MAZE - The Endless Quest

On the edge of the forest, just a few meters before one of the craters, there was a small opening. One that led to a massive hole in the ground. That was a path to an underground water source that was constantly being cleaned by the treatment plant of the city. When looking towards the canal, they could see a tunnel made out of large pipes. Those were wide enough for the group to walk on their bipedal forms, but they still decided to continue like they were now. It was better, just in case the humans had a way to scan the area.

However, even if they had decided to become bigger again, it would’ve been a waste. Around 10 meters in front of them, the tunnel started to get smaller and smaller, reaching about twice the size of the opening they would have to cross. To make matters worse, it was filled with wastewater.

‘I guess this is it. Take a deep breath, everyone,’ Nimbus called as they jumped inside the pipe.

‘Sure you say that. I’m the only one that can smell right now,’ Lurize huffed, as he moved back, and grabbed on to Nimbus. While outside, he could be faster than everyone, however, due to his diminutive size as a beetle, it became hard to fight against the current.

A couple of minutes passed with them all inside the waste. Every now and then, one of the team members would yelp. Not because they were hurt, but because a particularly large piece of… something brushed past them. It was hard to see in the murky green waters, but they still could tell they were going in the right direction. Eventually, they reached the even smaller opening. It was surrounded by an expertly carved three-dimensional spell circle that really looked like something else. Viper even got an itch to stop and study the structure, but he held back against that. This wasn’t the time for him to do something like that.

‘Crimson, can you warn Hera we are in position?’

‘Sure can,’ Crimson quickly covered her entire body with a mana reinforcement spell. The very first buff that Hera ever figured out. Doing that had nothing to do with their path, or what they had to do to enter the city proper. Instead, it was a signal to the Empress. Just before they left, and after she gave them all a Royal Quest, the Ophidianite also cast the weakest version she could make of that same spell on every single one of them, except Lurize, since he would go to his beetle form. The moment Crimson cast the same spell on top of the existing buff, the stronger one would take over and the weaker vanished. This would tell Hera that they were in position. And in turn, she would tell Kaela it was time to attack.

Which was exactly what happened. The Scoutmaster told the mage battalion to fire the spell they already had prepared. Little by little, a spell called Elemental Meteor started to form above them all.

The first sign of that was a crackling sound. Like the sky itself was splitting open. Next came the heat. A warmth so intense it felt like a summer day in the desert. This wasn’t a new spell, but a spell that the mages had been perfecting for a while. Lightning crackled around the molten rock and the wind picked up, enveloping the magic in a perfect sphere. Even the moisture in the air seemed to be attracted, as if it was caught in the gravity of a black hole being unleashed.

But that was only the beginning. The meteor had yet to fully form.

As the ball grew in size, the pressure continued to build. Until the meteor was almost 30 meters in diameter. Only then would they fire the spell.

The moment the sphere was at that point, Kaela, who was waiting for the signal, turned to her army and yelled, “Let’s show those bastards who is really beneath who!”

With a single motion, the mage in charge of the artillery raised her hand, pointing towards the barrier. At the same time, her battalion released the spell, and the meteor flew. It wasn’t simply like a comet coming down from the heavens, but as if the elements themselves were anger at what was going on. As if the very nature of the MAZE wanted to destroy the humans for the sins they had committed.

Then again, this was the nature of the spell. Instead of simply taking in the mana of each mage, it also brought along their affinity, and their emotions. What the humans were seeing now, in the form of a second sun, bigger, brighter, and emanating a prism of light, was the unbound rage felt by the members of the alliance. The pure fury and indignation to everything they had done so far. The war, the killings, the effort to wipe out all different intelligent species from the MAZE. All that was funneled to this one singular massive spell that spent the last 30 minutes being prepared.

The meteor crashed against the barrier. It didn’t try to destroy it or cause a rift in its defenses. The goal of this spell wasn’t to kill, at least, not directly. Even if the people who cast it really wanted to deal with some damage. The real objective depended on a secondary attack placed in the center of the Elemental Meteor. A condensed ball of resonance mana that would crash along with the meteor and spread all the way across the barrier. Cracks quickly appeared along the shield, but they were being fixed at an incredible rate, thanks to the ample supply of mana present in the power plant.

For the humans, and those who were unaware of the true intentions of the spell, the shock wave was just an attempt to overwhelm the barrier itself. Distribute the damage all over its surface in hopes of breaking it. After all, if the shield was destroyed, it would take a long time to be redeployed. That didn’t happen, of course. Despite the spell scaring some of the humans, the barrier held strong, seemingly unaffected.

