[06: 06: 21: 16]
...
The world warped. A sharp tug ripped him from the ground as he vanished—and reappeared mid-air, directly over the yawning mouth of the sinkhole, and then his body plunged downward just as the Behemoth erupted behind him in a blinding crimson explosion.
BOOM!!!
The shockwave rocked the entire B4 floor.
.
.
.
“Argh! System, mute these damn notifications!”
Cassian winced as the notifications bombarded his vision. He barely had time to register them when something slammed into him from above. Hard, His shield was there, fortunately absorbing the damage. Cassian’s eyes twitched in irritation as his vision flooded with alerts, blinking with relentless intensity. His brain felt like it was trying to digest too much at once—kills, essence balances, incoming damage.
It was too much.
He barely had time to process the first notice before the world above him groaned and something slammed into him midair, like a falling anvil.
WHAM!
Da fuck!…
The impact nearly knocked the air from his lungs, but his mana shield flared, absorbing the blow with a low thrum.
?Your Mana Shield has taken 12 points of direct physical damage, current saturation: 88/100 ?
? Your Mana Shield has taken 7 points of direct physical damage, current saturation: 81/100 ?
? Your Mana Shield has taken 5 points of direct physical damage, current saturation: 76/100 ?
? Your Mana Shield has taken 3 points of burning damage, current saturation: 73/100 ?
“Fuck!” Cassian snarled as the hit threw his body into a violent spin. The world around him twisted in a blur of flashing lights and wind screaming past his ears. His senses snapped back into place just in time to see it. A fucking kalrach. Its exoskeleton was split and cracked, leaking black ichor, its face was partially burned away, leaving exposed sinew and twitching muscle, its remaining eye glowing with unnatural hate. And it was on him.
? Your Mana Shield has taken 3 points of direct physical damage, current saturation: 70/100 ?
“Get off me, you little shit!” Cassian barked through clenched teeth. The creature’s breath was rancid, hot, sulfurous. He twisted mid-air, fighting the spinning disorientation. They were still falling—plummeting toward the bottom of the sinkhole. It clawed and screamed, trying to chew through the glowing barrier of his shield. Cassian slammed his forehead into the thing’s cracked skull—once, twice—the force reverberating through his neck.
? Your Mana Shield has taken 2 points of direct physical damage, current saturation: 68/100 ?
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? Your Mana Shield has taken 2 points of direct physical damage, current saturation: 66/100 ?
A spray of black fluid hit his cheek as the beast reeled back, stunned for a fraction of a second and not letting the opportunity go he grabbed the hilt of ?Sindivinity? and plunged into the monster’s face.
The Kalrach spasmed violently, its limbs twitching, then fell limp. Cassian wrenched the dagger free, blood trailing through the air like dark ribbons.
? Your artifact ?Sindivinity? has absorbed a soulspark ?
But gravity had no mercy. They were still falling.
Why I don’t have a flight or reverse gravity card!
Cassian kicked the corpse off of him, twisting his body midair to regain orientation. The flickering lights above—the glow from the surface were shrinking fast, the void below growing wider and more menacing by the second.
“Okay… okay, focus,” he muttered, forcing his breath into rhythm. The wind whipped at his face, howling in his ears. The sheer depth of the sinkhole was terrifying. He couldn’t see the bottom, only flickers of alien red light deep below and the sickly glow of bioluminescent tendrils clinging to the walls like veins.
? Your Mana Shield has taken 2 points of environmental pressure damage. Current saturation: 64/100 ?
You got to be kidding me!
The air pressure in the sinkhole was enough to chip away at his shield? What logic was that?
Cassian flung himself backward in mid-air, his body twisting as a jagged talon tore past him, missing his face by inches. The rush of air felt like razors across his skin, but he didn’t stop to think—there was no time to.
Fuuu…
He inhaled deeply, steadying his racing pulse. Then, with practiced ease, he reached into his core reservoir, tugging at the swirling mass of essence deep within his well.
“[Heart Swords],” he whispered.
Five swords manifested around him. Their surfaces shimmered like cracked glass suspended in midair, warping the surrounding space. Just like before, Cassian was planning on using them as platforms to maneuver around and as ranged attacks in case of emergency.
Kalrachs screamed as they fell to their deaths. It was like watching a meteor shower of shrieking monsters. Some passed far from him, others screamed by just inches from his face, trailing flames and gore.
This is one hell of a view… and just how deep is the crater?
Breathe. Wait. For the moment.
