/Author's Note: And finally, I have an update for you! Hooray! Thank you to everyone for your reviews and more importantly, your loyalty to this little Rune Factory fic. More chapters are on their way. Someone mentioned in a review for the last chapter that they felt like punching Lara already - all I'll say is... that feeling may intensify over the course of this chapter. I'm sorry, Lara fans. XD Anyway, enjoy, and thank you again! Leave a review if you feel so inclined! End Author's Note/


- CHAPTER 9: Carmite Chaos -

There was something decidedly sinister about the maw of Carmite Cave as the trio stared into its depths. Just how deep it went, no one was certain; but there was a peculiar sense of dread that fell upon the squad as they stood at its entrance. Godwin and a select few other villagers stood behind them: Melody, Leo, Mist, and Zavier, while the others had returned to their days after the meeting at Emmett's pub. Mei tightened her obi and stared down the cave fearlessly, her brow knit in concentration, Lara's hands were ever-clasped in silent prayer, and Raguna… really should have thought of bringing a weapon.

Mei quirked an eyebrow in annoyance when he voiced this. "You didn't bring a weapon?"

"I've been fighting things off with… a hoe…" Raguna explained slowly, feeling sillier by the word. "It… it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"A good idea that nearly got you killed last time, if I remember correctly." Mei stated matter-of-factly. Her ebony ponytail swung as she turned to Lara. "What do you have?"

"Goodness, Mei, one doesn't need weapons when they have God on their-"

Mei didn't even have to make a sound to cut her off; a cold, hard glance sufficed. "Is this really the group of 'heroes' that are meant to save this town?" She shot Godwin a hard, scrutinizing look, as if he were failing in his duties to Kardia.

"What about the sword you were working on for Rags, Leo?"

"Aye, 'tis ready. I can send the runt to go get it," he nodded gruffly to Zavier.

"That would be wise," Mei nodded and Zavier bolted off, feeling increasingly important. "And for you, Lara - find something. Preferrably something blunt."

Lara just shook her head, her nun's habit swaying from side to side, her beatified smile unmoving. "I've already told you, my little zealot: I've got God on my side. To doubt His power, His light, would be unthinkable. He will guide us through the darkness; this, I am sure of."

Lara's tone of unshakeable certainty, laced heavily with artificial sweetness, was unsettling. Raguna, who felt he had become quite good at reading the Kardians, could not quite grasp Lara's mystique. There were devouts in any religion, but to blindly enter a monster-ridden cave - voluntarily - with only God's protection, struck Raguna as... brave, if he were to put it nicely.

Mei rattled out a tired breath. "Do what you will - but do not expect my blade's assistance should your God lead you straight into a monster's clutches."

"I wouldn't dream of it." replied Lara brightly.

Zavier returned to the group with a tanned leather scabbard, and Leo unsheathed the blade within. The brilliant metal shone before them, and he handed it to Raguna. "One dwarven broad sword; a damn well crafted one at that."

Raguna weighed the weapon in his hands, and wrapped his fingers around the grip; it was lighter than his hoe or any of his other farming implements, but the steel had enough weight to it that a hard swing would satisfyingly cut through flesh.

"Thank you, Leo!" beamed Raguna, examining the metalwork. "Please, let me repay you."

Leo refused, but not out of kindness: "If yeh can route the caves of monsters, you'll be doing me a huge favour, lad. I need those ore deposits like this one needs turnips." He jabbed a finger in Mist's direction. "That's payment enough."

"Take these, too." Melody grappled at the inner pockets of her robe and produced pencil-thin vials of sparkling blue liquid. "Potions! Take the lot of 'em!"

Mei nodded and took them from her, divvying them up between the three intrepid adventurers. "A wise precaution." She uncorked one and took a whiff of the concoction, as if expecting a poison. "Thank you, Melody."

"Did you...?" Raguna looked impressed as he held a vial up to the sun, allowing the light to filter into sparkles that danced on his face.

"Mhm!" Melody nodded, hoping the enthusiasm in her voice could override the squirming of her insides, "The best potions in town - but don't tell Doctor Edward I said that." She joked. "I just hope they're enough... I'd really like my Raguna back in one piece, y'know?"

