Nightmare Realm Summoner

“Vile,” Absolution said, distaste dripping from his words. “There is an example of something that you would only find on a world as disgusting as this one.”

Yeah? Then why didn’t you kill it earlier? You definitely could have. Something tells me it wasn’t just because he’s overly cautious. But this isn’t the place to try and figure that out.

“I’m going to take offense to that,” Alex said. “Even though I’m not entirely sure I should.”

“No, it was definitely an insult,” Claire said. She let her whip retract into her palm, then scrunched her nose in distaste. “But can we please find somewhere to talk that smells a bit less like rotten eggs and month-old cheese?”

Did Ayrin even have cheese? Or is that a translation from the System?

Either way, Alex couldn’t help but agree. He could still feel his body trying to heal from the damage that the yellow smoke had done to him. His skin definitely would have been melting right off his bones if he’d fought this thing before tempering his body. The less time they spent here, the better.

“Hold on,” Alex said.

Absolution sent him a flat look. “You want to stay here? You are more of a masochist than I believed.”

“It’s got nothing to do with that,” Alex said. He squinted, peering deeper at the Belcherbeing. “This monster was way stronger than it should have been. It definitely had something strengthening its Mind Palace. I’m going to get it.”

Absolution let out a derisive bark of laughter. “You want to dig around in this thing? Are you truly that—”

Alex drew in as much of a breath as he dared to take, then turned toward the the monster’s corpse and plunged into the gaping hole that Glint had carved into it without waiting for Absolution to finish his sentence. His eyes watered instantly.

Even without breathing, the smell was so bad that he could swear it was literally rotting the air. Alex’s meagre saved breath was the only thing from getting knocked out on the spot from its intensity. It was fortunate that Glint had already opened a fair bit of the path path. Unfortunately, the rest of the job was left to Alex.

He summoned Glint’s magic, letting glass shards push out from both of his hands until he’d formed stiff, heavy claws that he used to claw through the Belcherbeing’s rough flesh. It was not enjoyable work. It wasn’t even fast work. But Alex was determined.

He squeezed himself through the rancid, dripping flesh, making his way toward the center. The damage that Absolution had done to the monster made it slightly easier to work his way through. It was as if someone had tenderized the meat for him… but food wasn’t really a thought path that Alex wanted to go down right now.

Alex felt his hastily-made claws clink as they suddenly met something considerably harder than the previous flesh he’d been carving through.

That was promising. It was also well timed, as he couldn’t hold his breath for too much longer.

He carved deeper into it, his glass claws screeching as the sheared away layer upon layer of the stone. Then he threw his shoulder into it. There was a crunch. A chunk of the blockage crumbled away, and Alex was rewarded with a wet squish as his shoulder drove into a mess of grayish squishy matter.

He pulled back almost instantly. The urge to gag was overwhelming. But before he could, Alex spotted something.

There, lodged in the horrible messy soup that must have been the monster’s brain, was pale brown gemstone.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

A Soul Gem.

Alex would have grinned if he wasn’t so concentrated on making sure that not a single drop of the horrible shit now covering his body not make it between his lips.

He reached into his pocket, grabbing a cloth, and used it to pry the gem free of its spot in the monster’s body. Alex sent it into his Spatial Ring. Then he turned around and hustled back out of the monster as fast as he could move.

Alex burst out of the Belcherbeing’s corpse, staggering several steps away from it and shaking its dripping remains from his body. He wiped his face with the back of his magically-clean sleeve before finally taking in a relieved breath. Alex almost instantly regretted it.

The smell of death clung to him so badly that it nearly choked him on the spot. A flicker of darkness danced at the edges of his vision, but it didn’t matter. He’d gotten his hands on a new Soul Gem. It wouldn’t be of any use to him or Claire… but someone in Mirrorwane would definitely want this.

Alex wiped his face again. Only once he was certain that he’d gotten as much of the monster’s goop off himself as possible did he let himself grin.

Absolution stared at him in what might have been some of the most genuine disbelief that Alex had ever seen on the Outworlder’s face.

“You…”

“Yeah?” Alex asked. He grimaced. “You think there’s a river anywhere nearby?”

“No,” Absolution said flatly. “I do not. I hope, for your sake, that you got what you were looking for.”

“You’ll never know, will you?” Alex gave Absolution a small grin. “Sometimes, all you can do is fucking send it and hope that things work out.”

Absolution’s gaze lingered on Alex for a second longer. Then his eyes narrowed neigh imperceptibly.“Hm. I see, now.”

It didn’t sound like he was answering Alex’s rhetorical statement. But Alex didn’t really care at this point. He had what he needed. Well, half of it. The other half was now a good wash. A very good one.

“Can you get us out of here?” Alex asked, glancing to Absolution. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a Soul Flame flickering near the base of the fallen Belcherbeing a few feet away from him.

“I can get is a short ways,” Absolution said. He tightened his grip on his scythe. “But I must admit that even that will be preferable. Are you prepared?”

“What else could we possibly need here?” Claire asked with a snort. “Get us out.”

Absolution swept the blade down, ripping a murky portal into being. Then he strode into it.

Alex darted forward, grabbing the Soul Flame and shoving it into his mirror. There was no need to reveal to Absolution how his power worked. Even though it probably didn’t matter, it was still information — and Absolution was still about as far as one could possibly get from being an ally.

Then he and Claire dashed through the portal in Absolution’s wake before it could close and leave them trapped with the remains of the horrid monster’s corpse.

***

Absolution’s new portal set them off in more craggy brown land. That seemed to be all there was around these parts. But this time, there were no sulfurous vents scattered across the ground. It was just plain old ruddy orange-brown clay.

There didn’t seem to be any monsters lurking in wait either. After they’d taken a quick check just to make sure that theory was true, the three of them settled down. He’d drove the butt of his scythe down into the ground before himself, then leaned against the weapon to use it like a chair.

His spot was just over ten feet away from Alex and Claire.

If Alex was honest, he didn’t blame Absolution in the slightest. Sitting anywhere within several dozen feet of him was sure to fill the air with the lovely cacophony of scents that the Belcherbeing’s rotting flesh had left on him. Alex was genuinely even more surprised that Claire was actually willing to sit near him that Absolution hadn’t.

It was several seconds before anyone said anything.

“I thought this was a Tier 1 World,” Alex said. “What makes you say it’s disgusting?”

Absolution sent him a pointed look.

“Aside from Alex,” Claire said. “The current circumstances are not the standard. This is the first monster we’ve fought that was so disgusting.”

“It is not the monsters who are disgusting,” Absolution said with a shake of his head. “They were made this way by the System. It was not their choice to be what they are. I speak of the world.”

“That… doesn’t clear things up at all, actually,” Alex said.

Absolution snorted. “Given what you are doing to the air, you are in no position to complain about clearing things up.”

Alex blinked. If he hadn’t known better he might have assumed that Absolution was actually making a joke. But that probably wasn’t the case. There was a considerably more likely chance that the Outworlder was dead serious.

“Might not be able to argue with that,” Alex admitted. He grimaced. “You think we can bring us to a river or something during your next jump? I really don’t want to show up to the Empty Court like this. It doesn’t really make the best first impression.”

Absolution stared at him for a second. Then his nose wrinkled slightly and he let out a weary sigh.

“I will see what I can do.”

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