There was no way for the teens to know how many floors had collapsed and how much soil there was between them and freedom. Loki had stopped answering Finn's calls, so they were on their own, hunched over in a tiny tunnel of their own creation. With their stomachs rumbling increasingly louder and Michael’s arm looking more and more tasty, the teens kept digging until they were dry of mana and their fingernails were filled with dirt.
Eventually, they reached the place where the giant purple crystal had been. At the very center of the former pillar, they uncovered a tiny pool of energy, shallow in depth and only three feet in diameter. Its color was red, like fire, yet it reminded Finn of the lake at the labyrinth’s entrance.
“Will this take us out?” asked Tommy. “Or is there a seventh floor?”
All eyes turned towards Annie, whose mouth kept closing and opening. “I, I’m not sure. The array is functional, like someone rebuilt it from scratch.”
“Awesome,” said Michael.
“But I don't know the coordinates. It’s set to take us somewhere, maybe back to the surface, or maybe somewhere else.”
"Somewhere above ground or…?"
Annie shrugged. Just like that, they were back to square one. They had no way of knowing whether the array would free or bury them another six feet under.
"Is it possible for the array to have survived the blast?" asked Tommy.
"No, it should have been destroyed."
Hearing this, Finn dropped his head into his palms, and after a lot of thinking, he raised two fingers: "Then there are two possibilities:
1. The array was restored by the Phoenix to help us out, hence the red color.
2. It was made by Mammon to screw with us, hence the red color.
My guess is this will either take us to freedom or right to Mammon's treasure room."
Finn placed a finger into the pool and added: “I'm 60% sure it was the phoenix."
"Great," Natalie rolled her eyes.
"So, we're 40% dead," said Michael. "I say we climb."
"I agree," added Tommy.
"I vote we try the array," said Annie.
“You’re that desperate to see what it does?” asked Michael.
“No, but I can modify it a bit and flip the coordinates to random. It might get us into more trouble, but…”
“We’re in trouble as it is.”
The energy in the surrounding soil was becoming more and more scarce the more Finn and Annie absorbed it. If Loki was with them, he would have explained that the labyrinth above was sucking in the nearby energy, effectively depleting the soil of mana. Finn didn’t know this, but he could tell: “If we stay here much longer, we may never get out. I say we wing it.”
After some hesitation, Natalie raised her arm and agreed. Michael followed, while Tommy still voted to climb.
It was four against one, so Finn pulled out a tiny piece of rope from the labyrinth’s gatekeepers, and they all wrapped one of their hands with it. Once Annie finished tinkering with the array and it turned into a light shade of purple, everyone stretched their limbs, arranged themselves in a basic battle formation, and prepared to jump in.
Finn, now standing at the very front, turned his head for a moment and gave his final speech:
“Well, I believe congratulations are in order. After all, we’re still alive.”
“For now,” muttered Michael.
“That’s all that matters,” said Tommy.
“Wherever we land, our goal should be to run and find somewhere safe. Me and Annie are at 25% strength, Michael’s gloves have little to no mana, and you two have no weapons. We need to regroup and recover, and strike only when we’re back in shape.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“And if we end up face to face with Mammon?” Natalie chuckled.
“Then… We’re fucked,” Finn smiled. He then pulled out the demon’s mana drained finger and gave it to Annie. “Fortunately, we’re not so easy to kill. Let’s go.”
One by one, they plunged into the array, first Finn, then Natalie, Annie, Tommy, and finally Michael. The tiny pool took in their bodies with ease, releasing only a flash of light after each of them entered.
Perhaps, if their mana levels had been higher or the pool’s creator was a weaker being, it might have taken longer. However, as things stood, one moment Finn was surrounded by dirt, and in the next, he was somewhere else completely.
For a bit, Finn thought he was not taken anywhere, that they were all still stuck inside the pool of mana. However, the color of the pool was different, the water all around him was blue, and out of the dark depths of the ocean, an oversized snake appeared and tried to bite him.
