Legends of Amacia Attack on Tartarus

Descent into the Darkness

Dry silk lined the passage with a mix of strands from rope size down to regular spider-sized silk. Hannibal led them in and stopped just a few steps in, looking at the passageway. “My god; Look at this,” he breathed in fascination. “The spider used this passage as a burrow. Let’s hope she doesn’t have an egg sack in here.” He began to lead them farther into the passage. “Don’t touch anything,” he ordered as they moved along. The silk on the walls was thick and the passage warm with just a hint of moisture in the air. Strands of dry silk hung from the ceiling as they moved through the passage, fluttering like curtains in the wind. The sound of running water slowly grew as they moved along.

They crunched on bones of the spider’s victims as they walked. They hadn’t gone too far before they saw skeletons of both animals and humans tangled in the silk lining the burrow. Fear began to crawl back into Elle’s heart, but she remained close to Hannibal, Selina, and Ana, determined to prove to herself that she could conquer it. Andrew, Morpheus, and Nathanael brought up the rear, keeping a cautious eye on everything. One hundred yards into the passage, it began to drop off, descending rather abruptly and curving to the right, forming into a giant staircase that dropped for nearly two hundred yards. As they descended the stairs, a breeze began to blow up the stairs from below. The smell of decaying death lingered on the wind. “Ugh. What a stench!” Andrew commented, grimacing at the smell.

“Yes, it’s a very foul odor. It’s the smell of death…a smell I am well acquainted with,” Hannibal replied softly as he kept an ever-alert eye on his surroundings. Just then, the stairs ended and turned right. The sound of running water grew louder the deeper they went. One hundred fifty yards down the passage, it ended, emptying into a thousand-yard wide shaft that dropped out of sight to the bottom. The shaft went up nearly ten stories and opened to the sky with a small hole that was roughly three hundred yards wide. A ten-foot wide stone bridge crossed the shaft ahead of them. The sound of water came from the inky darkness below and a giant spider web the likes of which no man or woman, including Hannibal, had never seen before filled the shaft. The only place he’d seen anything close to it was the giant black spider he encountered while initially exploring Tiamat. He spread his arms to either side, stopping their progress to assess the situation, paying close attention to the web. He was not happy with what he saw. The web was full of cocooned skeletons of not just humans, but of all manner of animals, including pterodactyls and pteronadons. Heat rose from the abyss below him and he looked over the edge, swearing softly.

“What is it?” Nathanael asked softly. Everyone else was in stupefied silence at the monstrous web before them.

Hannibal pointed off the bridge, saying, “The spider was definitely a female. There’s the egg sack down there, but I’m not sure she created it. It’s enormous, far bigger than she is. Normal spiders create egg sacks approximately as big as they are. This one is far bigger than the one we killed in the great hall.”

Nathanael and Selina looked over the side and saw the seventy-foot diameter egg sack. Nathanael looked closely at it, even though it was nearly three hundred yards down and noticed that the sack was pulsing slightly. His countenance fell as he told Hannibal, “You’re right. The one we killed couldn’t have possibly made that sack. Something far bigger did. We shouldn’t linger here. I see movement in the sack. I suggest that we move on before we call attention to ourselves.”

Hannibal cursed softly as he looked across the bridge. The web attached to the bridge in many places. Cobwebs seemingly floated in the breeze, attached to the main rope-size strands of the web. Turning to his team, he said urgently and quietly, “We must be very careful. It appears Aeolus was right about this being a nest. Do not touch the web or make noise unless you want a swarm of these monsters. The egg sack is just below us and is nearly ready to open. Keep quiet and follow me across the bridge. We need to move quickly and silently as ghosts in the mist.” He took up the lead again, heading across the bridge, carefully picking his way through the tangle of the web. He kept a wary eye all around him as he led them across the bridge.

