Walking through a short tunnel carved from steel, the machinery used to drill into the prison was far behind Derek and his team.
They were one of the last teams to enter. The other 8 teams already wreaking havoc inside.
Derek took this time to remind his teammates of their mission.
"Remember, we have to find high-profile targets and extract them. The weaker prisoners aren't our problem. We're immediately heading deep into the prison so expect some resistance."
"Yes sir"
The disciplined cultists easily understood their leader's instructions. They were briefed more than 10 times while waiting for the drills, they remembered the mission more than what they ate this morning.
"Good."
Reaching the end of the tunnel, Derek dropped down and landed on a steel walkway.
The layout of the prison was strange, prisoners were in cells along the walls along with enormous cylinder structures holding more prisoners throughout erected throughout the chasm. Everything was connected through walkways and stairs heading deeper and deeper.
'The deeper we head the larger the prison's influence. It might even get to a point where we can't imagine anything.'
This prison was special. Not only did it block off influence to and from the subconscious, it also reined in the power of imagination and Dreams on everyone inside.
Derek looked down to see the scimitar in his hands.
It was a weapon specially created for him and this mission. Due to it being infused with properties of reality, even the prison's lowest levels couldn't completely dispel it.
The scimitar would still become weaker, but it was a weapon nonetheless.
"Harold, Jess, both of you take point. Warn us of anyone's head. Kelly, Patterson, take the back."
"Yes sir"
Entering formation, the group stealthily walked down the walkway, heading for the nearby stairs.
Having entered on the edge of the facility and still very high up, the team had quite the view.
The ringing of weapons clashing and sparks echoed and reverberated through the massive chamber. If one had good eyes they could see fights breaking out near cylinder pillars or walkways halfway across the prison.
'We have time. We've expected half the attack teams to be wiped out. It should take 20 minutes before the battle sways to the guard's favor.....20 minutes.'
Feeling time catching up, Derek commanded his team to move faster.
With the distractions doing their jobs, the decent to the lower levels had no interruptions. It was a brisk steady walk, only near the beginning of the lower levels did things become tricky.
Upon entering the lower levels, the only way to descend further down was which was a spiraling staircase along the wall.
In addition, there was a floor separating the lesser secure prison from the maximum security one.
This led to the environment promptly becoming dark, the prison no longer used proper lighting and instead used lit torches and sconces along the wall.
It was all very unnerving and creepy.
Derek's team now had to be extra careful, there were no railings and they had no information about this area.
For all they knew the guards could still be here, or maybe this place didn't need guards at all.
"Captain, it doesn't look like a soul is alive down here. Even the cells along the walls are empty. Why don't we just go back up? Quantity over quality?"
Harold's comment caused giggles from Jess and Kelly. Patterson showed indifference.
"Harold, in this Realm, Quality will always be more important than quantity. Just look at the current state above the ground. One man did that, one man enthralled the whole city."
Derek's tone was filled with seriousness and helplessness, it was enough for Harold to fall silent and not respond.
For the next 4 minutes, all the team did was head further and further down. But there was no bottom in sight, the entrance they came through had long since exited their field of vision.
"Captain, I hear something," Jess spoke up.
She was the specialized scout.
"What is it, Jess?"
"I don't know. But it sounds like....flapping? It's getting closer."
Derek gave a signal and the group quickly got closer together, prepared for a fight.
Jess continued to listen, but just when it felt like the sound was coming from right in front of them, it stopped.
"Well.....we can continue now, right? I want to get back to the canteen as soon as possible." Harold, the large idiot, rubbed his stomach.
"No, something's wrong. The sound shouldn't have stopped like that."
"Oh come on Jess, there's nothing down here."
Harold took a step outside the formation in a bout of bravery. He stepped near the edge and showed there was indeed nothing there.
"See? Mind's just playing tricks."
Screech!
A giant bird came out from the darkness, its talons ripped into Harold's flesh and lifted him up.
"AHHH! Captain, Help! Someone Help!"
Everything happened in a moment, the giant bird quickly brought Harold up to its beak as it bit down on his shoulder, crushing it.
Spurts of blood painted the bird's beak as Harold's shill cries echoed around the vast chamber.
Annoyed, the bird opened his beak and silenced its prey, crushing Harold's head as the juices went down the bird's throat.
"Captain, just what....."
The bird screeched again, this time it didn't attack and flew off with the rest of Harold's body, still dripping blood.
"I don't know. But it seems like we met one of the wardens."
