25 – Into the Belly of the Beast

“It is a parallel space. Alternate universes do not exist and dimensions are simply points upon which you can travel, regardless of whether or not you can traverse all of them.”

The convoy of SUVs traveled along the bridge at a slow albeit steady pace. The Eclipse adopted a cautious approach to navigating the bridge. Erika would have preferred a little more speed despite the danger of careening off the side…

Anything to get her out of this vehicle a little sooner.

“That’s very interesting,” she said with a patient smile. “I’ll try not to mix up my words next time.”

The Hermit nodded her head, firm smile in place. “See that you do,” she said, taking a small drag on her pipe. She leaned out the window before exhaling the sparkling violet smoke, but Erika still caught a whiff of the strange, almost cinnamony scent.

Cigarette smoke smelled vile enough to ward her away, weed did something unpleasant to her stomach, and vapes felt like a scam, but whatever The Hermit was smoking almost made her want to ask about it. Almost. Every time The Hermit said something, it felt like a lecture. Everything Erika said, she had some comment to offer. So Erika kept her mouth shut, shifted in her seat, and flashed a quick grimace to the others in the car. Delilah’s head rested against the headrest as she focused on her breathing, but Anna matched her expression with raised eyebrows.

Rick in the far back, however, leaned over Anna to address The Hermit in the passenger seat. “You’re quite old, aren’t you? Has your understanding of what dimensions are changed because of spacetime and quantum theories? Or do you take a more mystical approach to concepts like dimensions?”

The Hermit let out another cloud of smoke. “Things aren’t as they once were, and they won’t be what they are. My understanding has changed because the world has changed, and it will continue to change until I die.”

“That’s… huh.” Rick sat back, pensive as if he had just been handed the most profound fortune cookie ever made.

Erika didn’t think The Hermit answered his question at all. In fact, Erika doubted The Hermit knew what quantum mechanics were—she just didn’t give off the vibes of someone actively engaged in human scientific literature—but didn’t want to reveal her ignorance by saying so. Erika didn’t know that for sure, and she wasn’t going to ask.

“Nya,” Erika said, deliberately turning to Delilah, “if this parallel space is the Carrion Eater’s stomach, can’t I just break it from here?”

There were still no birds, no immediate danger, so Erika could use all the time in the world to figure out how to go about this—she wanted to use this time.

Delilah’s eyes lolled over to Erika, then refocused on Anna’s lap between them. Her eyes hopped from the middle bench to the rear of the SUV, lingering on The Adjustment for a long moment before she shuddered. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she said, closing her eyes again, forehead against the window.

“Could you pass out instead?” Erika asked in a flat tone. “What did Nya say?”

“Something about how we’re not inside its physical manifestation, but the concept of digestion and consumption exist here, so do your best.”

“We aren’t going to get digested, are we?” The Adjustment asked. “That doesn’t sound like a pleasant way to go.”

Delilah shuddered. “Not if we don’t stay here very long.”

“I was here about an hour last time. Maybe two? It was a bit hard to tell,” Erika said, her attention straying outside her window. “The Puppet was here longer. We all came out fine.”

The chains were gone. She had noted it earlier, but hadn’t quite realized just how dominant they had been the first time until she really internalized that they weren’t there anymore. The bound arms were gone as well, as expected, which was a bit of a shame. She might have tried using one of her bullets to break the arm if it had still been around.

With the chains gone, the bridge stood alone in the impossibly large cavern. There was nothing else around. “With the maggots, I targeted the womb… or birth canal… orifice?” she said, glancing to Anna.

“I’ve been trying to block that whole episode out of my mind.”

“Fair enough.” Erika turned back out the window, frowning. “Maybe I could fire a bullet and try anyway?”

“Is striking liquid what you need? Or do you require striking an organ carrying the concept which you wish to break?” The Hermit said with a surety on her second question that Erika couldn’t believe. How would she know? “I doubt you will strike anything physical.”

Erika pursed her lips. She broke non-physical things all the time, from digital security, strides, and even the fabric of reality that separated these parallel spaces. But she was a whole lot more confident when she could see what she was breaking. “Then I think we should wait. I only have three bullets, and if I shoot one, I’ll be down to two.”

Rick snorted behind Erika. “That is how math works, yes.”

