The journey had been a long and difficult one, certainly more difficult than it had to be, the Forest Von Mori had not forgotten Saiko’s part in their mother’s kidnapping and though his status as The Swordsman’s apprentice had spared him from a root simply twisting his head off like a screw top it had not stopped the forest from fouling their path at every turn.

Normally it would have taken about four days to leave the forest from Seruatis but it had taken them a full two weeks and an uncomfortable number of trips and bruises (for Saiko exclusively) to finally emerge from the treeline, admittedly not without the last tree managing to whip a leafless branch into the mercenary’s face.

“They really don’t like you.” Alisha observed, the muse amused beyond measure as she pulled sharply on his arm to get him out of range before a slowly moving root could get around his ankle to trip him one final time.

“I’d noticed.” Saiko snapped back grumpily. He hadn’t gotten much sleep the last two weeks, from branches brushing against his tent, to a hole being ripped into it and rain actively being funneled in, and in one case waking up with his tent moved beside him. The forest had more than made its point.

The two weeks that followed that had not been blissful but had by comparison been merciful, a week to cross the border into Mage Council territory, their passage uncontested – no one seriously guarded the hundreds of miles of land that had, more than slightly arbitrarily, been declared the border anymore.

The entire time Agh’zak had been curiously tightlipped as to their destination, the massive orc, normally so boisterous, had been getting more sullen and withdrawn by the day. Not even their sword practice each evening shaking him loose from his ever deepening funk.

Not that Saiko could entirely blame him, for all that he and Alisha were superlative fighters they were no match for Agh’zak, not even working together. Even before accounting for the disparity in their blades the berserker had over a foot on them in height and reach, the kind of advantage that would be more than enough to tilt any fight between equally skilled combatants.

It got worse, Agh’zak’s great cleaver had a length to match any greatsword or zweihander, further cementing his advantage. Then there was the weight, Saiko could just about hold it in two hands, and any attempt to block the damn thing was more like trying to stop a club than a blade, add to that the incredible strength behind the blow, enough that the orc was able to casually swing it in a single herculean hand… Agh’zak was having to be extremely careful not to maim them by accident.

It really was hard to overemphasize his strength, for all that he’d been, technically, retired for over a decade the ex-warlord had kept himself in shape and had a punch that could crack skulls. A sharp elbow to the face, never pleasant at the best of times, became from Agh’zak the kind of blow that people woke up from two days later if at all.

It was a serious source of concern for all of them, not out of any fear of the great orc but the concerns it raised about the Questing Beast. If it combined all their strengths then it would be very difficult indeed to overcome by force of arms. Agh’zak’s strength, Saiko’s skill and Alisha’s inspiration – not that she’d come clean on that to Saiko – would be a terror.

Currently the plan was to try and take it one at a time, forcing each of them into a mirror match and hoping one of them could outduel it or get lucky.

Now as they stared at the cave entrance they could see precisely why their friend had been so taciturn concerning their destination.

As caverns went the entrance was a large once, with the decayed remains of great stone columns collapsed around it. No writing marked who had once dwelled there, deep within the earth, all fallen to the inexorable march of time but there didn’t need to be any script, the evidence of who had once been here was clear to all with the eyes to see it.

From their vantage point from a high ridge in the valley upon which the cave was nestled they could see it clearly. The rock for miles was barren, not just of animal and plant but of moss and lichen too, something had picked it clean of life. Saiko would have bet there wasn’t even bacteria alive on those rocks.

“Dwarves.” Alisha sighed gently, “Why did it have to be dwarves?”

The deep caverns of the world had only ever bowed to one master, the dwarves had been fractious neighbours, industrious to a fault and inventive to the point of obsession, but the time of the dwarves was long gone, along with the many foes of the deep they had been in constant war with.

They had called it the Encroaching Darkness, a slowly spreading mass of… something, absorbing all light as well as anyone fool enough to touch it. The dwarves had made a final stand, alongside what few of their enemies still stood. No quarter, no retreat… no survivors.

Well, one survivor. The trolls, the oldest enemy of dwarfkind, and the second most formidable, bested only by the orcs tribes, had, in the dying hours of the battle, sent a runner, so that the surface peoples would know the battle was lost and to prepare for the worst.  

