TS6 - Chapter 4

Following Winrid out of the city, Thorn, Mina, and Akira soon found themselves standing at the edge of a massive strip mine. Thorn had grumbled in his heart when he heard they were going to a mine, assuming they would be entering tunnels and heading underground. Instead, this mining operation was all above ground. He could see large crowds of Qatari pulling the earth away to reveal a bluish-green mottled stone that began to contract as soon as it was exposed to air. The miners would then throw wet blankets on top of the stone before carefully digging out around it until they could remove the piece in its entirety.

"Cloud-treader iron is a unique mineral," Winrid said when he noticed Thorn's curious looks. "It's tremendously useful for reducing the weight of weapons and armor and has some interesting applications in war machines. That's one of the reasons why this location is so heavily guarded."

As Winrid gestured, Thorn noticed that there were guards everywhere he looked, keeping watch over the workers and the surrounding mountains. Seeing a Qatari worker rushing towards them, Winrid was about to call out when there was a loud explosion in the distance, and the faces of the workers around them turned pale. Swearing under his breath, Winrid raced towards the sound, Thorn and Mina following close behind.

Coming over a small hill, they saw down into the mine, where a massive scaled worm creature was wreaking havoc. Dozens of carts had been overturned, scattering precious minerals across the ground, and the giant worm was in the process of attacking the workers. Seeing one was about to be eaten, Mina and Thorn both sprang into action.

With a step, Thorn stood in front of the worker, thrusting both his hands out as he called an arcane rune into existence, forming a wall of energy that broke a few of the worm's teeth as it smashed against it. Mina had floated up into the air, her dual blade dagger lifting above her head as ice began to form around her. Whispering an arcane command, she brought her dagger down, and a massive ice blade coalesced in the air above the worm.

Just as the worm recoiled, gathering itself to strike once more, the blade dropped, hacking into the armored plates that covered the monster. Even before the blade made contact, the plates had already begun to freeze and then crack, and when it finally struck, everything under it, including the worm's internal organs, had already transformed into ice. The weight of the blade crushed through the frozen middle of the worm, and the ice continued to spread, expanding rapidly along the two halves of the writhing monster until it had frozen solid.

In the next moment, a massive flame hammer flew through the air, smashing into the frozen worm and breaking its body into pieces. A fierce-looking woman in flaming red armor, who held a second hammer just like the first, strode over, her eyes blazing. When she saw Mina, she paused for a moment before nodding her thanks. Thorn, who was down by the remnants of the now-dead monster, crouched down to examine the pieces of its corpse that still remained.

"Do you feel that?" He asked Eve, who had flown up above the corpse to scan it.

"I think so, though it's a bit different from what I remember."

"Well, we are in a different world," Thorn said, "but it's unmistakable and leaves a terrible taste in my mouth." Standing, he spit to the side before walking back up the hill to where Mina, Winrid, and the warrior stood.

A calm-looking old man had joined them, with a long beard flecked with remnants of bright red. As Thorn arrived, Winrid introduced him to the governor, Kerman, and his daughter, Rorah.

"Kerman has been this region's governor for close to a hundred years, and his daughter Rorah has recently returned from the front line. Sir, this is Ascendant Thorn, one of the newest ascendants in the Temple of Man."

Governor Kerman looked over Thorn with an appraising eye and then turned his attention to Mina, who Thorn quickly introduced.

"That was an impressive spell," Kerman said. "It's rare to see someone so well-versed in pure magic."

"Thank you," Mina replied, bowing.

"I apologize that we have to meet under these circumstances, Ascendant Thorn, but as you can see, we're having quite a bit of trouble."

No sooner had he spoken than there was another explosion, and a second massive earthworm burrowed out of the earth in another part of the mine. Cursing, Rorah drew both her hammers and launched herself forward. As she moved, she swung her hammers, and heavy flames burst out of them, propelling her forward at an unbelievable speed. Feet first, she slammed into the worm, sending it rolling up a hill. As its momentum petered out and it began to roll back down, the worm thrashed, trying to regain control of its body. But Rorah was already on top of it, her hammers crushing large portions of its body into paste. At six foot five, and heavily muscled, it was clear that Rorah specialized in raw power and that was on display now, as she obliterated the monster with half a dozen blows. Grimacing, Governor Kerman gestured, not needing to say anything to illustrate his point.

