Chương 15: Omnimancer BONUS Chapter: Jax's Descent (1 of 5)

The Highest Gift Jax was too busy reeling from the torrent of energy exploding out of his body in every direction to notice the mile-long snake patrolling high above the peak currently diving for him. Every thought he had was consumed with trying to stay conscious through it, and so when his unstoppable force of energy met the immovable wall that was the snake, Jax was flung off his feet. Time seemed to slow as Jax soared through the air, letting him think about his current situation.

On the one hand, the cosmic faucet of energy had suddenly stopped, which was nice. On the other, his impressive-sounding power wouldn't be ready for another three hours. Entirely useless for breaking his impending fall. Well, if supernatural powers were out, that just left the next best thing. Slamming the snow with his arm, Jax threw himself into a roll, distributing the impact across his backpack and body. Even then, bruises erupted all over. If that was the extent of the damage, though, he'd gladly take it.

Rolling to his feet, Jax broke out into a sprint… until he realized nothing was chasing him. Looking back, he heaved a sigh of relief when he found the leviathan lazily drifting back to its patrol route as if nothing had happened. Something had very much happened, however. The entire summit where Jax had just been standing was just… gone. Chomped into oblivion by the massive serpent, its remnants careening down the mountain, triggering mini avalanches. The summit wasn't all that had disappeared, either.

Jax's body had, too.

"What the fuck!" Jax stared in disbelief at his own nonexistent hands. Had he hit his head when he'd crashed? Or maybe earlier, when he looked into those eldritch horrors' bodies? But then, the snow was still there. The rest of the mountain was still there, as were the ancillary peaks. Peaks that bore an uncanny resemblance to Lhotse and Nuptse—Everest's adjoining summits. A crack of distant thunder saved Jax from his impending meltdown, and what he saw triggered all sorts of warning bells in his head.

Mountains this tall created their own weather, and this peak was no different. Winds gusted and snow roiled, diminishing visibility by the minute. Where just moments earlier, he could see for a thousand miles or more, now, he could hardly see a single nearby peak. A storm was coming, and he was quite literally on the most exposed spot on the planet. Hurrying to get a move on, Jax patted his body several times to confirm he hadn't somehow dematerialized. He hadn't—just turned invisible somehow.

Which would actually explain a lot. Like why he was still alive and why the serpent hadn't eaten him. It must have sensed the same pulse he did when he obtained his power. Maybe it had been reacting to that? As for the invisibility, he concluded that was the bears' doing. Same for those floating messages. Jax chose not to worry. About that or the snake. Either it returned to kill him and he was dead, or it didn't and… well, he was probably still dead.

The sheer distance he could see suggested this peak was taller than Everest— much, much taller—and that seemed like a much more useful thing to panic about. Strangely, the air was far thicker here despite the altitude. Thick enough that he wasn't at immediate risk of asphyxiation without supplemental oxygen, which made little sense to him. Still, that didn't mean he couldn't go entirely without it, as the lightheadedness had shown him soon after he'd shut it off. This was still very much a Death Zone.

Just that the single near-empty bottle he did have would last him a lot longer than he thought. Long enough, he hoped, to give him a fighting chance. Jax did his best not to be daunted by the much lesser nearby peaks, each gargantuan in their own right. And there were hundreds. Rivers ran through the valleys between them, barely visible through all the atmosphere in between. They were bordered by lush forests that crept up the peaks, turning into shrubs and rock at the higher elevations.

And on several of the summits, far, far in the distance, were the unmistakable lights of civilization. Cities, and large ones at that. Unfamiliar terrain in every direction, seemingly forever. So vast it messed with his sense of perspective. The weirdest part was that, while the nearby peaks of Lhotse and Nuptse were still there, the rest of the Himalayas were gone like they never existed, and it didn't stop there. The base of Everest looked nothing like what Jax remembered. No snow, for one.

The peaks that, while gorgeous, had once obscured the view were replaced by a cloudless sky, affording a view of a thousand miles or more. Far more than he should've been able to see. And as if reality hadn't given Jax enough middle fingers for the day, to the east, an ocean stretched to the horizon. An honest-to-god ocean! To the west was an endless expanse of stubby mountain peaks without a bit of snow on their summits. The view from Everest on a good day was epic. Unreal, even. But this?

If God had a vantage point, this was it. Heya mister! Cups felt bad about ditching you, so here's a handy dandy Tooturial to get ya sitchyated. Thank us later! [̴̼͚̯̬͎̍́̈́]̵̼̬̳͚̭͌̽̊͑[̶̨̗̐]̴̹̬̺̃͝[̶̯̜͝]̷͈̥̲̬̮͒̽[̷̢̡̛̦̪̫̑̓͘]̸̱̖̲̌̇͆[̴̭͖̑]̸̭̥̭͓͕̑͒̕ Entity [Tiramisu] has initiated'Teddy Tooturial' Quest: Get off the mountain (Part I of???) Descend [5, 000] ft. Reward: Inventory Access'Inventory Access' sounded like a great thing to have, whatever it meant.

