Framework of the Frontier, Sain Artwell [read me a book .TXT] 📗

“Uhhh…”

Her face began to twitch with ugly tears. “Oh no, no. Poor William, is your mind already gone? Reply to me at once.”

“No. It’s just… Never thought to ask what year it is. You’re my Rulu, though I actually forgot your last name already. Sorry. We can make it Adams someday.”

“You possess magic to change my truename?” Rulu stared at him flabbergasted.

“Nevermind… Where are we? Any sign of the leviathan?”

As if on cue, his ears picked up the sounds of a crumbling building. Mists around them billowed as something massive disturbed them. Distant body-heat emanated from right above. Bladed hooks of Ishai’s tendrils hovered several feet above them.

Rulu whispered in the tiniest of tiny voices right in his ear, “Yutulhu’s magic shields him from the madness of Dreaming, but also makes him blind to it. This way.” She wrapped weak fingers around his and tugged him on.

His sandal made a loud wet smack on the floor. William ripped it off quick and threw it into the mists to their left. Sounds of tentacles breaking stone followed.

“Human, I know you are near. I hear you,” spoke a loud rhythmic melody mimicking human speech. ”Your plot was foolish to begin with. To trap me would be to incite the wrath of R’lyeh and summon the forces of depths to sink these shores.”

“Do not listen to him,” Rulu urged quietly, “So far as the R’lyeh is concerned, he departed Nastall towards the Emerald sea. No one but us will know he is here. None will consider the possibility of a leviathan having been kidnapped.”

William took off his other sandal and threw it away, picking up pace with Rulu, while the leviathan focused on the decoys. He threw his belt, sheath, the falchion, his waterskin, and everything hard enough to fly and make noise.

A distant darkness loomed ahead in the whiteness, forming a vaguely square shape.

“The entrance, we are nearly there,” Rulu whispered excitedly.

Wind swept against William as tendrils whipped the ground around them. The two stopped. Held breath. Rulu looked up to William with an urging plea. He’d run out of things to throw that made a clang, except for the sceptre securely strapped in his armpit.

It was worth twelve stamps. A fortune. A way to reach out to his old gang.

But, most importantly, it was heavy and made a big clank.

William tossed it into the white void and darted towards the exit from the dreamy mists. Fuck the sceptre and Letter King’s favor. Even before coming to this world, life had driven his old gang far apart.

They could wait. Rulu and Ember could not. William began to grin.

The misty veil breached. Around them rose the pillars, coral, ruins, and statues. On top of one stood a warmly tan silhouette aiming her bow at them. “Will! Rulu! Gods, I’m so glad you made it back!”

“OH NO SHUT UP!” he shouted back.

Too late.

A tendril reached out from the mist. William received the hit with his mithril coated arm. He rushed out blessing of strength and endurance, threw Rulu outside and kicked the tentacle off of him, scrambling out the door so he could seal it.

Space folded in on itself, the doorway began to shut, but another few tendril shot out and wrapped around his arm. The leviathan strength overpowered his blessing with ease, reeling William towards the misty opening.

Arrows flew into it from the above, punching deep punctures into the tentacle. “I’m so sorry! I’ll get you Will!”

Lumbering steps sprinted to William. Trotto roared as he swung at a tentacle.

It cut through a tentacle. A.

Three more snaked up William’s arm. Their hooks and teeth bit into the tiny gaps of his armor and held on. William gave the Maze a command to pause the door closing for the fear of cutting his own arm. He began to do mental math of the cost of buying a new one, but realized he had no idea how expensive they were. It’s a magic prosthesis, it’s gotta be better than the plastic crap back home. It’s gonna be cool.

“Girl’s I’ll cut it off,” William announced, screaming as he gave the door a command to shut.

The leviathan screeched, squeezing strong enough to bend the blue metal plates. It pulled him down with strength that might, even with blessings, tear his arm off sooner than the door would snap it.

It’s gonna be okay. I can swap the fingers for a dildo or a sword.

William commanded the Maze to seal the mist room from the rest of the Maze.

In a last ditch effort to save his arm, William touched the ring, withdrawing the armor back into it. Tentacles lost their grip. Release of the tug caused William to fall out of the doorway and on his ass.

The door closed, chopping off tentacles.

Sitting in the mists, William could see he still had his palm and fingers. “Haha! Fuck you tentacle face!”

“Will? You’re okay?” Ember was somewhere near.

William grinned so hard it hurt and felt as amazing in the chest. Everything was fucking perfect. Well, until the blessings ran out. His knee burned and a strange tingling sensation ran up his arm. Standing up, William felt a slight dizziness, warm blood all over him, a headache, and several dozen other craptastic sensations. No doubt, he’d feel like shit tomorrow.

“Will! You did it? I can’t believe it.” Ember and Rulu ran up to him.

William opened his arms to hug them, only to realize his left arm had been raked into a bloody mess with a bone poking through.

Oh. That’s a lot of blood, William thought as his world went black.

27

Lidarein rapped her fingers on the wall of Letter King’s throne room. “What is it this time? I have actual work too you know. Those Adventure Coalition representatives are a bunch of pain in the