Chapter 52 (Patreon)

It was easy enough to get inside, while there was security set up at One Times Square, Sonya hadn’t done all her networking and developing of her public persona without a reason. The resident management was only too happy to greet them and facilitate whatever they needed during the investigation. Sonya may have implied a bit indirectly that they were here on business related to the Pandora Committee, and while that was true, the Chairman obviously had no idea what she was doing. Which was the point, of course.

From there they were taken down into the substructure of the building. Portions of it had been renovated over and over throughout the years, walls put up to block hallways that served no purpose anymore. A glance towards Marta was all that was necessary to deal with these particular blockages. Sonya knew where it was, generally speaking. Doing research about the dungeon’s location ahead of raiding any dungeon was crucial, and more than one might expect. She pursed her lips together as she referenced the oldest blueprint of the building, following it down, down, down.

At first, everyone remained largely silent, no one picking up anything out of the ordinary in the air. The staff that had accompanied them-mostly to keep an eye on them-had been pleasant enough to explain some of the history of the building, offering anecdotes and drivel that filled the otherwise uncomfortable silence. The only two people truly on high alert besides Sonya were Marta and Amos. Marta, because she always was, and Amos because he was watching with more and more alarm as the ambient levels of mana were spiking higher and higher as they got closer to their destination.

Sonya glanced his way, <Calm down.> She said through their shared technopathy.

He tensed a little and kept his eyes on his equipment, <You aren’t seeing what I’m seeing.>

<I can probably guess…> She trailed off as they came to a stop ahead of a pair of reinforced doors. They look like they had been installed as part of some kind of fallout shelter ages ago. There was even a wheel-type lock on the front. She glanced towards Amos who nodded and turned to the Staff members who had stopped with them at the latest obstacle. “I imagine it’s about to get fairly dangerous,” Sonya said with a bright smile, “Thank you for the escort.”

It was the nicest dismissal they’ve ever had and judging by the atmosphere, they seemed to take the hint. They nodded quickly and retreated, heading up the stairs as Sonya took in their surroundings. The space was dark with only the lighting of their own flashlights present to give any sort of illumination. Bare brick walls were covered in faint dampness from the humidity and pipes hung openly overhead, shuddering now and then. 

She glanced at Marta and inclined her head. Marta nodded from behind the veil that covered her face when she was playing the role of Handmaiden and grabbed onto the wheel. There was only a heartbeat of resistance before time and rust cracked and she began to turn it. The doors shuddered when the lock was fully retracted and Marta placed her hand on the metal, pushing hard. They swung open as if they had been freshly oiled, though the sound of creaking and snapping metal spoke to just how much force Marta had put behind the shove.

No one paid any attention to it. There was something far more eye-catching in front of them.

In the middle of what appeared to be an enormous common area set up for a bomb shelter beneath the building were a pair of cylindrical pillars, each of them made of distinct slabs of stone that were stacked on top of one another. Each slab bearing strange and unreadable markings. The markings glowed with an eerie off-blue color that was drowned out by the much more intense light source in the room. A swirling portal made of concentrated mana roiled and churned between the two pillars, its surface bubbling now and then before becoming flat as a calm sea. 

Everyone stood in silence, Sonya keeping her mouth shut as the heroes took in the sight. Next to her, Amos swallowed and took a few tentative steps forward. He gestured to one of the aides who had been carrying a large box for him. The young man looked at the glowing vortex in fear and Amos turned to him with a frown, “Don’t chicken out now. You aren’t going in there,” Amos said sharply. The aide swallowed hard and hurried in behind him, setting the box down. Amos opened it and revealed a set of drones neatly stacked inside. 

“Had a feeling I’d need you guys,” He said and with a thought they sprung into the air. He stepped back and gestured towards the portal while the others including Sonya filed inside.

“Will sending them in disrupt it or something?” Marta asked, saying what the others were thinking.

Amos gave her a look, “Leave the science to the scientist,” He teased and shrugged, “It’s stable enough.”

“...enough?” She questioned before one of the drones darted from the formation and raced towards the sheet of glowing energy. It vanished with a sound that was remarkably similar to if it had flown into a body of water, a little splash. Amos frowned the instant it disappeared.

