== VORTEX QUEST 1-2 ==
== WELCOME TO THE ABYSS ==
Four nude, muscular college jocks with divine powers dropped onto black rock, ready to save humankind, their tiny nub-cages gleaming with holy radiance.
The landscape was breathtaking. A jagged canyon large enough to fit Manhattan held immense stone arches, stalactites beyond the size of earth mountains and caverns the size of cathedrals leading away from the main space. More canyons stretched beyond it, domed by a miles-high stone ceiling where gentle Northern Lights danced.
Rivers of red and green oozed like thick honey from several high inlets, meeting in a swirling, yellow glowing lake at the realm's bottom.
Far away, torch-marked paths connected dark stone fortresses, patches of vegetation in unnatural colors and short smoke stacks.
Building-sized humanoid skulls of dark stone dotted the landscape as if the rocks had simply grown in that shape. Some were cracked, some spewed ooze, some appeared inhabited.
The demigods had emerged on a platform nearly a mile off the cave floor.
A swarm of thick, grotesque bats without heads took off at the disturbance, screeching from the maws set where the neck should be. They were imps - actual, non-earthly lifeforms.
"Holy hell," Marcus whispered.
"Spot-fucking-on." Xane said. "Kinda loving the aesthetic."
Behind the men towered a castle of brown stone blocks, each the size of a truck, fitted into a wall with three uneven towers. Spikes of black iron protruded from every possible seam like tumors.
The only ornamentation was stone skulls which seemed to have grown on the walls like barnacles.
Xane would have loved to tour the structure. He took in the sights until-
"Hide," Chay ordered and advanced toward the castle, to stand behind a cairn -- a tall stack of flat rocks inscribed with runes.
"Watch out," he added. "Hooded snap weed."
The hunks hopped through a field of cobra-like red stalks that tried to bite into their calves. Xane recognized their description from the knowledge they had been gifted. He used his mage-hand to swat them aside.
"Above," Goro said and ducked under a rough arch in the castle wall, pushing Xane along. The mage's mote -- a green butterfly now -- fluttered behind, dashing between their legs.
Something moved far up in the 'sky', along the aurora-shimmer. A white and gold, humanoid shape -- winged. It didn't stick around long.
"Oh fuck," Marcus said and jolted away from a stone skull in the castle wall.
An eye had appeared in one of the sockets, cat-like but red. Xane readied his mage-hand to poke a finger at it.
"Surveillance?" Goro asked. "We've been spotted?"
"No..." Chay said. "I think that's King Zheggyr checking out who teleported in."
Xane relaxed his shoulders. Hopefully Chay's sense were as keen as he claimed.
He glanced at the cairn where pandemonic runes praised King Zheggyr. Not a person, more a force of nature ruling this slice of hell. The sky voice had dropped them off in the realm Jheyr'Udd, a backwater, practically pastoral in abyss terms.
Xane flipped the king's eye off with all three hands.
Chay cleared his throat. "Okay. We're at the Concordance Archives of the Abyssal Lord Tgog'Afnash and-"
"Nash," Marcus suggested.
"-and we're going to steal the shut-down codes for the vortex. Stealthily."
Xane appreciated Chay taking the initiative. The bodybuilder would have liked to be the leader, but he was out of his depth and planning wasn't his forte. He liked to keep things spontaneous.
Chay's eyes had turned to the horizon -- or the abyssal equivalent. There was blue light flashing on a cliff wall in a far off canyon, around a bend.
"Must be the vortex," Marcus said.
"Do we go straight there after?" Xane asked. As he pointed the butterfly he had stored some power in hopped onto his finger. The mote, seemed to have a will of its own when he didn't command it directly.
"Probably," Chay said. "Let's get information. This *is a library* after all. Hm, most of the windows have bars. We climb to that one. Marcus, you first."
"Sure thing."
The lean, agile Filipino with bleached hair clambered up the wall effortlessly. His naked feet rested on rough bricks, spread apart, making him point his freshly fingered hole at the group. He covered his aegis with one hand to keep the gleam from giving him away.
The others followed. Xane reveled in the thaum-powered strength that allowed one handed wall climbing.
They glanced through the skull-topped window ten feet off the snap-weed-infested ground.
A room of the same stone as the outer walls, furniture of lighter stone slabs and spiky metal. Chains and hooks acted as storage for bones, plates, trays.
It was a dining room, carcasses on a long table picked clean. Jugs of green goo moved across the surface.
