Chapter 1020 – Scouting


    Between the dangers of their environment and the knowledge that each passing second meant his realm was getting eaten away at, resting was difficult. Every time the Death Zone expanded, there was a chance for someone else to be pulled in and find an even worse end than Mark. At least the soldier had gotten to die on his terms, everyone else would succumb to corruption on their lonesome, their flesh reduced to a carrier for abominable things.


    Sleeping, knowing that waiting would cost people their minds and lives, wasn’t easy. It had to be done, however, if he wanted to maximize his chances of survival. Ultimately, that had to be the first priority. His life was linked, sometimes directly, to that of his women. As much as John was willing to put himself into harm’s way for a better world, he would not carelessly sacrifice himself or those he loved. He saw himself as a heroic conqueror, not a martyr.


    Regardless of all of that, Wisdom and sheer exhaustion eventually did cause him to drift off. He had half expected to be pulled into Enki’s dream realm again, but nothing of the sort happened. It was a remarkably restful and ‘fast’ slumber he had. One moment he dropped deep into sleep, the next he opened his eyes to the sound of his phone ringing. All signals were being suppressed, but the device itself was still working flawlessly.


    The first thing John’s eyes fell on after waking up was the magnificent roundness of Lucifrena’s ass. He had recognized it as wonderfully attractive in the past, and the more human her body got, the more it increased in quality. The metallic surface of her golden body left the curve of her hips with a latex-like sheen. The Gamer would have loved to see it jiggle, but the angel was still and looking outwards.


    “Perv,” Rave whispered into his ear. His cat-eared girlfriend was awoken by the same alarm and now rubbed his pants. Despite the desperate situation, he did have a clear case of morning wood. “We should hurry and get this done before ya go crazy from sex deprivation.”


    “Yeah,” John chuckled. ‘Alright, everyone back?’ he reached out mentally. The alarm had been set to the estimated hours it would take for his mana to fully restore and the elementals to regenerate.


    ‘Y-yeah,’ Gnome led the charge.


    ‘Happy to be alive,’ Salamander went second.


    ‘Still here,’ Undine stated.


    ‘I’ll stab every last one of these Kronenberg assholes,’ Siena hissed.


    ‘Thunderbolts and lighting, very, very frightening to theeeeeem,’ Sylph did her best at a warsong. She failed at making it threatening, but the arcvolt elemental was regardless primed for vengeance.


    ‘Never left,’ Stirwin squeaked, in his hatchling form.


    “Okay,” John stood up and looked around. Like Lucifrena, Metra and Thana were still right where they had left them. Nia was missing. The pariah had been by John’s side when he had drifted off. That she was now missing was not all that surprising or alarming. She would pop back up when they needed her.


    John opened his character screen and checked if everything was in order.


    ‘Right, since I’m going to fight Enki, I should switch out the Modification,’ he thought. He was safe at the moment, so the system allowed him to take out the Lover Boy Mod and replace it with another one of his choice.


    “Roger, roger,” Sylph babbled and everyone took their positions. Then they started running. Like before, John was the lowest common denominator, but they still moved at the speed of a car on the highway. Reaching the edge of the barrier only took them about ten minutes.


    Seeing the base of the dome that boxed them in was a peculiar experience. Fundamentally, a dome of this size, about ten kilometres across, was impressive. Realizing that this wasn’t merely a cavern inside a rock formation, but an actually crafted structure made from massive blocks fashioned from stone made it all the more remarkable. What awe John did feel, however, was completely muted by the disgust he felt at the state of the walls. The impression of a cave was born from the fact that many of the blocks had their surface splintered by the roots that buried into it. A fluffy carpet of mould covered vast patches and mushroom stalks grew out elsewhere, particularly in and around the glowing, pale white ‘stars’ that were set into the dome. It was a revolting display of decayed beauty.


    Nia took them north along the rim of the Illusion Barrier, until they hit a spot that was largely untouched by Lorylim matter. Still, there was mould crawling along the gaps between the large bricks, leading up to a stone gate. It was of a strange, ancient design, utilizing a lot of square and otherwise sharp angles. Symbols of men with winged cat bodies, dragons and eyes covered the rim at equally spaced distances. The gate was simple and fashioned entirely from sand-coloured stone. The entire structure was about ten metres tall.


    Destroying something like this almost felt like a sin, but they had to keep going. This corrupted Sanctum had to be collapsed as a barrier anyway. Nothing about this ground could be saved, only purged from existence. “Metra, make us an entrance,” he commanded.


    “As you wish,” the First of Wrath obliged and charged forwards. Stone cracked under Rex Magnar’s might and soon she had made a big enough hole for them to step through.


    As Nia had said, there was a simple corridor on the other side. Ancient Mesopotamian in its design, just like the door had been, but ultimately just a corridor, illuminated by silver-glowing torches. The light was a lot friendlier in here. The corridor stretched in both directions, making John wonder if this was a ring that wrapped around the edge of the dome.


    “Alright, let’s look for a staircase,” John said and started running again.


    “Why a staircase specifically?” Rave asked.


    “Since we know now that people get pulled in here via some sort of teleportation spell, we can surmise with reasonable certainty that it falls in standard Protected Space sizes,” he explained. “In other words, it shouldn’t be much wider than ten kilometres. We’re already at the edge, so the only way to create a structure around the dome is to go up or down.”


    “Had I known that I would need to know what his fucking Sanctum looks like thousands of years later, I would have visited it sometime,” Metra said.


    Due to their speed, it didn’t take long for them to reach what John was looking for. A staircase of the same sandstone, leading both up and down. ‘Obviously we are not splitting up,’ the Gamer thought, while considering which direction they should progress in. ‘Where would Enki be? If I can defeat him, none of this matters anymore.’ He considered for a moment, then turned his attention to Metra. ‘Up or down, what’s your guess?’


    ‘Enki was always pompous, so I’d say he hides out on the very top of the dome,’ Metra told him.


    “Alright, we’re going up,” John announced and led the way. The further they went in, the more he wondered about their environment. It appeared completely clean, a structure that had been constructed aeons ago and not suffered at all since. Given the circumstances at the centre of that structure, that was highly suspect. Everything out there was eldritch and disgusting, everything in here had the splendour of a bygone empire. “This whole thing is a complicated mess,” John mumbled.


    They advanced, further and further, never meeting anyone or anything that would put up resistance. Up the staircase, scouting out the second ring they found, then a third one. They found a couple of rooms with strange arcane relays in them. Observe wasn’t definitive on what they were transferring, so John didn’t touch them. He had learned enough about arcane flow to know that the energy source was below, however, and any large-scale spell that originated in this Sanctum was likely something he wanted to stop.


    “Alright, we’re turning around,” John decided, following the new information. “If the teleport spell is powered by something underground, it’d be wise if we stopped that first.”


    “Feels weird to backtrack so far in,” Rave said, even as they all pulled along with the decision.


    “That’s what happens when I have to work with a stream of information – no laid out plans,” he responded.


    They went underground.