Chương 40: The Pact.

Weaving flux together, she brought forth the Culverin once more. Flux: 7, 136/10, 527 Hyper-flux: 65/105 This time she redirected as much flux as she could into the blast chamber. Shame I never got to test it. Oh well. Suppose this will serve as a good test. She used her entire body to cram a huge shell into the barrel. With her cannon ready, she slumped down under an alcove, watching the entrance. A ragged soldier stumbled out, "Sir there's a cavern here." he called back.

"Fist fist fist…" the robed lunatic from before came next, looking around frantically. As they caught sight of her and culverin, they bolted for cover, trying to scramble back up the tunnel.

"Relax, I'm not going to shoot you, I just want to talk." She called out "Look, the Culverin is pointed up, not at you." If I have to kill us both to end this, I will. Moments later the pair were shoved stumbling out of the tunnel.

"MOVE YOUR ASSES" a command rang out. She tapped the Siege Rod against her knee impatiently. Come on, how cowardly can you be? Damien himself emerged, clad in simple military regalia. He strode with the confidence of years of experience to the center of the cavern, Gideon and company in tow.

"Boss, I want to destroy her, let me kill her? She killed my fucking disciple, this bitch needs to die" Gideon chanted and fiery flux wove before her into a spellform. Not good not good, what the Hel is this lunatic doing? Sweat rolled down her face.

"Hold off, I didn't say you could kill her yet" Damien said calmly, never turning away from Nythera.

"But boss, she killed half our men… more than half!" Gideon whined. Damien turned slowly to face him. Gideon shut up.

"Girl, give us the core and we can end this, no one needs to die. Enough blood has been spilled already" Damien sounded almost reasonable. I know better than to trust you.

"Why are you so obsessed with the core? You already rule Karaveth, isn't that enough?" She asked. He looked at her as if disappointed, like a parent would look at a child who broke a window.

"I must have the core, without it I am no proper lord. Tell me girl, how did you find the core? Where was it? I need to collect the cores for the Kingdom of Greymere. Where is your loyalty?" Damien prodded further. Yeah right, I can see straight through you. Her mind was a hairwidth from pulling the trigger on the cannon, but she held back.

"You want to take the core… to what? To swear fealty to Greymere?" She asked with a fake note of confusion. What is the reason for all this? You have a completely separate island, there should just be peace. A horrific scowl painted his face.

"Yes, I will bring order to these lands, don't you see? There's so much chaos, disorder, and madness. If I had the core I would instill perfect order and bring these lands to heel under the King." Damien practically spat out the last word.

"And you would kill me, a newly classed girl, just to do it? There's no way out of this where I don't die?" She pleaded.

"No, is there any other way to extract a core?" Damien answered. Good, with that resolved, I guess I won't feel bad about doing this. Nythera tucked herself into the alcove further, pulling behind the rock above, as if to hide from her fate. Damien approached.

"I'll make it painless, I don't enjoy inflicting suffering." he lied. Gideon looked disappointed that he wouldn't be the one killing her. I guess we both die then. Unless Lance can dig through a mountain, I will either be crushed or starve to death. That's the cost of winning. A price I shall pay. She whispered "fire". The Culverin, which was already aiming straight at the ceiling, thundered to life and unleashed its payload. The shell cratered through in an instant, exploding deep within the rock.

Flux wove erratically, fleeing the cavern through the tunnel rapidly as it was replaced by quartzite energies. Cracks snaked through the ceiling, cutting through stone like shattered glass. Damien looked up.

"You damn bitch-" The ceiling came down. The shell's blast launched the ceiling at them as if it were mere shrapnel, boulders the size of people crashed with force into the ground, sending up their own debris. The entire mountain shook violently. She was certain she had caused a landslide outside. Gideon was there one moment. Gone the next. She flinched. Bringing a hand to her cheek, she wiped blood off it.

As the energy settled, the cavern was essentially full of stone with no way out, Nythera tried to get comfortable curled up in her alcove. It was a bit dark for her preference. And cold. She sighed. Well I guess this is better than dying at Damien's hands, still I wish I had prepared some cushions in here, maybe some snacks too… or a pint of beer. A boulder shifted, she could feel the ground move in the otherwise inert cavern.

"YOU fucking BITCH, BY KRONAN I WILL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF." Damien bellowed. Her face paled and heart sank. I am dead! I don't even have the space to summon the cannon again. A rumbling shook the cavern, building up in a crescendo. She winced, trying to shrink in on herself. What the Hel? Damien's hand crawled from behind a rock, pulling him forward right before her. And suddenly, there was open air. The entire floor gave out, sending Damien and the rocks plummeting down.

