「Broken Compass」The Soterice Trials 「Trial II」
"The Jade Scythe of the Architect Afterword" - Part III-
Chapter 34
A faint chittering echoed through the third corridor of the Obsidian Maze, resembling brittle leaves scraping against stone. The sound intensified into a chorus of clicking mandibles.
One creature's jaw split wide, revealing serrated, needle-like teeth.
Li's sword sliced upward in a seamless arc, intercepting the creature as it lunged from the ground.
Cutting through fur and muscle, the wound gaped open, exposing writhing tendrils beneath the flesh.
The creature convulsed, then split in half without dying. Each half twisted into a separate, fully-formed entity.
As ooze coated his blade, Li cautioned, "They'll keep splitting from a single body."
His blade traced imperceptible grooves beneath the creatures' fur. Moments later, thin lines emerged, widening into deep wounds.
A few of them faltered, their movements becoming erratic and uncoordinated.
With a sharp command, Juno unleashed her petals in a decisive, sweeping assault.
The creatures' forms exuded fine wisps of smoke from their wounds.
She clicked her tongue and stepped back as more poured into their path.
Their numbers swelled with each attack.
A traditional approach would only feed their endless growth.
They realized that a mere strategy of sequential slaughter was insufficient; a more efficient method was needed.
She swiftly tore a conjured blossom branch from the base of her hand and crushed it in her palm.
White petals erupted into the air, swirling in an unnatural gust.
They caused an immediate reaction as they touched the creatures.
The first creature fell, and its body began to rot from the inside out, turning its golden eyes into sunken pits.
The nearest ones twitched violently, as their regeneration failed to outpace the decay.
Li saw what she was doing and moved in sync.
His sword sliced through the rotting forms, severing limbs before they could multiply further.
Invisible grooves accumulated with each stroke of his blade, as he channeled the sword's residual power to suppress its natural damage
A subtle tension built around him, as an undercurrent of impending 'collapse.'
Li drove his sword into the back of a creature.
The fractures along the creature's side tore open, as the ones nearby, bearing the accumulation of his cuts, imploded.
The corridor echoed with the splintering of bones.
Juno hesitated, then fixed her gaze on a creature further from Li's reach.
Their eyes widened as a chain reaction unfolded among the horde.
The ground became littered with remains, some rotting, while others dragged themselves limply as their bodies split open from the back.
A faint fog rose from the corpses, dissipating swiftly leaving a stillness in their wake.
Juno observed the scene, murmuring, "They're all collapsing… their summoner must have reverted."
Li exhaled, steadily holding onto the jade sword.
Juno flicked her fan and rejoined the bloodstained petals still in the air.
From the remnants, a subtle movement stirred within the maze's corners.
Their eyes snapped toward it, but there lingered only corpses.
"That doesn't mean the fox wasn't anticipating this," Li said.
Juno nodded, stretching her posture. "He responds rather quickly."
Having eluded their notice, a much larger monster suddenly lunged at Li from the underbrush.
The creature was a disgusting fusion of bone and skin glistening with a sickly sheen.
Multiple eyes blinked asynchronously across its malformed face, each movement erratic and unsettling.
The most repulsive feature, however, was the large, bulging mass attached to its abdomen; a tumor-like growth veined with greenish-yellow lines that contracted faintly, adding to its monstrous appearance.
Before Li could raise his sword, the creature's unhinged jaw clamped onto his arm, drawing a copious amount of blood.
His expression tightened as he felt its jaws pulling beneath his skin.
Li twisted his sword to align the hilt firmly in his palm.
With a swift thrust, he drove the blade's tip into the creature's head, forcing its jaws to release his arm.
"Li!" Juno's voice carried a hint of panic.
Gritting his teeth, Li clutched his wounded arm. "I'm fine. Focus on the other side in case more come over the walls!"
Li withdrew his sword, which slipped out with unusual ease as if the creature's head were composed purely of muscle.
The monster emitted a piercing screech, a conflicting combination of creaking metal and a deep, guttural bellow.
Disgust flickered across Li's face. 'I've never encountered this type of creature before,' he noted silently, scanning the surroundings.
He sliced through the underbrush as the creature squirmed and screeched.
He took a few steps back, and gripped his sword with both hands before cleaving into its lower jaw, pushing the blade downward in a decisive chopping motion.
The screeches weakened, then ceased as Li severed its throat beneath the rows of teeth.
Juno glanced back at the sudden silence. "I think that may have been the only one. More would have appeared by now or launched simultaneous attacks to inflict greater damage."
Li flicked his sword to the side, and dark red liquid splattered onto the glowing moss.
