My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 250 (Patreon)

“Who?” Venus asked.

“Where is he?” Damien asked, his blood running cold. “The old guy. You know where he met Quinlan?”

“I told you, he’s in the town near Mountain Hall,” Venus replied with a frown. “Do you know who he is?”

“He’s a monster,” Damien replied. “A humanoid one – and incredibly powerful at that. Take me to the town. Do you have any way to find out where Quinlan is? Did she tell you where exactly they were going to train?”

“No,” Venus said, shaking her head. “She just said they were going to be a little way out of town. Is it seriously that bad? He seemed creepy, but I didn’t think the guy was a monster.”

“He’s about as bad as they come,” Damien said grimly. “Alina, go to room twelve in south mountain – that’s mine. Stay there until I get back. This won’t be safe.”

“What? But I need to help you save Quinlan!”

“You won’t do anyone any good if you’re dead,” Damien replied. “You don’t understand what we’re dealing with. This is the same thing that Henry is, but without any morals or someone to control it. Do you understand?”

Alina’s face paled. “You can’t be serious.”

“Dead serious,” Damien said, grabbing Venus and dragging her out the door.

They rushed out the mountain and Damien skidded to a stop overlooking the drab campus.

“Do you have any form of movement spell?”

“Not really,” Venus stammered. “I can slide around quickly, but nothing like flight or teleportation.”

“Damn. Fine. Where’s the town? What direction?”

Venus barely had time to point before Damien grabbed her, teleporting the girl before sending himself after. They both appeared halfway down the mountain and he repeated Warp Step until the ground was beneath their feet once again. Venus staggered from the abrupt magic and Damien steadied her.

“Get it together. Quinlan is in incredible danger,” Damien said. “Which way to town? Quickly.”

Venus shook her head and pointed again. Then the two were off. Damien repeated the pattern over the next few minutes, blurring from spot to spot as he dragged Venus along with him out of Mountain Hall.

It wasn’t nearly as efficient or fast as a true teleportation spell, but they still made amazing time. Only a few minutes later, the mountains of Mountain Hall were in the distance and the two were nearly upon a small, homely town a few miles down the road from it.

The town was nestled against a large forest that stretched out behind it, rising up and disappearing behind another hill.

Venus groaned as they appeared on the town’s outskirts. “How can you travel like that? It feels like you shook my head around for an hour.”

“Sorry,” Damien said. “We just can’t risk any more delays. This is where Quinlan is?”

Venus nodded. “It’s where she told me she went. But how are you even going to find her? Do you have some sort of magical tracking? You only have space magic! Crap, we should have gotten a teacher. They could have found her and fought off the old guy.”

Damien snorted, but the concern chewed at his chest. He wasn’t confident he could take a free Void creature in head to head combat. That was, of course, if he could even figure out where the thing was hiding.

He extended his senses, trying to feel for something out of place, but nothing caught his attention. Damien gritted his teeth. With Henry’s senses muted, they essentially had no good method to locate the Void.

Herald? I need your help. We’re working together now, right?

There was no response.

Seriously, I need your help. You know what the Faceless told me. It’s been on my mind more than enough for you to pick up. We’re on the same team. We’re basically the same person. I – you wouldn’t let a friend die. If we’re going to fight the Corruption, we need all the help we can get. Quinlan is a strong fighter.

“Are you okay?” Venus asked, touching Damien on the shoulder with concern in her eyes. She yanked her hand back with a yelp as coils of dark energy started to gather around Damien’s body.

“Very well,” Herald breathed, his myriad voices echoing through Damien’s mind. Coils of shadow sloughed off Damien’s body, chilling the air around him and twisting around him like serpents.

“Damien?” Venus asked, taking a step back.

The Ether thrummed. Damien’s vision erupted with color as Herald threw out a massive net of mental energy. Golden light erupted everywhere as strands of Ether crisscrossed across the world. So many had lit up that it was impossible to tell where any of them came from.

Herald guided Damien’s hand up to one of the strands. As he touched it, the Void curled to his desires. Gray light leapt from Damien’s hand and shot into the strand of Ether, turning it the same color.

The gray raced along the line, shooting across the web and forming a path. The other lines faded away, until only the single pathway remained.

