Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

Irwin watched in awe as the Earth Titan hung in the Pyroflux above him. He didn't even notice the absence of the horrifying resonance from the lure as he watched it spin around. Its rugged, rock-covered fins flailed futilely, only resulting in spinning it faster. It might have looked funny if it wasn't creating a massive centrifugal force in the Pyroflux that was actively trying to rip every plant and rock from the seabed.

Three small eyes and one big one, he thought, seeing the similarities with the Chaos Whales. The same eyes, the same general shape, minus some differences, and roughly the same size category. Were they related somehow? Was that why Earth Titans were on so many worlds? But how did they get here then?

Confused, his mind still slightly fuzzy from his ordeal, he dumbly stared at the Earth Titan's most massive difference with the Chaos Whales: its maw. Filled with teeth that looked able to chew through a mountain, it was opening and closing like a castle-sized gate while the burning, angry, molten lava-eyes were swirling in their immense sockets. There was none of the gentle intelligence that he'd seen with the Chaos Whales. Instead, all he saw was pain and hunger.

Why.. isn't it sinking to the ground? Irwin thought.

The thought jogged his fuzzy mind out of its lethargy, and he shook himself. What was he doing? He needed to get his ember- his child! He felt his breath starting to run out, and he knew that he would need to either create steam or find air somewhere within the next few minutes.

Feeling the ridge he was holding crumble, he summoned his hammer to its most massive size. As he held the handle, he was slowly pulled up a dozen feet until he stood on the hammerhead, holding the handle. From his elevated position, he could clearly see the Earth Titan hovering hundreds of feet above the seabed, blocking his ability to see up. Not that he cared about that right now.

How is he doing that? He thought, staring stupidly at Tang.

The giant Fiz'rin looked like a tiny spec compared to the Earth Titan as he stood below it. He was holding a massive rod, one of his arms sticking into one side, and a glowing stream of Pyroflux, bubbling and shimmering, shot from its top. Even from this distance, Irwin could sense the intense heat, and the Pyroflux around it was starting to look odd- different. The almost beam-like stream of Pyroflux was constantly shoving the Earth Titan up.

'Kid, hurry up! Tiscian said the Earth Titan would only be stunned for ten minutes, and I'm not sure how long Tang can keep this up when that monster starts really trying to get down!

Irwin knew the Ganvil was right, as he was struggling to hold his breath. Unsummoning his hammer, he clacked his tongue, triggering his soundwave teleport.

A rush unlike anything he'd sensed before came as he felt himself move to the maw of the Earth Titan. The speed at which he was moving was intense and much faster than any other time he'd used it. Before he really understood what was going on, he was passing into the maw, moving between the large space between two of its teeth, and reappeared just in time to slam against a spongy wall that was very slightly indented.

The enormous cavelike mouth was constantly moving around him, and he saw another wall rapidly approaching. Letting out another click, he shot away and down the throat, which was large enough for an entire castle to pass through without touching the sides. The next time he reappeared, the swirling pyroflux all around him was pulsing to the beat of a heartbeat that created constant soundwaves that clashed all around. The soulforce emanating inside the Earth Titan was like powerful waves, and Irwin felt his own soulforce and soulscape almost buckle under the stress.

He hadn't thought about what might happen if he were inside another being, but now that he was, and one this powerful, he knew he was in trouble.

Ambraz appeared beside him, and Irwin grabbed onto him as he resized to his largest size.

'I can sense the Embers!'

'I need to breathe!'

Irwin focused on his soulcard, trying to use the Sweltering part, but it felt like trying to lift a mountain.

'Can't… use… card!' he shouted, looking around as panic rose ever so slightly.

'I… try your flame! Boil the Pyroflux and breathe the steam!'

Irwin gritted his teeth, focusing on the aspect of his soulcard he'd been using the most. For a moment, it looked like it might work, as a spark of flame appeared around his fingers. Then the surrounding soulforce jerked, and Irwin held back a moan of pain as he felt his entire soulscape being compressed slightly.

