Wandering Agent
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Chapter 174 The Fall
🕑 Added 2022-09-09 06:25:49 +0000 UTCOn our way to the elevator we had several more quick outages of light. Luckily they were all almost immediately rectified by the facility's auto-repair function. I suspected that as things were set more and more to how they should be that that particular function was getting stronger. In the meantime though I tossed up several light balls around us, even if the lights went out again, our golem wouldn't be blind to that damn Umbral Wolf.
Frankly I suspected that the beast was somehow responsible for taking out the lights, though at this point I had no proof. If it was then it would have to know far more about this place than I felt comfortable with.
"Well, that's a bust," I said as we came near to the elevator, seeing nothing indicating where the others had gone.
"Not as such, look here." Ulanion pointed to a few spots on the floor that seemed like just normal floor to me.
"Um?"
"Scuffs on the floor. Do you see anything like that anywhere else?" he asked.
"No... but I can barely see them, so..."
"This place has some kind of auto-cleaning, right? Someone definitely came through, and not too terribly long ago," he explained.
"Makes sense." I pushed the button to call the car back to us.
It took a few moments for it to come, the doors opening with a friendly ding. We all climbed in and I looked over the setup. It was much like those we'd seen before, with several floors indicated. Frowning I looked at my companion.
"Don't suppose you can tell what floor they went to?" I asked hopefully.
"Sorry, no."
"Well, let's check all of them then." I pushed the button going down to the first basement floor and we slowly started to move.
We checked two such floors, at each checking the area around the elevator and finding nothing. I sighed as we returned to the little box and kept going down. This time however as we started to move I felt the carriage lurch. It wasn't much, but everything in my head screamed danger.
"Golem, is the elevator shaft lit?"
"I do not know, your Highness." The machine had been built for defense, not maintenance, so that wasn't too surprising.
The low growl from just above me seemed answer enough. While we continued to slowly move the speed seemed janky. I didn't hesitate, beginning to sing up a lightning bolt, whatever that bastard was up to, it couldn't be good for us. A moment after the shaking began there was a horrid snapping sound and we fell.
I screamed, this was a nightmare for anyone who'd lived in a modern city and all the horror stories about falling elevators snapped into my head. My feet left the floor, leaving me in free-fall and my spell a mess. Ulanion reached out, wrapping me up in one of his arms, the other viced onto the handrail.
Almost as fast as it started it stopped. With a loud screeching like nails on a chalkboard the floor rushed up to meet me, only for my companion to hold me up. As he slowly released I felt my legs give.
"Oh I love safety features," I stammered.
"It's still up there, get ready." Ulanion just let his eyes bore as I tried to restart my most dangerous magic.
As I sand up another bolt I heard groaning metal and a snap. Nothing seemed to change, until the process repeated itself. At that point there was a noticeable tilt to our car. I shoved my hands upwards, releasing the stored power. I could feel the spell as it left the cart more than see it, as it ripped through the ceiling I tried to fan it out as much as possible, I didn't know exactly where the wolf was, but it needed to die, and now.
It stunned the beast for only a moment, and before I could get another one fully off the elevator was falling once more. This time I didn't scream, instead trying to build up a shield around us. I knew what was coming. I thought back to the little ring around my ankle, something I knew worked. If it would stop the crushing of the little metal box remained to be seen though.
We fell for seconds, faster and faster the bottom of this place, wherever that was, speeding up towards us. All a sudden a secondary light flooded our little cage. Runes all over the elevator car flared like fire, red light pouring from each one.
Whoever had designed this system had apparently been a stickler for redundancy. As what had to be a second emergency system activated I felt us once more slow. It wasn't a full stopping, but I'd take whatever we could get. I once more had to be held up by my companion as we slammed hard into the bottom. The redundancy worked and we both survived with little more than bruises.
The doors opened onto a dark corridor. About a third of the carriage was below the door. That didn't stop Ulanion, who scooped me up and leapt for the exit. Neither of us wanted to be in that deathtrap anymore.
The golem pounced out after us and turned, looking for enemies.
I spun up the brightest light spell I could, tossing it above our heads. I nearly instantly regretted this decision. The corridor we were in seemed to be somehow removed from the cleaning and repair systems, the former particularly.
Bones of various sizes and shapes littered the hallway, both sides covered. There was a slight smell of rotten gore and death all around. I didn't want to look, but there was no helping it. Many of the remains were distinctly humanoid, we'd landed right beside a pile of skulls, all obviously belonging to children.
"This is it's den," I gasped.
Behind us there was a creaking and ripping sound. With a bit of force our enemy forced the cart lower into the shaft, standing in the door like some kind of shadowy demon. As it licked it's salivating jowls I heard a scream of pure rage.
Glen
I was standing in the hall, looking for any danger while the bookish folks did... whatever they did. I knew that it was something involving those gates, but the details had never been shared. Any idiot could realize that having one here, far, far, from our home was a massive deal, but as for the specifics, I'd leave that to them.
The elevator started moving. The elf and I looked at each other and drew blades. That beast was crafty, and this had to be something it was up to. The little indicator above it showed that it was going back up to the ground floor.
"Look alive, we may have incoming!" I yelled.
The spell-slingers piled out into the hall and began chanting and charging up magic, while Ormien and I took the front line. He was green, very green, but he was driven, and I could work with that. I knew that as long as we were after this terror's head he'd be with us.
Several sounds came one after another. There was a weird noise, kind of like a cord being cut and falling, followed by a screeching. The elevator was still a couple floors above us and the indicator started going crazy.
"We're opening it, cover us." I got a series of nods from behind and me and the elf moved up.
I didn't like it, but I had to put my shield down to grab the door. It was also a struggle to open the metal plate, even with my strength. I could tell the elf was similarly struggling, but after a few moments we managed to pry them a couple feet apart.
"See anything?" I asked, trying to get a look down.
There was a crunch and scarping noises. I barely had enough time to pull my head back before the elevator car sped down past us. It was going fast, way fast, and I barely caught the flickering image of the beast on it's roof as it passed.
The noise as it hit the bottom was harsh, bending steel and whatever it landed on crunching.
"Spells!" I screamed, pointing.
It was no use, less than a second after it passed the doors to the elevator started trying to snap shut. I held, but it was a losing battle, as I began to falter I saw the vengeful Ormien scream in rage and jump. Had he stayed we might have been able to hold them, if only for a moment or two more, but without his aid I soon found myself pushed back.
Glowing symbols lit the door. I could speak these elves language, and even read a bit, but this was some dialect I couldn't parse. I looked back at the assembled spellcasters.
"It says... Elevator out of service, please use stairs. There are stairs?" Dras said, squinting at the door.
"Screw that," I answered, igniting my blade and trying to cut through the metal.
I should have been able to carve through this, the blade would go through wood, and rock, and supposedly even steel. Sadly it was not so simple, cutting was a struggle. The damage also started to heal up by my third strike, I hadn't even made it through.
"Well... shit," I said.
