Nicolai flowed through the castle like an oil leak. He poured through holes in the ground, slid around blockages and squeezed through gaps. He floated over chasms, and used C4 to blow his way through the occasional wall.

  In due time he arrived at a great door, one that had been shown in the memories Paxolnaz had implanted into him. Within his mind floated a word, rising as though called. Sensing this was its moment.

  A strange and twisted word, one that did not seem meant to be spoken by humans lips. A word that held a certain power within it. A word, he felt, that he could only speak once.

  He had no intention of speaking it here. The True Demon had wanted him to speak this word to open the door, but Nicolai viewed everything Paxolnaz had given him with great wariness. The word might do more than simply open the door.

  Instead he began a slow and thorough investigation of the surrounding area, hunting for an alternate way inside.

  In due time he was rewarded, when he found a heavily collapsed area to the back and side of that door. There was a portion where the collapse rested on a large chunk of stone. Thus a small gap appeared beside that stone, a path through the collapse.

  Nicolai activated drones, sent them through, and focused on the feeds they sent him.

  After spinning through a few leaning rooms they emerged into a larger area, a big dark circle of space. The drones saw high ceilings of crooked stone, torches which did little more than cast shadows everywhere spaced around the walls.

  In the centre of this room, the darkest portion, was a large circle of white carved on the stone, and in this circle was a huge stone box.

  Sitting on that stone box was a hulking, armoured figure. An undead. One arm rose to the handle of an excessively large sword. The heavy blade was curving, thicker on the end which was slightly hooked. It looked capable of cutting through an ox with a single swing. It was made of dark metal that seemed to drink at the light. The handle was long enough that a man with six hands could have held it with all of them, and the pommel was a chunk of dark crystal.

  The Demonic Blade, which Paxolnaz was so keen Nicolai take.

  The undead’s helmeted head tilted as it observed the drones spinning around the room.

  From Nicolai’s distant position, he felt faint ripples in the Aura. That would be the undead’s Soul Sense, active and searching, but he was too far for it to reach him and he was well Shelled, not creating any ripples of his own.

  It made no move to the strike the drones, simply sitting quietly and watching them.

  Was this because it had no means to do so, or was it simply not concerned? He had imagined it must have been down here for a long time, and he doubted it received visitors often, it at all. That in mind, its lack of concern was troubling.

  There were several questions he needed to answer.

  How free was the undead to act? If it wished, could it get up, leave this place, and go freely wondering?

  What was the purpose of the circle on the ground surrounding it? It looked like some kind of large, powerful ritual to Nicolai.

  He knew what the box it sat on was, at least. He was pretty sure it was the fabled Coffin. The directions the Kleos had given him had, he’d realised, been for this place also. It had been a different route, which he’d been able to compare to the one Paxolnaz had given him; a second set of directions had been helpful, considering the difficulty of navigating the collapsing castle to this place.

  Nicolai retreated, moving away from the opening he lurked beside. His drones returned and he posted one where he’d been, and then another just far enough to see the undead in its room. With the two in a line like this, he was able to extend their range by reaching through the closer to the further.

  He furthered the line of drones as he got more distance from the undead. His next move was something that he wouldn’t be able to Shell, so he wanted to make sure he was well away while still able to keep eyes on the creature.

  He found his way into a sneaky little area by floating up through a crack, into a room not unlike the one where he had integrated his Seed. Once there he pulled his backpack off, setting it on the floor beside him. Opening it up he reached within, and took out a pair of metal boxes inscribed with runes.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  After opening the boxes Kleos and Maric blinked up at him, and he smiled down. He set them beside him, angling them to look at the wall, which he also looked at.

  A ray of light shone from a tiny projector set into his bionic eye, casting an image over the wall. It showed footage the drones had recorded; the room the undead occupied in its whole, a closer look at the ritual on the ground, magnified pictures of the undead itself.

  ‘Do you recognise that stone box it’s sitting on?’ he asked the two.

  ‘That’s it,’ hissed Kleos. ‘That’s the Coffin. Who the fuck is that? He looks strong. Must be an undead that wanted to use the Coffin, same as us, only he’s not managed to collect enough materials.’ Kleos frowned. ‘That’s strange. If that’s the case, why is he sitting there? Why hasn’t he gone and gotten what he needs?

  ‘His form must be in a state of significant decay,’ said Maric. ‘For true undead, we need the Castle Core to maintain our forms. If he’s trying to steal a use of the Coffin and gain himself a body, he must have slipped from its chains. Just like me. In such a state he’s probably focused on conserving himself. Let me see that Ritual closer.’

