It took them two hours of tired trudging to stumble across a crossroads. The junction was immense, leading to three similarly sized corridors that curved away into darkness. Surprisingly, a single electric light shone down on the middle of the crossroads. The group slowed, hovering over a dozen paces from the light, torches turned off for now.

Ein silently stepped forward, approaching the circle of light with caution, spear gripped tight in both hands. He reached the corner of one corridor, and after a moment he peeked around it, seeing nothing but darkness. He strode forward and strained his ears. The occasional mechanical clank came from the corridor to the right, and he swore he could faintly hear the barest echo of screams and shouts from the one on the left.

Straight ahead it was.

Ein waved them forward, taking point this time and flicking on his own torch. As they went down the slightly sloping corridor, the air rapidly grew colder. That could only mean one of several things.

“Might be a cryo runoff section coming up. Hopefully,” Tin said cheerfully, though her breath came out in visible puffs.

“Oh joy, I can’t wait to possibly fall into an icy death,” Jav grumbled, though he did perk up a bit.

“Better that than coming across the wraith generators, Jav.” Tin chuckled at the man’s suddenly contemplative face.

“Or worse!” Ein tried his own laugh, though it sounded hollow. “Might be able to get a few crystals and cryo to trade or use.”

“Fair point,” Jav said as he gripped the jagged metal knife—just a twisted piece of metal with cloth strips for a grip—tucked into his belt. “Having either of those would make me feel a little better.”

“I don’t think they’re crystals…” Zia whispered, though only Ein seemed to hear her.

“What are they?” Ein asked, amused.

“Theurgy.”

Something stopped him from responding, like a weight crushing down on his mind. The word was familiar, yet he’d never heard it before. He shook his head and grunted, pushing it from his mind.

“Whatever they are, they’re as hard as steel and make fine weapons and explosives,” he rumbled.

They lapsed into silence as Tin passed around a canteen of water. Ein took a single swig and handed it to Zia. It tasted bitter and metallic, but quenched his thirst for the moment.

Within minutes the corridor’s walls were coated in frost, an icy fog wafting toward the group from the depths of the passage. Their torches barely pierced the fog, and they clustered closer together as the corridor became unreasonably large. Ein’s beard annoyingly gathered moisture, but he ignored it for now.

It didn’t take long before they entered a cavern and stepped onto thin metal pathways suspended above streams and pools of bubbling cryo—the source of the cold fog. The room was surprisingly well lit, causing Ein to look over the short railing. Clusters of glowing crystals grew from corpses scattered across the room. The wall sixty feet ahead of them was covered in massive pipes and contraptions, each dumping cryo into the room.

Zia kept her eyes on the walkway, clearly unsettled by the corpses. Ein led the group deeper into the room, turning right onto a walkway that sloped down steeply. Minutes later, they were on the uneven steel ground.

“Help me bottle up some cryo, Tin. Be careful,” Jav said, once they were certain they were alone here.

Ein directed Zia to sit on a raised section of metal, then turned to look around the room, tree trunk thick arms crossed across his broad chest. There were no clear paths to any of the crystals, unfortunately. He grunted and unslung his pack to rummage through it. A moment later he hefted a coil of rough brown rope.

They’d never come across a cryo room that was safe enough to be this brash, so this was a first for them all. Ein fashioned the end of one rope into a lasso, twirled it briefly and let it sail across a stream of blue liquid at least a dozen feet wide. He narrowed his eyes as it looped around a cluster growing from one corpse.

He pulled it closer, and when it was at the edge of the stream, he yanked it. A group of six crystals broke off, but they landed in the shallow stream with the rope. He cursed and crouched in front of Zia as the crystals exploded, sending shards and droplets of cryo everywhere. His forgotten rope froze over as deep blue crystals started growing along its length.

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Ein stood and reassessed. Tin and Jav nervously went back to making a few more small bottles of cryo after looking to him for reassurance. He glanced around, judging the space he had. Almost ten feet of space. Not as much as he’d like.

Ein backed up—then charged forward, before leaping as he reached the edge of the stream. He sailed through the air, to the horror of the rest of the group. Jav gasped, though Tin merely laughed.

He hit the dry ground solidly, little more than an inch from the cryo stream. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, then got to work. After setting down his spear, he crouched and gripped a few short, fat crystals. With a jerk, they snapped off.

It took only a minute to fill the pouch at his waist with small crystals, but before he rose he eyed one of the larger ones. It was flat and slender, nearly four feet long and glowing with a peculiar white light. He carefully snapped it free, wincing as he accidentally cut a finger on a sharp edge.

