My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 247 (Patreon)

“It’s a mindscape, Damien,” Henry said. “Granted, it isn’t yours, but much of the same rules apply.”

He raised a smoking hand. The wall parted like water before him, splashing back to reveal a pathway heading down a large, grassy hill. Dark purple stars twinkled in the night sky above them, and flickers of pink flame occasionally lit the air.

“Looks a lot like mine,” Damien observed, following Henry out of the room and starting down the hill.

“So it does,” Henry drawled. Grass stretched toward their legs, but black flame poured out of Henry and incinerated it before it could get close. “Her mind is going to try to repel us since we’re intruders, but since she doesn’t know or doesn’t care that we’re here, it shouldn’t be much trouble.”

“That’s great, but how in the Planes do we find this girl?” Damien asked, looking around the hill. The grass stretched on as far as the eye could see. There weren’t any other buildings, and even the room they’d stepped out of had vanished.

“She’s hidden, but it’s difficult to really protect yourself once someone has breached your mind,” Henry said, spreading his arms wide. The path beneath their feet rippled and rose, turning into a stairway that led up into the sky. “As long as she isn’t actively fighting us, we can traipse around all we want.”

The two started up the stairs, which continued to build themselves as they walked. The occasional falling star whistled past their heads as they walked, but none grew close enough to pose a threat. It was beautiful, but the endless darkness also felt melancholy.

It wasn’t the same Void that encompassed Damien’s mindscape, nor was it the sea of stars that Herald resided in. This was more like splotches of small color lost within a sad, black pool.

“Is there something in particular we’re looking for?” Damien asked after several minutes. The ground was now a small speck beneath them. Even though they hadn’t walked very far, each step traversed far more ground than it would have in the outside world. “So far, there’s just space and stars.”

“I’m working on it,” Henry grumbled. “You could try extending your own senses and helping me out.”

“All I can feel is this vague emptiness around us. I don’t feel anything.”

“Exactly,” Henry said. “That’s because she’s not where we’re looking. When she’s near, we should be able to detect her. I felt a tiny flicker of something in the air when we were on the ground, but it’s gone now.”

Damien grunted. He extended his mental energy further, casting the widest net he could as he tried to sweep for any signs of the girl’s presence. He quickly lost track of how long they had been walking.

The entire world felt like it was cradled in the embrace of a dream, making thoughts blend together and motions just a little too fluid. Severa times, Damien had to shake himself out of a strange reverie that threatened to send him to sleep.

Then, a tiny prickle of energy to his side caught his attention. Damien paused and grabbed Herny, bringing their ever-expanding stairwell to a halt. “To our right. I sense something.”

Henry tilted his head to the side, then gave Damien several grins. “Good. That’s her. Or something, at least.”

They turned toward the energy and set off. As they grew closer, brown brick bloomed in the darkness. A small house formed in the sky, floating on nothing at all. The door was covered with latches and locks that concealed several dozen intricate rune circles.

Henry stopped before the door and extended a finger to touch one of the locks. He cocked his head to the side. “Huh. That’s interesting. The locks are resisting me. Either she’s concentrating really hard on keeping these there, or someone else put them in.”

“Her companion?” Damien offered.

“It could be, but that wouldn’t make much sense,” Henry said, rubbing his chin. “Considering we couldn’t feel her anywhere else at all, she’s locked in here completely. That means the companion is stuck as well. Why would someone do that to themselves? No, it’s more likely this is how the girl portrays the effects of the crystal coffin she’s in.”

“Someone external, then. Can we break it?”

“Should we?” Henry countered. “We don’t know what she’s got locked behind here. Someone went around sealing Void creatures, remember?”

“That was Moon,” Damien corrected. “And yes, I remember. But this doesn’t look like his work. It’s kind of… kluged together, don’t you think? I mean, look at these locks.”

Damien tapped several of them, rattling the chains slightly. “These two aren’t even doing anything. They’re just hanging on the front of the door. And the runes behind them – half of these rune circles are worthless.”

“An amateur did it,” Henry said. “That or someone who didn’t have much time to work and was panicking.”

“The latter seems more accurate,” Damien mused. “Quinlan’s runework is better than this, which really isn’t saying much. These circles are completely inefficient. They’re probably wasting more energy than they’re using.”

“That may be, but it doesn’t help us make our next move,” Henry said. “Break it or not?”

“Before I answer that, is there any chance these runes are somehow protecting the girl?” Damien asked. “I mean, what if she’s got some disease or the injury that makes it so that she needs to be sealed until a cure is found?”

“Nothing here indicates that,” Henry said. “You can see the runes yourself. They’re just locking her – and presumably, something else – up. The only thing we should be worried about if that something else poses a threat.”

