The Infinite Bk 01 Ch 09

The Story of Oath

Oath, Trevor, and Mira fell to their hands and knees, close to passing out. They finally escaped the centipedes and were back in a standard corridor. Unfortunately, their strength was next to zero, and Trevor was knocking back potions. Only once all was calm did they finally get back on their feet.

"We need to find Noah and Beth," said Oath, "we should--"

A solid fist striking his face both cut him off and sent him falling to the ground. His eyes were rolling like billiard balls, but the sound of Mira's screaming forced him to focus. Trevor had tackled her and driven a knife into her chest.

"You son of a bitch!" Oath bolted to his feet and attacked Trevor, knocking him off Mira, who was choking on her own blood.

As they fell over into a storm of grappling and beating, Mira used what little strength she had to retrieve a health potion from her pocket and pour it on the wound. She passed out, stuck in a race between bleeding to death and recovering in time. Nearby, Oath and Trevor had gotten to their feet and hurled punches wildly.

"Trevor, what the fuck are you doing?!" Oath shouted.

"Getting you out of my way!" Trevor yelled back.

He retreated, going after his halberd. Oath did the same, retrieving his sword and raising it just in time to block Trevor's thrust. Despite Oath's strength, Trevor could exert more continuous force, and the spear tip of the halberd pierced his shoulder. Oath couldn't contain his cry of anguish as he was pinned against the wall. It was a stalemate; Oath stuck where he was, and Trevor unable to let up the pressure.

"It would have been better if Mira had followed those two in the pit. I didn't want to have to kill her, but I couldn't risk you two teaming up against me."

"We weren't going to team up against you! What are you talking about?!"

"I just didn't want her to intervene when I tried to kill you. It doesn't matter, I'll just tell the others you were both killed by the same monster, if they're even still alive."

Oath struggled to contend with the blade in his shoulder, but it felt like the wound was just getting bigger and bigger. "Why are you doing this?!"

"I need you out of the way so that I can become the baron. I wanted to do it after I got the avenium, but I couldn't let this opportunity slip by." Oath was forced toward the ground, leaving a trail of blood across the wall. "You're the last of the main Fault family, so once you and your father die, I'll be next in line to receive the title."

"You're another member? But my father said the branch family had been slain!"

"They were killed days ago, actually. It was probably Noah, hired by the baron. But he only thought to kill my father and my half-brother. He didn't think it worth investigating further, to find a bastard like me living in Clive. The town will be mine! It should be mine!"

Oath reached around, grabbing a stone on the ground. Fate was kind to him, guiding his throw and striking Trevor in the eye. He staggered back, bleeding horribly, and Oath wrenched the halberd out of his shoulder and scrambled to his feet. He struggled to raise his sword, having lost half the strength in his wounded arm.

In a similar predicament, Trevor chose to retrieve his halberd and stare Oath down with his one good eye while launching stabs. Oath did his best to parry the blows, as he didn't have the strength to do another shoving match. He was losing ground, fast.

"So all this time, you were just waiting for a chance to kill me? From the day we met?!"

"Not until you came out to us as the baron's son, but when I found out about the dungeon crab, it was perfect. I could use you to get the avenium, so no matter what, I'll still become a noble!"

Oath pulled away and reformed his stance, then went on the offensive. His capacity for fighting had greatly diminished, but still, his wide swings forced Trevor to retreat. Trevor had the longer reach, but his halberd was at risk of breaking. Oath pushed him back, trying to get past the swinging axe blade.

"You're insane! You think you can get the avenium or even escape this place on your own?"

"I'm willing to take that risk. I want you to die down here, betrayed, abandoned, and robbed of your little family burial plot behind your mansion. You'll just be another nameless skeleton with no grave marker. I don't mind dying if it means I get to kill you first."

"What could I have possibly done to make you hate me so much?"

"I just plain don't like you, even before I knew you were the baron's son. Your face, your voice, your soul, everything about you pissed me off from the moment we met. It's because you're weak. You're too weak to rule these lands. You can't even use magic. You were born a sniveling piece of shit, and you're going to die here a sniveling piece of shit."

As Trevor spoke, his blade began to glow with mana, and Oath instinctively stepped back. His sword would likely snap if he tried to block or deflect an attack like that. When the swings and stabs came, he only dodged, not letting the two weapons touch.

