Standoff

Subject: Mortimer | Classif.: Sirath

There were only two ways to get to The Mids where Vita’s murderer likely escaped to. The Grand Elevator, guarded by various city-states including Greer, or the Holographic Sea, accessible through this very tunnel network. And Tim was starting to feel like he should’ve gone with the former.

The entire tunnel wasn’t just shaking. It convulsed. Bleeding cement and iron. Sections of the road sank, cratering and rupturing, on the verge of death. And at any moment, dirt and debris would seal the space for good. A single aftershock away from turning tunnel into tomb.

The sweat from Tim’s hands burned the wood on the steering wheel. It creaked in agony with each sudden rotation. The steering shaft within grew noticeably looser from the torture it suffered. But it remained firm, knowing that the abuse from the driver was a better option than the instant death from falling boulders.

Could this have been avoided? Doubtful. The cave-ins and blocked roads pointed to an inevitable confrontation with the Abyssal Fangcrawler. Its death throes, however, were not what he anticipated. That was not the call to summon its kindred. It was a cry he had not heard in over a millennium.

The herald of the Fangcrawler Queen.

He had never seen one. But he had felt it. The power to bury an entire nation. Said to be the cause of all earthquakes in the Spire. It was a highly debated topic back in the day, and he started to see why the idea surfaced in the first place. But the coming of this apocalyptic threat was not what made his spine shudder.

For the Fangcrawler Queen to even be this high up in the Depths in the first place; just what kind of monster could displace its habitat in the first place?

His train of thought was derailed by a Fangcrawler emerging from the ground, tusks inches away from the car trunk. The entire vehicle lifted off the ground briefly before slamming back onto the tarmac. For three entire seconds, Tim felt his organs were in a freefall. Mia’s face was deathly pale. He didn’t even want to imagine what Lynn looked like. She could puke in the backseat for all he cared.

Hands. Feet. Eyes. All of them were on fire as Tim reached the pinnacle of focus, taking the vehicle beyond its mechanical limits. Suspension stretched to the apex as the engine redlined, pushing 180 mph as he swerved between ambushing Fangcrawlers and slabs of crumbling ceiling. A slight lapse and everything would be over.

And yet, even as he pushed into speeds not meant for his ride, everything seemed to slow down for him. The obstacles. The blur. The rhythm of his heart. For the first time in a long while, he felt young again. He felt alive. A smile crept up his lips as his vision tunneled, as if he could look into the future. Clarity amid chaos. Mind, body, and machine fused into a state of flow.

The thrill of being on the edge of life and death at such incredible velocity; nothing else came close. He felt like a god.

“Daaad!?”

Mia could not hide her panic as an Abyssal Fangcrawler, mature and several orders of magnitude larger than the one she fought, surfaced at the other end of the road. Wider than the tunnel itself, the monstrosity thrashed and flailed, trying to squeeze its way to them. The road between them fractured under its weight, fault lines bursting from under the asphalt. Its twin tusks, the size of ship masts, pierced through the ceiling and the walls as it tried to widen the tunnel.

Lynn stood up, body half-out of the window as she drew her blade. Holding it in a reverse-grip, she threw the weapon like a javelin at the Fangcrawler. Even as it expanded into a greatsword mid-flight, the Regalia seemed tiny in comparison to the gargantuan monster. Undaunted, it pricked its armor, sticking out like a needle. And yet, it brought the beast to a crashing halt.

Tim has felt its impossible weight before. A weapon designed not to kill, but to immobilize. The perfect tool against undying foes, and in this case, oversized monsters.

“Turn around!” Lynn yelled.

“We’re going through.”

“Wha—Have you lost your mind?!”

The rumbling in the ground travelled into their very souls. Paralyzed and unable to move forward, the Fangcrawler in front of them sought to collapse the entire space, its multi-luminescence conveying its anger. The twitching and jerking of the rest of its segmented body accelerated the demise of the whole tunnel system.

And this wasn’t even the Queen.

Tim ignored the princess. “Mia. Knife,” he requested, like a surgeon asking for a scalpel. Uncannily calm, considering the operating theater was moving at breakneck speeds.

His daughter scrambled to retrieve her combat knife, almost cutting herself from the panic. But his next request would be the one to finally crack her.

“Hold the wheel.”

“HUUH?!” Mia’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

“We’re dead.” Lynn accepted her fate.

His daughter was a stone-cold killer, not a race car driver. The skills were not transferable. Even though it was just holding the steering wheel steady, it felt as if the fate of the universe was in her incapable hands. She squealed as she fought to keep the controls of the machine at bay. She’d much rather fight a hundred Fangcrawlers than deal with this!

Tim stuck his body out of the window. His right hand, while still holding onto the knife, rested on the handle of the emergency brake. His left arm, dangling outside the car, was pulled back, as if he were about to throw a punch.

Witnessing this daredevil stunt being prepared before their very eyes, Lynn's soul could be heard slipping away.

“On my mark, turn hard right.”

“I-I’ll try—”

“Three.”

The wall of armored chitin drew closer.

“Two.”

Mia transformed into her Dad out of sheer terror, hoping it would make her a better driver. It didn’t.

“One.”

The veins in Tim’s left arm burst, shining black.

“Now!”

