214 - The Ashen Reach

The first warning came from a wounded messenger who stumbled into Stonewatch's outpost shortly after breakfast.

His armor was scorched, one sleeve was torn away, and he carried a broken spear in place of a proper weapon. Before the guards could take him to the infirmary, he seized Captain Rovan's arm.

"The eastern settlement has fallen. Something came through the old furnace district. We couldn't hold the gate."

Rovan's expression hardened. "Which settlement?"

"Greyhaven."

The name appeared on the map Subin had received the previous night. Greyhaven lay along the road into the Ashen Reach, one of the last settlements maintaining contact with Stonewatch.

Rovan turned toward Subin. "You wanted to travel north. It appears the road has given you a reason to hurry."

"How far?"

"Half a day for a mounted patrol. Longer on foot."

Subin looked at the messenger's injuries. "Tell us what attacked the settlement."

The man swallowed. "Humanoid monsters. Tall, covered in grey plates. They came out of the old furnace district and broke through the eastern gate. We fought them in the streets, but more kept coming from the underground passages."

"Did you see a leader?"

"One. Bigger than the others. It carried a hammer that burned red."

Rafael frowned. "An organized group, then?"

"Possibly," Ara replied. "But we shouldn't assume they belong to a single faction until we see them."

Subin turned to Rovan. "Send your messenger to the infirmary. We'll investigate Greyhaven."

Rovan agreed to provide a small escort, but Subin declined most of it. Stonewatch had its own defenses to maintain, and the group already had enough fighters to handle a local threat. Rovan assigned two scouts to guide them to the settlement and asked them to bring back any information about the attackers.

They left within the hour.

Greyhaven was unmistakably damaged when the scouts led them through its outer district. The eastern gate had been torn from its hinges, several buildings had burned, and broken carts littered the main street. Yet the settlement had not been completely abandoned. Smoke rose from a few intact chimneys, and people moved between barricaded buildings under the protection of armed guards.

A young woman carrying a crossbow stopped them before they reached the central square.

"State your business."

"We came from Stonewatch," Subin said. "Captain Rovan sent us after hearing about the attack."

Her weapon lowered slightly. "I'm Mara, the remaining commander of Greyhaven's guard. If you've come to help, we need the eastern district cleared before nightfall."

"What happened to the attackers?"

"They withdrew toward the furnace district after we blocked the central street. We haven't pursued them because the underground passages are still active."

Subin looked at the damaged buildings. "How many people are missing?"

"Twenty-three confirmed. We found several survivors trapped beneath the eastern storehouses, but the district isn't safe enough for a proper search."

"Show us where they were last seen."

Mara led them to a collapsed building near the eastern wall. Several guards had reinforced the entrance with timber, leaving a narrow opening beneath the fallen roof. Voices came from somewhere inside.

Rafael and Jae-hyun joined the rescue effort while Ara checked the surrounding structure. Subin and Yerin entered through the opening, following the voices into a storage room where six people were trapped behind fallen beams.

They freed the survivors one by one. Most had minor injuries, but an older man had a deep wound across his thigh and could not walk without assistance. Yerin helped Rafael stabilize him while Subin and Liu Wei cleared a path back to the street.

The rescue took less than twenty minutes. When the last survivor reached safety, Mara's guards carried them toward the infirmary.

One of the rescued men caught Subin's wrist before he could leave.

"They came from below," he said urgently. "We thought the furnace district was abandoned, but there's a tunnel beneath the old foundry. The creatures broke through the floor and attacked the guards from behind."

"Did you see where the tunnel leads?"

The man shook his head. "Only that it goes deeper than the old mining works."

Subin released his hand and returned to Mara.

"We'll investigate the foundry. Keep civilians away from the eastern district until we know whether the passages are secure."

Mara nodded. "I'll organize the remaining guards and reinforce the street barricades."

The old foundry stood near the settlement wall, its enormous furnace towers blackened by years of disuse. One tower had partially collapsed, exposing a stairwell descending beneath the building. Scratches covered the metal door at the bottom, and a faint red glow flickered through the gaps.

Ara checked the opening. "There is active mana below us. Stronger than anything recorded in the settlement."

Subin drew Simple Edge. "Let's see what's producing it."

The stairwell opened into a broad underground workshop filled with broken machinery. Iron chains hung from the ceiling, and several furnaces remained active despite the abandonment of the building above. Their flames burned an unnatural red, casting moving shadows across the walls.

At the center of the workshop stood a group of grey-armored humanoids.

They were taller than ordinary humans, with thick limbs and mineral plates covering their shoulders and chests. Their faces were narrow and expressionless, and their weapons resembled crude hammers and cleavers forged from dark metal. Several were loading chunks of red crystal into a machine beside the largest furnace.

The largest creature turned toward the entrance.

Its armor was thicker than that of the others, and a massive hammer rested across its shoulder. Red light ran through the weapon's head, pulsing in time with the furnace behind it.

Ara's scanner registered the leader at Level 248 — A-rank. The others ranged between Levels 205 and 223.

The leader raised its hammer and spoke in a harsh, unfamiliar language.

The surrounding creatures immediately abandoned their work and moved toward the expedition.

"Rafael, hold the stairs," Subin ordered. "Yerin, take the right side. Liu Wei, keep them away from Ara."

The first attackers rushed the entrance, but the narrow approach prevented them from surrounding the team. Subin cut through the weapon of the leading creature and struck its exposed shoulder before it could recover. Yerin's spear drove another attacker away from the stairs, while Liu Wei and Jae-hyun kept the remaining group from advancing together.

