Chapter 87 - 85: The Tunnel Was Supposed to Be Empty

Chapter 87: Chapter 85: The Tunnel Was Supposed to Be Empty

The entrance to Greyhaven’s unfinished freight tunnel was hidden behind a warehouse, three collapsed houses, and twelve years of extremely enthusiastic vegetation.

Arin stared at the wall of vines.

"This is it?"

Doran nodded.

"Yes."

"It looks like a hill."

"It didn’t twelve years ago."

Victor kicked one of the vines.

Something hissed underneath.

Victor immediately stepped backward.

"Still a hill."

Lucan drew his sword.

Arin sighed.

They had been awake for twenty minutes.

Already something wanted to eat Victor.

Greyhaven was becoming predictable.

Cassian arrived with the original construction plans.

Or what remained of them.

Half the pages were water-damaged.

One had apparently been used as a cutting board.

Arin held it up.

"Why are there knife marks?"

Doran shrugged.

"Paper was scarce."

EVE reconstructed the surviving information.

A clean projection appeared.

GREYHAVEN FREIGHT TUNNEL

PLANNED LENGTH:

11.4 KM

COMPLETED BEFORE ABANDONMENT:

7.2 KM

PURPOSE:

DIRECT MINE-TO-PROCESSING TRANSPORT

STATUS:

INCOMPLETE

Lucan frowned.

"Yesterday you said seven kilometers."

Doran nodded.

"Approximately."

"That’s suspiciously accurate."

"I walked it."

Silence.

Cassian stared.

"When?"

"After evacuation."

"Why?"

"Wanted to see if the mine road was usable."

"Alone?"

"Yes."

Victor looked impressed.

"I like him more every day."

Doran pointed at him.

"I don’t like you."

"Even better."

Arin refused to enter immediately.

That annoyed Lucan.

"We’re standing outside a tunnel."

"Correct."

"We need to go inside."

"Eventually."

"What are we waiting for?"

"Information."

Arin deployed six small mapping drones.

They disappeared into the darkness.

Three returned.

One lost communication.

One stopped moving.

The final drone sent seventeen seconds of footage before something pulled it into a wall.

Lucan watched the recording twice.

"Information acquired?"

"Yes."

"And?"

Arin opened inventory.

"More drones."

Lucan sighed.

The second survey established several facts.

First, the tunnel had not completely collapsed.

Good.

Second, groundwater had flooded two sections.

Manageable.

Third, monsters occupied almost every kilometer.

Expected.

Fourth, the tunnel had become part of the Hollowmaw communication network.

Less good.

EVE displayed the acoustic map.

Low-frequency pulses traveled through the stone.

"They’re using the tunnel as a resonance chamber," she explained.

Doran nodded.

"Told you they talk."

Victor looked toward the darkness.

"So we shut them up."

"No."

Victor sighed.

Arin enlarged the acoustic pattern.

Three Hollowmaw colonies were communicating through Greyhaven.

The unfinished freight tunnel connected two of them.

If they simply destroyed the signaling network, thousands of creatures might scatter.

But if they could manipulate it...

Arin smiled.

Lucan immediately pointed at him.

"No."

"I haven’t said anything."

"That smile has caused problems for years."

Cassian asked:

"What are you thinking?"

"Instead of fighting through seven kilometers of Hollowmaws..."

Arin highlighted the signal.

"We tell them to leave."

Silence.

Victor stared.

"You’re going to negotiate with another monster?"

"No."

"Good."

"We’re going to lie."

Victor smiled.

"Much better."

EVE spent forty minutes analyzing recorded Hollowmaw signals.

They weren’t language.

Not exactly.

More like behavioral communication.

Territory.

Food.

Danger.

Movement.

Colony location.

Arin didn’t need conversation.

He needed one message.

Danger here. Move there.

EVE generated a synthetic signal.

They tested it near the tunnel entrance.

Nothing happened.

Victor looked disappointed.

Then the hill screamed.

Hundreds of Hollowmaws erupted from hidden openings.

Everyone raised weapons.

The creatures did not attack.

They fled.

Into the forest.

Away from the tunnel.

Victor slowly lowered his rifle.

"I take back several complaints."

"Several?"

"Don’t become greedy."

