The Last Dainv-Chapter 129

The Last Dainv-Chapter 129

The car slid to a stop on the snow, and the engine turned off immediately. Gale took in the surroundings through the rear windows, a forest with four snow covered buildings in the small clearing in front of them.
"These are the coordinates?" Ollie asked.
"Shed, barn, house, garage. The full set," Rachel said. "All abandoned by the looks of it."
Behind them, the twins' black SUV pulled up, sliding to a stop just beside them. The engine stopped. Kyle and Clyde got out of their vehicle, only Clyde visibly carrying a long gun on his shoulder.
Gale, Rachel, and Ollie got out as well, meeting the two boys at the front of their vehicle, breaths fogging under the freezing temps of the snowstorm.
"Not exactly the super duper secret facility we were thinkin’," Kyle said, putting on his hood.
"Spread out?" Clyde put on his gloves. "Cover more ground."
Ollie nodded. "Gale and I will take the house. Rachel, check the shed. Twins, you take the barn and garage."
"Why do you get to go with Gale?" Rachel asked.
"What?" Ollie muttered.
"If anything, shouldn't you go to the shed? It's small. Not like you can use your guns in close range."
"I don't know! I just randomly decided. What's it to you?!" Ollie asked, already side-eyeing the twins.
This was the first time Gale had seen Ollie look this annoyed. Frown, furrowed brows, twitching lips and all. "Rachel, it's fine. I can just go with him."
Rachel crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one side. "Fine."
"Now go. Investigate. Shoo," Ollie said.
Kyle saluted mockingly. "Yes, sir, Mr. Was-never-ever-my-boss Sir."
"Idiot," Ollie muttered.
The group split up. Gale followed Ollie to the house. The old wooden porch made noise under their weight.
"Keep your eyes open," Ollie said. "Abandoned places like these could mean spectres or things lurking inside."
Spectres? That awfully sounds like the spectral entities that Guide talked about.
"Ollie, you killed ghosts before, right?" Gale asked.
"Yeah, what of it?"
"Can you kill one right now?"
"Nope. Got none of the silver bullets with me at the moment."
"Are we going to be fine?"
"Relax, ghosts aren't real."
That's exactly what Guide said! But what normal human would discern between spectres and ghosts being different?! No one, that's who. Gale clenched his fist onto the storage box as Ollie opened the door into the house.
Inside, the house smelled of musty mildew and definitely mould. Furniture was still there though. A couch, dining tables with chairs, one turned over, shelves with books that were rotten through. Dust covered everything except for some small animal tracks.
Gale swiped a finger on a table beside the entrance door. From the thickness of the dust and how rough it was, approximately 10 years' worth of dust.
"Looks like nobody's been here in years or decades even," Gale said to Ollie.
While Ollie went into the kitchen, Gale spread out Breath of the Void. The tendrils passed through matter, feeding him information. No ether signatures anywhere, no super secret underground lairs, no nothing. Just mice eating through the walls that somehow survived even in the cold weather of northern Ontario.
Pushing the tendrils out further, he saw Rachel punching plank support beams of the shed, making way for herself to get through. A mouse jumped out of the barrel she just kicked, and her hand shot out a small ball of fire that burnt it to a crisp.
"Find anything?" Ollie called from upstairs.
"Nothing," Gale replied, knowing the house was empty but still pretending to check another room. "Just old furniture."
When they met outside again, snow had covered their earlier footprints. Rachel brushed snow from her hair and dusted off probably the debris from her mayhem.
"Nothing in the shed," she smiled.
The twins walked back from the barn.
"Barn's clear," Kyle said. "Some old farming equipment and really old hay."
"Garage too," Clyde said. "Just an empty bay, no car to steal."
They stood in a circle, Ollie clearly glaring at Clyde and Kyle.
"So what now?" Gale asked. "Was the intel wrong?"
Ollie checked his phone. "These are definitely the right coordinates."
"Maybe it's not the place," Rachel said. "Maybe the numbers mean something else."
"Or maybe someone's been feeding us bullshit," Kyle said.
"Like you'd know anything about that," Ollie said.
Clyde stepped between them. "Hey, let's not start that again."
"Bro, it's cool. Let's hear what he has to say," Kyle loomed over Ollie. "Go ahead, Ollie. You've been waiting to get that off your chest since the gas station."
