The Industrial Zone of the Deep Roads smelled of oil, ozone, and the heavy silence of abandoned potential. It was a vast hangar carved directly into the bedrock which stretched for miles into the gloom. On either side of the central rail line, resting in silent and dusty bays, were the remains of the Dwarven war effort.
Massive drill-tanks with diamond-tipped cones sat rusting alongside walkers with hydraulic claws the size of houses. And Golems. Hundreds of them.
These were not the clumsy clay constructs used by the Imperial Bank. These were masterpieces of brass and iron covered in runes that were dark and dormant. They stood in rows like terracotta soldiers waiting for a command that bad not come in a thousand years.
Valeria ran her hand along the leg of a twenty-foot-tall Battle-Walker. The metal was cold to the touch but it hummed faintly under her fingers, vibrating with a residual energy that felt different from mana. It felt like a trapped echo.
[Item: Dwarven Siege Unit (Mark IV).]
[Power Source: Soul-Engine (Depleted).]
[Status: Offline.]
"Soul-Engines," Valeria whispered as she read the prompt. "The Dwarves didn't use mana crystals. They used souls to power their machines. That is why they were destroyed. It is forbidden magic."
Lysandra walked up to the machine. She touched the cold metal with a reverence Valeria had never seen in her. The Necromancer's eyes traced the complex runework etched into the brass plating.
"It isn't forbidden," Lysandra murmured. "It is efficient. A soul is just energy. A battery that remembers. The Guild banned it because they couldn't control it."
She looked at Valeria with a spark of madness and genius igniting in her pale eyes.
"I can pilot these," Lysandra said.
Valeria frowned. "You said you needed necrotic mana. These are machines. If you pour death magic into them the Phages will sense it."
"They are shells," Lysandra corrected while tapping the hull. "They are designed to house a soul. My skeletons are just souls tied to bones. If I transfer the binding from the bones to the engine I am not casting a spell. I am simply changing seats."
She pointed to three massive Driller-Mechs at the end of the row. They were heavy and tracked vehicles with a main cannon that was actually a rotary mining drill.
"We can drive them," Lysandra said. "No mana signature. Just cold iron and angry ghosts."
"Do it," Kael ordered as he looked down the dark tunnel ahead. "We need heavy armor."
Lysandra closed her eyes. She began to chant. Her hands wove a complex net of purple light. Six of her skeletal warriors stepped forward. They didn't fight it. They collapsed as their bones turned to dust. From the pile of calcium six orbs of green fire floated up which were the bound souls of ancient warriors.
Lysandra guided the orbs into the intake vents of the Driller-Mechs. Two souls per machine.
Hummmmm.
The sound started low. It was a vibration in the floor that rattled Valeria's teeth. The eyes of the mechs flickered to life and glowed with necrotic green fire. The gears ground as they shed centuries of rust and dust. Exhaust pipes coughed out clouds of black smoke as the ancient engines turned over.
The central mech lowered its rear ramp with a hydraulic hiss.
"Get in," Lysandra commanded. Her voice was amplified by the machine speakers.
Valeria climbed into the cockpit of the lead mech followed by Kael and Ignis. Caspian and Silas took the second. Lucian perched on the roof of the third acting as a spotter.
The interior was cramped and smelled of grease. The controls were manual levers and pedals designed for stout Dwarven limbs. Kael squeezed into the driver's seat with his knees bumping against the dashboard.
"How do I drive this?" Kael asked as he looked at the bewildering array of levers.
Valeria activated her [Library Skill: Ancient Engineering]. The schematics overlaid her vision in blue wireframe.
"Left stick is throttle," she instructed. "Right stick is the drill. The pedals are for steering. Ignore the red button. That is the emergency vent."
Kael punched the throttle.
The mech lurched forward. The treads tore up the stone floor. It was loud. It was incredibly loud. The roar of the engine was deafening in the enclosed space.
"We aren't sneaking up on anyone now," Ignis shouted over the noise.
"Good," Kael yelled back grinning. "I hate sneaking."
The convoy rumbled down the tunnel crushing debris under their treads. They moved faster than they could run eating up the miles.
But the noise had a consequence.
From the darkness ahead the ground erupted.
A worm burst from the tunnel floor. It was a massive segmented worm made of grey rock and void energy easily the size of a subway train.
[Target: Phage-Behemoth.]
[Threat Level: S-Rank.]
[Weakness: Internal Core.]
It didn't have eyes. It had a maw lined with spinning teeth that mimicked the drills of the Dwarven tanks. It sensed the vibration of the engines and lunged.
"Drive!" Valeria screamed.
Kael slammed the sticks forward. The mech shot down the tunnel with the massive drill spinning up to lethal speed.