Damien rubbed his chin, then shrugged. “Honestly, I’m bored of mysteries. Let’s just break the stupid thing. If it’s a void creature, we can handle it. I’ve got both you and Herald on my side.”

“You sure about Herald?”

Damien waggled a hand in the air. “Eh. Fifty fifty. I think he’s with us now. Even if it’s just the two of us, we can handle it.”

“Those were my thoughts as well,” Henry said, baring the teeth in several of his mouths in a disturbing series of grins. “Let’s crack this open, then.”

Tentacles shot out of Henry’s body, stabbing into the locks. Metal screeched in protest as they started to bend under his strength. The world rumbled and the dark sky lit up with brilliant flashes of purple and pink.

Dozens of shooting stars hurtled toward them. Damien extended his hands, focusing on changing the world around them. It wasn’t exactly like using the Ether, but the principle was very similar. A black sphere formed around him and Henry.

The comets struck the shield with thunderous bangs, sending cracks spiderwebbing throughout it but failing to break through the barrier. With several loud snaps, Henry shattered some of the locks on the door.

Claws formed on Henry’s shadowy arm and he raked them across the door, ripping several of the runes apart. Damien deflected another volley of comets, grimacing as a headache started to form in his head. It took considerably more energy than he’d expected to repel the mental assault.

“Almost there,” Henry said as a thick chain link cracked and shattered under his assault, revealing more of the door. “Keep that up for a little longer.”

“Working on it,” Damien replied through gritted teeth. The falling stars were striking his defenses faster and faster until it felt like he was caught in a rain of huge stones.

The pain, while annoying, was nothing to Damien. Compared to what he’d gone through in the past, this was little more than discomfort. Still, he could feel his strength starting to wane.

“Hurry up! I don’t know how much longer I can hold this,” Damien hissed, reenforcing the spherical shield. “She really doesn’t seem to want us breaking that thing open.”

“Too late,” Henry said with a cackle, raking his hand down one more time. Shrill shrieks filled the air as several more chains shattered and the door was torn open.

A cold gale howled out of the room, blowing Damien’s hair back and forcing him to squint. Crystals of ice started to form on his skin, and he had to quickly erect a thin barrier to stop himself from freezing.

Henry swept into the room, power washing out from him and pressing down on their surroundings. The air vibrated under the force of his strength and the two of them stepped inside.

A lone table stood in the center of the room. On one end of it was the girl, her hands manacled in blue crystal and locked to the table. On the other was a hunched figure made of dark smoke, its eyes burning like coals. Like the girl, its hands were locked to the table. When Damien and Henry entered, both of them turned in their direction.

“We’re here to drop off the food you ordered,” Henry said cheerfully. “If you could stop that mental assault before I’m forced to crush you, that would be appreciated.”

“Who are you?” the girl asked, squinting at them through half-lidded eyes. She looked like she was seconds from falling asleep. “You look like Bill.”

The hunched figure stared at Henry. Damien prepared his mental energy for a fight, but the thing didn’t seem like the other Void creatures he’d seen. It was considerably more… corporeal, and resembled a shriveled corpse more than a shadowy monster.

“I’m taking that as an insult,” Henry said. “I look nothing like this thing.”

“Henry, what is this?” Damien asked. “It’s not Void, is it?”

“No, it isn’t,” Henry said. “I’ve seen a few of these in the Plane of Darkness before. What a funny little coincidence. I was actually thinking about pretending to be one at Blackmist, but I decided against it because of how damn ugly the stupid things are.”

“Then what in the Planes is it?”

“A Deathweight,” Henry replied. “Nasty little monster that very rarely manages to get out of the Plane of Darkness. They’re quite dangerous to mortals, but they don’t often get summoned as companions. I’ve only seen this happen a few times.”

“And why’s that?” Damien asked, still watching the monster carefully.

“They tend to kill and eat as much of their summoner as they can before they’re sent back to their home plane,” Henry said. “And, if someone did manage to actually make a contract with one, they’d probably get hunted down pretty quickly by their fellow humans. There’s no way one of these would agree to do anything unless they got to eat a few people, and you lot tend to take offense to that.”

The girl cleared her throat, a little more awareness lighting in her eyes. “I’m right here, you know. You’re talking as if I can’t hear you.”

“Correction,” Henry said, raising a finger in the air. “I’m talking because I don’t care about you.”

“Henry,” Damien snapped. “Be nice.”

Henry rolled several dozen eyes.

“I’m your sister’s friend,” Damien said. “Wait, how long have you been stuck like this? Are you aware of the outside world?”

“I get snippets,” the girl replied, rattling the chains holding her arms in place. “And I’ve been stuck like this ever since I tried to summon my companion a year ago. But… Quinlan doesn’t have friends.”

Damien snorted. “She’s that bad that you can tell that in your current state? That’s pretty said.”

