You took a deep breath as you reached down for the manhole cover, carefully lifting it, pushing it aside as you recalled how you had originally entered the city from a place much like this. It reminded you that the fat bastard that had beaten you was still out there alive and needed a lesson in manners.
You were not entirely certain how you would deliver such a lesson, though you knew you could come up with something creative. You were certain you could do it without harming him too, if it came to it. Maybe you'd do something to shame him, like having the queen herself tell him that he was a disgrace, while pardoning you of anything that you were actually accused of.
It was wistful thinking, but it was enough to make you smile.
You peered down the open manhole as you unholstered your revolver, gazing down for a long moment as you watched, waited and listened. Nobody came to investigate and no sound came from that open hole. There was no stench either.
It was entirely possible that this was a converted prison facility belonging to another faction, one that the Enlightened had either taken over by force or stumbled upon when it was abandoned. Placing your feet to the sides of the open manhole, you slid down the shaft leading down steadily, keeping an eye on ever approaching ground beneath you. As your feet neared the lip of the shaft, you reached with your free hand for the rungs sunk into the wall, halting your descent as you once more paused to look and listen.
Silence.
Emboldened by this, you made your way down the ladder, taking note that you were in a tunnel like the one you had seen in the prison. Dim illumination from lights dotted along the wall stretched either way, old cells lay open, the doors to them long torn from their hinges. Rust covered the bars of the cells that you could see, as well as the wire housing pipes that the lights were set into.
The place looked abandoned, yet you knew that it was not so.
Looking both ways, you took note of how water and mud had accumulated down here, how footprints tracked in one direction. As quiet as a mouse you crept along the tunnel towards an old wooden door just visible over the lip of what you assumed was stairs leading downwards.
You edged down the stairs, feet almost gliding over them as you silently made your way down. For all your efforts to be quiet, the door's hinges screeched as you opened it, revealing several very suprised looking figures in robes.
The Enlightened.
There were eight of them, eight men who stared at you in shock prompting you to take advantage of the moment to try and start things on a good foot.
"I come in peace. I wish to talk with Brother Pride, to negotiate-" You were cut off as they started to draw their weapons, all eight of them armed with the typical blade that you saw these men use.
"Death to the intruder!" One of them yelled as he started running towards you, only to falter as you raised your gun, cocking it for good measure as your presence went from one of benevolence to one of chilling malevolence.
"I said, I come in peace. We can do this the easy way, or I can put a bullet in every single one of your heads on my way to talk with Pride. Are we at an understanding?" You stated, watching as the man before you backed away slightly, only to grow bold once more as he looked at the others.
"None may meet with Pride, the penalty for intrusion is death!"
Six shots rang out in rapid succession as you targeted the men nearest you, leaving six men writing on the ground as they held their heads, pained cries escaping their lips as the other two stared in shock. You took advantage of the moment to swap cylinders, reloading before the shocked men could decide how they'd act.
"Now, you two are going to co-operate or things are going get ugly fast. Do either of you recognise this?" You asked, drawing the knife as you kept your weapon trained on the nearest of them. Their expressions turned to ones of anger as they raised their blades once more.
"Harborer of the traitor!" they screamed in unison as they charged, only to fall like the others had as two more shots rang out. Sheathing the blade once more you left the writing cultists where they lay, stepping towards the door as pools of ichor formed.
The room filled with that familiar stench as they bled, as they recovered steadily from those wounds that had been dealt to them. Wounds that would have killed a mortal outright. You were glad when you stepped through the door and into another tunnel, this one splitting off in several directions. There was an old sign still up on the wall, one that pointed towards further cell blocks, towards a chapel, towards the office of the supervisor.
You considered this briefly, figuring that the logical place for the head of the order to locate himself was the old supervisor's office. It was once the head of the prison, and he was the head of the order. You took a moment as you walked towards it to reload the spent cylinder on your belt, to load two fresh bullets to replace the ones in your current one.
You didn't want to be caught short if it came to it.
You knew that it was only a matter of time before the ones that you had shot prior recovered or someone came to investigate the sound of gunfire. For all you knew, they could be preparing right now for it, having figured that they were being attacked.
You had to act fast.
You jogged up to the door of the supervisors office, taking a deep breath as you pressed yourself against the wall beside it, steeling yourself...
