They filter out into the hallway, disturbing the thick layer of dust that coats the floor as their lights barely reflects off the bare and tarnished bronze walls. Also emerging from the door is a pair of trails that disappears into the dark. The group trudged through the dark, following the trails of already disturbed dust, occasionally slowing to avoid the remains of some long past chaos, paying little heed to the odd shaped bones and skulls intertwined with metal limbs and shells. The trail leads them to eventually emerge onto a rail-less walkway circling around a massive drop so deep that bottom isn't visible, even when the filings are held over it. They continue following the trail to a large set of sliding doors with an inset orb of sapphire to the side.
The older man wonders towards the orb and moves to make contact before pausing and eyeing Roxie who tilts her head and asks "What?"
The old man suggests "It's clear that you know more about this place that Donny, so, is this thing going to eat my soul?"
"No, but it will eat your mana—" She shrugs and smile as his eyes open wide "You can still try if you're confident?"
He turns to eye the orb and slowly pulls his hands away "Nah, I'm good"
Roxie then looks to the rest of the group "Who here uses Chi?" The bald man, the young elf and the person in armour speaks up "Right, we're gonna have to pull the doors open"
She takes her sword and jams it into the space between the doors, opening it enough for her and the bald man to hook their fingers in before they each empower their bodies with chi, Roxie and the bald man glowing purple and green respectively.
When they switch from pulling to pushing the doors open, Roxie looks over her shoulder "Hey, what's your name?"
The bald man looks over their shoulder and responds "Brandon, you?"
She tersely answers "Roxie"
After a short pause, Brandon asks "We're hunting down the guys that made those clock faced things, right?"
"Yep, though, we're gonna have to scour the city after for their workshop" She stops for a moment to shake her arms.
Brandon finishes pushing his door open before heling Roxie with hers "How many more do you think they have?"
"I'm not sure, I'd say a couple dozen or so"
As they work to open up the doors, the elf approaches Donovan and holds out a hand with a smile "Nice working with you again"
"You too Jack, and you Jack two" He shakes his hand whilst nodding to both him and the old man, who just rolls his eyes.
Jack two approaches and asks "So, what's your gut following this time?"
"Something different this time. Outer realm invaders"
Jack two whistles "Ooooo. And we deferring to you again, or?"
Donovan points to Roxie who's done opening the doors wide enough to reach the cables down "She's the head of this little bust"
"Hmm?" Roxie perks up as she's pointed out, before clocking what they were talking about and takes a deep breath "Suppose it's about time that I explain something. The short of it is that these Alieon did research long ago and we don't want them digging any of it up, because, a lot of it is stuff that can be bad in the wrong hands" She adds after a pause "Theirs too"
Jack perks up and asks, "Stuff like?"
She quirks a brow "I'm not telling you because you might be one of those people"
"Hey, I'm a good guy" Jack throws out his hands and looks around the group for support, finding none "C'mon guys!"
Jack two pats him on the shoulder and states "You're not an asshole" Then, when the first jack starts smiling, he adds "You're just a small prick"
"Oh c'mon!" He cries out as everyone begins climbing down the shaft.
Following Roxie's lead, they climb down the elevator's cables down the deep shaft to the top frame of the elevator before jumping in and through the doors to the bottom of the shaft where the smell of rotting meat and temperature intensifies. After quietly complaining to themselves, they continue following the trail that picks up through an even thicker layer of dust, until the halls go from tarnished bronze to skin. The group is hesitant to follow Roxie as she continues forging on, slowing only slightly and becoming more alert as she follows the trail that has become shoe shaped bruises.
Jack two stops and looks at the bruises before placing his ear against the ground "Is this thing alive?"
"Yeah—" She pauses her stride when she notices that the others stop advancing "There should be a matron, the brain and controller of all—" She then gestures to everything around them "This. And an alpha, a massive creature that protects it and keep anything that it spawns loyal. Sooo, keep an eye out for anything that's under it, there's probably traps or its spawn"
Jack two stands up and cracks his back whilst grumbling "Lovely"
As they continue through the hallway the walls start to pulse and twitch with a steady beat as the skin fills out and gradually takes on a bronze shine. Further in its veins and nerves become pronounced, texturing the previously smooth walls save for a strip that guides the group's feet through the winding and occasionally collapsed hallways. It guides them into an enlarged and sunken crossroads where, in its centre, stands a pillar of flesh; various sections where the veins connect pulse in their own rhythm, the nerves also twitching as the muscle surrounding the thick strands convulse.
