The Heavens Shall Fall

Looking at the Burrower as it now lay on its back between them, all six legs caught inside the heavy harness, everyone was thinking about an answer to Siu's question.

“No...” Seloryn muttered quietly, breaking the sudden silence.

“No what?” Siu asked as he frowned at her.

“We can't just drag it..." She muttered, biting her lip, still thinking.

Arya, already eager to try, grabbed onto the creature's tail, trying to pull, and of course, nothing happened. Not giving up, she ran around, trying to push, but only her feet slid backward across the stone, and the beast remained exactly where it was.

"Heeaaaavyyyyyyy!" She moaned as she leaned in even harder, her tail rising to the air and her face reddening from the struggle, but... Still nothing. Finally, she stopped and looked around as if everyone else had failed by not helping. “It is stuck.”

“It weighs more than the teahouse,” Joren said, crossing his arms, "Maybe we should leave it here and tell that weird elder to come and collect it?"

"Like he would do that!" Ruben glanced at him, shaking his head.

"Yeah, he would laugh at us if we did that," Nokoh agreed, as sweat began running down his temples. "And we should think of something because if I run out of stamina keeping it frozen, we will be in big trouble."

“How long can you keep suppressing it?” Siu asked, getting more serious.

“I don’t know... I have never held my affinity inside a living beast this large for this long.” Then, just as he finished speaking, the Prismhide’s nearest leg twitched, and every rope around it creaked. “Anyway, not for forever,” he added, refocusing his efforts.

“We move it,” Siu said with a heavy nod. “Now.”

“How?” Seloryn asked with a shrug.

“Joren smooths the ground in front of it.” Siu began explaining, “While Ruben puts water beneath the shell, try to make it float. Then we can drag it.”

“Siu and I pull from the front,” Arya continued at once, “the rest of you can push it!”

“We also need to get it through the tunnels without damaging the plates.” Seloryn added, walking around the creature, "It won't fit everywhere on its back.

“We roll it onto its side,” Joren suggested, "We have those slips for escape, no? Seloryn, you said that they reduce weight for a moment... When we need, we can slap one to it, and move and roll it around as needed."

"Maybe," She muttered, "But they have a short period while they work, so we need to be strategic with them. Also, I'm not keen on using them up on a beast while we are still here and not out of this place."

"Well then," Ruben tapped his umbrella against his shoulder. "We better start moving then!" The next moment, water poured from his umbrella and from the nearby stream gathering under the beast, lifting it up, making Ruben's neck pop a vein all of a sudden. "Holy..." He groaned, "It is heavy..."

"Let's move!" Siu grabbed one of the harness lines before he could complain more, “Everyone take a position and follow me!”

The Prismhide’s enormous body slid across the chamber, very slowly, as its tusks scraped across the wall when they got near the entrance of the chamber. Luckily, they were sturdy enough to dig through rocks, so, instead of breaking, they carved a groove into the wall. The first ten meters took nearly a minute for the group to finish, and after that, every bend required them to stop and reposition the beast. Not to mention, as they began 'climbing,' every cracked floor section had to be smoothed by Joren or flooded by Ruben to get the beast through a hump.

Being one in the front, constantly using the Ox's form for leverage, Siu’s shoulders began burning, and that started to spread onto his back, very soon. Yet the one who complained the most was Arya, because her feet repeatedly slipped despite the grip tabs.

“Can you loosen your control?” Siu asked, noticing that amongst all of them, Nokoh looked the most tired, his breathing heavy.

“No.”

“Not even enough to save strength?”

“If I loosen it, the beast may recover faster than I can invade it again. And look at it...” He whispered, "The moment this beast regains control, it's going to explode. Don't worry, this is perfect training for my affinity." He added with a grin, finding the positives in his situation.

As they kept pulling it, the harness scraped against stone constantly, while the Prismhide’s tusks caught on one wall once again, making an ear-splitting noise, so much so that Arya hurriedly climbed onto the beast and pushed against the creature’s head to keep it centered.

“Left!” Siu called, trying to angle the body.

“I am pushing left!” Someone yelled back.

“Your other left!” Another yell answered.

“I only have one left!”

“You have two hands!”

“That does not mean two lefts!”

The group may have had an eerily perfect teamwork in battle, but apparently, the moment that was over, they were just like a group of youngsters, trying to move heavy furniture up a narrow staircase. By the time they reached the top, Seloryn was pale, and Siu’s hands had gone numb, while Ruben collapsed against one wall.

“I refuse,” he said between breaths, “to do that all the way back.”

“We are not even close,” Joren answered, panting just the same, "And stop crying; Nokoh has it worse."

