Rise of the Weakest Summoner

After the initial shock from what they had witnessed retreated, Asterios and the girls grouped up and walked closer to the hole in the white marble. The golden paths adorning it had faded a lot, turning much darker. They didn’t glow and glimmer anymore, most likely due to the circuit being damaged by whatever technique Abyss had brought out of her book or whatever that insane artifact was.

The descent she had created was perfectly smooth like someone had just dropped a superheated metal ball through a cube of butter. It went straight down without any deviations. It was hard to spot the end, but not because of the darkness that should be shrouding such a far destination. Instead, the tunnel was so bright and white that it was impossible to tell for how long it extended and if the bottom differed in any way from its rather consistent color palette.

“It’s time to go in, isn’t it?” Tina peeked past the opening’s edge. “This looks rather narrow. Are we going to take turns or…?”

“Perhaps Umbra can bring us down with his Shadow Movement?” Selene suggested, glancing at the misty butler. “Since we didn’t hear any screaming, it seems safe for now.”

“I don’t think we need to be worried about anything happening to Abyss.” Miria showed a wry smile.

“I never specified it would be her screaming, have I?” The fox lady smirked and the others chuckled in agreement.

“Well, then. Hop in and we shall go.” Umbra spread his arms invitingly.

While he meant that as a gesture to present his readiness, he clearly wasn’t ready for an excited panthergirl to slam into him with a big grin, wrapping her furry arms around his shadowy figure in a cheerful hug. Selene quickly caught on and embraced them both. The others didn’t waste any time either, and soon, all the girls surrounded him from every side, making it just a little awkward for their misty friend.

Asterios shook his head and joined too. Soon after, liquid darkness surrounded them and everything went dark even more than before. A slightly unusual sensation accompanied their transfer into the shadows that swallowed them, but soon enough, they could feel themselves moving, and this time it didn’t happen through that scary space where some unknown forces tugged their bodies in all directions.

However, only a few seconds after they started to move, the ride turned quite bumpy. That was something new and no one knew what exactly to think about it. Asterios could feel Umbra’s confusion and slight distraught through their connection, but they didn’t seem to be in any danger yet, still descending through the circular passage.

Yet, something was not right.

The further they went, the stronger those disruptions became, to the point that everyone began wondering about the shaking. Even the shadows surrounding them rippled under visible strain, something none of them had witnessed ever before, and Asterios had conducted a plethora of tests after gaining the ability to move himself without Umbra’s assistance. The first few jumps had been a tad unstable, yet nothing like this.

And they were being carried by an expert.

“Prepare yourselves. I can’t maintain the hold on us for much longer. It will break moments before we land. I’ll do my best to cushion the fall but I can’t guarantee a pleasant arrival,” their coachman announced.

A few seconds later, his predictions came true and the bag of darkness burst. Everyone’s eyes were immediately assaulted with pure whiteness surrounding them from all sides, with just a tiny change in depth that had to be them leaving the tight tunnel. Asterios instantly reached out for Silvia as she was the most vulnerable out of all his mates and hugged the fiery princess into his chest while his wings popped up and spread wide.

With a lot of grunts and groans, their entire group smashed into the ground. 

Miria reduced the force of impact with her impeccable feline agility and rolled aside. Selene sent a wave of spiritual energy to cushion the fall and landed in a strained crouch. Tina got herself sucked into a massive water bubble made by Hydran and bounced away while suspended in the bluish liquid, releasing muffled noises. Althea displayed her draconic physique by dropping onto the floor onto her fist and one knee, cracking it lightly.

As for Asterios, he touched the white marble slowly and saved Silvia from the worst of it. The speed at which they had been traveling wasn’t as dangerous as they had expected so he was only slightly sore, already quickly recovering thanks to his heightened regeneration. He placed the princess down safely and received an appreciative peck in return, both of them smiling warmly at each other.

“As Professor would have said, damn that sucked.” Tina took a few wobbly steps and shook herself to get rid of the remaining water, her clothes and body already drying up. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Umbra’s eyes narrowed in deep thought. “The moment we slipped in, something began interfering with my technique. To be honest, it felt like—”

“There are no shadows here,” Asterios noted while looking around.

The ladies did the same, and besides spotting Abyss floating near the spot where they had crashed, they also examined the unnerving room they were currently in. Its walls, floor, and ceiling were made of the same perfectly smooth and spotless white mineral, decorated only by glowing gold formations.

But, even with those lines emitting gentle yellow light, there was just no way this chamber would be illuminated so much that it basically hurt looking at it without squinting one’s eyes. As Asterios had said, there was no speck of a shadow anywhere, making the space feel extremely bizarre. Even the angles where the surfaces met were perfectly bright as if there was an immense source of light in the very center of the room that reached into the furthest nook and cranny with the same intensity as anything right by its position.

“It looks like he has prepared properly,” Abyss commented with her hand supporting her chin. “As you have noticed, this is a place where shadows can’t exist as they are one of my main elements. You won’t be able to use any abilities related to it for as long as this facility has power coursing through its circuits. I’m not surprised. He did seem like someone who would pull all stops even if the possibility of something happening was near zero.”