"Pride!" You screamed as you kicked the door open, while a shocked figure sat at a desk looked up first at you, then down the barrel of the gun pointed at his head.
"N-no, I... I'm Brother Ego," The man stammered, only to be sent tumbling over the back of his chair as a single gunshot rang out. shouting from the tunnel behind you told you that you'd been discovered.
As you turned you were greeted by the sight of four men running towards you with weapons drawn, men who you could see the fanatical devotion to their order in their eyes. The first one was shot in the leg as you used his falling body to slow the others down, three more shots ringing out, finding their mark.
Three bodies hit the ground, groaning as they held their heads.
The fourth crawled towards you with murderous intent in his eyes, struggling as he forced himself to his feet. You fired the final bullet in that cylinder, swinging it open as you swapped it for a fresh one, holstering your revolver as you pulled your shotgun from your back.
You were going to need more firepower.
You started running towards the chapel next, figuring that it was the next most likely place for Pride to be holed up in. As you neared the door however, it opened, several of the Enlightened pouring out with a scream.
You stepped back at a measured pace as you fired round after round into the approaching figures torso's. Each one dropped with gaping wounds from the powerful weapon you, each one cried in pain as the flow of them tapered off. Fifteen rounds had been fired, fifteen bodies writhed on the floor. Two more of the Enlightened stood frozen in the doorway, while a voice from within the chapel rang out, commanding them onwards.
"Stop the intruder, cowards!"
You paced towards them, gunning them down with the same ease you had taken their friends out, stepping over the mass of writhing bodies as you made your way into the chapel.
"You must be Brother Pride," you stated as you approached the figure that stood atop the pulpit, a figure who was large beneath his robes, broad shouldered and bloated. "I have come to negotiate with you. I want you to leave Anxiety be."
You paused, drawing the knife that had been left behind by the assassin. "You see this?" You started, though Pride merely snorted, waving his hand dismissively.
"You killed the assassin before he could paralyze with that Anxiety and bring her back to be punished. This is supposed to impress me?" Pride snorted, watching as you sheathed that blade once more, leveling your shotgun with him again.
So much for playing that card.
"I was going to offer to to maintain a state of neutrality with you, to take no agressive action towards you as long as you made no move to threaten me, or to harm Anxiety in any manner."
Pride laughed once more as he waved his hand dismissively. "You boy, are nothing. You hope to threaten an immortal order by shooting us a few times and causing no more inconvenience than needing five minutes to find our feet again?" He sneered, folding his arms across his chest. "You are pathetic, a worm, a weakling immortal not worthy of the time he has wasted with this joke he calls negotiating."
Pride snickered as you moved your finger to the trigger of your weapon once more.
"I assumed it may take a few rounds to change your mind. I did not anticipate however, that you would make it easy on me like this."
You squeezed the trigger, the sound of another round being fired ringing out.
Pride's robe fluttered to the ground, torn by the pellets that had torn through it. Pride wasn't there however. He never had been. Pride had managed to blind you to what he really was, and what he really was had you swallow nervously as you followed the dangling tentacles that had held the robe in their grasp.
Pride was a vast and misshapen abomination, a pulsating mass of flesh with many eyes, maws and tentacles. You raised your shotgun, firing off several rounds as you backed towards the door, only for a tentacle to snatch the gun from your hands, whipping it across your face before you could reach for your revolver.
Ichor dribbled from the beast above you where pellets had torn into its flesh, yet it seemed unphased by this, as it casually grasped your shotgun with several tentacles. You staggered as the room started to spin, blood trickling from your nose. As you reached for your revolver the sound of another gun filled the air, the sound of a shotgun.
Pain filled your world as you felt pellets tear into your unprotected body, your vision blurring as you sank to your knees and crumpled backwards. You could feel sticky warmth as blood ran freely from your injuries, as you raised your arm weakly, loosing off four rounds at the thing that encompassed the entire ceiling of the chapel.
The shotgun was swung once more as Pride slammed the butt of it against your face.
The last thing you saw as consciousness left you was the sight of the Enlightened staggering into the room, their mouths moving as they spoke with Pride, yet you could hear nothing over the ringing of your ears.
Then, there was darkness.
End of Part One
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Topic: They told me I could be anything... (Read 79022 times)