Lostbelt 7 Rewrite (Prologue)
[Finals won't be finished for another week and change so here, have the beginning of the rewrite as a holdover until I can really get working on it]
Aaaaand we're off to a bad start. As soon as Chaldea exits void space, the storm border is at risk of collapsing entirely from what seems to be a sort of deep sea pressure that normally shouldn't be a problem for Nemo, and yet it’s very much about to kill them all. But suddenly, Georgios is summoned! Without so much as a leyline! What’s more, his very presence seems to lessen the effects immensely.
Using this chance, Mash and Georgios fight off some foreigner-class beings that seem to inhabit the depths of this tar(?)-filled cave system they’ve ended up in. who are unusually weak for such a class type, while Nemo and Da Vinci are able to make emergency precautions against the pressure and secure the storm border, but at the cost of being completely grounded where they are.
It seems impossible to venture far however without the bounded field created by border protecting from the unknown corrupting influence. As a last ditch effort, they use a weak leyline signal to summon whoever they can afford, with Nitocris and Geronimo springing forth! It makes sense only casters can be afforded when things are so dire, and it’s certainly better than nothing, especially when Nitocris’s protection acts like a protective field around them that’s more than strong enough to wander!
However, the summoning process didn’t go unnoticed. A massive corrupted beast slinks forth, big enough to devour the Border itself! …But before anyone can make so much as a weak attempt to fight it off, a figure comes crashing from above, caving in the beast’s skull in one blow. She then reveals herself to be none other than the Mayan goddess Kukulkan! Though, she er…doesn’t seem all that dignified. Inattentive, easily excited, with that power she may clearly be a goddess but she also clearly isn’t that worldly. She must have noticed the summoning, same as that horrible beast, so that’s one more good thing to come out of it! Though…she apparently doesn’t know what a servant or summoning even is?
Soon it becomes clear this isn’t the best person to answer any questions the group has, but thankfully Kuku knows someone who is! At her insistence to meet “Miki” the group are lead even further down into the caverns, but something about Kuku seems to be protecting the Chaldeans from the corruption that nearly overwhelmed them before. Thank goodness too, because it doesn’t seem like Nitocris could have handled much more of that…well, whatever this almost radioactive-like slag is.
And so, after more talking with Kuku, with more questions for Chaldea than Chaldea has for her, they finally arrive at….the tree of emptiness?!
….….or, rather, its roots…?
What lies before them is undeniably a tree of emptiness, but it disappears into the earth above, and seems weirdly small compared to something like Olympus. And yet, in spite of such, it’s visibly full of life; every tendril is in bloom, as if each root is itself a miniature glimpse into another galaxy.
But much more notable than what lies within is what lies outside of those roots. Strung up, as if crucified and bound, is a giant humanoid figure. A woman whose long raven hair flows from out of her shattered headdress, down and over her flat chest, what scraps of clothing she has doing little to hide countless scars across her body, none more pronounced than the one at her neck.
Speechless at the gruesome sight, her head slowly raises and jolts the group out of it as she warmly addresses Kukulkan and gives her name:
“I…am Mictlan”
