HOME | DD

Description
Chapter Four: High Peak

Cast down from plinths of might,
Verus’s heroes consumed by blight.
Bleeding stemmed from heavy blow,
Weakened land, breathing slow.
Broken, dying, free at last,
Sun’s warmth, fading fast.
Debt paid, at what cost?
Can not restore what was lost.
—Scribe Martor Serperior,
Verse of the Broken from The Rains of Erebus

Leo was half asleep as their assembled group of four set off from the old well on the north road. The night had passed in the blink of an eye. The moment Leo crashed into his hammock the previous night rolled right into Noah shaking him awake rather forcefully that morning. A wake-up call to which Leo responded with a swing of his fist in bleary panic. Only his groggy disorientation kept him from socking the Dewott in the gut, instead causing him to fall out of the hammock, swearing the whole while. Noah had interrupted a rather pleasant dream in addition to needed sleep; though he could not recall the details, Leo was reluctant to leave it for the present reality.

With this being his first true ‘morning’ in this world not in a dungeon or ruin, Leo could say with certainty that he was not a morning person. He could function just fine as he did with helping Noah scrounge for supplies, but that did not mean he enjoyed waking up at the crack of dawn. The sun was a pinprick on the horizon and they were already a good distance away from Kingsend, traveling north on the rutted, dry dirt road that snaked out of town.

There was little by way of conversation outside of Jay being moderately surprised he and Noah actually showed at the right time. Leo suspected the early morning had much to do with that, as even Kelly, who was perfectly fine after rescuing him, seemed to drag her paws ever-so-slightly on the packed earth. Luckily, verbose directions were not needed. The road they followed was parallel to the same dried riverbed that went through Kingsend. High Peak Spring had been, in ages past, the source for a sizable river.

Leo could easily see how the dungeon got its name. The lonely mountain before them was not huge by any means, more akin to a fairly steep and rocky hill than anything else, but it was the tallest formation near the town. At one point, the river had flowed from a source near its peak, thus earning the descriptive name. In the time since the spring dried up, Leo gathered a mystery dungeon had taken root in its place, turning the cave into an anomaly of interest to the Crown.

The countryside outside Kingsend consisted of mixtures of patches with oak forests and hilly plains. In the misty, gray light, Leo could almost make out various glinting ruins that dotted the landscape. His memories jumped back to his first steps out of Nexus’s cave before the world shifted; he had seen this before, but from a different vantage point.

Compared with slogging through swamps, sand, and dusty ruins, the hike up the meandering trail up the gentle slope of High Spring Peak was relatively simple. The Charmeleon was panting as he scrambled up the last ridge of dry, packed earth, using roots as a foothold. He rolled onto his back and caught his breath while the other three, more nimble than him, waited for him at the mouth of the cavern.

“Come on, Leo! We’re ready!” Noah called cheerily, to which Leo grumbled, but rolled onto his feet anyways. He was not yet ready to forgive Noah for dragging him along on this excursion. “High Peak’s a simple dungeon, but you’ll need to stay close. It’s newer than the Weald, so it shouldn’t mess with you too much...” the Dewott explained with confidence.

The dungeon entrance itself was rather unassuming; an asymmetrical opening partially carved by water that once flowed through it. Now dry, the river bed became a welcoming path into the depths. Just inside the cave, about two steps in, Leo caught sight of something akin to heat distortion in the air; a slight ripple in the still air. As he crept a few steps closer to investigate, a blue paw landed on his shoulder with some force behind it.

“Careful. That’s the dungeon. I wouldn’t go in first, if I were you.” Jay’s stern voice and strong grip made Leo pause. The blinded Riolu stepped forward instead, briefly checked his bag and nodded back to his partner. “I’ll go first. Noah, you’re next with Leo, and then Kelly will bring up the rear. This should be real simple. Let’s be quick about this now.”

With that, Jay passed through the ripple and immediately vanished from sight. Leo had never seen what it was like to enter a dungeon and he was caught off guard. Noah, though, took him by the wrist and passed him a flimsy and cheaply-made satchel with a strap of twisted vine.

“There’s your supplies. Don’t tug on it too hard, or the vine will break... Or, you know, accidentally torch it,” Noah cautioned before he tugged them both through the barrier. Leo barely managed to sling the bag over his neck before he felt a tingling, almost-electric sensation pass over him as he stumbled into the mystery dungeon.

Leo froze momentarily, getting a sense of his surroundings. He had not felt himself shift, but the cave certainly looked different now that they were inside. The entrance was nowhere to be seen, yet there was a soft, bluish light filling the underground dungeon. Kelly was already behind him even as he turned around to look for the cave mouth. At the very least, he did not feel the same overwhelming malevolence Tranquility Weald exuded.

“H-How do we get out?” he asked with more of a waiver to his voice than he would have liked. The Charmeleon was quickly getting the horrible sensation of being trapped again. Teeth gritted, he began to look for a way out with more earnest, though with the weak light seemingly without a single source, it was impossible to determine which way the exit was, nor could he really see more than a few feet in front of him. “Oh gods...”

“Dead gods won’t get us out of here. Noah, calm your friend down...” Jay muttered as the Riolu took up point after checking his gear once more.

“Once we reach the end of the dungeon, we will find the exit. I promise, Leo.” It was Kelly, not Noah, who supplied that bit of comforting info. “Like we said, this isn’t a long or difficult dungeon. We’ll find the bottom and then the exit will be a little further away. No matter how deep we are.” Leo found that rather strange.

“How does that work exactly...?” He asked even as he began to slowly walk behind Noah through the narrow passage of water-smoothed stone. “How would we find the exit by going deeper into this cave? Shouldn’t we be going up?” It defied basic logic.

Kelly made an equivalent of a shrug. “That’s really just how they work. There’s at least one guild in Silver City dedicated to studying dungeon mechanics, as well as several royal task forces, yet none have a single definitive answer. Only theories that I haven’t read...” She replied quietly while their party made slow, but steady progress into the slightly-moist dungeon. “Dungeons are a chaotic place. Maybe it showing the exit at the end is its reward for besting its challenges? That’s my take on it. They’re almost like living beings.”

It was a solid theory as far as it came with pseudo-sentient environments. Leo himself had been thrown from forests to icy mountains to desert in no time at all, so perhaps space was merely a toy ripe for manipulation by these dungeons. He had time to think as their group hiked down a long stretch of the cave. They were slowly descending, he could feel the slight downward slope with every corridor and open, square-like room they came across.

The light remained constant, much to Leo’s surprise, illuminating their path just enough for them to creep further inside. There were other beings here too. In the dim light, Leo could see them in the corners of the larger rooms; a small colony of Zubat clinging to the cavern ceiling, blue wings folded over themselves, a group of Aron foraging through the stone with their metal paws, and even a shaggy Poochyena that yipped and snapped at them before retreating to its claimed corner.

Despite Leo’s aversion to getting close to the wild beasts, Jay had no such qualms and followed the most direct path on the map. Thankfully, the dungeon-dwelling Pokémon seemed equally as content to back away and bristle at their group.

“Left turn up ahead, Jay. There’s a mound of Diglett just beforehand. Tread lightly,” Kelly called yet again from the back as Jay sounded his affirmation. It was an interesting dynamic. From what Leo gathered from their interactions, Kelly played the role of filling in the gaps in the Riolu’s perception. He was able to navigate fairly-independently, but for spotting distant potential foes and reading from a map, he needed extra input. With the Jolteon’s faintly-glowing fur and keen senses, she was well-suited to providing the required input. “You’re coming up on a junction. We’ll need to go left. That’ll bring us to the next floor.”

Their efficient navigation proved to be a good system. While Leo did not immediately notice, Noah remarked on how quickly they had gone so deep into the cavern. The exploration duo made a good team. Salient. Think that was what Noah called them. Team Salient... Leo recalled while his feet tramped over the cool, dry stone of the dungeon’s floor. The Charmeleon was pleasantly surprised that he had not had to run for his life to outpace murderous Porygon or malevolent environments. This journey was very... Normal. As if he had decided to go on a mild spelunking trip.

“Shame we haven’t found anything good yet! Though, I expect this part has been picked over pretty good... But that’ll change soon!” Noah remarked to break up the silence that had settled over their group like a thin blanket.

“You’re sure on that...?” Leo was surprised at the question that came tumbling from his mouth. He had been content to just be a tag-along for this mission and then find his own way once he fulfilled his ‘debt’ to the Dewott. A soft nudge on his side from Kelly likely was a good sign that he had asked the same question she was thinking. Noah craned his head back, unable to turn around quickly in the narrow passage after the junction.

“Well, I’m as sure as I can be. It’s unexplored as far as I know, so realistically, no one knows what’s beyond the map. Could be a hoard of bandit gold or just an empty room,” he answered with a noncommittal shrug. “Didn’t think you were particularly interested in this exploration, Leo. Color me surprised.”

“I’m here, aren’t I? Don’t see why I wouldn’t ask what we’re looking for...” Leo managed to reply after a moment’s quiet. This seemed to satisfy the Dewott.

“Anyways, we’re coming close to the bottom. It’s well-known about the larger room on the right of the next intersection and the path beyond it being the way out... But it’s the smaller room just to the left that’s our goal,” Noah elaborated, gesturing to two squareish rooms at the bottom of the map. “It was long assumed that the left room had nothing of value, but I’ve discovered a secret!”

Noah did not explain further about his found secret until their party had deviated from the normal path towards the dungeon exit. The small, aforementioned room seemed bigger on the map Noah carried and moved more like an alcove than a chamber. The four ‘mon had to squeeze to all enter the tiny space. The Dewott pushed his way to the far wall and without a word, began running his paws over the stones. His claws definitely seemed to be searching for some sort of purchase, though in the dim light it was difficult to see.

“Leo! Come up here with that tail of yours! Need the extra light!” Noah called, waving his other paw beckoningly. Leo, eager to appear more useful than a potential target, carefully brushed his way past Kelly and Jay, tail held aloft so its flame flickered merrily off the stones. “Perfect! Think I found it again!”

Both his paws found a small, almost mechanical cut in the rock face that had been invisible in the blue light. Reaching in, he grunted and found a grasp on something within the hole. Noah tugged his arm back and something within the wall clicked loudly. A ripple of unease hit the Charmeleon at that as he let his tail drop. The atmosphere had changed on the spot; the calm air now replaced with a tension that certainly had not been there before. The dungeon was uneasy about this. There was a hiss and a perfectly-rectangular portion of the wall sank deeper. The layout was surprisingly similar to the door he had bashed himself against when he first woke up in the ruins.

Before Leo could raise his concerns, Noah had pushed hard against the rock face, forcing the disguised door further in until it swung out into a different passage. The air beyond was musty, but not nearly as bad as the ruins had been. The air had tasted strongly of dust and time there.

“And there we go! Didn’t I tell you there was more to High Peak?” Noah inquired, mostly of the two explorers in the back of the small chamber. “Come on! Time’s a’wasting!”

Leo heard a quiet grumble from Jay along the lines of “...actually wasn’t lying..” but did not listen in further beyond a few unsavory words about the Dewott. Kelly was quiet in her usual behavior while Jay vented. Together, the three of them followed Noah through the newly-opened breech in the wall. While dusty, the air flowing from the space beyond did not taste stale, rather it had a similar taste to the filtered, old air in the ruins Leo woke up inside.

Leo scanned the new area immediately, though he found he needed not worry. Unlike the naturally-formed tunnels and caverns of the prior levels of High Peak Spring, the walls here were entirely smooth and square, well beyond the finish normal tools could achieve. Leo held his tail closer still, the flame tickling his chest as he ventured forth after the strolling Dewott.

“How far do these passages go, Noah?” Jay called from the rear of their party while Noah lead them down the unnervingly-uniform cuts into the mountain stone. The paths were sloping downward without any visible branches or deviations from the main path. It was as if the mystery dungeon had simply stopped trying to alter the world in this segment.

“Not much further, my Riolu friend! A couple more turns and we will arrive at the bottom.” Leo was not paying attention to the exchange. There was something amiss with this place, but he could not place a finger on it. The dungeon aura was as vaguely-menacing as it had been earlier, yet the environment could not possibly be any more different.

“These were carved... Somehow...” Leo muttered under his breath before he stopped dead in his tracks. Jay bumped into him from behind with an oath, however the Charmeleon’s feet remained firmly planted.

Just before him, the large, square path performed its first deviation and widened into an even larger, perfectly-square chamber. But it was not the sudden change of architecture that startled him into stopping; it was the ancient, rust-covered bulkhead door that starred stoneley at their group from across the room. Noah broke rank first with a grin visible even through the back of his head as he went up and tapped the dull-red metal hull. Intricate notches, grooves, and indentations covered its front alongside the faint, pulsing blue circuitry that Leo recalled seeing in the ruins.

