Awaken Online- Flame

by Travis Bagwell

  “You’re forgetting about the explosives sitting below us too,” Kyyle replied with a frown, wiping at the sweat and dust that covered his face – evidence that he had spent the last few hours planting the remainder of their mines and fire crystals along the fault line in the glass and rock below them. “I really hope this doesn’t get out of hand. I’m not sure how much of the Abyss we’d destroy if we’re forced to detonate those bombs.”

  “And here I thought you two liked a challenge,” Finn poked at them, earning himself a pair of glares. He laughed softly, before continuing, “Okay, let’s move quickly and quietly. Hand gestures and whispers once we get inside the main chamber. If I sense anything, I’ll raise a signal immediately, and we all freeze.”

  He glanced between the pair. “We good to go?”

  “As ready as we’ll ever be, I guess,” Kyyle grumbled.

  Julia just nodded, the gesture barely visible as Finn dropped his Short-Sighted ability.

  Without another word, the group crept forward down the tunnel and rounded the bend, the darkened passage soon opening into the cavern on the other side. Finn immediately realized that his sight hadn’t done it justice.

  The cavern spanned at least a few hundred feet, the ceiling towering above them. Embedding in the ceiling was a massive cluster of fire crystals. The gems stretched downward for dozens of feet, creating a natural chandelier that cast the entire chamber in varying hues of orange and red light. The flickering and pulsing gems created the impression that the whole cave was on fire. More of the crystals riddled the walls, stretching down through the glass to the cavern floor.

  Where a miniature city stood…

  The buildings were all formed of a thick, milky glass. Once upon a time, they might have been beautiful. Finn could still make out the hint of flowing lines and curves that had once reflected sunlight. They told the story of a city that would have been a marvel to behold more than a century ago.

  What was left was little more than ruins. Most of the homes and shops had been partially melted – walls and ceilings collapsed into solid, malformed hunks of glass. The buildings and streets had been broken and fragmented by the ambient earth mana. From these remains, clusters of fire crystals had sprung, like some sort of magical, gem-like fungus.

  Through the ruined city wound a large river of molten lava, the surface shining brightly. It drifted through the destroyed buildings before its path sent it crashing – over the edge of the glass on the eastern side of the room – a waterfall of fire that cascaded down into the depths of the Abyss.

  “It looks like that might have been the source of the fire mana in the lower levels,” Kyyle observed in a hushed voice, pointing at the waterfall.

  Finn nodded. The magma certainly didn’t look natural, otherwise it would have long since cooled. “Maybe the heat cut through the rock and glass over time and pooled down there…”

  He hesitated. But what had created the river? Finn followed the magma back to its source. It appeared to be running from a massive structure on the far end of the ruined city. Although it was difficult to see at this distance, the building was eerily familiar. The structure was set on a rough hill, elevating it above the remainder of the ruined glass city. The building was roughly rectangular, adorned with ornate and crumbling columns along its front.

  It sure looked like the temple from Finn’s visions, and a glance at their map confirmed the waypoint marker was set near that structure. If that was the Seer’s temple, then that might also explain the source of all the fire mana. Finn recalled Bilel’s description of the basin that rested in what he had referred to as the “great hall.” He also couldn’t help but remember the way Bilel had described the basin draining fire mana from the acolytes…

  That uneasy feeling in the back of his mind grew.

  “Okay, let’s go,” Finn urged. “Remember, slow and steady.”

  Two nods from his companions and the group set off into the cavern. They stepped carefully across the glass and fragments in complete silence, acting in concert to navigate the debris quickly and quietly. After more than a week spent in the Abyss, the movements were natural – a few curt hand gestures more than enough to communicate.

  Soon, they neared the edge of the ruined buildings. Finn scanned the structures and the narrow passages between them carefully with his sight, looking for any sign of something living among the ruins or traps lying in wait.

