Interim

“Hey look…someone’s coming!” so remarked a masculine voice, noticing.

“Huh? Wait…what?” so responded another, more stern and heavy, masculine voice.

“Trinity’s salvation…is someone here to help us?” so asked a soft and timid feminine voice, eager.

“They’re alone…from the looks of it…hopefully they’re Sapphire or Diamond…” so remarked that first masculine voice.
“……a…tavern…girl?” so observed the same voice.

“Oh Gods’ sacred toilet…that’s a Copper badge” so remarked the sterner masculine voice…disappointed and irritated.

“…sigh…oh just a Copper…fantastic…” so repeated another feminine voice, somewhat one more standoffish and sarcastic.

Thus, these voices conversated.

“What the Gods’ sacred fuck-festive is a Copper doing down here?!”
“…banging on the bubble…does she want to be let in?”
“Ahhh…some…rescue alright…we’re the ones who have to rescue though…ugh”
“Oh Gods’ sacred…looks like a Gunslinger wannabe too…nah, she’s on her own…her fault for jumping down here to her death…what was that idiot thinking?!”
“But…to ignore the pleas of the helpless begging in need is a sin, you know?”
“Yeah…and? You’ve got two wills left, not wasting this one for some fucking idiot Copper”
“To commit such a major sin in presence of Trinity’s protection…I will have no favors left if I did such a thing!”
“Yeah…I don’t feel right ignoring her either, besides…air in here is getting harder to breathe”
“Sigh…who cares…we’re all probably dead anyway…”
“Hugh…fine fine, whatever…sure…let’s have a breather…lift the barrier”

The foreigner, knocking away, abruptly paused as she immediately realized…

Quickly, she stepped back and away, distancing herself…as the bubble began to unravel and destabilize before so suddenly popping, spewing heavenly radiant wisp-dusty exoticism all around…which quickly withered away into obscurity, the essence returning to its true source…somewhere someplace not anywhere anyplace near and around here.

“What inside the Gods’ sacred shit-filled toilet is a Gunslinger-wannabe Copper like you doing here?!” so instantly interrogated rather sternly an echoing voice…standing front and center of the now exposed surviving group; all standing cautiously, timidly, and…exhaustedly.

The source of this interrogating voice was a rather tall, scarred, and rugged adventurer…who was armored in elaborate and high-quality heavy-plate yet…nothing fancy or exotic…and was without a helmet—for whatever reason.

The only exotic and esoteric element of his ‘gear’ was his shield…which…from a local perspective…radiated with ‘magical energy’ and had ‘magical properties’; his sword, likewise, was similarly esoteric and ‘magical’ in properties…though not absurdly so. This one donned a Platinum-ranked badge, which was directly integrated into his chest-piece.

Flanking him from behind were his three fellow adventurer peers—the ones who had no doubt anointed him, by no will of his own, as their representative and leader.

One such peer was…another man, yet…shorter and younger. He was lightly armored, having only but a helmet and breastplate—all high-quality, however. This one was what the locals would call a ‘handgunner’ seemingly, armed with an elaborate, fancy, and rather…esoteric-looking…chubby…pump-action…repeater…? Where…did he…even…get such a…thing from…huh? Huh…whatever. This one donned a Gold-rank badge.

The other two were both ladies. One was a rather seemingly standoffish and cold-looking mage of sorts, evident from her purplish mage-cloak attire and pointy hat, never mind thundery-stylized staff; she was lightly armored to a degree and also had a Gold-rank badge pinned.

The last one out of this bunch was…somewhat peculiar. She was…similar thematically to a mage, being both robed and with rather the elaborate staff…yet…was clearly different; ‘holy’, ‘religious’, ‘divinely associated’, all such local descriptors and indexes could be invoked…a ‘priestess’, not a ‘mage’. Pinned upon her was a Silver-rank badge.

Hmm…indeed…quite the rank difference between the foreigner and these adventurers. This…whatever affair…was clearly far beyond the purview of her meagre Copper-rank. Truly, no wonder they seemed far more irritated by her sudden presence than relieved.

