Two miles of vertical descent had left Valeria's limbs trembling with a phantom vibration that felt like the hum of a plucked string. They stood on the precipice of the Dwarven capital, a sprawling metropolis of black basalt and iron that had been swallowed by the earth a millennium ago. The air here was different. It did not smell of rot or stagnation like the mines above. It smelled of ozone, cold stone, and a silence so profound it felt like a physical pressure against the eardrums.
Ignis raised the phosphorus lantern. The harsh white light cut a cone through the gloom, revealing the scale of the architecture. The buildings were monolithic blocks of stone that rose hundreds of feet into the darkness, connected by slender bridges and aqueducts that looked like spiderwebs spun from granite.
"We aren't in a mine anymore," Ignis whispered. His voice echoed, bouncing off the distant walls and returning as a distorted murmur. "This is the Deep Roads. The legends say the Dwarves built this city to harvest the heat of the planet's core."
"And they died for it," Lysandra added. She hugged her fur coat tighter around herself. "I can feel the death here. It isn't fresh. It is ancient and petrified. There are no ghosts in this city because there were no bodies left to haunt it."
Valeria adjusted her pack. She looked at the map Ignis had drawn from the guild archives.
"We need to cross the residential district to reach the northern tunnels," Valeria said, pointing toward a massive gate in the distance that was barely visible in the fungal gloom. "That is the maintenance access for the geothermal vents. The Hive Queen will be close to the heat."
They descended the stairs from the ledge into the streets. The buildings towered over them, windowless and imposing. The road was wide enough for ten carriages abreast, paved with hexagonal stones that fit together so perfectly a knife blade couldn't slide between them.
"Wait," Lucian chirped. The Phoenix hopped onto Kael's shoulder, his feathers puffed up in agitation. "The statues. They are... wrong."
Lining the main avenue were statues of Dwarven warriors. They were carved from grey stone and held axes and hammers in eternal vigilance. They stood every fifty feet like silent sentinels of the dead city. But they weren't smooth. Their surfaces were pitted and crumbling, shifting slightly in the corner of the eye like optical illusions.
"Don't blink," Valeria whispered. A cold chill ran down her spine as the Merchant's Monocle flared to life with a warning text that glowed red in her vision.
[Target: Phage-Mimic (Gargoyle Class).]
[Status: Dormant (Quantum-Locked).]
[Trigger: Unobserved Movement.]
[Threat: High.]
"They are Phages," Valeria said softly, keeping her eyes fixed on the nearest statue. "They possess the stone. As long as we look at them, the quantum observer effect locks them in place. If we look away... they move."
"Weeping Angels," Ignis muttered, his face paling. "I read a theory about this in the Forbidden Archives. Living stone that feeds on kinetic potential. They only exist when you aren't looking."
"Keep your eyes open," Kael ordered. He drew his sword with a slow, deliberate rasp of steel. "Back to back. Circle formation. We move as one unit. Do not look at the floor. Do not look at the ceiling. Look at them."
They moved down the avenue in a tight circle, constantly rotating. It was a nightmare of paranoia. Every time Valeria blinked, she swore the statue on the left was closer. Its stone face, which had been a blank mask of stoicism a moment ago, was now twisted into a silent scream of hunger. The stone fingers gripping the axe seemed to tighten.
"One just moved," Silas hissed. The Wolf was walking backward, his twin swords raised. "The one with the hammer. It was ten feet back a second ago. Now it is five."
"Don't look away," Valeria commanded, her voice tight. "Just keep walking. We are almost to the plaza."
The walk felt like it took hours. The silence was broken only by the shuffle of their boots and the ragged sound of their breathing. The statues lined the road for miles, a legion of stone waiting for a single moment of distraction. Sweat trickled down Valeria's back, freezing in the cold air.
They reached the central plaza. Here the road ended abruptly.
A massive sinkhole, a jagged wound in the earth that stretched a hundred feet across, cut through the path. It went down into infinite blackness. The bridge that spanned it was retracted, the two halves pulled back into the stone abutments on either side like a drawbridge raised against an invasion.
"The mechanism is on the other side," Ignis noted, shining his light across the gap. "Fifty feet. Too far to jump."
"I can fly over," Lucian offered, spreading his wings. "I can pull the lever."
"No," Valeria said. "If you fly, you leave our circle. If you leave the circle, the statues behind us will snatch you out of the air before you clear the gap. They are fast, Lucian. Faster than you."
She looked at the control booth on their side of the bridge. It was a squat stone bunker with narrow slits for windows. Inside, through the grime of centuries, she could see massive iron gears. They were clogged with debris and petrified fungal growth.
"The release lever is stuck," Caspian said. He pushed against the heavy iron handle protruding from the wall of the booth. It didn't budge. "It is jammed from the inside of the gears. I can't force it without breaking the handle."
They were trapped. Behind them was an army of quantum-locked monsters waiting for a blink. Ahead of them was a void.
"I can get it," Silas said.
The Wolf stepped forward. He looked at the solid stone casing of the gear mechanism. He sheathed his swords.
"Phase-Shift," Silas muttered.
