Chapter 89: Book 2: Chapter 33 — Astral Rift

Book 2: Chapter 33 — Astral Rift

A full moon rose in the sky, bathing the world around in a gentle light. Noah looked up at the flying moon, still finding it hard to believe it was a giant eldritch eye that floated in the sky. The three of them had arrived at the Pit at night, and for once, the arena had been quiet, only Vix’s men walking around carrying out whatever work they had been ordered to do. One of the men waved the three of them in, as they saw Vix herself standing in the corridor, shouting orders at her men to move various items all over.

“Decided to move shop?” Noah asked, watching all the boxes.

“Noah, isn’t it nice to see you here. No I’m not moving, but if you guys succeed, this place will certainly not be the same,” Vix said, her canines peeking from behind her lips as a tail swayed behind the woman. Noah noticed Snow standing behind her, almost as if hiding from his gaze.

“What’s she doing here?” Noah asked, glancing at Snow.

“She’ll be going to the rift with you,” Vix said, glancing back at Snow as she walked further out. Noah kept an eye on Erwest, but the man did not react in any visible manner.

Noah glanced at the girl, having a bunch of questions, but he didn’t voice them for the moment. Now wasn’t the time.

“Let’s head to my office, I’ll give you three a rundown of what you can expect,” Vix said. Noah followed behind the woman, glancing at Snow a couple times. Stepping inside Vix’s office, Noah saw a map unfurled upon the woman’s desk.

“I’ve already told you that the place is a Vault. Likely either of the dead god himself, or an Ascendant, given the make. The place itself is a pocket dimension that has latched onto Erandir like a parasite. A thin thread of space connects the realm from ours, keeping it from completely drifting out into the Astral Rifts, and the reason why the rank of people who can enter is limited. But that doesn’t means that what you’ll find inside will be the same rank as you.”

“We’d expected as much, but what rank of enemies are we expecting?” Aurelia asked.

“Hard to say, it’s a high ranked vault. But the place has been drifting in the Astral Rifts, unmaintained for centuries now. What’s in there is hard to know, but from the mana signatures, I suspect it’s a C rank zone. So anything with a higher grade should be dead, or dying of mana starvation,” Vix replied.

“What’s the map?” Erwest asked.

“A rough guess on the size of the place,” Vix said, turning the map towards them. Noah spotted three distinct areas within. Vix pointed a finger at the first area. “This is where the rift will drop you, there’s a forest here. It goes in a circular area surrounding the realm entirely. This area is only D grade, so you shouldn’t find anything too powerful. We got that much information from the cultists.”

She dragged her finger to the next area “Not sure what’s here, but this is where the mana grade jumps up to C, be prepared for anything,” Vix said, before pointing her finger at the center. “This is where the vault itself is, the central facility could be spotted from the edge of the realm, it’s a giant castle, hard to miss. No readings on here, could be a higher grade too, but the entire thing has a powerful illusion on it, the interiors are entirely unknown. This is where the Shard is.”

“So a race to the center, and we don’t know more than half of the area yet,” Aurelia said.

“There’s a reason I wanted you three. Not many adventurers can take on something like this while also being low level enough to not collapse the rift itself,” Vix said, rolling up the map, before she put the map forward. Noah picked up the map, putting it in his dimensional pocket. “You’ll have Snow. She can smell enemies and guide you through the area, avoiding anything too dangerous. And monsters won’t be the only thing in that regard, the vault will likely have traps, other cultists, adventurers, anyone and everyone who knows of the Shard will be aiming for it.”

“How long will the rift stay open?” Aurelia asked.

“One week. But I suspect there’s a time dilation field inside, so it might be close to a month for you. Try to make it out before it collapses, or you’ll be stuck inside forever, much like whatever else lives inside there right now.”

The three of them stood in silence, as Vix walked around her table. “Discuss anything you need to, and when you’re ready, step out and I’ll take you to the rift,” the woman said, walking up to the door, before she turned to Snow. “Listen to what they say.”

With a click, the woman walked out.

Noah looked at Aurelia and Erwest, taking a seat at one of the sofas. “So… do we need to make any kind of plan?”

