time, they kept gaining ground. Their hisses sounded like steel plates grinding together.
The tunnel wobbled and shook, filling with smoke, with ash, with crystal-dust…
Soon they were getting a little too close.
Oh, boy.
It was looking like he was just going to have to eat this.
A Serpent lunged from one side, spitting shards. Another came from the other side.
Zane set himself on Stormfire. And then just started bashing as hard as he could.
Smashing everywhere, throwing fists, throwing Smashes, catching Serpents clean as they swarmed in on him. The tunnel started shaking as though caught in an earthquake; started expanding as bigger and bigger chunks of it were blasted off. Soon he was making himself a little cavern in the middle of the tunnel.
It wasn't enough to keep them all off him, though. A Serpent got a bite on his arm; he bit down and just took it. It felt immensely heavy as it sank into him; it had this pressure to it, this massive bite force—some Law there giving it an unnatural weight. The kind of pressure stones might feel deep underground… another clamped onto his leg. A third wrapped around his torso—one even tried gnawing at his neck.
Zane had to use pure brute strength to shuck them off; then he was raining fists all over them, beating them back, marking each punch with a brilliant bust of Stormfire—still new ones surged to take their place—there were just too many of them.
Alright, new idea.
He threw up an Apocalypse Smash. And hit himself with it.
BOOM!
The essence wouldn't hurt him; it was his own, after all—but the impact knocked him off his feet. He rammed hard into the tunnel walls, showering crystals everywhere.
The nice thing was—all the Serpents on him were dead. Most were melted to puddles. A few only had their lower halves left. One was dead but it still had fangs sunk into him, clamped tight—he had to pry it off. Its head went one way, its jaw the other.
That took care of the bulk of them. The rest he blasted to slag—with fists or Smashes. By the end of it, he was a sweaty wreck; his hair was wild, his shirt all torn up, exposing thick cords of bleeding muscle beneath. He wiped his face. He was panting heavily.
That was a mess. They'd almost got him down to 50% Health…
Still. He had a good time of it; his blood ran hot in his veins. He was all fired up and grinning.
Hundreds of tiny fires crackled around him, burning on the crystal rubble. Arching up the sides of the tunnel.
Then a big red dot popped up on the edge of his mini-map. So big it almost covered the width of the tunnel. Then he felt a massive trembling; the outline of a head the size of a pickup truck, giant red eyes peered out of the dark—
ℂ𝕣𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝔹𝕒𝕤𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕜 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟙𝟟
Zane was done playing around though. The moment he caught sight of those eyes, he sent an Apocalypse Smash hurtling down the tunnel.
BOOM!
There was an earth-shaking explosion, a plume of smoke.
And the Basilisk hurtled right through it. Now it was mad, coming at him full speed. Zane just fed it another Smash.
BOOM!
The Monster screeched in fury; the sound raced down the tunnel, echoing over and over.
Then it came so close he could see it in the light of the flames. It looked like the guts of a mountain scraped out and stuck together; it was so craggy he could hardly tell its features apart. He'd caught it pretty good—half its face was flattened, burning with crackling deep-red fire.
But when it opened its mouth, he saw its fangs—which looked vicious enough to puncture the hull of a freighter—were still very much intact.
The Basilisk's body flared up with essence, coiling tight. And Zane felt what it was going to do. The trouble was there was nowhere to go, nowhere to dodge. No time to feed it a third Smash.
All he could do was throw up a Chain and brace for impact.
It lunged at him like a freight train, fangs bared, mouth unhinged—shockingly fast for its size; it just exploded into motion. It bit down with an incredible pressure—
And clamped down on Zane's Chain. CLANG!
He was wrenched back; he dug his heels in, gritted his teeth, rode out the impact. He must've skidded a few dozen feet before they came to a shuddering halt; earth fountained up all around him.
A huge chunk of its crystal fang had cracked off.
Then Zane noticed his Chain—its links had chipped at the edges too. Where the bite had struck.
He blinked at it.
Huh. He didn't even know Soul Weapons could break.
The beast screeched. Wind rushed past him, through him, howling, shrieking, blasting all his hair back, making him squint.
It was still biting down. Still struggling against him. And it was all he could do to hold the thing to a standstill—it was incredibly strong too, bearing down on him with all its bodyweight; he had to fight to keep it back, gritting his teeth, straining with his whole body—then it wrenched him sideways. Got him off his feet, off-balance—and bowled him through.
They tumbled over each other, rolling, rolling; it tried sinking its teeth into him, but it could only catch his Chains. It was getting tangled up in them—but it was coiling around him too as they spun, snatching him tight. Soon they were a tangled-up mess, coil over Chain over coil, on and on...
It glared at him, struggling to move. It didn't get very far. He frowned back, tried to pull himself out—but he was squeezed tight too, buried under layers of coiling crystal. He couldn't even get free enough to swing an Apocalypse Smash.
They seemed to be in a bit of a conundrum.
Then it hissed and started to squeeze. Squeeze with all its powers; the walls constricted all over him, massive coiled muscles bulging under the crystal—Zane wheezed. Then grunted.
His eyes flashed; his heart thumped hot in his chest. He snorted.
So it wanted to challenge him in a contest of brute strength.
This was not a game you played with Zane Walker.
He started squeezing right back.
Promethean Noose!