David moved down the main tunnel, Janni’s armored frame dragging him down.

  He could have just let me be. None of this would have happened.

  It wasn’t far now.

  Damn Hiveo. He just had to make this complicated.

  He almost didn’t notice the clambering sound coming from a nearby tunnel. It started softly at first, but quickly grew louder.

  Barely meters ahead of him, on the ceiling, a giant centipede slithered into the tunnel.

  Can this get any shittier?

  It was tall up to his knees and wide enough to cover a third of the tunnel, its spiky legs keeping it glued to any surface.

  With or without Janni, there was no outrunning that.

  The centipede slowed, its long body flowing along the curvature of the walls, its antennas waving wildly.

  David eased Janni to the ground, moving slowly.

  Do I even fight this thing? Hope it ignores me?

  His instincts were screaming at him to slow down and focus, but his mind was still back in that tunnel. His eyes were locked onto the headless corpse within his memories.

  He wove mana into the air before him, shaping a familiar circle—burst. The tunnel was wet and cold. Who cared? He would just push through.

  He pushed all his mana into the magic circle, trying to fill it as fast as possible.

  The monster’s antennas twitched once, then a second time. Could it sense mana?

  It rushed forward, skittering toward him at astonishing speed.

  The runes were almost complete, but it was too late.

  Centipede lunged. David blocked with his hands. Sharp pain tore through him.

  The monster’s pincers buried deep into his forearm.

  The magic circle, unfinished, broke out from his control. It released the stored power in a shockwave, blowing David back away and onto Janni. She let out an unconscious groan.

  The explosion tore the monster off the ceiling. It coiled on the ground then faced David again.

  A chunk of flesh between its pincers.

  His vision swam and he started to feel nauseous. He clenched his fingers, readying to make use of his claws.

  Fingers of his left hand twitched uselessly.

  He couldn’t feel the pain of the bite anymore.

  Panic replaced his anger.

  Venom. Of course.

  Already the sensation was crawling toward his shoulder.

  He needed an antidote. Fast.

  Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to move, one hand scrambling for the satchel still clinging to his belt.

  The centipede circled through the walls around him, waiting for the poison to knock him out.

  He needed time.

  He stood up, created a simple magic circle then filled it quickly.

  A large burst of sparks filled the corridor.

  The centipede shrieked and rolled back, scratching against the damp stone floor.

  David seized the moment, digging through the satchel with trembling fingers. The numbness was spreading fast.

  One vial—wrong color. Another—no.

  Finally, the general antidote.

  But his hand wouldn’t cooperate. He couldn’t get the cork out.

  He tried to bite the cork out. No good.

  The centipede, still a bit wary, was watching him carefully. It was ever-so-slowly inching toward him.

  His neck was already going slack.

  Cursing, he fell, slamming the vial against the ground. The glass shattered. He dropped face first onto it and licked the fluid and glass shards from the stone, praying the dosage was high enough.

  The world spun.

  Then, heat came. His arm lit up with fire as the numbness began to recede.

  Pain surged back into his shoulder.

  He could move again, but he was exhausted, the toxin putting too much strain on his body. Melee combat was out of question.

  If the centipede charged now, it would be over.

  He needed to play it smart.

  It had noticed him casting a burst, but it didn’t react to a spark.

  Was it about the intensity? He hated gambling with a passion, but he would just have to guess.

  He started casting a burst again. But this time, slowly, a short distance in front of him.

  The monster kept inching forward, antennas swinging wildly, waiting for the poison to finish him off.

  Two meters away.

  Then one.

  He could feel the creature tremble as its pincers neared his neck.

  It would lunge any second now.

  But it didn’t notice the nearly complete spell just under its body.

  Checkmate, you fucking bug.

  A pillar of flames erupted, covering the full height of the tunnel.

  The centipede shrieked, rolling around, trying to douse the fire.

  The flames were dissipating almost as fast as they appeared, but it had been enough.

  The monster coiled up, ending its death throes.

  David took a single look at Janni, saw her breathing.

  No more blood on my hands.

  Then the world tilted, and his head collapsed onto the glass covered floor.

  Viera kept running through the tunnels, Dolen following closely behind.

  Every minute the perception ward was gone meant more monsters to kill later.

  They finally reached the main tunnel from which they started out.

