//------------------------------// // 945 - The Hunter in the Dark // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// The first of Mare Occultum’s defenses would have killed Lex instantly if he’d still been mortal. Having followed Sanguine Disposition downward through an ever-deepening series of fissures – none of which were wider than three inches across – for over an hour, Lex’s suspicions that this was all some sort of ploy on the leather wing’s part had just begun to return when his foresight informed him that he was about to hit a serious obstacle. Less than thirty feet below him, magic ceased to exist. As a titan, Lex was his own source of magic; that was how he’d overcome his inability to replenish his thaumaturgical spellcasting. But the area further down was, from what he could tell, completely devoid of the ability for magic to exist there at all. That meant that his being the font from which his magical powers sprung didn’t matter; any magical effects brought into such an area would immediately deactivate, simply because the processes that allowed them to manifest weren’t present there. If he’d plunged into such an area while in shadow-form, he would have immediately changed back to his physical body...despite the fissures being nowhere near wide enough to accommodate him. And unlike the teleportation spell he’d tried to use to escape from the burning factory back in Las Pegasus, his shadow-form had no failsafe built into it. But that wasn’t what made Lex cease descending, regarding the area ahead of him with mild consternation. It was the fact that Sanguine Disposition – still having transformed into mist – hadn’t so much as slowed down before entering the zone where magic stopped working. That shouldn’t have been possible. While the leather wing’s gaseous state hadn’t been the result of his casting a spell per se, there had been no doubt in Lex’s mind that it was still a magical process, and so should have come undone the moment Sanguine Disposition had come into contact with the magic-less area. Except I didn’t sense him using any magic when he transformed, realized Lex. At the time he’d presumed that was simply the result of the leather wing shielding what he was doing, wanting to limit the degree to which it was possible to pick up information about his abilities. As the bearer of the Secreta, which was itself the manifestation of the Night Mare’s credo of “power through secret knowledge” – one of the three forms of power which Sanguine Disposition had himself spoken of during their first meeting – such behavior was only to be expected. But Lex hadn’t expected that the vampire’s changing into mist involved no magic at all. Then again, the Night Mare would never have made him one of her champions if he wasn’t capable of extraordinary feats, decided Lex, resuming his descent. Much like myself. A moment later, he entered the magic-less area, immediately returning to solid form... And crossed his forelegs over his chest as he concentrated, continuing to sink through the stone. Magic enabled Lex to do a great many things, but it wasn’t what allowed him to brazenly defy the constraints of reality. That came from his combination of aristeia and divinity, and while that wasn’t enough to overwrite the power of a god’s will – which suffused Darkest Night to a degree far greater than what Kryonex had done to that small valley where they’d fought – it granted him unprecedented control over how he interacted with the universe around him. Control enough to, with supreme effort and focus, move each and every atom in his body around those that made up the local environment, phasing through the solid rock around him. Doing so was an incredible strain, requiring him to not only maintain heightened awareness of every particle of his being – and everything on his person – but also move them all in concert so that they maintained their overall configuration while simultaneously avoiding every last atom in the surrounding earth. Even for a titan such as himself, that was difficult in the extreme. But it was preferable to hollowing out a space right above where magic ceased to be and simply digging downward with his claws. Lex knew he could have done so – while the rocks here were exceptionally strong, his physical self was far stronger – but Sanguine Disposition had openly referred to Mare Occultum as being a stronghold. Digging a tunnel wide enough for a grown pony to pass through would have severely compromised what even Lex had to admit was a powerful defense against potential invaders. And since his trans-temporal sense had shown him that the lack of magic extended in all directions – or at least, he hadn’t foreseen finding a gap in the area it covered no matter which direction he traveled – then the best course of action was to simply pass through it without tearing it apart. Particularly since this place seems to be designed to collapse inward if anyone tries to dig through it, noted Lex, evaluating the microscopic fault lines in the surrounding stones as he passed through them. Anyone trying to dig or drill their way in here will have a difficult time of it. Nor was that the only natural defense built into the place. Further down, the temperature began to rise, lining the edges of the fissure with condensation. But it wasn’t water which clung to the rock, instead being an extremely powerful solvent, one which would have burned the lungs of anyone breathing its fumes even if they’d somehow avoided touching the walls. Worse, the heat wasn’t coming from any sort of flame or magma, but from the surrounding rocks themselves. The entire place was radioactive. As far as passive defenses went, it wasn’t the deadliest, but it was nevertheless insidious. Without proper shielding, the level of radiation was enough that it would gradually erode the health of anyone in the area. With the corrosive liquid eating away at whatever tools were used, and the propensity for any breaches to collapse in on themselves, an invading enemy would be forced to spend considerable time and resources just to make headway, all while the radiation ate away at them. The Night Mare, it seemed, had been exceptionally serious about making Mare Occultum as defensible as she could. And all without using any of the creatures that were so ubiquitous on the surface. But Lex didn’t have a chance to think more about that as his foresight showed him that he was finally about to reach an open area. Emerging down into a cavern below, Lex ceased phasing as soon as he’d cleared the ceiling, levitating down toward the floor of the cave. Though calling it a floor was generous; the ground was rocky and uneven in the extreme, and