"Between those and Sister Lara's healing spells, I'd say Carmite shouldn't be too terrible an ordeal," Godwin stroked his goatee, "But do be careful. We don't know just what is going on in there. It shouldn't take more than a few hours to run through it, but I will be awake in my office until you return."

"Don't be thick, Godwin," Leo rumbled, "They'll have enough on their young minds without the added guilt of keeping an old goat up."

Godwin smiled and nodded, "That's true. I'll try to be at ease. I wish you the best of luck, then, and I thank you."

"We'll be back with our findings as soon as possible," declared Mei, "Thank you for the preparations - hasty though they may have been."

"W-Wait!" Mist rushed forward, "I can help too! If I can't come with you guys, at least lemme give you some good luck charms."

There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Mist's good luck charms were going to be -

"Turnips. Of course." Melody deadpanned as the blonde farmer scooped out a batch of healthy looking turnips from her rucksack.

"They can't eat those raw, Mist!" Zavier told her, "There's no sense in bringing those-"

Not for the first time, Zavier was silenced. "Thank you, Mist." said Mei, taking the turnips from the girl, who handed them over with an expression of utmost seriousness. In response to Raguna's and Lara's (and, well, everyone's) quizzical looks, Mei told them, "Turnips grown in this earth are rich in Rune energy, which will be invaluable for keeping our strength up in between battles; furthermore, we can roast them over a fire for a filling, if not simple, meal."

Raguna wasn't sure if Mei meant any of what she had just said, or if she was just being nice. Somehow the latter seemed incredibly unlikely. In either case, Mist looked ecstatic - she seemed on the verge of hugging Mei, but even Mist wasn't quite that oblivious.

The trio turned to enter the cave, bidding farewell to the villagers and the light of the mid-day sun. Raguna took a few steps forward before he felt warm hands embracing his torso, and turned to see that Melody embracing him in a last-minute hug from behind. "Good luck," she said, her voice betraying the emotion she was trying to conceal. Leo and Godwin watched on solemnly.

"Hey, don't worry," Raguna said, putting his hands over hers, and giving them a light squeeze, "There is one thing you can do for me."

"Yeah?"

"Have a hot bath running for me when I get back?"

He felt her nod her head into his back, and they broke apart, the darkness of Carmite Cave beckoning to the party.

# # #

Raguna could not remember if he had ever been inside a cave before - though Raguna could not remember much of anything preluding his arrival in Kardia. Carmite Cave was, ultimately, what his imagination assumed a cave would be: darkness, damp earth, and winding tunnels. The dark walls around them transitioned into a cool blue, indicative of the cave's cold iron deposits, but the transition had only been fascinating for all of five minutes. Mei informed them that Carmite, being the cave closest in proximity to the village (and lacking in lava, poisonous quagmires, subzero mists, or other hazards apparently common to other caves in Norad), was a well-trodden hollow with several natural resources that the village took advantage of.

"That's why the lanterns are still functioning and there are bridges in place to facilitate transportation." she explained, removing a lantern hanging from a wall and latching it onto her belt. The light swayed with her hips as they continued deeper into the cavern. She appeared entirely uninterested in the possibility of lurking monsters, but Raguna had learned that appearances were very often deceiving when it came to Mei.

"Oh! That's really fascinating, actually." replied Raguna earnestly, his own eyes darting into every dark crevasse, his fist gripping the handle of his broad sword.

"Is it?" Mei seemed unimpressed. "It's human nature, plain and simple. Man sets down his palaces and his pavement wherever the earth's bounties are most plentiful."

"Oh. R-Right."

"Kardia's settlers chose a prime location; Carmite is just one of many caves, ruins, and mountains in the greater Kardian countryside, each rich with a variety of ore, beast, and plant. It's a hotly contested location, and without the King's protection, there's no doubt that we'd be engulfed in the flames of war."

Raguna chuckled nervously. "Ah, politics, am I right?"

Mei's lips tightened; she was unamused.

"Ultimately, kingdoms and empires will rise and fall, leaders will live and die, wars will ignite and be extinguished, but the land will remain everlasting in its loyalty to its creator and caretaker: the almighty God."

Lara was a few paces behind them, but her voice was strong and clear. She walked with her robes in her hands, stepping daintily over puddles and cracks and maintaining the appearance of someone who was highly unaccustomed to the sheer amount of nature around her. Still, any discomfort she may have been experiencing never quite made it to her voice, which was proud and confident whenever it spoke of her beloved God.

