CHAPTER 176: THE SUNKEN TEMPLE JOB

The forge was dark. The forge was silent.

The constructs were gone. Hephaestus was on one knee, his great shoulders slumped. He had spent his power holding the room together. A new, jagged hole in the ceiling let in a single column of gray light. In the center of the light, the fire elemental was gone. The chains that held it were shattered husks on the floor.

Serian stood amidst the wreckage, her sword arm trembling from exhaustion. Her golden aura was gone, her energy spent.

Hephaestus looked up, his ancient, scarred face full of a profound sorrow. "What have you done, child?"

"I have made a choice."

"You have unleashed a primal force of chaos upon this world."

"He deserved to be free."

’And now I need to finish this.’ Serian turned her attention from the god to the pulsating bio-energy node. It was her true target.

The Ravager Queen was not gone. It pulled itself from a pile of rubble, its pale, bloated form covered in dust and scrapes. The wave of unmaking had damaged it, but it was not destroyed. Its many eyes, burning with cold intelligence, fixed on Serian.

’The primitive is weak,’ the Queen thought, its voice a chorus of clicks in Serian’s mind. ’But its energy is pure. A valuable asset for the swarm.’

The Queen moved. It did not charge. It scurried sideways, its movements unnervingly fast for its size, its massive egg-sac dragging behind it. It opened its grotesque mouth and spat, not acid, but a stream of writhing, semi-formed Ravager grubs. The creatures hit the floor and immediately began crawling toward her, their tiny mandibles clicking.

Serian leaped back, her sword a blur as she cut the grubs down. But more were coming. The Queen was a living cannon, firing its own unborn young as ammunition.

Hephaestus watched, his expression grim. He tried to stand, to summon his power, but he was too drained. ’She cannot win. The Queen’s fertility is endless. It will drown her in its spawn.’

Serian knew he was right. She could not fight this endless tide. She had to get to the node. She looked around the ruined forge, her mind racing. The cloning vats that lined the walls were cracked, their strange, nutrient-rich amniotic fluid leaking onto the floor.

’An idea.’

She abandoned her fight with the grubs and ran for the vats, her boots splashing in the slick, viscous fluid. The Queen, seeing her new target, shrieked in fury and charged, its massive body surprisingly agile as it navigated the wreckage.

Serian reached a row of undamaged vats and, with the last of her strength, drove her sword into the crystalline surface of the nearest one. The vat shattered, and a tidal wave of thick, foul-smelling liquid flooded the floor.

The Queen hit the slick patch at full speed. Its dozens of legs lost their purchase, and the massive creature slid, out of control, across the floor. It crashed into a row of other vats, and a chain reaction of shattering crystal and flooding fluid turned the entire chamber into a slick, treacherous swamp.

The Queen was disoriented, its massive body struggling to find its footing in the knee-deep muck.

That was the opening Serian needed.

She ran, her elven grace allowing her to keep her balance on the slick floor. She vaulted over a piece of fallen machinery and landed right in front of the bio-energy node. She raised her sword for the final blow.

The Queen saw her. It let out a telepathic roar of pure rage and whipped its massive, armored tail in a devastating arc. It was too fast. Serian knew she wouldn’t be able to destroy the node and dodge in time.

’This is it, then.’

A heavy, divine hammer flew across the room and slammed into the side of the Queen’s head with a deafening clang. It was Hephaestus’s hammer. The god, still on one knee, had thrown it with the last of his strength.

The blow did not seriously injure the Queen, but it made its head snap to the side, its tail-swipe going wide and smashing into the anvil instead of Serian.

She did not waste the god’s gift. She brought her sword down with all her might, plunging it deep into the pulsating organic heart of the node.

The node screamed, a high-pitched, electronic wail, and then exploded in a shower of green light and foul-smelling ichor.

The Ravager Queen convulsed, its connection to the ship’s power severed. Its many eyes flickered and went dark. It slumped to the ground, a dead, twitching mountain of flesh.

The forge was finally still.

Hephaestus looked at Serian, a new, grudging respect in his ancient eyes. "You have a warrior’s heart, little elf. And a fool’s courage."