"You mean that....thing, is actually a Warden?"
Patterson corrected her, "No Kelly, it's a warden. A protector of the prison in charge of prisoners."
"And it's likely not the only one. We have to hurry, Harold screams were loud, very loud." Derek added.
Jess could already hear it, the sound of thousands of vibrations heading towards them.
"Captain! There's more coming, their climbing from below!"
Derek quickly came to the conclusion they were out of time.
'There's only around 11 minutes left. I have to complete the mission!'
"We have to run, now!"
Everyone agreed and the team began a full sprint down the endless spiraling stairs.
One by one, behind them, insect after insect reached the top of the stairs and rushed after the Dreamer prey.
After a minute, hundreds of bugs were piled together like a cluster, swarming behind a group of Dream Folk. They were getting closer and closer.
All of a sudden, Kelly tripped, she fell face-first on the cold stone floor and broke her nose. It was unknown if it was just bad luck or a strange coincidence.
"Help!"
Jess quickly turned around and went to help her friend. Derek and Patterson had long decided the mission came first.
"Jess hurry. I can't see!"
"I know, I know."
Helping her teammate stand, she looked behind Kelly to see the swarm right there in front of her! She was going to die!
Looking behind her, she saw her Captain and Patterson long gone. They were already far ahead.
'I don't want to die!'
With this revelation, Jess turned to her friend, whose eyes were blocked by her own blood.
She weakly and shamefully muttered, "I'm sorry."
Before Kelly could respond, Jess suddenly kicked her in the stomach forcing her back into the stairs.
From the gaps in the blood, Kelly could see Jess turn her back to her and run.
The swarm was already upon her, the insects as large as full-grown dogs pounced and tore at her flesh. Her screams were even louder than Harold's, reaching even into the prison above.
Her eyes were gouged, some insects laid eggs, others simply continued to eat while the rest ignored her and continued chasing her teammates.
'It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!'
Kelly's mind stopped as one of the bugs broke into her skull and began to slurp up her brain.
With the steps the insects took to preserve her corpse, she wouldn't turn into pink gas anytime soon.
Her corpse was destined to become a nesting ground for these monsters.
Even with sacrificing her friend, Jess wasn't fast enough and soon also shared the same fate as Kelly.
One of the bugs nipped at her achilles heel, causing her to lose control of her feet and topple into the grotesque pile of insectoid monsters.
Her warm flesh quickly filled with eggs and maggots began to grow from her skin.
She died filled with her despair, her beliefs reduced to ash. There was no hope in God, they were already abandoned.
Far ahead, Derek and Patterson long lost the bugs.
"This isn't good captain. At this rate, we won't make it to the bottom!"
"Doesn't matter, all we have to do is find a single prisoner. A single one is enough to make this all worth it!"
The pair continued running, the sounds of clicking insects fell into the foreground and everything soon became as quiet as when they entered.
Derek soon saw the floor beneath them, it was riddled with dry blood stains and skeletons.
'Either those are the old guards or prisoners who tried to escape. Without the use of imagination, it truly is almost impossible to escape.'
Derek gripped his scimitar tighter. He then heard the sound of creaking bones.
Somehow under the nose of both Dreamers, a massive headless giant got close enough and commenced a sneak attack!
It had grabbed Patterson!
"Patterson!"
"Captain no! It's too late, we can't fight it! We don't have time! Go, complete the mission!"
The headless giant brought Patterson to the vertical mouth in its chest. Its rows of teeth creaked open and placed the Dreamer inside.
"Praise God! May he free us from this hell!"
Patterson made a prayer, the jaws then shut and blood gushed out from the rows of sharp white teeth.
'Damn it!'
This mission was far more dangerous than anticipated. Derek was only accolated with a single weapon that could be used while the rest of his squad had nothing!
Was this a test? An execution? Or was the cult really so drained of resources it couldn't afford this operation?!
'Is the high priest insane?! Why did he sign off on this? Were we so blind to come here?!'
Truth be told, this little operation was no more than a diversion. The cult was more so buying time. They needed time to create more artifacts and needed more time to prepare, by Leon's own decision.
Orchestrating a prison escape was just one of those many operations commencing at this moment to cause chaos.
Freeing prisoners? Really?
Not to mention the fact that they would be resilient against conforming to the cult's religion, the prisoners were weak and only imprisoned out of the good heart of the Dream Lord.
There might not even be any high-level prisoners!
When Derek realized this, his heart stopped.