It was slow going. The air itself was heavy, vile, exceeding the mundane stench of waste and decay. The rounded walls swam, their aperture widening and tightening with seemingly no pattern. Pushing through it all felt like forcing my way through a physical barrier, sometimes requiring such effort that my vision darkened, unconsciousness little more than a single misstep away.

    Nightmares lurked at every turn and ambush point. Distant voices of loved ones wailed out in agony, the cacophony overlapping, offset and dissonant, wheezing like a lung riddled with holes.

    Mutilated hands reached from the muck for our legs, our boots, tattered skin sloughing off as they tried to drag whoever they could get a hold on towards the muck.

    Sometimes entire people rose from the sludge, begging for clemency even as they advanced, toying with the heartstrings of anyone whose attention they could capture, buying enough time to close distance. Some threw themselves forward, attempting to bite. Others attempted to jam their fetid fingers into eyes, mouths, anything they could feasibly reach that wasn''t armored.

    So far, only one man had been blinded, another badly mauled. The only saving grace preventing further casualties was that the wretches never showed up in greater numbers.

    Somewhere in the distance, I heard my mother crying for help, choking on blood.

    I stabbed a nearby wretch and flung it away, panting from the effort, watching as it sank beneath the oily surface.@@@@

    "Is this still the right way?" Mari asked.

    "According to the blueprints, it''s a straight shot. We haven''t altered course," Maya said. She was leaning on her staff more than usual, using it for support. "Unless we somehow missed the tunnel."

    "Fuck!" Sera shouted in the distance. "Let go! Release me! HELP! SOMEONE HELP!" The blood-curdling wail was so tormented and pained, it was barely recognizable.

    I held perfectly still, cocking my head, fighting the immediate urge to panic and forcing myself to listen. There was a distant sloshing, but nothing more. "Anyone else just hear Sera?"

    A few had. Other people reported hearing the voices of other banner lieutenants. The men in the back of our formation, apparently, kept hearing me, shouting at them in the distance for abandoning their commander, threatening charges of desertion if they didn''t report to their stations.

    "It''s scared," I announced derisively, trying to redirect their focus and raise morale. "Doing everything it can to drag us off course. If a command is given that directly contradicts existing orders, confirm it with caution. Especially if you cannot see the speaker."

    There was a collective acknowledgement, though from the look of it, fear was taking a toll.

    Maya fell in beside me, staff accenting every other step.

    "How are we doing?" I asked, watching her in my peripheral, rebuking the urge to look away from the dark expanse before us.

    "Could be worse," Maya surmised, not sounding particularly convinced.

    "But?"

    "At least six are nearly lost to us. Drooping eyes, uneven gait. Others not far behind. We are doing well, for the moment, but that will not hold if this turns into an engagement of attrition."

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    Keeping the pace.

    For fame and fortune forth we ride,

    With steel and courage at our side

    Let cowards in their chambers hide,

    While warriors grow bolder.

    The screaming grew louder. Something swiped at Mari from the shadows, leaving a thin line of steaming ichor she hastened to wipe off.

    But the soldiers kept the march. A man near the front belted out his own verse.

    Fuck the lithid, kill it dead.

    Run our blades through ‘til it’s bled.

    Then we''ll go and mount its head,

    In the victor''s hall!

    Despite the slightly awkward improvisation, the verse stuck. The men repeated it over and over, shouting it like a mantra, expressions resolute in unity and rebellion.

    Up ahead, the darkness widened, stretching out to either side. It had to be the rendezvous point.

    A curtain of smoke descended, creating yet another barrier.

    I called upon the mana polluted by sewage, filtering purity from filth and lined my sword with it, then flung aquatic blades at the smoke, as Zin had taught me. The first tore a crescent gape in the smoke, the second and third tearing the curtain until it was in roiling tatters, eventually falling away completely.

    We were through.

    There was a distant glow of lanterns from the left-hand side—Sera''s group, who''d arrive shortly after us.

    At first glance, the much wider, taller room was completely empty.

    Until the ceiling plunged down on us.