Godsforsaken

Chapter 26: Hebba, the Origin of Life

“That thing was no joke," Alisha said.

“Yeah," Selene agreed, then turned to me: “So, how did you do that?”

I held up the sword. “Remember the sword we got from the Dark Lord's treasure hoard?”

“Oh yeah, that thing.”

Annabella was cautiously approaching the body.

“Do you want to take something off it?" I asked.

“I want those flowers," she said. “But I'm not sure they're safe to harvest.”

“Alisha can help with that," I said, turning to the elf. “Right?”

Alisha blinked for a moment before it dawned on her. “Oh right," she said and began casting her Cleanse miracle.

Within moments a blinding orange light blasted out from her and as it washed over the Flower Wolf it burned any trace of corruption off the body, leaving large holes in its flesh where the canker had burrowed into it.

“It's safe to touch now," Alisha said. “Whatever was wrong with it is gone now.”

“Thanks," Annabella said and began to work on the big beast and it was slightly uncomfortable to watch. To me it appeared as if the flowers were rooted in the wolf's flesh and so she was ramming her knife into its body to dig out the flowers growing in it, trying to leave the roots intact. When she had most of the easily accessible ones she climbed off the body and joined us again.

“Out of curiosity, are these the same plants that glow all around here?" I asked.

“The small ones," she pointed at the tiny luminescent flowers on the ground, “and the big ones," she pointed at the tall plants that towered over us and lit up the path, “are two different species. And the ones growing all over the Flower Wolf are the big ones.”

“Couldn't you have cut down one of the big ones then?" I asked.

“Sure, but since they light the way, one of them being missing would be quite noticeable in case the cultists have a sentry or two around, wouldn't you say?”

“That's a good point," I said. “So, what can you make of them?”

“If you're actually interested I'll show you when we make camp," she said with a smile.

**

And so we made our way to the next rest spot, encountering no more monsters. Right before the rest spot we did find the corpses of two lizard monsters, though. Apparently the cultists truly had been blazing a trail of destruction through the dungeon floor. Whatever they wanted, it was apparently very important to them.

“You wouldn't happen to know anything about this Mother Of Them All," I asked Syr quietly. “Would you?”

“Not really," she said, appearing right next to me. “She seems very impatient about them finishing it, but that's just about all I can tell.”

“So, that graft we saw on the Flower Wolf, do you think...”

“That it's one of the fodder cultists that they've melded onto the monster?" she asked. “Yeah, that seems likely.”

“It's vile," I said, “controlling monsters by grafting mutated people on... to...” I trailed off as a horrible suspicion hit me. I called the women together and had Yume connect everyone to my mind so everyone could listen to Syr. “Annabella, can you tell us what the fifth floor boss is like?”

“I'm sure they won't be stupid enough to fight that thing," the princess said. “But alright.” She dug around for her journal and flipped it open. “It's called Hebba, the Origin of Life.” Then she showed us the sketch.

The monster looked weird. It had the general shape of a tree, but it looked like the complete opposite of the Dark Young, the tree-like creatures spawned by Shub-Niggurath. Where the Dark Young were masses of twisted flesh, gnarled maws and tentacles that imitated the shape of a tree, Hebba actually was a tree, with a majestic leafy crown and five legs made up of twisted roots. The massive difference to an actual tree was in the trunk. The trunk looked more like a statue, though the sketch couldn't really convey textures, and the statue was of a very pregnant woman, with exaggeratedly large breasts and a large swollen belly. The belly was translucent and inside it was a creature that looked similar to, but not quite the same as, an unborn child. Maybe the unborn child of a different species. What also jumped out at me was that the statue didn't have eyes. The head of the statue was cradled by the rest of the tree trunk, but the tree parts had actually overgrown the upper half of the statue's face, leaving only its nose, cheeks, mouth and chin exposed. The only eyes the creature had were those of the fetus in the transparent womb.

“What does it do?" Selene asked and Annabella scanned over the journal before explaining:

“This is the boss that cost my great-grandfather half of his forces. It is fought in a huge meadow and can summon different kinds of plants from the ground, from blood-sucking floating flowers to flowers that cough out clouds of poisonous spores, to roots that snare and grass blades that can cut through leather armor. But the real issue is that Hebba, as the title suggests, creates life. It can make more and more sentient humanoid creatures until you're fighting an army on top of the giant boss monster.”

I considered that for a while, then said: “Well shit.”

“What's wrong?" Annabella asked.

