Jadai cursed and tossed Lord Attomas aside and glared at him, "This is not over, I will be reporting your actions directly to the King."

Lord Attomas stood and said, "We will see if you are able to do so." Lord Attomas went to the door and pointed outside. "We need to get to that closest tower before we are swarmed by the mass of the goblin army. Once we do, they won't be able to follow us inside that tower. I suggest we move now, or we won't make it."

"Lead us quickly." Jack then tossed Ritalassa to Veronica, as he picked up the pregnant plant monsterkin. Jadai grunted then helped pick up the pregnant Harpy woman. Maetrin helped up Alice who was despondent. Riley pulled the axe off her back and looked at the tower that Lord Attomas had pointed to. It was one of five that towered over the cavern. It had a weird purple sheen to it and a crystal orb made up it's top.

Lord Attomas began to run, and they followed. Riley made sure she was next to Lord Attomas just in case he tried to slip away from them. They ran down a set of stairs that lead into the city. As she ran, Riley could feel the city start to come alive as the bell was ringing behind them.

At every intersection Lord Attomas would just take a second to choose where they needed to go, to Riley the streets made no sense. Rather than built like they were for people, it felt far more like another maze they were running through. Her Presence Detection was screaming that the buildings they passed were filled with goblins.

Running by them, she had to dodge out of the reach of spears and swords that came swinging at them by goblins leaning out of windows. When Riley ran underneath a balcony a small green goblin jumped onto her back with screeching into her ear.

It began to attack her with a small knife trying to slash Riley's throat open. Blocking several of the blows with her arm, she felt pain as the blade sliced deep into her muscle. In pain and fury she reached back and grabbed the thing by its rags, and threw it to the ground and slammed her axe into the thing's skull killing it.

She quickly caught back up with Lord Attomas and noted that the nobleman had at some point activated those flying stones. If a goblin got too close to him a large bolt of blue fire would strike out and incinerate the goblin. They were crossing an intersection when hundreds of arrows began to rain down upon them.

Veronica dashed forward and yelled "In the Name of My Lord I shall protect Thee!" She raised her hand and a giant blue shield appeared and blocked the incoming arrows from attacking them. Riley nodded to Veronica as she passed and continued onward.

A pair of malicious looking goblins jumped out in front of Riley, and before she could attack them, a strand of web caught them and swung them into the side of a building. Looking back she saw Inky jumping from building to the side of another building following them. As she was looking back, she also saw Snort had grown a bit larger, and was attacking any goblin that got close to Princess Falean, it simply crushed one goblin's head in its maw.

Tearing her gaze forward, Riley saw a group of heavily armed goblins had rounded the corner and was running towards them. Behind her she heard Megan yell "Charge Through!" Riley activated the skill she had purchased the day before and started her charge.

With every step she could feel the energy of the charge build up, and she came barrelling towards the goblins with her axe out. They attempted to stop her only for Riley to cut through them as she continued her charge. All who stood in front of her were killed.

Breaking through the group, Riley found Yukali by her side. She was battling a large goblin who was attempting to use a net to capture Yukali. Dodging his attack, she sliced through its arm then decapitated it. Yukali saw Riley looking and nodded towards her.

A loud stomping of feet could be heard, and the ground began to shake as the main force of goblins was approaching. Goblins began to drop off the roofs in a frenzy to get at the group. Lord Attomas had a manic look about him, and he yelled in an almost gleeful way "We are almost there!".

Reaching a corner, they turned, and Riley could see the Tower again. Goblins seemed to pop up everywhere slowing them down. Passing a hole in the street, Riley was startled when a goblin reached out and gripped her leg. Almost tripping, she was about to pulverize it's arm, when Telvin ran by and fired an arrow into its face, then letting loose several more at goblins in front of them.

When they reached the plaza in front of the tower, several elderly goblins stood in front of them. Riley could feel them attempting to cast some sort of magic. Alexia roared "Out of our way! INFERNO!" Alexias tattoos roared to life and Riley felt an intense magic, then felt her skin nearly burn as an intense blast of fire engulfed the goblins and they died screaming.

Riley passed the charred remains, and looking ahead of Riley failed to see a way to get into the tower. It seemed to be covered in a purple metal, and no clear entrance could be seen. She ran over a series of sigils that had been carved into the ground and reached the side of the tower. 

