The tunnels had been a nightmare.Damp stone pressed close around them and water dripped steadily from somewhere above.
Plink.
Plink.
Plink.
The sound echoed endlessly into the darkness.
Jamie's boots squelched against the damp stone as she trudged forward, her mind still replaying the chaos of the past hour. The rat swarm had been bad enough—dozens of corrupted mastiff-sized creatures with glowing red eyes and foam-flecked jaws. But the bridge had been worse.
A cavernous gap had yawned beneath them, a subterranean pool filled with the slithering, translucent bodies of mutated leeches. She had slipped, her boots finding no purchase on the slick limestone. As she tipped backward into the dark, her instinct hadn't been to pray, but to strike. She had manifested a concentrated sphere of compressed ambient heat into a fireball of raw, amplified density and hurled it into the primary support beam of the rotted wooden bridge.
The structure groaned, then buckled. As it collapsed, the swarming rats that had been pursuing them plummeted into the pool, their frantic squeals silenced instantly by the leeches. It had been a stroke of sheer, blind luck. They were safe, for now, but the bridge was gone, forcing them to take a labyrinthine detour through the crushing damp of the lower levels on their return journey.
Jamie shuddered. She could still hear the wet, sucking sounds.
"We're close," Gustav said, his voice low. "The lab should be just ahead."
Jamie opened her mouth to respond, but before she could speak, the earth beneath them suddenly surged. A deep, tectonic groan vibrated through the marrow of their bones, followed by a muffled, distant THUM-THUM-THUM that resonated through the very walls.
Jamie stumbled, reaching out to steady herself against the stone.
"What was that?" Sasha asked, her voice tight, echoing against the salt-encrusted ceiling. "An earthquake?"
Gustav paused, his ears twitching as he sensed the lingering tremors.
"No. That wasn't nature. That was something heavy. Something massive."
Mira looked up at te ceiling..
"That felt like... an explosion," she muttered. She wasn't wrong. Far above them, in the world of light and sound, the Rustmark warehouses were burning, but here, in the suffocating dark, it was just another omen of doom.
'An explosion.'
Jamie was a bit worried by what was actually happening on the surface. There was nothing she could do about it now. She had to focus on the mission.
They continued walking, the silence broken only by the sound of their footsteps and the distant drip of water.
"Speaking of explosions," Bran said, looking down at Jamie with a curious, guarded expression.
"Back at the bridge. That shot you took if my observations are correct you altered the ambient heat, pressurized it, and threw it with the force of a ram to destroy that beam which collapsed the bridge. At the same time both instances we fought you used ice which I'm assuming is based on the reversal of what you did to make the fireball. Just out of curiousity, what exactly is your trait?"
Jamie shrugged, a small grin tugging at her lips. "I can amplify or reduce the quality of things. It's pretty straightforward. Density, temperature, speed—if it has a quality, I can dial it up or down.""
Kalex frowned. "You shouldn't just tell anyone that. Your Trait is your greatest weapon—and your greatest vulnerability."
Jamie brushed him off with a dismissve wave of her hand.
"We're a team, right? I think its' ok if you know since we're working together. Also I don't sense any malicious intent from you and you are professionals. You woulnd't go around telling people would you? Not that it matters, I'll beat up anyone who tries to mess with me."
The Shadow crew looked at each other, amused.
"Still, I've never heard of a Trait that allows a person to diminish and increase things." Bram shook his head.
"Not like that. If it's the applictaion of your Traits authority then fine but it actually being your first resonant is quite strange."
"Is it though?" Jamie said, a little confused. "It's the Emperor. If that helps."
The crew exchanged glances.
"The Emperor?" Cole repeated slowly. "Jamie... are you sure? Someone we know, someone of immense standing, carries the Emperor trait. They never demonstrated such... authority over qualities. Are you sure you haven't misidentified it?"
Jamie felt a sudden, hot flash of irritation. It was the "kid" treatment again. The disbelief.
"I'm sure! Do you think I don't know my own soul? I know what it is!"
"Keep your voices down," Gustav hissed, cutting her rant short. They had arrived.
The tunnel opened into a wider chamber. Before them stood a heavy, reinforced metal door. It was an industrial monolith, inlaid with veins of Flowstone that pulsed with a faint, sickly light. The door was easily ten feet tall, its surface covered in intricate patterns that seemed to shift and writhe in the darkness.
"Alright we're here." Gustav said. "Now we need to look for a way to get in without activating whatever security he's set up."
As plans were being made to bypass the door and artifacts were being manifested, Jamie stepped forward, her eyes narrowing. She activated her Flow Perception, trying to map the array lines, the hidden trigger mechanisms that usually governed such security.
'If i had to guess it would most likely be a Containment Array along with a Binding or Sensory Array as the basis for whatever artifact that is.' She thought.
However, she saw nothing but the bright, erratic embers of the Flowstone. She squinted, her head throbbing. It was like looking at a blank canvas.
"I can't see anything, There are no arrays. No traps. Nothing."
"Cole," she muttered, not turning back. "Can you check it with Flow Perception and tell me what you see?"
"Uh, okay?"
Cole stepped forward, his own Flow perception extending. "She's right. Aside from the Flowstone embers, there's nothing here."
Jamie didn't wait for a consensus. She walked toward the metal.
"Jamie, get back here!" Bran whispered, his voice cracking with urgency. "Are you crazy? Do you really want to die?"
She ignored him. "It's fine. There are no traps."
