Plumes of brown dust drifted from our every step. As Yula caught up, I explained my suspicion about Veegor accessing the throne in the observation room. If he converted his spells into a cannon, we and possibly Hawkhurst would become targets. He’d kept his powers in check throughout the siege, wary of targeting anyone with Reverb. But casting spells through an apparatus like Iremont’s control room allowed him to use his primal spells freely.

  Yula admitted using Scorch to open the control room doors herself, but like me, doing so almost emptied her mana, so she investigated no further. The conversation waned as she pulled ahead. She rebuffed me with Full-Blooded before I fell out of range. Her legs were in far better shape, and she’d reach Iremont’s rusty plateau first.

  My fear of heights wasn’t as intense as my first climb. Seeing Yula ahead grounded rational and irrational fears of falling. And the urgency of our cause gave my brain little bandwidth for double-guessing.

  When Full-Blooded ended, my legs began to ache. I caught glimpses of Uproar’s silhouette while ascending the mountain. Knowing that his legs probably hurt energized me. If I had to suffer, so did he.

  I summoned Beaker, knowing stealth wasn’t a great concern. Once Veegor gained access to the security cameras, he’d see Yula and me. If he targeted my griffon with whatever weapons the mountain possessed, it might serve as a warning shot.

  Charging into combat without a safety net of Anticipate unnerved me, but we’d moved beyond such concerns. Uproar’s flatboat had caused Yula to waste hers—if she paid a price for it, I would make him pay for it. If he squealed about it in group chat, then all the better. The more my opponents respected my powers, the less likely they’d come after me.

  Uproar’s inflated self-worth worked against him. He’d sneak off the mountain if he had any sense. He probably imagined he still played a pivotal role.

  Yula had nearly caught up with Uproar as she reached the plateau. I wasn’t sure if she had Detect Stealth, but I knew she wouldn’t waste time with an elf. Her business revolved around Veegor. I just hoped she didn’t kill Uproar before I got there.

  A hundred yards below the summit, I fell forward on my hands and knees, feeling sick in my chest. It was as if the air in my lungs had somehow soured. A deep noise coming from nowhere and everywhere caused me to reel.

  The ground shook.

  A rumble of a breaking continental crust echoed across the valleys, and a maroon mist rose from the surrounding valleys. I flattened against the mountainside to avoid sliding down. Without Slipstream, I would surely die from downward momentum, for no trees or large rocks below me might stop me from tumbling. I had to save Slipstream in reserve for emergencies.

  I stopped time with Slipstream’s interface to make sense of the confusion. Swinging the targeting reticule away from me, I surveyed the scene. Yula, too, crawled on her belly, almost over the lip of the summit.

  Uproar had likely reached the plateau and stood nowhere in sight. His Stealth mode only complicated things, but the danger of losing my footing felt so great that I couldn’t think about him now.

  Rocks slid and tumbled down the mountainside. When I unfroze time, I could soon look forward to dodging heavy projectiles. By swinging the reticule around, I caught views of Iremont’s valleys—red clouds engulfed Iremont’s base. Was Veegor using his spells against his people?

  I checked my combat log, unsure if clinging to the hillside counted as a field of battle. If so, we’d made the right decision to climb. Blinding red dust and boulders bouncing into the forest put everyone below us in great danger.

  The event gave the army another rockslide to survive. Orcs who’d already crossed the Orga River would testify to the perils of its western banks. I wouldn’t think they’d be eager to visit Hawkhurst again.

  Still using Slipstream’s time-slowing interface, I turned my attention upwards and readied myself for rolling stones. Canceling the effect vaulted the world into motion with a deep roar. Breaking rock echoes across the valley, and tremors shook so hard my joints ached as if jabbed by needles.

  What primal spell was the emperor casting? Earthquake affected the environment, so it counted as a nature spell—this had to be something else.

  Falling boulders weren’t as problematic at only 100 yards from the plateau. I channeled Mineral Mutation to create handholds, making little rungs in the shifting, shaking rock and soil. I belly-crawled through areas too treacherous to scramble on all fours. After losing my grip, I started to slide. Slipstream stopped my momentum and shortened my climb by 30 yards.

  The rocks above me weren’t rolling too fast, so dodging them wasn’t difficult. I scrambled to the top on my hands and knees. If my Cassock of Rewind wasn’t on cooldown, I would have Slipstreamed again and saved myself from the tumultuous obstacle course.

  I cast Detect Stealth when I reached the plateau and saw nothing.

  Standing wasn’t easy because the mountain shook terribly, so I hunched over with my arms wide for balance. A glowing crescent encircled half of the mountain’s base in the northern valley. North? Nothing lay north of us. Veegor’s army had gathered along the river east of us.