Brakes slammed. Steering wheel spun for its life. The car veered into an uncontrollable U-turn. At the peak of this turn, Tim punched the Fangcrawler right in the head, his forearm making it halfway through the steel-like shell.

But he never pulled it back. He amputated his left arm at the shoulder joint, severing it in one swift motion with the combat knife. The detached limb was left lodged inside the monster as the car drove away, inches away from slamming into the side of the scarred wall.

Tim got back into his seat, taking the reins away from his terrified doppelganger of a daughter. She reverted to herself as she caught her breath. The vehicle came to a complete stop as it made yet another U-turn, effectively looping back to where it was a fair distance away from the Fangcrawler.

As the entire structure began to collapse, Lynn slowly got up from her seat. Her eyes widened. Jaw dropped. It only just dawned on her what the Lord of Death’s plan entailed. She didn’t know whether to rejoice or be horrified, stuck between both.

Through its coughing and bucking, the engine revved once more. Soundwaves met shockwaves as the world seemed to draw to a standstill. The small orange beast charged at the Fangcrawler with all its might. And with his remaining right hand, Tim drew his revolver, took aim, and fired.

The round struck the severed limb right in the bone. The fuse was lit. Darkness drowned out the tunnel. Light, sound, emotion—everything was pulled into the arm. But it was not just an arm anymore.

It had become a biological weapon.

The ignited Blackblood within fueled what was essentially a rocket-propelled punch. It shot right through the entirety of the Fangcrawler, all 500 feet of it. Armor. Flesh. Organs. Vaporized in an instant. And as the shining darkness consumed all of the monster’s remains while leaving nothing in its wake, for a single moment, it felt as if the tunnel could breathe again.

But Tim could not.

The easy part was over. Next was the Queen.

While Mia and Lynn wore looks of relief, all the calm and confidence Tim previously had were gone. Even as the tremors in the ground stopped and the lights came back on, an insurmountable dread began to fill his heart. His left arm regenerated, but the tricks up that sleeve were gone.

The next section of twists and turns was quiet. No Fangcrawlers. No falling ceiling. They were near the end of the tunnel. Blue light sparkled at the other side, like rays of light shimmering through an ocean. The light grew brighter and brighter, filling the entirety of their vision as they made it out.

They entered the Holographic Sea.

It was as if they were underwater, the road continuing on what appeared to be the ocean floor. Yet, not a single droplet of water was in sight. The entire space was bathed in brilliant blue light, giving the illusion that they were submerged. Aquatic plants and corals flourished all around them, adding to the fantasy. But they could breathe just fine.

The car came to a stop just outside the mouth of the tunnel. Tim immediately got out, leaving confused looks on the two passengers on board.

“Why are we stopping?” Lynn asked, slightly surprised that she could speak perfectly. “Have we outrun the monsters?”

“No,” Tim replied as he walked back to the tunnel.

“Wait, Dad, what’s going on?!”

“There’s one more chasing us. I’ll deal with it and be back shortly.”

Lynn stepped out of the vehicle, placing her palm against the sandy sediment. After a brief moment, she informed, “I don’t feel anything.”

Of course you won’t.

Tim did not respond, re-entering the tunnel network as he took a deep breath. From the calmness of the oceanic world behind him, back into the dim uncertainty in front of him. He wished it never come to this.

The tunnel was silent. Nervous. Lynn was not able to sense it, but the very space that wrapped around the cement could. Not the earth, but reality itself.

The Fangcrawler Queen was under him. Under the entire tunnel network. Tim could feel its seismic breaths. Its presence that stretched for miles. A sleeping god that had awakened. Why would such an impossible being exist this close to humanity? What in the world was going on in the hadal pits of The Depths?

Asking those questions would be pointless. It knew not his language. The only way to communicate with it was through power.

Tim plunged his right hand into his chest. Fingers pierced his thoracic cavity, shattering rib bones as he pulled his heart right out. The exposed organ sat on his palm, beating and bleeding. And yet, he still stood.

Once more, his blood became black. His heart started to warp, looking less like a physical object, but more like a black hole.

Looking on from a distance, both Lynn and Mia felt an indescribable sensation. It was not dread, but comfort. The closest feeling to it was terminal lucidity. The clarity some people felt just before death. They could not move. They could only watch.

It was as if they were filled with the solace of impending doom, the complete certainty that they could not outrun the end of the world.

But amidst this wave of mutual understanding between them, none of them knew; what sat on Tim’s palm was his heart no longer. It was a burden. The weight of the entire world.

His heart was an anti-reality weapon.

He spoke into the void around him, voice calm, yet assertive. “We both know what happens when I break this.”

Silence. Sound ceased to exist.

“Death is my domain. You do not have consent to enter this reality.”

Light and space froze, condensed into the singularity on his palm.

“Leave. Return to your realm. And I shall overlook this transgression.” At once, all aspects of reality were freed, escaping his clutches. Blackblood reverted to mortal ichor. Smoke fizzled out. His heart started to pump once more as he slowly returned it into the hole in his chest.

Tim let out a huge sigh of relief. The Fangcrawler Queen’s presence was gone. It was a risky gamble, but it paid off.

The only way to avoid one apocalyptic threat was with another. This was how all the powers that be kept each other in check. An apocalyptic standoff.

He swore he was getting too old for this.