T

Eric stepped through the door once again, carrying a torch to illuminate the cavernous room he found himself in. He had already examined the monster he had demolished, but there was no blood, only mechanical parts that went over his head. Eric decided to explore further to test if any other creatures dropped from the ceiling, so he grabbed a torch and headed into the unknown. He walked with Lucia behind him, her fears satiated with Eric in front of her. As he stepped into the room, her heard the sound of humming that reverberated through the cave itself.

Eric walked forward, looking around to keep track of what might be around him at all times. He didn't want to release any traps, so he stepped carefully and warned Lucia to do the same. They crossed the room, arriving at the crest of a half-circle. Eric walked around the room, being careful about traps, but what he found was that the room itself was in the shape of a half circle. The curved wall had seven rooms attached with a pedestal in the middle of the attached rooms, but there was nothing on the pedestals. Eric approached one of the pedestals and brushed the top off with his hand.

When he touched it, the pedestal suddenly flashed a bright light before Eric instinctively recoiled. He looked around, expecting the ruin to shake or the walls to release a poisonous gas. When nothing happened, Eric touched the pedestal again, letting it glow as he waited for something to happen. When nothing did happen, he took his hand off and went to a different room, putting his hand on the pedestal. That one glowed as well, and Eric thought about what this could mean. "Why don't you try?" Eric asked Lucia, who stepped up and put her hand on the pedestal.

Nothing happened.

"Hmm," said Eric, looking at the pedestal curiously. The sound of chains clinking gave him an idea, so Eric laid his chains across the pedestal. The humming suddenly grew into a very fast vibration, making Eric's feet tickle and his hand was tingling from the chain's shaking. "So they react to my divine weapon," said Eric, then he looked at the other rooms. "I wonder what happens when they all have a divine weapon touching them?" Eric felt like an idiot for saying that, then he picked his chain up and looked at it. He grabbed the bottom link, then he slowly pulled it off of the rest. He set the link down on the pedestal, then saw it erupt with light once more.

"Here," said Eric, taking two more links off and handing them to Lucia, "put these on the other two altars." Eric did the same, and with a final piece, every altar was glowing like the sun itself. It was hard to see with the new bloom in the room, but Eric felt the shifting and motion of something moving in the center of the connecting room. He waited for something to happen, his chains at the ready in case something big was coming. The light was suddenly shut off, leaving only the torch Eric held as the source of light. Eric was still clearing the bloom out of his eyes when a soft glow in the center of the room caught his attention.

"What is it?" Lucia asked, hiding behind Eric with her head poking out around his waist. Eric looked closely, but all he could see was the soft glow. It was almost as if nothing was there, as though he could see through the glow.

"I don't know," said Eric, "but it has to be something amazing. If the only way to unlock it was by six divine weapons placed on the pedestals, it will be priceless." Eric walked towards the glow, which was on a newly raised altar in the center of the half-moon. He reached for it, and when his hand closed around the light, a sudden gust of wind blew the torch out. Eric was in complete darkness, the sudden darkness accompanied by the sudden silence of Lucia and himself. "Lucia, where are you?"

"Over here."

"I'm going to summon my chains, then I'll find you in the light and we'll leave."

"Okay."

Eric summoned his chains, then the light illuminated the room enough for Eric to get a sense of where he was in relation to Lucia and the exit. He went to Lucia, grabbed her hand, then walked towards the exit with Lucia. Eric would repeatedly flash his divine weapon until Eric and Lucia came to an area where torches were illuminating the cave. They were both breathing steadily, hand-in-hand until they had left the cave. As they climbed the short distance to the surface, they could hear some yelling over the hill. Eric stopped, and he motioned for Lucia to be quiet.

"If you're not going to pay us, then we quit!" shouted a voice over the hill. "We're not going to wait around while more people die trying to save you money!"

"Guys, please," came the voice of the mine owner, "think of what we could excavate from these ruins! There could be priceless pottery, ancient tomes, long forgotten knowledge! We could live like kings!"

"That ruin is cursed," shouted another voice. "It killed Ohm, and now it's killed two more! We won't stand for this slaughter! We know you have the money for the army it would take, you cheap bastard!" Eric winked at Lucia, then he walked up the hill with his chains hidden. Lucia followed, looking at the crowd facing them as they approached the bald owner. The bald man followed the eyes of his miners, turning around in surprise to see Eric and Lucia walking towards him. Eric stood in front of the mine owner, looking down at him with hard eyes that the owner cowered beneath.

"The mine is safe," said Eric, then he leaned down until he was almost kissing the mine owner. "Where. Is. My. Money." Each word was like a punch in the face to the mine owner, so much so that he staggered backwards towards the crowd of burly miners.

"I'm just getting it now," said the owner nervously, slinking past the miners into his trailer. He slammed the door shut as Eric was approached by the miners, all of whom seemed hesitant to speak.

"Is it safe enough to go down there?" one of the guys asked finally. "Ohm, he was killed down there letting us escape, and he deserves a proper burial."

"I killed the thing that was protecting the ruins," said Eric, and a few guys breathed easily. "I also investigated the ruins, made sure that there were no other dangers. It's safe to get back to work for now, but I'm curious as to how this place was discovered?"

"The foreman just told us to start mining here," said one guy, "but we haven't found anything besides some silver veins! He's been throwing money at this accursed mine, but there's nothing down there save for the ruin!"

"You said you went inside," another guy cut in. "Did you find anything in there?"

"Yeah," said Eric with a cheeky smile, "there was a room with six other rooms around it, and pedestals in the rooms. It's too bad there's nothing else in there, but you never know, you might get lucky."

