The three ran, their legs aching with every step. Working on his primary objective, Cas stayed back to cut down any of the creatures that dared come too close.
Cirino took pot shots every now and then, but opted mostly for bayonet strikes to save ammunition. They rushed through the caverns, jumping up jagged stone, and precariously balancing on uneven rocks.
Cameron shot a few of the abominations with his own revolver, cursing at the heretics in the meantime. Despite the man's attitude, it was clear that he could fight. His balance was to the point where even uneven stone barely made him pause, and his aim was great enough to split moving targets — extremely speedy ones, at that.
"We can't keep running!" Cameron huffed out.
But they had to manage.
Cameron was right, as mortal men, they had a limit to how long they could keep up this pace. Cirino already felt his lungs burning in his chest, his heart rapidly beating like an engine on overdrive. Any longer and he'd collapse, they needed to escape and quickly.
Cirino's mind raced faster than his own legs. His eyes glanced at every corner, taking in as much detail as humanly possible to find a way out of this hell.
A through-line, there had to be a through-line. He's been sent to hell before, against beasts too dangerous to name and got out swiftly.
'Think, Cirino!' He huffed. 'You have a rifle, around 7 rounds of V-Types left. You don't know how much Cameron has, and even Cas is slowing down. Think. Think!'
Indeed, Cas himself began to slow, exhaustion creeping in his aching muscles. The difference was that he was trained to ignore the pain, live through it as if it weren't there. He was no Scion, without the divine gifts of the Shardbearers, he would succumb to natural human flaw soon enough.
As they rushed through the caverns, Cirino spotted a raised stone platform sitting high atop a ridge. It seemed to lead upward — possibly a way out. He grit his teeth and barked an order.
"The ridge! Come on! Get up there, we might be able to escape!"
Cirino sprinted toward it, with Cameron following close behind.
Following his previous directive, Cas stayed back to cut down any of the abominations that dared approach. Even as his muscles burned, sweat stung his eyes, and his lungs ached, the knight kept swinging his blade with mechanical precision. He cut down one, two, three creatures — their bodies staining the floor with black ichor. Then another, and another, until enough corpses piled to form a crude barricade, slowing the oncoming wave.
Then he turned and sprinted toward Cirino and Cameron as they scrambled up the slope, both already halfway to the top. Cas pressed his metal boots into the incline, digging into the rock with every step. In moments, he reached them, grabbed both by the waist, and hauled them upward just as the barricade below began to break under the swarm.
He hurled the two over the ledge, letting them roll onto the platform before leaping up himself. Both men groaned, barely catching their breath before Cas kicked them through the archway ahead. Stepping inside after them, the knight drove his heel into the wall, knocking down loose stone to block the passage behind.
With a mighty crash, debris falling onto the passage. Trapping them, but preventing any abomination from reaching them.
They were safe, for now.
"Ugh..." Cirino groaned through grit teeth. He stood, leveling a glare at the stalwart knight. "Could've warned me first, you dumb tin-can."
He spoke, yet his tone held no real anger. More so relief that they lived, yet disbelief at the same fortune.
Cas, as usual, stayed silent. The stalwart knight stabbed his blade down onto the ground, standing guard against any potential threat that could break through the boulders. But the abominations were silent, the faint sounds of snarls and scratches were overshadowed by the silence of their own breaths.
They had lived, and that was enough for the moment.
Cameron groaned, forcing himself up. Pushing his body even as it ached, refusing to spend a second longer in such a wretched state. He dusted his clothes, then looked at both Cirino and Cas.
"We can commend the Castrato for his excellent thinking later on. But we need to move, we cannot stay here in this dreary dark." Cameron forced authority into his voice, weak and hoarse. Even now, Cameron tried to look like a figure of proper authority.
Cirino snorted for a moment and rested. He sat and leaned back on one of the stones, catching his breath. "Give Cas a minute to recuperate. We can't have our best fighter exhausted."
"And potentially get killed by that abominable thing?" Cameron asked incredulously.
Cirino thought about it for a moment. "The abominations act like animals. Listen to the faint scratching, they're still trying to force their way through even though it's pointless."
He gestured to the fallen debris, Cameron listened closely and heard the faint cries and screams of agony, hunger, and animalistic fervor. Begrudgingly, he accepted and sat on the opposite wall to rest. Cirino turned to Cas, who still stood guard, and spoke.
"Rest, Cas, you need your strength."
But the knight remained static, standing, on-guard. As if the concept of rest was foreign to him.
Cirino sighed. Well, he supposed he couldn't force the man. Standing like this, blade embedded into stone, Cirino guessed he was resting? He wasn't sure how knights did it but he swore they at least knew how to sit down.
Now in the silence, the three simply sat, recuperating. They needed their strength, especially now that they were trapped. Cirino's mind paused, his gaze turned to the blue glowing crystals. He was unfamiliar with stones and gems, but these were clearly unnatural. Of Malethic make? Perhaps, but just to be sure, he wouldn't touch any of it.
"What is this place?" Cirino asked out loud.
Cameron turned to him with a raised brow, then looked to the glowing gem with thin lips and a still look in his eyes.
"A clearly heretical and unnatural cavern, one that wasn't reported to us." He said. "When I get out of here, I'm filing a report and petitioning the city for a deeper inspection. Because I doubt that any sane man wouldn't have seen this and not report it to anyone."
