Eternal Rest

With each passing minute, the intensity of the fight in the tunnel escalated. The attackers' strength grew supernaturally over time until their bodies couldn't handle the power anymore, and one by one, they either collapsed or exploded upon impact, just like the first one.

After the battle ended, Arn wiped the blood off himself while Rayne inspected the dead bodies. Arn joined him and noticed that the corpses looked dried up and drained of vitality.

"Rayne, I think I know what this is," Arn said, genuine worry etched on his face.

"You've seen something like this before? What happened to them?" Rayne asked, his expression mirroring Arn's concern.

"These are... soul puppets. I don’t know how they’re here, but I’ve encountered something similar before. Any form of self-consciousness and reason is stripped away, leaving only a primal urge for violence. They act like rabid dogs, attacking anyone in sight without hesitation."

"Rabid dogs..." Rayne muttered. "But why were they so strong? They started near the second tier in power and ended close to gold rank in strength. It seemed like their strength kept increasing!"

Arn shook his head. "That's the nature of soul puppets. Their strength grows exponentially as they tap into the life force they're consuming. But it's unstable. Eventually, their bodies can't contain the power and they self-destruct. It's a dark and dangerous form of magic."

Rayne's mind raced as he processed this information. "Gods... I didn’t know soul puppets were this revolting," Rayne said in disgust. We need to find Silva and stop him before he can create more of these abominations."

“Aye. The poor souls… something truly foul was done to their bodies,” Arn agreed, his voice heavy with sympathy.

Rayne was momentarily lost for words. He turned to the silver rankers and asked if anyone was injured. A few agents had suffered light injuries, but overall, the attackers hadn’t posed a significant threat.

"Is that so? Then let’s move on. We’ve wasted enough time as it is."

The group rushed down the tunnel until they reached an intersection. They chose a direction and continued, engaging another group of puppets before encountering another barrier.

“So this is their plan,” Rayne said, smashing his fist into the wall. “They’re trying to slow us down, biding their time.”

“Speaking of time, boss, isn’t it about time for the opening ceremony to start?” one of the agents asked. It was true—the opening ceremony should have started by now. Rayne didn’t know why it hadn't begun yet but knew they had been given more time.

"Whatever the reason, it's a blessing. Let's use this extra time to our advantage," Rayne said, determination steeling his voice. "Stay alert and keep moving. We need to find Silva and stop this madness."

While Rayne and his team were stuck in the sewers chasing after the bombs, the prince, Guild Leader Frose, Vice-Guild Leader Glem, and gold ranker Vog were devising their options in the royal palace. The prince had delayed the opening ceremony by an hour, giving Rayne more time to find the bombs and himself more time to decide what to do about the festival.

So far, while the threat of an attack was acknowledged, there was still no concrete evidence of a bomb threat.

"If the goal is to harm the kingdom the most, then the timing of the attack should be obvious!" the prince said, looking out the palace window. His left arm was missing, replaced by a stump that was slowly regrowing.

"Your plan is to be the bait!" Frose stated, stroking his beard. "At this time, the greatest impact on the kingdom would be if any harm came to you. If the royal guards heard you talk like that, they’d lock you up in the palace."

"That's why it’s just us here. People have come from afar to enjoy the festival, and I'm not going to take it away from them. Besides, you'll be at my side, won't you?"

"Ho ho ho. You're placing too much trust in this old man. Very well, I'll stay by your side. Glem, I need you back at the Guild to keep things under control. Issue a contract on short notice for every free and willing adventurer to help patrol the area. You know the drill."

Glem nodded and left at once. Vog mentioned his abilities were best used in the crowd, so he excused himself and went to patrol on his own.

Once they were alone, the prince spoke freely. "Am I endangering everyone by not canceling the festival? There have only been a few times in history when the festival was canceled, and that was only due to an inevitable threat like a dungeon break."

"I can't make that decision for you, Tristan. There are many factors to consider, but I don't think you're in the wrong here. If something does happen, we will be there and ready to act in time!" Frose smiled and reassured the prince.

Meanwhile, Rayne's unit fought off another group of puppets. For the past hour, they had been encountering more of them with increasing frequency. Ahead was another dead end, indicating the presence of a concealment barrier. One of the agents dispelled it, and as the wall in front of them dissipated into a mist of mana, they saw a transport trolley with a spherical container fixed in place. Just as Rayne exclaimed, “Finally!”, the sound of trumpets and cheering erupted from above—the opening ceremony had officially started.

Rayne's team cautiously approached the bomb. The same agent who had dispelled the barrier, Marcel, stepped closer and circled the container, making observations.

"Boss, the bomb is inscribed! Empowered, most likely. The problem is the trolley the bomb is sitting on. From what I can tell, there's a formation engraved on it. Probably to hide the bomb's mana signature, but I can't deactivate the bomb without disabling the formation first."

Rayne listened and watched the blue pulses going through the bomb's engravings. "The bomb is activated?" he asked. Marcel confirmed that it was. "You can deactivate the bomb, can't you?"

"I believe so, but I'd like everyone to put some distance between us first. Just in case."

Rayne reluctantly nodded, and the rest of the team moved back, watching Marcel work from a safe distance. After a minute, Marcel called out to Rayne. He approached and listened as Marcel instructed him on how to turn off the formation and disable the bomb. Rayne was puzzled and couldn't help but feel dubious after hearing the instructions. "It can't be that easy, can it?"