And down was where he was headed anyway, so it worked out just fine for him. As they said, going up was optional, but going down? That was mandatory. And as for the continued existence of random holographic pop ups… after all he'd seen? It was going to take a lot more than that to faze him at this point. A crack of ominous thunder sounded in the distance.

"Seriously? Another storm?" Jax muttered at the sky.

"Gimme a break…" He didn't dare underestimate it either. Mountains created their own weather, and this peak's height would likely make any weather system many times worse. Proving his suspicion, winds gusted and snow roiled and visibility diminished by the minute, far faster than any normal storm. Where just moments earlier, he could see for a thousand miles or more, now, he could hardly see past his own arms. A storm was coming, and he was quite literally on the most exposed spot on the planet.

That wouldn't be so bad… if he had a rope team. Or wasn't caught out on a gargantuan peak that made Everest look like child's play. Or even if the ropes he and Marc had installed on the way up were in place. They weren't, of course, considering this was very likely not even the same world. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. He clenched his trusty ice axe, worn and chipped with use.

"Not quite the adventure I had in mind, but hey, I'll take it?" Did he have what it took to solo this descent? Or was he going to die pathetically on the way down? Maybe it was a good thing he didn't have a mirror. If he did and if he wasn't currently invisible, he'd have seen the grin on his face. One that stretched from ear to ear. Jax was nothing if not methodical on the way down. Each step placed with care, each action taken methodically and deliberately. Partly out of caution.

Partly because he quickly discovered just how much people relied on being able to see their body parts to move effectively. Forget mountaineering moves—Jax stumbled several times just trying to walk, and he cursed the damned bears for crippling him. That was, until he almost ran into a house-sized goat creature that hovered a few inches above the ground, bounding around with ease, leaving golden trails in its wake.

With the raging storm creating whiteout conditions, Jax hadn't seen the thing until it was almost on top of him, a heaviness in his chest he'd thought was altitude. Except it wasn't. It was coming from this thing, and like the mega snake, the only reason he lived was because it couldn't see him. Despite the pressure on his soul, he forced his body into a roll to avoid a collision. Jax's heart pounded like mad in his chest as his mind struggled to comprehend what the hell he'd just seen. And felt.

A prestige not even the greatest Pharaoh on Earth could hope to match. Its very existence poured forth concepts of rulership. Of absolute dominion that compelled him to kneel, to swear undying fealty to this king of kings. To give his life for the divine being before him.

The encounter proved to be nothing but the opener as a gilded floating statue with four human faces and ten bare, muscled arms appeared from the snow like a demon god, each face frozen in a different expression, each arm carrying a curved gold greatsword. If the moose-god's presence was that of an Emperor, this thing exuded death. The Essence of the Executioner, where the very air around it seemed to decay and wilt, losing its life-giving properties and forcing Jax to up the flow rate on his oxygen.

Even light seemed to get weak around it, leaving it in a sphere of darkness. Nothing grand or complex. Just a simple promise of the thing waiting at the end of every life, and therefore utterly terrifying. Merely being near this creature nearly crushed Jax's very soul. Instead of legs, jelly-like tendrils extended from beneath its armored torso, drifting slowly and without purpose. It was the most terrifying abomination Jax had ever seen, and that wasn't even counting its aura.

The faces decorated all four sides of its head, each horrific in its own unique way that Jax couldn't describe, displaying expressions that ranged from glee to anguish, rage to sorrow. When it suddenly stopped and whirled to face Jax, when its mask of glee swapped places with its face of sadness, Jax knew, deep down in his heart, that he was only seconds from death.

With neither sound nor warning, the demon creature's arms burst into motion, spinning its swords so fast they hummed like a mosquito swarm, a sphere of blurring death. Jax again threw himself into a roll, knowing full well it was pointless. He was dead. He had no chance. He braced for pain that never came. The storm of swords didn't mince him into gory chunks. Death did not claim him. Instead, two divinities clashed. Not physically, but with their aura.

Fighting on a level Jax hadn't even known existed just moments prior. For a second that seemed to stretch into infinity, warping the very space and time around them, they remained locked in deadly combat. Until one of them shattered. In its final moments, the Emperor let out a bray so loud it shook Jax's soul, before being cut into a thousand tiny pieces. Minced and diced like some ingredient on a platter. Jax hadn't been the target at all. He'd just been in the way.

Heart beating like a sledgehammer, Jax fled from the abomination as fast as his legs carried him, nearly tripping over his invisible boots more than once. The freakshow only continued. Countless alien creatures roamed the route down. Everything from mutated hovering goats to stone golems the size of a four-story high-rise. Above them, smaller brethren of the gargantuan snake patrolled the skies, diving without warning to skewer their prey with fangs the length of a bus.

And all of them exuded an aura that nearly made Jax's heart stop. That made him suffocate in their presence. It wasn't a purely physical sensation, either. It was like the very weight of whatever concept they embodied outstripped his a millionfold, consuming him. Like an ant before an elephant. Many sported the same yellow eyes of the Eldritch teddies, and Jax didn't even need to look at their oversized, razor-filled maws to know they could rip him limb from limb.

