Let us go deeper down into the Underworld. Klamka and Lionel were not the only ones making progress in their mission.

The Brass Behemoth was no longer in the Gray Vale, or really any traditional cavern for that matter. It was climbing down a huge hole that slowly clambered down with its legs like a spider. Above it was darkness and below it was darkness, it was like going down a colossal tower. It then emerged from a huge hole that laid in the ceiling of a colossal cavern. The Behemoth crawled along this ceiling and down the mountain-sized wall.

And it was then the Brass Behemoth had finally reached its destination. It rested its metal feet on the floor and rested, a tremendous sound of steam coming forth that echoed through the cavern. It stood before the gates of a great city.

Minvaco.

Poor Hubert had tried to escape multiple times at this point, but all his attempts had failed. At this point he trying to think of yet another escape attempt, but then the felt the Behemoth stop moving. The sounds of gears turning around him slowed as the machine laid down, then it sounded like a lot of the cultists were running around en masse.

“Right, they musta reached their stop if this walking anachronism stopped stompin’” Hubert thought to himself, then scratched his beard, “Hmm this may be my best chance yet… If these jerks are busy, not only are there less cultists to sneak by, but no one to help this gallous guard… Yep, time to take a risk!”

Hubert walked to his sink and grabbed the entire faucet, he pulled on it hard once and broke it all off. Water sprang out and quickly made the whole cell wet.

“Hey guard! The sink is broken again!” Hubert called, patting the faucet on the sink as if it were a club.

The automaton trudged over and opened the cell door. Hubert lept towards the automaton but was grabbed by the leg by one of the automaton’s fast hands.

“Ackh… I guess yer too fast for me again” Hubert lamented as the automaton took his makeshift weapon from him. The automaton dropped him on the floor hard and repaired the sink. Behind his bushy beard, Hubert smiled revealing his teeth.

Including one molar that was much shinier than the others, which he removed. Once again Hubert pounced on the automaton, this time from the back. The automatons hands tried to reach him, but Hubert stabbed his diamond tooth into the back of the automaton’s head. Like a can opener to a tin can, he scratched his tooth and opened up the automaton’s head.

Hubert couldn’t help but gasp as he opened the machine’s head, inside was not gears but instead a large pale brain sitting in a pool of some foul smelling liquid. Hubert recovered quickly and grabbed the brain, it stood in place for a bit as he tried to pull it, then there were sounds of snapping as he tore it from its artificial veins and nerves. The automaton he was on top of stood perfectly still, then fell with a loud clatter.

“Oi ‘eck, what kind of revoltin’ person makes a thing like this?” Hubert said, looking at the brain he held in disgust, then throwing it away.

Hubert glared at the remains of the automaton, soaked in the water of the still broken sink, then examined it. He found ring of keys.

“There we go!” he laughed, he put his tooth back in his mouth and he ran to the door the automaton guarded. He unlocked the foor and quietly looked around the new hallways before him, he dashed down the one he felt the most likely to get him out.

The massive mouth of the Brass Behemoth opened as it stood at the wall of Minvaco. A dozen unusual vehicles flew out of it, they looked like boats held aloft by large balloons, they even had row-like devices pointing out of them that the various occupants used to guide them as they slowly fell. On one of these descending vehicles was Karogoz, he leaned over the side and analyzed the city he was getting closer to.

“So this is the noctav city of Minvaco? Impressive for a bunch of scatterbrained bats”

“Sir, the markers are going to the city’s borders to create the magic circle” said a non-artificial cultist behind Karagoz “Where are we to go?”

Karagoz got out a map that showed all Minvaco, he pointed at a large building that was circled.

“There! The House of Alchemy, our scouts said one of the members of that House intercepted the runestone.”

The cultist nodded and turned to the undead machines manning the oars, giving them commands. Soon the balloon ship turned towards a great mansion near the city’s center.

The ship made a soft landing in front of the mansion, a side door on the ship opened and numerous cultists led by Karagoz marched out. Karagoz strode into the mansion as if he owned the place. He sharply eyed the inside of the mansion.

“Excuse me sir, your orders?” asked the cultist following Karagoz. The undead automatons followed behind him.

“Examine every sorry nook and cranny of this place” Karagoz commanded “Especially the studies and rooms. Find the rune!”