  The group moved closer to the stream of magma. Flat smooth banks of glass had been formed on either side of the slow-moving river. That made their passage faster and easier than the uneven terrain of the rest of the underground town. They stayed close to the edge of the ruined structures, far away from the magma – both to obscure themselves from sight and to avoid as much of the intense heat as possible.

  Kyyle tapped Finn’s shoulder and motioned at the riverbank silently. Even without words, his point was clear. This river had once been much wider and deeper. That was the only way to explain how it had carved the flat banks in the glass. Whatever was forming the molten river had likely dwindled in power over time. That was some small relief. Although, it was only a token comfort as Finn eyed the clusters of glowing crystal that sprouted around them. There was still plenty of fire mana down here.

  As they stepped farther up the bank, Finn noticed a glimmer of white – like a curtain had been draped across the path. He immediately held up a hand, and the group froze, pushing up against the nearby glass of a ruined building and hiding in its shadow.

  Finn’s eyes traced the glimmering energy. Light mana? he wondered. He’d had little experience with that energy during his time spent in the Mage Guild, but that was the only thing that made sense.

  He followed the fan of white back to its source. It was coming from the building just ahead, a pinpoint of ivory that fanned out in a line toward the river of magma. He gestured for his companions to hold and then crept forward carefully. As he neared the source of the light, Finn finally caught sight of the contraption attached to the ruined glass.

  It was a squat hemisphere of metal that glowed a dark green in his sight. The white light had almost completely obscured the metal casing at a distance. Although, as Finn stooped and inspected it carefully, he could see fire mana in its core, spheres of an even darker green set around that internal cluster, and then topped with a thin metal casing. The white beam shone from a gem attached to the surface, the energy radiating out toward the river in a thin fan.

  It’s a mine, Finn suddenly realized, recognizing the design from some of Kyyle’s schematics and notes. Basically, a form of claymore. That’s an explosive in the center, surrounded by metal ball bearings. Which means this light mana must be a trigger – like a laser trip mine.

  With a grimace, he pulled up his chat log and tapped out the explanation quickly for the others. They soon approached behind him and inspected the device, their expressions grim as they realized what they were looking at. Finn met their eyes and saw the same realization there. This was a bad sign for several reasons.

  First off, it showed that their enemies were rather sophisticated. This wasn’t some homemade pipe bomb fashioned together out of rock and fire mana crystals. This thing was a work of art, carefully engineered destruction.

  Second, and more importantly, it meant that they had been right. At least one of the groups had made it to the vault before them.

  And Finn’s guess was that it was Kalisha. The fighters certainly could have purchased a device like this, but the mine had the same meticulous craftsmanship as the mechanids he had examined on their trip to the Abyss. The only question then was whether the third group was still in play or not.

  Finn typed out another short message. They would go around the mine, searching for other traps as they moved toward the temple. If they were careful, they might be able to catch their opponents unaware. Kalisha had likely expected the mines to alert her to incoming enemies. Although, she probably hadn’t been expecting Finn’s sight.

  One small bl
essing.

  He just hoped that their luck continued.

  With that grim thought, the group circled around the ruined glass building and continued picking their way forward. Now that they knew about the booby-traps, their progress had slowed. They were often forced to deviate from the smooth glass of the riverbank and climb over half-melted rubble to avoid the traps. Each time they found a mine, Finn would stop, pull up his map, and add another waypoint marker. If they needed to retreat, he didn’t want them to blow themselves up accidentally.

  The oppressive heat only made things worse. It was intense, almost a physical wave that pushed against them and weighed them down, making each step and movement that much harder. Sweat beaded on Finn’s forehead, dripping down into his eyes and soaking his armor. The others weren’t in much better shape, constantly wiping sweat and dust from their faces.

  However, less than an hour later, the group had neared the temple on the far end of the cave. With a gesture from Finn, they huddled back into the shadows of a ruined building.