Hmm…though, considering that they had immediately realized her…rank and details…before the bubble’s ‘popping’, this suggested that they had been able to see her from within in far greater detail than she had been able to in kind…though such…was utterly irrelevant to the matter at hand.

The foreigner promptly took a somewhat deep breath…before donning her usual cordial affect; “Hello! I greet you all!” she greeted cordially, casually waving as she quickly reapproached them…and promptly halted before this standoffish interrogating shield adventurer. “Are any of you…hurt? I can help with that…” she inquired cordially and with a charm…rather oddly so given the…circumstances.

“…” the shield adventurer stared blankly…the others doing somewhat the same; “Oh great…one of these fucking Coppers…” so mumbled out loud he, his plated hands gently pinching his nose’s bridge, his eyes glaring down before snapping back at her; “…please, Gods’ sacred words, don’t tell me you saw our barrier and jumped down here ‘wanting to rescue and help us’? Because now we have to worry about your Coppery-ass safety! You have any idea what fuck-festive you just gleefully hopped into?!” he lambasted and interrogated.

The others were silent yet clearly…in agreement.

The foreigner titled her head…cogitating; “Well…actually…you see, I was here looking for the nesting…places of the glow-spiders but then went the wrong way and stumbled to here; I did see the…bubble of you…but I had never seen a thing like that before…and so it made me pause and lose the focus…and so the next of things that I see…I am falling and rolling down…so I must have tripped” she replied naively and innocently…distorting the truth somewhat.

She could tell well enough by this point that claiming she had ‘heard a ruckus and came to rescue’ would not at all have its intended effects; though, likewise, the adventurers themselves could tell well enough that she was perhaps being…somewhat…deceptive.

The foreigner ahemed; “But my…uhm…friend…yes, he was with me and…saw that I had fallen…and refused to leave me so…he is still up there…and he has the gun…so he can…help also” she added, her finger pointing to the entry-point from which she had leaped…the wagoneer still up there…providing overwatch.

“…” the shield adventurer stared ever-more blankly…as did all the rest. He groaned; “Coppers, Gods’ sacred, every Fertility’s virgin-fucked time…” he mumbled out as his plated fingers once again pinched the bridge of his nose, his eyes drifting down in irritation; “empty-headed threat-sight always…”

His unamused eyes snapped back to the foreigner; “…and if you’ve got a ‘friend’ up there, then shout at them to get out and find actual help instead of lingering up there!” he said sternly.

The mage, however, broke her silence with a sigh; “…by the time anyone finds help and comes back…we’ll be long dead” she remarked morbidly; “…so no point in getting worked up…for whatever reason, she’s down here with us…and we’re all as good as dead unless we find a way out before it returns” she added.

“Yeah…Copper or not, she seems capable enough…” the gunner remarked, breaking his silence in kind.

“I do not think it is a coincidence that she stumbled here soon after it had stopped and departed off so randomly…maybe it is a sign from Heaven” so commented the priestess…now leaning against a crystal pillar…having slid onto the ground…tired and exhausted.

Indeed…all of them…were tired and exhausted; all of them were on edge…paranoid, shattered…stressed and filled with dread in their own unique ways, their minds trying to ignore the fact that their dead others were scattered around and about in despoiled pieces…having witnessed each and every one’s demise.

The shield adventurer groaned in an ugh; “Fine, whatever…welcome to our ‘party’, Copperslinger” he said…begrudgingly before he began to inspect the area around…“don’t know how much time we have…that fucker is waiting for us down that way…so that’s a big nope…hugh, where else then?” he mumbled out loud to himself as his eyes peered, the others…relaxing…as best they could.

“So…uhm…what exactly happened here?” so finally inquired the foreigner.

The shield adventurer ughed again as his interrupted attention snapped back to her yet again; “You aren’t blind, fancy-mask! Look around you! What do you think happened?! Three entire parties were wiped out! We’re all that’s left!” he answered standoffishly.

The foreigner sighed; “Let me reask: why are you here? What did all of…this?” she inquired.

The shield adventurer tsked, yet “…a crystal colossus guardian golem” the gunner interjected before he could utter a response.

“Yeah…what he said” so remarked the shield adventurer; “go annoy him about it” he stated bluntly before walking off…his analyzing eyes peering…his mind cogitating.

