Chapter 47

“For any commander there comes a point where you can recognize one of your soldiers is breaking. For some it comes early, in the first morning after they’ve spilled blood for the first time. For others, it will be years or decades into their service that the weight of their actions catches up to them. The role of the commander is always to walk those under their command back from the brink. To never apply pressure where it is undue. There will be many who tell you that a life of service is one of endless demands and challenges, but proper management of the psyche of your troops is just as valuable as maintaining their physical fighting condition.”

—Squad Tactics, Fal’Vaelith

On transiting through the gate, Sylvas quickly spun to get a full view of the space. 

There was another Hyperway Gate that held the other half of the portal leading back to the surface, and the chamber was overall similar to the one that he’d just departed. The only real surprise was considerably more of Strife’s red sand than he would have otherwise anticipated in the area, forcing him to watch his step. 

I suppose that means that the portal was still open when all the sand came pouring in, he thought while finishing his inspection, finding little else of note. At least visually that was. For his other senses were still struggling to make sense of everything that he had just walked into.

Of them all, the first and most notable thing he noticed was that the gravity was substantially more intense than compared to the surface, something that his recent education in astrophysics told him was wrong. It should have been the opposite, the gravity becoming weaker, and eventually even approaching near zero, when one reached the core of a planet. 

Which is likely the case in planets where the worldsoul hasn’t been sundered, Mira theorized. Perhaps the splintering of the shard you destroyed caused an imbalance that has yet to equalize, assuming it ever can.

It was a good a theory as any Sylvas supposed, and truth be told if he had to deal with greater or lesser gravity, he would take the greater amount, if only so he’d have an even greater advantage compared to others when it came to manipulate it. But the gravity wasn’t the only factor to deal with at the planet’s core, there was the heat as well, which would have become quickly unbearable without his Runeweave embodiment to help cool him. 

It wasn’t just that the temperature was high either, rather the air pressure itself was so great that the heat was amplified, like he had just jumped into a pressure cooker. His hair flattened itself against his head, almost instantly soaked through, leaving him wondering if he should tell the researchers not to follow them without substantially more protective gear. 

Or…you could make them sweat and earn their keep for the first time on this trip, Mira suggested in her typical offbeat fashion.

Mentally shrugging at his other half’s thoughts, Sylvas focused on the others with him, seeing Gharia and Kaya at the tip of their vanguard, with Havran, Luna and Orson a step behind him. The heat and the pressure seemed to have had no effect on the najash whatsoever. In fact, she seemed to have brightened up a little in the warmth. However the same could not be said for the dwarf or the humans. 

Sylvas could hear a steady stream of untranslatable expletives in dwarvish from Kaya, while Luna’s hair instantly matched his own, drooping immediately on contact with the air and plastering itself against her already sweat-soaked face. With his physical enhancements, Orson seemed to hold up a little better, but even he was turning red pretty swiftly. Havran’s response to the heat was reduced with his intermittent corporeality, but even he looked beleaguered after just a few steps.

“Out of the mold and into the furnace.” Ironeyes complained from behind as he stepped through the portal. 

“It is a little warm.” Sylvas agreed, deciding things were safe enough that silence wasn’t necessary. “Shame we didn’t bring Bortan along to ice us down as we go.”

“Hindsight,” came the grunt back from the dwarf, leaving Sylvas to glance over towards Vaelith beside him, curious as to how she was faring in the dramatically different environment. But as he turned to look at her, he found himself suddenly disappointed, for the woman didn’t even show a slight bead of sweat upon her body, let alone any other hint that the temperature had affected her.

“Let’s get moving.” She ordered without any preamble as everyone else including the remainder of Sylvas’ detail filed through the portal behind him. “Vail, be vocal as we do. If you sense anything, speak up about it.”

“Right, can do,” he quickly answered back, happy that at least some of his abilities were finally being put to use, letting his senses expand out as they started to move. The solid stone that surrounded them was like an ant-farm, riddled with tunnels, dense, interlinking and spreading out in every direction. The pyramid had been easy to map with all of its simple, predictable geometry but this was another matter entirely. 

