The Rift: King and Country

Act 4: The Trial

"I am so goddamn done with this place," Xen rumbled in frustration, practically crushing an infector with the tip of his barrel before blowing bits of it across the room.

"Stop complaining and move." Ruby had her arm wrapped under Tao's shoulder and was helping him limp away from the armory, the severed talon of an infector's leg still dangling from his calf. "We've wasted enough time. Who knows how much Jaela has been able to do."

Sam turned from the middle of the group. "Hopefully she had to go through just as much as us." Because of the adrenaline coursing through his veins, he sounded as breathless as he sounded full of energy. "Probably not the Swarm, but maybe something worse. I mean, they said two teams had been eliminated, right? What could have done that?"

"He makes a good point," Elara said. "We should be careful."

"I don't know if we can afford the time to be careful," Xen replied, shaking his head. "I'd rather Jaela didn't–" He seeped abruptly, looking ahead. "What's up, Winters?"

Chris, taking point at the front of the group, had stopped and was peering through a doorway, his shoulders slumped. "You've gotta be kidding me," he grumbled. "I think I found one of those challenges that Magnus guy talked about. Come look at this."

One by one, the group shuffled through the doorway into a cylindrical stone room about ten meters in diameter, stepping down a short ledge into five centimeters of pristine, crystal water. The ceiling was a good twenty meters above their heads, and a series of short ledges ascended in a seemingly random fashion to the top in two-meter increments, some of them being all the way across the circle from the next highest or lowest. An elevated crystal projector emanated a beam of light towards the ceiling, illuminating the room with a blue glow that was a bit too bright to stare directly at. Glowing red runes of a strange ancient language pulsed occasionally in various locations along the round wall, following no apparent pattern. As they all passed through the doorway, it suddenly slammed shut, locking them inside.

"That's. . . odd," Flora commented, looking at the closed door with less concern than confusion.

Tao nodded in agreement, pulling Ruby's arm off and limping over to lean against the lowest ledge. "I guess they expect us to climb up?"

"Hm. Boring," Xen said dismissively, stepping onto the crystal in the center of the room. "I'll see what's at the top."

Engines across his armor erupted short gouts of plasma, preparing to lift him upward as the others shielded themselves from the water splashing every which way from the force of the thrusters. He crouched low, then leapt into the air just as they put out full power, boosting him into a steep parabolic arc that took him up to the top in a matter of cents. He landed on the highest ledge and glanced around expectantly, but saw nothing that might present a way out; only a blank brown stone wall. Looking back over the edge at his team, he gave them a shrug. "Doesn't look like there's anything up here. I'll give it an x-ray sweep, but if I don't see anything, we might have to force that door o–"

He stopped talking suddenly as he felt an invisible force grab hold of his armor and lift him bodily off the ground. He attempted to draw his sidearm, but whatever it was, it wasn't keen on him trying that. He flipped backwards into the air like he had been pulled up by his ankle, letting out a surprised, "Whoap," as his rifle tumbled down towards the pool and he was dangled unceremoniously in the middle of the light beam. He looked up at the floor from his upside down position and made a face that expressed both confusion and a bit of irritation, his currently-transparent visor darkening to shield his eyes from the brightness.

"Really?" He said annoyedly.

The others had assembled below him, looking up with either concern or minor amusement. Ruby shouldered her weapon and retrieved his from the floor, shaking water from its frame as she glanced skyward. "Are you. . . okay up there?" She asked.