“Tell me about it,” the girl said, rolling her eyes. Her gaze grew serious and she leaned back in her chair, letting out a sigh. “Could you please tell her that she doesn’t have to do all this? She’s been obsessing over trying to save me for a year now. I don’t want her to ruin her own life trying to save mine. She’s spent all the resources Mountain Hall gave her on trying to save me.”

“You can start with your name,” Damien suggested gently. “And is that how you got put in this crystal coffin thing?”

“My name is Alina. And no, the coffin was actually put in by Bill.”

They all turned to look at the hunched creature.

“The Deathweight?” Henry asked. “He put this here?”

“He’s really old,” Alina explained. “Bill didn’t actually want to get summoned, but when I called out, it was mistakenly strong enough to yank him back here. He wasn’t able to restrain his instincts, but he didn’t want to kill me, so he encased both of us in crystal. Now we’re stuck like this.”

“I find it exceedingly hard to believe that there’s a Deathweight with a conscience,” Henry said. “I don’t think I’ve ever even seen them string together an intelligent sentence.”

“What are you even supposed to be? I’ve never seen something like you,” Alina said, squinting at Henry. “Another thing from the Plane of Darkness?”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” Damien said. “If you’ve been stuck like this, why not establish a contract that keeps Bill from eating people? That would free both of you, wouldn’t it?”

“We can’t,” Alina said miserably. “I already thought of that. There was another problem. My core wasn’t strong enough to hold all the Ether Bill has. As soon as releases the crystal, I’ll die. Quinlan doesn’t even know, so all her effort is for nothing. She can tell that Bill is somehow keeping me alive by feeding me power, so she was probably thought he’d be willing to cooperate if she freed me from this crystal, but she doesn’t know what it’s for.”

“Planes,” Damien muttered. “So if Quinlan actually managed to get you out of this, she’d just end up indirectly killing you?”

“Exactly,” Alina said, defeat heavy in her words. “I don’t know how you managed to get in here, but thank you. Please tell her that we talked so she doesn’t have to put herself through this anymore.”

“Well, hold on,” Damien said. “Bill hasn’t let go of the spell, so doesn’t that mean he thinks there’s a way for you to survive?”

Alina shrugged. “I think he just feels bad. We used to be able to walk around in my mindscape, but now we can’t even do that. He trapped us in here and sealed as much of my Ether as possible to keep me alive. That’s why we’re chained up.”

Bill gave them a wide-toothed grin that looked much more menacing than it did comforting.

“He won’t let go until the last of my Ether dries up,” Alina continued. “But can you at least tell Quinlan to stop? She has her life to live.”

“I think you might be moving a little to fast,” Damien said, glancing at Henry. “Your problem is that your core is broken, right? We’ve fixed something like that before.”

Alina stared at him. “That’s not possible. Once someone’s core breaks, they’re done.”

“Not necessarily,” Henry said. “The Ether still needs to leave your body completely. If we can bind your core back together fast enough, it can eventually heal. It’s not a particularly easy process, though.”

For the first time, a tiny spark of hope lit in Alina’s eyes. “Are you serious? Is something like that really possible?”

“There’s no guarantee it works,” Damien warned. “And you’ll still have to figure out the contract with Bill if we do this. If he really does plan to go around killing everyone, Henry and I will have to take care of him.”

“I – I think we can do that,” Alina said, swallowing. She shook her hands again. “And I’ll take any chance, no matter how small it is.”

“Shouldn’t we ask her what happened to Quinlan before we do this?” Henry asked. “You were right about the lack of guarantee, Damien. She might just die.”

“Wait, something happened to Quinlan?” Alina asked, her eyes shooting to Henry.

“We’ll worry about that after,” Damien said with a shake of his head. “But Quinlan is missing, and we might need your help to find her. Keep that in mind during this process. Maybe it’ll help give you the willpower you need to survive it, because this won’t be easy.”

Alina swallowed nervously. “I – fine. What do we have to do?”

“Just try to avoid dying,” Henry suggested helpfully. “We’ll have to leave your mind to do this. Have Bill drop the crystal as soon as we’re out.”

“You have to leave?” Alina asked, her confidence evaporating. “Wait–”

Darkness enveloped Damien’s vision. When it returned, he was standing above the crystal coffin beside Henry.

“That was cruel,” Damien muttered. “She hasn’t spoken to someone in a year. I’m amazed she hasn’t gone insane. We could have at least talked to her a little more.”

“The more she’s got to live for, the more likely she’ll survive,” Henry replied. “Even a slight push might be the one that counts. Now, get ready. This won’t go as easily as it did for Sylph. Alina’s core has been broken for a year, even if it’s been in stasis. I might need your help to hold her in place so she doesn’t make my job harder.”