Beetle hooves skittered across jagged stone, their strides long and untamed as the party plunged deeper into the abyssal dark. Wind blasted Logan's cheeks and snatched the breath from his lungs. Behind him, Bromlin whooped like a tavern brawler, while Senna laughed so hard it sounded unhinged. Alden, gripping the sides of his mount like a child on a runaway cart, was definitely screaming. Cassandra looked like she was trying not to be sick.

Logan tried steering his mount, but it didn't respond to him. He was grateful for that, because he might have led them straight into one of the shearing sheets of energy splitting up from the ground. More rifts kept rising, some snaking to the surface, corroding the underside of the earth's crust. Rockslides cracked open above the empty abyss, dropping like shattered teeth.

Ahead, Mishki clung low to his beetle. Small as he was, he looked like a determined child hunched on a motorcyle, though Logan caught flickers of concern in the goble's profile between the jolts of rough terrain.

Mishki's beetle banked hard to the right as a geyser of void energy erupted, and the rest of the party followed before the entire group came to a jolting halt. One of the great stone slopes ahead crumbled under the focused rift. The earth blasted outward in a spray of shrapnel, and the jagged outline left behind looked like a giant had bitten into the subterranean mountain like an apple.

The newly carved depression revealed a thick pillar of light in the distance, descending from an unnaturally flat surface high on the cavern ceiling. Where it descended was hidden from view, but Logan had seen this same beam before and knew it vanished somewhere into the unfathomable abyssal depths. That other time he had seen it was after delving beneath Gnashridge's inn. Back then, their encounter with the region had also involved beetles, although not friendly ones like these.

Just as Logan had seen it last time, it blazed with brilliance. Aetherlens showed the ravaging whorls of mana peeling apart from the central beam like rainbow-hued sunflares of every mana type. The ambient mana around him, too, funneled in a wide spiral toward it. The draw wasn't enough to sap his mana reserves, but the sensation prickled at the base of his neck like the press of lightning in the air. Every hair on his arms stood on end.

The path forward was fractured and unstable, ending in steep, broken cliffs.

Logan turned to Mishki. The goble's face was pale.

"What is that?"

"That is the furnace," said Mishki. "It is in use."

Senna nearly toppled off her beetle. "That's a furnace? I absolutely need to get up there."

Mishki sagged forward on his mount. "It is no normal furnace. It is burning the energy of my friend for fuel. The warlock says the energy is feeding the Devouring Coil."

They all took in Mishki's explanation of the imprisoned aerudine with a quiet stupor. Logan had only seen a description of the aerudine race after his initial trial. The others hadn't even heard of it at all.

"I did not know of the aerudine, either," said Mishki. "Not until my warlock led us here. The reavers had already captured her and chained her to the fuel chamber before we even arrived. She comes from another System altogether, and despite her state of captivity, she claims to have been sent here for a purpose. But I know she is in pain…" He drifted into silence.

Logan watched the vortex of power spiraling into the darkness, twisting like an unstable star. His stomach sank. The sheer mana pouring from the furnace could melt a city. If it were fueling the Devouring Coil…

"Do you think," Logan asked, "if we freed your friend, we could disrupt the energy source powering the Devouring Coil?"

The goble gave an ugly snort. "The warlock received special bindings from the reavers to lock her in place. If the chains were breakable, I guarantee she would have managed the escape herself." He stared at the glowing beam blasting from the furnace, but it was clear his mind was focused elsewhere.

Logan gripped Mishki's shoulder and gave it a reassuring shake. The goble startled at Logan's touch, but eased and smiled. The rest of the team seemed pensive too, although Alden was squinting at the light.

The mage opened his mouth, but hesitated before finally shaking himself. "Mishki, we will free your friend." Alden waved his hands to cut the goble off from repeating his beliefs that the aerudine was beyond saving. "This man," Alden said, staring Logan in the eyes, "is not from our System either. I have seen him perform feats I would not believe, and with his help, I am confident we can do the impossible."

