Gaius Antonius Omake #76 - The Day of Fate, Part 5: Desolation
"You know what? I don't feel bad about skipping challenges anymore." Gaius smirked, feeling a pleasant warmth at his back from what was no doubt a horrible fire up above. "This fucking place wants to throw armies of enemies at me? I'm going to loot as much as I can, no more games."
Scylla burbled in agreement, still exhausted from the titanic struggle on the previous floor.
"Yeah, fuck these caves. From this point forward, all we gotta worry about is winning." Once more, Gaius retrieved Abel's breathing mask and pressed it to his face, taking slow, deliberate breaths. "This one, then two more, and we can ascend."
There was only one word for it: blessed. Gaius was truly, amazingly blessed that this cave network let him use his signature traversal so freely. Even if he couldn't skip floors, just being able to bypass so many problems was a major boon. After all, in a place like this, wounds added up, bringing one's downfall bit by bit, so digging under this magical conflagration rather than risk his body was invaluable.
Once the air in his bubble grew too thin to bear any longer, Gaius pressed the breathing mask to his face. Another ten minutes or so was more than enough. Just like the last chamber, this one was miles wide, though still not quite as large as that battlefield. Earth-Gliding was more than fast enough to cross it in one go though; the far wall was already in view, another barrier similar to the ones between the floors. Now that Gaius knew they existed, he could sense them if he focused.
Emerging from the ground, Gaius stiffened at the sensation of heat at his back as the billowing flames blew hot wind all over the place. No need to even look back at that nightmare, he thought.
Turning to the exit, The Seeker beheld a grotesque statue, a demon with a twisted body, mocking the human form through its very existence. From a snarling maw, its tongue emerged, a single drop of liquid beading on the tip. It was blood, because of course it was fucking blood again, and grey smoke curled around it, seemingly emerging from the drop itself.
…the cave was safe, sort of. The cave had strict rules, and it abided by them, one of these rules being that there were no useless prizes. That much was well-known, and Gaius repeated this to himself again and again as he stepped under the statue. He was not being poisoned, he was not being possessed, these gifts were genuine, even if it seemed like the most obvious corruption in the world.
"Again with the macabre shit. Just give me some rare materials, won't you? Don't make me drink this shit." Gaius grumbled, though he couldn't really be mad. "Now, I wonder what kind of blood you are…"
Opening his mouth wide and sticking out his tongue, Gaius reached up and tapped his finger against the statue, making the droplet ripple and tremble. Ever so carefully, he kept it up not being hasty, not wanting to spill or waste his reward. Finally, the surface tension broke, and the blood fell onto Gaius' tongue.
The memory which assaulted Gaius this time was not of tangible, comprehensible experience but of heat. Of experiencing it, and of
being it. Bubbling, roaring, surging, cracking, guttering. His limbs seized up and shook violently as a searing phantom pain assaulted his nerves, and the primal idea of flame itself was imprinted directly onto Gaius' body, qi and soul.
Pitching forward, Gaius fell to his knees, panting breathlessly as steam rose from his skin, the moisture in his body slowly boiling away under the sheer intensity of the infusion. Unnatural dark red flames spread across his skin, onto his hair, into his mouth, but while the ravenous heat tormented his senses, his flesh did not actually cook. Gaius would endure this pain; he could take much more than this.
After a few minutes, the fire flickered out, sinking into his skin and settling inside his veins and meridians. Gaius got back to his feet, dazed and dehydrated but otherwise feeling no worse for wear. In his mind was a single word, placed there by some recorded knowledge or arcane force:
Blood Forge.
——
The twelfth chamber, more than anything, was disjointed. The tunnel opened right into another entrance, this one tilted noticeably to the side. Cautiously stepping through, Gaius found himself in not the rough, natural-looking chambers that were the prior floors, but something more obviously artificial. This was a building; an entire stone structure, some castle or temple or
something, jammed into a single chamber of the Cloud Caves.
This was not the sort of stone that lined the cave walls, but pale yellow sandstone. Gaius stepped around a deep, wide crack which split the room in two, running his hand along a wall. A script he did not recognize was carved into the sandstone in neat, blocky characters - a message, or a warning?
As he continued further down, it became more and more clear that this was not the sort of structure the Cloud Caves produced on their own. The architecture was different, and it had clearly not been maintained in the slightest. Walls had holes in them or had crumbled entirely, doors had fallen off their hinges, carvings and statues were unrecognizable, worn smooth by the passage of time.
Down a spiral staircase and into a wide-open chamber, Gaius was once more confronted with destruction. A huge statue, its head long since gone, brandished some unrecognizable object. Before it was a stone slab, upon which neatly-stacked piles of stones sat. Array circles surrounded the slab, glowing an eerie green, and before Gaius could consider the situation, an identical series of circles sprung up around his own feet.