"I don't know what to tell you. I've observed the formation pattern in detail, and I can say with certainty that I can turn it off easily! But it will take time."

"How long?" Rayne asked, dreading the worst. Time was the one thing they couldn't afford to waste.

"Roughly ten minutes," Marcel replied. He laid on his back, crawled under the trolley, and started nullifying the runes one by one. Ten minutes later, the formation was disabled, and the bomb was deactivated. "I don't think there's more to it. It seems like rushed work—they prioritized getting the job done."

Rayne wasn't fully convinced, but the first bomb was found and deactivated. "Great work! We'll see if the next one is the same. Let's go."

An hour later, Marcel had deactivated another bomb. "Same pattern, same process. About ten minutes of work. What now, boss?"

"It takes too long to find each bomb! We're going to have to split up so we can cover more ground. I doubt there are puppets behind every concealment barrier," Rayne said, glancing at the shriveled dead bodies behind them. "We must've dealt with at least forty of them by now. What the fuck have they done to all those people…?"

Arn agreed with Rayne and took a knee next to one of the puppets, inspecting the body. Something he should have done the first time they encountered soul puppets.

"What is it?" Rayne asked. Arn didn't reply immediately. He leaned closer and could barely make out a faded ink on the shriveled arm. "These are locals, Rayne. Like the thugs we apprehended and questioned yesterday."

Rayne nodded. "There are many small local groups in the Underground. Not many would care if a hundred people disappeared... I don't know if it was Silva or if there's someone else capable of doing... all of this!" Rayne finished, gesturing at all the dead bodies with his hands.

Arn stood up, his face grim. "It doesn’t matter who's behind it right now. Our priority is stopping those bombs. If splitting up increases our chances, we should do it. But we need to stay in constant contact. Any sign of trouble, and we regroup immediately."

Rayne nodded. "Agreed. Arndell, take Marcel and the three that came with you and head east, toward the next square on the map. The rest will come with me. We'll head west and hopefully, we'll meet back in the middle and head toward the main square together."

Rayne grabbed Arndell's hand in a firm handshake. "Good luck and may fortune favor the bold!" Arndell added, "the brave!" Rayne finished with, "and the strong!"

Many long tunnels and intersections away, Silva stood beneath a manhole, talking to Clover and a small group of Hound members. "Things aren't exactly proceeding as planned, but we anticipated that and came prepared."

"Varia sure made quite a number of puppets… Clover, I need you to do something for me."

"Sure, sup?" Clover said while chewing on something.

"Is that candy? Never mind, I need you to tamper with one of the formations on the trolleys beneath the main square."

"Um, I can do that, but the formation won't work properly then. They'll sense the mana sign—"

"Doesn't matter! I need the bomb to go off when they try to tamper with the formation," Silva said mischievously, sporting a wide grin.

"But then the bomb would go off ahead of schedule!" Clover stated.

"Yes, Clover, I know how the schedule works. We have no choice. By the time of the prince's speech, all our bombs could be found and deactivated. I've marked the location of the bomb for you at the east side of the main square. Don't dawdle after you finish! Get out and head north toward the safehouse… Directly toward the safehouse! Understand?" Silva warned, emphasizing his words.

Clover nodded, swallowing the last of the candy. "Got it, boss. I'll get it done."

Silva watched Clover leave and turned to the rest of the Hound members.

"Fidref, Grir, go with Clover and make sure no harm comes to her! The rest of you will follow me. There's a group of pests that need to be exterminated."

Silva's plan was to concentrate most of the explosion on the main square where the prince would give his speech after the ceremony. Four out of the ten bombs were placed at each corner of the square. The surrounding squares weren't primary targets, but he had bombs to spare and planned to use them as a contingency or a failsafe in case their main target was compromised.

Rayne and his group had dismantled the first two bombs and were making good progress. If they continued at the same pace, they might have time to dismantle two more bombs, three at most, which was within the limit Silva found acceptable for the mission to be considered a success. Still, he wouldn't sit idly by and let their efforts diminish his plans. He headed southwest, preparing to meet the guild members head-on.

Meanwhile, in the east wing of the sewers, Arndell and his team demolished another small group of puppets. After dispelling the barrier, they found another bomb. The noise from above grew louder, and Arndell felt the pressure mounting. The ceremony had been going on for a while, and he estimated it would last another hour or so. Not enough time to deactivate every bomb. They would fail. Some of the bombs would go off, and he didn't dare think further.

"Marcel, how long will it take to disarm this one?" Arndell asked, his voice tight with urgency.

"Ten minutes, same as before, I'm trying as fast as I can." Marcel replied, already getting to work.

"I know, I know. Take your time," Arndell said, but the nervousness in his voice was evident. Marcel successfully deactivated the second bomb, the fourth overall, and the team was about to start running ahead when Arndell stopped them.

"We won't be going forward. We're turning back and heading directly toward the main square." The rest of the team became flustered, knowing that they would leave potential bombs undiscovered and activated.

"I know… I don't like it either. Can't you hear them? Up above. The crowd is getting louder, which means the entertainers will pass by this square in minutes and head toward the main square, finishing the opening ceremony. We don't know the exact number of bombs they have, but intel said eight at minimum. So let's pick up the pace and get the rest of the bombs within an hour!"

"Yes, boss!" The men replied, steeling their resolve. They rushed back, but not all the way to where they had split with Rayne. One of the intersections they passed led toward the main square, and that's where Arndell's team headed.