Deep beneath the shimmering surface of Aethelberg, far below the celebratory hymns of the lantern festival and the warm glow of paper lights, lay the subterranean ruins—a forgotten labyrinth of stone, shadow, and rot.
Collapsed streets.
Buried towers.
Ancient foundations.
Forgotten chambers swallowed by the earth.
The Lantern Festival above made the contrast almost unsettling.
While thousands gathered beneath the night sky, carrying candles and releasing lanterns toward the heavens, Ki Lin Feng descended deeper into the darkness.
The heels of her low cut silk shoes clicked sharply against the ancient, damp flagstones as she descended deeper into the abyss, her breath hitching slightly in the stagnant, heavy air. There were pools of corruption all around, sometimes in puddles along the path and sometimes hidden behind walls .
She was accompanied by two cloaked automatons flanking her on either side. They moved without making a sound.
No footsteps.
No creaking joints.
No metallic clatter.
They moved with a chilling, unnatural fluidity, gliding across the floor without a single scrape of metal or echo of footfalls. Their seamless, gliding motion sent a prickle of unease racing up the back of her neck. It felt less like walking alongside machinery and more like being escorted by silent, predatory wraiths.
Lin Feng hated it though she refused to show it. Every time she glanced over at any one of them, their featureless faces stared back at her from under their hoods.
Still.
Silent.
Waiting.
They wound their way down through several decrepit levels, the architecture shifting from ancient masonry to jagged, organic caverns carved out of the subterranean rock. Finally, they reached a massive, cavernous space that served as Igor's primary laboratory. One of the automatons stepped forward, its metal fingers manipulating a horribly intricate, twitching iron lock mechanism, while the other gestured for Lin Feng to enter.
Lin Feng stepped inside.
The laboratory was a nightmare, the sensory assault was immediate. The air was thick with the copper stench of old blood, formaldehyde, and the sweet, sickening odor of decaying tissue.
Her stomach turned and she swallowed.
'Maintain composure.' she thought.
Corpses hung from the ceiling like macabre decorations, their limbs swaying gently in the underground air currents.
The floor was littered with tools and organs. Glass tubes lined the walls, each one containing... things. Things that twitched. Things that moved. Things that should not exist.
And in the center of it all, hunched over a workbench, was Igor Patrovsky.
The chaplain was a grotesque figure—his swollen face, his twisted body, his hands and utterly oblivious to her arrival.
He was hunched over, utilizing the nightmarish, apparatus known as the "Gifted Hands" to craft a brutal, man catcher-style weapon artifact. It was a long polearm with a clawed head designed to trap and restrain. But this one was different. Veins and nerves extended from the metal, pulsing with a sickly light, connecting to a corpse on the table. The corpse was still twitching.
As he worked, Igor muttered irritably to himself, his voice a dry, grating rasp.
"Foolish bastards!... breaking into one of my secondary labs like common street rats," he complained, his razor-sharp fingers stitching tissue into steel.
"Granted, I wasn't using that particular subterranean vault for anything vital, but it's still profoundly rude. Because of their blundering, I've lost a substantial amount of rare research!"
Lin Feng watched silently.
"Because of them those corrupted bats, broke in and feasted on the delicate neural networks of the automatons I'd spent months calibrating. Even if they were just models!"
He paused, a dark, humorless chuckle escaping his throat as he jabbed a scalpel into the corpse. It gave another twitch.
"Of course, they didn't survive. No one survives my automatons. And even if they did, they wouldn't be unscathed. Their blood would draw the horrors of the deep..."
He twisted a piece of metal, and the corpse on the table spasmed.
"That's a foolish way of thinking." Li Feng finally spoke up.
"What if they really did manage to escape? They managed to break into your lab after all."
Igor froze. Slowly, his head swiveled around, his clouded eyes blinking in a daze as he looked at her. Recognition dawned, accompanied by a sudden, sluggish realization.
"Ah... Lord Lin Feng. I suppose I did grant you clearance to my primary lab." He mumbled the last part of his sentence and something unintelligible under his breath, scratching absently at his chin.
" I really should put measures in place..."
Lin Feng wanted to say something but an object in the far side of the room caught her attention. It was a massive glass tube. Inside, suspended in a viscous liquid, was a boy. there was a plaque labelling the tube with a single word written on it.
"Free..." Lin Feng muttered.
The boy inside appeared to be around twelve years old though looks could be deceiving and his dark hair floating around his face like seaweed. Unlike before, the boy's skin was now covered in intricate, pulsing black markings that looked disturbingly like arcane tattoos.