“And here we are! The last secret of High Peak! A door at the bottom of the mountain! What could be on the other side?” Noah exclaimed with a theatrical flare as he made intense gestures to the sealed door. “The secret of a lifetime, perhaps? Treasure beyond your wildest dreams? An ancient horde of gold? The ancient secrets of Verus? The—!” Noah’s monologue was cut off by a rough cough from Jay.

“Does it open?” the Riolu pressed as he strode forward to examine the solid gate. “Certainly feels like will take a lot more than our crew to force...” Jay concluded with an exasperated sigh. “This isn’t much of a discovery, Noah. We might be able to sell the map for just enough to cover your debt, but not much profit.”

“Wait, wait! Don’t give up hope just yet! Leo, come here!” The otter was pushing up on an handle-like indentation as he dug his feet into the stone floor. “Push with me! Put your shoulder to it! I swear I got it to move last time!” Noah barked and like the unwilling participant he was, Leo complied. Gritting his teeth, the Charmeleon leaned into the sturdy, rusting steel. The oxidized metal rubbed off onto his scales as he attempted the fruitless task. As he shifted position, his key tapped against the metal with a soft clink. Leo’s hand pressed into the surface, gripping at the grooves before a tremendous noise silenced both him and Noah. The Dewott’s arm nearly clipped Leo’s snout as the latch gave way at last with a puff of orange rust. Noah grinned and rubbed his paws together excitedly. “Just needed a bit of muscle!”

From behind the monolithic door, metal creaked loudly and with a cloud dust raining down from its surface, a thin line bisected the solid door cleanly. A faint flicker of the blue circuitry gave way to a rumble that forced both him and Noah away staggering. Ancient machinery protested loudly as it was forced into opening the heavy bulkhead.

A blast of fan-driven air greeted the stunned and weary explorers. Wordless glances were exchanged between the four as they all slowly stepped forward through the beckoning threshold. The cut stone ended abruptly with a sea of cold steel just beyond. And it truly was cold, with a cloak of chilled air rolling over their frozen group.

Leo found it hard to gauge the expressions on his companions. The sight they beheld was certainly not what Jay, Noah, or Kelly had expected. There were no mountains of glittering gold, scrolls of ancient knowledge, troves of forgotten weapons, or anything resembling treasure. Leo found his gaze going down and down into the barely-visible bottom of a vast, circular shaft that plunged into the mountain’s heart. It was entirely removed from the “natural” dungeon of High Peak Spring and the carved passage they had just left.

They were standing on a metal catwalk that overlooked the wide, circular hole. Panels of steel coated the sides of the pit as far down as he could see, interrupted only by segments of thick piping and tightly-packed cables that hummed loudly with electricity. Rings of small lights extended down the metal tube in uniform intervals. While it was faint at their elevation, Leo found hear the whirring of engines or generators rumbling up from the lower levels. His hands gripped the sturdy railing tightly, staring intensely at the engineering marvel that was, for some reason, stuck at the bottom of a mountain in a primitive world.

“Huh, that’s ... unexpected.” Noah’s reaction perfectly encapsulated the general mood of their group. Leo found himself nodding as he peered over the edge, feeling the cool wind blow up from the lower floors. He glanced to his left and found Kelly and Jay had joined him in gazing at the structure. To his right, Noah leaned on the railing, seemingly less enraptured and more deep in calculative thought judging by his intense gaze.

“System breech confirmed. Visitors detected. Number: four. Nature: organic. Initiate: welcome program,” a tinny, filtered voice that Leo recognized immediately. He knew even before he turned around that a Porygon would be on the other side. Sure enough, the small, blue and pink blocky creature floated inches off the catwalk, staring at them with glowing, hexagonal eyes. The others were slower to turn around, and the construct began speaking once all had faced it. The Porygon twitched once, putting on a garble of static before another function took control. A voice much too chipper for the construct began speaking excitedly.

“Hello! You are listening to the pre-recorded visitor greeting message! Assuming you can comprehend this message: Greetings from the churning turbines of the Hydroelectric Generation Plant One! We do hope you will enjoy your time while you visit our facility and learn about its important role! Please follow the Porygon technician to begin your knowledge-filled tour!” A crackle of a fading speaker came from the bird-like Pokémon and it twitched once again, returning to its normal self.

“Follow, visitors 1 through 4. The elevator is this way.” With that, the small, blocky bird hovered a short distance over to a previously-unnoticed tube of glass built into the rock. Leo watched with vague recollection as part of the tube’s exterior parted, revealing a metal platform and humming components tucked out of sight. The Porygon floated inside and then turned to face the group. “Movement is required to begin your tour. Please initiate.”

Kelly’s jaw was the first to close. Having come to grips with the situation, she bumped her teammate’s side, stirring Jay from his bewildered trance as well. Leo needed no further coaxing, having dealt with this once before with Nexus. This particular construct seemed far less capable of threats, but he would not take his eyes off it. He had nearly been killed by Nexus only a few days ago; putting his life entirely in the hands of another similar construct would be foolish.

Noah stretched his legs and grinned. “Well then!” He brought his paws together in a single clap. “Let’s not be rude visitors now. We’ve been invited on a tour... Why not see what’s going on here?” He said with his typical, urging tone that begged others to agree. Jay and Kelly shared an uneasy look between them, but both stepped forward.

“I’m not sure about this, guys...” Leo began before he was met with Noah’s paw landing roughly on his shoulder. The Dewott gave him a pleading look that battered at the Charmeleon’s will like a siege ram on a closed gate.

“Leo, my buddy... This is the chance of a lifetime! You aren’t going to pass up the chance of adventure, will you?” Leo was about to easily refute that claim, but Noah spoke up again in a softer, but no less urgent tone once the duo of Team Salient had left earshot. “... This place... It’s a human structure. I know it. It matches the ruins I’ve seen before...”

Leo’s rebuttal died in his throat and the Dewott smiled, knowing he had won already.

“You say you’re human, yeah? Came stumbling out of a human ruin? Maybe this will give you some answers. Or maybe not. You won’t find out unless you get moving...” Leo looked down at his feet briefly and huffed. The otter certainly had an argument; if Leo was to find out more about his purpose, this human-built facility might hold some clues. To risk another attack by refusing or take a chance to investigate what this ruin had to offer. Against his better judgement, Leo knew what he had to do. That was why he was in Verus in the first place.

“Fine... But stay alert. Okay? I... I don’t fully trust the Porygon,” Leo cautioned softly as he lifted his head to meet Noah’s gaze. The Dewott did not seem interested in pursuing that warning further.

“Eh, we’ll be fine. Probably. Now come on; time’s ticking, Slowpoke!”

Goaded by Noah, Leo wearily left his spot by the railing and reluctantly moved towards the glass elevator. Once both he and Noah were within the machine, the Porygon let out an affirmative chirp which coincided with the curved glass door sliding into place with a “click.” Being human prepared him for the experience of the sudden, stomach-lifting and nauseating lurch of the elevator, but Kelly and Jay were clearly not taking it well. The blindfolded Riolu leaned against the back of the cylinder, panting and holding his head while the Jolteon whined and tucked herself into a ball of bristling yellow fur. Noah was taking it well enough, though Leo could see him grit his teeth in obvious discomfort from the rapid descent.

A small screen flashed numbers in rapid succession as the elevator descended further into the mountain’s hollowed heart. From twenty on down, going lower and lower towards zero. Leo found himself smiling; a faint smile, but a smile nonetheless. The flickering panel, the lurching machine, the hum of electricity, it brought back vague memories of his life as a human. Nothing concrete, but enough for Leo to feel it was familiar and almost comforting. The Charmeleon let out a brief sigh in disappointment as the machine slowed, bringing inertia with it. However, based on the groans that came from the others, he was alone in longing for the experience. With a brief shake of his head, Leo calmly exited the elevator.

“Dead gods... My head...” whined Jay while he shuffled out from the tube, followed by a silent and skittish Kelly. Noah rubbed his temples and hissed quietly to clear his head.

“Visitors 1 through 4, follow. Please.” While the grumbling group gathered, the Porygon guide moved its blocky body in a sign meant to convey haste.

“Don’t get your wings all in a tizzy now; we’re coming!” Noah snapped back as the Dewott gestured for Leo to come over and help the two ‘mon of Team Salient. Leo nodded in agreement and quickly went to Jay’s side, supporting the groaning Riolu while he took in his surroundings.

The bottom of the shaft was just as massive as the top made it appear. The area, from what Leo could tell, was roughly circular, with tunnels and passages leading off at various intervals. Sheets of metal uniformly covered almost every surface of the cylindrical chasm. Small red and white utility lights ringed the chamber, illuminating the maze of rusty catwalks and stairs that criss-crossed the diametric gap. Similar to what he had seen at the top, huge lengths of pipe were bolted firmly into the mountain.

The noise was louder here in the pit. The hum of power was more intense, but above it all was a muffled churning. That was the only way Leo could accurately describe the odd noise that seemed to originate from the center of the chasm. The massive conduits creaked every so often to add to the cacophony of noise in the strange, underground chamber.

“Proceed down the corridor. Unit 0171-Vertex will receive you.” The Porygon that had corralled them suddenly stopped at the entrance to the passage that was illuminated with squares of dull white light from the ceiling. “Unit 0171-Vertex is excited to meet Visitors 1 through 4.” Its monotone voice then went quiet though its blocky eyes never left the group.

“... Well, come on then. Ain’t going to meet our host by standing around!” Noah stated, as if it were obvious as to what they should do. The Dewott had stepped into the tunnel and waved his arms up and down back at the hesitant trio. “See? Nothing’s going to happen! Just come on! I, for one, am stoked to see what’s ahead!”

Leo remained behind Jay and Kelly, determined to not be a part of this. He would follow, but he wouldn’t be used by Noah as an example to get Kelly and Jay to come along. That was fine by him though, he got to continue to observe the massive structure they were in the belly of.

From the outside, High Peak Spring was not an impressive mountain, but it was still a tall outcropping of rock. The mystery dungeon within it, however, was short. A few floors to the bottom. Mystery dungeons, from what Kelly had explained and what he had personally experienced, twisted and warped space, yet five floors of moderately-tall tunnels did not explain the massive leftover space that existed. Maybe that was why Noah got curious about this place to begin with. There was a discrepancy and this structure, buried far beneath the peak, made up for it.

It was ancient, enigmatic even. It was clearly a machine, but Leo could not fathom what purpose it was designed to accomplish.

“Leo! Come on!” Noah’s voice beckoned him over and with a sigh, Leo pulled his gaze away from the massive network of pipes and conduits. The Charmeleon cautiously stepped over to the passage where Noah was standing, Kelly and Jay a few feet ahead. The tunnel was illuminated dully by panels stuck to the walls and ceiling. With no torch to be seen, soft white light poured from the fixtures. The Kelly was momentarily astounded by the squares of glass, while Jay obviously could not fully appreciate the marvel. Noah stood tapping his foot at the front of their group, waiting impatiently with arms folded. The wonder of artificial light seemed to have worn off quickly on the Dewott.

Kelly pressed a paw to the smooth, cool glass while her wide eyes were reflected in the polished surface. She turned to Leo, fur abuzz with excited static electricity.

“I-I... I never thought I’d get to see something like this up close! O-Only the richest in Silver City have one or two of these lights! But here! T-There’s dozens! A hundred easily!” She laughed and bounded over to the other side of the passage, admiring yet another identical square that flickered slightly every three seconds. Leo had seen these before, both in the ruins of his awakening, and before, when he was a human. The details got foggy beyond that.

“Didn’t I tell you we’d find something good down here?” Noah called, shaking the Jolteon from her excitement. “Maybe we can ask these guys if they wouldn’t mind losing a couple of these lights? If each of us took two or three, we’d be able to die rich ‘mon!”

Just then, the tunnel dimmed considerably with every panel decreasing in brightness simultaneously. Noah quickly stopped his get-rich-quick idea and meekly gulped. However, rather than a rebuke, there was a soft click and an electric hum to their immediate left. An unassuming portion of metal wall recessed back and slid out of sight, revealing a smaller, illuminated passage.

The four cautiously peered inside once the sound had stopped. Just inside were walls similarly-lined with glowing panels along a short hallway that ended in a vast, semi-circular chamber that was bathed in soft blue and golden glows. As if drawn inside by the ethereal lights, Leo crept into the new passage first. His heart pounded as his wide eyes reflected the vast array of flickering panels and pillars etched with circuitry that were arranged along the walls that displayed constantly-updating readouts and numbers. The computing machines hummed quietly, dutifully calculating and monitoring while the room pulsed with lights from the supporting pillars and army of screens. The four Pokémon slowly walked inside the marvelous chamber, their bodies awash in the warm illumination.

