Incremental Torture - Chapter 85

Her steps were lighter and she sailed across the beetle’s back faster than she had ever moved before. It took moments to arrive at the beginning of the familiar chain of runes.

A few curving lines ending in a sort of spiral hook. It was beautiful. And she was saying that as someone with little to no knowledge or real appreciation of language - or art.

Evelyn smashed it to pieces with a mighty swing of her hammer.

I’m pretty sure I wasn’t strong enough to smash through the hyper boss’ exoskeleton a minute ago? What did Kayla do to me?

While she was worried there might be some negative effects, Evelyn would deal with them if they arrived. For now it seemed as though her strength and agility had been bolstered.

She covered the distance between the first and second runes with just a few strides. This time she appreciated the design of the shimmering inscription for a little longer. And then smashed it.

There was no telltale glow of healing. She would continue to check as she went down the line, but it seemed as though she was really onto something.

Whether it would help them bring Zork’Karu down remained to be seen, but she was sure it would answer some questions– even if they were ones they hadn’t yet considered asking.

Spinebreaker hummed as it whirled through the air, pounding the creature’s carapace into shattered shards as she went. Four runes, then five.

Evelyn had checked back over her shoulder each time she swung the hammer, but there was no healing glow. The beaten, cracked chitin of the beetle was all that greeted her. She smirked, vindicated in her decision to figure out the runes rather than continuing to blindly assault the hyper boss.

She fell into a rhythm, her hammer clanging like a gong as it fell against the chitinous plates of the beetle, until finally she struck the final blow. The chain of runes was complete.

And the incessant hammering on her skull grew a little dimmer in the instant Spinebreaker struck true.

The blue glow which had suffused the runes faded, and the chain she had destroyed grew dull. An ear splitting screech echoed across the battlefield, blasting the unfortunate challengers still on the ground and sending a number of them flying.

Even she had to steady her own footing on the beetle’s back to prevent herself from tumbling to the ground.

In the distance she spied Anthea sailing through the air after being thrown from Antoinette’s back, only for Kayla to catch her with a single hand and spin her around once before depositing her onto her feet once more.

Evelyn was disappointed with the results. It was obvious that something was happening– the runes had dulled and did not heal even after the usual amount of time had passed. However, there had been no great revelation or uncovered secret like there had been when she completed the puzzle.

Then again, she had only solved a single chain of runes. One written sentence, assuming that the language model was accurate. There would be more, of that she was sure.

So she hefted her hammer up high and pulled on that familiar power that lay nested in her abdomen. Each time she used it, it grew more comfortable and seemed to assimilate with her even further. And the strength it offered was not all it could provide.

There was something greater, something distant. She had felt it the first time she had interacted with the reality node, but pulled back for fear of being overwhelmed. Perhaps she would try again when things had settled down.

Wind rushed past her face and set her hair aflutter as she soared into the skies above Haven once more. It was not a novel view, but Evelyn still took the time to appreciate it.

She hoped that the rolling hills would grow lush grass once more and return to their verdant selves after the World Event was defeated and the subterranean terrors beaten back to their cramped caverns.

Her gaze turned to the glossy carapace of her foe. Even now it continued to rampage, demolishing more of Haven’s buildings and crushing its defenders underfoot. It was almost mindless in its unchecked destruction.

The hyper boss was strange. It used mental magic– sinister, insidious spells that crawled their way into your mind and outright pounded it or compelled you to do the beetle’s bidding. And yet it showed no signs of intelligence as it wantonly slaughtered and smashed its way through the city.

Evelyn saw the faded chain of runes which she had broken, near the centre of the beast’s chitinous exoskeleton. Her brow creased in concentration.

It took her a few minutes to notice another similarity to the puzzle. It seemed as though there were chains and patterns that were not quite the same, but her brain was starting to understand the formation of the runes; the way they built into one another.

There! She spotted the beginnings of another chain, but this one was different. It didn’t follow the usual patterns of the runes– a somewhat straight but wandering line of conjoined inscriptions.

This one seemed to be a spiral. However, she recognised the way the runes bled into one another. One ended and another began, discrete and yet joined in meaning and purpose. It wasn’t a language, but it was.

She craved understanding– to truly know what they meant. Evelyn was sure that further secrets of the tower and its founders lay within. Those absurdly powerful existences who stood atop the many universes and yet struggled against invaders of an unknown scope and magnitude. It boggled her mind to even attempt comprehension.

However, if there was one thing Evelyn was skilled at, it was smashing herself against a problem over and over again until she overcame it. That was how she had defeated the last hyper boss– Dazurmagon the Worldshaker.

It was how she would prevail here. The chitin trembled as she slammed into it from above. Outside distractions had begun to fade away and all that remained was her task.

Spinebreaker started to sing, every swing snuffing out another shimmering rune. Little motes of light were sucked into the abyssal crimson metal, though no one noticed– not even its wielder.

The hammer quivered with glee each time it was swung; cried out in joy when its polished head shattered another sturdy defence.

Even now she continued to check each time she swung the hammer, to make sure that the damage she had dealt wasn’t healing. The wounds remained, leaking a little blood.

The glow dulled. The spiral ended and with her final strike, the beetle unleashed another horrifying screech of rage and… pain? Evelyn smirked.

And again she repeated the process. Over and over. She launched herself into the sky to search for more patterns. Sometimes it took her two leaps to find a new chain, but she always did find one in the end.

Evelyn’s face crumpled in frustration. Only a few sparsely placed runes still glowed, but there were no longer any discernible patterns to be found.

She had smashed almost thirty different chains of inscriptions and while the hyper boss cries had grown louder and more harried, its life force and the vigour with which it fought had not diminished one bit. There had to be something she was missing. Another piece of the puzzle that would bring it all together.

Her fingers traced along the chains as she fell from the air for what had to be the fiftieth time that day. The novelty had worn off. It would never be boring to leap through the air, but it was no longer the sheer adrenaline inducing thrill it had once been.

As her hand curved through the air, Evelyn came to a realisation and smacked herself in the forehead. It had been so obvious– the answer was right in front of her eyes all along.

The smaller parts became one greater whole. Each chain of runes was itself another rune. Evelyn thought back to the previous puzzle and realised that her final solution had been similar. The smaller runes were like building blocks, the larger ones finished stories.

And the entire exoskeleton told a grand tale which she would unlock using the remaining runes. She spun her hammer as she fell from the sky with a beaming grin on her face. This beetle had barged around her home long enough. It was time to shatter that arrogant spell it held over the other challengers.

Evelyn had been right all along and she couldn’t resist sticking her tongue out at Kayla. The woman simply sighed and smiled back. She stood over the glowing rune and held the shaft of her hammer firmly in two hands. She swung it down, expecting to hear the familiar cracking of chitin.

Instead, there was a deafening clang. A pulse of energy exploded outwards, encompassing the entire city. And her mind felt as though it was being pulled out of her body.