Chapter 313 - Field of Giants

The descent was easy. Too easy, if Zeke was honest with himself. Everything since his ascension into the Eternal Realm – or since his rebirth, really – had been an absolute slog. Simply moving forward, putting one foot in front of the other, had always taken every ounce of effort he could muster. So, when that difficulty wasn’t there, when it felt like he was just walking down a huge, black sand dune, his hackles were inevitably up.

“Relax. You’re too tense,” said Eveline, floating by his side. “Everything doesn’t have to be horrible, you know. Sometimes, things can be easy. Or pleasurable. I once had a harem of beautiful incubi who –”

“I really don’t want to hear that,” Zeke muttered, sliding a few feet down the steep slope. “Especially from someone who looks like an eight-year-old girl.”

“Blame yourself. This is the only form I could’ve taken where there was any chance of you trusting me,” she said.

“Well, you can change back to whatever you want, now.”

“Doesn’t work like that,” Eveline said, shaking her head as she flitted in front of him. She turned to face him while floating backwards. “Once the expectation has been established, I can’t really…well, I’m stuck like this at least until you finish the contract. After that, I should have enough power to reform my real body.”

“And what did you look like?” Zeke asked, angling himself backwards so he could keep his balance. He’d seen lots of different types of demons since being reborn, which meant that Eveline’s true form probably strayed pretty far from the picture he had in his mind.

“In my former life? Or after becoming a demon?” she asked.

Zeke shrugged. “Both?”

She sighed, though Zeke felt certain that she didn’t need to breathe. She was a projection. A sliver of a demoness’s soul. But she still affected many of the mannerisms born from biological necessity, probably so he’d be at ease. Or maybe she’d established those habits before her soul had been splintered and imprisoned and saw no need to break them. As with everything about the demoness, Zeke suspected it was likely far more complicated than he knew.

“I barely remember my old life,” she said. “It was thousands of years ago. Maybe tens of thousands. I spent centuries in the First Circle, but –”

“Circle?” Zeke interrupted as his path leveled off. He still hadn’t reached the bottom of the slope, but it had flattened into a few dozen yards of even ground.

“Our labels,” she said. “You have your Mortal Realm, while we have the First Circle of Hell. Unimaginative, but demons are rarely creative.”

“Oh.”

“In any case,” Eveline went on. “I do recall a vast forest with enormous trees. Hundreds of feet in diameter, these trees were the center of our civilization. My…memories are difficult to access in this form, but I recall holding the forest with a certain reverence. As if I understood on a deep instinctual level, how important nature was.”

“And you? What did you look like?”

“I…I can’t remember,” she said. “It’s strange. There are details I can recall – pale skin, green hair, wings – but when I try to put it all together…it all just drifts away.”

“I…I don’t…”

“I was beautiful, though. Of that, I am certain,” she stated.

“Really? How do you know?”

“Because nothing else makes sense to me,” she said. “In any case, I remember being horrified after my transformation. Not at my place in all of this – that always made perfect sense to me, even if I can’t remember why I was sent down here in the first place – but rather, my appearance. I was big, ugly, and brutish. Fortunately, the First Circle is a realm of self-discovery and reformation, and by the time I found my way to the pit, I was once again beautiful. Terrible, too. Horrific. But beautiful.”

“That really doesn’t answer my question.”

“I am aware of that,” she said, smirking at him as he resumed his descent.

Like that, the two continued downward. The slope wasn’t gentle, but neither was it terribly steep, so Zeke’s path wasn’t difficult. Along the way, he activated [Metallurgical Repair], and though the earth-attuned mana in Mal’canus was weak and diffuse, there was more than enough to keep his energy levels topped off while healing whatever minor injuries he’d sustained.

“It can be addictive, right?” said Eveline, noticing what he was doing.

“What can?” Zeke asked, playing dumb.

“The power. The attunement. Whatever skill you have going,” she said. “[Metallurgical Repair], huh? Sounds like a crafting skill.”

“Please stop reading my mind.”

“Stop shouting your thoughts.”

Zeke just shook his head and continued on. But her question had brought up an interesting point. During the climb of the plateau, Zeke had been incapable of accessing his attunement or [Metallurgical Repair], and as a result, he’d spent the entire time feeling helpless. Was he becoming too dependent on it? Did he even have a choice?

