The sound of explosions from the surface was muffled, echoing through the sewers as distant, unintelligible noise. Beef, Hollow, Archie, Yin and Vess all trod through the convoluted tunnels, trailed by the Multipede and its bellyful of Exults—all of them following the broad back of the Lizard.

My dad.Alive and here. Beef still couldn't believe it. Relief and a sour feeling he didn’t have a name for swarmed around his chest.

Are you alright? Hallow’s words echoed up from around him. She’d reverted to his armor once again, and the crystalline panels hugged him close. I am—Your Spirit is in disarray.

I have my dad back, Hallow. I’m freaking out!

They'd had little time to chat since running from the reservoir. His dad was on a mission, and their job was to get the Lizard out. So far, they’d headed further into the city, which made him uncomfortable, but at least they weren't headed any lower. Beef looked up, as if he could see through the stone tunnels and hundreds of feet of earth to the surface. When the time came, they'd have to move quickly to get out.

"So, you prepared for this?" Vess asked. “How did you know we would attack the city, let alone when?”

Wendell the Lizard grinned and puffed out his broad chest. "Because of our connection.”

"Connection?”

“Yeah, the Fiend had opened it wide months ago. Back before Michael—I'm sorry, Beef—had even met you guys."

"How do you know that?" Beef asked, before answering himself. "Because you were watching."

"More or less. I only got snippets back then." His dad adjusted the Titan over his shoulder. He was so tall that the spikes on his head nearly scraped the ceiling. The Titan's armor clad back threatened to do the same. "I'd been living in Amaranth for months by that point.”

“You arrived here?” Beef asked.

His dad grimaced. “Yeah. After the lightning took me off our roof, I found myself in a cramped tunnel near the Tanner’s District. It was…unpleasant there, and monsters swamped the sewers. I chose the Lizard Race in order to survive them. I was lucky I landed down here, in some ways. In other ways, it was a nightmare. Monsters everywhere. Death on every side. Alone.”

Beef did understand. “Did any of us land somewhere comfortable?”

Archie shrugged. “Elowen said she found a cozy cottage with a friendly witch in it.”

“I guess the odds meant someone had to have it easy.” His dad gave a grin that, for all its strange new shape, reminded Beef intensely of the kindly engineer who raised him. “When I chose the Lizard, it was because they're amphibious and have bonuses to Strength, Endurance, and Agility. The amphibious quality increases all those stats while in the water. In addition to a Born Trait for gathering heat Mana to keep my cold-blooded Body warm down here, I had everything I needed.”

Beef’s mouth hung open. “You never even looked at RPGs! How’d you put together a build like this?”

“You used to talk about them all the time. You think I didn’t listen?”

Beef’s disbelief widened into a grin as his dad kept talking.

“Without that build in mind, I wouldn’t have picked the Lizard Race. Its biggest flaw turned out to be reducing my ability to interact with almost anyone.” He ducked under an archway, feet splashing into several feet of cool rainwater. “The few times I tried, people thought I was a monster and called the guards on me. I had to resort to stealing from the shops on the surface.” He sighed. “Sometimes I miss my old body, bad knees and all.”

“Tell me about it,” Archie said, phasing through the water before popping up onto a raised walkway on the other side. “I used to be four feet taller.”

“Where did all these monsters go?” Vess asked. “I noticed that there was not much in the way of things living down here. I figured that was the work of the gods or Paladins.”

“I'm sure they helped, but truth be told, I ran out of beasts to fight a few months back. That's why when I saw a strange ghost made of blue lightning appear in the middle of my sewers, I figured it was a ghost or something worse. I attacked.”

"I remember Felix mentioning that," Vess said. "He said you were one of two that noticed him."

"One of two?" His dad looked a bit crestfallen. "I thought I was special. Who else saw him?"

Vess gestured to the woman unconscious across his shoulder.

"Ah," he said. "Of course his sister would have noticed him. Anyway, when I tackled the lightning ghost, the blue energy infested me somehow, crawling into my channels and core space. I didn't kill him or do anything really, but it woke my Affinity."

"Oh," Beef nodded. “That makes sense.”

"And a Title called Brush with the Fiend."

Archie laughed. "Seriously?"

"I didn't know what to make of it at first. Here," his dad brought it up and swiped, sending it to each of their heads-up displays.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

Title: Brush with the Fiend.

You have encountered the Blue-Eyed Fiend, and not only perceived him, but interacted with his Essence. You have been changed. The influence of the Fiend lingers with you, mingling with your significance, and grants you bonuses to understanding the nature of Bonds.

"Bonds? Felix talks about those sometimes," Beef said. “Like his Adamant Discord thing."

"Exactly, kiddo. I spent a while trying to figure out who the heck this Fiend guy was, and trying to replicate what had happened. In the end, I learned to remotely view Bonds, so long as they're strong enough and tied to me."

Vess adjusted her grip on her glaive. "And that's Bondsight?”

"It is. Mythic rarity. Costs me a bunch of Mana to keep it going, which prevented me from leveling it much in the beginning. Then I got a big experience boost when Felix showed up again, this time through some ritual he was doing in Pax’Vrell. We turn here.”

