From Moving Crates to Killing Gods-Chapter 20: Portable Hope

"It fades." Those words from Brow hung in the air with the weight of a funeral bell. I stared at the Ward, this ancient piece of technology, and felt the bizarre sensation. Here was a tiny miracle keeping these jellyfish safe in their party for a century, and it was dying. Just like everything else out here. My fingers twitched toward it, drawn to this luminous cube that represented both salvation and disappointment in one neat package. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"But it’s still working." Kira whispered, her voice carrying a fragile thread of hope. She knelt beside me, her hands hovering near the cube as if afraid to touch it. "After all this time."

Coco pushed forward, his eyes wide with sudden excitement. "Wait, wait, wait! Are we all missing something really obvious here?" He gestured wildly at the cube. "If this thing keeps Corruptors out, and we need to get back to Argent without being eaten by Corruptors, then..."

"We take it with us." Petra finished, her face lighting up. "We carry our own little barrier!"

A surge of hope rippled through the group. I felt it like a physical wave, a dangerous emotional beacon that, thankfully, couldn’t be detected within the Ward’s protection. For a moment, I let myself feel it too. The fantasy was intoxicating, walking across the wasteland inside our own protective bubble, safe from the horrors that roamed outside.

Brow pulsed with light, a gentle rebuke. The white appendages above his gelatinous body furrowed in what could only be disapproval. "Ahem. One does not plan theft while the owner floats mere inches away. Most discourteous."

"Not theft, we’re just looking for options." I said, then turned my attention back to the cube. "Has anyone ever attempted to relocate it?" I asked, my instinct to find the fatal flaw already kicking in before our collective hope could soar to dangerous heights.

The jellyfish elder pulsed with gentle blue light, his distinctive eyebrow like appendages rippling."It’s anchored to this place."

I pulled out my yo-yo, letting it spin as I approached the Ward for a closer look. The green cube sat in a shallow depression on the stone floor. As I leaned closer, I could make out intricate patterns etched into both the cube itself and the floor beneath it, a complex circular array of symbols that looked both familiar and alien.

Phinyx stepped forward, his expression thoughtful. "Let me try to... vibe with it. Maybe I can sense if it’s movable."

Before anyone could stop him, he reached down and wrapped his hands around the edges of the cube. The reaction was immediate and violent. Green energy crackled up his arms like lightning, his body going rigid as he jerked backward with a strangled cry. He collapsed onto the stone floor, his limbs twitching.

"That vibe was distinctly negative." he gasped, when he could speak again. His fingers were red and blistered, as though he’d thrust them into fire.

"Well." I said, watching him shudder on the ground. "You finally found a vibe that pushes back."

Brow drifted closer to Phinyx, tendrils waving in what might have been concern. "The Ward protects itself." The thought was tinged with apology. "It cannot be separated from its foundation."

"Its foundation?" Kira asked, helping Phinyx to his feet.

Brow’s telepathic voice became more formal, almost as if reciting something memorized. "The Ward draws power from the earth beneath it. It is connected to a network of energy lines that run deep below. Remove it from this junction, and it becomes merely a stone. A relic. Powerless."

"So much for our walking barrier." I muttered, unable to keep the disappointment from my voice. Another miracle with fine print attached. The System always found a way to dangle hope just out of reach.

Rolen, who’d been quietly communing with the other Bloops, joined our cluster around the Ward. "There’s more to it than that." he said. "The Ward it’s... bound to this place. It was designed to protect this specific area. To move it would be to ask it to be something it’s not."

I let out a dry laugh. "Sounds familiar. The System loves to design us for specific purposes too. And we all know how well that works out when circumstances change."

Mira shot me a sharp look. "This isn’t about the System. This is about survival. If we can’t take the Ward, we need to find another way out of here and back to the meeting point."

The brief surge of hope that had electrified our group dissipated like morning mist, leaving behind the same cold reality we’d been facing since exile. The Ward couldn’t save us. Nothing could. We would have to save ourselves.

"There’s a certain irony here." I said, pocketing my yo-yo as I stood. "Out there, we have to suppress every emotion to survive. Hope especially. And here, where we can finally feel without drawing Corruptors, we discover we have the least reason for it."

Kira gave me a gentle nudge with her elbow. "That’s a sad observation."

"I’m consistent, at least."

Coco let out a shaky breath, looking around at the soft green light. "Should... should we all just scream now? Get it out before we have to go numb, devoid of any emotion?"

" I’ d be first in line." Yami said, a little too eagerly.

Mira shot them both a withering look. "And risk attracting every Corruptor in a mile radius? Focus." She turned to the luminous jellyfish. "Brow, we need to find our people on the upper levels. Is there a path inside these tunnels that leads us there?"

The jellyfish elder bobbed in what might have been affirmation. "Many paths through the darkness." His telepathic voice rippled with images of narrow passages, vertical shafts, forgotten stairwells. "We can guide you to the heights."