“You okay, Bianca? You seem a little sluggish? Did Gilbert screw up healing you?” Zarian asked as he, Bianca, Naomi, Hannah, and Gilbert gathered on top of the left wall.
Bianca didn’t respond with words, being mindful of her voluminous voice while still shifted. She used the spider network to exchange accurate impressions of how she felt.
There was sothing wrong about Bianca’s free good that Gilbert’s vitality overcharge couldn’t quite fix.
It wasn’t anything bad compared to Naomi’s bodily debuffs. Instead, Bianca might’ve overtaxed her sub alignnt.
Now she had to suffer a hidden debuff of sorts.
“So your free good 6 will be weaker, huh? Yeah, I get that. I won’t be able to use Overwhelming Darkness for a while. Pushing up to Two Percent Darkness nearly did in.” Zarian looked up while standing next to her perched form.
Bianca had herself covered with her golden wings like a resting bird, her taloned feet gripping deep into the top of the wall. Glancing behind him, he saw the others marveling at her transformation except for Naomi, who seed unimpressed.
“I hate leaving an objective undone,” Naomi grouched.
“I think it’s best to trust Bianca’s Wonder stat for this,” Zarian said. “That, and my wife won’t get what she wants from the death of the Pri Archbishop … so it still works out.”
“Regardless of if the decision was a right one or not, the paladins are retreating and this series of events will throw off everyone’s plans,” Hannah said. “I also like the idea that we will rely on ourselves for contacting our ho and dealing with our affairs back there. I can get behind that.”
Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking, Zarian thought.
I have so many questions, Para thought. Bianca’s decision is puzzling to because I don’t exactly understand where it cos from. What went through her mind that led to her sparing the Pri Archbishop right before total victory? Or is it really because of her Wonder stat? I find the apparent unknown both extraordinary and frustrating, since it is illogical while having the possibility of being right.
You can always ask questions, Zarian encouraged privately.
Perhaps later, after the operation, Para replied.
“I for one am a huge fan of Monster Bianca’s decision and will sing praise in her direction once she’s back to being her old self,” Gilbert said, turning his attention away from Bianca’s giant, stooped over form. He looked over the edge of the wall. “Now let have y’all attention, because I’m going to show you sothing you intellectual types might be interested in.”
“Oh? Is Gilbert going to lecture ?” Hannah turned sharply to the man. “This is going to make my day.”
“Let’s hear it, big guy,” Zarian encouraged.
“Those things down there, the lesser aberrations. They stopped being made from goblins after the beginning of the rush,” Gilbert explained. “Most of them are sothing else, I reckon.”
Imdiately, Zarian used his aura to sweep over the aberration corpses. He felt Hannah doing the sa thing, but her aura control was less sensitive compared to his.
It was Para, who was doing her own aura sweep, that noticed the design shift in aberrations first. That made sense. Para was inherently interested in the anatomy of other creatures.
“Gilbert is right,” Para said, speaking through the three snake heads winding over Zarian’s armored shoulders. She moved about her many clawed hands and scythe blades from behind Zarian’s back as she spoke. “The start of the aberrations featured corrupted goblins fused into singular masses. They are, in fact, similar to the goblins we once faced at the subterranean floors far, far below us.”
Para hissed thoughtfully before she continued. “But after that … the aberrations seed to co from similar creatures that are short and spry like goblins. But they have horns on their heads, and small leathery wings behind their backs, and spaded tails.”
Zarian used Aura Mastery Identify for an in-depth review on a corpse similar to how Para described it. He told the others what he saw from the notification.
“They attacked differently, too,” Gilbert explained. “The hits from them were harder and a little smarter whenever they got a clue. They tried to jump up and over a lot. And they had a nasty heat coming off their bodies that was unique to them. They still burned from all of that flammable sli stuff, though, but I think they burned slower compared to the goblin versions.”
“That last part in the expanded details makes think there are more versions than just the base form of them we’ve faced,” Hannah pointed out. “It seems like the Grimrock Warlock has exhausted her own kind and is relying on reinforcents from Hidden Hell.”
“If that’s the case, we might face a Hell Break scenario,” Gilbert said.
Everyone paused and looked at Gilbert. Even Bianca tilted her head to emote her surprise, since nobody could see past the shining light covering her face.
“Oh, co on! Don’t you think I’d read from Reiki’s library, too? Especially for sothing like this?” The man looked around, his steely blue eyes eting everyone’s gaze, or trying to in Bianca’s case.
“I know you read from the library. But I thought all you read was raunchy stuff,” Zarian said.
Gilbert rolled his eyes. “As God’s realest soldier, I figured it’ll be wise to study up on the forces of evil so I can fight them before I pass on and see the big pearly gates at the end of my journey.”
Zarian snorted. “Unlikely, since you may live forever, but go on.”
Gilbert opened his mouth, ready to refute, before stopping himself with a grunt.
