Rush Valley and much of Sieghart Mountain was now under the occupation of Sentinel Syndicate operating from above in their floating Island. Their rule was harsh and heavy handed, with many losing their homes and even lives when the citizens protested. The leader of the Syndicate had his own hand in taking over the Mountains but not to the extent of his members. In the past, he would not have tolerated just behaviour, but he had grown cold, unrelenting, bitter and even cruel from the experiences he has faced in Fiore. This swift allowed those members liberties that even the nobles in the far distant Era could not tolerate. In spite of this leniency, he still held his reservations with one of his members, Caius, a viciously strong daemon, he had been tasked with taking over the Dawn Cliff mine but already there seemed to be problems. The fault did not lie with the daemon, however, rather with the mine itself, his organisation had received both first and third-hand reports of its diminishing returns, first from a carrier and secondly from a source they had bribed in the mine.

He had never been to this part of Sieghart Mountains even though he had spent almost a year in these rocky and unforgiving hills. Without the knowledge that his new guild mate, Caius had given him regarding the Dawncliff Mine, he could have easily missed it. The entrance was unassuming with minimal workers mingling outside, the only clean evidence of work being minecarts being pushed by workers brimming full of coal and iron. The coal and iron was then loaded up into an awaiting train whose conductor watched lazily from his booth smoking a cigarette. Kon had been a smoker in the past, but never again, the appeal was lost on him ever since becoming a Nephilim. Always wanting to represent his guild as its leader, Kon was dressed in his regular guild attire, a suit adorned with the syndicates emblem with matching lapel, cufflinks, even the tie had a pattern that included the guild’s insignia. “Bastard” A grizzly soot-coated miner swore before spitting on the ground as Konstantin entered the outskirt of the mine’s workplace.

Coal dust rose from the ground with each step that was made clinging to his midnight-blue pants. This harsh black cloud followed up the nobleman’s front before passing through his nose tickling the back of his throat. Coughing profusely at the discomfort, the men around him sneered and laughed at his reaction. “Need a handkerchief, Ma’lady?” One of the men asked, pulling out a greyed piece of cloth from his rear pocket and waving it in front of him. Wasting no time and ensuring that the men understood just who he was, Kon rushed towards the jester and grabbed his bulky forearm with an unrelenting grasp. Steadily his flesh turned metal with a golden sheen replacing the flesh and clothing he wore. Screams of mercy left from the man’s lips as the shift continued to crawl up his arm. “Please sir, please, forgive me, sir…” Tears left the man’s eyes while snot bubbles blew out of his nose. The men around him had mixed reactions to the transition before them, some stood petrified, others ready to fight the man, either way he could sense their fear.

Evident that they all knew who he was, Konstantin released his grip only after pulling the golden limb from the man’s shoulder. The golden arm dropped in the black soil serving as a reminder to all those that opposed him in these mines and all of the Sieghart Mountains. “Hang that in front of the mine so your workers can see what happens when you cross me!” He barked at the miner who struggled to lift the golden arm. “Faster, Faster!” He shouted, almost tempted to kick the man who finally managed to shoulder the burden of the arm before fleeing from Konstantin's violent gaze. Remembering why he was there in the first place, Kon spoke with another miner who could barely give a response still stunned from what had just happened. Clicking his metal finger hard enough to make sparks, he drew the man’s attention back to the original conversation. “Have you forgotten who you work for?”

Sweat glistening from his blackened skin, the miner looked briefly into Kon’s eye before averting his gaze. “No, sir…Just we were just having some fun, sir, won’t happen again, sir.” Nodding to himself, Kon looked around at the miners stunned, before backing once more. “Get back to work!” Wanting to ensure they didn’t meet the same fate as their counterpart, the burly men double-downed their focus and returned to their tools, pushing the minecarts once more. The conditions in the mine itself were reportedly terrible but it wasn’t something he was concerned about, Kon was purely after results. If those results cost a few limbs or even lives so be it. Kon was living proof that sometimes terrible sacrifices were needed. And fortunately Rush Valley was close by and known for cheap and accessible prosthetics, so the man would be back in the mine before the day's end.

Kon had already forgotten about the man, he was more concerned about the reports of reduced profits from the mine. Knowing that this issue would be hard to resolve without proper equipment or the hand of a skilled individual, he took it upon himself in spite of being a mage, in spite of being even a Guild Master to enter the mines and use his abilities. But so far from a quick glance, even his golden eye couldn’t do much for him, afterall it was designed to read people not look at ore deposits. Knowing that he’d only be wasting time to further look from a macro level, Kon reopened the conversation with the miner whose name tag read, Peter - Manager written underneath in red ink, waving him over. “Oi Mate.”