The Behemoth roared and gave chase. It slithered along the walls with its many legs digging into the stone moving faster than the tanks.
"It is gaining!" Ignis shouted watching the rear monitor. "It is going to eat the rear tank!"
"Caspian!" Valeria radioed to the second mech. "Flank it! Hit it in the side!"
"Copy!" Caspian's voice crackled.
The second mech drifted to the right riding up the curved wall of the tunnel. Caspian swung the mech's hydraulic claw catching the worm in the soft underbelly between its armored plates.
Sparks flew as metal tore into rock. The worm screeched and thrashed slamming its massive tail into Caspian's mech. The tank was knocked off the wall crashing back onto the tracks with a bone-jarring thud.
"We can't outrun it!" Kael yelled fighting the steering. "The engine is overheating! It is too old!"
"Use the coolant!" Valeria realized looking at the schematics glowing in her vision. "The Dwarven engines use liquid nitrogen coolant! That is why the pipes are frosted!"
She reached over Kael's shoulder and ripped the safety cover off the emergency flush button on the console.
"Caspian! Silas! On my mark dump your coolant tanks directly into the worm's mouth! Vent everything!"
"We will stall the engine!" Silas warned.
"Better stalled than eaten!" Valeria shouted. "Do it!"
The worm lunged. Its mouth opened wide to swallow Kael's mech whole. Valeria could see the swirling void energy in its throat.
"Now!" Valeria hit the button.
Simultaneously all three mechs vented their coolant lines.
A massive cloud of super-cooled gas blasted backward from the tanks. It hit the worm right in the open maw.
The effect was instant. The moisture inside the worm flash-froze. The grey rock of its skin cracked as the temperature dropped to absolute zero in a split second. The void energy swirling in its gut slowed trapped in a lattice of frozen matter.
The worm stiffened. It slid frozen solid scraping against the tunnel walls with a screech of metal on ice. It smashed into a support pillar and shattered into a million pieces of grey gravel.
Kael eased off the throttle. The mechs slowed to a halt steam hissing from their overheated engines.
Warning lights blinked on the dashboard. [Coolant Empty. Engine Critical.]
"We walked," Kael said patting the dashboard. "Now we walk."
They climbed out of the steaming machines. The tunnel ahead was dark but the air was different here. It buzzed. It felt thin like stretched fabric.
"We are close," Ignis said looking at his shaking hands. "The mana density here... it is off the charts. But it is erratic. It feels like a storm."
Valeria looked ahead. The tunnel didn't end. It simply... stopped being real. The walls were flickering in and out of existence.
"We are at the Heart," Valeria said.
The group gathered their gear. They left the hulking remains of the mechs behind like iron corpses. The silence returned but it was different now. It wasn't empty. It was pregnant with a static charge that made the hair on Valeria's arms stand up.
"Formation," Kael ordered. "Valeria in the center. Ignis behind her. Silas and Caspian on the flanks. I take point."
They moved forward. The smooth stone of the Dwarven road began to deteriorate not from age but from corruption. The floor became spongy. The walls bled grey mist.
"My compass is spinning," Ignis said tapping the glass of his instrument. "Magnetic north is gone. We are walking into a singularity."
"Keep moving," Valeria said. "The Queen is close. I can feel the Library reacting to it."
Indeed the System interface in her mind was flashing red warnings.
[Proximity Alert: Dimensional Breach.]
[Reality Integrity: 40%.]
[Caution: Physics may not apply.]
"Physics may not apply," Valeria muttered. "Wonderful."
They rounded a bend in the tunnel. The path opened up into a cavern that shouldn't have fit inside the mountain. It was vast. The ceiling was a swirling vortex of grey clouds.
And in the center of the cavern suspended over a pit of nothingness was the Heart.
It looked like a star that had died and rotted. A sphere of jagged black crystal pulsed with a rhythmic anti-light. Around it thousands of Phages swarmed like bees protecting a hive.
"That is a lot of bugs," Caspian said gripping his trident.
"That isn't just a lot," Lysandra whispered. "That is the whole swarm. They have retreated to protect the Queen."
"Where is the Queen?" Kael asked.
"She is the crystal," Valeria realized. "She isn't a bug. She is a construct. A living anchor for the Void."
"How do we kill a rock?" Silas asked.
"We break it," Kael said. "With extreme prejudice."
"Wait," Ignis said holding up a hand. "Look at the floor."
Valeria looked down. The floor of the cavern was not stone. It was covered in a grid of glowing lines.
"It is a circuit board," Ignis said. "A Dwarven power grid. The Queen has tapped into the city's main generator. She is feeding on the geothermal energy."
"If we cut the power," Valeria said, "she starves."
