Necromancer and Co., Book 3: The Underearth

Chapter 7: The City of Pillars

"The mightiest city in the world beneath the earth, where the people made their homes and where light shone its hope in the darkest corner of the hidden world. The City of Pillars stands for a single goal: escape."

[Alen]

Saying that their destination would be far was a massive understatement. Alen had lost count of the number of winding paths, steep slopes, and hidden tunnels they’d gone through after the first day. The Underearth constantly shifted around him. Often, he’d look back to see that a hole they’d gone through suddenly looked smaller, or that a passage they’d passed had suddenly disappeared from sight. While at first, the constantly shifting sights and tunnels were something he marveled at, the amazement soon morphed an impatient, disappointing boredom.

Sam, Adam, and Lynn walked along by the back of the group. They made chatter with Dieter and Lady Drizza who he carried on his back. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, but Alen was the weariest of the three. He walked ahead and spotted the familiar form of the village’s lead Hunter.

“Are we there yet?” Alen asked, trudging after Razzan who led the way with the rest of the silent, dark-clothed Hunters.

“Ask me that again, and I will save myself the trouble of dealing with the cave trolls farther ahead by taking another detour,” said a not-so-silent Razzan. “A long one.”

Alen groaned and walked back, passing groups of travel-worn villagers. Their faces were dark, and sometimes even blank with what looked like shock. They had lost family to the attack, and Alen hoped to reach their destination soon. He was already at his wits end from the lack of peace and rest he’d had over the last few months, and these people seemed even more familiar with the same kind of chaotic lifestyle than he was. Not to mention the tragic events that occurred in the village. With that hanging over their heads, Alen was surprised none of them had snapped.

He sighed. Over the past day, which was forty hours in the Underearth, he’d asked about a lot of things to clear his boredom. The most interesting bits were about the Underearth itself.

Taking a glance at the device Hunter Razzan held in his hands, he couldn’t help but admire the tool once again. When he’d asked Dieter about them out of curiosity, the man had surprisingly launched into an enthusiastic explanation. Apparently, the Hunters weren’t limited to the race of big-eyed, big-headed people called the Kaer they were traveling with. It was an organization that spanned all across the Underearth—one that was the underground world’s equivalent of the Commissions House.

There was a single difference though. The Commissions House was focused on facilitating requests and satisfying both parties, and while the Hunter’s Lodge did the same things, their main objective was completely different:

Hunting. Not the killing of beast or men. Not even insects. They trekked the Underearth with a single target in mind—a single trail to follow.

They wanted to find the way out.

They were trapped here, apparently. A punishment from the Gods for a crime so old the current generation didn’t even remember what it was in the first place. The Hunter’s Lodge was an organization almost as old as that crime itself, and its roots stretched farther than the eye could possibly see. They’d been searching for far too long, and they’d developed many methods to get closer and closer to their goal.

The devices were one of them. Powered by magic stones and complicated runework and mana circuitry, they were used to leave long-lasting magical imprints on all kinds of surfaces, resulting in a waypoint of sorts that the device kept track of and displayed on its clear, crystal screen. That way, even when the destination shifted, the paths required to reach it would merely change to the experienced navigator.

To the not so experienced ones, however?

It was absolutely terrifying. In the Underearth, getting lost almost definitely meant death. With the constantly changing routes, walking around in circles and dying of thirst or lack of food wasn’t hard to accomplish. That wasn’t even accounting for the ease of which the unsuspecting delver could delve into the domains of dangerous creatures or enter one of the hundreds of danger zones within the City of Pillars’ territory alone.

Alen felt his brain ache from the information. The Sandsea was hard enough to navigate with all the map-reading and lack of roads, but the Underearth didn’t even have reliable maps. Those could only be made by experience—maps and waypoints. Very few would be willing to trade their navigation devices, and while some made a profit selling devices that had waypoints filled in, the danger involved wasn’t something to joke about.

He glanced up at the ceiling and sighed. They needed to get out of here, but it seemed like that wouldn’t come soon. They would have to become Hunters and receive their own nav-devices as well. All in the name of returning to the place from which they were swept off from.

Alen suppressed the uncertainty he felt and walked up to his three friends who were now just silently walking on.

“Hi guys,” Alen greeted them.

“Hey,” said Lynn.

“Yo,” replied Adam, raising a hand back in greeting.

“What’s up, dude?” Sam grinned.

