Edit: sorry y'all seems that the export or upload of the doc went wrong and screwed up the layout of the document.
Walking into the cave from the tower gate felt like bursting through a wall of heat. The magma had cooled onto an uneven floor of black stone. What remained of the machinery loomed like twisted skeletons in the dim light of the portal.
"Yang, can you ever go anywhere without making a mess?" Ruby teased as she looked around at her sister's handy work. Weiss nodded approvingly.
"If she keeps the damage to my father's belongings, I am not complaining. Yang, do you think you could scare him with your devil form?" Weiss asked with a sly smile on her lips while she crushed a charred security helmet under her feet.
Yang Grinned flashing her sharpened teeth and flicking her devil tail. "Say the word Ice queen. I put him in a straight jacket." She then looked over the floor. "Strange, didn't think the magma would all be gone." She thought out loud. Lance shook his head. "Not if it was naturally there, Weiss. Does your father have machines that can melt stone into magma and keep it so?"
Weiss shook her head, "Dont think so, and noting like that would fit into a cavern like this without cooking everyone inside. What are you thinking?"
"I'm wondering, how did your none magical father get his hands on the red hive and know how to use it like that?"
Blake scowled, "Jacques Schnee, with magic? Lance, I know we are supposed to be evil and all, but I feel like that is something we can't morally allow to exist."
Lance raised a brow. "By the gods, what kind of shit did that man do to you all that you have such a hate for him?" Weiss shook her head. "My lord, if we made a list of all the reason to hate that Cretin, we be here for a lifetime and only get halfway."
Blake looked at what remained of a map on the wall. "You guys think this is correct?"
Weiss walked over and frowned, "Not a chance, there is no way we are this close to where father would put a safe house like that even if it was his only source of water. And that waste facility would be way too close. Besides, if this is a dust mine than this cavern would be no were near big enough for a refinery, especially if they turned half the floor into magma."
"So, the map is completely useless?" Lance asked again, earning a shake of Weiss head. "Not completely I think, all these parts are there just not like its put on the map, the mines alone, probably span miles with a carved out factory in an enormous cavern that was carved out of a dust free part of the rock." Lance cursed. The minions stiffened, feeling their master's distress, and hurried towards him. A few motioned for Yang and Ruby to also take their place in the forming protective circle. "This whole thing was a trap," he barked. Nobody needed to see the gauntleted hand that clamped around the hilt of his sword to know the knuckles had gone white. Blake scanned the dark room. Fire sprang to life in Yang's hands.as she stood in front of the group at the rim of their protection. Weiss stood Besides Ruby, who turned Cressent rose in its gun form. "Penny for your thoughts?"
"I take that has nothing to do with our Penny?" Lance asked, staring towards the warped doors at the entrance of the room. "No novice mage can use the red hive like that, and no experienced miner would put such a useful item like that in a by chamber instead of the full factory floor." the pendant around his gauntlet suddenly felt painfully heavy. "Someone that knows about me was using it as bait."
"Any suspicions?" Weiss asked only for Gnarl to speak over the connection. The elder minion's voice was hasty, like he wanted to give all the answers in a way that left no obvious choice. "Well, there are plenty of beings down in the Abyss that would want to take on an overlord. Perhaps there is a young succubus lady looking for a mate? Oh, or perhaps some fallen hero seeking to feed their ego for old time's sake. Maybe some useless villain seeks a second wind trying to take your throne, sire."
Lance remained silent. Only the clink of the pendant tapping against the gauntlet in the cave's draft came from his way. The minions trembled and shrunk in their place. Even the mistresses could feel the young man's distress radiate off of him. Gnarl spoke again, uncharacteristically soothing this time. "Sire, it does not have to be.."
"There you see that?!" Blake yelled, pointing in the wall Yang flung a ball of fire in the direction Blake pointed at. A blue glint shone in the firelight. Ruby bolted towards the wall with her semblance and returned, holding an uncomfortably familiar blue crystal. So familiar that it made Lance's stomach turn and his heart to burn painfully within the shadow of his helmet, an unseen tear burned his eyes. Pain also crept into Gnarl's voice.