"How long has this been going on?" Thorn asked.

"For almost four days now we've been having constant attacks. The first two days were the worst, as we didn't realize the extent of the trouble. After that, Rorah and I have stayed here, but we get at least four of these worms an hour, which is tremendously frustrating, and it has cut our production by more than half. I take it Winrid has asked you to come and try and assist us?"

"Yes," Thorn said. "He asked us if we could help suppress the beasts while you track down their source."

"Oh? And in return, what did he promise you?"

Noticing the look Governor Kerman shot towards Winrid, Thorn could tell the two men weren't on the best of terms. Still, they put on a united front when facing Thorn and Mina, likely because they were outsiders.

"He said that it was possible we could use the dimensional gate to head towards the capital," Thorn replied.

And after a moment of thought, Governor Kerman nodded.

"I think that's fine," he said. "If you truly can help us get rid of this problem, then I'd be happy to activate the gate for you. Until we do, however, I'm afraid that I have to stay here and ask you to investigate the source."

Exchanging a glance with Mina, Thorn agreed, and after getting a little bit more information about when and how the attacks had appeared, Thorn and Mina headed toward one of the gaping holes in the ground, where the worms had burrowed out to see if they could track them back to their source.

For the most part, the worm's tunnel had collapsed, but that didn't stop Thorn one bit. After jumping down into the hole, he closed his eyes and extended his awareness deep into the earth. He could see the path that the worm had taken, even though it wound erratically, since the composition of the soil was slightly different, having passed through the worm's body.

"Come on," he said, speaking to Mina and Akira.

As he summoned his halberd, he used it as a staff, holding it in front of him and began to walk down into the earth, which gave way before him. It was as if a bubble extended from his weapon, and the ground shifted around it as if it was water. Thorn's immaculate control of earth-attributed mana allowed him to perfectly shape the soil, which he did, pulling it around them as they followed the worm's trail.

It went nearly a mile down into the mountain, before turning and heading north for a few thousand feet. Thanks to his awareness, Thorn could see everything for a considerable distance, and when he noticed another worm burrowing its way through the ground, he and Mina cut it off. The worm, which had been able to sense the tremors Thorn caused, tried to detour around them, but clenching his fist, Thorn controlled the earth in front of it to harden, transforming into stone that it took a moment to chew through. By that time, Mina and Thorn, who were moving quickly, appeared next to the large worm. Reaching out her hand, Mina touched the plates of the worm lightly, and with a crack that sounded like a death knell, the entire monster froze.

"I don't get it," she said, speaking to Thorn. "They're incredibly weak. You'd think that a monster of this size would be much larger."

"Not necessarily," Thorn said. "If they're a regular worm and they were forcefully grown to this size, then it makes sense to me that they wouldn't actually be that strong. From what I can figure, they're not even in the fifth tier, which is why they die so easily. It seems more likely to me that we're dealing with an attempt to disrupt the mining operations rather than someone who actually thinks they're going to make a difference with these worms. I'm picking up a nasty aura on them."

"Oh? What can you sense?" Mina asked.

Taking a deep breath, Thorn turned his attention to the path the worm had just taken to get to that point.

"I hesitate to say in case I'm wrong," Thorn said slowly. "But these things stink like dragons."

"That's not good," Mina said, her expression paling.

"It's a bit strange, though, because the scent of the draconic aura is so diluted. Chances are someone's using the tiniest amount of diluted draconic blood to transform these worms into monsters. Either way, we should find out soon."

Pushing with his hand towards the earth around them, Thorn expanded the bubble, and the two of them shot forward, moving through the earth as easily as if flying through the air. Before long, a cave appeared in front of them, and a moment later, they had passed through the cave wall, emerging into a poorly lit cavern nearly a mile across. Their entry had been silent, and as they looked around, they noticed a few things.