Alen smiled. While there was no denying that his two friends had changed on a level he couldn’t put his finger on, and that their interactions had changed and weren’t as joking as before, he could still say that these three were people he could trust. He really wished Roland was there to meet them too. His mood soured at the thought. Alen drove away the frown trying to creep onto his face and settled on their pace, walking beside the group.

“So,” said Alen, “are you guys going to become members of the Lodge too?”

Sam smiled, nodding enthusiastically. “Hell yeah, dude. Me and Adam were already planning to, but no one was available to take us to the City until now,” he lowered his voice around the end of the sentence. “Though with what happened, I’d prefer a delay over… this,” said Sam, pointing at the solemn forms of the surviving villagers ahead.

“Yeah,” said Lynn, a sad look on her face. “I’ve seen hunched backs and blank faces like these far too often.”

Alen frowned. “What do you mean? Did we pass any people like in the Sandsea? The city near the Gray Forest in Redaria?”

“No,” she shook her head, “it was before that.” She took a moment to collect her thoughts, then seeing that they were listening, she continued. “On the way to the central continent, I went through multiple borders. And with things are in the areas between the southern and central ends of the continent, the things I saw weren’t pretty. Have any of you heard of the war between the elves and the orcs?”

Sam raised his head and arched a brow. “Yeah, I was told about them,” he said, “weren’t those wars finished?”

“They aren’t. At least, unofficially,” said Lynn. “After things calmed down five years ago, there haven’t been any major battles, but there are always the occasional skirmishes. Raids. Attacks. When you have two races that hate each other so much that they’ve stopped caring why, things get ugly. My kind has killed their leaders and heroes, and their kind has slaughtered and pillaged our villages in kind.”

“They… aren’t all bad,” said Sam, a bit defensively. “When I first got here, they took me in. I wouldn’t be here if one of them didn’t save me from a pack of snow wolves.”

Lynn sighed. “I know. With the family I came from, I know,” she hesitated for a moment, then continued. “…Everyone has the same potential for good and evil in the end. Our histories have clashed. Many times. Humans and Elves, Orcs and Dwarves, Lizardmen with Aarook. The point is, people can do horrible things in the name of what they believe in. I saw families torn apart and hundreds of freshly dug graves on my way to the central continent. I’m not saying the Orcs that saved you were like the ones that killed those people, but I can’t say that they aren’t, either. In here, it’s just not the question of whether you’ll kill or not. It’s a question of what will take for you to do it.”

“You speak like you’re an expert in it,” muttered Adam.

Elves had good hearing. Lynn looked at him sadly and pursed her lips into a thin line. “It’s something that people who live in this world will learn in one way or another, and I’ve lived here all my life.”

Alen put his hand on Adam’s shoulder and shook his head. “This place isn’t as nice to people as Earth, as much as I wish it was.”

The young man deflated. “I know, it’s just…” he sighed. “Culture shock, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Alen agreed.

“Mm.”

Silence reigned over the four as they walked forward. Alen sighed. This place had changed them all, and from the reactions his friends had given, it had changed him the most. He had woken up in a forest full of undead, and he had fought for his life, faced his fears, and forced himself forward all in the span of a week. From there, he’d barely had the time to rest. He’d killed people, too. Far more people than his friends did, by the looks of it. His magic just wasn’t suited for incapacitation. Alen sighed. He really needed a break. The last time he relaxed for a long period was in their long journey to the Sandsea.

A vacation was long due. It had been due for far, far too long.

“…Shouldn’t we rest, then?” he asked.

Adam glanced at him. “What do you mean? We took a stop just a couple hours ago.”

“No,” Alen shook his head. “I mean a break. A vacation. After we arrive in the City of Pillars or whatever safe place we find.”

“We still have to get out of here,” Sam shook his head.

Lynn looked at him and Alen sighed. “I know,” he breathed out. “We still need to find Roland too. I’m just worried that we’ll snap under the stress. We’ve all been too on edge lately. I can’t even walk without subconsciously running my magic through my clothes in order to react quickly anymore.”

“Roland could’ve already arrived in the City of Pillars, if it’s as well known for being a safe haven as Deiter said it was,” said Lynn. “If he isn’t there, we can always take a few days to rest and wait for him. It’s not a good idea to rush ahead in a place like this without proper preparations anyway. If he still hasn’t arrived during that time, we can make for the Hunter’s Lodge and set out to look for him ourselves.”

“Along with a way out,” said Adam.

“Along with a way out,” agreed Lynn.

“But like, what do we do about the Kaer and Xargith?” asked Sam, directing his gaze at the people ahead of them. “We can’t just leave. Like, they took care of us man. Plus, Kara’s been abducted. As much as she liked to verbally abuse us, I don’t want to just leave her like that.”

