“Are you kidding me!?” Cece shout whispered angrily as the floor shook beneath her. Eibon stifled a laugh at her reaction. She leveled a glare at him before letting her face relax. “Let’s keep moving.”
Cece led them unerringly through a maze of inscribed tunnels, while her nerves frayed ever so slightly every time she heard yet another crash. She wasn’t truly afraid, she was perhaps the most prepared a person could be for a dangerous situation, but she was confused which was worse. Initially she had assumed that Eibon and her had triggered some ancient trap and that was the source of the noise and the shaking. However as they continued onward she began to realize that the source of the disruption was coming from outside the ruin. Cece didn’t know what could possibly be the cause and that concerned her.
She gingerly stepped over a trapped tile as she considered the inscriptions in front of her. They were nearly to the center of the structure, or at least she thought they were. It was impossible to accurately guess how deep and labyrinthine it may be from the outside, but based on both architectural and alchemical clues, she was fairly sure they were close. Soon they began to pass by other rooms. They were empty for the most part, some had a few shelves, alcoves, or tables, which made Cece think they were dwellings, but nothing not made out of stone remained, so it was hard to confirm. They were going to pass by a similar room, when they noticed that unlike the others, light was coming from it.
“Cece.” Eibon began. “What is this?” He asked as they looked at the miniature sun that hovered in the center of a room overflowing with plant life.”
“A teraxia.” She muttered wistfully.
“And that is?”
“A garden devoted to alchemically useful plants.” She said already walking over and picking a few flowers off a copper lily. The place was overgrown beyond belief, but somehow the plants, or rather the plants descendants had persevered over the ages. She wandered between the verdant raised beds while absentmindedly wondering about the differences between the wild species and these biologically isolated specimens, but she had to comfort herself with analyzing them later. Although if they did end up being useful to her she didn’t know what she would do, she had never kept a teraxia since she was terrible with plants.
“Don’t you have enough reagents already?” Eibon asked giving her a withering look as she stuffed her purse with razor edge leaves.
“Waste not want not.” Cece admonished sagely, holding up a finger to make her point.
“Whatever the alchemetrix says…” Eibon muttered.
When she finished they once again started walking before they were interrupted by another terrible crash, followed by a roaring sound.
“This is starting to get concerning.” Cece said in frustration.
“I can’t help but agree. I’m going to send a few dead to scout ahead just in case.” He said holding his hand out. From his platinum ring came a few small undead mice that quickly scurried up the hallway. The two waited in silence for a moment before Eibon silently nodded at her and they continued walking. They were approaching the core of the ruin, she could feel it, and despite her apprehension she was eager to see how all the inscriptions pieced together, what they were for and what made them tick.
As they were coming to the end of the hallway and the beginning of a large room the ruin shook once again, tremors aching through stone. Cece had been very careful since the first incident with the traps of this structure, she had made sure that every step she and Eibon took was coordinated and accounted for, but what she forgot in this concern, were the factors she couldn’t control, like the building’s shaking.
Suddenly magic flared to life in the inscriptions near her as they detected the rumbling of the earth. She tried to step back and take Eibon with her, but it was too late. The stone beneath their feet parted and they were dropped several meters down into dark water. Eibon barely resisted the pull of the water, his unique constitution meant that he had no need for air, and although his human mind found it uncomfortable, he had gotten used to being uncomfortable by now. Cece on the other hand very much had a need for air, but her daemonic mind suppressed the initial shock of being plunged underwater. She did not struggle in the slightest, mentally forcing herself to be still and slow her heart beat. She slowly sank under the water while she pulled out a scroll.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Luckily she believed in making scrolls waterproof. The copper scroll lit with magic as she touched her index finger and thumb together. Just as oxygen was the closest a human could come to wielding the primordial element of fire, copper was the closest one could come to controlling water. It was a strange sensation as the filter formed in her trachea, but it was a relief as she took a deep breath under the water and her lungs filled with air stolen from the water. Eibon looked at her with his head turned to the side and made the ‘okay’ sign with his hand. Cece nodded in return and started to walk around on the submerged floor. She sent her eye out ahead of her, quickly realizing that they hadn’t been deposited in a sealed chamber, but some sort of small lake or riverbed. She grabbed Eibon’s hand and began walking towards the very faint light that was coming from in front of them. She had no idea how far down they were yet, her eye not yet reaching the surface. Cece thought she might be able to tell by calculating how much sunlight typically refracts off water at certain depths, but she didn’t have the necessary data to do such a thing. She added yet another item on the list of things to research.
Eibon and her stopped moving as the felt another crash. This time because of how much more intense it was. They each quickened their pace after that. Cece could see the beach in front of them with her daemonic ocularis, they were only around twelve meters below the water. Cece trudged through the water as fast as she could and Eibon quickly followed. By the time they reached the beach and Cece could throw herself onto the sand, she was exhausted. Still she was forced to turn her head when she heard screaming. On the other side of the lake lay a squadron of bodies in shining and blood covered armor. Cece recognized the crest they wore. Paladins. However that was far from Cece’s concerns.
“Eibon, get up. We’re leaving.” Cece whispered
“Why?” He asked beginning to turn his head. “Oh.” He simply whispered, as he turned and saw the feral angel looming over the bodies. It looked similar in many ways to the beast that Cece had fought previously. A strangely feathered form, with too many arms, this one was perhaps a bit larger and a bit whiter, although its feathers were still mottled with dirt and blood.
Cece pulled out a platinum scroll, but the mass of wings attention snapped to her in an instant, something she could tell right away because it was different from the first angel she fought in one other crucial way: it had eyes. They lined every wing, every move of the feather revealing a watcher underneath.
“It’s too late to run now.” Cece said pulling out a mercury grimoire. “Q4R8K” She said. The small ruby lit with magic, this time with her alchemetrix’s mark emblazoned on it. Red light in the shape of an eye hovered above the small ruby, a new vantage point from which she could view the world. Her feet lifted gently off the ground as she pulled another ruby out. “LM6RQ”
“What are those?” Eibon asked.
“Grimoires, now get ready, it’s coming.” Cece replied quickly unholstering her pistol.
“Way ahead of you.” He grinned a collection of animated bodies appearing before him. There were five human corpses, each larger than she had seen any human be, and each wearing full plate armor and wielding swords. In addition to this there were two alchemical beasts, large felines. Cece didn’t recognize them, but they stood taller than a grown man and were at least twice as long, with claws of iron.
The angel screeched a discordant howl before rushing the two daemons. Cece began flying upwards, partially out of strategy and partially out of fear, and leveled her pistol at the creature. An array of calculations were performed to adjust her wrist just so, accounting for the speed and acceleration of the angel as well as atmospheric factors. She took a breath to steady herself, and fired. The shot was fairly quiet, and the recoil was of course nonexistent, but her aim was true and a single one of the angel’s many eyes was devastated by the large bullet. The angel screamed in pain, an awful wail, but it didn’t even bother slowing down.
It seemed like it barely did any more damage than her last pistol had, but that was to be expected. This angel was stronger. She wasn’t entirely sure how she knew it, and the endless strands of cognition that made up her mind certainly had a few theories on how she deduced that, but she was sure of it. The only question was how she would kill it.