It was cold again. He felt as if he were underground, pressed from all sides. He tried to move, but something was keeping him in place. He opened his eyes and saw hundreds of faintly luminous lines across his vision. He was wrapped in threads, and he could only see darkness from the gaps. The ground felt soft beneath him.
╭ ╰︶?? ORISRYN ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
YOU HAVE BEEN REVIVED
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
Where the hell am I?!
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶
????
DEATH +1
[13]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
“Help!” He yelled as soon as he realized these were Zuhara’s threads. He'd seen how she wrapped and hung meat from the ceiling.
A faint white light flickered into existence and lit everything around him. Looking around, he was surprised to somehow wake up inside her meat storage. There was no meat inside it anymore; it was empty.
“Well, I’ll be damned!” Zuhara peered at his face from above. She looked utterly shocked. “And I thought I was seeing shit!” She turned to her left. “Jelly, come in here! Look, he’s back!”
Jelly peeked slowly, holding her tiny hands together. She looked battered, her big eyes full of tears. Her small mouth quivered as she pointed at him.
“Tassi?”
“What happened!” Arcen tried to get up. Just a moment ago, he got shot by Isadora twice in the chest. He had no idea how he came back from the dead. Zuhara pushed him back.
Who brought me back?!
“Calm down, Mr. Arcen. You’ve got a lot to explain!” Zuhara frowned at him. The threads wrapped around him loosened, and he freed himself. He checked his chest frantically. There was blood, but no holes.
How did I-
“So, I didn’t know you could come back from the dead,” Zuhara groaned, clutching her side as she sat on the floor next to him. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You'd better have an explanation because if you lie,” She raised an eyebrow. “I'm not letting you out of here.”
“I-I don’t know what happened! I thought you brought me back,” Arcen cried, checking his back for exit wounds. Again, there was blood but no holes.
Zuhara laughed indignantly. “I don’t have a contract to raise the dead!” She looked at him wide-eyed. ”That was no explanation. I asked for one!”
This is like what happened after I got shot in the head!
I-I just don’t know how it happened! It happened once before!” Arcen stammered. “I got shot in the head, and I woke up!”
“You never told me this!”
“I didn't get a chance to tell you everything!. After that research camp, Helviter offered me hush money and made me sign an agreement. Then their commander guy shot me dead. Dumped me into a hole in the ground!”
Zuhara looked dumbfounded. “Helviter did that?” She asked slowly.
“Y-yes! That’s what happened!”
“That doesn't explain anything. I don’t see any death-reversing contracts on you. How did you come back?” Zuhara waved her hand behind her. “Because you’re in my domain. That’s not supposed to work. Nothing works here.”
“I have no idea! I died, I woke up!” Arcen’s voice cracked in desperation. “Did you see how I came back? What happened to my wounds?”
“I thought you were dead, Jelly was screaming. I started packing you up. Your wounds filled up with gold out of nowhere, then that gold turned into octopus meat or whatever you're made of.”
“Holy crap!” Arcen stared at her. “Why is it happening to me of all people!”
“I want to test it again.” Zuhara rubbed her lips. “This is something new.” Suddenly, the kind woman had turned into someone closer to Morgav. Her entire demeanor had changed in a second. If she really wanted to kill him, he couldn't do anything in her domain.
“Please no!” He begged.
A blue glow crept from the left and settled between them. Jelly stared up at Zuhara, her big eyes turned to slits, her mouth twisted into a pout. “Tassi!” She waved her tiny hand towards Arcen.
Zuhara glanced down at her and sighed, taking her sharp eyes off Arcen.
“Fine. I won't kill you. Only because Jelly likes you.” Zuhara said as she stood up, groaning. “I’m going to keep my eye on you, Mr. Arcen! Be careful now.”
Arcen stood trembling in shock. He’d always felt like an alien in his body since Mayday, but now he felt like his body wasn’t even his. It had brought him from the dead two times.
Is this that oily girl’s contract?!
That didn’t make sense. She revived him once, and it cost millions of her Aura to do so. A contract that granted immortality was certainly a possibility, but he couldn’t imagine why someone would use it on someone else. Either way, he’d have to find her again to figure any of this out.
That’s not going to happen!
She went to climb up. He wanted to climb down as fast as possible.
“W-where’s the girl, Isadora?” Arcen stammered after taking a good look around him. There was no one else in the meat storage.