'No good!'

Sensing his rapidly increasing problem, Irwin looked around for the exit. If he had to, he could go out, find a spot to catch his breath, and then return. He was stuck near the side of a fleshy wall, small tunnels leading away, while far to one side, he thought he saw the spot he'd come through. It was difficult to determine what was what, as his surroundings looked more like the caverns in the depths of the earth than the inside of a body.

Left should be up, right down, he thought, shoving the panic that was growing to his otherself.

Sensing the desire to draw air grow, he pointed to the left.

'Get us out of here! Before I suffocate!'

Ambraz shot through the Pyroflux faster than Irwin had expected, and he barely managed to hold on. As they shot forward towards what looked like an enormous hill, he tried to recall if this was what he'd moved past before, but his increased struggle to hold his breath was making it harder. Clamping down on Ambraz, he began focusing on his soulcard, trying and trying to get the sweltering skill to trigger, struggling and pushing against the immense pressure of the Earth Titan's soulforce.

--

Hold on, kid, Ambraz thought, gritting his teeth.

He knew Irwin told him to head outside, but he also knew he was never going to manage. That meant he needed to find a place for him to either be able to use his soulcard or a place with air, and as he rushed toward the distant opening, he hoped he was right. The Earth Titan's soulforce muddled his senses, but he thought he faintly sensed something in the area around where the fifth Ember was.

Seconds slipped by as he felt Irwin struggle, then he reached the opening, and he saw what he'd expected. The hill-sized bump before it was keeping it closed, meaning his senses were right. There was no Pyroflux on the other side, but either air or some other form of gas. With Irwin being able to breathe virtually everything, he needed to get him there.

Narrow, barely ten-foot diameter tunnels in the sides of the fleshy walls led away from where he was, and knowing he didn't have the time, Ambraz rushed to the nearest one. He had suspicions about what had made them, but that would be trouble for later. Stretching his senses, he tried to detect if it would go through to the other side. More seconds slipped as he felt it go further down, and he dashed to another hole and then another. Finally, the fourth hole seemed to continue heading forward.

Ambraz shot forward, dragging Irwin with him, ignoring the squishy sides of the tunnel where they touched him. Hundreds of feet in, he sensed the ending on the other side, knowing half of his gamble had paid off.

Please let there be something breathable!

--

Irwin's mind was filled with a single thought.

Don't breathe.

He kept repeating it, even his other self shouting it out loud, but as he felt his chest start to heave and clench, it was becoming increasingly difficult. A dark haze was encroaching in from the sides of his vision, blocking away the tissue matter that streaked past. With most of his worry and fear shoved to his other-self, he faintly knew that Ambraz was dragging him through a tunnel, and he hoped he would soon be rid of the heavy pressure from the Earth Titan.

Time seemed to condense itself, and just as he reached the point of feeling his mind slowly shut down, he realized he was falling.

Falling?

Irwin opened his mouth and drew in a deep breath. The air, or whatever it was, was thick and smelly, reeking of sulfur- but it was also the best he'd ever breathed. Gulping in the air, he slammed into something wet and squishy, but he barely cared. Even when he continued sliding down slowly, his only care was drawing in more of the precious air.

"Kid, focus!"

Ambraz's shout, a few inches from his ear, made Irwin jerk upright and look around.

All around him, thick fleshy protrusions were throbbing in sync with the distant, dull heartbeat. He was sliding down a thick, slime-covered slope and he saw movement in the knee height liquid. Pushing himself upright and barely able to stay on his feet as he slipped further down at a slow speed, he saw familiar shapes move around.

"Wyrms!"

He tried futilely to draw on his flame as the shapes rushed at him. A splash came as a wyrm as long as his arm shot up and toward him, and Irwin slapped it away with as much force as he could. He sucked in a breath as the wyrm's head was splattered to a mush, then turned and swatted away another.

