Chapter 290: What does the scouter say... (Patreon)

Gravity loses its grip on us as we’re pulled into the icy grip of the Warptunnel. Because it is, in fact, a short tunnel, as Suri explained it.

While Inverse Spatial Energy is capable of connecting two distant points in space together, it does so by bridging the gap between them with a short, sub-dimensional bridge.

As it happens, this particular bridge has a bit of a bend in it, leading to a hole...

An instant later, Alec and I come out of what looks like a tear in space that hangs in mid-Aether, and not in the Yin-Yang Temple, but in a different, familiar location.

We’re in a massive cavern, dominated by an imposing stone pillar, that rises from the bottom of the lake all the way to the roof of the cavern.

Above us, a mighty flow of Hydrum emerges from an enormous, carved-stone head with bulging cheeks, and proceeds to get caught in the gravity field of the pillar, from where it spirals all the way down.

The only thing that throws me off for a split second, is that the head spewing the Hydrum is that of a Hoig, and not a plessie like I remember. However, even that isn’t too strange, as there were six parallel paths between Hub Two and Three; this must simply be a different one from the one we took.

Having expected this exit point, I take it all in a flash, before whipping up a field of Spatial Energy to keep us afloat, and honing in on our main target: Yog.

We arrive just in time to hear the tail-end of his stern question, “—the meaning of this?”

Dave appears to be floating comfortably in a field of Gravitational Energy of Yog’s make, his attention focused on the cyan crystal decorating the head of a slender, white-skinned Hoig.

While Suri doesn’t visibly react to our arrival, she drops her complex construction of Spatial Energy, and the tear behind me quietly disappears, leaving behind no trace that it ever existed.

“Oops,” Suri chimes dryly. “My bad.”

For a moment, Yog appears to be stunned speechless. “That’s what you have to say for yourself? You really expect me to believe this was an accident?”

Before he can follow that argument to its logical conclusion, I make my opening move.

If all went according to plan, Suri should have already wiped out the Espir constructs in the various monitoring crystals in the walls, so no one but us witnesses the moment tendrils of Devouring Energy emerge from my deep-purple crystal, and snap over to Yog’s pearlescent one.

My tendrils latch on to his spiritform, finding proper purchase, but it’s harder than I expected. In fact, judging by the density of his Espir, his Espir Pool...

It’s over 9000!

Even while I channel my Devouring Flames at him, I know it’s not going to be enough to rip him loose, and indeed, his resistance proves too great.

Heck, if he’s this strong, I probably won’t be able to bind him with Commands at all, which means we’ll have to resort to Plan B: drawing him straight into the Realm of Imagination.

Well, there’s a reason we picked a secluded spot roughly in the centre between the two Hubs. No matter how sensitive Peilor are to energies, over this long a distance, none of the staff or party guests should be able to sense what’s going on here.

We just need to keep him here until we can take him down, in a four-on-one battle.

How hard can it be?

“Well now, what’s this?” Yog chimes, his voice coming out only a little terse. “An ambush? Hah! How nostalgic...”

A dervish of conjured pure-white blades appear around him, and start slicing through my tendrils, in an attempt to cut him loose.

“If you wanted to dance... You should’ve just asked!” he chimes, as Inverse Gravitational Energy—the kind that pushes rather than pulls—starts to gather around him.

Drat. This is going to be even harder than we thought...

There’s a reason we didn’t even attempt to capture Yog in a dimensional pocket, and it’s not just that Suri had her hands full with hijacking the Warptunnel already. Yog is one of the foremost Gravity Manipulation experts. It’s no wonder, really, that he managed to teach Avalan so well, though I still have to wonder if there was any cheating involved there...

“Sorry Yog,” Suri chimes coolly. “We’re not much in the mood for dancing; we’re on the job.”

And with that, she unleashes a field of Spatial Energy around him, weakening and suppressing his gravity.

Meanwhile, I’m working hard to whip new tendrils through gaps between his blades, and reinforce the ones I’ve still got attached with Mental Fortitude.

“Oh, professionals, are you?” Yog chimes. “And who dared to order this job, exactly? No, wait, don’t tell me, it’s more fun if I figure it out myself!”

“Come now, don’t tell me you don’t know who I work for, Yog,” Sudo chimes in reply, as she sends Jacob flying forward with a burst of Kinetic Energy, in an attempt to grapple Dave.

Gravity shifts, and Dave and Jacob neatly swerve around each other, never quite close enough to touch.

“You expect me to believe this amateur attempt at my life was sanctioned by Mara?” Yog chimes scornfully. “Please be reasonable.”

