by Ramy Vance
Now that the Dark Gate Angels were out of the pit, they continued through the dungeon, watching for more traps along the way. Abby was able to spot a few that had been placed on the ground, allowing them to avoid a repeat of earlier.
As they walked through the dungeon, Terra shuddered. She wasn’t a fan of caves—not enough room to stretch out. Also, the idea of dying underground seemed much worse than out in the open air.
Probably too many horror movies. That and underground was one step closer to hell.
Terra wasn’t and had never been a religious person, but she’d heard enough stories from her grandmother about psychotic imps with pitchforks fighting each other for a chance to rip you apart for all eternity. As she thought about the prospect, it didn’t seem that much more frightening than what she’d seen since joining the DGA. There was still an initial fear in there.
She dealt with this by joking with the DGA. Most of the jokes were an attempt to get under Anabelle’s skin. Ever since the elf had developed a double consciousness (Terra still wasn’t sure on the details of that), she’d been considerably calmer and more aloof. That didn’t mean it was impossible to rile her up, though. And it felt like you really earned it by then.
The jokes also seemed to keep Anabelle out of her own head.
Since their last mission, the elf had developed the unsettling habit of staring into space quietly for long periods of time. Jokes helped ease the tension, which was exactly what they needed right now.
Truth be told, Terra also needed the distraction. This place gave her the creeps. “You guys ever think about hell?” she blurted.
Anabelle gave Terra a bemused look over her shoulder. “No. Elves don’t have a concept of hell. As far as I know, it’s a human idea, but more power to you. No one would ever say you don’t all have great imaginations.”
Abby shook her head as she came up to a ledge and peered over it. “Can’t say that we do. Ma and Pa didn’t care for religious talk, and anyplace that fits the Judeo-Christian definition of hell is more than likely just another realm.”
That thought hadn’t crossed Terra’s mind. She was still foggy on how the realms worked. Were they stacked on top of each other, or spread out, or alternate realities? Thinking about it too much made her head spin. “Wait, so you’re saying hell could be, like, another dimension or something?”
“Easily. We have reports of interdimensional creatures that don’t belong to the nine realms. There could be an infinite number of dimensions. One of them is bound to have a place with fire oceans.”
Anabelle tossed out a rope and started to climb down the ledge, descending farther into the dungeon. “What’s with all the afterlife talk? That whole thing with Myrddin freaking you out?”
Terra climbed down after Anabelle. “No, not really. Just thinking. I used to like stories about underworlds. You know, Greek myths and stuff like that. And I loved the Hercules story. That guy was hot.”
Abby, who was above Terra, snorted. “How do you know he was hot? All you heard were stories.”
Terra landed at the bottom of the ledge and caught Abby, who let go of the rope and fell into Terra’s arms. “Being hot isn’t only about looks. You can read a story and know a character is hot.”
Anabelle coiled the rope and pointed down the hall, where there was a flickering light. “I better be the hot one in my story. It should be painfully obvious.”
They headed toward the light as Terra groaned. “You’re hot, Anabelle. You used to be a model.”
“Yeah, but if I were in a story, I’d want it to be very noticeable to the reader that I am extremely hot.”
“They might think her freakishly big head is a little off-putting,” Terra whispered to Abby.
Anabelle’s ears twitched slightly. “I heard that.” The elf raised her hand and stopped walking. “That’s not all I heard. There’s something up ahead.”
Terra unsheathed her axe and stepped ahead of Anabelle and Abby. “I should probably go first. You two are looking a little squishy.”
Anabelle stared at Terra, aghast. “Squishy? Excuse—”
“I meant I can probably take the first hit if it comes to that.”
The elf looked barely able to tolerate Terra’s answer. “I’m not infirm, but please, be my guest.”
The three made their way down the narrow tunnel. The walls were covered in prison cells.
A wheezing sound was coming from one of the cells to the right.
Terra took a deep breath and opened the cell.
