Let’s Not [Obliterate]

They walked on and on through the chasm for what felt like an eternity. Dema was happily chatting about nothing, as she usually did. Complaining about how dark it was at the bottom of the path, then praising the darkness two minutes later. Examining the rocks left and right to her, and one time breaking one out of the sedimentary rock and carrying it to Theora.

“Look! It’s a fossil!”

Theora glanced at it. The bones and feathers of a small flightless bird were edged into the surface of a stone, a chonky body and small wings and a very tiny skull.

“I know these from way back,” Dema mused. “Haven’t seen any since I got out, though.”

“Extinct,” Theora supplied.

“Dang… What a downer. They were cute little things.”

“Yeah, they were,” Theora murmured.

“Oh? You’ve seen them? That’s even more of a bummer. Last one must have died recently, then.”

“Must have.”

“Hey, is something the matter with you? Still cross with me?” Dema glanced at Theora, then at their surroundings, then stopped. “Oh, damn,” she said. “Something ain’t right in here.”

“Yeah.” Theora stopped as well. “That’s not good. I’ve been wondering for a while. These mountains should not be this deep.”

They’d been walking straight ahead for hours now. With a sigh, Theora walked back, a hand stretched out. And, sure enough, with an electrifying humming sound, she hit a force-field. Made up of fine and detailed fractal lines, the field became visible in a wave around where Theora touched, and then ebbed away and returned to invisibility when she didn’t agitate it further. Running her fingers along, the fractal shapes shortly became visible again.

Theora turned around into the direction they were going in, and sure enough, a few steps later, now there was a force-field in front of them too.

“A trap,” she hummed. “We’ve been walking in an illusion. Now that it’s broken, we can see the cage.”

“What?!” Dema huffed angrily. “Cage? Not again!” She jumped next to Theora and placed her hand on the walls as well, only to be violently electrocuted and thrown back. She flew just far enough to clash against the other side of the field, where she ended up engulfed by slow beams of electricity cooking her alive with a violent buzzing sound.

A few seconds later, she slumped over to the ground with a soft thud.

“You shouldn’t touch it,” Theora remarked. “It’s dangerous.”

Dema grumbled and huffed unhappy sounds while the damage to her body healed. A moment later, she pushed herself up, and saw an outstretched hand from Theora offering to help her stand.

“Thank you,” Dema mumbled sorely as she accepted. “The hell is this?”

“A threat,” Theora mused.

“A threat? You mean someone’s threatening us?”

Theora shook her head slightly. “Not for us. This likely has nothing to do with us. Also, it’s a threat in the sense that it’s a hazard.”

“You’re talking in riddles,” Dema whined, rubbing her back. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t know. I can only guess.”

“Then are you gonna share your guess with me? Can’t believe I have to, like, pull this outta you!”

Theora looked back at Dema, who seemed genuinely displeased. After all, even though she healed, she still felt pain. Though, the issue here likely had more to do with a certain aversion to closed-off spaces. “This is an energy field. Probably made by a highly potent Skill. There used to be a tunnel here. Maybe this was a trap. Someone was supposed to get lost here and die.”

“Alright.” Dema looked around, touched the rock to their left and right to test if it was affected by the cage. It wasn’t, but likely, the cage would extend inside it. “Those things can’t possibly trigger more than once, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. It wasn’t triggered until we walked in. I assume it’s been here for a long time.”

“So, like, someone made the trap and then the tunnel randomly collapsed before anyone could get to it?”

Theora gazed back through the tunnel to where they came from. The tunnel collapsed…? Maybe. Maybe that’s how it went. Someone put up the trap, it was forgotten about and never triggered, and it all caved in one day.

She certainly didn’t have enough evidence on hand to disprove it. And yet, she shook her head.

“I doubt that. The assumption that the tunnel ‘collapsed’ may have been premature. After all, we didn’t see any signs of a collapse. It was just gone.”

“I just assumed it collapsed a long time ago,” Dema said, but then she raised her eyebrows. “Oh, right. Couldn’t have been that long, since you mentioned you’d been here before,” she rambled.