To give Cameron credit, he was diligent. Cirino sighed and leaned back onto his makeshift seat. He would've liked to explore this place a little more, but right now they had two choices. Complete the mission or find a way out.
'Preferably, I'd rather we get out of here. But if not, then we can either kill or seal that thing away.' Cirino thought for a moment. But how would they do so? They had little ammunition and less manpower than before.
"Right, well." Cirino stood up. "Let's go, I think we've rested enough."
Any more and Cirino felt that they'd grow complacent. With a heavy breath, Cameron nodded and forced himself up. Cas sheathed his blade and followed him.
The three began to walk, their legs no longer aching as much as before. They stepped through stone, slipped past caverns, and crawled into deep crevices. It wasn't as clean as they'd hoped, Cirino had cut himself on a few jagged rocks every now and then. Cameron cursed at the debris that fell on his head. Cas remained as silent as ever.
Eventually, the three would stop and stumble upon a large open area. A clearing that seemed to stretch up onto the heavens with three paths that seemed to split. The runes above were similar to the ones Cirino found on that door, but he couldn't at all read the inscriptions.
At a loss, Cirino turned to Cameron and asked.
"Hey, can you read any of that?"
Cameron turned to Cirino with a frown, then shook his head brusquely. "These texts aren't within Choir records. I haven't read anything in this language."
Cirino nodded, then turned back. It meant they were completely in the dark on where to go. Left, right, or center. Just enough for three of them, this could be an illusion.
'A splitting path that's enough for us three? This feels a little too convenient.' Cirino cautiously observed.
If the Succubi were truly shapeshifters, then they couldn't at all trust anything from hereon. Alyssa said that they could shapeshift into a bag of coins, so who's to say that they couldn't morph into three doors to split them up?
He then recalled the words Alyssa told him, then he sought to test. He pulled up his carbine, and pointed at one of the doors. He only had twelve shots left, and he wanted to save as much as he could for the abomination. But if they wanted to be completely sure...
Bang!
The stone cracked, and debris fell down, but no shriek or scream followed. The first door was at least safe, it wasn't at all a succubi. The other two? He wasn't so sure. Cameron looked at him confusingly.
"What was that? What did you do, prisoner?" The man impatiently asked.
Cirino fought the urge to retort.
"Succubi are shapeshifters, right? If they could shift into a bag of coins, they could turn into doors. Just had to make sure." Cirino said to the man. "The first door's safe, and I don't want to shoot the other two."
Cameron opened his mouth, then closed it. A sound point, he'd give Cirino that.
"Then we shall pass through there. We can't take too many risks in this situation." Cameron spoke as if he was trying to bolster his own authority with mere words. Cirino just sighed and nodded, that logic was at least sound.
Deciding not to risk it, the three continued on with the door Cirino shot. The hall behind it seemed to stretch endlessly, but the paved stone ground at least made it less of a burden on their legs. Cirino was at the front, carbine slung behind him. His blue eyes looked around, checking the starlit blackened ceiling. The glow shimmered in and out, casting an ethereal light down on him. Its beauty was not lost, but it had to be pushed aside.
'I have to focus on getting out of here.'
Even still, this hallway seemed endless. He couldn't find an ending anywhere, no split in the path, no stairs that lead anywhere, or anything past the endless halls. Suspicion formed on his face, and he turned to ask his companions what they thought.
But they were gone.
Cirino instinctively gripped his rifle, eyes wide. He turned back to the hall and leveled the rifle to his body. He moved cautiously, clicking his tongue. His steps became cautious, testing each stone before stepping on it. Now alone, with no protection to speak of, he walked through the endless hall alone.
Eventually, he found a stairway leading upward. A faint light shimmered at the top—warm, natural, unlike the cold glow of the crystals below. Cirino froze for a moment, breath catching in his throat.
'Am I saved?'
The thought felt dangerous, almost foolish, but hope still flickered in his chest. Step by cautious step, he began to climb. The moss-slick stone gave way beneath his boots, damp but steady. The higher he went, the brighter it became. The light washed over him. It was soft, golden, and impossibly gentle. It warmed his skin, wrapped around him like sunlight after a long winter.
A strange calm settled in his mind. His heartbeat slowed. The constant hum of fear, exhaustion, and suspicion faded into a distant murmur. For the first time since entering the caverns, Cirino felt… peace.
Then, as he reached the final step, the light engulfed him completely.
His eyes adjusted. First a blur of brightness, then shapes, then color. He blinked, disbelieving. Before him stretched a familiar landscape: the rolling cliffs overlooking a calm blue sea, the salt air brushing against his face. Mossy stone steps wound upward toward a worn mountain path, and at its crest stood an old orphanage he knew far too well.
Children ran across the yard, laughing — real laughter, bright and unbroken. The dilapidated building stood just as he remembered, its wooden frame creaking softly in the breeze.
And there, at the clothesline in the courtyard, stood a woman. She moved with quiet grace, hanging white linens to dry beneath the sun. She couldn't have been more than her late twenties. Her skin pale as snow, chestnut hair tucked neatly behind her ear, eyes the color of a clear sky.
Cirino's breath caught.
"Sister Marietta?"
It couldn't be. Yet it was.
He knew this place. Every blade of grass, every worn stone, every scent of the sea breeze.
He was home.