“We won’t be able to breeze through this as easily, then.” Miria sighed wistfully. “Are you two going to be alright here, though?”

“Besides being fairly suppressed, I don’t experience any other discomforts,” Umbra replied. “My repertoire remains limited, however.”

“You just can’t catch a break, can you?” Asterios looked at his familiar with some pity. “Don’t feel too down. We should have expected rather fierce countermeasures in the first place. That guy clearly doesn’t want Abyss to regain what she lost.”

“But, I bet he didn’t expect us to be involved,” Althea added. “While the two of you might have had some issues shutting this place down, whatever it even is, our group isn’t affected by these means in any other way than our eyesight being at risk of irritation due to all these whites.”

“That’s why, we should make this quick.” He nodded to himself. “This place gives off really weird vibes.”

“Allow me to make it a little bit less troublesome for you,” Abyss said and everyone turned to the mocha-skinned lady.

She waved her fingers and numerous strings of darkness flowed from between them, trailing through the air towards Asterios and the girls. The misty tendrils reached their heads and wound themselves in tight circles over their eyes. At first, all they could see was black, but then, the magical blindfolds turned see-through and they were able to gaze upon everything just like they normally would, save for a delicate tint to their vision.

Nevertheless, the strain was gone and it was much easier to look at things.

“Cool.” Tina waved her hands in front of her face. “And they even look nice.”

A smile tugged at her soft lips as she glanced at Asterios. Everyone now wore those smooth black bands, and as they looked at each other, they shared a chuckle. It was a fairly unique thing, one that could become a recognizable element of their group if they decided to wear it out more often. You didn’t meet many blindfolded adventurers in big parties like this.

“What do we even have to do here?” Miria tilted her head, scanning her surroundings with more attention now that her eyes didn’t hurt. “This room is completely empty.”

“Who knows where we fell,” Selene replied. “There are two exits so this might just be a transitional piece.”

“As for what to do, we should probably look for any information we can find on this person and their master plan,” Silvia commented. “Before we learn what is the purpose of this hidden shelter, there is not much else we can come up with.”

“Which way, then?” The panthergirl’s head swiveled between the two passages. “Or should we split up?”

“That’s a bad idea.” Asterios walked up to her and scratched behind her ear. “Let’s just pick at random since everything seems so seamless. We’ll turn around if we stumble on a dead end.”

Everyone agreed and they let Miria make the decision. She took a minute while trying to spot any differences between her choices, but ultimately gave up and simply tossed a coin. Entering and loose formation, they headed in. Asterios led the charge while Althea closed the rear.

The hallways they walked through were extremely stale and bland. Everything was white and smooth, also impossibly illuminated like earlier. Long rectangular corridors with nothing in them save for the golden lines continuing to pulse regularly. Selene tried to interact with them but they seemed to be protected by a layer of spiritual energy she couldn’t affect. Unless Abyss whipped out another reality-tearing technique, there was nothing she could do.

Soon enough, they found themselves in another empty room. This time it had three exits total. Once more, Ast’s party was at a crossroads.

“The mana in the air is becoming thicker.” Selene hummed thoughtfully. “If I’m not mistaken, it accumulates the most in that direction.”

“That’s our best bet.” Tina shrugged. “Unless anyone else has other ideas?”

Met with a cacophony of shaking heads, her suggestion won the contest by default. Another lengthy walk followed, making Miria wonder out loud if perhaps making the intruders wander around until they died out of boredom wasn’t the intended design behind this facility. Even Abyss joked that she wouldn’t put it past her nemesis to do that.

Thankfully or not, they stumbled on another empty chamber, this time a much longer one with just one exit. But, just as they were going to enter it, and Selene continued to walk ahead as the second person in the formation, Asterios held out an arm to stop her, his irises glimmering with specks of dark scarlet energy.

“Master?” Miria peeked past her sister-mate’s shoulder.

“There’s something here. Something we can’t see. I can barely discern the fuzzy air thanks to my draconic sight,” he explained. “At the start, it looks like a narrow path? But, it’s hard to tell after the first bend.”

After a moment of thinking, he pulled out one of the spare needles for his Poison Fang, which remained hidden underneath the sleeve of his crimson coat even though he mostly studied the greatsword now. Stepping forward, he pointed it at seemingly nothing, but pushing his hand out far enough caused the tip to glow red, orange, and then white. The ladies watched as half of the thin metal rod disappeared before he paused.

Although, it hadn’t simply disintegrated. It had melted at an insane speed, dripping onto the perfect floor and staining it with liquid steel.

“This is concerning.” Althea frowned.

“You don’t say?” Tina chuckled wryly. “Imagine what it can do with flesh if something made out of metal is gone just like that.”

“Typical.” Abyss’ face didn’t show any reaction and her tone remained unchanged but everyone could notice the jaded edge in her voice. “He fills our heads with a fake sense of safety and monotony just to put an insidious contraption like this at one point of the journey. I expected nothing less from a deceiver.”

