The tunnel had never felt so long. Partly that was because Regina’s group had to move slowly, prepared for sudden attacks. The subterranean monsters were clearly agitated, and more than a few of them took it out on the intruders. Regina saw a few types she had never chanced upon before, though none was as dangerous as the Tunnel Terror, or even at the third Tier. However, groups of them could still be quite annoying.
She tried to conserve her mana, and since she had quite a few drones with her as well as the Delvers, there wasn’t much need for her to fight. They mostly left dealing with the monsters to the warriors, with some support from the mages. Regina had to heal Max and Tim once, after a fight against a particularly large group of Tunnelers. The Delvers had their own healer, so when Owin was injured as well, she didn’t need to offer her help. She didn’t think their guy was quite as good as she, honestly, but his magic was enough to deal with the relatively light injuries.
Despite the occasional fights, they did make reasonable time getting deeper into the bowels of the underground complex. The mana still had that odd quality, but she didn’t notice anything else that might point to what the problem was. There hadn’t been another earthquake, fortunately.
Things changed as soon as they reached the part of the tunnel by the large doors, where she’d first seen a Tunnel Terror and where Leian had taken her to the Mirrored Halls. The door stood open — only a crack, but that was enough for Regina to realize that it had to be the source of the disturbance.
The space behind it was illuminated brightly. So much so, in fact, that the light made it difficult to tell what was behind it.
“In all our records, this door has never been opened,” Gwen muttered.
Regina narrowed her eyes. Be careful, she told the hive members with her. I don’t like the feeling of the mana here.
It could be worse, Janis said. But you’re right, it’s still sending a shiver down my spine.
They approached carefully, and Regina focused on parsing the noises coming from behind the tunnel. Most of them sounded distorted, probably echoing from further away. There was also a rumble and a hum that felt familiar. Then, as they came closer, she heard a sputtering noise and hissing sounds.
“Cover!” Regina shouted.
She ducked and threw herself to the floor, rolling to the side. She only caught a faint hint of something escaping into the air, before Janis muttered something. Regina dove into her head for a moment, just long enough to realize that Janis was using her new Air Manipulation to deal with whatever gas that was.
Then a new sound eclipsed it, and Regina cursed and tried to duck further. She probably hadn’t heard it often, but the rat-tat-tat sound of some sort of quick-firing guns was still unmistakable. A moment later, Max dove on top of her, holding his shield over their heads.
Owin shouted something, then actually took a step forward. He raised his shield, and a glowing barrier extended from it, covering most of the diameter of the tunnel.
Regina let out a breath, listening to the sound of bullets clinking off his shield. She nudged Max and stood up. If they had any kind of targeting capability, lying still would just make her an easy target without any cover to hide behind.
“How long can you keep that up?” she asked, raising her voice to be heard over the din.
“Less than four minutes!” Owin answered, still looking ahead with a clenched jaw.
Regina glanced at the entrance again, trying to work out the best thing to do and fast.
“I’m not sure we can get far enough away in time,” Tim said quickly. “Can we close the door?”
He might be right; their opponents might be able to chase them and might have some seriously heavy-duty weapons. Even if they could get away, though, they’d have a much harder time approaching again. And they were here specifically to stop whatever was happening in time. It didn’t look like whatever they were dealing with could get out, for now, at least.
“Can you move forward and get me closer?” she shouted to Owin again.
“Yes. Hurry!”
Regina got moving, keeping just behind the knight. He didn’t show any hesitation, she had to give him that, but simply advanced to provide cover for her.
“Get to the door!” Max suggested to the others. “We can take cover beside it, in the dead angle.”
She tuned them out, though, focusing on her own goal. Her mana regenerated faster since some eggs had hatched after she set out, and it was rising more quickly down here. She had just over six thousand points now, and had to hope that would be enough.
Regina raised her hands, holding them out to help her focus. Then she formed her mana in the pattern of Basic Conjuration, while concentrating hard on what she wanted. She felt the Spell draw heavily on her mana, perhaps more than anything she had Conjured before.
Metal clinked against metal as what she envisioned took form. A large sheet of steel now covered the gap in front of them. Luckily, she didn’t have to conjure something in the space directly in front of her, at least not so close that she actually touched it, and Owin’s shield didn’t interfere with the process.
“Push against it,” Regina commanded, taking a deep breath.
The others quickly did as she said, before she gathered her focus again.
