"Well, that was interesting," Adrien murmured.
"Yes," Vera agreed, shifting her weight. "Shall we continue?"
"Lead the way."
After a moment's pause, Vera noticed the heavy silence hanging over him, as Adrien was strangely subdued. "Are you feeling sad for her?" she asked, her tone softening with sympathy.
Adrien sighed, staring down at the floor. "Yeah. She lost all track of time, and even in death, she just waited endlessly as a ghost, clinging to the hope that she could still help her friends, but when reality finally set in and she realised she couldn't… it was devastating. That's what gets to me."
"It really was tragic," Vera said, and then her voice sharpened. "But Danica? She's a piece of work, isn't she?"
Adrien balled his hands into fists, anger tightening his chest. "That woman… if she had a way to escape, why didn't she rescue Kyros and her entourage? She just left them there to suffer, and what about the Empire? She was the second-born and the favourite daughter of the reigning monarch. He loved her. Why would she just stand by and allow her own family to die? It makes absolutely no sense."
"Who knows what was going on in her head?" Vera shrugged. "Unless we dig up more of the game's lore, we aren't going to get any answers, Adrien."
Adrien let out a long, tired breath. "True enough, and knowing our luck, by the time we uncover the rest of the story, we might actually end up sympathising with her."
Beneath her helmet, Vera smiled warmly. "You know, it's nice to see you starting to treat these NPCs as more than just lines of code."
"Hey, I'm just invested in the lore, nothing more," Adrien shot back quickly, though a faint flush hit his cheeks. He froze, tilting his head. "Wait… did you hear that? That rhythmic ticking?"
Vera went rigid, straining her ears against the ambient noise of the cavern. A second later, an incredibly faint, metallic click-tick echoed through the corridor.
She nodded sharply. "Yeah, I hear it. Let's hurry and see what else this dungeon has waiting for us."
The duo dashed toward the source of the sound, their heavy footsteps slapping against the cold, unyielding stone. Their swinging lanterns cast frantic, elongated shadows that danced along the damp walls.
When they crossed the threshold into the next chamber, both of them skidded to a halt. The space was a churning, deafening labyrinth of colossal brass and iron gears. The rhythmic, metallic grinding they had been tracking roared to life here, vibrating straight through the soles of their boots.
"Tell me we don't have to cross that," Vera said, her brow furrowing beneath her visor.
"Looks like we do," Adrien replied, squinting into the mechanical chaos. "Should I scout a path ahead?"
"No. We have no idea what's waiting in there. We stick together. But…" Vera trailed off, studying the erratic motion.
"They're all spinning at different speeds and directions," Adrien finished for her, his eyes tracking the erratic revolutions. "We're going to have to time this perfectly."
Even with their lanterns raised, the amber light caught only the closest mechanisms, failing to pierce the sheer depth of the massive chamber. The true scale of the gear room remained swallowed by the dark.
Adrien focused on the platform directly in front of them. It was easily wide enough for both of them to stand on, but it wasn't spinning smoothly. Instead, it moved with a violent, rhythmic jerking motion, snapping into place before freezing for a split second."Well, here goes nothing."
The moment the gear shuddered to its brief halt, they leapt. They landed hard on the cold metal just as the mechanism violently engaged again. The sudden jolt threw Vera off balance, her armour clanking as she stumbled backwards. Adrien lunged forward, catching her firmly by the forearm.
"Easy there. I've got you."
"Thanks," she breathed, steadying her footing.
They didn't have time to linger. Working in tandem, they leapt onto the next gear, a massive, slow-churning wheel, and then immediately pushed off toward a much smaller, faster one. Their boots had barely gripped the narrow surface of the third gear when a heavy shadow tore away from the ceiling above.
With a deafening metallic screech, an automaton dropped directly onto them.
"Oh, shit!" Vera yelled.
The sheer impact of the machine's descent caught her completely off guard. The automaton's heavy frame slammed into her shoulder, sending her skidding across the slick metal. She tumbled over the edge, slipping directly into the yawning gap between the massive turning teeth.
"VERA!" Adrien screamed.
He lunged to grab her, but the automaton was already on him, its rusted mechanical limbs lashing out with lethal speed. Forced on the defensive, Adrien ducked a swinging iron fist that hissed past his ear.
"You useless clanker!" Adrien roared.
Fueled by panic, he ducked beneath the machine's guard and drove his weight into its side. The automaton stumbled, its gears whirring in protest. Seizing the opening, Adrien kicked it square in the chest, forcing it backwards right into the convergence point of two massive, interlocking wheels. The machine shrieked as the ruthless iron teeth caught its limbs, instantly dragging it into the machinery and crushing it into a tangle of sparks and snapping cables.