He ran at the machine. He didn't stop. For a second, his body turned into grey smoke, blurring at the edges as he vibrated his molecules to match the frequency of the stone. He impacted the wall, but instead of crashing, he passed through it.
Valeria watched, holding her breath. This was a new evolution of his ability, fueled by the Spirit Water. But passing through solid rock was dangerous. If he solidified too early, he would fuse with the stone.
Inside the booth, they heard a grinding noise. A screech of metal on stone.
Then Silas phased back out. He stumbled, gasping for air, and fell to his knees. He held a chunk of petrified rock in his hand. His fur was singed with friction burns, and smoke rose from his shoulders.
"Cleared," Silas wheezed, tossing the rock into the abyss. "But it hurts. The density... it resists."
Caspian grabbed the lever again. "Now!"
He slammed it forward.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
The sound was deafening in the silent city. The ancient chains groaned, shedding rust like rain. The bridge halves slowly extended, grinding out of the stone abutments. They moved with agonizing slowness.
"They hear it," Kael warned.
Valeria looked back.
The statues were vibrating. The noise had disrupted their quantum lock. They didn't need a blink anymore. They needed chaos.
The nearest statue, a dwarf with a double-bladed axe, cracked. Stone dust fell from its joints. It took a step.
"Run!" Kael shouted.
They sprinted for the extending bridge. It wasn't fully closed yet. There was a five-foot gap in the middle where the two halves met.
Kael leaped first. He cleared the gap easily, landing with a heavy thud on the far side. He turned and raised his shield.
"Jump!" Kael roared.
Ignis jumped, his robes fluttering. Kael caught him and pulled him to safety.
Valeria ran. She could hear the heavy, rhythmic pounding of stone feet behind her. The statues were running now. They moved with a terrifying, jerky speed, flickering in and out of existence as they closed the distance.
She reached the gap. She jumped.
She landed on the edge of the far side, slipping on the smooth stone. Her legs dangled over the abyss.
A hand grabbed her wrist. It was Caspian. The Shark hauled her up effortlessly.
"Silas! Lysandra!" Valeria screamed.
Silas was running, half-carrying the exhausted Necromancer. Behind them, a statue swung a massive stone hammer. It missed Silas's head by inches, smashing into the railing of the bridge.
"Nitro!" Lysandra shrieked. "Use the Nitro!"
Valeria fumbled in her belt pouch. She pulled out a vial of [Nitro-Glycerine] she had crafted in the Library.
"Catch!" Valeria threw the vial over Silas's head.
It sailed through the air and hit the lead statue in the chest just as it prepared to strike.
BOOM.
The explosion was blinding. It shattered the stone host. Shrapnel flew everywhere. The Phage entity inside the statue shrieked—a sound like tearing metal—and dissipated into black smoke.
Silas threw Lysandra across the gap. Kael caught her.
Then Silas jumped. He phased mid-air, turning into smoke to extend his leap, and materialized on the safe side.
"Retract it!" Valeria yelled. "Caspian, hit the release!"
Caspian slammed the lever on the northern control booth.
The gears ground in reverse. The bridge halves began to pull back into the walls.
The horde of statues reached the edge. They didn't stop. They were mindless in their hunger. They rushed forward, expecting solid ground, and found only air.
Dozens of stone warriors tumbled into the abyss. They fell silently, disappearing into the dark.
"We are clear," Kael panted, leaning against the gate of the control booth. "For now."
Valeria looked back at the city. The remaining statues on the far side were freezing in place again, returning to their dormant vigil. They stood at the edge of the chasm, watching.
"That was the residential district," Ignis said, checking his map with trembling hands. He wiped stone dust from his goggles. "The next sector is the Industrial Zone. If the legends are true... that is where the Dwarves kept their war machines."
"And where the Queen's guards will be waiting," Lysandra added grimly. She was shaking, clutching her staff. "My skeletons... I lost three of them on the bridge. I cannot replace them down here. There are no bodies."
"We move forward," Valeria said. She checked her ammo. She was down to three flasks of Greek Fire and two flash-bangs. The Nitro was gone. "We don't have a choice."
She looked at the massive iron doors that marked the entrance to the Industrial Zone. They were sealed, covered in warnings written in a language that looked like geometry equations.
"Let's hope the Dwarves left us some toys," Valeria said, touching the cold metal. "Because we are running out of ours."
Kael stepped up to the doors. He placed his hands on the metal. He didn't push. He pulsed his mana into the lock, sensing the mechanism.
"It is unlocked," Kael said, surprised. "Someone... or something... opened it recently."
"The Queen," Silas said, sniffing the air leaking through the crack. "She went this way. The scent is strong here. It smells like ozone and burnt sugar."
Kael pushed the doors open.
They stepped into the Industrial Zone.
It was a vast hangar, larger than the city itself. The ceiling was lost in gloom. And filling the space, row upon row, were machines.
Tanks with drill-bits for noses. Walkers with hydraulic legs. And Golems. Thousands of them.
"Jackpot," Ignis whispered.
But Valeria wasn't looking at the machines. She was looking at the shadows between them.
The shadows were moving.