His features hardened. 'Normal blood?'
Without looking away from the blood, he remarked, "This isn't one of Oliverou's. It bleeds normally." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "But something feels off. Why did only one appear when creatures of this size usually move in groups?"
A heavy thud interrupted Juno's response.
Juno and Li turned to see the monster smashing its own head onto the ground repeatedly.
Juno tightened her grip on the fan, poised to strike, but Li subtly gestured for her to hold back.
Juno cast him a puzzled look.
Before he could reply, four long, thin limbs erupted from the creature's abdomen, splitting it into two identical horrors in the blink of an eye.
Each dripped with a viscous fluid that thickened the stench of mold.
Li's eyes narrowed. "Attacking recklessly may cause them to multiply," he cautioned.
The monsters pressed forward briskly. Juno shifted into a defensive stance, as her mind probed for potential strategies.
"Perhaps a simultaneous strike to those strange masses attached to their cores?" she suggested.
Li gave a curt nod. "Let's do it."
They moved in unison, weapons slicing through the air precisely, aiming for the pulsating masses within the monsters' torsos.
Despite their efforts, each felled monster spawned two more, the horde growing exponentially.
As the overwhelming numbers pressed them back, the ground became slick with dark ichor.
Juno shouted, "We're being overrun!" as she parried an arm aiming for her shoulder.
Li's mind had become slightly jumbled. "We need to change tactics. Aim for decapitation; perhaps severing the head will prevent multiplication."
Thus, Juno adjusted her approach.
She leaped back to widen the distance, unfurling a vine. With a swift motion, she whipped it back, then swung her arm forward, slicing through a monster's neck.
The headless body collapsed, disbanding into a pool of its own blood without further division.
Juno surveyed the carnage with satisfaction before landing deftly beside Li.
Contrary to his instructions, Li unexpectedly drove his weapon into another monster's tumorous mass.
It shrank slightly, spraying blood and a strange, brownish, stringy interior.
They pressed forward, seemingly undeterred as their swift strikes elicited sprays of reddish fluid that added to the mounting carnage.
The ground became littered with carcasses, and the air thickened with the metallic scent of blood and the acrid tang of death.
Strangely, they seemed to gain the advantage, quickly impairing as many as possible with their relentless assault.
Until a deep growl abruptly resonated from farther ahead.
Followed by the appearance of a nightmarish figure that had been evidently fused from the multiplication process of the malformed monsters.
The masses clinging to their abdomens intertwined, forming a hideous structure resembling a tree, burdened with the twisted fruits of congealed corpses.
Li's throat dried and he cursed inwardly.
He had narrowly evaded the initial strike.
The creature jerked violently, splitting open with a dull squelch, before spilling into eight entities.
'They're dividing faster!'
"Is White Rice imitating Oliverou's methods?" Juno inquired, her voice revealing her distress toward the horror unfolding before them.
"Maybe it's the other way around. Oliverou is the replicator; perhaps the pawns were a test to see if multiplication would hinder us," Li responded quickly.
The erratic angles in which they moved were oddly synchronized, as the monsters sprinted forward,
Li parried a flurry of blows, each strike's force reverberating up his arm.
Juno's vine whip lashed out, slicing through one monster's torso, only for two more to produce around the slash.
"How are we supposed to fracture all of them before they regenerate new bodies? Their size makes it difficult to advance quickly!" Juno shouted, frustration creeping into her tone.
Li nodded, sidestepping a hand with slender, but sharp nails aimed at his face. "We shouldn't expend energy trying to eliminate them all. Focus on clearing a path!"
Juno's mouth tightened as her gaze swept the blood-soaked ground.
Chaotic footprints marred the surface, converging in a spiral that tightened toward the center.
Her features relaxed slightly as a new method solidified in place of her uncertainty.
Turning to Li, she asked, "Do you recall the sigils we studied—the ones we handed to Fei…Hoku for sealing?"
Li frowned, momentarily puzzled, and then his eyes lit with understanding. "You think we can attempt all at once?"
"It's worth a try," she replied, slightly out of breath.
"Clearing a path is temporary. What happens when they multiply and block the final corridor?"
Li considered her words, then nodded again. "We must immobilize them long enough to draw the sigils."
Juno displayed a hint of determination over her visage.
The two carved a path to a small clearing, then seized a brief respite from the relentless assault.
"Should we set up precautionary constructs? The core divinations require at least—" Juno's voice was taut with urgency.
Li interrupted without hesitation. "Inscribe half of 'The Thistle' formula. It should summon an Ash sigil to incinerate them all at once!"