There were two humanoids feasting. Seven feet tall, red skinned and muscular as fuck. Their bodies weren't as beautifully sculpted as Xane's but they could have tried going on stage.
The least human feature was the head - entirely a skull, bones contorting as they ate.
Hellions, elite warriors guarding demonic property.
One Hellion rose, his body clad in leather straps holding bulky, spiky armor on his red, well-muscled meat. He picked up a spear and left.
"Skully's not going to leave," Chay whispered. "We need to take him out."
"I can do a chaos blast," Xane offered.
Chay pointed. "The Gnomes are going to ring the alarm."
"Huh?" Xane looked again.
Weaseling between plates were Gnomes -- small, dark fuzzy orbs with four to ten legs and moldy growths, like some kind of fungus infested mutant tarantula. Those had been what shuffled the empty goblets away.
Now that he really looked, the room was full of them, their grotesque, fuzzy bodies running along the many storage chains, nibbling carrion off gnawed bones. Disgusting.
"Haha. So cute," Marcus whispered to himself.
"Here's the plan," Chay said and leaned back from the window.
===***===
"Now," came Chay's order.
Xane sent his mote inside. The butterfly burst into forking lighting and zapped Gnomes off the ceiling chains. The weird critter were a telepathic hive mind. Chay had pointed out the manor nodes.
As the charred mold-spiders dropped, the remaining Gnomes freaked out and spasmed in place, their subordinate minds fried for now.
At the same time, Marcus had sent his chakram in sliced through a thick slab of jerky hanging right above the Hellion.
The dried meat came down and smashed the tall, buff, red-skinned enemy's face into a stone place of maggots. Bits of nibbled carcass flew to the ground as he flailed.
Xane collected thaum in his palm, focusing a piercing bolt.
Chay let all the mist he had built up outside rush into the room. At the same time Goro jumped in, his caged crotch shining in the black smoke. The berserker barely fit through the window, taking Xane's view of the room.
Skully rose with an inhumanly deep grunt. Goro was already on him. The naked demigod hopped onto the table and raised one leg higher than his shoulder to crash the heel down on the armored warrior's skeletal head.
The Hellion's face went to the table again.
"Fuck," Chay said. "New main node going online over there."
Xane took one second to aim where the thick-legged Thai guy pointed and reshaped his bolt for a greater area of impact. His blunt thaum-projectile smeared a blob of twitching Gnomes along the floor.
"Keep taking them out," Chay suggested and slipped through the window, turning invisible in his fog.
Xane entered the room, too, loading up a new spell.
The Hellion had rolled away from the table, eyes on Goro, not noticing Marcus sneaking up behind him.
The abyssal creature grabbed a broad sword with a garnet set into the hilt. A red glow ran along the sword's edge with a faint buzz.
"That's a chainsaw," Chay said somewhere in the fog.
"Rad as fuck," Xane whispered and prepared a bolt of ice.
A fat Gnome popped under Marcus' light feed like a gray goo water balloon. The Hellion swirled around, arcane chainsaw-sword swinging.
Chay hopped from his fog with a gesture and Skully's arm twitched mid-swing. Marcus hadn't needed help, bending backward with infinite flexibility.
Goro swirled with one massive leg up high and slammed the Hellion's boney head with the back of his foot. He had to evade the arcane weapon's counter attack.
A light appeared behind Xane, making him turn, ready to shoot. It was just Chay's aegis' glow. The umbralist had invisible walked behind him.
"New hive mind node?" Xane guessed.
"Up there. From the air duct."
Xane sent his magic icicle at the hole where the wall met the ceiling, shock frosting critter and ice-blocking the vent.
With the Hellion swinging at Goro, Marcus had moved in and pushed his flat palm into the leather-harness-clad back with inhuman force. Skully was sent past Goro, stumbling into the table. Chay reached out from across the room, probably making the enemy's legs twitch.
As the arcane sword dropped, its red glow fading, Goro rammed his weight into the massive foe, dropping him to the ground.
Skully hit the stone face first. Goro brought his fist down - bone cracked.
Marcus had picked up the sword, struggling under its weight. He let the broad side come down on the Hellion's back. Goro stomped on the back of the skullhead.
An explosion of brain matter. The Hellion convulsed.
It was ugly and fucked up and Xane was thrilled. He was sweating.
Chay leaned against the door, listening for whoever might be coming. His fog was quickly dissipating.
Goro flung goo off his hands while the deep cuts on his skin healed.
"Let me," Xane offered and swiped his gym buddy's enemy-gunk away with one load of thaum. "Are you okay?"
