The group ran quickly through the hallway, passed their downed foes. There, nearly scraping the ceiling before the ramp up, was a metal automaton. It looked like what Raven had seen on the magical repository, likely found in the vault. The cult had managed to reactivate it and now it was here guarding the way up.

  Dranmir and Mazen instantly went into flanking mode as Firth raised her shield and took position out in front. The automaton raised one of its large arms and struck down at the [Protector], connecting with her shield with a loud gong. This seemed to signal to armed hillsec who slithered out of several corridors. They were all dressed in pure black robes and held crossbows.

  Raven left Firth and Dranmir to handle the automaton as she, Mazen, and Jace split off towards the new opponents. She could hear the clanging behind her as she used her reflexes to dodge the first bolt sent her way. Magic jumped from her fingers, connecting a ball of water with one hillsec’s face, causing him to stagger. The spell wrapped over his face, forcing him to drop the crossbow he held as he clawed at the water.

  Raven staggered a little herself as one bolt cut through her right shoulder. She still made it to her opponent before he could die of drowning though, removing the cast water even as he dropped. She heard a heavy crash of metal on metal behind her followed by a grunt of pain. She didn’t have the luxury of turning as she drove her staff into the chest of the hillsec who had clipped her.

  He grunted but only cast his crossbow aside in favor of a blade. Another bolt flew over her head followed by a cry of pain off to her left. Her focus though was on the man in front of her, his sword clashing with her staff. She blocked him with the strong wood, the metal slicing down along the side. She took one step back to pivot, forcing his blade up with the staff as she snapped a kick into his gut.

  Another set of clangs came from behind her followed by a grunt of pain. She did not like the sound of that as she smashed the sword wielding in the face with her staff. His sword dropped as a few of his fangs slid from his mouth and he toppled to the floor. She kicked the blade away in case he came to before they were done and turned to see how Mazen and Jace were fairing.

  The other hillsec were down as well. One was clearly dead, crumpled in a pool of blood with a ragged wound down his throat and into his chest. Another was alive and whimpering, blood pouring from one eye that had a bolt lodged into it. That’s when she heard the metallic pounding behind her and a call of “Guys!” from Luskis.

  ——————————————

  Chaos. That was all I could think of. While the stone muffled most sounds I could hear screaming echoing up from the ramp. Both sounds of pain and of demonic rage. The velkamir seemed to as well as it pressed closely to me. I didn’t think the hillsec in the room could hear it, too faint for them. The guards just sat in coils, blades tucked at their sides looking bored while Astaril slithered back and forth. I’d lost track of his mutterings again, ears more focused on the battle raging below.

  My own eyes mostly stayed on the high cleric. He was gazing at the mirror from what I could tell. I still held the scanner, the sacred relic that used to sit at the top of it. I wondered just how they had come to believe that such a common piece of technology was sacred, then reminded myself that it was unique here.

  “You!” He said suddenly without turning, “Ramjack. Has there been any further messages?”

  I fumbled to look at the screen which was no longer projecting wide. It still had the same words as before. “He still said that the crystal needed to be contained in stasis.” Even as I said it I knew that would not be happening. This man, the leader of a cult, seemed to live in his own reality. No matter what his fictional god told him he wouldn’t believe it. He only went with his own interpretation of facts.

  As if reading my mind I saw him dip his hand into the pocket of his robe, pulling out a soft cloth bag. Instead of the money most people kept in such things he pulled forth what looked like a shard of the same crystal on the pedestal. He held it up with the cloth, studying it before nodding his head.

  “If touching it has gotten the Master’s attention perhaps this will bring him forth so that we need no prophet to divine his words.” He hissed, offering the shard to one of the three struts I’d noticed on the crystal’s top. Each glowed in turn but when he placed it against one of the side two it stuck fast and the smell of something plant like filled the air. The smell I’d become familiar with from the infected.

  I wasn’t sure how that could be possible. Even if the crystal was a life form it was from a radically different kind of biology from compatible plants. But I didn’t have time to ponder it because when the high cleric pulled his hand away a brighter light erupted from the crystal and shot into the sky. This time it didn’t stop even though it was not being touched.

  —————————

  Raven barely had time to dodge as the fist of the large automaton came down at her. Dranmir and Firth were already on the ground, injured from the machine’s crushing blows. Luskis was doing her best to keep them from bleeding out with her [Healer] magic. The paracrest didn’t want to add to her burden. She had healing magic of her own but right now she was the fastest of the three of them who could keep it occupied while Mazen took stabs at vital gears.

  “Keep it busy!” Jace called. He had stopped firing once he saw the bolts bounce off its body and was fiddling in his pack instead. She didn’t know what he was doing but trusted him enough to let him try out his plan. That just kept her dodging. She also had to keep it from turning on Mazen who had managed to injure it with his blade but was too slow to get out of the way.

  Water filled her hands as she ducked under one swing. She shot it down at the automaton’s feet, having already failed to damage it with one to the torso. The automaton itself lacked a head, being mostly a rectangle with arms and legs. She hoped to unbalance one of those legs with her water and it seemed to work until it landed on one of the hands and turned the foot into a weapon.

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  This time she didn’t dodge in time and got pelted into the wall. If it had been with more force she could have suffered a great deal of damage but as it was the breath got knocked out of her and she felt a rib snap in her chest. She used healing magic to deal with the worst of the damage as she climbed to her feet. The pain still spread across her chest but she could move.

  Close by Firth had come back to her senses and was getting up as well, amid Luskis’s protests. The talloni woman no longer had a shield, it was in a dented heap not far away, but she had a blade of her own. She staggered forward, swinging it at the leg still planted on the ground.

