It was less than a day later. For all Ariadne’s pique she’d proven an efficient ruler and it had not taken long to get volunteers for the suicide mission ahead. One thing did concern Erebus though, somehow, and he could not pinpoint when, he seemed to have lost the trust of his companions.

He knew he’d been taking risks lately, they weren’t wrong about that, but with the stakes so high he really wasn’t seeing another choice but to keep doing so. A decision only made firmer by the prophecy hanging over his head.

If there was anything the necromancer knew about prophecy it was that it was a fool’s errand to try and evade them. Little would be achieved beyond tying himself into knots from second-guessing and Fate would still arrive to take his due.

Better instead to lean into it. If he was going to die then he was going to die spectacularly, fighting until his very last breath for a worthy cause.

It didn’t help put his mind at ease. He wasn’t trying to die, but he wasn’t going to shy away from death either and he suspected his friends didn’t see the distinction.

Lana at least he could understand, having to bodyguard someone who didn’t care much if they lived or died had to be stressful, and, if nothing else, the shared frustration was helping her bond with the group.

Susan was the hardest to read, lacking any facial expression did that to a person, and Erebus suspected she was just trying to fit in. She’d never been a socialite by any measure and near a decade of near-total isolation had done little for her people skills.

At a guess Erebus thought her merely uneasy, having to potentially go into battle with the shadows would make anyone ponder their mortality but Susan belonged to the small group who knew they would do far worse than kill them.

Which just left Natalya. Of all of them her mistrust hurt the most yet surprised him the least. It was a terrible thing to realise that rather than becoming the big fish in a small pond you’d merely managed to find the ocean. The necromancer had been doing this sort of job for centuries, not just blazing the trail but then treading it for so long that she’d left a groove in it.

It was perhaps unfair to call it complacency, it wasn’t like she’d been resting on her laurels or only taking safe fights, but ennui dulled even the sharpest minds in time. Seruatis was the best proof of that. For all the elder residents were still juggernauts by any measure, they were no longer the beings who had reshaped mountains and destroyed nations. Their terrible claws had dulled and their vicious fangs had blunted.

Natalya had not fallen that far, she’d never tired of the fight. But she’d grown comfortable knowing she counted as a heavyweight, and how to avoid the rare super-heavyweight that Reath had.

To learn about the aetheric chains hadn’t just added more fighters to the class above and put her in direct opposition to them, it had introduced a fresh weight class entirely.

That would be bad enough but he knew Nat still saw him as her subordinate, a fresh-faced kid fresh out of First Response who knew just enough to be dangerous. Not that the last bit was wrong. So confused and displeased at her place in the pecking order, it was to be expected that they’d butt heads. The knowledge didn’t stop it hurting.

On the bright side Weaver was more or less exactly as he remembered her. She must be ancient for an arachni by now but he couldn’t see any visible signs of her carapace wearing thin or losing its luster and she had maintained the bubbly personality he’d found both endearing and infuriating in equal measure.

It was those thoughts that occupied the necromancer’s head as they descended deeper into the tunnels, and they were, he knew, foolish thoughts. His mind should have been running through strategies and contingencies, where they were going was far too dangerous to focus on anything other than the mission.

But these were his friends, and where they were going was far too dangerous to take anyone he wasn’t prepared to say goodbye to and the truth was that he just wasn’t ready.

It was, to Erebus’s own mind, rather pathetic really. This sort of sentimentality was supposed to have been carved out of him in the Hells. His master would have been terribly disappointed, but that perhaps revealed the nature of the failure, even an imperator could fall victim to something as human as sentiment.

The arachni with them were working hard, using their special branch of umbramancy to conceal them, each spell pure perfection as not even a wisp of mana escaped the spell. Noone permitted to leave the Great Web had spellwork any less than perfect.

Susan remained unconcealed, either Ariadne had been unprepared to assign one of the scouts to her or she was sure enough in the shadow’s own abilities to see no need. Erebus decided to err on the side of charity there, doubtless if the great lich had had the chance she’d have invited Susan to stay with them so they might learn more about their great foe but time simply had not allowed it.

Still he expected the timid umbramancer would be receiving an invite in her near future, just as he expected her to decline it. No matter what came next he was sure Susan was done being a subject of study.

After a couple of hours of travel the tunnels began to level out, settling on a slow and even spiral downwards, and though no tool had ever touched them there was no doubting this was an act of artifice. The stone too smooth and too flat to have been levelled by nature’s hands.

Erebus had to begrudgingly give the gods that much; they knew craftsmanship.

The arachni brought them to a sharp halt. The scout leader, Dancer In Shadows, tapping out a hurried message only to remember that not everyone knew groundspeak.

