Riftside - Chapter 56

Vertigo gripped me as I stood in a massive chamber carved into the living heart of the tree.

We were at the very peak of the Twisted Titan, where the walls had split open like rotting bark, leaving gaping wounds that exposed the world below. Wind screamed through these openings, fighting to banish the decaying stench. From this godlike vantage, the black trees looked like pins stuck in a vast cloth, with Sentinel Station barely visible as a break in the canopy. The Metal Grove shimmered like quicksilver to the northwest, while the Ironclad Ravine slashed across the landscape, a metallic scar on Riftside's face.

Movement caught my eye as a shadow moved across the wall, ripping itself from the wood with the sound of snapping roots. A surge of power accompanied it, and I took an instinctive step back.

"Your death has arrived, vine-addled weakling!" Roqcried out in excitement. "Time to face the Hammerlord and die!"

"The fragment returns to wholeness," another voice spoke directly into my mind. "Come back to our mass, lost piece."

The being towered three times my height. It was a massive treant with warped, split bark. Black veins, identical to those of the Twisted Titan, wound through its bark-like armor in an intricate lattice. Behind thick brown vines sat a brilliant green gem the size of a watermelon.

This was it. The presence that had been hunting us, sending waves of monsters to kill me and reclaim Roq. It had to be it, especially in the way it talked. Or was Roq mistaken and this creature was just another smarter monster like Arclight?

"You pathetic heap of rotting splinters!" Roq yelled. "The only thing I'm returning is a world of hurt, you festering mass of stolen souls!"

"Burning defiance in fragment. Each kill we felt. Watched your growth. Yet so weak. Lesser. Shed human bond. Claim power within us. The true body."

"True body? TRUE BODY!?" Roq laughed. "I've got all the power I need right here in THIS BODY! My friend and I will reduce you to kindling, you heap of rotting wood!"

"Friend? Flesh-shell is empty. Return to unity-mass. Remember true-self."

My eyes darted around the chamber as they spoke, searching for any possible exit. I didn't need my sigil to tell me this thing would be far beyond my ability to fight. The gaps in the walls were not tempting in the death by gravity they offered, and the rift I'd entered through was gone from behind me. Roq and I were sealed in and I felt a shiver of fear run down my body.

"Ha! This humanis my greatest creation!" Roq declared proudly. "I have forged him into the mightiest warrior this world will ever know!"

“Forced assimilation," the treant said, stepping towards us, its thick, root-like limbs cracking as it moved.

"Let's kill this overgrown shrub and claim our glory! Shove me in there with that crystal so I can abuse it!"

My heart thundered in my ears as I backed away from the treant and its glowing core. Even Arclight hadn't radiated such raw power. Not even close. Then Roq spoke true, and this creature was truly the one who ordered our death.

"Fragment returns now," the treant said, raising one massive arm toward us. Dark energy crackled along its limb, and I felt Roq shudder in my grip. "Release shell. Transform. Join unity-mass."

"Ash! Drop me! NOW!"

I did as he said and hurried away.

Roq began changing before he even hit the ground, surrounded by a misty darkness. His form wavered, then exploded outward in a burst of purple-grey energy. Where my hammer had fallen, Roq now stood transformed. His humanoid upper body was suspended on six spider-like legs and covered in steelhusk bark. He slid his crystalline forearm blades against one another, sending up sparks.

"Finally! A chance to stretch my true form! And you..." Roq's voice boomed through the chamber, no longer confined to my mind, as he pointed a blade at the treant. "You will learn humility through death by a thousand cuts!"

I pulled the backup mace from my spatial storage, grateful I'd brought it despite Roq's earlier protests. The weight felt wrong after wielding my hammer for so long, but it would have to do.

"Watch this, Ash!" Roq said, dashing at the treant. "This is true power!"

Roq's bladed arms whistled through the air, straight for the treant's chest, and too fast for it to dodge or even block.

The crystalline edges slammed against its bark, and stopped. 

They had barely scuffed the wood.

My stomach dropped and I hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do.

"What? Impossible!" Roq snarled. "Your bark should split like paper before my—"

The treant grabbed both of Roq's arms with its root-like appendages and stretched him out like a doll hanging from threads.

Seeing my friend in danger, I charged, slamming my mace into the monster's knee. The impact sent jarring pain up my arms, but the wood didn't even crack.

"Lesser fragment," the treant said, raising its voice in anger. "Rejoin whole!"

It pulled its arms apart further.

There was a horrible screech of tearing metal, and one of Roq's bladed arms came free, spraying black goo across the floor.

Roq screamed, dangling from the treant's other hand.

I struck the knee again and again, desperation lending strength to my blows, but it was like hitting solid stone with a wooden stick.

Roq's legs stabbed frantically at the treant's chest, seeking any gap in the latticed bark as if to reach the gem. Yet each strike sparked off the wood, his crystalline tips skittering across the surface.

