“Hikaru, look that's where we need to get in.”

Yuri pointed toward a door that led inside a giant globe shaped building. Instead of opening, the door seemed to just become vaguely transparent, which made it so solid things were able to pass through it.

According to some research and asking around local folks, this kind of door was in place in order to make sure no contaminants got inside through the air, and it made for really great security. Once it became solid again, the door became as impenetrable as the building itself.

The building was made so it was both highly resistant to physical and magical interference.

Made from the best the city could create. Yuri doubted it would be impossible for her and Hikaru to break through the building. Doing so however, would guarantee they would get detected, besides breaking through something like that would take a while. By that point they would be surrounded by highly trained personnel wielding magical devices of the highest grade.

“The energy conversion device should be inside..but how to get through undetected...”

Just as she was saying this, a floating metal plate that was carrying bags of some sort of trash, exited the building, the door growing slightly see-through to allow it to pass. On the front of the floating metal plate, was someone dressed in dull grey robes, wearing a small hat that had the symbol of a broom on it.

–

“Come on Hikaru, hurry up!”

She urged him while putting on the grey robes.

Hikaru carefully lifted up the unconscious janitor and put him inside a large metal trash canister, where he will no doubt wake up a few hours later, with a confused headache.

“There only appears to be one set of clothes..how will the both of us get in?”

He asked.

“Hmm..” Yuri glanced at the floating metal plate.

“Either inside a trash bag or clinging underneath the plate.”

Weighing his options, Hikaru sighed.

A few seconds later, Yuri was driving the floating metal plate back towards the globed building. Hikaru clung tightly onto the underside of the metal plate, his fingers digging slightly into the softer than usual metal in order to keep from falling.

Arriving at the entrance, she squinted at the door. There didn't appear to be any security, which meant the doors should be automatic. Looking around, she found a small magic circle at the side of the door.

Obviously not knowing the password or having the right credentials. She opted for drawing a few runes around it and short-circuiting it.

The gate flickered, going in and out of its transparent mode.

Yuri quickly got on the floating plate device and drove through the gate. Just as she was driving in, the gate flickered again. As a result, a part of the metal plate ended up being left outside, cut off by the gate materialising itself on it.

Hikaru sighed in deep relief, an inch further and it would have cut off his toes.

Yuri kept driving inside the tunnel leading deeper and deeper into the building. After a while it seemed weird that they hadn't reached the other end of the building.

That's when she noticed, they were going deeper and deeper in, but not inside the building, but underneath it, down underground.

The roof of the tunnel was filled with wires that pulsated in a light yellow, Giving the tunnel a soft yellow ambiance.

“Geez. Is it monkey Monday..everything is banana coloured.”

She grumbled.

Several minutes of Yuri grumbling later, they arrived at a station-like place.

A few other similar floating plates were parked neatly against the wall, next to them was a door, secured with metal thick enough that the door itself was more like a cube than a plate.

Unlike the entrance outside, this one seemed to just be pure steel. No magical protection present in anything except the floating plates that looked like wide scooters the size of a car.

Getting out from underneath the floating plate, mostly because he feared it would suddenly drop on him at any moment, Hikaru walked up to Yuri, waiting for their next action.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Hikaru, your turn”

The large steel door that was more like a cube was cut into several smaller cubes by Hikaru, which crumbled when he kicked it with some force.

Walking inside, they were faced with three doors. None of which seemed to have any sort of sign to where they led.

“Is this some sort of trap...”

Yuri muttered, a drop of sweat flowing down her face.

“This must be a security measure. If we choose the wrong door, we get trapped or locked out. Why else would a facility like not have clear signs to what the different signs are..then how would you know which door it is..you're told by one of the other employees..dammit..we should have questioned that janitor...”

“Yuri. The wires on the ceiling lead to the door on the left.”

Hikaru said simply, barely paying attention to her pointless worrying.

“Oh. Then what are the other doors for then?”

Checking the other rooms, she found that one was the toilets, and the other was a small room with sofas and tables that contained some fruits. “Toilets and a staff room..”

Yuri laughed awkwardly.

“Let's just go inside then.”

She changed back to her normal comfortable white dress in the staff room and swiped a banana looking fruit from there.

Glad to be out of the baggy janitor clothes in which she could barely walk, she slowly munched on the banana-like fruit.

“Well, ladies first I guess.” She said sarcastically and opened the door.

The entire room spanned almost an entire cubic kilometre.

That something this big was underground wasn't the most impressive part however, it was the fact that every bit of the walls, ceiling and floor, was covered in wires, all kinds of wires and cables of all kinds of colours.

All the wires and cables ended in the middle of the room, where the wires formed a platform both on the floor and the ceiling. In the middle of the two platforms where all the wires ended up connecting to, was a white bone horn.

The horn seemed to fill the entire length of the room with brilliant white light.

“That's..that is no device. That's a godly relic..!”

Hikaru exclaimed in surprise.

–

“Wait I thought they didn't rely on any gods?”

Tilting her head, Yuri asked curiously.

“Seems like it is not as everyone believes it to be..”

Squinting slightly, Hikaru slowly observed the floating horn.

“We've been had! And here I thought we were going to have something cool to steal-”

She cut herself off.

“Wait, this is better than what we came here for! And there's not even a single guard here. Easiest relic heist ever, let's go and get it!”

“I don't think this place is as unguarded as you think it is.”

Keeping Yuri from rushing forward, Hikaru was holding Yuri by the collar of her dress.

“What are you on about Hikaru, there's not even a single protection spell in the way, let's go and get it!”

“Observe your surroundings. Relax your vision.”

Still looking at the relic, Hikaru kept holding her.

She sighed slightly and tried to relax.

When she did, she noticed something unusual. The ground seemed to be moving.

No it wasn't the ground, it was just the wires and cables covering the ground that were moving slightly.

She could almost see something beneath the jumble of wires. Something metal and round.

Slowly, the small metallic shapes began to appear from beneath the cables.

“What are those. Bugs..?”

Looking closer, she thought they looked kind of like really large beetles.

“Those are not insects..they are presumably what guards this place. Yuri stand behind me.”

“Spoken like a true knight, but I can take care of myself. I have good old knifey here. I can take care of a few bugs.”

Her dagger was spun slightly when she drew it from beneath her clothes.

The metallic shapes vibrated simultaneously, while electric looking liquid oozed out of them.

“Don't tell me, they're like that thing we saw earlier.”

Slowly backing away, Yuri made sure to stay behind Hikaru like she was told.

He only responded by drawing his sword.

The brilliant white light mixed with the lights of hundreds of yellow blobs all around them.

Each blob slowly formed itself into a vaguely humanoid shape.

“What the hell...how many of them are there...”

She was slightly frightened by the overpowering yellow light that was taking over the giant underground space.

“Judging by how large this place is..and how far apart they're standing..at least half a thousand..if not more.”

The golden liquid looking figures slowly began walking towards them, their movements completely In sync.

“Sure would have been nice if I had prepared some gauntlets...”

She was unsure if there was anything she could draw any runes on except for her body.

Suddenly one of the metallic hearts that the golden figures had as their core appeared in front of Yuri.

Looking at Hikaru in surprise, she noticed his figure flickering slightly as the shimmering golden figure of one of their enemies disappeared from inside out almost as if its core had been ripped out.

“Use that to protect yourself, there are enough of them that some may slip through, I can't take that risk”

“Show off.”

She gratefully picked up the metal heart and took it apart. She made a mini buckler of its outside which she held with her left hand. She quickly drew a few runes on its surface and prepared herself with tiny shield in her left hand and a tiny dagger in her right.

“Let's add that relic to our collection then”