Fortune favored them as they managed to cross the bridge without touching the strands of the web. As they approached the opposite side of the shaft, Hannibal saw another cavity in the face of the shaft. At fifty yards from the hole, Hannibal stopped their progress, lifting his clenched fist in the stop signal. “Let me check this out,” he announced quietly. Everyone stopped and he moved forward. Elle shadowed him, eager to make up for her earlier failure. He did not stop her as he moved forward. “Be on your guard, Elle,” he warned as they approached the hole. The light from the scepter shined into the cavity and they both stopped dead in their tracks for in the hole was another spider, this one much smaller than the other, but still the size of a large bull. “Oh, boy,” Hannibal said with concern. “Don’t move, Elle.” Even at the distance, everyone saw the spider in the hole. It hissed, clicking its fangs together. In an instant, it rushed out of the hole. Hannibal smacked the scepter on the bridge and it blazed like the sun. The spider shrieked and turned away, retreating into its burrow, trying to get away from the light. By this time, everyone move to back Hannibal up, standing right behind him and Elle ready to fight.

The light from the scepter faded and the spider inched back out, this time much slower. “It must be a male,” Hannibal whispered to them. The spider slowly approached and stopped just outside of the burrow. It hissed and raised up its front legs in a fearsome display, showing its fangs, which were a good fourteen inches long. Hannibal glared at the beast and raised the scepter to strike the bridge with it again and the spider backed down. “So, old boy; you do understand me,” he said softly. “Listen to me, I don’t want to fight, neither do we want to be your lunch. Please move aside and let us pass.”

It growled and lurched forward again only to be blinded by the scepter when Hannibal smacked the bridge with it again. It retreated into its burrow until the light diminished and came back out slowly. It stopped again just outside the burrow, hissing and clicking its fangs together. This time, it didn’t raise up menacingly. It sat there looking at its meal with hunger, trying to figure out how to get past Hannibal. “Sizing us up, are you?” Hannibal hissed to the spider as it moved forward slowly.

While this was going on, Andrew, Morpheus, and Nathanael were keeping an eye on the web. As the spider inched forward, they saw something that made their blood run cold: spiders, dozens of giant spiders of varying sizes appearing out of the walls, moving into the web above and below them. “Uh, Uncle; I knew this was a mistake. If you are going to do something you’d better do it fast because we have company…a lot of company!” Three spiders raced along the web and dropped on the bridge behind them, cutting off their escape. Hannibal glanced as he felt the bridge tremble when the giant spiders dropped on the bridge behind them. When he glanced, the spider he was facing off with took advantage of the opportunity. It lunged, spitting a ball of silk at him. Hannibal saw the ball and instinct took over. He swung the scepter like a sword. It blazed and vaporized the ball of silk when the glowing crystal spearhead touched it. The spider rushed him and he did the same. The others rushed forward too as spiders came from all direction. Nathanael and Ana opened fire, shooting out the eyes of the spiders rushing them on the bridge.

Hannibal used the scepter to pole vault over the snapping jaws of the monster, landing on top of it. It jumped and turned round and round trying to throw him like a wild bull. The Rage was nearly on Hannibal as he raised the scepter as a spear and plunged it into the spider’s head, burying the crystal head of the scepter in its brain. Energy flashed out of the crystal and incinerated the spider’s brain, killing it instantly. Hannibal pulled the scepter out of the spider and shouted, “Everyone into the passage quick!” He jumped down off the back of the spider and struck the bridge with the pummel end of the scepter as hard as he could. The scepter blazed like a supernova, literally burning the eyes out of every spider within two hundred feet of them. They shrieked and retreated as Hannibal’s team plunged into the cavity where they found the male spider.

Hannibal quickly followed and they came to a dead end not fifty feet into the cavity. Nathanael and Ana took up defensive position, providing cover fire with their blasters. Elle, Selina, and Amelia had their edged weapons ready in case the spiders swarmed the tunnel. Hannibal cursed as he saw dozens of spiders approaching from the web. He frantically searched the dead end looking for some way out. He didn’t find it. He turned and saw the spiders approaching.

“I didn’t think it would end like this,” Amelia stated fearfully.

