The darkness retreated from Almitad’s glowing Mana Bloom as she opened her coat. A deep, rhythmic thud vibrated through the floor—something massive was battering the rock from the other side. Cracks ran along the walls, dust sifting from the ceiling with every muffled impact.

  They entered the tunnel mouth, Golem Legion in tow.

  The Cave of Echoes was a rounded, narrow path with a high ceiling. Almitad’s necrotic light chased the shadows as her cloak dropped to the floor. Dawn’s sonic attacks had acted like a sandblaster; there were no stalactites, no rough edges. The walls, floor, and ceiling were unnaturally smooth, eroded into flowing, aerodynamic curves of polished stone.

  At the far end of this glass-smooth tunnel, the floor rose into a nesting mound. Perched atop this hoard, Dawn of the Morning Mist breathed heavily. Its reflective feathers were tarnished, its crown dull. The god beast was a shadow of the giant rooster they had met in the Valley of Dawn.

  Standing guard at the base of the hoard were six Golems. Unlike the pristine statues outside, these were ancient, their stone pitted and scarred. They wore armor of dull, oxidized Red Metal—forged before the sabotage plan was ever conceived.

  "Old Guard," Zeen cursed, as he climbed off the Crusher.

  The statues leveled their pikes and charged.

  Mara snatched the Giant Pill from her satchel. She crushed it between her teeth and swallowed the mixture of dried blood and herbs.

  Steam vented from her nostrils. A volley of cracks and pops detonated along her spine as vertebrae thickened. Her jaw unhinged and realigned with a pop that echoed in the cavern.

  Her black chitin armor groaned, leather straps screeching as muscles surged against them. Her frame swelled until she towered at seven feet, looking down into the hollow eyes of the stone sentinels.

  "Clear the way!" she roared as a Golem thrust its spear.

  She stepped aside and swiped with five-inch claws, slicing the head of the red metal weapon clean off. Two more jagged spearheads came from either side, one impacting her shoulder, the other buckling her knee.

  She recovered instantly and leaped between the heads of two charging opponents. Her necrotic claws hooked the edge of their pauldrons, slicing through metal and stone. She landed in a tumble, and the Golems’ arms fell to the ground, inert.

  Three Golems breached the gloom of the cave entrance, launching themselves at the rear guard. Ezy spun the Crusher’s armored bulk around, forearm-mounted rifles tracking the lead statues.

  She fired a slug from each rifle.

  The first struck a rivet dead-center. The compromised alloy sheared instantly, and the statue collapsed. The second ricocheted off a stone shoulder, sparking harmlessly into the dark.

  Red Metal pikes punched through the chassis. One blade hooked a seam in the ablative plating. Metal screamed. A heavy sheet of armor ripped free, clattering to the floor and exposing the hydraulic lines beneath.

  The last Golem lunged for the exposed weakness, its spear point aiming for the main fluid reservoir.

  Zeen racked the slide of his soul-bound musket. The ivory stock pulsed with Gil's spectral light. "Get off my friend!"

  He fired point-blank. The blast released a kinetic shockwave of burning ashes that ripped through the statue’s breastplate.

  But a fresh Golem shoved the paralyzed statue aside. Behind it, a column of Red Metal marched into the tunnel.

  The Dawn’s heaving sides went still.

  Air pressure dropped. A vacuum formed around the rooster as it inhaled the cave's mana.

  "Cover me!"

  Trenn planted his boots and expanded his chest. He seized the frequency of the Sound Element.

  Dawn’s beak snapped open. There was no buildup, no echo—just a point-blank detonation of sonic force.

  Trenn met it head-on.

  “STOP!”

  He fell to his knees, eyes bleeding, chest heaving. The world spun, but he held back the vomit. He wiped blood from his eyes with his sleeve.

  As the screams echoed away, the entire cave shook. The attack was answered by a thunderous, reciprocal BOOM from deep beneath their feet. Rocks fell from overhead, and cracks in the walls spread to the ground.

  The Old Guard pressed their attack.

  Mara ducked a sweeping polearm while another glanced at her jerkin. In a step, her massive legs cleared the distance. She swiped, and her claws sheared through the creature’s stone thigh, sending its leg flying as the statue collapsed.

  A second Golem lunged. It drove its heavy pike into her spine. The serrated iron punched a clean hole through the black chitin plate. The metal bit deeper, grinding against her flesh, but it skidded against skin hardened by the Giant Pill.

  The impact shoved her forward. She planted her foot and spun, channeling the momentum into a backhand swipe that sheared the thick wooden shaft in two.

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  A massive shadow lengthened across the floor, swallowing Trenn. He remained on his hands and knees, chest heaving as he fought to pull air into his vacuum-collapsed lungs. Red static washed over his vision.

  "Trenn!"

  Mara’s scream pierced the ringing in his ears. He snapped his head up. The pike was already falling toward his skull.

  He jerked his left arm overhead. The strike broke against the White Shield. The force hammering him into the ground, flattening his body against the cold stone.

  The Crusher lunged. Its hydraulic claw clamped onto the breastplate of a charging Golem. Ezy yanked the control lever back. The sulfur-rich rivets popped. The massive red plate tore free, and the statue froze, its stone arms locking mid-swing.

  Two more Golems stepped over the paralyzed hulk. Zeen leveled his musket at the gap between them and fired. A cone of kinetic ash hammered both statues. The shockwave shattered the brittle rivets on their greaves. Red Metal clattered to the floor, and both sentinels toppled as their legs seized.

  Almitad hovered above the melee. She flicked a skeletal finger. A rune-scribed rib shot from her orbit, streaking through the air like a white dart. It punched through the shoulder rivet of a Golem, banked sharply in mid-air, and shattered the knee fastener of a second before exploding into chains that wrapped a third Golem with the remains of the first two.

