The Voidbreak Crisis

2. Escape

"So how far down does this place go, exactly?" Coco asked from the back of the group quietly. Jake looked around the stone pillar slowly, watching the sentinel disappear into another room silently.

"Pretty damn far." He whispered back, motioning them across the hallway.

"It's not called the underworld for nothing, Coco." Jarge said softly, looking back down at his map. Jake rushed across the hall into the room with the others, taking a deep breath. They'd been going down for what seemed like days now, and it never seemed to stop.

"How much farther do we have to go, Jarge?" Jake asked quietly.
"Not much farther, if this map is right." Jarge replied, looking out of the room and ducking back in suddenly.
"It's like they know we're here." Coco whispered almost inaudibly as she cast a chameleon spell over the three of them silently.

The sentinel stopped at the doorway of their room and looked in attentively. She was five feet tall, with sheet white skin, and light silver armor and a curved blade held at her side. She examined the room silently, her deep blue eyes scanning every inch. She sniffed the air around her slowly, and took a few steps into the room, standing right next to Jarge, but unable to see him. A muffled boom sounded far beneath their feet, and she shot out of the room, leaving a cloud of dust spinning behind her.

"What was that?" Coco asked softly.
"I have no idea, but it just saved our asses." Jake said, sighing.
"I've never seen so many of these silver bastards before. It's like they're hiding something down here." Jarge said, examining the map closer.
"How old is that map?" Coco asked as they slipped down the hall silently.
"Only a few years. They can't have done much down here since the last expedition." Jarge said as Jake quietly opened a stone door. Another muffled explosion was heard beneath them, shaking the catacombs around them. Jarge heard a faint wailing all around him.

"Did you guys hear that?" He asked as they ran down the stairwell.
"The boom or the voices?" Coco asked.
"The voices, I guess. Whatever it is, it's waking up the ghosts." Jarge said softly as they reached the bottom of the stairwell.
"They've never noticed us before, so why all the fuss now?" Coco asked. Another explosion shook the catacombs, shaking dust from the walls, and an eerie howl echoed through the halls around them. Coco felt her fur rise on it's end, and Jake and Jarge felt their blood run cold.

"What. The Fuck. Was that." Coco asked, shivering involuntarily.
"I don't know." Jarge said softly.
"Haw far is the vault?" Jake asked softly, looking around the corner.
"Only a few more floors, and we're rich." Jarge said as Jake waved them around the corner, down the widening halls.
"Well we better hurry, this place is giving me chills." Coco said.
"It's the underworld, Coco, it does that." Jake said, peering around the next corner slyly.

"Clear, move up." Jake said, rushing down the hallway.
"Wait for us!" Jarge whispered harshly. They caught up just as another thunderous explosion shook the halls around them, sending cracks through the marble floor.
"Is that..." Jarge stopped walking and looked down at his map.
"It's coming from the vault isn't it." Coco said, her feline ears flattening against her head involuntarily.
"Either that, or the sentinels are doing some explosive remodeling." Jake said.
"So do we head back, or what?" Coco asked.
"Well we came this far, and I'm not about to go back to Redhand with nothing to show for it." Jarge said.
"Fine. But if I die, I'm haunting both of you." Coco hissed as they rushed down the corridors.

As they ran down the stairwells, the explosions got more and more powerful, and after each explosion, a blood curdling scream echoed through the air around them, making cold sweat run down their bodies. They continued, undeterred, and reached the vast cavern that housed the vault to see it surrounded by sentinels with their backs turned towards the trio, each of them holding their blades ready.