  The crescent of beaming light rays penetrated the red clouds. The illumination intensified, and the half-circle of light widened as if spreading. It didn’t look like lava, but the clouds of iron-laced dust made it difficult to see.

  I stood, transfixed by the event, until I realized what was happening.

  Iremont was moving.

  Beyond the shaking mountain ringed with red clouds lay the level 2 settlement of Hawkhurst. I had been wrong about the throne being an observatory or gunner’s chair—it was a driver’s seat. With the roar of crushing rock, Iremont moved south. The altitude and corona of dust made judging the mountain’s speed difficult, but my robe fluttered from a strong breeze. Wind howled in my ears over the rumbling mountain, and I could feel it on my face. The geologic vehicle quickly picked up speed.

  Foothills shattered and erupted into plumes of dust beneath Iremont, leaving a smear of glowing rock in its wake. I didn’t have time to marvel at the scene—I had a job to perform.

  I’d left the group chat open in case Uproar said anything revealing the emperor might crush Hawkhurst. He wasn’t speaking about morale or metaphors when we mentioned crushing Hawkhurst—he had spoken in physical terms.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Uproar For those of you tuning in, I’m riding a mountain headed straight for Hawkhurst. Hey, Fab. I bet Apache sees now that we’re leveling your puny town—but not in a good way. He won’t have walls to cower behind soon, and after the emperor takes his blade, I’ll snatch it for myself.

  Fabulosa Patch, is there truth to what he’s saying?

  Uproar Oh, I’m afraid the high-and-mighty governor is occupied by the moment. He’s sliding down the mountain as we speak. Check your contest interface for updates, folks!

  Duchess Wow. I have to admit, this is exciting.

  Audigger What blade are you talking about? Are you fighting over a magic sword?

  Duchess Linky-link please!

  Uproar You guys are gonna see what making fun of me gets ya.

  Audigger Popcorn is ready. Let’s see who wins!

  Fabulosa Cork it, you guys. Patch, I’m too far away to see what’s happening. Should I come down?

  Uproar And there’s Yula now. She killed Lady Havoc—which is a shame, but she hasn’t seen me yet. She’s creeping up on the emperor. I’ll strike as soon as she makes a move. I hope she was your friend, Fab. Hey, Apache—are you getting all this? Please don’t die before I kill your orc.

  Duchess I may have been wrong about you, Uproar. You’re no weed.

  Audigger Even I have to admit, this is pretty epic. Keep us posted on what’s going on.

  Fabulosa That does it. Patch, if you’re reading this, I’m coming down.

  Uproar wasn’t wrong about not having time to chat. Reeling and deafened by the turbulence, I stumbled across the plateau toward the conical depression of the dungeon’s entrance. After casting Heavenly Favor and Presence, I allowed gravity, at last, to have its due. I jump into the rainwater shaft leading to the cistern.

  Like Santa coming down the chimney for an annual visit, I slid down the shaft, scraping and bumping on its sides along the way. The smoke from my previous visit had roughed its surface, so I fell nowhere near free fall speeds, but I landed hard, tumbling through the cistern’s drain, and spilling directly onto the catwalk. I stopped in a roll, caught against the railing. The game gave me 135 points of impact damage as if I’d fallen. Through the catwalk’s metal grate beneath me, I glimpsed Iremont’s giant magnetic disks spinning as I recovered.

  At the end of the catwalk, the observation room’s doors stood open like curtains to a theatrical drama, one whose cast featured three struggling figures. Veegor had secured himself into the throne. Yula stood behind her foe, garroting him with a bundle of arrows. Uproar stood behind her, cutting through her 380 health pool with unopposed backstabs. Each of his critical hits caused almost 60 damage. At such a rate, she’d almost certainly burned through a 100-point health potion already.

  Yula couldn’t let go of Veegor without letting him target her with spells—and as long as she held her grip, her nemesis could only flail. She had 22 health when I landed a Restore and Rejuvenate on her.

  Uproar turned when her health suddenly changed. Before I could cast another spell, a Spiderclimb buff appeared on his nameplate. He dove out the door, rolled off the catwalk, and disappeared into the machinery below.

  While Yula had Veegor pinned to the throne, he still controlled Iremont. As if a playwright ended the scene on a cliffhanger, the observatory’s doorways shut before I could reach them.

  I knew opening the doors would take too much time and set upon my pursuit of Uproar. Before rolling off the catwalk, I opened Magnetize’s interface to see if I could see where he’d gone, but the arrows showing magnetic pulls stretched to such lengths they blinded me.