Towards the back wall, screens larger than all the others displayed illegible statistics and figures while a few select monitors flicked between video feeds of the whole complex, from the passage they were just in to the hidden door all the way back in the bottom of High Peak Spring. Leo gulped slightly as he got closer, able to see that the moving shapes in front of some of the lower banks of computers were in fact blocky Porygon; an army of the chirping, monotone creatures pecked and hovered along the curved, flowing glass screens. For now, at least, the digital birds appeared to ignore the four visitors.

The Charmeleon, now steeped in artifacts of the world he had left behind, leaned in to read the fast-moving words and phrases flowing from top to bottom on the nearest of the multitude of elegant screens. For that’s the main word Leo had for this place. If it were not for the location at the bottom of a rocky chasm, it would fit right at home in a lavish palace. The others lost their fear as well and got closer to examine the alien artifacts before them.

“Ah! Hello there! You have at last arrived!” A cheery, electronic voice called out to the group. “So good of you to be here! My circuits are overloaded with glee from having visitors!”

Leo let out a startled yell as he tried and failed to spin around, instead losing his balance and sprawling against one of the consoles. The machine let out a series of short, irate beeps and tones as the Charmeleon peeled himself off the screen. He rubbed his scales were his dangling key had been sandwiched between himself and the sensitive machine. A static shock passed through him from the massive computer, making him yelp softly.

Once focused, Leo saw exactly what addressed them all and it sent a shiver down his spine. A mirror image of Nexus floated a meter off the ground; the curved, sleek form of the Porygon2 swiveled effortlessly as its white eyes took in each of them in turn. Seemingly satisfied with the cursory inspection of the visitors, the Porygon2 fluttered its round wings and rose up to alight on a similar electronic ‘nest’ on top of a short pillar.

“Allow me to introduce myself. My decency routines have not aged well from disuse.” Leo’s nervous gaze met equally-unsure glances from Jay and Kelly as they stood rapt before their host. Noah had simply turned around and settled with his back against a silvery machine, looking rather comfortable despite the nervous looks the surrounding Porygon gave. They clearly did not want the Dewott using their devices as a rest.

“I am Unit 0171: Vertex. You may refer to me however you please. I am in charge of this marvelous installation. You are the first visitors we have had in a very long time.” Vertex bowed its pink head at them all. “It will be my pleasure to showcase the capabilities of this facility. But first, are there any questions for me?”

Surprisingly, Kelly was the first to speak up at Vertex’s invitation. “Err... Vertex... M-Might I ask how long this... Has been here? Under the mountain?” She asked while glancing at the golden ceiling above her head. “And what exactly do you do here...? With all these... Flashing things?” The Jolteon inquired further, not knowing the correct term for the alien devices.

“And how long will we be kept here?” Jay added quickly. Leo could tell the Riolu of Team Salient was trying to keep calm with the paw clasped tightly on Kelly’s back.

“You mind if we mark this place on a map?” Noah called from his comfortable position against the console that continued to beep with quiet urgency beneath his back. A Porygon prodded the Dewott's feet to try and move him. “We do need to report this if we’re to collect the bounty for discovery...” The Dewott said calmly, drawing a glare from Leo. If the Porygon2 was made irate or perplexed by any of the statements, Vertex did not show it on its pleasant face.

“I will go in turn, if that is okay with you all.” The small bird fluttered its wings and adjusted its form atop its pulsing pillar. “This installation has been here for a very long time. Multiple centuries, to keep it succinct. And our purpose is to generate energy and supply it to other installations.” It chirped quietly and made a minor movement on its nest that caused one of the screens on the back wall to change from scrolling data to show a video of the base of the vast chasm down the hall. “Our operations are centered here where the turbines are located under the floor, which feed power to the vast array of conduits and pumps that direct it abroad to—.”

“T-That picture! I-It’s moving!” Kelly squealed excitedly, interrupting Vertex as she stared at the video on the screen that showed several Porygon quickly floating and moving about the central chamber outside. They appeared to be clustered about several consoles that were flashing rapidly. “Oh dead gods, it's really moving! The picture is moving! H-How is it doing that?”

Vertex patiently waited for the Jolteon to slow her rapid questions before it fluttered its rounded wings. “Technology! The intricacies would take a week to fully explain, but think of it as thousands of tiny dots on the screen that shine in different colors to paint a picture. They do this so fast that all the pictures blend together and appear to move,” it chirped happily. To Leo, the Porygon2 appeared to relish the opportunity to explain things to its guests.

“W-Wow! I think I understand! Kind of...” Kelly answered while she stared up at the moving image rapturously. Leo had not seen the Jolteon so enthralled in the short time he had known her. It was rather amusing to see the normally calm and collected Jolteon be so giddy.

Vertex chirped affirmatively and then continued its lengthy explanation of the various functions of this strange installation. Even though he was the most equipped to comprehend the advanced technology, Leo found it all washing uselessly over his head. The Charmeleon gave it a real attempt, but he found himself slipping into a stupor. It was just like a lecture from... Well, he could not recall from where, but he recalled the sensation.

Many minutes, perhaps an hour later, Leo woke with a start. A high-pitched, electronic beeping had begun abruptly. Rubbing his eyes, Leo scanned the room to find the source of the annoying, grating sound.

“I swear on the gods’ graves that I didn't touch a thing!”

Leo groaned loudly and pressed his hand over his eyes and sliding it down his snout in exasperation. Noah was attempting to divert blame after the computer he had been leaning on started flashing red and beeping loudly. A cluster of Porygon were surrounding the console and Vertex was concentrating hard in its ‘nest’ to get a handle on the situation.

“I just shifted my back and then BAM! Started beeping like that!” Noah shouted up at Vertex, who appeared to ignore him. “You can fix that, right?”

As if on cue, the machine went totally dark; its vast array of buttons and glowing screen blinking off in an instant.

“It is not your fault, guest. A simple matter. It is nothing we cannot--” Vertex began before it was sharply cut off by another console, this one on the opposite end of the room, suddenly flashing red and beeping. And then another. And another. Over the course of ten seconds, every computer and even the large wall monitors flooded the chamber with a red light. Messages in a language Leo did not understand screamed up the screen at a breakneck pace.

“That is... Unusual,” Vertex remarked in a distinctly-subdued tone. Its rounded face reflected no hint of emotion in the barrage of flashing screens. “Guests, I am afraid that our tour must be cut short as we sort this out. Please show yourselves out. I cannot spare escorts right now. Do have a good day.” It did not even look at their group as it immediately went to work sorting out the digital mess.

Kelly and Jay had swiftly retreated to the center of the room alongside Leo and Noah. The four interlopers cautiously backed up through the open doorway.

“Right... Time to go,” Noah whispered as the alarm tone grew louder. Leo lightly nudged Kelly; she had not taken her eyes off the amazing room the entire time.

“Kelly? ... Come on. We've got to go...” Leo’s claws touched her yellow fur and lightly tugged on the bag slung over her side. “We'll come back another time...”

At last she turned away and resumed walking down the branching hallway back towards the large central chamber. The Jolteon was stone-faced, but Leo could tell she was bitterly disappointed from leaving the fantastic room early and probably thinking of ways to get back at Noah for screwing things up. Leo sighed and walked at the rear of their silent group as they followed arrows on the floors and walls as Vertex indicated.

“Child of ruin...”

Leo’s eyes went wide. No. It could not be that thing again. The voice, the same that had spoke shortly before his day suddenly changed for the worse. In his short existence on Verus, he had grown to fear two things: mystery dungeons and the cold voice in his head.

“Time runs short. This shackle will break. Freedom’s deluge will spring forth.”

As quickly as it came, the voice departed Leo's head, leaving the Charmeleon quite confused. What in the world did that cryptic blurb mean?

The metal floor, illuminated walls, and mountain all suddenly shuddered. Not violently, but a short vibration the made the four exiting Pokémon pause at the bottom of the main chasm.

“... Warning... 25% capacity. 27% capacity... Outflow disabled... Warning...”

Leo’s head snapped up. There was a garbled voice droning out from several box-like devices from the catwalks above their heads. He jogged up to Kelly, Jay, and Noah, the latter two arguing about the logistics of reporting this dungeon discovery to the Crown.

“Err... Guys? Guys!” The Charmeleon interjected. Those droning words could not possibly harken anything positive. “You hear that...? I think we should really get moving...” he said, trailing off as Noah turned to look at him.

“Hmm? Why the rush, Leo? Don't you want to stay a little longer and look around?” The Dewott said nonchalantly as he waved a dismissive paw at the droning voice. “Ignore whatever gibberish its spouting. Doubt it means anything...”

Leo found his head tilting in confusion. While it was somewhat garbled, Leo could understand the words well enough.

“... Warning... Storage at kkksssh percent capacity... Structural stress critical...”

“You... You don’t hear that? The warnings?” Leo asked once more, looking between Noah and Jay as he did so. The two gave him a shrug and the Charmeleon grit his teeth. While he was perplexed at why only he seemed able to hear the broadcast, he guessed there was not much time left before something happened.

“... Eighty-five percent capacity... Warning...”

Leo’s heart beat quicker as he stood in the heart of the slightly-quaking machine. Kelly was gazing up reverently at the vast constellation of lights and conduits, rooted to the floor. To his right, Noah and Jay continued their negotiations against the curved metal railing in the center of the chamber. Why are they not concerned?!

In this world, Leo had so far been the follower. The one who needed guidance. Guidance with his new form, guidance to escape the clutches of the ruins he was ‘born’ in, guidance to navigate and escape mystery dungeons. Nexus, the voice, Noah, Jay, Kelly: they all were his guides in the strange and foreign world of Verus. But in that instant, the Charmeleon’s newest guides were oblivious to the literal warning signs sounding right above their heads. It was his turn to guide them.

Teeth gritted, Leo jogged over to Kelly and gave her a hard shove from the side. The Jolteon’s fur shocked him and she let out a yelp before stumbling to the side. He did not give her the chance to retort at him for breaking her reverie of the machine. Leo ran up to the Dewott and Riolu and snatched both of their wrists as they gestured.

“We’re leaving. Let’s go.” The firmness of his words was a shock to even himself. Leo did not think himself one to lose his temper, but that command held barely contained anger. Noah’s next proposed offer fell back down his throat. Leo tugged forcefully on the two stubborn ‘mon, peeling them from their spots on the railing. “Go on! Don’t make me drag you! Go! Go!”

He gave them another hard tug that made the stunned Pokémon start moving on their own volition towards the glass door of the elevator. Leo whirled around to the Jolteon and simply pointed at the direction Noah and Jay went.

“Let’s go! Now!” Leo figured there would be time to regret the harshness in his words later. Not waiting for the Jolteon to begin moving, he dropped into a brisk jog as fast as his short legs would carry him. He was inwardly glad his last couple days had involved running for his life; he could run fairly well even with his swaying tail.

The Charmeleon all but shoved Jay and Noah into the cylindrical elevator before muscling his way inside on top of them. The Porygon that manned the controls during their arrival was absent, as were all the other Porygon. That only added to Leo’s sense of looming dread. Kelly’s bright yellow form jumped over the threshold for the sliding doors a second later, giving Leo a tense glare all the while. He guessed he deserved that.

Leo had studied the instrument panel on their descent and jabbed at the circular indentation that indicated the top floor. The glass doors slid shut with a click, sealing the four irate ‘mon inside from the rest of the rumbling chamber. He could hear the muffled sound of the broadcast, though the words truly were indistinct behind the thick glass. A shudder passed through the elevator, indicating it was rising from the floor. But even once the capsule appeared to settle into its ascent, the shuddering only intensified.

The glares coming from Noah and Kelly seemed to lessen as they too felt the unusual tremors. For the moment, all appeared normal outside the glass bubble in the mountain’s hollowed-out heart. The minute tremors and muffled voice even ceased. The only noise was that of their elevator as it creaked and rose meter by meter. Leo let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding in. Perhaps there was nothing to fear. Were his nerves just that fried that he was able to get so worked up over what was probably routine for this strange place?

The mounted rings of lights on the interior of the great chasm went dark the instant the hum of unseen generators died. Their small elevator ground to a quick halt. The chasm was plunged into a deep, silent darkness for several long seconds. Leo’s heart quickened again from the sudden turn. He had allowed himself a flicker of optimism and the world had snuffed it out not three seconds later. Leo could only hear the sounds of his teammates’ short, shallow breaths as they all awaited what was to come.

One by one, bright flood lights flickered to life from the bottom of the chasm upwards, each floor having one or two that shone down onto the lower levels. Leo had to shield his eyes at the sudden flood of illumination. By the painted numbers on the wall, they were four floors from their destination with their stalled elevator.