More and more wyrms charged him, and just as he slapped the tenth or more away, one managed to bite down on his leg. There was a dull pain, but nothing too bad, and Irwin grabbed the wyrm, ripping it away and squashing its midsection. What remained of his leather armored pants had a completely round, fist-sized hole, and he saw a line of puncture marks below it. Tiny droplets of blood were oozing up, but the wyrm hadn't been able to do more than that.

"Kid, we need to head further down and quickly! If the bigger wyrms come, you might be in trouble!"

Irwin gritted his teeth, wondering what these parasites were even doing here. He had expected them to be inside the dead Earth Titans, but even in the living ones?

"Where to?" he asked.

"Deeper down, just slide!"

Irwin swatted three more wyrms away and stopped resisting the sliding, allowing his feet to glide across the slimy surface faster and faster. At some point, he had to lower himself in a crouch as the slope turned sharper.

"You better be thankful you can breathe nearly anything," Ambraz grunted in his ears. "This stuff is as toxic as it gets."

"A shame I can't breathe liquids," Irwin replied, ducking below a wyrm and grabbing it as it struck the ground behind him. Although he lost his balance, skidding along on his backside, he squished the wyrm, tossing it into the muck.

"How are we going to get out of here?" he shouted as their speed increased.

"I… I think you might have to reach this thing's growing heartcard and try to tear it from its bonds.

"Growing?" Irwin shouted.

By now, he was sliding so fast that he had to use his hands to keep himself stable and moving forward. Atleast there were no more wyrms that caused any issues. The few he encountered were squished by his feet as he sliced through the muck.

"This isn't an adult yet," Ambraz shouted. "It's way too small! Its veins are probably only the thickness of your arm."

Irwin looked around, noting a few pulsing veins in a distant wall. Ambraz was right. The dead ones he'd come across were so big their mere head area had looked like a mountain.

"Fine, how do we get there? I can't sense anything around me!"

"Let's worry about the embers first," Ambraz shouted.

Irwin was about to answer as his slide down turned into a full fall. Flailing his arms around, he saw a cylindrical hole below him just before he fell through. Below was what looked like a lake of greenish liquid, filled with chunks of fish and larger chunks of a whitish substance. Long, pale green tendrils attached to the wall were grabbing chunks and pressing them into the surrounding walls, where they seemed to stick and swerve slowly. The thick soulforce from the Earth Titan suffused everything, tinting everything in a ruddy brown and green.

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"Over there!"

Irwin sensed a spike of soulforce from Ambraz, though he could barely see it. He got a quick look at the layer of what he guessed was the stomach lining before he plunged into the green muck. Tiny red shimmers were stuck there, held against the wall by thinner tendrils.

The embers!

As his feet hit the spongy bottom, Irwin pushed off, reaching the surface and trying to keep afloat in the thick, murky soup. Swimming was hard, but as he saw the tiny embers, dozens of them, their fiery soulforce muted, he struggled. They were all tiny, not set, and looked more like tiny molten metallic statues with barely any features. As his gaze passed over them, trying to find his own child, he stopped when he saw one that seemed slightly larger and with a more golden glow. It was covered in an extra tentacle, and one of its pseudo-arms was stretched up as if in defiance.

Irwin felt his anger grow rapidly, shoving away the constant pain and discomfort he was feeling.

"We need to get them out of there!" he snapped.

"It's going to take too long," Ambraz said, sounding conflicted.

"What if we go to the heartcard and kill this thing first?"

"If we do that, the Earth Titan will drain them, or they will be killed due to soulforce overload…"

Irwin clenched his fists, letting out a roar of anger.

"Fine! Can you get me up there?"

"No way I can carry you," Ambraz shouted back, lifting from his shoulder and flying towards the wall. "But maybe I can get them off."

As Irwin struggled to the wall, he began planning to get up. The walls seemed to be covered in a thin, slimy membrane with more spongy flesh behind it.

Ahead of him, Ambraz reached the embers and slammed into one of the tentacles, hitting it where it was attached to the wall. There was a sound of a fruit being squished, and the tentacle fell limp.