I think we need to try something new. He told Mira while sending a quick mental summary of what he wanted to do.

A second later, his orbitals buzzed out from his satchel and flew into the distance ahead of them. Using himself as the central beacon, they vanished into the adjoining tunnels, pulsing with gravity as they went which in turn fed back to him all of the details that his gravity sense could provide. 

Which of course included the overwhelming presence of Eidolons.

Ugh, wow, that’s… a lot, he said to Mira, mentally wincing at the sheer intensity of the feeling rushing through him. It was so great that he immediately shifted his focus down to his sigil covered arm, quickly spotting the beginnings of Etherium starting to grow upon them. It wasn’t enough for him to actively feel yet, but given what he had sensed, he knew that would change quickly.

“There are Eidolons down here,” he announced to everyone, his words prompting everyone to stop and look at him. Sylvas turned to look at Vaelith as he continued speaking. “I can’t tell if it’s one big one, or a ton of smaller ones, but they’re down here. That said, they’re not moving.”

“Yet.” Came the curt reply from the woman as she paused for a second, very clearly debating their next course of action. But not for long. “We’ll continue for now. Tell us if the situation changes.”

Without another word from anyone, then they resumed their journey, albeit with a tangible amount more caution as they descended deeper down the tunnels, which would have been an absolute nightmare to navigate through if it wasn’t for Sylvas. With his orbitals weaving out and finding all of the dead ends they contained, it was surprisingly easy for the group to advance. Granted, they were all tensed for combat the entire time, and suffering in the sweltering heat, but they made great progress towards what Sylvas hoped was the worldsoul. As they went, they left footprints in the red sand that covered the ground. The first people to have walked down here since the world’s end.

They followed their chosen tunnel down in what proved to be a slow spiral towards the worldsoul, it wasn’t built with the arches and decor as all the strife natives usually preferred but was a simple circle. Almost as if a worm had dug it in ages past.

“I don’t like this.” Kaya complained at one point to nobody in particular. “I don’t like any of this.”

Bael still lingered towards the rear of the pack, but seemed as combat ready as all the rest of them. “Madam, I’m forced to ask if there is anything that you do like?”

“Booze. Sex. Fighting.” She counted them off on her fingers. “But walking through here. Walking through this. It doesn’t feel right.”

There was a general chorus of agreement at that statement, even from the security detail, but no one offered up anything else, and conversation soon died out again, leaving them walking once more in the hot and heavy silence. 

That is until they finally found the worldsoul.

Ending as they came around the final curve of their tunnel’s spiral, the passage opened out into a chamber as vast as the one they’d made camp in within the pyramid. At its heart, the worldsoul hung in the air. The nexus of all magical energies on the planet. Drawing mana in from across the cosmos. 

It shone so bright that Sylvas had to immediately dim his senses or risk being rendered blind and dumb from its intensity. From the books he’d read, it should have taken the form of a perfect ellipsoid, but this one looked battered and haggard, with chunks chipped out of its smooth lines until it was more like a chunk of rough-hewn crystal. 

No doubt the parts where they carved off the shards powering the citadels in orbit, Sylvas surmised, the thought crossing his mind a split second before it was completely rendered blank with shock and terror. For as they all entered into the room, and thus were able to see its entirety more clearly, they spotted the other entity within it.

For towering over all of them, almost as tall as the soul of the planet itself, stood an eidolon.

It was the first of its kind that Sylvas had ever seen, unique even among the infinite diversity of eidolons that he’d come across in both his experience and reading. First and foremost it was made entirely of blood as almost all of the otherworldly creatures found on Strife were. But that simple shared origin was about all the similarity the being before them had with the twisted, nightmarish monsters the planet bore. In fact, it couldn’t have been more different, its shape invoking a familiar presence within Sylvas’ mind.

A wolf. He stated numbly to Mira, who by some luck was rendered mute. That eidolon…is a wolf.