“I just meant that I don’t have many opportunities to waste.”

“I know, but your phrasing—”

For the first time since Erika got into this vehicle, the driver spoke. “The bridge is coming to an end.” He looked like a regular person, not one of the SWAT team but also not anyone obviously supernatural; despite being human he didn’t blink an eye at the likes of The Adjustment or The Hermit.

Erika did wonder where they dug up all these people.

“Then I guess it’s our turn again?” Erika said, looking to Delilah.

“We’re going out there?”

“Are you sure you can’t pass out for a few more hours?” Erika grumbled, rolling down her window and leaning out.

Their car was right in the middle of the SUV convoy—as the guide and the only guaranteed way out, Erika warranted a position of safety. The three cars ahead were all slowing down, faced with a thick brier of thorny brambles stretching across a long plain, rising high over the surface. All the twisted, spined brambles led back towards a craggy mountain jutting up in the distance.

That strange red sun in the distance sat perfectly at the top of the mountain, pierced by the sharp tip.

“Looks like a boss arena,” Rick said, hand on his sword as he leaned out his window. “I sure hope possessed-me knows how to dodge roll.”

Anna stared at him, mouth opening, but stopped herself with a bewildered shake of her head. The Adjustment barked a laugh, clapping him on the back.

Ignoring their little sideshow, Erika peered down at Delilah—who hadn’t even opened her eyes. “To the mountain, I presume?”

“No. Nya says…” She paused, finally opened her eyes. “Corpses are buried for consumption?”

“It’s underground?”

Erika took her eyes off the mountain and the skies, looking downward. The bridge connected to the edge of a flat plateau, but now that she was taking a better look, it wasn’t dirt or rock. Parts of the ground glistened, slick with moisture as headlights swept over them. Large black veins coursed through the surface, while the spongy ground squished under the tires of the lead SUV.

“Ugh. Why is it always so… nasty,” Erika said with a grimace. “The next one better be some Sterilizer Monster, dweller in the clean white halls of a plain, normal building.”

“We didn’t bring any shovels or excavators,” Anna said. “You couldn’t have told us this before?”

“Nya didn’t know what form it would take,” Delilah growled, suddenly defensive. “She still doesn’t. Only that ‘what we seek’ is ‘somewhere beneath’ us.”

“The Terror Bird should be a bird, no?” The Hermit said, pulling a small notebook from the folds of her robes. “I am yet to be convinced that Old Ones are real in the sense of legend, but I am convinced these aspects are inspired by—or were the inspiration for—legends of the Old Ones.”

Delilah huffed, shrugging her shoulders. Her foot thumped against the floor in a nervous tick. “Nya is a little black furry ball with a tail, but I know she isn’t always like that.” She paused, looked to the side, and adopted a haughty smile. “You perceive how you want to perceive. Maybe it will be a bird. Maybe not.”

Erika frowned down at the empty space where Delilah had stared. That sounded entirely like Nya was hedging her bets; if it was a bird, she was right, if it wasn’t a bird, she was still right.

“Fine,” Erika said after a long moment. “How do we get to it? Is there some crypt or cave we can break into?” Looking back outside, Erika squeezed her hand around her baseball bat. “Or I could fracture this plateau.”

“Nya suggests getting closer first,” Delilah said after a minute. “Aim somewhere to the right of the mountain,” she said, vaguely pointing off to one side. “But those thorns are in the way. Guess we’ll have to turn around.”

The driver took Delilah’s advice, relaying her words over the radio, though he ignored her final quip. Erika wasn’t privy to whatever they were saying on the other end, but it took several minutes to get the convoy moving again. The lead car pressed up into the start of the patch, trying to push them out of the way.

It quickly got stuck, unable to move forwards or backwards.

“Um,” Delilah leaned forward, grasping hold of the driver’s shoulder, “as long as we’re stopped, can I get out? You don’t need me anymore, right?”

“You want to stay here by yourself?” The Adjustment said with a small, impressed whistle. “We aren’t leaving anyone else here, so that’s pretty brave of you.”

“N—No, I…” Delilah’s shoulders squeezed together. “I’ll… keep going.”

“Also very brave of you,” The Adjustment said, patting Delilah on the head.

