The|MULTIVERSE

EPISODE 28: Crab Feet Freak

When Ricven kicked the chamber's massive doors free like a shock-trooper on a legendary drug bust, Cornelius bolted inside first, dashing left; aiming his pistols like a one-man strike force and attuning his ears into the chasmal depths this silent rotunda had in store. Hanakin took the right, her burning black daggers glued to her palms in interim for a death claim. Fae hung over Ricven's head like a damn lustrous indicator to Ricven's presence, and Ricven himself; chilled as an iced out penguin, strode right on in whilst his little troupe expected a fight off the jump.

Call it an interlude of sorts—for the fight was coming indeed.

The Red Door Chamber was what Ricven called it, an overly massive hall so hushed and cavernous that one could hear not only their own hearts, or the drop of a pen, but their thoughts as well.

He had a damn good reason to dub this massive, soulless rotunda of portly pillars of marble madness such a name. It shall be noted that the word Madness described the result of one who dared challenged the tedious decipherment of this hall's cryptic scribbles, other than going insane from hearing their own thoughts, but this impressive space of jotted walls and embellished columns was extremely alien to any who threw their eyes upon it.

Ricven never once tried to ogle hard the writings on the walls, the pillars, or the floors, to crack its code or risk losing his cool like Aethenius achieved numerous times over—the heart of Cruxhaven included. Not even the humongous, impenetrable, titan-sized red door that loomed in all of its uncanniness beyond their entrance seduced Ricven to master its riddles.

Ricven, of course, was far from losing his jaw at what roamed here, but Fae, felt smaller than small, and Cornelius didn't even know where to start with the rich illustrations that literally engraved everything. The gunsmith didn't linger amazed for long. He caught up with Hanakin and the others as Ricven, huffing his herb, led them on down the broad corridor.

THROOOM!

The chamber doors thundered shut behind them.

The four of them nonchalantly revolved upon their heels to see the way inside had sealed itself. Ricven glanced to Cornelius, who shared the same look of ironic acknowledgment—Hanakin too resting bitch-faced to care.

All she wanted to do was sink her Fangs of Detriment into a demon that sounded like it was waiting for an applause each time it talked.

They trek ahead, delving further into the hushed hall. It took not a single rocket scientist to grasp that when that happened—when one entered a large room and the door automatically thumped shut on a lock-down and a sundry of healing potions surrounded by a bright and shiny save point lied in wait—some grave shit was bound to hit the fan.

Ricven puffed his herb. "WHELP! Unfortunately, for the inarguable fact that this here's far from a Triple-A roleplaying game, we're screwed out of healing potions and save-points, fellas!"

Fae cocked her head and scrunched her face up. "What?"

Cornelius strode behind them. "Ricven's thinking of the bit realms again."

"Nothing like running through an isometrical world, leveling up, dungeon diving, boss-killing, damsel-dipping."

Fae snorted then sighed, cracking an itty-bitty smirk at Ricven's habitual flashbacking, which said event she had forgotten till now, and how it can't be an epic good time without something to do with women in distress. "You and your damn damsels..."

"Hey! Remember that time we actually pulled off a Quadruple Tech?" Ricven chuckled. The whole event a moment to relive in his head as they confronted the video-game world's big bad, which—typically—wished to unite the over and underworlds collectively in a tyrannical aim, as always with those types, for world domination. "Shit was bonkers!"