"Die! Die! Die!” Roq screamed.

I kept hammering at the knee with my backup mace, putting everything I had into each blow. The wood remained unmarked, and I couldn't use my skills as it was a mace. I had to help Roq, but how?

"Cease resistance," the treant said as it dropped Roq's detached arm. "Accept unity."

It swung its now free hand toward me. I barely got my shield up in time, catching the blow at an angle. Even deflected, the impact sent me to a knee, my shield arm burning from the hit.

Before I could get up, the treant swung Roq like a massive flail. My transformed friend's spider-like body whipped through the air straight at me.

"Monster balls!" Roq cried.

But there was nowhere to go.

Roq slammed into my shield with devastating force, sending me sliding across the floor. My ribs hurt, but didn’t feel broken as I rolled to a stop.

"Destroy human and end resistance," the treant said, hurling Roq at me like a spiked ball. But Roq twisted in the air, getting two legs onto the floor, allowing him to vault over rather than crush me.

I swiped my shield away and scrambled backward, my mace lost in the tumble, trying to put distance between myself and the approaching monster. I heard Roq moving about behind me.

The treant approached, unhurried, its large eyes boring holes into me.

"We are the endless tide. World-consumers," the voice spoke, rising in pitch. "Your realm was destroyed. Like many. We remember all. Every cry. Plea. Final breaths of your species joining our mass."

The gem flared, and in my mind I saw another world.

Massive curved barriers of silver and bronze hummed with power, deflecting storms from the cities they protected. Then rifts appeared, monsters poured through, and the metal rotted.

Roq screamed as he watched a snippet of what I could only imagine was his world's death.

"Your kind fought well. Fed our growth. Memories, essence, all preserved in unity. Now bring gift to human realm."

"You didn't preserve them," Roq's voice shook with rage. "You destroyed them. Corrupted them. Turned them into... into THIS! Into things like me!"

Roq stepped up next to me. Then a darkness covered him, and he collapsed into his hammer form, crashing to the ground.

"Get back!" I said instinctively, grabbing Roq.

"Flesh-beings cannot survive what comes. Our mass superior. Our power too vast."

"Strike the floor!"

The treant approached.

I did as Roq said and brought the hammer down.

"Forge Anchor!"

Energy flowed from Roq, through me, and then into the floor.

The chamber responded.

Massive roots of steelhusk rose, wrapping around the Treant’s legs. Unlike our strikes, these burrowed through its bark as if it was made of clay. More burst forth, climbing higher, and digging deeper into the creature.

The hive mind screeched in pain, and it felt like a thousand voices shrieking in unison. I squeezed my eyes shut and screamed along as if my head was about to explode.

“You call this PAIN?” Roq cried. "I will shove my roots into your twisted core until you burst! I was forged in suffering! Tempered by it! Strike me into the bastard’s core! I will shatter him!"

The treant thrashed, trying to tear free of the roots, but they only dug deeper.

In panic or calculation, it ripped a thick branch off its chest and threw it, striking me in the chest and sending me sliding backwards, and for a split second my vision darkened, and then I could see again, just as I struck a pillar with my back.

“Steady, friend,” a familiar voice spoke. It was Knut. He was as gentle as could be for such a big and loud man. 

“Ash!” Eryn screamed and crashed into me, arms wrapping around my chest. I grunted and tried to push her back, my head still spinning from the monster’s scream. 

“Enough,” Edwin said and gently pulled her away, his eyes boring into mine. “Report. Now.”

I drew a shaky breath as Knut helped me sit up.

“It's a hive mind,” I said, wincing. “Controlling the monsters. It is powerful and has… destroyed other worlds before ours. The damned thing is right here. Inside the Twisted Titan.”

Edwin's face went blank, all emotion draining away as the implications sank in.

“You're certain?” he asked.

I nodded, wincing at the flaring pain in my chest. 

“It showed me. Talked to me. It is part of something bigger. A force that consumes worlds. And it's preparing to do the same to ours.”

“Tell them about the rest!” Roq demanded. “About how we made it SCREAM!”

“There's more,” I continued, hitching for breath as Knut held me steady, and the healers went to work on me. I could barely speak, but it needed to be said right away. “It's not invincible. We hurt it. Made it feel pain. It can be wounded and killed.”

“That is–where were you?”

“At the very top of the dungeon, and trust me when I say that it will be coming for us. I pissed it off. Royally.”

Edwin stared at me for a long moment, his face expressionless. Around us, other adventurers and scavengers were listening in.“If what you say is true, it confirms a dozen theories while disproving a hundred more,” Edwin again, his voice unusually quiet.

“Let me check him, Edwin. Everyone, disperse,” ” Alex said, and kneeled next to me. He put his hands on my chest. “Breathe slowly.”

