On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Seventy-Nine

The first thing we noticed was that the Boundary was empty… it was devoid of any sort of being whatsoever. There were none of the usual drifting lesser spirits, nor any other creatures. The toilet block we had entered within was a bare skeleton of charred rubble, exposing the sky filled with dark auroras, and all the surrounding buildings were shattered shells too. The ambience was rather chilling. The second thing we noticed was…

“What the hell?” I looked down at the doll that was pressed against me. It was now covered in a disgusting black liquid, almost like tar. It was starting to scorch my wyrmscale mail where it was touching me, discolouring it with baleful sizzling sounds, an acrid steam rising. Shaeula let out a panicked cry, dropping it to the ground, shaking off the muck that was covering her.

“Ugh, so disgusting indeed-indeed.” She whimpered.

“Just what is going on here?” I asked as I summoned wind energy to try and blow away the black slime from the doll. “Everything seems dead. A city like this should be… well… not like this, right?”

Shaeula nodded, having scattered away the filth that covered her. She looked over back towards the antiques shop. “Something is there… something… terrible indeed-indeed.”

At her words the doll trembled. It didn’t seem to be alive, but it wasn’t exactly dead, either. Hang on a minute… “Isn’t this doll a Material item? So how is it here in the Boundary?”

Shaeula paused to consider as she continued to clear away the hideous ooze around us. “Hmm, I have heard tales of Fae who have been trapped inside cages of cold iron-iron, forever bound in place, helpless for eternity. My sister used to revel in telling me such tales, hoping to frighten me-me. Perhaps this is somehow similar?”

I’m not sure, it doesn’t feel quite the same… if anything it reminds me more of stories of Tsukumogami, items that become spirits with use and love… but even that seems off… “We don’t have time for this. The girls will miss us if we are gone for too long, and worse…” Our aether was being absorbed from us, the polluted air hampering our movements. This is the Territory of… something. Something bad.

The doll was shivering, making small but noticeable movements. As we approached the Boundary version of the antiques shop that we purchased it from the motions increased in intensity, until it was shaking fiercely, soiled hair swinging and joints rattling like chattering teeth. Shaeula was walking behind me, peering over my shoulder at the building, which was made from dark, corroded metal, oozing foul liquids, the space where the window was in the Material merely a dark, lightless archway. “Okay, are you sure we need this doll?” I asked. I was feeling intense pressure, and as we drew closer the oppression of the Territory was increasing. “Whatever is in there is definitely Raven Knight class, or worse...”

Shaeula looked troubled, glancing down at the doll that was once more in her arms. “I feel we do-do.” She sighed. “My winds of fortune are blowing around it, as if… as if they have found a kindred spirit-spirit.”

“… lp… ple…” “…I… hel… ase…” when she finished speaking faint, almost inaudible whispers were heard, coming from the store. Listening closely, holding our breaths we could finally hear it clearly. “Help me, please. I’m so scared… help me. It’s been… so long in the dark!”

“You heard that too, right?” I asked, and Shaeula nodded. Grimacing, my hands gripped the shaft of my spear, knuckles whitening from the force. “Shit, I don’t really want to go in there, but…”

“Indeed, I know. The voice… it sounded so terribly lonely, and full of endless pain-pain.” Shaeula looked down at the doll, amber eyes gleaming with compassion. “I would not leave such a being to suffer, could I but avoid it-it.”

“It’s decided then.” I affirmed. “Though let me make it clear I’ll not risk you over whatever is in there. I would like to save the doll if I could, but saving others means nothing if you lose those you care about. You mean more to me than a stranger I don’t know.”

Shaeula flushed pink. “Such smooth words indeed-indeed. Is this the way a male who has secured a fine female speaks? But I do understand. We must return to Eri and Aiko alive. We shall do only what we can do-do.”

The door was not functional, merely being a rusted, black-iron plate, welded shut and leaking black goo from the joints, so our only entrance was through the window-void. Swallowing audibly, I leapt through, Shaeula following, doll clutched in her arms. The darkness was almost tangible, feeling like we were crawling through sticky syrup, and then we were through, into the barely lit interior of the shop.

This… this looks bad. The interior was completely encased in roiling dark slime, pillars of it holding up the ooze-covered roof like it was a corrupted Greek temple. Constant spatters of acid were raining down, and even underfoot was a writhing black mass. Pain immediately began to sear my nerves as I sank ankle deep into the toxic mass.

Behind me Shaeula let out a cry and unleashed the wind, blowing away a clear circle to charred floorboards under her feet. The doll was moving now, waving its arms and flailing legs, mouth opening and closing.

“You… came. Save… save me please. I don’t want… to be in the darkness… any more. Save me or let me die!” the voice we had heard, (the voice of the doll?) was now clearer to us. It was a childlike timbre, either a young boy or a girl, yet the sound was somehow.. ethereal, as if it was not entirely there. Casting my gaze in the direction of the voice I saw a figure dangling from the ceiling, wrapped in tentacles of dark liquid, smoke constantly being emitted, foul smelling and sharp. As the bundle shifted I caught a glimpse of an eye, panicked and desperate as it gazed out across at us.

