The heavy iron gate was clearly designed to keep the Stone Spiders in, not the miners out, and though the lock was beefy, it wasn’t made to stand up against a Soul Bound mace. One hard swing smashed the clasp and granted us access to the restricted area. The tunnel twisted and turned this way then that. At first, it was shrouded in a deep gloom, dispelled only by the flickering light of the torch Arturo carried. But after a minute, the ground sloped down and the gloom gave way to a ghostly bioluminescence, which emanated from an odd blue-green moss clinging to the stone walls and ceiling.

We quickly spotted signs of the mining operations.

Scuff marks and ruts on the dusty floor spoke of wheelbarrows, while loose piles of shale lined the walls—evidence that someone had been working the stone. We found the first concrete signs of Selitrium deposits within a few minutes. Clumps of black, quartz-like crystal jutted from the walls, and striped veins of deep inky black crisscrossed the limestone that composed the rest of the cavern. The sign had warned of Stone Spiders but so far we’d seen no sign of the monstrous creatures, whatever they happened to be.

We headed down a connecting tunnel that corkscrewed deeper into the earth and uncovered another wrought iron gate, even thicker than the first. A second posted sign warned us to go no further.

Warning: Stone Spider Nest. This section has not been cleared. Do not proceed on pain of death!

“Huh,” Cal said, reading the sign out loud. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they want to keep us out of here.”

“Yes,” Arturo agreed stoically, “because there are monsters inside. Dangerous ones. Stone Spiders are insectoid-like creature, big as the hounds which guard the ironmongers near the docks. I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with them a time or two. They scuttle around on spidery, segmented legs and they have these massive claws”—he formed one hand into a C-shape—“like giant, crustacean pincers. They possess powerful mandibles capable of crushing armor, and they spit acid.”

“Aw, the poor baby sounds scared,” Cal said.

“I’m not scared,” the priest growled. “I just have enough common sense not to go looking for a fight we could easily avoid. Especially since Stone Spiders tend to leave well enough alone, so long as you don’t invade their territory. Whoever is running this operation probably cleared out the first chamber, then built the gate while the Brood Matriarch repopulated.”

“Which is why we should wipe them all out now, while they’re weak,” Renholm cackled. “Imagine all the Affinity Scales to be looted,” he said, nearly salivating. “Plus, these are fertile lands. If we kill the creature who currently lays claim to this territory, we could add it to our own holdings. Why,” he said, neurotically tapping his fingers together, “I could even bequeath it to you, my loyal Baron of Greenbriar.”

“Wait,” I said, holding up a hand. “Let me just get this straight. I’m gonna do all the work and kill the Stone Spider Matriarch and then you’re gonna give me what is already mine?” I asked.

“Don’t get bogged down in the semantics of it all, my young, gullible protégé,” the pixie said, dismissing my question without even attempting to answer. “The point is, only territory conquered in battle or given through friendship may be claimed. We take it, you get it, which, by Fae Law, would make you a landholding Count of Green, no longer a worthless baron—a noble in name only.”

“You’re the one who made me a baron,” I pointed out.

“And you’re lucky that I did. A lowly creature such as you elevated to such an exalted station? A true honor. But do you know how many landholding, non-Fae nobles there are, hmm? None, that’s how many,” he said before I could answer. “We’d be breaking new ground, you and I. Just think of the possibilities. Jeffery will be incensed with jealousy.”

“Who’s Jeffery?” Cal whispered in my ear, looking genuinely confused.

“His nemesis, I think,” I replied. “He wasn’t super clear about it. Definitely some weird relationship dynamics going on there.”

“And,” Renholm continued, undeterred, “the answers you seek are still further ahead. The trail, it leads into there.” He jabbed a finger at the passage beyond the bars. “The path, it glimmers like stardust. If you want to unravel this thread, we must proceed.”

Although Arturo had his reservations, I sure as hell didn’t. I wanted to get to the heart of the matter, and any little piece of intelligence might be the thing that would give me an edge when I squared off against the Changeling—or whatever it was—again. Plus, I needed to get a shit ton stronger, and the only way I was going to accomplish that was by some good ol’ fashioned monster killing. There were answers and monsters dead ahead. Also, maybe a shot at being a landholding Fae noble—which probably was good.

As far as I was concerned, it was a win-win.

I busted open the lock with a single well-placed blow from my mace, and in we went.

We didn’t have to go far before the atmosphere palpably changed. The temperature cooled noticeably and uneasy goosebumps sprinted along my arms. My Combat Sense sent out a stern warning that there was something in here and that it was watching us. Waiting in the shadows. I pressed my eyes closed and listened, straining my supernatural senses. The hairs on the back of my neck stood rigid as the soft rustle of chitinous legs moving over stone drifted through the air.

“Thirty paces, at your ten o’ clock,” Cal whispered from beside me.

The tap of pincers on the wall told me seven of the nasty little shits were headed in our direction and moving fast. It wasn’t but a second until I caught a glimpse of motion, creeping along beneath the bio-light of the cave moss.