“That is the extent of my help,” Herald said. “I will not fight my brethren.”

Thank you.

There was no response.

“Right, I know where it is,” Damien said. The trail ran alongside the town, vanishing into the forest behind it. “Stay here. It isn’t safe for you to go any further.”

“Is it safe for you?” Venus asked.

Damien didn’t respond. He was already Warp Stepping along the trail. The town blurred past him and he shot through the trees, only pausing to take bearing of his surroundings before shooting off once more.

“Don’t go too fast,” Henry warned. “We don’t want to jump right into an attack. Assume Seas knows we’re coming. Remember that it has the full strength of a Void creature, while I’m bound by your abilities. We can’t win an all-out fight.”

I know. But I don’t think Seas is actually here. If it was, would Herald really have helped us? I’m not so confident. It also wouldn’t make sense for such a powerful creature to be coming after Quinlan itself. This is probably some form of clone or portion of the real thing.

“I agree,” Henry said. “But that doesn’t mean it’ll be weak. Keep your guard up. At this point, you’re strong enough that I want to avoid just taking over, so I’ll be supporting you unless things go very poorly.”

Damien appeared behind a large tree. The forest broke before him, forming a rough clearing around a single story wooden house. Herald’s gray line ran up to the house and trailed right through its walls.

Ether from Damien’s core coursed down his arms as he prepared two Gravity Spheres, overloading them with power before throwing both at the building’s sides. They detonated with loud cracks, ripping the rickety structure apart and showering the ground with wooden splinters.

An old man spun toward them, a rippling blue shield shimmering around him. Debris pelted against it and the man thrust his hands out, causing the shield to burst out and throw the wood away.

He looked identical to It Who Stills the Seas, but there was no sign of anyone with him. What remained of the house was empty and barren, almost completely devoid of furniture. It was as if the house was completely empty aside from him.

“Where’s Quinlan?” Damien asked, trying to grab the man’s shirt with telekinesis. A powerful wall of mental energy met his attempt and he gave it up immediately. There were no cracks in the defense, so further attempts would have been a waste of energy.

“It Who Heralds the End of all Light,” the old man said, his weathered face crinkling in anger. Water droplets materialized in the air around him, turning to jagged points and launching at Damien.

Tendrils spawned from Damein’s cloak, wrapping around him and blocking the spell. They unraveled and Henry whipped one at the other Void creature. Water rushed to form a wall before Seas and the two spells struck each other with a crash.

“We were right,” Henry said, his voice strained. “This isn’t the full thing. It’s only got a fraction of his powers, but it’s taking a lot of effort for me to keep his magic away. He’s trying to rip all the moisture out of your body.”

I’ll try to handle this quickly, then. I don’t think he’ll be answering any of my questions.

Damien cast Gravity Sphere multiple times, releasing them at half a dozen points between himself and Seas. Dirt and stone flew through the air, obscuring their vision.

Gathering his Ether, Damien narrowed his eyes in concentration and cast Storm. Magic howled around him as tears split the air and the debris in the air was dragged into the whirling spell. He the mass of destruction careening toward Seas.

As soon as it was moving, Damien Warp stepped and cast multiple Gravity Spheres around the old man, trying to keep him pinned in place for Storm. As the spells all detonated, Seas collapsed into a pillar of water and snaked away.

A significant portion of water was yanked away from his body and shredded by Storm. When Seas reformed, he was missing several small chunks of his body.

“Your fight is futile. I don’t know how what you think you’re doing, but the Cycle will restart. With or without you,” Seas said. Water rose from the ground around him, forming into massive pillars that rose far into the sky above them.

More and more water gathered and a whirlpool formed at the Void creature’s feet, forcing Damien to teleport into a tree to avoid getting sucked toward his opponent. Rain started pelting down from the enormous amounts of water gathered above them. It sharpened, turning into a hail of miniature icicles.

Henry shifted Damien’s mage armor, raising several tentacles to block the water from touching them. Damien teleported and enlarged a stick on the ground. It expanded, punching into one of Seas’ legs.

Water poured from the wound and the old man slipped straight through the wood, reforming on the other side completely unharmed.

“This isn’t a Corrupted monster,” Henry warned Damien. “You can’t win by tearing it apart – not without a host. Think of this like a spell with a ridiculous amount of Ether.”