This time, a drop of sweat rolled down her face as she finished, but she couldn’t spare the attention to wipe it off. A second barrier, this one made of titanium, now stood layered behind the first one. Regina had Conjured it directly into place, with no gap between them.
Regina took a moment to rest and gather her power, listening to the clink of bullets off the new blockade. Owin’s shield was dimming noticeably.
Then she focused once more and cast the Spell again. She got more ambitious this time. She still made just one element, carbon, but now the atoms were arranged in a very particular way, creating a material that should, in theory, be even tougher and more resistant.
“My Queen?” Max asked, sounding concerned.
“One more,” Regina panted.
She closed her eyes for a moment, then drew on her mana. This time, she could tell that she was really scraping her mana pool dry, and didn’t get nearly as much as she might have wished. But it was still enough for one more piece of sheet metal.
Once it was done, Regina stumbled backward. Max caught her and led her to sit down against the wall of the tunnel. Regina put her head on her knees and closed her eyes for a few seconds, trying to force back the nausea.
| Mana: 1/14368 |
She closed her eyes again, trying to fight against the tiredness dragging her down. It took a while for her to gather enough strength to open her eyes and look at what was going on. She had a feeling the headache would stay for a while, though.
The others were currently working to improve on what she’d given them. Janis was holding a ball of flame in her hand, its core burning blue, and slowly running it along the side of the metal slabs. Another Delver was doing the same with some kind of enchanted metal rod. Regina doubted it would be as good as using proper welding equipment on the metal, but she supposed it couldn’t hurt.
“This is only a temporary measure,” she said after standing up and trying to dust her tunic off. “But it should hold for now.”
“And for all we know, whatever has woken these … defenses might be going dormant again after a while,” Via added.
Regina nodded. If they were the twisted remnants of some automated security system, which seemed likely, that could happen. She didn’t know how it would get power, but it was at least possible that they’d run out of juice. Or at least have to go into standby mode to conserve it. And if nothing else, their ammunition couldn’t be unlimited.
Of course, they shouldn’t rely on that. It would be stupid to leave this place alone and unsupervised.
“We should have someone staying here, at least until we can figure out some way to deal with it more permanently,” Max muttered, clearly thinking along the same lines.
Regina nodded. “True, but we still have more to check on,” she said quietly.
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like the others had made any progress with figuring out what was going on in Galatea’s part of the underground tunnels. They had started trying to dig through the collapsed part, but it was slow-going and apparently deeper than they thought. Regina also wasn’t sure if this was the best idea. All of her strongest people were with her, and if there was anything like the danger here, it might wreak havoc on her base.
I need to check it out myself, she concluded. We need to know what we’re dealing with. And besides, Galatea is down there. She might be an AI or mana spirit of sorts, but still … Regina frowned. Besides, what are the chances that her presence is completely unrelated to whatever is happening?
She rolled her shoulders and tried to gather her strength. She still felt exhausted, but there was nothing for it.
“Max, Tim, Via, Ira, Ada, Janis,” Regina said. “You’re with me. Ben, you’re in charge of the rest. You’ll stay here, keep an eye on the door.”
They nodded and quickly sorted themselves into groups according to her orders. At the same time, Owin looked up from where he had been talking to his party. Now, they stepped out of their huddle and turned to face the hive again.
“You are already leaving?” he asked.
“As much as I would prefer not to, there are other locations requiring my attention,” Regina said.
“Other parts of this underground tunnel system?” he guessed, frowning slightly. “Are you sure this is wise?”
Regina shrugged. “Things seem to be fairly well in hand here. If you stay, I’m confident this will not be a problem.”
“Are you going to go through the tunnels?” Gwen asked. She stepped up beside Owin and gave him a glance. “Depending on how far away any location you want to check is, it could take a while. Especially if it’s deeper into the new territory you have been granted.”
“Maybe,” Regina answered shortly. “What is it to you?”
Owin cleared his throat. “I would rather not leave you to do that alone,” he said, sounding almost apologetic. “If nothing else, there might still be more powerful monsters and other dangers lying in wait on the way.”
He definitely sounded mellower than before, Regina noted. I suppose that fighting together like this can change things. And it wasn’t like he was wrong, it would be dangerous. Still, she wasn’t sure she liked the idea of having the Delvers along.
“I take your point,” she replied. “Still, it is also important to secure this site.”
Gwen glanced from her to Owin, who set his shoulders, and sighed slightly. “I can speed up our travel significantly,” she said. “According to our usual policy, I conserved my mana, so I can still provide significant support. We can also leave some of our party behind to guard this location, along with your drones.”