“Syr just confirmed to me that the canker on that Flower Wolf was one of the cultists, mutated and then grafted onto the monster to control it. They had two cultists they brought with them as fodder and they have one left. I believe they're planning to graft that one onto this boss. They'll corrupt it with a graft of the Black Goat, so that it spawns them an army of monsters loyal to their cause.”

I felt Alisha's hand wrap around my arm almost painfully. The elf looked terrified. The others didn't look happy about it either.

“We have to stop them then," Annabella said and despite her words she let out an enormous yawn.

“We're not going to stop anyone if we fall asleep on our feet," I said. “We'll rest here for tonight and leave at first light. How much of the dungeon is left?”

“This is the halfway point but it gets more confusing from here on out," Annabella said. “Hopefully they took a few wrong turns.”

“Yeah," I said.

**

So we ended up dividing the labor. Alisha, Selene and Yume worked on making a dinner out of Tiphereth meat while I decided to help Annabella work on her alchemy.

“You could just help them," the princess said.

“It's fine," I said. “Unless you don't want me here.”

She gave me a warm smile and handed me a mortar and pestle along with a bag of Bloodwort, both the leaves and the big roots. I started mashing the stuff up, starting with the leaves, while Annabella busied herself grating down the tough stems of lunar reed into shavings.

I knew a little bit about alchemy, but watching her work her craft was still fascinating. She had this thing she called a hot plate, a slab of stone with fire enchantments on it that would warm up the pots and beakers she had ready to go. One she filled with plain water, one she filled with the stuff we'd gotten from the third floor and the third she filled with alcohol and placed on the part of the hot plate that was only barely warm. As I kept mashing up the Bloodwort she kept taking spoonfuls of the stuff and putting it into the flask with the alcohol, gently warming it up and when it was at the temperature she wanted it, just barely above body temperature, she pulled it off the plate and set it to cool.

When she had a good amount of shaved lunar reed she put it into the small copper pot with the liquid from the third floor and in a moment the off-putting smell of rotten eggs turned into something a lot more pleasant and herby, a bit like mint mixed with basil and the color changed from urine yellow to a soft blue. I kept mashing the Bloodwort, making conversation along the way because crushing plants with a stone stick wasn't exactly complicated work that required my full attention.

“You said that makes a universal antidote, right?" I asked, nodding to the blue potion she'd mixed.

“Exactly," she said. “Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”

I nodded sagely and then saw her beginning to mash up some of the glowing flowers in another mortar. “So, what will these make?”

“Radiant Life Elixir," she said. “At least that's what my great-grandfather called it. There hasn't been one of these in over fifty years.”

“Bet that's exciting for you, being able to brew a potion that hasn't been seen in decades.”

“You have no idea," she said. “I made sure to harvest quite a few of these plants with their roots intact so I'll be able to grow them to make more.”

“And what does it do?”

“On the surface it's a healing potion," she said. “It knits injuries back together, faster than Bloodwort but not quite as fast as a healing miracle. But it also cures exhaustion, which I'm pretty sure means it restores your Qi.”

My eyes widened. “That sounds useful.”

“Very," she said. “I'll make sure everyone has a bottle of this and a bottle of the antidote potion on them before we set out again.”

“Thank you," I said.

She smiled. “No, thank you.” She was quiet and it seemed like she was considering whether to continue, but then she steeled herself. “I've never felt as welcome anywhere as I do with you, all of you. It's... nice.”

“It's been great having you around," I agreed.

“Would you..." she began but before she could finish Alisha called:

“Dinner's ready!”

Annabella jumped up as if she'd been stung and hurried off, but I wasn't going to let that happen. I had a pretty good idea of what she'd wanted to ask and so I grabbed her by the wrist to stop her. She turned around to look at me and I said:

“Yes, I... no, we would, Anna.”

She looked at me, swallowed hard, and then nodded with a smile.

**

The stew the girls had made consisted of several types of mushrooms we'd picked on the second, fourth and fifth floors as well as meat from Tiphereth. The meat of the giant sky serpent was surprisingly delicious. The same almost-but-not-quite chicken flavor as most types of reptile but with subtle and complex flavors that really shone through in combination with the mushrooms. I wasn't even sure whether we should sell this meat or keep it all to ourselves, but then again, it was several tons of meat and even with the effect of bags of holding that slowed down the spoiling of meat we wouldn't be able to eat it all before it went bad. The question was how hard it would be to find a butcher that understood how special of a meat it was.

Once we were done eating and had finished last-minute preparations we all took sleeping drops and slept like logs for four hours before resuming out journey.

