Loopshard Novel Chapter One-Hundred-and-Forty-Six

“Adam?” asked a hollow voice. It sounded very distant.

Sothing peeled off of Adam’s face. It was a scale of stone covering his right eye.

He only saw the darkness within the do ford by his own stretched out body, but there were two night-eyes glowing back at him.

Another scale fell off his face, freeing his mouth.

Adam gasped for air.

“Fuck…” he breathed.

“Holy shit, you’re actually alive?” Lasse said. Adam could feel his lody, it was panicked, scared, but also relieved. Sounds were still hollow and distant, but he realised that it was because he had stone inside his ear canals.

“I’m glad that worked,” Adam said. “I think I just died from petrification.”

“But you’re still alive,” Lasse pointed out.

“Funny how that works, right?” he joked.

There was a brief pause.

“Can you help free

from this stone?” Adam asked.

“Right, of course!” Lasse said with a nervous laugh.

He quickly started tapping his hands against Adam’s stone-covered body and within a minute he was able to wriggle free of the rest, pulling himself off of Lasse.

It took him a while longer to shape his body back to its original shape. Or as close to it as he could rember, anyway.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful,” Lasse started, “but that was really disgusting how you just stretched like that.”

Adam cracked his neck. “Wasn’t pleasant to do, either. But it worked. I saved you.”

“Do you think the others managed to get to safety?” Lasse asked hopefully.

Adam shook his head. “Everyone’s dead.”

It was quiet besides his own lody and that of Lasse, though there were a handful blips of life here-and-there, no doubt people who hadn’t been touched by the light at all, perhaps because they’d been inside a closed place with no windows.

But besides those blips, there was generally nothing within hundreds of kilotres of their location. Not even in Windtop Cove. In their imdiate surroundings, all the shipwrecks had been petrified too, from the sails to the wooden hulls, to the tal of the ballistae and their bolts.

“Whatever Iffen did, it turned everybody in a massive area into stone, killing them in an instant,” Adam said.

“Holy shit…” Lasse muttered. “So everyone’s dead? Just like that? Cathy, Jabari, and Ellen? All just gone?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck.”

Adam stretched his blood perception farther, and he got a ping back from the flesh he’d left at Mast-Chewer’s nest. It seed possible he might be able to Blink down there since he could feel its lody from here, even though it was faint.

“It doesn’t seem to have gone across the entire world, at least,” he told Lasse. “But it’s easily the entire north-western part of the map.”

“Does that an the Godstone Temple is clear for us to waltz into?” Lasse asked.

“Might be,” Adam replied. “But we’d still need to get the chanism from the Golden Fortress.”

They didn’t know its exact location, but it was supposed to be possible to reach from Windtop Cove without travelling for hours on end.

“Maybe they were hit by the petrification too?” Lasse guessed.

“If they were on the way to Windtop, then it’s possible,” Adam replied. He turned to look at the cube that’d obviously just ignored the petrification. “How much ti is left before nightfall?”

[4 hours and 50 minutes remaining.]

“They might be sowhere in the petrification zone then,” Lasse theorised.

“Wait, how much fucking ti passed while I was petrified?” Adam asked.

“Maybe a few hours?” Lasse replied uncertainly. “I tried to move you a few tis, but you are really fucking heavy.”

“I was covered in stone.”

“True. To be honest though, I kind of just assud I was going to die curled up into a pathetic ball until the Stage tir ran out, so I started reminiscing about my life to pass the final monts I had left. Then suddenly you moved and the stone fell off your body.”

Adam sighed. “I should’ve not even bothered with Julie and Ellen,” he said. “I knew they were going to try sothing, but I really wanted to believe they were different, and that I could save everyone.”

“What do you an you knew?” Lasse asked, suspicion entering his lody.

“It’s a long story,” Adam said and stood up, stretching his sore limbs.

He looked around, spotting Ellen not too far ahead and Cathy and Jabari behind them. They had fallen into the sand, petrified in running poses. Since the shipwrecks around on the island had also turned to stone, Adam wondered what had happened with the objective to find the mad captain.

The cube flashed the active instructions of the objective when he prompted it.

< < Optional Stage Objective Complete > >

< Pick up the Golden Prince >

That ans the Golden Prince sword is just lying around inside the unicorn airship with the mad captain. I guess we ought to at least touch it just to get the bonus Points for the objective.

Adam went over to Jabari and Cathy, feeling a mix of sadness and frustration at seeing them knocked over into the sand next to each other, petrified and dead.

Idiots.

I could’ve saved them if they hadn’t run away…

He looked at his cube again. “Is there a way to cure petrification?”

[I cannot say.]

So that probably ans yes. But do I have the ans to do it? And even if I do, would they co back to life?

Adam put his hand on both of them, but the Mandate of Blood registered nothing. It was like they weren’t humans.

The petrification clearly penetrated all the way through the flesh to the internals, but because Adam’s Cheat Death had activated, he had basically returned to life by having his insides, flesh, and skin returned, leaving just the thin layer of stone on top of his body that he’d quickly shed with Lasse’s help.

