Knights Apocalyptica

Waiting was pure torture. Guard work was always going to be boring when compared to marching into an old-world government vault. But it was ten times worse than he expected. Erec walked back and forth and tried his best to keep his nerves together; Robin and Juliana had gone on about him proving capable, but part of him craved war. Staring into a dark tunnel and picturing what was ahead was worse than pulling teeth.

Thankfully, they didn’t waste any more time once everyone got together.

The standard operation was simple. Knights led the way since if they got peppered with bullets. They could take them. Meanwhile, those with guns would move behind them, forming an effective two-layer strategy.

It had the benefit of letting Boldwick look at any possible traps, though, as they found out by the occasional body, any traps had already been triggered.

Before they marched, Erec stole another look at Enide. Her eyes were tense as she walked down into the tunnel, locked ahead with a tight grip on her gun. Her eyes drifted to the concrete walls around them; he didn’t think she caught his look before he pulled away to do his job.

The tunnel was quiet. Aside from the bodies and occasionally wrecked machines, there was nothing—only further proof of Seven-Snakes.

About half a mile downward, they came to a massive steel-vault door torn apart. A hole melted clean through the middle, which must’ve required an enormous amount of magic or tech. Inside it was flashing red lights and an annoying alarm.

“INTRUDERS DETECTED. MAIN HALL BREACHED.” Over and over again. Erec shifted his axe at his side as they stared at the hole.

“In we go, I suppose.” Boldwick declared, stepping forward and closely following behind through the breach.

When he’d pictured a vault, he’d thought of something like Vortex Industries, but this place was nowhere like that—in either direction, roads stretched below, disappearing into corners and turns of red flashing lights. Ahead of them was a lobby—with sparking and broken turrets all over the place—more bodies and blood and a veritable farm of broken steel.

The roads that stretched from the lobby drifted far, and based on the navigation on the visual display of his Armor, they went outward from Worth.

Boldwick gave the dark paths ahead a long look, then sighed. “Goddess, that’s a lot of unknown ground to cover. A lot bigger than expected. There could be alternative entrances as well. This is not a vault.”

“No Vault is the same,” the leader of the Pendragons entered the lobby, looking in either direction. His tattoos seemed to almost crawl on his skin with the light. “The only thing that unites them is they contain old-world secrets. By that definition, it is, without a doubt, a vault. I suggest we pick our directions and get exploring.”

“We can’t afford to leave any of my Knights behind to guard this exit on a chance that it might be the only way out.”

“I can leave one of mine instead,” the Pendragon nodded. “All you must do is trust us. You do trust us by now, I take it?”

Boldwick paused and then slowly nodded. “We’re in this together. May we find this bastard fast and get out of here before we wake up anything.”

— -☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —

Miles. Erec walked for miles under that annoying flashing light and thanked the Goddess that the even more ear-piercing intruder alert was localized to the entrance. Every so often, the tunnel split. And so their numbers spread further and further.

On the rare occasion, he happened across a door on the side of his tunnel and, upon breaking in, found a service supply closet.

That was the common theme of his adventure—service tunnels. Everyone else was finding more tangible signs of the old-world: barracks, kitchens, and even an entertainment district filled with deserted bars. The most interesting of the finds was a lab complete with non-functional monitoring equipment. They’d sent Corey there to scavenge whatever he could. But all Erec got was service tunnels, with a rail that ran through the center of his.

But there was something. The further he went, the more Worth was behind his back. And the deeper his tunnel got. The constant drop in elevation only heightened the nervous Pendragons. Going deeper into the earth was like being home to the Knights, so when they began complaining to one another, Erec was surprised but understood. For people that lived based on freedom and the road, this was like walking into hell.

What didn’t make sense about this place, and the expired food and rations his allies reported, was why nobody survived here.

They’d found skeletons, but far too few to explain away. These people survived the fire, had been locked in a vault, yet still managed to die.

“This sucks,” Enide complained from his side and took careful steps forward.

For the last mile, the tunnel took a steeper decrease in elevation, and a series of steel rings decorated its exterior. They were spaced apart at an exact width and without an apparent purpose. It was odd, but they blended into his peripheral vision after the first couple. After all, he had to focus on the dark head, but… Part of him was happy Enide wormed her way into the group of five Pendragons with them.

With how spread out this place was, they’d narrowed the group to Two Knights. Him and Dame Robin. Which should be enough to handle themselves if they spotted Seven-Snakes. Long enough for help to arrive anyway. “It’s frustrating we haven’t run into much, I agree,” Erec said.

“Not that! Oh, that’s right, you used to live in caves like this.” Enide said.

Erec stepped over one of the steel rings, looking at the carefully smoothed surface as he did. “Still do. The King gave me the Seventh Cavern, which is a few layers down. Before that, my family lived almost as deep as you could go. Though, my Cavern is… I’m unsure what I’ll be returning to.”

“How do you deal with the feeling of all that rock above you? My skin is itching…” Enide looked up at the row of lights that led deeper into her hell.

“It didn’t use to bug me. I didn’t think about it until I saw the sky. Now it’d bother me to be down here too long.”

“Seriously, my skin is going wild; is something in the air? Wait…”

The steel rings ahead of them began to glow a light orange, then a blinding white. Without thinking, Erec grabbed Enide and shoved her towards a wall, putting himself between him and the rest of the tunnel. He braced and expected gunfire; the rest of the Pendragons and Dame Robin followed his lead. She used her steel Armor as a protective shield.

A whirring noise crashed into them, and Enide scratched at her skin. The Pendragons let out alarmed cries as the rings of the tunnel glowed a blinding white.

“No way! Is that a Rift?!” Enide yelled, her voice barely above the horrible whirring.

[This design… There’s no way.]

Tense minutes passed, and the group huddled together for safety. At any minute, he expected the rings to explode; or for a monster to appear. Anything might come out and attack. Fury began to stir, waiting for something to appear for him to bury an axe into.

Yet nothing came. The whirring flowed to a stop, the glow ceased, and once more, silence returned.

Erec looked down the tunnel. The way they’d come was still. But below, the place was spilling steam or smoke, rising to vent in their direction. Enide stepped out of his protection, pointing a finger down the tunnel.

“There was—was it a Rift? It was almost like it. For a second, I could’ve sworn…”

“How do you know?” Dame Robin asked.

“Felt it before. Feels the same way every time. Skin starts to itch. I think it’s because it throws off what I’m used to. It touches the in-between and breaks through it.”

“How could there be a Rift down here?” Erec asked, gripping his weapon tightly.

[They stole our research!]

“It was weird, not exactly like it, and now it's gone.” Enide shivered and frowned. “We gotta see what it was.”

Dame Robin radioed the others, and they began to walk. It only took another minute for the light strips to flash red and the steam to clear. But, down the tunnel was danger.

A wave of drones flew, followed by walking mechanoids armed with larger guns. Behind those, and slower, were even bigger machinates, bordering on the side of vehicles, slowly plowing their way up the tunnel on massive treads. Not only had some allegedly opened a Rift, but in doing so, they’d woken what appeared to be the slumbering beast of the most guarded part of this facility in doing so.

There wasn’t time to run and nowhere to hide from these killing machines.

“Watch me. Then show me who you are.” Erec told Enide, stepping in front of her.

He swung his axe around, tightening his grip on the handle, unable to stop the smile from spreading across his face. Fury began to burn bright, pure light in this darkness, and he’d let it carry him through anything this place had to throw at him. He’d kill anything that got in his way.

Erec released a war cry and charged alone toward a wave of deadly old-world war machines.

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