Regina hesitated for another moment, then nodded slowly. Her instincts were telling her that time was of the essence, so that was a very important consideration.
Having the two of them along would make it feasible to travel through the tunnels. While she wasn’t sure, Regina strongly suspected that they connected to those housing Galatea. If they didn’t find any connection or lost too much time, they could always get back to the surface and try to fly there with drones, but she considered that suboptimal for several reasons. For once, the tunnel was still collapsed, and she had a suspicion it might be quite difficult to dig their way through. There was also still the other door to consider. She wasn’t confident at all that they could break through it if they needed to. Granted, there was no guarantee they would be able to enter the complex from the other side, either, but … it was probably better to try.
“Alright,” Regina finally said after a pause. “I suppose you can come along then.” She smiled. She suspected it looked a bit stiff, but there was nothing for it.
“Good.” Owin nodded, then turned around and gave a few orders to his team.
In the end, they decided only Owin, Gwen and two other Delvers were coming with them, while the others would stay behind. They also quickly discussed the need to send a few people out into the adjoining tunnels to check that whatever happened hadn’t left any sorts of nasty surprises.
Then it was time to go. Regina’s mana was still dangerously low, so she wouldn’t be much use. At least at first. Well, at least she could still connect to her other drones via the psychic link and coordinate them.
“It’s probably best if we go to the second tunnel opening on the right, then try to head to the southeast,” Janis commented. She was fingering the dagger in her belt, her backup weapon, in what Regina knew was probably a sign of nerves.
“I agree,” Ada chimed in. “We haven’t explored too far down there,” she explained with a glance at the Delvers, “but there should be at least one tunnel going in the right direction for quite a while.”
“There is, a big one, too,” Gwen replied. “We do have some maps, although they’re not complete.”
That sounded like there might have been a subway line or something heading in that direction, Regina figured. She nodded and started forward. “Let’s get going, then.”
She almost reached out to ask Galatea a question, but of course, that wasn’t possible. Regina suppressed a sigh, watching as the others got moving. This is why we’re going there, she reminded herself. And looking on the bright side, I’ve been wanting to further explore these tunnels for a while now. Looks like I’m getting my chance.
The tunnel had never felt so long. Partly that was because Regina’s group had to move slowly, prepared for sudden attacks. The subterranean monsters were clearly agitated, and more than a few of them took it out on the intruders. Regina saw a few types she had never chanced upon before, though none was as dangerous as the Tunnel Terror, or even at the third Tier. However, groups of them could still be quite annoying.
She tried to conserve her mana, and since she had quite a few drones with her as well as the Delvers, there wasn’t much need for her to fight. They mostly left dealing with the monsters to the warriors, with some support from the mages. Regina had to heal Max and Tim once, after a fight against a particularly large group of Tunnelers. The Delvers had their own healer, so when Owin was injured as well, she didn’t need to offer her help. She didn’t think their guy was quite as good as she, honestly, but his magic was enough to deal with the relatively light injuries.
Despite the occasional fights, they did make reasonable time getting deeper into the bowels of the underground complex. The mana still had that odd quality, but she didn’t notice anything else that might point to what the problem was. There hadn’t been another earthquake, fortunately.
Things changed as soon as they reached the part of the tunnel by the large doors, where she’d first seen a Tunnel Terror and where Leian had taken her to the Mirrored Halls. The door stood open — only a crack, but that was enough for Regina to realize that it had to be the source of the disturbance.
The space behind it was illuminated brightly. So much so, in fact, that the light made it difficult to tell what was behind it.
“In all our records, this door has never been opened,” Gwen muttered.
Regina narrowed her eyes. Be careful, she told the hive members with her. I don’t like the feeling of the mana here.
It could be worse, Janis said. But you’re right, it’s still sending a shiver down my spine.
They approached carefully, and Regina focused on parsing the noises coming from behind the tunnel. Most of them sounded distorted, probably echoing from further away. There was also a rumble and a hum that felt familiar. Then, as they came closer, she heard a sputtering noise and hissing sounds.
“Cover!” Regina shouted.
She ducked and threw herself to the floor, rolling to the side. She only caught a faint hint of something escaping into the air, before Janis muttered something. Regina dove into her head for a moment, just long enough to realize that Janis was using her new Air Manipulation to deal with whatever gas that was.