As Annabella had warned us, the path soon split, both by the glowing flowers growing along multiple paths and by ruins and giant trees dividing the path ahead. There were three paths to choose from and thanks to Annabella's journal we knew that the left hand path was the correct one, but it was gratifying to see that the center path at least had also been cleared of enemies as far as we could see, hinting that the cultists had taken at least one wrong turn.

With the splitting path and the ruins growing denser things were getting surprisingly claustrophobic and what had started as a gorgeous open area soon felt like a proper dungeon again, herding us from encounter to encounter, except there were no encounters. Instead the path kept splitting and it was a good thing we had Annabella and her journal along or we would have gotten horribly lost.

When I reckoned that it was about noon the path opened up again into a larger area with only sporadic ruins, but unfortunately that just made it more obvious that there was another monster in our path. This time it was one of the giant jellyfish Annabella had warned us about and as we drew closer we saw that it, too, had a giant cancerous mass growing out of it.

It should have been concerning, but honestly I was relieved. It meant that they had used their second fodder cultist and wouldn't have the ability to corrupt the boss. It did raise the question of what exactly they had planned for it, but their method wouldn't work without a pawn to sacrifice.

However, it did mean that we would have to fight another big monster before we could reach the boss room.

“I doubt my arrows will be able to do much," Annabella muttered as we drew closer to the jellyfish.”

“Why not?" Alisha asked. “It seems squishy enough.”

“It's too squishy," Selene said.

Annabella nodded. “Exactly. It's not like I won't be able to pierce it, it's that something as small as an arrow probably won't faze it very much. It doesn't have any obvious weakspots either. Well, except the canker. Should I focus on that?”

“Yes, but I will not have a repeat of the last fight," I said. “This time I'll start with the enchanted sword to get rid of the regeneration.”

“Good thinking," Yume said. “Do you need us to distract it?”

“Yes, please.”

**

It was still very early in the morning but for the purposes of my lesser cloak of invisibility it was the next day and so it was usable once again, so I donned it and crept up to the jellyfish until I was as close as I could get without it noticing me.

It was a terrifying beast. The main bulb that made up its body was the size of an ox, with the tentacles trailing along the ground at least ten feet long. What method the monster used to keep itself afloat in the air I couldn't tell, but I was pretty sure poking it once wouldn't cause it to deflate and drop. The idea that it was floating via magic was much more likely. The beast would have actually been very pretty without the canker grafted onto its top, the whole thing a very light blue with rainbow-colored waves of light cascading down its body at regular intervals. But the canker was there and it ruined the beast's quiet majesty, an ugly rotten-looking red-brown blotch on top of its body. We'd so far only strongly suspected it, but now that we saw one of these grafted onto a transparent creature it was clear that tendrils of it burrowed into the creature it was grafted on like roots into the ground, spreading by inches even as I watched it. What a horrible end that must be.

I pulled up the cowl of my cloak, activating the enchantment, and dashed forward. I didn't know what kinds of senses the beast had but I didn't want to alert it so I charged up a Qi Burst to launch myself the last few steps and... my foot descended and found only water, throwing me face first into water much deeper than it had seemed before. I went tumbling into the water, weighed down by two cloaks and a sword and I knew I had to keep hold of the weapon no matter what, so by the time I broke water again not only had my cloak's enchantment run its course, the jellyfish had also spotted me. It reached out with one tentacle and I saw blue lightning dancing along it, ready to fry me and I scrambled to get away.

I almost made it.

The moment my feet were on firm ground I tried to launch myself away, trying to get out of the water, but the tentacle hit the water next to me right before my right foot left the ground, shocking me so hard my body seized up and I keeled over.

Everything became a blur of pain as the shocks kept coming, blazing fire along my body as all my muscles cramped up, putting even more pressure on me. I was incredibly lucky I'd landed with my face out of the water or I would have inhaled a nice big gulp of water, but that luck sadly didn't stop the lightning.

But then, after what felt like an eternity of agony, the pain suddenly stopped. Or rather, the lightning stopped. The cramp in my muscles kept going and even after I felt Alisha's healing miracle wash over me and heal the burns the lightning had given me my muscles still wouldn't obey, my teeth chattering as I tried desperately to see what had saved me.

A red fox the size of a draft horse had jumped on top of the jellyfish, biting into the portions of its body not covered by the cancerous mass and clawing at the parts that were, sending snakes of fire at any tentacles trying to grasp and shock her.

Good girl.