They traveled up, the tunnel inclining almost forty-five degrees. Beef had to bend over to clear the arched supports on the ceiling, and his dad was just about bent double. “Tight squeeze here.”

At the top it opened up again, and the giant Lizard groaned in relief. “Anyway, I got an eyeful back then, watched your friend poke around the Continent at the other Unbound. The level boost from that reduced a lot of the initial Mana cost by a solid margin. Now, with all the use it's had, I've got Bondsight all the way up to Adept Tier."

"So you've been watching us?” Beef asked.

“All the Unbound. When I found out how special we're supposed to be, I figured more information was better. Plus, I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in this sewer."

"Smart," Archie said, glancing at the enormous Lizard, "If creepy."

"I wasn't interested in invading your privacy. Bondsight alerts me only when things of importance occur."

"How's it know that?"

Beef's dad shrugged. "Magic?"

Archie groaned. “Magic. Bleh."

"I don't typically rely on that as my reasoning," his dad said. "I try to figure out the structure and limits of all my Skills. Bonsight is just a bit too weird. Precision Mines and Structural Strike were developed in my usual way. They're based around my understanding of engineering and scientific rigor. Things that got drilled into me a long time ago.

“I set the top of the reservoir to explode by sabotaging the structure beneath with Structural Strike and placing those Precision Minds deep in the stone's lattice. With my knowledge, it was easy to figure out how to blow the center without demolishing everything. At least it was easy with the addition of my Skills.

"I also took out the roads up above. I'm pretty proud of those. I set them to go off when you guys attacked the city.”

“You knew about our plan to attack?” Vess asked.

“Of course, I was watching. What's more important than an assault on the Hierophant?" He shook his head. "I tried to use the opportunity to take out the foundations of En’Cridhe as well. I've been working toward all of it for weeks, but I needed a final piece." He patted a hard case strapped to his thigh. "But that's when her net closed." He shrugged his shoulder, jostling the unconscious Titan.

Beef considered her unconscious expression. "You trust her?"

"I do," Vess said.

“Me too.” His dad smiled at him reassuringly. "Don't worry, kiddo. I wouldn't carry her around if I thought she'd hurt us. She could have killed me twice during our fight, but she was pulling her punches."

"I'm not worried," Beef said hurriedly, "but we've faced her down a couple times and it's not ended well for us. Ever. I'm just being cautious.”

“Smart." The enormous Lizard smiled, a remarkably goofy grin for such a vicious maw. "I can't believe how big you are."

Beef blushed. "That's just my Race, Dad."

"No, not that. I mean, you're huge. A Minotaur, right?”

“Right.”

“I recognize it from your games. No, I meant everything else. What you've done. How you've handled problems as they came up. It's..." He cleared his throat. If anything, his dad looked embarrassed. "I'm proud of you. Especially how you stood up to Isla."

"What? You saw that?"

His dad winked. "I told you. I've been watching."

"This is strange."

The two of them looked ahead, and Vess had stopped just at an intersection in the tunnels. She put out her hand, and for a moment, Beef couldn't see anything. But as he drew closer his vantage angled to the side—a shimmer spread across the center of the tunnel, as if an invisible wall had been placed there.

"It's a ward," Archie said, leaning into the ground. Water poured over his fingers, no more than a few inches deep. "I can hear it. It goes as far as I can sense into the ground. And up, too.”

Vess turned to Beef’s dad. “What is behind this?"

"The foundations of the Shining Palace." His dad walked up to the barrier and put his enormous fist against it, pushing. The bright orange and blue of his scales took on a more radiant hue as veins popped along his forearm and bicep.

"Argh," he grunted. "I can't even budge it. It wasn't here before. They must have erected some defenses.”

“That means Felix is getting close to ending this,” Yin said. “We haven’t much time.”

“He’s gonna have issues if he faces the Hierophant on the tower.”

“Why? What do you know?”

“Nothing concrete, but that lady has been prepping for you guys as much as I have. It’d be stupid not to expect heavy resistance.” His dad dropped his hand from the barrier. “We need to get through this. My work is close."

"Why don't we just leave," Beef suggested. "We can get back to the main army. Get you out of here."

"This is important, kiddo. What the Hierophant's doing is messed up. She'll do terrible things to those kids she captured, and the winged woman, Ondine. I can't let that happen if I have a chance to stop it."

"All right, but we don't. The barrier is keeping us here. We can't get through."

"I can," Archie said. He stood and walked closer to the invisible barrier. "Primeval Drift."

The man blurred as his entire Body began to vibrate at strange, inhuman frequencies. He slid forward, pressing into the barrier, and for a moment Beef thought it was just that simple. Archie would slip through, disable the barrier, and they’d be on their way.

The screams were the first clue that didn’t work. The invisible wall lit up, rainbow cascades of color spreading from where his hands pressed into it. Sparks arced from the contact, filling the tunnel with light that Beef had to wince against. A keening whine filled his ears so loud, increasing in volume until it was a roar, like an ocean tumbling upon them.

Archie’s scream overtook it in volume, and the man fell back, smoke pouring from the palms of his hands as he cradled them against his body.

"Holy shit," he said, tears streaming down his face. "I can't—I can't get through it. It's too much."