The Failures amass around the weakened members of the expedition crew, forming a semi-circle and boxing the five against the side of one of the strange buildings within the lost city. No longer do only one or two attack at a time; the creatures are grouping up by a few dozen before charging at once to overwhelm the tired, injured companions.
“Took them long enough to figure out to come at us all at once,” Wren mutters, leaning against the large black wolf that is Demy. The blood loss is making it hard to focus, and unconsciousness will soon follow. Wren tries to hang on, preferring to die while still standing; adhering to the stubborn traditions of their homeland, in which it was important to show one’s strength, even in defeat.
“The stupid are most dangerous in numbers,” Kaz says softly, leaning back against the wall in order to stay upright.
“That was our problem, fam. Just the two of us for too long,” Cashew jokes as he pats Demy’s snout. The wolf snorts in understanding, though he is too exhausted to do much beyond stand guard menacingly.
Dahlia, only half-conscious, wants to say something but she is too tired. What will happen to the farm? She wonders to herself silently.
Her thoughts are interrupted, however, by a faint sound somewhere nearby. A faint rumble, the sound of metal, of movement. Her large ears twitch and she pushes herself up off Demy’s back, using the last bit of her strength to do so.
“I hear something,” she says, trying to pinpoint the direction of the sound.
Demy’s ears twitch as he hears the same thing. He glances off in the direction that Addy ran off toward some time ago.
Kaz notices this and feels a twinge of hope. “Addy went that direction earlier,” she says.
Above the group, UNA-02, who has been sitting perched on one of the windowsills in order to preserve energy, suddenly takes to the air. Its mechanical eye shifts, zooming in on the crowd around the group–who also seem to notice the shift in the air. The Failures glance around, trying to figure out what the sudden noise is.
“Piss off and leave my friends alone, you barmy gits!” Addy yells from somewhere in the fog. There is a flash of bright light and the smell of ozone as an entire section of the Failures suddenly disintegrates. The mist dissipates from the blast, revealing Addy standing at the top of a set of steps leading underground a few hundred feet away. On her shoulder is a long tube-like cannon that looks similar to her other Monteith constructs; the back end is in the process of venting some kind of energy build-up as the front of it looks to be charging up another shot.
“Friend Addy!” Dahlia shouts, gripping onto Demy’s fur.
“Come on! Our ride’s ready!” Addy shouts, waving her hand in the air. Beside her stands a haggard-looking Felix, sword still held at the ready as he motions toward the group with his free hand.
“You heard her!” Kaz says as she scoops up Wren in her arms and starts running, though with a bit of difficulty, toward safety.
“S’go!” Cashew shouts, swinging up and onto Demy’s back beside Dahlia as the wolf takes off, trying his best to push through the pain of his wounds in one final burst of adrenaline.
The Failures do not like this development.
A communal screech pierces the reconvening blanket of fog as the creatures take off after the retreating quintet. A few bolts of moonfire from Wren, a couple tosses daggers that Cashew has no delusions of retrieving, and a bevy of poisonous thorns from Dahlia hinder the charging wave of vaguely humanoid monstrosities. Kaz and Demy focus entirely on putting one foot–or paw–in front of the other, carrying their companions and themselves as fast as possible toward what they hope is a way out. Felix focuses, using the last of his magical power to launch a few bolts of raw, arcane force through the air, succeeding in disrupting a few more of the creatures.
Strange blue lights on Addy’s canon begin to glow as the light from within the end of it reaches its zenith, indicating it is fully charged. Channeling her years of teaching, she yells out at the monsters in a bid to demoralize them:
“I’m disappointed in all of you! You can do better!”
The cannon fires, almost knocking her off her feet from the kickback. The orb of pure, destructive energy shoots into the midst of the Failures and detonates, obliterating everything, even the condensation in the air and the strange material underfoot, in a large radius.
The others reach Addy and Felix; the latter begins to limp down the steps ahead of the group, motioning for them. “This way, follow me,” he says.
The group does so without argument, though they each give Addy a relieved, thankful glance as they pass by.
Addy is sure that she’s never felt quite so happy from being stared at by a group of people before.
“Time to go! Bye-bye!” She yells out at the Failures, who are still dozens, if not hundreds, deep as every single entity in the city scrambles toward her. “Disengage safety protocols; set maximum charge parameters beyond suggested endpoint,” she says, causing the lights on her cannon to shift immediately to red as it begins charging.
Addy hurls the cannon toward the incoming group before starting down the stairs, UNA-02 keeping pace right beside her. Seeing that everyone has piled into the train car, she slides inside and begins tapping at the digital screen on the front window of the vehicle.