The foreigner promptly shifted her attention, her mask-obscured eyes now staring at the gunner. She approached with rather the smile; “Well…go on, then?” she requested with rather the charm as she halted before him, leaning in somewhat closely…causing him to blush somewhat, seemingly.

“Ahem…right, basically…we were part of three different parties…mine and those two ladies’…we were…from Oceanfield…and his was from…Coastfield” thus, he began to summarize; “…now, our two parties…decided to accept the quest, which was Platinum-rank, together as a two-party merger and split the reward two-ways…the target was a crystal tank golem’s heart…so the pay was…enough for two…but when we arrived…we stumbled into his party…and it turned out that they had the same target but different quest and were after its head…and so we decided to…merge and do it together…and so we followed our quest descriptions…and searched around until…stumbling into here”

“And now…tank golems are usually found deep within…glow-golem zones…which looked a lot like here…so thinking it was leading to the right place, we jumped right in…only to find not a tank golem but…a guardian crystal colossus…waiting for us down that doorway—that thing is Sapphire-rank at the least, most likely higher…and we fell right into its trap-den” he continued on; “I don’t even remember the details too well…it happened so fast but…it tore us apart…so many spikes…and lances…the only reason I and the others survived was because…we were close enough to that Trinity priestess over there…to get caught in her bubble…”

“But…after it was…finished with everyone else…it kept harassing the barrier with its spikes and sword…for…I don’t even know how long, but then…it suddenly stopped…I don’t know why…but it just froze and stared around before just leaving back to its den…almost like it got spooked by something…but I don’t know how long it’ll be like this” he finally finished.

“…yep, we’re all on borrowed time…” so began to remark the mage, leaning against a crystalline pillar, “this whole zone is a part of it…it could kill us any time now without it even being here…yet it hasn’t…Fertility’s bastard is playing with us like a cat trapping mice, I just know it…it’s probably why it left”

The foreigner…nodded away somewhat, having not necessarily understood…everything they were definitively referencing; but what had been made even more abundantly clear to her now was that this ‘colossus’ or whatever was…rather dangerous and that time was absolutely quintessential.

“I see…well, let us try to leave from here…then and fastly; I know how to climb…I can find a way” the foreigner replied, before her mask-obscured eyes swiftly began to scout the area around…the crystalline walls more especially.

Hmm…although these walls of smooth-yet-hard-as-rock crystal…had so seemingly almost been made with intent of being so difficult to climb…she could probably still climb them…in fact, the more she stared, the more ways she found.

Yet…she looked at the others…how was she going to…get them out of here?

Hmm…perhaps she could carry each on her back and ferry one by one up top? That could perhaps work…albeit it would be no easy feat, even for her…or actually maybe………

Wait.

Her scouting eyes…could see…the crystalline walls…their radiance…began to pulsate…as if imbued veins were throbbing. She froze stiff in place…her mind freezing in kind…as her ears…began to hear…certain echoing thuds and stomps…bouncing from afar…and only growing…stronger.

Seconds later, the mage too froze…her eyes widening as breaths flattened…fear taking hold yet again. So too…did all the rest…as a certain emerging dread filled the air.

Thuds and thumps. Movements. Heavy…stomping…echoing movements…before abruptly those echoes turned to real sounds…as the stompings shrieked in a tremoring rush and sprinting charge.

“i…i…i-I-I-IT’S COMING BACK!” so shouted the mage in flaring panic.

“YEAH WE CAN TELL!” the shield adventurer shouted in turn; “SHIT! EVERYONE HUDDLE! WE NEED THAT BARRIER, NOW!” he shouted in command.

The adventurers quickly sprung up and huddled together as the whole chamber began to respond to…that certain emerging presence, as if those…very crystalline compounds around…were announcing their allegiance.

Yet…before any such barrier could be invocated…suddenly came charging out in a fury from that very corridor afar…was it; its armored crystalline feet smashed into the crystalline ground…as it so abruptly halted in place, stationary and attentive. The adventurers stared…with deathly dread in absolute…as it towered from afar, staring them back…finally ready…to recontinue from where their little game…had left off…last.