At least the water was decreasing. As they drove back to the palace, Rory could distinctly make out how the flood was receding back into the drains. The streets were finally clearing up, though the dirt and scummy effluence wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.

He was a little awed that it had seemingly spread everywhere across Hillhard. Every street they had rushed through on their way to sealing up the sewer entrances had been flooded and filled with water. Rory had even seen the tip of the waterspout they’d allowed to break through to the surface in the distance, though thankfully, they hadn’t had to go near it.

Then again, maybe they ought to go back to it.

“Stop the truck,” Rory said.

Ned pumped the brakes hard enough to make the tires screech a little. “What’s wrong?”

“We need to head back.”

“What for?” Viv asked, brows drawing down. There was no scepticism there. She knew him and trusted him, after all. No, she was just resigned.

Rory sighed, wishing their job was done already. “There’s one location we forgot. Remember the waterspout? The spot I used my Weaving to bring it crashing down? They could use that somehow…”

They were all silent for a moment. The realization that they’d have to wade right back into the territory of all those Revenants was bad enough, but they had pissed off an enormous monster to boot and going back into its clutches seemed like a suicide mission. But they had to do it. They had to truly seal up the underground to be safe.

Though, Trish and Bo didn’t look as scared as the others. To be fair, they hadn’t been inside the dungeon. They hadn’t seen anything Rory and the others had experienced directly, only heard it from them.

“How will we block it up?” April asked. “It’s not a small entrance like the rest of them.”

“That’s true. We need a different strategy for it.”

Trish closed up her palm into a fist. “We can use my Sigil of Permanence to make any effects permanent, like we did at the sewers.”

“Right, but the sewer entrances were small, like I said,” April said. “We’d need something huge to cover up a hole that big.”

“Then we’ll make something big. We can do that, right?”

Rory thought for a moment. “Maybe. We’ll just keep trying the things we did at the sewer entrances. Set up traps, create barriers, make it as hard as possible for them to come out. Remember, they can’t fly out.”

“Except for those undead birds,” Ned muttered.

“Yes, good point. Except for the undead Dreadraptors, most of them are going to climb out. That limits the area they can use significantly. So, we mostly need to focus on taking care of that usable area around the hole, not necessarily the entire hole itself.”

“Now the only thing we have to worry about is whether they’ve already started climbing out of it or not.”

Rory grimaced. He, too, was still a little frightened of how much time they actually had to block up the hole. For all he knew, the Revenants were already lost in their anger and climbing straight out of the hole he had created.

“Ned,” April said. “Time to drive. We stop at nothing.”

Ned slammed the accelerator down and screeched off. It was a good thing one of Dez’s outings a few days ago had found a cache of fuel. Their vehicles had been topped up, so they weren’t in danger of running out anytime soon.

They didn’t meet many monsters along the way again. Rory was thankful for that. Since the ride didn’t need all of them to pay attention, Viv and Rory bent to contacting the people at the palace. They provided an update about their sewer shenanigans, albeit a heavily summarized gist of it, and got an update about the palace in return.

The flood had mostly stopped after Trish had used her Sigil of Concrete in concert with her new Sigil of Permanence, so they couldn’t tell if the latest actions had much of an effect or not. They had continued cleaning up the area and clearing out the water, though they were far from making any meaningful progress.

Rory told them to hold tight. They’d return soon after taking care of the last bit of business. In the meantime, they needed to keep a vigilant eye out for any monsters attacking the area.

Afterwards, Rory called Talvic. The minelord seemed a little annoyed that Rory had contacted him to ask for a favour instead of a new deal, but Rory promised he’d return the favour in any way he could as soon as he was done. All he needed was the dwarf to ask his scouts to keep an eye out for any large monstrous gatherings. Rory wanted advance warning if something like a couple of nights ago happened again. Talvic agreed, though he did so with some grumbles.

“I think I see it,” Ned said after they drove for around fifteen minutes or so. An uneventful fifteen minutes as there were no monsters to bar their way. “How do we want to approach it?”

“On foot,” Rory said. “The pickup will draw too much attention, and we need to see if we can use stealth first.”

“And also make sure we don’t destroy the pickup.”

“That too.”

They decided to leave the truck near a small apartment, hidden in an alley. Once again, they needed to leave guards behind, though Trish was adamant about accompanying them.

“Well, of course, you’re coming along,” Viv said. “It’s not like any of us have the Sigil of Permanence.”

They left Bo along with Ned to keep watch on the pickup, and the dead bodies as well. April kissed her husband goodbye, then they headed off on foot.

The peak of the waterspout was poking its head out of a hole on a hill. The incline was a little steep and slippery thanks to the water spraying outwards, but there were no trees. No cover for Rory or the others to use, if any monsters popped out of the hole. He hoped that wasn’t going to be the case, but one could never be sure.

“If we block up the hole entirely, do you think they’ll try to rework it into those pipes and restart the flooding?” April asked as they trudged up the hill.

“We destroyed the mechanisms, remember?” Viv said. “We shouldn’t have to worry about them, in theory.”

Rory didn’t like the “in theory” bit. Now that he thought about it, those mechanisms couldn’t have been built by the Revenants themselves. Or at least, he doubted their ability to do so. Likely it was the Imps who had provided them with the ability to cause a townwide flooding.

He sighed. Another way for the Imps to indirectly affect him and his ability to get his business up and running. They were causing far too many problems.

Rory really needed to follow up on his promise of dealing with them directly at some point.

“Okay, we’re almost there,” Trish said, taking the lead. “How do we want to do this?”