She didn't stop. She reached the threshold, mere inches from the gate, and stood there, breathing in the metallic air and stretched out her hand. Before she could touch the door, Gustav's hand clamped around her wrist.
"Stop! Do you really not value your life"
Jamie met his gaze, her eyes steady. "I told you, there are no traps. Look where we're standing."
Gustav glanced down. No trap had activated even though they were so close to the entrance. And upclose he didn't feel any immediate threat from the gate. He scoffed and let go of Jamie.
The others approached cautiously, their expressions a mix of relief and exasperation.
"I expected more security," Mira admitted. "Traps or alarms or Something."
"Perhaps Igor had grown really lax," Sasha suggested. "Think about it, if it was you, you would never expect anyone to find this place. It's buried beneath a city of ruins, surrounded by corruption hotspots and mutated creatures. Who in their right minds would come would come knocking?"
"Us apparently." Kalex replied with a shrug.
Bram stepped forward, his massive frame casting a shadow over the door. He raised his arm, his fist crackling with Flow.
"Stand back," he said.
The door crumpled inward like paper, its metal surface groaning and tearing. Beyond it lay a chamber that made Jamie's stomach churn.
The lab was a nightmare of biological excess.
Limb fragments hung from rusted chains like butcher's trophies. Bloodstains painted the floor in jagged, dried-black patterns, and scattered throughout the room were automatons of irregular, terrifying shapes. Some were spider-like, with too many joints; others were hulking, humanoid masses of scrap metal and preserved muscle.
Jamie felt her gorge rise.
"This is..." She couldn't find the words.
"Grotesque," Mira finished, her voice flat. "Let's get to work."
Gustav moved immediately, his communication artifact glowing as he began recording visual information. He moved with clinical efficiency, scanning the room while the others moved to loot whatever knowledge remained.
The others spread out, searching for clues. Mira was the first to find something.
She rummaged through a stack of blood-soaked parchment, her eyes widening as she pulled out a crude, haunting sketch of a person, covered in scribbled notes about "transference" and "stability." She sealed it in a pouch with trembling hands.
Jamie stood in the center of the room, her senses extended. With her synesthesia, the air itself was screaming. She could feel the residual intent—the jagged, lingering agony of those who had been killed for Igor's research. t was an oppressive weight, a physical sickness that clawed at her throat.
"Jamie, you okay?" Sasha asked, noticing the girl's pallor.
Jamie opened her mouth to speak, but the room decided for her.
The "broken" automatons suddenly snapped to attention. Their eyes ignited with a harsh, flickering red light, and they surged forward with a speed that defied their rusted appearances.
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
They moved faster than Jamie could track, their metal limbs blurring through the air. The Shadow Crew reacted instantly, their bodies flowing into a defensive formation.
"Protect the girl!" Gustav shouted.
Cole and Mira flanked Jamie, their weapons raised. Kalex and Bram formed the front line, their bodies crackling with Flow. Sasha moved to the side, her daggers glinting.
Jamie rushed to the front tried to help, manifesting her axe,but her attacks were too slow. The automatons were relentless, their movements precise and deadly. The crew moved remaking the formation around her and pushing her back against a wall. She watched, horrified, as Sasha parried a blow from a spider-automaton, only to be caught by a second one that ripped through her protective gear and carved a deep, jagged line into her side.
"Sasha!"
Mira's blade instantly flashed, severing the automaton's arm. But the creature didn't stop. It didn't feel pain. It didn't slow down. Sasha was pulled to the back and Jamie examined her wound. It was bad.
'If only I could use Accelerate Heal. If only Elias was here....'
She manifested the white dress Araba had made for her and without hesitation tore it and tied it around Sasha's torso in an attempt to stop the bleeding. The white fabric instantlyturned red, soaking up the blood.
The meanwhile fight was a blur of steel and sparks. Jamie realized then how utterly mistaken she had been about her companions.
'I was foolish for underestimating them.'
Their first encounter in the alley—the crew had been holding back. The warehouse fight—they had been holding back to avoid detection. Here, they were fighting for their lives, and the gap between their skill as Votaries and her own status as an Acolyte was a canyon she couldn't cross.
'This is what they really are,' she thought, her stomach churning. 'And there are stages beyond this.'
She pushed the thought aside. Sasha was injured and loosing blood The others were being overwhelmed. She had to do something, anything.
Jamie knew she couldn't outrun them, and she certainly couldn't outfight them but still...
She pushed her senses outward, past the machines, past the lab walls.
Nothing.
She pushed harder, her synesthesia straining. And then she felt it— a cluster of faint, skittering signatures buried behind the masonry of the rear wall.
She pulled out a talisman, pressing it against the stone wall behind her. She infused it with Anti-Flow, the energy crackling and spitting.
"Get down!" she shouted.
the wall detonated. The stone didn't just crack; it pulverized, sending shards flying like shrapnel. As the dust cleared, she projected her intent—a raw, frantic signal of distress—toward the signatures behind the rubble.
From the darkness of the breached wall, they burst forth—a swarm of man-sized bats responded immediately, their ears twitching to the frequency of her command. Their shrieks turning aggressive, a sound that threatened to shatter the eardrums of everyone in the room as they swarmed toward the automatons.
The automatons turned, confused by the sudden influx of chaotic, living targets.
"Move!" Gustav shouted. "Now!"
The crew grabbed their wounded comrade, pulling her toward the opening. They plunged into the deep, pitch-black throat of the ruins, leaving the screams of machines and beasts behind them, running into the cold, silent unknown.