Ollie's eyes narrowed. "You want me to say it? Fine. Quebec City, three years ago. Ring any bells?"
"Ancient history," Kyle waved his hands dismissively.
"Not to me," Ollie said. "We had a plan. You two went off-script."
"We improved the plan," Clyde said. "Got the job done, much faster than yours, didn't we?"
"You left me holding the bag with local authorities while you took the glory and the promotion."
"That's how the game works," Kyle shrugged. "You know that."
"Three days in a Quebec City’s jail cell," Ollie said, voice rising to an almost yell. "They would've kept me there for at least a month if asshole number one hadn't bailed me!"
Gale sighed. Might as well do something productive while they did their thing. Breath of the Void spread further, checking all around them. South, nothing. West, nothing. East, nothing as well.
However, the north looked different. But something felt off in the northern direction. Not an ether signature, but a blank spot where his senses couldn't reach. Similar to meeting a wall like the spray painted sutras at the airport.
"Guys," Gale said.
"We had orders," Clyde was saying. "Jonathan's orders comes first. Always has."
"Bullshit," Ollie said. "You saw an opportunity and took it, just like you always do."
"Guys," Gale said.
"Don't act like you're better than us," Kyle poked at Ollie's chest. "You've got a bigger closet than us!"
"I never abandoned a teammate," Ollie said. "Never."
"GUYS!" Rachel shouted. "Shut up for one second and let's hear Gale out." She turned to him with a smile.
"What if these aren't coordinates? What if it's something else?" She tapped the screen.
"46494538057409. That's a lot of numbers," Gale said.
"Phone number?" Clyde said.
"Too many digits," Kyle said.
"A code?" Ollie grinned.
Gale kept his eyes on the northern treeline, where he'd found that blank spot. "Let's split up and search the area. Maybe there's something nearby that's not on the maps."
"Good idea," Rachel said. "I'll go with Gale. We'll take north."
"Seriously?" Ollie said, mouth gaping. "Fine," he glared at the twins. "We'll go east."
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, the violation.
"Got your walkie-talkie app ready?" Kyle asked, tapping his phone.
Ollie pulled out his own. "Yeah, yeah."
"Remember, guys, anything suspicious, call it in," Clyde said. "No heroics, no solo missions. Pssht over."
"Whatever," Ollie muttered.
The twins headed east, disappearing into the trees. Ollie gave Gale a look before following them.
Rachel turned on her phone's walkie-talkie app, then put her hands in her pockets. "North it is, then."
They walked through the snow toward the trees, leaving the farm behind. The snow was deeper among the trees, almost to Gale's knees in some spots. He spotted a rabbit's burrow covered up by the snow. Tracks of foxes and three strands of orange fur sat by a tree near the same burrow. Clearly, there was a bit of a chase from where the small footprints of the rabbit ran away from the hungry fox.
"I feel like you're at home in the forest, seeing you like this," Rachel said after a few minutes of silence. "The way you look around here. It's like you're always looking for signs of something I can't even imagine."
Gale stepped over a fallen log hidden under snow. "Had a lot of practice."
"I bet," Rachel said. "Your home turf. The
hunter
in his natural habitat."
A slight cringe almost appeared on his face, hiding it by forcing a couple of coughs.
"You ok?" she asked.
"Yeah, definitely ok." Gale said, not sure which hunter she was talking about. He was still the 'dark hunter' in the concrete jungle. In the real forest, he becomes the
wild
hunter.
He led them north, pretending to pick the path randomly while actually heading straight for the blank spot he'd sensed. Snow-covered branches brushed against them as they passed.
Rachel's phone crackled before Kyle's voice came through the walkie app. "Check in, north team. Any sign of secret evil lairs? Pssht over."
Rachel rolled her eyes but hit the talk button. "Nothing yet. Just trees and more trees. You?"
"Same here. Ollie's complaining about his expensive boots getting wet. Pssht over."
"I am not," Ollie's voice came next through the walkie app.
Shaking her head, Rachel put the phone away. "How did you know to look north?"
"Just a feeling," Gale said.
"You have a lot of those," Rachel said. "Just feelings."
"Sometimes they're right." 99.9% of the times, they're right.
They pushed deeper into the forest. The storm got worse, with snow falling faster and limiting what they could see as the wind picked up.
"We should turn back soon," Rachel said. "This storm's getting worse."