“No.”

“Just pretend like you can’t hear my thoughts,” Zeke groaned.

“Nope. I won’t feign weakness just for your comfort,” she stated. “The answer to your question is a fundamental to the way the world works, so you need to hear this. The more you use your attunement – or your demonic power – the more it will influence who you become.”

“So, if I use my earth attunement too much, I’m going to become what? A giant dwarf?” Zeke asked.

“Isn’t that an oxymoron?”

“I don’t know.”

She let out a dramatic sigh, then said, “Of course you don’t. Of all the meatheads in the universe, I had to get paired with the…you know what? Never mind. The point is that an attunement is a fundamental building block of the world. Using that for your own purposes has consequences. More, if you let it suffuse your entire body. You won’t change – not outwardly – but it will set you on a path. For most, that isn’t an issue because they’ve had that attunement since the beginning. Skills, class, paths – everything flows from that. But you? You’re different. You started out as a human, which means you are inherently more versatile than most races. Less constrained because you were originally unattuned. However, the moment you established that earth attunement, your path narrowed. And it will further narrow the more you use your attunement.”

“And the demon power?”

“Oh, that will definitely change you, inside and out,” she said. “I doubt you’d sprout wings and horns, but…well, it’s not outside the realm of possibility.”

“Great,” Zeke muttered as they finally reached the bottom of the slope. Unlike the terrain on the other side of the plateau, which was populated by a forest of bone-white coral, the new region was like a sea of black sand that reminded Zeke of the dunes of the Red Wastes. However, the huge skeletons scattered all around ruined that impression.

The skeletons themselves were mostly buried, but there hundreds of skulls – each the size of a minivan, at least – just in Zeke’s line of sight. Despite their enormous size, they looked somewhat human, albeit with a third eye socket in the center of their foreheads and fangs the size of Zeke’s whole body jutting from their mouths. Finally, each skull bore a handful of spikey protrusions along the top of their skull.

“Horns,” Eveline provided, once again reading his mind.

“Kind of figured as much,” Zeke remarked. “Did they kill one another? Or…”

“Not sure,” Eveline said. “We know about a battle, but…well, it could have been warring clans, but it might just as well have been something else that killed them. We have no way of…oh…oh, no…”

“What?”

With a trembling hand, Eveline pointed at one of the skulls, which had begun to shudder, causing ripples in the fine black sand.

“What the –”

“Run!” Eveline screamed, both out loud and in Zeke’s mind. He didn’t hesitate to obey, taking off along the edge of the plateau. “No! Not that way! You’re running towards the –”

Before she had a chance to finish the thought, Zeke was showered in a cascade of black sand as something erupted from the ground behind him. He poured on the speed, his feet digging huge divots in the ground, but Eveline continued to scream at him. It took him a moment to fight through the disorientation of being pelted with a series of psychic yells, but when he did, he finally heard what she was trying to say.

“That’s the wrong way, you big idiot!” she screeched, sending spikes of pain through his mind. “There’s more of them that way!”

Zeke had no idea what she was talking about. The threat, which he still hadn’t seen because he was too busy running as fast as he could, was behind him. The only thing in front of him was a series of those enormous skulls – but that wasn’t abnormal. The things were all around him.

“That’s what I’m trying to say!” she screamed, her cherubic face red and her fists clenched in frustration. “You’re running right at them!”

That’s when another tremor shook the ground, and Zeke stumbled. He quickly regained his balance, but in the brief moment when his attention was diverted, the skulls had begun to shift.

Every single one of them.

Zeke skidded to a stop, furtively looking around for an open path. He found none. The field was a graveyard, and were barely a few square feet in his line of sight that weren’t occupied by the giant skulls.

Then, Zeke looked back the way he’d come, and he very nearly lost his grip on his composure.

“What the…is that…”

“Hermit crab? What is a hermit crab? That thing is a…”

Zeke used [Inspection].

Giant Skullcrab – Level 57

The name was more than appropriate, but so was Zeke’s first impression. On Earth, Zeke had lived near enough to the coast that, during the summers, he, his mother, and his brother would often take daytrips to the beach. On one such occasion, when Zeke was only eight or nine years old, Zeke had convinced his mother to buy him a pet hermit crab. The little creature was only as big as his baby brother’s fist, but Zeke had been fascinated by it. Sadly, the crustaceans were notorious for their short lifespans, and his new pet – which he’d named Mickey – only lasted a few weeks before it passed.