That's not too bad, Irwin thought as he finally reached the stomach lining. Grabbing the membrane, it felt like a leathery canvas that he could grip easily enough. Grabbing it with one hand, then another, he began climbing up, happy that it wasn't just ripping apart. That was, until a bulb appeared next to one arm, and a thin tendril pushed out, wrapping around his wrist. The remainder of his leathery armor began steaming and hissing, turning black and flaky.

He ripped his arm free, pulling the tendril further from the wall but not apart. He felt a slight resistance from it, but it wasn't strong enough to stop him from grabbing it at the pace and ripping it free. As soon as he did, the part around his wrist went limp.

Two arm lengths higher, another two tendrils reached out of the wall lining, grabbing his wrist and neck, and Irwin ripped them away. They didn't pose any danger except to his armor, which was slowly falling apart and down into the acid below, but they were slowing him down.

When he finally reached the first of the bound embers, a tiny one only slightly bigger than his thumb and only visible due to its red soulforce aura, he was covered in ripped-apart tendrils. Putting his hand on the tiny ember, he realized it was either unconscious or asleep. He tried to pull it into his soulforce, but each time he did, he felt a powerful resistance.

"I can't pull it in my soulscape," he shouted.

"You have to get it away from that lining. They are embedded," Ambraz shouted back.

Gritting his teeth, Irwin gently put his arm around the ember and realized the back was covered in a mushy goo. Digging around with his hand, it took him a minute to free it, and as soon as he did, the embers burning eyes shot open. It looked around like a tiny flame elemental, projecting confusion and fear.

'Don't worry,' Irwin projected, sending it calming and soothing thoughts.

As soon as he sensed the ember had calmed a bit, he tried pulling it in his soulforce, and this time the ember disappeared without an issue. His otherself was beside it as it appeared, surrounding it in a bubble of Pyroflux before bringing it to one of the view lakes still left after the raging storms had scattered the rest all across his soulscape.

Looking around at the large number of embers remaining, Irwin gritted his teeth and began climbing to the next while ripping apart the tendrils that kept trying to clamp him down.

This is going to take a while.

Half an hour later, he reached what he knew was his own ember, and as he gently freed it, he felt a sense of incredible relief. Its eyes opened. There was the same confusion and fear as he'd seen over twenty times now, but it only lasted for a moment. Then, a sense of belonging and joy came as the ember all but jumped into his soulscape.

As his otherself began welcoming and communicating with his final child, Irwin continued along the wall.

He was barely halfway done when the entire room tilted and then began swaying. He barely managed to hang on.

"It snapped out of it!" Ambraz shouted. "We need to hurry, or it's going to reach the ground, dive down, and take us back into the depths!"

"I'm not leaving these embers here," Irwin snapped as he tried ignoring the tilting room and started climbing back up.

"KID! If you don't get out of here, it's not just going to be the embers that will be lost; you will be too!"

Irwin flinched at the anger and hopelessness in Ambraz's voice. He stared at the embers, then back down, and finally at Ambraz. He wanted to decline, wanted to stay, but he knew Ambraz was right. The otherself of him, playing with his fifth and final child, who would be lost with him if something happened, wasn't helping.

"Dammit," he roared, causing a ripple of soundwaves all around. "Fine! How do we get to the heartcard?"

"Drop down, then we need to get through that wall," Ambraz shouted, using his soulforce to point at a wall a few hundred feet away. "Also, there is a large possibility for more of those wyrm parasites."

Irwin glanced at the nearest ember and felt a wave of sadness for the tiny being. Then, trying to contain his growing fury, he turned around and kicked himself away from the wall, dropping down into the murky stomach acid. Swimming as fast as he could, Irwin made his way to the wall just as the entire room tilted again, and he was yanked around before it stabilized again. The wall was closer but also slightly above him, at an angle.