Hannibal’s countenance hardened as he moved to the front of his team, throwing down the scepter. Cocking the Draken Gauntlets, he declared, “We’re not dead yet.” With that, he opened fire, helping Nathanael and Ana to drive back the arachnid horde advancing on their position. Morpheus backed away toward the dead end and tripped on something in the floor, falling backwards against the silk lined wall. When he tripped, the tunnel rumbled and a slab fell out of the ceiling not more than two feet in front of Hannibal, sealing them in as a spider jumped at them despite the cover fire from Nathanael, Ana, and Hannibal, who fired at the abomination point-blank, blowing off three of its legs and its abdomen. It didn’t stop the spider, whose momentum allowed it to keep coming. The slab came down behind the spider’s head, crushing it, but not before it hit Hannibal with its left foreleg, piercing his armor on his right shoulder with a strange projection that resembled a stinger two inches in diameter and sixteen inches long. It penetrated through his armored shoulder and stuck out under his shoulder blade. He cried out and fell back, knocked almost ten feet by the hit. The appendage broke off as the slab crushed the spider. “Hannibal!” Nathanael and Selina cried out simultaneously. Elle took her blade and sliced the writhing legs of the spider off at the slab, and then pierced its brain with her blade.

Nathanael and Selina were instantly at his side. Hannibal cried in pain, run through by the strange stinger-like appendage from the spider. Nathanael looked at the thing with disgust as he tossed his empty blaster aside. He immediately latched on to stinger and yanked it out. The thing came out with a sickening slurp as Hannibal cried out in agony, blood gushing from the wound. Nathanael looked at the stinger with disgust and tossed it aside.

Selina had pulled Hannibal into her lap and was holding it when she too began to sob, clenching her shoulder in intense pain. “Poison, dad!” she cried as she collapsed next to Hannibal. Nathanael immediately picked up the stinger and sniffed it. He frowned, not recognizing the toxin.

Hannibal grabbed Nathanael by the sleeve and wheezed, “Neural toxin! I’m going numb! It’s just like the spiders at Tiamat!”

Ana looked at Amelia, saying, “We have to do something, Amelia. But I’m going to need your help.”

“Just tell me what I have to do,” Amelia stated as she discarded her gloves and was already rubbing her hands together.

Ana rushed in and told Nathanael, “Let us in.” He immediately backed away as Hannibal began convulsing. Selina did the same. He began to foam at the mouth, bleeding out as Ana dropped to her knees beside him. “Amelia, touch Selina,” Ana ordered and she did so, laying hands on Selina’s cheeks. Ana pulled Hannibal into her arms and pressed hard on the wound with her cybernetic hand while using her organic arm to pull him to her chest. She began to chant softly in an alien tongue that no one understood. Nathanael, Andrew, and Morpheus looked on in fascination at the display, noticing a strange glow around Ana’s cybernetic hand as it ebbed the flow of Hannibal’s blood.

Amelia’s touch had quieted Selina’s convulsions; who was now lying on the floor, panting, trying to get her strength back up. Amelia prayed silently, as did the rest of the team while Ana clenched Hannibal to her breast. Her eyes began to glow as she chanted. Hannibal foamed and trembled in a bizarre seizure from the toxin: his eyes rolled back in his head and a gurgle coming from him. Suddenly, Ana called out to Amelia, saying, “Amelia, touch him on the head and don’t let go till I say so.”

Amelia pushed herself to her knees and crawled to them. She rubbed her hands together and prayed for strength.

“Pray guys. Pray we are able to save them,” Ana ordered and Nathanael, Andrew, Morpheus knelt down to pray. Nathanael actually laid hands on Ana’s back as he prayed. Elle knelt down, holding on to Selina, who passed out moments before. “Pray,” Ana ordered as Amelia laid hands on Hannibal’s head just as she had done for Selina. Her eyes began to glow and a few moments later as Ana chanted again, a strange cloud of light enveloped all three of them: Ana, Amelia, and Hannibal. Ana groaned, pushing three of her cybernetic fingers into the wound while the cloud of warm light surrounded them. Amelia began to groan.

A few moments later, the convulsions stopped and Ana ordered, “Let him go, Amelia!” Amelia released Hannibal and collapsed to the floor. Ana raised her head and cried out, “Eloi, eloi nedo arasista car venous!” After that, her eyes stopped glowing and she slumped, rolling on her side after pulling her cyborg fingers out of the wound. She still clenched Hannibal to her breasts, pressing her cybernetic hand to the wound.

Nathanael immediately noticed she was exhausted as her arms relaxed, letting her cyborg hand slip from the wound. “Ana. Ana; are you all right?” he asked her with much concern, seeing a troubling glaze in her eye. For a few moments, she didn’t answer.