"My…. Lord." there was a suspicious change mid speech as if he had meant to use another word entirely. "Dont, Gnarl, just don't." He said, sounding tired. "We both know Titania created these crystals. Unless Titania somehow betrayed me, there is only one other person in the Abyss that can make them." Lance growled.
"I'm touched that you haven't forgotten me. Shall we disperse with the hide and seek, then?" a voice echoed through the cavern. Ruby flinched, grabbing for lance's hand, desperate to give whatever support she could.
"Nero," Lance hissed.
"In the…well flesh might not be apt now, I think of it. How have you been, Lance? Wasted no time gathering a court I see, and they get along most impressive. I don't think any Overlord ever had lovers that could get along longer than a threesome."
"Brother, I can restore your life. You will be free from Juno. Join me." Ruby felt her heart throb as she heard the longing pain in her lover's voice. The voice of a brother, not a lord.
"Dont beg, Lance, it does not suit you. Let's face it, in a world of fanatics who needs a manipulator? But down here, I have never known such power. I have my own minions, my court. We will have this battle, Lance, and finally, we will know just how mighty the two of us are."
"Nero, I want to bargain on one point." Lance said the steel was back in his voice, even if it still lacked his usual fire.
"Wich is?" Nero asked, a vicious pride in his voice now.
"Titania is to be left unharmed." The request seemed to steal all the tension and sound from the room. The silence hung between them for what felt like ages. Till, with a far more leveled voice, Nero answered. "That…On that you have my word, as little as our oath might be word being what we are."
"On this one thing, I trust your word." Lance sighed with a hung head and a drawn blade.
"Then, let us begin," the fading voice said as the doors to the mine opened for a horde of skeletons.
The skeleton horde streamed into the room like a flood. Ruby locked eyes with Lance, who nodded as his blade switched into a belt fed machine gun. The SDC security uniform did little to protect the first row of wraiths from the deadly hail, but there were too many for the defenders to keep the horde at bay. Minions screamed in joy as the chance to fight presented themselves on the Overlord's command they lept towards the undead. Yang was not far behind magical fire scorched, breaking bone to black. Her sharp pointed devil tail slashed like a knife cutting into armor joints.
Weiss Dueled a trio of skeletons, her blade parrying shock batons before summoning a silver Beowülf that swiped away a forth assailant as she decapitated all tree undead. Blake wrapped the ribbon of her weapon around a wraith's leg and swung it sideways, leaving a mountain of bone behind. "Blake behind you!" Ruby yelled as an enormous skeleton wielding a barbed axe struck towards the Faunus, missing Blake by an inch. The unsettling sight of her own doubleganger's head being split from shoulder to hip made Blake swallow.
"What is that thing?!" Ruby yelled over the dim of the fight, dispatching a fivefold of guards like a farmer would harvest a row of grain. Lance crushed the skull of a crawling skeleton under foot as he made his way over. "Troll," he said matter-of-factly. "Honestly wondered when we would see a troll. Buggers have been a pain in overlord backsides since before Gnarl was born."
Ruby walked over to him. The minions jumped up and down like excited dogs. "You know how to take it down?"
"You can dodge its strikes?"
"Pff like you have to ask,"
"Get its back towards us. The reds will give you cover fire."
"Aaaaand you?"
"Why spoil the surprise?"
Ruby rolled her eyes and petal rushed forwards, ducking, jumping and weaving away from the Troll who was wearing a SDC janitorial uniform and a name tag with "Sniffer". While dodging the axe, the red minions peppered sniffer's back with fire balls. Slowly she turned its back towards the rest of her allies. The thumping of small feet heralded the charge of the browns. They stabbed at its legs and clawed at its back, causing it to let go of its axe with one arm to grab at the creatures. Ruby swung Cresent rose to her enemy's weapon arm, cleaving it off. A black mist condensed above the Troll Lance manifested blade raised swinging down slamming the full force of his fall square in the middle of the creature's skull, causing it to splinter. The headless skeleton fell apart in a heap of grave dust.
"This new armor is a step up from the leather jacket." Lance sided, earning a exited yes from over the communication to the tower. Brigette had apparently heard that her work was appreciated.