"What a nice sentiment." Mei intoned through grit teeth. "Tell me, Lara, what are you still doing in a backwater village like Kardia when your sermonizing clearly holds the power to end wars and bring about world peace?" Her pace was quickening and Raguna had to scramble to keep up.

Lara was not unaccustomed to sarcasm, believe it or not. "Now, Mei, I wouldn't dare to assign myself that much importance! But then, that's one of man's most common follies, no? Believing himself to be so important that he can change the tides of fate? Goodness, I should hope my ego never gets so bloated, wouldn't you?" There was an unmistakeable tinge of poison under the sweet tones of Lara's voice.

It was beginning to dawn on Raguna that Mei and Lara were two denizens of Kardia that would never willingly spend more than ten minutes alone with each other, at the risk of one of them biting the other's head off. And it was with those two girls that he was now alone, deep within an earthen prison. Silently, he longed for the monsters to hurry up and attack.

# # #

Mei kept up a steady stream of conversation as they plumbed the cave's depths - though it was ultimately more a monologue than a dialogue. Like an encyclopedia given the gift of voice, the warrior trucked along, pointing out every plant that poked through the ground, every precious stone embedded in the wall, and every scampering lizard, hopping toad, or any other fauna they discovered. Lara, in turn, would point out how that plant was poisonous, this stone was crawling with bacteria, that lizard carried numerous diseases, that toad's skin would leave a rash if you touched it, and any and all fauna found in places of darkness were clearly God-forsaken and out to kill us all in one way or another. Raguna oscillated between paying attention and taking in the wonders of the cave with his own eyes; occasionally, he could swear he heard Lara muttering about saving Mei's soul.

"The leaves of this plant are poisonous, but if you boil the roots, you get a very potent paralysis remedy - it can be consumed or rubbed on the muscles directly to loosen them." Mei grabbed the plant forcefully by the bottom of the stem and uprooted it without touching a single leaf, "It's a handy trick when you're dealing with Orcs, especially the archers."

"Oh..." Raguna tried to internalize the information, but before he could register everything, Mei had moved on. Lara was secretly doing the same thing, but she wouldn't admit to deferring to Mei's expertise. She wasn't normally the talkative type, choosing to use her words as pragmatically as possible, but there seemed to be no doubt in her mind that all the information she was conveying was staggeringly important. Raguna was scared she might wheel around and start quizzing him at any moment.

"You really do know a lot about this stuff, Mei. You must have gone on a lot of adventures."

"...One could say that. I've done my share of... traveling." If the statement was meant to be proud, it didn't sound it at that, the warrior continued her tirade: "The moss that grows at the bottom of this stream can be pureed and added to any concoction to turn it into a potent laxative. Don't ask me how I know this. The eyeball of that spotted silver toad fetches an exuberant amount at any apothecary in the city, but catching the damn things is another story. And that goblin is hiding behind a pillar with an arrow nocked and aimed at you, Raguna."

"W-What?!" gasped Raguna, nearly missing his footing. Lara's murmured prayers intensified.

"Don't panic. Keep walking; keep your voice steady. The language of the goblins, and most monsters, is mostly rooted in intonation: so long as they don't hear panic in your voice, they'll believe they have the upperhand." Mei explained idly, sounding almost bored, but her eyes were narrowed and darting from one side of the earthen corridor to the next. "If we let them think that they've got the advantage, we're in a much better position to counter it and stage a sneak attack of our own."

"I think not!" Lara shrilled, disregarding Mei's advice as loudly as possible, "I'll not be a part of such a barbaric undertaking!"

Mei tried considerably harder to keep her voice level. "Then why did you decide to come with us, Sister?" The question came out in a hiss. "I'm sorry, but what did you expect when you decided to come into a dungeon with us? That we'd be handing out plates and sitting down to cake and tea?"

"I am here to do God's work, and to keep you from harming yourselves. I will not participate in the battle."

"Suit yourself," Mei's teeth were grit and each word came out cold and hard, "Don't get in our way."

"I assure you-"

"And don't speak."

Lara complied, however sulkily.

