Chapter 27: Chapter: 27 Lord of The Pit

My eyes opened up and I immediately regretted waking up. My mouth was dry and tasted like ass, my lungs burnt, my head spun and Ahir was lying on top of me with her elbow in my face.

I nudged her and when she didn't budge I elbowed her. She stirred in my lap and looked up at me and blinked in confusion.

“Normally I wouldn't mind this arrangement,” I said. “But your knee is crushing my balls.”

---

We left the empty workshop and stepped out into the cool evening air. There were no constructs in sight and no people walking around. All along the street the houses were empty. Some with doors wide open and other's with smashed windows.

It looked like the world had gone to shit while we were asleep.

“How long were we out for?” I asked.

“A day,” said Tana. “Maybe two.”

Ahri held her stomach and said, “That explains why I feel hungry enough to eat the asshole out of a skunk.”

We made our way through the ghost town and stopped when we saw a massive round construction erected in the center of the village square.

“That wasn't there yesterday,” I said.

Tana nodded and said, “That’s something I would have remembered seeing.”

The new building or whatever it was meant to be was large, about the size of a hut. It was round and squattish and incredibly ugly.

Ahri tilted her head as she studied it, “What is it?” she asked.

“I don't know,” I said. “But it looks like it was built by a pack of drunk toddlers.”

A blue light shone overhead and Tana pulled us into the shadow of a building. The sound of wings flapping could be heard and then a metallic moth by, its eyes scanning the streets with the blue light.

As we crouched behind the building we saw an elderly woman with curlers in her hair and a metallic spider walking beside her ambling out of a building carrying a chair.

“What the hell is going on here?” I asked.

Ahri and Tana looked at me.

“I'm not taking a closer look,” I said.

“You’d send one of us?” asked Ahri. “Some kind of hero you are.”

I shook my head.

“I never said I was a hero. There is no chance in hell that I am going anywhere near that thing.”

---

A few minutes later I was crouched low and sneaking towards the strange new building.

I hate you penis, why do you make me do this dumb shit everytime.

More villagers passed me by, each of them carrying a random item to the building. Beside each of the villagers scuttled an Iron Walker that prodded them if they stopped walking.

Madam Myrtle stopped when she saw me but before she could say a word the metal spider poked her leg with one of its razor sharp claw-like legs. The old woman uttered a small cry and then kept walking while balancing a washtub on her head.

I moved closer and saw the villagers dropping their items into a pile and a new set of constructs began dissembling them. A third group of walkers picked up the broken down parts and used them to build whatever the hell they were building.

I should not be here. I'm not even getting paid for this shit.

Leaves crunched behind me and froze as a metal scorpion stood watching me.

Oh shit, it's looking at me- with its eyes.

It stepped towards me and made an odd clicking noise. My hand strayed to my spellbag but before I could reach it the scorpion's tail struck and the stinger pierced my skin.

Images flashed through my head. I saw a wheelbarrow and then a dining room table made from dark wood.

The scorpion withdrew its stinger and the images instantly faded. The construct made a series of clicking noises and an Iron Walker scuttled over to me.

I looked hoping Ahri would see that I had been captured but the spot where they had been hiding was empty.

It was obvious that the constructs were building something and that they needed the humans to carry the heavy items.

What the hell are they building? And more importantly what are they going to do with us once it’s built?

I didn't have time to think about it. The dickhole metal spider was poking me in the foot. I needed to find it a wheelbarrow or a wooden table.

---

Ahri POV

As Ahri watched the Iron Walker lead Talasin down the street she turned to Tana and said, “How do we stop these insects?”

Tana shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to meet Ahri’s eyes. She knew very well that all this shit was her fault.

“It's not that simple,” said Tana. “There’s too many of them to zap at once.”

“So if we were to gather them all in one place then we could kill the buggers?”

“Well,” said Tana. “Theoretically if a massive core were to explode it would send out a shockwave that could theoretically disable the weaker cores rendering the constructs all but useless. But that’s just…”

“Theoretical?” Interrupted Ahri.

“Exactly.”

“So you’re saying we just need to blow up a large core in the middle of those insects?”

Tana nodded and said, “Where would we get one strong enough?”

“What about the Eternity flame in your cabin?” asked Ahri. “Aren't those made from magical beasts more powerful than kobolds?

Tana frowned and said, “How do you know that?”

“Let's just say you aren’t the first Steamtech nerd I’ve come across. The problem is how do we blow the thing up?”

“Leave that to me.”

---

Talasin POV

The Iron Walker jabbed me in the leg again yet again as I paused to look for Ahri. My leg was bleeding from about twenty jabs but still she was nowhere in sight. I had a sinking feeling that she had abandoned me.

The walker jabbed me again.

“Ok, Ok, I get it,” I said and I lifted the dining room table and continued back to the construction site.

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When I arrived back at the site the gathered villagers all looked at me with identical terrified expressions but no one dared say a word. I nodded at them in what I hoped was a reassuring gesture and then I handed the table over to the dismantling robots.