The stones shook, then levitated into the air, clustering together until they formed a humanoid shape. Qi began pooling in the construct, elevating higher and higher until it peaked in the Thirteenth heavenstage. Gaius drew his sword and fell back into a defensive stance, ready to fight, but then something went wrong.
One segment of the array circle flickered and sparked, unstable qi bursting hither and thither, steaming out in random directions. The construct's qi began to climb once more. One-Pillar, Two, Three, Four, it wasn't slowing down at all. Gaius leapt backwards repeatedly, putting over fifty feet of distance between himself and this golem. Yet further it climbed, reaching a level of strength equivalent to Great Circle Foundation and breaking through even that.
"I don't think that's right. Administrator!? System!? You fucked it up again!" Gaius' gaze darted around as he fruitlessly as he called for something, anything that could help. He backed up a few steps, and the golem, mercifully, did not advance, merely shaking and spasming in place, as if figuring out how to use its own body. This was, apparently, really going to happen, it was just a thing now.
This was wrong, horribly wrong. Ten thousand Qi-Draining Bats? Sure, that was a challenge built for a true legend of Qi Condensation. But a Core enemy? That wasn't a challenge, it was a plan and simple execution. It couldn't be a test, because absolutely anything the entrant brought forth would be inevitably invalidated by the two realm difference. Therefore, whatever system created this golem had to be broken.
Gaius snarled as the doppelganger, looking more and more like Gaius by the second, began to advance on him with jerky, uncoordinated footsteps. He took off toward the nearest door, drawing his Celestial Bronze dagger. "I didn't come all this way to get done in by a clerical error!" He cried out defiantly, impaling the blade into the ceiling and dragging it as he ran, cleanly cutting through the stone as he went.
The golem advanced, quickly eating up the distance between the two, only for the ceiling to collapse on top of it as it entered the doorway, caving in and leaving a hallway filled with debris between the two.
"Alright, this is doable!" Gaius declared as he took a direction he was pretty sure led to the exit. "Just don't let him catch me!"
Several minutes later, The Seeker felt like he was no closer to escape; the continuous erosion made everything in here look just about the same, all smooth, dreary beige. Several more minutes, and it was all the same; he was pretty sure he'd been going up, which was probably wrong; the caves go down, after all.
These thoughts were rudely interrupted as, with a loud crash, the wall beside Gaius was smashed down, and an impact crashed into a hastily-raised shield. He went sailing, smashing through the opposite wall and into another hallway entirely, before embedding his body a few inches into a second wall. In that moment, he caught a glimpse of the golem; it looked kind of like Gaius, though still badly misshapen. It was more like an insulting caricature.
Was this the end? Was he about to be killed here and now? Gaius forced breath back into his lungs, dashed down the corridor and into a small chamber off to the side, ready to mount a desperate defense-
Only for the clone to run right past him. It didn't even turn its head, just rushing down the hallway at top speed as if the room weren't there. Gaius blinked, then blinked again, wondering if perhaps a trick had been played on him. Then, he doubled over and clasped both hands over his nose and mouth, desperately trying not to laugh and give his position away.
What a piece of shit! Not only was the clone too strong, it barely functioned! Its senses were dull, its intelligence was rudimentary and it attacked in straight lines. For these reasons alone, Gaius remained alive, creeping through the halls slowly and quietly, rather than trying to rush to the end. The ground shook and chips of stone fell from above as if, spurred on by the original's derisive thoughts, the clone smashed through a wall somewhere. Perhaps it saw a rat move.
But how was Gaius to actually win here? If this was truly an accident rather than an intended challenge, then what was he meant to do? The Caves had simply given this enemy too much power. Given it too much… Given…
That's right! This power was not the clone's norm, but provided through the surrounding arrays, which themselves were being fueled by the caves. Without those, it was nothing but a doll! The golem was held together only by Gaius' presence in the ruins, which allowed it to take his shape, so without him there, it would return to its passive state. Gaius had to believe this, not just because it made sense, but because if it was true, it meant he could win.
Ducking into a dark room, Gaius held his breath as his doppelganger came by again, peering down the hallway. After several excruciatingly tense moments, it left, stalking off to look elsewhere; at the speed it ate up ground, that bought him another minute to freely move.
Shadows danced in the light of flickering torches, burning within brazierres of a strange design Gaius didn't recognize. Every step risked ruin, and the maze-like hallways of the ruin made it no easier. Occasionally, Gaius would find a wide-open area, which he would avoid like a plague. Sound would echo far too much in those places.
From the statues inserted into alcoves in the walls, the big, wide open spaces with high ceilings, and the smaller chambers which seemingly served no purpose but to house big, flat raised slabs, this probably was a temple. A place where some long-forgotten deity was worshipped, or some ancient cultivation method was performed. A piece of history, of culture, swallowed up by this gaping maw in the earth.