As soon as the spindly fingers landed on Delilah’s head, she went stiff as a board. Her eyes rolled back and she slumped for one moment before her black eyes turned cold and emotionless.

“Really?” Erika said, shaking her head. “That was all it took?”

The Adjustment sighed, pulling her hand back to herself. “I’m used to that. If you ask me, The Art is way scarier than I am, but I get it. It’s cool.”

Anna looked concerned, taking Delilah’s hand to feel for her pulse. “She might have some undiagnosed cardiovascular or neurological issues. Nothing I can really say for certain without equipment.”

“Nya,” Erika said, far less concerned.

They had seen Nya’s massive black paws claw a gaping wound closed. Whatever was going on inside Delilah’s body was probably beyond anyone’s understanding.

“Where are the birds?”

Pitch black eyes left Erika’s face, turning to look at the red skies outside the window. “The relationship each aspect maintains with those who dwell within them is somewhat abstract. The ██████ of Maggots and the lesser maggots it spawns are driven wholly by instinct, and the latter cannot exist without the former. That isn’t the case here.

“I can feel it, as we draw closer. There is a fear here,” Nya continued. “I don’t believe the creatures here are particularly fond of their master. If they venture close, they may be consumed by the ever-gnawing hunger of the Eater. They feed it corpses to appease its appetite, but it can eat far more despite its name.”

“The birds are afraid of the god?” Erika asked, watching as The Fool’s rock monster plucked the car out of the brambles, carried it back to the bridge, and set it down. She considered getting out of the car to help break through, but what was the point of allies if she had to do everything herself? Besides, Nya was here, and she was much easier to talk to now. “And you didn’t know that before?”

“We are all The Mummy, but we aren’t each other.”

Erika’s fingers drummed against the armrest. No birds was good; they didn’t have to worry about being ambushed from above. It did make the whole convoy overkill. Even though everyone getting in and out without incident was objectively the best outcome, Erika could already hear The Emperor’s cold-yet-heated voice admonishing her for wasting resources.

Despite the good news, Rick did not look pleased in the slightest. “I’ll be honest,” he said, “I don’t like you.”

“Oh?” Nya answered, unbothered.

“You answer our questions—or at least seem to answer them—but I always feel like you aren’t telling us everything.”

“Naturally.”

“Ah ha, so you admit it!” Rick said, pointing a finger.

“Consider from my perspective,” Nya said, gently pushing his finger out of her face. “I am of the being you swore to kill. Our interests align insofar as I do not wish to be reabsorbed into the greater whole, but I do not wish to perish either. Thus, I must be cautious in what I reveal so as to steer us all to a mutually beneficial outcome.”

Rick started to nod along, only to pause. “You’re doing it again.”

“Naturally.”

“Then what is your true form?” Rick asked. “Where are your maggot-bird-equivalents?”

“Alas, I possess neither,” Nya said with a palms-up shrug. “I sacrificed both to become what I am today.”

“And that’s the truth?”

“It might be.”

“Alright,” Erika broke in to the argument, giving each a glare. “We can pester Nya about things like this later. For now, I have a few more questions relevant to our current situation and it is much easier to ask Nya directly without Delilah translating.”

“A wise focus.”

“If we don’t have to worry about being attacked here, then—”

“I said that the birds fear this place, not that there is no danger. Fear can be overpowered,” Nya interrupted. She started to say something else, but the roar of a rocket engine drowned out her words.

The Emperor stood outside the lead car, mouth agape. Erika didn’t feel like her skin was melting off this time around, thanks to the greater distance, but her ears burned as the brambles turned to ash and slag. Although the car hadn’t been able to plow through them, The Emperor carved a tunnel through the brier in a mere second of sustained flames.

The light cut off and the echo of the burn faded, leaving behind a long path forward, wide enough for three cars to squeeze through side-by-side.

The Fool’s rock monster advanced on its own, stomping down bits and pieces of the bramble that had broken off in the aftershocks and fallen to the main path.

“Fucking hell,” Anna shouted louder than she likely intended. She peeled her hands away from the sides of her head, working her jaw to pop her ears. “Some warning would have been nice.”

“Glad she didn’t show up to the hotel,” Rick said with a shell-shocked gaze. “I don’t think my sword would survive that.”

