From there they were taken down into the substructure of the building. Portions of it had been renovated over and over throughout the years, walls put up to block hallways that served no purpose anymore. A gowards Marta was all that was necessary to deal with these particur blockages. Sonya knew where it was, generally speaking. Doing research about the dungeon’s location ahead of raiding any dungeon was crucial, and more than one might expect. She pursed her lips together as she referehe oldest blueprint of the building, following it down, down, down.
At first, everyone remained rgely silent, no one pig up anything out of the ordinary in the air. The staff that had apahem-mostly to keep an eye on them-had been pleasant enough to expin some of the history of the building, aes and drivel that filled the otherwise unfortable silehe only two people truly on high alert besides Sonya were Marta and Amos. Marta, because she always was, and Amos because he was watg with more and more arm as the ambient levels of mana were spiking higher and higher as they got closer to their destination.
Sonya gnced his way,
He tensed a little a his eyes on his equipment,
She trailed off as they came to a stop ahead of a pair of reinforced doors. They look like they had been installed as part of some kind of fallout shelter ages ago. There was even a wheel-type lo the front. She gowards Amos who nodded and turo the Staff members who had stopped with them at the test obstacle. “I imagi’s about to get fairly dangerous,” Sonya said with a bright smile, “Thank you for the escort.”
It was the dismissal they’ve ever had and judging by the atmosphere, they seemed to take the hint. They nodded quickly areated, heading up the stairs as Sonya took in their surroundings. The space was dark with only the lighting of their own fshlights present to give any sort of illumination. Bare brick walls were covered in faint dampness from the humidity and pipes hung openly overhead, shuddering now and then.
She g Marta and ined her head. Marta nodded from behind the veil that covered her face when she ying the role of Handmaiden and grabbed onto the wheel. There was only a heartbeat of resistance before time and rust cracked and she began to turn it. The doors shuddered when the lock was fully retracted and Marta pced her hand oal, pushing hard. They swung open as if they had been freshly oiled, though the sound of creaking and snappial spoke to just how much force Marta had put behind the shove.
No one paid any attention to it. There was something far more eye-catg in front of them.
In the middle of peared to be an enormous on area set up for a bomb shelter beh the building were a pair of drical pilrs, each of them made of distinct sbs of stohat were stacked on top of one another. Each sb bearing strange and unreadable markings. The markings glowed with an eerie off-blue color that was drowned out by the much more intense light sour the room. A swirling portal made of trated mana roiled and ed betweewo pilrs, its surface bubbling now and then before being ft as a calm sea.
Everyoood in silence, Sonya keeping her mouth shut as the heroes took in the sight. o her, Amos swallowed and took a few tentative steps forward. He gestured to one of the aides who had been carrying a rge box for him. The young man looked at the glowing vortex in fear and Amos turo him with a frown, “Don’t chi out now. You aren’t going in there,” Amos said sharply. The aide swallowed hard and hurried in behind him, setting the box down. Amos ope and revealed a set of drones ly stacked inside.
“Had a feeling I’d need you guys,” He said and with a thought they sprung into the air. He stepped bad gestured towards the portal while the others including Sonya filed inside.
“Will sending them in disrupt it or something?” Marta asked, saying what the others were thinking.
Amos gave her a look, “Leave the sce to the stist,” He teased and shrugged, “It’s stable enough.”
“...enough?” She questioned before one of the drones darted from the formation and raced towards the sheet of glowing energy. It vanished with a sound that was remarkably simir to if it had flown into a body of water, a little spsh. Amos frowhe instant it disappeared.
“What’s wrong?” Bluestar asked.
“Lost e,” He said, drawing a few armed looks from the others. He just shrugged, “No big deal, I instructed it to turn around of its own accord if it doesn’t receive a signal from me within thirty seds. It’ll e out, or it won’t. Either way it’ll take a rec of what it finds.”
The hirty seds felt like an hour before to everyone’s surprise the drone simply came out of the portal as if nothing had happeo it. It floated over to Amos who frowned when it drew close, his eyes flig about as if he were looking at something no one else could see. He g Sonya, “We were right.”
She let out a breath through her nostrils, of course they were, “Expin.”
“There are monsters oher side, lots of them, in a space that looks kind of like this room. There’s even a door at the other end but it’s closed. Also there are… crystals growing out of the walls,” He said thoughtfully, “Glowing crystals.”
Raw, unprocessed mana crystals, worth their weight in gold. She thought mutely, Not that we’ll be taking more than samples from this dungeon. It’s a shame, but keeping up appearances es befetting rich off of it.
“What’s the atmosphere like?” She asked, pig a question that would help put the other’s minds at ease. The heroes were already looking a little unfortable, except for Firestorm. He was gring at the portal with his fists ched tightly.
“Instruments say it’s fully breathable, holy, it’s no different from here. It’s like whatever made the portal recreated this pce,” He said.
Sonya go the aide, “Tablet,” she said, holding out her hand. The aide quickly approached with the tablet taining the current blueprints of the building. She gowards Firestorm and watched his nostrils fre.
He rounded on her, “Dharan,” He said quickly, drawing a few surprised looks from his team, “Those monsters didn’t e from nowhere, did they?”
“My hypothesis is ‘no,’,” Amos said, “Mana is building up ihe portal as we speak, I’ve never heard of anything that just keep taking in energy before, you know, boom,” He said, making a zy gesture of an explosion.
Firestorm tensed and looked back at his team. He made eye tact with Bandit, Lifesaver, and Bluestar. They each looked at him with a mixture of and uainty before squaring their shoulders aing their jaws. Resolve fshed in their eyes. Sonya hid a small smile, This is how heroes are supposed to be, she thought with no small amount of pride.