The worst had never come, for a week darkness had flooded out of the deeps, a hideous devouring calamity that consumed the many towns that had traded with the dwarven kingdoms but on the eighth day the darkness had begun to sizzle and crackle in the morning light. By a miracle the world had survived.

Erasima, the last troll, lived even now. One of Seruatis’ many living relics and the only troll in history to be afraid of the dark. The lights never went out in her home.

Agh’zak had pressed her for aid, but the last troll had been implacable. Nothing would make her venture beneath the earth once more. Of advice she had had little beyond pleading with him not to go. That and, as an afterthought as he’d made for the door, “Use chemical light, they like fire and magic even more so. Then maybe, just maybe, they’ll miss you.”

Certainly The Eternal Swordsman had known it too, their supplies packed with tubes that, with a simple shake, exuded a powerful blue light, not alchemical but simply chemical.

The people who hadn’t known it were busy glaring at Agh’zak on the ridge, the greatest warchief of his generation hunching his shoulders in embarrassment. The only reason Alisha and Saiko couldn’t be described as singularly unimpressed was that there was two of them.

“We’re going to die.” Saiko said flatly as his gaze flitted back to the most barren of wastelands.

“We’ll have to wait a day to see if the entrance is still active.” Alisha declared more practically, “If it is we’ll have to call the mission a dud.”

“You should have told us.” The mercenary added.

Agh’zak sighed, a deep rumble of exhaled air, “You might have said no.”

“I can still say no now.” Saiko pointed out evenly, “Do you have any reason why I shouldn’t?”

“No good reason.” The orc admitted, “Just please… my people need this, I cannot fail them again.”

The mercenary chuckled, “Relax, I’m joking. It was already a suicide mission, it’s hard to escalate from certain death.”

Relief blossomed in Agh’zak’s eyes before they narrowed, “I really want to hit you right now.”

“I know.” Saiko replied smugly.

“If you two children are done squabbling, we need to have a plan.” Alisha said primly as she stared down at the cavern , “This changes things.”

“How so?” The chef asked politely, his own gaze drawn there too.

“The Questing Beast. It may not even be alive anymore, almost certainly isn’t. Nothing has ever survived a fight with the Encroaching Darkness.” The muse mused, “And if it is alive, after millennia in constant battle with it, it is likely a combatant beyond our ken. Possessed of knowledge and skill enough to renders its natural supernatural abilities an afterthought.”

Saiko took that all in then smiled slowly, “If anything our odds have improved then. Call it fifty-fifty. Either the beast is dead and we just have to be very, very quiet, or death is an absolute certainty.”

“That’s one way to look at it.” Alisha agreed, “What of you, fearless leader?”

“Either way it doesn’t matter.” Agh’zak rumbled, “Whatever it takes, a future for orckind lies within that cave.”

There wasn’t much they could say to that.

*

Two nights they had watched the cave mouth, they had been fortunate that, while not full, the moon was still gibbous and cast light enough to pierce into those depths just a little, removing the need to use one of their limited supply of chemical lights and risk revealing themselves.

It was a tense watch, and a strain on the eyes as they had to watch for a deepening of the darkness, fearing the subtle shades of gloom would move from merely murky to a void normally only seen from the superdense remains of the largest collapsed stars.

Nothing. Not a single mote of superlative shadow or vantablack void. Saiko wished he could say he’d found it reassuring but all it meant was there was no good reason to refuse to enter the inky bowels of the world.

Noone actually knew what senses the Encroaching Darkness possessed but it was at least suspected that, given it absorbed all light and sound, it could at least see and hear.

It was thus a tense party of three that walked into the caverns on the third day, the sun rising high as morning faded so they would have somewhere to flee to safety if they’d been wrong about the entrance’s abandonment.

They made surprisingly good time, Agh’zak had a map of the tunnels, courtesy of the Seruatis library, that Pheus had been kind enough to mark with the chain’s location. Saiko had played the part of the assassin more than once in his past life and he’d been fearful of how their footsteps would echo on the dusty stone of whichever dwarven city this had once been, even with strips of cloth wrapped around their shoes to muffle their movements.

