I rushed over to the opening in the floor, shaking my head. Maybe Dyson had actually killed those gypsies; I’d never seen someone get hurt so many times in such a short period of time. I’ve known the guy for less than two months and he'd suffered more medical emergencies than I cared to keep track of.

“Are you alright?” I called down.

“Peachy.” He yelled back sarcastically. I gathered the rest of the group and we pressed on down the stairs. The chamber had obviously been hidden for a long time, but looked like it had been recently opened. There were lit torches hanging in sconces and the dust on the floor was unsettled. I was immediately on guard.

Dyson lied in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, grasping his knees. He took pain fairly well, I noticed; with some decent training, he’d make a fine warrior if he could get passed the bitching.

“Can you still walk?” I asked, crouching next to him.

“I think I’m gonna sit this one out chief.” He scooted himself across the floor and leaned against the closest wall, opposite the torch lit expanse in front of us. “I’ll guard the door.” He said, summoning the tiny stick that was Death’s Scythe, in its inactivate form.

“If there is anything wrong, just call Orion.” I told him as the others made their way down behind me.

“Do you think we’ll get cell service down here? That’ll be one hell of a roaming charge.” He joked. I gave him a half-smile and stated tuning him out.

“Be safe.” I instructed before moving off down the long hallway. I heard the others fawning over Dyson behind me, but I couldn't shake the feeling we were walking into a trap. Someone knew we would be coming here. Had there been any survivors of the Queen Anne's Revenge?

The cavernous hall opened up enough to fit three of us horizontally, with some arm space. I continued to take up the lead, with Ethan and Tadashi on either side of me and Orion and Amelia behind me. After many missions together, we were used to this. There was the sound of various Artifacts being summoned as we prepared for the worst.

The brick work here was ancient, but looked to have been renovated in the last century or so. The tunnels were wide enough that wagons could have fit down here. The further the lit torches went, the more I feel like we might be walking into something or someone. We approached an intersection and I noticed there wasn't any light coming from the side corridors.

“We are being led this way.” I used Mjolnir to light up the darkened hallways. We moved into a circle, our backs to each other.

“Do you hear that?” Orion piped up. He tilted his head toward one of the halls. “Sounds like stomping.”

Everyone went quiet. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. Then I heard the banging.

Stomp

Stomp

STOMP

A hulking mass flew out of the dark tunnel on my left and I swung Mjolnir hard. The resounding crack of lightning and stone echoed through the whole catacomb. We tightened our circle, as Golem came pouring out of the halls from either side and ahead. I occurred to me that we had been to late to sink the entire crew on the Queen Anne's Revenge. They had disembarked. And had been hiding down here. Or worse, they had found something.

“Stay close. Don’t let them split us up.” I told the others. I could feel shoulders pressed against mine. I could hear Ethan jostling around, getting hyper. When I looked over my shoulder, I realized this was the first time I’d seen him in his armor. Like Amelia, he wore mythical armor that would protect him from almost anything, Achilles Breastplate. I blasted an advancing Golem with lightning as it reached out for me.

“How many of these things are left? Didn’t we sink them all?” Amelia cried out.

“Doesn’t matter! This’ll be exciting!” Ethan cheered. I wished I could share his enthusiasm, but my gut told me there was more at work here.

“Watch what you’re doing!” Amelia shouted back at her brother. He kept darting forward and leaving our protective circle formation. We managed to take a few of them out, but they pressed us in tighter. I understood now why Anders didn't want us fighting these things; they were hard to defeat and in seemingly unlimited supply. That’s when I noticed someone stepping out from behind a bunch of them.

“Damn son, didn’t think it’d be this easy trappin’ you guys!” His smirk revealed gold-capped teeth. Everything about this guy assaulted my sensibilities; from his frosted-tip hair, down to his sagging pants.

“That’s the guy from the boat. He has an Artifact.” Orion warned, swatting a Golem with his bow. He didn't have any room to pull back and take shots and was at a severe disadvantage.

“Are you an Order member?” Amelia asked, darting inside the swing of a Golem fist, and stabbing it in the head with her spear.

“The Order is weak, yo. But I woulda stuck around if there were more girlies like you.” He bobbed his head obnoxiously, grinning wide.

I would have sent Mjolnir out to knock his teeth down his throat, but it would have left me open and we were pressed hard by Golem in every direction.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Who is this clown?” Ethan shot back. The gangsta guy got all puffed up, and pulled a western style revolver from his belt.

“Name’s Quinton,” He said waving the gun about. “I’ll show you who’s clownin’.” He looked like he was going to fire, so I channeled a bunch of energy into a concussive wave and slammed Mjolnir into the ground, knocking everyone, friend and foe, back. It had been a risky move, but I couldn't let anyone get hurt. The impact gave us a chance to break formation and when the others recovered, we became a line, standing shoulder to shoulder so that we couldn't be surrounded again. The Golem that weren't destroyed by the concussive thunder wave got up clumsily, but Quinton was fast to his feet.

“I got tricks too bro!” He said, firing his gun with his wrist bent and the gun held at a strange angle. I felt the burn and the rush of blood on my bicep. It was a grazing hit, but it made his point; he didn’t need to aim to hit us.

"What kind of Artifact is a gun that doesn't miss?" I asked the group. I expected Orion to come up with something, but no one had any answers. It would have had to been some new era Artifact. Eighteen hundreds, western, from the look of the gun. I had never actually seen an Artifact that wasn't from some sort of mythology.