“Cal, you’re with me.” I pulled out one of the Grass Hound Transformation Tokens and flicked it to the specter. “Padre, hang back. Renholm, make sure he stays safe.”

Without waiting for a response, I swapped my mace for my Colt and darted forward.

My Combat Sense rang like a bell.

There was a high-pitched squeal as an arachnoid-like creature with enormous claws charged into view. Arturo was right, these things were horrific looking. Large as a hound, they were covered with rocky armor and razor-sharp spikes of quartz. Slicing mandibles jutted forward, scissoring back and forth as great ropes of gray goo dribbled out. The ugly sumbitch was working with one major tactical disadvantage, however. It had two dozen or more milky eyes scattered across its body.

Three or four hung above its mandibles, but there were more, clustered along its back, tucked away between jutting quartz spikes. All those eyes probably helped it navigate even in severely light-restricted environments, but eyes were a vulnerability. And, as a result, this thing had a lot of vulnerabilities.

I leveled the pistol and breathed out, targeting a cluster of eyes on its side, all blinking in the glare of the torchlight. The creature lunged, propelling itself from the wall, its multi-jointed legs splayed out, its pincers spread wide. I squeezed the trigger in quick succession; the Colt kicked in my hand and a blaze of magical light filled the chamber as the rounds found their mark. Eyeballs exploded and the creature squealed as I stepped to the left and let it sail harmlessly past me. It hit the dusty ground already dead.

That first kill was so damned easy I almost had to laugh.

[You have killed an Adolescent Stone Spider! The world has been cleansed! You have been blessed with 110 Essence!]

More of the Stone Spiders were quickly eating up the distance, scuttling along on their arachnoid limbs. Some raced across on the floor, others clung to the walls, a few even traversed the ceiling. They were easy to kill, but there was strength in numbers.

I raised my pistol again, locking in on a Stone Spider crawling along the right-hand wall.

Something short and bulky streaked past me on the left, followed by the lumbering armor-clad figure on my right.

A Grass Hound, twice the size of even the largest Grass Hounds I’d tangled with in the fairy ring, threw itself against an incoming Stone Spider, bowling it onto its back, wicked claws slashing at its suddenly exposed stomach while a long, barbed tongue tore out milky eyes, sending the creature into a quivering death spasm. Guess that answered the question of whether Cal was able to use the Transformation Tokens. I, for one, couldn’t have been happier. Who didn’t want a pet monster tucked away in their back pocket for a rainy day?

Less pleasing was the armor-clad figure barreling into the fray.

“Goddammit, Art!” I yelled. “I said to stay back.”

“Unlike you,” he shouted over one shoulder, “I know my limits and my capabilities. Stone Spiders are firmly within my wheelhouse.” A fierce, almost manic grin stretched across his bearded face. His war staff danced in his hands, spinning like a helicopter blade, before coming down with a bone-crunching thud that split one of the insectoid creatures damn near in two. “If you’re going to insist we fight, then let us fight. Let’s see if you can keep up, honored Vigil.”

The fuck? The priest had just called me out. Well, challenge accepted.

I sensed more than saw the Stone Spider dropping down on me from above. I sidestepped a snapping pincer looking to give me a haircut that started at the throat and planted a pair of rounds right into the creature’s malformed head. Crimson energy leeched away from the creature, feeding me its life force thanks to the Hunger Affinity rounds still in the chamber. In the same instant, thin trails of golden steam wafted up while a runic notice flashed in the corner of my eye.

[You have killed an Adolescent Stone Spider! The world has been cleansed! You have been blessed with 110 Essence!]

I ignored the heaven-sent message and spun, narrowly avoiding another pincer. In a blink I dismissed the pistol and called my mace to hand. I brought the blunt weapon screaming through the outstretched limb, shattering the chitinous appendage just above the joint. A crab-like claw lined with gleaming obsidian spikes clattered to the floor. More energy poured out of me, heightening every sense, my Combat Sense working in overdrive. Vibrations sprinted along the floor and up into my feet, carrying a whole array of useful information.

Incoming, fast, and at my two. I twirled and dropped low—

A long arachnoid leg carved through the space I’d been occupying. Left hand outthrust, I drew on my Arcana, siphoning off more power than I’d ever used before. My palm slammed into the creature’s side and a lance of molten flame, brighter than an arc welder, exploded outward, swatting the incoming critter from the air and charbroiling it to a smear of ash and black soot. Its smoking corpse collided into the wall with bone-breaking force and crumpled, a streak of glowing green blood staining the stone.

[You have killed an Adolescent Stone Spider! The world has been cleansed! You have been blessed with 110 Essence!]

My Arcana gauge strobed once and emptied faster than a lance corporal’s bank account while on shore leave. A spike of pain stabbed into my chest and radiated down along my Arcana channels as I doubled over, wheezing and shaking, right on the verge of puking everywhere. Holy shit. I’d thought Kinetic Blast kicked hard, but this was a whole different level. I’d been two points below the recommended Arcana Attribute threshold listed for the skill, and I was starting to get an idea of what exactly that meant.