As he reached it, he grabbed the thick membrane between two hands and began pulling, digging in his fingernails. It took more effort than he'd expected, but eventually, his fingers pierced the membrane, and he began ripping a hole through it.

"How are we even getting through this stuff?" he shouted.

"In a way, I'm not going to like," Ambraz snapped. "Poke a hole in the flesh if you can."

Irwin blinked, then jabbed his finger forward. The spongy material seemed soft enough, but before he had more than a dent, the flesh compressed and hardened, stopping his finger as if he'd struck a solid metal sheet. Flinching from the reverberation, he tried again, this time with a fist, but it still took striking the same spot a few dozen times to get anything more than a fist-deep dent.

"That's enough! Get back!"

Irwin pushed off, not understanding what Ambraz was up to. The tiny Ganvil flew into the indent, and a moment later, there was an explosive boom as flesh splattered everywhere, and he was lodged into a massive square hole.

What the…

Irwin watched in stunned amazement as Ambraz returned to his small form, flew deeper into the ripped crevice, and did it again, causing an explosion of fleshy gore to spew out of the now much deeper hole. The third time, a gush of rotten air rippled oud.

"It's open!"

Irwin swam back, trying to ignore the chunks of the thick blood as he climbed into the hole.

Ambraz landed on his shoulder, covered in thick white sludge.

"Don't tell anyone I did that," he grunted.

"I won't," Irwin said as he climbed through the short tunnel that led into a narrow corridor between what he knew was the stomach and some other flesh-covered organ.

Ambraz pointed him to the left, and Irwin didn't hesitate but began running through the corridor.

Within minutes, he was lost in a maze of slimy, slippery slopes, narrow paths, and larger chambers. They crossed paths with a few dozen wyrms, but none were thicker than his leg, and Irwin easily got rid of them all. The only damage was that he was barely wearing anything by now. His armor, which could stand intense heat, was reduced to scraps by the acid and the biting attacks.

The thudding became louder and louder until they finally reached a longer pale wall suffused with blood vessels.

"It's behind there," Ambraz said. "Create a small opening, and I'll get us in!"

His words were barely out when Irwin fell forward, catching himself on the wall he was supposed to go in. The Earth Titan had been moving about a lot, but this time, it didn't right itself anymore.

"It's reached the ground," Ambraz growled. "We need to hurry!"

"It took you two hours to get up from where you were, and it was slower," Irwin snapped, though he began punching the wall, punctuating each word with a strike.

"The depths I was at would likely kill you," Ambraz responded. "There's no air, and the Pyroflux rivers aren't all connected. We need to finish this within half an hour, or we are in deep trouble!"

Irwin slammed his fist down again, wishing he could just use his card's ability.

"When."

"This."

"Is."

"Done," he snapped before ripping his hand out of a large indent and letting Ambraz fly into it.

"We need to figure out a way for me to use my cards if this ever happens again!"

An explosion was followed by pale flesh and blood raining down on him.

"Kid, that is not how this works," Ambraz shouted before there was another explosion. "Get in here!"

Irwin rolled sideways, reaching the hole and staring inside. A strong memory of how he'd found his Swelter Card on Scour played through his mind as he saw a smaller version of the heartcard room that one had. But unlike that one, this heartcard was pulsing powerfully and covered in thick tendrils of pale white flesh that grew from the back wall, which was throbbing. It took Irwin one whole second to realize it wasn't a wall but the size of a massive heart.

Ambraz was hovering beside it, and as Irwin crawled in there, he grimaced as the Earth Titan's powerful vibrations washed over him.

"So, now what? Just rip it free?" he shouted over the loud beating.

"Yes, but listen… when you touch it, that thing's going to go ballistic! It's going to resist the only way it can, by trying to kill you with its resonance!"

"Of course, it will," Irwin growled.

His otherself had hidden the embers inside a lake of pyroflux, deep within the volcano. Now, it was hovering above his soullake, next to his heartcard, Soulstrum guitar in his hand. It had never stopped playing, but now it began putting far more energy into it.

