Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  After that, they could only wait, letting their mana and stamina slowly regenerate.

  “Daniel, once the corrupted breach, mark their mana cores and Najima using my HUD and then push that data to Julia and Kyyle. They’re going to need it.” The AI just pulsed once in response.

  They didn’t have to wait long.

  Soon, a repetitive thump vibrated along the far side of the earthen walls, the sound growing more insistent. Cracks began to form in the barrier, just tiny slivers at first, but growing larger with each blow. Finn saw the first layer beginning to break apart with his Mana Sight.

  “Here they come,” he said, his voice echoing in the large chamber.

  The first of the corrupted came crashing through the last wall of earth. It immediately lunged at Julia but was intercepted by twin beams of molten energy that rocketed from the two turrets mounted along the ceiling. The energy sliced cleanly through its legs, and the mech smashed into the ground.

  Julia capitalized on that opportunity. Her lance snapped forward and telescoped outward in a flash, neatly puncturing the mech’s cores and Najima in a rapid-fire series of blows. As its cores fractured, fire spilled forth, exploding outward and ripping its body apart. The shrapnel slammed into the next mech emerging from the hole, sending it hurtling into the nearby wall where its body crumbled to the ground. An instant later, a spike of earth carved through its cores and Najima.

  More of the corrupted were already pouring through the entrance now. Several lunged toward Julia, and she activated her shield, a blast of air shoving the creatures backward. A pinpoint strike and one of the cores began to fracture again. Kyyle pulled a wall of stone from the floor, curving the barrier and concentrating the blast back toward the entrance, sending a fountain of flame and shrapnel barreling back down the hallway toward the corrupted that were now swarming up the tunnel.

  Finn grimaced. Those numbers couldn’t just be the ambient corrupted they had passed. There were far, far too many of the multi-colored creatures swarming down that hallway. It seemed the rest of the corrupted had finally caught up with them.

  And then there was only the fight.

  A snap of a lance, and the occasional blast of air mana. Earthen walls that tripped some of the corrupted and shielded the group from the blasts of detonating cores. Beams of molten energy speared from the ceiling every few seconds – the rays leaving a trail of partially melted metal limbs in their wake.

  Finn tugged at his daughter’s armor with his fingers, pulling her away from the claws of one of the creatures. Another gesture added some force to the sweep of her lance as Julia used it like a club to smash apart another creature’s legs.

  The seconds ticked past ever-so-slowly, the fight seeming to stretch on endlessly as the group was slowly being forced farther and farther into the chamber, even as they desperately tried to push forward – to maintain that narrow chokepoint and avoid getting overwhelmed. Finn could see that the turrets in the hallway had come online, beams cutting through the mechs with abandon before they could enter the room. But that barely slowed their onslaught, a wave of screeching mechanical limbs and decayed flesh rolling forward.

  They were fighting a losing battle. Destroying a limb only took a mech out of commission for a few seconds – long enough for them to repair themselves or continue clawing their way forward with their remaining limbs. And the mechs seemed to be adapting, protecting their cores even if that meant sacrificing an arm or a leg.

  “Wards have been fully charged. Access from the fire section granted. Central Forge Chamber door opening has commenced,” that same voice echoed through the room.

  Finn spared a glance over his shoulder and could see that the blast door was slowly inching open, fire mana coating the length of the portal and suffusing the frame around the door. In his enhanced sight, it looked like a wall of fire now extended outward around the door, stretching through the walls and combining with the colors of the other five affinities, creating a ring of energy so bright and dense that Finn couldn’t even see inside the central chamber. Not that they had much choice anymore.

  It was either enter that damn chamber or die.

  “Back up slowly!” Finn ordered his teammates, and the group began taking ponderous steps backward even as they attempted to keep the corrupted at bay.

  Finn glanced at his UI and saw Kyyle was getting low on mana. “Retreat to the door!” he shouted at the earth mage. “We only need a crack to get inside, and Brock needs to be ready to shut the door once we get through.” The young man nodded and then jogged back to the elemental.

  Julia was a whirlwind of destruction, her body awash in flame, and her reinforced armor allowing her to shake off the claws of the corrupted. Her shield flashed continuously, each wave of air sending the corrupted toppling backward and buying her space to use her lance. She was screaming at the corrupted, a core detonating each time she speared forward with her lance. But even her roar was nearly drowned out by the concussive blasts and the howls of the mechs.

  Despite her ferocity, she was only one person, and the group was still getting pushed back. They would need at least a few seconds to get through the blast door and shut it. As his gaze bounced back and forth between the corrupted and the doorway behind him, Finn suddenly realized what he needed to do.

  He was already moving, jogging back to the doorway.

  “Tell Julia I’m dropping Imbue Fire in five seconds,” Finn instructed Daniel, where the AI floated above his right shoulder. “Then have her fall back toward the door. She’ll need to save enough charges to use her shield’s Air Blast at least once. Otherwise, we risk hurting the others. Now go.” The AI pulsed once and then shot off toward Julia to relay Finn’s instructions.

