They moved forward, and soon emerged from the cave into a large cavern, where heat sweltered about them. The path was now a rock bridge, and on either side was a drop of about a hundred feet, into glowing red lava. Terrance watched as something large emerged from the lava and quickly dived back into it with a small splash. “Well, that’s ominous.”
“We’re venturing into the heart of evil in this sliver of reality,” Talia said. “You can’t even fathom the horrors that await us here.”
Karen looked a bit worried. Donald noticed this and said, “Let’s not go overboard; we’re going to be okay.”
“I said they are hard to fathom,” Talia answered. “I didn’t say we couldn’t defeat them.”
“But everyone certainly be on your guard now,” Vivian said as they all continued to move slowly across the stone bridge over the lava.
There was a noise. A ringing. Terrance pulled out his phone and saw that it was Pendergrass. “Oh. It’s work.” He answered, just as he thought he probably should have sent it to voicemail. “Hello?”
“Hey, Terrance, where did you go?” Pendergrass asked.
“Well, after Karen and I slew Darlor, I assumed we were fired.”
“Oh, well I don’t know about that. That’s an HR matter, and they haven’t contacted me. I really need you to work on that legacy algorithm code.”
“Okay. Yeah. Well, right now I’m in the middle of something. Have you noticed how the forces of the Darkness are hunting people down?”
“Um…I’ve seen something of that. Why?”
“They might be after me, too, which could make it hard to get to the office.”
“Then telecommute. You should be able to do everything remotely.”
“Okay, I’ll do that,” Terrance said. “I’ll get in touch with you tomorrow.”
“Sounds good. Bye.”
Terrance hung up and looked around at the group, fumbling to get his phone back into his pocket. “Sorry about that. It was work. I guess I still have to go in tomorrow…if I survive this.”
“We’ll be fine,” Vivian assured him.
“I still have my job?” Karen asked.
“I guess—apparently there isn’t actually any rule against slaying a demon,” Terrance said. “But I’d talk to your supervisor.”
“So, we good to go?” Felicia asked, looking ready to burst. “I want to find these things that we can’t fathom that took everyone, and punch them in the face.”
Vivian smiled and led them forward to the end of the stone bridge. Her smile looked genuine, yet Terrance detected some hidden worry there. As they got to the other side of the bridge, they entered a new stone-lined tunnel, which was dead silent—somehow more than silent, like the ominous quiet just before a storm hits. Terrance may not have lost his job, but he was not very confident that he would be back at work tomorrow.
Chapter 39
Following directions Beauregard had given them, they moved some stones to give themselves just enough space to crawl through the tunnel wall into what looked like a storage closet. Inside were old-looking shackles, rusty knives, a disturbingly worn-looking axe, a vacuum cleaner, and a copy of Monopoly with a box so worn that it was barely holding together.
The closet was pretty cramped when all six of them had climbed in. “So I guess we’ve snuck into the fortress,” Terrance said. “Now what?”
“Make sure your phone is on vibrate,” Donald answered.
“It is…now.”
Vivian opened the door a crack and peered out. “The coast is clear.” She pushed the door the rest of the way open and led everyone out into a dimly lit hallway with more stone walls.
“So how will we find the dungeon?” Karen asked.
Felicia pointed to a You Are Here type of map hanging on a nearby wall. It showed that the dungeon was on the same floor and just a little further down the hallway. Vivian led the way as the group carefully crept along, keeping a lookout in all directions. Eventually they came to a huge, open area with a ceiling at least three stories high and barred prison cells lining the walls. It didn’t have a solid floor, though—only a rope bridge stretching from one end of the dungeon to the other. Judging by the glow coming from beneath the bridge, Terrance assumed more lava lay below. A pair of cavefish stood near the entrance but hadn’t noticed the group hanging back in the shadows of the hallway.
“Quickly and quietly,” Vivian whispered.
Talia and Donald snuck up on the two guards and slew them both before they could sound an alarm. “I got the keys,” Talia announced, holding aloft a key ring after yanking it off of one of the dead cavefish.