“We’re going in,” Firestorm said sharply.
Amos coughed, “Are you crazy? You don’t know what to expe there. I’ve only sent a single drone in.”
“Do you know how much time we have until ‘boom’?” Firestorm asked looking the stist in the eyes.
Amos tensed and seemed to resist the urge to turn to Sonya, he bit his lip and shook his head, “No, I couldn’t say how long we have.”
“Then we’re going in,” Firestorm said firmly, “We breathe in there, right? It’s just monsters, what’s the problem?”
“There’s a ton of them, and they aren’t hounds or lurkers,” Amos insisted.
Firestorm shook his head, “After those flyers appeared in Dharan we all figured new monsters would start showing up eventually. We’ll figure it out.”
Sonya narrowed her eyes, Brave, but you’ll regret saying that.
“I’ll e with you,” Marta said, stepping forward. Sonya nodded, Marta o be there, she should be able to fight her way through a majority of the monsters and clear the way. While she didn’t know much about the estimated strength of this dungeon she k wouldn’t have been a match for a mythic-tier like her if it had beeed in time.
“That sounds like a good-” Sonya started before being cut off by Firestorm’s raised hand.
“With all due respect, Miss ovna,” Firestorm said, “Marta is your bodyguard and an honorary hero, she isn’t a member of the guild and she should be here proteg you in case of the worst. You got us here, now please let us do our job.”
Sonya was taken aback, she blinked a few times, startled by the sudden shift in attitude. She g Marta, This isn’t the pn. Marta o… She looked back at Firestorm who fixed her with a stare, his eyes unblinking. She felt the fire in his eyes, the determination. If I force my hand now, I’ll crush his spirit. Tch. She closed her eyes a out a heavy breath, pulling her hair bad crossing her arms over her chest. “Do what you want,” She said haughtily and tilted her head up to look down on him a little from her position, “Don’t you dare die in there. I put a lot of money into you.”
“Sonya!” Marta pressed but she waved a hand.
“He’s n,” Sonya said ftly a her hands fall to her sides, “But promise me you will retreat if things get bad, also, if you don’t e out iy-four hours I will send Marta in after you,” She said firmly, broag no test this time. It was take it or leave it. While she may not be a member of the guild, she owhe guild. They were an iment. She wouldn’t give them explicit orders as promised but she would protect what was hers.
He seemed to catch her meaning and smiled at her, “Thank you,” He said and turo look towards the portal. The rest of his team f up around him. “Let’s go,” He said without ceremony and marched towards the portal. For a moment, a brief moment, Sonya could only see their darkened silhouettes against the glow of the portal. Her mind cast back to the first time she had seen a hero walk into a dungeon, the feeling of awe knowing that they were going to risk their lives for the world. It had been a long time since she’d felt happy to see a hero’s back.
“Good luck,” Sonya said quietly, and they were gone.
–
Firestorm stepped through the portal and out the other side. Just like that guy Amos had said, it retty much a refle of the huge on area for the bomb shelter they’d found the portal in. An arched ceiling hung over their heads made of the same metal as the walls and floor. Their footsteps let off tiny sounds as they gnced around, taking in their surroundings. It was surprisingly well lit, pared to the room before. That was thanks to the blue crystals glowing out of every wall.
Bluestar gowards one clump of them and made a face, “Mana. Those stones are full of it, but it feels i.”
“They won’t blow up if we actally hit one, right?” Bandit asked.
“I don’t think so, no, but once we up we should probably take a sample baiss Sonya, she would appreciate that I think,” Bluestar pointed out.
“Agreed,” Firestorm said as he sed the room. “Where are these mohat Amos was talking ab-” His words were cut off when he spotted the hunched creatures standing just outside the area of the crystal’s glow. They had red skin and were all but naked. Long ears pointed out of the sides of their malformed heads and tiny nub-like horns protruded from their brows. Long noses hooked down towards clovetached to goat-like legs. Their tiny hands were decorated with long, vicious looking bails that had been sharpeo points.
“Is that…” Bandit muttered, tilting his head to the right beh his hood.
“A devil?” Lifesaver grunted, “Looks like a picture I’ve seen.”
“Looks more like a goblin to me,” Bluestar said, getting a few looks from the others. She frow them, “What? Goblins don’t have to always be green.”
“Uh… horns?” Bandit pointed out, holding his fingers up at his temples. “Hooves?”
“Guys,” Firestorm said sharply, drawing them out of their bickering. They all turo him and then towards the creatures. The devils were all looking at them, their huge eyes glittering with nothing short of bloodlust and malice. They bore their teeth, razorbdes that made Firestorm think of Kingshark. His expression fell into a frown and fire erupted onto his hands as he stepped forward. “Crowd formation.”
Bandit immediately shifted back a few steps, dang around the portal behind them aing some distance. He seemed to vanish into the shadows, his preseerly gone. Lifesaver put himself directly behind Firestorm, his fiensing and ready to do what he did best. Bluestar stood just a few steps to the left and behind Firestorm, throwing her hands out to her sides and muttering under her breath. A pair of glowing walls formed oher side of them, sheets of magical gss that created a narrow path that lead directly to Firestorm.
Their as were enough to send the creatures inte, they let out shrieks of fury and hatred, babbling ily before swarming out of the shadows and in their dire, the sound of hundreds of cloven hooves creating a cacophony in the room. Fmes began to swirl in front of Firestorm.
“Here they e,” He said, and with a roar, unleashed himself upon them.
–
Outside of the Dungeon, Sonya could only sit down on a folding chair and wait. She closed her eyes and csped her hands together. In the end, this is what she’d wanted. For the heroes to take charge and do what o be done. Even so, it didn’t feel as good as she’d hoped.