158. The Eternal Furnace (Part 1)

  The changes were gradual at first, until they weren’t.

  Not knowing how long they might have to wait, Team Serac collectively tried to keep as still as possible. None of them had a Waystation [Privilege] to their name, nor was there a realistic path back to the Hubstation. The best thing they could do to prepare for the final battle was conserve as much physical energy as possible.

  They each hurt in their own way. Petter was low on SHAKER crystals. Zacko was down to his last point of HP. Serac was possibly the worst off: low on nearly all the vital parameters, including [Satiety] south of 20 and still dropping.

  It’d gotten so bad her stomach rumbled audibly and angrily. Besides the sensation of [Hunger], the low [Satiety] also presented a very much practical problem. Mana in the low 30s and [Satiety] in the 10s. HP so low I can’t even tank one blowback from [Catharsis]. My options for casting spells are extremely limited. Unless there’s a way for me to full-heal, I’d have to rely almost solely on unimbued bullets from here on out.

  The purely sensible thought somehow twisted into an intrusive one, spurred on by a recent memory. The bitter, medicinal taste of a minty-green liquid. Serac’s mouth watered, even as she nearly gagged at the thought. Uh uh. Keep that stuff far away from me, thanks. I won’t let myself become a monster like Loha. Speaking of…

  Much time had passed and a lot had happened since Serac’s imprisonment by Loha’s breath. Knowing the queen and her stated goals, she wouldn’t have willingly allowed the king and the prince to go haywire. Had she also been incapacitated? If so, where was she now and what was she up to? Whatever the case might be, Serac would bet her entire cache of Karma she’d yet to see the last of Loha…

  “I think something’s happening.”

  Trippy’s voice brought Serac out of her reverie. Indeed, things were changing, but gradually at first.

  It began with the walls of fire that Hilde Vindsdatter had put up. Spreading from their neat lines on either side of the footpath, they now joined in the middle, completely closing off the topmost platform. Next, the flames frozen onto the throne hall entrance began to thaw. Both clear signs of [Avici] pushing through [Pacification].

  The changes were gradual at first, until they weren’t. As soon as the flames reclaimed their burning, roaring baseline, they instantly overpowered everything in the vicinity. The walls, the ceilings, and even the floor lost their solidity in a matter of seconds, as leaves turned to ash and soil became lava.

  Oh no. Serac could only bemoan her fate, as a black-green inferno bore down on her and her companions. There’s no getting out of this one…

  It turned out, however, that Serac had one more ‘lucky break’ left in her, this time thanks to the very nature of Mount Meru. As Tyr Djofulsen’s influence on the Realm waned, the previously static waterfall flowed again. The solid sheet of verdigris hanging from the heavens now reclaimed its baseline as the raging Sanzu River. The dam broke, and as a massive wall of water dropped onto the Realmtree’s Apex, it… turned to steam.

  Yes. The night air had been so superheated by [Avici] it boiled the waterfall before it hit the ground. Sanzu and hellfire converged into an area of intense heat and turbulence, pushing the flames back into the lower parts of the royal chambers. The raging storm of steam—and the myriad droplets whipping about in its midst—borrowed its hue from the moon above, painting the whole place an eerie yet beautiful pale-jade.

  It was in this bizarre ‘transition zone’ the Wayfarers now found themselves, barely holding firm upon the bits of rock and soil that had escaped full liquefaction. Serac had experienced her fair share of strange ‘storms’ in her short Wayfaring career. Well, add steam-storm to a list that kept growing against all odds! Much like the other storms on said list, the latest variety wasted no time to signal its danger. Serac, closest to the stormfront, became her party’s canary in the mines.

  [12!], [11!], [9!], …

  A DoT weather effect! Hilde the STORMVANE-wielder wasn’t here to assist her boyfriend, but a natural substitute had taken her place. The damage wasn’t nearly as bad as raindrops of fire, but it left Team Serac precious little time to respond.

  Surprisingly—or perhaps not at all, given recent events—Petter acted first. The mackerel jumped to his feet with glowing MATCHSTICK in hand, activating [Heat Sink]. It rapidly cooled the immediate area, protecting the trio from the DoT (and preserving Zacko’s 1 HP!). But the effect was temporary. MATCHSTICK’s green fire quickly grew to an unmanageable size, as it sucked in an enormous amount of heat.

