Rangers Endgame

Chapter 103: Underground Hideout

MAEVE:

Maeve and her team followed Matoi through the labyrinthine depths. Their footsteps echoing against the aged stone, coupled with the crackling torches, produced a foreboding melody. Koan kept a steady stream of radiance flowing into Matoi as the ranger kept searching the area with his orbs.

"Careful. There are artifacts hidden within the floor in this area that are designed to siphon radiance to the point of backlash." Matoi warned after his orbs analyzed the hall they'd rounded the corner to.

Koan stepped forward confidently. "Perhaps I can be of assistance."

Matoi looked at him with slight uncertainty in his eyes. "Are you sure? From what I can tell, there are several powerful artifacts."

"I wouldn't be an S-rank if my abilities weren't up to par. You can trust me with this."

As everyone looked at one another, Maeve stepped up. She'd seen what Koan could do before so she had no doubt he wouldn't let her down. She nodded to him and he drew his wand, pushing a steady stream of radiance into him.

As she walked forward, she passed the invisible threshold and immediately felt her radiance being stripped away from her. She let out a sharp gasp, the sensation of her insides tugging downward slightly disorienting.

When she gathered herself and stood up straight, Koan pushed his radiance into the rest of the group and they too followed her before being startled at the strange feeling. Everyone walked through the area of effect, Koan's tether acting as a lifeline that continuously replenished what was lost.

Maeve glanced back at Koan, looking for any signs of fatigue as his radiance was both ripped out of him and donated simultaneously, but he was completely relaxed. This trap was hardly an inconvenience, merely serving to highlight his massive pool of radiance.

When they reached the end of the area of effect, the strange feeling faded and they were left with the same amounts of radiance they had before.

"Are you okay?" Maeve asked Koan to make sure.

"Of course," he holstered his wand and stretched his arms. "I told you, you won't have to worry about your reserves while I'm around."

Continuing down the hall, they passed by a series of rooms. They all resembled the last few rooms they'd entered prior with research notes, wooden tables and chairs, and empty test tubes. However, there was one room in particular that was jarringly different from the rest at the end of the hall.

It was barren of any furniture, parchments, or ornaments. Matoi sent a couple of orbs into the suspiciously empty room and signalled the group not to enter.

"It's an illusory room that takes advantage of human curiosity to get you to venture inside and investigate, only to wind up falling through the false floor into a pit of spikes," Matoi confirmed, recalling his orbs and continuing down another hall.

Dirty stretchers were knocked over in the next corridor and paintings of tall humanoid beings roaming a primordial landscape were hung along the walls. Matoi's orbs scanned the paintings but judging from his unbothered expression, Maeve assumed they weren't rigged in any way. Glancing over, she saw a sparkle in Akane's eyes as she jotted something down in her sketchbook.

Normally, she'd remind her to stay focused, but with two Sentinels and a tank sandwiching them, she figured she'd let it slide this once.

Walking further, Matoi held up a hand to stop everyone, then pointed to the walls. "There are several hidden artifacts in the walls. Outsiders passing through will trigger a field of radiance that'll..." He trailed off and picked up a rock. "Actually, it'll be better if I show you."

He turned to Sentinel Kiyoshi and gestured to his sword. "May I?"

The Sentinel gave him a questioning look but unsheathed his sword and handed it to him. Matoi dipped his head gratefully, pricked his finger on the tip, then handed it back. Letting a drop fall onto the rock, he tossed it down the hall.

The air crackled with the trap's activation and hundreds of amber particles flickered into existence. Streams of jagged light shot from the walls and arced through the particles until striking the rock. Its surface turned bright red before the lightning incinerated the rock to ash in an instant.

"Interesting," Sentinel Kakkona said thoughtfully. "Let's find another way."

"That won't be necessary," Masaru approached the front. "You don't need to worry as I will heal you all faster than the trap can...do whatever it has done in that little demonstration."

Without giving anyone time to object, he'd already lit himself alight with a vibrant green aura and confidently stepped into the trap's range. He winced as lightning jumped to him, but his defense held firm and it didn't take him long to regain his composure.

He turned to face the group. "Now then, shall we keep moving?" He casually flicked his wand and similar green auras swirled protectively around them.

