Steamforged Sorcery - Chapter 32 (Patreon)

“You’ve lost it,” Cowl said, drawing his sword. “I am not about to die for a few Vei.”

“They did say they wouldn’t kill you if you don’t fight back,” Vanessa said, swallowing. “I don’t think you guys have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” Angel said, fitting a new canister into his arm. He aimed it at the ground a short distance away from them and fired. A blast of ice slammed into the sand, spiderwebbing outwards and turning a cone of ground white.

The ground rumbled faintly. Grains of sand at their feet started to shift and churn. Angel hopped off his board, attaching it to his back. Vanessa stumbled and caught herself on Cowl’s arm.

“What’s going on?” Vanessa yelled.

“I’ve got the same question,” Cowl said, steadying the girl and glancing at Angel.

Ropes dropped down from the ship and Vita started to slide down one of them. “A shame you don’t want to join, Angel. For the sake of time, I’m going to assume that you’ve got no interest in handing the girl over?”

“I’m afraid not,” Angel said. The ground started to churn even stronger, becoming visible from the railing of the chopper. The bandits called out warnings to Vita, who stopped midway down the rope.

“What have you done?” Vita called down, his eyes widening as the sand beneath their feet started to sink.

“I’ll be seeing you around,” Angel called up to Vita, a smirk crossing his face. “I wouldn’t bring your chopper down here if you want to keep it, though.”

The sand beneath their feet split. Sand cascaded downwards as an enormous, dark maw opened up below them. As the three fell into the hole, Angel raised his hands in one of the few hand gestures that hadn’t been lost since the Great War. The last thing Vita saw of Angel before he was swallowed by the darkness was the Seeker’s two middle fingers.

Angel twisted midair, grabbing Vanessa with one hand and Cowl with the other. Someone was screaming, but it was hard to tell who over the violent howl of the wind. The moonlight trickling into the hole above them was rapidly fading as they descended deeper and deeper into the earth.

“I hope your wings can hold three people!” Angel screamed. “And now would be a good time to turn them on!”

“They’re already on!” Cowl screamed back, his mechanical voice crackling and popping. Judging by the speed of the wind howling past them, Angel wasn’t confident that they were getting slowed much at all.

As the moonlight grew fainter, new dots of light swam to life beneath them. Unfortunately, they were moving too fast for Angel to get a good look at them.

A hum rose up in the air around them. Angel’s skin prickled as a wave of green energy tore passed them. A deep, bone shaking thrum followed after it. The three of them started to slow, spinning helplessly as their surroundings seemed to grow thick.

Their fall turned to a float as they neared the ground. When they were only a few feet above it, the strange thickness vanished and they fell the rest of the way. Angel twisted and landed on his feet, his head spinning. Cowl and Vanessa touched down beside him.

They stood in a large circular stone room. A dozen glowing green runes had been carved into the floor. The light within them dimmed with the passing seconds until it had completely blinked out.

“Well, that worked.” A spark of magic rose to Angel’s palm, illuminating the room with faint blue light. His voice echoed eerily.

“Where are we?” Vanessa asked.

“A Great Catacomb,” Angel replied, slapping his face gently to try to bring some feeling back into it. “I told you that I had things covered. Unlike normal catacombs, Great Catacombs are drawn to magic. They collect artifacts, so I figured blasting the sand with a bunch of magic would help bring it closer.”

“How did you know there was one here in the first place?” Cowl asked, brushing some of the sand off his clothes.

“Someone told me about it in Silver Sands,” Angel replied. “About five seconds after I promised them I wouldn’t seek it out. Oops.”

“Well, at least we’re safe,” Vanessa said.

Both Angel and Cowl turned to look at her. She took one look at Angel’s sheepish expression and let out a sigh. “We’re not safe, are we?”

“Not in the slightest,” Cowl said. “We might actually be in more danger than before. There’s a reason those bandits didn’t follow us down here.”

A loud thud echoed down through the giant hole above them. The faint trace of moonlight streaming through the entrance above them vanished with a note of finality.

“Well, at least we’re still alive right now,” Vanessa said, bringing a small spark of magic to her fingers to help Angel illuminate the room. “How do we get out of here? There is a way out, right?”

“There is,” Angel said, nodding. “It isn’t going to be easy, though. Do you know anything about Great Catacombs?”

“Not in the slightest,” Vanessa said. “I know what normal catacombs are, though. That’s where Seekers to go find artifacts, right?”

“Yeah,” Angel said, nodding. “A Great Catacomb is essentially the scaled up version of that. They’re usually attempted by groups of talented Seekers, and the treasure they’ve got is significantly rarer than what you can normally find in a catacomb. As I mentioned before, that’s because they actively seek out magic.”

“So… on a scale from one to ten, how dead are we?” Vanessa asked. “Rare stuff probably means stronger, scarier monsters.”

“It’s hard to say for sure,” Angel mused. “A Great Catacomb can range a lot in how dangerous it is. I’d normally do a lot of research before I’d ever even consider attempting one. Some of them aren’t much harder than normal catacombs, and others… well, there’s a reason that Seekers have such a high fatality rate.”