The sewer system under the city of Rapna is the quickest way for me to gain entry back into the city without wandering through the forest looking for a way back to the main gate. I stumble into the dark tunnel, splashing through the wastewater. There is no light, yet still I can see. Thought there is nothing around except for the long tunnel that seems to run forever with its branching tunnels and cracks in the concrete walls. No iron bars block me from getting into the tunnel.
I expect that I will not be alone.
I find rats the size of dogs and dispatch them with ease. Using the new fire instinct that seems to come naturally to me. I know that it has something to do with the demon, but I do not want to converse with that monster. I simply want to find my daughter and escape this hell.
I want to enjoy the last moments of life that I will have with her.
There are no ladders that lead upwards, only the branching tunnels that seem to lead away in every direction. I take none of them, continuing straight, hoping to find a ladder that leads to a hole in the ground somewhere around the middle of the city.
I find nothing as I notice that the tunnel is slowly beginning to slope downward. Following the path before me, I stumble upon an opening into a cavern. If not for my sight, I would have believed I was walking into a cave. I see it's man-made or was made by something.
The cavern is wide and deep, with a ceiling that stretches into oblivion and darkness. Other tunnels lead into this one, like a main hub. Ladders lead down, deeper into the sewer. Water runs down the wall, trickling and splashing against the ground. There is no specific place that the water could be coming in from, so there is no place where I could follow it and escape.
The sewer is a labyrinth, yet I've found the center.
I call into the darkness, hoping that someone may hear my call, but there is nothing but silence. Assuming that more rats will come, I draw my daggers and prepare to hurl fire. Five emerge from the tunnel to the left. Their fur is matted, their eyes are yellow and bloodshot, they snarl and foam from the mouth, and their nails drag and scratch across the concrete.
Ash.
More come from other tunnels. I notice their eyes. That bloodshot yellow reminds me of something, but I cannot place what. More and more continue to pour from a tunnel to the right. Every minute, another emerges.
A trail of foam, blood, and corpses lies behind me as I follow the tunnel. The rats start to come more frequently and faster the further down the tunnel I go. With each step, they become more ferocious and their eyes begin to glow brighter.
Slowing down, I hear the sound of something terrible. A chittering hiss that scraps against the eardrums and gnaws at the spine. It echoes and reverbs off the tunnel walls before dying in the darkness.
Their nest.
Closing my eyes, I begin to concentrate on the fire in my hands. Kneading it like flour into dough, building it like mud. I feel the heat against my hands, then my chest, and finally my face as the ball of fire grows.
Opening my eyes, I see the powerful ball of flames. The yellow and red mix together, melting into each other. With each breath I take, I watch the ball do the same. The flames rise and fall in my hands like a living weapon. I hurl the ball and hear the cries from the nest as it all burns and becomes ash. The chittering does not stop, no, it gets louder and grows an anger to it.
Stepping into the gruesome scene, I see the charred husks of the rats on the ground. They lie in huddles, some full-grown, others only babies. The queen lives, larger than the other. Smoldering, but still foaming from the mouth. It's a giant thing, larger than a bear with eyes of pure yellow. It shakes.
Shierking, it lunges towards me, I side step the attack and draw the pistol from my side. A chunk of flesh flies from the monster's side, and it squels with pain and anger. Flinging its body in a circle, it's taken out with its tail and thrown into the wall. A pile of ash explodes when I fall into the ground. I cough from the ash that fills my lungs as the monster lets another ungodly shierk loose from its maw.
Lunging at me again, I extend my palm and shoot a constant stream of fire from it. It squelches from the pain, stepping away from me. Rising from the ground, I follow the monster and continue to spray fire into it. Shrieks of pain come as it catches fire, slowly spreading over its entirety.
I stop the flames and lower my hand as the monster is engulfed by the inferno. Its eyes burn bright with that yellow of madness. It lunges again, this time shooting bolts of yellow light from its eyes. They hit me, and I'm over taken with a wave of insanity. Dropping to my knees, my hands slam onto the sides of my head, and I begin to scream.