"Yes this is the way!" Lord Attomas said excitedly and reached down into his pouch and pulled out a rod from his pack and forced it into a small hole Riley had not spotted before. When he did that a small door opened up and he dashed quickly in.

Jack with Jadai holding the pregnant women followed him inside, and Riley ushered the others into the tower as fast as possible. The Empire outcast Marden was looking terrified and fled into the building as fast as possible. Lady Niadas followed as well with Princess Falean. Snort had shrunk to fit into the temple door.

When the goblins reached the line of sigils, they stopped as if they hit a wall. This did not stop them from starting to fire arrows and magic at them. Veronica held the shield and the others all soon entered the tower. Once everyone was inside, Veronica dropped the shield and entered with everyone.

Riley saw Jack pull a lever near the door, and it closed behind them. Looking around them, Riley found they were in a large entrance chamber of the tower. In the middle of the room, were several strange looking crystals rotating around a sphere. There were two sets of stairs. One led upwards and the other down.

Jadai had placed the pregnant monsterkin down and then turned towards a giddy looking Lord Attomas, "What the fuck was that? That was more than a few goblins that you warned us about. Hell, that was an army!"

"You think I should have informed you? What would you have done? Go to the King? If you had done that, I wouldn't have had the chance to come here." 

"Are you insane? There is no point in coming here seeking treasure, when we won't even live to retrieve it. There is no way to even explore the city!" Jadai yelled then walked away angrily rubbing his face.

They were quiet for a moment, then Maetrin spoke up "Is everyone okay?"

"I got cut up badly, can you take a look?" Riley asked him, and he nodded. He used his healing powers on her arm, making it whole again. She took a look and saw her HP had returned to full. Maetrin looked around, and other than some minor wounds, no one else had any serious injuries.

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Lady Niadas spoke up after standing in thought for a long time, "I saw several unique goblins as we ran. Some of those have never been seen since the Goblin wars." She looked at Lord Attomas and said "This isn't a normal goblin army is it?"

"You have some good eyes" Lord Attomas giggled and said "No, this Goblin army isn't normal. It's a remnant of one of the Armies that fought during the war. They have been sealed up in here for countless years."

Fear flashed across Lady Niadas face and she said "Don't tell me that one of those things is in here! Oh god we are dead!" 

"What things?" Jack asked.

Jadai frowned and said "You may know that goblins seize women as hosts for their children. They mark the souls to allow them to birth more goblins. There are several levels to the marks. What many don't know is at the very high levels. The women are changed. They gain control over the goblins, and what's more become incredibly powerful. They were the true terrors of the goblin wars."

"There was a story of one razing a city to a ground by herself." Lady Niadas added.

"Yes, a very terrifying bunch!" Lord Attomas said seriously, trying to hide a smile. "From what my scouts were able to determine there are at least two Generals here. I don't know how many breeders are here."

"Goblins have a fairly short lifespan, how are they still here?" Megan said.

"Well, the breeders and marked women do have a longer lifespan than they normally would." Lady Niadas said. "But that doesn't really account for the size of the Army."

After thinking for a moment, Riley said "The Labyrinth, when people get lost in it, where do they go?"

"Oh the Orc saw the truth of it!" Lord Attomas said. "Correct, the people who get lost are deposited directly into the breeding chamber of the goblins. That is the true purpose of this city, to forge an army and unleash it continuously upon the world. Luckily for us, someone locked this place up preventing the hordes from raging onto the world again."

They sank into silence again and Riley walked over to Jack who had gone to the side and was looking deep in thought. "Can you sense those Generals he mentioned? Or can you contact someone on the outside to warn them?"

Jack frowned and said "No, something in this place is screwing with my senses. My power is also going wacky, one of my system skills failed to activate when I attempted it while we were running. I can't contact anyone on the outside, I don't dare attempt to leave my Avatar, I may never get back to you."

Marden spoke up and said "Did you see what is covering the tower? It's Mavorite-Mithral!"

"Are you serious? The amount required to cover this tower would be enormous!" Lady Niadas said.

Alexia agreed and said "It is what he said. I hate to imagine what exactly this tower is meant to power. The magic required is enormous."

"Lord Attomas, I am curious, how do you know about this Tower? How the goblins would not enter?" Princess Falean said.

