Combat Power 332,119: Gate Bound [Azure Annihilation Gaze] (Part 1/2)
I sprinted toward the center of the forest. A straight beam of light stabbed down from the pitch-black sky. Thunder-like crashes pierced my ears painfully. Barbarian war cries echoed from all directions.
"Odin!"
"Die, you demon!"
"Get the fuck out to Valhalla, you trash!"
I dispatched them one by one as they clung to me like mosquitoes and kept moving. In an instant, I reached the vicinity of the center.
Amid the visible barbarians, far in the distance, I spotted the monster that had burst from the light. It was the heart of the forest, where the jar stood.
"So that's the Gate Bound."
A fish with wings the size of forearms. Its scales had peeled off, exposing raw flesh, and its entire body was shriveled gray. Contrary to its demonic reputation, it looked utterly pathetic.
Looks like a fucking mudfish.
I cut through the barbarians blocking the path and charged toward it. The thing hovered in the air, shoving its snout into the jar.
Piiiing—.
As it opened its mouth, a sucker-like slit gaped wide. The blood in the jar defied gravity and began flowing into its maw.
Gulp. Gulp.
The Gate Bound slurped up the jar's blood greedily, gradually regaining vitality.
So this bastard drinks the jar's blood and opens the exit to the next floor.
That seemed to be it. As I recalled the strategy and observed, something felt off. The more blood it drank, the more its peeled scales filled in, and its body started swelling bigger and bigger.
"Demon—"
"Shut up."
By then, I'd been steadily clearing the surrounding barbarians. The closer I got to the center, the more there were—it was unavoidable.
Too many Recaller mimics.
A moment later, I'd wiped out the ones in the path and arrived near the center. Just a bit closer, and I'd be there.
The Gate Bound kept mutating as it drank. I hesitated to approach.
Something feels off...
At that instant, the barbarian shouts vanished. All sounds froze, trapped in the air, unable to flow.
The Gate Bound still floated above the jar.
Piiiing—.
A deep-sea-cliff-like blue darkness writhed around its body. With every drop the jar's blood diminished, the darkness grew denser, heavier, pressing down.
And in the next moment, its body exploded outward in size. Layered shadows tore apart, birthing grotesque new flesh and membranes. Blue glowing points ignited one by one across its black scales, swallowing half the forest in an instant under that shadow.
Its forearm-sized body ballooned to mountain-range proportions in a flash. Wingtips grazed distant treetops; its tailfin scraped rocks on the opposite side.
By the time the defying blood nearly bottomed out, I could no longer take in its full form at a glance.
It just suddenly got huge.
The moment the last droplet vanished—, the glowing points on its scales connected, forming an incomprehensible pattern.
The instant I saw that pattern, something deep in my mind read its meaning on its own.
—Death.
At that moment.
Kiiiiiaaaaaah—!
Its roar ripped the earth. Trees, grass—everything across the ground lifted by the roots and flew. A storm surged in.
The tsunami of its roar obliterated the forest.
—Insane.
I gritted my teeth and activated Blossom Silence.
Blossom Silence
Roots sprouted from my soles, wrapping my ankles and burrowing deep into the earth. They anchored me, so even as the wind battered me, I didn't fly off.
Whiiiiiish—.
But the surrounding trees, grass, and Recaller mimics disguised as Orkan were all swept into the air. They smashed into rocks, impaled on broken trunks, and froze solid.
They didn't move. Like living statues, their eyes fixed on the Gate Bound, every one petrified.
I swallowed hard.
This..., it's dangerous.
Not like the strategy. Nothing like what I thought.
Instinct commanded me.
—Run.
The moment the roar ended, I released the roots around my ankles. I turned and bolted.
Its gaze burned into my back. Amid the shadows of toppled trees overlapping my own as I ran, I headed for the cave.
Gate Bound.
Entity bound to the layer's gate.
The Gallery translates all languages into words I can understand.
Why hadn't I thought it was weird?
I'd undone the seal on this bound entity.
Why? Because I offered too much tribute.
Tracing it back to the root, it's not my fault.
It's all Orkan's doing.
The jar's size depends more on the wanderer's downtime than potential, as stated.
Orkan controlled wanderers on the 100th floor, making the 98th's jar huge.
Too much blood accumulated, breaking the Gate Bound's seal.
So why was the Gate Bound sealed in the first place?
I desperately scoured the Gallery for info. From unshadowed, meaningful posts, I pieced together some facts.
The 98th originally had no exit to the next layer. A cursed land of eternal past memories.
The ancient mage captured a Backrooms entity here, turned it into a Gate Bound, and sealed it. To make it open and close exits to the next layer.
The demon summoned by the jar. That's why they're collectively called Gate Bound, not their individual entity names.
...Gate Bound.
Literal translation via the Gallery's multidimensional function: exactly that. Gate Bound entity.
Normally, the 98th's Gate Bound rips through the layer when the jar fills, drinks the blood, then reseals.
In that process, the exit opens, letting wanderers noclip to the next.
So no transforming, no size growth, no overwhelming aura.
Except when the jar overflows with blood, letting it guzzle too much and breaking the layer seal on the Gate Bound.
Of course, all based on shadowed info and Gallery posts—my speculation.
But the current situation makes it almost certain.
"Aaaah...."
Reaching the cave, I pulled Orkan's corpse from my subspace pouch.
"Again! It's all your fault, you bastard."
MaxLevelRabbit had said bigger wanderer potential means bigger 98th jar. But I couldn't believe it.
Definitely Orkan's fault.
"Odin Valhalla motherfucker—."
I kicked Orkan's corpse a few times and slapped it. Pounding the log-like body didn't vent my rage.
The dead don't speak.
"Ha."
I finally calmed, stowing the corpse back in the pouch.
No time to let emotions consume me. Spitting anger solves nothing fundamental.
"No way. This can't be real."
I stepped to the cave mouth, surveying the entire 98th surface.
On a low hill. Cave below the cliff, overlooking everything.
"Haa...."
Forest trees and grass flattened around the center, leaving wasteland. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of Orkan statues frozen in view.
And the 98th's Gate Bound hunting them—.
Piiiing—.
After the hunt, it coiled snake-like in the center, eyes closed, seemingly asleep.
Would it attack if it woke? Unknown.
"Now... what to do...."
Suddenly, an idea hit.
Oh, right, that method.
AlchemyRiceSoupEater! Resume trade with her, rift cut from 98th to 89th.
I opened the Gallery, calling her.
She responded instantly—must be glued to the Gallery.
I looked up. Sky still ink-black.
Faint moonlight barely lit the ground.
Whether probing my situation or pushing a deal, she talked a lot.
Summary: 98th to 89th rift cut impossible too.
"Haa...."
Need another way.
"Aaaah...."
After wrapping chat with AlchemyRiceSoupEater, I racked my brain.
Gallery was all that came to mind.
I set suspicions aside, gathered info. Snapped pics of entire 98th surface, posted to Gallery.
Explosive reactions soon followed.
Seeing the shadow, my blood boiled.
Thought it was cuz I was far from that layer...
Wrong.