“Grandpa! Look at him!” Andrew cried out in astonishment. Nathanael looked at Hannibal’s wound and gasped with amazement. There was no wound, only a scar. Andrew rushed to Hannibal and felt where the wound was and found it sound as if there were no wound at all. “Uncle; wake up, uncle,” Andrew called to Hannibal as he gently shook him.

Nathanael looked at Ana again and shook her, asking, “Ana, are you all right?”

Ana moaned, and then lifted her head. She looked toward Hannibal and smiled, knowing they were successful. “Yes, Nathanael. I’ll be all right. Just give me a few minutes,” she said, looking at him with weak eyes. Then looking at her cybernetic arm, she said, “This thing proved to be far more useful than I thought.”

“What do you mean?” Nathanael asked.

A small panel slid open on Ana’s cybernetic arm, revealing a vial of a foul yellow liquid. The vial slid out and she took it with her organic hand while Nathanael helped her sit. “What’s that?” he asked.

“The toxin from the spider’s stinger; I was able to use my cybernetics in tandem with my healing gift. I stopped the bleeding and drew the poison right out of him while I used my healing ability in tandem with Amelia’s healing gift. Speaking of which, Amelia, Amelia, are you all right?”

“I will be,” Amelia groaned as Morpheus helped her sit up. “Just give me a few minutes. Did we do it?”

Just then, a moan came from Hannibal and he clenched his shoulder, saying, “What happened? The last thing I remember is being stuck by that thing and going numb.”

Amelia looked at Ana and cried, “We did it! We saved him!”

“What are you talking about?” Hannibal asked as Andrew helped him sit up.

“Ana and Amelia saved your life,” Andrew declared in awe.

Nathanael handled the vial of toxin gingerly, saying, “Ana stopped you from bleeding to death and drew the poison out of you with her cybernetics and her healing gift with Amelia’s help.”

Hannibal felt the spot where stinger skewered him and marveled when he found it nearly healed. He bowed his head in humility to Ana, saying, “Thank you, Ana and you too, Amelia. You saved my life. I will not soon forget this.” Just then, a thought hit him and he became very agitated. “Selina!” he cried. “What about Selina? Is she okay?”

“Yes, Hannibal, I’m all right,” Selina called out as Elle helped her sit up. “Please don’t do that again. You know we share physical pain.”

Hannibal was very relieved and said, “You can be sure I won’t if I have anything to say about it. Now let’s find out how much trouble we really are in. Why are we sealed in?” Nathanael handed the vial of spider toxin back to Ana who put it back in the special panel on her cybernetic arm, closing it. Andrew helped Hannibal up and Elle helped Selina to her feet. Nathanael helped Ana up and Morpheus helped Amelia up. Ana remained weak and had to hold on to Nathanael for stability. When Hannibal got up, he moaned as every muscle in him cried out in pain. “Ugh, I feel like I’ve been beaten,” he hissed, clenching his teeth, leaning on Andrew.

“You were having a seizure from the toxin,” Ana stated. “You’re damned lucky I was able to draw the toxin out before it caused your muscles to dissolve. You’re going to be sore for a little while and maybe a bit weak from the blood loss.”

Hannibal nodded as he looked at the spider that nearly killed him, and then at the slab. “Any ideas on what triggered the slab?” he asked, confirming that the Caverias Sword was still slung on his back.

Morpheus was on his hands and knees at this point, searching the floor in the area where he tripped. “I tripped over something while backing away from the spiders. The moment I tripped, the slab came down. I must have hit a trigger or something,” he announced as he searched. A few more moments and he found a peculiar shaped stone sticking up through the silk, saying, “This is it. Here’s the trigger. It’s got to be.”

Hannibal moved slowly forward, picking up the scepter as he did. Everyone gathered around the spot as Morpheus peeled the silk back with his dagger. Hannibal was rapidly regaining his strength when he squatted down beside Morpheus, looking at the trigger. “No wonder I couldn’t find it. It was covered up,” he said as he reached out and touched the strange spur of rock. It wiggled and sank. Hannibal cursed again as the floor began to shake. “Shit! I should have known better than that!” he swore as the floor dropped away beneath their feet: a trap door of stone. The floor fell away and Hannibal called out urgently, “Hold on!” In seconds, everyone fell through the trap door and the found themselves sliding down a chute, unable to arrest their fall. The slide spiraled downwards. For almost five minutes, they plummeted down the slide. Suddenly, their ride ended in a large chamber nearly fifty feet across and thirty feet high. The slide came out of the wall about ten feet up the wall and deposited them in a large mound of sand ten feet high by twenty feet across.

