The Irregulars passed the time as best they could between the destruction of the bridges. It had already been six days since they had begun their mission – to destroy all seven bridges before the remnants of the Fallen Titan could advance beyond the ravine that cut across the southern regions and push north to besiege the last bastion of humanity in the Antarctica Centre.
Falcon Scott.
The Awakened worked in shifts, slipping into the Dream Realm to rest when they could, their bodies recovering while their minds wandered. However, the Ascended leader of the Irregulars could not share in that luxury. Since the destruction of the fourth bridge… things had been going badly.
The destruction of the first three bridges had been almost merciful. Only having to deal with one single Nightmare Gate and its illustrious Gate Guardian, the Lurker Hive with its insidious cloak and cabal of beetle-like abominations.
Things had seemed to be looking up; the group's lucky charm had been guiding them through the dark winter night. They would reach the seventh bridge with time to spare.
That illusion shattered with the fourth bridge.
After the fourth bridge was sent down into the dark abyss, it was one problem after another. As if a procession of Nightmare Gates had come out to greet the Irregulars, a chain of nightmares caused the Irregulars' incredible pace to grind to a halt.
Lucky collapsed into the snow with a groan, his breath ragged as he clutched at his chest through his leather armour.
"You'd think… They'd go easy on us… After the fifth Gate…"
It had started with the Rhino breaking down.
The engine had stuttered without warning, a harsh mechanical choke that forced them to a halt in the middle of the frozen expanse. For a moment, their biggest problem has been a simple mechanical failure. Something the Irregulars had only had to deal with a handful of times, due to Lucky's brilliant driving, in combination with his luck-based Aspect, and Katrina's maintenance of the Rhino's engine – it was just another thing to fix and move on from.
Then the first Gate opened.
Five had been Category Two, the Nightmare Creatures emerging from them being nothing more than the Dormant rank, their Gate Guardians no more than Awakened.
The last two had been Category Three.
The Gates had almost opened as soon as the previous fight had ended. Except for the final two, the sixth and seventh Category Three Nightmare Gates had emerged at the same time, unleashing two Fallen Gate Guardians, the strongest being a Monster, the weaker one a Beast.
Lauri stood atop a snow drift now, his gaze burning as it swept across the field before them at the menagerie of corpses that they had struck down in the past few hours. His radiant spear stabbed into the head of the Fallen Monster, and he held it tightly, tearing it free from the monster's skull.
Inspecting himself, Lauri ran his fingers along the cracks in his chestplate.
The series of fights had done a number on Lauri's armour, at first none of the attacks of the Awakened Gate Guardian's had managed to get past the layer of light Lauri used to enforce his defences. But the clash with the two Fallen Gate Guardians had taken its toll, fractures spread across the surface, marring the once-pristine white chitin. Now it was stained – darkened by the blood of Nightmare Creatures and a trace of Lauri's own.
'Damn things, they gave me a thrashing.'
Glaring at the corpse of the Fallen Monster, Lauri swung his leg, kicking the monster's head. Its already damaged neck broke, sending the severed head flying through the air and into the darkness.
Exhaling, Lauri dismissed his armour, allowing it to return to his Soul Sea, where it would hopefully be repaired before the inevitable next clash. Lauri slid down from the drift and walked past Sansa and Mele, who had long since abandoned their bows to join the melee when the two Category Two Gates had emerged.
Their weapons were still in hand, their breathing uneven as they watched the darkness out of habit more than any kind of expectation.
Sansa glanced toward him as he passed.
"Captain, do you think we should be ready for when the eighth Gate pops out?"
Lauri didn't slow as he shook his head.
"There won't be any more."
Mele frowned slightly, jogging to catch up to Lauri. She fell into step beside him.
"And you know that how?"
Lauri continued walking for a couple of moments, whistling a simple tune before he looked at Mele.
A small smile tugged on his lips.
"Call it an educated guess."
Reaching the Rhino, Lauri climbed aboard. Unlike usual, the Rhino was not bathed in the glow of its artificial lights, as the vehicle had completely shut down before even the first Gate emerged.
Moving to the hatch that led down to the engineering compartment, crouching, he called out.
"Katrina! Give me a status report, and please tell me it's a good one."
Katrina had been the only Irregular to not enter the field when the Gates emerged, for one very simple reason. As the Irregular in charge of maintaining the Rhino, she was the only one who could fix its problems. So Lauri had tasked her with getting the Rhino back on the move, the sooner, the better.
