EPILOGUE
It took them a week to get to the base of the Kalling Ashmount, including a long diversion to avoid a large band of Koloss who were camping nearby. Several additional days were then necessary to hike the hard mountain trail indicated by Mscrivs magnetic map.
The Kalling had been very active, and the temperature was nearly unbearable, with thick clouds of ash blowing down from the crater atop the Ashmount in hot waves.
It was hard to breath, and harder to see.
Yet they soldiered on, tired but confident in the idea that Mscriv wouldnt have sent them on a pointless task up here.
They finally arrived at the entrance of a small cave, exhausted. Grateful for the respite from the blistering smoke, they all hurdled inside, coughing and wheezing, eyes watering.
We should almost be there Plutonius was saying, eager.
Torches were lit, illuminating a steep downward tunnel. They started cautiously in that direction, following the nudges and crannies of the labyrinthine passages for hours, constantly looking at the map for reference and directions.
Are we there yet? asked Astroboy
Almost, said Queen of Spades, more to herself than to anyone else almost.
I am not sure. Scepticalscribe was staring at the map, turning it around, then looking up, and then down at it again.
I think we went through here already whined Astroboy, dubiously, pointing at a peculiar rock formation and I am getting thirsty
Great! We are lost underneath an active volcano, which by the way could explode at any time, guided by some hocus-pocus sheet of metal from a dead man! Humans
puffed Aggie
Whoa. Didnt see this one coming
well, what now? asked Twietee, exhausted, looking down the bottomless abyss to the side of the thin ledge they were filing on.
It was Chrmjenkins who cleared his voice and answered:
I know not about thoull, my friends
Me, I have reach'd the fill of my tribulations;
Ill go further no more; nor more I have to offer,
Lost in such endless narrows, contemplating
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd
Hey, that wasnt half-bad. Is it yours? Abijnk was looking at Chrmjenkins with fresh eyes, intrigued.
Well, but of course. replied the bard.
Told ya the Last Applause Kings were the best cheered Rick.
A yell from ahead interrupted them.
Here!! called Techgod.
They turned a corner, and they reached a deep chasm that separated the ledge they were walking on from a large chamber on the other side with some form of structure at its center, with dark metallic columns embracing a greyish basin.
Far below, lava was bubbling, hissing its hot noxious fumes upwards.
A small suspension bridge crossed the chasm.
Koodauw was the leading the way. End of the line he proclaimed triumphantly, and with a clean sweeping motion unsheated his sword and severed the ropes holding the passageway.
The two halves of the bridge swung downward. Techgod was in the middle of the crossing, and was quick to react. He instinctively flared his Pewter, and the additional superhuman strength and speed allowed the thug to grab the two down-flinging ends of the ropes and hold on to them, preventing some of the others to fall down below.
At the same time, woodNUFC burned his iron, metal-pulling hard on the temples columns. He flung forward, and the momentum carried him across the chiasm, just next to Koodauw.
Plutonius, hanging from the bridge, tossed a vial to Rick. Here, my Minion he said with a snicker, Try to get the right one this time
How did you
replied Rick Snagwell, as he took the vial with the steel and downed it. He immediately dropped a few coins on the rocky ledge and used them for an angled steel-push that also projected him to the other side. As he landed, he tossed another handful of coins in the air in front of him and accelerated them towards the Inquisitor. Kooadauw easily deflected the coins, but his jubilant expression was replaced by a hint of self-doubt.
From the other side of the bridge, Chrmjenkins noticed it, latched on his hesitation and rioted it. Koodauw froze, hesitant, providing woodNUFC a window to launch himself against the inquisitor, and propelling both of them over the edge. At the last second, the lurcher anchored with an iron-pull on metal columns, and stopped himself from falling just in time.
Koodauw, however was not so lucky, his screaming trajectory terminating in the glowing river below.
A few minutes later, everyone had safety crossed the crumbling bridge that Techgod had kept together and which had promptly collapsed once, everyone safely on the other side, he had let go.
They were standing under the metal canopy in the middle of the large underground chamber. The polished ceiling reflected the dim reddish glow from the lava river below. At the center of the structure stood a brushed aluminum basin, inside which, submerged under a layer of clear water, there stood eleven perfectly spherical, iridiscent metal beads.
Lerasium
Each of them took one of the beads, and ingested it. A wave of armonic pulses expanded from their stomach to their entire being, permeating each and all of their fibers, a new consciousness pervading all their senses.
A new generation of MISTBORNS was born, and they were coming for the Lord Ruler.
The insurgency wins.