And soon after a few breaths, he got his chance. A Kalrach came down on him. It barreled into his shield.
? Your Mana Shield has taken 5 points of direct physical damage, current saturation: 65/100 ?
He jammed ?Sindivinity? up through the Kalrach’s chin and out the top of its skull in one clean motion. The dagger drank deep, pulsing with a hungry rhythm as the creature’s shriek died in its throat. Cassian could feel the soul being consumed.
? Your artifact ?Sindivinity? has absorbed a soulspark ?
Cassian stepped on the corpse, using it as a platform to jump. Cassian brought himself a fleeting second of verticality.
Now.
He called one of the heart swords to him with a thought. The shimmering sword moved beneath his foot and Cassian stepped onto the blade like it was solid ground, locking into it mentally—feeling the strain intensifying as he held the sword in place for just a second.
His essence surged again.
"[Blink!]"
Colors warped. Sound dimmed. Light streaked like oil on water—and suddenly, Cassian was twenty feet lower, reappearing near the jagged inner wall of the sinkhole, momentum still dragging him down.
“Work with me now, Sindi,” he muttered under his breath, his essence surging as he channeled it into his hands.
With a grunt, Cassian jammed the dagger into the fleshy, slick wall of the sinkhole. The dagger sank in with a wet squelch, anchoring him. The moment he snagged, he bent his knees and pressed into the wall, using his downward momentum to bounce off and stab again further down.
It wasn’t perfect, but it slowed him.
Kalrachs zipped past him in waves—some already ablaze from the earlier explosion, others screeching and flailing as they crashed into one another mid-air. Their bodies slammed into the fleshy walls or splattered unseen into the abyss below. The air was thick with the stench of charred meat and burning chitin.
Far below, he heard the horrible symphony of Kalrach shrieks. Dozens—maybe hundreds—slamming into one another, into the walls, piling at the base of the nest.
Cassian hissed a breath between clenched teeth. “This whole fucking pit is becoming one with the Mother of Kalrachs,” he muttered. “Fortunately, there’s still time.” The stench hit him then—an eye-watering, throat-searing stench of rot and bile.
Cassian reached deep and tugged on the thread of essence. It pulsed, responding instantly.
"Come forth [Behemoth]"
The air behind him rippled like water disturbed by stone. Space cracked, then tore open with a violent groan. The Behemoth dropped out of the summoned void and immediately latched its massive limbs into the fleshy wall, claws finding purchase. Tentacles burst from its back, anchoring it further as it looked down the hole.
Cassian leaped, landing on his summons’s shoulder.
"Good to have you back… Now go!"
The Behemoth didn’t need to be told twice. With monstrous agility, it launched itself downward, running along the inner curve of the hole like some demonic juggernaut. Tentacles whipped around for balance, gouging into the organic wall. Kalrachs tried to intercept. The Behemoth smashed through them, cleaving a path with brute force, he swatted them mid-air, sending the corpses spiraling like a broken toy into the wall.
Cassian crouched tighter against its shoulder, heart pounding, teeth gritted against the wind and heat.
.
.
.
They reached the bottom in a few seconds. When they landed, the floor groaned. It wasn’t a solid surface. It squished.
Cassian leaped off the Behemoth’s shoulder as soon as it touched down. His boots landed with a wet squish, sinking slightly into the pulsing surface. It wasn’t stone. It wasn’t even dirt.
“Damn it!” It was a fleshly substance.
Around him, Kalrach corpses had formed a mound—twisted bodies, broken limbs, some still twitching, others gurgling wetly. Above, the nightmarish rain hadn’t stopped. More bodies slammed down from the vertical tunnel above. The entire bottom of the sinkhole was made of living tissue—grayish-pink flesh, swollen and slick. Veins pulsed just under the surface, and parts of the wall had orifices that spasmed open and closed, exhaling a sickly yellow gas like standing in the belly of a beast.
Cassian activated his comms with a sharp exhale. “Dorian. I’m in the hole. Repeat, I’m in the nest.”
There was a burst of static, and then Dorian's voice crackled back. "Understood! We’ll begin with the next phase of the plan"
“Copy.”
Cassian looked upward as more Kalrachs rained down. His Behemoth roared again, swatting another out of the air.
The ground beneath him trembled, and far off in the distance, deeper into the nest, something massive let out a low, rumbling growl. A thread that had been suppressed until now had been activated. The bond grew strong as notifications popped in his vision.
Cassian's hand tightened around ?Sindivinity?, “Holy I should move and find the core nest… till Dorian and others do their part”
...
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