EVE updated the map.

HOLLOWMAW ACTIVITY:

SECTOR ONE REDUCED BY 83%.

Lucan stared into the now-quiet tunnel.

"That feels unfair."

Arin smiled.

"Technology."

They entered with twenty-two people.

Arin.

Lucan.

A-01.

Victor.

Cassian.

Doran.

Rian.

EVE’s physical body.

Six Elysium engineers.

Eight contracted Hunters.

The rest remained outside.

Arin established one rule.

"No chasing anything."

Victor raised his hand.

"What if it’s carrying something valuable?"

"No."

"What if—"

"No."

"You’re becoming restrictive."

Doran muttered:

"Should’ve left him outside."

Arin agreed.

The first kilometer was easy.

Too easy.

Hollowmaws had abandoned most nests.

Old freight rails remained beneath debris.

Arin stopped beside them.

"Reusable."

Cassian looked surprised.

"Those rails are twelve years old."

"So?"

"Rust."

EVE scanned.

"Mana-treated steel. Structural integrity seventy-four percent."

Arin smiled.

"Very reusable."

Cassian shook his head.

"You see an abandoned tunnel and think infrastructure."

"What do you see?"

"Trauma."

Arin paused.

Fair.

They continued.

At kilometer two, they found the first collapsed section.

Rian stepped forward with the engineers.

Arin stopped him.

"Assessment first."

"I know."

"Yesterday you nearly got eaten."

"I also know."

"Good."

Rian looked annoyed.

Better annoyed than dead.

The collapse took thirty-two minutes to stabilize.

Then Rian noticed something.

"Arin."

He pointed toward the support columns.

"These aren’t original."

Doran frowned.

"They weren’t here."

Arin scanned them.

Wood.

Crude reinforcement.

Approximately six years old.

Everyone went quiet.

Lucan drew his sword.

"Someone’s been maintaining the tunnel."

Doran shook his head.

"Not me."

Cassian looked toward the darkness.

"Survivors?"

Possible.

Arin activated thermal scanning.

Nothing.

They moved more carefully.

Kilometer three contained a door.

That was unusual because the original plans showed no room there.

The door was made from scrap metal.

Victor touched it.

"Locked."

Doran looked at him.

"Excellent observation."

Victor smiled.

"I’ve decided we’re friends."

"No."

Arin knocked.

Lucan stared.

"Seriously?"

"What?"

"You’re knocking."

"If someone built a door, we shouldn’t break it immediately."

Victor whispered:

"Character development."

Movement came from inside.

Weapons rose.

A voice shouted:

"Go away!"

Human.

Cassian stepped forward.

"We’re not monsters!"

The voice answered:

"That’s exactly what a monster pretending to be human would say!"

Victor looked impressed.

"Reasonable."

Arin sighed.

"My name is Arin Elysium."

Silence.

Then:

"Who?"

Lucan laughed.

Arin glared.

"Greyhaven restoration expedition."

Another silence.

Then several locks moved.

The door opened three centimeters.

One eye appeared.

It looked at Arin.

Then Lucan.

Then A-01.

The door immediately slammed shut.

"YOU BROUGHT A GOLEM!"

A-01 tilted his head.

Lucan covered his mouth.

Arin knocked again.

"He’s not a golem."

"I am synthetic," A-01 said.

"STOP HELPING."

The man eventually opened the door.

His name was Kell.

He was fifty-three.

And he was not alone.

Twenty-seven people lived behind the wall.

Arin walked into what had once been an unfinished maintenance chamber.

Beds.

Cooking area.

Water barrels.

Mushroom beds.

Tools.

Children.

Three children.

Cassian stopped breathing for a moment.

"How long?"

Kell stared at him.

"Who are you?"

"Cassian Hale."

Recognition.

Then anger.

"You left."

Cassian didn’t defend himself.

"Yes."

Kell’s hands tightened.

"We couldn’t."

"Why?"

"My daughter was injured during evacuation."

He looked toward a woman near the cooking area.

"Road collapsed before we reached the southern convoy."

They had returned underground.

Others joined them over the years.

People who missed evacuation.

Travelers trapped by monsters.

Two former miners.

One Hunter who never managed to leave.

Twenty-seven people.

