By the time we returned, the Tertium had all fled or been dealt with, leaving only the animated mound of dirt. From the look of it, even Yueryurn and all the remaining soldiers’ combined efforts hadn’t been able to make much of an impact on it. I doubted we’d fare much better, but we had to do something.

“Now we just need to deal with this huge lump. Any ideas?”

“Not yet.”

Well, it wasn’t going anywhere fast. Particularly not with all the bodies currently trying to impede it. “What’s holding it together?”

“If I had to guess? I’d say it was my father’s Sanguis.”

“What?”

I’d mostly tried to avoid thinking about her father since our last encounter with him, I never would have thought he was involved with this. Though now that she mentioned it, I could see the logic in it.

“It’s perfectly in line with his power. If he’s not responsible, then I have no idea what the source is.”

“Does that mean he’s nearby? I thought Demon Lords couldn’t use their powers unless they were close.”

“It really depends on the person. I’m not entirely sure what my father is capable of, particularly now that he’s working with the Ortisfel.”

“Okay, well, does that make stopping this thing any easier? Is there any way to stop a Demon Lord’s ability?”

“Killing them is the easiest way to stop their Sanguis, but that doesn’t seem to be an option in this case. Failing that, I suppose our best choice is to disrupt his creation directly.”

“Okay, how do we do that?”

“Well, my blood becomes useless to me once too many impurities are present. Maybe we can do something similar here.”

Mixing it up with something so that Elmidath’s father lost power over it was certainly a lot better than any idea I had, but how were we meant to actually accomplish it? Given the sheer amount of material in it, we’d need an awful lot of something to make much impact on the mass of magicked dirt. I was looking around for anything that might fit the bill when I looked at Yurielius and recalled the way it had saved me earlier. “I’ve got an idea.”

I approached the grand amalgamation of vegetation and called Yuriel’s name. The leafy effigy answered my summons, drifting down from wherever she’d been hiding amongst her creation’s many nooks and crannies. “What’s wrong?”

“Yurielius made a bunch of liquid earlier that saved me from that goo that’s all over the place, is there any way it can make a lot more of that? Or any liquid really, even just water might work.”

“Um, maybe. What do you need it for?”

I gestured towards the giant slowly destroying Yurielius. “I think it might be the only way for us to stop that thing.”

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

She drifted back out of view once more, leaving us to just stand around waiting. Turning away from the previous subject of our focus, Elmidath looked to the wall of darkness. “Do you think we should go back out there? It seems like we’ve done about as much as we can here.”

“I suppose it’s worth a look, we don’t want any more surprises if we can avoid it.”

Even if Yurielius was able to enact my plan, it would still take time and require little to no input from us. With a final look back at ongoing battle to make sure I didn’t miss anything; we left the others to handle things here and ventured out into the unknown. Beyond the wall, we were met by the putrid corpses we’d left behind and something, roughly human-shaped, that ducked out of sight before I got a good look at it.

After determining that Elmidath had seen the same thing, we set out to investigate. Given the largely empty nature of the world around us, whatever it was could hardly be here by accident. When we glimpsed it, it had been sticking up from a nearby crevice and that’s where we headed. We approached it, and I told Elmidath to wait while I went to check it out.

Alert for an ambush, I crept forward with my sword in hand and peered into the depths. The stars provided little light and I could see only darkness within. Shaking my head, I turned back to Elmidath just in time to see the ground beneath her feet crumbling.

I shouted for her to watch out and she tried to get clear, but she was too late. The ground collapsed inward, drawing her in with it. I ran over to grab her before she fell, but succeeded only in joining her descent. We tumbled at least twenty feet before striking the hard rock beneath.

Groaning, I pushed myself up. My whole body hurt, but nothing felt broken. I realized I’d lost my sword and scrabbled to find it. My hands met steel and I drew Shotensho in close. A sword probably wouldn’t do me much good in the pitch-black confines of wherever we’d ended up, but I didn’t want to lose it.

Not wanting to alert anything that might not already be aware of our presence, I contacted Elmidath through our mental link. “Are you okay?”

“Don’t worry about me, we need to get out of here right now.”

There was no argument from me; this was the absolute last place we wanted to be. The only problem was I had no idea how we were going to get back. From what little the starlight illuminated, there was only a sheer drop above us. Given the width of the hole, there was practically no way we could climb up there. At least without some assistance.

“Any chance you can climb out of here? I can give you a boost.”

“I’ll try.”

After a bit of scuffling, the sound of her ascent coupled with her laboured breathing filled the otherwise silent space. They continued for a few moments before she let out a pained cry and fell to the ground with a thud.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do it.”

Damn. If Elmidath couldn’t manage it with the use of her power, then I stood not the slightest chance of getting out. And even if I did, I probably wouldn’t be able to pull her up after me. Which left us with only one option; venturing into the unknowable abyss that surrounded us. Technically we could simply stay here, but our chances of rescue before some horror happened across us were minimal.

“Give me your hand, I’ll try to find us a way out.”

A short period of blind groping later, I clasped hands with the Demon Lord and found hers to be slick with what I could only assume was her blood. Maintaining a firm grasp in case anything happened, I felt my way around the area with my other hand, hoping to get a better idea of where we were.

It seemed we were at the end of a roughly hewn tunnel, leaving only the one exit. With no other options presenting themselves, I followed the tunnel back. Presumably it had been dug by the Ortisfel or their minions and was therefore leading us closer to them, but where else were we meant to go? If they were going to attack us, then there was no point giving them more time to prepare.

The tunnel slanted downward, leading us further away from the freedom of the surface with every step. Something which clearly disturbed Elmidath, as she tightened her grip on my hand. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I’m quite sure that it’s not. But I don’t have a better one, and I’m guessing you don’t either.”

“You’re right, though somehow it doesn’t make it feel much better.”

“Well you can tell me all about it later, once we’re out of here.”

Now was hardly the time for commiserating about our fate, at least not when we still had a chance of changing it. We’d been walking for a few minutes, our pace slowed by the need to feel our way along, when we heard voices ahead. There were two of them, speaking in tones too muted for me to make out the words. I paused, unsure of how to proceed.

“Should we keep going, or wait and hope they leave?”

“At this point I think we should just take our chances with whoever is out there. If they can talk, then there’s a possibility we can negotiate with them. It’s probably a longshot, but it’s better odds than if we come across Tertium or some other beast of the Ortisfel.”

“True. Just be ready.”

“I will be.”

Slowing further in an attempt not to make too much noise, we crept toward the voices. By the sounds of them, they were still within the tunnel which would give us few options if this came to blows. There were still no signs of light, even as we drew closer, so presumably whoever was out there had no need of illumination. Swinging my sword around blindly didn’t seem like it would accomplish much; I’d just have to hope Elmidath could overcome them if it came to that.

We were approaching the voices’ source when they went silent. Evidently they’d finally noticed our approach. I hesitated for a moment, before pushing onward. There was no sense stopping now that they were aware of us. However, I also didn’t want to startle the very probably armed and dangerous persons ahead either so I called out to them before proceeding.

“Hello?”

“Who’s there? Identify yourself.”

Firm and authoritative as the woman’s voice was, at least it sounded more or less normal.

“My name is Cathal Moore and I have Lady Sarinknell with me. Who’re you?”

“I am Tarith.”

“And um, what is it you’re doing down here?”

“I could ask you the same question.”

“We were on the surface when we fell into this tunnel.”

If they didn’t know who we were, there was no sense revealing what else we’d been up to. “What about you? I’m guessing you didn’t also fall.”

“We are here in service of the Ortisfel.”