No matter what Ruben was saying, they rested for less than a minute before they continued moving. It took them about an hour to reach the bridge they had to cross. Siu stopped counting how many times they had repositioned the creature and was looking at his palms. They had blistered despite cultivation-hardened skin, making him shake his head. Looking back up from them, the enormous chamber stretched above and below them, but a new issue became very clear: they were standing right at the edge of it, in fact.

“You said it's hollow... yes?” Ruben asked, looking at his half-brother. “And we have to cross,” he added, pointing at the Prismhide, "With this hunk of rock?"

“Yeah...” Joren groaned, rubbing his face.

“Do we have another route?” Ruben asked again, looking at Seloryn, who just shook her head.

“No.”

“Then we cross,” Siu said as he stepped onto the bridge alone.

“It held us all; it will be okay,” Arya said without any real conviction as she looked back at the Prismhide.

“We are smaller...” Marly said, voicing Arya's own worries.

“How much weight can it support?” Siu asked, glancing at Joren.

“I cannot measure that.”

“Can you reinforce it?” Seloryn joined the discourse, glancing back and forth between the bridge and Joren.

“Not the entire crossing.”

“What about the section beneath the beast?”

“Slowly,” Joren warned them, “We can try but... If I tell you to stop, stop.”

Repositioning themselves, with Joren now 'sitting' on the Prismhide, concentrating, they pulled once again. The stone bridge groaned the moment half of the creature was on it, and everyone froze at once. Watching, a crack appeared beneath their feet, and it traveled across half the bridge before stopping.

“Back!” Joren shouted, but he didn't have to, because they pulled in the opposite direction at once.

Even Nokoh's face smoothed out, because apparently the creature got so scared, too, that all its resistance and fight to regain control got snuffed out. Especially when a small piece of stone broke from beneath the bridge and fell into the chasm with a loud, echoing crash, rolling down, ending in a faint, distant splash about two minutes later.

“Well.” Siu said as he released the rope, "Fuck."

The bridge would not support the beast; that much was evident, not even if Joren tried to reinforce it. However, he wasn't desperate yet, because massive chains hung all around them, and he was already examining them for a solution. Some of the pulley towers looked... still operable. They had to build the bridge itself once, not to mention lifting and dropping slabs from this level to the next. Catching the way he was moving his head, Seloryn followed Siu’s gaze.

“You want to use those.”

“We cannot use the bridge.” He nodded, "So... why not?"

By now everyone was looking up, watching and realizing that one enormous chain crossed the chamber above the bridge, supported by a pair of pulley assemblies built into the walls on either side. A metal carriage hung from it almost halfway across, and its frame was wide enough to carry several wagons... or one Prismhide.

“How do we bring it down?” Ruben asked.

"I don't see any other option but climbing," Siu said, pointing toward the nearest pulley tower connected to it.

Arya's gaze moved towards the walls where the tower had been carved partly from the mine itself and partly assembled from black metal beams. A narrow maintenance stair ran along one side, but several sections had collapsed already, and the platform at the top stood perhaps forty meters above them.

“Fun,” Arya said, but nobody thought she really meant it.

"I can go," Marly raised both paws. “I can fly!”

“You can scout the trail,” Siu said, “Warn us where it looks unstable, but do not touch anything.”

With a salute, she was off from his head, easily landing on the rocks on the wall, scanning their supposed route up on the side of the abyss-like chasm.

"We don't need everyone; we will do it," Siu said as he looked at the others. "Wait here!"

With that, Siu and Arya began climbing. The first few meters were nerve-wracking if you looked down, until they reached the first remaining part of the maintenance stair, which proved worse than it looked. Entire flights were missing, and rust covered the metal grips. At some points, weird, rock-like roots had grown through the wall and wrapped around some of the beams... coming from who knows where.

At the first gap that Marly had pointed out, Siu jumped and caught the next railing, which bent beneath his weight with a loud groan. Without thinking, he swung quickly onto the following platform, just as it broke apart and fell.

"Sorry..." he looked back, leaving a much wider gap for Arya.

In the end, she climbed over to him using cracks in the wall, her smaller form making the narrow holds easier to use, although she complained about the unfairness of having shorter arms when she was struggling to reach certain spots.

After about ten minutes, they reached the main pulley platform, and the mechanism was enormous. Three wheels stood beside one another, each several meters across, while thick chains passed around them before disappearing into channels carved through the mountain. For most of the space, a control assembly occupied the center, and most of its formation plates were dark; however, to everyone's surprise, one still pulsed faintly.

“Luckily, someone didn't disable this one like the ones etched into the floor,” Siu muttered, making Arya nod.

“Yeah, they should have left those intact; then the fatty would be easy to drag around. Can you activate it?”