Igor glanced at Lin Feng and followed her line of sight and, as if completely forgetting what he was working on, walked over to it. Igor pressed his palms against the glass, a soft, affectionate smile stretching across his unsightly face.
"Ah, I am so relieved they didn't touch my primary test subject. Soon... very soon, I will fully unravel the absolute wonders of this biological canvas."
Frowning, Lin Feng approached cautiously, eyeing the floating child.
"Why do you have a young boy floating in this place?"
Feeling unusually chatty, Igor tapped a bony finger against the glass.
"This boy? He came to me as a baby. "
"A baby?"
"Yes. He materialized in a flash of light one afternoon as I was conducting my experiments. It exuded a density of power that nearly overloaded my equipment. Can you imagine? Such power, such potential, contained in an infant. It was Mr.M who said we should study it..."
Lin Feng's mind immediately caught on the name.
'Mr. M...'
She remembered the vague figure, the shrouded presence that had attended the Hidden Patrons' meetings. He was a mystery, even to her shrouded in mist and obscurity.
'Perhaps I should approach him as well...'
The thought lasted only a moment.
'No.'
He was too mysterious, too unknown. And that made him dangerous.
Shaking the unnecessary thoughts from her mind, Lin Feng stepped forward, brushing a speck of dust from her sleeve.
"I am here to speak with you concerning our coalition's plans, Igor."
"Hmmmmm? Ah, yes, yes... have a seat," Igor murmured absently, gesturing vaguely. The seat in question currently had a freshly severed, blood-soaked human corpse was still connected to the living artifact he was working on.
Lin Feng stood and looked at it with a grimace. Igor noticed and then it hit him.
"Oh. Right."
He walked up to the corpse and with clinical detachment, he finished severing the last connecting vein linking it to the man catcher. The body went still. Igor raised the weapon and examined the it for a moment, then used it to push the body off the table. It hit the floor with a wet thud.
Instantly, a swarm of scuttling automatons dragged the body away into the darkness and with the snap of a finger they tossed a heavily bloodstained canvas cloth over the table to catch the remnants of dripping gore.
Lin Feng watched, her stomach churning then turned to him with a smile.
"I'm grateful for the hospitality," she said carefully, "but
I believe I'll stand."
Igor blinked.
"Suit yourself," the artificer rasped, not looking up as his attention snapped right back to the cruel iron trap in his hands.
Lin Feng continued.
"Our alliance."
"Yes."
"It was built on mutual benefit. We are all working to claim power, to shape the future of Aerthos. However, Rivas chose to play his own game, going behind our collective backs to incite the revolutionaries to attack the king. That is a transparent lie though I can't really blame him as this was a temporary alliance and we all had things moving behind the scenes."
Igor nodded, satisfied with his inspection of the artifact and set it down like a staff. Lin Feng continued.
"I will not be outdone. So it is time I took the initiative. You may be wondering why not the West Cardinal. Well, he is entirely hamstrung by his ecclesiastical chains, and for all his booming rhetoric, Gide Baiden is nothing more than hot air and self-righteous posturing."
"Uh huh." Igor said, absentmindedly reaching out with the clawed fingertip of 'Gifted Hands' to scratch a swollen, angry scab on the side of his face while muttering something unintelligible.
A sickening pop echoed in the quiet cavern.
'Disgusting!' Lin Feng's eyes widened in revulsion as the scab ruptured, sending a thick, yellow stream of putrid pus and dark blood leaking down his cheek. Combined with the metallic smell of fresh blood and the damp musk of the subterranean tunnels she instantly felt nausea rising in her throat but clamped her teeth together and forced it down.
She took a step closer, covering half her face with her sleeve.
"If... if you align with me, Igor, I will personally ensure that your research continues entirely free of oversight. No royal decrees, no church inquisitors. We will mainstream your branch of artificing across the entire nation."
Igor didn't exhibit even a flicker of interest and tilted his head, leaning it against the weapon. Some of the puss dripped on the floor. Lin Feng's patience was wearing thin.
Realizing soft diplomacy was failing, Lin Feng dropped the pleasantries. She pulled her hand away from her face, wiping her mouth with a silken handkerchief, and leveled a cold, calculating gaze at him.
"I know about your arrangement with Xylos and Nordhelm."
This seemed to catch is attention as his eyes looked onto her. She supressed the urge to smile and continued.
"They captured Sigmund Kilgowe and presented him to you in exchange for your cooperation in a certain project, I believe."
His eyes narrowed and his arm moved to wipe his face.