But that was part of the plan. The spell was made in a way that it would outright destroy that secondary shield. If it did that, the humans would receive a warning and be aware of the invasion. Instead, it would simply resonate with that smaller barrier disrupting its existence for a few precious seconds. Once the shock wave reached the drainage pipe, the secondary barrier that protected that one specific area and could be quickly turned on and off flickered for a moment.

Nimbus, Lurize, Crimson and Viper noticed the flicker and jumped through as fast as they could. They were already waiting for it, which helped them to cross the threshold of the barrier in the precious few seconds they had. Still swimming in waste, they followed the path they had planned beforehand. First going towards one of the storm drains that led out of the sewers. It was a small entrance, but the tunnels were large enough for the group to grow into their larger forms. If they needed.

Lurize and Nimbus were the first to come out. Using the momentum from the current, they jumped, pushing themselves off the ground, and shooting like rockets, aiming for a nearby building. Both of them stopped just before hitting the structure and quickly climbed towards an open window on the second floor, but stopped before entering. They were very careful not to leave a trail of slime in their wake, but some of the wastewater came along for the ride.

‘Ugh, we need a shower,’ Lurize shivered, opening his wings in an attempt to get rid of the excess waste.

Viper and Crimson were not far behind, but the twins used [Hidden Frontal Screen] while keeping their backs to each other so that no one would be able to see the flying daggers going towards the same building. After checking if the room in front of them was really empty, they went inside. It was an office space for a gym. The reason for them to have picked this structure, in particular, was the presence of a pool on the ground floor.

Moving around while being covered in filth would cause problems. Even a human could smell them coming from far away, and leaving a trail of waste wouldn’t be a good idea either. But cleaning themselves wasn’t easy. If they tried to use any showers, that would make a lot of noise, and it might attract people. In the end, the best solution they came up with was the gym. A quick dip on a chlorine filled pool could remove most of not all the sewer water from their weapon forms, and mask the smell decently enough for them to continue the mission.

‘I’m gonna need to clean my blade with some scented oils when we get back. I don’t care that the sewer water will be gone once we are dismissed. My soul still feels it.‘ Viper complained as they moved through the office.

‘Tell me about it. This is disgusting. I don’t think anyone else would be able to go through with this plan. The smell should be a thing of nightmares.’

‘It is. It really is,’ Lurize groaned as he reached the door. After a quick scan to make sure they were alone, they continued moving. It didn’t take long for them to reach the pool area. But just as they were about to jump in, a man walked out of the locker room wearing a tight red swimming brief.

“What the hell?” he gasped, looking at the three floating weapons and the golden beetle by the poolside.

Without hesitating, Viper, Crimson, and Nimbus jumped the man. The two daggers going straight for his neck while the Sentinel gutted him, opening his stomach like a fish.

‘Did you have to make all that mess!?’ Lurize gasped as the man’s body fell to the ground, his innards spilling out together with a river of blood.

Nimbus paused, looked at the man and then at the Royal Tutor, ‘I’m not going to lie. I panicked a little bit. Someone going for a swim while the city is under siege freaked me out. I genuinely thought he was going to put up a fight.’

‘You know... that’s fair. Who the hell is this guy and why is he in the gym during an attack?’ Crimson loomed over the body, trying to see if she could come up with something.

‘Hum... We might have a problem,’ Viper was in the locker room. He walked out on his half naga form holding a military uniform. It was dark blue, had several medals on the chest, and an odd golden rope tied from the shoulder to the lapel of the jacket, ‘Usually who has something like this is a high-ranking officer, isn’t it?’

‘Fuck... I think that’s a general? Or a commander of some sort. But why is he so weak?’ Lurize turned to the man again.

‘Maybe he’s more the strategy kind? It’s clear he had no intention of joining the fight,’ Crimson suggested.

‘Whatever is the case, we need to move fast now. Everyone, jump in the pool. We need to get clean and move!’ Nimbus was the first to jump, the two bladed tonfas splashing around and spinning underwater to remove any waste still on his body. Viper, Crimson and Lurize did the same right after him. All three rushed to get clean and leave this place.

When they were finally ready, they left the gym through the back entrance. They had been there for just 5 minutes, but they had a schedule to keep. The longer they took to deactivate the barrier, the worse things could get. That time frame was even smaller now. After all, if that man was really a high-ranking officer, it wouldn’t take long for people to come looking for him. And the moment they found him, everyone would know that someone had invaded the city. To make matters worse, if there was an infiltration team, there was only a single location that could be their target. The power plant. Anything else would be a waste of resources and the humans knew that.

The clock was ticking, and that small stunt had just shaved off a large chunk of time for the infiltration team.