988/2500

Caius couldn't believe it. He had just spent a ton of his time in the Sieghart Mountains working for the guild. He even managed to capture and enslave the miners that worked there. All of this he did for his new guild Sentinel Syndicate. After all that hard work, he had hoped to be rewarded with some time off so he would work on his side business. Oh no, there was more work to be done of course.  There was a rich man in a nearby town that was paying the guild for the resources out of the mine. It was a pretty massive sum of money so the guild couldn't refuse.  Not only that but he was personally asked by the guild master Kon. There was no choice in the matter because he wanted to stay on their good side.. The problem was that profits of the mine had gone down below the average they had since capturing it so they had to figure out what before making the deal.

Going to his closet he went and picked out an outfit he didn't really care about. Having to go to those mines was dirty. All the sweat, soot and smells really soaked into your clothing. He put on a black tee and black sweatpants that were good enough for now. He would go to the fridge and pull out a large bottled water for the road before he headed out the door. He would have to traverse the mountains pathway in order to reach the mine and that was a long walk. Letting out a sigh he pushed open the door and headed out to the location. He at least hoped something interesting was going to happen.

After trucking through the mountains for what seemed like ages, he finally arrived at the entrance of the mine. There were some workers up front holding some type of golden object in their hands. He thought maybe they were trying to steal some of the gold ore from the mine until he saw what they were doing.  The arch out front that displayed the "Dawncliff Mine" had a rope tied down from it and they were trying to hang the gold up to display. Caius just stared them down till they spit it out. "W-we were told by one of our masters to hang this up as a warning"  Caius had no freaking idea what they were talking about. "Let me see that." he said as he pushed the miner to the ground.

The sparkling gold object turned out to actually be a golden arm. This was not natural so it had to be the work of someone in the guild. Kon must have already beaten him here. "One of the workers was being insuborditate so he had to be punished. We are only following orders. " They seemed pretty terrified. Whoever did this did a good job at keeping them in line. Oh carry on then So where is he anway?" Caius chucked the arm over his shoulder to the ground. The workers pointed in the direction the master went and then picked up the arm to put it on display.

Caius smiled and waved at the workers moving the ores and digging around the mine to almost mock them as they performed back breaking working. They might not believe him but he was proud of them for doing such a good job. Hardworking slaves were hard to find these days. After a few moments he had finally rendezvoused with Kon. It was comical how overdressed he was especially when Caius was just in a tshirt and sweatpants. Meanwhile, he was in his fancy suit with all his medals on display. Once they went into the mine that thing was going to get destroyed with filth. It would take weeks to wash it out  of that material.

Walking up to Kon he slapped him on the back of the shoulder to let him know he was there. "Yo boss what's the situation? Is this the guy causing the poor work flow. Do you want me to shoot him?" Caius lit up his finger with purple magic and pointed  it at the manager named Peter. He waved it menacing as he tensed up and covered his face. He was just messing with him and awaited what Kon had to say.


748

The hair on the back of his neck rose up as a cool breeze rushed in from the entrance of the mine. It’s source originating from his peer, Caius, who seemed to have graced Konstantin with his presence. His attire was far more appropriate for work while Kon had chosen his own for representing the guild. While he could feel him, he held his tongue until Caius announced himself with a slap on the shoulder. A plume of black soot left his once clean suit mudding his right eye’s vision. Rubbing his dirt coated face with his gloved right hand, sighing heavily before greeting his demonic counterpart. “Hello Caius, it’s good to see you in person again and no don’t shoot him, you’ve killed enough people..” Shifting to face his guild member leaving Peter out of the conversation for now. “I’ve received reports that this mine you were supposed to take over and look after has been underperforming, poor quality ore apparently…” His annoyance was more due to the loss of profits rather than the man's performance in taking over the mine.

Waving away any protests or response that Caius might have from his critique, Kon followed up by returning to the manager who seemed frozen in fear of both Kon and the newly arriving Caius. Clear that the man wasn’t in a state to help either of them, he casually pushed him to the side and made his way further into the mine, commenting to the daemon behind him. “Looks like you’ve startled the poor man, we’ll have to figure out the problem ourselves…” Going further into the mine would prove difficult for the guild master, with the rocky interior narrowing and widening at various points tearing at his clothes while he constantly bumped his head on the roof’s many low hanging stoney spears. These razor sharp rocks left him with multiple grazes and a nasty cut that ran from his forehead to the back of his skull which bleed profusely.