It wasn’t an exactly perfect match, at least to what Sylvas remembered of his home planet, but even so there was no mistaking that it its shape was akin to some great canine beast. A particularly ferocious one given that every strand of fur and hair upon its body was actually being a tiny rivulet of red running away from its central form. 

The eidolon stood a short distance away from the worldsoul on four powerfully looking legs, each one ending in viciously hooked claws that were exactly the same startling crimson as its body. Adding to its presence were a set of jaws elongated far past the point of usefulness and filled with a jagged thicket of teeth. Firey red eyes burned upon the creatures form, three of them arrayed in a row along its face and supposedly mirrored on the side Sylvas could not see. Of them all, the central one the largest and perhaps the most natural looking, the other two appearing as if they were fading into the blood of its body. 

All in all, it was a terrifying sight beyond comprehension, one that stirred and twisted Sylvas’ heart with more fear that he had ever experienced until that moment. Simply by looking upon the creature he knew it to be certain death. He knew it the same way he knew what colors were, or which direction was down. It was instinctual. Wired into some primal part of his brain. Almost against his will, he took a step back the moment he laid eyes on it.

More than that, Sylvas called on his magic as he took that step. Surprise or fear might have driven him back, but the purpose of all the training that he’d received so far was to overcome those things, to drive him into motion, into action. He readied a gravity spike, raised his hands and—

Wait! Mira abruptly shouted in his mind. Wait you idiots, just wait a moment!

Instinct told him to attack while he had the chance, while he still had surprise. He could feel the power of the eidolon even from here, even without his new ability. It was as powerful as any he’d faced before. As powerful as the Crimson King. If he didn’t strike now, he didn’t know that there would be another chance. Nor was he the only one, all the others were readying their spells and weapons, preparing to do what needed to be done. 

But this very moment was one of the reasons why he had created Mira in the first place. As a way to temper his first instinct, to hone it to such a razors edge that it ensured his survival. That meant, he needed to trust it. To trust her.

“Wait!” He repeated her command, bellowing it loud enough that everyone around him was startled out their casting, or were delayed long enough for Mira to shove what she had noticed directly into Sylvas’ mind. “It’s not moving! Nothing of it is moving!”

That’s what Mira had noticed, simplified into as few words as possible to stop everyone from making a mistake that they would all regret. The eidolon was not moving. In fact, no piece of it was. No waver in its body as it stood. No tremble in its maw as it tasted the air. No movement even in its blood hewn fur. It was as though the monster before them had been frozen in time.

Time? Sylvas queried as he finished devouring the dump of knowledge Mira had thrown at him, realization coming a moment later. Time! It’s the same spell-forms that we saw in the crests, but on a grander scale! Time has been brought to a halt for this eidolon! This is how it was stopped! This is how the people of strife saved their world! 

Sylvas spluttered as he scrambled to find his words before the delay his warning bought expired. “It’s in stasis! If we hit it with anything, it’ll break the spellform and release it! Then…then it’ll go back to destroying the planet!”

Silence greeted Sylvas ears as everyone processed his words, the near unbearable pause lasting right until a curse from Vaelith broke it.

“It’s a planetary annihilator.” She announced as the script of a scrying spell filled the air before her, with her proximity to Sylvas being just close enough for him catch parts of it. “An upper class one at that too.”

The others, who had relaxed for a fraction of a second when they realized that the monster wasn’t going to be bounding over to attack them, bristled again as she spoke. Kaya and Bael looked askance at each other, then at Sylvas, with the dwarf finally voicing what all of them were thinking. “Can we take it?”

It was another question that was met by silence from everyone until Kalisdrothan stepped out from amid the other researchers accompanying them and spoke out in an awed voice. “By the grace of those who came before us, it does not appear we need to. The spell that has held it throughout the passing millennia still stands strong, likely drawing power from the worldsoul itself. So long as we do not interfere with it, we should be safe. Truly, I…I must praise your observation skills once more, Mr Vail. Without your intervention there, we likely would have faced quite the crisis.”

Sylvas let out an unsteady breath as the moment of anxiety passed. “We still might, if we aren’t careful.”