A violent rumble shot through the chasm and far below them a massive conduit bolted to the mountain wall creaked. Leo quietly took a step back from the edge of the window, his arm outstretched to push Noah back too. There was a screech of metal and sparks. The viewport suddenly shattered in a flurry of glass shards and water. Leo crouched low and gritted his teeth while the glass stopped flying and the water stopped spraying over them. His scales deflected most of the shards, though some fragments stuck in his arms without drawing blood.

The cavern shuddered and their stalled elevator creaked loudly. Only the sound of groaning metal and dripping water punctuated the brief quiet. The Charmeleon took stock of his companions, who had been spared most of the glass thanks to his own scales.

“C-Come on. Let's climb out through the window. There's a walkway right outside we can drop onto...” Leo urged after finding his voice and an iota of confidence.

With a few swipes of his feet, he brushed aside a path through the glass. The crimson emergency lights bathed the rumbling cavern in a hellish red. Leo ducked beneath the curved metal crossbar and jumped the small distance to the wet catwalk. He waved his hand for the other three to follow while he leaned over the soaked railing to examine the damage below. Right away it was easy to see the source that stopped their ride.

Having ripped itself from the massive fastening bolts on the wall like an enraged giant, one of the massive conduit pipes had ruptured, spraying a fierce jet of water and twisted metal shrapnel across the divide. The shards had destroyed the cables for their elevator while the water had shattered the glass. Leo was grateful that no injuries had come from the mechanical failure. The sound of paws hitting metal caused him to turn around. Noah was the last to jump from the elevator and was dusting himself off while the group got their bearings.

“Erebus's cold pits... That could've gone better!” The Dewott said with a snort like a dissatisfied customer. Noah glanced about in the red-tinted light and looked up. “Dead gods... That's like, eight flights of stairs to where we came in! And a ladder! They expect us to walk and climb the rest of the way?!”

“I-I think we should take any avenue they provide us at this point. I-I am not comfortable with the situation now in the slightest...” Kelly spoke up while Noah ranted. Her ears were pressed firmly against her skull and she was tensely crouched where she sat.

“Agreed... Whatever's going on here, they can sort out for themselves. We need to get out and report it to the Crown...” Jay plucked a small shard of glass out of his arm with a muffled yelp. Still steadying themselves, the shaken group made for the wide ladder that connected the narrow maintenance floor to the wider walkways above. Water droplets rained down on them from the burst pipes above their heads, making the metal floor slick and unsteady.

After testing the rounded rungs, built for beings much taller than they were, Noah was the first to scale the sizable ladder. Even for someone as nimble as the Dewott, it was a challenge with the raining mist. Leo stood by the base of the structure with Kelly while Noah called down to guide the blind Jay up the rungs. The fine mist irritated Leo's tail and made a small cloud of steam around the flame. There was an issue as to how Kelly would scale the rungs with her four legs. On the floor above, Noah yelled that he and Jay would scavenge for something to tie to her or a long plank of metal.

Just as Leo was about to call up and tell them to hurry, the entire cavern shook violently. The quake hurled both Leo and Kelly into the railing, the Charmeleon slamming into it first and allowing himself to be a buffer for Kelly. Groaning, the two peeled themselves back from the edge. Leo felt several bruises in the works on his right side. The Charmeleon shook his head clear just in time to be thrown to the side once more. Deep below, the central chasm ruptured with force that Leo could not fathom. A mind-bogglingly huge geyser of water jetted up past their floor, showering everything beneath it in a downpour. Sputtering and coughing, Leo shielded his tail until the colossal jet subsided. Everything was drenched and the cavern rumbled underfoot once again. A violent gurgling noise soon filled the air from below.

“K-Kelly! Come on!” Leo gasped, scrambling haphazardly to his feet on the slick grate. The Jolteon had fared somewhat better than he had, but was definitely dazed and soaked. Leo vaguely knew his body was strong, but he had not quite gotten the chance to test it until now. His arms went underneath Kelly’s midsection and hefted her over his shoulder with a yelp from the Jolteon. She was not that heavy, but right then, as he tried to scale the slick rungs, he very nearly dropped her. Leo positioned himself to climb the rungs using his left side, with Kelly now clinging to his scales with a terrified grip on his right.

“S-Someone! H-Help! Get us up! Noah! Jay!? ... NOAH!?” Leo screamed with increasing volume with his growing frustration and discomfort. “HELP!” His voice was hoarse and both sides of his body were on fire. When he had somehow managed to get within one rung of the next floor, the hissing Charmeleon barely registered Kelly’s death grip loosen from his side. She had jumped off him to the top, leaving him to climb the rest of the way. Chest heaving, Leo pulled himself to his shaking feet. They had gone only a couple meters up from where the elevator had stopped. There was no time to rest though; the violent sounds of rising waters signalled time was short.

With a deep groan, Leo took in the situation while the whole cavern shook violently. The roar of the churning waters was growing louder and louder with every passing second. Grasping a sturdy pipe, the Charmeleon braced himself for the next round of rumbling that sent quakes through the ancient metal walkways. In the dim red light that bathed the cavern, Leo’s hopes of escape were crushed one by one as he surveyed their only escape route. While the section the four of them had pulled themselves onto was relatively intact, the same could not be said about the path ahead and behind.

The massive spouts of pressurized water and collateral damage from the bursting conduits had shredded the steel framework as if it was paper. Despite Noah, Kelly, and Jay’s best efforts, the twisted metal that blocked their path was too much for their combined strength. The air itself was filled with swirling droplets blown around by air from the churning floodwaters. Exhausted and shaking, Leo could not do much beyond shuffling towards his companions that were still fruitlessly expending energy into forcing the path open.

“HI-YAHH!” Noah’s shout somehow managed to rise above the roar of their imminent destruction. A blade of water guided by one of his shells sliced into the twisted barricade, but did little besides rattle the mess of metal. The Dewott than shouted an equally-loud curse to the dead gods before he gritted his teeth for another attempt. For all his faults, of which Leo knew many, he had to admire Noah’s tenacity. The Dewott kept at the blockade long after Jay and Kelly both could no longer muster the effort to break it down.

Leo made a concentrated effort to summon fire in any form, but aside from the desperate attack on Nexus, he had failed to produce another ember since then. Slumping against the wall beside Jay and Kelly, Leo could only watch numbly with them as the swirling current kept rising. Whatever words they might have exchanged would have been drowned out by the roar of the flood. The usual countermeasures against certain death while exploring dungeons were useless. The two members of Team Salient had fruitlessly tried to use a strange orb that would normally whisk them out of a dungeon, or so they claimed.

But this cavern was not in a dungeon. They had delved beneath the High Peak mystery dungeon and rendered the Escape Orb useless. Without the strange energies of the dungeon to activate it, the ball of crystal was just a decorative bauble.

Leo could not even hear the incessant clangs of shell against metal from Noah’s feverish attempts to escape. The walls were too steep and wet for any of them to climb. The path beyond the blockade was almost certainly swept away or collapsed from the quakes. For all the enigmatic warnings and heralds Leo had endured during his brief few days as a Pokémon, he couldn’t help but bitterly laugh at how it was all for naught. They would be swept away by the rising waters and torn apart by the swirling debris, drowned, or simply crushed by the immense pressure.

Child of ruin. Hah... I’m sure this is what that thing meant. This is just the punchline to some sick cosmic joke... He thought while he awaited for the churning abyss to swallow them whole. While he did not get a response from the enigmatic creature that occasionally haunted him, he had an inkling that the being was certainly watching.

“Were my instructions not clear? I explicitly told your party to show yourselves out of my installation, not stand about. Why is it my guests always have such terrible listening skills?”

While the roar of the rising flood had drowned out every other noise, Leo heard the digital voice of the “host” of this place without interference. He leaned up and saw that all three of his companions were too frantically looking about, undoubtedly having heard the same comment from Unit 0171.

“That was a purely rhetorical question. Your presence here distracts from my attempts to salvage my disintegrating facility. I am afraid you all will have to be escorted out immediately.”

The same second the voice went silent, eight flashes of light erupted, two bursts on either side of the four beleaguered Pokémon. They were brief and once Leo could see again, he was startled to see two blocky Porygon had flanked him and his companions. Their white, glowing eyes gave away no emotion whatsoever from the digital constructs. The exhausted team could not hope to react fast enough to move away in time.

“Stand by for transmittal. Please do not disrupt the transmittal. Serious or fatal injury may occur,” the Porygon droned in a singular, impassive voice.

What then looked like a small sphere of black electricity appeared at Leo’s before rapidly expanding in diameter to envelop the Charmeleon in full. Paralyzed with fear of whatever “fatal injury” might occur should he even twitch, Leo felt the energy pour into his being. His body, down to its components, was charged with an overwhelming power that felt like they were being ripped apart and recombined over and over again. With vision obscured and body thankfully completely numb to the sensations of being torn asunder, Leo could only pray that his soul would find rest once he inevitably died to this attack.

But the lightning then departed without so much as an errant spark or scorch left on Leo’s red scales. He regretted opening his eyes to confirm the lack of electrical burns as they were immediately blinded by a bright light.

“Gaah!” Leo gasped while stumbling backwards. His right foot caught on a rock and he was immediately sent to the ground. Thankfully his rear landed on a patch of soft grass as opposed to more merciless rocks. Wait. Grass? Leo’s hands reached down and sank his claws into a clump of dewy grass. Daring to open his eyes again against the light, the Charmeleon soon realized a vital change in the situation. “W-We’re outside!”

True enough, the Charmeleon had been whisked from the very depths of High Peak to the summit near the cave he had entered earlier. Once Leo had recovered from the sun’s dazzling glare, he saw with relief that scattered around him on the grassy slope was Jay, Kelly, and even Noah, all in similar states of groaning and disbelief.

Leo turned his gaze down the long, forested slope, eyes snaking over the winding path of the dry riverbed before catching sight of Kingsend’s dull metal structures in the distance. It was idyllic, watching the town and its grassy hinterlands bask in the mid-morning sun that warmed the broken land. The Charmeleon was then thrown to the side by a violent shudder that passed up through the mountain. Flurries of leaves showered down from trees and small cascades of pebbles stirred on the rocky cliffs. Picking himself up, Leo dragged himself over to the cluster of his companions with a widening pit of dread forming beneath his feet.

The group of four, disorientated and exhausted as they were, knew exactly what the source of the muffled tremor was. Their gazes locked on the mouth of the cave on the neighboring slope. High Peak quivered from deep within its core, sending more pebbles and small rocks bouncing down the mountain. A horrendous cacophony of screeching and howls erupted from the dungeon’s maw, immediately followed by the exodus of a colony of frantic Zubat and sprinting Poochyena, the Pokémon darting past the dumbfounded four without even a glance in their direction. The ground rippled fiercely and the tremors grew in volume, from a distant hum to an approaching roar. Flocks of birds and bird Pokémon took flight from their roosts in terror.

All four of the dungeoneers huddled tightly against each other. Leo’s grip on the nearest tree trunk tightened, claws sinking into the skinny pine’s bark while his other wrapped around Jay’s shoulders. The Riolu hunkered down beside Kelly, with Noah braced between the Jolteon and a sturdy boulder. The vibrations made Leo’s gritted teeth chatter and rattled his insides, causing no small amount of discomfort. Leo could not think as more rocks skittered past their entrenched position. Roars from within the earth boiled the air, threatening to shake the mountain to pieces. Dust coated the four sheltering Pokémon as High Peak’s precipices began sloughing off chunks of packed dirt, trees, and mossy boulders. A massive rock tumbled from the slope above and bounced off Noah’s boulder, sailing over the heads of the team before taking out the top half of the pine tree Leo was clutching. He did not know which of them had started screaming at first, but it hardly mattered; they all were yelling in terror now.

It was then that the shimmering entrance to High Peak’s mystery dungeon rippled and cracked. A split second later, the anomalous piece of reality within the mountain exploded, signaling the death of the High Peak Spring dungeon.

“KRAAAKOOOOMMMMM!!!”

A brilliant shower of stone, water, twisted steel, and enigmatic energy erupted from the cavern’s maw with such force not before witnessed by any of the four Pokémon at the forefront of the natural disaster in motion. Everything within the mountain’s immediate radius was peppered with debris of some kind. A rock the size of Leo’s head landed at his feet with a blast of pulverized earth. Jay yelped and Kelly hissed when a smattering of rocky hail sprayed their backs, leaving welts and bruises in their wake. Noah had his top fin grazed by a barreling projectile, leaving a painful cut for the Dewott to deal with.

After a minute of being pelted by dirt, the projectiles were replaced by a fine mist that saturated the mountain air. Daring to look up, Leo saw that the cave had been split open twice its original size and was spewing an ocean’s worth of water out from the destroyed mystery dungeon. A waterfall blasted in a huge arc down the short mountain, demolishing the earth where it landed. The dried-out riverbed that cut through the fields and forests beyond the settlement was flush with water again.

Kingsend would soon bear the full brunt of the deluge’s freedom.