Theora shook her head in soft annoyance, but didn’t say anything.

So, if the tunnel hadn’t collapsed naturally, what else could have happened? There were a few possible scenarios. Maybe people went out of their way to close it for some reason. But it would have been difficult to close the tunnel by hand without triggering the trap. And it would have probably been pointless to put the trap after the tunnel was already gone.

Nobody would waste such an elaborate entrapping construction without knowing it would find its target.

Could Theora and Dema be the target after all?

That was also very unlikely, because nobody could have guessed that Dema was going to do something so reckless like parting a cliff.

Finally, Theora said, “I think it was another hero. Someone with magic like yours. They may have collapsed the tunnel.”

“Why would anyone do that, though?”

Theora shrugged. “The System is also energy based, so my assumption would be that it noticed the creation of the trap and then sent a hero on a quest to disable it. And that hero may have had earth-related Skills like you do and thought, ‘well, if I destroy the tunnel, nobody can walk into the trap!’ and been done with it.”

“Oh, my. So you’re not the only lazy hero, then.”

“Maybe not laziness,” Theora guessed. “This field is very strong if it can push back even you. That hero may have been unable to solve it in a different way. Even I am not sure how to get out of it.”

Dema shook her head in agitation. “That makes no sense! Such a strong trap in a random tunnel?”

“Could have been anything. Maybe an assassination attempt on a high priority target.”

“Alright,” Dema sighed. “And now we’re stuck in it.”

“Yes,” Theora confirmed and laid down on the ground. “Dema, how much more scheming and thinking do you have to do? Finished soon?”

“Huh? Nah, still plenty of nice and big thoughts left. Won’t run out anytime soon. Why? Wanna kill me in this cage? Fitting end?”

“No, I was just making sure you would not get bored.”

Dema frowned at her. “Why, no, I never get bored. No worries there. But this is starting to sound ominous.”

Theora took a deep breath. This was nice. Probably about the best thing she could have possibly asked for. A good little conundrum with almost no way out, a welcome way to just waste away an enormous amount of time without having to think about anything. And Dema didn’t seem to mind passing time, either. She would get to scheme and think, and Theora would get to do what she loved to do the most.

“I’m going to sleep.”

“What!” Dema yelped. “Wait, what? You must have a Skill that can get us out!”

“These traps work by being impenetrable from the inside,” Theora said, eyes closed. “High-Level Skill, as I mentioned. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a Legendary Skill, even.”

She huddled up against the rough soil before continuing. “That's what this feels like, doesn’t it? This cage can kill incredibly strong targets.” After shuffling a little to get herself in the most comfortable position, Theora let out a soft sigh. “But, don’t worry, it will run out of energy at some point if we wait long enough.”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly worried,” Dema said. “I’m immortal, after all. I guess if it runs out at some point, it’s fine. I just wasn’t looking forward to being imprisoned forever again. The Cube of Solitude had no expiration date, after all. But still, you sure Skills won’t do anything to help us?”

“You are welcome to try,” Theora hummed. “However, with such cages, there is always a chance it may be able to absorb certain affinities. If you use the wrong Skill, you will strengthen the prison instead of weakening it, and prolong our stay.”

“Damn. Alright, sure. Gonna wait, then. A few days? Hey! No sleeping!” She crouched next to Theora and gently rocked her shoulder. “This is a problem, isn’t it? Won’t you, like… Have to drink at some point? Or eat? Or— Oh, dear, you’re human! After eating, you’ll eventually have to—” She stopped herself and looked around in the tiny space they were confined in.

“Don’t worry, I’m a strong girl,” Theora yawned. “I can hold for a few years.”

“Years…?”

“Decades, even. Just lie down and rest.”

Dema did slump down, but more out of resignation than following Theora’s advice. “I can’t believe this,” she muttered. “What if you’re gonna die here, and leave me all alone again?”

Theora turned around to face away from Dema, pouting. “I’m not going to leave you alone.”