“Yeah,” Alen agreed. “It looks like we’re relying on Dieter and granny Drizza on the City too, so it’s best we pay them back. We’ll look for Kara too.”

Lynn tilted her head at the name. “What’s with the whole Xargith thing, anyways?”

“I don’t know the full details but,” Sam glanced around. “It’s a cult, from what I hear.”

“Really?” Alen asked.

“Yeah. The Xargith are a race. They’re kind of like the founders of the cult. More races have joined them since then, and now they go by Cult of the Dark One, I think?”

“That’s kind lame.”

“It is, but the Dark One really does exist, apparently,” Adam added. “Granny Drizza says he appears in their dreams and whoever talks to him comes out changed.”

“I see,” Alen nodded. “So don’t talk to the bad men. Nothing has changed.”

“I don’t think you’re very good at that, though,” Adam said.

“You’re right,” nodded Alen. “We’ll need Lynn to go first. She looks like she’ll attract the bad men quick.”

“He’s right,” Lynn agreed, nodding towards Alen. “He somehow found me, so I really must attract bad guys.”

“I’m a great guy.”

“Now you’re the guy who’s wrong.”

“Your face is wrong.”

“It’s actually you’re,” Sam corrected.

“They’re fucking homonyms. How do you even know which ‘your’ I meant? ,” Alen shook his head.

“You are face is a homonym,” Sam sneered.

Adam burst into laughter, and the rest couldn’t help but break out into grins as well. They’d lagged behind the rest of the group by a fair distance, so Adam who was ahead sped up into a jog to catch up. The rest followed after, smiling all the way.

“You guys are so stupid,” Lynn shook her head.

“Get used to it,” said Adam. “we’re the dumbest group here.”

“Are you calling me dumb?” Sam frowned.

“Reasonably,” Alen replied. “No, wait. Unreasonably. I meant to say that you were arguably intelligent. Kind of like a raccoon, actually. Little bastards.”

“Raccoons are actually pretty smart,” said Sam.

“Shut up, Sam. No one likes you,” Adam retorted.

“But I like me,” Sam said, faking defensiveness.

“His mom does too,” Alen added, “said it herself.”

“Poor woman,” Adam shook his head.

Sam looked away, feigning being hurt. The three around him laughed, and the atmosphere around them noticeably lost the tension that it’d had before. A sense of relief washed through Alen. They had changed, but they could still be relied on to not snap under something as simple as tension or pressure. Instead, they chose to laugh in front of it. Alen looked down at the scar on his palm, the one he had given himself in order to snap himself out of his fears back in the Gray Forest.

He was alone then.

Now, he wasn’t.

The though caused another smile to stretch across his face—a twinkle in his eyes that would last him the rest of the now not-so-unbearable journey.

—o—

The City of Pillars wasn’t much of a city, and more of a metropolis. When Alen and the others ascended through a large hole in the ceiling and caught sight of the enormous underground pocket ahead, he was expecting something discreet—something mysterious. Instead, what he saw stunned him and the three companions that trudged up from behind him.

The ceiling was doubly impressive. The crystals that seemed to be everywhere in the Underearth covered it almost entirely. They twinkled with a bright blue light, cascading down onto the lands below. Alen traced the rays of light that dripped down from above and when his eyes met the city standing majestically just a few kilometers ahead of him, he gasped.

It was a set of pillars. They stood in a large circular formation, with each one being at least three hundred meters in diameter. The dark, ink-like pillars rose up, into the highest point where the statues that stood above them seemed to hide in a twinkling fog of ever-present mystery. Always in sight, but never enough to make out. At the base of the pillars’ formation was the city itself. Like a disk, the city almost glowed in the light, each brick and stone the color of the calmest grey—deep, silent, mysterious. Buildings rose from the ground, and even more pillars rose from all around them, the tallest connecting the lowest level of the city to the disk that served as the next level above it, and the shortest serving as platforms to house buildings.

Ramps and winding paths rose from the ground without support, seemingly defying gravity and connecting short pillars to the ground and the numerous platforms below. Even from where he was, Alen could almost see the bustling streets and busy roads, lined with columns of people and lizard-like beasts of burden. Each platform above the first was smaller than the last, and it stretched up to seven levels in total. The top platform, like the statues, was obscured by the light fog that lingered around the highest platform, lofty and majestic. In view, but not in sight. A shy silhouette hiding in the night.

