Cold sweat ran down Frey’s back, doom lied ahead, and behind him was a problem just as big.
For now, he was at least still in a state where he could try and fight for his life, he felt that quietly obeying the three was the correct choice, but the further they descended, the closer he got to his end.
He needed a plan, and soon at that... but how could he possibly escape from a rank three mage?
The vibrations he felt from the earth’s surface became stronger, to him they seemed almost as loud as the beating of his heart, which drowned out all other noise.
His skin crawled, he took smaller, shaky steps, but it made no difference, as those behind him wouldn’t overtake him for any reason.
Then Frey stopped.
He gazed at the darkness ahead of him, then back at his oppressors, Plamus frowned, he inhaled, about to berate the young boy in front of him some more, but he was taken aback as that boy suddenly started to sprint out of the reach of their light!
“Don’t let him run!” Reyna shouted, she was the first to react and storm after him, but she involuntarily flinched and stopped as a loud cracking sound echoed through the tunnel.
“What was that?!” Hadrian covered his ears and complained.
Plamus put up his guard, “Reyna step back. There is something in the dark.” he spoke slowly, his sight focused on the direction from which the noise came.
She obliged, carefully stepping backwards, the flame in her hand flickered, sometimes stronger, other times weaker, the moment she felt a chill down her spine she instinctively threw out the fire.
The flame travelled quickly, but shrunk at the same rate, the path ahead of them was lit for a brief moment, and there they finally spotted something, some kind of creature.
Another cracking of rock filled the air, then Reyna’s vision blurred, but returned to normal a single moment later.
She couldn’t breathe, fear spread throughout her body, that blurred moment... the creature, it moved past her...
Another sound came from behind her, the sound of two heavy objects clashing against another.
Her head turned, together with her whole body, she had no time to react, but just in front of her was Plamus, surrounded by a purple kind of barrier, which emitted a very dim light, and piercing into that barrier was the sharp claw of a human-like figure.
It stood upright on two legs, its body was somewhat curved, giving the impression of a hunched back.
Its skin was a dark green shade, but the purple glow shone all over it.
One might mistake it for a human altogether, were it not for its unnaturally long arms, and the sharp, knife-like fingers it had for hands.
The creature rammed its second claw into the purple barrier, causing Plamus’ sweating to intensify, “Don’t just stand there! Help me already, damn it!” he ordered.
Reyna bit her lips, letting this creature kill Plamus would work in her favour, finally removing the pest that was always dragging her around, but on the off chance that he was victorious... she shivered at the thought.
She gritted her teeth and conjured another flame with what little particles she had left, she flung another fireball at the monster, its skin audibly sizzled on impact, but other than that it looked entirely unbothered.
“Pft, haha.” Hadrian couldn’t help mocking that display of magic, there were plenty of particles around for him, in a flash he had already gathered several bundles of them in the air; after motioning with his fingers, the chunks of ice were let loose, hurling at the creature.
Its body shook, and its claws ripped back out of the barrier, fast enough to effortlessly evade the ice, which continued on its path, and subsequently struck Plamus’ defence.
Plamus clenched his fist, he directed a stare of anger at the origin of the icy attack, but Hadrian smiled from within the veil of darkness.
The next chunks of ice shot at the darkness, from where Hadrian had heard some sounds, another couple clanks echoed, along with an annoyed grunt, “Watch where you’re aiming boy!” Marquis Gomon threatened.
Hadrian gulped, but prepared to shoot out another wave, when their surroundings were once again dimly illuminated, a very weak flame thanks to Reyna, but that much was enough to spot the creature creep up to the observers.
“Stupid thing!” Marquis Gomon roared, blue particles were drawn out of the walls around them, forming into a long snake-like line.
The water shot at the creature, the front opened like a viper’s jaw, ready to chomp into the local’s body, “I was just standing there! Why get me involved?!”
The fangs of water pierced into the monster, it began to twist, and tear out the part that was hit.
For the first time a noise escaped from the creature, a loud shriek.
Its face, which appeared like a human wearing a wooden mask, split in the middle, the mask opened up to reveal that the entirety of its head was one big mouth with several rows of pointy teeth.
Marquis Gomon sneered, instead of another water snake, he sent a big bubble into the opening that was the creature’s head.
Its mouth closed, the mask-halves became one again, but a moment later the back of its head burst open, water and a green liquid shot out like a fountain.
The creature dropped to the ground, and Marquis Gomon approached, he struck the lifeless thing with his heel and rubbed it in, “Did you think I was easy prey or something?!”
All the others simply watched the display, Hadrian made himself small, in hopes that the observer forgot his ‘accidental’ attack just now.
“What about the boy?” Marquis Gomon was satisfied after trampling on the local some more, then turned towards Plamus and Reyna.
They snapped out of their stupor and moved forward, to where Frey had run off to.
“Dead I would assume.” Winny guessed, but simply shrugged her shoulders without a care.
Marv walked beside her, but only faced the ground, afraid to find out...
“Look at this.” Reyna stopped and pointed to the floor, where the ground was broken on a rather small spot.