  Loud barking erupted from the tunnel mouth. The Golem's advance stalled.

  A massive shape smashed through the breach—the Armored Dog.

  It plowed through the sabotaged statues. Brittle rivets snapped against the impact. Red Metal clattered away; stone soldiers froze beneath the dog's paws. The god spun, massive claws raking the side of another Golem to strip its greaves.

  Zeen used the chaos to slip past the remaining enemies and head towards Dawn.

  Trenn, head swimming, pushed himself up. His sonar painted another squad of Golems reaching the cave mouth. "Almitad! The door!" he roared, leaping from the Crusher’s hull.

  Almitad snapped her fingers. Three rune bones flew. Spectral chains erupted, lashing them into a chaotic weave. The second pulled debris into a pile; the last sealed the tunnel mouth, latching onto a wall of crushed stone just as the first pursuer’s spear sparked against the barrier.

  The three remaining Old Guard advanced. The first caught Mara mid-lunge, slamming the stone haft of its halberd into her chest. The blow launched her backward, her claws carving sparks into the smooth floor as she skidded to a halt.

  A metal pike pierced the Crusher’s chassis and damaged the controls to its left arm. The armor groaned when the jagged spear retracted, damaging a large portion of the robot’s plating.

  Ezy retaliated, driving a hydraulic fist into the attacker’s faceplate, crumpling the helm into the stone skull beneath.

  The third Golem coiled, targeting the Crusher’s crippled flank.

  No time. Trenn dropped Skate and kicked the Meteor Slime before it hit the ground.

  The black diamond sphere launched with the force of a cannonball. It smashed into the descending stone arm, shattering the limb into gravel. The impact deflected the sphere into a second Golem, driving the heavy statue off balance before rocketing back to Trenn at lethal speed.

  Trenn, startled by the Meteor Slime’s velocity, threw his shield up.

  Skate flattened against the divine alloy and then sprang back into the unbalanced Golem. It blew through its leg, causing the statue to crash to the floor in a cloud of dust as Skate skidded to a halt.

  The Armored Dog barreled up the mound.

  Dawn’s head snapped down like a piston, its beak aiming for the soft meat of the dog’s eyes.

  But the Great Pyrenees dipped its head at the last fraction of a second.

  The beak hammered against the white metal chanfron protecting the dog’s skull. Sparks showered the rooster’s face, blinding it for a heartbeat.

  The dog capitalized on the recoil. It dove low as the rooster staggered, and lunged upward, driving its shoulder into the bird’s chest before snapping its jaws shut.

  Teeth met feathers and flesh. The dog clamped around Dawn’s neck with the finality of a steel trap.

  Dawn shrieked, a gargled sound. Its massive, scaled legs kicked forward in a panic.

  Three-inch spurs raked across the dog’s flank, seeking the belly, but met the heavy plate of the white pauldron instead. Metal screeched against claws, carving deep gouges in the armor, but the dog refused to let go.

  The Armored Dog had Dawn by the throat, but the rooster god was massive. Dawn thrashed, lifting the heavy canine off the ground and battering it against the gold pile, trying to dislodge the jaw clamped on its neck.

  Zeen saw his opening in the chaos. He leveled his musket at the bird's head.

  “Just me and you.” Gil’s spirit manifested, a cold pressure on his shoulder, guiding his aim. “This is for us.”

  He pulled the trigger. Instead of its usual spray, the musket coughed a condensed ball of burning ash. The projectile exploded against the back of the giant rooster’s head. Burning embers rained onto its back, catching feathers on fire.

  The ground shuddered. A deep, subterranean groan vibrated through their boots, a bass note so low it nauseated the senses. The sleeper beneath them stretched, its massive carapace buckling the bedrock. A tear opened, splitting the cave in two.

  Vents of superheated gas hissed from hairline fractures in the sanded floor.

  Through the cracks, Trenn saw gleaming Red Metal. But it wasn't a vein. It was a massive carapace, grinding against the sides of an underground mine.

  The Red Metal’s alive?

  The quakes turned into constant shaking. Inside the Crusher, alarms screamed. "Thermal spike!" Ezy yelled, panic thinning her voice. "Floor temp is rising!"

  The rocks beneath their feet turned dull red. Fractures widened into glowing chasms.

  Mara backed away, ears flattened. "WE NEED TO GET OUT," she screamed, looking at the blocked exit.

  The center of the chamber bulged upward, the stone stretching like skin over a flexing muscle. The sudden upheaval threw the Crusher off balance, but the Armored Dog dug its claws deep into the shifting ground.

  Anchored by its weight, the dog whipped its massive head back and forth, thrashing the rooster god like a rag doll.

  Trenn’s sonar pinged it immediately.

  A small, dense object breaking free from the bird’s neck. Simultaneously, the hate-filled tether of the One-Eye jerked violently. The amulet, its body, wasn't on the bird anymore; it was tumbling through the air.

  It hit the heaving stone and rolled, picking up speed as it headed straight for the glowing fissure in the floor.

  “Don’t let it fall!” Trenn screamed, lunging forward. “There’s a Red Metal monster underneath!”

  If the One-Eye gets close enough to that carapace, it wouldn’t just be a rooster or a crocodile. It would be unstoppable.

  The amulet bounced once, teetering on the lip of the glowing chasm.

  The ground shook. The amulet tumbled. Trenn lunged, his hand closed around the cold stone just as it tipped over the edge.

  He felt the hook in his mind.

  The world went dark, except for a floating eyeball. He turned, he spun. Wherever he looked, infinite darkness.

  "NO!" Mara screamed.

  As Trenn dropped to his knees. His left eye rolled back, consumed by an empty void.

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