“I am not a mining formation expert.” He shrugged, "So let's try to do it slowly."

“You are our formation expert today, Master!” Arya said, giving him a thumbs up, "You can use the one in the shop, so... no biggie!"

“That is not how expertise works,” Siu said with a smile, but, deep down, he hoped it did this time around. "Let's check if the thing is even in working condition."

"Okie!" Arya hummed as she touched one of the wheels already, but it did not move. “Stuck.”

"Hm..." Siu followed the chain and the main lifting line crossed above the chasm and connected to the carriage. A second chain descended toward the lower levels, probably serving as a counterweight. As for the third, that ran into the wall for some reason.

“Stone!” Marly pointed suddenly, and true enough, a chunk of fallen masonry had lodged itself between two teeth.

"I'll get it!" Arya climbed onto the mechanism without fear, but Siu caught her tail before she could disappear.

“Nyauh! M-m-master! So suddenly... Right now?" She moaned, looking back, but Siu wasn't having it. "Hauh... What?”

“If that moves while you are there, you lose a leg.”

"I'll be careful, Master!" Arya sighed.

"I'll do it anyway, because the stone is as big as you," Siu said, already starting to climb over her.

“That is unfair...” She muttered, "Why can you do what I can't...? Bully...!"

“Yes.” He said with a hidden smile as he crossed the wheel carefully and reached the lodged stone. It was larger than his torso; that was for sure. Finding places that wouldn't suddenly start turning if the stone was moved out of the way, he braced both feet and pushed... but nothing. “Joren would be useful right now,” he muttered, focusing on him. "Marly," he told her through their bond, "Get down to Joren, and tell him to start using his affinity a little. If he asks questions, just tell him to just do it!"

Without hesitation, she flew down from his head, back to the group, and soon, Siu caught Joren's essence and managed to copy it with a bit of effort.

"Okay, it's enough, thanks!"

With a simple push, the rock suddenly felt very malleable as it just... fell out from between the wheels, disintegrating as it tumbled down into the blackness. The moment it was gone, the great wheel began moving as the entire tower groaned. From below, Ruben shouted something they could not understand, so Siu leaned over the edge and yelled back.

“We are fine!”

Climbing back down, he looked at the still-active control formation, touched it with his still-active essence, causing it to project a dim, flickering table before him.

“Raise, lower, lock, cross-pull... This should be it.”

“Which do we need?” Arya asked.

“Lower the carriage first, and put it level with the bridge's height,” Siu said as he pressed essence into the appropriate command. The moment he did, a rumbling shudder passed through the mechanism and the main wheel rotated with a very loud, painful noise.

Still, far above the bridge, the suspended carriage moved with a cloud of rusted dust cascading down on everyone. A few seconds later, the frame began descending, and everyone below moved away when the carriage reached the level of the road and stopped beside the bridge. It hung over the edge of the chasm, supported by four chains, looking just as troublesome as the bridge but... There were no more alternatives to work it out.

“It should be enough.”

“I'm not going to say anything, Master,” Arya muttered, exchanging a gaze with him.

“That is for the best.”

They climbed back down, and after telling the others this was their only option, they began loading the beast onto the carriage. It wasn't an easy job, as the carriage could not reach the stone road completely, leaving a gap of almost three meters between its edge and the ledge. So, it was their first time using up one of their Scatter Slips, putting it onto the Prismhide. The moment it got activated, the creature's weight was reduced to nothing, making it possible to lift it with one hand and just toss it onto the carriage.

Then, hurriedly, they stood back, watching, making the poor beast even more nervous, because when its weight returned, the frame immediately lowered under its weight considerably as the chains snapped taut with a sound like a metal whip. But it held.

"Okay, this should be fine," Siu said in the end, wiping his forehead, "I'll go back, operate the thing, make it cross the bridge over to the other side. You lot, go over the bridge, and receive it, and start taking the beast off. Questions?"

"Nope." Ruben shook his head as the group began moving.

Siu had just reached the controls again, this time alone, watching them walk over the bridge, when he heard the first click. He flinched when he did so, because his senses also began warning him... The more he listened, the more he noticed that the clicking sounds soon multiplied. Dozens... No... Hundreds. Searching for the source, it wasn't hard to spot the dark shapes that began crawling up from below, probably drawn in by the noise they were making...

The Stone-shell Beetles arrived at the worst possible time, and by now their clicking had become deafening. And more than that, every one of them was moving toward the suspended beast... A Prismhide may eat these creatures, but in the moment, it seemed like their roles were reversed, especially with how many of them were coming to feast.

"Why can't anything go smoothly, hm?" Siu asked with a groan, hurriedly activating the dying system, starting to lift the beast over the chasm.