The doors close just as the first couple Failures slam into the sides of the car, screeching as they claw at it futilely.
“Everyone please be sure to secure your safety harnesses! Keep all hands, feet, and other appendages within the train car at all times! Thank you for not dying and please hold onto your butts!” Addy calls out cheerily.
“‘Safety harnesses?’” Kaz asks in worried confusion.
Addy presses a few buttons and the shuttle immediately shoots down the tunnel, resulting in everyone aboard (except Felix, who is seated and secured with his safety harness per instruction) falling against the back of the tram from the inertia.
The Failures are left behind to screech at the fleeting group as they disappear down the dark tunnel. Though, they are not left bored for long, as the cannon left by Addy reaches its threshold for maximum charge.
The explosion levels a significant portion of that area of the city, including the metro where the group left from only minutes prior. A smoking crater is all that is left, collecting rainwater that mixes with the ashes of countless Failures.
Somewhere, Engel cackles with glee.
~~~~~~~~~~
As the train car speeds down the dark tunnels that run like veins throughout the Heart of Vale, the group go about tending to their wounds with first-aid kits and small bottles of rejuvenating alchemical potions. Both had been procured en masse by Felix, who had left only a small portion of either in the event of some kind of emergency within the town during the expedition’s excursion.
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In truth, it looks like he should have bought every single one and commissioned more on top of that.
“I don’t think we have the resources to handle another encounter like that,” Felix warns as he bandages a couple of shallower gashes on his arm.
Kaz takes a long drink of a potion, feeling the numbing, tingling effect as some of her wounds become less severe, some disappearing entirely. The concoctions are similar but distinct from her own divine healing magic, which is in itself similar but distinct from Dahlia’s natural healing magic. The primary difference is that her and Dahlia are too exhausted to produce any more such effects.
“We survived a situation that, in all fairness, we shouldn’t have. Let us take some joy in that, at least,” she says, feeling more comfortable but just as exhausted.
“Yeah, we can doom it up later. Too tired,” Cashew remarks, looking like a very tiny mummy with all the bandages. A potion or two mended his broken arm, but he still has it in a splint so that it doesn’t break again while the bone is still brittle.
Wren, sporting a fresh wrapping of bandages around their midsection, is in the process of similarly wrapping some of Demy’s numerous wounds that are still very visible, even after a few potions’ worth of physical repair. “It’s a good thing that we packed extra clothes for you, or else you’d be running around nakey,” they say, smiling a little.
Demy, who is back to his human form (and in a fresh pair of clothes, as mentioned), lets out a small snort. “Yeah, you’d hate that,” he says with a smirk. It turns into a frown of pain, however, as Wren disinfects a patch of wounds with some alcohol from Demy’s personal reserves. “Ow! Fuck! Don’t waste my booze!”
“Whoops,” Wren says, rolling their eyes. They apologize by letting Demy take a drink before again splashing some on his wounds, rewarded by him seething through clenched teeth. “It’s a good thing you brought so much of this hard stuff with you.”
“Yeah, well, I figured I’d need it. But not quite like this,” Demy admits, laying his head down on the cool floor of the tram.
Dahlia empties another potion into her mouth and goes to toss the bottle in as well, but Addy catches it. “Dahlia, that isn’t sugar glass! You can’t eat that,” she says before handing the little Goblin another potion.
“‘Sugar glass?’” Dahlia repeats, confused. She acquiesces all the same and hands Addy the bottle back after downing the liquid inside. “Thank you, Friend Addy.”
“We should all be thanking Addy,” Kaz speaks up, smiling over at the Elf. “You certainly did what I asked you to do.”
Cashew, despite already being in the process of nodding off with his eyes closed, says, “Thanks, Addy–better late than never. What even is this thing?”
Addy looks up from tying a bandage around one of Dahlia’s ears and says, “So, we’d never found anything like this before! But from what I can tell, this is some kind of advanced version of the steam-powered trains that Eryndal uses.”
Dahlia grumbles a little up at Addy, as her head is in the Elf’s lap, “I don’t like those things. They scream randomly and bellow out smoke.”
“This thing doesn’t do either, I don’t think. But it’s also a carriage that moves quickly between places. From the layout I saw from just a small portion of the tunnels, I think they run all over the Heart, underneath the ground!” Addy explains.
Slowly, the other six turn to look at her.
“How far do they go? Is there something like that entrance near Tarn’s Rest?” Felix asks, both fascinated and incensed.
“Potentially,” Addy says, thinking. “It would probably explain both how Kem found Tarn’s Manor and then how he left out so quickly.”