"Thank you," she panted, her own energy completely gone.

Then the temple began to shake.

***

Nox entered the armory. The chamber was vast, the walls lined with racks of biomechanical weapons that seemed to squirm and pulse with a life of their own.

’This is a very creepy gun store.’

In the center of the room, guarding the second power node, was another Praetorian. This one was different. Its arms were not cannons; they were a shifting, whirring mass of blades, drills, and whip-like metallic tentacles.

’A melee build. More annoying.’

The Praetorian charged, its bladed arms spinning like a blender. Nox flickered, avoiding the initial assault. He couldn’t get close, the sheer volume of attacks was too much.

’This is inefficient. I need a ranged option.’ He remembered the cannon of the first Praetorian. He remembered eating its power.

’Liona, can I replicate that cannon?’

[Affirmative. The data has been assimilated. Manifestation is possible, but will be a significant drain on your current mana reserves.]

’Do it.’

A weapon of pure, black void energy began to form over his right arm. It was not a perfect copy; it was sleeker, more organic, a void-touched version of the Ravager’s own technology.

The bladed Praetorian paused, its single red optic tilting in what looked like confusion as it saw its own technology turned against it.

Nox didn’t give it time to think. He fired.

A bolt of concentrated, corrosive void energy shot across the room and slammed into the Praetorian’s chest. The chrome armor hissed and melted, a gaping, smoking hole appearing in its torso.

The Praetorian shrieked and charged again, its blades a storm of desperate fury.

Nox just kept firing, his void cannon a relentless barrage of dark energy. He walked backward, firing and moving, turning the armory into a shooting gallery. He blew up racks of living weapons, creating a chain reaction of exploding, acid-spitting guns that staggered the Praetorian.

He saw his opening. He flickered, appearing on a high catwalk above the stunned machine. He aimed his void cannon not at the Praetorian, but at the power node behind it.

"Game over," he said.

The blast of void energy hit the node, and the entire armory was bathed in a silent, green explosion.

***

The temple was collapsing. Massive chunks of the ceiling were falling into the forge.

"We may have overdone it," Serian said, looking at the mountain of rubble that was now blocking the main door.

"You think?" Hephaestus grunted, pushing himself to his feet.

A new voice echoed from the hole in the ceiling. "Need a ride, princess?"

Nox hovered there, his void wings beating against the dust-filled air.

***

Elisa brought her warhammer down one last time, and the main support pillar in the temple’s foundation shattered into a thousand pieces.

"Timber!" she roared with a manic grin.

"You idiot!" Mela screamed as the entire ceiling above them began to groan and sag. "You’ve doomed us all!"

"Relax," Elisa said, grabbing Mela and throwing her over her shoulder. "The boss will come for us."

As if on cue, the wall beside them exploded inward, and a torrent of seawater flooded the chamber. A dark, winged figure swooped in through the new hole.

"Took you long enough," Elisa said.

"There’s no time for this!" Nox yelled. "Grab on!"

***

The four of them, plus one unconscious god of the forge slung over Nox’s other shoulder, burst out of a newly-made hole in the side of the ziggurat just as the entire structure collapsed in on itself.

They flew through the air, a chaotic, mismatched family of god-robbers and warriors, as the Sunken Temple of Hephaestus slid beneath the waves and was gone.

They landed on the beach in a heap. Vexia and the army were waiting for them.

"The mission," Vexia stated, looking at the empty sea, "was a success?"

"Yeah," Nox panted, dropping the unconscious god onto the sand. "We got what we came for."

Elisa opened a sack, and a pile of smoking, slightly-melted, but undeniably divine weapons clattered onto the beach.

Serian just looked at Nox, a soft, proud smile on her face. "Yes," she said. "It was."

Nox looked at the new message from the Administrator in his vision.

[Congratulations on your successful ’heist’. Zeus is, to put it mildly, displeased. As a reward for this entertaining performance, a piece of information: A third Royal Flag has appeared. A dragon. It makes its lair in the volcanic peaks to the east.]

’A dragon, huh?’ he thought, a tired grin spreading across his face. ’This game just keeps getting better.’