“Come say hi,” Zuhara said over her shoulder as she left.
She’s not dead?!
Arcen walked out of Zuhara's domain and was startled when he realized he was in the same chamber. He was standing on black sand. The area was lit with a huge light from above. He could see almost as far as that red liquid pond in the middle. Around him was complete carnage. Slugs lay dead and leaking, their bodies twitching as they slowly bled slimy liquid into the black sands. Elsewhere, in the far distance, he could sense the slugs moving.
“W-what happened here?!” He asked, trying to see into the dark. There was a faint light in the far distance where the slugs were; they were all gathering there like fish in a pond at feeding time.
“These slugs, they can't see.” Zuhara pointed at the slugs in the distance. “They chase sounds and vibrations. So, I hung one of their baby slugs from the ceiling.”
She can just do that?!
He saw the squirming slug's silhouette hovering above other slugs in the dark. The thread it was hanging from was invisible from this far away.
“We're good for about fifteen more minutes. They come this way as soon as it dies.”
“How did you get here?” Arcen asked; he'd been wondering ever since he woke up. Zuhara had some way to get here fast.
“Jelly can summon me with this.” Zuhara pulled out a small ornate ball from her pocket. Arcen remembered it right away. He'd seen it in Jelly's bag when he first met her.
So that was what she tossed on the ground?
“How does that even work?” He squinted at it. “Some sort of teleport?”
“Its a floor tunneler. It's a very expensive thing I found years ago. Long story,” She smiled. “I never let Jelly go anywhere without it.”
“Jelly?” Jelly came running at the mention of her name. She was slower and still looked battered and sad. She raised her tiny hands for her precious item. Zuhara gave it back to her, and Jelly slowly put it in her small side bag. She checked twice to make sure she had it in there.
So, that's why she was very upset back when I took it.
“Anyways, I was fully asleep. Imagine my surprise when I woke up face-first in the sand with slugs all around me. She used it way too late!” Zuhara pointed a finger at Jelly accusingly. “Bad Jelly. Don't drop me in trouble out of nowhere!” She said, with a slightly raised voice, it was toned way down, exactly like she was talking to a toddler.
Jelly squinted her eyes sleepily, pouted at both of them, and walked away.
Arcen wanted to protest this, but he felt like it wasn't his place to tell Zuhara what to do with Jelly. He wouldn't have called Jelly bad. He wanted to clear his name at least, but Jelly had her back turned to them. Clearly upset.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“The girl's over that way.” Zuhara pointed over Arcen's shoulder. He turned around, saw what she was pointing at, and gasped.
Isadora was lying on her own tarp that she was carrying. Her eyes were wide open, but she made no sound as they approached her. Her clothes had been ripped of,f and there was blood all around her.
“Wasn’t easy stitching that up,” Zuhara said, hands on her hips.
There’s no way!
Zuhara had mended a deep gash that cut across Isadora's torso. His Mirage Blade swing had cut her deep on the left ribs, but it had slid and cut across her chest towards the right shoulder, shallower as it went along. She stared at him with empty eyes, glazed over with old tears. She couldn't speak a single word or even change her facial expression. She looked like a dead fish except for her heaving chest and labored breathing.
Zuhara knelt next to her, checking the threaded stitches that held Isadora’s skin together.
“You shattered three ribs; that left lung is on its way out. That’s not the problem.” She put her hand under Isadora’s neck, turning her head slightly to the right. “A slug probably crashed into her and tossed her into the rocks behind us. That's where I found her. Skull fracture. Brain squashed.“
She’s paralyzed now!
”I can’t fix that.” Zuhara rubbed her thumb on a layer of threads behind Isadora’s head. “All I can do is keep her brains from spilling out.”
“She can’t move at all?!”
“She can’t do anything. I don’t think she even remembers, or hears us right now.” Zuhara set Isadora's head down gently on the tarp, more layers of her threads cushioning the fractured skull.
“So, what now?” Zuhara asked, looking up at Arcen.
“I feel bad,” Arcen said, despite his hatred for the girl. She’d already killed him in exchange. It was a fair fight, and she started it by snatching Jelly from him. But seeing her sprawled across the floor on her own blood made him feel guilty. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Isadora’s face.
“That’s fine. I’m asking what now?” Zuhara said, snapping him back to reality. “You can kill her, or you can try to fix her. It’s all up to you. I have enough things to deal with.” Zuhara stood, groaning.