Water gathered into the shape of a dozen blades and shot at Damien, not giving him a chance to respond. He cursed, teleporting and releasing another Gravity Sphere on Seas’ location to distract the monster.

How am I supposed to fight this thing, then? Even you go down when I die!

“This isn’t the physical body of Seas. It’ll eventually run out of Ether, we don’t want to be dancing around with it forever.”

Right. I’ve got a new idea then, but I’ll need a few seconds and I’ll have to get close. Can you buy me that?

“I see what you’re thinking. It should work,” Henry said. A black disk opened above them, swallowing a wave of water as it crashed down from above. “I can buy you a few seconds, but that’s it. Work fast.”

He teleported again, this time appearing on a tree branch behind Seas. The water on the ground was growing now, and it was nearly three feet deep. Droplets flew at Damien from all angles, all sharp enough to slice clean through flesh without an ounce of resistance.

Damien extended a hand, focusing on the gray that hung at the edges of his vision. His fingers met cold wood and wrapped around it. A thrum ripped through the air as Damien pulled the gray staff from the Void.

His emotions and the roar of water faded into the background, becoming little more than a distant nuisance. Damien was vaguely aware of his mage armor expanding around him, the cloak doubling in length and wrapping around his front protectively while purple eyes snapped open all over the battlefield.

Spells screamed through the air and Ether was used in such abundance that it could have been seen with the naked eye. All of that was little more than a passing thought to Damien.

Every ounce of his being was focused on completing the task at hand before he stopped caring completely. He’d had a set of runes cemented in his mind, but it took an immense force of will to actually make himself draw them.

He nearly failed. The desire to just sit down and do nothing while watching Henry duke it out with Seas was powerful beyond belief, but Damien’s will had been forged by the fires of the Void.

His finger traced the last few jagged runes of the spell. The lantern at the tip of his staff flared, as if in recognition, and Damien released the spell. It was one he’d cast before, but he’d made a few slight improvements.

The gray vanished, and Damien suddenly became aware of half a dozen burning wounds covering his body. None of them felt fatal, but the blood pouring down his arms and chest was concerning.

In the few seconds he’d spent in the gray, the world had nearly been swallowed by water. A swirling sphere of purple energy was all that kept a raging ocean at bay. Luckily, Seas hadn’t moved from his spot.

There was no warning when Damien’s spell went off. He couldn’t even see it happen, since it was under the water. But he could see its effects. Seas didn’t get a chance to look surprised before it fell into the yawning portal Damien had torn open beneath it. Aided by some gravity inducing runes to speed its acceleration, the monster was gone in less than a second.

As soon as its head went below the water, Damien snapped the spell shut. The water surrounding them shimmered and lost its form. It splashed to the ground, much of it turning into particles of Ether and vanishing.

Damien dropped to his knees, panting. His head thumped to a furious headache and his body felt completely drained of energy.

Cutting it a little close, aren’t you? I feel like I fell down a jagged cliffside.

“You’re alive,” Henry muttered. “That’s about as much as you can ask. Standing still in the middle of a fight against a Void creature is a terrible idea. You should be thanking me for keeping the damage to a minimum.”

“It wasn’t a real Void creature,” Damien said, forcing himself back to his feet and swapping to normal talking. “Just a spell.”

“We’d have been running if it was the real thing,” Henry said. “Even with me controlling you, we wouldn’t have won. Not yet.”

“But soon,” Damien said with a grimace. He spotted the remains of the house’s foundation and staggered over to it. “And if it had been the real Seas, at least we would have had something real to attack. I hate that water-body thing it did. If you get cut, you should stay cut.”

Henry just snorted. “Can’t argue there. I don’t have anything fun like that when I’m stuck in your body. We did beat the thing, though. That’s cause for celebration. This fight wouldn’t have been possible a few months ago.”

“Yup,” Damien agreed, nudging a piece of wood out of the way with his foot. “But, Seas or no, we still need to find Quinlan. You don’t think it killed her, do you?”

“It wouldn’t have taken her if it wasn’t for a reason,” Henry replied. “We don’t kill pointlessly. It just isn’t worth the effort. Considering Seas was still in the area, I’d imagine she is too.”