Greyhaven had never been completely empty.

Doran sat down.

For the first time since Arin met him, the old survivor looked stunned.

"I thought I was the last."

Kell stared.

"Doran?"

Doran looked up.

Kell started laughing.

Then crying.

Doran did both.

They hugged.

Victor looked away.

Lucan suddenly became very interested in tunnel walls.

Arin said nothing.

Some moments didn’t need him.

Kell refused evacuation.

"No."

Arin frowned.

"The western district is secure."

"Good."

"We can move you there."

"No."

"Why?"

Kell pointed deeper into the tunnel.

"We can’t leave them."

Arin’s expression changed.

"Them?"

Kell looked toward the miners.

"There’s another group."

Cassian stepped forward.

"How many?"

"We don’t know."

"Where?"

"Near the old mine access."

Arin looked at the map.

Kilometer seven.

"Why haven’t you contacted them?"

"We did."

"When?"

"Eight months ago."

"And?"

"No answer."

Silence.

Kell continued.

"We tried reaching them twice."

"What stopped you?"

He looked toward the tunnel floor.

"Something moved in."

Victor smiled.

Arin looked at him.

"Stop smiling."

"I didn’t say anything."

EVE updated the expedition objective.

Titanite could wait.

People couldn’t.

They moved the twenty-seven survivors toward the entrance under Hunter escort.

Kell came with Arin.

So did two miners.

At kilometer four, Hollowmaw signals intensified.

EVE deployed the false-danger pulse.

The creatures retreated.

At kilometer five, the tunnel flooded.

Water reached Arin’s waist.

Doran muttered:

"This used to be dry."

Arin scanned the walls.

"Drainage breach."

Rian pointed.

"Can repair it."

"Later."

"Why?"

"People first."

Rian nodded.

No argument.

At kilometer six, they found blood.

Old.

Months old.

Then claw marks.

Not Hollowmaw.

Too large.

Lucan crouched.

"Four limbs."

A-01 scanned.

"Estimated mass: thirty to forty tonnes."

Victor raised his rifle.

"Finally."

Doran looked at him.

"Do you ever stop wanting to fight things?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"While sleeping."

EVE replied:

"False."

Everyone looked at Victor.

He shrugged.

"I’ve had interesting dreams."

They reached kilometer seven.

The tunnel ended.

Not naturally.

Construction had simply stopped twelve years ago.

The rock face remained unfinished.

To the right stood an old temporary access shaft leading upward toward the Titanite mine.

Its door had been ripped away.

Kell whispered:

"They lived up there."

Arin detected heat.

Not much.

But enough.

"People."

Cassian exhaled.

"Alive?"

"Yes."

Then something enormous moved above them.

Dust fell.

Lucan raised his sword.

A-01 stepped forward.

EVE’s eyes widened.

"Incoming."

The ceiling exploded.

Everyone scattered.

Thirty tonnes of armored flesh crashed into the tunnel.

Victor fired.

Rounds bounced.

The creature unfolded.

Long forelimbs.

Stone-covered torso.

A head split vertically into four jaws.

Kell went pale.

"Tunnel Eater."

Doran stared.

"Those don’t grow this large."

Apparently this one had.

The monster screamed.

Arin’s interface identified it.

MATURE DEEPMAW

HIGH-TIER SUBTERRANEAN PREDATOR.

It charged.

A-01 intercepted.

The impact drove him backward.

His feet carved trenches through stone.

Lucan attacked the flank.

His sword struck armor.

Sparks erupted.

"Hard!"

"Noticed!" Arin shouted.

The Deepmaw swung.

Lucan ducked.

Victor fired into the joints.

Cassian moved opposite.

Not random.

They were learning each other.

Arin watched the creature.

Armor everywhere.

Except—

"Throat!"

Victor answered:

"It has four jaws!"

"Exactly!"

The Deepmaw screamed again.

Its throat opened between the separated jaws.

Victor understood.

"Lucan!"

Lucan moved first.

Sword struck the lower jaw.

Cassian struck another.

A-01 caught the third.

Arin grabbed the fourth.

The creature fought.

Four jaws forced apart.

Victor stood directly in front of it.

"That’s disgusting."

"SHOOT!"