“I was a bit jealous of their relationship,” Lasse admitted. “But nobody deserves to die like this.”

Adam sighed. “There’s no good way to die in the Trials.”

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A discordant note passed through Lasse’s lody.

“What?” Adam asked.

“We can’t loot them.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

Adam pointed at Jabari’s body that was clearly wearing Iffen’s Embrace. “Loot.”

[You cannot loot this body,] announced his cube.

“I wonder why,” Lasse muttered.

“They probably just like kicking us while we’re down,” Adam remarked. “Fuck. We even lost the damn airship, and we gave the other one to Iffen, just so he could kill half of this world to stop the leviathan.”

“Do we actually know the leviathan is dead?” Lasse asked.

Adam frowned. “I guess I’ll have to go check…”

At the bottom of the world, directly below where Starfall Island had been, was a massive octopus-like monstrosity of insane proportions, its hundreds of arms wrapped around the giant body of Iffen. Both of them were petrified, along with the carpet of lamprey parasites that resided at the bottom of the world.

But Adam didn’t believe the Feral Cloud Leviathan was defeated, because the Stage Objective hadn’t changed, and, more importantly, there was a polluted haze bubbling up from hair-thin fissures in the surface of the leviathan’s petrified body.

It’s probably just a matter of ti before it breaks free. It may have a power similar to my Cheat Death, or perhaps its regeneration is strong enough to counteract the petrification.

I could try and attack it, but I risk just waking it up, and if Iffen couldn’t kill it, then I seriously doubt I’d have any luck at all, even if Lasse helped .

Adam hurried back to Shipwreck Isle where he’d left the Archer to find the airship he’d spotted with the compass earlier.

To no one’s surprise, the airship had been fully petrified as well. It still floated next to where it was tethered to the island, but it was completely inoperable, and Adam didn’t have the strength with his magic to push it, not to ntion he had a significant shortage of magical material on hand.

“I see two options,” Adam said. “One, I attempt an experintal long-range teleportation spell by myself. Or two, we attempt an experintal long-range teleportation spell together.”

Lasse laughed. “I’d already be dead if not for you. Several tis in fact. So I guess we might as well die horribly as your spell goes wrong and fuses our bodies together into one horrifying monstrosity. At least we’ll die together.”

Adam shook his head with a grin. “Don’t tempt fate.”

Since Adam needed to fill Lasse’s body with magic to have any chance of the long-range Blink working, not to ntion having to summon the materials for the spell, it took quite a while to set up. Because they were on a tight schedule and Adam didn’t want to waste any ti, he brought Lasse with him to the unicorn airship.

Inside they found the mad captain, who, despite his golden body, had also turned to stone. His golden hoard was likewise petrified, and in his hand was the cursed sword. Unlike everything else, it had survived Iffen’s special attack and retained a golden lustre. It was a wide-bladed sabre with a round cross-guard shaped like a crown and a curved handle with brown leather wrapping that would only fit a single hand.

Adam hadn’t had a chance to touch the weapon last ti, since Leon had been knocked off the side of the island by his killing blow, but he rembered Elia’s warning and approached carefully, not taking any chances.

< < Secret Weapon Obtained > >

< Golden Prince (Epic) — The golden sword of Captain Fallow >

< Unique Skill ( Flesh of Midas ) | Turn your skin to gold, imparting a high resistance against physical attacks >

Lasse touched the weapon as well and made a sound when he read the skill, but Adam had already told him it was a cursed weapon that would make him go mad, so he didn’t try to equip it.

[You are already carrying two weapons and cannot carry a third. Would you like to swap one of your weapons to wield this weapon?]

“No, but can you send it to my Player House?” Adam asked his cube.

[It is not possible to perform that action with the Golden Prince. The weapon must be equipped if you wish to bring it with you.]

“That’s insidious,” Adam said.

“So much for being able to test it out on Interim Island,” Lasse remarked.

After they left the wreck of the unicorn airship, Adam was finally ready to attempt the Blink spell.

“I need you to duck down a little,” he told Lasse who was taller than him. “The helix rings need to surround both of our hearts and brains.”

“That’s… I’m starting to get worried. Should I be worried?”

Adam grinned as he ford the rings. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“I know we were joking around and all, but I don’t actually want to be fused together with you,” Lasse said seriously, almost pleading.

“Don’t worry, I can peel us apart if that happens,” Adam replied seriously. “Probably…”

Lasse frowned while Adam finished up the last part of the spell, the three wire-fra pyramids with a ball of blood inside.

Once he was done, he told Lasse to count down from three.

The mont he got to two, Adam fired the spell.

He felt as though all of his flesh and blood was pulled into his hand, with Lasse’s mass pressing against him at the sa ti.

But that feeling was quickly replaced by a sense of being pushed out from within so small structure, and just like that Adam and Lasse erged on the wall outside of Mast-Chewer’s Nest.

Lasse imdiately doubled over and started purging his guts.

“You okay?” Adam asked him, rubbing his back as he vomited down over the edge of the wall.