Then a new sound eclipsed it, and Regina cursed and tried to duck further. She probably hadn’t heard it often, but the rat-tat-tat sound of some sort of quick-firing guns was still unmistakable. A moment later, Max dove on top of her, holding his shield over their heads.
Owin shouted something, then actually took a step forward. He raised his shield, and a glowing barrier extended from it, covering most of the diameter of the tunnel.
Regina let out a breath, listening to the sound of bullets clinking off his shield. She nudged Max and stood up. If they had any kind of targeting capability, lying still would just make her an easy target without any cover to hide behind.
“How long can you keep that up?” she asked, raising her voice to be heard over the din.
“Less than four minutes!” Owin answered, still looking ahead with a clenched jaw.
Regina glanced at the entrance again, trying to work out the best thing to do and fast.
“I’m not sure we can get far enough away in time,” Tim said quickly. “Can we close the door?”
He might be right; their opponents might be able to chase them and might have some seriously heavy-duty weapons. Even if they could get away, though, they’d have a much harder time approaching again. And they were here specifically to stop whatever was happening in time. It didn’t look like whatever they were dealing with could get out, for now, at least.
“Can you move forward and get me closer?” she shouted to Owin again.
“Yes. Hurry!”
Regina got moving, keeping just behind the knight. He didn’t show any hesitation, she had to give him that, but simply advanced to provide cover for her.
“Get to the door!” Max suggested to the others. “We can take cover beside it, in the dead angle.”
She tuned them out, though, focusing on her own goal. Her mana regenerated faster since some eggs had hatched after she set out, and it was rising more quickly down here. She had just over six thousand points now, and had to hope that would be enough.
Regina raised her hands, holding them out to help her focus. Then she formed her mana in the pattern of Basic Conjuration, while concentrating hard on what she wanted. She felt the Spell draw heavily on her mana, perhaps more than anything she had Conjured before.
Metal clinked against metal as what she envisioned took form. A large sheet of steel now covered the gap in front of them. Luckily, she didn’t have to conjure something in the space directly in front of her, at least not so close that she actually touched it, and Owin’s shield didn’t interfere with the process.
“Push against it,” Regina commanded, taking a deep breath.
The others quickly did as she said, before she gathered her focus again.
This time, a drop of sweat rolled down her face as she finished, but she couldn’t spare the attention to wipe it off. A second barrier, this one made of titanium, now stood layered behind the first one. Regina had Conjured it directly into place, with no gap between them.
Regina took a moment to rest and gather her power, listening to the clink of bullets off the new blockade. Owin’s shield was dimming noticeably.
Then she focused once more and cast the Spell again. She got more ambitious this time. She still made just one element, carbon, but now the atoms were arranged in a very particular way, creating a material that should, in theory, be even tougher and more resistant.
“My Queen?” Max asked, sounding concerned.
“One more,” Regina panted.
She closed her eyes for a moment, then drew on her mana. This time, she could tell that she was really scraping her mana pool dry, and didn’t get nearly as much as she might have wished. But it was still enough for one more piece of sheet metal.
Once it was done, Regina stumbled backward. Max caught her and led her to sit down against the wall of the tunnel. Regina put her head on her knees and closed her eyes for a few seconds, trying to force back the nausea.
| Mana: 1/14368 |
She closed her eyes again, trying to fight against the tiredness dragging her down. It took a while for her to gather enough strength to open her eyes and look at what was going on. She had a feeling the headache would stay for a while, though.
The others were currently working to improve on what she’d given them. Janis was holding a ball of flame in her hand, its core burning blue, and slowly running it along the side of the metal slabs. Another Delver was doing the same with some kind of enchanted metal rod. Regina doubted it would be as good as using proper welding equipment on the metal, but she supposed it couldn’t hurt.
“This is only a temporary measure,” she said after standing up and trying to dust her tunic off. “But it should hold for now.”
“And for all we know, whatever has woken these … defenses might be going dormant again after a while,” Via added.
Regina nodded. If they were the twisted remnants of some automated security system, which seemed likely, that could happen. She didn’t know how it would get power, but it was at least possible that they’d run out of juice. Or at least have to go into standby mode to conserve it. And if nothing else, their ammunition couldn’t be unlimited.
Of course, they shouldn’t rely on that. It would be stupid to leave this place alone and unsupervised.
“We should have someone staying here, at least until we can figure out some way to deal with it more permanently,” Max muttered, clearly thinking along the same lines.
Regina nodded. “True, but we still have more to check on,” she said quietly.