Logan widened his eyes. He wasn't even upset that Alden had revealed Logan's secret about being outside the System, a revelation that only mildly surprised the goble. They were standing in the subterranean portion of the Ruined Wilds, after all. Logan didn't really know how to respond, but it seemed a genuine smile was enough.

Mishki frowned, looking from the path to the furnace, then Logan, and back. "Even," he said, "if it did somehow work out, how will you get there? I can manage along this broken terrain with my Night's Favor. It increases my agility and dexterity by double, and triple if underground. But… a human…"

"I've got a skill for that," Logan smiled. The goble hadn't seen his Balanced usage of Null Pulse yet.

Apparently, though, the System wasn't ready to let them have a win. The furnace pulsed with an excessively intense light and a tremor ran through the stone beneath them. The momentary intensified illumination revealed something in the darkness that turned Logan's blood cold.

A titanic body writhed in the distance, scaled and knotted, gleaming like obsidian glass. It twisted in on itself like a living hurricane of flesh and bone, pustules glowing faintly with embedded mana.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Its head, tapered and too long, rose from the darkness, reflecting the concentrated beam of mana and refracting it as if someone had held a prism to a sunbeam and scattered the light.

Name: Devouring Coil Type: Ancient Level: ???????????? HP: ?????????????????? MP: ????????????????????????????? Lore: The Devouring Coil consumes all in its path. It's favorite skill is Consume, which draws upon any power used against it and repels it against the user, while simultaneously absorbing the power. After enough time, the power will be ingested and become a part of the Coil itself. Having slept for generations, the Coil's hunger is primed so much it could eat an entire System. Or two.

Analyze is level 27!

As rainbow reflections coruscated off the body, the monster swung its neck with a single crack and burst through the stone overhead.

Starlight streamed down as a section of the surface world caved in. A huge patch of terrain, easily ten football fields wide and twice as long, tilted into the cavern at a precarious 45-degree angle, trees and all. A river poured after it, a waterfall slicing through the collapse.

The beetles bucked wildly, flinging the group together near the cavern's inner ridge before skittering off down the slope, even Mishki unable to rein them in. As the last mount fled, Logan and the others huddled into a tight knot for whatever false sense of security it gave.

"That can't be good," said Senna.

Logan squinted at the tilted forest. Those trees… that river… He craned his neck to look up through the breach in the ceiling far above. Yes, the slope to his left was the base of the mountain he had first appeared in this world. This patch of trees was the blighted forest where he had first seen Razor descend as a dragon. Where the flicktail squirrels had pelted him with their drakla pits and prowlers had hunted him. Currently it rested testily against the supporting subterranean base of the mountain, wedged just enough to keep it from completely sinking into the abyss.

Did anybody up there even know what was happening beneath the surface? He wished they had a way to send a communication up to Razor and Mariv above ground. Surely they were busy, though, likely helping the villagers deal with the aftermath of the giant void fissures tearing through the region.

A flock of warpincer raptors burst from a side tunnel lower in the cavern wall and darted into the slanted forest slab, swooping like fishing seagulls. They were probably feasting on an all-you-can-eat buffet of stunned flicktail squirrels.

A sharp yowl split the air as one bird fell in a streaked blur, beating its wings without rising. Logan could just make out the shape of a black prowler pouncing on it, sending both beasts tumbling into the dark.

Devouring coils. Dragons. Now blighted forests collapsing into the depths. What next?

He sagged against a stone ledge, only for soft moss to press back against him.

Gray cave moss. He scraped it up in a bundle without thinking, knowing any restorative plants would be helpful for whatever was to come. Senna caught on immediately and helped, then divided rations among the others. It was minor, but it gave everybody a small sense of agency.

He racked his brain for any other resources. He had to think like a resident of this world, not like the stunned noob he had started as. Old Logan would have backed down the moment he felt too daunted by the task. Old Logan would have believed his father's voice before he bothered trying to get stronger.

His eyes darted back to the exposed patch of forest. That day he had seen Razor descend in dragon form, moonbloom spores made her sneeze.