  “Fuck this place,” Kyyle muttered, wiping his face with a cloth from his pack. They had only traveled a few hundred feet, but it had felt like miles – the combination of tension and heat more draining than expected.

  “Rest for a moment. I’ll inspect the temple,” Finn murmured.

  He turned his attention to the large structure, peeking around the rubble.

  Two massive glass doors stood along the front of the structure, although it looked like they had been blasted inward, the rubble creating a rough circular hole. The damage didn’t look natural to Finn. Maybe Kalisha blew them open?

  In contrast, the far end of the structure had nearly been melted off entirely, the glass curving smoothly away to form a massive hole in the side of the building. Through this cavity flowed the magma, draining down the former temple steps before winding its way through the city.

  Finn tried to get a glimpse inside the temple, but his sight became fuzzy as soon as he removed the earth mana in the walls. There was far too much fire mana in the room – the structure shining like a miniature sun. Even when he removed the fire mana, he was left with an orange-tinted haze – as though the heat had so thoroughly permeated everything in the area that it had pushed aside all other mana. He thought he could detect glimmers of blue and green inside, but they were faint.

  Finn grimaced and settled back behind the rubble.

  “So, how does it look?” Julia asked.

  “I don’t see any traps around the doors, but they also look like they were blasted open,” Finn answered quietly. “So, probably Kalisha.”

  “Or the fighters used some crystals to blow them,” Kyyle offered. Finn tilted his head and then acknowledged the point with a nod. It was certainly possible. If they’d figured out how to repurpose the gems, it wasn’t that unlikely that the fighters had too.

  “If we’re lucky, one group managed to kill the other by now,” Julia said sharply, no remorse shining in her eyes at the thought.

  “Or they’re working together,” Finn muttered, recalling the way Malik and Kalisha had joined forces at the edge of the Abyss. “Better a resident than a traveler, remember?”

  They lapsed into silence as they digested that idea.

  Then Julia shrugged, her eyes flashing with anger. “Well, that’s even better. I still owe both of our ‘competitors’ for that little trip down the central shaft. And I prefer to be hands-on with my payback.”

  Finn couldn’t exactly blame her for that anger, his fire mana responding to the spark of vengeance in her eyes and flaring in his veins. If he were being honest with himself, he wouldn’t mind repaying that particular debt either. Their experience in the Abyss had been rocky… to say the least. And they had both Kalisha and Malik to blame for that.

  “Okay, so either one or both groups are here. They also beat us to the vault and laid traps among the ruins. That means they’re likely holed up in the temple, and there could be more defenses in there. How are we going to handle this?” Kyyle asked, posing the question that was simmering in the air.

  Finn chewed on the inside of his cheek. Kyyle made good points. Yet he suspected that there was one more element at play. His thoughts returned to the images he had seen when he had replaced his eyes. After recognizing the ruined temple, he was starting to give the visions a bit more credence. Maybe the Seer had been trying to send him a message.

  One of the visions drifted above the others…

  … a massive circular lock without a key…

  Putting aside cryptic prophecies, his guess was that the vault was located inside the temple. That lined up with the waypoint marker and the story behind how the Abyss had been formed. And yet, everyone kept calling it a vault. And people locked vaults. Finn suspected that whatever was hidden in there was a big deal: something worth protecting. If they had beaten them here, had Malik and Kalisha been able to make it inside?

  That was a damn good question.

  Just like his duel with Vanessa, the victory condition here wasn’t killing the others. It was recovering the relic and getting back to Lahab first.

  Except how were they going to do that?

  Finn’s attention shifted to his companions as he activated his Short-Sighted ability. He wanted to be able to see them – not just the energy that pulsed through their veins. Only seconds later, Finn observed the nervous anger reflected in both Kyyle’s and Julia’s eyes and their tense posture as they gripped their weapons.

  But more than that, they looked like shit.