Finally, blessedly, The Seeker found his way out: a staircase leading out into… well, not outside, but the outside part of the chamber. Bounding up and out in a few quick leaps, Gaius found himself on the flat roof of the ruined building, cracked and bent and crooked. Spiritually reinforced or not, this place was clearly on its last legs, and in a few more centuries it would be entirely broken. In a strange way, he felt grateful that he got to see it.
Heavy steps seemed to shake the world itself, seemed to become one with Gaius' thundering heartbeat, as the golem once more caught onto Gaius' position and went for the stairs as well. Gaius sprinted across the roof, reaching the edge just as the clone reached the top of the stairs. Before him was a towering tree, one of many plants growing out of and all over the ruined building. Past it, the finish line was a mere twenty feet away, the chamber's exit beckoning like the doorway to a comfortable home.
A few more seconds, and Gaius would be at the goal. He needed merely to jump onto this tree, then jump off an outcropping branch, which would take him across the finish line. He landed, already in a crouch, muscles ready to explode into action, when a shadow fell upon him from above.
The clone was already there - of course it was, it was in Core Formation. Gaius would not see the attack coming, and there was no time to look anyway. This single instant would determine the outcome.
The clone would launch an attack at the ground, and Gaius' leap would just barely clear the blast zone. He would reach the branch at the same time as the clone, who would swing his sword right through Gaius' neck. To avoid that outcome, Gaius would keep his head up as he landed, then duck down, making the clone miss. Then he would leap forward and be impaled before crossing the line, unable to avoid a Core Formation attack in any way while mid-air.
Jump higher? No, he would still be hit. To the side? No, he would be cleaved in two. Every option led to death. Another precious millisecond ticked by as Gaius' instincts tried to concoct a way out. The clone! Was there anything about the clone which could be exploited? It was like Gaius, but in Early Core Formation and made of stone; what part of that could be its undoing?
What was the catch that made this chamber possible for someone in Qi Condensation? What was the cave doing to balance out this near-certain death? What had it given him?
"The tree, the tree is rotten! The loser is he who trusts in the foothold and not his own power!"
The moment passed, and the clone swung its sword down, but Gaius had already jumped. The ground exploded, kicking up debris, and the clone leapt to intercept him. Rather than land on the branch, Gaius twisted in mid-air, vaulting over the obstacle and falling to the ground. The clone landed on the branch, inchoate power swirling around its blade as it brought forth the full might of its body-
crack
The branch broke, unable to hold up its stone body. The clone flung its sword, but the attack went just wide, missing The Seeker's head by inches. He dashed forward, completing the final step and crossing the finish line.
The doppelganger cried out in frustration as its body crumbled, losing coherence and devolving into a pile of ordinary stones. Beneath this outer layer, an amorphous film filled with qi and fluid was revealed, presumably the impostor's true essence.
Gaius backed against the wall, panting, as the Floor Guardian's essence burst out into a blue-white haze, saturating the air with qi. Gaius drank deeply, taking in more and more until his channels were full to bursting, but that wasn't even one percent. "Come on, I can't use any of this…" Gaius muttered, clicking his tongue in disappointment.
Without any warning or explanation, Scylla leapt out of her tank and transformed, swimming restlessly through the air above the doorway. Gaius at first wondered if his companion had been hurt, but she seemed totally fine, if strangely shaken. No, Scylla was… cultivating?
That wasn't the right word for it, because she didn't seem to be developing herself further. Indeed, in this False Foundation Building form, such a thing was not possible. Rather than cycling through her dantian, Scylla endlessly sucked the energy into her beast core, where it spiralled into the mysterious organ and vanished from Gaius' senses. Wordlessly the fish continued, locking away more and more power for hours on end until the entire golem had been consumed. When her transformation dissipated, she mustered up enough strength to jump back into the tank, but otherwise remained in that trance for the entire duration.
Finally, the blue haze faded, leaving only a newly-cleared chamber. Gaius couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated; not only could his companion perform whatever internal development she was doing after her cultivation itself was halted, but she could do it when Gaius was held up as well. "Did you have a nice meal?" He asked, to a very groggy response. "Take your time, there's no rush. We'll do the next one when you're ready."
—-
From the very first moment, the thirteenth floor was odd. The narrow tunnel opened up to a vista far vaster in scope than any of the three prior floors, so wide that no walls were visible. Stranger still the sky was wide open, no ceiling in sight either, and the sun beat down from above as intensely as the real one. All that could be seen was endless rolling dunes, dry and desolate and uninviting.
Was he outside? Gaius turned back and peered into the hallway he came from. It sloped upward, as expected. Perplexed, he crossed the threshold, then turned back to see… nothing. The entrance was gone as well.
"That's fine." Gaius muttered. "Fuck with space all you want, I'll still win."
