Katherine slid through reality, mostly submerged in the deep like a shadow, untouchable, unseen, nearly impossible to focus on.

The abandoned, desolate version of Undertown stretched out around her, layered under mundane physical reality, buildings warped and distorted as if seen through dark water between the state of intact and in ruin.

Halfway in the deep, everything was muted and smudged. Colors bled away leaving only shades of gray and black. Sounds came as if from very far away, echoing oddly.

She moved silently through the twisted streets, mapping the terrain, listening to conversations, tracking, sniffing, determining the source of all fear, suffering, misery and pain that permeated the Shandrian underworld like a smothering blanket. A blanket that sated her Predator-Phase, fueled her Fractal Engine heart, made her legs work properly.

Katherine slithered deeper into the twisted streets, following the trail of addiction and despair that led like breadcrumbs. The scent of Topaz was unmistakable - a sickly sweet crisp smell of false dreams that clung to everything in Undertown. It poured from blue-tinted skin-wrapped cigars in people's mouths, it pulsed from the drinks many bloated figures were nursing. It emanated from the crystalline azure-blue powder some were inhaling within the Topaz dens all around.

Shadows twisted and writhed around her as she moved, deep Echoes responding to her presence. In the deep, she was more than just herself, she was a Stollwurm - she was a living nightmare, a predator that fed on fears, the Queen of Echoes, drawn to suffering, sated by deepest darkest nightmares of others imprinted on everything down below.

She wasn't a big fan of it all, but she was born with it, grew up with it, accepted the deep as part of who she was. Now she was using her power to protect her delving team, feeling that if she didn't help out now, then Undertown would most likely chew them all up and then swallow them whole.

The trail of fears led her to a large underground cavern at the Eastern side of Undertown. The biggest Topaz den, the source of a river of fear and misery blooming nasty, albeit deliciously crunchy Echoes across the deep.

She phased right through doors which were all missing in the deep. The aura of the magic drug's presence was overwhelming here - a nauseating miasma of artificial dreams crawling atop shattered hopes. It poured from the blue-tinted, swollen bodies of addicts covering the floor of the den cavern.

Katherine inhaled the misery and rushed upstairs, phasing through several magisteel-plated doors heading into the biggest, fanciest room she could find. One that smelled of fear, of power, of greed and hoarding gold.

The Stollwurm melted into the darkest corner of the luxurious office, emerging a bit out of the deep to spy on its inhabitant. The space was opulent - all polished obsidian and gold trim, with expensive rugs and ancient artifacts displayed in glass cases. A weird-looking, large, faded painting-sculpture made from what looked like a bunch of ossified digits hung behind the owner of this domain.

A fat, balding, blue-tinted human in gold and blue robes sat behind a mahogany table, tapping a bloated, artifact-ring covered finger into a very large crystal ball.

Katherine instantly recognized Gabriella Matrosin, the catgirl bank attendant, who stared back at the Den owner from the crystalline Voicecast sphere.

"Explain it to me again. What happened to this year's Topaz shipment, Gabs?" the man demanded. "I have distributors waiting. Important people. The kind that don't like to be kept waiting. Why do I have to waste my time calling you myself about this?"

"Apologies, Grand Moloch Arkenish," Gabriella's projection flickered in the crystal ball. "There's been... a complication."

"What complication?" Arkenish growled.

"Lord Zalimar didn't come through the gate," Gabriella let out. "Only his students came through. I was waiting for him all day, but he didn't show up."

"What do you mean Zalimar didn't come through?!" Arkenish demanded. "He always comes through! He's our supplier! He's never been late with a shipment! What happened to him?"

"I asked the last party of novitiate student delvers from Arx about it," Gabriella sighed, her whiskers twitching. "According to their Student President and highest ranked Captain, Quint... a group of rowdy students challenged Lord Zalimar to a duel to the death."

"A duel?" Arkenish sputtered. "And then what?!"

"And then they won," Gabriella said with a deep frown. "They banished him into another dimension. Quint told me that they can't reach him. He said that Zalimar will be gone for two weeks from his job at the very least. Due to the temporal dilation, that's.... over three years and two months of no Topaz shipments."