“That’s certainly a good sign, though.” Silvia peered into the room too. “He has something requiring protection out there. We are heading in the right direction. After we figure out how to bypass this proverbial and literal wall, we should be rewarded with something worthy.”

“Assuming we aren’t heading in the opposite direction and this is not a trap that’s placed right at the entrance to this underground complex,” Asterios commented.

“Let’s not be negative!” Miria bounced in front of him with a reassuring smile. “We’ll definitely find something good on the other side! I can feel it!”

He chuckled lightly. “Well, if that’s how you put it, then we better get to work.”

“Will we have enough equipment to sacrifice like this?” She turned around and wrinkled her nose.

“While that might be an effective idea, I agree that it would be highly inefficient,” Selene said. “I can try prodding at the air with my spiritual constructs.”

Shaping up an ethereal shortsword, she did as she had said. However, as she was extending her hand towards the same spot Asterios had poked at before, he caught her arm and held it back. The fox lady frowned at him, but he simply brought up another needle and set it next to her hand. As it moved past her knuckles, it melted, making Selene’s eyes widen in shock.

“That’s even more treacherous.” Umbra loomed over them. “This barrier doesn’t seem to interact with anything other than pure physical matter. Maybe I would be able to move to the other side unhindered.”

“I would advise you against trying that,” Abyss offered. “It might not have any visible effects, but that spiritual blade can’t feel. Something much worse than physical pain might be awaiting those who attempt to bypass this blockade with mana.”

“I’m starting to dislike that person as much as you do, honestly.” Tina huffed in annoyance.

“The first option, then?” Miria pulled up a throwing knife.

“There might be another option.” Silvia extended a hand towards her. “May I?”

Curious, the panthergirl handed the small blade over and stepped aside. The red-haired lady seemed to hover her gaze over the room with great focus before moving forward. Everyone watched Asterios with anticipation, waiting for him to stop her in time. But, he didn’t make a move as Silvia prodded the air with the knife at the points where nothing came in contact with it. Her examination stopped just short of reaching the edge of the safe zone on both sides, the tip getting slightly singed.

“Looks like Abyss was right.” She turned around and smiled gently. “This trap must interfere with mana in some way because there are no invisible walls above the golden circuits that appear on the floor.”

Everyone’s eyes dropped to the ground and they noticed her standing on top of one of the glowing lines. The path continued further just like many more on the walls and ceiling. Knowing this much already, it didn’t take them long to spot the exact copy of the pattern above their heads, mirroring the one below their feet.

“Good catch.” Asterios reciprocated her smile. “Combining Miria’s method with your observation will make it much easier. Even if I shared my sight with you, it all becomes greatly fuzzy inside these invisible walls, making it difficult to discern the beginning and the end. I was hesitant to rely only on that.”

“Let’s designate a person to cover every side and move in a single file,” Tina expanded on their ideas. “I’ll take the left.”

And so, Miria volunteered for the right, Asterios for the front, and Althea received the back just in case. Each of them equipped a great number of daggers, knives, and metal elements, holding onto them firmly. When the group was ready, they exchanged nods and very slowly wandered into the invisible labyrinth.

The ladies not securing the sides focused on watching the lines on both the ceiling and the floor, directing Asterios and the others through this maze. At first, they were all tense and fairly anxious, but after two successful turns with just the tips of their metal feelers melted off, they became more confident.

From the sidelines, it must have looked comical. A party of eight was walking in random directions all over a seemingly empty chamber while putting their backs together and poking the air in front of them with tiny weapons. Some might think it was a lost bet, a challenge, or perhaps a weird little game. But, the truth was much more sinister.

After about half an hour of a tedious crawl, Asterios arrived at the foot of the exit. Staying vigilant and expecting more tricks, he first verified that it was safe to end their little dance. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like any more flesh-melting walls awaited them and they were free to go. The struggle was no more.

“Phew. That was so stressful.” Miria wiped off her forehead. “I feel like I was sweating in places I never thought I could.”

“Hopefully our new friends have a bath or two. We should save Master the burden of smelling a wet kitty for days to go.” Selene smirked at her.

“Hey!” The kitty in question gasped in shock, then started sniffing herself all over. “I don’t stink, do I?”

“You are alright.” Snickering, Asterios pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Certainly not any worse than a wet fox.”

A few giggles echoed through the chamber and Miria showed Selene her tongue.

As the tension disappeared from their bodies, Ast’s group continued their little exploration. The passage they strolled into took multiple turns before opening up again. Once more, the place they found was different from the previous ones. It was still a pure white room with golden pathways, but slightly altered.

For one, it was more like a massive hall that could be compared to the size of a spacious warehouse. The walls were far and the ceiling was high. The circuits themselves changed their style slightly, all heading for the middle of the chamber, gathering at one point on the floor and the ceiling, drawing something akin to the silhouette of a sun with short sun rays extending away from it.

But, the most notable difference was the perfectly round sphere hovering between those two shapes, big enough to fill almost the whole diameter of that distance. It was golden just like the circuits and buzzed with spiritual power, pulsing with the same rhythm. It hung there menacingly, its purpose unknown but suspected.

They might have just found the core of this weird facility.