Infinity Legends

Chapter 18: The Dark-Matter Mages

The doors of The Infinity split open to reveal the darkest scenario of all Fantasy Stars: the plains of Abyssalis, a world orbiting a nearly dead star, only heated by the abnormal concentration of irradiated dark-matter beneath its surface. All too often, said planetary surface would c***k into fantastic rifts opening all the way to the planet’s core from which a supernatural green glow emerged.

But Abyssalis was not merely visually overwhelming, it was also reputed as one of the most dangerous places in Fantasy Stars. The creatures that once inhabited the now dead world had no choice but to adapt to its new source of power, and every species in there had incorporated dark-matter into their very DNAs. That led to mutations beyond imaginable and often resulted in madness, meaning no ecosystem had creatures more dangerous, hostile and unimaginably diverse than Abyssalis.

But every ecosystem, no matter how twisted, consisted of a food chain, and every food chain had a top. A top occupied by an unchallenged apex predator. In Abyssalis case, such apex predator was renowned galaxy-wide, dread by all. Hunters dreamed of one day claiming a single scale from its back. Children laid awake at night after hearing tales that barely made the creature justice. Every being in the galaxy had heard stories, any player and NPC could tell the most fantastic myths, and only those who had stood before it would ever know the truth.

All in all, everybody knew to never come anywhere close to Abyssalis, but if that was ever the case, any wise man would know to avoid the bright green abysses in which that one beast dwelled.

For only fools would dare come face to face with the Choker.

“Kramen, what are we doing here?” Gurm, Gummybear’s time mage, asked in a shy voice as the four explorers set foot into the cursed dark soil.

“At least you were right,” Serry Frost, still on her white garment, looked at Takol. “I’m not liking this.”

“You probably know why we’re here,” said Kramen, who was leading the group as they crossed the deserted darkness to one of the massive glowing canyons. “You’re also probably thinking it’s too crazy to be the case. You’re hoping this is a drill about fighting in the dark or just fighting hordes of strong creatures, because it makes no sense to face the Choker with just four people. Right?”

“That pretty much sums it up,” Serry said.

“Well, you’d be right,” Kramen said. “We’re not facing the Choker with four people. You are facing the Choker with two people. Takol and I will sit back and watch.”

“What?” Gurm and Serry asked in unison.

“You heard me,” Kramen crossed his arms as he reached the edge of the abyss. The green light rising from behind him gave him a supernatural aspect as he paced from one side to the other. “The two of you have just met. Gurm is a beginner who has been training hard for a week and Serry is a rusty veteran. I want to see how naturally you two can work together under pressure.”

“Under pressure is one thing,” Serry objected, “facing the Choker is a whole other level.”

“I agree!” Gurm nodded.

“You know, permadeath should only trigger if you make its health drop below twenty-five percent,” Kramen said. “Do you think you can make it that far?”

“You think we can’t?” Gurm snapped back.

“I don’t know,” Kramen shrugged. “That’s why I’m having you do this. I want to find out.”

“And this has nothing to do with your big flop five years ago?” Gurm pressed on.

“It has everything to do with that,” Kramen conceded, stepping closer to Gurm until they could feel each other’s breath. “I had the best team in the world at the time and they were wiped out in the blink of an eye. Your sister was the only one who lasted more than five seconds, and not by much.”

“And you expect the two of us, just the two of us,” Serry intervened, “to do what a bunch of elite players didn’t come close to doing?”

“I expect you to do your best,” Kramen turned to face the mage in white, his tone sharp and firm. “The Rangers did not stand a chance because they assumed nothing could ever top them, so fear crippled them when faced with the greatest challenge of their careers. They were not used to be in a position of weakness and vulnerability.”

Gurm had lowered her head, vanishing beneath her dark hood. Serry, whose white dress was now painted green by the abyssal light, was fidgeting with her jewels. Kramen looked from one mage to the other, even as they intentionally avoided meeting his gaze.

Kramen took in a breath to resume his instructions:

“The rangers fell for assuming nothing could threaten them. Let your humility and hesitation keep you from falling in the same trap,” Kramen then stepped aside, stretching an inviting arm over the titanic breach on the planetary surface. “Go, now. Find the Choker and don’t come back until you’ve seen it bleed!”

***

Navigating the gargantuan soil breach proved much easier than Gurm and Serry had anticipated. The walls on either side were covered in naturally eroded walkways, gorges, caverns and the occasional rocky formation connecting both extremes of the canyon, which made for a versatile landscape to traverse. Even then, the pair of mages had optimized travel even further by combining their skills. Gurm would speed them up to cover more ground. Whenever they arrived at a dead end, Serry would rapidly conjure an icy bridge, slide or steppingstone to push them forward. Sometimes they had to jump down huge drops, but a little time manipulation by the mage in black ensured a safe landing.

It had not been a long trip, however. For the first minute or so, they had avoided the small creatures crawling on the walls, eventually killing a mutated worm or two, but three minutes in Serry halted, raising a closed fist for her companion to do the same.

“What?” Gurm asked.

They were standing on top of a bridge of dark-matter infused ice, Serry’s courtesy, that connected one wall of the abyss to the other.

“Where’s everyone?” Serry asked, her eyes scanning the walls on either side to confirm the native worms and vermin were nowhere to be seen. “I have a bad feeling about this…”

As the words left Serry’s mouth, the frozen structure beneath their feet began to tremble, as did the rocky surfaces on either side of it. Something was coming. Something big. And they knew exactly what it was.

