The following day, the trio of adventurers approached a larger hole in the wilderness, far from the settlements. It was easy to identify it as another animal gathering spot as the hole was slowly sapping away a nearby stream. Logan knelt down to the hole and surveyed it slowly as he opened up his set of vaskt eyes.

  “Celsius and Fahrenheit both got destroyed a few miles from this entrance. Thankfully it seems the worm didn’t do anything rash from doing so, or, they met something other than the worm. I feel like the former would be better, any other opponent alongside the worm would be a big issue”, Logan explained.

  “And the victims?” Amalia asked.

  Logan nodded, “They aren’t inside the worm, or at least they aren’t all inside of it. They were trapped in some sort of cocoon or membrane that Servoir couldn’t break. All the kids, the guardian, and even some others.”

  Marcus approached Logan and peered into the hole, “So, it doesn’t like humanoid meals. That’s good”, he ended under his breath.

  “The ‘hostages’ will be the main goal. If able, I will gather them all up and Teleport out of there to Acety. If possible I would like to deal with the worm today so that it can’t grow out of control.”

  “I suppose I won’t have to worry about colliding with anyone on the inside”, Amalia said sarcastically, as if the thought was still disgusting.

  Marcus placed a hand on his companions’ shoulders to grant them the usual grey aura of Enhance before the trio jumped into the hole.

  Just like the previous, this tunnel was a massive and seemingly unending cylinder path. The walls were mostly smooth with some jagged dig marks here or there where the worm had probably eaten away at the earth. The darker tones were seen at the exits, continuing to confirm it breached for both food and defecation.

  It took a good hour or so until the party arrived at the scene Servoir found previously. The walls had been pushed back as if the worm had turned around in here before leaving through another tunnel, extremely large for its purpose but the best it could do with its size.

  Several sections of the wall protuded slightly, as strange orange-coloured membranes encased captured humanoids. The prisons had a few gaps to show the prisoners’ faces and surprisingly very accurately leaving a gap straight to their hearts if it weren’t for skin and clothing.

  Logan approached the guardian of the kids and scanned over them. There were no signs of injury besides some minor bruising, but they were in a deep slumber. Logan clicked his fingers and prodded the adult but had no change in their condition.

  Marcus looked over the other victims before his feet no longer appreciated his directions. Stopping in front of one of the kids, Marcus had a wave of heat roll over his skin. It was his supposed brother, though “supposed” was stretching the truth. If it wasn’t his own flesh and blood it was a damn clone.

  Lucas looked just like Marcus had in his childhood, with just a slightly bigger and more square facial structure. The kid’s hair had become wet from the fluids of the worm, and it had been swept back, but there was no arguing the familial resemblance.

  Marcus wiped fluid away from his brother’s face, clearing a tear that had stained his skin some time prior. He then moved his hand onto Lucas’s chest, the boy’s heart still beating.

  “He’s just like me”, Marcus spoke under his breath.

  Logan then tugged on the material keeping the people trapped, it was tough. With his amount of strength, Logan could break normal wood with ease, and even crush bones. The membrane must have been infused with spellforce from the worm like many flora types could be.

  Drawing a dagger, Logan turned to his companions and said, “Guard the two exits of the tunnel. We don’t know if the worm will react to me freeing these people.”

  “Got it”, Amalia and Marcus replied quickly, Marcus snapping out of his thoughts.

  When the team got into position, Logan cut apart the prison in a second with incredibly fast slashes. Distinct cracking could be heard as the hard wax hold was loosened, releasing the person into Logan’s arms. Logan picked the body up over his shoulder and looked to his allies.

  “Nothing here”, Amalia informed.

  “Same”, Marcus added.

  Taking the body over to the next, Logan cut apart another cage and grabbed another adult to add to the pile on his shoulder. Repeating this several times, Logan made an assortment of unconscious people at the side wall, with no dangerous wounds to speak of.

  “So strange. Why are they unharmed, and why were their faces and chests revealed like that?” Amalia thought aloud.

  “The head to breath, the chest for inspection. Maybe”, Marcus answered half-heartedly.

  “Hearts are mostly a concern for demons, and making items. But I don’t know many recipes that call for Avanarian hearts”, Logan answered.

  “That would answer the question of if this thing is following commands.”

  “Give me a minute”, Logan asked as he began to warp the captives back to Acety.

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  On the last Teleport back to the tunnels, Logan was surprised when he didn’t see what he expected, he couldn’t see at all. The underground had been filled with a dark fog cloud, without scent or sound it blocked almost all the senses.

  “Marcus?” Logan called out, though it ended a few feet away from him as if he were in a new type of cell.

  Walking forward, Logan felt the fog almost cling to him as if it didn’t want him to move. But the man was persistent. Taking a few steps didn’t seem to reveal much more to the Spellthief, but for something like this to occur so quickly its creator was bound to have stuck around.

  Logan was wise to draw a dagger on seeing the darkness, as not too many steps away from his starting position did he have to use it. A curved shortsword made up of shadows collided with Logan’s blocking dagger, a weird phasing buzz noise erupting from the collision rather than the normal metallic clang.

