“Did you use mana while suffering from mana toxin?” Gary asked, wandering over. His arm was drenched in blood and still looked to be bleeding freely, but the leeches were gone and he didn’t seem worried.
“Seemed time sensitive,” Jason said. “Oh, this hurts. I was pretty much bottomed-out on mana in the first place.
Gary looked over Jason’s cloak of stars.
“You weren’t kidding about a power that makes you sparkle.”
Suddenly an explosion of light and noise erupted from the other side of the pool. A bright stream of lava cut through the air like it was coming from a firehose, crashing into the leech monster. Jason’s head pivoted, goggle-eyed to the source of the blast.
“Was that frigging LAVA?”
Farrah, collar now gone, held her glowing red hand out towards the creature. She mumbled something and a second stream of lava blasted across the chamber. The blood pit audibly sizzled as the lava seared over it, scouring moisture from the air. After two bursts of white-hot lava, the leech monster was largely destroyed, the bindings holding it together completely unravelled.
“This is the part where we step back,” Rufus said, putting a hand on Jason’s shoulder.
“This is the part?”
Jason could still feel the heat on his face as he staggered back behind Rufus, then back some more for good measure. He heard chanting from Farrah across the pool and looked over. There were several orbs of fire floating around her. One of the cloth strips burst from the pool to grab at her, but was intercepted by an orb, burning up on contact.
She stopped chanting and Jason heard a rumbling from the direction of what was left of the leech pile. It started to scatter, but a cascade of lava geysered out of the ground underneath it. Gary, Jason and Rufus backed off even further as lava spattered around the geyser before it dwindled and came to a stop.
Jason looked at the glowing hole left behind, his jaw hanging slack. The red light from the blood pool faded and died, plunging the chamber into darkness. Only Jason’s cloak and the remnant glow of lava provided any illumination.
“We need to get every leech!” Farrah called out. “It can reconstitute itself, even from one!”
Jason looked around the floor. The main mass of leeches had been incinerated, but many leeches had spilled onto the floor as Rufus and Gary stalled it. Salt bag tucked under his arm, he started flinging handfuls at the leeches while Rufus and Gary stomped them underfoot. While the leech mass had only recoiled from the salt, individual leeches vomited blood from their tooth-ringed mouths as they dried up and died.
Eventually there was nothing left of the leeches but blood stains and ash.
You have defeated [Sanguine Horror]
Quest: [The Sanguine Horror]
Objective: Destroy the sanguine horror 1/1.
Reward: [Sin Essence]
Quest complete.
100 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
1000 [Iron Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
Jason edged forwards warily. He noticed a leech that had managed to get far enough away that it was burnt to a crisp instead of being completely annihilated. He poked it with his toe.
Would you like to loot [Sanguine Horror]?
Jason gave his mental assent.
[Awakening Stone of the Apocalypse] has been added to your inventory.
10 [Bronze Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
100 [Iron Coins] have been added to your inventory.
Jason looked at the listed awakening stone. Apocalypse.
That didn’t sound wildly positive.
14
Worlds Apart
Jason sat on the bottom stair of the chamber while Farrah removed the collars from Rufus and Gary. His whole body was wracked in pain after using the last of his mana to conjure the cloak and float down from the top of the chamber.
“Explain something to me,” Jason said. “If you can do…”
He gestured at the sections of wall and floor melted by lava.
“…that, then how did they catch you in the first place?”
“Ambush,” Rufus said. “We were meant to resupply and get information from a local contact. Instead, he set us up for capture.”
“We’re going to go find him,” Gary said.
“And have a sizzling conversation,” Farrah added.
“But first,” Rufus said, “we have to get back to the Vane Estate. They still have Anisa and I’m concerned about the cultists that Jason lured away. If they left because they saw the tides turning, they’re probably heading back to the estate.”
“You think they’ll use Anisa as a hostage?” Gary asked.
“Possibly,” Rufus said. “They might take her for leverage, or worse.”
After the collars were removed, Rufus and Gary started stretching like they’d just woken up. Farrah, in the meantime, held her hand out over the ground and chanted something quietly. It was a short chant, only a few words. When she was done, a large chest made of dark brown stone rose out of the ground. It didn’t break through the floor, but instead rose up through it, like a ghost. Farrah pushed open the hinged, heavy lid and took out fresh clothes for herself, Gary and Rufus. They all started changing clothes, with no qualms about stripping down to their underwear in front of Jason or each other.
Jason glanced surreptitiously at the three of them. Rufus and Farrah had the bodies of Olympic athletes—lean muscle filled with the power of coiled springs. Gary was so huge he made bodybuilders look like they were still under construction. His wild mane and leonine features completed his majestic appearance. Jason didn’t know what passed for handsome in Gary’s species, but he suspected Gary was it.
“Why am I the only one who isn’t super good-looking?”
“What?” Rufus asked, looking over as he pulled on a shirt.
Jason thought back to the beautiful Cressida Vane, standing next to the ordinary-looking high priest Darryl, and was struck by an unpleasant revelation.
“I’m the Darryl,” he said disconsolately.
“What are you talking about?” Rufus asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” Jason said, shoulders slumping gloomily.
“Clothes are fine,” Farrah said, “but we need to get our gear back.”
“I just hope the ones who left didn’t go back to the manor and swipe it all,” Gary said.
Watching the others change clothes reminded Jason that he had completed the quest to get a shirt. That was two cages and a shovel to the head ago. He stood up and pulled the shirt from his inventory, discovering it was a plain, white T-shirt, complete with what looked like machine stitching. Holding it out in front of him, he read the text printed on the front.
I WENT TO A MAGICAL ALTERNATE UNIVERSE AND ALL I GOT WAS VAST COSMIC POWER.
Jason shook his head.
“This must be what insanity feels like.”
“What does it say?” Gary asked, moving up to examine the shirt.
“You can’t read this?”
“It’s not in any language I know.”
“Probably for the best,” Jason said as he pulled on the shirt.
You have equipped [Starting Gear] outfit. Outfit tab has been added to your inventory.
“Outfit tab?”
“What?” Gary asked.
“Nothing, never mind.” Jason responded.
Jason checked his inventory, which now had a second screen he could access with a tab at the top labelled ‘outfits.’ He was now used to navigating the screens with a thought and opened the new section. It showed a silhouette with various slots for equipment, most of which were empty. There was also a column to the left, empty aside from two entries. The first was listed as ‘starter gear,’ the second as ‘new outfit.’
“How does that work?” he muttered to himself.
Help: Outfits.
You can designate sets of gear as outfits, allowing you to quickly switch between them. Outfits can be modified by adding or removing items from item slots. An outfit can only be equipped so long as all items in that outfit are in the inventory or already equipped.