A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

Chapter 131: The Whispering Grotto (part-2)

'Jump back, move right, duck towards the left, kick back and fire.'

That was all that passed through Ryan's mind as he fought hard against the creature, the creature who was sitting on its many webs with Ryan being the poor fly being trapped in it.

But unlike the poor fly, Ryan was not as helpless as he fought back vehemently but it was getting difficult to do so.

'This sticky floor and walls are making it difficult for me to move even, I will show him why I was feared in FortKnight.'

Ryan dashed forward narrowly missing the swipe from its legs as a platform formed under his feet, as he jumped up on top of the creature, firing from his rifle, as he had already forgone using of his pistol in exchange for something that packed a larger punch.

Two strategically placed beams of iron managed to arrest the creature's movement only for it to scream again as its rather woolly looking carapace glowed an ominous red as hairs on its carapace straightened up like sharp spike.

Ryan's eyes widen in horror as he quickly managed to raise a thick iron shield while curling him into a ball trying to make him a smaller target, but he was not fast enough as one of the numerous spikes managed to hit him near his left cheek just below his eyes, it managed to shatter his mask as it cut a deep scar that went up to his forehead, narrowly missing his eye by a few millimeters, though his eyelids were not spared from it.

Blood gushed down from his recently opened wound making it very difficult for him to see from his left eye as Ryan bit back a scream, while the creature had managed to free itself.

Anger rose in his heart and fueled by it the spell 'Banish Greater Undead' that he had cast over his gauntlets thereby enhancing his weapons as they also suddenly received a damage buff from the spell, but Ryan was feeling tired as well as enraged as such he withdrew his weapon but he dashed forward using his sword style but without using his nodachi.

To the creature, it looked as Ryan vanished from its sight before it was assaulted by unrestraint pain that seemed to tear its body apart, and the creature was not wrong as its body was being torn apart courtesy of multiple thick beams of steel and iron that were suddenly forming inside its body courtesy of Ryan.

Being a practitioner in the noble art of fencing, Ryan had faced many fights and even had his name made renown in certain International circles because of his performance, many claimed him as a prodigy but he knew he was far from it, he had spent countless hours toiling sacrificing sweat and blood to reach this stage, he had been the worst in his class constantly mocked by his peers and those after them yet he had proven them wrong and stepped forward and proved them wrong.

And over time he had gained an intuition on feints and tricks his fellow competitors had developed which had saved him from facing some rather embarrassing defeats, and it was that intuition that warned him that something was wrong and as such without hesitation he ran as far away from the creature as possible, jumping back he stood back up on the wall on a hastily created ledge.

A large farting sound resonated within the giant fishbowl shaped cavern, though having blocked his hearing Ryan was unable to hear the sound, but he was able to see a noxious cloud that emanated from the creature slowly shrouding it as well as the large goo that it had dumped on the ground, but Ryan's vision was able to quickly discern the contents of the goo that was quickly moving towards him.

'What that hell is that? The goo is made up of miniature figure of that creature and that cloud is it melting my beams.'

Ryan was faced by a small tidal wave of countless miniature creatures that were copy of the creature itself that was making a mad dash towards him as such he threw caution at the wind.

'I do not have anything other than to make a suicidal gambit with my life, I hope I survive.'

Suddenly a spherical structure started to form around him when all of a sudden he flung a dozen bottles containing highly flammable and explosive mixture towards the creature and its countless spawns, and as it reached them he raised his right hand which mimicked a gun, aiming it at the creature he invoked another spell.

"Inferno Bomb."

Ryan winced as he felt the sharp pain coursed through his body at the sudden sharp decline of his mana, as his reserves became empty.

A Runic circle appeared a few millimetres from his forefinger as a small marble shaped white-hot ball formed which sped forward hitting the creature and exploding, and with the volatile bottle, the explosion evolved into a giant hot and fiery one, couple with the gas released by the creature which itself was highly flammable.

A large flash occurred as the temperature rose to an unprecedented height as the entire fishbowl shaped cavern seemed to be incinerated.

Inside his safety cocoon that Ryan had formed as soon as he let his attack loose, he quickly gulped a few aquamarine-coloured pills, a red coloured pill, and then repaired his mask, but he could feel the sudden spike in temperature that seemed to try and bake him, as such he quickly sat down in a meditative stance as his Mana rotated inside his body as he tried to create a Leidenfrost effect by forming a thin mana shield outside of his body.

