Tanisha could see all the way down the shaft thanks to her night vision. They were only about halfway down which meant they had a long way to go. However there was a door much closer than the furthest one at the bottom. It would be easier to reach and they would have to clear it regardless. The red light made the pathway look far more menacing than it had any right to be.
"I think we can get out there and find another way down." Tanisha said pointing at the passage.
"Good let's regroup there." Aurelius said.
A couple of Arcane Shifts later Tanisha was standing at the closed door. It didn't matter that it was closed as half of it looked to have been blown open from the otherside. Tanisha pulsed aether through her suit to the Third Activation to make sure they weren't about to walk into a trap.
[Third Activation Initiated: Aether Draw 20 per/mins]
"Not getting any more hostiles on the other side," She whispered.
"Okay, we know other S-series are supposed to be down here and that was a lot of silhouette." Aurelius said, keeping his voice low. "Hopefully we don't run into another swarm."
"Don't say that!" Tanisha warned. "Are you trying to jinx us?"
Fuyumi sighed. "Didn't think you believed in that."
"The last time I thought things couldn't get worse my mentor lost his mind and ran off." Tanisha said, voice elevating but still at a whisper. "The time before that my mother's lackey killed one of my friends, the time before that—"
"Okay, I get it." Aurelius cut her off. "Here's to the Divine above blessing us with grace. Is that better?"
"Bjorn is technically above us right now so, yeah, I like that more." Tanisha agreed.
"Do you see anything inside?" Fuyumi asked.
"No, the lights are still flashing red, but there isn't much else." Aurelius backed away from the opening. "Fuyumi, you're our vanguard, Tanisha behind me prepare your spells just in case."
The group entered and the conversation stopped as they surveyed the hallway. The damage here was extensive. Sections blown through all the way to the rock beneath. The fact it hadn't collapsed seemed to be a miracle. They followed the path to several closed doors. The group got into position and Tanisha placed her hand on the consol.
"Warning: this area is off limits. You have a warrant, remain where you are for security personnel."
Tanisha sighed and forced her aether into the system, overriding the lock. The door groaned and stuttered, opening only to knee height before something inside snapped loudly. The mechanism died.
"That's not good." Tanisha said.
"Definitely not." Aurelius said.
"We should try the other door. I don't trust that this one wont fail fully and shut us in." Fuyumi said as she stepped back from the door.
[Hostiles Detected]
Tanisha was instantly on alert, "something is coming from the other side."
Everyone retreated to give themselves more space. The door wouldn't close so they were going to have to face whatever this was. There was a single dot on the other side of the door but she didn't have a map of the area beyond. Only what she had already traveled through. The sound of a thousand taps rang through the corridor steadily getting faster and closer.
Then a long metal form stretched out from the quarter open door. A spear of ice, fuyumi had thrown immediately speared the creature in the head but the head just broke off and the next segment of its body continued to move forward.
[Hostiles Detected.]
More dots appeared as more of the metal centipede came through the door. Bodies as wide as a human torso but with hundreds of body segments. They moved on long metal blades each of which hummed with aether. They were quick but instead of immediately going for the party they beelined to the exposed dirt through the exposed sections of the destroyed hallway. Then they dug their bodies getting lost behind the dirt and metal.
The team did not just watch this happen. Tanisha and fuyumi both launched spells. Fuyumi created more spears which slammed into the creatures. Tanisha used her new Voltaic Orb, the electricity forming an orb in her hand that crackled with blood red lightning. It was the teams only long range area attack and not one she could use lightly because it required 20 seiðr for its first tier.
Voltaic Orb
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Low cost, 20 seiðr. Form a concentrated orb of electric mana in your palm. The orb can be launched or thrown manually, detonating on impact with a burst of electrical force that stuns and burns nearby targets. (II) Medium cost, 30 seiðr. Refine the orb for controlled detonation, allowing mid-air bursts or delayed triggering. Detonation radius and intensity increase with user focus. Targets near the core are more severely affected, suffering temporary motor and magic disruption.
The orbs detonated on contact with anything solid, sending out a short concussive blast—but the real danger came from the ribbons of arcane lightning that lashed out across the area. Segments of the metal centipedes convulsed and sparked as they were torn apart by the red lightning.
But even as one segment was destroyed, undamaged sections writhed and reconnected, forming entirely new centipedes that continued their relentless advance. The moment they reached exposed soil, they dove into it with terrifying speed, vanishing from both Tanisha's line of sight and her suit's sensors.
