Chapter 17 - Despair and interest

Nanachi couldn´t believe it. Tanya worked with Bondrewd! Why? Why would she do that if she knew what he had done to them? How could she forgive that... monster for torturing their friends?!

More importantly why was she so special? So lucky? Why had she not been subjected to the same horrid fate as all the others? Anger and jealousy began to burn brightly in Nanachi´s mind just from thinking about it. Why was Tanya spared, but not Mitty? It wasn´t fair!

And then she finally understood what Tanya had also been indirectly saying: Bondrewd was still watching her! Of course! Nothing slipped past that freak. He just couldn't leave them alone! Honestly, Nanachi wanted to cry in despair at that moment.

Shortly thereafter they had driven the stupid girl from their house and had locked the door behind her. Only then had Nanachi allowed themselves to bawl their eyes out and scream in frustration. As if sensing the distress in the air Mitty had crawled over Nanachi´s face and purred softly. They didn´t deserve such a good friend.

∞•۞˂Tanya´s point of view˃۞•∞

She was slightly confused by the visit of her childhood acquaintance, but this mystery would certainly become easily understandable once she consulted Bondrewd on the matter.

Now she and her group were on their way upwards again. They had made frequent rests and handled the elevation carefully. Not only to lessen the strain of the curse, but also to watch out for dangerous wildlife. Everything so far had been going swimmingly and they were nearly at the edge to the third layer already.

Suddenly, a huge shadow dropped from a higher platform onto their level like a meteor. Water splashed all over the place and temporarily obscured the gigantic figure before the mist cleared and Tanya could identify what had approached them.

Her worst nightmare had become reality.

There directly in their way stood the greatest threat of the fourth layer, a rare creature of the "Absurd Danger" class: an Orb piercer.

Its grotesque appearance had not been done justice by the illustrations in Bondrewd´s books. It stood as large as a bull or a grizzly bear on all four legs and seemed to directly stare at them through the expressionless holes of its red mask. Steam rising from the warm water below let its asymmetric and confusing silhouette blend in perfectly with the background. The many deadly spikes that had made its kind so famous were standing proudly on display.

"Alright stay calm. We will slowly back away from it and it should leave us alone…"

The beast did not leave them alone in fact.

With a mighty roar it charged at them and sprayed water everywhere. Multiple explosions went off from Timeno´s hand as he fired his second grade artefact "Midnight Bloodfall" at the rapidly approaching monstrosity. Three fast spinning discs hurdled themselves with incredible speed at their target, but somehow the beast managed to evade two of them at the last second.

Only through sheer luck as it seemed was the last blade able to hit home and deal some damage, but due to the hard spikes covering nearly all of its body it was a rather shallow wound.

Byolo´s third grade artefact the "Torrents end" had been unfurled in the meantime and was being deployed in front of him and Tanya. It usually looked like a large bedroll that he carried on his back, but it was in reality neither soft nor lightweighed. When slammed into the ground with sufficient force it would unroll and harden into a large shield with charcoal sand plating.

Tanya threw herself behind the moderately sized wall and left her teammate to shoulder the force of the incoming collision.

"BOOOOOOOOOM"

The metal of the shield thundered under the force of the impact, but Byolo held strong against the assault. His feet were digging into the soft ground and he had been pushed back half a meter, but so far everything appeared alright.

Then she noticed it.

The Orb piercer´s spikes had been hard and sharp enough to pierce her only protection. Oh no!

Numerous small, white barbs protruded from the "Torrents end´s" backside. Most of them had missed Byolo who held the wall upright, but at least one had apparently managed to dig into his flesh if the bloody water at his feet was anything to go by. That was bad new news.

Timeno was not a Black Whistle for nothing and had already sprinted over to use the opportunity for a trap that had presented itself. Although the beast had been successful at injuring its victim the large shield it had rammed into now also blocked its frontal side and was stuck on its spikes. By pressing the outer rim of the artefact he re-softened it for a short moment only to harden it again so that fully clung to the Orb Piercer.

It would have made for a comical sight had the monster not begun to wildly jump around and tear at his metal prison while nearly crushing the bystanders. As much as it tried to get leverage on the hard plate directly above his face his legs were too short to reach it and rubbing along the ground drove it only further into its spikes.

Regardless of how powerless the creature appeared at the current time nobody wanted to risk fighting the animal any further. So they hastily retreated to the next flat creeper platform. And the next. And the next. Even though bright lights and weird sounds were plaguing their vision and blood was leaking in streams from their eyes, ears and mouths, they endured it all. Fleeing was more important than their comfort.

Only when they judged that there was no feasible way for the Orb piercer to catch up did they stop and Tanya remembered the second emergency of their group.