They began their search. Drawers were pulled out, chests were forced open, and even the pockets of the frozen noctav were searched. Karagoz assisted and made his way through each room, eventually he got to a study where Rondo sat reading a piece of parchment with his brow furrowed. Karagoz grabbed Rondo and forced him out of his chair, the noctav floating in air as if nothing had happened. Karagoz opened the noctav’s desk, he saw various random scrolls and bottles. Like an impatient child going through a toybox, Karogoz roughly got out everything until he found what he wanted.

Karagoz smiled broadly, he saw a dark box with a distinct symbol on it: a wide open eye with two bat wings growing out of it.

The symbol of the city of Dorcha.

“This is it… Within is the runestone the master is looking for. At last!”

Karagoz opened the box gazed inside it.

The smile on his face grew strained, his red eyes bulged and seemed ready to fall out.

“Where is it?” Stolse said to no one in particular “Where is it? Where is it?! Where is it?! WHERE IS IT?!!”

Karagoz continued to scream like a broken record and attempted to throw the box against the wall, only for it to stay suspended in the air. The cultist in the mansion jumped at the clamor and back away from the ranting Karogoz.

“WHERE WHERE WHERE WHERE WHERE WHERE WHERE IS IT?!” the necromancer roared, grabbing various other labeled boxes, drawers, and books looking through each closely and furiously. He likely would have made a mess if everything he threw around didn’t stay where it was in midair.

Outside the office, various cultists gathered listened to Karagoz’s tantrum nervously, letting the automatons continue their work they entered the mansion where the cultist who followed Karagoz was.

“Think the High Priest is upset” was all he could say.

They argued and then drew lots, the loser walked nervously into the office where she saw with relief that Karagoz had calmed down. Karagoz exhaled and looked around the room frozen in time and said carefully.

“Staff of iron lead to my prize, tell me where the door rune lies!” Karagoz chanted as he held his staff as still as he could. He had cast a searching spell, a simple Space spell that let out an echo-like pulse of dimensional magic that went on for feet or even miles depending on the power of the magician. With the instruction in the incantation, the dimensional echo would theoretically hit what the magician wanted and then return making the tip of the staff brighten with a strong light. It was the perfect way to narrow a search for the brightness of the light indicated how close the object was, so the brighter the better. If the staff didn’t light up this indicated the object desired was nowhere nearby.

Karagoz waited for a whole minute to let the dimensional echo fully extend. The echo went through the entirety of Minvaco, going through buildings and people.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Not once did staff light up.

“My lord?” the masked worker squeaked quickly, balking as Karogoz turned to her “Um um… Instructions my lord?”

Karogoz took a deep breath in and breathed out heavily.

“Plan B is now our only option; the door rune has clearly been taken out of the city... Though should any of you somehow see the rune we seek, let me know IMMEDIATELY.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Then keeping working on the circle!” he suddenly roared, the cultist quickly ran out of the room “We need that ready yesterday! GO!!”

Karagoz reached into his robes and got out a ring-shaped stone.

“Take me to the Behemoth!” he said, he then vanished.

The other cultists came into the office.

“The High Priest certainly sounded angry” said one cultist “We could hear him from way out here!”

“Thing is though he didn’t look that angry” the cultist who had met with Karagoz said “He looked… Scared.”

Hubert peaked through the door and saw the bridge, there was Zelos tapping on buttons in front of him.

“Karogoz returning to bridge” rang a voice from the speakers above Zelos, Hubert kept a gasp held back as he saw Karogoz teleport behind Zelos. Zelos then held down a button.

“What is wrong Karagoz?” Zelos asked, noticing the necromancer’s fear.

“The rune isn’t there.”

Zelos stood there taking the answer in.

“You mean you haven’t found it?” Zelos asked slowly.

“No you idiot, it has been taken out of the city!” Karogoz shouted, “Its absent! It is nowhere! Nonexistent! It is GONE!”

A ringing filled the room.

Hubert quickly turned his head to the pedestal that was not far from Karagoz and Zelos, the strange device on it was the source of the ringing. It was a squat little box that had a curved pipe on top of it, which shook as the device rang.

Karogoz slowly walked backward shaking his head side to side.

“I am not picking that up” he whimpered.