“What’s wrong?” Bluestar asked.

“Lost connection,” He said, drawing a few alarmed looks from the others. He just shrugged, “No big deal, I instructed it to turn around of its own accord if it doesn’t receive a signal from me within thirty seconds. It’ll come out, or it won’t. Either way it’ll take a recording of what it finds.”

The next thirty seconds felt like an hour before to everyone’s surprise the drone simply came out of the portal as if nothing had happened to it. It floated over to Amos who frowned when it drew close, his eyes flicking about as if he were looking at something no one else could see. He glanced at Sonya, “We were right.”

She let out a breath through her nostrils, of course they were, “Explain.”

“There are monsters on the other side, lots of them, in a space that looks kind of like this room. There’s even a door at the other end but it’s closed. Also there are… crystals growing out of the walls,” He said thoughtfully, “Glowing crystals.”

Raw, unprocessed mana crystals, worth their weight in gold. She thought mutely, Not that we’ll be taking more than samples from this dungeon. It’s a shame, but keeping up appearances comes before getting rich off of it.

“What’s the atmosphere like?” She asked, picking a question that would help put the other’s minds at ease. The heroes were already looking a little uncomfortable, except for Firestorm. He was glaring at the portal with his fists clenched tightly.

“Instruments say it’s fully breathable, honestly, it’s no different from here. It’s like whatever made the portal recreated this place,” He said.

Sonya glanced to the aide, “Tablet,” she said, holding out her hand. The aide quickly approached with the tablet containing the current blueprints of the building. She glanced towards Firestorm and watched his nostrils flare. 

He rounded on her, “Dharan,” He said quickly, drawing a few surprised looks from his team, “Those monsters didn’t come from nowhere, did they?”

“My hypothesis is ‘no,’,” Amos said, “Mana is building up inside the portal as we speak, I’ve never heard of anything that can just keep taking in energy before, you know, boom,” He said, making a lazy gesture of an explosion.

Firestorm tensed and looked back at his team. He made eye contact with Bandit, Lifesaver, and Bluestar. They each looked at him with a mixture of concern and uncertainty before squaring their shoulders and setting their jaws. Resolve flashed in their eyes. Sonya hid a small smile, This is how heroes are supposed to be, she thought with no small amount of pride.

“We’re going in,” Firestorm said sharply.

Amos coughed, “Are you crazy? You don’t know what to expect in there. I’ve only sent a single drone in.”

“Do you know how much time we have until ‘boom’?” Firestorm asked looking the scientist in the eyes.

Amos tensed and seemed to resist the urge to turn to Sonya, he bit his lip and shook his head, “No, I couldn’t say how long we have.”

“Then we’re going in,” Firestorm said firmly, “We can breathe in there, right? It’s just monsters, what’s the problem?”

“There’s a ton of them, and they aren’t hounds or lurkers,” Amos insisted.

Firestorm shook his head, “After those flyers appeared in Dharan we all figured new monsters would start showing up eventually. We’ll figure it out.”

Sonya narrowed her eyes, Brave, but you’ll regret saying that.

“I’ll come with you,” Marta said, stepping forward. Sonya nodded, Marta needed to be there, she should be able to fight her way through a majority of the monsters and clear the way. While she didn’t know much about the estimated strength of this dungeon she knew it wouldn’t have been a match for a mythic-tier like her if it had been detected in time.

“That sounds like a good-” Sonya started before being cut off by Firestorm’s raised hand.

“With all due respect, Miss Chernovna,” Firestorm said, “Marta is your bodyguard and an honorary hero, she isn’t a member of the guild and she should be here protecting you in case of the worst. You got us here, now please let us do our job.”

Sonya was taken aback, she blinked a few times, startled by the sudden shift in attitude. She glanced at Marta, This isn’t the plan. Marta needs to… She looked back at Firestorm who fixed her with a stare, his eyes unblinking. She felt the fire in his eyes, the determination. If I force my hand now, I’ll crush his spirit. Tch. She closed her eyes and let out a heavy breath, pulling her hair back and crossing her arms over her chest. “Do what you want,” She said haughtily and tilted her head up to look down on him a little from her position, “Don’t you dare die in there. I put a lot of money into you.”

