Sorcha's Secret World, Part one.

Chapter 7, The twist.

Time was running out. My little adventure with Huginn and Muninn had offered no real solution on how to stop Beaumont and his magic sword.

One thing had become clear to me: there was something dark buried underneath the mountains. The Vikings had come all the way from England to make sure it wasn't awakened. It was important enough that someone sent talking ravens to warn me.

And Beaumont had been talking about waking gods. Gods that would reboot the world, throw the world into chaos.

Whatever lay underneath the mountains, I could not let Beaumont awaken it.

As far as I could see I had two choices: I could go to the Devore Mansion and get more information about what had happened in the mine and perhaps get some more details about what awaited me there, or I could go directly to the mine and try and stop Beaumont in the hope my newly awakened powers would be enough.

It could be of course that the widow of Devore knew nothing, and it would be another dead end. I'd be wasting my time again.

I looked at the map Red had given me. The mines were nearer, and I could feel the clock ticking. Off to the mine I went.

The entrance to the mine had been locked, but the lock was rusted through. There were hard helmets stored next to the entrance. I took one and put it on, both to protect me from falling rocks and because there was a little light on it which would probably come in handy.

I was right, the mine was dark inside. I turned the helmet light on. There were puddles and pools of Filth inside the mine, I tried to avoid them as much as possible. While I had a resistance to it, it could still hurt me, I soon learned the hard way as I slipped and fell right into a puddle.

The Filth wasn't the only danger in the mines. There were magical traps on the floor, large circles made from magic runes that hurt like hell when I stood on them, slowing me down to a crawl. The runes looked magical in nature, not Norse. Were they here from before, or had Beaumont made them? My money was on Beaumont.

Once I learned how to spot them they were easy enough to avoid.

The light on my helmet wasn't very strong, the small beam barely lighting what was ahead. I could almost feel the weight of the mountain pressing down on me. Occasionally I could hear the sound of falling rocks, reminding me that the mine had been partially caved in before.

Eventually, I found a small elevator. Whatever was buried here, was buried deep. I had no choice but to take the elevator further down.

The lower caves and tunnels were glowing with an eerie light, it seemed to come from the fungus growing on the walls. It did make it easier to see in the darkness. Suddenly I saw movement from the corner of my eye. There was someone in here with me, was it Beaumont? I readied myself just in time. Something black, tentacled and vaguely humanoid came lunging at me. I backpaddled, a stream of fireballs bursting from my fingertips. The creature was made out of pure Filth, I didn't want it to touch me. I stumbled over the corpse of a miner but my fire consumed the Filth creature just in time, and it died with a bloodcurdling scream.

I followed the tunnel deeper into the mine. There were a few more Filth creatures, I tried to avoid them as much as possible. Where they here because there was so much Filth bubbling up from below, or had Beaumont conjured them somehow?

The tunnel led me to the mouth of a cave. Roots and branches were growing around it, barring the entrance. The same warm golden light as the entrances to Agartha lit the area, and bees buzzed around it. I got the same feeling of belonging. I reached out my hand and the branches parted, letting me through into a large, dark cave. I stepped through.