Arkanon tilted his head. “That creature reminds me of something I saw a century ago. One of the cities in Tartarus was built above a long dormant volcano, because of the immense amounts of ambient elemental energy there. One day, something crawled out of the volcano, and it looked like a living version of that. Down to the number of horns and the serpent attached to its head.”
“What was it?” Jonathan asked. “If it did come from Tartarus, how did it get to Cessation?”
“I would say that the Stillborn Hegemon brought some of his favoredd minions back from Tartarus, whenever he went there. After all, he’s an undead. Something that strong would be a great boon to his armies,” Arkanon answered.
Jonathan nodded. “You could be right. We’ll have to find a way to deal with it. The portal will open to the same place, and as an undead, it will probably remain there, waiting until we return.”
“What I’m wondering,” Edgar began, “is where it came from. Even for something that large, moving through the ground would not have been easy. There should have been far more of a disturbance than there was. At the very least, the ground would have shook every time it shifted.”
“What if there’s something beneath the surface of Cessation?” Hushar suggested. “Tartarus was filled with caverns lurking underneath the upper crust of the world. Perhaps Cessation has more layers than we thought?”
“If so, we can use that to our advantage.” Jonathan smiled. “If that’s true, the hole that monster crawled out of should still be there. If we can get to it quickly enough, we can run through the tunnels. Only, testing that seems extremely dangerous.”
Jonathan’s eyes narrowed as he watched everyone nearby turn their gazes towards him. He sighed. “Alright. I do have some free stat points saved up. Perhaps it’s time for some more speed.”
He surveyed his stats, and saw that Constitution was lagging behind his others by hundreds of points, or in the case of Strength, over a thousand. With well over two hundred points saved up, he began with his tried and true method of allocating ninety nine at a time, to both Dexterity and Constitution. A ripple of power washed over his body, his muscles growing more efficient and stretching, allowing him to make the most out of his speed. Another wave of power imbued his bones and flesh, infusing it with vitality.
Jonathan swept his hand through the air, feeling a satisfying crack as the sound barrier collapsed before it. With a smile, he summoned his portal once more. “I’ll return in five minutes if everything works out. Otherwise, something will have happened. In that case, wait.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Good luck,” Edgar said. He was mirrored by the others. Jonathan saluted them, and stepped through the purple aperture, steadying himself with a deep breath.
A premonition from his Blessing appeared the moment Jonathan entered Cessation, and he rolled, narrowly avoiding a massive fist crashing down where his portal had been. Stamina crackled through his body as he propelled himself forwards, diving nearly two hundred feet to safety. While the Bone Titan was incredibly strong and durable, its speed was lacking, and that was the one area Jonathan could surpass it in.
He flashed across the grey sand of Cessation, before gathering the power in his muscles and leaping high into the air. The arc of the world panned out beneath him, and he set his eyes on the vast crater left by the Bone Titan’s emergence. Seeing a glint of light in the depths, Jonathan smiled. It seemed that there was something down there after all.
A jet of purple fire formed on his armored boots, and he aligned himself with the crater. A shockwave burst from his feet as he poured elemental energy into them, shooting him forth faster than a rocket. One moment, the massive arm of the Titan was swinging towards him, and the next, he was two miles away, and covering another mile rapidly.
Jonathan let his momentum carry him, banishing the Void rockets. He plummeted to the ground, bending his knees as he landed to absorb the considerable impact. Even with his massively superhuman durability, he felt a bit of pain from the landing.
He raced towards the crater, hearing the footsteps of the Titan echoing behind him. He turned to see it raising one fist, a spear of energy gathering within it. A core of crackling emerald lightning surrounded by a miasma of dull purple. With a boom, the monster threw it, the massive projectile screaming through the air.
Jonathan swore and threw himself towards the edge of the crater, falling down into its depths. As he went, he set his eyes upon the glint of light he had seen earlier. There was a hole in the side of the rock, nearly covered in the debris formed by the Bone Titan’s emergence.
He kicked off the crater wall, shooting across the massive hole in the earth. Just in time too, as a massive explosion ripped the rock behind him into two, sending supersonic shrapnel everywhere. The earth rumbled as the crater began to fall apart, and just as cracks started to spread across the entirety of the depression, Jonathan leaped through the opening in the side.
He landed a moment later, skidding on a smooth rock floor, smoothed by what looked like a volcanic flow. It tilted downwards, and he quickly found himself sliding. With nothing better to do, Jonathan let his momentum take him.
A roar of anger resounded behind him as the Bone Titan lost sight of its quarry. Jonathan grinned, and pushed off the smooth stone, increasing the speed of his descent. The walls of the tunnel began to blur around him, an endless expanse of smooth igneous rock. Slowly, the light grew brighter and brighter, and the tunnel leveled out, revealing a bright circle at its end. Jonathan shot through, and found himself suspended in midair above a massive underground cavern. Easily ten miles wide, it was bathed in the light of an orb of fire hovering high above the cavern floor. Jonathan looked down, and his mouth opened slightly. An entire city filled the cavern, clearly long abandoned.