Ein grabbed some scraps of cloth from another pouch and made a simple grip for the crystal. He hefted it, noting how incredibly light it felt. After a second he grabbed his spear, backed up, and leapt across the stream again.

He landed safely again, then picked his pack back up. Tin and Jav were putting away their bottles of cryo, though they gave a small one to Ein. They made their way back up to the dozen or so walkways, then set off for a distant corridor set into the far side of the room.

“Here, Jav.” Ein stepped up beside him and held out the spear. When he gave him an odd look, Ein held up his new crystal weapon. The man took the spear with an appreciative nod.

When they were halfway through the room, his crystal sword grew brighter, causing him to stop dead in his tracks.

The hair on the back of his neck prickled, and he whipped around, sword at the ready.

No…

From the direction of three other corridors came three demons. They advanced faster than normal, though they made no sound.

They can control the damned noise they make? He thought with a muttered curse.

“Those last walkways look treacherous. You three hurry ahead, I’ll catch up,” Ein said calmly, though he was anything but calm inside.

Jav grabbed Zia by the arm and jogged off, but Tin looked ready to argue. After a moment she jogged off as well.

The demons converged on the walkway he was on, each a few dozen paces behind each other. The first one was entirely too close for comfort, only twenty feet away. He bit his tongue as he felt fear bleed through his body.

“You lot are nothing but machines!” He laughed as he raised his sword in two hands. The laugh was forced, but he was determined not to show fear in the face of these demons.

The first one was ten feet away now. Unlike most Ein had come across, this one had two thin, long blades of bluish metal attached to its slender arms. It was vaguely humanoid, but entirely made of polished ceramic plates, all sharp angles and mechanical movements. Its face was rounded, etched with human features that were far too realistic. The demons may be smaller than Ein, but he knew just how dangerous they were.

It advanced steadily until it was mere feet from him, then it lunged, its usual lethargy replaced with blinding speed.

Ein stumbled back and clumsily slammed his sword against one blade, flinging it wide. The other slid across his right arm, but the cut was shallow. Before it could recover he kicked it in the chest, sending it flying back into the second demon.

He winced as he pulled out a tiny crystal fragment and the bottle of cryo. It’d been like kicking six hundred pounds of brick.

The demons righted themselves, and both blade wielding machines advanced again. The last one—

Ein stared in disbelief as the third rifle wielding demon leapt over the first two, denting the walkway and sending vibrations up his legs as it landed eight feet away from him.

It raised its sleek, rune covered rifle of metals he couldn’t identify, and pointed it at his chest. The runes flared gold—

Ein dove under the blast of helfire that shot from the rifle, though it singed the back of his shirt as well as some of his hair. He still clutched the crystal and cryo as he reached the demon before it could fire again.

With an immense grunt of effort, Ein grabbed the demon with both arms, and flung it over the railing like it was a small sack of flour. He backed up, though he was tempted to look as there was a splash, followed by a searing, gold tinged explosion that rocked the room.

He hastily uncapped the bottle before throwing the crystal into it. Without wasting a moment he flung it at the two remaining demons.

It shattered against them, freezing parts of them and exploding into a mess of jagged crystal shards. Ein turned and sprinted away as the crystals continued to grow. He looked back as he reached the group, just in time for an even larger explosion to rock the room. It twisted and melted several of the walkways and even made parts of the ceiling cave in with a loud series of crashes.

“You did not just fight not one, but three demons—and live,” Jav hurried up to him, face shocked and awed as he clapped him on the arm.

“You…you destroyed them!” Tin laughed and punched his shoulder. “I was starting to doubt they could be killed!”

“I’m not entirely convinced,” Ein muttered, then raised his voice. “Regardless, let’s hurry on. Maybe those were the ones following us, maybe not. There’s always more where they came from.”

That dampened their excitement. He nodded to them and led them forward, into the dark, foggy corridor. The fog didn’t clear for fifteen minutes, then it grew remarkably warmer. Adrenaline still pulsed through him, his blood still rushing in his ears.

The small victory didn’t make Ein feel anything but worry. For years, the demons were always slow, loud and dogged in their pursuit of humans. Yet these were able to move quieter and faster when it suited them—not to mention their self-destruction. He was convinced that cryo barely harmed them, but rather it merely slowed them.

They could’ve worked themselves free given time. But instead they blew themselves up. He wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but it unsettled him.

Now he looked forward, holding his glowing crystal sword aloft instead of his torch, and prayed to the dead gods that they find food and water soon.