  The automaton, who had been turning towards Mazen, swung back at the [Protector], catching her in the side with another groan of pain. She didn’t budge though, giving Raven time to move around behind the machine and strike at it with her staff. It’s body, while rectangular in shape, also had rotational capability. Even with one leg and hand planted it spun around to strike at her.

  “I got it!” Jace called out. Raven couldn’t see what he was talking about from her position but hoped whatever it was would end this battle soon. The automaton managed to snag her staff and was crushing it even as the human scrambled forth. To the paracrest’s amazement he was climbing up the side of the golem, holding something that reminded her of a copper dagger. It wasn’t until he stabbed it into a spot where the head on this thing would have been had it one that she remembered where she’d seen it. He had claimed it from their bunker expedition.

  Jace held the jeweled top of the rod and let out a long sigh of relief when the automaton stopped moving. “I’m so glad I didn’t sell that..” He exclaimed, dropping down even as Raven went to Firth’s side. The woman was in bad shape, blood leaking from her mouth even as the paracrest used the last of her magic in a healing spell for her.

  Firth coughed a bit, leaning back on one elbow. “I think I’m done for today..” She wheezed, “One more like that and I’m done for good.” Raven was concerned that even without another fight that the [Protector] was in trouble. She looked over at the minotaur and he was slowly sitting up as well. She doubted he could take another fight for a while either.

  “Jace, Luskis, can you please tie up the prisoners?” She asked, wanting to rest a while herself. With the battle over everything was starting to hurt.

  ————————

  The light from the crystal filled the room even though it was focused up to the sky via that returned shard. Even the battle the floor below was pushed from my mind as I stared at the spectacle before me. In my hand the scanner vibrated, but I ignored it as I heard Astaril start to shout. “You fool!!! What have you done?!” He was screaming at Velkcathus.

  “Getting the attention of the Master” The high cleric replied, arms raised in glee.

  The scanner seemed to vibrate even more violently, finally causing me to check on the readout. ‘Why do you fools not listen to me? I’d rather not come over there to stop an incursion.’. It seemed that Velkcathus’s plan was working alright. He had the ‘Master’s’ full attention. So much that whoever it was might come this way. I felt it was a threat though. That coming here would be the end of all of us.

  I remembered the history book I read. About the outsider. The dragon. The one who could crush whole cities alone. That was who was sending these transmissions. If he came I doubted Dacathus would be safe. There was only one thing I could do. I made a choice, one that risked my life.

  Thankfully, something happened even as I started to move that I could not have predicated. A great distraction for the guards. Astaril launched himself against Velkcathus’s back, hissing as he wrapped himself around the larger man. I didn’t wait to see what happened next, I ran down the ramp.

  Astaril and the guards had underestimated my senses. Even though I couldn’t see well in the dim light that made up most of the corridors they clearly discounted my hearing, and my sense of smell. I knew how to get back to the lab, where I knew there was a stasis box present. The only wrinkle in the plan was when I got down the tower ramp I was on the same floor as a raging battle.

  I did not recognize the adventurers who were battling for their lives. Several demons were in the corridors along with gore I could not describe. I did my best to avoid the fights as I followed my nose back to the lab. It smelled so much like me where no where else besides my room did. An easy trail to follow.

  The lab was unsecured allowing me inside without a fuss. I found the box and dumped the book out to make room before rushing it back towards the ramp. The battle was till going on and my ears twitched at the sound of my own name being called but I didn’t stop moving. I bound up the ramp on my long legs, finding that the guards had not separated the two men. Somehow in their tussle the crystal had been knocked over and was now pointed right at the mirror.

  Something was wrong, but I didn’t stop to think what that was as I moved in with the box. I heard crying, screaming, and even begging in the room as I slammed the box down over the crystal on the floor. I did not expect the pulse of power to erupt outward from the mirror as it shattered, sending me flying into the floor and being knocked out.

  ——————————————

  Dreaming. I knew I was dreaming but it looked just like the tower room. The pedestal with the crystal on it. The mirror missing the scanner at top. The scanner laying on the floor nearby. All that was missing was the other people. The little velkamir was there, hooting softly in a pile of pillows.

  I looked around slowly, taking it all in as I tried to figure out why I was there. Another level up dream perhaps? If so what was I being offered levels in?

  The clearest elements here were the mirror, the crystal, the scanner and the velkamir. Everything else in the room got hazier the more I looked at it. As I looked over at the mirror I got a jolt, releasing at last what had been wrong when I was putting the crystal in the stasis box. Mirrors are reflective. That was their nature, and yet the light pouring out of the crystal hadn’t been reflected back into the room.

  I took a step towards the dream version, seeing myself reflected back. I tried to think on what I saw for that split second in the room and the mirror shifted to show me the memory. It was white like the light but something else too. A sickly yellow glow behind it as if showing another place.

  I shivered, backing away from what I saw. I could know what I was looking at if I chose the mirror, but I didn’t want to. Whatever it was could stay a mystery as far as I was concerned.

  I also ignored the crystal. That object had driven the high cleric mad with power. It was an object of temptation, just as the book from the box had been. That left only two clear things in this slowly fading space. The scanner laying abandoned on the floor and the little cub who was now sitting next to it.

  The scanner, an object of technology from my old life. A connection to the powerful outsider who had warned me about the crystal. And then there was the little cub. The velkamir. Cute, potentially dangerous, and all alone. It needed someone to care for it, not a cult to train it to be cruel. As I stared at the thing I knew that I could take care of it regardless of which I chose but, that if I took this path it would never be a danger to me and mine.

  I carefully scooped the creature up, ignoring the technology of my past, and accepted the responsibility.

  Level 5 [Hunter]. Merge in progress. Level 5 [Hunter] and Level 5 [Survival] combined. Level 10 [Ranger], [Animal Companion] gained!