“But where are they?” Donald asked, looking around.
Terrance and the rest crept into the dungeon. There were hundreds of cells lining the walls—some high up above them—but they all looked empty.
“Over here!”
They turned to see Curtis calling to them from a cell at the far end of the dungeon. In the cells next to him were Joyce, Travis, and Erica.
“Let’s be quick about this,” Vivian said as she led the way across the rope bridge. It was solid enough but still swayed a bit much for Terrance’s taste, especially when he looked down at the lava below and the things moving inside it. Still, they crossed the bridge with no problem, and Talia moved quickly to unlock the cells.
Curtis immediately ran to embrace Vivian. “We were wondering when you would show up.” He looked at Terrance. “And you’re alive! Last we saw, you were falling off the ship.”
“Yeah, I don’t really understand the physics there,” Terrance said. “But somehow I didn’t splat.”
“They had us scheduled for execution today,” Joyce said, “and I’m the surgeon on call tomorrow. So that wasn’t going to work.”
Erica spotted Karen. “Hi, I guess you’re new. I’m Erica.”
Karen introduced herself and shook Erica’s hand. “I’m a friend of Terrance’s…and Shannon’s.”
Erica nodded. “Ah, well, Shannon can be very nice…some of the time. Anyway, thanks for coming to rescue us.”
“It was nothing,” Karen said, and it really had been. This had seemed far too easy to Terrance, but with the combination of the secret passage and the forces of the Darkness being engaged elsewhere, he thought that maybe that was all it was.
“I’m really sorry about all of this…and about Randolph,” Terrance told the group.
“It’s not your fault, bro,” Travis said. “You’re just trying to do what’s right, like the rest of us…and sometimes it’s harder than we think. I’m sure Randolph is doing well wherever he is now. He’ll just be waiting on us to finally bring the fight to the Adversary.”
“Are you all okay?” Felicia asked. “What did they do to you?”
“Just the usual nonsense of trying to convince us that we’re doomed,” Joyce said. “If you get good at ignoring their threats, it becomes white noise and is actually kind of relaxing.”
“Now let’s find our weapons. They should be nearby,” Curtis said, heading back over the bridge with the rest following. He was near the other end when a figure emerged from the shadows.
“Stop right there.” It was Shannon in her new ninja outfit, with her sword held out, touching the rope supports of the bridge. “Or you all die right now.”
“Shannon?” Karen exclaimed. “Why are you wearing a mask? It’s not doing a good job concealing your identity, so I don’t see the point.”
“It’s just cool-looking.” With her free hand, Shannon touched the demonic gaping maw of the mask that concealed her nose and mouth. “What are you doing with these idiots?”
“I’m fighting evil,” Karen said. “And I guess you’re evil. Plus, you look really stupid in your new outfit.”
“No, I don’t,” Shannon retorted, and Terrance had to agree: she did look pretty cool. Shannon tapped the rope with her sword. “But you’re going to look really stupid clutching that axe as you fall into lava.”
“Come on, Shannon!” Ter
rance pleaded loudly, stuck near the back of the group. “You don’t want to kill us!”
“No, I want to kill you,” Shannon yelled. “The rest will just be with you.”
“Not an amicable breakup, huh?” Donald said.
“It’s still not too late,” Curtis told her.
Shannon laughed. “Oh, what the hell do you know? Hey, Karen, please explain to me what it is that you all are hoping to accomplish.”
Karen hesitated. “Well…I’m kinda new at this. I don’t really get the big picture yet.”
“None of these imbeciles know what they’re doing!” Shannon shouted. “We’re trying to keep order, and you people ruin everything and force us to attack you. Yet you still can’t even begin to understand the power you’re messing with!”
“Well, sure,” Joyce said, laughing. “Only someone backed by a force of immense power could threaten to cut a rope.”
