"Impossible. I don't know what trick you fools are trying to pull, but it won't work. Get out of our way, or we will be forced to do something drastic." The large man shook himself from crushing despair and embraced anger and denial.
Shiv barked a laugh. "It should be impossible, now that I think about it, but it was surprisingly easy. Now, what is it that you guys are transporting that's so important as to warrant such a large company of guards?"
"I told you: move or face my wrath." The man placed his hand on a very large sword sitting in a sheath on his back and rode forward until there was only a few inches between his glaring eyes and Shiv's annoyed eyes.
"We'll move." Briggs spoke up suddenly, and looked back to give an order, but Shiv interrupted him by punching through the large man's stomach.
"Blaze, execute the ambush." Shiv ordered and rode forward a few steps and killed the next man in the large man's retinue with his other fist before he was able to even register what had just happened.
The rest of the men in the retinue were able to figure it out, however, and responded by sending a storm of elemental attacks at Shiv, despite him being among them.
The earth spikes, ice arrows, and streams of fire collided in the spot he had been… but was no longer. The striped horse was on the ground, looking like it had broken its legs from a heavy hammer slamming into it from above.
Blaze was the only one to look up. There, she saw Shiv reaching the peak of his jump and begin to fall back down. He landed on another of the men in the large man's retinue, crushing him against the ground while Briggs and Duncan sprung into action with a flurry of attacks of their own.
The rest of the retinue was rapidly cut down and burned to ashes. Shiv turned to the rest of the caravan and smiled grimly. The ambush had been wildly successful. Mirrors and Revengers were riding among the wagons causing mass slaughter among the shocked soldiers.
"Why… why did you attack them?" Shiv glanced over his shoulder at Briggs, who had asked him the question.
"We're here to destroy the world. Or did you forget?" He felt cold. Not physically. No, that was impossible on this planet.
It was his soul that the coldness permeated.
"We could have recruited them. Between your stunning powers and Duncan's strange charisma, convincing them to join us wouldn't have been too difficult. We could have almost doubled our numbers, which would be infinitely helpful in our journey of destruction."
"Or we can increase the power of the troops that we have such that they won't struggle against armies ten times their number." Shiv responded with a surprising amount of reason. His mind, however, was shuddering at the thought of a numberless horde of bloodthirsty people following him and screaming for destruction, blood and murder.
"What about when we reach the land across the water, where they consider it traditional to reach the stage of Apprentice before their fifteenth year of life?" Briggs posited.
Shiv sighed. "Alright. But we put the recruits under an extremely thorough background check." Briggs blinked, clearly not understanding. "Look, I just want to make sure that I'm not recruiting anymore psychos. One Duncan is enough."
"You know I'm standing right here, right?" Duncan raised an eyebrow. "And that I completely agree with you? You probably did know that. You know some weird things that you have no business knowing, sometimes."
"Sirs, a few of the enemies surrendered." A Mirror ran up and informed them.
"And you accepted it and killed them after they relaxed, right?" Duncan had a confused look.
"Uh, no sir."
"Absolutely not." Briggs sent a withering look at the innocently whistling Duncan.
"What are your orders?" The warrior asked Shiv.
Shiv scowled. What place did honor have when your quest was to destroy the world and everyone in it? He stared at the forest on either side of the road, and eventually sighed. "Take me to them. We can use them for information, at least."
The men weren't able to provide much information that Briggs and Duncan weren't already privy to. They were, however, able to update Duncan on the most powerful people in the Underground city. Apparently there had been an extreme increase in power among the elites and nobles residing there. The prisoners weren't able to provide any specific reasons as to the why or the how, though.
In the end, Shiv presented them with a simple choice: Help him destroy the world, or be destroyed.
They didn't understand at first, but when the first one said he didn't want to destroy the world, and was promptly destroyed, the rest of them realized the gravity of the situation. In the end, all but one chose to be destroyed. The one who chose to destroy the world was then interrogated fiercely under Shiv's order to see just what kind of a man he was.
With that done, Shiv was called over to see what the Mirrors, tasked with examining the contents of the carts, had found. They had found a strange ore that seemed to glow with an eerily similar color to something he just couldn't place. "The guys we just interrogated said this stuff fell from the sky in the middle of the night and scared a bunch of farmers." Shiv thought a bit more as he examined the stuff. 'Does that bit over there look like a… stool?'
He was interrupted from his thoughts by a soldier, who informed him that all of the other wagons contained more of the same, and that none of the inventories had provided anything terribly interesting. Just the usual odds and ends that people tended to collect, plus supplies and equipment.
"Let's just dump this stuff into the woods and use the wagons to help transport our soldiers." Shiv decided.
The troops greatly appreciated the wagons, and used them extensively for the rest of the journey to the Underground City.
Duncan made them paint the wagons a different color so as to avoid the inhabitants thinking they had robbed their merchants.
With the paint still drying, the group of seventy-plus battle-hardened warriors showed up at the main gate of a strange city. The gate was set into the side of a mountain, and was more of a hole cut into the wall with barricades set up than an actual gate. Though signs of construction could be seen that hinted at an actual gate being made ready.
"You all want to enter?" A heavyset man with a thick beard was the leader of the guards at the entrance, and laughed uproariously at Shiv's affirmation. "You know there is a fee that must be paid… for each individual soul that enters through these gates."
Shiv glanced at the barely begun construction dubiously, then shook his head. "I am aware." He glanced at Briggs, who stepped forward and summoned a bag from his inventory that he placed in the bearded man's hands. "That should be more than enough for our entry, as well as a personal guide to a nice place for all of us to stay."
The man stared at the bag with a battle being fought on his face. It seemed that greed was fighting… duty? Shiv wasn't sure what the problem was. "Well, to tell you the truth… this rule was put into place to prevent nobles from bringing in large groups of men. But… I think an exception every once in awhile couldn't possibly cause too much trouble." The bag disappeared and he grinned fiercely. "Come, I'll send my own daughter to guide you!"
Shiv didn't miss the fact that Duncan perked up at the mention of a female, and couldn't help but chuckle when the girl turned out to be almost as heavyset as her father, with what looked like the beginnings of a beard of her own. "My, what a pretty girl." Shiv whispered to the short former noble, who scowled at him with a horrified expression.
Nevertheless they followed the girl through twisting tunnels rife with the sound of people just out of sight until they reached an absolutely massive cavern. The cavern was where the majority of the people lived, with many houses and buildings of various functions… set into the walls and on the tops of gigantic stalagmites. There were various swaying rope bridges spanning between the fantastic towers with people crossing them without a glance at the stupendous distance they would fall if they tripped or if a plank or rope in the bridges gave out.
To the left of the direct center of the ceiling hung what could only be described as a castle. It was incredible, and Shiv came to a complete stop when he was able to see all of it.
Briggs was less impressed. With a grim voice, he said: "this is going to be hell to destroy."