Hannibal landed with a thud. In seconds, everyone else fell onto the sand, piled one on top of the other. There were moans and swears as they rolled off each other and looked around. The scepter landed a few feet away near the edge of the pile; its light beginning to wane. Hannibal quickly scurried to it and picked it up, striking the solid stone floor just beyond the sand pile with it. The scepter lit the room and everyone could see clearly. “Is everyone all right?” Hannibal called out. The team indicated they were intact, but slightly annoyed at the incident.

“Please Uncle; don’t do that again, all right?” Andrew called out in an irritated tone.

Hannibal shrugged, saying, “Hopefully, next time I do it, it will be intentional and we’ll be ready for it. Besides, this was the only way out of that grave. It’s pretty obvious that we won’t be getting out the way we came in.”

Amelia stood, brushing the sand off her, saying, “That would be fine with me. That means we don’t have to deal with the spiders again.”

“Speaking of the spiders, they weren’t the monsters you spoke of, were they Ana?” Hannibal queried.

Ana shook her head, saying, “No. Those monsters must have taken refuge in here after I was taken. There were no spiders here then. Nidhoggr is no spider, but something far worse and much, much larger. We must be very careful. Nidhoggr is associated with the water.”

“Nidhoggr,” Hannibal mused, “In my dream, Ezra’s skeleton warned that Nidhoggr was stirring.”

“What is Nidhoggr?” Andrew asked. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s a mythical monster, draken, or serpent that gnaws on the roots of Yggdrasil, the worlds’ tree that connects the entire universe. Nidhoggr feeds upon the dead,” Hannibal reported. “At least that’s what I remember from Norse mythology from the surface. Whether it’s a real creature, I cannot say, though I’m not discounting it at this point. Whatever it is, it’s a force of ancient darkness and chaos even the gods feared according to myth. Why do you call this creature Nidhoggr, Ana?”

“I’m not quite sure,” Ana admitted. “My memories are still hazy concerning it, though I’m sure the beast is called Nidhoggr and it’s an ancient evil far older and fouler anything the Emperor could ever summon.”

“That doesn’t sound very good to me,” Elle declared. “I didn’t think anything could be as foul as the Emperor.”

“Trust me; there are older and fouler things than the Emperor lurking in the dark corners of this universe and great beyond,” Hannibal stated grimly. “As one who has seen angels, demons, Old Ones, even the unholy abomination of Grimm himself, not to mention the Abyss in all its hideous glory, I can safely say we know nothing about the true nature of our universe and reality. Ours is truly a multi-dimensional reality teeming with infinite forms of life unknown to us humans, both good and evil. Our finite minds are not capable of comprehending it. Just because I haven’t seen this Nidhoggr creature doesn’t mean I don’t believe it exists. Ana obviously believes it’s a real creature of immense peril. Because of that, we should tread very softly. If Nidhoggr is real and down near the water, then we do not want to wake it.”

“Nidhoggr is real,” Ana insisted fearfully. “I know it as surely as I stand here. It killed my family the last time I was here. I can recall that much.”

Hannibal put his hand on Ana’s shoulder as she looked him in the eye. “I believe you,” he stated. “Your warnings are not falling on deaf ears here. I’m not assuming anything at this point. We shall proceed with the assumption that this creature, this Nidhoggr really exists and possible lurks in the darkness of this mountain. Maybe as we descend into this darkness, your memory may clear enough to provide us with more details about this unknown threat.”

“Uh, not to get off this fascinating subject, but I think you guys should look at your feet. We’ve landed in a charnel house,” Morpheus stated bluntly, noticing the many bones half buried in the sand. Everyone looked down in the sand and saw it full of bones, both human and animal. A human skull lay half buried in the sand at Hannibal’s feet with the back half bitten off. Hannibal looked around quickly to ascertain whether there was any immediate danger and didn’t see any.