Weaver took up the slack, “Down below lies the artifact. The shadows swarm it at all hours, hoping one of them can force their way through the barrier to devour it. We can approach no further without alerting them.” The words appeared right next to their ears, woven in Ariadne’s style to avoid detection.

Erebus nodded, pointlessly, “Light spells at the front, sunlight harms them and enough can kill them. Don’t bother with shields, they’ll pass right through them. Whatever you do don’t let them flank us.”

“You can’t seriously be planning to win this by force.” Weaver protested only to be met by a snort from Natalya.

“This is why I hate this plan. We were never going to get all the way by stealth. Frankly it’s a miracle we’ve gotten this close.” She explained for Weaver’s benefit. “This is going to be a hard fight, one touch and we’re dead… well me and the arachni. The cool kids club over there has countermeasures – that they aren’t sharing!”

“Keep it down.” Erebus replied mildly, “And we can’t share them. I would if I could but it really isn’t possible or practical. Now everyone, get your game faces on, I’m about to start the music.”

There was a frantic message for Dancer In Shadows, one that at least revealed what it sounds like when an arachni gasps. Weaver’s translation came slowly, reluctance in every twitch of her forelegs, “One of us will hide you, our honoured ancestor knew that this would be your plan. We are to create a diversion deeper in the tunnels and to keep them chasing us as long as we can.”

Job done Weaver tapped out her own rather agitated message, leaving the mages to mull it over, neither of the mages able to understand groundspeak had even a faint prayer of follow the argument as the spiderfolk brought more or less all eight legs into play.

“It could work.” Erebus admitted reluctantly, “Whatever guardian resides there is long devoured. All we’d have to do is force our way through the barrier, or at the very least be able to fight with it to our backs. Either way it’s better than trying to bull rush it and hoping.”

Weaver shot him a betrayed look even as she argued, and with so many eyes the arachni was able to appear very betrayed indeed.

“Practicality demands it.” Erebus said simply, “Better to doom half than to risk all. Besides some of them might well escape.”

Dancer gave him the arachni equivalent of a salute, forelegs crossing in front of him, a gesture that Erebus returned. And then all but one of the scouts was simply gone.

The remaining arachni grabbed them all with a leg each and hugged the wall and then they vanished too, pulled into the darkness. Existing as Susan did, simply part of the darkness rather than passing through it.

It didn’t take long for the scouts to launch their diversion, five minutes if that as they waited for the diversion with bated breath. When it came the surges of mana were a beacon so bright even an apprentice mage would have noticed. For thaumavores like the shadows it was the largest dinner bell ever rung.

For a few awful seconds there was the sensation of terrible absence as something deadly filled the space they were hiding in, and then it was gone. An entire legion of living darkness surging to devour the mages foolish enough to make their presence known.

The scout who’d stayed with them, Shroomlight Unseen, paused just to be sure they were actually gone before pulling his charges free from the darkness and back into the material.

“We don’t have long.” Erebus stated the obvious. “Everyone who can summon a light, do so.”

He didn’t need to tell them light, a bright and steady flame appearing in Lana’s hand while pale corpselight emanated from Natalya’s staff, Weaver simply dropped her stealth spells, the blood of the glowing mushrooms illuminating a surprising distance.

The necromancer summoned his own light source of preference, a mote of brilliant blue who’s beam he directed like a torch ahead of them. “Let’s go. And mind your step, they’ll be back soon and you don’t want to be a straggler.”

Lana took the rear, the demoness most able to survive a fight with the devourers of all, as well as able, and all too willing, to hurry along anyone who lagged behind on that final desperate run.

It was nearly a mile to the chain along the spiralling path, for all it had been a tenth that directly, the long slow spiral an agony of anticipation. There were a few more mana beacons in that time, though whether some of the arachni had been caught or simply hadn’t been prepared to take a further risk was up for debate.

Erebus’ money was on them being dead. Ariadne wouldn’t have selected anyone who wasn’t totally committed to the cause.

The barrier when they got to it was a brilliant golden thing, but for all its lustre it was easy to tell it was faded. Pheus and his brothers had been right on that score.

It wasn’t quite flickering. That would have allowed the shadows through in the brief instant it was down, but it was translucent for all it was the source of that very lucence. Erebus could see what was surely the aetheric chain through the barrier, a lead weight upon an altar.

He wasn’t sure if the symbolism was a necessary part of forging an aetheric chain but it had been an ongoing theme, an everflowing hourglass for the chain he’d broken related to immortality, a tooth the size of a small building for the leviathan chain and other variations upon the idea.

It might not have been essential, just an artistic flair or perhaps a simple means of categorization.

The important thing was that they weren’t quite able to get to it. The barrier might have been fading but a legion of monsters for enough years the exact date had been lost to history hadn’t been able to collapse it. It didn’t have any symbols or runes that a skilled mage might target or disrupts, it was just power. The most inefficient defence imaginable, and the hardest to break.