  Their gear was beat to hell, they were covered in sweat and dirt, and they looked exhausted – mentally and physically. He suspected he didn’t look any better. The robes Abbad had given him were torn and ripped in several places and burned in several more – despite the innate fire resistance. And his eyes were covered in a dirty beige cloth. He imagined he looked like a blind, homeless man, not some sort of avatar of a fire god.

  Finn grimaced, feeling his fire mana fade slightly as doubt crept into the corners of his mind. Their opponents would likely be rested. There was no telling how long they had been waiting in these ruins, but it likely wasn’t a short time given the number of traps. They’d probably had an easier time traversing the central shaft as well. Altair had been clear that the lower levels were far more dangerous. In contrast, their team had been beat to hell and back. They were tired – likely to make a mistake.

  Yet he hesitated at that thought. Maybe he was looking at it the wrong way. They might look like hell, but appearances were deceiving. He’d learned that time and time again in the Mage Guild, using his opponents’ expectations to turn the tables on them. No one ever expected the older man in the novice tunic to put up a real fight.

  And their opponents might be expecting the same thing now…

  They might expect them to be weak and tired, barely holding it together.

  Maybe they could use their appearance and their opponents’ expectations to their advantage. Even as that thought crossed his mind, several more assumptions tumbled into place – a product of a few educated guesses, a mysterious journal, and a series of cryptic visions. That there was a vault. That it was locked. And that his opponents might not have the right key.

  His eyes drifted back toward the river of lava running through the city.

  An idea was starting to form, just a fragile, flickering flame in the back of his mind.

  “Okay, I think I have a plan,” Finn murmured, his attention snapping back to Kyyle and Julia. “But, as usual, you’re both going to hate it.”

  “Of course, we will,” Julia grumbled in mock irritation, the excited grin that tugged at her lips giving away her true feelings. “But, it’s also bound to be interesting.”

  “Not too interesting, I hope,” Kyyle added quickly.

  “I guess we’ll see,” Finn replied with a smile before turning his full attention to Kyyle. “So, I’m curious. Just how good have you gotten at molding stone…?”

  Chapter 45 - Illusory
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  Bilel’s Journal – Entry 147

  I have gone nearly three days without sleep. It eludes me at every turn, the pain and hunger gnawing at my body and mind – demanding and insistent.

  In my desperation, I have taken to smuggling tomes and scrolls from the library, reading them in the evenings when I lie awake and am less closely observed by the others. Despite the hardship I have endured, there is a glimmer of hope. I believe I may have found an answer: a cure for the illness that racks my body.

  Some of the writings speak of relics created by each of the six gods. If the stories are to be believed, they are powerful instruments of magic, capable of performing miracles. And it seems that the Seer has created her own – a relic with incredible healing properties.

  This could be my salvation. I may be able to use the instrument of my enemy against her…

  ***

  “Everyone understand the plan?” Finn asked.

  The group hovered in the ruined husk of a building near the temple. Kyyle had transformed the structure, quietly reinforcing the walls and forming narrow slits so that they could see the rest of the cavern. Given the height of the structure relative to the rest of the ruined city, it offered a good vantage point on the cavern and hid the group from view. The earth mage had then carved downwards, creating a makeshift bunker below the building, and forming a tunnel that stretched out toward the temple to the west.

  “You know that’s only the dozenth time you’ve asked that, right?” Julia replied in a sarcastic voice. “The answer is still yes.”

  “Says you,” Kyyle grumbled, dismissing his last spell. A small blob of stone melted back into the floor – signaling another successful practice attempt. “Your job is easy. I get to do all the heavy lifting here. And it’s going to be my first time doing this in a combat situation. It feels like I’m winging it.”

  “We’ve all been winging it for days now, and it’s worked out okay. Besides, we’ve been sitting here watching you practice for over an hour. Trust me, you’re ready,” Julia retorted, the comment only serving to deepen the worried frown on Kyyle’s face as he stared at the unmoving lump of stone.