As we followed the two Paladins of darkness into the tunnel, Grigor spoke through the bond again.

“At least we know how they’ve been watching us and appeared from nowhere.”

“Doesn’t explain how they were able to get an army ready to help out on such short notice.” Sania replied.

“I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. I just hope Darkness doesn’t want to kill me.”

“As do I,” Grigor said causing a smile to come to my face. Yeah, he wanted me alive, but it certainly wasn’t for my own wellbeing.

I cleared my throat to speak to our guides. “Gotta say guys, it’s a bit of a surprise you have an access this close to our whitan,”

“We could have come closer,” Stilbraker said. “This entrance was a good place to check you out. Nuinaer and its tunnels stretch far beyond your fledgling settlement. How do you think we trade with the outside world? We certainly don’t carry our goods over the mountains.”

“That makes sense I suppose. I know you trade with the town of Meve in Malatia, right?”

“We do. Got a tunnel exit just like this one on the edge of the Craster’s down there. Lovely smooth track all the way from Nuinaer to there. One into Knuntang, too.”

“That is damn impressive. Are there many dwarves living in Nuinaer?”

“Nah. Maybe a million,” Stilbraker replied.

“That’s a lot of Dwarves,” I answered.

“There’s over three million live in Agorak, the Dwarven Capital.”

“I don’t get it, then. I’m assuming this isn’t the extent of your army, either. Why don’t you just repel Destruction from your lands?

“Don’t worry about us. I can’t say much because you’re not in the sphere of trust yet. But just know, 90% of Darkness’ followers live underground. The folk they’re fighting up there are neutrals mostly, like your friends here.”

Apart from the initial downward gradient from the valley side, we soon ended up on a remarkably flat road. No peaks and troughs, just a straight flat shoot as far as the eye could see with the occasional intersection. We walked for what felt like miles, the dwarves' short legs carrying them remarkably fast through the tunnel. When we came to a set of huge ornate doors, I guessed around three hours had passed.

Stilbraker hammered on one with his gauntleted fist, then stood back. We waited a minute before the doors swung open.

“Shine a light, Grimstrom! That took way too long to get the doors open. What if we were being chased?” Fakasta said angrily.

“The powerful looking, unarmored dwarf framed in the doorway, seemed to blur, appearing in front of Fakasta in less than a heartbeat and delivering a clip to his helmeted head with a open hand.

“Enough of your gravel, you little scrog shite. If you were getting chased, I would have ordered the gate kept shut to teach you a lesson.”

Fakasta started laughing, and so did the older dwarf:

Grimstom, level 79, Dweml. Head Guardian of Nuinaer.

“Did you leave a rear guard at the entrance to watch over their pack?”

“We did. They’ll be good for the rest of the day,” Stilbraker replied.

“Good. Go on then and get yourselves home.”

The dwarves all quick marched past him, saluting as they went. Within minutes, we were left alone with the head guardian. He eyed me speculatively, barely looking at the others. “Welcome to Nuinaer, then. Follow me and I’ll take you to your quarters for your stay.”

We walked a few paces when Grimstom suddenly clutched at his head. Dropping to his knees he let out a piercing, guttural scream. I put a hand on his shoulder, worried. Asking desperately if there was anything I could do for him, but he was oblivious to everything.

After a minute of apparent agony, clutching at his head he slumped against the tunnel wall almost lifeless. I knelt by his side, honestly, at this point I was probably more worried that we were going to get the blame for killing him.

His body began to glow, and I hoped it wasn’t his soul departing for the next life, when he suddenly jumped up to his feet like someone had inserted a new battery.

“Come on then. Let’s get you all settled,” he said cheerily setting off again. I didn’t follow. “Grimstrom, seriously. What the fuck dude?”

“Is there a problem, lad?” he said spinning on me in a surprisingly graceful pirouette. Suddenly right up in my face, or at least as he could be considering he was four foot shorter than me.

“Yeah. I think you need to get checked out, mate. What gives?”

“Gives?”

“Why did you cry out in pain, drop like a stone, then get up like nothing happened?”