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  She followed the bend. First, the illusion. Second, find Hiveo. Third, return to the city.

  Her mind was already at the entrance. She didn’t expect the golem to spring out of a side tunnel, armed with a long halberd.

  It swung for her neck.

  She couldn’t stop in time.

  A barrier sprung out, pushing both of them away from one another.

  The golem slashed at the barrier, but it didn’t budge.

  It was a figure of a young man, well chiseled, with the most perfect face she had ever seen.

  Dolen was standing next to her, she could trust him to handle this.

  This was not made by ancients. Then by whom?

  Before she could gather her thoughts, Dolen finished casting a spell.

  The barrier vanished and spears of stone started to shoot out from the bottom of the tunnel, aiming to pierce the construct.

  It kept dodging nimbly, using its halberd to break the stone.

  But Viera wasn’t worried. The first attack was just a distraction.

  The spears kept forcing it to dodge until its back was almost against the wall.

  Then, a single stone shot out from behind it, crashing straight through its neck.

  The decapitated golem fell lifelessly to the ground.

  “Nice going. Next time do it faster, we’re in a rush.” She whistled.

  “Anything for you, sis.” Dolen smirked at her.

  Smug brat.

  Though, annoying as he was, there was no one she trusted to watch her back more than Dolen.

  She grabbed the golem’s halberd.

  Oooh. Enchanted.

  And they kept running.

  A few bends later, they were almost to the large chamber, but another unexpected sight forced them to stop.

  Marco was on his knees, body trembling, his hands braced on the stone floor. Next to him loomed the scorched corpse of a centipede blocking off more than half the tunnel width.

  She could hear the screams coming from up ahead. Their time had already run out.

  Janni lay just beside him, her armor terribly bent in, but she could hear her soft breathing.

  She ran up to Marco and pulled him upright.

  “W-Wha–” He stammered

  “Can you run?”

  “N-no…”

  Shit.

  One look at Dolen.

  Then she slung the boy over her back. Between him and the halberd, her spine protested.

  Damn it. I’ll be back for it later. She dropped the weapon.

  She saw Dolen drag Janni along as she started walking.

  “What the hell… happened?” She gasped for air. “Where is everyone?”

  Marco squeezed her tighter. “A g-golem. I p-pulled Janni out, but we got ambushed by… t-that thing.”

  Just Janni? No. That can’t be—

  “Where’s Hiveo?”

  “I d-don’t know. He fought the golem. I think—” Marco broke into sobs.

  She opened her mouth but Dolen was faster.

  “You’ll get the full story later. Save your breath.” He was uncharacteristically serious. “Nice job frying the centipede, by the way.” He winked at Marco.

  The corridor blurred as her eyes lost focus.

  I was not built for this.

  But she kept moving.

  Viera staggered into the ruins’ main chamber, Marco still on her back.

  The room was in complete disarray. Refugees and soldiers fighting off the giant centipedes crawling out from the tunnels.

  Dolen left her side, left Janni with other wounded, then went to assist in the fighting. Flames flared in her peripheral vision.

  Old women and children were huddling together against the walls, trying to stay as far as possible from the monsters.

  A few had picked up makeshift weapons.

  Two shattered golems lay in the center of the chamber, surrounded by corpses.

  Too many.

  Viera shoved her way through the crowd, but the added weight on her back did not make that easy.

  He should be fine here.

  She pushed Marco off, lowered him to the ground and ran.

  Through the entry doors and past the underground water pool.

  Hundreds of refugees were cramped in the space. Some resting from the fighting, but most just hoping to hide away and survive the night.

  People were too spread out for her to cover them all, so the outside took priority.

  She instinctively gripped her ring as she moved up the stairs.

  Mana resisted her touch.

  Shit, it’s all banged up after that disruption earlier.

  There was no other choice. If she died, the ring would be useless to her anyway.

  She clenched her teeth and forced more mana in. Cracks bloomed along the gold band.

  By the time she made it outside, the spell was ready.

  Before her was a battlefield covered in blue light of the roelle trees.

  She unleashed the spell. A wave of shimmering distortion pulsed outward, spreading like glass fog.

  The illusion cloaked the weary soldiers.

  Cero paused, a wake of frost and fire left behind his attack.

  Their eyes met.

  This isn’t how it was supposed to be.