It didn’t stop any of them from trying.

Erebus naturally led with entropy magics to disrupt and decay the barrier, this time however the death of wards not only didn’t work but forced the necromancer to deflect a burst of divine lightning into the walls. The flickering golden bolt leaving spots in his vision.

Nat carved out a path in the earth where the barrier met the tunnel. It was a longshot but sometimes even gods forgot to cover all directions. Whichever deity had been responsible for this chain however had taken their job seriously and covered the third dimension. The wall of golden energy was perfect sphere.

Lana took the direct approach, trusting to her armour of sin to protect her as she plunged her hand into the barrier only to withdraw it with a cry of pain, her armour glowing a searing white as it cooked her like a lobster in its shell. It was an impressive feat, demons were native to the hells and some of them had air temperatures that could have smelted steel.

The devil stared at her armour in disbelief as the work of one of the finest smiths daemonkind had ever produced failed. Lana studiously ignored the smell of charred meat coming from her hand and forearm. Pain was an intruder to be repelled, nothing more.

Next came Weaver’s turn, the spider trying to short out the barrier by drawing the mana around it to her, creating a vacuum that would hopefully siphon the magic out of the spell itself but the barrier had power enough to spare. The arachni would pop before she drained enough to make a difference.

In the distance they felt one final mana beacon go off, far far away above them.

“There has to be a way past it.” Natalya growled, kicking one of the walls then swearing as she almost certainly broke a toe.

“This armour was forged for devils to survive a duel with an imperator.” Lana said softly, staring at where the wicked spikes on her gauntlets had begun to run slightly, blunting them. “When the gods made this they wanted to be sure no one could interfere with it.”

Weaver cleaned her pedipalps nervously, “There was to be a way through though. No system can maintain itself forever, there has to be a method for maintenance if nothing else… did the archmages give you anything?”

Erebus shook his head, “They didn’t give me anything to open the barrier. They were loathe even to give me the location. All they gave me was… dammit those scheming, lying, duplicitous, double-dealing sons of uncertain parentage.” He tried not to sound admiring as he said it.

With a laugh he reached into his robe and removed a small jar with a single golden mote of light suspended inside it.

“Is that-?” Natalya began, jaw literally dropping open. Noone could accuse her of being slow on the uptake.

“Yes.” Erebus confirmed as he unstoppered the bottle, letting the mote slowly rise into the air. “Never do anything for just one reason if you can avoid it.” He shook his head in bemused awe, not at the mote itself for all it was awe inspiring.

It was hard to put the feeling into words but just beholding that spark of creation, so small Erebus couldn’t have mistaken it for dandruff if it weren’t for the glow, he swore he could see whole worlds, he could see mountain ranges rising from Reath’s surface, the terrible roar of a star igniting, the echoes of the first words the gods had spoken on Reath, and a thousand other wondrous things.

 It was the light, beauty and truth of creation that lurked in every writer’s quill, every painter’s brush and every singer’s lips. It was the power that had forged worlds, forged the aetheric chains and created life on Reath and it would be the simplest thing to reach out and take it.

Still Erebus hesitated, hand reaching out to cradle the spark but not grasp it as Natalya followed the chain of logic through to ask, “So the archmages at Seruatis are actually…?”

“Yes… well three of them anyway.” The necromancer shrugged, the tension easing out of him. It was a feeling he resented, though that washed away as well, it was simply hard to be crotchety with the spark present in the open air.

A glance to his side showed Lana practically vibrating in place from the effort of not grabbing the spark. “It wouldn’t work.” He told her kindly, “You’re of Chaos, it is of Creation, you’d detonate on the spot and besides, envy ill becomes you.”

The reference to envy demons, the dreaded Invidus, the predator of pride demons like herself, stilled Lana, the demoness giving him a nod of thinks for pouring oil on her troubled thoughts. Still she gave a token protest, “I’d be able to protect you far better if I had that.”

“By crafting a gilded cage around me, you’re a guardian Lana, not a guard.” He place a hand on her shoulder, careful not to impale himself in the process, “Don’t let it change you, ultimately it’s just power.”

“Just power he says.” The demoness shook her head but laughed all the same. “What are you going to do with it?”

“The gods made a lock. That means they made a key. I’m going to do what all keys do, open something.” With that he reached out and grasped the spark, taking it within him.

The necromancer’s entire body glowed a brilliant gold as it moved to settle on his heart, only to withdraw until it occupied just the hand he’d used to grasp it. With a laugh Erebus reached into the barrier, his fingers closing on a handle that simply hadn’t existed a moment ago, and would cease to exist the moment he let go.

He pulled down and opened the door. The barrier flickered out of existence. That wasn’t quite true, he’d felt that awesome power be absorbed by the spark of creation, stabilizing it and empowering it so it was almost ready to maintain itself in perpetuity.