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like the others had made any progress with figuring out what was going on in Galatea’s part of the underground tunnels. They had started trying to dig through the collapsed part, but it was slow-going and apparently deeper than they thought. Regina also wasn’t sure if this was the best idea. All of her strongest people were with her, and if there was anything like the danger here, it might wreak havoc on her base.
I need to check it out myself, she concluded. We need to know what we’re dealing with. And besides, Galatea is down there. She might be an AI or mana spirit of sorts, but still … Regina frowned. Besides, what are the chances that her presence is completely unrelated to whatever is happening?
She rolled her shoulders and tried to gather her strength. She still felt exhausted, but there was nothing for it.
“Max, Tim, Via, Ira, Ada, Janis,” Regina said. “You’re with me. Ben, you’re in charge of the rest. You’ll stay here, keep an eye on the door.”
They nodded and quickly sorted themselves into groups according to her orders. At the same time, Owin looked up from where he had been talking to his party. Now, they stepped out of their huddle and turned to face the hive again.
“You are already leaving?” he asked.
“As much as I would prefer not to, there are other locations requiring my attention,” Regina said.
“Other parts of this underground tunnel system?” he guessed, frowning slightly. “Are you sure this is wise?”
Regina shrugged. “Things seem to be fairly well in hand here. If you stay, I’m confident this will not be a problem.”
“Are you going to go through the tunnels?” Gwen asked. She stepped up beside Owin and gave him a glance. “Depending on how far away any location you want to check is, it could take a while. Especially if it’s deeper into the new territory you have been granted.”
“Maybe,” Regina answered shortly. “What is it to you?”
Owin cleared his throat. “I would rather not leave you to do that alone,” he said, sounding almost apologetic. “If nothing else, there might still be more powerful monsters and other dangers lying in wait on the way.”
He definitely sounded mellower than before, Regina noted. I suppose that fighting together like this can change things. And it wasn’t like he was wrong, it would be dangerous. Still, she wasn’t sure she liked the idea of having the Delvers along.
“I take your point,” she replied. “Still, it is also important to secure this site.”
Gwen glanced from her to Owin, who set his shoulders, and sighed slightly. “I can speed up our travel significantly,” she said. “According to our usual policy, I conserved my mana, so I can still provide significant support. We can also leave some of our party behind to guard this location, along with your drones.”
Regina hesitated for another moment, then nodded slowly. Her instincts were telling her that time was of the essence, so that was a very important consideration.
Having the two of them along would make it feasible to travel through the tunnels. While she wasn’t sure, Regina strongly suspected that they connected to those housing Galatea. If they didn’t find any connection or lost too much time, they could always get back to the surface and try to fly there with drones, but she considered that suboptimal for several reasons. For once, the tunnel was still collapsed, and she had a suspicion it might be quite difficult to dig their way through. There was also still the other door to consider. She wasn’t confident at all that they could break through it if they needed to. Granted, there was no guarantee they would be able to enter the complex from the other side, either, but … it was probably better to try.
“Alright,” Regina finally said after a pause. “I suppose you can come along then.” She smiled. She suspected it looked a bit stiff, but there was nothing for it.
“Good.” Owin nodded, then turned around and gave a few orders to his team.
In the end, they decided only Owin, Gwen and two other Delvers were coming with them, while the others would stay behind. They also quickly discussed the need to send a few people out into the adjoining tunnels to check that whatever happened hadn’t left any sorts of nasty surprises.
Then it was time to go. Regina’s mana was still dangerously low, so she wouldn’t be much use. At least at first. Well, at least she could still connect to her other drones via the psychic link and coordinate them.
“It’s probably best if we go to the second tunnel opening on the right, then try to head to the southeast,” Janis commented. She was fingering the dagger in her belt, her backup weapon, in what Regina knew was probably a sign of nerves.
“I agree,” Ada chimed in. “We haven’t explored too far down there,” she explained with a glance at the Delvers, “but there should be at least one tunnel going in the right direction for quite a while.”
“There is, a big one, too,” Gwen replied. “We do have some maps, although they’re not complete.”
That sounded like there might have been a subway line or something heading in that direction, Regina figured. She nodded and started forward. “Let’s get going, then.”
She almost reached out to ask Galatea a question, but of course, that wasn’t possible. Regina suppressed a sigh, watching as the others got moving. This is why we’re going there, she reminded herself. And looking on the bright side, I’ve been wanting to further explore these tunnels for a while now. Looks like I’m getting my chance.