'Got you.' Lin Feng offered a tight, glacial smile, though the sheer foulness of the room made her gag softly into her handkerchief.
"I wonder... what would the King, the Privy Council, and the noble houses say if your little treasonous enterprise were to suddenly come to light?"
Igor's lips curled back in a jagged snarl.
"Are you threatening me, Lord Lin Feng?"
"Feel free to interpret it however you see fit," she replied coolly, crossing her arms.
"If you leaked my work, I would expose every single one of your underhanded, treasonous manipulations to the capital before the night was through," Igor hissed, his voice dropping into a guttural rattle.
"You are welcome to try," Lin Feng inclined her head and chuckled, though the sound was tight.
"At that point, it will simply be your word against mine—the word of an unhinged hermit against a respected noblewoman."
"I'll leave."
"Where?"
"Xylos."
He smiled.
"Or Nordhelm."
Lin Feng let out a sharp, mocking laugh.
"You grossly overestimate how much protection those foreign powers would afford a broken, treasonous tool once his usefulness has expired. The moment you cross borders as a fugitive, you become a liability. That is, if you are able to escape the punishers."
Igor's fingers tightened around the jagged metal of the mancatcher until his knuckles popped, the mechanical talons of the Gifted Hands groaning in protest.
Before he could answer— a voice spoke from the darkness.
"Now, now... it's terribly impolite to threaten one's friends."
Lin Feng's blood ran ice-cold. She whipped her head around toward the sound.
Hanging from the high, vaulted ceiling of the cavern were dozens of desiccated corpses, strung up like morbid meat-hooks. From directly beneath that macabre canopy, the Revolutionary stepped out of their shadows into the dim lantern light.
Lin Feng's heart hammered against her ribs. She hadn't sensed him. She hadn't heard him. He had been there the entire time, hidden among the dead.
He bowed politely, his patchwork cloak brushing the floor.
"Good evening, Lord Lin Feng. I was actually here before you arrived, discussing a commission with our dear friend Igor here."
He pointed a slender finger directly at the blood-stained mancatcher resting in Igor's grip.
"I simply didn't want to be a nuisance, so I thought it best to blend in among the hanging decorations. I must admit, however... I couldn't help but overhear every single word of your charming little negotiation."
Realization flashed in Lin Feng's eyes, quickly masking her shock with a calculated mask of opportunistic grace. She smoothed her robes, regaining her composure.
"If you overheard, then this makes things infinitely easier. I am prepared to offer you a similar proposition though negotiations are still open."
The Revolutionary tilted his head, his porcelain mask vaguely reflecting her face as his patchwork tunic swayed with his movements. He took a slow, unhurried step forward.
"I must say, you are remarkably brave, coming down into a den of monsters without a proper vanguard. Who says you came down here prepared?"
"Who says I came unprepared?" she countered smoothly, trying to anchor him in conversation while her mind raced.
"Don't you want to bring chain to the masses."
the Revolutionary drifted closer to the towering glass tube. His pale, scarred fingertips traced the raised metallic letters of the word 'FREE' bolted onto the plaque at the base of the containment unit.
He stared at the floating boy for a long, silent moment. Then, slowly, he turned his head back toward Lin Feng. The warmth vanished from his voice, replaced by a terrifying, hollow fanaticism.
"I have a much better idea for something that will truly bring about change," he whispered.
Then, his gaze locked onto hers.
"Tell me, Ki Lin Feng... do you want to save millions?"
Lin Feng frowned. "What?"
He moved.
Faster than she could track, faster than anything she had ever seen, the Revolutionary crossed the distance between them. He snatched the mancatcher from Igor's hands and swung it at her head—
CLANG!
A barrier of shimmering light erupted around Lin Feng, deflecting the blow. The sheer kinetic shockwave was redirected back at the Revolutionary and threw him backward, sending him crashing hard into the stone wall right beside the glass containment tube where the Free floated.
"Don't break it!" Igor screamed, his voice cracking in blind panic as he waved his metal hands frantically.
"Watch the glass! If you crack the containment seal, I will flay you alive!"
A cold, furious look hardened Lin Feng's features. With a sharp exhale of frustration, she reached into the deep folds of her robes and pulled out an ancient, leather-bound book pulsing with a faint, ominous purple hue.
"It seems," Lin Feng murmured, her voice dripping with lethal contempt as she flipped open the cover, "that I overestimated your intelligence."
The Revolutionary laughed—a bright, manic sound.
"We'll see."
With a sudden burst of speed, he lunged forward once more.