  My previous visit to the dungeon had cost me dearly, but I’d learned enough to proceed with caution. My grip on Gladius Cognitus felt strange, and I gripped him tighter than usual. Though I couldn’t tell from Magnetize’s interface, something pulled it downward. The same pull affected all my metallic items, including my rings and Helm of Peripheral Vision. To avoid losing equipment again, I chucked every metallic item into my inventory.

  My character stats plummeted from the loss of gear. Most notably, my health dropped from 400 to 290, and my mana pool dropped from 470 to 320. At 25 mana for every cast of Magnetize, I had little to spare. I reserved my energy to navigate the mechanisms.

  Pruning myself of metal made walking on the catwalk less troublesome, though I couldn’t hear anything over the roar of machinery. Without Magnetize’s interface arrows to see, I levitated carefully downward to avoid colliding with anything.

  Iremont still vibrated from the thronging machinery below, but the rocking, crunching, and lurching had stopped. Not knowing the situation in the control room gave me little time to act. If Veegor lurched the mountain back into gear, the gearbox environment could become dangerous again.

  I retrieved a wooden boffer I’d taken from the battle college.

  Of course, Maestro Dino Marcello de Piane would decree this weapon to be a stouty baton of unseasoned pinewood, but I knew better.

  I would knock Uproar out of the game with a lousy stick.

  Using Magnetize to guide my fall, I landed on the first horizontal surface that wasn’t moving—a huge bracket holding spinning tumblers suspended in the air. I landed so hard that I took 67 falling damage. Casting Restore and Detect Stealth brought me down to 245 mana—only nine more casts of Magnetize before I needed to choose between a health or mana potion.

  Though it felt like the mountain had shifted in neutral, the spinning stone gears had fundamentally changed. Every disk spun into a colored blur, producing glowing plasma. These colored rings marbled into the neighbors they touched, surrounding me with a spectrum of visual effects, making me feel like a mouse inside a Christmas tree. While they produced only a humming noise, they blew the air around, and many felt hot to the touch.

  Detect Stealth revealed no hidden players within spell range, yet the space was so big that my range covered a fraction of the interior. Presence helped reduce the chance of critical hits, but by what degree, I didn’t know.

  To conserve mana, I went analog and crawled along the surface.

  I considered Uproar’s attacks in the control room. He had critically hit Yula for only 60 damage, but I had 290 health and more ranks in combat than he could handle. My prey posed an insignificant risk.

  I jumped to other platforms, avoiding the glowing rings and spinning wheels. Was he hiding and tricking me into wasting my mana looking for him? The possibility seemed a danger until I spotted Uproar below, smashed against a familiar pillar. Rivets in his padded armor pulled toward the giant magnetic pillar above the heat sink. He struggled in vain to unfasten his armor and escape.

  Uproar stopped struggling when he saw my wooden club and lack of metallic gear.

  My foreknowledge of the magnetic trap had saved me. I’d lost Creeper and half my equipment. I had already paid the cost of visiting Iremont—the toll of passage.

  Uproar spoke, but I stood too far away to hear over the engine’s noise.

  The mountain’s screaming and humming slowed as the terrestrial engine slowly wound down. Rings of chromatic energy remained, and the giant wheels still spun, but they almost certainly would stop on their own.

  Uproar spoke again, but I couldn’t hear him over the hum of the great machine winding down.

  I could see realization dawning in his eyes. We both knew Yula had just killed Veegor.

  Ignoring the temperatures radiating from the heat sink below, I lowered myself, readying my club for surprises. Encrusted soot from the rubber elemental still covered the platform, and its dried remains crunched beneath my feet as I approached.

  Uproar grinned in triumph. “I was saying, ‘Come a little bit closer!’” He released two objects from his inventory—a waterskin and what looked to be a toy boat. I’d barely read the name of the Blue-water Cargo Barge before it rapidly grew to lifesize.

  As the artifact ballooned into a full-sized vessel, its metal components tore off. Pieces crushed through Uproar, and he vanished. Metal cleats, pipes, rivets, and cladding peeled off the barge, pulverizing the pillar and nearby wheels. Uproar’s bundle of gear flew into space as the platform snapped.

  The barge’s hull and frame fell apart. Great pieces of timber flew into the rings of spinning plasma. Heavy shafts jammed into Iremont’s spinning wheels, dislodging them off their axles and wrecking neighboring mechanisms. Other pieces clipped the edges of gears and rocketed into rotating tumblers, which broke and spun off their shafts. The gearbox ate itself in a rapid cascade of destruction.

  Iremont shook once more.

  Going Home

  I added it to an earlier chapter, so here's the link.