Ignoring the sticky blood that had coated his face and the itch from the blood dripping into his ear, he pressed onward assured that his guild member would be behind him, who was likely dealing with a similar problem given his stature. Soon enough the duo would reach the end of the shaft which opened to reveal a rusted old elevator which seemed to be relying on a single diesel engine fluttering away weakly in the corner filling the opening with foul smelling smoke. It seemed there was no way forward unless they wanted to go deeper into the heart of the mine. “Well this is just great..” The blood stained nephilim mentioned while he tore apart his jacket to create a makeshift bandage for his head. “Perhaps you should take the lead?”

1,464/2,500

Bummer. Kon didn't give the order to pull the trigger on the bullet spell.  The purple light faded from his finger and he brought his hand down. Peter let out a sign of relief now that he seemed to be in the clear. The guild master pulled Caius aside to give him a debriefing at what was going on. The tone in which he used though struck a nerve with him. The way he worded it made it sound like it was his fault they were losing profits. Caius immediately protested. "Hey you said just to capture this place not play shift manager to these idiots. I--" Kon was already turned around and wasn't having it. He just focused on the task at hand and walked into the mine. Caius just shook his head in frustration and turned back to Peter. "If I get a lecture it's your ass Peter! Get back to work" The manager didn't even question it and hopped back to his office.  Following his guild master's footsteps, he would head into the Dawncliffe Mine.

Once he caught up to Kon he would let him take the lead. That was in his job description after all. He made a comment as the ventured deeper that he scared Peter. Caius couldn't help it though. He was a demon. They tended to have that aura about them. As they continued deeper the mine seemed to shrink and become hard to navigate. The front of the mine was well broken in by the miners and had a setup a system of gathering materials there. The deeper depths which they were headed to still were fresh in materials. However, they still needed some manpower to set up an excavation system. The two of them bumped and squeezed through the narrow mine ripping apart their clothes and bodies to reach the elevator.

The light from the torches and lanterns was starting to fade from the entrance so Caius lit up some magic on his finger. A purple magic energy lit up the shaft like a black light. It wasn't every bright but it was the best he could do. The elevator was in rough shape. He didn't know how these miners were using the whole time. What time of backwater town still was using diesel engines? They needed to update this to magic lacrima power asap to increase productivity. It was questions for later. The two of them were skeptical until Kon said for him to take the lead.

"Fine I"ll check it out. Hopefully this thing doesn't break down and kill me." Caius walked forward and slowly tapped a foot on the elevator to test it. There was a slight creak that echoed through the cave but it seemed stable. He would pull the lever on the elevator which would descend him into the depths. A loud THUD happened when the elevator arrived at the bottom. Caius exited and didn't see anyone else down here which was strange. They were supposed to be planning a dig here.

"Anyone down here?" There was an eerie silence and no response. Slowly walking forward he noticed a mining helmet on the ground. He flashed his light closer and saw that there was blood on the side of it. Maybe a stalagmite hit him on the head or something he thought. After a few steps forward , he heard a crunch beneath his feet. Looking down on the ground, there was bones. But not just any bones. Human bones . They were picked clean. Caius picked them up and could tell they were fresh. He had skinned enough people to know that. Suddenly. There was a loud screech from above him. He pointed his light upwards and saw the culprit. It was a large bat that was about double the size of human male. Once the beast saw the light it screeched and retreated deeper into the depths. Caius ran back to the elevator shaft to report.  

"Kon get down here. I think I found our problem. We have ourselves a giant wuhan bat infestation" The wuhan bats were known for feasting on humans. And where there was one there was bound to be more. The worst part about them was not only were they fast and powerful, but they also had a bite that gave a nasty infection. If you were bit you would get a nasty cough that would eventually lead to you coughing your insides out and dying. It was highly infectious to anyone around you as well. Caius waited for Kon before going in deeper. It was about to be bat hunting season.

1521

It seems Caius had avoided the injuries that now littered Kon’s head, his clothes meanwhile were less fortunate. Perhaps recognizing his injured state or perhaps his position as Guild Master, Caius agreed to take the lead, entering and activating the elevator. The shaking and noises that the ancient and damaged lift made were concerning, to say the least. The condition of the machine was illustrated further with the echoing slam and the frame collapsing in on itself as the cab hit the bottom of its structure. “Well that’s fantastic…” he thought to himself. As if to spite them, the engine of the lift continued to flutter at its pathetic pace, tired of breathing in the toxic smoke and hearing the grating hum, Kon sent a bolt of lightning at the jittering machine. Much to his surprise, the daemon now stuck in the bottom of the mine wasn’t worried about the lift instead there was something much more significant. A bat infestation specifically Giant Wuhan Bats, undoubtedly the cause of the reduced profits. “Blast, this is just what we needed,” Kon swore as he reached for the rickety metal door pushed it aside and leaped down the lift shaft.