Zelos walked to the device and grimly picked up the curved pipe on top of the device, the ringing stopped. He held it up to Karogoz. He kept his composure, though Hubert could tell from his shaking that he was also afraid.

“Do not delay the inevitable” Zelos said.

Karogoz flinched as the device was held near him, his hand shook as he took the pipe and brought it up to his ear.

“A phone eh? That is some advanced tech” Hubert thought to himself. He had heard of phones, but had never seen one. Who was at the other end of the phone though?

“Greetings Master Arhimus” he said with as much confidence as he could muster.

Well, that answered that question.

“Karogoz, tell me what has happened.”

Hubert leaned in closer to better hear the voice of this Ahrimus.

“Well Master… Plan A has hit a snag” Karogoz said, trying to keep himself from shaking.

“And what snag is that?” the voice asked.

Hubert’s hair stood on end as he listened. He wasn’t sure what it was but something about this voice felt… Off. It was a hollow voice that was slow and exacting.

“Master, it seems that an important item that you wanted us to find is misplaced and-“

“The Zero Rune, correct? The very rune I need to escape is missing from this city, this city you thought where it would be? Is that what you are telling me, Karogoz?”

It was the voice of someone thoroughly calm, but there was a fierceness in it that made it seem like they could erupt in fury at any moment.

“Correct Master, but do not fear-“

“I do not feel fear, child” the voice rumbled.

“Of course, not Master Ahrimus!” Karogoz stumbled quickly, “What I mean to say is that Plan B is proceeding accordingly! No snags there!”

“I see, so are you proceeding with the Soul Steal spell now?”

“Yes Master! Soon the souls of all the noctav in this city will be ours! A truly tremendous amount of magical energy at our fingertips!”

Hubert had to stifle another gasp.

“This is acceptable. Do your mission Karogoz. Do not disappoint me again” said the voice known as Ahrimus.

“Of course not Master! And I assure you the escaped half-dwarf and the bat will be contained soon.”

“See to it, crush the bugs before they become a problem”

There was a click. Only silence came from the receiver.

Karagoz seemed ready to fall to the floor as he handed put the receiver back on the phone, relieved he didn’t have to talk to Ahrimus anymore.

“I’m going to tell our servants and automatons to speed up on the circle” Zelos said.

Karogoz nodded “Good, it won't be long until the circle is complete then” The necromancer panted, “I will look over the incantation again too, then get the reliquary ready. Soon we will have the power source our master needs! And of course, catch the half-dwarf and that bat”

Zelos nodded, then turned back to his control panel to ensure everything on the Brass Behemoth was running smoothly.

At this Hubert’s terror override his curiosity, he immediately ran in the opposite direction of the two maniacs to escape and find Tenacia.

After a bit of looking, Hubert opened a door and walked out up onto the top of the Brass Behemoth.

“Yeah, this has to be god made” Hubert mused as he looked around the Behemoth’s broad back that could carry a small army. “The amount of metal you’d need for this is more than you could get from a regular mountain, and this definitely don’t look like dwarf craft”

Hubert strolled to the side of the Behemoth’s back and looked over, his eyes widened as he looked upon the city of Minvaco. It was not the great city that made him gape though, around the whole city was a white circle made along the ground, laid down by the cultists who used strange flying machines to lay down great masses of chalk to make it. Within the city more cultists were laying down lines, forming an intricate series of runes and lines that spanned the city.

There was a sound of a metal door opening, Hubert peaked over the side of the Behemoth and saw another flying boat float above the city. The boat went right to the the center of the city, and standing in it was Karogoz, holding something in his hands that Hubert could not make out.

Karogoz surveyed Minvaco and the work the cultists were doing from his boat.

“The workers have met their goals sir, the circle will be done shortly” said the cultist at the helm.

“Excellent, that gives me time to finish preparations on the reliquary”

In both of his hands Karogoz held the reliquary, it was a large bottle shaped like an evaporating flask, rom the tip of its neck to its bottom it was engraved with intricate runes that span across it like ivy coiling around a pillar. A crystal cork in the shape of a human skull was in its top, Stolse removed this cork and from his robes pulled out a much smaller bottle, in this handheld bottle was a grey powder that he then poured into the reliquary. He put the cork back on and shook the reliquary as hard as he could. The powder scattered in the bottle and began to spark wildly. After half a minute of shaking, each speck of powder had burst and the reliquary was filled with a pale smoke that eventually settled and made the reliquary’s glass paler, to the point I looked like it was made of bone.