A small man sat on the floor. He wore a red-lined black cloak and a top hat. Two daggers laid on the ground next to him, as well as a blunderbuss, which was connected to the man’s left arm. He looked up at Terra as she walked into the room. The bottom half of the man’s face was covered by a black silk scarf.
He had weary eyes. “Oh, I see you have found me.”
Terra lowered her axe as Abby and Anabelle stepped into the cell. “Are you okay?”
The man coughed as he leaned forward. “The world is not okay. Neither are the realms. What is one man in this chaos?”
Terra gave Anabelle a look. “Uh, do you need help?”
The man shook his head as he tried to lift his arm. “No, this is my lot. Some of us are doomed to the cycle of repetition. Not all are the heroes of their own stories. There are some of us who are…merely a dream, ash floating in the wind. But enough of me. What brings you to my tomb?”
Terra pointed at Anabelle. “That would be the boss lady’s department.”
Anabelle stepped forward. “We’re searching for the main chamber. There’s an important item there I’m trying to locate.”
The man looked up. “You seek the main chamber? Then our goals are one and the same. I hope you find it easier than I did.” He sighed and leaned back against the wall. “Good luck.”
“Do you know where it is?”
The man did not answer. After a few seconds, he began snoring.
Abby knelt next to him. “Well, that was very From Software.”
Anabelle and Terra exchanged glances.
Abby threw her arms up in frustration. “You guys don’t play D&D, and you don’t play videogames? What do you do in your free time?”
Anabelle crossed her arms as she tapped her foot. “Not all of us are sixteen, Abby. Now, come on. We should keep going.”
“Shouldn’t we help him or something?”
“What do you usually do in your videogames?”
Abby’s brow furrowed as she thought. “Uh, an NPC that’s dressed this well usually shows up at another story beat. Generally when the player needs something or—”
“Forget I asked. We’ll check up on him when we finish all this.”
They left the cell, making sure the door was wide open in case the man woke up and felt he had the strength to leave. Then they continued down the hall until they came to a door, covered in fog and smoke.
Anabelle stared at the fog. “Guess this is where we’re supposed to go.”
Terra walked to the door and poked her finger into the fog. “Ominous. I think the rational thing to do is not to step into the foggy underworld. Silent Hill, anyone?”
Anabelle nodded in agreement, causing Abby’s eyes to widen with shock. “Wait, you’ve played Silent Hill?” she asked.
“Huh? Video game? No, that was a movie and a damn good one too. We watched it last week,” Terra replied.
The elf disagreed. “If you could even call it a movie. Two hours of fog and cults. Hardly entertainment.”
Abby threw up her hands in frustration. “Forget we even said anything. Come on, let’s see what’s on the other side.”
She stepped through the fog, and Terra and Anabelle followed.
As Terra stepped over the threshold of the door, the fog disappeared. The three of them had walked into a room with steel grates for a floor. Under the grates were flames, occasionally shooting up in giant blasts. “So, we try not to get burned?”
Terra walked farther into the room. Benea
th her feet, she heard sizzling, and she jumped to the side as a wall of flame shot up. “If you hear a hiss, that means you’re about to be barbeque.”
As Terra spoke, a black creature slunk out of the shadows across the room. The pitch-black dog had mangy fur and stood nearly ten feet, its rotting jaw hanging by tendons. Red eyes peered out of the tangled fur.
Abby readied her cannon, her nanobots providing her sleek metallic armor. “That thing is going to attack us, isn’t it? So, we glad we didn’t waste those energy reserves?”
Terra drew her axe. “Don’t start congratulating yourself until the thing is dead.”
Anabelle took a traditional Traveler fighting stance. Terra looked at her. “I thought you said you were running on empty?”
Energy crackled around Anabelle. “Not on empty, just not on full. We should be able to take a dog down. Killing blow gets to pick the next movie or show.”
Terra took off running. “This one’s mine! I can’t watch any more anime.”
Abby blasted off after Terra. “We resent that.”
The dog ran toward the DGA, showing a considerable amount of speed for something that large.