Thankfully, golden mist swept across the floor like an early morning ground fog, filling my body with power and my core with a fresh supply of Arcana.

I shook off the lingering pain sizzling along my nerve endings. Next time I used Unbound Blaze, I’d need to tone down the intensity just a hair.

Ahead, a trio of the nasty bastards had broken away from the pack and were advancing on me in a united front. But as the next one attacked, time seemed to lurch. Suddenly, I was seeing in what I could only describe as “four-D vision.” Combat Sense let me anticipate the movement of enemy combatants, but this was some Super Saiyan next-level shit. This had to be the Precognition ability, which had a five percent chance of activating for every thirty seconds I was engaged in battle.

Although the three juvenile Stone Spiders were frozen in time and space, I watched as shadowy versions of their Essence traveled outward from their massive thoraxes and into the space they planned to inhabit. It was a tunnel of intention, alerting me to where they would be a second from now. Having flamethrower hands was badass to the max, but this was the coolest thing I’d experienced since waking up in this world.

I pressed forward with a renewed surge of confidence and leaned into the fight with a flurry of mace swings, breaking at least twelve legs in one move before dancing away to regroup. I dismissed the mace with a wave and replaced it with my pistol just as easily, then quickly backpedaled and used the clinging moss to scale the wall and climb onto a small earthen ledge. In seconds I had the high ground and I proceeded to rain conjured bullets down from above, targeting the army of milky eyes covering their bodies. Honestly, it was evolutionary insanity to have so many weak points, so prominently displayed, and in such large numbers.

It was great for me, though. Like shooting disgusting eyeball-covered fish in a barrel.

They screeched and fell, but they were only the forward guard. There was easily a dozen more where they’d come from.

I tapped into Unbound Blaze once more, summoning a rush of primal Arcana from my core, and smoked an entire formation of those shitheads with one wrecking ball of concentrated flame. The spell left me reeling drunkenly, but it was worth the sudden wave of exhaustion. Bodies scattered like bowling pins. Burning, buggy monsters mewled and screeched, spewing goopy green fluid all over the floors and walls along with a copious amount of golden mist. The life force swirled through the room and filled my nose and mouth, granting me a renewed flood of power.

Behind me I heard a hiss and then a howl and turned just in time to see Arturo slamming his war staff into the head of one of the Stone Spiders that had its pincers wrapped around the padre’s thigh. No sooner had he laid that one to rest than he was spinning on his heels, staff a blur. He crushed an overextended pincer and bashed through a chitinous skull with ease. The guy sure knew his way around a war staff. No way this was his first rodeo. He might’ve been a lazy drunk, but he was a lazy drunk that knew how to handle himself in a dustup.

Further up the corridor, Cal was going apeshit in his Grass Hound form—ripping off spidery limbs with his teeth, eviscerating exposed bellies with his claws, using that freaky long tongue as a murder-whip. I stole a quick look back and spotted Renholm. He was sitting leisurely on his furry friend, who’d lain down and was busy licking his junk. Cats were such bullshit, and pixies didn’t seem much better.

He didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger, though, and my friends were handling themselves like utter badasses, so I snapped back into reality, eager to suck up as much Essence as I could get my greedy little blood-soaked mitts on. I swapped out my pistol and slaughtered the next phalanx that came at me with my mace, smashing skulls and legs with equal ease. Another three fell in a hail of magical bullets and a battering ram of magically conjured flame.

I dropped from the rocky ledge and landed in a crouch as Arturo finished off the last of the monsters—a small stream of golden light drifting across the floor and into his nostrils. That son of a bitch could absorb Essence, just like me. The questions I had about him were quickly mounting, and not in a good way. I liked the priest and I didn’t think he was the monster I was hunting, but he had some explaining to do if he expected me to continue to trust him. As much as I wanted answers about him, however, there was a bigger mystery that had caught my attention.

Twenty feet ahead, on the left, was a cleft in the wall. Red light leaked from the fissure and spilled onto the floor like a bloodstain.

I slipped past a heavily panting Arturo just as Cal’s transformation lapsed and the Grass Hound vanished, replaced by the shade of my undead friend.

“Did you see that, dude?” he said, nearly bouncing on his toes. “That shit was awesome! Like turning into the Incredible Hulk or something. I was all over the place. Kicking ass and taking names. And just imagine the kinda loot we’re going to score off of all these things!”

I ignored him and stopped in front of the narrow fissure running up the tunnel wall. The crack wasn’t natural—angular points and a host of score marks told me that the miners were responsible. A few pieces were starting to click together. The earthquake had opened up a new passageway and the miners had come down, hoping to uncover another Selitrium vein. Except they’d stumbled onto something else. Something that had been long buried.

Something that should’ve stayed buried…