Nightmare Realm Summoner

"Hmm." Mite cleared his throat. Then his hands fell back to his sides. He took a step back, and the gazes of every single eye in the pile followed him unblinkingly. "I don't think that was supposed to happen."

"Mite?" Alex asked, his eyes narrowing. "Just what the hell was your theory?"

"Hold on," Mite replied. "I'm a little busy at the moment."

He raised his hands again. Then he thrust them forward with a flourish.

Nothing happened.

Mite repeated the process. This time, he let out a grunt of effort. But whatever magic he was trying to use didn't seem to be particularly effective. The eyes remained exactly as they were. Namely, staring at him with an intensity that only came when a hungry predator had cornered its next meal.

"Alex," Claire said, a hand going to her wrist as she started to draw her whip free of the tattoo it resided within. "Get ready."

"Hold on!" Mite yelled. "Don't interfere! All my work will be wasted if you destroy the building before I'm done!"

"I am sensing a significant amount of killing intent coming from the flesh-pile," Rhyss said in his ever-flat tone. "I would suggest determining a solution before it figures out how to fight."

"Can eyes even fight?" Finley asked.

"There are more materials than just eyes in this wall!" Mite snapped. "It's the biggest project I've ever attempted. A few hitches are to be expected! Just give me a—"

Mite ducked out of the way as an ivory blur hurtled past his head in a streak. It slammed into the ground with a thud, burying itself several feet deep into the earth.

Alex's gaze snapped back to where the attack had come from.

The wall. That's a bone from the pile of shit that Mite ringed Mirrorwane with.

"Point taken," Finley said. He took a step back, then ducked into the Teleporter. "I'll leave this one to you guys. Best of luck."

Alex summoned his monsters with a thought. The ringing of breaking glass heralded Glint as he stepped out to Alex's right. Dark bubbles roiled in the ground before Alex as his shadow rose up behind him. Princess arose before him and Spark took up the rear as the three of them all arrived to surround him, readying themselves for a fight.

"Hold on!" Mite exclaimed. "I'm not just going to give up!"

"Then you better work quickly," Claire said, pulling her whip fully free of her wrist and lowering her stance. "Because we're not about to let this thing wreck the town while you screw around with it."

"People's lives are at stake," Alex said. "Nobody's dying today, Mite. Be fast — or we're tearing this thing down."

"Fast?" Mite asked. "Necromancy is an art! An artist cannot be rushed if you want the product to—"

The ground beneath Mite bucked. He stumbled, barely managing to catch himself before he faceplanted right on top of the bone protruding from the ground beside him. His face went pale.

"Okay. I'll rush," Mite said meekly.

The pile of eyes started to vibrate. That was bad. Alex was quite certain of it. If one ever found themselves in possession of a large pile of eyes, particularly one that had started staring at someone, the last thing you wanted it to do was start vibrating.

"Rush faster," Alex yelled.

Mite spun back to the eyes, making several hurried gestures with his hands. Coils of greenish-black smoke trailed behind his fingers as he dragged them through the air. It almost looked like he was trying to fiddle with some manner of invisible interface — but whatever monstrosity Mite had summoned didn't appear to care.

Another rumble shook the ground. A keen whine filled the air from deep within the pile of eyes, and it was joined by a deafening rattle as every bone and corpse scrap within the trash ringing Mirrorwane started to shake.

Rattling and whining, Alex suspected, were likely just as bad as vibrating. They fell solidly within the realm of things that he did not want strange objects within his town doing. That went doubly true for extended periods of time.

"Mite!" Alex yelled over the cacophony. "You've got ten seconds! Find a fix or it's open season on eyeballs!"

"Don't threaten the eyeballs!" Mite yelled back. He yanked his hands to the side, then made a grabbing motion as if he were pulling an invisible lever. "They're sensitive!"

"They're fucking eyeballs!" Alex yelled back. "They don't have feelings!"

"That's what people used to say about lobsters!" Mite raced up to the pile of eyeballs, skidding to a stop an inch away from them. They were shaking even more violently now, to the point where a small earthquake seemed to have taken up permanent residence in the center of Mirrorwane.

"Lobsters don't have feelings! And nobody ever talked about the feelings of a lobster! It was pain! Lobsters feel pain!"

