Steam jetted out of the four corners where wall met door, instantly warming up the space and creating a short-lived cloud at the end of the room.

“Hot, hot, hot!” Lusco said as he shielded his face beside the interface.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Seena asked him.

“Yes. All expected,” Lusco said, now waving a hand to ineffectually keep the steam back. Just when it seemed like it was completely hopeless, there was a simultaneous and hall-shaking set of ker-chunks. The crossbars – apparently set to keep the door closed – shuddered and then retracted into the same corners where the steam had come from.

“Here we go,” Seena told the party, shoulder-tapping Wallop to take position.

The big Rune-o moved ahead of the rest of the group, Romin on his right side, blunderbuss up and ready for anything. On his other side, Hiral likewise took position, Power Attack and Piercing Shot both primed. Behind them, the rest of the group spread out, Aura of Peace already giving them an extra defensive layer, while the Pack growled in readiness.

They were going in full-tilt, with many of their powerful cooldowns ready for the fight.

After the several, long seconds it took for the bars to retract, the doors finally began to swing open in their direction. More steam jetted from the frame, this time forcing Lusco to awkwardly run back to join the group. Sweat coated his face, but his eyes shone with the excitement of what lay beyond the doors.

They got their answer a few seconds after that – another hallway, from the outline through the steam.

“Seriously?” Yanily asked, lightning crackling on his spear.

As the doors fully opened, however, and the steam cleared, it wasn’t just a hallway they were looking at. About thirty feet further in, a deep blue shimmer hung in the air.

Some kind of energy wall?

It wasn’t completely opaque, but it blurred everything beyond it enough they had no idea what was on the other side. Even his sensory domain couldn’t push through it.

“That remind you of anything?” Seeyela asked. “The barrier the Vassal of Ur’Thul used.”

“Ah, this is one of Tomorrow’s infamous one-way fields,” Vorinal said a second later. “We’re close.”

“And that is what, exactly?” Seena asked.

“Tomorrow is known for setting a guardian near the core of her facilities,” Vorinal said. “One final test for anybody hoping to steal her secrets. As I’ve mentioned, several of these kinds of ruins have been found, though the strength of the guardians has drastically varied. As if Tomorrow was ranking the importance of her work by the power of those she put in place to protect it from thieves.”

“How would this one rate?” Hiral asked, fingers still on his triggers.

“The highest we’ve found so far,” Vorinal said. “Which means whatever is hidden in here is important. All the more reason to believe it may be the specimen we’re looking for.”

“That’s all great,” Seena interrupted. “One-way field? What’s the deal?”

“Sorry,” Vorinal apologized. “The barrier will be powered by the core of the guardian within. Destroy the guardian and the barrier will fall. Fail to do that – fail to defeat the guardian – and you will be the one to fall.”

“We can go in, but can’t come out unless we beat the Boss?” Yanily asked.

“Exactly that,” Vorinal said. “We… will wait out there. When the field vanishes, we’ll know you’ve succeeded, and will join you.”

“Finally, common sense,” Seena whispered for just the party to hear. Louder, she continued, “Anything else we should know about what’s on the other side?”

“Just that this will be the most powerful construct in the facility,” Vorinal said. “Don’t take it lightly.”

“Wasn’t planning to,” Seena said, giving another Wallop another tap.

A huff, and the Runeoceros stomped forward, the metal floor vibrating slightly with each step. The party followed close behind, up to the field, where they gave a quick look back to make sure the researchers were indeed staying behind. The group of would-be-Fallen stood just outside the heavy doorway.

“Go,” Seena said, and the party passed through the field.

An electric charge washed over Hiral’s skin as he cleared the boundary, eyes peeled for any threats. While there wasn’t one clearly obvious, the hallway continued for another twenty feet or so, then bloomed into a massive room beyond.

And, now that he’d made it past the barrier field, his sensory domain told him a lot more. Namely – and most importantly – about the truly massive being in the room ahead of them. Glancing down the hall, it looked like there was a balcony of some kind, directly facing another wall. In reality, that other wall was actually the torso of a construct that had to be hundreds – thousands? – of feel tall. His sensory domain could barely feel the face and shoulders of the thing, the rest of the arms seemingly extending past his range.