The veins burst as Roxie enters, flooding the area in blood whilst the flesh on the walls spasm and rip itself off. The necromancers, who were collecting a grey mass from within the pillar, panic and quickly cut it free from its connecting strands. One is pinned to the pillar by a bolt to the head, whilst the other is stabbed in either shoulder and pushed to the ground by Jack who had rushed him with a trail of light, moving faster than he should. As Jack pins him, a small wave of black pores out of the necromancer before being absorbed by the salt pouch.
Jack, despite avoiding the effects, shudders and scrambles away as his breathing and face becoming panicked.
Roxie takes his place in holding down the necromancer, pinning him to the ground with a boot to the neck before shoving a pouch into the back of his throat whilst the other one slowly starts tearing the bolt out of their head, but that is quickly ended by a silver knife.
Everyone other than Roxie, Jack and Donovan start investigating the pillar once the pair have been subdued, with Jack two and Ilia mainly taking interest in the grey mass and the neat hole in the side of the pillar.
Ilia immediately pushes her hand into the hole and pulls a small, flickering mass of rings out which her shadow then attaches too, stopping its flickering.
Jack meanwhile is flipping the organ over in his hands, poking and eventually cutting it open "This is one weird brain, and really small for something this big"
Ilia leans down and peers further into the hole "Looks like there's a bunch more of them in here"
"Oh?" Jack two tales her place and begins reaching in himself "So what was that, that you pulled out?"
Ilia watches as the mass swells slightly "It's soul"
Jack pauses and gives her an odd look "Huh?"
She doesn't acknowledge "If it accepts, I can make it into a familiar"
"Is that how you witches do it?" Jack has stopped his prodding and stays in a crouch, watching Ilia as she works.
"Not normally, we usually pull them from the environment" She hides the mass within her hands.
Jack leans closer as a light glow seeps out from between her hands "Should you be telling me this?"
Ilia smirks at Jack "Knowing what, doesn't tell you how"
As they talk and continue to examine the pillar, Donovan approaches Jack.
He crouches beside him and pulls him up so he's not soaking in blood "Jack? Hey, Jack"
He barely responds, only looking up to Donovan.
He puts a hand on his shoulder and pulls him into a hug "You holding up alright?"
"When the smoke came out of that guy. I heard screaming. And felt, fear" His head slowly collapses into his hands before stating "I heard children crying Don, don't tell me you didn't hear that!"
"I didn't, I felt the fear but I didn't hear anything" Donovan looks up to Roxie who's watching the ways out.
"It's because—" She pauses as Jack starts sobbing into hands "Trust me, you don't want to know"
A distant but heavy slamming echoes throat the junction, disturbing everyone and drawing their attention to the path they came from. Then more slams, quickly becoming a steady rhythm. Brandon readies himself at the exit into the junction, his body arcing with green chi whilst Roxie draws her sword and stands to the side as everyone else stands back, except the person in armour who takes Roxie's position in pinning the necromancer. The slamming comes closer until it starts echoing through the room, filling it with the sounds of heavy metal crushing through flesh and smashing into stone.
In a moment, the thing slamming through the hallway smashes into Brandon, hammering him into the pillar and spilling more blood into the room. Roxie pushes herself off the wall and sprints into action, approaching the massive behemoth of a minotaur that had just nearly impaled Brandon with its horns.
She charges her body with chi before thrusting her sword in the minotaur's calf, forcing it to a knee as Brandon pushes it back; it redoubles its effort in crushing Brandon whilst trying to hit Roxie with its axe, only to flinch back as a bolt sinks into its eye. It reaches up to remove the bolt from its face as Donovan flicks out his arm and catches the head of the minotaur's axe with a hook before jumping and launching himself back with a flash of light, wrenching the axe out of its hand and dragging it through the blood and away from the minotaur.
It reaches around to grab Roxie "You fuckin—!" But is cut off by Brandon catching its jaw with his hammer, the spike lodging through and into its skull.
The minotaur immediately backhands him which throws him into the opposite wall, leaving his hammer lodged in its jaw which it grabs and wields, the twohanded hammer looking more like a toy in its hand. Roxie moves under it and leaps at its throat, stabbing and tearing it open; the minotaur swings the hammer down at Roxie who parries it to the side with her tail which she then swings into the side of its head, knocking it to the side. As it starts to right itself Donovan hooks a length of wire around its neck and hands it to the person in the amor who then pull; the persons' body doesn't flare with any chi, but they still manage to pulls it to the knees. The minotaur tries to pull back, but Donovan slashes open its back as Roxie guts him, causing him to falter and be dragged back further with only its hand keeping up. Roxie leaves her sword in its gut to then draw her orichalcum blade and swing at its neck, then again and again, fruitlessly hacking at its spine in an attempt to behead it.
Then more slamming starts echoing down the hallway. Everyone freezes for a second as more and more start approaching whilst the minotaur laughs a windy and gurgling chuckle.
Then Roxie shouts "Run!"