Plamus crouched down and felt the rubble, “Is that from when the thing launched at me?"
“Seems like it. Then what is this?” Reyna took a few more steps forward, the light of her flame revealed some kind of destroyed earth-structure, the tunnel was free of such things until now, which was strange on its own, but made this appear all the more out of place.
Marquis Gomon walked closer, he carefully inspected the structure, “The boy put up a fight, more like, he used earth magic to defend himself until the creature lost interest in him... until it sensed us.”
“There is no blood.” Winny noted, “So he is alive after all... the boy is rather lucky.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Marv covertly breathed a sigh of relief.
Marquis Gomon turned to look Plamus in the eyes, “I guess your plan didn’t work as well as you wanted it to.” he snickered.
“Indeed. But why did it only attack you and me? It is obvious that it ignored both the boy, as well as Reyna, and went immediately for us.” Plamus pondered.
“Maybe because a rank three is the biggest threat here? So, it wanted to eliminate you guys first.” Reyna made a suggestion, “Since it just ignored my attack, and easily dodged Hadrian’s.”
Plamus nodded, he agreed with Reyna’s reasoning, “Whatever the case may be, it is safe to assume that these things are this plane’s equivalent to rank three mages.”
He began to smile and glanced at the observers, “That means they are worth a lot of points… Honestly, I am looking forward to whatever we will find at the end of this tunnel.”
“What about the boy?” Reyna asked.
“He is your problem. Your family wants him dead, that has nothing to do with me.” Plamus answered.
Reyna frowned, “We had a deal. I hope you remember?” her tone was threatening, but Plamus laughed her off, “Uncovering everything about this tunnel is a lot more important than our deal. To me killing the boy was just the cherry on top. Feel free to take action against me for breaking our agreement… oh, you can’t? Haha.” he broke out into laughter and resumed walking down the path.
Reyna grumbled, but continued following him, as did the rest of the group.
With Plamus in the lead, they walked at a very normal pace, almost as if he wasn’t afraid of Frey escaping, “Marquis Gomon, I have a proposition for you.” he spoke without looking back.
Marquis Gomon bluntly answered, “Speak.”
Plamus scoffed, the man’s haughty act amused him, “The goal for this competition is split into two parts, first, His Majesty wants us to use this experience to become stronger mages, and the second part is this plane’s conquest.”
“Dealing with these rank three creatures will become increasingly harder, depending on how many we face at once… I am fine with losing a majority of the points for this discovery, I simply want to reach the end.” Plamus continued.
Hadrian’s face paled, his greed and desire for these points was unimaginable, he didn’t like the way Plamus phrased his sentence.
“You want me to help fight them? Hmpf, I hate you scheming types. You realised that your lackeys are too weak to be of any help… but I must admit, this situation has reignited some of my passion for planar exploration.” Marquis Gomon spoke, then glanced at Winny, who gave him a slight nod.
“Fine. We shall work together for now.” Marquis Gomon reluctantly agreed.
Plamus once again smiled, he wasn’t in need of anymore points, as both the leader in terms of points in the competition, as well as the strongest and most experienced competitor among the bunch, he was more than happy with this new deal of his.
If all went well, and he managed to make a great contribution for the conquest of this plane, His Majesty would surely reward him handsomely.
They headed further down, until they arrived at an intersection, together with the path they came from, there were a total of four ways to walk.
The one to the left, and the one to the right however went upwards, unlike the one straight down the middle.
Marquis Gomon looked around himself “This is like an ant nest.”
“You mean to say that the queen’s chamber is further down?” Plamus turned towards him.
Reyna’s face was filled with annoyance, Frey could have gone into any of these three options, and the two that went upwards might even have a surface-level exit, like the one they came in from.
“You have seen how strong the things down here can be. Who knows, he might just encounter another one.” Plamus whispered into her ear and patted her shoulder to assure her.
She groaned and rolled her eyes, “Down the middle it is then?”
The others nodded their heads, by now, Frey was just an afterthought to most of them.
After a while of walking the empty tunnels, the ground levelled out, the incline became a straight path, and on what appeared to be the other end of the tunnel, an orange light was waiting for the group.
“Is that it? Where are all the monsters? We encountered just one.” Hadrian stretched and yawned, the fight he, and, well, everyone was expecting never came.
“Could it be a trap?” he gasped.
“These creatures aren’t that smart. It’s extremely unlikely.” Plamus shook his head.
“But not impossible, right?” Reyna chimed in.
Plamus smirked, “We have three rank three mages with us, I’d like to see them try.”
The tunnel soon opened up, and revealed a massive chamber, the dark, rocky surface was no more, in its place was luscious green moss that covered the ground, the rocky pillars that supported the cave, and the high ceiling.
In the centre was an entire body of water, a small lake, a dazzling turquoise blue shone out of it, up at the humongous roots that hung from the ceiling.
Like a monster’s tendrils the roots were tightly wrapped around a sack of orange fluid, which looked like the bodies of the Flyers, just many times bigger.
The orange thing was covered in a vein-like surface, the liquid inside seemed to move, and the sack itself was throbbing, constricting and releasing, like the heart of a living creature.