Shannon frowned. “Yes, try to act like this is just a joke.” Behind her, more enemies emerged—Hollow Ones and cavefish. Despina appeared, holding two small figures close to her: Grace and Daniel. Vivian and Curtis gasped.
Despina smiled wickedly. “Any bravado left?”
“Mommy!” Grace cried. “This woman is scaring us!”
“It’s going to be okay,” Vivian said in a calm voice as if merely reassuring her about a spider. “This is just silly adult stuff.” She looked at Despina. “What happened to my parents, who were watching them?”
Despina laughed. “The rules are changing. You can’t keep anyone safe.”
Terrance was horrified. He had to do something, but there was little he could do, stuck near the back of the rope bridge. “This is what you want to be a part of, Shannon?”
“This is all there is!” she shouted back.
“So do you surrender, concerned parents?” Despina cooed.
“Why?” Curtis growled. “Because you are threatening our children? You and all the Darkness out there threaten our children every single day! This is why we fight, and we will never back down!”
“All that’s changed is that you’re now more direct,” Vivian said, her tone more subdued yet somehow more threatening than Curtis’s. “It just shows how desperate you are. How much you fear us. And I assure you, your fear is well-placed.”
Despina sighed. “Well, you’re quite fearsome, stupidly marching right into our trap. Now we get to execute you in front of these wireless video cameras, which are connected to the worldwide internet. We’re going to be…um…flowing the video—”
“Live streaming,” Shannon corrected her.
“Live streaming the video,” Despina continued, “so everyone around the world will see on their computer monitors what happens to people like you.”
“We knew this was a trap,” Vivian said. “That’s why we always had other plans.”
“We had other plans?” Terrance whispered to Talia.
“Oh, yes, sorry,” she said. “I guess we came up with them while you were out questing, and never told you.”
There were sounds coming from outside. Explosions. Shouting. Despina looked around in confusion. “What’s going on?”
“We know that when the forces of the Darkness act the strongest, that is when you are the weakest,” Vivian said. “So our plan was never simply to free the others and flee. Our plan was to fight—as it is the plan of the other Infinite. You’ve increased your attacks on us to try to get us to cower, but instead we are all here and ready to crush you, ready to march through those gates that your fortress protects.”
There was fear on Despina’s face, and she backed away, still clutching the children. “You fools. You don’t know what you’re doing.” She turned to Shannon. “Cut the rope.”
Shannon made one last bit of eye contact with Terrance, and then swung her sword, severing one of the rope supports. The bridge lurched to one side, and instinctively Terrance moved backward toward the stable ground behind him. He turned to see Joyce make a dive off the bridge onto the ground, and he tried to follow as the other support began to snap. He jumped the ledge and landed right at the edge as the bridge gave way beneath him. He scrambled for something to grab on to as he began to slip off, but Joyce grabbed his arm and helped pull him to safety. Terrance spun around to see the rest of his friends clinging to the bridge as it dangled over the lava.
“Gonna be one of those days,” Joyce said. “Now let’s just help—”
As Terrance began to stand up, he saw movement behind Joyce. “Look out!” he cried as Joyce turned to receive an axe blow to her abdomen. She fell back into Terrance, who helped her to the ground as Chet stood back watching and chuckling softly. Terrance frantically tried to find a spot to apply pressure to Joyce’s wound, but there was blood everywhere.
Joyce grabbed his wrist. “You’re taking this way too seriously.” She smiled, and then went still.
Chet readied his axe. “Now I just need to cut a few more ropes, and you can watch the rest of your friends fall and burn.”
The captured children, his friends dangling over lava behind him, Joyce’s dead body—it was hard not to take seriously. In fact, it was overwhelming. But out of all the emotions boiling inside Terrance, one won out: anger. And he had someone he was quite ready to take that anger out on. He stood and drew his borrowed sword, yelling as he charged at Chet. Chet surprised him with a backhand, knocking him to the ground.
“Pathetic,” Chet chuckled. “By the way, Shannon is very sad about how things ended with you.” He faced the end of the rope bridge and raised his axe. “Sad and looking for comfort.”
