Mage Wall – The split between worlds (Breast/butt expansion story)

Abigail crept through the silent city in silent awe, staring up at the failing architecture. Old doorways crumbling away, oblong vases blanketed in dust, streets that bore no sign of life. Not even a lingering foot print from a time before now. It was all quiet, dead. She didn't like it. Cities weren't supposed to be dead, they were supposed to be filled with life.

Children should have been running through these streets. People should have been chattering, debating over the smallest things, laughing. Instead, the city was a corpse, it's bones without color and falling away.

And she walked among it's hidden dead.

Not physically corpses that could be retrieved, but the invisible kind. The lack thereof. Somehow that was worse. As if the dead didn't know to be here and hint at the truth. To nudge her in the right direction, warn her so she could avoid their fate. But all she had to go off of were echoes. Little pieces of evidence that might eventually form a picture.

A shard of pottery here. A broken table there. The picture, a slow assault met with little resistance.

These people were killed.

At least, that was what Abigail thought. That was what she saw in the ghostly buildings. In their sagging grief as she walked by. Each step echoing out into the black cavern above her. It's maw of teeth hanging over head, teeth threatening to fall with every breath. The floor beneath her feet a tongue reddened with ashes. It's unfamiliar paths leading her further from the entrance, deeper down into its secret depths.

Down there where she wasn't alone.

Almost silently, another voice joined her. It breathed with her, quiet and out of sync. She heard it in the back of her head, thoughts that weren't her own. Dangerously unfamiliar. Close. 

She ran from them, and behind her a two story ruin collapsed. It's death giving life to a hundred limbed abomination, legs clicking after her, dragging it across the ground. The eyes in its head - all ten of them - were red, beady, and focused on her. They bored into her back as she turned and stepped into a decrepit two room house. 

The centipede, all ash colored chitin and legs, bore straight through her sanctuary. It's face, a battering ram on a collision course, went straight for her. 

She did the splits and dropped to the ground, pain reigniting as she narrowly avoided death. Above her, soft and vulnerable, the centipedes underside passed through the air. It's jaws found nothing but dissatisfaction where she had been, and as they retracted, Abigail punched it with an Ardin enhanced blow.

The centipede didn't react. Her attack may as well have been a passing breeze, nothing more than an annoyance in the face of a mountain. 

But a mountain could be whittled down.

Abigail struck the centipede again, and just as hard. When it's legs came down, a hundred spears descending on her, she kicked the dirt and slid out of the way. 

The centipede followed, jerking toward her with another lunge for her head. She met it's reckless attack with an uppercut, fist sinking two inches into the bottom of its face. The blow sent it reeling back, coiling like a snake about to strike. Abigail chased after it with another hardy blow to it's skull. Fist meeting chitin. The centipede retaliated with a swing of it's length that hit her in the gut and sent her flying back into the street.

She landed on her butt, which unsurprisingly, broke her fall. In the next breath the centipede was on her. This time it was furious, thrashing about violently, using every leg and every inch of it's body to pummel her into the dirt.

Arms raised, a shield of flesh, she endured with teeth grit. Then, as soon as the centipede relented - for a half of a second - she struck. Her arm, roaring with ardin, ascended upward through a row of scissors and spears into the centipedes face. Green blood squelched back, raining down on her in a shower of pain.

She endured and punched again. As the acid started to burn away her helmet, she punched again. When the centipede screamed and tried to back away, she punched again. As she roared and the centipede roared with her, she punched again.

Abigail didn't stop till the centipede did, it's body unmoving at her feet. In case it was still alive, even after it's face looked like a watermelon smashed by an elephant, she kicked it. It's body convulsed, once, twice, three times before it went deathly still - definitely dead this time. 

She smiled at that. Then, after the adrenaline ran out, she sagged down to the ground with a sigh.

Everything hurt. It was like her body had been on fire for the last seven minutes, and only now was it cooling off. But instead of relief, it was a different kind of pain, ice cold in her veins and muscles.

She needed to get some rest. Pushing herself like this, in the long run, wasn't going to work. Either she'd die from exhaustion or find herself too weak when she needed strength the most. 

The floor, covered in ash and far less comfortable than dirt, was an option. Though, it came with the risk of another ambush. She was certain that the centipede wasn't all alone down here. There were probably more of them, and something for them to eat. She didn't want to encounter either, and forced herself to keep moving.

It was a long walk. Minutes of silence, where her only company was the silent city. Or rather the almost silent city. Faint as it was, it still had a voice to it. Stone crumbling, an occasional drip of water, an echo off in the distance. Quiet, but not mute.

She tried not to think about it and pushed on. Her limping steps eventually leading her towards a light in the distance. That light grew brighter as she approached. The buildings under it's glow were less destroyed as well. Some even looked good enough to live in, barely.

It reminded Abigail of her life before Esbern took her in. Back when it was just her and her mom living in a ruined neighborhood.

A memory that faded in the face of blinding light. It came from above, atop a wall of wood and stone that blended in with the cavern it was built into. Standing on top of it, held up by rickety boards, were two elves forming the beam and aiming it down at her. 

The diner details of their appearances were hidden behind their joined spell. But she could at least make out that they were tall and armored. Guards then. If they were, then what they guarding against.

She didn't get the chance to ask. One of them, standing left of the beam, spoke first.

"You from the fortress?"

Abigail thought fast. "Do I look like it?" She said, overwhelming exhaustion catching up to her.

"You like you got hit by a drake and used as it's new chew toy." The other guard answered.

"It was a... Centipede." She corrected as her world became black.

_________________

Quint stared down at the girl, his face marred by a frown.

He didn't like this.

First, reports of a human. Then those cave-ins, and now a black guard imposter. It was ridiculous, and the worst kind.

"Let's go get her." Marl said, and started down the wall.

Quint grabbed him. Hand on his shoulder as his only friend turned around and fixed him with a surprised stare.

"'Get her'? You can't be serious."

Marl batter his hand away, and continued down. "I am Quint. Imposter or not it's our duty to shepherd the lost in. And she's clearly lost."

"She's a crook." He pointed out as he followed after. "And if she fought a centipede like she said and still made it here, then she's a dangerous crook."

Marl frowned at him. "Maybe she just found the armor. A scavenger just looking to survive."

"She did not-"

"Look Quint, I don't care. She's hurt, she's lost, and she needs help. Nuff said."

"Fine." He relented as he hastened down to help Marl.