Nightmare Realm Summoner

A part of Alex was worried that the portal to the Cracked Steps would be gone when they arrived at the hollowed out tree-trunk, but his fears proved unfounded. It, just like the rest of the Mirrorlands version of Valley Ford, were exactly as they had been the last time Alex had been here.

But that didn’t mean it felt the same. Where there had previously been rifts slicing and cutting through the air at the behest of the Great Tide’s Disruptor, there was now nothing but utter silence.

I wonder if Vaxon is still wandering around here somewhere. What happened to the poor bastard after we destroyed the Disruptor? I hope he’s dead. That isn’t even for our sake. That suit of armor the Great Tide put him into looked like it was killing him far more than it was helping. Evil bastards.

He and Claire paused at the very entrance of the portal to the Cracked Steps. They exchanged a quick glance.

”Why do you think there aren’t any monsters?” Claire whispered. They’d barely spoken for the rest of the trip over to the hollow tree. Even though the walk had gone completely smoothly, something about Valley Ford’s reflection felt even more unsettling than the Mirrorlands normally did.

”I don’t know,” Alex whispered back.

This hadn’t been the case the last time they’d been here. Sure, they hadn’t found anything particularly dangerous or intimidating, but there had definitely been some monsters. That was just how the Mirrorlands worked.

But they hadn’t seen a single once since arriving in Valley Ford. The city was seemingly completely empty. And the complete lack of an enemy somehow felt considerably more unsettling than a horde of them.

They both just shook their heads. Any more words just felt like tempting fate at this point. After casting one last glance over his shoulders, Alex grabbed Claire’s arm by the wrist. There was no point to delay any longer. They’d arrived at their goal.

Beyond them waited the Cracked Steps.

The two of them stepped into the portal as one.

Darkness engulphed Alex’s vision like the maw of some massive beast slamming down on his very being and swallowing it whole.

And then he was gone.

***

Color exploded before Alex, spilling through the darkness in vibrant streaks. His legs bucked as solid ground slammed into them and the world unfolded around him just as it had the previous time he and Claire had been within the Cracked Steps.

They stood on a craggy platform that looked like it had been made by compacting random bits of the city together into a giant, rough pancake. The endless burgundy skies of the Mirrorlands surrounded them. Violet lightning roared through the air and thick clouds let lazy fingers trail past the platforms around them. Portals snapped open and closed throughout the air with enough intensity to make the hair on Alex’s hair stand on end.

Enormous white roots twisted through the air in seemingly endless waves to connect all the platforms together in a massive maze. Everything was exactly as Alex had remembered it.

The Cracked Steps [Ygg Entrance]

He waved the glowing words away from his face as he turned on his heel to look up at the platform rising above them. What almost resembled a tidal wave of roots cascaded down from it to connect them.

”You think Zeal is still up there?” Claire asked as she squinted up into the sky. ”He did get into a big fight the moment we left.”

Ominous thunder rolled through the sky in a distant roar, swallowing any possibility of an immediate reply. Alex had to wait nearly three seconds before it finally fell silent for long enough to let him speak.

”Dunno,” Alex said. ”But I guess there’s only one way to find out. If not, I guess we’ll have a different opponent waiting for us.”

They both hesitated for a moment. Their previous match against Zeal would have gone very badly had it actually been serious. The older man would have killed them nearly instantly. Even though they’d come quite a ways since then, the unspoken question still remained.

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”I’m not saying it,” Claire said.

”Neither am I. If the opponent is Zeal, I think we can fight him. He said he was keeping himself to the level of an Adept. We can challenge that. Anything else… well, we’ll keep the option of running handy and try our luck regardless.”

Claire nodded. Then, without further ado, the two of them clambered up the pathway of tumbling roots toward the platform on which they had last met Zeal of the Empty Court.

They reached its top at roughly the same time, both pulling themselves onto the platform and rolling to their feet without wasting a breath. Even a single moment of delay could have been long enough for whatever awaited them to attack.

But no such blows came.

Before them, sitting cross legged upon an old carpet with his hands resting on his knees and palms turned upward, was a sun-weathered old man. His emerald eyes shimmered with the luster of some ancient treasure, standing out like gemstones among his plain clothes. At his side rested an inconspicuous paint brush that Alex knew to be anything but.

