In the briefest of spans, within veiled seconds that simply couldn’t exist, Wimbleton moved, eyes gleaming with a blinding radiance, black blade with strands of red inexplicably held in his right hand. It was impossible, it had to be. But so too was it true. There was no denying it. Wimbleton had just accelerated to full speed instantaneously, a feat Trenton thought impossible.
In one swift motion, flowing perfectly from moment to moment as if locked in dance, Wimbleton plunged the black blade underneath the tip of the other sword, digging it out from Trenton’s skull whilst simultaneously shifting his body between the aggressor and Trenton.
He twisted his body, slamming his foot into the man's side with enough force to make the entire building beneath them explode and the air shudder. Then, the final movement in the sequence, Wimbleton steadied his body over his left foot, which found purchase on an infinitesimal chunk of stone that hadn’t even had the chance to fall to the earth yet, and leapt after the man, disappearing before gravity even had a chance to begin to grab any of them.
To everyone else, it seemed as if the world itself had exploded, the entire exchange lost on them, sounds like explosions stacking upon sounds like explosions, their eardrums completely ruptured. The only one any the wiser was Trenton, for reasons unbeknownst to him. Trenton called to the earth below them, forcing his will to be made manifest. From within the massive crater formed by Wimbleton’s movements, 8 tendrils of earth rose, grabbing each one of them and holding them aloft above the chaos below.
Wasting no time, Trenton gathered everyone together, summoning more and more earth to support them like bubbling geisers of stone solidifying beneath them until they had a solid platform to stand on, or in everyone else's case, writhe on.
His companions collectively clutched their ears, falling to their knees and screaming in pain. It seemed the blast hadn’t simply hurt, it had disoriented them, scrambled their senses with no means to regain them in time for the coming battle. In the distance, now visible over the tips of even the tallest towers, the golem was coming into view, churning lava visible beneath its cracked stone skin. And just as Trenton had felt, lugged atop its shoulder was the grand mass of an entire tower.
As the great beast walked forward, the ground shuddered, Trenton’s teeth clattering with every step. Instead of trying to make its way around the ruins, it simply walked straight through, shattering still standing towers as it moved, crunching fallen ones under toe. It was the same size or larger than the one Tower had summoned, and they were without the aid to save them this time.
“More trespassers…you are unwelcome here…” the golem spoke, its gravely voice ringing through Trenton’s head.
At his waist, Trenton felt Raligoth bristle. He looked down at the head, mind racing for possible solutions. Raligoth’s lips were moving, but Trenton could no longer hear. They had no way of communicating unless Trenton got really good at reading lips in about 20 seconds, a little ridiculous, but still worth a shot given the circumstances.
Trenton held Raligoth up to his face, parsing the syllables as best he could as the golem approached ever closer. Hold the cup? Fold the map? No, that didn’t make any sense. It did look like three words, though. He needed to try harder. In front of him, the beast rose the tower into the air, stray pieces of rubble tapping against Trenton’s skull from above. What was Raligoth trying to say? Told the pup? Hold me up?
Of course, it was the same request he had when they spoke to Falfiar before Avar. How could Trenton have forgotten? Trenton thrust the severed head into the air, facing him towards the great beast as the tower began to fall. Trenton watched as the sun disappeared beneath the shadow of the building, felt the powerful hum in the air, but he heard nothing. And yet, just when he thought all was lost, as the sky fell upon them, the building suddenly halted, the golem taking a step forward to secure it at the front, stopping it from crashing into them. Slowly, the golem retracted the building, planting it firmly back atop its shoulder.
“You are known…very well…I shall open the path to the everforge…come along.”
Using its left hand, the golem scooped out the supports from under Trenton’s stone platform, collecting their troupe in its palm and raising them high into the air. With them in toe, and its weapon safely stowed, the golem turned around, carrying them further into the city.
It was quite a remarkable sight, seeing the world pass from so far above, plinths and their obelisks like toothpicks to them, rivers and lakes like puddles and raindrops. It was somehow even more beautiful than from the ground, midair bridges crossing gaps between buildings and winding streets splayed before them.
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But even as high up as they were, Trenton wasn’t able to spot Wimbleton anywhere. He could feel the rubbles from their battle, but they must have taken it far. Every now and then, the golem would step over a tower cleanly split in two, a building perfectly diced into thousands of little bits, clefts wider than canyons, which the golem paid no mind to.