Terra collided with it and punched it in the jaw, sending the dog stumbling backward. Abby opened fire, peppering the dog with plasma blasts.
“No fair,” Terra shouted. “You get like a thousand shots.”
As the dog stumbled backward, Anabelle leapt and landed on the dog’s chest, driving her flaming hand into its sternum.
The dog let out a loud yelp and lay still.
The three backed away. “Damn, that didn’t make me feel good.”
There was a hiss from the grates below and the DGA members stepped to the side, easily avoiding the flames. “Maybe we are too strong to be doing dungeon runs,” Anabelle suggested. “That’s good to know. Come on, let’s find a way out of here.”
The three of them split up and started to look through the room, occasionally stepping to the side to avoid getting roasted.
Flames flashed up around the dog and it started to twitch, its back legs kicking as if it were in a dream. It then began wheezing harshly.
Terra heard the dog and turned to see what was happening.
The dog’s shoulders bulged as if they were filling with pus and it got back to its feet, swaying as it whimpered under its breath. Then its shoulder ripped open, bone and blood flying as a head on both shoulders forced itself out from under the dog’s skin.
One of the heads snapped at the others before all three growled and turned their attention to the DGA.
Terra smiled. “You know, I was hoping there’d be a dragon or something.”
Anabelle came over to join Terra, as did Abby. “You’ve already fought a dragon. What’s the big deal?”
Terra sized up the three-headed dog. “Dragons are more fun.”
“More fun than Cerberus?” Abby asked.
Cerberus threw back his three heads and let out a loud howl before breathing fire from all three mouths.
Terra whistled as she and the rest of the DGA stepped to the side to avoid the fire flaring beneath them. “Okay, this looks like it might be fun.”
Chapter Three
Fire began spouting from the grates with increased rapidity as the DGA agents split up, making room for Cerberus. He was now bounding around the room, snapping at whichever agent was closest to him.
Abby stood in the corner of the room, checking her nanobot count. She was worried about engaging in combat. Both Martin and the nanobot consciousness had reassured her that this level of strain on her body was acceptable.
That didn’t keep her from freaking out, though.
She hadn’t felt this frozen since the first time she’d been in a fight. Even then, it had been nothing like this. Abby had quickly skipped over being afraid and been enthralled with her strength. There was nothing here but fear.
Across the room, Terra was trying to close the space between her and Cerberus, but she wasn’t doing a very good job. She looked like someone trying to catch their runaway dog, with the added ridiculousness of attempting to dodge fire bursts.
Anabelle, much like Abby, was hanging back from the fight, launching projectiles of fire and ice—something the girl hadn’t seen the elf do much. She wondered if Anabelle was having the same problem she was.
It was apparent why they were doing a dungeon crawl now. The teamwork they had worked so hard to solidify was gone. This fight consisted of a giant, ferocious dog and three teammates who were too uncertain of their strength to fight. Well, it can’t turn out too bad. We’ll get the hang of this.
As Abby thought that, the grate beneath Cerberus exploded, setting the dog’s tail on fire. Cerberus screeched in pain, his eyes becoming a darker red, and he turned to face Abby. Whatever the dog needed to push him into high gear had obviously happened.
Cerberus bolted at the girl, who was in a corner. The grates beneath her began to hiss.
Abby leapt to the side, managing to keep from being engulfed in flames as Cerberus landed in front of her.
The hellhound snapped at Abby, who rolled to the side and fired instinctively. Part of her kicked herself for wasting ammo. The other, more rational side, acknowledged that this was the exact situation she was supposed to be using her ammo for.
The plasma blast hit Cerberus in the chest, giving the girl space to get away. The blast had not been enough to do any real damage. She was still afraid of wasting power, being uncertain of how much her body could handle.
Terra came in from the side and tackled Cerberus, giving Abby even more space for a getaway. “Come on, kid. We got to take care of this thing.”