'This is bad, the heat is unbearable, the way out should be clear and I can feel it close, so I will have to burst out.'

Ryan grabbed his pistol morphed it into his second form and waited briefly for it to finish charging and no sooner had his pistol finished charging the spherical cocoon surrounding him had disappeared and the first thing he did was to fire at the general direction of the creature as he took a leap at the direction of the exit.

The entire room was engulfed in a scorching hot fire, so hot that Ryan immediately regretted leaving the safety of the cocoon.

'So hot so hot I just jumped from the frying pan into the fire, ugh if this continues I will die for sure, I have to find the exit and hope the other side is fine.'

With a wince, Ryan created a board that helped him to slide down and as he neared the exit he jumped, even though the raging inferno he could make out the iron door, he extended his hand to deconstruct the door, only for it to slam open as a gust of wind threw back which was followed by a death wail.

A chill ran down Ryan's spine as he lay down on his back with a confused look on his face, 'Huh the fire disappeared and enchant near my ear broke as well, what is going on.'

Ryan did not wait any longer as he quickly stood up, only to be greeted by pitch-black darkness, it was so dark that even with his special eyes he was not able to perceive what was beyond the door.

Ryan stared into what seemed to be a black abyss, before he slouched as he mused out loud, "I have to reach inside that dark abyss, ugh, what a misfortune."

With a deep breath Ryan cautiously stepped into the darkroom, when all of a sudden the door closed behind him and multiple torches lit up the room, Ryan quickly spun around to spot any threat in the small yet cylindrical room but he failed spectacularly though he was able to spot murals covering the entire wall and at the exact center of the room a pedestal made up of whitest marble he had ever seen, and on top of it was a broken long sword.

The sword itself looked nothing special yet it exuded an aura that made anyone in presence of it revere the sword.

Ryan raised his hand to touch it only to hesitate for a brief moment but as soon as he did his vision changed and he found himself standing in a throne room.

"My my my so this is your Apostle, father."

"Yes, my beloved daughter this is Ryan Von Ruinesca my Apostle."

Hearing the familiar voice Ryan was already on his knees as he spoke, "Greetings Shish and Greetings Goddess."

"What a polite and well mannered child."

As the feminine voice spoke Avtis simply snorted but did not say anything as an Amethyst coloured flame appeared in front of Ryan's face and for a few moments Ryan felt as if every inch of his body including his soul was being inspected by the Goddess.

'Is this what a prized horse feels like when it is being inspected by its future owner?'

"Yes, yes that is what they feel most of the time when they are being inspected."

Was the quick reply of the Goddess as Ryan thought process came to a halt, 'I forgot my mind can be read by'

The flame suddenly came in front of his face as the voice of the Goddess came to his ears, "Your mind is too active and to chaotic, you should stop thinking too much in front of us as some of us do not like mindless chattering."

Ryan's head lowered even further as he spoke, "A thousand apologies."

"Also remember this child we are not the only one who can read your mind, try learning something to shield your mind, now stay still and do not disturb."

A minute later the Amethyst flame moved away from Ryan as the Goddess began to speak again, "Before any of us say anything let me introduce myself, I am Brenlena, Goddess of Death, Afterlife, Underworld, Riches and Vengeance."

Ryan's eyes widen momentarily as he spoke quickly, "It is an honor to meet you Goddess Brenlena how may I be of service."

"Tell me child what do you think of death?"

Ryan was silent for a moment as his mind flashed back to all the death and sorrow he had witnessed especially since the day of the apocalypse as he searched hard for the answer before a realization came to him.

"Death is fair."

"How so?"

"It does not matter whether you are a man or a woman, rich or poor death treats everyone equally."

"Ho so that is the conclusion you came to be, well many would argue with you but we are not here for Philosophical debate but tell me the sword that you were about to touch do you know whose sword it used to be."

Ryan gave a nod as he spoke, "Yes Goddess, that sword belonged to one of my predecessor many eons ago, from what I have learned he was a hero that stopped a great war against the undead."

Brenlena was silent for a moment before she spoke again, "Five thousand, Seven Hundred and Thirty Nine years, and eighty three days and fifteen hours ago my beloved Apostle who was my closest friend, my confidant, someone I viewed as my own baby brother gave away his existence to kill the Undead Emperor."