“Stick together, head towards the target, and obtain what we need to before returning,” Erwest said.

“I’d say that’s a bit simple, but it’s hard to make plans for something like this where so much is just unknown. We’ll simply have to stay quick on our feet and react to anything that happens as it does,” Aurelia said, glancing at Noah. “How’s your new ability coming along?”

“I got weapon mastery at last, so that’s nice. The sparring has put me at the edge of advanced for a bunch of abilities, while my new ones are almost at Intermediate,” Noah said.

“I still can’t believe you’re using your ability to beat yourself up for training. Don’t you experience everything they do?” Aurelia asked.

“I do, and it’s worth every little bit. I’ve been progressing stupidly fast,” Noah said.

“I can see that,” Aurelia said, smiling a little. “Do you have anything to say Erwest?” she asked, turning towards the Paladin.

Erwest’s eyes were stuck on Snow, who had been trying her hardest not catch anyone’s eye. “Who did this to you?”

The girl looked at him in confusion, and Erwest pointed at her horns. Noah rose from his seat. “Hey, don’t scare the girl.”

Erwest looked at Noah, an unamused expression on his face.

To Noah’s surprise, Snow replied a moment later. “No… no one did.”

“What do you mean?” Erwest asked, frowning.

“Just so you know, you don’t have to answer him if you don’t want to,” Noah said.

Snow looked at him, giving him a nod. She looked up at Erwest, before looking down as she clenched her fist. “What will you do… when you find out?”

Erwest looked at the girl. “I will make sure justice is delivered to them.”

“They’re dead,” Snow replied, looking up. “I killed them.”

Silence filled the chamber as we all looked at the young, malnourished girl standing in front of us.

“When I was younger, we used to live in the mountains to the north. It was winter, and I was outside gathering dry wood with my sister. When… we found a puppy. A wolf puppy, but it was weird, not exactly normal. I saw it was injured and wanted to help, but my sister was scared and pulled me away. But… later that night, I went out in secret and found the puppy. And… I gave it some of my food. It ate the food, and then it jumped into my shadow. I was surprised and happy, so I named him Shadow, and he followed me home.”

Noah saw the girl’s voice slowly starting to gain some warmth. The sensation of comfort was almost palpable when she talked of the memory. Yet her fists were clenched, a pain hidden underneath.

“We lived together happily, Shadow would stay with me hidden, and we would play together. Until one day, some bandits appeared. My mom screamed at us to run. My sister was outside. I wanted to run, but it was freezing outside. I couldn’t run. So I hid in one of the cupboards. The bandits continued to loot and break apart the house. My mom was begging… dad was already dead. But they didn’t kill my mom immediately. They…” the girl trailed off, her voice emotionless as she repeated the events.

“I didn’t do anything. I didn’t try to help her. I just heard her screaming and crying, till they were done, and till she couldn’t cry anymore. I kept still, holding my breath. Hoping, praying they wouldn’t find me. But they did, I wanted to scream. Shadow jumped out in front of me then, biting one of the bandits and I ran as fast as I could. I rushed out as the bandits gave chase, Shadow following behind me, biting the bandits when they came close. I got out of the house, picking up the sleds as I rushed out, but there were others outside. One of them grabbed me and I felt something cold cut through my chest,” Snow said, finally looking up at us.

“I don’t remember what happened after that. But I woke up and, there was blood everywhere and Shadow was nowhere. The bandits were all dead. I ran. For days. Till I found a village. But they didn’t let me in, capturing me instead. I saw my face for the first time there… I had horns now. They thought I was a monster, but they didn’t kill me, instead they sold me, and eventually I was sent here.”

Noah heard the girl’s story, feeling a strange bunch of emotions going through his chest.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Aurelia said. “That’s awful.”

“I guess. It wasn’t too bad. Shadow was with me. He would protect me whenever they tried to hurt me a lot. He would take over… and take all the punishment. I wouldn’t feel anything. But I can tell it hurts him, and I don’t want him to hurt, so I obey what my masters say,” Snow replied.

Noah felt a sinking sensation in his gut. Walking closer, he went on a knee to match Snow’s height. “My promise to you is still there. Once this is done, you’ll be free. Do you have any idea where your home was? Maybe your sister is still around there somewhere.”