Terrance stumbled back to his feet as Chet’s axe fell. He swung his sword at the axe head with all his might, and the clash of the weapons knocked him back, but the path of the axe was deflected enough that it struck the ground, missing the rope by less than an inch.
With a quick glance down, Terrance could see that the others were still uneasily climbing up the dangling bridge. He looked back at Chet, who towered over him with the giant axe, poised to strike. He was speaking again, some sort of mocking, but Terrance wasn’t listening. He was concentrating on one thing: he was going to kill Chet.
Terrance ran at him, and Chet swung his axe. Terrance ducked under the arc of the blade and swung his sword at Chet in response, but Chet somehow positioned the metal axe handle so that it blocked the blow. He shoved Terrance with the axe handle, knocking him back to the ground, then swung at him again, but Terrance rolled out of the way and the axe blade embedded itself into the stone. Terrance saw his chance and sprung to his feet, swinging his sword as hard as he could at Chet’s head. And it connected…with a useless clang.
Chet laughed as he freed his axe from the stone floor and stood up straight. “How am I to withstand the power of the Infinite?” His laughing was interrupted when he had to quickly block a blow from Talia. Terrance glanced back to see Donald scrambling up, as well.
“There’s a battle outside,” Chet said as he backed away. “I’ll see you out there.” He headed behind the cells and disappeared.
Terrance looked at Joyce lying dead on the ground, then at the sword in his hand. “I couldn’t even pierce his armor. I don’t get it. I can’t even—”
He was interrupted by Talia’s smacking him across the cheek. “Stop whining. You kept him from cutting the bridge. Good job.”
Terrance and Donald went to the dangling bridge and helped the others climb up. They were soon all safely on the ground, looking uneasily at the corpse of Joyce.
“They’re going to kill us, aren’t they?” Karen asked, cradling her axe.
“They can only harm us in this world, nothing more,” Curtis said. “But they can never defeat us. Not when we fight.”
It sounded like a fierce battle outside, with shouts and explosions. “We need to join the fight,” Vivian said. “We need to”—her confident facade cracked, and tears welled in her eyes—“rescue Grace and Daniel.”
Curtis rushed to her and held her tight. “We will.”
“This is the day the forces of the Darkness will know defeat,” Felicia said.
Talia bent down and gently closed Joyce’s eyelids. “Evil knows defeat every day on its march toward destruction.” She stood up and drew her sword. “But today they no longer get to hide from that fact.”
Chapter 40
They quickly found an exit on their side of the dungeon behind the cells.
“We need to find our weapons,” Erica said.
“They’re never far,” Curtis replied. They were soon in a hallway, and there was one door to their left. Curtis opened it, and inside was an armory filled with swords and maces, all black in color with jagged edges, basically screaming, “Hey! Look at me! I’m a weapon of evil!” But there was also a chest, which Curtis proceeded to open. “And here they are.” He handed swords back to Travis and Erica, along with Erica’s bow.
“So I’m the only one with an axe?” Karen asked.
“That just means you’re special,” Felicia said.
Terrance peered into the chest. “My sword wouldn’t happen to be there, would it?”
“You lost your sword?” Curtis asked.
“Um…yeah. I’m borrowing one of Talia’s.”
“Well…” Curtis patted him on the back. “I’m sure it will turn up.”
Terrance peered into the chest. “What about”—he hesitated—“Joyce’s sword?”
Curtis had a melancholy smile. “It’s not there.”
They headed back into the hallway, up some stairs, then down another hallway until they came to the entrance of the fortress. There, the large, wooden front doors were open, revealing the scene outside. Everywhere there was fighting, as men and women clashed with opponents in black armor. But for each fighter that appeared to be one of the Infinite, there seemed to be five of the enemy. In the dark, cloudy sky, Terrance could see the silhouettes of many chimeras and a few griffins flying about. Every so often he saw fireballs stream by, and he assumed they didn’t come from his side.
Sidequest: In Realms Ungoogled Page 31