"THREE YEARS?!" Arkenish slammed his fist on the desk. "WHAT?! Who challenged him? Who has the audacity to disrupt our business?!"

"A new delving team from Earth," Gabriella said. "They call themselves 'I Love You'. Human-looking Quartermaster Alexander Glock, Quetzalcoatl Captain Cinder Nova, Thunderbird Slayer Vespera Simmi, Mothman Door Iogann Wanderer, and Knight Stollwurm Katherine Kells."

Katherine's emerald eyes narrowed at the mention of her name.

Gabriella pulled a canvas from her robes and unfurled it. The paint on it swirled, images of the five students forming on the canvas one by one.

"Find them!" Arkenish growled. "Find them so that I can peel the flesh off their bones and..."

"Already found," Gabriella interrupted. "According to our Scrutimancers they went to Undertown. They're staying at the Gloomy Horse Guild. Our agents are already closing in. We should have them up bagged soon."

"Good," Arkenish leaned back in his chair. "Nobody disrupts my business. Nobody! I want their fingers before this day ends."

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Of course," Gabriella nodded. "Our business with Lord Zalimar cannot be disrupted for so long. Far too much valuable trade is tied to the Shandrian Earth-Arx gate. These kids won't see another sunrise. We'll make them disappear, chop them up, destroy their artifacts. You'll have new fingers mounted on that wall soon, don't fret."

Katherine looked up at the weird 2.5D painting behind the man. She realized that it was made from fingers of various colors.

"Good tomorrow, Grand Moloch," the crystal ball went dark as Gabriella's image faded away.

Arkenish slammed his fists into the table, making the wood groan.

"DAMNATION!" He barked and then started to mutter to himself. "Three bloody years. Three years! Damn it all! I have to call up all of the warehouses... have to make the supplies we already have last... order duplicator mages to copy what we have... stretch the lesser quality copied stuff over the years, increase the price."

Arkenish slumped back in his chair, muttering more colorful curses under his breath. He reached for a fat cigar, his hands shaking slightly as he lit it, exhaling the blue-tinted smoke.

Katherine emerged fully from the deep, her emerald eyes blazing. Arkenish's head snapped up, the cigar falling from his trembling fingers as her magisteel-covered claws closed around his neck, lifting the man up with ease from his seat.

"Who... how did you..." he stammered, trying to reach for something under his desk.

Katherine pulled the fat man into the deep and unleashed her aura, pouring all of the fear and pain she'd collected from roaming across Undertown into Arkenish.

He screamed, flailed in her grip, eyes bulging in horror.

"Hello," Katherine hissed. "I hear you're having supply chain issues."

"You..." The man let out, shaking in her claws. "You're one of them... Earth-delvers! K-Katherine Kells!"

"Yes," she growled. "And you better recall those assassins if you want to live."

"I... I cannot!" The Grand Moloch bawled. "I'm just the distributor! The Undertown Topaz Den proprietor! The Arx Bank controls everything from above! Please... I'm just a middleman! R-rep Gabriella... she's the one who forwards the order of the Bankers to the Enforcers! They're the ones who..."

"How long?" Katherine tightened her grip, letting more fear seep into the man's mind.

"T-thirty m-minutes," the man cried. "In thirty minutes your friends will be arrested and executed!"

"Tell me everything quickly," she growled. "About the bank. About Gabriella. About the Topaz trade. Everything."

"The... the Arx B-Bank controls everything!" Arkenish gasped through her iron grip. "They... they own most of Shandria! The Topaz trade... it's just one part of their operation! We all work for them, me n Gabs, every Guild in U-Undertown obeys the Loan Sharks! Everyone d-down here is indebted to the Arx Bank! They own many i-independent city states all across Arx!"

"How many city states?"

"I... I don't know the exact number!" The man trembled. "It is a very vast network, encompassing p-parts of the Shadow Empire and f-far, far beyond it. You and your friends are already dead! The B-Bankers... They're... they're not gonna stop till they feed you to the Shadows! Nobody can get away from th-their enforcer mages! Y-you kids made a b-big mistake! Nobody screws with their interdimensional suppliers!"