Weiss walked through the doors, grabbed a dust crystal from a mine cart, flung it to the wall and causing a thick layer of ice to form. "It works?" she mushed to herself out loud.
"Shouldern't it?" Lance asked, eyeing the glints of crystals in the stones. "Anything that makes it different?"
Weiss shook her head. "That's just it, it does not. A few years back Atlas tried to go into space, but the dust lost all its power as soon as it left the atmosphere."
Lance nodded. "And this is a different plane all together." Following her logic, how did the Remanantine mineral even get here?
Blake Tapped her chin. "Well, this place is hell, right? Maybe it uses parts of people's past to torture them?" Gnarl's voice came over the connection. "Mistress Blake is correct. Back when Master's grand father entered the Abyss, it was filled to the brim with man-eating pumpkins, bad theater productions and exploding sheep."
The mention of explosions made Weiss look over at Yang Lance, soon mirrored her expression of panic. "Yang, once we go down there, no fire," Lance said, earning a confused hum from Yang.
"Uh, what's wrong?" The blonde asked confused when all her companions suddenly looked at her as if she was a living explosive.
"If this mine is made to torture the owner of a mining company, then everything that can go wrong is probably twice as likely to happen." Lance said, "And from what Grubby and the other digging minions told me, one of the worse things you can come across down in mines is." A Loud bang interrupted the young overlord as a red minion had snuck up behind a rather gassy brown who was now laying on the ground with a burned backside. Yang blinked as she looked from the toasted minion to the mine shaft, her lips forming an o.
Weiss nodded."Well, that, plus the extra danger that any explosion and resulting cave in would have the added risk of setting off a dust reaction."
Blake hissed through her teeth an ugly thought creeping into her mind "So Weiss, are the old rumors of your father causing mining accidents to get rid of problematic workers true?"
"I dont know for sure," Weiss said till recently she didn't want to think of that. "But I don't put it past him." She admitted.
"And his safety protocols were…" Ruby added to the obvious questions.
"Short of minimum, mostly there because to ensure he didn't lose profit or got sued rather than the workers."
"So now he does not have a council or other authority figure to worry about, his safety standards are.."
"Even worse, yeah, there is a big chance for that." Weiss stated Ruby looked at the minions. "If any of you get us stuck, I will get my spoon." She then turned towards Lance and Weiss. "So no attacks that could cause structural damage, nothing that can ignite gas and a high likelihood of a full wraith army waiting on us down there led by the guy that knows we are coming?"
"That is one way of putting it, Lance said with a grunt." Yang frowned. "And this Nero guy is really your..?"
"I.." Lance looked down at the medallion. "He is the one kill I regret."
"Sweetheart?" Yang asked as she heard the pain in his voice and reached out a hand but he turned around and walked towards the mine entrance Blake looked at the man's back and her ears fell flat while Weiss moved her mouth silently as if the words did not want to come out.
"He can't even get it out of his mouth?" Yang asked, looking at ruby who held her crown in her hands. "If you had killed me in self defense, would you be able to talk about it?" Ruby asked in little more than a whisper that turned her team's blood to ice. For the first time, the Lovers part of the mistress' position felt real to them. It was not the mighty Overlord seeking advice, it was not the tyrant that send them out to crush his enemies. It was Lance that carried a wounded hearth with him for months now, a wound Nero had just ripped wide open all over again.
The mine was as mine is, cramped, dark and labyrinthian. Lance could hear his own footsteps echo through the tunnels ahead. Stealth was useless now, anyway. Sparkles of dust crystals glittered as Lance held up a magical crystal. He remembered a time he had explored the netherworld's caverns with his siblings and had gotten lost overnight. He had carried a light crystal ever since. The tension in the group was thick enough to cut but nobody said a word, Even Gnarl's silence was tense as Lance Imagined the minion master was looking sideways at Penny's room where Titania was working on the map. How were they going to tell her that her brothers were aiming to kill each other for a second time? Lance couldn't tell how long he had been walking when the tunnel widened and they saw him.
A red-headed young man, gaunt and scarred. He had matted, dirty red hair; a bloody pickaxe rested in his hands. The burn mark of the SDC over one of his eyes glowed like the embers of a fire. The remaining eye glowed with madness. "Need to find him. He makes it okay. He made us."
