As Lilly and Luna approached the mining camp, they each pulled out a 'unique chain' that Mell had forged for them. Although still young, the Azurefell Bloodline had already started to awaken. It contained a special kind of Inheritance, one that would be 'opened' as they got stronger.
Lilly's chain of choice was relatively normal, but its width was only as thin as a thread, and it ended with a sharp needle tied to its end. As for Luna, Luna's chain of choice was a normal width, but it was engraved with a special rune that caused it to be completely silent, ending with a small sickle.
The Azurefell fighting style was built upon the foundation of 'Chain Control'. This usually utilized a long chain with a short sword tied to its end, but the weapon didn't matter too much for the overall style.
Lilly and Luna became serious, before exchanging a nod, and then running towards the camp.
Lilly drew her needle and launched herself into the 'miners'.
Her ferocious little self was like a weever, piercing in and out of the group of guards.
She was swift and precise, ending a life with each stab.
She danced between enemies, stealthily sewing her chain into large groups of people. When she pulled on her 'thread', it would tighten like a noose, slicing apart her interwoven victims like paper.
Luna, on the other hand, attacked with a silent efficiency.
Unlike Lilly's precision, Luna attacked with a series of sweeps, slashes, and cuts, each of which landed in the perfect place to quickly end a life.
Her sickle sang like an arrow, slicing through the air like a blade.
With a flash of runic light, the sound stopped, and lives would disappear.
Each attack would reap a life, violent yet efficient. She was quick and ruthless, carving through the guards like a blender.
Petra watched from the side, nodding from time to time.
She had heard from Soryn that the Azurefell Family had a special style of fighting, and it was clear to Petra that both these girls had inherited it.
Despite not being able to fully use their physiques, the twins were still a force to be reckoned with.
As the fight concluded, Petra's attention was suddenly drawn to something in the darkness.
-
After the last head fell, Lilly and Luna were panting for breath.
This was the first 'real' battle that they had fought since joining Petra, and they realized that they had improved a lot. Their bodies were far stronger, a result of Petra's 'medical' baths, and their intuition was much sharper, a result of Nebula's secret training.
As they were recovering...
Luna suddenly froze.
She pulled on her sister's sleeve, desperately trying to get her attention.
When Lilly ignored her, she hummed loudly. She kept pulling, faster and faster, almost ripping off Lilly's sleeve in the process.
When Lilly finally turned, her eyes widened in horror.
In the distance, where the cave darkened and the pathway extended into black, there, hanging on the ceiling, was a twisted shadow.
It hung upside down like a bat, its pale skin was smooth and flat. It had the body of a starved human, with four additional arms extending unnaturally down its spine. It stood three meters tall, and its arms reached four meters long. Its seamless body had no features, almost as if something had pulled a thin layer of skin over a doll.
It lacked eyes, but Lilly suddenly felt a bone-chilling gaze pierce into her. Her instincts told her that whatever this thing was, it was now looking at her.
She froze for a moment, her body locking up.
At the same time, Luna stepped in front of her, cutting off her big sister's line of sight to the monster.
Lilly's eyes widened, and her body shook. She gritted her teeth and lowered her head, knowing that she had made a mistake. She thought to herself, 'so this is a corrupted monster?' She understood that she had lost her composure. A mere glance was enough to frighten her to that extent. It was understandable that normal people viewed these monsters as absolute evil.
If it weren't for Luna, then perhaps she would have just stood there like an idiot, waiting for death.
While she was thinking, the creature moved. Its large body swayed in the dark, shifting along the cave walls. Whether consciously or unconsciously, it avoided the light, lurked away from vision, and looked for an opportunity to attack.
Luna followed its shadow, the creature becoming noticeably more difficult to detect the longer the confrontation lasted. It was adapting…
Despite not having eyes, the girls could tell that this monster was analyzing them and their abilities.
Such a terrifying thought was exactly the situation they were in.
Petra stood back, allowing the twins to fight again.
To her, this creature was nothing more than a passing shadow.
Luna moved first, launching her chain at the place where the monster hid.
Swoosh!
There was a powerful gust of wind, then a loud explosion.
BOOM!
