“Oh my god, what are you doing up here?! I thought you got out!” The oily girl said, one hand over her mouth.
Arcen's eyes darted towards the black ball on her right shoulder. It was wrapped in a nylon rope harness, sewn tightly into the thick black long coat that she was now wearing. The outfit change made her look quite different from the gymnastics bodysuit that he was used to seeing.
He knew she got this outfit from a corpse in the camp, but the details were messy in his mind around the time that he woke up after being revived with a contract.
As his eyes brushed over the black egg, her voice faded in his ears, the hum blaring from deep within like a disaster siren.
“∵∷∷∵:.???∵????∷∵∷∵∵??..”
Gold veins burst from the corners of his vision, weaving something new in his eyes.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ QUEST ╰︶
????
RETRIEVE ITEM
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DESCRIPTION ╰︶
????
RETURN THE BLACK EGG
OF THE MERONOLITH
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DURATION ╰︶
????
30 DAYS
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ CONDITIONS ╰︶
????
MUST BE UNHATCHED
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ STATUS ╰︶
????
DORMANT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ REWARDS ╰︶
????
SOMETHING OF EQUAL
VALUE, THREE OPTIONS
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ PENALTIES ╰︶
????
WHILE THE QUEST IS SET
TO [DORMANT], YOUR
DEATH WILL BE REPLACED
BY A DIFFERENT INDIVIDUAL
ROUGHLY YOUR EQUAL,
PICKED AT RANDOM.
??
AFTER THE QUEST IS SET
TO [PENDING], YOUR NEXT
DEATH WILL BE YOUR LAST
AND IT WILL BE QUEST
FAILURE.
??
IF YOU FAIL THIS QUEST,
AFTER YOUR NEXT DEATH,
[OSIRYN] WILL KEEP YOU IN
HIS GRAY SANDS FOREVER.
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
What is this—
Memories flooded his mind from nowhere and everywhere all at once. He had experienced these things firsthand.
He had died on the ground floor, opened his eyes to see the gray sands that sprawled endlessly in all directions. He could recall the face of God, the one named Osiryn that revived him personally because of the oily girl's expensive contract.
The memories crept through his brain like a worm eating an apple from the inside. Mangled sounds echoed in his ears, warping the incessant hum to voices. Gold veins weaved them in letters around his peripheral vision, words clashing and twisting into each other in a great circle.
╭────────────────────╮
W-what if I die before I see the egg again!
“This is not a problem. The gray sands will reject you for that duration, the quest remains dormant.”
What does that even mean!
“Death will reject you until this quest’s activation, which will only happen when you see the egg again.”
I can’t die for... a bunch of days?
“Yes. However, it is not without consequences. Death is a balanced equation. Someone else roughly your equal in value will spontaneously die in your place,”
“I hope you recognize the implications. Death will target the most suitable candidate based on proximity, a bubble that expands from you regardless of radius, until all suitable candidates are found. Death will strike one of them randomly.”
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
The hum slowly faded as the memories settled back in his mind. He felt sick; he'd died three times already. He'd been the reason three strangers dropped dead somewhere. The implications of this weighed heavily on him. He grabbed his ribs, trying to hold himself upright as if letting go would collapse him like a Jenga tower.
Trying to bury the guilt, he focused on what Osiryn of Life Death wanted him to do. It was unavoidable, written into his bones. The world itself willed it, and he had to deliver it, no matter what.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DESCRIPTION ╰︶
????
RETURN THE BLACK EGG
OF THE MERONOLITH
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ STATUS ╰︶
????
PENDING
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
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I have to do it!
He reached for the egg, stumbled forward, and slid off the oily girl, falling face-first into the ground. The memories had completely disoriented him.
“Hey? Are you like, drunk?” The oily girl asked, peering over him as she flipped him around. “...sir?” She asked with a puzzled smile.
Arcen didn't even know where to start.
“I just want to talk,” he said, and that was all he managed to say to her before dragging her by her oily hand to the corner he was sitting at earlier. She didn't fight him at all. She joined him there all on her own. To his surprise, she already knew Jelly. They got along right away like old friends.
“Haven't seen you in a while! How are you, my Jelly bean?” the oily girl asked, squishing Jelly's small cheeks with her slippery fingers.
