Divine Apostasy Book 7 - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The Adepts gathered around Ruwen and Sift. Directly across from their location sat a chest, almost hidden in the fog.

Ruwen pointed at it. “That chest appears the most level with the plateau. The distance and angles are difficult to determine exactly though, so I have a few other options if this one isn’t it.”

“Should we all go?” Nymthus asked.

“From the look of Rung One when they returned today, I would say yes,” Sift offered.

“I agree,” Ruwen said. “Although with this many people, and the steep terrain, we will need to assemble in rings.”

Nymthus disappeared over the edge as she started down the path, and the rest of the Adepts followed. Ruwen kept an even stride and counted the steps down the slope, then the flat area of the canyon floor, carefully stepping over the odd round rocks, and finally up the opposite side. The canyon’s incline on the side with the chest wasn’t as steep, and they made quick progress toward the chest.

Sift turned slightly toward Ruwen and signed in Shade Speak. Understand. Problem. Now.

As the Adepts grouped ten feet away from the chest, Ruwen waited a moment to see if anyone else realized the issues with just picking a chest at the same level as their camp.

No one spoke and Ruwen guessed it might take a few trips for them to see why this trial proved far more complicated than it appeared, even when you knew the point of it. Although the walk here had revealed an obvious way to make it easier.

“Who wants to go first?” Ruwen asked.

No one moved and Sift took a step forward. “I’ll get us started.”

Sift reached into the small hidden pocket near his hip and after a moment turned and looked down at it. After a few seconds, he stood up straight and slowly turned to face Ruwen.

“I hate that golem,” Sift said.

Ruwen didn’t let the smile reach his face. “Maybe if you were nicer, golems would stop singling you out.” Before Sift could argue, Ruwen held out his hand. “Tarot?”

A heartbeat later, Tarot rearranged himself in Ruwen’s hair and a key launched outward, perfectly landing in Ruwen’s palm. “Thanks, Tarot.”

Ruwen handed the key to Sift, who had not stopped glaring at the hidden golem on Ruwen’s head. Ruwen messaged Sift in Shade Speak. You. Nice. Benefit.

Sift sighed and gritted his teeth and then spoke. “Thanks, Tarot.”

Sift shook his head at Ruwen and turned toward the chest.

The interaction had brought Tarot to the front of Ruwen’s thoughts though, along with the bad luck the golem brought, and he cleared his throat. “Uh, maybe we shouldn’t open the one I picked.”

Sift paused. “Where’s the next chest you would choose?”

Ruwen pointed to the right. “There are two not that far away.”

“Okay,” Sift said. “If this chest is something bad, we know your bad luck affects us. But it will help us pick the next chest.”

Ruwen understood. “If it’s bad, we go left, away from what I would have done next.” Ruwen frowned. “That’s about a quarter of the way around the canyon, though. Maybe we’re overthinking this.”

“One of us is for sure,” Sift said, raising his eyebrows. “Look, we already know this is a test chest, so we might as well use it to figure out how bad your luck is.”

“A Test?” Prythus asked. “This isn’t the right chest?”

“Ruwen doesn’t think so,” Sift replied.

All the Adepts looked at Ruwen and he offered an explanation. “I’m ninety-nine percent sure this isn’t the right chest, but it’s possible I’ve over thought this whole trial and complicated it for no reason. In which case, this has a high probability of being correct.”

Everyone looked confused, so Ruwen clarified. “I’m pretty sure this isn’t it.”

“But not one hundred percent?” Nymthus asked.

Ruwen bit his lip.

Sift sighed. “Let’s just open this one. We’re already here, and it will help us decide where to go.”

Ruwen nodded.

The chest was four feet long and three feet high. Teak wood covered the sides and curved lid, but the golden color had long since faded to a dirty brown. Black iron hinges held the rear of the lid in place, while a dull metal lock secured the front. It looked just like the thousands of other chests circling the canyon.

The Adepts formed three circles around the chest. An inner circle of four surrounded Sift and the chest, the middle ring held eight, and the outer twelve. Ruwen stood between the inner and middle circles as Sift approached the chest.

Sift bent down and hesitated before placing the key in the lock. He looked back at Ruwen, his head almost upside down. “Do you sense anything funny?”

Ruwen had studied the chest since the moment they’d approached. In the Spirit of the trials, he hadn’t used any of his abilities or spells, but that still left his heightened senses and Perception.

“It doesn’t look, smell, or sound any different from the other nearby chests,” Ruwen told Sift. “I can taste it if that would make you feel better. You know how I love the flavor of dusty teak.”

Sift turned back to the chest. “You can lick the next one.”

Sift place the key into the lock, turned it, and grabbed the lid.

The faint scent of acid reached Ruwen, and an almost undetectable sound of teeth grinding.

As Sift opened the lid, Ruwen shouted. “Wait!”

But it was too late.

Sift realized it a moment later when enough of the lid opened to reveal a giant mouth full of teeth. He jerked backward with Gold Fortified speed, but his left hand remained stuck to the lid and the loud pop of his shoulder dislocating made Ruwen wince.

To resist Sift’s Gold Strength, the chest must weigh a massive amount, and whatever it had used to trap Sift’s hand now covered the entire chest.

“Don’t touch it!” Ruwen yelled at the other Adepts.