"Same thing!" Mite screamed. Then, with a slew of curses, he plunged his hand into the pile of eyes.

The rumbling stopped.

Mite blinked. He actually looked slightly surprised that anything had happened. Then one of the eyes next to him twitched. It swiveled — and all the others did the same. In an instant, the entire pile came alive to scan the world around it with a voracious hunger.

The roiling motion was actually enough to make Alex start to feel sick. It was like an optical illusion of the worst sort. He couldn't even properly look at the pile without losing track of exactly what it was he was trying to stare at. The eyes were just moving too fast.

"What the hell is going on?" Alex asked.

"One second," Mite yelled, plunging his other hand into the mess. He gritted his teeth as he dug around the pile in search of something. The tip of his tongue stuck out of his mouth — just as shadows cast themselves over the town.

Alex craned his neck back. Bones and scales and teeth and claws floated in the air above them. They rattled with energy, and more components rushed up from the walls to join the thick cloud with every passing second.

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Goddamn it.

"The threat to Mirrorwane is increasing," Rhyss said casually. "I would encourage finding a solution quickly."

"I'm working on it!" Mite snapped. He plunged his hands deeper into the pile of eyes, burying them all the way up to his shoulders. "This is a lot harder than anything else I've built! The desires of the monsters are stronger than I thought!"

"Right," Alex said. "We're stepping in. Claire—"

"No!" Mite yelled. He hesitated for an instant. Then he swallowed. "Damn it. Just wait a moment! It's okay! I have it under control!"

"He does not," Rhyss said. "Something is trying to push into being using the physical construct that Mite has created. It has already largely managed to manifest itself. Should the process complete, we will have a very powerful monster materializing directly in the center of Mirrorwane."

Alex's eyes narrowed. He couldn't have that happening. After all the bullshit they'd gone through, there was no way he'd let his town get destroyed by some pile of creepy eyeballs.

"Damn. Shit," Mite said, his face going pale. "Shit. Shit. Shit!"

Then, with a wordless scream, he threw himself into the pile of eyes. They parted around him like water before closing back together, swallowing the Bioengineer entirely.

"Oh, for crying out—" Alex threw his hands up into the air. His monsters all started toward the pile as he sent them a series of commands. "We can't let him kill himself. I don't have another engineer."

"The stability of the plane around us is weakening," Rhyss observed in his dispassionate tone. "It seems the being trying to manifest itself here originates from the Mirrorlands. It must have been drawn here by the already-weakened barrier between realities."

"Wait," Alex said, pausing to send a hurried glance back at Rhyss. "You mean this would be a good time to try and stabilize the towns by making the rift more permanent?"

"Only if Mite is successful," Rhyss said. "If not, then you will ensure that the monster manifests itself here."

"You're telling us we have to bet on if we think Mite will pull this off or not?" Claire asked.

"That would be an apt assessment, yes," Rhyss said.

"Can he?" Alex asked.

"I do not know," Rhyss replied. "I cannot make decisions for you. But the monster's presence is thickening, and the fluctuation in this plane is starting to stabilize. I would make your decision quickly."

Alex clenched his teeth. He exchanged a quick look with Claire. There was still no sign of Mite within the pile of eyes. All that remained was the growing cloud of components above the town and the pile of disgusting eyeballs.

"Your call," Claire said. "But…"

"Yeah," Alex said. He clenched his fists. Then he let them fall slack. With a thought, he banished all three of his monsters. Then he reached for his magic, sending Riftwarped energy racing through his body as he prepared to pull open a portal. "We trust Mite."

"I see," Rhyss said. The Advisor paused for a moment before continuing. "May I ask why?"

The pile of eyes twitched. Then every single one of them inverted, turning to look inward.

The corners of Alex's lips pulled into a smile.

"Because he's batshit insane."

"Just like you," Claire said under her breath, sending a quick, sly glance in his direction.

Alex activated Riftsense before he could get distracted. His senses prickled as he searched for the weakest spot between 274-50 and the Mirrorlands. It didn't take him long to find it. The answer was obvious — it was the Warped Embassy.

Alex raced over to it without wasting a second. He flung the door of the building open. The line of red that led him here was more like a field. Rhyss had been right. The Mirrorlands' presence was everywhere.