Slowing his descent, he hopped from broken railing to broken railing turning some to gold, leaving others with deep finger marks from his left and right hands respectively. “A Wuhan Bat Infestation, surely, you can’t be serious?” Voicing his concerns to the daemon who was disturbingly surrounded by piles of human bones. Shaking his head at the true state of the mine undermanned and plagued by vermin. Looks like they were going to have more to deal with than just insufficient manpower or poor quality minerals. It may have even been due to the infestation that the workers were only trying to mine in the safe, ground levels.

Reaffirming Caius’ statement, another screech bellowed out in the dark depths of the expansive cavern that both of them were now in. The ghastly noises and gruesome display of carnage had overpowered Konstantin’s other critical sense, his smell which returned as the wail ended. The strong odors from rotting corpses, bat feces, and stagnant water were gag-inducing. Hoping to filter out the smells Kon drew up his right gloved hand. Wanting to get this over and done with as soon as possible, remove the threat of the bats and leave the clean up to the workers, he waved his golden hand at Caius. “Yep, it’s pretty bad, just don’t go eating any of them alright?”

1,894‬

Caius wretched at the thought. Eating bats? What type of mad man would do that. They were like little flying rodents and didn't look appetizing at all. He was sure even if you cooked them you would get some type of sickness from how dirty they were. Not even a demon like him would crunch into one of those little bastards if he was starving on his death bed. Yuck.

So now that Kon had joined up with him they had an extermination job on their hands. The problem was they were pretty powerful mages and they were stuck in a mine. If they used too much power they might blow this place to kingdom come and get buried in the rocks after the collapse. That would not be a good way to go out. "Alright it looks like it splits up ahead. I'll go right and you go left. Make sure to lay off the gas on the spells. Nice precise shots" Caius said pointing his hand like a gun at Kon. It was easy for him because his bullet magic pretty much had an aim bot attached to it for him. However, Kon might have needed to adjust to it. He heard rumors about his magic but had never really seen it used in action yet.

Now that the two of them had split up he would continue down the right path listening to the screeching. He amped up the juice to the magic in his finger so it would light up more of the cave. The narrow path split into a giant circular corridor where there were multiple skeletons stacked in a pile. The smell and stench were something awful. Imagine something like expired milk and roadkill. Not pleasant at all. Multiple loud screeches were heard that rang through Caius head and make him lose his balance a bit. He looked up and he would see about 10 bats hanging upside down above him. They did not take kindly to him waking them up with his finger black light. One of them came off the ceiling and it would rush towards it bearing his glistening giant fangs at him. The bat was a hungry boy. Caius responding by projecting out his demon aura. A dark wave of energy would hit the bat causing it to slow down and go into confusion . It lost its course and would crash to the ground. Caius used his other finger to pull the trigger on a low rank bullet spell to shoot the stupid wuhan bat in the face. That was one down but still 9 more to go. Comparing that bat to the others, that was just the runt of the littler. The rest of them would not be so easy.

1994

HIs exquisite joke had fallen short on the daemon who otherwise ignored the comment. Relieving the tension in the air would be critical for things to come as they began their journey further into the cavern. They were forced to stop however as their path began to split revealing the two would need to part ways in order to remove all of the vermin. Each shaft would need to be cleared with screeches echoing from both. Obvious that Caius was equally impatient to leave the disturbing environment just as Kon was, he recommended just as he was about to suggest. Nodding to the man, Kon pointed to the narrower right shaft. “You can take this one, you’ve got more precision with your magic, you and your finger-blaster.” He once again joked grimly. Kon meanwhile would take the left shaft which was much larger. The added space was, however, not big enough for whatever lay inside with the rocks having claw marks and dried bat blood coating the entire shaft. Entering this festering tunnel was sickening, turning the pale as snow nephilim toxic green and left his right eye watering as though he were cutting an onion. In spite of the toll the environment was having on Kon’s well being, he continued onward. As he stepped even deeper the ground shifted beneath him to the unmistakable softness of raw flesh.