They kept a brisk pace until they had crossed another bridge and were now parallel with the goblin; they didn't spare it a glance, and just as Mei had predicted, there was a snap of the bowstring as his arrow was shot. Mei had whipped out her katana and deflected the arrow, sending it flying. Her other hand dove into her obi and pulled out a handful of throwing knives the size of playing cards, and with a precise flick of the wrist, they were embedded in the goblin. All before Raguna could ready his sword. Lara shrieked unabashedly.

"That's -"

Mei turned to the farmer briskly; "There's no need to praise me. I have been fighting far longer - for... a long time."

Raguna scratched at the side of his mouth - awkwardly. "Oh, uh, it's not that - I was just gonna say that that was a lot of blood." He looked over Mei's head and at the blood bubbling up through the goblin's knife wounds.

Raguna and Lara caught their comrade's face flush, though she tried to turn away a moment too late. "Oh - yes, that. I - I poison the tips of the knives to immobilize the enemy." She felt her cheeks growing hot. For the first time since Raguna had known her, the stoic Mei had lost her composure. She marched ahead, trying to shrug off her mistake.

"B-But don't get me wrong, you did do a good job!" Raguna assured her, making the burning in her cheeks intensify. "Sorry - you certainly do deserve praise." The quickly disposed of monster was slowly turning into tiny flecks of light, each dancing upwards before fading into nothingness; no one paid this any attention.

"No - that's not -"

Lara stepped forward, saying with unabashed smugness: "My, speaking of bloated egos..."

"Silence," Mei ordered, her voice wavering uncharacteristically. "I didn't mean anything by- Agh!"

In her floundering, Mei had been struck by an arrow, right in her side. She winced and fell to her knees, her fist planted in the ground.

"Mei!"

Raguna brandished his weapon and jerked his head in every direction, casting around for the enemy. Another goblin had sprung forth through the darkness, brandishing a sturdier bow and arrows adorned with bird feathers. Making a sound that seemed like a sneer, It maintained its distance and fired off two arrows at once. Each one whizzed by Raguna's head as he dashed towards the monster, sword raised.

"Lara, you have to heal her!" Raguna shouted and ignored the begrudging 'Oh, if I must...' from behind him.

Sure enough, the broad sword, whistling as it cut through the air, landed cleanly in the Goblin's bow arm. With a little extra force, Raguna sliced right through it and hardly broke a sweat; it was a noted improvement over the hoe.

"There are more coming," warned Mei from somewhere behind him. In a flash of steel, she had her katana out again, the blade perfectly angled to knock back more arrows. Raguna disposed of the goblin in front of him, while Mei launched herself into a series of attacks that made her an indistinguishable purple blur among the goblins.

The goblins had suddenly given up any semblance of stealth and were rushing at them with all their numbers. They were easy enough to hold back, but Raguna wished he had had some kind of shield - he was not nearly as elegant as Mei was when it came to dodging, and his long tunic was more cumbersome than he realized; he was sustaining some serious damage.

Mei once again showed her prowess on the battlefield, and she was further driven by her prior carelessness. Lara, miraculously, managed to steer clear of any trouble, hiding from the throngs of monsters from behind a rock. The assault didn't slow, however: for every goblin that they took out, another would appear, and it was clear that something was terribly wrong.

"I sense a dark, foul energy further down that tunnel," Lara stated amidst the chaos. She pointed down the tunnel the first goblin had come from, adorned with crude monster-made torches instead of the man-made lanterns Mei had pointed out earlier.

Mei nodded, "There's something unnatural going on here," she slid her katana out of the eye socket of one of the goblins as if it were nothing, then made a dash for the tunnel. "Follow me - quickly."

Raguna had only taken a few steps before the cavern filled with an opaque smoke. He coughed and ran after the ribbons of Mei's obi, trying not to lose sight of the girl. "What's-"

"Smoke bomb. We can lose them. Just keep running!"

She seemed entirely uninterested in whether or not Lara was keeping up.

The tunnel curved and declined, and soon they were out of the smoke's range, with no goblins in sight.

"Nice thinking, Mei."

To Mei's chagrin, Lara had indeed followed: "My heart's never beat so - so hard!" She proclaimed dramatically between coughs and hacks, "To think, this is all the glorious workings of God! How mysterious, how exhillirating!"