“Excellent… The reliquary is ready” Karogoz said to himself. He placed a foot on the gunwale of the boat and observed the circle from high above.

It encircled the entire city, each rune was the size of a person, lines cut through city streets and above houses. There was only one part that was incomplete, and that soon was filled in by the automatons filling it.

“The circle is ready sir! And everyone is out of it!” the cultist said.

“I can see that! Silence!” Karogoz snapped back.

Karogoz breathed in deeply then calmly exhaled. Then he roared at the top of his voice.

“Caharuzur! Sk’varikus! Klaskuros! Glossolalia!”

“Oh Chaelum… Nothing ever good never comes from someone speakin’ like that!” Hubert fretted from the Behemoth as he heard Karagoz speak. The sorcerer continued his loud incantation, the outlines of the circle slowly but surely began to glow. A chill went up Hubert’s spine as he observed this, and the noise grew even louder as all the other cultists joined in Karogoz's horrible chant. Some were chanting from outside the circle, others chanted as they stood on the lines of the circle.

Soon the whole cave was echoing with numerous voices speaking in a dark and long dead language, parts of the circle began to glow glowing. Then, like a water through a pipe, the light expanded and flowed throughout the circle.

Hubert slowly backed away but did not look away. Something in him was telling him that this is something he had to see.

Beneath Karagoz, the cultists’ chant grew faster and harsher. The light got close to the cultists that laid on the line, then it went under them, and as it did the cultists screamed in agony as they were absorbed by the circle! The light steadily turned more and more red as more cultists were absorbed by it, until every line and every rune glowed a hellish dark red across Minvaco. As the chant reached a climax, Karogoz took the cork off the reliquary, then he leaned forward and tipped the bottle so that the tip pointed towards the huge circle’s center.

“Activa!” Karogoz boomed. The runes etched around the reliquary suddenly glowed a gross pale green, then the runes began to spin around the bottle. They went faster and faster, eventually they were going so fast the runes could no longer be made out.

A second went past where nothing happened, then suddenly the colossal city sized circle slowly and steadily began to spin like a huge gear. Soon it span as fast as the bottle’s runes, the entirety of the city and cavern flickered from the moving light.

“Mim Abskor Yun Sela!” Karogoz roared. The tip of the reliquary flashed the same repulsive green light of the runes.

Hubert saw that now something even stranger was now happening, several small fist-sized flames were now flying upwards. They all came from the buildings and streets of Minvaco.

Hubert got so close to the edge of the behemoth he nearly fell off as he tried to see what these lights were. Then it occurred to him, he had seen images of these lights in many books before. Books about spirits.

Souls. These were mortal souls. Souls being forced out of their bodies and into the reqliquary.

When the souls got high enough, they suddenly began to spin wildly as if caught by a whirlpool. Eventually a huge vortex of souls was spinning above the city, in the very center they were sucked upward into Karagoz’s reliquary.

Eventually the vortex shrank as the last of the souls was sucked into the reliquary. Karagoz then quickly placed the cork back top and held the reliquary above him in triumph. The almost countless souls within were still spinning from the spectral momentum and writhing seemingly in panic. The red circle of the city slowly went out, but the runes of the reliquary continued to slowly spin and glow their sickly green.

Hubert felt something grab him by the neck.

“I see I need to position better guards at our jail” Zelos coldly droned as he lifed Hubert.

“What in Gehenna are you monsters doing?”! Hubert growled, his hands at Zelos’ clutched talon-like hand. There was a remarkable amount of strength in the hand and its skinny arm.

“I think you know precisely what we are doing” Zelos answered impassively, “Stealing souls that we may use in an important task”

“Is that what all those folk are, just fuel? Bits of coal to burn away?!” Hubert hissed in fury.

“More like crude oil” Zelos answered, “But yes, we see them as fuel. It is needed for a specific device.”

“And what disgusting device would that be?!” Hubert snapped.

“You will know soon, after all we need you and your sister’s dwarven ingenuity. Now then, let me escort you back to your cell.”