He picked up where he last left off. “Well, the chance of facing the forces of hell and ramming a shield into their ugly, horny faces sounds about right to . So, yeah, I looked it up, and it’s a sha I don’t have the right stuff to hit demons and such where it hurts, but we’re better off fighting them because of the freedom alignnt.”
“Fuck yeah,” Naomi said coolly, arms crossed. She looked amped up and ready for more carnage. “Demon slaying sounds fun.”
“Well, I’m just as aware as you are Gilbert about what we’re facing, maybe even more so since I got the right stuff for researching,” Hannah said. “I also have so curiosities that must be fulfilled, such as if I can overco the evil nature of hell runes and infernal enchantnts. Apparently, nothing but warlocks and similar types can understand that stuff without feeling damned.”
“Bianca and I got to deal with so demon guy in Bramblevale way back,” Naomi said, looking up at the much, much taller Bianca. “He had so nifty trick in boosting his peons by sacrificing their life energy or whatnot. So it was definitely one of those evil power-ups that co with a big cost.”
“NO BUENO!” Bianca bellowed.
“For so strange reason, I feel very connected with Bianca as she is right now even when she seems more puzzling to ,” Para said, her snake heads turned up to the transford Light Princess. “Though it is a sha that her sub alignnt is exhausted and we will be without Overwhelming Darkness for so ti.”
“Yeah, it looks like we’re in for a real hell crawl,” Zarian said.
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“Perhaps, so,” Para said. “But we still have so contingencies for when we need to … ‘crash out’ … such as Naomi’s Even Further Beyond and Aura Ignition. Or Hannah’s bombs-making. Timing their uses will be important if the Grimrock Warlock and Shadowfell have more surprises in wait.”
“More importantly, I think we should assu the Grimrock Warlock is a Master Ranker,” Zarian added. “I think Foodie, the gnolls, and everyone else who thought she was weak are wrong.”
Everyone nodded their heads in agreent.
Zarian sighed. “It should’ve been obvious now that I think about it. Foodie’s dad was a freaking Level 200 Champion. Why wouldn’t the mom be in the Level 100s at the very least?”
Bianca sent so impressions through the spider network detailing how sad she felt for Foodie. The poor goblin cook had been tricked, abused, isolated, and toyed with for a long ti by a scheming mother.
Yes, Foodie had so stellar advantages. She was mythical, after all. She was possibly the strongest goblin anyone would ever see. But she’d been through so much, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she ca out traumatized.
“Well, we’re here now. I know we took the roundabout way to do it. But I think we have what it takes to handle a problem that an army of adventurers and crusaders can’t handle,” Zarian said, trying to keep his head up and play his role as the determined leader.
He also felt bad about Foodie’s situation and for making her wait so long. But he had to believe they’d done the best they could to get to this point, and he had to make the others believe that, too.
“Is there anything else holding us back?” Naomi asked.
Zarian looked in the direction where the paladins had retreated. Their divine barrier had disappeared. The Good Gods had fled with their chosen avatars, Lovewar included.
Turning around, he looked across the flaming field of aberration corpses and artillery craters.
He checked on the spider scouts and found a hundred of them had gone silent or MIA after entering Castle Grimrock. The spider scouts waiting outside gave impressions of so nasty energies wafting off the castle itself.
So spiders felt sick from being close to the castle.
There was certainly so infernal type of stuff going on there.
Maybe I might get another elental trait, Zarian thought.
It would be quite fruitful for us if you do, Para added privately.
Zarian nodded as he looked into the blaze roaring between the Floridians and Castle Grimrock. A cautionary thought ca to mind.
“Maybe we should prevent mountain fires from spreading before we go,” Zarian said.
“Allow ,” Hannah said.
A few minutes later, crystalline and bright blue cots streaked down from the dark clouds above. They struck the flaming battlefield with a quieter result compared to the last artillery strikes. But the effect wasn’t any less magical.
Hissing bursts and shards of ice magic spread and combatted the flas. Thick clouds of steam released into the air as ice and fire fought for supremacy. The ice gained more and more ground as the artillery bombardnt carried on for ten minutes.
Zarian nodded in satisfaction as all the flas snuffed out. So areas had thick sheens of ice covering them. Other areas flooded with boiling water and steam.
The corpses of the aberrations looked even more battered and diminished. Zarian might have to co back and clean those up to avoid the further spreading of Enhanced Shadowfell Tears.
He and Para weren’t hungry, but he imagined they would have quite the feast. He should thank the wife one of these days.
“Onward,” Zarian said.
He rose into the air and flew forward. Hannah joined him in the air. Naomi and Gilbert jumped down to link up with Loner riding on Slip’s back.
With a flap of her golden wings, Bianca launched into the air. She followed behind the others like their overly large guardian angel.
Nothing ca out to greet them from Castle Grimrock. None of the aberrations jumped up from death.
“No necromancy?” Hannah asked.
“It doesn’t work with these things,” Zarian said.
He glanced down at the field of battered, shredded, burnt to ash, and frozen corpses. It looked like they were crossing over a layer of Hidden Hell already.
“None of them are humanoid enough, I imagine?” Hannah asked.