"Adam?" Blake asked.
"Blake?" He looked up and grinned. "Good, you can help," he said as he twitched. "Jungel, need to get to the Jungel. He's there. He can help us get past the Gass. past the green demons."
"Jungel, Green Demons? Sounds like he has run in to the Greens Master," Gnarl said. "I wonder if the smell drove him this mad?"
"He holds us here, work, escape, run die and repeatedly!" Adam Glared at Weiss. "You, Shinee, he will see you suffer."
Weiss rolled her eyes. "Trust me, hurting me will not bother him as much as you think it will." She pulled her blade out. "Nor will it be as easy as you fantasise." Adam dashed forwards, swinging his pickaxe overhead. Weiss stabbed forwards, expecting Adam's aura to stop her blade in contact, only to feel it sink into his body till it met bone. Adam and Weiss both froze in shock. Then everything happened all at once: the smell of burning flesh and hair filled the cave as Adam burst into flames with a loud scream. Weiss pulled her blade back and jumped away. Adam ran into the tunnel, screeching like a banshee.
"How? Where was his aura?" Weiss asked as she wiped a beat of sweat off her pale forehead.
"It's the abyss, my Lady," Gnarl answered. "This Adam fellow is nothing but a tormented spirit. I imagine you can't conjure an aura if you are made of soul." Gnarl Adressed Lance. "Quick master, follow him, worse case scenario. You find out if fauns tastes like human or beef.
"No worse case scenario! He causes an explosion!, Weiss yelled as they followed the screaming Faunus into the tunnels. Ruby turned her head and shushed her friend. "Are you seriously worried I'm Jinxing us right now, Ruby?" Weiss asked with Ruby nodding.
"Hell dimension, if there is any place that can hear you say stuff and take it as a challenge, then it is this place." Ruby said, sadly the next room would prove her right as Adam ran straight for a pile of dust crystals Ruby Weiss and Yang Jumped Backwards While lance and Blake lunged forward trying to stop Adam from running into it. The explosion rocked the room, rock and dust falling down in a deadly rain as the roof caved in. Lance Grabbed Blake and shadow dashed away from a bolder. The force of the explosion sent them down a shaft, a pile of rubble blocking it behind them. The last thing Lance heard was Blake's loud oof as they landed.
"Mas.. ord…up…. Lance?" Blake's eyes were like golden embers in the dark cave. "Are you okay?" She asked under her breath.
"I'm fine Blake," Lance said, knowing full well the cat eared mistress knew he was talking out of his ass. His armor dented and scorched. Not for the first time, he was thankful for keeping his armor, even with an aura.
"Well, that makes one of us. My leg, I think it's broken." Blake whispered, "I don't think I will walk soon." then her eyes shot up to the darkness and she let out a hiss.
"Well, well, well, look what we have here." A fire lith itself from inside a skull staff held by an old woman. Lance felt her magical power waft off of her. He went to stand between her and Blake, holding his sword between them. One look at the cracked steel was enough for lance to know that the weapon could not switch to its gun form soon.
"What do you want, Witch?"
The woman cackled as she waved him off. "Like you, for evil to survive, of course." She looked over at Blake, who tried and failed to stand off her broken leg. The witch's spell was quick as lightning and hit Blake in the chest. She shrunk, grew shining black fur and snatched up by the Witch.
"Ah, such a sweet little kitty," the witch cooed, as she shoved Blake in a straw basket. "Merw?!" Blake exclaimed while her golden eyes looked at Lance, startled. The witch turned around. "Well, young lord, follow me. I'm not discussing such matters in a place like this."
"You best follow her, master. Spells like that are not easily broken when the caster dies."
Lance cursed before looking up. "Ruby and the others, are they?"
"the tunnel has collapsed. I fear they will need to find another way out and you are stuck until we find a suitable place to open a tower gate…. Hold on, my lord Mistress Brigette has informed me about someone in the Privet quarters….. Oh…."
Lanc stiffened as he heard a familiar voice in the background and placed his gauntleted hand over his face. "Darkness preserve you Penny, this might be difficult."