The construction was beginning to take shape. The little robot workers were building at an alarming speed. They’d used the humans to dig out a pit. Then they’d used wood, stone and iron to create seven large horn-like shapes around the pit. A group of walkers were in the process of carving symbols into each of the horn-like shapes.

It kinda looks like a…

The walkers finished their carvings and the seven horns began to radiate light. The walkers adjusted the horns until the light converged on a single point in the center of the pit.

Kurt the butcher groaned as the Scorpion Construct struck him with its tail and sent a series of images through his brain.

“It wants seven of us to stand on those platforms,” he said.

“Screw that,” said Madam Myrtle. “I'm sick and tired of…”

An Iron Walker sliced open her ankle and she shrieked in pain and hopped on one leg.

“Just do what they want,” said Kurt. “They said it would be over after this.”

---

Ahri POV

A bright flash shot into the night sky and Ahri and Tana stopped what they were doing and stared at it for a few seconds.

“What just happened?” asked Ahri.

Tana lowered her wrench and continued loosening the nut on the side of the copper and iron machine that Steamtech nerds called Eternity Flames.

Ahri had seen quite a few of these machines since she’d left her realm. She knew the basics of how they worked. They each had a core that powered the machine, which then pumped energy through it causing it to spew orange smoke out of a series of pipes. The smoke rotated a set of gears and this somehow made the bath water hot. That was the only detail Ahri cared about.

Tana undid the final copper nut and dropped it into a wooden bowl and said, “Pass me the tongs.”

Ahri snapped the tongs in the air a few times and made biting noises before handing them to Tana.

“We get to eat after this, hey?” she asked.

Tana gave Ahri the kind of look a parent gives an annoying child that's just smeared its own shit across the wall.

“Sure,” she said before pulling a pair of goggles over her eyes and reaching into the Eternity Flame.

Ahri leaned in and gazed at the core. It was an angry red globe filled with swirling red flames.

“What's it made of?” asked Ahri.

Tana dropped the core into a copper box and closed the lid.

“Fire drake,” she said. “They are farmed by engineers in the Aressean peninsula.”

“Sounds fun,” said Ahri in a bored voice. “So what's the plan now?”

Tana took off her goggles and her gloves and dropped them into her toolbox.

“We need to put the core inside of a reverse transmutation circle.”

“Aha.”

“A normal circle instantly combines elements into a higher form,” Tana’s hands gestured wildly as she explained. “The reverse circle will break the core down in an instant and disperse its energy in a single blast.”

Ahri stifled a bored yawn and said, “What does that do?”

“It blows it up,” said Tana.

Ahri’s eyes lit up. “Why didn't you just say that?”

“I thought you were interested,” said Tana.

Ahri shook her head and said, “No, but you seemed really into this Steamtech stuff so I thought I’d let you talk.”

“This stuff as you call it,” said Tana. “Is mankind's best chance of fighting back against the bureaucrats that use spell cards to exploit the weak and enslave magical beasts.”

“Enslave magical beasts, that's the worst,” said Ahri. “Not as bad as crushing their bones and compressing them into a core that you use to boil water and power sex toys. But yeah fuck those spell card wielding bureaucrats.”

Tana gave Ahri a long, measured look and then she shrugged and said, “You need to break some eggs to make an omelet.”

“Who doesn't love omelets,” said Ahri. “But speaking about food, how do we lure those metal insects here? What do they eat?”

“That's the easy part,” said Tana. “The constructs in this village are all mentally linked on a specific frequency; it's part of how they communicate. If we catch one and torture it the rest will come to its rescue. It's a basic retrieve and repair function encoded into each construct.”

Ahri stared at her blankly and said, “You lost me at, blow the thing up. Just tell me what you need me to do?”

Tana smiled and handed Ahri a pair of gloves.

“Catch me an Iron Walker.”

---

Talasin POV

Seven villagers were selected and were herded on the completed building. They were each placed onto a platform and the Iron Walkers scurried all over them like cockroaches across sleeping men’s faces.

Rope tightened around the villagers legs. The villagers stared at the ropes in confusion and then their confusion was replaced with shrieks as they were hoisted up into the air. They dangled upside down from the horns and squirmed as they tried to break free.

I backed away from the pit and as I did I tripped over an exposed root and fell. As I laid on the ground looking up at the construction I finally realized what they had built.

The seven villagers hanging from each horn on the altar screamed in unison as their throats were slit from ear to ear.

The remaining villagers who were still being guarded by robots screamed in fear, anger and despair but I just sat there stunned and confused.

My mind tried to spare me the horror of what I was seeing so it fed me little bits of information. I saw blood cascading out of throats like miniature fountains. The blood then flowed through channels carved in stone and filled the pit in the center of the altar.

I was looking at a spell card I’d seen in another life. One I’d faced in the Hero Seeker finals. In my mind I heard a crowd chanting, ‘Queen of Darkness.’

A demonic cry answered the terrified screams of the villagers and the pit full of blood boiled as magic pulsed through it. The blood coagulated and a veiny membrane covered the pit and throbbed like a beating heart.

A hand emerged from inside the pit and pushed against the thin semi translucent membrane.

“Oh shit.”

The membrane tore open and the Queen of Darkness in all of her terrifying glory emerged.

---

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