In fact, the five headed snake tried to bite his entire team, all at once, but it did not go well for it. While the warriors evaded with ease, Annie sliced open its heads one by one. Finn did not yet know how to manipulate water, so instead, he sent mana to his arms and crushed one of the snake’s heads between them.
‘We’re in the ocean,’ he realized. ‘Not the worst place to teleport, but this is still enemy territory.’
He clapped his hands a couple of times, sending shockwaves through the water to grab everyone’s attention. He then pointed down.
‘We need to hide.’
After Annie summoned air bubbles around the three warrior’s heads, they all descended into the depths of the ocean. The water pressure was slowly increasing and their visibility was nill. Worse yet, Finn could feel the mana signatures of countless powerful mutants nearby.
‘I can probably take them, but not while babysitting.’
Eventually, his feet touched the sand, and Annie expanded the air bubbles into a larger one encompassing all of them.
“We’re so fucked!” Michael all but shouted.
“I couldn’t see Trident city anywhere,” said Natalie.
“The ocean surrounds our continent from all sides,” said Annie. “We can be anywhere.”
"There are worse places we could've been sent to," said Tommy. "But underwater we're at a severe disadvantage."
After some more back and forth, Finn interrupted:
“Annie, bury the bubble underground, for now. You guys rest while I check out the surroundings.”
“We should move together,” said Natalie.
“No.” Finn gave Annie a look and the air bubble started burying itself into the sand. Before it was fully submerged, Annie clasped her palms, and upon opening them, a long, one edged, steel knife emerged.
It was all steel and a bit too wide at the top, but it was better than nothing.
“Thanks,” Finn nodded before disappearing into the darkness. Using his mana to propel himself, he basically flew through the water towards the nearest mana signature he could find.
It was a giant crab with even bigger pincers and the heads of random fish and mutants decorating its spine.
Finn tried to cut one of its pincers, but Annie’s knife bent under the pressure. A slight scratch was left on the beast, but that was about it.
‘I need a proper weapon, some high tier loot, or maybe...’
The crab tried to crush him with his pincers, but after dodging a few times, the boy had had enough.
‘Get baked, crabster.’ He opened his palm and shot a fist-sized sun at the crab. The ball exploded with the force of 50 TNT, obliterating half its body.
The nearby water boiled along with the crab's insides, and soon after, what was left of it collapsed on the ocean floor, releasing purple blood in its surroundings.
‘That’s definitely not edible… Damnit.’
For the next few days, Finn traveled the ocean floor, roasting mutants while recovering his power. To speed up the process, he eventually turned his right hand into a long blade, and started slicing everything in his path.
To his ever growing frustration, edible creatures were few and far between. Non-mutants had very little mana, so detecting their signatures was a pain.
"We've stopped starving to death, but at this rate, we'll return home just skin and bones.’
While carrying a still wiggling shark by the tail, the not mutated kind, Finn made one final trip towards a part of the ocean floor he had yet to explore.
From afar, something caught his attention. ‘Well, I’ll be damned.’ Finn swam straight to it, his grin widening the closer he got.
‘Homebase acquired!’
Suddenly, two beams of light shot at him. Finn dodged, and the lasers left a deep trail in the sand.
‘Hoho, this base has quite the security system.’
After avoiding the next few attacks, Finn came face to eyes with his intended target. It was a snail the size of a four story building, its shell pointing up like it was trying to pierce through the surface. Its dark-blue eyes wiggle from side to side and glowed as if it was about to shoot again.
‘Give up your shell, buddy, and I’ll let you live.’
As if in response to Finn’s thoughts, the creature released a terribly loud noise, a mix between a building collapsing and a tiger’s growl. Yet, for some reason, this noise sounded different to Finn’s ears. While the sand rose up like a mist all around him, the boy heard clearly: ‘Buuuuddy, come and get it.’