Red, huh? “I’m going to try and cut the doll-spirit free. You cover me.” I told Shaeula as I tore myself out from the acrid slime below. Around the room there were a few other items scattered about, such as a rather ornate looking dagger, half-buried in goo, and a mannequin wearing ceremonial vestments. Still, I can investigate those later.

Moving closer, careful to slice away the slime as I went, I reached the bound figure. Wrapping the fang spearhead in vibrating winds I lashed out, cutting some of the tentacles of ooze that were holding up the prisoner. It parted with a sizzling hiss, slime splattering everywhere, and the figure fell. I grabbed them as the mess holding them in place unravelled, only to find myself holding a young girl who matched the doll, except for her bright red eyes and the many hideous burns that covered most of her exposed skin.

“Are you all right?” I asked. The doll-like girl turned her head to gaze at me, eyes piercing, her long, dark hair trailing her like a shroud.

“Thank… you… but it won’t let you go… now that you are here. It will want to keep… you in the dark… forever.” The voice was hesitant at first, but as it spoke desperation set in. “It … likes to torment us. It feeds… off our pain…” the girl burst out in a mixture of crazed laughter and sobs. “Sorry, sorry, SORRY! I just wanted … to be… saved… but now, it’ll take you too!”

Shaeula had picked up the buried knife in one hand and was admiring it. At the mad, pained laughter from the girl she looked up, doll still weighing her down. Her eyes flared amber, and she opened her mouth to scream. “Akio, careful. It is in… the slime-slime!”

I was moving even before she shouted, having had a very bad feeling. Tentacles of foul jelly shot from the ceiling, piercing deeply into the ground where I was standing mere moments before. My spear was being swallowed up by the muck on the ground, as I had dropped it to catch the girl, and the situation was rapidly turning for the worse as creatures of slime, looking like featureless, overweight humans, were spawning from the coated floor.

“We don’t have to kill it. Let’s just go!” I shouted. I channelled aether, fighting against the owner of this Territory, barely managing to snatch my spear. Setting the girl over my shoulders, where she clutched me around the neck, still laughing madly, sparkling tears falling, soaking my shoulders, I spun for the exit, only to find it entirely blocked by a waving, writhing mass of tentacles.

Ugh, it’s hentai hell in here. Shaeula attacked with her wind-weasels, who had grown more terrifying now that she had mastered compressing, rotating, and vibrating, and gaps were ripped open in the squirming mass, but as she cleared them more spiked tendrils lashed down from the ceiling at her.

“I don’t think so. Hang on little girl!” I shouted, using wind to boost my jump, spear slicing through the attacks. As I landed the jelly humans rushed at me, and I engaged in a rapid exchange of blows, hacking them to pieces while my wyrmscale mail soaked up hit after hit, starting to fall apart.

Ugh, I only just fixed this. It’s good gear, but still doesn’t cut it against the tough opponents. The slime-men were slithering together and reforming, so this was a battle I was not going to win. Concentrating a chunk of the aether I had left I pushed hard against the drain and imagined fire. A blaze leapt from my hands, engulfing the slimes, but all it did was release noxious smoke, they came on regardless.

“Curse you disrespectful brutes-brutes!” Shaeula was yelling. She had used her Emerald Wind Prison, and the cutting edges were facing outwards, shredding the multiple tentacles that were diving towards her. One managed to pierce through without being completely destroyed, and she swung at it with the dagger she had found, which slashed through it with ease, a burst of bright light momentarily illuminating the darkness of the shop.

Racing towards her, I conjured my own wind attacks, thin strings of vibrating air spreading out in a net, dicing up the mass of foes and tendrils coming my way. Reaching the edge of her air barrier I could see the doll Shaeula was holding struggling to free itself from her grasp, arms reaching out to the hysterical girl on my back. Shaeula released it, and it started to stumble forwards, crossing the slick floor unsteadily. Opening the wind wall to allow it to pass Shaeula continued to fire off wind blades at the bulging ceiling, sending clumps of foul matter raining down.

“We… shall never see the … light of the sun… again. Oh, how I wanted… to have a home… once more!” the girl was wailing.

“Look, I don’t know what you’ve suffered in here, but it is too soon to give up now. We will escape here. I promise.”

The doll slid forwards, small legs pumping with audible cracking noises. It stretched out one faded hand towards the girl on my back, who through her sobs noticed it coming closer. Her red eyes dimmed, and she stretched out a timid hand, delicate fingers reaching for carved ones. They were mere moments from touching when suddenly…

The slime on the ceiling split, revealing a huge yellow eye, repulsive and reptilian. Shaeula let out a cry of warning and as I turned to gaze up at it, the girl on my back spun away from the doll, and a volley of tentacles speared out from beside it, slamming into me, scattering silvery blood everywhere.

The girl was flung off my back, towards Shaeula’s remaining wall of razor-sharp wind, while I fell, blood pooling from the many new injuries that suddenly afflicted me… as I hit the ground I could hear the despairing cries of Shaeula, and see the grin in the eye of the master of this prison of torment…