The battle spread into the workshop when the creatures abandoned the entrance and tried to reach the machinery. Subin followed the leader toward the central furnace, where the red crystals were being fed into a metal frame.

The leader swung its hammer.

The impact shattered the stone floor, sending fragments across the chamber. Subin evaded the collapsing section and answered with a cut across the creature's forearm, but its armor absorbed most of the damage.

The leader was stronger than the ordinary members of its group, and its hammer carried enough concentrated mana to make a direct clash dangerous.

Subin changed his target.

When the creature raised the hammer again, he cut the narrow connection between its wrist armor and the weapon's grip. The strike did not sever the limb, but it weakened the creature's hold. Yerin used the opening to strike its knee, forcing it to stagger away from the furnace.

Subin's next attack cut through the damaged armor beneath its ribs.

The leader dropped to one knee. Its hammer struck the floor, and the red glow along its surface began to fade. Subin stepped past the weapon and ended the fight with a thrust through the exposed gap beneath its chest plate.

The remaining attackers lost their momentum. Several fled through a side passage, while the others were quickly subdued by the team.

Jae-hyun glanced at the fallen leader. "I was hoping the big one would drop something valuable."

"Check the room after Ara finishes examining the machinery," Subin replied.

Ara had already reached the central furnace. The red crystals were not ordinary mineral deposits. Their energy was being transferred into the metal frame, which distributed it through a series of channels beneath the workshop.

"This machine is drawing mana from somewhere deeper," she said. "The furnace isn't the source. It's processing whatever comes through the lower channels."

"Can it be shut down?" Yerin asked.

"Yes, but I need to understand the controls first. If I interrupt the wrong connection, the stored energy could discharge into the workshop."

Subin looked toward the side passage used by the fleeing creatures. "Then we'll find where the channels lead while Ara handles the machine."

He and Liu Wei followed the passage, with Rafael joining them after securing the workshop. The tunnel descended through a series of old mining chambers before opening into a natural cavern.

They found the source of the red crystals there.

A broad mineral formation rose from the center of the cavern, its surface split by glowing red veins. Several extraction rigs had been installed around it, and a narrow track connected the rigs to the passage leading back to Greyhaven. The grey-armored creatures had been mining the formation and transporting the crystals to the furnace workshop.

Subin approached the nearest rig. Its cutting mechanism had been damaged, and fresh mineral fragments lay scattered around the base.

"This is what they were after," Rafael said.

"More importantly, the mining has weakened the cavern," Liu Wei replied.

A deep crack crossed the ground near the mineral formation. Beyond it, a lower tunnel descended into darkness, releasing a steady stream of hot air. The vibration coming from below was stronger than the one they had felt near the furnace.

Subin examined the crack without approaching the unstable edge. "We shouldn't disturb the formation any further until the engineers can assess it."

They returned to the workshop, where Ara had successfully shut down the processing machine. The red glow in the furnace gradually faded, leaving the chamber illuminated by ordinary crystal lamps.

She had also found a set of metal plates containing diagrams of the extraction system. The markings showed several channels extending beneath Greyhaven, with one branch continuing beyond the mapped area.

"The machine was distributing the extracted mana through these channels," she explained. "We don't know how far the network extends, but the lower branch is still active."

"Can it cause another attack?" Mara asked when she arrived with a guard unit.

"Not by itself," Ara replied. "But continued extraction could destabilize the surrounding rock and attract creatures that feed on concentrated mana."

Mara looked toward the dead leader. "Then the furnace district is closed until we can secure the lower tunnels."

"That's sensible," Subin said. "Your engineers should inspect the cavern before anyone attempts to recover the remaining crystals."

Mara agreed. Greyhaven's immediate problem had been dealt with, and the rescued residents were already receiving treatment. The settlement would need time to repair its eastern district, but the attackers could no longer use the foundry as a base.

Before leaving, Subin inspected the leader's hammer. Its head contained a red crystal similar to those used by the furnace machine, but the weapon's construction was considerably more refined. He left it with Ara for examination and asked Mara to preserve the remaining equipment for Greyhaven's own engineers.

The commander thanked the expedition and offered them supplies for the road north. She also gave them a copy of Greyhaven's oldest surviving map, which showed a route through the Ashen Reach toward a settlement called Blackridge.

"Blackridge is the last place from which we've received a reliable message," she said. "If anyone knows who those creatures were, it will be them."

Subin accepted the map.

By the time the expedition left Greyhaven, the eastern gate had been barricaded, the wounded were under care, and the furnace district was sealed. The team had not cleared the entire underground network, but they had stopped the immediate threat and identified the source of the attackers' activity.

As they passed beyond the settlement's outer wall, Yerin glanced at the map in Subin's hand.

"Blackridge next?"

"Blackridge next."

"And if another settlement asks for help?"

Subin secured the map inside his pack. "We'll hear them out."

She smiled. "I thought you'd say that."

The road toward Blackridge led deeper into the Ashen Reach, away from the abandoned foundry and its red-lit machinery. Whatever the grey-armored creatures had been doing beneath Greyhaven, their operation had required equipment, a source of mana, and a route through the underground passages.

Subin had no intention of chasing every creature that escaped. But if the same threat appeared at Blackridge, he would deal with it there.

For now, the expedition had a new destination and a clearer understanding of the danger spreading through the northern settlements.