They fell for what felt like forever before she heard the crash of stone on stone. Nythera carefully peered out from her alcove to verify that Damien was no longer among the living. An abyss loomed before her. Even with [Flux-sight] she couldn't tell how far down it went. The tunnel out on the other end of her cavern was still visible, but there was no pathway to get there. Well, I guess I'm stuck. Don't think Damien is getting out of that hole anytime soon though.

"I am going to gut you like a fish, you hear me?" Damien's voice screamed up from the depths. She peered over the hole again, and found an odd sense of satisfaction in it. Welp, I'm probably dead. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. I need to take credit for this before I die, where is Talvik? That stupid bird was nowhere to be found, as usual.

"You crazy bitch! By the emperor, what are you doing?" A voice shouted from across the chasm. Ren hung off the side of the pit, pulling himself back up onto the edge. Oh hey, it's Ren. Did he come here trying to kill me too? Nythera waved to him in the darkness from across the pit. He scanned the darkness for her, but couldn't seem to get a lock on her position. Clearly I should do this more often, if I can get all the people that hate me in one place we can skip the games and I can just kill them all.

If I don't die to Damien first. Glaring into the abyss, Nythera searched for him, an arm sticking out between two boulders was the only sign she found.

"Hey Ren, why did you come here? To kill me?" She called out. His head snapped in her direction.

"I came to cleanse the lands of your witchery, but you seem to determined to kill yourself." Ren answered, searching for a way to cross the abyss.

"Keep coming Ren, one of these days I will kill you for what you did to Will." Nythera answered coldly. For what you did to Will… A wispy strand of golden flux snaked upwards through the pit, contacting the ceiling, it dissipated. The boulders in the abyss shifted, Damien revealed himself at last, remarkably nothing appeared broken. Yup, I'm fucked. And another. And yet another. Nythera peered down to find an army of the strange flux permeating upwards. Something moved. It wasn't Damien.

For a split second she could swear she saw something move again. This pit… it wouldn't happen to connect to… Another movement. Damien was peering around, searching for something. She summoned forth the Aether Culverin, hanging it precariously on her alcove with the barrel facing straight down. Well I can't load any of my custom shells in from this angle, here we go. She allowed a regular flux shell to fill the chamber.

"Fire" she whispered. She flinched as the cannon's roar filled the cavern and the shell illuminated the depths for an instant. A fleeting image in her mind, something with many hands scraping across the depths. Across the rock. The shell smashed into the cavern floor and detonated. As the cavern settled all went silent once again. Uh, what happened to Damien? dead?

"What are you doing? Crazy bitch, firing at a hole in the ground." Ren said and punched the wall in frustration, smashing through stone with ease.

"I saw something move down there! I don't think it was Damien. Just making sure ok." Nythera justified herself to him for reasons she didn't understand. He shook his head. SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK echoed up from the deep. Her face paled. She heard a scuffle. Glancing back up, Ren was gone. SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK sounded much closer than before. And another echoed off from deeper in the pit. And another. Before long the cavern was a cacophony of wailing. Her ears bled, her head thundered.

Eyes locking onto the bottom, she caught glimpses of movement peeking out from behind the rubble. She tugged harder on [Precision-sight], strained from the pitch-black environment and tried to focus her vision into [Flux-sight]. Movement, streams of wispy flux bleeding out of something on the walls. Something that was climbing the walls. She swiveled her cannon up. FIRE and gave the command.

Once again her cannon thundered, illuminating the cavern for a split second before detonating in a blast of energy right above the creature. The mountain shook ever so slightly and more debris poured down from the ceiling overhead. She was able to get a good look at the cavern floor this time. The Shrieking Spawn covered the floor. By Kronan, there must be a hundred down there… I couldn't tell where one stopped and the next began. I don't think Damien is alive anymore, I can't hear any sounds of fighting.

In response to her cannon fire, they all unleashed a unified SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK that resonated throughout the cavern. Nythera covered her ears as best she could, but when she pulled her hands away, there was blood. She interrupted the reload process of the culverin, redirecting Hyper-flux into the shell. Adrenaline fueled her control over her flux. She kept her eyes glued on the wall, watching as the wisps of flux started to climb, struggling to find purchase on the sheer rock face.

Come on, Come on, I need to lob another shot down there fast. Nythera watched like a hawk as the creatures slowly made their way up from the abyss. Shrieks never ending. And most of them were climbing on her side of the cavern. Fire! She gave the command mentally, hoping that her silence would avoid attracting anymore attention. Unfortunately, the roar of the hyper-flux shell shook the entire cavern. She struggled to hold onto the alcove as the detonation before lit the space up like a small star.