That had been Zeke’s first real experience with death, and he hadn’t taken it well.

“What are you doing? Don’t just stand there reminiscing about the past! Do something!” Eveline screeched. “If you die, I won’t ever get another chance at being whole!”

Zeke shook his head. He hadn’t spaced out during a fight like that in some time. Not since the troll caves. The memories only lasted for a blink, but in that time, the giant hermit crab – that was the only way Zeke knew to describe it – had scuttled much closer. On its back was one of the giant skulls, and the creature had grown to fit its home. However, unlike the relatively harmless creatures he’d seen back on Earth, this skullcrab was equipped with huge, snapping pincers that were lined with razor sharp barbs.

Zeke could tell that it was anything but harmless.

It only took Zeke another moment to realize that he was surrounded on three sides. The other skulls had already revealed themselves as more crabs, and to his back was the slope that would lead him back to the plateau. That seemed his only option.

“You can’t!” Eveline hissed. “The illusions will hit you again. I…and I won’t be able to protect you this time…”

“What the…really?” he growled. “Isn’t that just great…”

But in truth, there was a part of Zeke’s mind that was happy about the fact that he couldn’t retreat. Running away had never been attractive to him – even less so since becoming a cambion, which probably should have been a hint as to how it had changed him, even if he had no interest in exploring that facet of his racial transformation. So, having that option cut off was almost a relief.

“You’re insane…”

Zeke shrugged, summoning his hammer. He rolled his shoulders as the skullcrabs approached. They weren’t slow – not precisely – but they clearly weren’t built for agility, either. They also seemed cautious, which suggested a level of intelligence Zeke didn’t want to think about.

“You can fight through them. Just keep moving in that direction,” she suggested, pointing the way they’d been traveling. “You don’t have to kill them to escape.”

Zeke glanced at the spirit-girl and smirked. “True. But where’s the fun in that?” he asked. “Relax. I do this kind of thing all the time.”

“That is patently untrue,” she huffed.

“Well, maybe. But I do fight hordes of monsters a lot,” was his reply. “Like I said – just relax. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Then, without any more conversation or delay, Zeke planted his foot and raced toward the trio of skullcrabs who’d just dragged themselves out of the black sand. With each step, he accelerated, building momentum for a devastating strike. When he’d closed the gap to around forty yards, he reached out with his free hand, embraced [Center of Gravity], and let loose with the skill.

His target – the centermost crab – trembled for a brief second before suddenly tearing loose from the sand and rocketing in Zeke’s direction. It tore through the air as if falling from a great height, its multitudinous legs twitching and scrambling for something onto which it could grab ahold. It found nothing but empty space.

Meanwhile, Zeke turned sideways, taking a familiar posture and, in a two-handed grip, cocked his hammer back, channeling his Will into his path of force. Green energy wreathed the hammer, and when the skullcrab drew within range, Zeke took one more step and swung with every ounce of strength he could muster.

The disoriented crab attempted to twist so that it could bring its claws to bear, but as top-heavy as it was, it couldn’t help but lead with its skull-shell, which bore the brunt of Zeke’s momentous attack.

A huge cracking sound filled the air as hammer met skull, and a shockwave of pure force threw a wave of sand in all directions. Zeke felt as if he’d swung a baseball bat a brick wall, and he could practically feel the tiny cracks spreading through his bones. Fortunately, he’d never let go of [Metallurgical Repair], so those minor injuries were quickly healed.

The crab had no such ability, and a huge fissure spread from the point of impact, branching off into a spiderweb of cracks. But the hammer’s momentum didn’t stop there. Instead, it kept going until it hit the comparatively soft body beneath, pummeling a huge portion of the crab into foul-smelling paste.

But it didn’t die.

The creature was far too durable for that.

Still, Zeke was satisfied with the opening attack. He could only hope the rest of the battle went so well. No sooner had that thought crossed his mind than he felt the serrated edge of an enormous crab claw envelop his waist and tear into his stomach.

Maybe it hadn’t gone as well as he’d thought after all.