“Boss is huge,” Hiral said. “That – right there – is it’s upper chest.”

“Huge on a scale of what we’ve fought before?” Seena asked. “Bigger than The Fourth Crusade?”

“The dragon could probably ride on this guy’s shoulder, like Li’l Ur does on yours,” Hiral said, though it was a bit of an exaggeration. Still, it got the point across. This Boss was big. “That said, now that we’re in here, we have to deal with it.”

“Sounds like you have a plan?” Seena asked, looking over at him and raising an eyebrow.

“There’s a balcony extending around in front of the chest,” Hiral explained, focusing on his sensory domain as much as possible. “We can probably spread out there to attack. Something this big, it isn’t going to be able to move around a lot – the room is big too, but it’s not big enough.”

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“Which means it will have some other ways to attack,” Seeyela said.

“Yes, I think I feel weapons like the Scorpinator had on it.”

“Ranged attacks?” Yanily said.

“Probably. Plus, it’s got to be heavily armored. The core Vorinal mentioned could be anywhere, but I think we should start with its chest. Shatter Armor and then the same thing we did to the Mid-Boss. Melt the brass and punch through.”

“Good start to a plan,” Seena said. “Everybody know what to do? Gran, how’s your healing tank after that last Mid-Boss.”

“I hate fighting metal men,” Gran said. “And bugs. Especially bugs.”

“At least they aren’t spiders,” Yanily pointed out.

“I actually agree with the knucklehead on this one,” Gran continued. “As for your question, girlie, my tank is half full. Work a little faster peeling off some of that armor if you want much more healing than that. And you,” she pointed at the Rune-o, who actually flinched. “Your armor won’t stop everything. Would it kill you to dodge a little?”

Wallop snuffed.

“He says,” Romin started. “He’ll try to be lighter on his feet.”

“Let me help with that,” Hiral said, making sure his scarves were connected to each of his party-mates. A bit of solar energy, his Rune of Increase, and a focus on their attributes boosted each of their stats. “How’s that?”

“Good,” Seena said. “Enough talking about it. Get in there, hit it hard right from the beginning, and watch out for whatever trick we know is coming.”

With the order, Wallop trundled forward, the party hard at his sides until they left the hallway and reached the balcony. From there, the Runeoceros charged forward, the balcony straight ahead extending all the way right up to the top of the absolutely, disgustingly massive chest. Really, the thing dwarfed most buildings. The construct could even give a mountain a run for its money on size.

As Hiral entered, he darted to the right with his doubles and the Pack, while Yanily and Seeyela went left. Taking up the rear – with their ranged options – Seena and Gran stayed in the center near the back, with Romin just ahead of them.

Hiral’s sensory domain told him all of this, but it was hard to focus on that with what stood before his eyes.

The huge room curved to both sides, with titanic arms spread-eagle and held by thick brackets bolted to the wall. Except, each of those brackets was the size of a city street. Just how much of this brass did Tomorrow have? Hands that could easily hold buildings in their palms hung limply. Atop the heavily plated shoulders – as in, actual, spiked epaulettes – the armored head sat completely encased in a helmet, only a single, horizontal eye-slit hinting at what lay beneath. A pair of horns started at the helm’s temples, then ran back along the side of the scalp before they curved up and forward again.

Directly in front of Wallop, the chest-armor – that had to be what it was – looked so thick, the Rune-o might be better off charging a mountain. Still, it was what they had to work with, so even as Hiral released his first powered-up shot from both RHCs, he loaded up Shatter Armor next, and turned his attention to the rest of the room.

Seena was right – there had to be a trick.

Part of his mind tracked his shot, which practically pinged off the chestplate before Wallop followed up, while the rest of his attention scoured the room for hints. Like the chambers after the Mid-Bosses, this place was full of heavy equipment clearly used in the construction of the monstrosity in front of them. Unfamiliar machines hung at all heights; long, mechanical arms holding the house-sized contraptions in place. Many of them ended in two-fingered clamps, while others still had saws or simple, single extensions. What those last ones did, Hiral really had no idea.