They didn't have to wait for long to find out where they were going as a blade nearly speared Tanisha's leg had Aurelius not been paying attention. The metal centipedes were digging all around them, popping out from other destroyed segments near them to catch them from as many different angles as possible.
Aurelius was focusing on defending Tanisha while she focused on changing her magic, dismissing the Valtic Orb she was forming and instead switching to hydromancy. The floor was covered in conductive water then she coated the walls and ceiling as well. They had about a twenty foot radius which was totally encapsulated by water.
She then cast Electric Hand. A single construct made of crimson electricity formed thick bands of lightning coiled around it as she used it to touch the surface of the water. The centipede that entered into the zone stuttered and spazzed. It wasn't enough to outright kill the creatures but she didn't need to. They were slower and Aurelius and Fuyumi were making short work of the swarm.
They changed their tactic to cut through multiple segments in large swipes instead of quicker more targeted strikes. The reason Tanisha decided to use Electric Hand instead of Electrokinesis to electrify the water was because of Electric Hand's secondary effect for its second tier. Anything killed by an electric hand would grant her a return of any element from her alloy. Thirty percent of the target's remaining magic would help fuel her powers.
As it turned out, anything currently being electrocuted and destroyed by Fuyumi or Aurelius counted as her kill too. Meaning she was gaining aether for each and every segment being destroyed. That was important because she was eating through seiðr far too quickly otherwise.
A lucky shot from a centipede caught Aurelius in the thigh. Fuyumi was too far to intercept the next strike as the many other blade went to finish off the elf. Tanisha summoned her daggers from her inventory and used Arcane Shift to appear between him and near certain death. She swiped her blade deflecting a strike then followed up with her other blade which cut though the segment down into the next one. She took several hits in that time but her armor held up. That's when she noticed her blades were sparking with red lightning. No, they were red lightning.
She had finally done it; she summoned her first part of her own walking armory. She didn't have time to think about it though. Once the centipede was struck it froze up, as electricity coursed through it but only for a moment before Aurelius spun around her and with a primana infused blade sliced the metal insect in half the long way.
"Thanks for the assist." Aurelius said.
The fight continued on but only for a few more seconds as the last of the segments were destroyed. They waited in formation for an extra few minutes just in case there were more coming or some waiting underground. They decided not to continue for now and instead to regroup.
"Fuyumi, I did it!" She said, showing off the electric versions of her daggers. "I tried to get them out of my inventory forgetting they were on my back sheath. Then they just appeared like this."
Fuyumi inspected the magic. "That is very good. The shape is well formed and your control is admirable. Congratulations, you are now a mage of the Walking Armory." She looked at the constructs deeper. "You are using too much magic to keep them formed but that will take time to master.
Aurelius downed a health potion and sighed in relief as his leg began to heal. It would likely take a while though. Everyone was low on magic resources and Aurelius could barely stand while the healing potion did its work. They went back into the lift shaft and found a support beam they could all sit on. Fuyumi took first watch.
"That was… insane," Aurelius muttered, his legs dangling off the thick beam that stretched over the yawning shaft below. His voice echoed faintly in the hollow space. "So, do you think that counted as one security android… or, like, a hundred?"
Tanisha tilted her head, considering. "Before it split, it only showed up as one dot on my scanner. So… one unit, technically."
"That's horrifying," Fuyumi said dryly. "We'll need to be careful in any area where they can dig. If they ambush us somewhere more unstable than that hallway, we might not be so lucky."
"Those were definitely the S-13s, right?" Tanisha asked.
"Definitely. Whoever described them as 'serpent-like' should be banned from making reports," Aurelius said. "Those weren't snakes. They were millipedes from the Infernal Planes."
"Good thing you decided to push your magical development," Fuyumi said, nodding to Tanisha. "Hopefully we won't encounter more of those things in another structurally compromised corridor. But if they only count as a single unit, we've got to move faster."
Aurelius patted his thigh, flexing the leg experimentally. "Feels good enough to walk now. You two holding up on magic reserves?"
Tanisha gave him a thumbs-up. Fuyumi simply nodded.
"Alright," he said, standing. "Let's keep moving."
They descended back to the hallway. This time they were going to go through the partially open door clear it then open the other doors. The last thing they wanted was to be boxed in. Fuyumi crawled under first then Aurelius and finally Tanisha. The other side was just as damaged as everything else and it was just a continuation of the hallway. A few yards ahead was another door but this one had no console to open it.
"Dead end." Tanisha said.
"We'll have to find a way to open it eventually." Fuyumi said.
"Yeah," Aurelius said with a tired grin, "but for now we have more metal horrors to uncover and destroy."