Yet somehow even Agh’zak seemed to float across the ancient stone with barely a whisper. Neither of them noticed Alisha at the rear, sweating from the effort as she pushed her powers of inspiration, normally passive and reserved, to their absolute limit to help silence almost three hundred kilos of musclebound berserker.

The pale and cold blue glow of their light, held aloft by Agh’zak (by virtue of his height), cast deep shadows and more than once they’d jumped from fear where a shadow had seemed too deep.

They had selected the least bright of the glowsticks The Swordsman had provided, wanting to minimise their presence and it had made it hard to make out much of the fallen city, still what little the glow illuminated showed the city to be in very good repair for its age and abandonment, no animals had disturbed it, no roots or moss had decayed it, even the wind barely had a presence here.

It had taken them two days to fully traverse the city, the dwarves had built it up through generations and they’d built in all directions including up and down, but finally they reached the deep tunnels that the map insisted they go down.

Here they found the first sign of life since they’d gotten there, trolls, at least two hundred of the lumbering monsters of legend, clad in the best armour the dwarven forges could craft ancient foe. One of them, a twelve foot tall with specimen with a beady eyed glare had a crossbow that would have been a siege weapon on just about anyone else, pointed right as them as they rounded the corner.

All three froze, their hands raising above their heads in the universal signal of ‘I’m not holding a weapon, please don’t kill me’.

The trolls didn’t move and after a few tense moments the three realised the truth. Or rather Alisha, the only one old enough to have met any troll other than Erasima, did and the rest lowered their hands alongside her.

For though trolls had naturally grey and bumpy skin, these trolls were just a little too grey, their eyes lifeless where they had been turned to stone. Slowly they advanced towards the fallen soldiers, still holding their guard posts even in death as if they’d sought to block off the tunnel with their bodies. Perhaps they had.

“Incredible.” Saiko breathed as he examined the towering troops, trying to imagine in his mind’s eye how he’d even go about trying to fight someone like this.

A pike maybe? A very long boar-spear? On an animal of that size it would perhaps work but these were soldiers, with armour, any spear not properly enchanted would skate across the armour, and even if it stuck what then? It would be little more than a flesh wound and the troll could easily yank it from his hand.

Crossbows. He concluded. Lots and lots of crossbows.

Alisha’s attention was drawn elsewhere, trolls never stopped growing as they aged, Erasima’s home for that reason had had to have spatial compression charms put on it just so it wouldn’t tower so large the roof poked outside the great bubble shield that protected Seruatis. This made it fairly easy to figure out the commander, the tallest by nearly a foot and thus the veteran.

He’d been stood at the back, not out of any cowardice but so that he could carve one last message into the walls of the tunnel they’d been defending.

It was a forlorn hope that the record would ever be read, few people had ever learned trollish script even when they’d been alive, and of those few most had been dwarves so they might better understand their foe. It would take serendipity of the highest order for anyone to understand the words that took up a huge swathe of the wall by the entrance. Serendipity like the last surviving muse stumbling upon it.

“What does it say?” Agh’zak asked solemnly, he’d seen enough last stands, from both sides, to know what one looked like and even the famously stoic trolls had been unable to hide the fear on their faces as they waited to fight their last. Still they had stood there until whatever end had befallen them.

Alisha took a moment, wiping a tear from her eye as she began to read aloud for their benefit, careful to keep her voice quiet enough not to echo.

“It has been a day since we have heard from anyone else within the city and I assume we are the last. We have expended the last of our lightbolts and the enchantments on our spears have faded with the artificer meant to refresh them never arriving. With the explosion of the primary manufactory I can guess as to why.

“Our dwarven allies refuse to flee, though we implore them so. I used to find their implacable stubbornness infuriating in my youth, now I fear it is the only thing steadying me. They will not flee to the surface though they could survive there, but their culture would not. Who they are as a people would be lost and they intend to fight to the last to deny it.

“I wish I could say it is that which keeps me here, that drive, that defiance of the inevitable, but the truth is there is no home for us up on the surface, we cannot survive there and it would not be long until the sun had claimed what few of us remain now. Still I must do something to deny the enemy something.