“Elle!” Jelly raised her hands, grinning widely as she dashed all around the oily girl in a blurry blue mess. They were hugging and kissing each other in seconds. Jelly seemed to enjoy her company a lot more than she did Arcen's. The oily girl knew how to baby a baby.
Arcen watched them, smoking like a chimney. He was on his third cigarette, having vacuumed the second one into his lungs in a futile effort to force himself to calm down. His mind was racing faster than he could keep up.
“How do you know Jelly?” The oily girl asked as Jelly settled on her lap with her bottle of orange juice.
“I came here with Zuhara,” Arcen replied, rubbing his eyelids.
“Oh? I thought she wasn't going to-” She stopped herself. “Well, you know what, I'm very hungry right now. How about we eat, and then we can talk?”
“Jelly eato!” Jelly said happily.
“Yes, Jelly, we'll eato everything!” she looked at Arcen. “Can you say hi to Zuhara for me? I'll get us food. Tell her to come too!” She stood up, lifting Jelly into her arms. “Don't worry about Jelly. She knows me,” she said, brushing her nose on Jelly's forehead.
“Sure,” Arcen agreed. He wasn't hungry. He just needed time to think. “Just one more smoke,” he excused himself, sinking back into the chair as the oily girl joined the queue for the grill, talking nonsense with Jelly in a similar baby voice.
As they disappeared into the crowd, Arcen stared at the chamber ceiling. He tried to gather his thoughts that were scattering like mice out of a bag. He never had a plan for the oily girl. He didn't even expect to see her ever again.
Well, until a few hours ago, I wasn't even planning to climb up!
This changed everything, even without the strange quest and new memories. She definitely knew how to get through the shortcut. He didn't even need Isadora anymore. He could convince the oily girl to get him to the ground floor.
But that goddamn quest from Osiryn.
It threw a spanner in the works. He remembered exactly what he felt in the gray sands. He knew what death felt like and how utterly lonely it was. This tower, this hellish tower that he wanted to escape from, was way better than being dead in the gray sands. He was more scared of death than he ever thought possible. He had tried to kill himself eight times since Mayday. Now he shuddered to even imagine what would've happened if he succeeded once.
Gray sands and that all-dark.
That's all there is after you die?
Even hell would've been better than that. Hell would've been fun. Hell was something. Flames and demons and eternal torture were better than fading out like a switched-off light bulb. The fear of that nothingness made him dizzy.
Yet, that nothingness was mercy compared to what gray sands were. It was mind decoupled from body, no senses, no stimuli, no discernible passage of time. If Osiryn didn't show up, he would've spiraled into himself and lost himself entirely.
That was the fate that awaited him as the penalty for failing this quest.
There is no way I'm going back there!
He needed a plan to take the egg from the oily girl. The quest didn't tell him how to return the egg to the Meronolith. He didn't know where to find them. From what he could infer from their cryptic interaction, if Osiryn needed to tell him, he would've. He'd been given this quest in this form for a reason. Osiryn summoned Chronos just to confirm the details. There was likely a moment in time when Arcen would have his opportunity with the egg. The quest was merely a notification, a warning to do what Osiryn wanted him to do at that exact time.
He calmed his nerves. He couldn't panic and make an enemy out of the oily girl either. While he didn't especially owe her and didn't feel allied to her, she was a high-level climber, at least on par with Zuhara. If he was going to betray her, he had to know her. He had to know why she did what she did just to get her hands on that egg.
He had to wait for the right moment when she wouldn't be able to retaliate. She wasn't a problem that he could swipe aside with a Mirage Blade slash and a Ball Lightning. Keeping aside the fact that he would be killing a child, it wasn't possible to win against her. He remembered how she fought. He'd lost to her as the King. He wouldn't last five seconds in a fight like that as octopus-headed Arcen.
Wait for the moment. Keep my eyes peeled.
Arcen stood from the chair, tossing the cigarette away. The man who lit four of his cigarettes offered the lighter again. He politely excused himself and thanked the man as if he'd done him a lifelong favor. Then he hurried back to the doctor's tent, where Zuhara was. On his way, he saw the oily girl moving closer to the food counter in the queue.
The steak plates that other climbers were carrying away smelled super delicious, making his mouth water.
Oh, I am hungry.