Alen marveled at the sheer size of it. His three friends were similarly shocked, while the people ahead of them took the chance to admire the great city.

Lynn looked up with a childish exhilaration on her face. “This is…”

“Beautiful,” a voice finished. They looked to see Dieter, standing beside them with the ball of fire flaring just over his shoulder. It shone brightly, almost as if it was excited. “Whenever I go here, it’s the only word that I can think to describe it.”

The elf could only nod in agreement to his words.

Dieter smiled, but it looked forced. It was no doubt that the matter with Kara still weighed over his mind. Despite that, he tried his best at a grin as he rubbed the stubble on his square jaw. “It looks even more impressive up close. What are you four waiting for? The rest are already moving. Let’s go,” said Dieter.

Alen didn’t need to be told twice.

They basically rushed on the way to the city. With a newfound energy giving their tired, travel-worn legs strength, they sped up. Soon enough, after moving through the Stonewood trees whose leaves glowed with a soft blue light, they arrived in front of a massive gate.

It was gilded with flowing designs, and it was thick and strong enough that Alen didn’t doubt for a second that his spells wouldn’t even crack it. They neared the entrance, and from up ahead, their group was blocked by a set of guards. Alen looked around and frowned. Other people were entering too, and they weren’t being blocked by so many guards. Simply inspected by two or three.

“What’s happening?” He asked the two behind him. Lynn looked back curiously as well, only to see the same look of confusion on Adam and Sam’s faces.

“I have no idea,” Sam blinked. “I think we’re being denied entry and that we’ll have to kill a demon lord or something to get in. Probably.”

Adam grabbed Sam’s shoulder and pointed. “The guards are frowning. Look.”

Sure enough, they were. Lady Drizza stood in front of them, and Razzan and Dieter stood behind her. They were too far to hear what was being heard, but an argument seemed to be taking place. They exchanged looks of worry, but Drizza suddenly brought something out from her pocket that caused the guards to freeze. They stood, shocked, before bowing and making way, leaving the path to the city completely open for them to passed. Passersby looked at them in curiosity as they entered, the inspection that was normally a requirement to gain entry all but forgotten.

“What the hell?” Alen asked, eyeing the guards that had suddenly seemed to ignore their presence entirely.

He sent questioning looks towards Sam and Adam, but they seemed to only know as much as he did, which his look clearly reflected: nothing.

Alen pursed his lips and just followed. He stumbled past the crowds of people walking around, barely restraining the urge to just shoot up into the sky and follow his group through the roofs with his magic. In a place like this, it was most likely best for him to keep a low profile. While the buildings were certainly relatively clean and the people none too suspicious, the dark colors that lined that city still gave off a threatening, domineering aura.

He gently pushed a person blocking his way aside and moved past. He was fairly tall, so the risk of losing his friends in the crowd wasn’t as bad as it would be if he was someone as tall as Adam. The guy stood half a head shorter than him, and seeing how Alen was barely able to see past the sea of heads, was more worried about Adam getting lost in the city. Some creep would probably drag him off into an alley and molest him or something. Things like that happened in cities.

“At least, I think so,” Alen murmured. Adam, who was ahead of him turned his head.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” Alen waved his hand dismissively. “Just don’t get molested. It’d be disgusting. For the molester. Not you. I think you’d even like it.”

“Screw off,” Adam laughed, increasing his pace to catch up to the rest of the group.

Alen followed them until they arrived at another set of gates. The same thing as before happened, with the guards ignoring them as if they were ghosts as soon as the old woman showed them whatever she kept in her pocket. She could walk now, at least. Alen had noted her condition throughout the journey, watching if any of her life energy would leak out like before, but she seemed relatively fine. Almost as if she’d never experienced an episode like before.

They really hadn’t had the chance to talk. With Deither or Razzan or the granny. The journey was held in a rush. They had kept a constant—almost rushing—pace. The tunnels and passages they took were out of the way, and every Hunter in the group warily looked around every time they entered a new place, as if they were expecting to be attacked at any moment.

The only time Alen had seen them relax was when they had reached the city. They passed through more and more gates. The crowd thinned out, and soon, Alen saw a structure that looked something like station ahead of them, with one of the seven gigantic pillars looming almost threateningly just behind it.

Unlike before, however, the guards didn’t ignore them, but instead took the initiative to have their group follow. They were led into a large, circular room. One large enough to fit a near hundred people. It held a collection of large tables, couches, seats, and an assortment of fruits and other kinds of food. Velvet cushions lined the seats, and chandeliers hung from the ceiling, bathing the room in a warm, barely dim light. Alen blinked at the sheer luxuriousness of it for a moment, unsure of what to do.