Gaius walked at a slow pace with quiet steps, all of his senses opened to the world around him. In every way, this desert was like a void; the wind carried no taste or smell but that of the sand, which itself was nothing but raw sediment, free of even microbial life. It all looked the same too, as if born from one single titanic stone, ground up into identical grains. The wind blew slowly, just loud enough to hear as it crested over the taller dunes.
Seeing all this, Gaius was sure that there must be no qi at all, but even that was wrong. There was actually an amazing amount of qi in the air, by a desert-dweller's standards at least. Not enough to cultivate meaningfully(not that he could, with nowhere left to put the qi), but enough to sustain him indefinitely. With this much qi in the air, there should have been more, should have been water and plantlife and soil that wasn't so devoid of moisture. It felt deeply unnatural, as if life itself had been banished from this place.
Though he remained on his guard for hours, nothing answered Gaius but the howling of the wind over the dunes. Nothing attacked him, and nothing changed; it was as if the cave itself had become indifferent to his existence. Gaius smirked and sat down cross-legged with his arms crossed. This was definitely an odd one, but if it was patience they wanted, Gaius had that in spades.
What would it be? A sandworm, perhaps? Or an elemental spirit? Or perhaps the desert itself was his enemy, filled with nearly-undetectable traps. There was no rush, no need to hastily expose himself. Gaius would wait for something to disturb him, and if nothing came within a few days, only then would he search.
Once he realized that Scylla's tank was no longer on his back, Gaius was embarrassed at how long it had taken him to notice. Checking their Beast Bond link, he could feel beyond a shadow of a doubt that Scylla was entirely unharmed, but trying to feel the distance, he got nothing but jumbled nonsense signals. He called out for her over and over, both verbally and mentally, but got no response. At the very least, she seemed perfectly fine in every way; perhaps she had been excluded from the chamber.
When an entire week had passed with absolutely nothing happening, Gaius began to walk. The sun didn't move, remaining right in the middle of the sky at all times, so he simply chose a random direction and moved in what he hoped was a straight line. After hours of travel, no landmarks came into view, no life could be sensed, and the dunes continued on endlessly.
Frustrated with the lack of progress, Gaius dove beneath the earth and rocketed ahead, surfacing when needed, and continued like that for days. Still nothing. No matter how far The Seeker traveled, it all remained the same. The same heat, the same dryness, the same world of yellow and white and blue.
After six months, Gaius realized his body was not wasting away. Qi Condensation still needed to eat, and he had long since succumbed to hunger and consumed his ration tins. No matter how long he went without the things he needed, his body would not degrade. In a sick sense, he'd attained the ultimate goal of every Cultivator, here in this trial.
Giving up on hope of finding answers under his own power, Gaius came to the obvious conclusion: the waiting
was the point. A test of endurance, to reach a prize. He could do this easily.
After five years, Gaius was angry. He would rather just fight something to the death - that way he would have power over his own fate. Being made to wait for so long was humiliating. Most people would have lost their sanity already, with nothing at all to do, not even cultivation, but Gaius stubbornly kept at it, making a bulwark of his resolve and facing down the emptiness.
After ten years, Gaius began to train. He had already been performing his daily routines, but it had taken a long time for it to sink in that his body was truly needless now. He could not improve himself physically, kept in this eternal physical stagnation, but he could hone his skills. Every move, every technique, every maneuver Gaius had ever learned, he practiced millions of times over the coming decades. When his qi was spent, he waited until the air topped him back up; having no material needs, there was no reason to rest beyond that.
The Aegis grew in leaps and bounds through this endless experimentation, taking on greater shapes and numbers with increasing ease. So too did the Blood Forge Constitution make itself known, through experimentation rather than instruction. The crimson fire danced at his command, equal parts Fire, Soul and Metal, reshaping his weapons however he wished and burning targets with destructive force. Nonetheless, the flames felt hollow, and Gaius knew in his soul that it was incomplete.
After fifty years, Gaius tried to call down his tribulation.
He did it on a whim, as boredom hollowed out his mind. Everyone has limits, after all, and whatever prize lay at the end of this trial was no longer worth it. Perhaps if he could ascend now, it would enable him to find his way out of the chamber.
The lightning did not come. Static electricity exploded all around his body, raging randomly, trying to call down the power of Heaven, but there was no answer. Wherever Gaius was, he was utterly isolated, and not even divine judgment could find him. He fell to his knees and wailed in despair.
——
I feel like this one perhaps ended up a little rushed. In truth, I wanted to get to the cliffhanger relatively quickly, because it makes for a pretty good point to leave the Cave off for a while while I work in some more collabs.
Don't have too much to say about these floors. The first two were not particularly inspiring to me, and the real meat of the thirteenth chamber is being saved for the next chapter. Ah well, they can't all be big winners.