Seeing as his healing abilities were more than capable of warding off the lightning, everyone passed through. Maeve reflexively winced as well when entering the field as multiple bolts of gold furiously bombarded her green aura.

The feeling was different from the last trap they'd walked through, like hundreds of warm blades pressing into her but never forceful enough to break skin. Looking behind her to check on Toju, he barely showed any unease when stepping into the field, only sparing the lightning a glance before settling into his defensive stance again while watching their flank.

As everyone left the field, Masaru dismissed his radiance and their green auras fizzled.

As they continued forward, Maeve realized something. Kiyoshi and Kakkona's detection artifacts hadn't gone off for the entire thirty minutes they'd been down there. On the one hand, this made their task simpler since there wouldn't be any resistance. But on the other hand, she was left feeling uneasy. There weren't nearly as many Second Grades in the village as she was expecting.

'Where is everyone?' She wondered, keeping a hand on her pommel.

They arrived at a darker section of the underground system, the scarce torches providing limited visibility. Matoi sent out his orbs, their light dispersing the darkness as they scanned for hidden contraptions and illuminating rusted bars that made up most of the walls on either side.

"All clear." Matoi said as he walked forward, the group proceeding cautiously behind him.

The writhing stench of decay assaulted Maeve's nose, only intensifying as they passed by the vacant cells to explore the area. Akane lingered back, no doubt capturing the dynamic scene on a page. Masaru and Koan stuck relatively close while quietly comparing the cells.

Maeve glanced back at Toju, who was crouched with a rock in each hand as he studied their textures intensely. After a few seconds, he carelessly tossed the left rock over his shoulder and opened his satchel to place the other in a plastic container labeled "Sotiri." She caught a glimpse of other containers that held ordinary stones, each marked with the names "Fire Glades," "Great Red Plains," and "Rangers' Graveyard."

She always found his hobby a tad odd, though charming in a strange way she couldn't quite understand.

Finding a cell with its door still ajar, she opened it and stepped inside. Once her foot passed the threshold, she stopped as an ache suddenly spread throughout her body.

Though startled, she reasoned it couldn't have been a trap since Matoi had already confirmed so. Reluctant but curious, she continued into the center of the cell and the feeling worsened, as if an unseen force gripped her channels.

She tried calling upon her radiance but startlingly found no response. She tried stirring it, but her power wouldn't budge.

"The walls," Sentinel Kiyoshi's voice said from behind.

She examined the cell's walls closely and found faint runes etched into their surface. He stepped into the cell, letting out a shaky sigh as he too fell to the runes' effects.

"We have the same runes in Blackveil," he explained. "They restrict access to radiant channels."

She looked back at the runes. "Interesting."

"Hey, Kiyoshi, come check this out!" Kakkona's voice echoed from further down the hall.

The suffocating sensation released them as they left the cell to follow his voice. They met the others at a large iron door with a single open slot around waist level.

"Do you think that's the Vault?" Toju asked, still keeping an eye out with his shield ready.

"I doubt it," Sentinel Kiyoshi said as his hand traced over the metallic surface until it reached the slot. "This more resembles a kind of isolation chamber."

"And I doubt they'd keep their product near their prisoners," Sentinel Kakkona added. "But I think it's worth investigating anyway."

Matoi's orbs examined the door briefly before he sent them through the open slot. After a few seconds, he gave a nod to the group. The two Sentinels braced their shoulders against the door and pushed, immediately filling the hall with the sounds of groaning alloy.

With enough effort, they managed to push it open halfway then stepped inside. Matoi went next, followed by Maeve, while the rest stood outside.

If it weren't for Matoi's orbs, they would've walked into pitch darkness. The cell was smaller than the others. Chains were embedded in the back wall, but the cuffs that should've been at the ends seemed to have been sheared off.

Furthermore, Maeve didn't feel the same suffocating tension as earlier, like the other cell. Scanning the room, there were runes engraved into the iron walls, but they were different from the others. Where the other cells had runes that were more simplistic and straightforward, the runes in the iron cell were more intricate and complicated.

