The Crack In Heaven [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy] Chapter 18: Chapter 18: A Nightmare in Glass

Read chapter 18 of The Crack In Heaven [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy] by Adamus_Auguste on NovelPedia.

Chapter 18: A Nightmare in Glass The mechanical tick of spinning cogs filled the sewers as the dark wall parted in front of Kael. Not a wall, he realised, but a gigantic door. A soft red light bled through the metallic opening, painting the elongated shadow of a man on the pavement. He rapidly lowered his head under the ruined piece of the shack, then moved to the side to glance without being seen. The man halted inside the doorsill, his brow raised, his lips contorted in a snarl. "Fuck off with your rat friends, bastards." Giovanni simply stumbled toward him with Riccardo and Tonio. "Bark more, maybe I'll care in a hundred years. You're not in charge, little man. Unless our deal with Garrick doesn't matter anymore to him?" "That's not what I—" The man screamed, but Giovanni interrupted him. He jabbed his thumb toward the sewers' entrance, "I guess we can leave, then. I'm sure the Sump Dogs won't stop us by the entrance, or learn what you've all been doing here for the last twenty years if they catch us." "I-I mean..." The thug fiddled with the button of his white shirt. With a click of his tongue, he rushed back inside. A couple of seconds later, he returned with three more men. The soles of their plated boots echoed in the tunnel. Among them, the one who stepped forward wore a pair of pauldrons and vambraces over his white shirt, and a sheathed sword at his belt. The tin hat tilted over his head as he wrenched his cig out of his mouth and waved inside. He didn't talk, didn't seem as if Giovanni's group was more than actual rats in his brown eyes. Giovanni led his group, smirking at the first guard. His lips curled down the next second, and his voice dropped to a low groan. "Like last time. They watch from the doorsill." A guard reached for his sword. The blade slid out half an inch before he snorted. "Bunch of fuckers. What you've built is gone. The Sotterranea family is gone. You're the last three, three little shits uglier than beasts. How does it feel to be the last one? To have seen all the others die in front of you? Do I have to remind you of your place?" His eyes trailed to Giovanni's missing arm. "What happened to your arm?" Riccardo placed his hands over Tonio's round ears, while the rat-man muttered, "Bad Garrick, bad Garrick. Bad Garrick." "Gone like the rest." Giovanni tilted his head with infinite arrogance. "My supplies. Now." Hissing, two guards flanked Tonio and Riccardo, while he followed the leader. The rest, Kael couldn't hear or see. But the guards had their backs to him. His fists clenched, he crouched his way to the left side of the door. Pressed against it, he glanced inside. And his breath caught in his throat. Ruins of Tonio's family didn't sprawl across scorched grounds. Instead, bar gratings formed floors. Men and women strolled them, boots clanging on their surfaces. Torchlights brightened rows and rows of dark cells with flickering red glows, while pipes spiderwebbing the ceiling reflected their light. But that was nothing compared to what took the center of the ground floor. Something in a glass tube connected to dozens of pipes... A creature, a beast, a human? A nightmare. Kael's blue pupils constricted on a chest broader than two well-fed men. Veins squirmed on arms bigger than four thighs that seemed to have been carved out of pale stone. But the hands... the hands... He took a deep, shuddering breath. A large block of metal from which several serrated blades jutted out had replaced one. The other looked like a bow with a deep hole in the middle. His legs weren't legs. At least not human ones. That thing was like a spider, with eight plated legs that ended in sharp spikes. So that's the monstrosity Giovanni mentioned. If it ever gets out... Not even Brannick could fight that thing alone. Is it a weapon? What is Garrick preparing? No, it's not important now. Kael wrenched his eyes off the bald head of the nightmare. It had its eyes closed, nose and mouth covered by a mask that reminded him of