The Adjustment barked out a loud laugh, clapping Rick on the back. “The Emperor never fights normal fights. There isn’t enough time in the news day to report on all the gas leaks we’d have to blame.”

“I have a question for the entity,” The Hermit cut in, tails unruffled by the rocket engine across the bridge. “The Mummy cannot be its original name, yet it is all I have heard of this greater being. What is its true title?”

Erika frowned, realizing she hadn’t asked a similar question. She didn’t possess the historical knowledge The Hermit surely knew, but she still had a creepy library that might have something she could investigate. She already had an idea for breaking the Carrion Eater, but as many titles as possible for The Mummy might give her something to dig into back at the library.

Turning, however, Erika let out a long sigh.

Delilah sat, legs scrunched up to her chest with her face buried in her knees. Her hands pressed on her ears as tight as she could manage—tight enough that Erika worried she might hurt herself.

“They’re coming,” she whispered. “Nya says they’re coming!”

Erika ground her teeth, leaning out the window. She squinted up at the sky, looking around until she faced back toward the bridge.

Wiggling black dots blotted out the entire sky.

Fingers to her lips, Erika whistled, sharp and loud. The Fool and The Emperor both turned to find her pointing at the hundreds, maybe thousands of approaching birds.

“Can you take them?” Erika shouted out.

The Emperor stared at the sky for a long moment, long enough for Erika to have her answer before she slowly shook her head. “My flames cannot encompass the entire sky,” she spoke, calm voice carrying far further than it should have been able. “And I can be surrounded.”

“They fear the Carrion Lord,” Delilah muttered, more out of habit than intention to translate. “The further we go, the fewer will follow.”

“Nya says to get into the bramble patch,” Erika shouted back to The Emperor.

The Emperor turned to the path she carved, considering. “It’ll be more defensible, so long as the thorns keep the birds away.”

She snapped her fingers, hopping onto the lead SUV’s footstep as she dug her claws into the roof for grip. “Move. Hermit, cover us.”

The lead car took off, torque throwing them into the tunnel. It swallowed the car whole.

Erika scanned the brambles. The Fool and his golem were charging back to the convoy, no longer stomping down the path. It was going to be a rough ride even without the birds.

The brambles stretched high. Even The Butler could have stood fully upright, but The Emperor’s flame damaged the canopy, leaving a long gash where the birds could fly straight down at anything within.

Eyes darting over, unable to come up with anything she could do about that, Erika slid fully back into her car. Anyone leaning out was at risk of having their face ripped off by the brier as the convoy started forward. She sat back, looked over the multi-tailed fox, and wondered if The Hermit even heard The Emperor.

The Hermit barely moved, save to bring her elongated pipe up to her lips. She drew in, deep. Just as Erika was about to say something, she breathed out. The cloud of cinnamony violet sparkles billowed, growing larger and larger, denser and thicker. It swept out of their car as they moved, pulled from the open windows by the passing air, but never seemed to diminish. It spread, forwards and backwards, flooding through the tunnel The Emperor carved, coating the entire area in shadow.

Erika gripped the handles in the car, worried about the driver crashing into the thick thorns, or just another car, only to blink and find that she could see through the violet smoke. Not as clear as open air, but far more transparent than a cloud of smoke had any right to be.

Thunks hit the roof of the car moments after. Blade-like feathers shot down through the smoke outside, skimming the paint off the door. But each that fell did so slower than the last, like they used up all their energy just working their way through the smoke.

The violet fog outside shifted as The Hermit continued to exhale. Erika couldn’t tell what she was doing, only that the thunks petered off and stopped. The feathers outside diminished until nothing remained.

Only then did The Hermit stop, taking in a haggard breath. Her heavy breathing continued until she finally calmed back down to a neutral state. With a frown at her pipe, she held it out the window, tipped it upside down, and gave it a few firm taps, sending blackened ash scattering.

“That should last… ten minutes,” she said, not to Erika, but to the driver.

He promptly relayed her words.

They weren’t traveling as fast as they had moved across the bridge, which had already been a fairly sluggish pace. Erika leaned forward, peering through the smoke. “How far from the Carrion Eater, Nya?”

Delilah, somehow still in control despite everything just now being far, far more stressful than anything that made her actually pass out, waited a short moment before she answered. “Nya doesn’t know… The Carrion Eater is stirring.”