Before long, they’d made it to the city's center, or at least what Trenton would approximate as the center, a massive circular platform risen above the rest of the city and surrounded by a weave of arches bound at odd points, creating a wall of sorts, at the top of which 10 half broken statues sat, three of which looked oddly familiar, but Trenton couldn't quite place why. The golem reached into the large clearing, setting them down in a pile of their own mess on the outer edge of the clearing.
“The ten men before you…name them…and the path will open,” the golem spoke.
Raligoth hesitated, clearly unnerved by the idea, but abided in time. Along with the gentle hum from before, another feeling, one very familiar to Trenton, washed over them–eyes–thousands of them boring into them from every direction.
In the center of the circle, the ground split and shifted, opening the entrance to a small stairway leading downwards into the ground. Well, no time to think about it now. Trenton grabbed the others, unnerved by the eyes upon him, and pulled them into the staircase, allowing darkness to take over as the mouth of the staircase closed behind them. Then, all along the sides of the stairwell, torches flared to life, lighting a descending path that seemed to stretch on forever.
Just as Trenton had hoped, the eyes relented the further down they went, peeling off of them as would skins to a fruit. This marked the third time now he’d felt that unusual sensation, that unnatural crawl down his spine, but what it was or why it followed him Trenton still couldn’t surmise. He’d have to talk to Raligoth about it later. Whatever he said, it must’ve been important.
They wandered aimlessly down the endless staircase, Kiva working as she walked to heal their damaged hearing, starting from the most vulnerable and ending with the least. But as she worked, Trenton remembered something Wimbleton told him a while ago. He delved deep into the recesses of his mind, scrounging for any scrap of power he could muster, tugging at the memory of his body piecing itself back together, and most importantly, asking for aid, calling out into the darkness for help he wasn’t sure he’d receive.
Of course
Steadily, Trenton pieced his ruptured eardrums back together, growing new flesh in place of the old. He didn’t really know what he was doing, operating based off of vague feelings in his core and skull, but whatever it was, it worked. At first a dull, muffled murmur, it eventually reached clarity, sound returned to him. It sounded like everyone else was talking about the events that just transpired, mulling over what happened by pooling their minds together. By the time Kiva reached him, the last in line, his hearing was almost fully restored, something not lost on her.
“Your ears are actually in pretty good shape. Can you hear me?” Kiva asked.
“I can, mostly,” Trenton said.
She peered around his shoulder, face scrunching together, “Did your eardrums not shatter? I could’ve sworn I saw them bleeding.”
“They did. Remember when Wimbleton told me to figure out how to heal myself? I think I’m getting the idea, somewhat.”
“Really?” Kiva beamed, “Trenton, that’s incredible!”
Trenton nodded, mind too far gone to reciprocate the gesture. The eyes he could stand, the names he didn’t need to know, but Wimbleton bugged him. If Trenton was right, then he was far more dangerous than they’d given him credit for, and potentially more unstable, too.
“Are you alright?” Kiva said, setting her chin down on Trenton’s shoulder and looking at him with a certain sparkle in her eyes.
He smiled, a half hearted attempt to calm her, “Fine. I’ve just got a lot on my mind is all. A lot has happened in a short time frame. I need a little bit to digest.”
Kiva pouted, “Fine, but don’t take too long,” she said, stepping back to give Trenton some space.
After another, say 50 minutes or so, they finally reached the end of the staircase. At this point, they must’ve been quite a few miles under the earth, the air temperature, cosy, despite the dim surroundings. They stepped into a large, cavernous room, a maze of different bridges, and towers overlapping each other as far as the eye could see, a great pool of lava bubbling below. The place was gargantuan, like an entire labyrinth constructed entirely within the city's bowels.
“Woah,” Millie exclaimed, taking in their surroundings piece at a time.
They spent some time wandering about, following Raligoth’s directions up and down new sets of stairs, across one bridge, through a tower, then pivoting to another before finally standing before one grand structure, a castle with many spires extending up into the darkness above. Its front door hung slightly ajar, nothing inside visible due to the poor lighting.
Carefully, they made their way into the castle, finding themselves in a new room adorned with dozens of cracked tables, books stuffed with notes, and diagrams of different weapons hung on the wall. To their sides were various staircases and banister protected walkways stretching far up above them, catwalks which extended over the main floor. On the far side there was an opening in the wall which glowed with an ominous warm light, a single stone bridge extending out from the room.