“Well it’s a good thing we didn’t find that, or anything,” Wren says, throwing up their hands. “That would have saved us a lot of walking and almost-dying!”
“You said these tunnels go all over. Does that mean it can take us to the, uh, one place near the center of the continent?” Demy asks.
“The GIX? Yep! That’s where I have the destination set for,” Addy says cheerfully.
“We could’ve just rode this stupid fun bus the whole way. I’m going to beat the shit out of that tall bastard for not telling us about this, and then again for trying to kill us,” Cashew complains loudly.
“Speaking of,” Kaz mutters, turning to look at Addy. “You looked on the verge of a breakdown as he was leaving. What happened there?”
Addy pauses, still struggling internally with whether to tell Kaz and the others. She could lie, just say that the promise of the ensuing battle made her freeze up. Lying is not something she likes to do because she rarely sees the point in it, but this might be a big deal to Kaz.
There have been times in the past when the topic of religion has been brought up with colleagues and students; Addy learned quickly that it is a topic to tread lightly on, especially since it’s something she doesn’t have a lot of interest in or knowledge of. Faith has long been one of those topics that she knows results in strong opinions and, at times, outright anger. Thus, she has long since avoided talking about it as much as possible and prefers to just say that she’s open-minded when pressed about it.
But this isn’t some random colleague or student. This is Kaz, her friend. These are her friends and they are all in the same situation as she is, right now. They deserve to know.
Even if they get upset, they deserve to know the truth.
“When Kem was leaving, I put my visor back on. When I did, I saw that he had a name tag icon,” Addy begins to explain.
Kaz furrows her brow. “So? I think it’s safe to assume that he knows something about the Monteith and their technology, by this point,” she says.
“It’s not that he had the icon, it’s what the icon said. Kem is just a short version of his full name,” Addy says. She takes a second, before finishing: “It said ‘Kemartirh.’”
The others, almost asleep due to sheer exhaustion by this point, all open their eyes and look over at her in confusion. Then look at Kaz. Then back at Addy. Felix seems as surprised as anyone as his mouth hangs open slightly in surprise, though he quickly shuts it as it is very un-noble of a look.
Kaz stares at Addy, her eyes holding a wide array of emotions that Addy finds impossible to comprehend. She averts her eyes from Kaz’s intense gaze, bracing for a possible negative, and likely very loud, reaction.
Yet, Kaz is merely quiet for a very long time. The others say nothing, waiting for her to speak first, to set the tone of the conversation to come. Eventually, she quietly asks Addy, “What do you think that means?”
“Me?” Addy asks, surprised. “I thought you’d know more of what it might mean, honestly.”
“I have some thoughts, but you’re the Monteith expert,” Kaz explains. “Tell me what you think, from your point of view.”
Addy considers this, then replies, “I think it’s fair to say that Kemartirh, the one we met, is somehow connected to the Monteith. He might be a living member of that society, or just a product of it, or… I don’t know.” She pauses, lost in thought. Finally, she continues, “As for the name, it’s kind of chicken and egg. I don’t know if he took the name of the deity, or if his name survived the years and we use it for a deity, or if he–well, if he, you know.”
“You mean that that lanky asswipe is the actual God, that’s what you’re telling us,” Cashew says incredulously.
“I don’t know! But it’s possible, I guess,” Addy says sheepishly.
Wren puts a hand on Kaz’s shoulder, as she is currently just staring down at the floor of the train car, lost in thought. “Kaz? You’re the religious expert, just like Addy’s the Monteith one. What do you think?”
“I think we need more information,” Kaz says. She looks up at the others, expression stern. “I believe in ideals, not idols. If I have to teach the latter about the former, so be it.”
Wren smiles a little and hugs their friend from behind. “It wouldn’t be the first time,” they say.
Kaz smiles slightly, with a mixture of sadness and pride. “What I know for certain is that we all need to rest. We’re hurt, we’re hungry, we’re tired. Addy, how long will it take for us to reach our destination?”
“A few hours,” Addy answers. “But I have us going at about max speed. I could slow us down a little to give us more time to recuperate!”
“They already know we’re coming, I see no need to hurry. Let’s try to get a full rest in while we can,” Kaz says.
“Roger dodger!” Addy says as she turns back to the controls of the tram.
The uncertainty and tension in the speeding box is palpable and discussing the situation or just venting their worries would probably do everyone well. Yet, after the events of the day, there is just no energy to put toward such things. Within minutes of Addy lowering the speed to allow for more time to rest, most everyone is unconscious, even Felix, splayed out among the seats and floor of the rapidly moving box.
In spite of everything, the group have been given another day to live.
And they intend to make it everyone’s problem.