  He saw Julia nod as Daniel hovered beside her and began the countdown. Julia smashed another corrupted to the side, sending it hurtling into another mech and the pair crashing back into the oncoming wave.

  Time’s up.

  Finn dropped Imbue Fire. The flames wrapping around his daughter suddenly winked out – her movements slower and her blows suddenly holding less force. She was soon sprinting back toward the doorway, dozens of the corrupted converging upon her – their metallic limbs screeching across the stone floor in their frenzy.

  And Finn was already casting. Liquid fire coursed through his veins, and flames began to condense in the air around him, growing thicker with each passing second.

  His daughter suddenly broke through that wall of fire, her skin transforming for just an instant as her natural absorption kicked in, leaving tendrils of smoke curling away from her armor. Then she was beside Finn, her lance looped at her waist and her shield raised.

  “I’ve got you,” she shouted in his ear. “Two seconds, and then I can cast Air Blast.”

  He could only nod. Unable to stop the incantation, his entire focus was devoted to controlling the maelstrom of fire that swirled around him.

  “Release!” Julia shouted.

  Several things happened at once.

  A tidal wave of flame rocketed away from Finn, barreling toward the oncoming horde of corrupted. As the fire touched metal, it superheated the material in the span of seconds, and the mech-human hybrids slumped to the ground as their legs gave way – droplets of metal raining down on the stone-covered floor. But that alone didn’t stop them. They continued to claw their way forward, their knife-like fingers carving furrows in the rock until even that metal had begun melting away, obscured by the flames.

  Finn felt himself jerked backward, his daughter yanking him with a vicious tug before physically tossing him through the narrow gap in the blast door. As Finn hit the ground and slid to a halt, he turned to see his daughter standing in the gap between the door – the blast of air from her shield the only thing holding back the ring of Finn’s Fire Nova from consuming her and forcing its way through the breach. The fires halted as they hit that fan of amber energy, spearing upward where they lapped harmlessly against the ceiling.

  Then the blast do
or lurched back into motion, slamming closed with a final shudder that set the walls and floor trembling and sealed off the room on the other side – and the corrupted with it.

  Which left Finn lying on the ground, his breathing ragged, and his body throbbing. He could hear the gasps of his teammates around him and watched as his daughter’s form slumped to the ground, her stamina finally giving way completely.

  But they were alive.

  And they had made it to the Forge’s central chamber.

  Chapter 27 - Ancient

  The only sound that echoed through the room was the ragged breathing of Finn and his companions and the occasional thump and scratch against the blast door behind them – the sound muted behind several feet of stone and crystal. That scratch of metal had become a hallmark of the Forge and a reminder that they weren’t alone. That many, many of the corrupted had survived that final assault.

  Finn let out a hacking cough, droplets of blood showering the stone beneath him as he clutched at his chest. Each breath felt like he was breathing in fire, the infection refusing to be ignored.

  System Notice: Infection Status

  Continued spellcasting has caused the magical infection that afflicts your body to spread.

  Current Contamination: 45%

  Intact Najima: 4/6

  Stat Loss: -20%

  He was close to losing another Najima – his theory that the infection was spreading to a new node roughly every 13%. He held still, willing that searing pain to subside. The sensation gradually faded but never vanishing completely.

  Despite the pain, he’d do it all again in a heartbeat. It had been worth it.

  They’d arrived at the center of the Forge…

  With that thought, Finn looked up to see that Daniel’s flaming form lit only a small part of the enormous hexagonal chamber at the center of the facility, casting long shadows that stretched across the stone floor. The only other source of light came from across the expansive room, where the blast doors for each section glowed softly. Each door was coated in the mana of a specific affinity, and that energy stretched out through the walls, colliding and meshing to create an unusual multi-colored stream of mana that ringed the chamber.

  With a thought, Finn activated his Mana Sight.

  “Damn,” he muttered only a moment later as he took in the true scope of the room.

  The chamber was at least a few hundred feet across, and the ceiling soared more than fifty feet into the air, creating a curved dome that funneled to a single opening in the center of the room – although he saw no immediate purpose for that shaft.

  Finn could now clearly observe the ring of energy that surrounded the chamber, flowing through the conduits in the walls. They glowed with each of the six affinities – orange, yellow, blue, green, white, and a dense, almost impenetrable darkness. The only exception was the blast door behind them, the fire mana flickering erratically. The energy streaming in through the other doorways also seemed to be increasing, growing with each pulse of mana. Although, he couldn’t be certain what purpose that energy might serve.

  Especially given just how… empty the room appeared to be.

  Finn could feel a kernel of despair coil in his stomach as he watched Daniel’s form flit across that vast expanse, the sensation mixing with the burning ache of the infection. The AI’s flames pushed back at the darkness and revealing a plain level surface that stretched the length of the chamber. Although Finn didn’t need the flickering light from the AI’s form to see that no panels or worktables marred that perfect flat sea of emerald energy.

  “Well, this is anti-climactic,” Julia observed in a dry tone as she slung her shield over her back and holstered her lance. “We haul our ass across the desert, almost get knocked out by druids, lock ourselves in this damn facility with those crazy mech-zombies… and all we have to show for it is a giant empty room?”