"Just a little farther," Gale said.
The trees opened up to another small clearing. In the middle stood a wooden cabin covered in so much snow it was hard to see.
Rachel stopped. "That's not on any map."
Gale stared at the cabin. This was the source of the blank spot. Breath of the Void couldn't get through it at all, like something was blocking it.
"Should we call the others?" Rachel asked, reaching for her phone.
"Not yet," Gale said. "Let's check it out first."
They approached the cabin. Unlike the farmhouse, this cabin seemed hidden on purpose as the snow made it almost invisible.
"Stay alert," Gale said, reaching for the door.
He tried the handle. It was unlocked. The door opened with a creak. Gale went in first, with Rachel behind him, noticing that it felt colder inside than outside.
"Cozy," Rachel said, temperature suddenly increasing around her and spreading to Gale.
Dust covered everything, though thinner compared to the abandoned buildings. He swiped a finger again on the surface. This time, it wasn't thick or rough. Most likely, just a couple of months' worth of dust.
He looked around more and saw the kitchen area. Upon opening the cupboards, he saw a bunch of canned foods. Same amount of dust meant that it must've been only recently abandoned and suddenly at that.
Gale closed his eyes, trying to focus on Breath of the Void, but something was wrong with how the skill was working. The feeling was fuzzy, like trying to see through foggy glass. He opened his eyes, frowning.
"What is it?" Rachel asked.
"Nothing," Gale said. "Just checking."
Goosebumps crept in on his neck. No longer having the ability to see through the tendrils felt like he was completely blind.
"Let's check everything," he said.
They searched the main room first. Dusty dishes in cupboards. Newspapers. Canned food. No photos, mail, or anything to show who lived here.
The bedroom had nothing interesting either. The trunk just held dusty blankets.
"There has to be more, right?" Rachel said, looking around. "Why would this place be out here in the middle of nowhere? Not even included on the map?"
Gale knelt on the floor, running his hands over the boards. Near the woodstove, he felt a draft.
"Here," he said, pulling back a rug to show a trapdoor.
"Basement," Rachel said. "Pretty standard for cabins like this."
Gale pulled the iron ring, lifting the heavy door and letting it drop to the other side with a loud thud. Wooden stairs went down into darkness. Rachel removed her gloves and put them inside her jacket's pocket. She held her hand up, creating a bright white light from a steady fire.
Going downstairs, the basement was small and dry. Shelves lined the walls with cabin supplies, specifically small handheld tools, rope, and lanterns. But what caught his attention was the door on the far wall. A heavy metal door with a wheel in the centre, like from a submarine or a bank vault.
"That's not standard for a cabin," Gale said, pointing.
Rachel approached the door, shining her light on it. Above the door, a yellow paper stuck to the wall. It had Chinese characters written in red ink. Another sutra, this time a proper one that's not just spray painted on.
"Well, this is getting complicated. This means the Jiuling was here, sealing something below."
"Sealing what?"
She leaned closer. "This one's meant to seal something dangerous. It's a wide area seal."
Rachel reached up and ripped the paper off the wall. Gale felt the tendrils sharply feed him back information about the whole area. Below them, he sensed concrete tunnels and man made passages going into two directions. Only problem was that there were no living things down there, which could mean ghosts.
"Should you have done that?" Gale asked, then whispered, "What if they sealed ghosts?"
Rachel tilted her head at him. "Fire beats ghosts. Something like the school ghost don't scare me."
"Wait, you were the one that killed the ghost at the learning centre?"
"I wasn't. That was the Ann Family's request to the Path."
"Really?" Gale leaned closer to her.
"Really. So, don't worry about ghosts. I got it covered."
"Ok." Gale nodded, eyes clearly beaming up as he stared at Rachel's fire hand. Not sure if it was a good thing to hide behind a girl, but for ghosts, it's better safe than sorry.
Gale noticed something else beside the door. It was a piece of lined paper taped to the metal. He moved closer and read the hasty writing: "TURN BACK. RUN AWAY."
"Should we be worried about this?" he asked, pointing to the warning.
"In Aur, we kill ghosts for breakfast. What could possibly go wrong?" Rachel laughed. She pulled out her phone, opening the walkie app. "Hey guys, north team here. We found something. A cabin with a hidden bunker entrance. You might want to see this. Probably a whole network of tunnels underground."