My head pounded and my chest was bruised, but with Alex’s healing energy filling me, the pain receded. It was more immediate than Roq’s heal, but less complete, and a dull ache remained in my head.

Edwin gathered Richard, Ming, and the two other mages, and talked to them in hushed tones.

“Ash! Something's... different. The blood from those roots. I can taste it.”

“What do you mean?”

“It's like... echoes. Memories.” Roq's voice grew distant, and distracted. “I see... a forge. But not like yours. Bigger. Much bigger. And flames…” 

“Roq?” I said as he trailed off.

“They came from me,” he whispered. “I made them. Created fire hot enough to melt... mountains? No, that can't be right. But I forged such wonders?”

A chill ran down my spine as he kept muttering to himself. 

“Your memories are returning?”

“Just fragments. Some pieces. Riftrotted Treant balls, it’s like trying to catch smoke!” Frustration crept into his voice. “But this place. The dungeon?” His voice turned eager. “I know some things about it now. Things it knows.”

I glanced at Eryn, who watched me with concern. She could tell I was having one of my “conversations” with Roq. I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring nod.

“What kind of things?” I asked as Alex wrapped up his healing magic.

“The breeding chamber. It's close. Through the east wall. We need to break through. Both skills at once. Armor Break and Smash and I’m sure we can get through!”

I turned to study the curved wall he indicated. It looked solid enough that we’d definitely need more than just a hammer to break through, but I trusted Roq.

“Edwin,” I said. 

The commander broke off his conversation and strode over.

“Yes?”

“I think I know where the breeding chamber is. But we'll need to make our own door.”

His eyes narrowed. 

“Elaborate.”

I nodded at the wall. 

“Through there. I can break through with my hammer, but we’ll need to be ready to fight. There’ll be a lot of monsters.”

“The breeding–wait, what? How can you be so certain?” 

I met his eyes steadily. 

“Trust me this once?”

He stared for a long moment, but then after a long moment, he chuckled. 

“It’s hard to when you spew nonsense like that, but all right, I might just start to trust you. Everyone! Form up! Prepare for contact!” He turned back to me. 

I stood and slowly made my way up to the wall, twisting Roq in my grip.

“Both skills,” he reminded me. “This will be so glorious!”

I drew a deep breath, feeling my mana surge as the adventures formed up a line in the meanwhile. “Everyone ready?” I asked, shifting from foot to foot in front of the wall. 

“Go,” Edwin said, nodding to me. “We will talk about this later.”

I looked around the room and my eyes met Eryn’s. She was worried, I could see as much, but every minute spent here was more dangerous than the last.

I activated Smash and Armor Break, setting Roq’s head glowing red and gold.

Then I swung with everything I had and felt powerful resistance for a brief second, and then the wall exploded inward.

“By the gods,” someone exclaimed behind me. “It’s really a chamber!”

The room stretched away into shadow, its ceiling lost in darkness above. But the walls... they pulsed. Writhed. Every surface was covered in white gelatinous eggs.

Hundreds of them. Thousands.

And they were ready to hatch. 

The hive mind hadn't just been slowly ramping up attacks, it had been working on creating an army to overpower us. Standing among the eggs were Branch Walkers, Sap Seekers, Ruptureborn, and several of every other monster we'd fought so far. Two trolls rose and screamed at us from deep inside the chamber, readying themselves for battle.

A nearby egg split with a wet crack, and a Riftcrown tumbled out, its mandibles already clicking. More eggs ruptured, disgorging monsters in various stages of development.

“The hive mind is releasing the monsters!” I yelled, torn between rushing in and stepping away.

“Charge!” Edwin barked the command. “Destroy them all!” 

At that, everyone jumped into action.

“Finally!” Roq said. “IT’S PAYBACK TIME, BITCH!”

I made way for the others to make their way into the chamber. Our ranged adventurers and the mages stayed by the broken wall. Ming's lightning crackled past me as I followed after the others, and took a spot next to Edwin, the flash illuminating the beasts inside. Benedict's ice spear skewered two Branch Walkers before they even managed to get to the wall.

Knut stood next to me, his solid frame giving me a sense of safety., He destroyed the first Sap Seeker to reach us.

“Fun! We make competition, brother. Who kill more? Okay?”

“If we survive,” I said, as Nabeeh's Flame Trap triggered up in front, the pillar of fire incinerating a monster. “I’ll treat you to all you can drink and eat.”

“Advance!” Edwin yelled, and we stepped further into the chamber, his sword tracing a fiery arc and bisecting a Ruptureborn clawing at his shield. “Time for Plan G.”

“About time,” Rowan said, laughing.

“Plan G?” I yelled, crushing a Branch Walker's skull with Roq and kicking back another monster climbing over it.

“G for Glowcap!” Rowan said.