Description
Chapter Four: High Peak

Cast down from plinths of might,
Verus’s heroes consumed by blight.
Bleeding stemmed from heavy blow,
Weakened land, breathing slow.
Broken, dying, free at last,
Sun’s warmth, fading fast.
Debt paid, at what cost?
Can not restore what was lost.
—Scribe Martor Serperior,
Verse of the Broken from The Rains of Erebus

Leo was half asleep as their assembled group of four set off from the old well on the north road. The night had passed in the blink of an eye. The moment Leo crashed into his hammock the previous night rolled right into Noah shaking him awake rather forcefully that morning. A wake-up call to which Leo responded with a swing of his fist in bleary panic. Only his groggy disorientation kept him from socking the Dewott in the gut, instead causing him to fall out of the hammock, swearing the whole while. Noah had interrupted a rather pleasant dream in addition to needed sleep; though he could not recall the details, Leo was reluctant to leave it for the present reality.

With this being his first true ‘morning’ in this world not in a dungeon or ruin, Leo could say with certainty that he was not a morning person. He could function just fine as he did with helping Noah scrounge for supplies, but that did not mean he enjoyed waking up at the crack of dawn. The sun was a pinprick on the horizon and they were already a good distance away from Kingsend, traveling north on the rutted, dry dirt road that snaked out of town.

There was little by way of conversation outside of Jay being moderately surprised he and Noah actually showed at the right time. Leo suspected the early morning had much to do with that, as even Kelly, who was perfectly fine after rescuing him, seemed to drag her paws ever-so-slightly on the packed earth. Luckily, verbose directions were not needed. The road they followed was parallel to the same dried riverbed that went through Kingsend. High Peak Spring had been, in ages past, the source for a sizable river.

Leo could easily see how the dungeon got its name. The lonely mountain before them was not huge by any means, more akin to a fairly steep and rocky hill than anything else, but it was the tallest formation near the town. At one point, the river had flowed from a source near its peak, thus earning the descriptive name. In the time since the spring dried up, Leo gathered a mystery dungeon had taken root in its place, turning the cave into an anomaly of interest to the Crown.

The countryside outside Kingsend consisted of mixtures of patches with oak forests and hilly plains. In the misty, gray light, Leo could almost make out various glinting ruins that dotted the landscape. His memories jumped back to his first steps out of Nexus’s cave before the world shifted; he had seen this before, but from a different vantage point.

Compared with slogging through swamps, sand, and dusty ruins, the hike up the meandering trail up the gentle slope of High Spring Peak was relatively simple. The Charmeleon was panting as he scrambled up the last ridge of dry, packed earth, using roots as a foothold. He rolled onto his back and caught his breath while the other three, more nimble than him, waited for him at the mouth of the cavern.

“Come on, Leo! We’re ready!” Noah called cheerily, to which Leo grumbled, but rolled onto his feet anyways. He was not yet ready to forgive Noah for dragging him along on this excursion. “High Peak’s a simple dungeon, but you’ll need to stay close. It’s newer than the Weald, so it shouldn’t mess with you too much...” the Dewott explained with confidence.

The dungeon entrance itself was rather unassuming; an asymmetrical opening partially carved by water that once flowed through it. Now dry, the river bed became a welcoming path into the depths. Just inside the cave, about two steps in, Leo caught sight of something akin to heat distortion in the air; a slight ripple in the still air. As he crept a few steps closer to investigate, a blue paw landed on his shoulder with some force behind it.

“Careful. That’s the dungeon. I wouldn’t go in first, if I were you.” Jay’s stern voice and strong grip made Leo pause. The blinded Riolu stepped forward instead, briefly checked his bag and nodded back to his partner. “I’ll go first. Noah, you’re next with Leo, and then Kelly will bring up the rear. This should be real simple. Let’s be quick about this now.”

With that, Jay passed through the ripple and immediately vanished from sight. Leo had never seen what it was like to enter a dungeon and he was caught off guard. Noah, though, took him by the wrist and passed him a flimsy and cheaply-made satchel with a strap of twisted vine.

“There’s your supplies. Don’t tug on it too hard, or the vine will break... Or, you know, accidentally torch it,” Noah cautioned before he tugged them both through the barrier. Leo barely managed to sling the bag over his neck before he felt a tingling, almost-electric sensation pass over him as he stumbled into the mystery dungeon.

Leo froze momentarily, getting a sense of his surroundings. He had not felt himself shift, but the cave certainly looked different now that they were inside. The entrance was nowhere to be seen, yet there was a soft, bluish light filling the underground dungeon. Kelly was already behind him even as he turned around to look for the cave mouth. At the very least, he did not feel the same overwhelming malevolence Tranquility Weald exuded.

“H-How do we get out?” he asked with more of a waiver to his voice than he would have liked. The Charmeleon was quickly getting the horrible sensation of being trapped again. Teeth gritted, he began to look for a way out with more earnest, though with the weak light seemingly without a single source, it was impossible to determine which way the exit was, nor could he really see more than a few feet in front of him. “Oh gods...”

“Dead gods won’t get us out of here. Noah, calm your friend down...” Jay muttered as the Riolu took up point after checking his gear once more.

“Once we reach the end of the dungeon, we will find the exit. I promise, Leo.” It was Kelly, not Noah, who supplied that bit of comforting info. “Like we said, this isn’t a long or difficult dungeon. We’ll find the bottom and then the exit will be a little further away. No matter how deep we are.” Leo found that rather strange.

“How does that work exactly...?” He asked even as he began to slowly walk behind Noah through the narrow passage of water-smoothed stone. “How would we find the exit by going deeper into this cave? Shouldn’t we be going up?” It defied basic logic.

Kelly made an equivalent of a shrug. “That’s really just how they work. There’s at least one guild in Silver City dedicated to studying dungeon mechanics, as well as several royal task forces, yet none have a single definitive answer. Only theories that I haven’t read...” She replied quietly while their party made slow, but steady progress into the slightly-moist dungeon. “Dungeons are a chaotic place. Maybe it showing the exit at the end is its reward for besting its challenges? That’s my take on it. They’re almost like living beings.”

It was a solid theory as far as it came with pseudo-sentient environments. Leo himself had been thrown from forests to icy mountains to desert in no time at all, so perhaps space was merely a toy ripe for manipulation by these dungeons. He had time to think as their group hiked down a long stretch of the cave. They were slowly descending, he could feel the slight downward slope with every corridor and open, square-like room they came across.

The light remained constant, much to Leo’s surprise, illuminating their path just enough for them to creep further inside. There were other beings here too. In the dim light, Leo could see them in the corners of the larger rooms; a small colony of Zubat clinging to the cavern ceiling, blue wings folded over themselves, a group of Aron foraging through the stone with their metal paws, and even a shaggy Poochyena that yipped and snapped at them before retreating to its claimed corner.

Despite Leo’s aversion to getting close to the wild beasts, Jay had no such qualms and followed the most direct path on the map. Thankfully, the dungeon-dwelling Pokémon seemed equally as content to back away and bristle at their group.

“Left turn up ahead, Jay. There’s a mound of Diglett just beforehand. Tread lightly,” Kelly called yet again from the back as Jay sounded his affirmation. It was an interesting dynamic. From what Leo gathered from their interactions, Kelly played the role of filling in the gaps in the Riolu’s perception. He was able to navigate fairly-independently, but for spotting distant potential foes and reading from a map, he needed extra input. With the Jolteon’s faintly-glowing fur and keen senses, she was well-suited to providing the required input. “You’re coming up on a junction. We’ll need to go left. That’ll bring us to the next floor.”

Their efficient navigation proved to be a good system. While Leo did not immediately notice, Noah remarked on how quickly they had gone so deep into the cavern. The exploration duo made a good team. Salient. Think that was what Noah called them. Team Salient... Leo recalled while his feet tramped over the cool, dry stone of the dungeon’s floor. The Charmeleon was pleasantly surprised that he had not had to run for his life to outpace murderous Porygon or malevolent environments. This journey was very... Normal. As if he had decided to go on a mild spelunking trip.

“Shame we haven’t found anything good yet! Though, I expect this part has been picked over pretty good... But that’ll change soon!” Noah remarked to break up the silence that had settled over their group like a thin blanket.

“You’re sure on that...?” Leo was surprised at the question that came tumbling from his mouth. He had been content to just be a tag-along for this mission and then find his own way once he fulfilled his ‘debt’ to the Dewott. A soft nudge on his side from Kelly likely was a good sign that he had asked the same question she was thinking. Noah craned his head back, unable to turn around quickly in the narrow passage after the junction.

“Well, I’m as sure as I can be. It’s unexplored as far as I know, so realistically, no one knows what’s beyond the map. Could be a hoard of bandit gold or just an empty room,” he answered with a noncommittal shrug. “Didn’t think you were particularly interested in this exploration, Leo. Color me surprised.”

“I’m here, aren’t I? Don’t see why I wouldn’t ask what we’re looking for...” Leo managed to reply after a moment’s quiet. This seemed to satisfy the Dewott.

“Anyways, we’re coming close to the bottom. It’s well-known about the larger room on the right of the next intersection and the path beyond it being the way out... But it’s the smaller room just to the left that’s our goal,” Noah elaborated, gesturing to two squareish rooms at the bottom of the map. “It was long assumed that the left room had nothing of value, but I’ve discovered a secret!”

Noah did not explain further about his found secret until their party had deviated from the normal path towards the dungeon exit. The small, aforementioned room seemed bigger on the map Noah carried and moved more like an alcove than a chamber. The four ‘mon had to squeeze to all enter the tiny space. The Dewott pushed his way to the far wall and without a word, began running his paws over the stones. His claws definitely seemed to be searching for some sort of purchase, though in the dim light it was difficult to see.

“Leo! Come up here with that tail of yours! Need the extra light!” Noah called, waving his other paw beckoningly. Leo, eager to appear more useful than a potential target, carefully brushed his way past Kelly and Jay, tail held aloft so its flame flickered merrily off the stones. “Perfect! Think I found it again!”

Both his paws found a small, almost mechanical cut in the rock face that had been invisible in the blue light. Reaching in, he grunted and found a grasp on something within the hole. Noah tugged his arm back and something within the wall clicked loudly. A ripple of unease hit the Charmeleon at that as he let his tail drop. The atmosphere had changed on the spot; the calm air now replaced with a tension that certainly had not been there before. The dungeon was uneasy about this. There was a hiss and a perfectly-rectangular portion of the wall sank deeper. The layout was surprisingly similar to the door he had bashed himself against when he first woke up in the ruins.

Before Leo could raise his concerns, Noah had pushed hard against the rock face, forcing the disguised door further in until it swung out into a different passage. The air beyond was musty, but not nearly as bad as the ruins had been. The air had tasted strongly of dust and time there.

“And there we go! Didn’t I tell you there was more to High Peak?” Noah inquired, mostly of the two explorers in the back of the small chamber. “Come on! Time’s a’wasting!”

Leo heard a quiet grumble from Jay along the lines of “...actually wasn’t lying..” but did not listen in further beyond a few unsavory words about the Dewott. Kelly was quiet in her usual behavior while Jay vented. Together, the three of them followed Noah through the newly-opened breech in the wall. While dusty, the air flowing from the space beyond did not taste stale, rather it had a similar taste to the filtered, old air in the ruins Leo woke up inside.

Leo scanned the new area immediately, though he found he needed not worry. Unlike the naturally-formed tunnels and caverns of the prior levels of High Peak Spring, the walls here were entirely smooth and square, well beyond the finish normal tools could achieve. Leo held his tail closer still, the flame tickling his chest as he ventured forth after the strolling Dewott.

“How far do these passages go, Noah?” Jay called from the rear of their party while Noah lead them down the unnervingly-uniform cuts into the mountain stone. The paths were sloping downward without any visible branches or deviations from the main path. It was as if the mystery dungeon had simply stopped trying to alter the world in this segment.

“Not much further, my Riolu friend! A couple more turns and we will arrive at the bottom.” Leo was not paying attention to the exchange. There was something amiss with this place, but he could not place a finger on it. The dungeon aura was as vaguely-menacing as it had been earlier, yet the environment could not possibly be any more different.

“These were carved... Somehow...” Leo muttered under his breath before he stopped dead in his tracks. Jay bumped into him from behind with an oath, however the Charmeleon’s feet remained firmly planted.

Just before him, the large, square path performed its first deviation and widened into an even larger, perfectly-square chamber. But it was not the sudden change of architecture that startled him into stopping; it was the ancient, rust-covered bulkhead door that starred stoneley at their group from across the room. Noah broke rank first with a grin visible even through the back of his head as he went up and tapped the dull-red metal hull. Intricate notches, grooves, and indentations covered its front alongside the faint, pulsing blue circuitry that Leo recalled seeing in the ruins.