Hoping it would help offset what was about to come, Irwin planted his feet on some of the tendrils, staring at the heartcard. Unlike the previous time, there was no insurmountable urge to take the card and eat it. If that was because he couldn't even use his soulcard right now or because this wasn't the correct type, he had no idea.

Grabbing the tendrils beside the flesh surrounding the card, he began pulling. The tendrils were far more powerful than any he'd come across before, but with a heave, he ripped one, then the other loose.

A screech erupted from all around him, both in the soulforce resonance and through sound, and he felt his ears pop. Then, a soulforce resonance not unlike the lure slammed into him from all around. Pain, almost identical to the one he'd felt with the lure, suffused his being.

Either because he'd felt it before or because he was better prepared, he managed to remain conscious and thinking. Knowing he had little time, he continued ripping the tendrils apart.

He heard Ambraz scream something, but he couldn't hear what it was when something slammed into his shoulder, and pain bloomed from it. Grabbing for it, as he looked over his shoulder, Irwin watched the largest wyrm he'd seen so far stretch through the hole Ambraz had made, biting him in his shoulder.

"Get off!" he roared, barely hearing his own voice while striking the wyrm. It took repeated hits to get it off, and as he finally tore it away, he took a small patch of his own flesh with it. He barely cared, knowing the intense heat around them would help him regenerate fast enough. Grabbing the still squirming wyrm, Irwin crushed its skull before returning to the heartcard. At some point, he felt Ambraz jump into his soulscape.

'After you rip the last one, get ready! I've got the feeling it might get volatile!'

Irwin had no idea what he meant by that, but as he continued ripping apart the heartcards anchors, he kept glancing over his shoulder. As he reached the final one, the embers, still hanging in the stomach lining, flashed through his mind.

I am so sorry, little ones, he thought.

Then, he steeled himself and ripped the final tendrils away.

The screeching, the resonating, everything halted- and the deafening silence that came made Irwin blink. He looked at the clump of flesh with the heartcard embedded in his hand, then around.

Now wh-

A pulse of soulforce rippled from the surrounding walls, as if every bit of it that coursed through the Earth Titan fed back into the room he was in, filling it with more soulforce than he'd ever sensed in any place. Irwin sensed from his other self that his soulscape walls began trembling and shaking before slowly being pushed inside from all sides.

Knowing he had to get out, he turned and began scrambling out of the blasted-apart section of the fleshy wall behind him. It barely helped, as the pressure just continued increasing, rippling from the heartcard room and outward.

Irwin did the only thing he could think of.

He ran.

As he tried to recall the path back, he felt Ambraz start resonating in his soulscape, doing… something that seemed to help, but the pain from his soulscape was becoming ever worse. It wasn't at the level of what he'd sensed before, but it was rapidly getting there.

It took him less time to reach the stomach, mostly because the Earth Titan had stopped moving, and as he hung from the hole and looked around, he saw the embers, which were now all dull, black husks.

"Oh no…"

He forced himself forward, jumping into the stomach acid. The sound of constant pressure lessened immediately, and as he swam away one-armed, his eyes on the wall, he saw a single, small glimmer of red from one of the tiny embers.

"It's…"

'Get out here, I need your help!'

Ambraz appeared without any hesitation.

"What… They are all... No! That one!"

Ambraz shot forward, reaching the pale, gleaming spark of red. Irwin swam to the wall, sensing the pressure build again, though not as slowly. Climbing with one arm was horrible, but he didn't have to go too far. As he reached the tiny ember, he saw it was darkening rapidly, its eyes closed, and he quickly dug it out from the fleshy wall. Unlike the others, it didn't open its eyes, but Irwin managed to pull it inside his soulscape without issue. As his otherself held it in a container of Pyroflux, he held it close, unable to bring it to the others as he continued playing the guitar.

"This way!"

Irwin dropped back down and began swimming after Ambraz.

"How much further?"

"A lot, but I'll make you a shortcut!"

Irwin gritted his teeth as he continued onward.