“To that end I have sent Erasima, our youngest, to warn the surfacers of our defeat. It is a matter of time until the Devouring Shadows fall upon us and I have ordered the skittar, arachni and contracted demons attached to my company to quit the field. To my surprise the demons have refused, from the lowliest imp to the one demon lord who’s price King Borvos was able to meet though the dwarf has lain dead since the opening engagement. Nobility from a demon? Truly this is the end of all things.

“Though my troops do not know it I have one enchanted munition remaining, a sunburst I requisitioned as a last resort. Let the darkness try chewing on solid stone. I shall at least deny them the sustenance we represent and perhaps waste its time in the bargain.”

There was one final piece of writing beneath it, two small and simple words. “IT COMES.”

Alisha’s voice came to a slow stop, “There’s no signature but going from the armour the dwarves ranked her as equivalent to a captain. They must have respected the crap out of her if they were letting a troll lead dwarven troops as well.”

“Or were desperate.” Agh’zak countered softly, “Still this is the tunnel we need.” He gave the trolls a slow salute, thumping his fist on his chest, his head bowed. Even Saiko nodded in respect as he passed into the tunnel.

“How are we doing for light?” He asked softly, as they ghosted through the deep tunnels. Once they’d thrived with life, strange predators hunting even stranger prey. Mushrooms that glowed, that shot out clouds of lethal spores, even mushrooms that could get up and chase an unwary traveller, but no more. The deep tunnels lay more lifeless and sterile than any laboratory Triple A had even conceived of.

“We’ve enough for twelve more days.” The orc assured him, not even looking up from the map.

“Five more days there, seven out.” The sellsword observed, “Can we do it?”

“Six more days there, six out.” Alisha corrected, “The path back should be easier now we know it.”

“But can we do it?” Saiko repeated without irritation.

Agh’zak gave that due thought, “Maybe, if our path remains unbarred.”

 

*

 

It was impossible to tell how long the tunnel had been collapsed for, it was however clear what had collapsed it. Something with terrible claws had hewn away the granite until the rocks had come tumbling down, filling the tunnel, already so narrow that Agh’zak was having to walk with a stoop, with fallen stone.

It was their eighth day underground, the day they would have to turn back if they were to ever return at all.

“Maybe we can reroute around it.” Alisha suggested hopefully, not looking at the map in the knowledge it would betray the lie in her words.

Agh’zak shook his head, “This is the last part of the journey. Down that path lies the Questing Beast.” He tapped where they were on the map, which showed a clear and clean shot from here to the chain, and no other tunnels connecting them.

“We can come back.” Saiko concluded, “We know the way now, we bring a team of excavators and have them clear the way and reinforce the tunnel, it will be expensive but we can do it.”

The chef’s laugh was a bitter and tired thing, practically a sob, “Who is mad enough to come down here for money? And even if they did… it was hard enough getting just three of us this far unnoticed, and it’s right there!” Agh’zak’s voice beginning to rise to a full bellow.

“Keep it down.” The muse hissed, “Saiko’s right Agh’zak. We’re out of time and even if we weren’t none of us know stonework, we’re as likely the collapse the rest of the tunnel as clear it.”

“No. This can’t be it.” The warlord practically pleading with the universe as much as them. “Please, we can clear this. We have to try. It’s right there. Not even a hundred metres!”

“It might as well be a hundred miles.” Saiko told him, placing a hand on the orc’s shoulder as he sagged against the tunnel wall. “This time you are actually asking us to die for you Agh’zak. I didn’t sign up for that.”

The orc’s glare made him take a step back out of fear for his safety, “Fine then.” He growled, voice deep enough to shake the tunnel walls. “Take the lights and go. Leave me two days food and water and I will clear it myself.”

“You’ll never make it.” Alisha said gently, aware she was trying to fight the tide but determined to plead with him all the same.

“I have to try. Now go.” He ordered as he got slowly to his feet and began to move the heavy stones, almost immediately more rocks began to fall down to fill the gap he’d made and more. Agh’zak ignored it, mechanically selecting another rock and throwing it behind him.