"That's all it was," said one of the miners, disheartened by the spoiler of the ruins.

"That's all I found," said Eric, playing it off coolly. "Anyway, this guy is going to keep paying you, so why not take the money and just try mining? It's not like it hurts you any."

"We're miners," said one guy, older than the others, "and we have nothing to mine. You are a fighter, it would be the same for you if you never had a decent fight. There is no challenge or accomplishment to be had here, it is just an empty hole in the ground."

"I can't help you there," said Eric, sighing deeply, "I'm just a fighter. I'll keep an eye out for any work I might be able to swing your way."

"Anything you could do would be appreciated," said the old miner. "We are a mining crew, not a ruin excavation crew." Eric left the miners to their woes and walked back up to the office of the owner, who was counting out coins from a drawer.

"I have your money," he said quickly, "just give me a second."

"I'll give you a choice," said Eric broadly, "you tell me everything you know about that ruin and I'll forgive the rest of the money."

"Huh?" said the mine owner, suddenly affixed at Eric.

"I found something very, very hard to believe inside of that ruin," Eric growled through clenched teeth, "so some clarification is required."

"What might you want to know," asked the mine owner, looking nervously at his drawer filled with coin. Eric slammed his hand down on the table, making the poor bald man flinch as though he had been smacked.

"How does that ruin relate to the divine weapons?" Eric asked in a low breath.

"W-w-what," stuttered the bald man, sweat running like athletes down his forehead.

"I happen to be in possession of a divine weapon," said Eric, summoning his chains to his hand, "and there was some strange shit going on down there that didn't affect Lucia. Now tell me everything you know, or give me your money. I'm fine with either."

"You're a hero," said the bald man in shock, then he scrambled over to a desk where he frantically pulled out papers. He scattered a few hundred across the ground, but finally found one of the pages he was looking for. "Th-th-this is what led me to this site," he said, handing the paper to Eric. It was a cryptic message that Eric couldn't read, but luckily the man began rambling, "My father used to work for the church of the trinity, and he used to tell me stories of the heroes and the justice they brought! He died a few years ago, and I was going through his stuff when I found these translations from old catacomb sites claiming there used to be 'seven' heroes."

"Seven heroes," said Eric in his own surprise, looking up at the mine owner.

"Yes, yes, yes," said the mine owner, "b-but, the seventh hero from a long time ago went crazy, so the other six had to seal his power. I've been researching for years about historical sites of past heroes, and this town, right here, has an old legend about a hammer-wielding god. It was a long shot, but I finally found this town and the mining crew, and I've been searching relentlessly to find this seventh divine weapon! It must be fate that you're here, now we can bring the other heroes here and try to unlock this final piece!"

"I have a lot of bad news," said Eric, looking the miner straight in the eye. "One is that I'm not on any good terms with the other heroes, I doubt they'd listen to anything I say. Secondly, is that I really don't like you. I understand the idea and motivation behind this whole ordeal, but I don't agree with your methods. Thirdly, the thing that killed your men was a machine, which I'm sure was priceless in this world, but I kind of scrapped the whole thing. Lastly, I have no way to contact the other heroes, so you would need to wait for the next Wave to come before I could even talk to them." As he listened, the bald mine owner fell into despair, collapsing at the final word as Eric's words tore down his entire life's work.

Eric reached out a helping hand with a wide smile, then said, "Here's the good news." Eric picked the bald man up, then Eric turned and lifted his shirt and chainmail vest just over the waistband of his pants. He pointed to an area that he remembered a burning sensation and asked, "What do you see right here?" Lucia went around to look as well, then a pair of icy fingers traced out a capital 'T' with a very wide top.

"Oh god," gasped the bald man breathlessly, "it's true.... The seventh divine weapon, it's... a hammer!"

"Let me see if I can do this," said Eric, and he focused on his right hand trying to bring something with a hammer and wide top. It wouldn't appear, so then Eric looked at his other hand, the empty left hand he had. He focused for a moment, then a brief flash told him that he was right. Eric turned with a triumphant look in his eye, hefting up his left hand which held a very large, very strong hammer. The handle was a ribbed, straight length of metal that Eric could grip easily, while the head of the hammer was a large stone, not unlike a cinderblock. It was cut at the edges, giving it slight slants instead of corners.

The bald mine owner dropped to his knees, looking at the hammer like it was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. "I was right," he shouted, tears forming in his eyes, "Oh gods, I was right! All of this time, every moment I spent looking for this weapon was worth it!" The bald mine owner gripped the hammer, feeling it and making Eric a little uncomfortable. "It's beautiful," he said breathlessly, "everything I've dreamed of."

"Hey, I need to get going," stated Eric, pulling away the hammer.

"Of course," cried the man, getting up and frantically pulling papers together. "We must get going! You are a hero and there are things to do!" Eric watched for a few moments as the guy hastily packed a bag with papers and coins.

"What are you doing?" Eric asked.

"I'm coming with you," said the bald guy determinately.

"No you're not," said Eric, crossing his arms in intimidation.

"I have been studying this hammer religiously," the bald man said whilst grinding his teeth together. "I will not let you leave without me!"

"I'm not taking you with me," Eric told him.

"You don't have to! I'll just follow you on my carriage," said the bald man enthusiastically. "We've got to show everyone that I was right! Those fools at the church need to know there are officially seven heroes!"

"Oh my god, just pay me so I can leave!" shouted Eric angrily.

T

In case some of you were wondering, I picked Mjolnir as the design for the hammer. Look it up.