Rory had been thinking about it too. “I’ve got an idea, though it’s not great. I just don’t have anything better. Start off by sealing the edges with your concrete, and I’ll use my Frozen Lightning to cool it down to solidity faster while trapping it at the same time.”

“I think we ought to leave a hole for the water to climb out,” Viv said. “I’m starting to think the Revenants will try to find a way to restart their flooding, and we can’t have that.”

“Where is all this water coming from?” April asked, peering at the dirty spout with distaste. “Is it all the water that’s been in the sewer system?”

Trish made a face at it. “Does it really matter? We just need to stop it.”

“Well, if we knew where it was coming from, we’d have a better idea of stopping it.”

“No point worrying about what we can’t find out,” Rory said. “Let’s—”

A shriek screeched out from up ahead. Rory’s heart fell, dismayed at discovering just what he’d been fearing. The monsters had started using the hole in the hill to climb out.

The first ones to appear were an array of undead Dreadraptors. They flew in a tight-knit formation, swooping towards Rory’s group with deadly precision. Rory counted at least seven in the group.

Trish summoned her axe, but Rory forestalled her.

“Let the others take care of the monsters,” he said. “We need to deal with the hole.”

Trish grumbled but put her axe away. Rory had already taken too long to talk. The monster birds’ screeches now started to hurt his damaged ears, reminding him that he needed to get them checked up back at the palace.

Thankfully, Viv and April dashed forward, clearly understanding that their roles in the situation was to fight off any monsters that approached. As Viv threw a burning red arc form her Omnipresent Sabre, forcing the Dreadraptors to scatter, Rory ran forward, pulling Trish along with him.

The state of the hole ahead wasn’t great. Aside from the peak of the scummy waterspout, several monsters were climbing out of it even as they got within range to use their Sigils

“We need to clear the area,” Rory shouted.

“See, this is why I needed my axe.” Trish stepped forward, teeth bared in a daring grin at the monsters. “Come and get some, you zombie wannabes.”

As though they heard, the monsters roared and charged forward. Rory didn’t like that one bit. Trish had no problem handling the undead Emberteeth and their Revenant handlers. She used her Sigil of Concrete to petrify them, or at least slow them down, then used steel weapons to chop into the monsters with devastating effect. Trish was winning.

But the problem was that there were too many of them. Not enough to overwhelm her, but too many to let her focus on closing up the breach at the hill’s peak.

An explosion rocked the ground just behind where Rory stood. The birds screamed again, this time with finality. Then another burning crimson arc flashed into their midst. Viv teleported in, launching a blistering salvo of lightning to stun all the surrounding monsters. Even Trish had to fall back. Then Viv swung in with her Omnipresent Sabre, slicing through the assembled crowd of Revenants as though they were dummies made of paper.

“Looks like Viv’s got it,” Rory said. “Let’s go, Trish.”

Trish huffed. “I’m so jealous.”

But she didn’t argue, and along with Rory, she ran on through the opening Viv had created for them.

As he passed his wife, he saw a larger Revenant rise up to try to attack Viv from behind. He was about to shout a warning, but it was as if Viv had sensed that her back was open to attack. She disappeared in a burst of smoke, which twisted around her assailant and allowed her to reappear just over his shoulder. Viv hung for a millisecond, but that was enough for her to slice her sabre sideways through the large Revenant’s body.

Rory grinned. That had to have been the commander who had giving the speech. So much for claiming the overworld.

The hole unfortunately had still more monsters climbing out of it. They didn’t have to deal with the creatures, though. April fired her gun, the bullet striking the waterspout and detonating with a blast that sent both Rory and Trish stumbling to their knees.

It had cleared the area ahead, however, which was all that mattered.

“Now it’s open,” Rory said, spitting out water and dirt. “Time to close it up.”

“On it,” Trish said.

As the battle raged behind them, Trish and Rory acted. Trish ran around the hole, using her Sigil of Concrete to send a pool of sludgy grey liquid coalescing around the edge. At the same time, Rory carefully applied his Sigil of Frozen Lightning to the concrete. The ice helped it cool down and solidify faster, providing a platform for more concrete.

Some monsters tried to rise out of the hole even they were sealing it up, but thankfully, Rory’s Sigil of Frozen Lightning activated. Ice shot out to clasp whatever creature had struck the concrete barrier’s underside, followed immediately by crackling lightning.

Rory smiled at the frustrated shriek that was quickly cut off.

“Behind you!” Viv shouted.

Rory whirled around to see an undead Emberteeth charging in his direction. Trish had rounded to the other side of the hole, so she wasn’t going to be any help, while the others were busy killing the monsters around them.

But Rory wasn’t helpless. He summoned his Harmonic Blizzard, focusing its destructive power on the charging Emberteeth, and the preserving power on the barrier being built around the central hole. The undead Emberteeth came to a hard stop, slowly freezing and falling apart into chunks of ice.

“I think we’ve done enough here,” Trish shouted.

Rory looked behind. She had done a fantastic job of creating a bulbous, misshapen mound of concrete around the hole, much of which was covered by Rory’s ice. Just for good measure, Rory threw in more traps of Frozen Lightning.

“Are we good?” Viv asked from farther back.

The battle with the monsters behind him was now over, most of the Revenants and their thralls lying dead. Nearer at hand, the ice and lightning were still acting up from where Rory had set his traps, but less so. The monsters had been stopped. Somewhat.

“We’re done here,” Rory said. “Hopefully. Let’s go.”

They hurried back downslope, leaving the peak of the waterspout as the only remnant of their adventure.