“Ah, right. Darkness just spoke to me. He doesn’t reach out very often and it takes a toll on our mortal flesh to hear his voice. Before your arrival in the mountains, he’d not spoken to anyone in over fifty years.”

I didn’t know how to respond. Either Grimstom was mad as a box of frogs, or a God had actually just spoken in his head. Whichever was the answer, it was a terrifying spectacle, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to speak to Darkness anymore. I kept my thoughts to myself.

The tunnels on this side of the gate were cavernous. But more than that, they were perfectly smooth, better illuminated, and well decorated. By which I mean they had reliefs and murals. Not three coats of magnolia on the walls.

Sania and Grigor, walked either side of me, with Joel and Lierin right behind, chatting away and looking around in awe like a pair of tourists.

It wasn’t much longer before we started seeing signs of civilisation. Dwellings carved into the walls of the tunnel, that on inspection through the windows,5 looked impressively comfortable. There were many dwarves going about their daily buildings and there was a surprisingly high average level in those we saw, despite them not appearing to be warriors in any way. As we moved past them, I think the lowest I saw in the adults was twenty-four, and even most of the kids were all around Joel’s level of sixteen.

Grimstom dropped back to walk alongside me. Or rather, he moved in front of Grigor and slowed, giving the Woltar no choice but to drop back unless he wanted to collide with the dwarf.

“What are your plans?” Grimstrom asked without looking directly at me.

“What do you mean?... I, er, need to get Joel home.”

“Are you not going home?”

“Ha, no. I’m afraid I won’t fit in anymore.”

“So what are your plans?”

“You know something, Grimstrom. Don’t you?”

“That depends on your plans.”

“What do you know?”

“I know that your plans matter. What are they?”

“Do you know what Natom did to me?”

“I’d heard.”

“Do you know what Destruction did to me?”

“I do.”

“You know how Justice have treated me since coming here?”

“I assume like they treat everyone else.”

“Hmm. Do you or Darkness intend me any harm?”

He smirked. “That depends.”

“On what?”

“What your plans are? For the last time.”

“Well shit Grimstom. When you put it like that, in these deep dark tunnels, I feel like I better just tell you.”

He nodded sagely. “Yes. That would be wise. While I don’t know exactly what you’re destined to become, I know you are not there yet, and death is certain here if… What are your plans?”

“We’re in deep now, Clive. Just be honest. We share their enemies. Go with that.”

“Agreed,” Grigor said.

“Thanks guys, it’s nice to have you looking out for me,” I replied. Then told Grimstrom my plans, as half cooked as they were.

“I intend to build some solid fortifications at Far reach, and get as strong as possible before getting some payback on both Justice and Destruction for all of the shit they’ve pulled. Then, I’m going back to Natom Fucking Hilgresh and getting my Nike hoodie back off him as well as giving him a good fucking kicking. After that, I’m gonna set up the fanciest restaurant Falritas has ever seen at Far Reach and work there for the rest of my days. I’m probably gonna marry Sania too. Even though she’s gonna be bigger than me again when she reaches level 45, and I won’t lie, that terrifies me, but not nearly as much as the fact that when I’m level 72, my demon side will evolve to a Baatazu demon, and I’ll potentially grow to over 20 feet tall, which might be good for fucking Natom up but it’s not so good for other, er… things.”

Grimstom stopped and grabbed my shoulder simultaneously. His grip was like a goddamn junkyard grabber. His face deadly serious. “Darkness hears your answer. I don’t know what he makes of it, but for me, it was a good answer. Before you speak with him, you, me, and the King must have a drink. The King will appreciate your candor.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. One thing though. Have you considered how your human aspect will affect future transformations?”

Demons have many early transformations and seem very powerful, especially at lower levels. But not long after the Baatazu transformation, you will also have your human, Nephilim evolution. Nothing like this has ever happened to our knowledge. Half breeds adopt power characteristics of one side or the other. Cambions have their own path of progression. But do not discount the power of your human side. Once you bastards get high leveled enough, you are the most insidious and dangerous of all the races. Darkness loves a strong human follower.”

“What could the Nephilim possibly offer that will offset my being twenty foot tall?”

