Sera was panting with exhaustion by the time the group reached the top of the stairs, which were sized for much larger beings than her. Layla and Rinnie effortlessly hopped up the steps using nothing but leg strength, but Tiriana and Vivi were in the same state as Sera. At the top they found a door, apparently closed by the giant on its way through.

Layla was already in the process of forcing it open with sheer brute strength. The doors were sturdy, designed to hold back water in the event the cistern was overfilled, but they yielded with an extended screech as metal ground against metal. Beyond was a brick-walled hallway with an arched ceiling. Crystals the size of lightbulbs were embedded in the ceiling at regular intervals, reflecting the light from Vivi’s luminary but otherwise dead.

Initially Layla led the way just as she did before, but just a few steps in, she stepped on the wrong brick- a slight grinding sound came from below her foot and spears shot out of the walls, scraping impotently against her armor as they failed to penetrate. The armored woman glanced from side to side at the trap before lifting her foot, which caused the deadly points to withdraw.

If anyone else had tripped it, with the possible exception of Tiriana, they would be dead.

“My turn. I’ll highlight any traps I find,” Rinnie announced as she took the lead, drawing what looked like a nozzle with a handle but no canister. A magic tool, Sera surmised when Rinnie stopped to spray a circle around a brick a few meters down the hall. The red outline glowed with an inner light, impossible to miss even in the darkness.

“How does she even know…?” Sera asked Tiriana as they caught their breath.

“I have no idea,” the elf admitted, looking between the identical bricks that made up the floor. “The one she circled might be a bit raised…?”

“Don’t just stand there and talk!” Rinnie berated from down the hall. “You’re the only one that can identify the magical ones!”

“If I saw one I would tell you,” Tiriana argued back, rolling her eyes. She did seem to scrutinize the walls as they walked after their scout, though. “The spellwork here is fascinating. It’s as if the entire foundation is enchanted to make it more solid.”

“What’s powering it, though?” Sera asked, gesturing at the unlit crystals above as she carefully sidestepped a trapped brick.

“Different type of enchantment. The structure of the rock was permanently altered to remove fracture points and create stronger bonds. It’s probably as strong as steel,” Tiriana explained as she traced her hands over the walls, seeming to look right through them as she examined the evidence of magic only she could see.

“But the giant went through that pillar and even put a hole in the wall,” Vivi pointed out from behind them.

“I think the brickwork is decorative. They probably didn’t want to feel like they were living in a cave.”

“Huh. Do you think you could build something like this?” Sera still wasn’t quite sure how this society stacked up with Tiriana’s, not that she had a very solid idea of how Tiriana’s compared to Earth’s, either.

“Truthfully, it’s hard to say. I doubt anyone has ever tried. There’s much better materials available that would require far less work to prepare, and why would we ever need a moving city?”

“If we can figure out why they did I bet it would answer a lot of questions!” Vivi proposed with excitement. “Maybe it was because of the biome they were used to living in, or to stay away from their enemies without having to uproot their homes?”

“Found another door. Layla?” Rinnie was waiting at the end of the hall, which branched out to the left and right on either side of a door even larger than the last one.

“Do not act as if I am your personal door opener, shrub,” Layla grumbled. “I will open it only because I want to know what it protects.”

“Tsundere,” Sera muttered, loud enough only for Tiriana and Vivi to hear her.

Layla approached the door and looked it over. Sera and the others caught up as she examined it, and Sera saw that it was the type that receded upwards when it opened. Layla knelt and gripped a ridge near the bottom, then heaved upwards. The door gave way with little resistance, but only a void lay beyond it.

Tiriana stepped up as Layla held it open and projected a light inside. Finding only a blank wall opposite the entryway she cast her light up and down, finding nothing but an empty shaft.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Lift shaft, maybe. It’s not going to work without power though,” she observed, backing away so Layla could let the door fall. The armored woman stepped back and it fell to the ground with such force that the metal vibrated for a moment, echoing into the distance.

“The long way it is. Which way?” Rinnie asked Vivi.

“It doesn’t matter. They both connect to the surface,” the cleric affirmed, and Rinnie shrugged, choosing the right hand path after a moment. More doors lined the left side of the hallway, but these were ordinary doors, not even locked. They were widely spaced and seemed to be little more than storage, heavily depleted just like the cistern had been. Some held food that had gone rotten when cold storage lost power, and others were just parts, mostly used up.

Rinnie continued to mark traps as the traversed the hall, which seemed to be skirting around the perimeter of the cistern. Without the elevator they seemed to be doomed to taking the long way up, and the group oscillated between being tense due to the feeling that they could be jumped again at any moment and becoming lax from the lack of encounters.