There were no tables left, so the oily girl had taken their food to a quiet corner with soft grass. There was a mountain of meat. She had bought two plates just for him. It was all steaming hot on the polished wood planks they were served on. There were no utensils. Everyone around them was eating with pocket knives, daggers, or just fingers.
“It's been a while, El!” Zuhara smiled, grunting as she sat on the ground.
El? Who the fuck is El?
“What did Doc tell you this time? Is it going to get better?” The oily girl asked, keeping Jelly away from burning her hands on juicy meat.
“It's halfway there. But it hurts like a bitch. He gave me some worms this time. Zuhara pulled out what looked like a dead earthworm from her pocket. It had bead-like segments along its length and was wrapped around a little piece of wood. ”One segment per day. I really don't want to because I saw the jar he fished this shit out of. Eugh.“
Arcen quietly grabbed a piece of meat and blew on it, tossing it from one hand to the other. The plate was hot, grilled meat still sizzling in oil. Once he cooled his first bite down to an acceptable level, he found Jelly staring at him with her big eyes, drooling from her mouth. He sighed, giving her that piece right away.
”I got you two plates, because I know you want to eat a lot,“ The oily girl said, turning to talk with Arcen after talking about Zuhara's treatment.
”Thanks...“ He replied, rather quietly. This was awkward. They knew each other, but they weren't really a group of friends. It was two adults, one child, an alien toddler, and an alien egg. There was no icebreaker that he could think of. Despite forcing himself to be normal at every opportunity, he was never good at small talk with people.
“I've heard half the story, but how do you two know each other?” Zuhara asked curiously, saving the awkward pause in the conversation just in time.
“Oh, we,” The oily girl cleared her throat.
Arcen interrupted; he had a lot of things that he was itching to talk about all this time. ”We don't actually know each other. Like right now. I don't know who the hell this El is supposed to be,“ He said, shooting side glances at the oily girl. ”She had a fake name back then, Ivy. That's all I ever figured out.“
”Oh, come on now!“ She said, making a face. ”I was-“
”Go ahead, let's hear it.“ Arcen said, grinning mischievously as he grabbed another piece of meat to cool down. Zuhara was looking at him with a knowing grin on her face.
”Well, I'm sorry now! I'm Elena. Not many people know my name. You're welcome to the club. Please don't call me by it when we're around other people, alright?“ She extended her hand, careful not to lean over the food.
”Nice to meet you, El, you already know my full government name.“ He said, shaking her hand reluctantly. She was oilier than the piece of meat that he held in his other hand. “Is your oil safe to eat?” He asked, rubbing his hand on his pants. It had to be. She had been living just fine all this time.
”No problem!“ Elena grabbed a bite out of her plate, with her oily fingers, chewed it, and swallowed it.
Zuhara shot glances at them both, ripping the meat on her plate into smaller chunks. She didn't seem to care about the heat when it came to her fingers. ”I guess you two know each other because things happened on the ground floor, then?“ She asked curiously. ”Let me guess, too many things to tell, too long a story?“
”Yeah. A bunch of stuff happened down there.“ Elena nodded in agreement. ”It's all because of this thing.“ She patted her left shoulder where the black egg was.
Didn't think it would be that easy. She started talking about it all on her own.
”Oh? That's the black egg I've been hearing so much about. Strange. I didn't even care about it when I met you,“ Zuhara narrowed her eyes at it. ”I thought it was weird how Jelly kept calling it 'Kin'. She gave it a name right away.“
Jelly did fucking what?!
Arcen almost dropped the piece of meat that was halfway towards his mouth. He never really told Zuhara about the King. “Wait, Jelly can tell what's inside it?!”
Jelly was already sitting on his shoulder, still nibbling at the piece of meat that she got from him like a carnivorous squirrel. She perked up at the mention of her name. He caught a warning glance from Elena, but he ignored her. This was too big to ignore.
“What's Kin Jelly? Where's Kin! Kin!” He spoke sweetly, urging Jelly to show him. She looked at him, mouth stuffed with strings of meat. She gulped it all down in one slurp, dashed over to Elena's shoulder, and patted the black egg with her tiny hand. “Kin! Kin!” she said, smiling with her barbecue sauce-drenched lips.