“And here we are! The last secret of High Peak! A door at the bottom of the mountain! What could be on the other side?” Noah exclaimed with a theatrical flare as he made intense gestures to the sealed door. “The secret of a lifetime, perhaps? Treasure beyond your wildest dreams? An ancient horde of gold? The ancient secrets of Verus? The—!” Noah’s monologue was cut off by a rough cough from Jay.

“Does it open?” the Riolu pressed as he strode forward to examine the solid gate. “Certainly feels like will take a lot more than our crew to force...” Jay concluded with an exasperated sigh. “This isn’t much of a discovery, Noah. We might be able to sell the map for just enough to cover your debt, but not much profit.”

“Wait, wait! Don’t give up hope just yet! Leo, come here!” The otter was pushing up on an handle-like indentation as he dug his feet into the stone floor. “Push with me! Put your shoulder to it! I swear I got it to move last time!” Noah barked and like the unwilling participant he was, Leo complied. Gritting his teeth, the Charmeleon leaned into the sturdy, rusting steel. The oxidized metal rubbed off onto his scales as he attempted the fruitless task. As he shifted position, his key tapped against the metal with a soft clink. Leo’s hand pressed into the surface, gripping at the grooves before a tremendous noise silenced both him and Noah. The Dewott’s arm nearly clipped Leo’s snout as the latch gave way at last with a puff of orange rust. Noah grinned and rubbed his paws together excitedly. “Just needed a bit of muscle!”

From behind the monolithic door, metal creaked loudly and with a cloud dust raining down from its surface, a thin line bisected the solid door cleanly. A faint flicker of the blue circuitry gave way to a rumble that forced both him and Noah away staggering. Ancient machinery protested loudly as it was forced into opening the heavy bulkhead.

A blast of fan-driven air greeted the stunned and weary explorers. Wordless glances were exchanged between the four as they all slowly stepped forward through the beckoning threshold. The cut stone ended abruptly with a sea of cold steel just beyond. And it truly was cold, with a cloak of chilled air rolling over their frozen group.

Leo found it hard to gauge the expressions on his companions. The sight they beheld was certainly not what Jay, Noah, or Kelly had expected. There were no mountains of glittering gold, scrolls of ancient knowledge, troves of forgotten weapons, or anything resembling treasure. Leo found his gaze going down and down into the barely-visible bottom of a vast, circular shaft that plunged into the mountain’s heart. It was entirely removed from the “natural” dungeon of High Peak Spring and the carved passage they had just left.

They were standing on a metal catwalk that overlooked the wide, circular hole. Panels of steel coated the sides of the pit as far down as he could see, interrupted only by segments of thick piping and tightly-packed cables that hummed loudly with electricity. Rings of small lights extended down the metal tube in uniform intervals. While it was faint at their elevation, Leo found hear the whirring of engines or generators rumbling up from the lower levels. His hands gripped the sturdy railing tightly, staring intensely at the engineering marvel that was, for some reason, stuck at the bottom of a mountain in a primitive world.

“Huh, that’s ... unexpected.” Noah’s reaction perfectly encapsulated the general mood of their group. Leo found himself nodding as he peered over the edge, feeling the cool wind blow up from the lower floors. He glanced to his left and found Kelly and Jay had joined him in gazing at the structure. To his right, Noah leaned on the railing, seemingly less enraptured and more deep in calculative thought judging by his intense gaze.

“System breech confirmed. Visitors detected. Number: four. Nature: organic. Initiate: welcome program,” a tinny, filtered voice that Leo recognized immediately. He knew even before he turned around that a Porygon would be on the other side. Sure enough, the small, blue and pink blocky creature floated inches off the catwalk, staring at them with glowing, hexagonal eyes. The others were slower to turn around, and the construct began speaking once all had faced it. The Porygon twitched once, putting on a garble of static before another function took control. A voice much too chipper for the construct began speaking excitedly.

“Hello! You are listening to the pre-recorded visitor greeting message! Assuming you can comprehend this message: Greetings from the churning turbines of the Hydroelectric Generation Plant One! We do hope you will enjoy your time while you visit our facility and learn about its important role! Please follow the Porygon technician to begin your knowledge-filled tour!” A crackle of a fading speaker came from the bird-like Pokémon and it twitched once again, returning to its normal self.

“Follow, visitors 1 through 4. The elevator is this way.” With that, the small, blocky bird hovered a short distance over to a previously-unnoticed tube of glass built into the rock. Leo watched with vague recollection as part of the tube’s exterior parted, revealing a metal platform and humming components tucked out of sight. The Porygon floated inside and then turned to face the group. “Movement is required to begin your tour. Please initiate.”

Kelly’s jaw was the first to close. Having come to grips with the situation, she bumped her teammate’s side, stirring Jay from his bewildered trance as well. Leo needed no further coaxing, having dealt with this once before with Nexus. This particular construct seemed far less capable of threats, but he would not take his eyes off it. He had nearly been killed by Nexus only a few days ago; putting his life entirely in the hands of another similar construct would be foolish.

Noah stretched his legs and grinned. “Well then!” He brought his paws together in a single clap. “Let’s not be rude visitors now. We’ve been invited on a tour... Why not see what’s going on here?” He said with his typical, urging tone that begged others to agree. Jay and Kelly shared an uneasy look between them, but both stepped forward.

“I’m not sure about this, guys...” Leo began before he was met with Noah’s paw landing roughly on his shoulder. The Dewott gave him a pleading look that battered at the Charmeleon’s will like a siege ram on a closed gate.

“Leo, my buddy... This is the chance of a lifetime! You aren’t going to pass up the chance of adventure, will you?” Leo was about to easily refute that claim, but Noah spoke up again in a softer, but no less urgent tone once the duo of Team Salient had left earshot. “... This place... It’s a human structure. I know it. It matches the ruins I’ve seen before...”

Leo’s rebuttal died in his throat and the Dewott smiled, knowing he had won already.

“You say you’re human, yeah? Came stumbling out of a human ruin? Maybe this will give you some answers. Or maybe not. You won’t find out unless you get moving...” Leo looked down at his feet briefly and huffed. The otter certainly had an argument; if Leo was to find out more about his purpose, this human-built facility might hold some clues. To risk another attack by refusing or take a chance to investigate what this ruin had to offer. Against his better judgement, Leo knew what he had to do. That was why he was in Verus in the first place.

“Fine... But stay alert. Okay? I... I don’t fully trust the Porygon,” Leo cautioned softly as he lifted his head to meet Noah’s gaze. The Dewott did not seem interested in pursuing that warning further.

“Eh, we’ll be fine. Probably. Now come on; time’s ticking, Slowpoke!”

Goaded by Noah, Leo wearily left his spot by the railing and reluctantly moved towards the glass elevator. Once both he and Noah were within the machine, the Porygon let out an affirmative chirp which coincided with the curved glass door sliding into place with a “click.” Being human prepared him for the experience of the sudden, stomach-lifting and nauseating lurch of the elevator, but Kelly and Jay were clearly not taking it well. The blindfolded Riolu leaned against the back of the cylinder, panting and holding his head while the Jolteon whined and tucked herself into a ball of bristling yellow fur. Noah was taking it well enough, though Leo could see him grit his teeth in obvious discomfort from the rapid descent.

A small screen flashed numbers in rapid succession as the elevator descended further into the mountain’s hollowed heart. From twenty on down, going lower and lower towards zero. Leo found himself smiling; a faint smile, but a smile nonetheless. The flickering panel, the lurching machine, the hum of electricity, it brought back vague memories of his life as a human. Nothing concrete, but enough for Leo to feel it was familiar and almost comforting. The Charmeleon let out a brief sigh in disappointment as the machine slowed, bringing inertia with it. However, based on the groans that came from the others, he was alone in longing for the experience. With a brief shake of his head, Leo calmly exited the elevator.

“Dead gods... My head...” whined Jay while he shuffled out from the tube, followed by a silent and skittish Kelly. Noah rubbed his temples and hissed quietly to clear his head.

“Visitors 1 through 4, follow. Please.” While the grumbling group gathered, the Porygon guide moved its blocky body in a sign meant to convey haste.

“Don’t get your wings all in a tizzy now; we’re coming!” Noah snapped back as the Dewott gestured for Leo to come over and help the two ‘mon of Team Salient. Leo nodded in agreement and quickly went to Jay’s side, supporting the groaning Riolu while he took in his surroundings.

The bottom of the shaft was just as massive as the top made it appear. The area, from what Leo could tell, was roughly circular, with tunnels and passages leading off at various intervals. Sheets of metal uniformly covered almost every surface of the cylindrical chasm. Small red and white utility lights ringed the chamber, illuminating the maze of rusty catwalks and stairs that criss-crossed the diametric gap. Similar to what he had seen at the top, huge lengths of pipe were bolted firmly into the mountain.

The noise was louder here in the pit. The hum of power was more intense, but above it all was a muffled churning. That was the only way Leo could accurately describe the odd noise that seemed to originate from the center of the chasm. The massive conduits creaked every so often to add to the cacophony of noise in the strange, underground chamber.

“Proceed down the corridor. Unit 0171-Vertex will receive you.” The Porygon that had corralled them suddenly stopped at the entrance to the passage that was illuminated with squares of dull white light from the ceiling. “Unit 0171-Vertex is excited to meet Visitors 1 through 4.” Its monotone voice then went quiet though its blocky eyes never left the group.

“... Well, come on then. Ain’t going to meet our host by standing around!” Noah stated, as if it were obvious as to what they should do. The Dewott had stepped into the tunnel and waved his arms up and down back at the hesitant trio. “See? Nothing’s going to happen! Just come on! I, for one, am stoked to see what’s ahead!”

Leo remained behind Jay and Kelly, determined to not be a part of this. He would follow, but he wouldn’t be used by Noah as an example to get Kelly and Jay to come along. That was fine by him though, he got to continue to observe the massive structure they were in the belly of.

From the outside, High Peak Spring was not an impressive mountain, but it was still a tall outcropping of rock. The mystery dungeon within it, however, was short. A few floors to the bottom. Mystery dungeons, from what Kelly had explained and what he had personally experienced, twisted and warped space, yet five floors of moderately-tall tunnels did not explain the massive leftover space that existed. Maybe that was why Noah got curious about this place to begin with. There was a discrepancy and this structure, buried far beneath the peak, made up for it.

It was ancient, enigmatic even. It was clearly a machine, but Leo could not fathom what purpose it was designed to accomplish.

“Leo! Come on!” Noah’s voice beckoned him over and with a sigh, Leo pulled his gaze away from the massive network of pipes and conduits. The Charmeleon cautiously stepped over to the passage where Noah was standing, Kelly and Jay a few feet ahead. The tunnel was illuminated dully by panels stuck to the walls and ceiling. With no torch to be seen, soft white light poured from the fixtures. The Kelly was momentarily astounded by the squares of glass, while Jay obviously could not fully appreciate the marvel. Noah stood tapping his foot at the front of their group, waiting impatiently with arms folded. The wonder of artificial light seemed to have worn off quickly on the Dewott.

Kelly pressed a paw to the smooth, cool glass while her wide eyes were reflected in the polished surface. She turned to Leo, fur abuzz with excited static electricity.

“I-I... I never thought I’d get to see something like this up close! O-Only the richest in Silver City have one or two of these lights! But here! T-There’s dozens! A hundred easily!” She laughed and bounded over to the other side of the passage, admiring yet another identical square that flickered slightly every three seconds. Leo had seen these before, both in the ruins of his awakening, and before, when he was a human. The details got foggy beyond that.

“Didn’t I tell you we’d find something good down here?” Noah called, shaking the Jolteon from her excitement. “Maybe we can ask these guys if they wouldn’t mind losing a couple of these lights? If each of us took two or three, we’d be able to die rich ‘mon!”

Just then, the tunnel dimmed considerably with every panel decreasing in brightness simultaneously. Noah quickly stopped his get-rich-quick idea and meekly gulped. However, rather than a rebuke, there was a soft click and an electric hum to their immediate left. An unassuming portion of metal wall recessed back and slid out of sight, revealing a smaller, illuminated passage.

The four cautiously peered inside once the sound had stopped. Just inside were walls similarly-lined with glowing panels along a short hallway that ended in a vast, semi-circular chamber that was bathed in soft blue and golden glows. As if drawn inside by the ethereal lights, Leo crept into the new passage first. His heart pounded as his wide eyes reflected the vast array of flickering panels and pillars etched with circuitry that were arranged along the walls that displayed constantly-updating readouts and numbers. The computing machines hummed quietly, dutifully calculating and monitoring while the room pulsed with lights from the supporting pillars and army of screens. The four Pokémon slowly walked inside the marvelous chamber, their bodies awash in the warm illumination.