  “We still need a permanent solution!” Chef Petey yelled, rightfully demanding some accountability from his senior Wayfarers. But what were a gunslinger and a pugilist to do? Experienced fighters though Serac and Zacko might be, they had nothing in their bags with which to counter inclement weather.

  [Auxiliary Technique: ELEMENTAL SURGE]

  Luckily for Team Serac, their fourth member had no such limitations.

  Renna Sandvik—a true master of the ripples—flew into their midst, having shoveled a hole through the raging flames. She took stock of the ongoing lunacy within a matter of Ksanas, to offer up a solution somewhat more permanent than Petter’s.

  [Auxiliary Technique: ELEMENTAL FLUX]

  A shovel spin in a tight circle. A swirling sphere expanded just wide enough to envelop the four Wayfarers. The [Flux] pocket served as a ‘safe zone’, fending off the harmful elements just beyond its boundaries.

  “Renna!” Serac exclaimed, then stopped herself from bear-hugging the frog woman, lest she interfere with the life-saving technique. “Took you long enough! But you really did show up in the nick of time. We were just about to—hang on, what’s happened to your…? Oh my gods, did you—?”

  “We can talk about my designation and what it means later,” [RENATE SANDVIK] cut in, already in full coaching mode. “First, we have a decision to make. Obviously, we’ll have to brave the storm eventually, in order to take down my brother and stop this madness once and for all. But I can already see none of you are in fighting shape. And I’m no better off after what I’ve been through.”

  Serac saw the tattered state of Renna’s hooded suit, as well as her sliver of remaining HP. It spoke to the ordeal the frog woman had survived—against her own father, no less!

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  “You don’t mean…?”

  “Yes. I have one charge of Waystation [Privilege]. From smiting Tyr Djofulsen the Dungeon Boss. Now, the question is whether I should use it, here and now.”

  “Is it even a question?” Zacko asked incredulously. “Why wouldn’t we wanna top ourselves up before facing the Realm Immortal?”

  “Yes.” Renna acknowledged the obvious with a nod. “Putting down the Waystation here would allow us to reconstitute. Give ourselves the best or perhaps only chance to contend against the purveyor of a raging inferno. But it would also mean tethering ourselves to that very inferno, for if we were to perish in our smiting attempt, we’d be sent straight back here. And my [Flux] pockets won’t stay up for long.”

  “Random time loss in the Interstitium,” Zacko muttered, getting the picture right away. “A vicious cycle of dying to DoT or losing to the boss, with no reliable way to regroup in between attempts. And that’s assuming this fucked up storm thing even holds. Because if that”—the Manusya nodded toward the black-green flames of [Avici] just beyond the transition zone—“climbs up any higher, then we’d be really toast. Literally trapped in an endless hell—or should I say, an Eternal Furnace.”

  Unbeknownst to her companions, Serac paled a shade of cinnabar. She felt the old, familiar stress response to being trapped inside a burning furnace—for an eternity, no less! If anyone had cause to kibosh the whole idea, it was her. But instead, she pushed her fears down where she could neither see nor touch them.

  “Well then, it’s clear what we have to do,” she spoke forcefully, as if to expel the words from her lungs. “Win on the first attempt. Go ahead, Renna. Put down that Waystation.”

  Contrary to Serac’s resolve, the frog woman took a pointed pause. She turned her wide-set, questioning eyes onto her fellow Yaksha.

  Of course! Serac thought, chiding her own thoughtlessness. We ‘three’ might be seasoned boss-killers, but Petey’s a KL-1 novice. If anyone has the right to back out of this, it’s—

  “Don’t worry about me, Miss Renna!” Petter spoke, just as forceful. “I won’t be able to do much, but I still want—no, need—to be a part of this. And”—he turned to his former employer—“don’t you worry neither, Miss Serac. I know my limits. I’ll stay out of the way… and pick my spots.”

  Serac met Petter’s determined eyes with burning ones of her own. Her chest welled with something very different to fear, but she pushed it down all the same. That’s right. Petey’s a Wayfarer now, which means he gets to speak for himself. Decide his own Path.

  With that out of the way, Renna finally sat down to meditate. The sight hearkened back to the fateful cave expedition that had started it all. Serac once again marveled at just what a difference two months could make!