“Run!” Serry screamed as she took off to cross the bridge, her feet nimbly sliding over the ice.

Gurm, on the other hand, remained frozen in place, jaw hanging as she witnessed the appearance of the largest being she had ever seen. The first thing to show were the shiny green eyes, visible through the smog and followed by the monstrous black head of the Choker. It crawled across the abyss walls, its massive claws burying into the solid rock and propelling the beast forward with unbelievable speed. The evil green gaze met Gurm’s, then the creature jumped.

Despite being larger the most starships, the Choker launched into the air with just as much grace, its jaw snapping open to reveal countless rows of teeth the size of broadswords. Teeth aimed at Gurm.

The sight made her snap out of the shock, and with a wave of her staff the time mage slowed the approaching monster just enough so she could run after Serry. Gurm ducked under the slow-motion teeth that lowered around her, rolling over the ice to quickly return to her feet and resume her run.

There was still a long way to go when the spell wore out and the Choker crushed the bridge in one swift bite. The ice disintegrated beneath Gurm and Serry’s feet, gravity quickly grabbing hold of the mages and pulling them to inevitable demise on the irradiated depths of the abyss as the Choker moved on down the canyon.

The shock made Gurm release her staff, which was also falling just beyond reach. She stretched her purple fingers to try and grab the one object that could turn the situation around, but it was too far away!

Until a snowball crashed against the purple diamond and made the rod spin enough for Gurm to grab it. Pointing the crystal to her white-clad friend, Gurm slowed Serry’s fall. Returning the favor, the now floating Serry stretched her hands to freeze a portion of the fog beneath Gurm.

Gurm closed her eyes, expecting to take considerable fall damage when hitting the ice, but Serry had come through and delivered a J-shaped slide that eased Gurm’s movement transition from vertical to horizontal and safely brought her to a stone walkway in the abyss wall.

But Serry was still falling.

Gurm hurried to a point in the wall where a twisted rock formation stuck out. She could not boost her own speed, not without releasing the time-suspension that kept Serry safe, so she had to rush the distance with her own dexterity.

Gurm reached the edge just as Serry slowly descended by, just in time for Gurm to outstretch her staff for Serry to hold onto.

As soon as the white mage touched the staff, the time-spell faded, gravity resuming its pull on them. Gurm held tightly to a dried root nearby, using all of her little strength stats to hold the staff from which Serry hung over the edge.

“It’s coming back!” Serry screamed as she struggled to climb to safety.

And she was right. The Choker was headed back, its glowing eyes trained on them.

“Do the time-stop thingy!” Serry ordered.

“I can’t! I need the staff!” which was, obviously, busy keeping Serry from falling to her death.

As the Choker drew closer, Serry released one hand from the staff and raised it to the Choker. In an instant, a wall of green ice formed between the women and the beast. Serry bit her lips as she tried to replicate, in scale, her gamble against the Green Horns. Except this time, the wall would need to be much larger and infused with at least twice as much dark-matter.

As the barrier solidified, the black veins running through all of its extension, the Choker crashed against it, the huge teeth digging into the frozen structure trying to shatter it.

“Good thing it didn’t just go around,” Gurm giggled while still struggling to pull her friend up.

Serry then proceeded to create a small icicle raising from the ground beside Gurm. No, not an icicle. An ice handle.

Gurm hooked a foot to the root she was holding and grabbed the icicle with the now free hand, using both points to push herself further from the edge and pull Serry along.

The women collapsed on the ground, exhausted. That had been more physically intense than anything either of them had experienced since creating those characters, and the game made them feel the strain in every fiber of their bodies.

But there was no time for recovery. With loud crash, Serry’s ice wall was turned to dust, a rain of ice shards passing by the opening on the wall. The mages scrambled away from the edge and into the dark cavern.

Right behind them came the Choker, pressing through the breach and squeezing its massive body past the opening. Serry shot a flurry of ice daggers against the approaching beast, but most just bounced off its hide. Then the projectiles got faster, enveloped by a purple aura of time-dilation, but even the increased momentum failed in penetrating the target’s defenses.

Unflinching, the Choker raised its three tails and swung them like divine whips. Serry and Gurm ducked beneath the first swipe, then narrowly jumped over the second. The third was unavoidable, and, upon realizing that, Serry shot a frost-wave over Gurm.

The mage in black felt the ice creeping into her muscles, going from the heat of battle to below zero in a second. When the third tail hit, the ice around Gurm exploded and Gurm herself flew across the cave, her staff flying from her hands, but she was alive.

Unlike Serry, who had been hit by the full might of the Choker.

But Gurm could still save her friend! Her white-clad corpse was not far, all Gurm had to do was reach her staff and revert the damage Serry had taken.

The black-clad wizard scrambled on all fours to where the staff had landed, then got up and ran for it, only to have her path blocked by the Choker’s massive foot. One step more and she would have been crushed! She ran around the titanic limb, the purple glow of her dark-matter-staff closer than ever, but as she reached for the weapon a collection of bestial teeth dragged into the ground around the staff and swallowed it whole.

Gurm stopped cold on her tracks.

The triplet tails dragged across the floor past her, and with its thundering steps the Choker left the cave, back to its abyssal home.