  Kyyle was shaking his head. “I don’t get it. There has to be something important in here. Otherwise, why would they go to so much trouble to protect it?” He wheeled on Brock, the earth elemental’s rocky body floating nearby. “Didn’t you say that the facility’s high-level designs and equipment were stored in here?”

  “Indeed, the Forge was designed with security as a paramount concern. The facility’s logs indicate that the most confidential and powerful schematics are stored in this chamber.” A pause and the stones of the elemental’s body ground together. “Although… I have not personally been inside this chamber before, and the logs are unclear as to how those designs are stored. Typically, only the Director and a handful of the staff have access to this room.”

  “Maybe they moved everything?” Julia offered. “Wiped this place clean during the attack and transferred the information and equipment to a hidden chamber?”

  “Then that wasn’t documented in the logs,” Brock rumbled.

  “I mean, it wouldn’t be if they were trying to hide the tech,” Kyyle replied, rubbing at his chin in thought and leaning on his staff.

  Finn could feel that despair and anxiety gnawing at the edges of his mind now. All of that effort for nothing, it whispered. You’ve been sent on a wild goose chase. And you’ve failed.

  Your friends. The guilds. The Khamsin.

  Rachael.

  He clenched his jaw, ignoring that nagging voice and refusing to give in to that familiar despair. Julia’s explanation didn’t make sense – it couldn’t be the answer. Where the hell else would these mages have stored their most valuable technology besides this well-fortified room? No one would go to the trouble of building this underground fortress just to hide their most powerful designs in an out-of-the-way broom closet.

  “We have to be missing something,” he said with a frown.

  Finn hauled himself to his feet with a grunt – that simple movement taking far more effort than before. He wavered on unsteady legs before catching his balance. Then he stalked toward the center of the room, and Daniel retreated to his familiar position above Finn’s shoulder. There had to be something in here. A hidden terminal. A secret storage locker. A hidden compartment along the floor. Maybe some way to bring the chamber’s power online…

  Even as that thought crossed his mind, that same mechanical voice suddenly echoed through the chamber, “Wards have been fully charged, and all entrances to the Forge chamber ARE secure. Minor damage sustained to the conduits from the fire mana section. Repairs completed successfully.”

  Finn wheeled in time to see the blast door they had used to enter the room flare more brightly. The orange and red energy swept through the conduits embedded in the adjacent walls, combining with the mana pouring in from the other sections.

  The corrupted must have managed to damage the door.

  Although, his thoughts were interrupted once again as Finn saw Brock’s body flare with emerald energy, his eyes becoming miniature beacons of earth mana.

  “Supervisor token detected. Activating Forge chamber.”

  Before Finn and his companions could react, the energy flowing through the chamber’s walls erupted in a dazzling display of power. That energy coursed through the room, surging through the walls, floor, and ceiling and bathing the entire space in mana so dense that it began to leak from the neurogem conduits.

  Gusts of wind whipped through the cavern, and tendrils of stone and fire curled away from the walls. A thin veil of moisture drifted up from the floor, the droplets hanging suspended in the air. In the center of the ceiling, light mana pooled in front of that strange vent, creating a miniature sun that was partially eclipsed by the billowing clouds of dark mana that leaked from the stone.

  Finn was forced back from the center of the chamber, squeezing his eyes shut tightly against the blinding glare and swiftly transitioning to Short-Sighted… just in time for his eyes to widen and his jaw to go slack in shock at what was happening inside the room.

  The six affinities pooled together in the center of the chamber, forming an intricate hexagonal pattern of energy along the floor. The desig
n was more than two dozen feet wide, the angles and layers and lines so complex that Finn knew it would take him hours to untangle it – assuming he could even handle staring at the energy with his Mana Sight active.

  As the design was completed, the stones along the center of the pattern drifted apart, revealing an opening beneath the forge that plunged into the depths of the earth. In Finn’s sight, that tunnel stretched on endlessly.

  And something was emerging from that pit…

  A massive flaming hand grasped at the edge of the stone, the fire mana sparking as it touched at the hexagonal design along the floor. With an enormous heave, the creature pulled itself up and out of the pit.

  It was a creature of pure heat and flame, the temperature in the room rising several degrees in the span of seconds. Its body was composed entirely of fire, humanoid arms and legs stretching from its torso, and its head towered more than twenty feet into the air. Amid those flames, Finn could see streamers of a denser substance – perhaps molten metal and stone. The layers of red, orange, and blazing white gave the creature an almost marbled appearance. Those denser metals drifted out toward the surface of its skin, cooling and darkening to form armored plates across its chest and shoulders.

  As Finn looked on, the blazing monstrosity shifted in place, its fiery head turning to face the group. Lances of flame jutted from its brow, forming horn-like columns of fire, and its eyes glowed with blazing energy as it focused its attention on Finn and the group behind him.

  “Oh, shit,” Finn croaked, stepping back quickly and reaching for one of his orbs.

  A quick inspection revealed the following.

  Nar Aljahim – Level ???

  Health – Unknown

  Mana – Unknown

  Equipment – Unknown