  Viera fell to one knee, gasping, cradling her hand. The ring had cracked fully down the middle, but the illusion was in place.

  Only the monsters already near them would be a threat now.

  She had solved the most pressing problem. But it wasn’t nearly the most dire one.

  How the fuck are we getting back into the city without Hiveo?

  -=-=-

  David barely noticed being dropped on the ground.

  His body was running on fumes.

  Someone had pulled him out of the tunnel. He was unconscious for most of it.

  The cold stone beneath him, the distant screaming… it all tangled in his mind. Somewhere behind it all, there were children crying.

  The legacy of the ancients.

  Hiveo’s blood on his hands.

  The pincers, centimeters away from his neck.

  His thoughts blurred together, looping endlessly. He felt sick, not only from the pain.

  Something inside him had broken open, and it wasn’t healing.

  He lifted his head.

  The crowd of refugees blurred before his eyes—dozens of scared, wide-eyed faces. Mothers clutching children.

  And then he saw green.

  A single flash of green hair, barely visible in the shadows.

  He blinked.

  No. No way. That’s not…

  But it was.

  Sophie sat by a group of children, shielding them from the sight of combat in the distance. She was here. Really here. Not a hallucination.

  What a cruel joke. Is this also the rebels’ doing?

  David tried to speak, but all that came out was a ragged gasp.

  He pushed himself to his feet and almost immediately collapsed again, barely catching himself on a jagged stone. The motion jolted his injured arm and a sharp cry tore from his throat.

  Sophie’s head whipped toward him. Her eyes widened in disbelief.

  “Marco?!”

  She ran, weaving through the sitting people.

  “You’re alive,” she breathed, she almost pulled him into a hug, but stopped herself as she saw his wounds. “You’re alive, you’re–”

  David coughed, his whole body shaking.

  Yes, this is why he had done it. To protect her. To protect Aura and Bert.

  “When the figures started rising and killing people…” Sophie whispered, her grip tightening. “But what happened to you?”

  He shook his head. Her words were too chaotic, and he was unable to form a response anyway.

  “I’ll… I can fix this.” She eased him down and began inspecting his injuries, hands trembling as she unfastened part of his ruined tunic and dug through her own satchel.

  “I– I didn’t make it back,” she said, voice cracking as she cared for his wounds. “There was a crowd and when they sealed the gates so many people were–” Her voice broke.

  David forced his hand up and onto her shoulder. “It’s okay–” He started to say, but a jolt of pain stopped him.

  “I wanted to ask Viera about you, but she ignored me. She probably forgot me already.” Sophie kept rambling.

  David’s eyes narrowed. That doesn’t sound like Viera.

  Sophie gasped as she reached the wound on David’s arm. A gaping hole, flesh torn out by pincers with remnants of toxin blackening what was left.

  She cleaned it out, then applied healing draughts to the bandages.

  David was glad he had made a batch of draughts for her use, though his mind was already wandering somewhere else.

  So Viera must have known Sophie was locked out. And didn’t care.

  Manipulative, uncaring bastards, the lot of them.

  He looked around.

  Viera nowhere to be seen. Dolen was at the far edge, frying the incoming centipedes.

  A pair of older women kept looking at him.

  Some people were dragging bodies. Others were whispering prayers. A few children wept quietly.

  David exhaled slowly and turned back to Sophie.

  “Can I help you somehow?” He finally was able to form a sentence.

  Sophie paused in the middle of wrapping his arm. “What?”

  “I need to rest.” His voice was raspy. “And Viera's busy. I’d like to stay with you for now.”

  She didn’t argue.

  Once she deemed his wounds properly cared for, they moved back to the group of children.

  Sophie introduced him to Celia and Joline as she passed out bits of dried fruit.

  David occupied himself with mindless blabber, but he watched attentively as Dolen moved through the chamber, leaving fire and ash wherever he turned his attention.

  The centipedes never stood a chance and soon even they realized that. With the threat gone, Dolen went past the water and up the stairs, leaving the clean up to the people.

  The underground chamber became mostly silent again, with only scared people going around and gathering corpses, looking for survivors paralyzed from the monster toxin. In the underground darkness, David couldn't tell how much time remained until dawn.

  Not that he feared the monsters outside--Not more than he feared further contact with the rebels.