—--Side chapter,--
Battle started the moment Jaun stepped on the stairs. A party of skeletal warriors streamed down the stairs in a defensive charge. Pyrrha and Jaun locked shields as their friends readied their weaponry. And launched a volley of gunfire.
"Blimy" Lena called out as the creatures walked through the bullet hail, uncaring of splitting skulls or missing skeletal limbs. "This lot is a lot tougher than the one back when we found that stone!"
"It's the Abyssal lord." Zelan said. "They are connected to his willpower. Fareeha, try using the spell from the spell stone." Hana shot another volley of bullets into the skeleton. "Kindly without blasting us into another afterlife." The huntress threw her hands up. "Justice Rains from above!" a rain of energy beams rained down on the skeletons, leaving only dust. Hanna laughed as she did an impression of her friend. "Justice rains from above. Phi, you are such a geek." Lena elbowed the Rabit fauns in her ribs. "Oi, don't be mean. I think it was cool, Luve. We could use some heroics right about now." Hanna stiffened her laughter. "For real tough, a battle cry?"
"Zoran told me to do it. It wouldn't work right without I kept blasting things I didn't want to blast."
The goddess nodded. "Its not strange actually, most magic incantations are less of a component and more a guide. Intend is a great part of spells verbalising the intend helps keeping things from going airy and blowing up in once face."
"Abt choice in words, considering last time." Fareeha said bitterly. Jaun could see the bitterness in the young woman's eyes as clearly as he could see the absence of the shield wall. Everyone missed Brigette dearly, and no words could heal that hurt. Before he could try, the doors of the keep opened out stepped a tall figure with a deep red robe. This was no wraith or lost soul, this was a creature native to the abyss that had crawled out of the bloody muck to serve at the feet of the Abyssal lord and had reached enough favour to be rewarded for it. majordomo of an ever changing citadel of horrors. Of all the rooms he knew, the ins and outs outside of the private chambers of his master from which the abyssal lord had banned him from a failure edged in the creature's title in mockery.
"I am the chamberlain of this keep. My master is much impressed by thy valour and bids thee welcome."
Jaun looked at the figure, squeezing Crocea Mors Handel until Pyhra grabbed his arm. "Dont, he is an ambassador, letting us in. Attacking him will put the whole place on lockdown."
With a scowl, Jaun sheeted his blade. "So we leave you alone and your master will just let us in, is it?" the man let out a bark of laughter. "No indeed, my master has been eager for a new challenger, so don't waste his time on idle talk. Enter or go back."
"I can't go back then," Jaun said as he stepped past the chamberlain. His companions soon followed him. Piles of armor, weapons, treasure, and skeletons filled the opened crystalline room; vials of glowing liquid poked out of satchels accompanied by paper scrolls.
"So this room screaming Final boss to you guys as well?" Hanna asked as she poked a sword hilt sticking from a pile of shields.
"Pleas tell me this is not what I think it is." Angela said, knowing the look of human bone well enough to realize that at least the human skeletons were indeed real.
The chamberlain nodded. "All what remains of the so-called heroes that dared to face my master's gambit. Yet you are the first he has invited in himself. Perhaps you are the person he has been seeking these past weeks. He and his…visitors." The chamberlain said with a disgusted tone in his voice. Jaun shared a look with Zelan. The brothers were still meddling. "Well, if the rules are clear. What shall be your buy in?"
"Isn't risking or lives enough?" Angela demanded.
"Hardly, after all. Are your lives yours?" The creature asked, brow raised at Pyhra
"I'm a Huntress." Pyhra responded. "My life belongs to the kingdoms I need to defend."
"Precisely. Your heroes have your loyalties. The goddess might as well be a soul in the abyss, yet you possess a thing of value." It said raising a bony finger at a Lena "Her."
"Me?" Lena asked.
More the object in your chest, the hand of time, a relic that can turn back the clock of a realm if used right. Jaun looked at Lena, a spark lith his face. If he could get the hand of time back to, remnant he could make it all right. They could be okay, they could stop the fall. They could save everyone. He did not see the chamberlain grin and reach for a leaver. "I take this as an acceptance of the bet?"
"Yes," splendid the lever growled as the floor opened up. The next thing Jaun knew was a struggle against rushing water.