  The lotus was the most resilient and versatile flower in all of Mount Meru. It now bloomed where a heavenly waterfall met a hellrisen conflagration. As soon as it did, Serac and the rest of her team squeezed together for the briefest meditation of their lives.

  After her duel with Hilde, Serac had [46,657 ?] of Karma to ingrain. She had no time to ponder her options, however, so she simply chucked them into two points of [Attunement].

  [Karmic Level 50-> 52]

  [Attunement: 18 -> 20]

  [Mana: 104 -> 114]

  [Burden: 35 -> 36]

  [ZEALOUS Mitigation: 17.6% -> 18.8%]

  [ERUDITE Mitigation: 17.6% -> 18.8%]

  After all four Wayfarers were fully healed, Renna gave a quick primer on the principles of [Elemental Flux].

  “I can make up to three pockets but can only move inside one of them. If I have to make a fourth, the oldest one pops. We already know the pockets can withstand the steam for some time, but Rathor’s direct attacks will be a different matter. If he disrupts the ripples enough, the affected pocket can and will be destroyed.”

  “What about your potions?” Zacko changed the topic, but to a very much relevant one. “There are nine in total, yeah? Any chance you might be able to divvy them up?”

  “I was getting to that. I’ve already changed OYSTER’s loadout according to what I think would be useful against Rathor. First, all three of us should have one each of [Courage] and [Immersion].”

  Renna handed Serac and Zacko a red and creamy-orange Pearl each, while keeping a pair for herself.

  “[Courage] heals HP and needs no explanation. Think of it as a second full Health bar. [Immersion], on the other hand, I strongly urge you to save it for if you get hit by [Tapana].”

  “That’s the one that causes the scary status effect, isn’t it?” Serac piped up, remembering well the various types of seafood that had been subjected to [Tapana]’s vicious barbecue.

  “Correct. [Hellfire] is nothing to be trifled with. It’s a DoT that ‘scales’ with GUNGNIR’s Base Attack Value. Hard to say what that means in exact numbers—especially now—but suffice to say, it’ll kill you within seconds if you let it.”

  “But one swig of this”—Zacko gave the creamy-orange vial of [Immersion] an appreciative shake—“will get rid of it in an instant. Jeez, aren’t we lucky to have a potion-master on our side!”

  “We’re also lucky that [Hellfire] works as a status effect, otherwise even I won’t have an answer for it,” Renna admitted sagely. “But that still leaves us with three more [Pearls]. I’d hoped for your input on how we might distribute them. [Strength]”—silver—“for buffing the size and damage potential of all attacks. [Endurance]”—green—“for granting ‘infinite Stamina’ for 30 seconds. And [Wisdom]”—blue—“for healing Mana.”

  “I’ll take [Wisdom]!” Serac put her hand up right away. “Some of my spells can spend [Satiety], but I’m super low at the minute. Might be useful to have extra Mana on hand as a substitute.”

  “And I’ll take [Endurance].” Zacko reached for the green vial. “I reckon it’d pair well with [Sinner Aspect]. If I time it right, I’d get to wail on the boss for all 15 seconds without having to take a breather.”

  “That leaves me with [Strength].” Renna stowed the silver vial back in her OYSTER. “Just as well, I think. I’m not sure the damage buff would make much of a difference, but extending the AOE of my DREDGER techniques could prove to be quite consequential.”

  A sensible discussion… were it not for once again leaving the most junior party member in the lurch. But then Petter met Serac-Zacko-Renna’s guilty looks with an impatient tsk!

  “I won’t say this again, Misses and Mister!” Petter shouted down any attempt at an apology. “You do your things, and just leave me to do mine. I know what I’ve signed up for.”

  That shut the trio right up. And with that out of the way, the quartet finally burst their way out of the safety of [Elemental Flux].

  [13!], [10!], [9!], …

  “Stay close behind me!” Renna urged the group as she dashed into the steam-storm, shovel-first. “I’m going to clear us a path… so we can pay proper respects to our royal host!”

  [Auxiliary Technique: ELEMENTAL SURGE]

  The storm briefly parted, giving Team Serac clear view of their enemy—and the runway to ‘greet’ him the only way they knew how.

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