  Logan took a few steps back and instinctively blocked another slash from the darkness, his attacker slowly taking form as it approached him and Logan got adjusted to the dark. Bones garbed in dark leather, filled with water-like shadows. Logan had seen a few undead to this point, but this one seemed much more unique.

  Side-stepping, Logan’s movements were met by the undead who continued to slash at him. Its movements weren’t anything to talk about, but the darkness and claustrophobic nature did throw Logan off a bit.

  Parrying another slash, Logan conjured up flames in his hand and forced them into the gaps of the skeleton’s armour. Red flashed in the black as the bones creaked and crackled. Pulling back, Logan parried another blow, circled his foe, and landed another volley of fire into the skeleton.

  The skeleton fell to its knee, leading to Logan’s follow-up as he crunched its skull into the floor with his heel.

  Logan threw out a hand and mentally commanded, “Spell Absorb”, but it seemed this effect wouldn’t be removed so easily. He tutted in frustration.

  Before Logan could steady himself any further he had to dodge again, several golden chains penetrating the darkness and keeping taut in the air. Stepping around them, Logan grabbed onto one and followed it to its source.

  Running along the lifeline, Logan made a jumping slash at another skeleton’s sword as it reared back to attack Marcus. With a solid double-jab, Marcus crushed his foe’s ribcage, the rest of its body falling to the floor with a long slide into the darkness.

  “Good of you to join us”, Marcus teased as he threw out more golden chains, though not their original purpose.

  “Where’s Amalia?”

  “Somewhere in here. She’s probably holding out until we get to her.”

  Logan was about to continue talking but instead grabbed onto Marcus’s shoulder to pull him back and himself forward, parrying another sword from an approaching skeleton.

  Marcus took that momentum and landed an upward kick to dislodge another skeleton’s head, though it just shuffled on the ground to continue its attack.

  “How’d this happen anyway?” Logan asked as he enflamed the same undead he parried.

  “I heard a voice and then the place filled in with these shadows, next thing I knew I was defending against these undead creatures.”

  One of the chains then started to jangle.

  “This way”, Logan commanded as he followed the chain.

  Marcus ran after his friend as he smashed another bone to dust.

  Running for a bit, ducking under Marcus’s chains, the duo reached Amalia who had pulled on the chain to alert her allies to where she was.

  With a leaping twirl, Marcus kicked twice at one of the skeletons, while Logan grappled onto another’s bones to ignite it twice over.

  Amalia shone her blade as she slashed into one of her enemies, “You set something off alright!”

  “Sorry, but at least it didn’t stop me getting back”, Logan spoke as he cindered another undead.

  “What’s the plan?” Marcus asked as he slammed his fists on either side of a skull.

  “I can probably Spellforce Blast this effect but”, Logan began as he parried another attack and kicked away a foe, “I was kinda hoping to save it for the worm.”

  Marcus crushed another skeleton against Amalia’s shield.

  “The people are out, this is just fodder. C’mon”, Logan instructed as he grabbed onto the pair.

  Instead of teleporting far away, the trio merely appeared deeper into the tunnel, falling to the floor as the spell destabilised.

  “Damnit”, Logan cursed as he stood back up.

  The shadowy chamber then started to make noise and movements, like a wailing screech of a banshee. The shadows warped and whirled like thin cloth, swirling together into a denser mass that revealed the chamber it had hidden until now.

  Spinning around it flung itself towards the party, Amalia getting to the front to defend against the attack. However, the shadows mostly passed over the party and further into the tunnels. The cracking and snapping of bone could be heard within the mass as it transported all the bodies with it, even the destroyed undead.

  With the shadows now out of view, Logan spoke, “Well this is new. Some creature that can control the dead and wants the remains for something else?”

  The underground then started to shake violently, parts of the walls crumbling down to the floor.

  “No time for that, either we get out of here or we follow that darkness”, Marcus spoke.

  “Follow it”, Logan commanded.

  The trio then sprinted down the hallway, the ceiling continuing to collapse. Like scrunching up a bottle the underground was reforming to its original design. The party had to slide around corners to follow the shadowy mass as it flew away. Whoever controlled it had to have some hand in all of this.

  Logan placed hands on his allies as all three sped up through the use of Haste. Sprinting, wall-running, and jumping over falling debris. The party pulled out all the stops as they tried to chase after their new foe.

  From a massive worm to a formation of shadows, what was going to accost them next?

  The shadows then made a disgusting turn upwards, shifting winds around as they surfaced away from the party.

  Grabbing onto his allies, Logan jumped and shot several bursts of Air Blast from the soles of his feet, flying both himself and his allies back into the open air. A massive crash was heard underground as the tunnels filled back in

  The party landed with a solid thud on the ground, clanking metal and shifting leather was accompanied by the crunching of grass underfoot. The shadowy mass continued to fly off into the air away from the party.

  “Why’d the tunnels collapse?” Marcus asked.

  Logan kept an eye on the shadows in the distance, “Something is up, and it’s not just those shadows.”

  The ground then started to shake again, as if something was tunnelling again, towards the party.

  “It’s coming right for us!” Logan shouted.

  --- *** ---