"The greed of a pitiful Necromancer brought the world to ruin, he created an army of undead to conquer the world and be its God, but his own creation became too powerful for him to control and was eaten and from amongst those foul creation the 'Emperor' rose."

The sheer disgust and hatred in her voice made Ryan shudder, but whether the Goddess noticed Ryan's discomfort or no it was hard for Ryan to tell as all he could see was a flame that spoke nonchalantly.

"It was the darkest of time in the history of the planet, only a fifth of the world remained, many strong warriors, creatures and even Apostles had fallen in the hands of the undead, converted into their brethren."

"But I have heard that Apostle's cannot be converted into an undead."

Ryan could not help but speak out loud as Brelena replied back with a bored tone, "The system was different back in those days than it is now, but even then converting an Apostle was very difficult but the unnatural strength of the 'Emperor' managed to do it, an undead Apostle is very dangerous you know since they retain their original strength and skills even after their death, and because of this reason the new system was implemented but it came with a downside that the resurrection magic does not work your kin any longer."

"I am the Goddess of Death, someone who is feared by all even my fellow deities, and being my Apostle did not earn him any favor, even if he was not ostracized openly because fear of drawing my ire but he was always kept at an arm's length even by his peers, he was alone in the entire world."

"The war did not do any favors to him as he was the one of the two Apostles left by then, and the rumors started to float that my hands was behind the entire mess, they might not be able touch me but it was an open season for my apostle, those wretched mongrels"

As she spoke the air became unbearably heavy so heavy that Ryan choked from it, as he collapsed on his knees Avtis exclaimed out loud, "Enough Brelana, control yourself."

The pressure disappeared as Brelana spoke, "I am sorry father just the thought of those treacherous curs made me angry."

Brenlena let out a tired sigh as she spoke, "The thing is Ryan, my Apostle no my baby brother Ferrith in spite of all odds fought for my honor and defeated the Emperor and vanquished all undead but at terrible cost, my baby brother sacrificed his entire existence do you know what that mean."

As Ryan shook his head Brelana spoke, "You love your mother and your sister above everything in this world, do you not?"

Ryan gave a nod as he spoke with a small smile on his face, "Yes I do."

"And it is the same in case of your mother and sister you are everything for them, but now think of something you did that caused them to forget about you completely when they look at the picture your face appears to be blurred out, you name is blurred out, every information about is unreadable no one remembers about, such happened with my baby brother, no one remembers his name, how he looks what is his gender, no one any and all proof of his existence had been wiped out including his soul, which also means no afterlife for him, and the broken sword is all that remains as proof of his existence."

Ryan was horrified upon hearing that, 'To think something like that exists, to have their entire existence erased it is too cruel, it is even worse than death to not even be remembered by .", Ryan's thought came to a halt as he spoke, "Wait a minute there is something fishy here."

"Excuse me but how"

"How do I remember is that what you wish to ask of me right?", as Ryan nodded Brelana continued, "Well it is"

"Daughter I think we are both wasting our time, we are very busy beings so it is prudent for us to finish our business and let him leave."

Brelana sighed as she spoke, "You are right."

With that, the Amethyst coloured came close to Ryan as Brelana spoke, "it is going to hurt you and you will lose your hearing for a minute do not feel scared and try not to move too much."

For the next few minutes, an indescribable pain erupted from his body as his vision went blank and what seemed to be an eternity later Ryan had collapsed on the floor his body letting twitching uncontrollably.

Avtis looked at his Apostle with his eyes narrowed before he spoke with a satisfied hum, "The experiment worked well so if there is nothing else sent him back."

A soothing feeling enveloped his body as Ryan's hearing was restored as Brelana spoke, "From here on you will work for me as well and I permit you to use my Apostle's keepsake see you later."

With that Ryan found himself standing in front of the pedestal with his hand raised in order to touch the sword.

Meanwhile back in the throne room of Brenlena, the otherworldly beautiful Goddess of Death looked at the spot that was previously occupied by Ryan as she spoke with a solemn tone, "Father may ask you something?"

"What is it daughter?"

"When will you stop playing your games?"

Avtis gained a confused look on his face as he spoke, "What games my dear daughter?"

Brenlena sighed as she spoke, "Fine do whatever you want, I am busy now leave me be."

As Brelana returned to her work Avtis's face gained a sad look for a moment before he disappeared from the Goddess of Death's throne room.