The moment the threat was gone, Adrien dropped to his knees, throwing himself over the edge of the platform. He peered frantically down into the dark abyss, searching until a flickering amber glow caught his eye.
"Vera! Vera, are you alright? Talk to me!"
"I'm hanging onto a moving gear, trying not to get crushed!" Vera's voice strained over the mechanical roar. "A little help would be—oh, shit! There's another one down here!"
"Hang on! I'm coming down!"
Without a second thought, Adrien threw himself through the gap. He dropped straight into the darkness, landing squarely on the shoulders of the automaton just as it lunged to stab Vera. The impact broke the machine's grip, sending both Adrien and the clanker tumbling onto a lower ledge. Reacting on pure instinct, Adrien kicked the metal monstrosity over the brink. It slipped into the convergence of two massive wheels, shrieking as it was instantly flattened.
He scrambled back to the ledge and reached out to pull Vera up, but a strange, skittering clicking sound echoed from the ceiling. He looked up, his blood running cold. Dozens of glowing mechanical eyes pierced the dark. A whole swarm of automatons was scrambling down the walls like iron spiders.
'We can't fight them here, Adrien realised, panic spiking his adrenaline. If we stay on these moving parts, they'll overwhelm us in seconds. We need stable ground.'
"Vera, no time! We have to get down now!" he yelled, reaching for her. "There are too many of them dropping from above! We can't fight them here!"
Vera bit her lip, her knuckles white as she clung to the vibrating metal. "Easier said than done, Adrien! Look at these gears, one wrong move, and we're mince meat!"
"Then just move when I move! Follow me!"
Adrien swung himself over the edge, dropping down to catch the teeth of a slowly rotating wheel. He rode it for a fraction of a second, tracking the terrifying dance of the machinery below. Spotting a vertical gear, he let go, grabbed its edge, and then released his grip a heartbeat before his fingers could be dragged into the crushing teeth. He dropped heavily onto a massive horizontal plate, rolled to absorb the impact, and immediately leapt to the next platform.
Vera glanced up at the approaching swarm, swallowed her fear, and dropped after him. Unlike humans, the automatons possessed no sense of self-preservation. They leapt blindly through the air toward their prey. One of them plummeted straight toward Adrien's platform but misjudged the distance; it slammed directly into an intersecting gear junction and was instantly chewed to pieces by the indifferent machinery.
Adrien didn't waste a second watching it die. He kept his eyes locked downward, pushing his body through a frantic series of jumps until his boots finally slammed onto solid, unmoving stone. Relief washed over him, but it was short-lived. He spun around and looked up, his brow furrowing in dread. Vera was still stuck halfway down the mechanical maze, and the lead automatons were already snapping at her heels.
"Vera, jump!" he roared, bracing his legs. "Jump, I'll catch you!"
"Are you crazy? It's too high!"
"We don't have time! Just jump!"Above her, an iron blade hissed through the air, barely missing her helmet. Realising she had no choice, Vera let go. She plummeted through the narrow gaps of the spinning machinery, clearing the grinding teeth by mere inches, and slammed hard into Adrien's arms.
"Oof!" Adrien grunted, the sheer force of the impact knocking the wind from his lungs as they both stumbled back.
Vera's eyes twitched at his pained groan, a spike of embarrassment hitting her, but there was no time to bicker. A mangled automaton, missing an entire arm from its chaotic descent, crashed onto the stone right in front of them.
Adrien didn't hesitate, bracing his footing, he drove his weapon straight through an exposed gap in the machine's neck armour, twisting the blade to jam its internal clockwork. The clanker shuddered, sparked violently, and went dark.
"Hey, you two! Are you still alive?"
A sharp, unfamiliar male voice cut through the mechanical din. They whipped their heads toward the sound and saw another ghost staring at them from the shadows of a nearby archway. His ethereal apparition matched the same state as Princess Jefimiya when they had met her earlier.
"Quick, follow me!" the ghost urged, waving them forward frantically. "If you linger here, you are dead. The ruckus you just caused is going to attract the Warden, and you are nowhere near ready to face it. Hurry!"
A heavy, metallic thud shook the ground, followed by another. Something massive was walking their way.
Without a word, Adrien and Vera bolted, following the glowing trail of the male spirit as he guided them away from the main chamber. They dove into a cramped maintenance alcove, pressing themselves flat behind a cluster of thick steam pipes.
As they held their breath, a lone, piercing searchlight swept across the far corridor. It cast a colossal, monstrous silhouette against the distant stone wall, the shifting shadow of the Warden. A split second later, a deafening mechanical roar tore through the dungeon, followed by a blinding, white-hot flash of fire that illuminated the tunnels in a terrifying glare.