  Nicolai cast more images, until there was a square of four all zoomed in on various portions of the circle scrawled in the ground.

  ‘Mmmm,’ murmured Maric. ‘Complex. That one has skill with Rituals. It’s as I thought, though; that Ritual is helping him maintain his form. But it’s doing more than that… I think it’s some kind of protection from Demons or other Entities. One that goes both ways; in and out. Huh.’ The blue light in the head’s eyes flared. ‘I think that ties into the one its using to maintain itself. It’s drawing energy from something Demonic within the circle.’

  ‘The Artifact Blade it holds,’ said Kleos, knowingly. ‘It must be Demonic in nature. A powerful enough Demonic Artifact would give out a steady flow of energy, which could be harnessed creatively if one knew how.’

  ‘So the undead must remain within its circle?’ Nicolai asked.

  ‘That’s right,’ said Maric. Then it let out a little noise. ‘Well, hmmm. Mostly. I imagine it could leave for a short period, though it wouldn’t want to. Anytime outside the circle will see its body start to fall apart. Undead like us are given a time limit. We’re only meant to last so long without a Castle Core; stops us going rogue. But I imagine it has enough left in it to last for a little while, so don’t think of that circle as some kind of solid wall it can’t pass.’

  ‘And the circle is also designed to keep Demonic beings out?’ Nicolai asked next. He felt it likely that Paxolnaz was watching him, right now, but it didn’t matter. This was fairly minor information. The reminder of the malignant being that stalked him led his gaze and his Soul Sense to skate over the walls and the shadows pooling in the corners of the room.

  ‘That’s right,’ said Maric. ‘Looks pretty powerful, in that regard. Though, a truly powerful Demon would only be held off for a time, not stopped in its tracks. Simple Ritual isn’t enough to handle such beings. But it would be able to hold off minor False Demons for long time.’

  Minor False Demons weren’t really Nicolai’s concern. From what he’d learned, such beings struggled to perform any real acts in this place, what was broadly known as the “Material.” But if the circle was able to hold off something more powerful, even if only for a short while, it was better than nothing. He didn’t think much on these thoughts, though he knew Paxolnaz would have seen them, anyway. It was simply one more piece of the puzzle, more information absorbed.

  He repacked the heads in their boxes, which were inscribed with similar Rituals as the one he’d put on the drone that he’d used to transport crystals out of the mines. Powered by crystals set in the boxes with the heads, it provided a kind of Shell around them. Necessary, because Nicolai was unable to extend his own Shell to include the heads, and they were incapable of Shelling.

  His journey resumed, this time winding deeper into the castle, on a route he’d worked out after conferring with Kleos and Maric.

  This took longer, and he encountered issues. Roving bands of undead. Guard posts. Skirmishes and full out battles between the dead and the bugs. Increasingly, he found organised groups from both sides, setting up, holding ground, clashing and smashing together.

  Nicolai slipped by it all.

  Until he came to a place where the fortifications of the undead were complete. A great and heavy gate with ranks of them on top. He felt ripples through the Aura, spied knights in ornate armour, saw the slow searching of Soul Senses from more powerful ones up there.

  After debating for some time, Nicolai opted to send his drones onward.

  They rose over the top in a flash. The surprised undead fired at them but they were too slow to hit anything and the drones pressed on. From there Nicolai went through the line-up process, having one split off from the mass to tuck itself somewhere quiet and act as a relay.

  The drones sped through an area full of many, many undead. Some were destroyed by undead with Symbiotes. But, they ultimately pressed through and out the other side, continuing into the depths.

  He found bugs, next, and got past them with the drones in a similar manner, losing some but continuing to push forward.

  And at last, he saw it. The core at the centre of this place. A place where masses of bugs and undead fought. A great crackling green orb of energy…

  The drones fell in chunks and he saw the grinning face of a centipede, fire all around it.

  ‘Strange birds,’ it uttered, striking at the last drone.

  Nicolai recalled the surviving drones, which were mostly those forming the relay, and waited for them to return. Getting eyes on the thing in the midst of this place was all he’d ever wanted. He doubted he would be able to get any closer, considering the being the centipedes owed their allegiance too.

  It didn’t matter. He’d merely needed to confirm the location of the Castle Core.

  Around him it grew chill, and he stilled as he suffered another attack. Once dealt with, he moved on.

  ###

  Floating in the Interior, gazing down at Nicolai, Paxolnaz was full of rage. It saw that coming here and finding the location of the Castle Core was important to him, but not a single hint of why he had come made it out of the human’s mind. His thoughts on the matter were a complete blank, astonishingly so.

  How was he doing this? How was he so limiting the spread of his thoughts?