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Before they even reached Acacero, however, the reapers began giving them warnings about something being strange with the city.

‘What in the world am I sensing?’ said Orolix publicly.

‘I sense it, too,’ said Juda’s reaper, name of Arigaja. ‘What is that? A forest? Impossible. We didn’t go in the wrong direction, did we?’

‘Even if we had, there still shouldn’t be a forest down here. At least, not that kind of forest.’

The uncertainty made little difference, though. Everyone already knew that they couldn’t turn back. Whatever was awaiting them in Acacero, they would have to deal with it.

When the city finally came into view, the reapers’ questions only seemed to increase.

The cave let out onto a ledge with a narrow, winding path that led down onto a major road below. But the view that the ledge provided was truly something else. Taj’s hazel eyes widened as he absorbed the scene before them.

It did indeed appear to be a forest in the middle of the city, trees as tall as any of the buildings. But they glowed green and white, illuminating the greater cavern in which the city sat, revealing many other tunnels high up on the walls and even in the ceiling.

There were great rocky pillars, too, but they were less apparent than in the previous cities they’d passed through. These ones were adorned with more glowing foliage, and not all of them reached all the way up to the ceiling, either. Some of them merely plateaued higher up and had buildings of their own on top of them.

In fact, one plateau in particular was more noticeable than the rest. Right there in the center of the city, it didn’t rise as high as the others, but an enormous structure sat upon it. What was that? A stadium? No.

He had to squint at this distance, but he could see turreted towers. Long banners hanging from battlements.

That was a fortress. A palace, even.

The trees all around its exterior made it luminous and verdant, the vibrant centerpiece of the entire city.

‘...This city is not how I remember it,’ said Arigaja.

‘I’ve never seen this type of flora in the Undercrust,’ said one of the other reapers, name of Elbadon.

Taj was as confused as anyone, but his mind was still consumed with a sense of urgency. “We can’t stand around here gawking,” he said, starting down the pathway. “Let’s go see things up close.”

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It took another full day to get there. Perhaps they could have gone faster if they were taking a more obvious path--one of the bigger tunnels, for example--but they preferred to stick to the narrower ones. The abundance of the ardor in the rock made it more difficult for the enemy to keep track of them here, and if they got lucky, the bastards might even lose track of them completely.

That was the hope, anyway. It hadn’t exactly worked out so far.

Taj struggled to keep himself steady. On task. In charge.

There were only five others left, not including each of their reapers, but he could see the way they were all watching him now. Looking to him for leadership.

What a farce. He was barely old enough to withstand the heat down here unaided. He could barely protect himself, let alone anyone else. Four of the others were constantly fighting the heat, perpetually sweating and being clearly uncomfortable. A couple were even in visible pain, having to constantly materialize--or have materialized for them--a cooled metal coating.

The last one, Juda Mateen, was only better off because he’d apparently managed to snag a climate suit for himself before escaping.

At first, there’d been some noticeable resentment toward him from the others. Taj had thought that it was simple jealousy--and perhaps it was, in part--but after listening to an earlier argument, he realized that there was a bit more to it.

Juda wearing that suit meant that a non-servant wasn’t wearing it.

In other words, he’d taken the place of a non-combatant who could have potentially escaped down here with them.

But in recent days, that resentment seemed to have died off. And Taj could understand why. If it wasn’t clear before, it certainly was now.

Any non-servant that might have taken Juda’s suit would almost certainly be dead by now. And they couldn’t have afforded to slow down for them, either. If they’d tried, they would’ve all been killed a long time ago.

Or at least, that was how Taj saw things. Maybe he was overthinking it. Maybe the others were just too tired to fight among themselves now. He certainly wouldn’t blame them if that was the case. Even on the rare occasions when they were able to sleep, he never felt rested after waking up.

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In particular, magma pools were their best friends. The ardor that emanated from those things could sometimes be so strong that it entirely blinded reapers who got too close.

Of course, that also made the pools terribly dangerous for their own reapers. Multiple times, Taj had noticed Orolix visibly hesitate when they were near one. While reapers didn’t exactly feel “pain” in the same way that corporeal beings did, they apparently still regarded being incinerated in a pool of magma as quite a horrible way to die.

“Nightmarishly painful, just in a different sense,” was how Orolix had described it to him.

He hadn’t yet gotten clarification on that. Nor was he even sure that he wanted it.

Beyond that, there was only one other method of hiding that they had been using--and even then, they’d been rather reluctant to do so. Not only was it sometimes ineffective; it was also dangerous, for them and those around them.

Because it involved crowds.

When all else failed, trying to hide their souls among a large group of other souls was an option. Unless a soul was particularly powerful, reapers would often have trouble singling it out, even if they’d already memorized its soul signature.

But of course, if they still managed to--and if they were of Abolish--then a fight would immediately break out, and civilian casualties were all but guaranteed.

Taj and his kin hated resorting to that tactic. They’d been trying to avoid it as much as they could, but it had saved their lives in the city of Karetito. And it had gotten some hapless Hun’Kui passersby killed in the city of Noromonga.

It made for a difficult decision now, because according to Orolix, they were nearing another city called Acacero.

This current network of caves they were in had thus far proved quite barren. No magma pools to try to conceal themselves near, nor any convenient ardor-infused rock formations to provide cover for a while.

And hell, even if there were, the enemy had clearly grown wise to those tricks by now. They wouldn’t pass by any magma or large accumulations of ardor without investigating those areas thoroughly. Perhaps that was why their pursuit had seemed to slow for a little while there, as they’d become extra cautious.

Regardless, it wasn’t worth the risk. And being the strongest member of this group now, the others were looking to him to make that decision now.

So they kept on toward Acacero, where he suspected that things would either go well or very, very badly.