"Nobody?" Katherine's eyes flashed dangerously. "Watch me."

"Please!" he begged, shaking in her claws. "I'll give you anything! Money! Power! Women! Men! Children! Anything you desire! Just don't..."

"Shut up," Katherine growled. "I'm not interested in your pathetic bribes. I want information. Weaknesses. Names. Locations. Everything, everyone that you know that ties Undertown to the Arx Bankers and Zalimar!"

"I... I can't!" Arkenish whimpered. "They'll kill me! They'll kill my family! They'll..."

Katherine's claws tightened, drawing blood. "I can do much, much worse." She promised. "You'll wish that you were dead."

The man screamed as her Stollwurm aura pounded into his psyche, tearing it asunder.

"No! NO more! Please!!!" The man sobbed, shaking like a leaf. "The Loan Sharks... they're not normal Arx-kin. They're... they're something else. Something ancient, something from another dimension. They've been running things on Arx since before the Shadow Empire rose up to take o-over Shandria! They have Skyships that travel between cities! Gates that can go anywhere on Arx! More p-permanent, i-interdimensional gates! There are several branches of the Arx Bank in Shandria... Closest one is next to the Cathedral f-facing the central square! One in the Guild District on 382 Barbariss Street. The third one is in the Market District, facing the Gilded Gryphon Inn. There is a secret b-branch in Undertown in the Assassins Guild. There's a yellow folder in my safe behind the finger-sculpture! It has names of all the Arx Bank reps I work with... Everything I know about them! I've been collecting information about t-them and their s-servants! Figuring out everything in case they betrayed me!"

Katherine growled.

"I can be of use to you!" The man begged. "Please! I'll serve you! I can work with you! The power of the Bank won't be easily broken! They g-give everyone these m-magic b-bracelets, see?" The man shook a hexagonal-textured bracelet on his wrist. "They s-slowly eat everyone's mana, tell everyone their S-system Stats, translate every language into every language!"

"Everyone in Shandria has these bracelets?" Katherine demanded.

"Y-yes!" Arkenish nodded frantically. "The Bank gives them out for free, once! They say it's a service, a gift to help people track their Skills and System Stats and translate languages! But really... really they're gathering data! They know everything about everyone! Where we go, what we do, how much mana we have, who we talk to!"

Katherine's eyes narrowed as she examined the hexagonal bracelet on the man's wrist. It looked identical to Lazarus bracelets they received at school, but it smelled a bit off, the texture looked scratched up, duller, less magical, less... alive. She inhaled deep, tapped it with a claw.

A shoddy, modified, magical copy... likely created with a duplicator artifact.

"Give me the combination to your safe," Katherine growled.

"3-8-2-1-5!" The man sobbed. "Please... I've told you everything I know!"

"Good," Katherine said. "I already have one annoying human. I don't need another, especially not one that's cursed by a million ghosts. Have fun being devoured by your victims."

She released him into the darkness and dove out of the deep back into the office, still submerged 1/5 of the way in.

She walked to the safe, idly noting how monstrous, shimmering, pearlescent-blue, stretched out, skittering, crawling, many-limbed, hollow humanoids advanced from all around towards Arkenish.

The deep Echoes descended on the screaming man like a swarm of locusts, tearing into his flesh and soul, seeking vengeance for the pain and misery he had inflicted upon them while they were still alive.

Katherine turned away from the grisly scene, tearing the painting off the wall to get to the safe. She used the combination to unlock it and spotted the yellow folder amongst piles of jewels, contracts, paperwork and coins, stuffing everything into her bag.

The Arx Bank controlled everything. Instructor Zalimar was in cahoots with them, probably selling Omnid magitek to them!

The bracelets. The translations. The Stats. Even the Topaz trade was just one tendril of their vast operation. And now their agents were annoyed with a certain pesky human who messed with their primary supplier.

She had no time to lose and four of her idiot... friends to save.