"Last I checked, it wasn't God who just saved us from a horde of goblins."

The acolyte chose to ignore this.

The trio were worse for wear, with Raguna being the most ragged of the three. His tunic and underarmour were slowly shredding, and bits of bleeding skin were exposed. He didn't want to be a bother, but...

"Lara," Mei jerked her thumb in Raguna's direction, "I believe this is why we brought you along. Do something about him."

Raguna rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "If you don't mind..."

Just as Mist had done earlier that day, Lara stretched out her hands, murmured, and let a ball of light swell around Raguna's wounds; she moved it over each cut, which mended itself nearly flawlessly, drinking in the blood that it had previously spewed out. There was no wonder she was the assistant to Dr. Edward - her healing magic far outshone Mist's. Even Mei was visibly impressed, but didn't dare engage the girl again.

"Thank you, Lara!" breathed Raguna, feeling energy return to his muscles. So long as Lara could keep that up, he felt confident that no battle would slow them down for long.

"Don't thank me" chirped the nurse, "Thank G-"

"And we're moving on." Mei stalked ahead, leaving the other two to follow.

They continued down the tunnel, fighting a stray goblin here and there, and it seemed abundantly clear that they were heading deeper into the home of the beasts. The goblins became more plentiful as they trucked on, supporting this suspicion. The tunnel ended, however, and the chamber beyond was no larger than a bedroom. What they found, however, was not a nest of goblins - but a strange, mechanical, bell-shaped device that seemed to be whirring and clicking at an alarming rate.

"What on earth..." Mei circled the device, one hand on the hilt of her blade.

Even Lara looked suddenly cautious. "This should not be here... whatever it is."

"It's really..." - Raguna resisted saying the word 'shiny', which was truthfully what was going through his mind - "...mysterious."

Mei approached the device with trepidation, and reached out to touch it, making sure there was at least an arm's length of distance between them. She rapped on its metallic surface with her knuckles. The machination reacted - or Mei just had impeccable timing - and the large, bell-like part rose off the ground, supported by the two metallic pillars on its side. As it rose, it revealed a shocking blue light concentrated in a pulsating ball of energy. It sparkled and crackled in a way that was not unlike magic, but there was undoubtedly something off about it.

Mei had her blade drawn. "Back away from it - We don't know what it's capable of."

As if to solve that mystery for her, the machine's whirring increased tenfold, and the ball of magic swelled until it shot out through the bell's top, arched, and landed to their side in the form of a goblin.

None of them were quite ready for that.

"It just-!"

"I saw," Mei recovered from the shock and raced to dispose of the monster, but Raguna's blade found its neck before she could. He pushed it through, wincing at the goblin's strangled yelps, and like the others before it, it dissolved into severely fragmented light and disappeared upwards. Whatever that phenomenon was, Raguna was admittedly grateful that it saved him from seeing the more gruesome results of his attacks on the creatures.

The three adventurers all turned to the machine again; it was clear what they were dealing with now.

"This is some kind of... generator for monsters." Mei voiced what they were all thinking. "No wonder they were so plentiful."

Raguna nor Lara had ever seen such sophisticated technology before. The latter was deeply unsettled; her hands clasped together, she gasped, "Who... Who would put something like that here? We must dispose of it."

"Then... this was what was behind the monster attacks on the village?" asked Raguna, his expectations completely subverted.

"...That's the deduction I've come to as well." Mei nodded, but still sounded uncertain. Her expression hardened as she scrutinized the generator's exterior. "We need to investigate. This may not be the only one, either - the metal looks cheap; they may have been mass-produced."

"But who-"

"That's not important. Not right now. We need to get these out of here, and soon. Then we need to get the hell out of here and warn Godwin."

Raguna and Lara nodded, agreeing to Mei's plan of action - but fate, it would seem, had other plans for them. Just as the farmer readied his broad sword to smash the device to pieces, a tremor shook the walls of the cavern with the ferocity and audacity of crashing thunder.

"Get down!" shouted Mei, but her warning went unheard under the noise of the sudden quake. Rubble was falling, and more pressingly, earth was shifting beneath them. Cracks appeared like a hastily-spun spider's web, cutting into the cave's foundation.

There were more shouts that fell on deaf ears as the black beneath Raguna, Mei, and Lara, swallowed them up.