Two arms, shaped like worms, shot outward from the side of the chest toward the Adepts in the inner circle. The first Adept smashed the tip of the tendril with a savage punch and the chest shuddered. But just like Sift, the Adept’s fist remained stuck, and the chest yanked him forward.

The other tendril neared a second Adept, and they executed the Bamboo Step Swirling Leaf to spin away. But unlike an arrow or bolt the tendril shifted direction and grazed the Adept’s hip. With a fierce twist, the fabric over their hip ripped away, leaving a ragged piece of cloth stuck to the creature’s arm.

Two more arms emerged from the other side of the chest, and both launched toward Sift. He viciously yanked his arm back, and the chest wobbled. Ruwen guessed Sift’s Gold Fortified body worked against him here, as his skin didn’t rip away like the cloth had.

Ruwen triggered Last Breath to give himself more time to think as Sift narrowly contorted his body to avoid the chest’s two punches.

If Ruwen attacked the chest directly, he might suffer the same fate as Sift, stuck to the chest by some extraordinary type of glue. Touching the creature to damage it wasn’t necessary, as his Diamond strikes created enough of a shock wave to devastate anything with a poor Armor Class. Unfortunately, that included all the nearby Adepts.

Ruwen’s Inventory had plenty of options to fight. Everything from a lubrication potion to counteract the adhesive to Bliz’s seven crystal Crazor set that Ruwen could use to slice the creature into pieces. He had ten Blessed Bricks from his fight with the Bone Sculptor outside Uru’s Third Temple, thirty-seven head-sized boulders, and three eight-foot boulders he could launch from his Void Band at the beast. But he knew that would break the rules, and he discarded that line of thinking.

The Strength difference between Gold and Diamond Fortification made it likely that Ruwen could lift and slam the creature into the ground until it stopped attacking, but he wasn’t positive, and he didn’t want to risk that unless necessary.

This creature negated all the advantages of the Bamboo Viper Steps. It reminded him of how vulnerable the lack of a non-magical distant attack made him. With all the limitations on what he, or any of the Adepts could do, only one solution seemed viable. An embarrassingly primitive one.

Ruwen left Last Breath and shouted. “Inner Adepts toss dirt. Outer grab rocks and throw.”

The Adepts stood paralyzed, unable to counteract the creature’s attacks, but Ruwen’s voice shocked them into action. The tendril with the piece of cloth attacked the Adept with the stuck fist, breaking their rib. The lid opened further, throwing Sift off balance, and a massive mouth, lined with teeth, opened wide. A long tongue, thick as an arm, flicked its end, and a stream of liquid arced toward an inner circle Adept.

Ruwen jumped forward, blocking with his chest what he guessed from the smell was a strong acid. His shirt melted and his skin warmed from the reaction. He winced at the strong odor, but the acid didn’t affect his skin.

Sift dodged two more punching attacks, screaming in pain as his movements forced him to twist his dislocated shoulder. With a violent punch to his shoulder, he popped the joint back into its socket.

“You’re licking the next one,” Sift hissed through the pain.

Ruwen punched the ground next to the chest, not using his full strength to avoid blowing out all the Adepts’ eardrums. The ground absorbed the pressure wave and flipped the chest onto its side, leaving it standing like a four-foot pillar.

Two of the creature’s tendrils were now pinned under its own weight. Dirt fell like rain around them as the three remaining Inner Adepts obeyed Ruwen’s command.

The Adept stuck to the tendril by their fist had been thrown to the ground when the chest flipped, and dirt now covered both him and the beast’s limb. Understanding the point of the soil, the Adept punched the tendril repeatedly, the dirt absorbing the glue the creature oozed, making it safe to touch.

Rocks struck the creature as the outer ring Adepts entered the fight. The beast shuddered and used the two free tendrils on the top side of the chest to swat them away. The tongue crawled around Sift’s hand that remained stuck to the lid, and quickly wrapped his arm.

With a pop, Sift’s hand came free as the creature released it. Sift jerked his arm back with a twist of his hips, as if trying to rip the tongue from the creature’s teeth filled mouth. Instead, the creature fell toward Sift, its mouth widening into a large oval.

Sift jumped backward, but the tongue remained attached, and he only quickened the beast’s fall.

Ruwen clenched a handful of dirt and slammed his palm upward, stopping the creature’s mouth inches from Sift’s head.

Saliva mixed with acid dripped onto Sift and Ruwen. Sift’s Cultivator clothes remained unaffected, passing the acid through to Sift’s skin, which turned red but didn’t blister.

Ruwen’s cotton shirt disintegrated as the liquid covered him. The creature strained against his grip but couldn’t overcome his Diamond Fortified strength. The creature’s upper arms stopped blocking rocks and began punching him. But the beast’s own acid saliva kept the tendrils from sticking and the blows had no effect on him.

Sift and Ruwen stayed like that for thirty seconds, while the Adepts bombarded the creature with rocks.

With a violent shudder, the creature stopped attacking Ruwen, let go of Sift and the Adept, and used its trapped arms to flip itself back to its original position.

With a snap, the lid closed, and the creature once again resembled an ordinary chest.

Everyone stared at the completely normal looking chest in disbelief.

Into the stillness, Sift spoke. “Did anyone see a token?”

The silence lasted another heartbeat before the laughter started. In seconds, it turned hysterical as the shock and tension of the fight receded.