If I am knocked out of this alcove I will die. She peered back over, many of the creatures had slipped back down into the pit, they seemed to be devouring something in a frenzy. Cannibalistic shrieking monsters that only live in dark caves… what were the Aurendorians doing down there? Immediately she started the reload process, unfortunately the size of the cannon and the tiny alcove lip she sat on made loading in her special shells extremely risky.

Flux: 6, 936/10, 527 Hyper-flux: 25/105 I could launch shells down there all day… but I'm not sure it would actually thin their numbers. They were once again climbing the walls, at a much more rapid cadence.

"FIRE" She yelled this time for her own comfort. The shell swirled down and detonated in one of the walls, knocking three shriekers back into the abyss. She caught sight of two tunnels in the cavern walls down below. If she could angle her cannon right, she might be able to close them. That's when she saw it, as she was looking for the optimal shot to seal the tunnels, huge strands of wispy yellow alien flux came flooding out from one of the tunnels.

From within the tunnel a massive claw came, grabbing on to the edge of the entrance. She angled the Culverin straight at it, she did not want to see anymore than she had to. For some reason, it terrified her. With ten more seconds on the clock, another claw came out and locked onto the opposite side of the tunnel entrance. Both then strained, pulling whatever it was forwards.

"FIRE!" she screamed just as the flux of the shell finished forming. The entrance of the tunnel exploded into a rain of rubble. As the dust settled, nothing moved by the entrance. She let out the breath she had been holding. Thank Kronan, I can barely keep the little one's off me, speaking of which they're climbing the fucking walls again. The sound of rock breaking resounded through the cavern, whatever it was, it had pushed its way through the tunnel.

In the dark she couldn't make out the features on it, but the wispy flux leaking from its body suggested it was gargantuan, a giant worm-like mass with many clawed appendages snaking out from the sides. Her cannon was busy reloading, there was nothing she could do. It turned its head up to face her from the abyss.

"YOU VIOLATE THE PACT THE PACT THE PACT THE PACT THE PACT" Rebounded within her mind, echoing louder and louder as she clutched her head in agony.

"What is the pact?" She screamed back at it. It went silent. A claw crashed into the wall beneath her. Another went further up and gouged into the stone until it found purchase like an anchor on the seabed.

"THE PACT THE PACT THE PACT. YOU LOST OBEY THE PACT." The screeching in her head resumed.

"BEING OF FIRE AND STEEL YOU HAVE BROKEN THE PACT THE PACT THE PACT.". The slack on its hook disappeared as it pulled its huge body up the wall.

"FIRE" She screamed and another shell whistled into the abyss, detonating as it hit the worm-thing. She couldn't tell if it had caused any damage, the worm-thing merely sent another appendage snaking up into the air beneath her. It crashed into the wall with force, shaking her and gouging out yet another purchase from which it could climb. NO NO NO NO NO. She grit her teeth, blood ran down the side of her mouth.

The next shell was still forming, she didn't have enough for a hyper-flux shell and the worm-thing was halfway up the cliff.

"PACT BREAKER PACT BREAKER PACT BREAKER" screamed into her skull with a tone of condemnation. Her vision went dim and her head throbbed in her hands. When it finally went silent she realized she too had been screaming. And before her was a giant insectoid face. Two giant clacking mandibles that narrowed into metallic points, a single, many faceted bug eye rested in the middle and its maw, two huge beaks, flat and wide, sat closed. What is this thing? … she pushed herself back… and remembered.

There was nowhere to run.

"Hello…" She murmured.

"BEING VIOLATED THE PACT THE PACT THE PACT" she screamed and clutched her head, the voice thundered in her skull with no resistance. I am going to find a mental resistance skill if it kills me.

"What pact?" She spat, no longer caring if the monstrosity ate her, at least that would silence the voice. The face pulled back into the abyss as if in shock.

"BEING KNOWS NOT THE PACT THE PACT THE PACT." She clutched her head in reflex and writhed in agony on the cold stone.

"By Kronan, cut it with the screaming in my head!" She yelled back at it. The faintest whisper appeared in her mind "Being knows not the pact?" She shook her head "I have no idea what fucking pact you're screaming about.". The face drew close, until the mandibles practically encircled her.

"Being is not of fire? Being is not of steel? What happened to the steel ones?" Question after question whispered through her mind, repeating over and over.

"I have no idea who beings of fire and steel are, can you tell me who they are?" She asked.

"The wretched steel ones are too, the wretched fire ones. They are known as Aurendor".