Lord Attomas played with the stones flying about his head and said "Over the years of my research into monsterkin, I determined that it was likely that the Kingdom of Sevaris made goblins as an army. More specifically it appears they are the work of one of the seven archmages. There are similar remains of towers at those ruined breeding sites I visited. Though not as extravagant as these."

"What is the purpose of these towers?" Jadai asked.

"Oh this and that. Right now we are even using it as a temporary shelter from the goblins. Though I'm not sure, the sigils will stop the generals. Hopefully we won't be here long enough to find out. We should work on the way out."

"You have a way out?" Jack asked.

"There is always a way out. Isn't that right Niadas? Life is like a contract, there is always a way out." Lord Attomas started to ramble. Jadai went over and struck him, and Lord Attomas looked a bit shocked then said "Of course, there is a way out. In the main control section of the city there is a teleporter that will send us above ground."

"There is a working teleporter in the city?" Lady Niadas asked.

"Unpowered at the moment, but it will work."

Jack interrupted and asked "So is that how your scouts were able to leave?"

"No, they left by another way. If you want to leave by that main teleporter, we have to activate each tower in the city in order to direct power to the main control section."

"How exactly are we going to be able to go to each tower? I don't think we can fight through that army. We wouldn't make it a hundred feet." Megan said.

"There is a short-range teleporter in the bottom of the towers that will send people to a place near the other towers. Unfortunately, because of the covering of the temples, you can't teleport directly in. So you will have to run to each temple after you teleport."

"That sounds really risky. I counted five towers, if we exclude this tower, that means four times we need to risk ourselves to the goblin army. Why don't we go the path your scouts did?" Jack asked.

"Oh I guess you could do that. Though I'm sure you won't like it." Lord Attomas shrugged and said "To get information that I needed, I had each of them sign a contract that would allow them to transmit me information upon their deaths. They died from the poison in their bodies. I do have some poison so if you want to leave that way, you can."

"They killed themselves?" Jack said horrified.

"Of course not. How could I entrust them with such a hard task. No, I had them all ingest a slow acting poison before they began the mission. If they found a way back to me in time, they would get the antidote, and be able to tell me the information. If they didn't, I still would get the information."

Jadai said "You're a fucking monster."

Lord Attomas began to laugh and said "I'm a monster? If I am a monster, what does that make everyone else? What is less than a monster?" 

Jadai snarled and made a move to punch Lord Attomas, but was stopped by Yukali. "Stop, as much as I want to beat the shit out of him, We still require him at the moment. He's the only one who knows this place." Lady Niadas said.

"I don't know how much help he is going to be. In my opinion, it looks as though he is having a psychotic break." Jack said, and Riley took a look at Lord Attomas. He had an unusual expression in his eyes, and when he saw her looking at him, he let out a grin that disturbed her. Jack spoke to Lord Attomas gently "How do we activate the towers?" 

"You have to activate it at the top. I have to go to the top." Lord Attomas said and began to walk up. "It's at the top." He repeated as he climbed. 

Maetrin said "I'm going to check on Alice and the other pregnant monsterkin. That was a strenuous run. I need to make sure they are doing alright." Riley nodded and climbed up the stairs after the party.

Riley climbed up after the others. There were no landings to enter onto another floor of the tower. Placing her hand on the wall, she could feel magic flowing deep within the tower. They had climbed for a good thirty minutes before they reached the top of the facility. Reaching the top, they stepped out on the platform in the globe at the top of the tower. 

Standing over the city, Riley saw four other purplish towers apart from the one they were already in. In the middle of the city, she could make out a large building. Surrounding it were dozens of camps of goblins. Speaking of goblins, around the tower they were in was a sea of green bodies all straining to get past the sigils and into the tower.

"Once we get all the Towers up and running, we can use the towers teleporters to get into the main section."

"So any tower can send us to the main control part?" Jack asked.

"Yes, you have it correct Sir Jack."

"Then we don't need to send everyone to activate the other towers." Jack said "The pregnant monsterkin down there is in no state of rushing again. Plus, I don't like the idea of letting Lord Attomas run around."

"I agree. A smaller party is likely able to sneak around without alerting the goblins." Jadai said.

Lord Attomas was fiddling with some controls on a panel in the center of the panel with Jack watching over him. There was a sudden hum and the tower seemed to light up, and Riley could see a set of lines run through the city to two other towers.

"Alright, the teleporter at the bottom is now active." Lord Attomas said.

"Great let's head down, and decide who to send."