Snow shook her head. “That was… eight years ago. I don’t remember.”

“How old are you now?” Erwest asked.

“I’m sixteen,” Snow replied.

“Wait what?” Noah said, looking at the pale scrawny girl in front of him. He would’ve at best guessed thirteen, and not a day older.

“Slaves don’t grow as well, especially if they aren’t taken care of. I imagine having a void fiend inside her means her lifeforce is being spent sustaining Shadow, so she never grew as much,” Aurelia said.

“They think I’m younger, which is good. They… don’t try to have their way with me. I’m too young, too skinny.”

Noah looked at the girl, feeling horrified at the matter of fact way she’d said those words. He forcefully pulled his anger back, keeping it bottled up inside of him.

Aurelia scowled in disgust. “Has Vix ever tried to do something like that?”

Snow shook her head. “No, Vix only has me fight. She’s better than all the others. If I do what she asks, she treats me well. But the cultists…”

The girl shivered as she spoke the words, and Aurelia patted her shoulder. “It’s alright, we’ll be helping you so you’ll be fine.”

Snow gave a nod.

“Let us head out,” Erwest said.

Aurelia nodded, and Noah rose back to his feet. Turning around, he made his way outside, when he felt Snow’s hand grabbing at him, making him stop.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, looking down at the girl.

Snow opened her mouth, but light flashed at her collar, and the girl closed her mouth, shaking her head instead. “Nothing. I just got scared.”

“There’s nothing to be scared about, we’ll protect you. And like you said, you will have Shadow with you, right?” Noah said.

The girl gave a nod, and the four of them made their way out.

Vix was outside, back to her work. Turning towards them, she gave a small smirk. “If you’re ready, then let’s get going.”

Noah nodded.

They followed Vix to a different room, and Noah noticed Devin inside, with a giant circle filled with runes so fine he’d need a magnifying glass to read etched on the ground.

“Touch the cleaning spell before stepping in, or I’ll flay your skin,” the man barked.

Even Vix followed the man’s intruction, activating the cleaning spell. Noah did so happily, feeling all the grime vanish off of him. He really needed to get his hands on that spell one of these days.

“What’s this?” Erwest asked.

“The spell that’ll take you into the rift. How did you think we were entering it?” Vix asked.

“By… going to the rift,” Erwest said.

“Inside a cult, closely guarded by the Guild and likely the Lord’s troops?” Vix asked, raising an eyebrow.

Erwest huffed, but did not say anything.

“Alright, it should be ready. Thank Septah it’s a full moon, the amount of mana needed to link teleportations into an unstable pocket dimension would be so stupid otherwise.”

“Step inside,” Vix said.

The four of them made their way into the circle, standing at the four corners marked with symbols for them to stand in. Devin stood outside, working through the final checks, murmuring to himself.

“Alright, this is as good as it gets. Now take this,” he said, tossing a crystal ball enchanted with runes. Aurelia caught the device. “When you’re ready to come back, smash that and I’ll start the spell.”

Aurelia nodded, storing the crystal.

“On a count of three, I’ll activate the spell. You’ll feel a jerk, don’t resist it,” Devin said, before pressing his hand on the ground.

“Three… Two… One!”

A brilliant light flashed beneath their feet, as torrents of mana began to be sucked out from the air. The world shook, being covered in light. Noah saw Vix smiling as she watched them go.

“I’ll be looking forward to good news,” the woman said, as the world turned to light.

Noah stumbled, feeling the world twist. A green grassland flowed all around him, with a purple sky overhead. He could faintly hear the sound of water lapping at a shore behind him somewhere, but his eyes traced the forest line in front of him. Noah barely had the time to look around at the surroundings, when he realized something terrible.

“Umm… guys?” he called out.

A rumbling growl came as a reply. A giant crocodile with spiked plates on its back walked out of the shrubbery, its piercing red eyes regarding him with hunger.

[Deidacroc - lvl ??]

“You’re definitely not what I was calling for,” Noah said, breaking into a dash as the crocodile lunged at him.