“Sonya!” Marta pressed but she waved a hand.

“He’s not wrong,” Sonya said flatly and let her hands fall to her sides, “But promise me you will retreat if things get bad, also, if you don’t come out in twenty-four hours I will send Marta in after you,” She said firmly, broaching no contest this time. It was take it or leave it. While she may not be a member of the guild, she owned the guild. They were an investment. She wouldn’t give them explicit orders as promised but she would protect what was hers.

He seemed to catch her meaning and smiled at her, “Thank you,” He said and turned to look towards the portal. The rest of his team forming up around him. “Let’s go,” He said without ceremony and marched towards the portal. For a moment, a brief moment, Sonya could only see their darkened silhouettes against the glow of the portal. Her mind cast back to the first time she had seen a hero walk into a dungeon, the feeling of awe knowing that they were going to risk their lives for the world. It had been a long time since she’d felt happy to see a hero’s back.

“Good luck,” Sonya said quietly, and they were gone.

–

Firestorm stepped through the portal and out the other side. Just like that guy Amos had said, it was pretty much a reflection of the huge common area for the bomb shelter they’d found the portal in. An arched ceiling hung over their heads made of the same metal as the walls and floor. Their footsteps let off tiny sounds as they glanced around, taking in their surroundings. It was surprisingly well lit, compared to the room before. That was thanks to the blue crystals glowing out of every wall. 

Bluestar glanced towards one clump of them and made a face, “Mana. Those stones are full of it, but it feels inert.”

“They won’t blow up if we accidentally hit one, right?” Bandit asked.

“I don’t think so, no, but once we clean up we should probably take a sample back for Miss Sonya, she would appreciate that I think,” Bluestar pointed out.

“Agreed,” Firestorm said as he scanned the room. “Where are these monsters that Amos was talking ab-” His words were cut off when he spotted the hunched creatures standing just outside the area of the crystal’s glow. They had red skin and were all but naked. Long ears pointed out of the sides of their malformed heads and tiny nub-like horns protruded from their brows. Long noses hooked down towards cloven feet attached to goat-like legs. Their tiny hands were decorated with long, vicious looking black nails that had been sharpened to points.

“Is that…” Bandit muttered, tilting his head to the right beneath his hood.

“A devil?” Lifesaver grunted, “Looks like a picture I’ve seen.”

“Looks more like a goblin to me,” Bluestar said, getting a few looks from the others. She frowned at them, “What? Goblins don’t have to always be green.”

“Uh… horns?” Bandit pointed out, holding his fingers up at his temples. “Hooves?”

“Guys,” Firestorm said sharply, drawing them out of their bickering. They all turned to him and then towards the creatures. The devils were all looking at them, their huge eyes glittering with nothing short of bloodlust and malice. They bore their teeth, razorblades that made Firestorm think of Kingshark. His expression fell into a frown and fire erupted onto his hands as he stepped forward. “Crowd formation.”

Bandit immediately shifted back a few steps, dancing around the portal behind them and getting some distance. He seemed to vanish into the shadows, his presence utterly gone. Lifesaver put himself directly behind Firestorm, his fingers tensing and ready to do what he did best. Bluestar stood just a few steps to the left and behind Firestorm, throwing her hands out to her sides and muttering under her breath. A pair of glowing walls formed on either side of them, sheets of magical glass that created a narrow path that lead directly to Firestorm.

Their actions were enough to send the creatures into a rage, they let out shrieks of fury and hatred, babbling incoherently before swarming out of the shadows and in their direction, the sound of hundreds of cloven hooves creating a cacophony in the room. Flames began to swirl in front of Firestorm. 

“Here they come,” He said, and with a roar, unleashed himself upon them.

–

Outside of the Dungeon, Sonya could only sit down on a folding chair and wait. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands together. In the end, this is what she’d wanted. For the heroes to take charge and do what needed to be done. Even so, it didn’t feel as good as she’d hoped.