“You know nothing of Nephilim?”

“They’re tough motherfuckers?”

Grimstrom belly laughed. Oh boy, you’ve got a lot to learn. “Nephilim have the ability to grow over fifty foot tall! I’ve heard it’s their natural state and in Falritas of old, they could maintain that state indefinitely. Now, I think it’s too much of a strain. Easier to walk around at normal size.”

“Fuck off! You’re kidding me, right?”

“I am not. Guess how tall Dweomer are? That’s our level tier two evolutionary progression.”

I started laughing. “I have no idea but judging from your expression, it’s not very tall.”

“We remain our original height. It makes sense considering our where we have our dwellings, but still. What a cruel joke.”

“What else do you get as a Dweomer?”

“Many things. The most impressive perhaps is Pulverize.”

“Uh, huh?”

“At its most basic level, it means with one punch, we can create a ten foot by ten-foot circular tunnel 50ft long.”

“Okay, I mean wow, for a dwarf that’s gotta be unreal.”

“Aye. And if you use it for something other than tunnelling, say a battle, the results can be just as spectacular and make a mess of most enemies. Even fifty-foot Nephilim, cross Demon lords would have something to think about!”

“You sure about that?” I laughed.

“No. But if you ever reach level eighty, that’s not a fight many would choose.”

“It still won’t be enough for Natom.”

“It won’t, but apparently you’ve got a little something inside you that might even the balance.”

“I assume we’re talking about the seed?”

Grimstrom nodded.

“You know I have no idea what or where it is, and my Internal Connection is at 30.”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I can’t imagine something like that would just show itself as easily as that. It’s only the very slight energy that it emits, that gives it away.”

We continued to see increasing signs of habitation, trade and general life going on in Nuinaer. I thought it was a cool place, and despite apparently having a million people residing here, it still had a quaint feeling to it.

I wondered where the King would live in this kind of setup until we entered actual Nuinaer. We’d essentially been walking through the suburbs for the past half an hour. The tunnel we travelled, to all of our amazement, opened up into an epically huge expanse filled with multiple levels and towering buildings that seemed to act as supports for the cavernous ceiling, yet they didn’t seem to be designed for that purpose as much as for their own splendour.

The architecture and detail in every single piece of stone was clearly carried out by highly skilled artists and craftsmen. Adorned with patterns and pictures, perfectly detailed in a way that wasn’t gaudy or pretentious, but seemed to just flow with the overall aesthetics of the place. Wide Stone staircases accessed buildings at all levels.

In a strange way, it almost looked like a city in the sky rather than underground. Lighting hung or protruded from so many surfaces, giving the impression of surface daylight. Most of the lights appeared to be glowing gemstones. Though I couldn’t be sure. Some of the buildings seemed to be constructed entirely in gem stones. All in all, the place was incredibly beautiful and when I looked over to Joel to see what he made of it all, he was ogling every last detail. When he saw me looking at him, he shrugged , as if he was embarrassed.

“What? It’s impressive,” he said defensively as my own grin widened. “There some fascinating construction details, Clive. If we have time, I think it would be worth talking to some of their stone masons.”

“You’ll not need to know any of this on a building site back home mate. It’s all about the yardage, right?”

“I can watch a movie on alien planets without going in to space, Clive. It’s interesting.”

“It’s fucking marvellous mate. I wish you could stay and build us something like this at Far Reach.”

“Well I can’t,” he said annoyed and turned away. “I saw Lierin looking at me sadly for a brief second before comforting Joel. I let it go. It wasn’t fair of me to keep trying to pull him into staying. I just thought he was making a mistake going back. He could be something here, and I wanted that for him. A new start where he could really excel. Of course, the likely hood of us all being wiped out by a freak attack was also a very high possibility.

I turned my attention back to marvelling at Nuinaer the place was bustling with dwarves and only dwarves that I could see.

“There’s the palace.” Grimstrom pointed and I followed his finger to a large structure in the centre of the cavern. It seemed to be crafted entirely of emerald and I noted that none of the various multi-tiered stairwells and bridges connected to it. That seemed like a good idea, security wise.