Katrina popped into view, her face was smudged with grease, her hair tied into a tight bun, and her data pad held tightly in her hands.
"I've isolated the problem, Captain. Something in the circuits melted, probably due to the faint exposure from all the Nightmare Gates we've been running past. I've replaced it, so the Rhino's power should be coming back online in a few minutes. How are things out there?"
Rubbing his face, Lauri nodded.
"We're all good, now get to it."
"Yes, Captain!"
Disappearing back into the engineering compartment, Katrina got to finishing off the repairs on the Rhino.
Taking a few steps back from the hatch, Lauri rubbed his face.
'I can't believe things have taken such a drastic turn…'
As the others returned to the Rhino, Lauri gestured to Lucky.
"Go get ready, Katrina says the lights will be back on in a minute. I want us moving the moment we can."
Without a word, Lucky moved to the pilot's cabin.
Leaning against the wall, Lauri pressed the haft of the spear against his forehead.
'I can't believe it's taken us a whole day to even get close to reaching the fifth bridge; there are just so many Gates now. We were on course to destroy one bridge a day, maybe even with one day to spare… But now we only have one day left to destroy the last two bridges… I guess it's two days if I include today, that doesn't sound so bad.'
Lauri entered his Soul Sea.
Raising his head, Lauri's gaze drifted into the cloudless sky of his soul. There, at its centre, his Soul Core shone with an incredible radiance.
Despite the troubles that the Irregulars had come across, Lauri took solace in the fact that he had not needed to use much of his stores of essence or light. Only in the clash between the Fallen Gate Guardians had he needed to tap into his essence.
Exhaling a sigh of relief, Lauri stretched.
"This is fine, the fifth bridge is close to our current position, so we only have to reach it and break it. Then the distance between the fifth and sixth bridges is the shortest distance out of all seven bridges, so hopefully we can destroy the sixth bridge today as well… Which would just leave the seventh bridge, on the seventh day."
Lauri felt something change about his Soul Sea; weak light had begun to pass into his soul.
Smiling, Lauri closed his eyes.
Opening his eyes, Lauri saw the Rhino was fully powered. And from the feel of the faint vibrations trembling up through the floor and into his legs, Lauri could guess that Lucky had started driving again. Judging by the slow pace, he was searching for a path through the Gates – one that wouldn't leave the Rhino stranded a second time.
As Lauri passed the living space, he found the others.
Mele, Vick, Sansa, and Danse sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
He couldn't blame them.
After a clash like that, words felt unnecessary.
The only movement came from Vick and Danse. Vick was sitting beside him, her fingers moving a few inches from his right thigh as she worked. Threads of essence flickered faintly beneath the surface of his skin, her Aspect stimulating the wound left by a Nightmare Creature.
Danse didn't react much – he simply sat there watching her work, his jaw set, letting her do what she needed to.
Lauri quietly chuckled to himself.
'I'm sure whatever creature managed to wound Danse didn't appreciate feeling the same wound bite them back.'
Walking into the pilot's cabin, Lauri opened his mouth to speak– then stopped.
Katrina was sitting beside Lucky, leaning slightly toward him as he focused on guiding the Rhino through the minefield that lay around them.
The cabin was quiet, not with the same tense atmosphere in the living space… but with something peaceful. For once, neither of them looked worried.
Closing his mouth, Lauri lingered in the doorway for a moment, watching the two of them with a smile. He knew there was no need to interrupt, with Lucky at the helm. They wouldn't be so unlucky as to cross into the Nightmare Gate's disruption field.
Satisfied, Lauri turned and stepped away, leaving them to their quiet moment as he returned to the living space.
----
They reached the fifth bridge with only minor deviations, forced to alter their route due to how an entire mountain pass had collapsed from an emerged Nightmare Gate. Although the Nightmare Creatures spawned by it were long gone.
Compared to what they had already faced, it felt… almost easy.
There were no more Gates waiting for them. No lurking horrors waiting within the night.
And then they arrived at the fifth bridge, and with their coordinated efforts, it was quickly brought down. The structure gave way, collapsing into the ravine with a distant fall that never reached their ears.
No celebration followed this time; it was just one more bridge down.
As they made their way back toward the Rhino, the tension that had settled on the group from the seven Gates began to fade – if only slightly.