With each contraction a loud thumping enveloped the cave, and the lake’s surface rippled in tandem.
Their footsteps echoed ominously, underscoring the sheer size of this place.
“What- What is this?!” Plamus uttered, his eyes were captivated by the heart, he was confident in himself, some would say overconfident, but for the first time in a while, he was reminded just how small he actually was.
“Shh!!!” Reyna desperately shushed him, her shaky finger pointed at the outer-most walls of the chamber.
She wasn’t referring to the moss, or the rocks; embedded within the walls peacefully rested the various locals they had fought until now… ranging from the rank one Treemen and Flyers, all the way to the newly discovered rank three!
Their sheer numbers caused everyone present to finally grasp the looming terror they had stumbled upon.
Hadrian breathed loudly, “Let’s bail!” he whispered, his teeth clenched, and his feet ready to turn tail and run.
“Unbelievable!” Marquis Gomon ignored the boy as he took some steps forward, to better capture the view.
“This is unlike anything I have ever seen before… a beautiful and awe-inspiring radiance. Yet my instincts scream at me, warning of an unprecedented danger!”
“This is it! This is what planar exploration should be like!” Marquis Gomon's heart beat in unison with the rhythmic pulse that spread through the air.
“Hey geezer, this is no time to be captivated by beauty! We are in actual danger!” Winny lightly knocked against his shoulder, trying to drag him back to reality.
“Danger? We have intruded upon the queen’s chamber, but even so, nothing has happened to deter us. Even now, we stand before what might be the heart of this plane, and still, there’s no reaction from it or any of these insects around us… Almost like they don’t see us as a threat.” Marquis Gomon’s scalp tingled, he felt like time had turned back, back to when he was still actively venturing forth into unknown planes.
“Heart of this plane?” Plamus mumbled, “Would such a thing really have no defence around its most vulnerable part?”
Marquis Gomon shrugged, “Who knows. Though I have been to several planes, each is unique. Both the world itself, but also their inhabitants. Even if this is not the heart of the plane… just look at it, doesn’t it seem important either way?” he smiled.
“You have to imagine, the appearance of us humans were a factor this world, and many others, never consider. Maybe it had no reason to protect itself until now. Maybe it never imagined that the explorations’ scouts would ever manage to find an entrance and check below the surface…” Marquis Gomon made several educated guesses, though he was interested in finding the true reason, doing so wasn’t a priority, nor did they encounter any intelligent creatures to exchange their wisdom and these answers with.
He continued walking forward, towards the heart, and the lake, the wide smile on his face never once wavered.
“Hold on! Wait a moment! What are you doing?” Plamus went after him.
“What else is there left to do, besides destroying it?” Marquis Gomon’s words caused everyone’s spine to chill.
Marv mouthed some words, but his bewilderment left him unable to speak for several moments, “W- Destroy?! We don’t know what’s going to happen if we do that! We will be buried alive if this cave system collapses you know!”
“Leave then. You rank twos’ presence was useless from the very beginning.” Marquis Gomon motioned at them with his hand to go away.
Plamus and Winny looked at each other, they knew Marv was right, but at the same time, there might never be another chance to witness this situation.
‘Fortune favours the bold’, is how the saying goes, but what about the insane?
Plamus’ feet felt like they were rooted to the ground, stopping him from taking any steps forward, but also from taking any steps backwards.
Marquis Gomon’s back kept getting smaller, his figure further away, Plamus hesitated, he was arrogant, not stupid, but even his arrogance had its limits.
“Fuck it.” he cursed under his breath and went after Marquis Gomon.
Hadrian was the first to follow him, perhaps even slightly ahead of him.
Reyna sighed loudly, she didn’t know whether Frey had died yet, so being buried alive sounded like a more preferable end than what her mother had promised should Aventia’s competitor return to their own plane.
Winny shook her head, each and every one present was a lunatic in their own right, her included.
Marv frowned but went after them.
They joined the rest at the edge of the lake, they gazed up at the thumping heart, every beat could be felt deep within their bones, not to mention how loud it had become, now that they were as close to it as they could safely get.
Marquis Gomon chuckled as he looked at the body of water in front of them, “It couldn’t be any easier for me.” he moved his hands and arms, causing the surface to ripple unnaturally.
The water began to build up into waves, each bigger than the one before, the serene cave suddenly acted like it was out on open sea.
“Boy, your element is darkness, right? I am expecting a show.” Marquis Gomon spoke sternly, as the rest observed something moving within the crashing waves, slithering like a sea creature in its natural habitat.
Plamus pulled his eyes away from the impressive spell and looked up at his target.
Darkness was present in all corners of this cave, preparing a big spell proved to be a piece of cake; in the air around the lake spawned small, compressed purple dots in the shapes of stars.
Reyna, Hadrian, and Marv were forced to back away, each of the stars’ aura was strong enough to accidentally tear them apart.
“I will save my spells for when the ceiling caves in…” Winny spoke from the side.
“Suit yourself.” Marquis Gomon told her, then focused back on his spell, as well as the heart.
“Alright boy! On three!”
“One…”
“Two…”
“…Three!”