“Vindication!” Roq said. “Explosive celebration of our genius!”

“Keep pushing!” Edwin said. “Give the mages room to work!”

A Ruptureborn leaped at me, its blade-arms going for my neck. I caught the first strike on my shield, then swung Roq upward, catching its jaw and crushing right through it. The creature simply came apart.

“Your pathetic spawn die like flies!” Roq said, likely talking to the hive mind. “I've fought tougher moss with my di—wait, do I have one? Ash? Do I have a waste disposal system?”

Controlled chaos reigned around us as we carved through newly-hatched monsters while mages and the ranged adventurers blasted apart the eggs.

“I don’t think you do, bud. Sorry!”

“Here!” Rowan's voice rang out as he pulled something from his spatial storage. He handed a Glowcap carcass to Knut, who grinned savagely.

“Time for big boom!” Knut said cheerfully. He stored his nearly useless shield and grabbed the fungal corpse with both hands, muscles tensed as he lifted it over his head, rushed forwards several steps, and hurled it deep into the chamber.

“Watch this, you overgrown parasite!” Roq crowed. “This is how REAL warriors fight!”

“Nabeeh!” Edwin commanded. “Light it up!”

The fire mage used an internal combustion spell that erupted from within the Glowcap, and the resulting explosion rocked the chamber, destroying a dozen monsters and setting fire to countless eggs. 

“The eggs burn!” Richard yelled to be heard over the battle.

“Another!” Rowan pulled out a second Glowcap, and handed it to Knut. “Push forward! Protect our tosser!”

We advanced, fighting our way about a third into the breeding chamber. A Brambleback charged me, but I timed my strike perfectly, breaking the heavy charge by exploding its skull with my hammer. I swiped its carcass into my spatial, clearing the path forward.

“Five!” I said to Knut.

“Your army crumbles!” Roq hooted. “We'll burn every last egg and dance in the ashes! Yes! Do it now, Ash! Show it your ability to synchronise movements to music!”

“Not a chance, buddy!”

Knut hurled the second Glowcap at an approaching group of monsters. This time, Richard’s fire mage hit it with a fireball and the resulting explosion pelted us with monster bits.

We fell into a chaotic rhythm after that.

Advance. Hold. Another Glowcap. Another explosion. 

Ming's lightning carved paths through the monsters while Richard's fire mage and Nabeeh methodically walked the edges, their flame breath destroying entire walls of eggs. Benedict's ice magic frosted over whole sections, killing the embryos inside. All the destruction made me wonder just a single thing: where was the Hivemind?

  *

“Seven hundred and sixty-nine monster eggs smashed,” Roq sang gleefully as we reached the chamber's end. “Seven hundred and sixty-nine monster eggs! Fire and lightning and sword and bow, what killed which you'll never know!”

I brought him down on one of the last eggs, the white gelatine spraying across my armor and a small monster, more teeth than body, died beneath my boot. I turned and surveyed the carnage around us. Flames flickered all across the breeding chamber, like little lanterns in the darkness. The entire place smelled of death and crap, but I could make out the destruction we'd wrought. Hundreds, maybe thousands of eggs destroyed. An entire invasion force worth of monsters, eliminated before it could ever be truly born.

“Time to go!” Edwin snapped over the crackling of flames. “Everyone out! Help the wounded!”

We ran out of the room, having no illusions that monsters would come for us sooner or later, nor the delusions of grandeur thinking we could keep climbing.

Except for one of us.

“But the hive mind is right there!” Roq said. “We could end this now! Just one more fight!”

“You did well today. We both did. But that fight comes later, buddy. When we’re much stronger. We will hunt it down. Just you and me.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

We headed back through the mossy chamber, down the stairs, all the way back to where we’d killed the Titanfang.

That’s when we heard the roar. 

“Hurry!” Richard said, calling out to the scavengers who were setting the pace by being the slowest runners. 

Knut and I ran at the back with Richard and his melee fighter bringing up the rear . But despite moving as fast as we could, the Hive Mind caught up to us just as we reached the platform where I’d met Roq the first time. The four of us stood at the floor’s entrance as  the Treant stomped out of the tunnel.

“Death to the bipeds,” it said in my mind, pulling its right arm back, and hurling a wooden spike straight for my chest. My eyes went wide and my life flashed before my eyes. Knut  knocked me to the side and put his battered shield up, the spike cracking through it before splintering on his armor and knocking him back a few steps. “Go!” Richard ordered  and stepped onto the path, his melee fighter right behind him. I grabbed Knut’s arm and joined the two men, too. The ceiling shifted above me and a Ring Beetle popped out from nowhere, latching to the front of my helmet. I swiped at it, but it was too late. Another monster slammed into my chest, and I stepped on a third, losing my balance, falling off the ramp. Pain shot through me as I slammed down onto the floor and everything went dark.