Taboo Online

Iris checked the anchor again. "If it goes dark, we come back. I don’t care what else is happening."

Rhea nodded, and the group entered the corridor together.

The minimap showed the hostile seal several chambers ahead, but the route twisted through the oldest section of the Forge. Industrial braces, hoses, and thick power cables covered most of the original silver stone.

Transparent pipes ran along the ceiling and carried golden light in slow, steady currents.

Kellan followed the pipes overhead. "That came from the roots?"

No one answered, but the source of the golden mana became clear when they entered the next chamber.

Three elves hung inside vertical frames along the far wall. One was already dead, another remained conscious, and the third sagged against his restraints with shallow breaths.

Black restraints held their arms apart while narrow tubes pierced the living wood fused around their spines. Golden mana flowed through those tubes into a collection tank beneath the floor.

The conscious elf saw them enter but did not call for help. He only shook his head once, warning them away.

A human operator stood beside the central frame and adjusted a valve.

"Output is dropping," someone said through a speaker above him.

"The fourth root tore apart during extraction," the operator replied. "Send another pulse through the prisoners."

Black light entered the frame, and the conscious elf stiffened.

Kellan vanished before Rhea could stop him, and she swore as she ran after him. He slammed into the operator, and both of them crashed across the control table.

Kellan drove a charged fist into the black valve, and the extraction frame went dark.

Metal shutters immediately dropped from the ceiling and separated him from the others.

"Kellan!"

Rhea reached the narrowing gap too late. Gunfire erupted on the other side as Dorian shoved the head of his mace beneath the descending shutter.

Bronze light spread through his arms while he fought to hold several tons of metal above the floor. "I can’t keep this up."

Rhea dropped beside him and forced the edge of her shield into the gap. "Iris, go first."

"I’m not leaving both of you here."

"You’re the only one who can keep him alive if he gets shot."

Iris hesitated, listening to the gunfire on the other side, then slid beneath the shutter. Rhea followed and turned to brace her shield against the metal while Dorian lowered himself toward the floor.

The gap continued to shrink.

"Now," Rhea said.

Dorian rolled beneath it just before the shutter slammed down behind his boots and snapped the head off his mace. He stared at the broken weapon for a moment, but another burst of lightning farther ahead pulled his attention back to the fight.

"You can complain after we survive," Kellan called.

Kellan had reached the center of the chamber, where six operators now surrounded him. Two fired from the upper walkways while the others advanced behind corrupted workers carrying black hooks.

His speed kept him ahead of the bullets, though every dodge pushed him farther from cover.

Rhea raised her shield and charged into the open. "Behind me!"

"I’m doing fine."

A bullet struck Kellan in the thigh. His leg buckled on the next step, and he hit the floor before the hooked workers could reach him.

Rhea got there first. Her shield expanded above them and caught the next burst of gunfire while Iris dropped beside Kellan.

Blood ran from a narrow hole in his armor.

"I can still move," he said.

"You can barely kneel."

"I only need one leg to run."

"That sentence is too stupid to argue with."

Iris pressed a third golden anchor against his thigh. Bands of light tightened around the wound and slowed the bleeding, but Kellan flinched when he tried to stand.

Nearby, Dorian gripped the broken mace shaft in both hands. His oath circle spread beneath the group again as the corrupted workers reached them.

Without the heavy head, he used the shaft like a short staff. He knocked one hook aside, drove the metal end into a branded throat, and turned in time to stop another creature from reaching Rhea’s exposed side.

The black brand cracked beneath the strike.

Rhea pushed forward behind him and used her shield to divide the chamber. Each blue panel shifted on its own, blocking firing angles and forcing the operators away from the prisoners.

"Kellan," she said, "upper walkway. Stay behind my shield."

He looked offended, but the anchor around his leg pulsed when he tried to stand too quickly.

"Fine."

Instead of wrapping his entire body in electricity, Kellan gathered the charge around one arm. Lightning crossed the chamber, struck the railing above, and sent both riflemen falling from the walkway.

One of them landed behind Rhea’s shield.

Dorian turned toward him as the operator dropped his weapon and raised both hands. He looked no older than Kellan.

"Wait."

Dorian stopped, but the man’s right hand immediately moved toward something clipped beneath his armor.

Dorian reacted at once. The broken mace shaft struck the operator’s wrist and knocked a small branded device to the floor, where it began flashing.

"Bomb," Kellan said.

Rhea kicked it beyond the shield. The explosion tore through the remaining corrupted workers and shattered the restraints around one of the extraction frames.

The conscious elf dropped forward, still tethered by the tubes embedded in his back. Iris started toward him, but a warning appeared across her vision.

[Maximum active lifelines reached.]

Iris looked from the imprisoned elf to Kellan. One anchor was already keeping the wounded defender alive in the previous chamber, another remained linked to Rhea, and the third was stabilizing Kellan’s injured leg.

"I can’t take another."

The elf hanging from the broken frame was still alive, though his breathing had turned shallow.

"Then we get him down without an anchor," Rhea said.

Kellan stared at the tubes. "What if pulling them out kills him?"

"We don’t touch them until we understand what they’re doing."

The surviving operators had retreated through the next doorway. Beyond it, the hostile marker on the minimap pulsed over a circular room.

Dorian picked up one of the abandoned black hooks. "The seal is close."

Iris remained beside the imprisoned elf. "I’m not leaving him connected to that machine."

"Seal first," Rhea said. "Then we get him out."

They followed the golden pipes through the doorway and entered a chamber tall enough to span three floors of the Forge. Ancient silver symbols covered the walls, but a black seal had been hammered into the center of the floor.

Thick branded cables spread from it in every direction. Some ran deeper underground, while the largest bundle climbed toward Lethariel through an opening high above them.

A metal walkway circled the chamber one level above the seal. Beyond it, a sloping passage led toward the village, though several hostile markers were already moving toward the entrance.

Golden mana flowed down through the largest cables and entered rows of extraction tanks positioned along the walls.

Beneath the seal, a separate glass reservoir held a dense mass of black corruption. Cracks had already begun spreading across its surface.

System windows opened before all four candidates.

[Hostile Warden Seal located.]

[Removing the seal will restore passage to Lethariel.]

[Additional effect detected.]

[The fifth extraction relay will lose primary power.]

Kellan traced the cables upward. "That must be the next cutting machine."

Another warning appeared.

[Warning: The hostile seal currently contains a concentrated corruption reserve.]

[Seal removal will vent the reserve into the Warden’s Forge.]

[Estimated evacuation window after removal: 47 seconds.]

Something dark struck the inside of the reservoir, making the glass bow outward before it slowly returned to place.

Iris watched the cracks spread. "Can we reach the village in forty-seven seconds?"

Rhea measured the distance to the upward passage, then glanced at Kellan’s injured leg and the broken shaft in Dorian’s hands. More hostile markers were closing in behind them.

"No," she said. "We’ll have to survive it here."