The chain missed, striking the wall behind the creature. From the darkness, the creature exploded forward, its hands extending towards the walls and twisting itself around Luna's attack like a boneless serpent.
The monster closed the distance, its body crashing forward.
It tore through the dark stone and carved its way towards the girls while kicking up dirt and dust.
Lilly flicked her wrist, forming a spiral-shaped net with her chain.
The monster crashed into the net, entangling itself, but not losing any momentum.
Lilly pulled, tightening her 'net' around the monster, and following a second pull, the chain began to dig tightly into its pale flesh. Lilly thrusted forward, sending the needle through the monster's torso and into the ceiling behind them, momentarily bringing the thin figure to a halt.
Its body jolted, its face now only a few inches away from Lilly's.
The cave shook as the monster exerted its strength.
At this time, Luna slipped in.
Like a silent reaper, she appeared in the air behind the monster, spinning with a sickle-tipped chain. Her blade noiselessly swept over, slicing through the four arms that extended unnaturally from the creature's spine.
Swoosh!
"Nerooooooooooooooo!"
A painful roar came from its shapeless mouth, and the monster thrashed around even harder, quickly loosening the needle that anchored it to the ceiling.
It broke free, turning around with a torrential gust of wind and sweeping one of its remaining arms towards Luna, but its action was met with resistance.
Instead of receiving another attack from Luna, the creature cut off its own arm after forcing itself to exert too much force on the place where Lilly's chain had wrapped its arm.
The fifth of its 'six' arms fell to the ground with a loud thud, causing its open wound to leak black smoke.
It glared, its flat eyes flashing with a dark light.
The smooth skin on its face cracked, and something like a mouth seemed to rip open.
Its 'jaw' split open, nearly reaching a ninety-degree angle.
Whoosh!
From its abyss-like throat shot a tongue that extended endlessly.
It pierced towards Luna, splitting the air as it flew.
Luna raised her hand, chanting something without words.
An abnormal magic circle formed on her palm, possessing no runes, only unusual patterns. The wind element quickly condensed and formed a spear.
This spear met the incoming tongue, impaling it with ease.
"Nerooooooooooooooo!"
The creature roared again, its tongue falling limply on the ground. Its 'jaw' suddenly snapped shut, cutting off the extended appendage without a care. It twisted its head around like an owl, looking for another chance to attack.
Unlike normal monsters, this thing seemed to want to fight to the death.
Lilly let out a soft cry, her body spinning forward.
She called her needle back, then thrust it forward, aiming for the creature's head.
The monster snapped towards her and dodged, its large body surprisingly quick for its size. It whipped its final arm towards the small human girl with the ferocity of a mountain, tearing a hole through the floor as it attacked.
Before it could connect, a streak of silver light flashed from behind.
Sing!
There was a pause, before the creature stopped moving.
A moment later, its head fell from its body.
Not long after that, the creature collapsed to the ground.
When the featureless face fell to the floor, the girls finally relaxed. Looking closer, they realized that it seemed to be hollow. What originally appeared to be just a sheet of skin stretched over a doll was just an empty shell.
This discovery sent a chill down their spines.
They couldn't believe that the thing they were fighting was just an empty sheet.
Petra walked over, inspecting the fallen creature.
Her little eyes sparkled as she looked closer.
Lilly and Luna took a short break, fully exhausted at this point.
As they ate, Petra explained her findings.
"It wasn't that it was 'hollow', instead, just say that its body was filled with something Incorporeal."
"Like a soul?"
"That's right, or an elemental!"
"Does that mean that it's still alive? Did it escape?"
Petra shook her head. "No, it should be dead. After you cut off its arm, it started leaking 'something'. I'm sure that it would have 'bled out', even if you didn't continue fighting."
Lilly and Luna nodded.
After their rest had ended, the girls continued down the mine.
* * *
Petra followed the series of tunnels that had been dug deeper into the mine.
The dark stone walls became darker and denser, transforming from the slightly transparent crystals to something closer to dense obsidian. As the dark stone became denser, it also began to release a black mist that quickly filled the bottom of the path. The occasional strips of dark blue and purple patterns became rarer, while the occasional streets of white became thinner and duller.