Selina grimaced. “Is it possible the spiders were using this as a garbage chute?” she asked.

“Maybe,” Morpheus stated. “But there’s no doubt this is truly a dead end with the emphasis on dead. I see nothing but bones here, some of which have been chewed on and split open.”

“So how do we get out of here?” Andrew asked as everyone stepped off the sand onto the solid floor, surrounding Hannibal and Ana.

Hearing the sound of running water behind him, Hannibal turned to it, seeing a passage on the far side of the room. “I guess we go this way since it appears to be the only way out of here,” he told them plainly, gesturing toward a passage at the far end of the room. He reached back and pulled the Caverias Sword, readying it. With one hand on the scepter, the other on the sword and both glowing, Hannibal said, “Come on. Let’s find a way out of here. With any luck, we’ll not encounter this Nidhoggr, and may even encounter Leila’s resting place on the way out so I can finally put her spirit to rest.” The fact the sword glowed like the scepter greatly intrigued Ana as Hannibal took up the lead, heading to the passageway. Everyone followed close. Nathanael helped Ana along, being that she remained weak from the incident involving the spider and Hannibal. Just before they entered the passage, Hannibal stopped, turning to the team. “Did we lose the blasters on the way down?” he asked.

“Yes, but it doesn’t matter,” Nathanael stated. “We emptied the blasters laying down cover fire from the alcove we became trapped in. We were very fortunate that Morpheus triggered the slab because I ran out of ammo just as it fell.”

“Same here,” Ana agreed. “All I have left is my sword and daggers.”

“I still have my compliment of six grenades in my ammo pouch,” Andrew reported.

“So do I,” Nathanael stated. “I have six fragmentation grenades in my ammo belt. I didn’t get a chance to use them on the spiders.”

“Okay,” Hannibal stated with a satisfied grunt. “So the only projectile weapons left are the Draken Gauntlets, though we’re still armed with grenades.”

“Right,” Nathanael stated. “In fact, you may want to reload the Gauntlets just in case we find more giant creepy crawlies down here. Not much can stand up to the rounds those Gauntlets use.”

“Good thinking,” Hannibal stated. “Hold the scepter for me while I reload the Gauntlets, Ana. The scepter may help accelerate your recovery if you hold it with your cybernetic arm.”

“It just might,” Ana agreed, taking the scepter in her machine hand. The moment she touched it, the scepter glowed just a bit brighter. “Oh, yeah,” she chimed, feeling the ancient scepter recharging her cybernetics. “I can feel it restoring my power and strength.”

“Good,” Hannibal replied, sheathing the Caverias sword. He snapped his arms down, opening the Gauntlets. Empty plasma casings popped out onto the floor. Pulling the large plasma rounds from his ammo belt, Hannibal quickly reloaded the Gauntlets. Closing and cocking the Gauntlets, he took the scepter from Ana, asking, “How are you feeling now, Ana? Did the scepter give you a good recharge?”

“Absolutely,” Ana replied, “I’m up to full strength now. Thanks for letting me use it to recharge. But we must be exceptionally careful now. We’re very close to Nidhoggr’s domain. We must be extremely quiet so as to not attract its attention.”

“That’s very sound advice,” Hannibal agreed, again unsheathing the Caverias sword. “I’ll go first and keep quiet. No talking unless absolutely necessary. Got it?” Everyone agreed to keep the chatter to a minimum. “All right, keep your weapons at ready,” Hannibal ordered. “Let’s go.”

“Just a moment, Beowulf,” Morpheus called out. “Let me ignite my staff so we may have another source of light besides your sword and scepter.”

“By all means, go ahead,” Hannibal replied, “The more light we have in this Stygian realm, the better.”

Morpheus pounded the pummel end of his staff on the floor three times before its crystal head lit up, driving away the remaining shadows in the chamber. “Good,” he chimed. “It still works. It’s been a while since I’ve had to use my staff as a torch.”

“Very good,” Hannibal said softly. “Morpheus, I’ll go first with Andrew. You bring up the rear so nothing jumps us from behind.”