"All you do is let that arrogant prick take care of everything and toss out orders. Clive would burn to the ground on the first day if you took over."

Oath swung his sword, just narrowly catching the halberd's shaft and stopping Trevor long enough to close in. Trevor raised the halberd to block, but a cleave of Oath's sword snapped it, leaving a shallow cut across his forehead and chest. Trevor jumped back, now holding an axe in one hand and a quarterstaff in the other.

"I can do plenty on my own, without Noah," said Oath.

"Shut up and die," Trevor shot back before charging at him.

----------

To Beth, it was horrifying, the vastness of the chamber, for this grand cathedral to be just a tiny pocket of this wretched labyrinth. Noah, however, felt spine-chilling excitement. The room was as large as a football stadium with a bridge stretching across a lake of mercury, glistening from some unseen light beneath its depths. The air above it was filled with creatures resembling hummingbirds, touching their beaks to the surface as if fishing for something. The birds didn't seem aggressive, as they paid no notice to the two outsiders.

Over their heads was a ceiling covered in bioluminescent life forms, supported by grand outward-bending arches. No, they were chains, each link the size of an SUV and encrusted by the shell. So too were there great statues adorning the walls; a pantheon of small creatures and great titans entombed by white, like flies in a spiderweb.

Noah and Beth crossed the bridge, staring in awe at the structures. This wasn't just some animal nest or crustacean shell; this was surely built by a sentient will. Who made it? How? How many people knew about it? What happened to this place to end up like this?

It was Noah's first time facing questions like these, for the presence of magic in this world created infinite possibilities that he would never have seen in previous worlds. Everything unusual he ever encountered was either manmade or caused by nature, but the presence of magic added all-new options, instigating curiosity. It could have been done by a whole other species, using powers beyond his understanding. It was a new way of thinking, one that invigorated him.

They crossed the room without conflict, entering a hall with normal-sized rooms on either side. In these chambers, too, the shell encased structures and shapes. Were they people? Furniture?

"Interesting."

----------

Oath and Trevor were locked in combat, struggling to avoid each other's attacks. Oath had broken Trevor's halberd in two, taking away his ability to use magic, but he still lunged and fought with the remains, granting him two smaller weapons. He would swing the head of his halberd like a hatchet, forcing Oath to block with his sword, and then use his free hand to strike Oath with the halberd's shaft. The blows came at full strength, and Oath couldn't stop them.

"You don't deserve to become the next baron if this is the best you can do! You must be the weakest of the family."

"Trevor, listen! Do you really think you can get out of here without my help? Stop this, and we can both walk out of this dungeon alive! You can still become a noble with the avenium!"

"That's not good enough. I want the land that my father couldn't have, the authority. I want to spit on his grave as the unwanted bastard and flaunt the power that he lusted after. I want Clive, and I want to rip it out of your hands. It's not enough for me to win, you have to lose!"

A memory then flashed through Oath's mind, and despite the dire situation, a chuckle slipped free. "I remember Noah saying that you were a jerk probably because of something to do with your father. I think he even said you would betray us. It must be embarrassing, to be sized up so easily and have your true colors seen!"

"Shut up! If he's still alive, I'll kill him after I've killed you!"

Trevor charged at Oath, and finally, Oath managed to deliver a wound of his own. He blocked Trevor's two-fold attack and pushed forward, his sword slicing Trevor's shoulder. Trevor dropped the broken shaft, his arm now slick with blood, though Oath was in the same state, no longer able to grip his sword with both hands. They stared each other down, picking the moment to strike.

Trevor's broken halberd was lighter and shorter than Oath's sword, so it would be easier to wield, but he'd have to focus entirely on offense. For Oath, his defensive situation was better, but while he could move his sword with one arm, his speed would pale compared to Trevor's, and he'd be lucky to inflict much damage. His best bet would be to block and then try to overpower.

Looking at his cousin, Oath was reminded of that scene from the field when a group of men attacked him, Noah, and Tin. He had been utterly useless, just pulled into the woods while Noah took care of the threat easily. But in the week since then, he had trained relentlessly, and now, he could finally defend himself and his bloodline, even against his kin.

