As the golems blared to life Eibon stepped in front of Cece and held his hand outwards. With her daemonic eye Cece could see the ring on his middle finger glow with platinum light, and suddenly three dead bodies stood in front of them, covered in light armor and wielding maces.

“That spatial storage must’ve cost a fortune.” She said. Spatially enhanced items were already an expensive investment, but that was in the form of a bag. Something like a ring would need to teleport individual items to put them in and take them out. If she had to guess based on what she could see with scribe’s eye, it likely cost him a sum rivaling her entire fortune.

“It’s a worthwhile investment for someone who needs to cart corpses around.” Eibon laughed.

“Can’t disagree with that.” She replied, watching the first zombie charge up the stairs and slam a mace into the side of a golem. Eibon had been smart to cut off the golems there, although she would expect no less from another knowledge daemon. Unfortunately it seemed that the golems were designed at least semi-intelligently as the second one saw that the path was blocked and backed away. It stood on the open air bridge and looked at the ground below. Cece stepped away, immediately understanding what it was doing.

The golem came crashing down with the dull thunk of stone on stone. Eibon held his hand out, about to release more dead, when Cece stopped him.

“Don’t bother.” She said, stepping in front of him. The golem raised its stone arm to swing at her, but just as its fist was about to meet her temple, her eye flashed crimson. A single inscription etched itself onto its core and fell to the ground limply.

“Well I suppose you could just do that, couldn’t you?” Eibon said bashfully. Cece just smiled and started walking back towards where the entered. She had too much on her mind to banter. She crouched down and looked at the pressure plate that Eibon had stepped on.

“What are you looking at?” Eibon asked, crouching down and invading her personal space.

“The pressure plate that I didn’t notice. It doesn’t have any inscriptions, it’s completely mechanical.”

“How could it have activated the golems then?”

“The pressure plate was designed to move an object about five meters below us, which did have inscriptions connected to it. The question is why?”

“Do you think they actually where designing with someone like you in mind.”

“I doubt it.” She replied quickly. “More of them would have been designed that way. Not that I have a better explanation. Now that I know what to look for I should be able to see them coming, let’s keep moving.”

Eibon wordlessly followed her up the stairs and across the bridge, leading into yet another hall. Cece stared, unblinkingly ahead, analyzing every inscription and slowly, but surely piecing them together. It was exhausting work, but her enhanced mind could just barely keep up with the demand.

“So… do you travel like this often?” Eibon asked while walking behind her. Cece turned around.

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“Seriously? You’re going to make small talk now of all times?”

“What!? I’m just asking.” Eibon replied in mock defense, hands in the air.

“No, I don’t travel often. Sometimes for business, but only then.” She replied.

“Really? It’s not good to only work, what about time for friends?” He asked. Cece stared at him blankly before continuing to walk. “Wait, Cece, you don’t have friends do you?”

“Eibon. Stop talking.” Cece said, a hint of annoyance escaping her mouth.

“Oh god, it’s true! Well, don’t worry now you have me.”

“Lucky me.” She said through gritted teeth. The man just hummed a reply with a smile on his face. They continued walking, but were quickly interrupted. The earth around them shook as they heard a loud crash. The two braced themselves for a moment, each looking around for any apparent danger. For a long moment they looked to the other hoping for some insightful comment.

“What was that?” Cece finally asked.

“An earthquake?” Eibon suggested.

“It didn’t sound like an earthquake, it sounded like an explosive.” Cece said with some expertise.

“Well we won’t find out in here.”

Cece nodded and started to move again, leading them quickly into a different chamber. This one had neither a door or a lock, just a stone doorway leading into a cavernous room. There were many holes in the ceiling where sunlight leaked through, as well as large stones scattered around the area which might have been stairs or columns at one time, but now lay ruined. Cece didn’t care about the architecture though.

Lazily sunning themselves in the rays of light, were a pack of five large feline beasts. Cece recognized them, jupitoires. Tin alchemical beasts that could run as fast as lightning and had an electric bite. They hadn’t seen them yet, lurking in the dark hallway. She unholstered her new pistol, but Eibon stopped her.

“You’ve handled everything so far, I think it’s time for me to show off a little.” Eibon said with a smirk. He held out his hand and two undead were suddenly in front of them. These ones were different from the last though, they wore heavy plate mail and had large swords that suited the wide open cavern, they looked fiercer and with her eye, Cece could see that they had far more magic in them as well.

“Alright.” Cece stated, putting her pistol away. “Let’s see it then.” One of the jupitoires finally saw them and hissed loudly, alerting the other beasts to their presence.

Wordlessly Eibon motioned forward and the dead pounced. In half a second, or .521 seconds to be exact, the corpse had crossed the room at a speed that Cece was only able to see thanks to her enhanced mind. It sliced through the neck of the first jupitoire only another half second later.

One of the slower jupitoires to react was surprisingly the first to attack. Cece watched with some interest as it transformed itself into lightning and launched itself forward. At a speed that Cece couldn’t perceive, even with her boons, the beast had closed the distance and was in between her and Eibon. Eibon didn’t even bother moving, as the undead that he hadn’t sent out blocked the beast’s claw as it tried to eviscerate him. It’s tin nails sparked with electricity as the steel sword made contact, before the undead pulled its blade back and brought it down, bisecting the creature.

Cece watched in fascination as Eibon dealt with the other three alchemical beasts in similar manner. One body for attacking, and one for defending. It was both beautifully efficient and slightly intimidating. As soon as the last one was killed, Cece got to work.

“What are you doing?” Eibon asked slightly amused.

“Harvesting its blood.” Cece said, matter-of-factly.

“You’re a very interesting person, you know that Cece?”

“It’s a useful reagent.” Cece defended.

“It’s less that you’re harvesting them and more so that you’re doing it in this situation.” He pointed out.

“Well, we haven’t heard any other explosions, so we’re probably safe.” She replied. As soon as the words left her mouth the building shook with the sound of impact.