Focusing inward, she tested to see if she could access her radiance. However, unlike last time when she felt a barrier preventing her from reaching her power, this time she simply couldn't feel anything. What used to be her channels, abundant with energy, now lay an empty void, a rather jarring sensation.

Maeve looked at Sentinel Kakkona and he tightened his lips in calm understanding.

"I can feel it too," he confirmed. "Or rather, I can't feel anything."

“These types of runes take an excruciating amount of time to inscribe,” Sentinel Kiyoshi explained. “So they’re usually used for more powerful individuals.”

Maeve followed Matoi's gaze to the left wall. Aside from the runes, there was something else engraved into its surface. Crude drawings of a tall, lanky figure resembling a woman holding hands with smaller figures she assumed were children. The caption "Poppet's family" was carved below.

There wasn't anything noteworthy on the wall to her right, mutilated by the hundreds of hearts scored into it. Turning behind her, the third wall had manic ramblings on it.

The jagged word "Abandoned" was etched harshly into its surface, repeating in a maddening pattern. The spiraling letters of the word "Kinship" were endlessly circling, giving a sense of longing. The word "Bonds," its letters a chaotic jumble as if the writer struggled with the concept.

There might've been a hundred things engraved into the wall, but there was one word that sat in quiet isolation, written at the very bottom, that sent a pang through Maeve.

"Alone."

Matoi took a step back to really absorb what he was looking at. "Whoever they kept in here was quite...obsessive."

"It's as expected," Sentinel Kiyoshi said, seemingly unfazed. "Inmates in isolation tend to occupy themselves however they can...but I must admit, I've never seen it to such a deranged degree."

Suddenly, a voice called out from the communication artifacts the two Sentinels carried. ["Sokuba to Sentinel Kiyoshi."] The unease and dread in his tone leaked through the artifact. Sentinel Kiyoshi gestured everyone to quiet as he listened attentively. ["We might have a prob—"]

Then silence. He waited a moment for his ally to say something, but nothing more came.

"Sentinel Sokuba, repeat. You cut out." He requested, only to be met with silence once again. "Sokuba?"

The others still in the hall looked inside the cell with grim confusion.

"Should we split up to check on them?" Akane suggested.

Maeve shook her head. "No. The enemy is more familiar with these tunnels than we are. Thinning our numbers would make it easy for them to pick us off."

"She's right," Sentinel Kiyoshi agreed. "We would also reduce our efficiency at clearing these tunnels." He pressed on his artifact again. "Dai, send a party to investigate the village. Quickly."

["Copy."] A baritone voice responded.

Seeing that there was nothing of value in the cell, Sentinel Kiyoshi looked back at the group and said, "Let's keep moving."

They filed out of the cell and pressed on, keeping the same formation. About an hour had passed and there had been no signs of them getting any closer to the Vault. Masaru suggested it was likely well hidden, even for Matoi, but even so, the Sentinels' detection artifacts were designed to pick up on the elixirs.

Matoi turned another corner, and the others followed. As Maeve came around the corner, she almost ran into Koan's back. Matoi had his hand up in a gesture to stop as he and the Sentinels stared down the hall at something she couldn't see. Stepping aside, she followed their gazes and found a figure standing motionless at the other end of the long hall.

The dim lighting couldn't reveal their features, but they wore a simple dark cloak. Matoi looked over at Sentinel Kiyoshi with a look that asked for guidance. He checked his detection artifact, but it hadn't gone off despite being in range.

"An illusion?" Sentinel Kakkona asked. "There's no way they've just been standing there the whole time trying to look cool."

"I'm not sensing any trickery at play." Matoi confirmed.

"Scout them out." Sentinel Kiyoshi ordered as he and Sentinel Kakkona stood in front protectively, shield up and fists raised.

Matoi nodded and sent his orbs forward. The figure didn't so much as flinch when the orbs made their cautious approach. They hovered around the figure, still keeping a relatively safe distance from it as if the orbs themselves were unsure.

It hadn't even been five seconds after examining the figure before Matoi startled back and his eyes shot to the ceiling above them, seeing something the rest of them couldn't.

"Run!" He roared abruptly.

As suddenly as his warning came, a network of seams snapped open above them, followed by the unmistakable sound of rumbling stone reverberating through the tunnel.