"This is your last chance, Trevor," said Oath.

"No, this is--" A hole opened up in Trevor's chest, and blood poured out.

Noah appeared behind him, his sword seemingly materializing out of thin air and now rendered crimson. The blade had gone straight through Trevor's heart, leaving him and Oath stunned. Trevor tried to speak, but blood came out of his mouth. Noah dropped him to the floor, pulled out his sword, and then pierced the back of Trevor's skull for good measure.

"Stop! What are you doing?!" Oath shouted.

"I'm fulfilling my contract. He became an enemy, so I dealt with him."

"It wasn't your place to decide he should die! Trevor wanted to become the next baron in my place, so it was my responsibility to take him down!"

"What are you talking about? He wanted to take your place as Clive's next baron?"

"He... he said he was my cousin, an illegitimate child. He kept it hidden all this time."

"Oh please. His father wasn't ranked high enough to have an "illegitimate child." Trevor was nothing more than a common bastard. And while I'm sure he had some hard-luck backstory about growing up on the streets that would make us all pity or support him, I'm simply not interested. We don't have time for you two to bond over your daddy issues."

Beth arrived, standing beside him. "What's going on?" Mira was with her, having narrowly recovered.

"I can't just leave it this way!" Oath yelled. "I can't just walk off without knowing how it would have ended! If I could have beaten him myself!"

"That's just your pride talking, but pride won't keep you alive in this place. Should I have just sat back and let you continue your childish squabble? I was hired to keep you from dying, not help you satisfy your ego."

"Wait, what happened?" Beth asked.

"Trevor tried to kill me and Oath," said Mira.

"You can't be serious! After all the time we spent together, he just turned on us like that?"

"It was his plan from the beginning," Oath muttered. "He's my cousin, and as soon as he found out we were in competition for the title of baron, he planned out how to use us and kill me."

"We're not going to make it out of here, are we?" Mira asked.

"We should have turned back when we had the chance!" Beth tearfully exclaimed, falling to her knees as the pent-up strain finally released itself.

"Crying and worrying about it won't help us get out of this," said Noah. "Look, we're all exhausted. Beth and I found a room we can rest in. Let's set up camp and get our strength back. You three go, I'm going to sort through Trevor's things."

"Noah, you can't," said Mira. "Trevor may have gone crazy, but it's not right to just rob his corpse."

"Well, you can either choose to stop me, or you can go, eat some lunch, and put the whole thing out of your mind. So, what are you going to do?" Mira backed down and briskly walked off with Beth behind her. "And you go too," he said to Oath.

"I'm not going to leave you alone here."

"When the adrenaline wears off, you won't be able to. You'll collapse and I'll have to carry you to the campsite. You're injured, go patch yourself up. I'll be fine."

"I guess you will, won't you? Nothing ever gets to you, does it?" Oath muttered.

"I hear backtalk when I want to hear anguished footsteps. Go."

Oath limped off after Beth and Mira, and Noah began picking through Trevor's tools, supplies, and treasure. It had gotten to the point where he had to be picky about what he could take with him, as he was reaching the limit of what he could carry and still move effectively. Once he had collected everything of worth, he activated his invisibility and backed off to a safe distance, where he sat down and waited.

After a few minutes, openings in the floor appeared like cracks in ice. They were seams, invisible to the naked eye until they opened up, and from within, a green slime appeared. Rather than spreading out under the force of gravity, it was moving willfully toward Trevor's corpse. It enveloped his body and disassembled it in pieces the size of grains of sand. In time, the slime retreated, leaving nothing but some bones and scraps of fabric.

"So that's how it feeds."

Noah went to the camp chamber, where everyone sat against different walls. There was a dead look in their eyes, an exhaustion that was both mental and physical. They had each hoped they would make it out of the dungeon crab together so that their party would survive this trial and remain whole. Trevor was rude and untalkative, but his loss left a void, and they suddenly felt much weaker without him. But with the truth they were forced to accept, was it really a loss? After all, he showed no hesitation in trying to murder the people who thought him to be their friend.

"How could he do it?" Beth asked. "How could he lie to us for that long? Pretend to be our ally? All those battles where we had to depend on each other, did that really mean nothing to him?"