“We need to report this finding back to Command as soon as possible.” Vaelith stated, nodding along with Sylvas’ words. “I’ve no doubt they’ll want to call in a brigade as soon as possible to monitor this…thing.”

Bael and his cousin were the ones to exchange meaningful glances this time with Kalisdrothan quickly moving forward, panic evident on his face. “Please, instructor, let us not be too hasty. A brigade of soldiers, however warranted in any other situation as this would—”

“Above my pay grade,” Vaelith interrupted curtly, wasting no time in cutting to the heart of the professor’s concerns. “Take it up with the brass, my job here is to keep Vail, and if I can manage it, this planet safe. That thing right there, stasis or not, is the furthest thing from safe right now Professor.”

Unfortunately that didn’t seem to help the elf’s rapidly growing anxiety who had brought his hands up before him as if to ward away Vaelith’s words. “But if we request the intervention of the Ardent in this matter, it will put our explorations here to an end. Whatever historical value hidden in this site will then also almost inevitably be lost as more people arrive on site. It will make all of our efforts for naught.”

“And what do you exactly propose otherwise? For us to let you carry on as if there isn’t an eidolon here capable of wiping out all life on this planet?”

“Is it, though?” Kalis took a somewhat nervous step closer. “At present, I’d say it is incapable of doing much of anything at all. One might even say it is the single safest eidolon that has ever been encountered. And in all honesty, even if it weren’t going to interfere with our expedition, I’m not sure moving an entire brigade in is the wisest choice either.”

“And why is that, professor?” Vaelith replied in a tone that Sylvas knew all too well, it meant that the man only a few more words remaining before she truly lost her patience with him.

“Because how often does one come upon an eidolon, a planetary annihilator no less, that is this safe to study? You yourself were able to scry it without problem! Think of the value of more detailed probing and research could bring with more fine-tuned divination! Think of all that we might learn about this class of beast that we have never had an opportunity to do so before now!” Kalisdrothan was laying it on a little thick in Sylvas’ mind by the end of his speech, but his argument was one that prompted Vaelith to scowl back at him when he finally finished, a sign that she couldn’t entirely refute his logic.

“Like I told you earlier, take it to the brass,” she told him before gesturing for him to step aside and barking out orders. “Containment protocol people. Now that we’re here, we don’t leave the creature alone, not for a moment. I want it under watch at all times. The first time anyone sees something strange, we are out of here.”

“We will aid in watching the creature as well,” Kalis quickly added, clearly not wanting to lose whatever authority he still had over the expedition. “And I’ll be calling on volunteers to establish a forward camp here in this chamber. We should be able to assemble better accommodations to weather this environment once our supplies are brought down.”

“Do what you have to professor, until then the Ardent and I will be staying here.” Vaelith announced, her head shifting towards Sylvas. “Vail, that means you’re staying put here too. If that thing moves, we will be the first line of defense.”

It was a statement that surprised Sylvas, who whole heartedly had expected to be physically removed from the place as quickly as possible. “I’m what?”

“You are staying here until we get orders otherwise.” Vaelith repeated. “Right now your safety is paramount, but ensuring that while the planet is under threat is…difficult. Because if the planet dies—”

“Then chances are I, and everyone else, won’t be far behind it,” Sylvas finished, suddenly understanding the instructor’s concern. If the worst happened and the beast broke free, then even being in orbit wasn’t a guaranteed chance of his survival. Not with a creature this powerful who could potentially make the transition to become a system-wide threat after gorging on a worldsoul. “At least here I’ll have a fighting chance.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Vaelith stated, her eyes briefly dropping down towards Sylvas’s arm before jumping back up to his.

“I’ll be ready,” he said simply, catching onto the unsaid words that the woman no doubt had on her mind, earning a barely perceptible nod in response before she turned away to speak with one of the members of his security team.

Well it seems like this trip has landed us in the fire again, Mira said to him as everyone immediately busied themselves with their duties, leaving him standing at loose ends. It might be a good time for us to start thinking about your newest embodiment while we still have a chance.