A massive vat stood in the center of the cave, filled with a foul, green liquid, and hundreds of thousands of squirming worms. The stench that rose from the vat had an almost physical presence, but the figure standing over it didn't appear to care. Reaching down with a clawed hand, the figure scooped up a worm, muttering something, before throwing it to the ground. Whatever spell the robed figure cast caused the worm to swell and grow, its body transforming into titanic proportions, before it began to squirm toward the cave wall where Mina and Thorn had emerged. Eyes narrowing, Thorn gazed at the figure, trying to see through them.

"You two deal with the worms, I'll deal with them," Thorn said, and as Mina and Akira nodded, he vanished.

When Thorn reappeared, he was behind the figure, his hand reaching for the back of their neck. A crackling shield of gray energy exploded around the robed figure as Thorn tried to grab them. Shrieking, both in fright and in anger, the figure spun around, their cloak falling to the ground as they abandoned it to try and gain some distance.

Though Thorn hadn't been expecting a human, he was still shocked by what he saw. Standing seven foot five, the humanoid lizard in front of him looked nothing like the lizard kin he had seen since coming to the endless worlds. Instead, the mysterious figure had a wide head with a protruding snout and a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. His scales were heavy and formed in a diamond pattern, rising to a frill at the top of his head. Sharp spikes protruded from the back of his neck, disappearing into his robe. As the lizard man hissed, the stench of dragons grew stronger. Though it had been faint in the worms, Thorn could feel it radiating from the being in front of him.

"Who are you?!"

Thorn didn't answer, and instead brought his palm down, creating a cage of ancient runes to try and suppress the scaled man. Caught off guard by the suddenness of the attack, the man hissed again as another shield sprang up around him. He launched himself backward, even as a gray token at his waist shattered. At the same time, he pulled out a short dagger with a wide blade that he pointed at Thorn.

Sensing an invisible attack heading his way, Thorn took a step forward and to the side, immediately catching up to his opponent. His fist fell like a hammer, smashing into the scaled man's shoulder, crushing bone and slamming him into the ground. The shock of the blow was so severe, the scaled man lost his grip on his dagger, and a moment later, dozens of chains erupted out of the earth, completely sealing him.

Reaching down, Thorn grabbed the bundle of chains and lifted the scaled man into the air, slamming his staff into the side of the scaled man's head as he did so, knocking him unconscious. The temperature in the cave had fallen drastically, and when Thorn looked around, more than half of it was covered in ice. Mina, who was still getting used to the supercharge that the ambient mana had given her powers, had finished off the worms easily and was waiting for Thorn to be done.

"Come on," he said, and with a gesture opened up an earthen yellow gate.

Mina stepped through first, Thorn followed after her as Akira jumped to his shoulder, and they appeared in the strip mine. Immediately, Thorn felt a fiery aura lock onto him, as Rorah came hurtling through the sky. Halfway through her attack, she recognized that it was Thorn who had appeared, and gracefully landed next to him, putting her hammers away.

"Welcome back," she said. "Who's that?"

"He seems to have something to do with the worms," Thorn replied, "but I've never seen anyone like him."

By this time, Governor Kerman and Winrid had both made their way over, and as Thorn shifted the chains to allow them to see the face of his prisoner, he heard all three of them gasp.

"Something wrong?" he asked, looking between them.

The expression on Governor Kerman's face was odd as he glanced at Thorn and then back at the prisoner, who seemed to have been captured with little to no effort. Winrid, who didn't seem quite as impressed, was instead angry.

"How did a dragonkin get this deep into human territory?" he asked, his voice as grim as his expression.

"It's a wonderful question, Winrid. A wonderful question indeed," Governor Kerman replied.

Rorah, who had been just as taken aback as the other two to see a dragonkin lying on the ground, looked at Thorn with naked curiosity. "How'd you capture him?"

"What do you mean?" Thorn asked. "I just grabbed him."