Eventually they reached a corner and turned, finding that it led them directly into a room, its doors wide open. Rinnie entered with her bow drawn and an arrow ready, scanning the darkness for an ambush that never came. Layla entered as well and the two fanned out, clearing the room while Tiriana stayed back with Sera and Vivi.

“Looks like some kind of security checkpoint,” Tiriana commented. There was a booth along one wall with a counter, along with barricades to the side of each door to provide cover for guards. Tiriana seemed to be looking at otherwise blank spots on the floor and walls, so Sera assumed there would be additional magical defenses if they power were on.

“Clear,” Rinnie said from the far door, drawing agreement from Layla over by the guard booth. “Weird amount of security for what we’ve seen down here, though.”

“Guess they didn’t want anyone in their food and water supplies.”

“That, or there’s something important up ahead and they wanted this between the elevator and it…hold on a moment.” Something seemed to catch Rinnie’s attention as she peered out the far door, but before anyone could ask, she had drawn her bow and fired. There was a clatter from the edge of the darkness, a round object falling to the ground. The party approached cautiously to find a bulbous metal contraption with four spindly legs, its body featureless save for two lenses, one of which had been pierced through by Rinnie’s arrow.

“Is that…blood? Was it alive?” Vivi questioned as they drew closer. No one answered because no one knew, but Layla picked up the machine to examine it. She yanked out Rinnie’s arrow and tossed it aside. Rinnie grumbled while she retrieved the arrow and started to clean it. As everyone watched, Layla punched her thumb through the intact lens and placed her other thumb in the shattered one. She secured her grip.

“One way to find out. Rrrrrrrrrrrah!” Layla roared as she flexed her muscles and pulled her arms apart, the exertion evidently greater than opening either of the doors they passed through before. Metal shrieked as it was torn asunder, welds snapping apart while screws and rivets sheared apart. It was like watching someone split apart a melon with their bare hands- complete with red flesh coming free and dropping to the ground.

A round object hung between the two halves of the machine’s shell, suspended by wires and strips of flesh. Blood dripped from the torn pieces. Though it was stripped of skin, with no nose, ears, lower jaw, or even teeth, everyone knew a humanoid head when they saw it. Vivi retched slightly but held herself back, while Sera took a step back. The others were unphased, but Tiriana had a harsh look on her face.

“Just as I suspected,” she said into the resounding silence, stepping forward to take one of the metal scraps from Layla. She gripped it carefully from the outer shell and legs, keeping the dripping blood well away from herself.

“Disgusting,” was all Layla said, casting the remaining part aside, her curiosity already satisfied. The head, still attached to it, hit the ground with a wet thud as well, tearing free from the half of the machine shell in Tiriana’s hands. While the others looked over the macabre machine, Layla stepped forward to keep watch.

“You knew and didn’t tell us?” Rinnie asked in an accusatory tone, turning on Tiriana.

“I didn’t know for sure yet, and it wouldn’t have made a difference if I had said anything,” the elven mage replied, unperturbed. She wicked away the blood and flesh blocking her view with a spell and hummed in thought as she looked the shell over.

“Some kind of cyborg…” Sera muttered as she looked it over at Tiriana’s side, reminded of similar things she’d seen in fiction before.

“Why would anyone put a head in something like that?” Vivi asked, mystified. Sera already had a guess, though.

“There’s only one reason anyone would do that,” Sera asserted, all eyes shifting to her. “They didn’t know how to make a machine think, so they used something that already could.”

“She’s right.” Tiriana examined the machine part in her hands as she voiced her agreement. “I recognize some of the enchantments in here. They’re similar to the ones used in illusionary reality games to connect with the player’s senses. But there are other parts I don’t recognize.”

“Wait, the tech side was using magic?” That was a first from what Sera recalled. Tiriana had never mentioned magic while examining any of the technology they’d seen so far, and this fortress had no signs of using advanced technology inside of it. If this was a fusion, it was something new.

“The construction is similar to that suit we saw in the labs. This must be related to whatever they were developing there,” Tiriana said as she set the remains aside. “We can only guess at how they developed it, though. Rinnie, good job spotting it, it was probably keeping an eye on us from just out of sight.”

“Didn’t do it for your approval,” the tiny scout scoffed, leaving the group behind to resume her search for traps. As she walked away, Tiriana turned to Sera and gave her a wry smile accompanied by a shrug.

With nothing else to be learned from the abomination of technology and magic, the party continued on.