Their conversations slowly returned.
Vick complained about the cold, Danse mocked her for it.
Sansa and Mele spoke quietly between themselves.
Lucky, for once, didn't have much to say – though Katrina stayed close at his side.
Lauri walked among them, listening more than speaking, keeping a simple smile on his lips. Nodding occasionally when he was drawn into the conversation.
For a brief moment as they walked the short distance to the Rhino, a calmness settled in Lauri's mind.
Waiting outside the Rhino, the cold wind brushed past him as he waited for the others to board.
Lucky and Katrina went first, heading toward the pilot's cabin.
Sansa and Mele followed not long after – what had started as quiet chatter quickly grew into familiar bickering, their voices rising as they argued over something neither seemed willing to drop.
Vick and Danse came last; the tone of their conversation was not too dissimilar.
"…I'm telling you, Broken Sword takes it."
Vick said, her tone confident.
"Pure swordsmanship like that? It's no contest."
Danse snorted as he stepped up into the Rhino.
"You're forgetting Saint Cor's transformation. The flock of crows? Doesn't matter how good your sword is if you get swarmed by hundreds, thousands of birds."
Vick scoffed lightly, following him in.
"That's assuming Broken Sword needs to hit all of them. Besides, he could just pull out his transformation… whatever his transformation is."
Their debate continued as they disappeared inside.
Only once the last of them had boarded did Lauri finally move, resting his hand on the side of the Rhino as he took one step on board the Rhino.
And froze.
An eerie sensation crept into Lauri's mind.
Over the years, Lauri had grown used to the sensation of fear that he felt when facing Nightmare Creatures in battle; such a fear was nothing more than an old friend at this point in his life. He had stood before horrors that would break the minds of lesser men, but this… this was different.
It wasn't the presence of a predator.
It was the awareness of being seen.
Lauri turned as fast as his body would allow, his gaze snapping to a point across the ravine. Where the clearing gave way to a dense grouping of trees.
That was where he saw them, three men.
No.
They could never be described as men.
Those three figures stood within the treeline on the far side, spaced evenly apart, parts of their bodies obscured by the trees they were hiding behind. Lauri could barely make them out within the light cast by the Rhino's powerful headlights, which sent a shiver down his spine.
The figures wore armour made of a pale metal, its colour a simple grey, dulled as if it had long since lost whatever sheen it once possessed. From the narrow gaps between the plates – at the joints, the neck, the helm – a faint mist seeped outward in a slow, continuous stream, a faint cyan luminescence pulsed within this mist, soft and cold – casting a dim, ghostly glow across the edges of their armour.
The mist curled lazily in the air, clinging to the figures instead of drifting to the floor and dispersing. Lauri was unable to see their eyes hidden behind their helms, but he could feel it, feel their gazes... All fixed on him.
Lauri's hand snapped up, his glowing spear pointed forward.
Slamming his foot into the ground in front of him, Lauri channelled essence through his muscles and hurled the spear.
It shot through the air faster than a bullet, piercing through the air. A thunderclap cut through the silence of the night as it shot toward the forest. The figures stirred by Lauri's actions simply stepped behind the trees. The spear collided with the closest tree, decimating it before it struck the ground. The impact detonated in a violent burst, tearing through the treeline and sending debris and snow outward in a widening shockwave.
Lauri waited, his jaw clenching when the Spell didn't announce a kill.
'Damnit.'
Danse was the first to reach the Rhino's entrance. His fingers twitching, prepared to summon a weapon.
"Lauri?! What happened? Has the Whispering Legion reached us?"
Lauri scowled, his jaw tightening as a quiet growl escaped between his teeth.
"No…"
Raising his hand, Lauri recalled his spear, which shot across the distance back to his hand, a streak of light cutting through the night before returning cleanly into his grasp. Without another glance toward the ravine, he turned and stepped into the Rhino.
"Whispering Legion hasn't reached us yet… but its scouts have."
The words settled heavily in the cabin.
Danse's eyes narrowed, his posture tightening instantly.
Vick's brow furrowed, her usual composure giving way to a rare, sharp concern.
Sansa flinched, her hand instinctively tightening around her arm.
Mele groaned under her breath.
"…That's not good."
Lauri didn't waste another second.
"Lucky!"
His voice cut through the space, sharp and commanding.
"Get us moving, now!"
The Rhino's engine roared as it lurched into motion.