"Or she explodes," Ignis countered. "Either way it solves the problem."
"We need to get to the control nodes," Valeria said pointing to three pylons surrounding the pit. "There. There. And there."
"They are guarded," Silas noted.
Around each pylon stood a Phage-Guardian. They were humanoid shapes made of pure void energy holding weapons that looked like shards of broken reality.
"Split up," Kael ordered. "Silas take the left. Caspian take the right. I will take the center. Valeria and Ignis... figure out how to shut it down."
"And me?" Lysandra asked leaning on her staff. "I am empty, Duchess. I have no souls left."
"You have your eyes," Valeria said. "Watch our backs. If anything comes from the tunnel scream."
"Go!" Kael shouted.
He charged the center pylon. The Guardian turned raising a sword of black glass. Kael slammed into it with his shield. The impact sent a shockwave through the cavern.
Silas phased through the attacks of the left Guardian moving like smoke. Caspian engaged the right using his hydro-skin to deflect the void bolts.
Valeria and Ignis ran for the main console near the edge of the pit.
"It is encrypted," Ignis said looking at the runic dials. "Dwarven cipher."
"I have the key," Valeria said accessing the Library. [Language: Ancient Dwarven.]
"Turn the left dial to three," Valeria ordered. "Right dial to seven. Pull the lever."
Ignis obeyed. The floor hummed. The grid lines flickered.
"It is working!" Ignis shouted. "Power levels are dropping!"
The Queen shrieked. The black crystal cracked. A beam of dark energy shot out striking Kael in the chest.
Kael flew backward landing hard near the edge of the pit.
"Kael!" Valeria screamed.
He struggled to stand. His armor was smoking.
"I am fine," Kael grunted. "Just... winded."
"The Queen is destabilizing," Ignis said. "But she is drawing mana from the air now. She is desperate."
"We need to finish it," Valeria said. "The bomb. We need to use the bomb."
She reached into her pack and pulled out the Void-Collapse Charge she had crafted. It was heavy and warm.
"We have to drop this into the crystal," Valeria said. "Into the crack."
"That is a hundred feet away," Ignis said. "And covered in Phages."
"I can get it there," a voice chirped.
Lucian landed next to them. He looked at the bomb.
"I can fly it," Lucian said. "I am small. They won't see me."
"Lucian no," Valeria said. "If you get hit..."
"I am a Phoenix," Lucian smiled. "I bounce back."
He grabbed the bomb in his talons.
"Cover me!" Lucian yelled.
He took off shooting straight up into the grey clouds.
"Lucian!" Valeria shouted.
The Phages saw him. They swarmed.
"Clear the sky!" Kael roared. He grabbed a piece of debris and threw it taking out a cluster of Phages.
Ignis fired flares into the air blinding the swarm.
Lucian dove. He was a streak of gold against the grey. He aimed for the crack in the crystal.
"Eat this!" Lucian chirped.
He dropped the bomb.
It fell true. It slid into the crack.
"Take cover!" Kael tackled Valeria covering her with his body.
BOOM.
The sound was not an explosion. It was an implosion. The world turned white then black. Gravity reversed for a second then slammed back down.
When Valeria opened her eyes the cavern was silent.
The crystal was gone. The Phages were gone.
But so was Lucian.
"Lucian?" Valeria whispered standing up.
There was a pile of ash near the edge of the pit.
Valeria ran to it. She fell to her knees digging through the warm grey dust.
"No," she sobbed. "No no no."
"Valeria," Kael said gently placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Look," Silas said pointing.
In the center of the ash pile something moved.
A small golden head popped out. It sneezed.
"Peep?" the chick asked.
Valeria laughed. Tears streamed down her face. She scooped up the baby bird.
"You idiot," she whispered kissing his fuzzy head. "You brave idiot."
The ground shook. The cavern began to collapse.
"We have to go," Ignis said. "Now."
They ran back to the tunnel. They didn't look back at the ruin of the Hive.
They had won. But they were miles underground with no way up.
"How do we get out?" Caspian asked as they reached the collapsed shaft.
"We walk," Kael said supporting Valeria. "We find another way."
"There is no other way," Lysandra said her voice hollow. "We are buried."
"No," Ignis said adjusting his goggles. "Look at the map. The ventilation shaft. It connects to the peak."
"It is five miles up," Silas said. "Vertical."
"There is a lift," Ignis said pointing to a rusted cage in the corner. "A service elevator."
"Does it work?" Valeria asked.
"It needs power," Ignis said. "A lot of power."
They looked at Lysandra.
The Necromancer sighed.
"I hate you all," she said.
She walked to the engine.
"Get in," she ordered. "Before I change my mind."