“Yes, sir,” Morpheus replied as Hannibal took the lead with Andrew, leading them into the passage. They quickly found that, to their relief, there were no monster spider webs, only tens of thousands of years of dust and a few normal cobwebs. Ana looked around anxiously as they moved through the passage feeling she vaguely recognized it. Hannibal cautiously moved along with Andrew at his side. Selina and Elle followed with Ana and Nathanael. Morpheus brought up the rear with his staff as they plodded through the subterranean passageway hewn by an unknown intelligence tens of thousands of years before. Hannibal followed the sound of the water, which was steadily increasing in volume.

Ana’s anxiousness increased with the volume of the water. Amelia noted it and asked her softly, “You’ve a demon of the past haunting these halls, don’t you?”

Ana nodded murmuring, “Yes, I do.”

“Don’t worry; we’re here to help you face it down,” Amelia whispered. “My demon was in the Black Fortress. I slew that demon when we raided it, rescuing Selina and the others. I went back to the place of my initial captivity and put it to rest. Hopefully, you will be able to do the same.”

“So do I,” Ana replied nervously. “I pray we don’t have a repeat of history either.”

Hearing her comment Hannibal called out softly, “We won’t. The Dark Riders don’t know we’re here.” He glanced at her with a smile and a wink, which strengthened her courage. She smiled as they moved on, whispering amongst themselves as they walked through the passage which seemed endless.

Suddenly, the passage turned and Hannibal motioned for them to stop and be quiet. He peeked around the corner, expecting anything, including giant spiders. When he saw nothing, he motioned for them to follow, but not too closely. They moved around the corner and the smell of water began wafting up the passage, moisture dampening the ancient corridor’s walls, floor, and ceiling. The passage descended, curving left as it dropped. Hannibal ordered them to stay close to the walls as they moved. As they proceeded, Hannibal became increasingly uneasy, sensing something incredibly dark and malicious in the distance. It created a strange dampening effect on both his Rage and his elemental power that made him leery. Yet he remained quiet about it, thinking it may just be his nerves because of the spider attack earlier.

Five minutes later, they emerged from the passage into another chamber larger than twenty coliseums, stretching almost a half mile in extent. Its ceiling rose two hundred feet with a river running through it. They cautiously entered the chamber, noticing it was lit from above. Crystals lined the ceiling, embedded in the hanging stalactites and roof bedrock. They glowed softly, casting an eerie, ethereal light on everything. Ana’s fear increased two fold when they entered it. Hannibal looked around and whistled softly as they gazed on the impressive cavern filled with immense ancient ruins. A twenty-foot wide river gushed from fissure in the solid rock wall seventy feet up the wall near where they entered the cavern. It cascaded down the side of the cavern to the rocks and roared down a slope to the far side, rushing over rocks and boulders before disappearing through a hole in the far side of the cavern where the carved facade of a cyclopean temple of immense size stood. Along the floor of the cavern on the shores of the strange subterranean river sat impressive megalithic ruins. It consisted of a strange combination of colossal standing stones mixed with crumbled structures built from cut andesitic granite stones of terrifying size, many weighing more than fifty tons and reaching the size of tour buses. Massive stalagmites sprouted from the stone ruins like giant teeth, matching their stalactite counterparts on the roof. The river itself disappeared into the temple, forming a moat around the front of the temple before going into it.

“Now there’s an impressive edifice,” Nathanael said softly, “No question about that.”

“That it is,” Andrew agreed. “It’s hard to believe something so enormous could be built so deep in this mountain. I wonder what possessed our ancestors to build such a stupendous temple and city so deep inside this mountain. It doesn’t belong here. It belongs in another time, another place, maybe even another world. Why is this here?”

“I don’t know, son,” Nathanael replied, awed by the sight. “But it’s obvious this place had some great significance to someone for them to have gone to this much trouble to build it inside this mountain. It’s unlike any architecture I’ve seen anywhere in the caverns thus far. I’m curious as to who actually built it. As you said, Andrew, it doesn’t belong here.”

“I concur,” Morpheus stated. “This temple and city doesn’t belong here. In fact, I don’t believe our ancestors built this place. It doesn’t look like anything either Thoth or the Emperor would have built. Furthermore, it’s far older than the fortress above us with a distinctly alien look to the architecture I’m seeing. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it in our oral history. It frankly has me very ill at ease. I’m also sensing an incredibly dark ancient force emanating from the temple. We should be very, very careful from here on. I have no doubt that whatever lies beyond those gates can and will destroy anyone who intrudes on its domain.”