Noah sat down and began unpacking his lunch. "You'd be surprised how long you can keep the lies going, how easy it can get."

"Have you lied to us about anything?"

Noah stared at her, challenging her to accept his coming answer. "Plenty of things, none of which matter in this situation." He tossed some food to everyone. "Eat up. It doesn't matter if Trevor is dead. It doesn't change our plan."

"No, it changes everything." Beth stood up. "We should leave while we're still alive, while we still have supplies and potions. We're not ready for this place. We weren't ready even when we had Trevor. We have plenty of treasure, more than enough to live happily. Isn't that enough?"

"It's too late to turn back now, to leave here without the avenium. I'm sure by now we've almost reached the bottom of the shell."

"What are you really getting out of this? You're so sure we can do this and keep pushing us forward. What is it that you want so badly as to risk all of our lives?"

"The same thing as you, an adventure. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"I was wrong, this is too much. Oath, Mira, you agree with me, right?"

Oath took a deep breath. "I can't walk away from this, not now. I want to see this through to the end. I need to. I don't want to live my life as a coward."

"Mira?"

Mira hugged her knees to her chest and hid her face. Was she refusing to participate in the conversation, or had she shut down completely?

Beth turned back to Noah. "We're in over our heads. It was a mistake to come--"

"You're free to leave whenever you want," said Noah, cutting her off. "I don't expect anything from you, or anyone for that matter. If you want to go back to the surface, you can just walk right on out that door."

"After everything you and I have done together, you would say that to me?!"

"Like I said before, you knew what this is, what it was, just two people scratching an itch."

"Well because of that itch, I'm late."

Mira tensed in shock, and Oath's eyebrows nearly shot off his face, yet Noah didn't flinch. "And?" Beth stammered at his question, not sure how to respond. "Again, you knew what the deal was when we started, no attachment. I'm getting that avenium, and there is nothing you can say to stop me. You can either leave now and try to make it back out on your own, or you can come with us down to get the avenium and we'll make the trip back together."

"This is an obsession! I don't know what the baron promised you, but let it go!"

"That's enough. Everyone shut up and get some rest. We set out again in a few hours."

After some fitful sleep, they reluctantly advanced deeper into the maze. Trevor's absence took a heavy toll on the group. Beth and Mira continued to attack from behind Noah and Oath, but the monsters still withstood barrages of stones and arrows to try and sink their teeth into something. Usually, Trevor and his halberd could have warded them off, breaking their momentum so that Noah and Oath could go in for the kill. Now they had to be the main defensive wall and block everything with their swords.

They battled through the monsters, but took injuries with each clash. It wasn't just their formation that had been disturbed; Noah could see the group's morale at the edge of an abyss. Noah was indifferent, but the others were grappling with despair. Which hurt more? Losing a friend, or finding out he was never their friend at all?

At the moment, they were surrounded by centipedes in a wide-open chamber. Noah, Oath, and Beth were stomping on the little bastards as they drew close, while Mira was swinging her staff, equipped with her Shatter Mace spell. She was wild, taking out her strain and frustration on the beasts, with her screams of exertion becoming louder with each swing. But, rather than helping, the onslaught of monsters only seemed to increase her drunken aggression. Beth, on the other hand, was acting sluggish, paralyzed by fear and the loss of hope.

As Noah stomped on every centipede that came close, he heard a scream. A few beasts had managed to jump onto Mira and were digging in. Oath rushed over to help her, leaving two sides of their formation unguarded, and the monsters closed in.

"I have a plan!" Noah said. "When the monsters move away, head towards that passage over there!

Before the others could say anything, Noah drew his knife and slashed his wrist, sending a torrent of blood pouring onto the ground. Seduced by the smell of blood, the centipedes turned their attention from Oath and the others and swarmed toward Noah. He took off, sprinting across the field of armored backs and spindly legs, leading them like the Pied Piper.

The trio rushed towards the exit without hesitation. Once he saw them reach the doorway, Noah turned around and made himself invisible. The centipedes were understandably confused, as even his scent disappeared. His blood, shrouded in mana, vanished as it fell. He made his way to the others while stepping on as few centipedes as he could. By the time he reached the exit, he had already used a healing potion to mend his wrist.