”Zeal!” Alex exclaimed, a grin splitting his features. ”You’re still here!”

”Of course I am. You only just left. It is far soon for you to come back and challenge me, children. It has only been a blink of an eye since you left.” There was no malice in Zeal’s voice. If anything, he sounded somewhat pleased to see Alex and Claire again. ”But you should not be here. The Cracked Steps are too great a challenge for you at this stage. Why have you returned?”

”It’s been a few days, you know,” Alex said defensively. ”A lot can change in that amount of time.”

”Especially on a newly initialized world,” Claire added. ”One with Fourteen of the Great Families.”

Zeal let out a thoughtful hum. ”Has it truly been days? I would have sworn that I had only just closed my eyes… but perhaps days and seconds are growing harder to distinguish. Perhaps I am getting old. What has brought you back to this place?

”We want to challenge you,” Alex said. ”And get some questions answered as well. You know more than anyone else we’ve met, but I figured you probably wouldn’t go answering any questions without a good fight.”

Zeal threw his head back in laughter. ”So eager! You seek to beat some answers out of this old man?”

”Well, when you word it that way, I just feel like a dick.”

The old man shifted to his knees, then slowly rose to stand before them. He spun his brush between his fingers like he was a bored school student. ”You have my attention. And how much stronger have you gotten in these few days?”

”The upper Initiate Stage,” Claire said. ”But we’re stronger than you might expect.”

She didn’t expressly state that they’d been following Meiderly’s advice to ensure their Mind Palaces were completely maxed out before allowing themselves to advance to the next stage, but the look in Zeal’s eyes made it clear he knew exactly what Claire had implied.

”I would never stand in the way of someone’s ambition. But if you seek to fight me a second time, I will not hold back as I did in the first,” Zeal warned. ”You know what comes for you. And I will say now — you cannot defeat me. Even with my powers restrained to the Adept Stage, I am more powerful than you can manage.”

”We don’t need to beat you,” Alex said with a grin. ”We just need to impress you.”

”Arrogant. But I am not so easy to impress, boy. That is doubly true when I know what your purpose here is. Do you believe that I will go easy on you because of our previous interaction or Meiderly’s presence? You do not yet stand in the Empty Court. You are not one of us.”

”That’s quite fine with me. I’m not asking for a handout here. I’ve been looking forward to a rematch ever since you whooped our asses last time,” Alex replied. ”Even if we can’t beat you, I imagine we’ll learn a lot from the fight.”

”If you survive,” Zeal said. ”One final chance. I’ll let you turn back and leave. Fighting me before you have reached the Adept Stage will make things far more difficult. Your chances of victory are astronomically low, especially when that victory relies on impressing a man thousands of years your elder.”

Alex and Claire exchanged a glance.

Then they both lowered into fighting stances.

”Much can be learned from defeat,” Claire said. ”We will fight.”

”That’s why we came here, after all,” Alex added. He sent a mental command to his monsters. The air beside him cracked as Glint’s claws carved down through it. Spark rose up from behind Alex’s shadow as the ground before him bubbled in preparation for Princess’ arrival.

”Very well. Allow me to witness just how much you have grown since the last time you faced me. I will respect your determination with a single piece of advice.” Zeal cracked his neck. His lips split into a smile. ”Grit your teeth.”

Alex’s brow furrowed. ”Wha—”

Then Zeal was standing before Alex as if he’d always been there. The old man had slipped past every single one of the monsters in an instant. There wasn’t even time for Alex’s eyes to widen.

A wizened fist slammed into the side of his face like a wrecking ball. It bore enough force to launch him straight to the side, ripping his feet off the ground and sending him flying like a ragdoll. Flying into the air — and right over the edge of the platform.

Alex tumbled into infinite expanse of churning energy that was the sky around them, the world spinning around him so fast that he could barely tell which direction was up and which one was down.

The last thing he managed to catch a glimpse of before plummeting over the side was the stunned look on Claire’s features — and the realization in her eyes that she would be nowhere near fast enough to catch him.