I felt more than saw someone heading for me but I couldn't see who it was until Annabella pulled my head back and let a drop of a strange potion run into my mouth.

“Swallow," she said and it took me a few moments to obey.

I felt my body finally relax and then relax some more and some more before she pulled out another potion and gave me a drop of that. I tried to swallow that as well, but now my body wouldn't do anything, either with or without me willing it. Annabella seemed to realize that because she began gently massaging the drop down my throat and just seconds later I felt my body coming back under my control.

“A muscle relaxant followed by an antidote," she explained to me as she saw that I was starting to get up.

“Thanks," I groaned out, my voice gravelly. “You're a gem.” She was already flush from the exertion of the fight and so she didn't blush, but she did smile and avert her gaze.

As I got up I saw Yume in her fox form jumping off the jellyfish and a moment later the glow of Alisha's healing miracle enveloped her, healing burnt spots along her fur. Yume transformed back as Selene sent a Qi Projection at the jellyfish that split it open along its front, but even as I watched the transparent flesh started bubbling and then knitted itself back together.

“Shit," I growled and flexed my limbs, trying to see if they would work again. They did.

All subtlety was out the window now. Alisha and Yume began barraging the jellyfish with magic, which did little more than to piss it off, but that's what they planned. The beast started floating towards them and raised a tentacle. This one had been completely taken over by the cancerous mass and instead of blue lightning it fired a thin beam of Darklight. Selene had positioned herself between the two casters and the monster but the beast was so huge that it easily bypassed her and shot straight at the two mages, but the beam was stopped by the minor barrier miracle Alisha had gotten access to a few days ago.

Nevertheless, Selene did her part by sending a Qi Projected stab right at the jellyfish, making it even more intent on them.

“Ready as many sapphire swords as you can," I told Annabella as I readied a Qi technique of my own.

“Got it," she said and began drawing on her Qi as I ran off.

This time I made sure there would be ground where I wanted to step and then unleashed a Qi Dash, launching myself up and over the jellyfish, landing right on top of its body, on top of the grafted canker. The two goat eyes in its center glared at me and I responded by ramming my sword into it. Like last time, already healed wounds began breaking open again and I used another Qi Dash to get myself off the beast before all hell broke loose.

Whatever power kept the beast afloat wasn't limitless and my Qi Dashing off its squishy body made it careen towards the ground where it spent a few precious seconds pushing itself off. It had almost gotten off the ground again when half a dozen sapphire swords, three tornado lances and a fire snake slammed into it, shredding and burning and mulching its body to bits, transparent flesh flying all over the place as the jellyfish got turned into mincemeat.

For good measure Alisha sent a Cleanse miracle out that eradicated all traces of the foul Outsider taint from the immediate vicinity.

Once everything was said and done all that was left of the giant jellyfish was an almost colorless, transparent gem the size of a watermelon that I had originally assumed to be the creature's brain, as it had been located in the center of the body. The rest of the jellyfish had been shredded too fine to even find parts of it, even if any of us had known what to use the beast's flesh for. It sure as shit hadn't looked edible.

**

The further we went without finding the cultists the stronger the sense of unease I was feeling got. Everything we'd found out told us that the cultists wouldn't be able to mess with the boss, but then why would they be rushing down there? Did they assume they could find something useful beyond the fifth floor boss? That didn't make sense. They would need to go up against something that had required a hundred trained soldiers to beat back in the day. There was no way they'd be able to beat that with two people.

Right before nightfall we found our way to what Annabella assured us would be the final rest spot before the boss room and we decided to eat something and then sleep with the assistance of sleeping drops.

I could tell everyone was keyed up, but the beauty of sleeping drops was that they allowed you to fall asleep no matter how nervous you actually were.

So, just four hours later we were all as rested as we were going to get and headed off to the boss room, to put an end to this farce for good.

The door was inlaid in a rock wall that looked a little like a giant crater, the stone reaching almost all the way up to the crystal ceiling. Mystical runes were glowing all around the door's frame, as they had with every single boss room so far.

Unlike the door on the fourth floor, this one wasn't blasted off its hinges. There were the ancient runes we'd seen before and underneath them was scrawled the translation:

“Hebba, The Origin of Life.”

That was the normal part. What wasn't normal was that someone had crossed out the boss' title with red paint, rivulets of the still-wet red running down the door. At least I hoped it had been red paint instead of blood. Either way, they had then used that same paint to scrawl a new title over the door:

“The Mother Of Them All.”

Well, fuck.