Tentatively Alisha and Saiko began to walk back the way they’d come, neither of them looking at each other so they could pretend they hadn’t noticed the shame in the other’s gaze as they left the orc in total darkness.

 

*

 

For two hours Agh’zak toiled, sweat pouring from the orc as he pulled aside rocks sometimes heavier than he was, muscles bulging and in some cases beginning to tear. He didn’t care. Thrice in that time the tunnel had collapsed further as he felt his way through that pitch darkness.

Slowly though he began to see light, a soft azure warmth beginning to fill the tunnel as he cleared the stones. He was getting close.

Hope filled his ailing arms with energy anew and yet as the light continued to grow he slowed, the fresh rockfall meant he’d made less than no progress, the collapsed tunnel even more impenetrable than before. But in that case where was the light coming from?

The answer came in the form of footsteps, no longer bothering to be quiet Saiko and Alisha rounded a bend in the tunnel.

“I thought you’d left.” Agh’zak snapped bitterly, red eyes practically glowing.

“I realized I’ve got nowhere to leave to.” Alisha shrugged, before more apologetically adding, “My people are dead and gone, they shall not rise again. But you’re right, yours have a chance, and they deserve that chance. I’m prepared to die for that.”

Saiko sighed, “And I gave my word I’d bring you back alive. I couldn’t show my face back at Seruatis if I broke it.”

Even with Alisha’s aid the lies were awful but Agh’zak didn’t care. “What’s your plan?”

“We’ll never clear the rocks by hand.” Alisha told him simply, “So we go around them.”

“There is no going around them.” The orc sighed, “I told you.”

“Only if you plan on travelling through the space that’s there.” The muse told him smugly, taking him and Saiko by the arm. “You’ll have to be quick. There’s no way the darkness won’t sense a spell of this magnitude, it will be on us in minutes. Find the chain and destroy it.”

“You have no idea how far the rockfall goes.” Agh’zak protested.

“Then we’ll die horribly. Now shut up and let me focus.”

Even Saiko could feel it, the tension of the spell building in the air, site to site teleports were a rare and dangerous magic. Rare was the mage who even could cast it, even rarer the mage foolish enough to for if there was something in the landing site the results were best described as messy and left at that. It was this that had made Sato such a rare talent, able to tell in advance if his spell was going to get them all horribly killed.

Alisha was no Sato. She had no great foresight to fall back on, just thousands of years of experience, a considerable pool of magicka and fervent hope.

With a single yelled word in a language the world had long forgotten she sundered space itself and pulled them through the gap.

 

*

 

They lived. It was a close run thing, Alisha had taken them as far as she could until her magicka had run dry, collapsing bonelessly against the tunnel wall as she fought the desire to sleep and failed. Just two feet less and one of them would have been encased in the fallen granite.

Agh’zak picked the slumbering muse up as if she were a child, hoisting her over his shoulder as he turned to take in the cavern that held the chain. There was light here, illuminating the shrine by the far wall upon which was a simple farming hoe. For an object of literally divine power it certainly didn’t look like much.

They had to be quick about this, for though they could not hear the Encroaching Darkness moving they could almost feel it, flowing like water through tunnels and cracks in the earth towards them, determined to devour them in their entirety.

Saiko took the lead, the Spellbreaker already drawn as he sought out the Questing Beast. Not that it would take it long. The creature wasn’t hiding, stood in the centre of the room. A massive four-legged leonine figure with claws longer than his blade, five scorpion-like tails on its back and a thick and oily hide that would turn aside most blades.

Hopefully it wouldn’t matter, all the Spellbreaker would need was a single nick to rob it of its magical abilities. Or rather it would have if the beast were alive. It seemed the Questing Beast had come to the same conclusion the unnamed troll captain had, the darkness could not eat stone.

It didn’t take a genius to read the situation, the creature had collapsed the tunnel to discourage the Encroaching Darkness from entering and then assumed the one trait that could defeat it, total inedibility.

Normally it would have been transforming from their presence but the darkness was too great a foe and far too close, it’s proximity overrode any strength they might have for no amount of stolen bladework, physical strength or knowledge would overcome what would soon come flooding through the tunnel, just the simple power of not being food.

