Chapter 12 :: Quest for the Zircon

"Here we are," Alice said, putting the Zephyr right up against a cavern in the mountains at the southern edge of the continent. "When I lower the ramp, you have three minutes to make it to that cave. Take only what you need and do not look back. Radiation here is deadly even if exposure is only for a few moments."

Alice gave Kratos and Mithos thick coats and pulled her hood over her face. She took only her scythe while Kratos brought his sword and Mithos his sword with a few healing items.

"This feels a little to big," Mithos remarked. The sleeves were a few inches longer than his hands.

"Open!" Alice shouted, lowering the ramp at the back of the airship. "Run!"

Mithos called his wings and glided across the snow into the cavern. As soon as he left the ship, a painfully cold chill came down upon his face. He felt his nose hairs freezing into ice. Once Kratos and Alice were clear of the ship, the ramp automatically retracted to protect the ship from the radiation.

"Are we safe yet?" Mithos asked.

"No, we have to make it at least to the lower caverns," Alice said, losing no speed as she ran. Even Kratos had difficulty catching up with her as she bounced from cavern wall to cavern wall. The tunnel led deep into the mine several hundred feet underground. "We should be safe now."

"Oh my..." Mithos said. Three skeletons, two adults and a child, slept peacefully covered by a blanket next to the mine's entrance.

"They must have been people fleeing the attack," Kratos said.

"Gods of the beyond, carry these spirits to the afterlife," Alice said, kneeling before them and praying. Without Martel's staff, they could only rely on some queer glowing crystals or Kratos' torch inside the mine.

"Mithos, come," Kratos urged.

"This mine connects two caverns, Gnome's and Celsius'. Both of them are summon spirits," Alice informed them. "Gnome's cavern is where the Zircon was mined."

"So can we go and form pacts with these spirits?" Mithos asked.

"It would be a waste of time as neither Gnome nor Celsius are used by any of the nations," Kratos said. When the mine came to a fork, Alice stuck her scythe into the left one. The edge of it immediately built up a coat of frost.

"The other way is likely Gnome's place."

"I can hear... dancing," Mithos said. His ears, sharper because of his crystal, picked up the sound of congas beating in the distance. As one tunnel led to another, they found themselves in some kind of miniature city. Tiny buildings only a tall as a man's shoulders had been carved into the walls.

"Hey, hey! Some crazy losers dropped into Gnomelettetown," a tiny man said. Apparently one of the inhabitants of the small village, the munchkin was only a foot tall.

"You guys here for some of our rocks?" another little man said.

"Do you happen to have any Zircon?" Kratos asked.

"'Do you happen to have any Zircon?' Geez, you're such a stiff guy," the first little man said.

"We'll pay you whatever you want," Alice said.

"All right. A billion Gald," the second gnome said.

"Now, now, now... Just give him the blue stone for free. They don't seem to be bad people. Sheesh, kids these days," a voice said from the walls.

"Whatever you say, boss," the first gnome said, tipping his pointy hat to the rock wall. "This way and watch your step, since we just built that arcade over there."

"What's an arcade?" asked Mithos. Strangely rythmic music blared from the interior of a small building as a rainbow of lights pulsated from within.

"You've never seen an arcade before? You play video games and Dance Dance Revolution."

"Video Games..."

"Dance Dance..."

"Revolution..."

The three were utterly confused by the strange terminology the little Gnomelette used.

"Never mind. Guys, we need to open the roof," the Gnomelette told his friends in a warehouse as small as a shoebox. The flat roof unfolded neatly, revealing a large blue crystal.

"This should be more than enough," Alice said. While it would have taken ten Gnomelettes to carry it, Alice picked it up with one hand, tucking it under her cloak.

"Now that we have the Zircon, I think we should return to the surface," Kratos advised.

"No. We must push further on," Alice said, looking down a dark passageway where no glowing crystals lit the way.

"So we can find the summon spirits?" asked Mithos.

"This tunnel seems to connect with the surface. It will be faster this way than the way we came," Alice said.

"Hmm... Guess I have to trust your judgment then," Kratos replied. Within the tunnel, droplets of water fell from the ceiling onto their heads. Occasionally, they heard the sound of a rushing underground river in the distance.

"The ground here's different," Mithos observed. The ground beneath their feet did not feel like hard bedrock, but instead appeared cracked and dried up.

"A river ran through here once. Alice, are you certain that this leads to the surface, because it seems we are only going deeper?" Kratos said.

"Trust me," Alice replied. "Stop, Mithos."

"What? Why?" Mithos asked. The brittle ground beneath him broke through as it collapsed, sending him plunging down into a lower level. By stabbing the end of her scythe into the ground, the rock under the other two also fell through.

"I am sorry, Mithos. It was something that had to be done," Alice said.

"Kratos, help!"