“Well, I'll be damned! She can actually tell!” Arcen exclaimed as Jelly dashed back. He couldn't believe what Jelly just did. She had seen the king without having to wear an unpleasant fleshy helmet and a giant machine manufactured by a corporate lab.
“That’s no surprise, she's super good at sensing things,” Elena said, trying to conclude the topic. It was clear she didn't want to keep talking in detail about it.
“So there's a 'Kin' in that egg over there?” Zuhara asked nonchalantly, munching on a long strip of meat. “Mhhm...and I... heard that!” She sang, mocking Elena sassily.
”I'm sorry, Zuzu. It's not about you! I promise. I just don't like when people know about it.“ Elena said in a low voice. She sounded regretful that she had to say it.
”It's completely fine, El! I was just joking!“ Zuhara laughed. ”We all have our little secrets.“
We do? Thank fuck I also have one now... Or I would've been the odd one out.
”This is still weird for a kid, mind you!“ Zuhara said with a serious frown. ”I can never get behind kids like you climbing these towers all on their own, now you're saying you got secrets too.“
”Well, some of us don't have mommies and daddies to take us places we wanna go!“ Elena replied, mocking Zuhara back immediately. ”You wanna adopt me? You know I'm going to say yes right away.“
“Oh, hell no! Jelly's enough trouble for me!“ Zuhara raised her hands. ”I'll shut my mouth about that now. You won this one, young lady!“
”How about you, Sir?“ Elena raised an eyebrow at Arcen. ”Wanna adopt me?“ She asked, framing her face on her hands, blinking at him with puppy eyes.
”Sure, I'll consider when they start letting full muties adopt kids,“ He replied curtly. ”Some of us have a head full of tentacles and are considered too unstable for normal people stuff like that, you know.“
”Ah shit. I forgot! I'm sorry!“
”It's fine! I was joking too!“
They ate their meals in relative silence, watching Jelly trying to wrestle a piece of meat off a bone from Zuhara's plate. At one point, she just emptied the bits that she ripped for herself, leaving a large piece for Jelly. She climbed onto the plate and sat nibbling on it like a beaver that just found the most delicious tree. She was turning all the meat brown on her transparent parts, greedy for every bit of meat that she could eat.
Jelly was right. The meat was to die for. It tasted better than any steak that Arcen had ever had outside. It was soft and succulent, just purely delicious enough to climb another tower for. It tickled his taste buds just right, and he savored and chewed every piece.
”So, what are you going to do now, Mr. Arcen?“ Zuhara asked, rubbing her lips with a handful of paper napkins. ”Doc talked more with me in my session. That girl's going to take at least a week to wake up. It'll take more than a month if you want her to walk.“
”Eh? What girl are you guys talking about?“ Elena asked, frowning at them.
”Things happened on my floor, too, El. You want to hear the short version or the long version?“
”Wait. She doesn't know about-“ Arcen paused. He'd almost tripped on his own words. Zuhara had brought the conversation around to Nostrum. He felt the need to start the story before that. The part Elena never saw. The part where Wells shot him and Torga in the head.
That'd mean I have to tell her I keep coming back from the dead.
He had to think about what Elena could build with these crucial pieces of information. She was twelve, but she was a master manipulator and a mind hacker. She could still run circles around him if he let her. The quest had to remain a secret at all costs.
Zuhara was going to tell her about what happened with Isadora, no matter what he did. Trying to stop it now would only rouse more suspicion. He couldn't foresee a way for Elena to piece together what Osiryn wanted him to do with the black egg.
He emerged from his thoughts to find everyone looking at him expectantly. He'd frozen mid-conversation.
”Oh, I mean, we should start at the part where I got shot in the head.“
”W-wait. You what!?“ Elena shouted, her eyes wide.
”Oh, it happens again, too. Just listen to this," Zuhara said, gesturing at Arcen.
Carefully now, this is a goddamn tightrope!
40 chapters!
Elena name drop.
And we're back on track with the Osiryn quest.
King is nearby heh.
I didn't plan it out a lot while writing this but the cast that got assembled by this point is funny.
1 octopus + 1 woman + 1 child + 1 toddler + 1 fetus.
Next chapter on Monday.
Regular reminder to rate/review if you’re enjoying the ride!
Advance chapters on