"Wait.” Another voice, from the shadows, called out. It was soft, but commanding. All the Golem stopped moving and even Quinton stopped, albeit, he looked irritated. I had to squint to see him at first, but there was a man leaning against the wall, just out of the torchlight. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could feel him staring back at me.

“I could finish these fools right here, yo!” Quinton shouted over his shoulder.

“Hush.” The shadowed man said, raising his hand. Quinton stomped his foot like a bratty child.

“I figured that moron wasn't the brains behind this whole operation.” I chimed in. "Show yourself, coward."

“Erik Magnusson.” My name left the shadowy man’s lips like a curse, dripping with venom. He moved away from the wall, stepping slowly and purposefully. When he got into the light, I had a hard time staring back at him; his pale eyes didn’t seem to blink. He stood well over six feet tall, imposing but elegant. He was wearing nothing but torn black jeans and a long leather jacket, left open. Blonde hair stood out in contrast to all the black, cascading over the front of his shoulders and down his back.

“If I understand correctly,” His mouth parted in a thin, almost lip-less smile. “Most of you are Legacies. The O’Bryne twins, the son of Magnus, the scrawny one must be the Wells boy…” His eyes scanned over each of us. He stared at Tadashi.

“You're an unexpected addition to this motely team.” He spoke slowly, choosing each word carefully. "Your father must be very disappointed in you to have agreed to send you here. To them."

Tadashi glared at the man, his knuckles going white around his katanas. In typical fashion, he did not reply.

“How do you know who we are?” I growled. Lightning sparked off Mjolnir threateningly, but he stared me down, without even flinching.

“It’s my job to know things. I was once an avid scholar with the Order of Vigilance, the farce that it is. But I have transcended well beyond them now and I've broken free of that weak fallacy. I am the Modern Day Demi-God, ally of the monsters that the Order would oppress, procurer of ancient tools and scholar of mystic arts. I was once like you, but I have become so much...”

“Can we just kill em’ already?” Quinton huffed. The Modern Demi-God guy turned slowly to face his lackey.

“I said silence.” He said calmly, but firmly. His gaze alone was enough too humble Quinton into silence. He turned back to face us.

“I would like to offer you all a choice. You can join me, as I move to correct this destitute world and its digital era. Or you can die here, and be another wasted foot soldier of the Order.” He offered.

There was silence as we all looked each other over. This guy was more of a threat than we were prepared to deal with. We should have listened to Anders. I should have brought my team home. I wanted to blame Orion, but it was only by happenstance that we ended up here. The kitsune had led us to the Parthenon, which just happened to be the brochure Orion had picked up after Dyson was hit by the car...

It all felt like a set up.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Ethan broke the silence and shouted loud enough that it rattled me.

“I am Damien, the Modern Day Demi-God. I will see this world…” He was interrupted again.

“You sound like a typical douchebag villain to me.” Ethan said, swinging his sword about and pointing it at the guy, challenging him.

“Ethan.” Amelia growled under her breath.

“You guys aren’t seriously scared of this guy, right? So what if he knows stuff about us. He’s just some bad guy to be defeated, like all the rest.” Ethan cracked his neck and took up a fighting stance. “I’ll fight you right here Mr. Demi-God.”

“As you wish.” The man, Damien, sighed. He look perturbed to have his monologues continuously cut short.

“Ethan, stop!” Amelia called out. Ethan looked back at his sister and the rest of us and winked, a huge grin on his face. He darted forward and Damien simply backed up and moved out of the way. His movements were fluid. Ethan came in swinging hard, only for Damien to weave in and out of his attack range. I had trained Ethan well, but our opponent didn't appear to be like anything we’d faced before. Ethan lunged and Damien moved off to the side, backhanding him across the face. Ethan took the swat to the face like a champ, grinning through it. Ethan feigned a slash and Damien moved around the edge of the blade, but Ethan reversed his grip and sent his sword into an uppercut. Damien tilted his head up, and the blade almost missed him.

Almost.

The tip of Ethan’s sword cut his chin. Damien backed up and touched the wound, observing it as if he’d never seen his own blood before. Maybe he hadn’t.

“Ha-ha! Easy.” Ethan cheered. He turned to look back at us, confident and proud.

There was a sudden flash of light, like when an Artifact is being summoned, and Ethan’s smile turned into a look of confusion.

Time seemed to stop, I assume, for all of us. Amelia and Tadashi gasped in unison. Orion cried out. I could feel Ethan's name in the back of my throat, but never quite got out. Ethan’s eyes looked around wildly, his hand reaching up to his chest.

Damien thrusted forward, powerfully, and the ancient looking spear tore out the front of Ethan’s chest, blood splattering over the dusty stone. I recognized this Artifact immediately…

The Spear of Longinus. The Holy Lance. The Blade of Destiny.

It was one of the first Artifacts the Order taught new members about. It was rooted in myth and religion, coveted by many for years, and thought lost over time. Or so we had all thought. The Spear of Longinus wasn't supposed to be something that anyone could ever attain. It was a simple spearhead on a broken wooden shaft, but it radiated magical power that could stagger even the most veteran Order members. The God-Killer, they had called it; able to pierce any creature, man or magic

The weapon tore free of Ethan’s body, through Achilles Breastplate, and disappeared in a flash of light, as fast as it had arrived. Ethan’s eyes were vacant, the look of confusion frozen on his face. Damien looked down at him, and shook his head as Ethan's body collapsed to the stone floor.

“You would have made an invaluable asset. Pity.” Damien said, his cold gaze snapping back up to me as if to say, "This is what happens..."

“Kill them all.” He told Quinton, before backing away into the shadows and vanishing from my sight.