Never do anything for just one reason indeed. He might be a gifted amateur but the gods had been practicing long before this world had existed.

“Well… door’s open.” He said mildly as he focused hard on keeping the spark constrained to just his left hand even as he moved his battlestaff back to it, forcing the mote out of him and into it. He wasn’t sure if the spark could survive in his trusty stave long-term but he was prepared to give it a shot. But that was a project for future Erebus, for now it was important to check on the chain.

Susan let out a long and eager sigh as she stared at the ingot of lead on the altar. “It looks delicious.”

“But it isn’t. Right Susan?” Erebus asked uncertainly, sincerely caught off-guard by that proclamation as he made sure he was between her and the chain even as Lana interposed herself between necromancer and shadow for good measure.

“Rrrrright.” She slurred slowly, “It doesn’t look appetizing at all. It’s a lump of lead. Just a lump of lead, nothing else.” A shudder went through the shadow. “Oh twilight help me, I’m so hungry Ere. I can’t look at it. I can’t or I’ll- Oh no… they’re coming Ere! I’m so sorry. I couldn’t help it, I just felt so hungry.”

The necromancer nodded slowly, “Right. Well no time to waste then. Everyone behind the barrier and I’ll put it back in place when we’re through.”

Noone argued, all but running into the small, hollowed out room in the stone, little more than an altar and enough standing room for ten people to stand comfortably.

That might not have sounded small but by deity standards it was downright miserly. Their architecture had always tended towards the grandiose, great temples, cities built atop mountains, that kind of thing. This was the bare minimum of space needed to work in.

They almost all made it in, as Susan tried to cross into the room she was stopped short as if she’d walked into a solid wall though by her nature she ate the sound even as it was produced. A mime-like quality to the motion.

Erebus scowled, reaching out to feel nothing whatsoever, whatever defence this was it wasn’t designed to affect mortals.

The shadow tried to press her way through, abandoning her human shape entirely to spread over the barrier, trying to force her way past but getting no luck to speak of.

“Talk to me Susan, what’s going on?” Erebus asked softly as he tried to sense whatever defence she’d run afoul of, but there really was nothing.

“I don’t know. There’s a wall of energy in the way, but it’s… not here.” She sounded confused as she forced herself back into a human shape, hands pressed against the barrier.

“It will be on the plane of shadows.” Erebus said calmly, though it was the careful, forced calm of someone fighting panic, “I’d imagine there’s one in the mirror realm and another in Avalon. No point having a defence here if you can just walk through from somewhere else.”

“Great, then open up a gate to shadow and let me through.” Susan all but ordered.

“I can’t.” The necromancer admitted wretchedly, “Think it through Sue, if there’s a hoard of your folk this side of the materium then the other side is going to be downright lousy with them. I’d be letting them past the barrier too.”

“Well do something.” She hissed, “They’re nearly here.”

Erebus nodded once, then reached through the intangible barrier to grab Susan’s wrist and pulled with all his strength. His fingers simply slid off when Susan’s body met the barrier.

With a growl he tried again, cloaking his arm in first fire, then entropy, then a dozen other magical energies, all to the same result.

The necromancer bared his teeth, moving from the dangerous to the outright forbidden as he tried to simply collapse the space between him and Susan. Not the barrier safely in another dimension, or the air where it’s echo was holding Susan at bay but the very space itself.

It resisted him, as it always did. Reath was not Avalon or the Hells, it had been made to resist the wills of imperator, sidhe royalty and even the very gods who’d made it. He might not have been able to match any of them in power or knowledge but in terms of sheer stubbornness and simple petty defiance he could cross swords with the best of them.

He’d done this before but it wasn’t a quick process and if the space of Reath was akin to a brick wall then the space surrounding the aetheric chain of gravity was an adamantine vault. If it was even technically possible to alter reality near it, and Erebus wasn’t certain that it was, it would be the work of years if not decades.

The necromancer tried anyway, veins popping out on his neck and forehead as he strained, trying to beat reality itself into submission upon an anvil of defiance and with hammers of desperation.

When he began to get lightheaded he stopped, staring forlornly at his friend. “I can’t get you through. Just… relax. They’re basically mindless, as long as you don’t do anything that marks you as food they should just assume you’re one of them.”

Susan sighed, “I’ll try.” She said slowly, not trying to hide her fear. This was just about every nightmare she’d ever had in the last decade.

“You’ll be fine Sue. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to get you through this.” He gave her hand a squeeze then let go, pulling his arm back through the arcane barrier.

Not a moment too soon either as the shadows came crashing silently down the tunnel, a tidal wave of abyssal hunger that pressed desperately against the secondary barrier. It bowed a little under the impact but held, leaving them trapped inside.