“I sense it too,” Selina declared. “It’s gotten progressively stronger the closer we’ve come to this place. It’s a dark insatiable hunger; a vile unquenchable thirst for anything living. Yet, I’m sensing something else too...something vaguely familiar calling to us. It’s faint, very faint. The telepathic noise from this other dark entity is almost drowning out this call. Hannibal, is that Leila I’m sensing?”

“I’m glad you’re letting me know what you’re sensing,” Hannibal replied in a sober, wary tone. “Is anyone else sensing what Selina and Morpheus are?”

“Just there’s something incredibly old and dangerous beyond that temple wall,” Andrew stated. “It’s making my blood run cold. I certainly don’t want to meet it if I can help it.”

“Same here,” Amelia agreed, “And I must agree with Morpheus on the builders of this place. I seriously doubt the Caverias line built this complex. It’s far older and the details don’t match up with any known Caverias architecture I’ve seen. It doesn’t even match the Emperor’s architectural signature. This place is an alien enigma hiding something both incredibly important and very deadly. Are you sure that we need to go in there? I know death when I smell it and this place reeks of it.”

“I’m with Amelia,” Elle stated bluntly. “I don’t have the telepathic prowess you guys have, but I know when something is dangerous.” She pointed to the temple, adding, “That place is even more dangerous than the Black Fortress. Something far worse than the Emperor lives there, I know it. It’s making the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Is there no other way out of here?”

Hannibal nodded with a grunt, acknowledging their fear. He also noticed Ana’s silence. “Do you feel the same way about going in there, Nathanael?” he asked.

“Yes,” Nathanael replied bluntly. “I would not go in there unless there’s no other choice. Unfortunately, it appears our only way out of here is through that alien temple. I would strongly suggest if we have to go in there, we should be quiet as ghosts and move as quickly as possible so we don’t attract the attention of the dark power we’re sensing in there. You are sensing it, aren’t you, son?”

Hannibal sighed. “Yes, I’ve sensed it since we fell through the trap door,” he admitted. “And as each of you have said, its power has grown the closer we’ve come to the temple. It’s extremely ancient, malevolent, and very hungry, even hungrier than the Spiders. Furthermore, it’s having a strange dampening effect on both my Rage and my elemental abilities. It’s capping my Rage levels at a lower level than normal. It’s also preventing me from engaging my elemental power, just like what happened in the monolith where we freed Ana. I find it quite disturbing.”

“That can’t be good,” Morpheus commented grimly. “We may be facing something far stronger and darker than the Spiders if it’s consciously inhibiting your elemental abilities. Would you say it’s doing that?”

“I must say yes,” Hannibal admitted. “Worse yet; this thing I’m sensing is no longer just stirring, but wide awake. It felt my presence, as I’ve felt its presence. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. This thing feels old as time itself. We should proceed with extreme caution. I’m going to try to conceal my telepathic imprint from this thing since it’s reacting to me. I don’t want to stir it up any more than I can help.”

“That sounds like a very good idea,” Nathanael agreed. “We should all guard our thoughts in case this thing is telepathic. You know, keep our minds as quiet as our mouths as we move through this place. I don’t want to meet this thing if I can help it.”

“Me neither,” Elle agreed. “But what about the other entity Selina felt? Can you still sense it?”

“Yes,” Hannibal replied. “But it’s a very faint signature. It seems that only Selina and I are attuned to it.”

“Is it Leila, Hannibal?” Selina asked.

“I do believe it is, Selina,” Hannibal replied. “As you pointed out, the dark power that’s apparently taken up abode in this place has nearly snuffed out her signal. But I can feel it, and it’s getting weaker by the minute. Leila lies somewhere in the monster’s lair, and since our only exit seems to be through there, we must face the darkness of the Temple. Our path is laid before us. We will face this unknown darkness together with honor. The only one of us who has been here before has said nothing. Ana, please share what you know with us.” He noticed not just his innate ability to sense danger pegging well into the red, but also Ana’s fearful agitation in her silence. Her eyes kept darting wildly, as if expecting attack at any moment.