From time to time, they would encounter miners, but these people were quickly dispatched by the girls.
As they got deeper, Petra noticed that some of the stray miners had started to wear special clothing that protected them from the radiating corruption of the dark stone.
This didn't affect the girls because Petta would absorb any of the darkness elements that got close.
Soon, they arrived at a large cylindrical cavern that extended steeply up and down into the darkness. Clinging to the surrounding walls was a complete array of mining equipment. There were large buildings that had clearly been built quickly, interlocking bridges that connected the different facilities, and a complicated logistics infrastructure that maintained the mine and its workers. Ventilation ducts extended along the cave walls, disappearing into the darkness above, and advanced mining equipment was hard at work extracting the Dark Stone. The massive cavern was dark, with only the occasional magic light and luminous flora lighting the cave.
They had finally found the main camp.
Petra and the twins observed from the darkness.
At some point, Lilly noticed a problem.
She pointed towards a group of miners and asked, "Are these people really from the Solarin Castle?" She had noticed it earlier, but these people didn't feel like normal miners at all.
Petra followed her finger and found a group of people. These people were slightly better off, and from a distant glance, they seemed to be in charge. Upon closer inspection, Petra quickly realized that these people didn't even seem to be human.
"Ah!"
Luna made a sound from behind, before drawing the attention of Petra and Lilly.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small notebook. After turning to a specific page, she passed it to Petra and pointed at something near the top.
Petra looked through Luna's handwritten notes.
After a pause, her eyes caught something. She looked back at the miners, realizing what Luna had wanted to say.
Because the air had been tainted with a thin layer of black mist, it became harder to discern a person's features at a glance. Now that she was looking for it, Petra realized that these people, or at least the ones in charge, seemed to be Telltera.
The Telltera were a race of ash-skinned giants that dwelled underground. They had pointed ears like an elf, large builds like a dwarf, tall bodies like a giant, and grey runes covering their chests. They wore a thick set of armor that was forged from an unknown material, but strangely enough, they disdained to wear their chest plates, leaving their upper bodies unprotected and fully displaying their runic tattoos.
They were labeled as a 'Dark Race' by the Church of Light. Despite that, they were usually left alone because they were extremely powerful and not worth fighting.
Little was known about the Telltera, but it was once said that they were a mix between 'Black Dwarf' and 'Giant'. They could grow up to 6 meters tall, and had the strength of a walking mountain. If only comparing physical strength, then the Telltera may be the strongest race relative to their size. Their origins were unknown, but one thing was for sure, and that was that they weren't a part of the myriad races back during the end of the Age of Chaos.
Looking down, although there were only three Telltera, they each stood 2.5 meters tall, towering above the average human, and held long hammers that could collapse the mine with a single swing.
Petra looked away, racking her brain for what to do next.
She could tell at a glance that these three Telltera were commanding the humans through their 'boss'. It was obvious that they were really in charge. If Petra wanted to do anything, she would probably have to go through them first. The only thing that made Petra slightly apprehensive was that the Telltera were almost completely immune to poison.
This meant that Petra had to be careful.
She had read that although they were large in build, they didn't lack in speed. They could traverse cave systems like monkeys in a forest, closing the distance between themselves and an enemy in seconds.
Petra could fight back with her freakish mental energy, but if the cave collapsed, then who knows what would happen.
When this thought flashed past her mind, Petra immediately frowned.
She suddenly felt like she knew what was going to happen.
She cursed, inwardly asking herself if this could be avoided. Unfortunately, she found that regardless of whatever she could think of, there was always a counter in her head. If she left, she would run into a fourth Telltera, if she stayed, she would be discovered, and if she attacked, she would be confronted.
Her frown deepened.
Petra grumbled about the inevitable.
Although they had yet to be discovered, she knew that it was fated to happen sooner or later.
Petra smacked her little fist against her palm.
"I've got it!" she exclaimed.
Lilly and Luna looked over, suddenly feeling very concerned. They recognized that face. That was the face that meant 'Let's flip the table'. Petra would show this whenever she was losing a board game to Nebula.
They both stepped back, wanting to distance themselves from whatever calamity was about to happen.