The Newt and Demon

Elrin led the way forward over the dead landscape. Theo watched, taking note of all the strange structures. It was as though someone had taken a real place and painted it in shades of gray atop ragged pieces of paper. The floor beneath their feet seemed thin, and the sections of vague buildings in the distance fell away and floated on the slight breeze like dislodged pieces of aged parchment. The monsters here were equally strange, although they had engaged none yet. Like the buildings, they were paper constructions, more shadows of real monsters than anything else.

“I never gave a name to these places,” Elrin said, ducking behind a paper wall and pressing his back against it. He edged forward as Trevor ranged ahead. “During the war, they appeared for me a few times. Filled with puzzles and corrupted monsters. I always thought they were the work of Kuzan. He had infiltrated the system to create chimeras. The first one I ever saw claimed to be a goblin dungeon. This looks oddly familiar to that.”

Theo followed closely behind, his danger sense tugging at his attention occasionally. This was the most chatty he had seen Elrin. Especially considering he was talking about the ‘before time’, a time notable for an endless war. That era was painful for all those people from the old version of Iaredin.

“Are these hard to clear?” Theo asked.

“At our level?” Elrin asked with a shrug. “No. They should be easy. As long as you remember we’re standing in a shadow world. A corrupted version of a real dungeon that could never exist. Strangely, this one had little information on the entrance message.”

Trevor surged forward, grabbing a giant spider-like paper monster by the leg and savaging it. A faint light glowed from within the creature, pulsing as though representing a heartbeat. The tiger went for that after tearing away layers of the paper, crunching it between his teeth like an ice cube. As the paper-like material fluttered to the ground, the alchemist grabbed a few pieces and stuffed them in his inventory.

“What?” Theo asked after getting a look from Elrin. “They’re alchemically reactive.”

“I never found a use back in my time,” Elrin said, moving between two structures once again. He continued once they were on the other side. “Then again, the system for ingredient collection was different.”

The strangest thing about the empty dungeon was that it was only stained with void energy, rather than soaked with it. Theo followed behind Elrin and the tiger. Trevor did all the work, shredding the weird monsters and crushing the cores in their chests. The alchemist paid attention, doing his best to understand how those cores worked. Monster Cores were the things that powered monsters. They were a combination of power sources and a set of instructions which drove monsters forward. The proto-souls of monsters were solid, caged things.

Elrin only truly opened up when he was interested in a topic, acting bored to anything other than curious topics.

“Kuzan worked on many hybrids in his time,” Elrin said, standing back as Trevor stalked forward. They seemed to be working their way to a larger structure shaped like a ruined tower. “Hydras were his favored chimera. He mixed them with everything, eventually creating a chimera that was almost unbeatable. The Goddess of Light blessed me, which made it easy to defeat him… That only pushed him to make stronger chimeras.”

“Got any pieces of the hydra tucked away?” Theo asked, laughing as Trevor took another creature to the ground.

“None. The blood eventually burned, and the skin boiled when they died,” Elrin said. “Which is why Vesta had such a hard time. Not as hard of a time as Boston, though.”

“Funny that you’ve been to Earth,” Theo said. “From what I understand, your war happened 250 years before I was even born.”

“The system really messed up time for everyone, didn’t she?” Elrin asked, cracking a faint smile. “Things got so messed up near the end. I’m glad we’re doing something about it.”

The pair fell into silence for a while. Theo watched as Elrin solved a puzzle he clearly knew the answer to. Within the tower there was a larger version of the cores the alchemist had seen within the paper monsters. The purpose of the puzzle was to find the correct floating core, bringing over a monster with the same colored light. The monster would soak into the giant glass core. A moment later, light spilled onto the floor and Elrin stepped in.

“Everyone needs to be inside,” he said, jerking his head to the side. “Come on.”

Theo stepped into the portal, feeling the magic under his feet swirl around him. The teleportation effect wasn’t like a dimensional transit. It differed completely from any form he had experienced so far. Instead of dipping into another pocket dimension, he was simply moved from one place to another instantly. Then they were standing on another part of the many floating islands.

After transitioning to the next island, Theo learned there were many islands with the same puzzle. He followed behind Elrin and his tiger, learning more about the unique dungeon space. Solving a puzzle meant the previous island would be destroyed. That would open another path, sending them forward toward a central island. When the alchemist asked if they could simply fly over the gaps between islands, Elrin informed him it was impossible.

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Good thing he knew what was going on.

Hours passed, but they eventually arrived on the central island. The shape of a massive tower loomed in the distance. The space between them and the tower was dotted with the monsters. Trevor was already picking a path, selecting which monsters to kill and which others to pull along forward. There must’ve been another puzzle to solve.

“Getting more reagents?” Elrin asked as Theo scooped down to pick up another piece of something.

“Yeah, I’m still not getting a system prompt, but I can feel the alchemical potential here,” Theo said. “Maybe we can find more dungeons like this.”