Byolo´s limb had already nearly doubled in size from the swelling. How he had been able to climb ropes without screaming in pain was a miracle to her. Tanya hoped that she could be so level-headed and professional one day. The wound appeared small on the surface, but that made no difference here.

The poison of an Orb piercer was highly dangerous and would kill a grown man after a few hours of extreme pain. They needed to find a solution fast. Luckily the man knew of his fate and was already in the process of making a tourniquet with a rope. From his slightly swaying movement however it became clear that he was already too late to stop the poison completely.

With a steady hand she helped him to tie a knot and increase the pressure on the main blood vessels. That could cause lasting damage, but they had more important things to worry about. She looked to the others for guidance, but they just watched with apparent interest. Why were they all staring at her as if they waited for her to act? Tanya was the junior member of the group! Shouldn't someone who was higher on the chain of command take responsibility?

She considered just hacking off his arm. It was easy and would save him from a painful death. On the other side that would leave him as a cripple and a liability for the team if they had to climb even the shortest distance. His disability would slow them down which would put them in danger. Should a large beast attack them while they were so vulnerable then they could not guarantee his safety anyway.

At this point letting Byolo simply succumb to the poison appeared to be the most comfortable option for her. Although the others would perhaps think of it as unnecessarily cruel to not relief him from his blight and accuse her of cowardice or indecisiveness. Maybe she could end his suffering with a quick snap of the neck as she had been trained to do so. The seemingly easy way out was tempting, but at the last moment she topped her hands which were already cradling his faceplate.

If her senior were to die at her hands then that would look incredibly suspicious. Returning from the Abyss with fewer team members than before was a common occurrence, but not one that would reflect positively on her leadership and management skills. This was her first mission for crying out loud! Tanya couldn't allow for such blunders to happen so early on in her career!

When both crippling and euthanizing him were left out of the question then the only viable path forward was actually healing him. She had no idea if it would really work, but the cursed option was nagging at the back of her head. That damned amulet was needed again. Far too soon for her liking.

If she had to sell her pride in order to invest in the health or her teammate than she dearly hoped that the supernatural bastard would actually grant her wish. Else the sacrifice of her dignity would be for naught.

"Good Creator," the accursed words began to stream forth as if she had known them all along.

"I beg of thee with all my heart"

She had to force the words through her clenched teeth while she balled her fists at her side as a sign of quiet resistance against this vile violation of her freedom.

"Heal this broken body of your faithful servant!"

A sickening golden glow engulfed the man she was praying for.

"Make him whole,"

The light grew in intensity until it was near blinding.

"So that he may serve you once again"

Tanya wanted to throw up. How arrogant could Being X get?

"And sing the praise of your name."

Even more it seemed. The feeling of disgust was eating away at her concentration not to barf. Regardless of how sick she felt the results spoke for themselves.

The glow receded and revealed that the previously afflicted limb had lost its swelling. Just to make sure she questioned him if he was still feeling any after effects of the poison and then asked the others to set up camp.

It was theoretically dangerous to set up camp near the centre of the Abyss, but in actually very few creatures existed at the border between these two layers due to the relative proximity of predators from above and Orb piercers from below. Despite this threat however Orb piercers were way too territorial to leave their home on the flat creepers and the aerial hunters of the third layers were not interested in potentially crossing paths with them.

So she would be able to rest a little. Hopefully her father would not be disappointed at her slow progress.

∞•۞˂Bondrewd´s point of view˃۞•∞

Bondrewd was ecstatic. Well, as much as he could feel that emotion anyway. Originally when he had taken control of Byolo´s body to tourniquet the arm he had been prepared to chop it off, but then his darling Tanya had approached with her usual efficiency (a trait he simply adored) and helped him. By now he was familiar with her body language enough to know that she was deeply contemplating something and he had been intrigued.

What was going on in that brilliant little head of hers? He couldn't wait to find out.

So he had patiently waited a few moments until he was just about to begin with the amputation himself when she had managed to surprise him (as usual).

She had started to pray and even though her voice should have been muffled by the mask he had been able to understand her clear as day. In fact, all of his bodies had understood what she was saying perfectly despite them standing meters away and the rustling water behind them. Every word had resounded with power and been engraved into his collective memory.

And the miracle that his dear daughter had conjured had actually been able to heal his body fully. Every single injury that he had collected during his travels had been removed and as he later checked, even the scars of year old wounds had been completely erased. Her potential seemed truly limitless.

He couldn't have been prouder of her.

"Oh, my wonderful daughter..." he whispered to himself. "Through you we will cross the mortal border of the Netherworld... To seek secrets that shall reveal the impossible..."