Juno snapped her fan shut, then immediately flicked it open again.
Suddenly, she yanked Li forward, then a heartbeat later, a branch thick as a war lance speared through the space he'd just occupied, gouging the ground with a resonant crack.
Fissures radiated outward, as smaller branches snapped free like whips, and impaled the nearest monsters.
Their Limbs twitched as more blood spattered across the patches of moss and stone.
She released Li as the threat subsided, pivoting to pull him deeper into formation.
"I'll start behind you. Once they overpopulate, we swap. I'll cut them back down to a manageable level."
Li grunted in acknowledgment. "I can call out, so just focus on the floor."
A multitude of figures surged forward from their point of origin.
Li positioned himself before Juno, creating space for her. "Slower is better," he advised, his voice firm yet slightly calm. "If we falter and disrupt the sigil, we'll have to start over." His blade flashed, severing the nearest creature's throat. "Maintain the rhythm. No extraneous movements."
Juno hummed compliance, then fell to a lowered position.
The stone was damp, treacherous beneath her fingers.
Moss clogged the crevices, forcing her to carve with deliberate care.
The sigil's structure had to be flawless.
She used the sharpened edge of her fan to score white lines into the rock, deep enough to withstand disruption and align with the Thistle formula's unseen cords.
The Ash sigil required an exact weave of divination: three interlocking arcs, each bisected by an inverse stroke, their outer points linked by angular, curling glyphs.
The final stroke, a vertical line through the heart, would act as the catalyst.
The creatures multiplied relentlessly, clinging to the walls and emerging from both sides.
Juno winced as Li's blade cut through their flesh, the screeching retaliation reverberating into their ears.
Some fell to single strikes; others required more physical exertion marked by the crunch of skulls and the splatter of gore.
Ultimately, each kill birthed more adversaries.
If they didn't complete the sigil soon, the swarm would overwhelm them until they couldn't fight back.
"Switch!" Li commanded.
Juno sprang up, moving away from the sigil as Li took her place.
A creature lunged; and she deflected it mid-air with her fan, the impact jarring her wrist.
She recovered swiftly, leaping from her dominant foot, then twisting to drive her heel into its ribs, and sending it crashing into a barricade of monsters.
Behind her, Li crouched, carving the sigil with steady hands despite the blood on his knuckles and the encroaching monsters.
They alternated between defending and etching, a synchronized effort against the tide.
Juno conjured another vine, lashing it forward to coil around a monster's limb.
She yanked hard, pulling it off balance and sending it stumbling into the monsters behind.
Li's blade sliced through the approaching foe, sending it reeling. Yet, more surged forward in denser clusters.
One among them neared completion of the final stroke, the rest having already been made until the accumulation grew too dire.
At that moment, Li was nearest to the sigil.
He glanced back while slowly retreating, fending off the monsters that had scaled the wall.
As if sensing their intent, the entities abruptly turned more aggressive.
A cacophony of bangs echoed from both sides as creatures lunged simultaneously, a torrent of malformed limbs and vacant eyes, their shrieks piercing the damp air.
Juno reacted instinctively.
Li dropped low, aiming for a precise, central cut.
She dove, pushing him aside as a gaping maw narrowly missed his back.
The sigil remained incomplete, teetering on the brink of activation.
Li regained his footing, eyes alight with resolve.
Without pause, he pivoted, reversing his grip. A swift slash felled the nearest foe.
In rapid succession, Li's blade carved through the air in a relentless storm of aggression.
Li swiftly dispatched the last adversary near him, then turned his back on the chaos.
He slashed through the sigil's center, flipped his sword, and used its star-shaped pommel to trace a circle around it, sealing the formation with the residual magic from his elixir.
The sword's pommel darkened from jade to sapphire, its luster fading.
Blue-white flames traced the sigil, illuminating the carvings.
The engravings glowed white-hot as cracks spread, resembling molten veins.
Incandescent white flames erupted around each creature, ensnaring them as they attempted to regenerate limbs from the masses on their abdomens.
They shrieked and writhed in agony, consumed by the intense heat until nothing remained.
The ash settled, and dulled the luminescent moss, leaving the maze a desolate wasteland.
Their labored breaths and the faint hiss of dying embers deterred the silence.
Li wiped blood and sweat from his brow. "We need to outpace him in his own maze to escape this place."
Juno scanned the charred labyrinth, her gaze lingering on the sigil's remnants.
They had been left a scribble of jagged cracks veiled in soot.
She swallowed to steady her breath, then nodded. "Your elixir won't work against any more opponents. You might have to enter the fourth corridor while I confront this trial's keeper alone."
To be continued...