Elrin shrugged. “They’re mostly harmless if you know the trick. We always barred others from entry, though. The light puzzle is easy, but there are a few others that got our adventurers killed.”

“Such a weird place,” Theo said, gazing up at the massive tower before him. It looked as though it could collapse at any moment. The thin structure looked as though it couldn’t hold any weight. But it held firm.

“That’s where the boss is,” Elrin said. “Hope you’re ready for a fight.”

“Thought you were going to carry me through,” Theo said.

Elrin cracked a smile. “No. The one thing I know about these bosses is they adapt. I’ll get a few hits in before it changes, then you can do your alchemy thing.”

“My alchemy thing?” Theo asked. He didn’t know if he should be offended by that statement. “I’ve got spells, too.”

“Just be ready,” Elrin said, pressing forward.

Theo felt as though this was business as usual for Elrin. When he walked forward, he did so with focused determination. Before long they arrived at something like a gray gate, set into the thin walls of the tower. Two alcoves were waiting with different colored orbs. Of course, Trevor came along with the proper color monster a few moments later. The orbs sucked in the monsters, their cores flashing for only a moment before they were consumed.

The gate rumbled as though it actually had mass, grumbling upward as it fought against unseen rusted gears. Theo couldn’t see the mechanism that drove the gate upward, but he could hear it clearly. When the gate had finally lifted enough, he could see inside. The tower was hollow on the inside, the exterior wall being the only mass it had. Otherwise, an open circular area appeared, much like the arena the alchemist had created back on the mortal plane.

In the center of the arena was a large version of the spider-like paper monsters they had seen in other parts of the dungeon. It wandered, moving with weight that betrayed its appearance. Theo’s sense for danger tingled as he watched the monster move here and there, narrowing his eyes as he studied it. Elrin didn’t even wait to ensure the alchemist was ready. Instead, he charged forward, launching himself in the air with impossible speed. Trevor was there with him, darting across the open floor of the arena to snag one of the monster’s feet.

The sound of Elrin’s halberd rang through the arena as he assaulted the monster’s glittering core. Theo felt the ground rumble, a shockwave of force radiating outward. He shielded his eyes as flecks of paper peppered his face. As fierce as the first salvo was, it wasn’t enough to bring the creature down. It went from a docile thing to a beast on edge, coiling and striking out with many limbs. Elrin could barely fend off the rapid attacks, sent on the back foot by a flurry of bladed strikes.

“Am I supposed to do anything?” Theo asked, shaking his head. Elrin ducked to one side, narrowly avoiding a strike. That’s when the alchemist latched onto the sense of danger, holding on and pulling forth the time-slowing effect. Through some instinct drilled into him by Tresk, a dagger infused with Dragon’s Dance came forth from his inventory. He whipped it forward, expecting to turn the boss monster into pulped paper.

Blades of light appeared in the air, slicing sections of the monster away. But each strike only glanced against the monster’s shell, never penetrating deep enough to strike the core. But the attack was enough to send it off-balance. It reeled, giving Elrin enough of a chance to lash out with his halberd.

Theo found himself in an awkward role during the fight. His old Toru’aun enchantments were effective only at stunning the monster for a moment. Everything else he could think of—such as poison—didn’t affect the weird boss. He even tossed a few fireballs at it, assuming the creature would be weak to fire damage. But it wasn’t. The monsters here weren’t made of actual paper.

“The phase is close to changing,” Elrin shouted back, pulling slick blood from his eyes and narrowing his gaze at the boss. “Be ready.”

Theo almost shouted out in frustration, demanding to know what he should expect. But he could sense what Elrin would shoot back.

Anything.

Rearing up on too many limbs, the monster came down on Trevor with another attack. By the time Theo reacted, Elrin had already used an ability to recall his tiger, substituting it for another that looked like a lizard that ran on two legs. It zipped around the area, shooting an acidic material and making a high-pitched squeak the whole time. From his support position in the rear, Theo watched with a puzzled look, blinking away the haze as he tried to keep up with the lizard.

But Elrin was at the monster’s side, striking at sections weakened by the acid. Theo watched as he chipped away each layer, revealing more of the core. Each strike brought more of the glassy object to the surface. Cracks appeared in the side, spreading like a spider’s web across the core.

“Multiple monsters,” Elrin grunted, reeling back with his halberd and driving the tip forward. “I can feel the next phase.”

The wicked tip of the halberd connected with the surface of the core, splitting it in two. Releasing a mournful sound, the monster fell back with thundering steps. The insides glowed, radiating through the thin shell until the entire arena was bathed in a pale purple light. Then the monster was gone; vanished in an instant. But Elrin didn’t allow his posture to slacken, he stood with his weapon ready as he scanned the area.

Theo heard chittering footsteps coming from the arena’s edge, just through the gloom. His danger sense resolved into slow-motion vision before he even saw the creatures. Hundreds of them. Smaller versions of the larger monster stepped foot into the light, and there was only one thing that came to mind.