From Moving Crates to Killing Gods-Chapter 90: Scary Rectangle

Coco broke the silence first. "I don’t know what that is." he said as he took a slow step back from the cave entrance, crossing his arms with an expression that had settled into complete certainty. "But I know I’m not going inside. I’ll be very supportive from out here. I’ll cheer, but I will not be entering the scary cave."

Nobody argued with him. For once the childish comment matched exactly what every rational part of my brain was also feeling.

The cave felt wrong. No wind came out of it, no sound either. Just a slow, deep pulse of violet light from somewhere further inside.

I focused, twenty spheres rotating inside my mind.

Sense. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

I thought there might be something dead or alive inside, but it wasn’t the case, there was nothing at all.

But at the same time, something didn’t feel right. In the place where the light came from was a shape I couldn’t define, it felt like a gap in the fabric of the world.

I’d felt Corruptors register as enormous, dense, crushing presences. But this was the opposite, this was absence. Space folding around something that didn’t want to be found, only the outline from its absence could be sensed.

"Phinyx." I said as I stopped using sense. "Can you make us see the inside of the cave better? Something like night vision... if that’s possible."

Phinyx opened one eye and considered the question. "Now you think I’m a flashlight or what?" he said after a moment.

"I’m sorry, it’s just that everyone else’s ability definitely won’t help with that." I replied.

He tilted his head slightly. "Seeing in the dark as a vibe?"

"You’ve done stranger things man, you once created doctor vibes to align your foot!." I pointed out.

He looked toward his foot and then the cave entrance for a moment.

"Night vision vibes." He said while moving his hands toward us.

Then, something about the way my eyes processed the darkness ahead adjusted.

"I can see the shadows a little better! Nothing crazy, but it works." Finn said

Phinyx didn’t say anything, but the look he gave Finn suggested he had noticed the comment. There was a faint shift in his expression, maybe because he belittled his ability to the grade of a convenient tool box.

Kira made a quiet sound. She was staring into the cave entrance with one hand raised slightly, as if blocking out the light behind her. "There." she said.

At the far end of the cave stood a rectangle.

It was tall, taller than a person and wide enough for two people to stand side by side. The frame was obsidian dark, solid, still and completely featureless. Inside the frame the light pulsed, deep violet shifting to gray and back again. The thing decided to use the two colors that felt the most ominous.

Nobody moved toward it.

"That seems like a door." Finn said quietly after studying it for a moment. "Someone probably built that."

"Every building we’ve seen is made of silver." Kira replied quietly. "Well, except for the spire, it seems closer to that material."

I looked down at Wip on my shoulder. She was motionless, ears forward, eyes fixed on the rectangle inside the cave. Her tail was completely still.

"Hey." I said as I crouched slightly and placed Wip on the ground. "If this is where you come from, if that’s your home... somehow. You can go back, don’t worry about us."

She looked at the portal.

It pulsed once, slow and deep, the violet bleeding across the cave walls for a moment before pulling back.

Wip watched it for a few seconds longer.

Then she turned around, jumped and sat on my head.

I waited to see if she’d change her mind, but she didn’t.

"Alright." I said as I straightened. "We’re not going in. Whatever that is goes on the list of things to ask Damian about when we get back."

That list was getting long.

We backed away from the cave entrance and didn’t look at it again, we all decided at the same time that it was time to get outta there. There was something about the light inside that made prolonged looking feel unwise, the way you learned that eye contact with the wrong thing was an invitation you couldn’t take back.

We kept moving towards the eight outpost. The last one.

The descent on the far side of the mountain was much faster than the climb, especially for Wip. By midday we were back on flat ground with the mountain behind.

After a couple of days, Finn pointed toward the horizon.

Far ahead, something thin and green ran vertically, too straight to be natural.

A massive vine, and I knew just the person that held the record of doing the most massive vines around Argent, seven to zero. Kira.

It was not one of the recent ones. This one was older. Kira made a small sound when she saw it.

The first vine. The first outpost we’d made. The beginning of the line we had been building across the wasteland, marker by marker.

"That’s ours." Coco said quietly, sounding oddly satisfied, like spotting something you’d forgotten you owned.

It was a strange thing to feel looking at a vine on a distant cliff wall. Something closer to pride than I was comfortable admitting. We had put that there. We had built the line between here and there, and it was still standing.

Later, Finn stopped and pointed at the distance. We’d finally reached the eight outpost.

There were many small structures around, but everything was destroyed. Similar to the first outposts.

I extended my sense before we reached the place, almost certain that we would find something, we always did somehow, our luck was that bad.

The pressure of the spell spread outward, slipping through the ruined buildings and broken walls.

My sense covered the entire area of the outpost.

And stopped.

I couldn’t believe the result of my scan.