Towards the back wall, screens larger than all the others displayed illegible statistics and figures while a few select monitors flicked between video feeds of the whole complex, from the passage they were just in to the hidden door all the way back in the bottom of High Peak Spring. Leo gulped slightly as he got closer, able to see that the moving shapes in front of some of the lower banks of computers were in fact blocky Porygon; an army of the chirping, monotone creatures pecked and hovered along the curved, flowing glass screens. For now, at least, the digital birds appeared to ignore the four visitors.

The Charmeleon, now steeped in artifacts of the world he had left behind, leaned in to read the fast-moving words and phrases flowing from top to bottom on the nearest of the multitude of elegant screens. For that’s the main word Leo had for this place. If it were not for the location at the bottom of a rocky chasm, it would fit right at home in a lavish palace. The others lost their fear as well and got closer to examine the alien artifacts before them.

“Ah! Hello there! You have at last arrived!” A cheery, electronic voice called out to the group. “So good of you to be here! My circuits are overloaded with glee from having visitors!”

Leo let out a startled yell as he tried and failed to spin around, instead losing his balance and sprawling against one of the consoles. The machine let out a series of short, irate beeps and tones as the Charmeleon peeled himself off the screen. He rubbed his scales were his dangling key had been sandwiched between himself and the sensitive machine. A static shock passed through him from the massive computer, making him yelp softly.

Once focused, Leo saw exactly what addressed them all and it sent a shiver down his spine. A mirror image of Nexus floated a meter off the ground; the curved, sleek form of the Porygon2 swiveled effortlessly as its white eyes took in each of them in turn. Seemingly satisfied with the cursory inspection of the visitors, the Porygon2 fluttered its round wings and rose up to alight on a similar electronic ‘nest’ on top of a short pillar.

“Allow me to introduce myself. My decency routines have not aged well from disuse.” Leo’s nervous gaze met equally-unsure glances from Jay and Kelly as they stood rapt before their host. Noah had simply turned around and settled with his back against a silvery machine, looking rather comfortable despite the nervous looks the surrounding Porygon gave. They clearly did not want the Dewott using their devices as a rest.

“I am Unit 0171: Vertex. You may refer to me however you please. I am in charge of this marvelous installation. You are the first visitors we have had in a very long time.” Vertex bowed its pink head at them all. “It will be my pleasure to showcase the capabilities of this facility. But first, are there any questions for me?”

Surprisingly, Kelly was the first to speak up at Vertex’s invitation. “Err... Vertex... M-Might I ask how long this... Has been here? Under the mountain?” She asked while glancing at the golden ceiling above her head. “And what exactly do you do here...? With all these... Flashing things?” The Jolteon inquired further, not knowing the correct term for the alien devices.

“And how long will we be kept here?” Jay added quickly. Leo could tell the Riolu of Team Salient was trying to keep calm with the paw clasped tightly on Kelly’s back.

“You mind if we mark this place on a map?” Noah called from his comfortable position against the console that continued to beep with quiet urgency beneath his back. A Porygon prodded the Dewott's feet to try and move him. “We do need to report this if we’re to collect the bounty for discovery...” The Dewott said calmly, drawing a glare from Leo. If the Porygon2 was made irate or perplexed by any of the statements, Vertex did not show it on its pleasant face.

“I will go in turn, if that is okay with you all.” The small bird fluttered its wings and adjusted its form atop its pulsing pillar. “This installation has been here for a very long time. Multiple centuries, to keep it succinct. And our purpose is to generate energy and supply it to other installations.” It chirped quietly and made a minor movement on its nest that caused one of the screens on the back wall to change from scrolling data to show a video of the base of the vast chasm down the hall. “Our operations are centered here where the turbines are located under the floor, which feed power to the vast array of conduits and pumps that direct it abroad to—.”

“T-That picture! I-It’s moving!” Kelly squealed excitedly, interrupting Vertex as she stared at the video on the screen that showed several Porygon quickly floating and moving about the central chamber outside. They appeared to be clustered about several consoles that were flashing rapidly. “Oh dead gods, it's really moving! The picture is moving! H-How is it doing that?”

Vertex patiently waited for the Jolteon to slow her rapid questions before it fluttered its rounded wings. “Technology! The intricacies would take a week to fully explain, but think of it as thousands of tiny dots on the screen that shine in different colors to paint a picture. They do this so fast that all the pictures blend together and appear to move,” it chirped happily. To Leo, the Porygon2 appeared to relish the opportunity to explain things to its guests.

“W-Wow! I think I understand! Kind of...” Kelly answered while she stared up at the moving image rapturously. Leo had not seen the Jolteon so enthralled in the short time he had known her. It was rather amusing to see the normally calm and collected Jolteon be so giddy.

Vertex chirped affirmatively and then continued its lengthy explanation of the various functions of this strange installation. Even though he was the most equipped to comprehend the advanced technology, Leo found it all washing uselessly over his head. The Charmeleon gave it a real attempt, but he found himself slipping into a stupor. It was just like a lecture from... Well, he could not recall from where, but he recalled the sensation.

Many minutes, perhaps an hour later, Leo woke with a start. A high-pitched, electronic beeping had begun abruptly. Rubbing his eyes, Leo scanned the room to find the source of the annoying, grating sound.

“I swear on the gods’ graves that I didn't touch a thing!”

Leo groaned loudly and pressed his hand over his eyes and sliding it down his snout in exasperation. Noah was attempting to divert blame after the computer he had been leaning on started flashing red and beeping loudly. A cluster of Porygon were surrounding the console and Vertex was concentrating hard in its ‘nest’ to get a handle on the situation.

“I just shifted my back and then BAM! Started beeping like that!” Noah shouted up at Vertex, who appeared to ignore him. “You can fix that, right?”

As if on cue, the machine went totally dark; its vast array of buttons and glowing screen blinking off in an instant.

“It is not your fault, guest. A simple matter. It is nothing we cannot--” Vertex began before it was sharply cut off by another console, this one on the opposite end of the room, suddenly flashing red and beeping. And then another. And another. Over the course of ten seconds, every computer and even the large wall monitors flooded the chamber with a red light. Messages in a language Leo did not understand screamed up the screen at a breakneck pace.

“That is... Unusual,” Vertex remarked in a distinctly-subdued tone. Its rounded face reflected no hint of emotion in the barrage of flashing screens. “Guests, I am afraid that our tour must be cut short as we sort this out. Please show yourselves out. I cannot spare escorts right now. Do have a good day.” It did not even look at their group as it immediately went to work sorting out the digital mess.

Kelly and Jay had swiftly retreated to the center of the room alongside Leo and Noah. The four interlopers cautiously backed up through the open doorway.

“Right... Time to go,” Noah whispered as the alarm tone grew louder. Leo lightly nudged Kelly; she had not taken her eyes off the amazing room the entire time.

“Kelly? ... Come on. We've got to go...” Leo’s claws touched her yellow fur and lightly tugged on the bag slung over her side. “We'll come back another time...”

At last she turned away and resumed walking down the branching hallway back towards the large central chamber. The Jolteon was stone-faced, but Leo could tell she was bitterly disappointed from leaving the fantastic room early and probably thinking of ways to get back at Noah for screwing things up. Leo sighed and walked at the rear of their silent group as they followed arrows on the floors and walls as Vertex indicated.

“Child of ruin...”

Leo’s eyes went wide. No. It could not be that thing again. The voice, the same that had spoke shortly before his day suddenly changed for the worse. In his short existence on Verus, he had grown to fear two things: mystery dungeons and the cold voice in his head.

“Time runs short. This shackle will break. Freedom’s deluge will spring forth.”

As quickly as it came, the voice departed Leo's head, leaving the Charmeleon quite confused. What in the world did that cryptic blurb mean?

The metal floor, illuminated walls, and mountain all suddenly shuddered. Not violently, but a short vibration the made the four exiting Pokémon pause at the bottom of the main chasm.

“... Warning... 25% capacity. 27% capacity... Outflow disabled... Warning...”

Leo’s head snapped up. There was a garbled voice droning out from several box-like devices from the catwalks above their heads. He jogged up to Kelly, Jay, and Noah, the latter two arguing about the logistics of reporting this dungeon discovery to the Crown.

“Err... Guys? Guys!” The Charmeleon interjected. Those droning words could not possibly harken anything positive. “You hear that...? I think we should really get moving...” he said, trailing off as Noah turned to look at him.

“Hmm? Why the rush, Leo? Don't you want to stay a little longer and look around?” The Dewott said nonchalantly as he waved a dismissive paw at the droning voice. “Ignore whatever gibberish its spouting. Doubt it means anything...”

Leo found his head tilting in confusion. While it was somewhat garbled, Leo could understand the words well enough.

“... Warning... Storage at kkksssh percent capacity... Structural stress critical...”

“You... You don’t hear that? The warnings?” Leo asked once more, looking between Noah and Jay as he did so. The two gave him a shrug and the Charmeleon grit his teeth. While he was perplexed at why only he seemed able to hear the broadcast, he guessed there was not much time left before something happened.

“... Eighty-five percent capacity... Warning...”

Leo’s heart beat quicker as he stood in the heart of the slightly-quaking machine. Kelly was gazing up reverently at the vast constellation of lights and conduits, rooted to the floor. To his right, Noah and Jay continued their negotiations against the curved metal railing in the center of the chamber. Why are they not concerned?!

In this world, Leo had so far been the follower. The one who needed guidance. Guidance with his new form, guidance to escape the clutches of the ruins he was ‘born’ in, guidance to navigate and escape mystery dungeons. Nexus, the voice, Noah, Jay, Kelly: they all were his guides in the strange and foreign world of Verus. But in that instant, the Charmeleon’s newest guides were oblivious to the literal warning signs sounding right above their heads. It was his turn to guide them.

Teeth gritted, Leo jogged over to Kelly and gave her a hard shove from the side. The Jolteon’s fur shocked him and she let out a yelp before stumbling to the side. He did not give her the chance to retort at him for breaking her reverie of the machine. Leo ran up to the Dewott and Riolu and snatched both of their wrists as they gestured.

“We’re leaving. Let’s go.” The firmness of his words was a shock to even himself. Leo did not think himself one to lose his temper, but that command held barely contained anger. Noah’s next proposed offer fell back down his throat. Leo tugged forcefully on the two stubborn ‘mon, peeling them from their spots on the railing. “Go on! Don’t make me drag you! Go! Go!”

He gave them another hard tug that made the stunned Pokémon start moving on their own volition towards the glass door of the elevator. Leo whirled around to the Jolteon and simply pointed at the direction Noah and Jay went.

“Let’s go! Now!” Leo figured there would be time to regret the harshness in his words later. Not waiting for the Jolteon to begin moving, he dropped into a brisk jog as fast as his short legs would carry him. He was inwardly glad his last couple days had involved running for his life; he could run fairly well even with his swaying tail.

The Charmeleon all but shoved Jay and Noah into the cylindrical elevator before muscling his way inside on top of them. The Porygon that manned the controls during their arrival was absent, as were all the other Porygon. That only added to Leo’s sense of looming dread. Kelly’s bright yellow form jumped over the threshold for the sliding doors a second later, giving Leo a tense glare all the while. He guessed he deserved that.

Leo had studied the instrument panel on their descent and jabbed at the circular indentation that indicated the top floor. The glass doors slid shut with a click, sealing the four irate ‘mon inside from the rest of the rumbling chamber. He could hear the muffled sound of the broadcast, though the words truly were indistinct behind the thick glass. A shudder passed through the elevator, indicating it was rising from the floor. But even once the capsule appeared to settle into its ascent, the shuddering only intensified.

The glares coming from Noah and Kelly seemed to lessen as they too felt the unusual tremors. For the moment, all appeared normal outside the glass bubble in the mountain’s hollowed-out heart. The minute tremors and muffled voice even ceased. The only noise was that of their elevator as it creaked and rose meter by meter. Leo let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding in. Perhaps there was nothing to fear. Were his nerves just that fried that he was able to get so worked up over what was probably routine for this strange place?

The mounted rings of lights on the interior of the great chasm went dark the instant the hum of unseen generators died. Their small elevator ground to a quick halt. The chasm was plunged into a deep, silent darkness for several long seconds. Leo’s heart quickened again from the sudden turn. He had allowed himself a flicker of optimism and the world had snuffed it out not three seconds later. Leo could only hear the sounds of his teammates’ short, shallow breaths as they all awaited what was to come.

One by one, bright flood lights flickered to life from the bottom of the chasm upwards, each floor having one or two that shone down onto the lower levels. Leo had to shield his eyes at the sudden flood of illumination. By the painted numbers on the wall, they were four floors from their destination with their stalled elevator.