"Oh. Right."

He fired.

The shot disappeared into the exposed throat.

The Deepmaw froze.

Then collapsed.

Silence.

Victor looked at his rifle.

"Construction was easier."

Arin released the jaw.

"Agreed."

They found the second survivor group twelve minutes later.

Nine people.

Three were miners.

Two Hunters.

Four civilians.

One woman held a child.

The child couldn’t have been older than five.

Cassian stared.

"She was born here?"

The mother nodded.

The little girl hid behind her.

Arin looked around.

They had lived beside the abandoned Titanite mine for years.

No sunlight.

No city.

No road.

Just stone.

Arin crouched.

The girl stared at him.

"Are you from outside?"

"Yes."

"Is there sky?"

Arin stopped.

Lucan looked away.

"Yes."

"What color?"

Arin smiled faintly.

"Depends on the day."

She frowned.

"That’s not an answer."

"No."

He stood.

"Want to see?"

The girl looked toward her mother.

Her mother started crying.

Then nodded.

The expedition returned through the tunnel slowly.

Nobody cared about Titanite anymore.

Not today.

When they reached the entrance, the five-year-old girl stepped outside.

Sunlight touched her face.

She immediately covered her eyes.

Her mother held her.

Everyone waited.

Slowly, the girl looked up.

Blue sky.

Clouds.

Trees.

Greyhaven’s distant mountain.

She stared for almost a minute.

Then:

"It’s too big."

Arin smiled.

"Yes."

She considered.

"I like it."

Good.

That evening, Greyhaven’s population changed.

Not officially.

But emotionally.

Doran was no longer the last survivor.

Twenty-seven tunnel residents joined the western outpost.

Nine mine survivors followed.

Former residents gathered around them.

Names were recognized.

Families reunited.

Others learned who had died.

Not every reunion was happy.

Not every missing person returned.

But thirty-six people who had been considered dead were alive.

Cassian sat alone beside the western wall.

Arin joined him.

"I left them."

"You evacuated thousands."

"I left thirty-six."

"You didn’t know."

"I was responsible."

Arin looked toward the camp.

"You can spend the rest of your life punishing yourself."

Cassian said nothing.

"Or rebuild the town."

Cassian looked at him.

Arin shrugged.

"Second seems more useful."

After a while, Cassian laughed quietly.

"You really are terrible at emotional conversations."

"Lucan says that."

"He’s right."

"Unfortunately."

Then EVE appeared.

"Arin."

He immediately knew.

"What?"

"The mine survivors provided updated maps."

Titanite mine schematics appeared.

Much larger than expected.

Deep shafts.

Processing chambers.

Old storage.

And one section highlighted.

"Confirmed Titanite stockpile."

Arin leaned forward.

"How much?"

"Approximately twenty-six tonnes of processed ore remained when the mine was abandoned."

Arin’s eyes sharpened.

Enough.

More than enough.

The exploration platform required another ten-point-two tonnes.

Lucan approached.

Saw Arin’s face.

"No."

Arin pointed at the map.

"Twenty-six tonnes."

"I recognize the mining face."

"It’s already mined."

"That makes it worse."

Cassian stood.

"Where?"

EVE highlighted the storage chamber.

Then another marker appeared.

Red.

Very red.

Victor walked over.

"What’s that?"

One of the rescued miners answered.

"The reason we stopped using the lower levels."

Arin looked at him.

"What?"

The miner swallowed.

"Wyverns."

Lucan frowned.

"Underground?"

"No."

The miner pointed upward.

The Titanite storage chamber connected to an old vertical freight shaft.

At the top—

The mountain opened directly beneath the Ash Wyvern Matriarch’s nesting plateau.

Victor smiled.

Arin sighed.

Cassian drew his sword.

Lucan looked toward Arin.

"So tomorrow?"

Arin stared at the twenty-six tonnes of Titanite.

Then the Wyvern territory.

Then Greyhaven.

One street restored.

Thirty-six survivors recovered.

A mine finally within reach.

He smiled.

"Tomorrow."

Victor looked delighted.

Lucan sighed.

And somewhere high above Greyhaven, a roar rolled across the mountain.

This time, the sky answered.

Dozens of wings rose into the evening light.

Chapter End