“Bingo bango you get a mango,” Zarian said thoughtlessly.
Hannah tilted her head curiously at the saying.
Sowhere from down below, Naomi looked up sharply, having caught the conversation. Nobody said anything more about it.
They reached the massive front gate of Castle Grimrock, which was three tis taller than even Bianca. It looked like a giant mouth with fanged teeth ready to chomp down.
The moat surrounding the castle contained old dead things and slled like rotten eggs. The black and tallic wood from the drawbridge they crossed over slled even worse.
The entire castle gave off so awful vibes that were more present when close up.
Sharing her impression, Bianca expressed how she hated the castle and found it all icky.
“Infernal magic,” Zarian said. “What’s your take, everyone?”
“It hurts to scan this stuff,” Hannah said. “The infernal enchantnts are high quality. Baseline legendary. Through their sheer nature, it’s thwarting what I can do. When we go in there, I will be less effective.”
“It’s using vitality draining stuff,” Gilbert chid in. “Most likely a curse or two. That’s why we lost all the spiders that went in there. God rest their souls.”
“It’s ntally screwy,” Naomi added. “It’s got so subtle mind-fuck magic going on. And it’s strong as hell, because it’s getting through my free for real 3. I’m catching it and pushing it away with my skill.”
“That’s troubling,” Zarian said.
Because of his Floridian Mindset, he and Para would be unaffected. Naomi would go unaffected, too, simply because of her class.
Naomi continued where she left off. “Because we got the freedom alignnt, it’ll be slow to work on any of us. But if you’re away from for too long and you’re not Zarian, Para, and Loner, it’ll do sothing terrible to your head.”
“Last but not least, this place is going to strike at our aura,” Zarian explained. “Right, Para?”
“Very much so. The castle is fiendishly hungry. Which is making angry. I don’t like anything eating from . It is I who will eat.” Para hissed from her snake mouths. “Nonetheless, I can push back this fiendish curse as long as we’re in the sa section together. However, the walls will make it very hard to spread our aura beyond their boundaries.”
“Exactly,” Zarian said. “So, to sum that up. We have infernal enchantnts that are legendary and painful for Hannah to scan. We have a vitality draining curse. We have a mind fucking curse. And an aura sucking curse. Whelp, I guess it’s damn great of Ruvaria to give us those cursed items.”
“It’s almost as if she knew we would face these problems and had us prepared,” Hannah said dryly.
“I’m still wondering if going from the top is supposed to be better,” Gilbert grumbled.
“We’re here now. Ain’t no point trying to turn this whole thing around. Besides, the better the challenge, the better the growth.” Naomi looked at Zarian expectantly.
“Make sure your skills are where you need them, everyone,” Zarian ordered.
Hannah switched Mystic Rush Tank 2 from alpha to beta, her Rune Scan 2 going to alpha. Naomi switched Mind Spike 2 to beta and placed Tranquil Mind 3 in the alpha section.
The biggest surprise ca from Bianca, who sent an impression of her switching Light Construction 2 to beta and Shining Mark 2 to alpha. That was a loud declaration from Bianca about the role she would play.
She’s going to focus on supporting this ti, Zarian thought.
But with her current mighty form, she could dominate from the front if she wishes, Para thought. She really can be quite hard to understand. I’ve never realized that until now. Wow.
Ah, yes, welco to being completely thrown off by Bianca being Bianca, Zarian thought with so humor. You’re really becoming a person now.
Para didn’t reply.
Everyone was ready, so Zarian waved them forth.
Naomi took the point woman position. Gilbert, Slip, and Loner followed right behind her. Zarian moved by foot at the midrange.
Staying close to the Madness Wizard, Hannah and her enchanted gear hovered above the floor. Her face was pinched with focus as she battled the infernal enchantnts, determined to read their runes and learn their otherworldly secrets.
Zarian kept a close watch on Hannah while Para pushed her aura out to combat the aura curse. Gilbert kept the party’s vitality charged up, and Naomi sent out pulses from Tranquil Mind 3 to cleanse ntal curses.
Pulling up from the rear, the giant monster princess moved with her wings folded around her body. Her taloned feet stepped down behind them with unexpected grace. Her shining face turned this way and that to examine the setting. Her dislike of the castle rippled through the spider network.
Ahead of the Floridians, brave spiders crawled forward to play their roles as scouts, searching for traps and enemies. They couldn’t go too far forward from the Floridians. Or they would succumb to the many curses coursing around this place.
With this, they had their main formation, and they were all needed to do their part. It didn’t take long for Castle Grimrock to reveal the full horror of what the Floridians would face as blue screens appeared above their heads once they crossed a certain hellish threshold.
Zarian couldn’t help himself. He smiled under the darkness of his monstrous wizard hat. “If only this was a dungeon. I can really use so Doom music.”
Hannah took out a runic sound device from her satchel and put the rectangular thing into orbit around her body. She played so jams that mixed dieval instrunts with rock ballads.
Zarian chuckled. It was these little things that made having a team worth it.
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