Neither Alex nor Claire moved for nearly a minute as they stared at the massive ship above the city. A Disruptor, if its name was to be believed.
"This can't be a coincidence. The Great Tide is in the city back on Earth, and they've also got a squid thing out here," Claire said, dropping her voice to a hushed whisper as she squinted up at the Disruptor. "Have I ever told you that just about everything related to the Mirrorlands creeps me out?"
"Probably," Alex muttered back. "What does a Disruptor do, though? The tree its attached to doesn't really seem to be doing anything about it, and we've seen those things attack before."
"Never one that big," Claire pointed out. "Maybe they're like Dhampirs. Gets too difficult to move when they get old enough."
"Possible," Alex allowed. He glanced around themselves to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them, then sent a mental command to all of his monsters to make sure they would keep watch. His gaze returned to the Disruptor. "It looks like its sending up some sort of signal, maybe?"
Claire shrugged and shook her head, but not enough to pull her gaze away from the vision before them. "Maybe? I have no idea. There aren't any City-Eater Centipedes in the area, though. Do you think that has something to do with it?"
"We don't know if monsters in the Mirrorlands are consistent between locations or not," Alex said with a shake of his head. "I don't know if we can assume that there are City-Eaters in every single area… but the lack of monsters in the sky could be something like what happened with Berith. Want to take a look?"
"My curiosity would kill me if we didn't. You mentioned seeing a big silver ship before when we were in the Mirrorlands. Is that—"
"Yeah," Alex said. "Same thing. Just bigger, and it belonged to the Starfallen family."
"So that's where the name came from. Let's get closer and see if we can find any monsters in the city. If it's completely empty… I don't know. It means there's something insanely strong in the area. It might be smart for us to look elsewhere."
"Agreed," Alex said. He wanted a challenge. He did not want to run into the equivalent of Berith again — especially if the new monster wasn't chained down like Berith had been. The Mirrorlands weren't like Earth.
There didn't seem to be any limit to the strength or type of monsters in the area… but he was starting to put together some theories. It was still in the earliest stages, but the Mirrorlands might have lived up more to their name than Alex had initially thought.
Meiderly called the Mirrorlands the wastebin of the universe, or something along those lines. I was thinking that everything here somehow fell in and got warped in the process… but Valley Ford obviously didn't fall through cracks in reality in the few minutes it took us to find the portal.
I think the Mirrorlands are both. Shit falls down here, but it's also a reflection of Earth — no. Not just Earth. The entire universe, I guess? But what does it mirror, and why is everything down here destroyed and warped?
Maybe my theories are less a theory and more just a bunch of unanswered questions.
"Let's go," Alex said, starting toward the city. If he wanted to figure anything out, he was going to have to seek the answers out himself — and this was more than just passing curiosity. The Mirrorlands and their energy were deeply tied to his abilities.
His monsters, his Qi, everything. The more he understood just what was going on in this strange dimension, the more he would be able to utilize the tools he had in the way they were really meant to be used.
They arrived within the warped Valley Ford after just around ten minutes of walking. Alex and Claire moved at a steady speed, staying as silent as possible. The crumbling walls of Valley Ford greeted them, huge chunks floating in the air above their heads as they passed between the huge roots burrowing into the ground around the city.
Princess led the way, while Glint and Spark flanked Alex on either side. Every single member of their ragtag party scanned the surroundings for any signs of a threat. The city was quiet, but the Mirrorlands always tended to be, right up until —
A green blur shot from an alleyway as they stepped past it, shooting straight for Alex's neck. He spun, catching a glimpse of long, pointed fangs and burning red eyes an instant before Spark slammed into the striking monster with a loud crunch.
The two monsters hit the ground in a roll. A huge, snakelike tail tried to coil around Spark, but Glint leapt into action and his claws carved clean through the attacking monster's body even as its name started to take form in the air.
Scales sheared apart and the monster's head hit the ground in a wet thump. The rest of its body went limp instantly. Princess lumbered over to stand over the creature as its half-formed name vanished from the air.
Spark floated away from the corpse, a few small scratches on his chitinous armor but otherwise unharmed.
Alex realized that the attacking creature was either a snake or a very sad looking lizard. He couldn't quite tell which. It had a roughly ten foot body — now nine, after Glint had played the role of a rather irate barber in the presence of a customer that had finally caused him to snap.
The monster's head was exactly like one of a large anaconda, but its body was covered with tiny, nearly baby-like hands.
As he watched, a green Soul Flame flickered to life over the dead monster.
Pattering Snake (Novice 6)
"Weird," Claire muttered under her breath, letting her katana lower. "Not too strong, though."
"It wasn't, but it's an ambush predator. That might have gone a lot worse if Spark didn't stop it. Good job, buddy," Alex said, giving his Echo Wraith a nod. Spark didn't respond, but the meaning was still there. He wasn't going to treat his monsters like robots on the very thin chance that the did actually have some degree of intelligence.
A trickle of energy entered him. It wasn't an insignificant amount, but he was going to have to kill a whole lot of snakes if he wanted to advance at any good rate.
"Let's keep going," Alex said. "If there's a monster here, then it means this probably isn't the same situation as it was with Berith. The Disruptor is something else… but we can deal with that when we get closer."
Claire nodded in agreement, and the two of them continued on.
They made their way carefully through the streets of the warped Valley Ford, taking their time as they worked around the very edge of the city. The strongest monsters always seemed to gather toward the center of the cities. Alex had no reason to believe Valley Ford would be different, and he wanted to get a good idea of what they were up against before they got too deep to get out.
They encountered three more Pattering Snakes on the way. Each of the monsters jumped from the shadows in a blur — and each one met a very swift, almost disappointing end. They had all roughly been around the same strength.
"I don't think this was the peak of the food chain here," Claire said as Alex collected the latest Soul Flame. "There are too many of them."
"I think they might be more akin to the Corpse Pokers near Towntown's portal," Alex said. They started back off, veering away from the very edge of the city and pressing a little deeper into its depths.
A faint scent reached Alex's nostrils. It was far from pleasant, something between warm compost and fish that had been left out in the sun for a day. The smell was distasteful, but it wasn't completely oppressive.
He and Claire did what any sane person would have done.
They headed straight toward it.
Claire sent him a glance as they continued on, then spoke in a muted whisper. "The Corpse Pokers… weren't those around Novice 2? That means this area is a whole lot more powerful on average than the one we were in before."
They turned a corner onto a large street that Alex vaguely remembered. His mouth snapped shut as he prepared to answer her, killing any response he may have had.
A huge root traveled down from the massive tree overhead and burrowed straight into the ground in the middle of the street before them. It was easily twenty feet in diameter — and was completely hollow. A large chunk of it had been ripped away, leaving a jagged edged hole that led to a dry interior.
Burning within it was a molten green portal, floating innocently as if in wait. Shimmers of sickly energy rippled through its surface. A tiny ripple of Riftwarped energy danced across its surface before twisting into the green mass and vanishing. Rotted vines hung from far above it and dangled around the portal like strands of wet hair.
Alex and Claire stared at the root in disbelief for several long seconds. Portals weren't exactly something new in the Mirrorlands, but this wasn't just any portal. It was a strikingly familiar one.
He'd had seen something just like it back on Earth, where he and Claire had first run into Diego. There was absolutely no mistaking the portal. It was just too easily recognizable, no matter how little Alex had expected to find one in the middle of the Mirrorlands.
"Is that a dungeon portal?" Alex whispered, his eyes wide.