“It’s not an attempt at your life, though,” Kaitlynn chimes in Lyrack’s voice, as she mixes in her own, regular Gravitational Energy to weaken the pushing force his produces. “We’ve been instructed to covertly check your Core for outside influences, through force if necessary. Please feel free to cooperate and cease resisting.”

This is the official narrative we decided on for the mission. Once again, it is paramount that Yog doesn’t figure out who we actually are and what we’re actually after, as he currently holds Dave’s life in his hands. While we don’t expect him to actually roll over and allow me to ‘check’ his Core, we hope to sow at least some doubt with him that this might be an officially sanctioned mission, and that his life isn’t in true danger.

I still need to weaken him, however, so I hit him with a burst of Devouring Flames, burning away some of his blades to give my tendrils some breathing room.

Once again, I feel a strange resistance from the Realm itself as Yog attempts to curve my flames around him using his gravity field, and once again I push through it, scoring a direct hit.

“That’s absurd, you don’t have the authority!” he chimes, his voice growing a little terse and annoyed. “They’d send someone else if that were the case.”

“Sir, I implore you to allow my associate to do his job,” Sudo chimes, walking a fine balance between polite and threatening with her tone as Jacob lands on the stone pillar and prepares to kick off. “You’re only making things worse for yourself by continuing to resist; don’t force us to apply extreme measures.”

“Extreme measures?” he sneers. “It’s cute that you think the four of you are enough to keep me here. Real cute.”

“Suit yourself,” Sudo chimes, right before Jacob launches himself into the fray once more.

As they approach Dave, however, without warning, several of Yog’s conjured blades take a break from hacking at my tendrils to curve off and strike... at Jacob.

My heart clenches as the blades approach him, fast as lightning.

However, rather than passing through Jacob and grievously wounding or even destroying his spiritform, the blades are brushed aside by his charge.

Using spiritual attacks against another Peilor’s host is a dirty, dirty tactic, never to be mentioned in polite conversation. Thankfully, Suri warned us about it, and we took precautions.

Excellent ones, even. Prior to this mission, Suri used the Blank Space technique, to bring the spirits of each of our hosts on a little trip to the Realm of Imagination, one by one, where Goddess conjured protective shields around their spirits.

Seeing as the shields are conjurations, they of course won’t last forever. They’re not as strong as she could make them either—as that would have made them stand out like shining beacons to the energy-sensitive Peilor—but considering the density of her Espir, they should be able to withstand several full-power blows from Yog each.

Yog grunts in annoyance, but once again swerves Dave around Jacob in a smooth motion.

However, the rest of us aren’t sitting still either.

After Yog’s move just now, the gloves are off. With the pressure from his pure-white blades lessened I double down on ensnaring and draining his Spiritform. At the same time, arcs of Electric Energy come flying at him from both sides, as Longlegs and Alec let loose simultaneously, the attack followed by a volley of Astreum bombs from Kaitlynn.

We don’t actually want to hurt Dave, of course, but under the circumstances, we certainly wouldn‘t mind seeing him weakened and distracted.

However, a red glow comes from Dave’s mouth as he roars, sending forth waves of Vibrations that visibly distort the Aether and severely weaken the incoming Electric Energy. At the same time, focused pulses of Gravitational Energy from Yog cause the Astreum bombs to swerve away before they explode just out of reach.

<Let’s go!> I send to Alec, as I show him the Boreum platform I’m constructing behind him in real time.

In a smooth, practised sequence, Alec activates Boost Reflexes, forms a field of Negative Inertial Energy around himself, then kicks off. At the same time, Kaitlynn hurls Loudmouth forward in a ball of Astreum, and Sudo uses Gravitational Energy to sling Jacob back around.

Only Suri remains at a distance, focused on suppressing Yog’s Gravitational Energy.

Just when we’re about to reach Dave, however, Yog suddenly shifts his field of gravity away from himself, and towards... the spiralling flow of Hydrum.

I can’t even tell exactly how he does it, but the flow bends and splits into three, one part swirling towards each of us.

I try to quickly produce a Warp tunnel, but a wave of Gravitational Energy collapses it before it can fully form. The force of the Hydrum is too much, too unexpected, and it sends us all tumbling down towards the lake, the sudden rotation and acceleration enough to rip loose even my tendrils.

Dimly, I note a beam of Necrotising Radiation aimed at Longlegs forcing Suri to Warp her away.

“Thanks for the dance,” Yog chimes mockingly, as Dave begins to fly up towards the Hoig head spouting Hydrum up above. “Now please excuse me while I go verify your outlandish claims.”

Author's note:

Thanks for reading! ^^