Ah shit. This is not good.
“How can I fix her when I need her contract to even get out of this tower?” His situation was even worse now. He had no way to carry this half-dead girl down four hundred floors with him.
“Well then, you know what to do. We can't leave her for the slugs. You need a body to get the contract out of.” Zuhara stood. “Drop a rock on her face or something. Finish her off.”
“W-wait!”
“What?”
“But, you just saved her?”
“Yeah? What’s wrong with that?”
“You’re telling me to kill her?”
“I have no problem with her. I don’t want to kill her. I don’t even know her. You do, and you want her dead. So, it’s all yours. Your problem. It’s out of my mind and my hands. I’ve done everything I can.” Zuhara snatched Jelly off the floor, laid her flat on her chest, and held her with one hand like a baby. Jelly protested a little, but she was too slow and tired to stay sulky and salty. She wrapped her tiny arms around Zuhara's breast as if it was pillow and slowly closed her eyes. “I'll wait for you on the rocks. You've got around ten minutes.”
Her spider domain collapsed as she walked past it; all the threads untangled themselves and turned to faint vapor trails, leaving no trace behind.
“Fuck” Arcen whispered, looking at Isadora. Her eyes twitched, and she kept breathing. “Now what?” He whispered, crouching next to her.
I can’t just kill her now. Now it’s somebody’s daughter.
Isadora was beyond pitiful. This was the only way he could recognize her as a person. She had been nothing but horrible and apathetic to him all along.
I wonder what she would’ve done if I were in this situation.
He knew the answer to that. Anyone from the Nostrum team would’ve killed him in a heartbeat. Isadora would've seen him as less than a plant. The same way she was fine with Morgav using Gareth as the sacrifice to bring her pathetic boyfriend back from the dead.
For a moment, he felt like he could choke her with his bare hands until she was blue.
That would make me as bad as them.
He sighed, rubbing his mouth as he stared at Isadora. If he swallowed it and killed her, he would get the contract to get out of this tower. It was almost worth it to be as bad as Nostrum assholes just to get away from all of this. Still, it felt wrong. He'd felt guilty even in this situation. He wasn't built like a Nostrum asshole. He could only pretend to be one, kill her, and then carry that guilt for the rest of his life.
Fuck it.
He needed to check something.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
REVEAL
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He'd never used it on Isadora. He needed to see the contract that she used for the bubbles.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ACTIVATION SUCCESS ╰︶
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ NAME ╰︶
????
ISADORA
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CLASSIFICATION ╰︶
????
ASCENDER [1]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ MAIN CONTRACTS ╰︶
????
RAY OF SUN [2]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SUB CONTRACTS ╰︶
????
PHANTOM BREATH [1]
??
SPINE FLARE [3]
??
WITHERING GRASP [1]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ TRIBES ╰︶
????
NOSTRUM
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ AURA ─╮?
╰ 1,123,211 ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
He focused on the Phantom Breath. It was the only contract that sounded like what she used.
╭ ╰︶?? OSIRYN ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONTRACT ╰︶
????
PHANTOM BREATH
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DUALITY ╰︶
????
LIFE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ TYPE ╰︶
????
SUB
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ RANK ╰︶
????
FIRST
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ USES ╰︶
????
UNLIMITED USE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DESCRIPTION ╰︶
????
CREATES AN AIR
BUBBLE THAT
ISOLATES TARGET'S
BREATHING
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONDITIONS ╰︶
????
EFFECT LASTS 2
MINUTES AND 23
SECONDS
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ COST ╰︶
????
850 AURA
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
That's the one.
They used this contract in rotation to climb up the capillary shaft. At 850 per single use and five people, that would've added up. He remembered being submerged in that gel for hours.
It didn't matter now that he could see it. It was still Isadora's contract. She was in no condition to use it. He only had three solutions. Kill her for it, fix her, and make her use it, fix her, and make her give it to him.
He liked the third. He didn't trust her enough to use the contract inside the capillary shaft to keep him alive. She could just go ahead, leaving him behind. He had to try to fix her up, threaten her in some way, and make her give the contract to him.
He grabbed the tarp by two corners and dragged Isadora up the black sand ramp that went up to the rocks. He slowed down as soon as he reached the rocks and made sure to move her gently. He left her next to the decomposing slug carcass.