"Did you know," Logan said, still forming his thoughts as he spoke them, "dragons are allergic to moonbloom?"

Alden, despite his display of confidence moments earlier, scowled at Logan. "Your egg is unhatched, Logan. Are you really that worried?"

Logan recalled poking fun at Razor for her allergy. He had almost lost a finger in the process. She had gone on a rant about how dragons were high-tiered ancient species that never had to dwell in lower-leveled regions. Therefore, they lacked immunology to lesser toxins.

History had never been Logan's strongest subject, but he remembered classes covering civilizations that had fallen to conquerors just because they lacked immunity to the diseases that came with explorers.

Logan explained that to the others, then looked to the Devouring Coil. "Do you think that thing's older than a dragon?"

"Are you asking what I think you're asking?" Alden said.

Logan shrugged. "It's just a thought."

"The levels of undisturbed moonbloom powder we would need to collect," Alden said, "to affect a monstrosity that size—"

"Wait," said Senna, tapping her lips. Excitement flickered in her eyes. She checked her bags, then glanced at the furnace. "We might not need all that much. If we had something strong enough to amplify the spores' toxicity—"

"The furnace," said Cassandra, a mix of disbelief and excitement in her voice as she interrupted Senna. "The Coil is feeding from the mana source."

"If we poisoned the source," Senna said, "we'd poison it."

"But how can we deliver undisturbed powder?" Alden asked.

Senna opened her mouth, then stopped. Her fingers hovered near her belt pouch and she spoke slowly, more to herself than the others. "Every time I try to make a moonbloom potion, it fails. It just isn't stable when brewed." Logan didn't mention that none of her attempts at potion making worked very well, from what he had heard. "But," she continued, "what if it doesn't need to be brewed? What if I stop trying to force myself into that alchemy mindset?"

Cassandra blinked. "Then what?"

"Then I treat it like a trap," Senna said, a grin forming. "I've built dozens that hold charge or pressure until they're sprung. I could make a container that keeps the spores still until the furnace triggers the release." She pulled out some metal items she had purchased from the Farrowstead smithy before the town exploded with Void energy. "These would work to contain it, but I would still need something that responds to mana to act like a fuse."

She trailed off at the end and shook her head.

"What about that defective rod?" Logan asked. Cassandra pulled it from her storage and handed it to Senna, who inspected the device. "It might not respond to minor anomalies," said Logan, "but that furnace is way beyond normal ranges."

Mishki straightened slowly, realization dawning. "You think we can actually free my friend? Cut off the power. Maybe even weaken the Coil enough for it to be struck down?"

Senna's excitement was returning, but it was clear she held her optimism in check. "Problem is, even if we don't need a ton of moonbloom, we do still need a lot. I don't know how we'll collect enough moonbloom in raw form. It's hard enough to find the nodules in daylight, and they bloom in moonlight. I only have two pods on me, and even with that chunk of forest down here, we'd have to scour shaded portions. Gathering it is going to be a nightmare."

Mishki grinned, revealing his sharp goble teeth. "I know these woods. I've traveled through them to fetch materials to fuel the furnace. And I've always liked tossing drakla melons to the flicktail squirrels."

Senna's brow lifted.

"I have Critter Taming," Mishki added. "The beetles… well, my skill isn't the strongest, clearly. But neither are the squirrels. It was by feeding rats and squirrels I first received the skill. It shouldn't be difficult to get them to help us gather more."

Mishki made preparations to enter the forest with Bromlin as a guard, and Senna sat down with the manafield detection rod, figuring out how to disassemble it without ruining it.

Meanwhile, the three magic-wielding members spread out and faced the endless abyss.

Cassandra practiced various applications of her Force-version of wards.

Alden trained his efforts on lifting stone chunks while simultaneously drenching them with Necrotic energy.

Logan, though, had something he wanted to test out now that he was back to his Void Affinity. He took a deep breath and braced himself for whatever surprises awaited.

"Invigorating Flame!"

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