Thankfully the retching instinct which almost took hold of the man’s fortitude was thrown aside by another unmistakeable screech alongside a distinctly female scream for help. “Great…” He thought to himself as he recognised the hassle that a bystander would cause. “Another death at the hands of the bats…” Shrugging at the loss of life yet to occur. It seemed as though he had been walking through the descending rotting shaft for well over half an hour now, the distance surprised him. “Just when does this end?” Before finally with a sharp turn to the left he was met with another huge cavern, this expanse wasn’t the only thing to come into vision. A huge blob of dark light irradiated from the far corner, it was one of the bats, but of an unparalleled size. But how had a simple beast grow so large, magic was clearly at work and not of the friendly kind.

Curious about the origin of the bat, Kon moved closer albeit keeping a vigilant eye over his surroundings. Sneaking towards the sleeping bat revealed a half-naked blonde covered in slime, beaten and bruised, littered with cuts and scratches being held within the wing of the beast. Closing the distance between him and the wuhan bat revealed something worse, something far worse. The beast appeared to be augmented with an assortment of machinery and pumped full of harvested magicka. Its brain was exposed to the world yet covered in a clear-glass container, probed with cables further running down the spine of the bat. Worst of all was perhaps its eyes, they were metal completely unmoving glowing red. This poor creature even as a carrier of a virus had been mutilated and abused.

Knowing that the beast would only suffer in its current state, Kon drew up his right hand and readied a bolt, one of his strongest to pierce the thick glass protection of the bats soft brain. His first shot fell short being destroyed midway by an invisible barrier. “Odd…” Readying another bolt, he fired once more and again hitting the same barrier. With noise created from the clash between bolt and wall, the bat stood to action while the woman leaped from the bat’s grasp, crackling as she fell to the ground. “Foolish human, you think you can kill my precious, Benjamin with your magic, now you listen--.” Nodding to himself, cutting her off. “Yes.” Before rushing towards the woman with the knowledge of the wall, silver hand leading the way while his golden was pulled back. Reaching the rough area of the barrier, Kon pushed his way through by smashing with a resonating shatter creating golden dust around him. “Curse you and your tricks!” The naked witch swore as she fled behind her creation, Kon meanwhile would have no intention to mess around in the festering caverns teleported behind the creation reaching her in the blink of an eye.

Before she could move, before she could even react, Kon grabbed the woman’s face, freezing her pained expression forever as her body became gold. Once the transition began to pass onto her body, he released his grasp before gripping onto the powerful leg of the lobotomized bat. The same flesh to metal process occurred with the beast only gaining a sense of self as its lungs turned to gold and the screeches it bellowed could no longer be sustained. The threat of his section now resolved, Kon teleported where the two separated and hopefully met up once more before departing once back on the ground level.

[Exit]

2715/2500

So 9 bats left this was going to be a pain in the ass. Caius lit up both fingers with his bullet magic and he would prepare to get some shots off. The rest of the bats came from off the ceiling and planned an attack on him . The truth of the matter is he really sucked at holding back. He would have to adjust his magic power so it wasn't as strong as it normally was. The rest of the bats he could tell were affected by his magic power from his demon aura but they were still able to move. As he lowered his magic power for his bullet magic some bats swooped around him. They would use their claws and fangs to nip at him and scratch at him. Their claws tore into his flesh but it was nothing too serious. Just a few scratches and nicks. One again it was a great call that he only brought his shitty clothes rather than his pimp ass purple suit.

Once his magic was ready he would lift his fingers from both of his hands in the air and he would then prepare to attack with the bullet magic in his arsenal. There was 9 bats left so he would light up 9 of his fingers and then he would use that magic and fire it off. The magic was probably the equivalent of a B rank spell so it wouldn't blow up everything and would be able to handle the bats of that size with ease. The 9 bullets would fire and they would chase the bats as they tried to flap away with their gross ass leathery wings but it was no use. Bullet magic had its Nikes on and it was moving too fast for them to handle. One after one the bullet magic struck their mark and would hit the bats in the head. They would all fall down to the ground at the same time with a synchronized thud. The Wuhan bats were no more. Now that he had cleared out his section it was time to go and check on the guild master to see what he was doing. Caius would head back and then go to the path where his guild master went.

Caius crept through the caverns and could see Kon with some woman and a bat with him. It looks like he had already taken care of business as the woman and the bat were both some golden statues. He needed to borrow the guild master one of these days to get some pimp ass golden statues for his lair. "So the bats on my side are toast . Looks like you fucked up the guys on your side. I think we are good to go!" THe mission was easy enough. At least it wasn't a worker issue. THose were the worst. Now with these guys cleared out they would get the miners back in here and working non stop. The guild needed to get their paper.

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EXIT