He found Zuhara sitting at the campfire, now fully lit, and a better piece of meat on top of it. Jelly had gone to sleep, passed out with her mouth open on Zuhara's chest.
“I-is Jelly alright?” He asked, suddenly feeling way worse than he felt about Isadora. He'd forgotten to check on the little thing. Zuhara looked up at him and then back at Jelly.
“She's just stressed and tired. She gets hot when she cries. She'll be fine.”
“I'm sorry I brought her here,” Arcen knelt next to Jelly, taking a closer look at her. She didn't look battered anymore. Her clear body looked pristine and blue. He felt bad regardless. “I told her to stay, but she followed me.”
“It's fine. She never listens. Jelly does what Jelly wants.” Zuhara patted Jelly's bulbous head gently. “Did you finish her off?” She asked with a frown, glancing back at the tarp that he dragged in behind him.
“No. I can't. I'll fix her up somehow.” He paused. “By I, I mean you, we. I'll do whatever it takes. You know tower stuff, I don't. Just tell me what to do.”
“Well, if you left her alone for eight to twelve hours, she'll be dead anyway.” Zuhara kept her eyes on him as if trying to read him in and out.
Is she testing me?
“I should hurry then!”
“Alright.” Zuhara took her eyes off him, setting them back on the campfire. “There's a doctor on fifty six that can help you with that.”
Arcen stared at her, dumbfounded. That was six floors above him.
“Uh-”
“What? You said you want to fix her, and you'll do anything?”
“How do I take her there?”
Zuhara stood, tying her messy, wavy hair in a ponytail. “You'll just have to carry her.”
Carry her for six floors?!
Lifting her was not the problem. Isadora was only about a third of his weight. But carrying her through six floors full of creatures progressively worse than the current floor would be a nightmare.
“Come then, let's pack her up.” Zuhara stood with a groan. Arcen followed, assuming Zuhara needed help to do whatever this 'packing' involved.
It was nothing as he imagined. Zuhara gestured at Isadora as she walked, pointing her fingers in a bunch of different directions. Threads burst from her fingertips, connecting things all around them. She pointed her finger at the ceiling of the chamber and suddenly, Isadora got about ten threads pulling her up towards the ceiling. She hovered over the ground, threads quickly weaving a sort of stretcher under her, suspended by the rocks all around them.
“Stand here.” Zuhara marked a spot with her foot, wiping sand off the rocky ground. Arcen did as told and stared as the limp body of Isadora came hovering over him as if lifted by a crane. “I'm being careful not to shake her head. You'll have to be careful too.”
I have no idea how!
“I-”
He was interrupted. Isadora tilted towards, threads puppeteering her body over Arcen's head. He tried to turn around.
“Nope! Stay there.” Zuhara stopped him, weaving more threads as she did. Suddenly, Arcen felt Isadora on his back. Her warm body pressed against his skin, and her arms went around his sides, her legs wrapped around his waist. She felt impossibly hot on his skin.
“Wait!” He yelled, but Zuhara paid no attention. Her threads wrapped all around him, thousands of them tying Isadora to him from every angle. It felt like being duct-taped to another human. He couldn't even begin to express how much he hated being touched this way. Especially because It was Isadora. He was being blanketed by someone he hates the most.
Zuhara only stopped when she weaved a backpack out of Isadora. She had wrapped her head so tightly and so straight that it stood upright like a bulb-shaped antenna over Arcen's head.
“Now, get ready. I'm going to drop her.”
Suddenly, Arcen felt the weight gradually increase. Zuhara got rid of the threads that hung from the ceiling one by one until he was the one holding Isadora upright.
“Not the most comfortable position for her, I'm sure she doesn't mind.” Zuhara finished her weaving with a snap of her fingers. All the excess threads around them disintegrated and vanished in vapor trails.
“This wasn't how I imagined carrying her!” Arcen turned around. The weight on his back reminded him of elementary school. It was quite firm, for Zuhara's credit. He wasn't being cut anywhere with the threads. She'd woven a sort of upper body armor for him, encasing Isadora to his back. The weight was distributed comfortably on his skin.
“Alright. You're ready now.” Zuhara patted his shoulder.
“W-wait! But how can I take her there!”
“Just try to keep up.” Zuhara took another ball out of her pocket. It split open into four petals in her hand.
Is that another floor tunneler thing?!
Next chapter on Monday.
Regular reminder to rate/review if you’re enjoying the ride!
Advance chapters on