This was not normal. There was no way everyone got treatment like this.

Unfazed by the extravagance, Razzan made himself at home. The man pulled out a chair beside the table and sat, placing his legs on the table and leaning back. He closed his eyes impassively and waited.

The rest of the villagers streamed into the massive room. They were shocked, and many of them had hard, complicated looks on their faces as they gazed around. Finally, they seemed to make a decision in their heads, wordlessly sitting down on the chairs and couches with grim expressions on their faces. Their big eyes and heads made the look pouty—almost comical, but Alen felt anything but from their expressions.

He spotted Sam and Adam preparing to sit down on a table off to the side and followed. He beckoned Lynn over, and the four of them sat. A moment passed, then the room began to vibrate. It was faint, a little buzz at most, but from the feeling he was getting, Alen knew they were ascending.

An elevator? He thought, surprised. A voice rang out from his left.

“Okay,” Adam said. “Who wants to guess what happens next?”

“Ooh, I like things like this,” grinned Lynn, clapping her hands together. “We’re going up, right? As soon as we reach our destination, we’ll be in an arena with other people, fighting for our lives for the entertainment of the people.”

“I think,” said Sam, solemnly nodding, “that we’re going somewhere.”

“What are you two on?” Adam shook his head. “They’re obviously going to sacrifice us to the dark gods. This room’s a gas chamber.”

Lynn tilted her head. “A gas chamber?”

“That’s something we very shouldn’t introduce into this world,” said Alen. “We don’t want an elven dictator consuming the entire nation’s food production. Enough people starve on a daily basis. We don’t need a glutton making the situation worse.”

“You want me to pour cold water down your back in the middle of the night?” Lynn threatened him.

“Try me. AutoBone’s prank potential is nigh infini—“

The elf waved her hand and Alen barely held back a surprised squeal as cold water formed inside of his clothes and ran down his back. He breathed deeply, then waved his hand, removing the water with a quick flicker of flame beneath his clothing. The elf stared, smiling smugly at him.

Alen glared. “You said middle of the night.”

“I’m known to surpass expectations.”

“I’ll have my revenge. You’ve made an enemy today, Lynn. You will know fear.”

“Coming from you, I’d be learning it at a painfully slow rate.”

“You—“ Alen paused, noticing the lack of conversation around him. He looked to the side and found Sam and Adam a fair distance away. They had scooted off, and now, they were huddled together, sneaking glances at him and nodding furiously at each other.

He raised an eyebrow and looked at Lynn. “Can you hear what they’re saying?”

“Nope,” she shrugged, “they’re just a bit too far. What are they doing?”

“I think it’s a mating ritual. Should we come closer to observe?”

“Proba’lly noht,” said Lynn, taking a bite off of a cube-shaped fruit. It was yellow and had a rough exterior, but from the way the elf took chunks out of it, the surface seemed to be surprisingly soft.

Alen plucked something akin to a grape from the basket of fruit on the table and threw it into his mouth. “Fair enough,” said Alen. “I wouldn’t want to see them mating either.”

“I don’t think they don’t have the parts for it.”

Alen laughed and popped another fruit into his mouth. The room continued to rumble slightly, but instead of discomfort, it even helped him ease down into his chair. Eventually, both his friends returned with a look Alen could only identify as mischief in their eyes. It seemed he was paranoid, though, as the two merely sat down and began chatting with them again. The necromancer shrugged and joined in, passing the time.

A half hour later, the low thrum of the room finally came to a halt. The double doors that served as the exit and entrance opened, and a group of guards escorted them out into a courtyard. A large, neat area expanded out, with trimmed bushes and buildings that could be likened to the oriental structures Alen had seen back on earth. The sudden change in atmosphere stunned him, his surroundings a surprising change to the more or less medieval structures that he had seen since coming to the playground of the gods.

He, Sam, Adam, and Lynn were led into a house with a group of villagers and taken to rooms that they would apparently be staying at. Meanwhile, the old lady Drizza left, moving deeper into the courtyard with a large number of escorts. Dieter and Razzan stayed behind.

Alen watched the old lady through the window until her form disappeared deeper into the courtyard. He raised a brow and turned, about to say something to the rest of his team when the door to their room suddenly opened. Dieter stepped in, then sat down on the floor in front of the door.

He gave the four of them a long look with his tired eyes before he let loose a low, exhausted sigh.

“We need to talk,” he said.

Alen had a feeling that he would not like this talk.