Inside the fortress island that Mast-Chewer had claid were the eggs from before, along with the one that Adam had brought, but the slug dragon was nowhere in sight.

I wonder if Iffen assimilated with her before coming to take on the leviathan.

Adam flew him and Lasse towards the nearest available airship, as indicated by the compass Relic, and within half an hour they found one belonging to the Drakes which had just been abandoned in the air between two islands.

Once on board, Lasse worked hard to man the sails while Adam steered, though eventually Adam used so of his blood to help control the main sails, letting Lasse focus on the foresails.

It took them about an hour and a half to reach the petrified fleet of the Golden Fortress. Adam was fearful of the leviathan breaking free of its slumber before they could make it to the temple, but he knew they didn’t have much of a choice regardless, since he couldn’t lift Lasse forever and didn’t have the material to create a flying platform yet.

Not far from the petrified fleet was the line demarcating the reach of Iffen’s attack, and it was surreal to see the islands that’d been just within that line, since half of their surfaces were moss-covered stone, and the rest were trees, dirt, and sand.

Adam’s compass led them to the main ship of the Golden Fortress, which was in the large weight class. Eight smaller ships orbited it in a circular formation. Every single ship and their crews had turned to stone, and at the helm of the flagship stood Captain Hast, one hand locked on the wheel while the other was pointing off to the side in the direction of Starfall Island.

The flagship had a long and wide main deck, three masts, eight fins on either side, and two stacked rows of gunports on the broadsides, eight on the top one and five on the bottom, giving them a devastating amount of firepower. The hull was reinforced and the railings were lifted high to create actual walls around the main deck, with panels that could be pushed open to fire out, not to ntion three ballistae on the bow, each with their own gunport in the raised walls. It was impossible to tell what colours the ship had originally had, because it had all beco the sa uniform grey hue of moss-covered stone.

“Stay here,” Adam told Lasse and flew himself across to the flagship.

The compass led him into the captain’s quarters, and he found the chanism on a large desk within, next to a petrified map and a large rifle crossbow. Sohow, the chanism had survived being turned to stone, but Adam was happy to see it, because it likely ant they’d still be able to enter the Godstone Temple and not be barred by so integral door or sothing having beco immovable.

< < Quest Object > >

< Mysterious chanism — An artefact uncovered in the temple on Anchor Hole island >

The chanism was a triangular block of dark-green stone with a hole in one end, inside of which was a strange tallic tube with gears, but it was clearly just a very fancy key.

With the artefact in his possession, Adam returned to the airship where Lasse awaited him.

“Do we head straight for the temple now?” Lasse asked.

“We should. Or do you want to tempt fate?” Adam responded. “The Cloud Leviathan is bound to break free at any mont, if it hasn’t already.”

Lasse frowned. “No, you’re right.”

“Did you want to go deal with the False Judge?” Adam asked.

Lasse nodded. “It would be stupid to survive this Stage, just to get punished for failing ssir, don’t you think?”

“My objective was to protect Julie, so I’m screwed regardless,” Adam replied. “But if you’re okay with another teleportation, I can get us there.”

Lasse looked surprised. “Really, you’d do that?”

Adam nodded. “We may as well do Shiff’s quest too.”

“Now who’s tempting fate?” Lasse teased.

After another lengthy setup, Adam teleported them both from the east where they’d found the petrified fleet to the south-west where Morgan’s Rest was located.

Adam managed to catch Lasse as they both fell out of the treetops where he’d hung the effigy that they’d traded places with. Since so many people had perished on the eastern part of the map, it had the surprising benefit of making it way easier for Adam to connect to the flesh he’d left behind.

No sooner had they landed than White Flag guards ca running to investigate the sounds they’d made.

Adam hid them both in the dense jungle off to the side of the path as the guards neared, and then he sprung out and viciously tore the four n apart, pulling their flesh and blood to himself, and hiding away their bones in the shrubbery.

“Goddamn,” Lasse remarked afterwards.

“We don’t have ti to waste, and I’ll need a lot of material if we’re going to get to the Judge before the leviathan breaks loose.”

Lasse nodded, determination in his lody.

There was no point trying to maintain friendly relations with the factions, though Adam had been serious about wanting to complete Shiff’s quest, because Elia had told him that Stages that featured quests always had a bonus for doing a certain amount. For the Floating Sea, that number was four, aning they were one short. To that end, he hid away the bones of the guards, though it wouldn’t take long before their absence was noted. He just hoped they wouldn’t be implicated, since nobody had seen them.

Adam carefully shaped the flesh and blood into a boat and they quickly climbed on board the mont he was done. Instead of mixing the blood into the flesh, Adam layered it over the shape, and as he lifted both the blood and the flesh boat into the air, he pulled on the two separate elents with his magical control, which greatly increased their maximum speed. It was a trick he’d realised was possible when he’d failed to catch up to Julie while chasing her.

After they left behind Morgan’s Rest, they tore through night-blue clouds on their way towards the Judge’s hideout on the Storm’s Eye islands.