It was so close to 274-50 that he could have opened a portal wherever he'd wanted. But he didn't need just any portal. He needed one that would remain open.

Alex strode into the Riftwarped Embassy, drawing on his Qi and pumping it into his fingers. Electric power raced through his arms as it tried to force its way free into the air around him.

He glanced out the open door and into the darkening shadow setting over Mirrorwane outside. If he was wrong — if Mite couldn't pull this off — then forming a portal to the Mirrorlands would only make this monster even stronger.

As much of a fan of challenge as Alex was, he didn't harbor any disillusions. Summoning a powerful Mirrorlands monster in the middle of his town was as good as spelling its end. But Mite wasn't just anyone.

Alex had seen the Bioengineer's excitement. His desire to create interesting buildings and prove himself. To find purpose in this world. They were the same. And if they were the same, then Alex knew one thing to be absolutely true.

Mite wouldn't give up before his damn building was built.

With a snarl, Alex plunged his hands into the air. Reality pushed back against him. There was no pre-existing portal to open, but Mirrorwane was already closely connected to the Mirrorlands. Now, with the rapidly forming monster pulling them even closer together…

He couldn't have missed if he'd tried.

A crackling buzz arced through Alex's whole body as if he'd stuck a fork into an electrical outlet. His hair stood on end and his teeth chattered as he felt something give. The air before him screamed.

Then he pulled.

The furious electricity tearing through him intensified. It buzzed and arced through the air in angry purple tongues.

Alex pulled harder.

And, slowly, a portal started to yawn open before him. Streaks of purple lighting sliced through the air around Alex like jagged knife cuts. His hair blew back as an invisible gale drove into his face from within the portal.

But this wasn't the same as the other rifts he'd opened. It fought back a hundred times harder, dug its heels into the earth and battled desperately to remain shut. It was like trying to move a mountain.

Alex let out a scream of defiance. He pushed harder, straining every bit of magical energy and physical strength he had. His palms trembled as he pressed them against the invisible barriers of the rift.

It slowly pushed farther open, opening like a lazy eye.

His teeth clenched so hard that pain pierced into his jaw. Alex tasted iron. A pounding throb beat at the base of his skull. He pushed harder still.

Then, with a loud, ripping tear, the portal snapped open.

A scream carved through Mirrorwane.

Not from within the portal, but from behind Alex.

He spun to look outside just in time every single eye in the pile swivel to look straight at him.

Then the pile exploded.

Eyes launched into the air like a geyser of water, flying up to join all the materials flying through the air as arc of green electricity zipped between them like the expanding web of a spider.

And standing where they had been was Mite. He stood, head raised to the sky and green mist pouring out from his palms in thick clouds. Bolts of magic danced within the smoke as it rose to join all the swirling parts around him.

With a cry, Mite brought his hands down.

There was a single moment of stillness.

Then every single piece fell out of the sky, streaking to slam down into the earth. Not in the town, but around it.

The components drove together in a thunderous cacophony. But they didn't connect at random. There was a pattern. A structure.

They were building a wall.

Green smoke continued to pour from Mite, weaving through the rising barrier assembling itself around the city.

Alex spun as he heard the crashing approaching them. Something was happening to the Warped Embassy. Lines spread out through the ground around it, formed from pathways of shimmering black scales, to stretch out and connect with the forming wall.

A pillar of other components formed around the battery that Bridget had sold them. At its top, a single eye lodged itself like a crown. There was a whump as the pillar, battery and all, was abruptly yanked beneath the ground at such a speed that it was gone by the time Alex had realized it was moving.

And then it was done.

The thunderous roar came to a sharp, silent stop. Mite's hands fell as he dropped to one knee, dragging in deep, ragged breaths. The green smoke faded away, leaving behind a fifteen foot wall ringing the entirety of Mirrorwane.

Eyes protruded all along it in some horrifying mix of eldritch monster and structure, sweeping across the horizon in some endless search. Each one of them moved independently of the others to create an undulating pattern along the wall.

And, back in the Warped Embassy, Alex's rift continued to burn with energy.

Mite slowly pushed himself to his feet. He swallowed, wiped the dirt from his knees, and then looked back to Alex and Claire. A crooked grin pulled across his lips.

"One wall, hot and ready. See? I had it under control."