A violent rumble shot through the chasm and far below them a massive conduit bolted to the mountain wall creaked. Leo quietly took a step back from the edge of the window, his arm outstretched to push Noah back too. There was a screech of metal and sparks. The viewport suddenly shattered in a flurry of glass shards and water. Leo crouched low and gritted his teeth while the glass stopped flying and the water stopped spraying over them. His scales deflected most of the shards, though some fragments stuck in his arms without drawing blood.

The cavern shuddered and their stalled elevator creaked loudly. Only the sound of groaning metal and dripping water punctuated the brief quiet. The Charmeleon took stock of his companions, who had been spared most of the glass thanks to his own scales.

“C-Come on. Let's climb out through the window. There's a walkway right outside we can drop onto...” Leo urged after finding his voice and an iota of confidence.

With a few swipes of his feet, he brushed aside a path through the glass. The crimson emergency lights bathed the rumbling cavern in a hellish red. Leo ducked beneath the curved metal crossbar and jumped the small distance to the wet catwalk. He waved his hand for the other three to follow while he leaned over the soaked railing to examine the damage below. Right away it was easy to see the source that stopped their ride.

Having ripped itself from the massive fastening bolts on the wall like an enraged giant, one of the massive conduit pipes had ruptured, spraying a fierce jet of water and twisted metal shrapnel across the divide. The shards had destroyed the cables for their elevator while the water had shattered the glass. Leo was grateful that no injuries had come from the mechanical failure. The sound of paws hitting metal caused him to turn around. Noah was the last to jump from the elevator and was dusting himself off while the group got their bearings.

“Erebus's cold pits... That could've gone better!” The Dewott said with a snort like a dissatisfied customer. Noah glanced about in the red-tinted light and looked up. “Dead gods... That's like, eight flights of stairs to where we came in! And a ladder! They expect us to walk and climb the rest of the way?!”

“I-I think we should take any avenue they provide us at this point. I-I am not comfortable with the situation now in the slightest...” Kelly spoke up while Noah ranted. Her ears were pressed firmly against her skull and she was tensely crouched where she sat.

“Agreed... Whatever's going on here, they can sort out for themselves. We need to get out and report it to the Crown...” Jay plucked a small shard of glass out of his arm with a muffled yelp. Still steadying themselves, the shaken group made for the wide ladder that connected the narrow maintenance floor to the wider walkways above. Water droplets rained down on them from the burst pipes above their heads, making the metal floor slick and unsteady.

After testing the rounded rungs, built for beings much taller than they were, Noah was the first to scale the sizable ladder. Even for someone as nimble as the Dewott, it was a challenge with the raining mist. Leo stood by the base of the structure with Kelly while Noah called down to guide the blind Jay up the rungs. The fine mist irritated Leo's tail and made a small cloud of steam around the flame. There was an issue as to how Kelly would scale the rungs with her four legs. On the floor above, Noah yelled that he and Jay would scavenge for something to tie to her or a long plank of metal.

Just as Leo was about to call up and tell them to hurry, the entire cavern shook violently. The quake hurled both Leo and Kelly into the railing, the Charmeleon slamming into it first and allowing himself to be a buffer for Kelly. Groaning, the two peeled themselves back from the edge. Leo felt several bruises in the works on his right side. The Charmeleon shook his head clear just in time to be thrown to the side once more. Deep below, the central chasm ruptured with force that Leo could not fathom. A mind-bogglingly huge geyser of water jetted up past their floor, showering everything beneath it in a downpour. Sputtering and coughing, Leo shielded his tail until the colossal jet subsided. Everything was drenched and the cavern rumbled underfoot once again. A violent gurgling noise soon filled the air from below.

“K-Kelly! Come on!” Leo gasped, scrambling haphazardly to his feet on the slick grate. The Jolteon had fared somewhat better than he had, but was definitely dazed and soaked. Leo vaguely knew his body was strong, but he had not quite gotten the chance to test it until now. His arms went underneath Kelly’s midsection and hefted her over his shoulder with a yelp from the Jolteon. She was not that heavy, but right then, as he tried to scale the slick rungs, he very nearly dropped her. Leo positioned himself to climb the rungs using his left side, with Kelly now clinging to his scales with a terrified grip on his right.

“S-Someone! H-Help! Get us up! Noah! Jay!? ... NOAH!?” Leo screamed with increasing volume with his growing frustration and discomfort. “HELP!” His voice was hoarse and both sides of his body were on fire. When he had somehow managed to get within one rung of the next floor, the hissing Charmeleon barely registered Kelly’s death grip loosen from his side. She had jumped off him to the top, leaving him to climb the rest of the way. Chest heaving, Leo pulled himself to his shaking feet. They had gone only a couple meters up from where the elevator had stopped. There was no time to rest though; the violent sounds of rising waters signalled time was short.

With a deep groan, Leo took in the situation while the whole cavern shook violently. The roar of the churning waters was growing louder and louder with every passing second. Grasping a sturdy pipe, the Charmeleon braced himself for the next round of rumbling that sent quakes through the ancient metal walkways. In the dim red light that bathed the cavern, Leo’s hopes of escape were crushed one by one as he surveyed their only escape route. While the section the four of them had pulled themselves onto was relatively intact, the same could not be said about the path ahead and behind.

The massive spouts of pressurized water and collateral damage from the bursting conduits had shredded the steel framework as if it was paper. Despite Noah, Kelly, and Jay’s best efforts, the twisted metal that blocked their path was too much for their combined strength. The air itself was filled with swirling droplets blown around by air from the churning floodwaters. Exhausted and shaking, Leo could not do much beyond shuffling towards his companions that were still fruitlessly expending energy into forcing the path open.

“HI-YAHH!” Noah’s shout somehow managed to rise above the roar of their imminent destruction. A blade of water guided by one of his shells sliced into the twisted barricade, but did little besides rattle the mess of metal. The Dewott than shouted an equally-loud curse to the dead gods before he gritted his teeth for another attempt. For all his faults, of which Leo knew many, he had to admire Noah’s tenacity. The Dewott kept at the blockade long after Jay and Kelly both could no longer muster the effort to break it down.

Leo made a concentrated effort to summon fire in any form, but aside from the desperate attack on Nexus, he had failed to produce another ember since then. Slumping against the wall beside Jay and Kelly, Leo could only watch numbly with them as the swirling current kept rising. Whatever words they might have exchanged would have been drowned out by the roar of the flood. The usual countermeasures against certain death while exploring dungeons were useless. The two members of Team Salient had fruitlessly tried to use a strange orb that would normally whisk them out of a dungeon, or so they claimed.

But this cavern was not in a dungeon. They had delved beneath the High Peak mystery dungeon and rendered the Escape Orb useless. Without the strange energies of the dungeon to activate it, the ball of crystal was just a decorative bauble.

Leo could not even hear the incessant clangs of shell against metal from Noah’s feverish attempts to escape. The walls were too steep and wet for any of them to climb. The path beyond the blockade was almost certainly swept away or collapsed from the quakes. For all the enigmatic warnings and heralds Leo had endured during his brief few days as a Pokémon, he couldn’t help but bitterly laugh at how it was all for naught. They would be swept away by the rising waters and torn apart by the swirling debris, drowned, or simply crushed by the immense pressure.

Child of ruin. Hah... I’m sure this is what that thing meant. This is just the punchline to some sick cosmic joke... He thought while he awaited for the churning abyss to swallow them whole. While he did not get a response from the enigmatic creature that occasionally haunted him, he had an inkling that the being was certainly watching.

“Were my instructions not clear? I explicitly told your party to show yourselves out of my installation, not stand about. Why is it my guests always have such terrible listening skills?”

While the roar of the rising flood had drowned out every other noise, Leo heard the digital voice of the “host” of this place without interference. He leaned up and saw that all three of his companions were too frantically looking about, undoubtedly having heard the same comment from Unit 0171.

“That was a purely rhetorical question. Your presence here distracts from my attempts to salvage my disintegrating facility. I am afraid you all will have to be escorted out immediately.”

The same second the voice went silent, eight flashes of light erupted, two bursts on either side of the four beleaguered Pokémon. They were brief and once Leo could see again, he was startled to see two blocky Porygon had flanked him and his companions. Their white, glowing eyes gave away no emotion whatsoever from the digital constructs. The exhausted team could not hope to react fast enough to move away in time.

“Stand by for transmittal. Please do not disrupt the transmittal. Serious or fatal injury may occur,” the Porygon droned in a singular, impassive voice.

What then looked like a small sphere of black electricity appeared at Leo’s before rapidly expanding in diameter to envelop the Charmeleon in full. Paralyzed with fear of whatever “fatal injury” might occur should he even twitch, Leo felt the energy pour into his being. His body, down to its components, was charged with an overwhelming power that felt like they were being ripped apart and recombined over and over again. With vision obscured and body thankfully completely numb to the sensations of being torn asunder, Leo could only pray that his soul would find rest once he inevitably died to this attack.

But the lightning then departed without so much as an errant spark or scorch left on Leo’s red scales. He regretted opening his eyes to confirm the lack of electrical burns as they were immediately blinded by a bright light.

“Gaah!” Leo gasped while stumbling backwards. His right foot caught on a rock and he was immediately sent to the ground. Thankfully his rear landed on a patch of soft grass as opposed to more merciless rocks. Wait. Grass? Leo’s hands reached down and sank his claws into a clump of dewy grass. Daring to open his eyes again against the light, the Charmeleon soon realized a vital change in the situation. “W-We’re outside!”

True enough, the Charmeleon had been whisked from the very depths of High Peak to the summit near the cave he had entered earlier. Once Leo had recovered from the sun’s dazzling glare, he saw with relief that scattered around him on the grassy slope was Jay, Kelly, and even Noah, all in similar states of groaning and disbelief.

Leo turned his gaze down the long, forested slope, eyes snaking over the winding path of the dry riverbed before catching sight of Kingsend’s dull metal structures in the distance. It was idyllic, watching the town and its grassy hinterlands bask in the mid-morning sun that warmed the broken land. The Charmeleon was then thrown to the side by a violent shudder that passed up through the mountain. Flurries of leaves showered down from trees and small cascades of pebbles stirred on the rocky cliffs. Picking himself up, Leo dragged himself over to the cluster of his companions with a widening pit of dread forming beneath his feet.

The group of four, disorientated and exhausted as they were, knew exactly what the source of the muffled tremor was. Their gazes locked on the mouth of the cave on the neighboring slope. High Peak quivered from deep within its core, sending more pebbles and small rocks bouncing down the mountain. A horrendous cacophony of screeching and howls erupted from the dungeon’s maw, immediately followed by the exodus of a colony of frantic Zubat and sprinting Poochyena, the Pokémon darting past the dumbfounded four without even a glance in their direction. The ground rippled fiercely and the tremors grew in volume, from a distant hum to an approaching roar. Flocks of birds and bird Pokémon took flight from their roosts in terror.

All four of the dungeoneers huddled tightly against each other. Leo’s grip on the nearest tree trunk tightened, claws sinking into the skinny pine’s bark while his other wrapped around Jay’s shoulders. The Riolu hunkered down beside Kelly, with Noah braced between the Jolteon and a sturdy boulder. The vibrations made Leo’s gritted teeth chatter and rattled his insides, causing no small amount of discomfort. Leo could not think as more rocks skittered past their entrenched position. Roars from within the earth boiled the air, threatening to shake the mountain to pieces. Dust coated the four sheltering Pokémon as High Peak’s precipices began sloughing off chunks of packed dirt, trees, and mossy boulders. A massive rock tumbled from the slope above and bounced off Noah’s boulder, sailing over the heads of the team before taking out the top half of the pine tree Leo was clutching. He did not know which of them had started screaming at first, but it hardly mattered; they all were yelling in terror now.

It was then that the shimmering entrance to High Peak’s mystery dungeon rippled and cracked. A split second later, the anomalous piece of reality within the mountain exploded, signaling the death of the High Peak Spring dungeon.

“KRAAAKOOOOMMMMM!!!”

A brilliant shower of stone, water, twisted steel, and enigmatic energy erupted from the cavern’s maw with such force not before witnessed by any of the four Pokémon at the forefront of the natural disaster in motion. Everything within the mountain’s immediate radius was peppered with debris of some kind. A rock the size of Leo’s head landed at his feet with a blast of pulverized earth. Jay yelped and Kelly hissed when a smattering of rocky hail sprayed their backs, leaving welts and bruises in their wake. Noah had his top fin grazed by a barreling projectile, leaving a painful cut for the Dewott to deal with.

After a minute of being pelted by dirt, the projectiles were replaced by a fine mist that saturated the mountain air. Daring to look up, Leo saw that the cave had been split open twice its original size and was spewing an ocean’s worth of water out from the destroyed mystery dungeon. A waterfall blasted in a huge arc down the short mountain, demolishing the earth where it landed. The dried-out riverbed that cut through the fields and forests beyond the settlement was flush with water again.

Kingsend would soon bear the full brunt of the deluge’s freedom.