Each with its own gravity field that made Jax feel like his chest would implode whenever they neared. And all of them thoroughly ignored his existence. Jax very much doubted it was his hiding skills. It seemed the invisibility the teddies granted him masked not just his appearance, but his scent and other tells, too. His feet didn't even make footprints in the ground. It proved a double-edged sword when Jax dropped off the narrow ridge into a steeply sloped crevasse.

A place most climbers avoided religiously, and for good reason—crevasses had ended many a mountaineer's life. Between falling in and dying, getting trapped and dying, or breaking a leg attempting to maneuver its treacherous bottom, the hazards were numerous.

Yet even with the invisibility, he'd nearly died as collateral damage in a fight between these monsters, so when he came upon an incorporeal ghost a hundred feet in length duking it out with a giant the size of a tall highrise, Jax had narrowed his eyes and said"How about no?" Because despite his laughable weakness relative to those things, he had an advantage they didn't. He was a mountaineer, and a pretty damned good one. That gave him options.

Options he used to bypass dangerous encounters entirely, and luckily, Jax knew his way around crevasses, having rescued himself out of one after having fallen in on a previous climb in Antarctica. The toughest part was navigating the slippery bottom, often covered in snow that hid yet more gaping holes for him to fall into. Hard enough with a rope and proper equipment. Damn near impossible when he couldn't even see where he was placing his feet. It was agonizing.

It was slow, and yet, it allowed him to cut several thousand feet of treacherous descent by going for the more direct route. The Balcony, which was named for its sweeping vistas, offered his first reprieve. Free of beasts, somewhat sheltered from the storm that ravaged the mountain, and offering up epic views, the Balcony sure lived up to its name, though it hadn't been this far from the summit on Earth's version of the peak. Everest had no crevasses this high up, either.

Why this other-Everest even remotely resembled the one he knew, he couldn't begin to guess, but it sure made route-finding convenient. Jax sat down on the pristine snow, entirely devoid of tracks and trash, and unhooked his helmet to wipe the sweat from his brow. Despite the series of nonsensical events, each so crazy it made him wonder if he'd been on the most epic drug trip ever, Jax couldn't help but be entranced. Which, he realized, was exactly the sort of sensation a drug trip would give you.

Well, I might as well enjoy it, right? From the west to the east, dark stormclouds loomed, both above and below him, flashing brightly with sporadic bolts of lightning. It was one thing to live through a lightning storm. It was another thing entirely to witness it from above the clouds, without the rain and the wind and the thunder. It was almost peaceful. Like nature decided to put on a show just for him.

Lost in his thoughts, Jax rummaged through his invisible pack, growing more and more annoyed at its invisibility, only to realize he really was missing a few things. A few very important things. Snacks and water bottles, in particular.

"Seriously, Jax? Seriously?" Had he dropped them somewhere? Or were they a victim of those Eldritch gods, like his poor friend? Jax sincerely hoped it was he who had gone missing, and not the other way around. He'd feel so much better knowing Marc was making his way down the actual mountain right about now. Regardless, he had a real problem on his hands. Despite hours of effort, he'd only dropped a little over around five thousand feet thus far.

Just making it down to Everest Base Camp was a journey and a half, usually done over two days. But something like this? That was a multi-day affair, minimum. Water, at least, was easy. He could always eat snow for hydration. Not the safest option, but it'd do in a pinch. The food, though… Quest: Get off the mountain (Part I of???) Complete! You have descended [5000] ft. Granting Inventory Access… The prompt disappeared, but in its place, Jax found his vision blocked.

Like someone had stuck a post-it note on his visor or something. Except there weren't any idiots around—well, excluding him—and he was fresh out of post-its. Jax wiped his iced-up goggles and it went away. Had he just imagined it? Or did he really just catch a glimpse of his precious godawful energy chews?

"I don't think hallucinations are supposed to make this much sense," he muttered, thinking about the chews again. Again, a projection appeared, showing the missing packet as a little icon, neatly organized into columns and rows. Concentrating on the bag of chews made it poof into existence in front of him. Jax fumbled the bag, dropping it into the snow with his massive mitts. He was reminded of the stone memorials on the trek to Base Camp.

Of the dozens upon dozens of rocks people had stacked in remembrance of those who'd died up here. Whether to the cold, losing their way… or from degraded mental capacity. Still, the prompt did say something about an inventory… Removing his gloves, Jax ran his hands over it, feeling the texture. He grunted, tearing open the packet to pop a chew into his mouth. That was definitely the zero-fruit, high-fructose overly watermelon taste he'd come to hate, alright. Delicious.

It worked for other things too, like his climbing harness, carabiners, and ascender. All useless without ropes to attach to, but they were a comforting presence, so he stowed those in his inventory as well. No point hauling that weight around if he didn't have to.

"Yeah… no way this is a hallucination." It wasn't the thin air and the whole world changing and Marc disappearing and the ropes going missing that convinced him. Naw, it was a damned energy chew. Teddy Tooturial! Quest: Get off the mountain (Part II of???) Survive half a day. Reward: [Transcendent] Gift Initialization