Static came before Kyle's voice answered. "Roger that, north team. Heading your way. Keep your pants on. Pssht over."
Rachel rolled her eyes as she put her phone away and leaned against the wall, looking at the heavy door. "This is mundane military grade. Not something you'd find in a random cabin in the woods."
"Think it's connected to the Silver Lions?" Gale asked.
"Maybe. Or the Path. Or both." She looked at him. "Thanks, by the way."
"For what?"
"Including me in this trip." Rachel smiled. "It's been a while since we've done this. Five years, haha."
"You basically barged in. Not like I had a choice."
Rachel pouted, crossing her arms. "I did not barge in. I was invited."
"I was teasing," Gale laughed, would've invited her regardless after he got a new phone anyways. "Didn't you say you stopped learning your family techniques when you were twelve?"
"Yeah, why?"
"So how are you learning now? Your grandma sounds too stuck up."
"Don't tell Grandma, but everything's in the library anyway. I can just learn it myself." Rachel let out a small giggle. "And Gerard teaches me some stuff. Just for self-defense, he says."
"The butler gives you magic lessons behind your grandma's back?"
"He says I have my mother's talent." A soft smile appeared on her lips. "Anyway, it works out."
Gale nodded toward the tunnels he could now sense. "Can you tell me more about your expeditions? Like the ones you mentioned going into rifts while I was gone?"
"Sure, what you wanna hear first?"
"The candle thing you said."
Rachel glanced at her hand, then back to him. "The dark world. That's what we call it. There are known rifts that still go there, ones that haven't been closed. The ecosystem was wild. It had like everything from little imps that are mostly just annoying to these massive flaming demons. If you read LOTR before, you'd know what I mean."
"The flaming demon on that bridge?"
"Yeah. They scour the darkness, but that one specifically had their flames only light up if they're awake. Makes them easy to spot at least. The imps are just a nuisance, really. Like rats with attitude. And there are ghosts too. Pale, wispy things that are afraid of light. Easy to kill too with just fire."
"That's why they called you a candle?"
"Exactly. They kept their distance from me." She grinned. "The twins were there too. Kyle and Clyde were the same as they were back then to now. Efficient, predictable,
annoying most of the time
. They're good at clearing a room like it's choreographed though."
Heavy footsteps from above interrupted them. Three voices got louder as they came to the trapdoor.
"Down here!" Rachel called.
Ollie came down first, followed by the twins.
"I'm telling you, we had a deal," Ollie said.
"And I'm telling you, orders changed, wasn't our call," Kyle said.
"Orders always change when it's convenient for you two," Ollie said.
"Vancouver Island
literally
wasn't our call, bruh," Clyde said, looking around the basement. "The higher-ups wanted that artifact secured, not analyzed while having a gunfight in the field. Jiuling was already swarming too, so fuck you."
"Bullshit," Ollie said. "You just wanted the credit."
"And your eyes looked like dollar signs looking at that artifact," Kyle replied.
"Guys," Rachel said loudly. "Focus. Big creepy door. Secret underground tunnels. Maybe save the Vancouver drama for later?"
The three men stopped, turning to the metal door.
"Well, well," Kyle said. "What do we have here?"
"Looks mundane military standard," Clyde said, trying to turn the wheel mechanism. "Old design though. Ancient actually."
Ollie ran his hand over the surface. "Retrofitted. This was something else before whoever did this."
"The warning's a nice touch," Kyle leaning towards the lined paper. "Very creepy. Very horror movie."
"There are tunnels behind that door," Gale said. "Two main branches, heading in different directions."
"How do you know that?" Clyde asked, eyes narrowing slightly.
Rachel jumped in before Gale could answer. "We found some old map drawings upstairs."
Kyle and Clyde exchanged glances. Hopefully, they bought the reason.
"So," Ollie said, grabbing the wheel. "How much bucks this gets us?"
"Wait," Gale said. "Be careful. That sutra was there for a reason."
"Scared of ghosts, Sword Boy?" Kyle said.
"N-No." Gale met his eyes.
"Sure," Clyde said. "Let's gear up before we go spelunking."
They all pulled various items from their pockets and jackets, such as flashlights, weapons, and extra ammunition.
Ollie gripped the wheel again. "Ready?"
Everyone nodded.

.
!
Chapter 129