Other than that, there where more of the heavy plates that had to have been used to construct the armor. These hung from heavy chains, like they hadn’t been installed yet, in more than a dozen places around the room. Each of these wall-sized sheets of metal were anywhere from three to a dozen-feet thick, and Hiral shuddered at the thought of trying to pound through them – even after using Shatter Armor.

Was that it? Was there no…?

His internal monologue trailed off as he spotted one other thing hidden high above. A spiked mace built to scale for the gigantic construct in front of them. He’d missed it at first because it was slotted into the ceiling, the haft hinged in place, while more thick chains looped just behind the head of the weapon. From a quick look, it’d been built up there in that cubby, and the chains would loosen to allow the whole weapon to be lowered down vertically.

If the Boss was going to use that weapon – in this room – it was going to make for a very bad time for the party.

“Hiral!” Seena said into the party chat. “You daydreaming over there? Shatter Armor.”

Hiral’s attention snapped back to the Boss’s chest where Yanily and Seena each struck with fire and lightning – along with the defense-lowering abilities. His pair of shots followed a second later, one with Shatter Armor and the other with Distracting Shot.

As these attacks all landed, a shiver ran through the giant Boss, while an appropriately large name appeared near its head. Written in letters taller than Hiral was, he actually had to turn his head to take in the whole thing.

(Boss – Construct) Tomorrow’s Colossus (Unknown Rank)

“Looks like that got a reaction,” Hiral said into the party chat, Seena already layering more flames on to superheat the metal ahead of Wallop. Small totems had popped out of the balcony beside her, while the Burning Artillery flared to life over her shoulder, all of them adding more firebolts to zip past the Rune-o tank and strike the Boss – along with dozens of Shooting Stars. Then again, the damn thing was so big, she’d have to try to miss…

On the other side, Yanily hurled more Chain Lightning at the torso, the arcs of electricity running along the metal, biting and tearing at the brass ineffectually until they ran out of energy and vanished. Seeyela had Bamf’d up to the top of the head, and she crouched down to stab at it. From the tink tink tink that somehow echoed clearly above Seena’s fiery barrage, the older sister wasn’t doing much damage.

On Hiral’s side, Right had dash forward to repeatedly pound on one section of metal. Since the Boss wasn’t fighting back – yet – the double took his time to line up each perfectly executed punch. Blow after blow rhythmically pounded on the metal, his Auroran Conquerers flashing with each punch.

After four punches, there was a slight dent. Probably. It could’ve been a trick of the light.

Beside Right, Left had both Daggers of En and Sath poised above his head, reverse-gripped, and stabbed down as one. The two streams that followed behind exploded out of the tips, to splash about as harmlessly off the metal as throwing a bucket of water would.

Hiral’s shots were doing a little better, Piercing Shot+ and Power Attack+ making for a decent defense-penetrating option against a stationary target where Seena and Wallop were focusing. Already, the metal had bowed inward, stress fractures appearing along the edges. Heat radiated outward across the balcony, an occasional needle from Gran striking the tank to replenish the damage he was taking from being so close to where Seena hammered away.

A few more seconds of that, and even Left joined in, his Waters of Frey splashing across the big companion to the sound of a grateful snort. They’d learned Left’s Waters weren’t nearly as good as Gran’s healing for quick, big bursts of healing. They acted much better as a quick regeneration, recovering health over time. In other words, they were perfect for the burns Wallop was suffering.

“How thick is this?” Seena asked, another Cinder+ and Fireball hitting the chest.

“Three feet, minimum,” Hiral said. “Just look at those sheets of metal above us. They’ve got to be what this thing is made of.”

“And we’re supposed to get through that?”

“If this thing isn’t going to fight back, we will eventually.”

“Why would you even say that?” Yanily asked, light flashing within the visor of the Boss’s helmet like the thing had fully woken up. And woken up angry, at that. “See?!”

All at once, motion bloomed to Hiral’s sensory domain – the turrets he’d felt earlier powering up to life. Along the massive arms, weapons around the size of Romin’s blunderbuss swiveled in the party’s direction.

“Incoming!” Hiral said, just in time for dozens of bolts of hardened energy to shoot at each of the party members.