several portions of it were jagged enough to be dangerous to anyone whose legs weren’t thickly armored. It wasn’t the sort of place where anyone with hooves would have felt comfortable traversing. More notable than that, however, was how massive the place was. The Shrine of the Starless Sky had been a grotto of impressive size, but this place dwarfed it by several orders of magnitude. Stalactites larger than Canterlot Castle hung from the roof of the cavern, with most reaching less than a quarter of the way to the ground. Below them, the rough terrain extended out into multiple levels of rough elevation that were frequently broken by stalagmites of comparable size to their overhanging counterparts. Several actually reached up, connecting to the stalactites to form natural columns. The entire place was like a jungle made out of stone. Fortunately, it also had magic, the area of suppression having ended just above the roof of the place. Having foreseen that his powers would return once he emerged into the cave, Lex looked around, expecting Sanguine Disposition to be there with some banal quip about how long it had taken him to arrive. But the leather wing was nowhere to be found. Instead... Who are you? The Night Mare’s voice – or rather, the dissonant facsimile of her voice – seemed to echo through the cavern, despite being telepathic. But unlike when he’d heard that voice through his communion spell, this time it came with the power of a divine aura behind it, washing over Lex with the strength of a tsunami. In an instant, his supernatural senses ceased feeding him information. The magical spectrum was gone from his eyes, he couldn’t feel the displacement of the air around him, and he couldn’t detect the radiation from the surrounding stones. Only his terrestrial senses remained, and although his bestial side’s darkvision immediately kicked in, its limited range left him unable to see anything more than a stone’s throw away, blind to the remainder of the cavern. There was, however, a single exception to his sudden reduction in awareness: for some reason, his trans-temporal sense was still working. But there was no time to contemplate that as Lex struggled to deal with the other effect of the aura now encompassing him: the incredible rise of tension now flowing through him. It was like the normal effect of being in Darkest Night – the feeling of heightened anticipation and visceral danger – magnified dozens of times over, an adrenaline rush that tried to batter rational thought into submission, his inner beast howling as it demanded that he kill his enemy. It didn’t know who his enemy even was, but it knew they were out there, and that alone was reason enough to find them and kill them; otherwise, it would do the same to them. But Lex refused to heed that urge, instead forcing himself to remain in place. It made his instincts scream in protest – if he wasn’t hunting, then he was being hunted! – but he refused to give in to its demands. Losing control of himself with Mei Li and those lesser titans had resulted in serious complications to his personal life; doing so here, in his goddess’s most secure sanctum, would doubtlessly result in far worse consequences. Who are you? The voice came again, seemingly from everywhere and nowhere, giving no hint of its owner’s position. In response, his inner beast screamed at him once more to take action, to find whoever was speaking and kill or be killed. And once more, Lex suppressed that desire, forcing himself to react like a pony and not a beast. I am Lex Legis! he announced telepathically, staring into the darkness without flinching. Warden of Belligerence! Bearer of the Charismata! Champion of the Night Mare! Rising up onto his back legs, he held his foreleg of barbed wire aloft, showing the symbol of his goddess’s power. That’s who I am! he roared. Now, who are YOU?! A rasping laugh came from somewhere within the darkness. A moment later, it was followed by some sort of rough scraping sound. It repeated a moment later. Then again. And then again. Each time, Lex had to increase the degree to which he was keeping his inner beast under control, his instincts growing more agitated each time the scraping sound reached his ears. It was growing closer. Who am I? came the voice. You come here, and ask me who I am? The next time, when the scraping sound came, it came from a particularly low-hanging stalactite almost directly above him. Looking up, Lex could see eyes staring down at him from it. A moment later, their owner came into view. Slightly more than half of Kryonex’s size, she was what a pony might have been if they’d evolved to be predators instead of herbivores. Eschewing clothes completely, her hide was instead covered by a thin layer of scales, and he could just make out a claw-mark on her flank, though he couldn’t be sure if it was some sort of proto-cutie mark or an injury that had never healed properly. Further back, her tail was long and thin, almost whiplike. More disturbing was how all four of her legs were digitigrade, with the hooves that were jagged along their undersides, the bottom of each one serrated and ridged in a manner that allowed her to cling upside-down to the stalactite without difficulty. Equally alien were the thick membranes stretched between her front and rear legs on either side as well, which Lex could immediately tell would allow their owner to glide silently when deployed, not needing to make noisy flaps when she took to the air. But the most disturbing part of her was her head. Her muzzle protruded slightly farther than a pony’s, and the hinge of her jaw was set further back, giving her maw a wider cast than an equine should have had. Within the rictus jaws were multiple rows of teeth, each of them razor-sharp and angled slightly outward, perfect for tearing into prey. Above her head were two horns that merged into one, each emerging from the side of her head only to wind around to her forehead, where they spiraled tightly around each other, forming a single sharp tip. No ears perched above them, having instead two tiny holes right below where each horn emerged. And her eyes... The glowing red orbs, broken only by pupils that were vertical slits, were the only part of her that looked familiar to him. There was no twinge in his foreleg to signify it, no blue fire that burned cold to indicate her identity, but in that moment Lex knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt. This was his goddess, but not the goddess he knew. I am the Night Mare! shrieked the monster, releasing her hold on the stalactite above to land on the ground barely two dozen feet ahead of him. And you are no champion of mine!