Abby fired again as she backed away. “I know! I’m just…”
One of Cerberus’ heads snapped at Terra, who grabbed the creature by its jaws. “Yeah, yeah, I know! But you gotta be a hundred percent here because Anabelle isn’t.”
Abby cast a quick glance in the elf’s direction. She was still lobbing bolts, but they weren’t particularly strong or well-directed. She looked as if she were fighting in a daze.
Terra wrestled Cerberus down for a second before the dog flipped around and blasted her with a fireball. She screamed and rolled around to put out the fire, only for the grates beneath her to hiss. “Are you fucking kidding me! Abby, get your ass in gear because we have to deal with this.”
Abby knew what she had to do. She’d been avoiding it so far, but it had to happen. She felt herself receding into herself. “Abby” became less of a construct, instead infused with the other aspect of her mind now: the Consciousness.
She felt herself calm down, another voice in her head directing things.
The thrusters on Abby’s feet fired and she was up in the air, away from the grates, taking in as much visual information as she could process.
She headed toward Cerberus and slammed into his side, sending the dog flying.
Before he hit the ground, he roared in anger, and one of his heads hit Abby in the chest.
She fell out of the air and rolled as the grate beneath her hissed.
Terra pulled the girl up and tossed her across the room, away from the flames that burst upward. Then she turned to face Anabelle. “Hey, anytime you want to get in on this, you’re more than welcome to.”
Anabelle looked at Abby, her face white and gaunt, her eyes bulging from her skull. Her lips trembled, but she said nothing as she wove another ineffectual energy blast.
Terra didn’t spend any more time on the elf, instead focusing on Abby. “Hey, kid, this is all us today. Can you hang?”
Abby slammed her hands together, forming a larger energy cannon. “We can hang.” She fired a plasma blast.
Cerberus leapt out of the way, skidding on the grates as a wall of fire shot up underneath the dog, scorching his bottom and setting him aflame. He screeched in rage and pain as he ran around the room, his long tail tossing sparks as his heads lobbed fireballs.
Abby took to the air again, trying to avoid the fireba
lls in the small, enclosed space. “This is like a really bad boss fight.”
Terra dodged a fireball coming her way. “The nerd commentary isn’t helping, Abby!”
The girl fired another series of plasma blasts at Cerberus, who easily stepped out of the way. He deliberately stepped through the flames from beneath the grates, increasing the burning on his body. “Okay, well, what can we do to help?”
“I don’t know. Kill the fucking dog!”
Cerberus jumped, closing the distance between itself and Terra, and knocked the orc chieftain to the ground. Two of the heads barked, while the middle stretched its jaws open to swallow her whole.
Two quick slashes crossed Cerberus’ snout. The dog roared in pain and reared up on its hind legs as something scooped Terra up and moved away from the monster.
The cloaked man held Terra. He dashed over to Abby, moving nearly too fast for her to see.
The girl helped Terra to her feet while casting a mistrustful eye on the cloaked man. “We thought you were at Death’s door.”
The cloaked man stood to his full height, his daggers gleaming. “When you’ve been here as long as me, you’re always at Death’s door, but the door stays closed unless this is the place you’d like to open it. Now, are we fighting?”
Abby nodded as she took aim at Cerberus. The grates beneath her hissed and she took to the air as Terra and the cloaked man put some distance between them and the fire that erupted.
The cloaked man dashed forward, once more moving nearly too fast to see, and slashed Cerberus’s face.
The dog reared to attack and the cloaked man switched to his blunderbuss, firing twice. Cerberus stepped back, giving the cloaked man room to move.
Abby fired at Cerberus, forcing him to retreat for a moment. The grate beneath her exploded with flames, and she leaped into the air. “This is totally a From Software fight!”
Terra was running at Cerberus, her axe raised high. “Abby, that means nothing to me unless it helps kill this thing.” She slashed at one of Cerberus’ heads.
Before the axe could connect, Cerberus’ neck began to jolt and shiver. All three of his heads shot up, their necks stretching to a grotesque length, now so heavy that they drooped to the floor like snakes.