With no time to waste they ran for the shrine, only to be thrown back hard enough to hit the walls by a pulse of force. The golden script of the gods tracing itself in the air.

‘Know this mortal, thy cowardice ill suits one who has journeyed so far. None may touch the chain whilst the guardian yet lives, face thy death with dignity and grace.’

“We haven’t got time for this.” Agh’zak yelled, putting down Alisha to make for the Questing Beast, intending to hew through the solid stone with Skullcrusher.

He was right, from the tunnel the darkness burst through, an implacable wave of it beginning to fill the room. It was moving too fast, the orc would never make it to the beast in time to even strike a blow, let alone finish it.

Saiko scowled as he got back to his feet, charging the barrier with his beloved falchion. Sure enough the barrier popped like a soap bubble, with two bounding steps he was at the altar, blade raised high as he beheld what could only be the aetheric chain.

It was not an impressive object, a hoe, pitted and rusted and the handle rotted through, no one could ever farm with such an implement, but that had rather been the point.

Either way the merc had no time to admire it, or pontificate upon the symbolism, as he brought his sword down upon the shaft of the hoe, the blade splitting it in two.

For the second time in a minute Saiko bounced off the walls, struggling to breath where he had almost certainly broken ribs.

Dimly he felt an enormous hand upon his collar, pulling him away from the tunnel entrance as his vision swam back into focus. The blast that had thrown him had also thrown back the devouring void and for just a few sweet moments the darkness retreated as if fearing a second blow before it surged back to feast.

Agh’zak placed him and Alisha gently against the wall furthest from it before the orc broke into a desperate sprint. Enough light could hurt the Encroaching Darkness, sunlight killed it. The blast of discharged divinity and magic from the chain had certainly hurt it, but not once had it ever feared a blade but then again, not once in all of history had it ever faced a Spellbreaker.

The towering orc snatched up the blade from the ground where Saiko had dropped it in the blast, little more than a toothpick in his hand and brought it down upon a grasping tendril of inky shadows. It passed through the darkness easily… and harmlessly, the warrior barely pulling back in time to avoid being touched by the undulating mass. Their last hope gone as he backed away to where his friends lay.

“Thank you.” He growled as he stared at the doom oozing more slowly towards them, perhaps it was cautious now where they’d laid a wound upon it – if by accident – or perhaps it was simply savouring its meal. There was no way to tell. “I asked more than I had any right to and you gave it.”

Saiko hissed out an agonized laugh, “No way I was letting you get all the glory. Still if you’re hiding some secret magical art now’s probably the time.”

“I’m afraid the only magical art I possess is how to prepare a thirteen course banquet in just five hours.” The chef jested, eyes never leaving their foe.

“Well now’s the time…” The mercenary’s giggling downright hysterical as he closed his eyes for the end.

Then, without warning or fanfare the Encroaching Darkness, devourer of kingdoms, doom of troll and dwarf alike, second most favoured servant of the fourth primordial, died, fading into little wisps of smoke that faded in turn.

 

*

 

Saiko and Agh’zak just stared at the fading smoke, disbelief written plainly on their faces. “Did you do that?” Saiko asked his friend slowly, speech slurred where he was punch drunk from the impact against the cavern wall.

“I don’t think so?” Agh’zak rumbled, “I don’t want to question fortune but… what the hells was that?”

The sellsword collapsed back into wheezing laughter, “I have no idea! Maybe it was the chain exploding? I don’t know, maybe divinity is poisonous to it and it just took a little while to kill it?”

“Not impossible I suppose.” The orc agreed, it was the best guess he could think of as well, “Guess we’ll never know.”

He offered Saiko a hand up, which he gratefully accepted, having to lean on Agh’zak for support even as the chef carried Alisha. “Let’s go home.” He said simply, some of his usual cheer starting to come back.

Saiko couldn’t have agreed more as he limped towards the cavern’s exit, sure they’d have to clear it by hand, or wait for Alisha to be well enough to teleport them again, but the future was bright.

Which was the moment the Questing Beast broke free of its stone casing with a roar of rage its beady eyes narrowing on the mortal interlopers that had destroyed its ward of aeons. Naturally it was between them and the exit.