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Chapter 144: Completed Quest

Chapter 144: Completed Quest

Dust and rubble chased them down the tunnel as the earth groaned beneath their feet.

"Inigo, fall back now!" Feron yelled over comms, his staff glowing as he held the collapsing entrance open with a shimmering barrier.

Sark hurled a fragmentation grenade behind them to cover their retreat, the blast echoing through the dark like a thunderclap. The walls trembled.

Meryl skidded on the loose gravel and fired a high-explosive round from her launcher into a pursuing crawler that had slipped through the barricade. The explosion turned the monster into mist.

"Clear!" she called out, panting.

They sprinted forward.

"The core’s close!" Brenna shouted, pulling ahead with her shotgun raised.

Every step toward the deeper chamber was hotter. The walls sweated steam. The air shimmered with mana distortion. They were entering the nest.

"Thermal readings peaking," Hal said, glancing at his wrist module. "We’re at the heart."

They rounded a final bend—and there it was.

A cavern wider than any they’d seen yet, its walls covered in glowing red sacs and twitching tendrils. In the center, embedded in a mass of molten root-like flesh, was a pulsating mound easily fifteen meters wide. A massive central egg sac. The source.

Inigo’s eyes narrowed. "That’s it."

Then it moved.

Tendrils withdrew from the floor with a wet hiss, and the mound began to rise. Sloughing off steam and mucus, a towering form unfurled—half-insect, half-reptile, its chest pulsing with eggs, its limbs lined with jagged claws. Its eyes glowed like coals.

"The Broodmother," Feron whispered.

"Light it up!" Inigo roared.

Brenna fired first. Her slug smashed into the beast’s side, but it hardly flinched. Hal opened with suppressive fire, and Lyra loosed two alchemical bolts into its shoulders—one frost, one shock. The combined effect staggered it for just a second.

Then it screamed.

The Broodmother lunged, swiping at them with a claw the size of a tower shield. Sark rolled under the blow and slammed his warhammer into its ankle joint. It cracked, but the creature retaliated with a backhanded swipe that sent him flying into a wall.

"Sark’s down!" Meryl shouted.

"I’ve got him!" Feron dashed over, casting a warding dome over the dazed warrior.

Lyra fired again—this time a concussive arrow aimed at the Broodmother’s exposed lower jaw. It detonated, snapping the mandible out of joint.

"Inigo! I see a weak spot!" she shouted.

"Where?"

"Under the carapace—glowing seam above the hind legs!"

"Copy!"

Inigo switched to his M4, toggling to high-velocity rounds. He ducked low, sprinted through cover, and slid under a falling chunk of ceiling. He fired in tight, rapid bursts at the exposed seam.

The Broodmother shrieked and stumbled—but didn’t fall.

Dozens of smaller spawn began pouring out from ruptured pods on the wall—skittering insectoids the size of wolves, chittering with rage.

"Hold the line!" Brenna screamed, planting her feet and blasting the first wave with buckshot.

Meryl’s grenade launcher barked, each round turning clusters of spawn into sludge. "We’re getting overrun!"

"Not yet we’re not!" Hal activated the JLTV’s remote turret, sending .50 cal fire down the tunnel mouth, buying the team breathing space.

Feron stood tall, golden light surging from his staff. "Sanctum Ardentia!"

A surge of radiant magic pulsed out, shielding the team in a dome that deflected the incoming swarm. "Twenty seconds, that’s all I can hold!"

"Make them count!" Inigo yelled.

Lyra reached into her satchel and pulled out a final arrow, its tip black and pulsing. "Experimental. No promises."

"Do it!"

She closed her eyes, focused, and fired.

The arrow struck the exposed core near the Broodmother’s spine.

For a heartbeat, everything went still.

Then it detonated in a brilliant cascade of crimson and violet flame, imploding the creature’s lower body and vaporizing nearby spawn.

The Broodmother screamed.

Its remaining limbs thrashed wildly. One claw struck the cavern wall, triggering a massive collapse.

"Now! Hit it with everything!" Inigo roared.

Sark, barely recovered, limped back into the fight and hurled a thermite charge onto the creature’s neck.

Meryl fired her last HE round into the chest.

Brenna pumped two more slugs into the core.

Inigo took aim with his sidearm—one last shot—and fired into its eye.

The Broodmother buckled and finally, finally fell.

The entire chamber shook.

"Get clear!" Feron shouted, yanking Sark by the collar as the walls cracked.

The team sprinted.

Behind them, the nest began to implode—roots withdrawing, eggs bursting, the entire biological ecosystem collapsing in on itself.

They climbed, stumbled, and clawed their way through the exit tunnel. Lyra fired a collapsing charge at the ceiling behind them, sealing the passage for good.

They burst into the basin just as the first rays of morning sun touched the treetops.

Steam rose from the fractured earth. The air was silent.

Then—static chirped in Inigo’s earpiece.

"Guild Command to Team Cerberus, do you copy?"

Inigo clicked his mic. "Cerberus actual. Copy."

"Long-range scans confirm detonation of underground biomass. Thermal signatures collapsing. Good work. Mission success confirmed."

Inigo let out a long breath. "Objective complete. Area secure. Send recovery teams."

"Already en route. You’ve earned your pay."

He turned to his squad—bruised, burnt, bloodied, but standing.

"We did it," Lyra murmured.

"Let’s hope that was the queen," Meryl muttered.

Feron, exhausted, chuckled. "It was a queen. Not the only one, though."

Inigo’s brow furrowed. "You’re sure?"

Feron nodded. "This one was local. I felt other mana signatures in the deep. Dormant. For now."

Silence fell again.

The silence stretched.

Birds chirped in the canopy above, as if nature itself was cautiously reclaiming the scorched ground. Steam hissed from the cracks in the earth. Inigo crouched beside a fractured egg sac, now empty and charred black.

He looked up at the team. "We hurt them."

"Yeah," Brenna muttered, reloading slowly. "But not all of them."

Sark wiped blood from his brow. "Then we rest. Reload. And when the next one rises, we send it back to hell."

Lyra leaned on her bow, eyes scanning the horizon. "We need to warn the guild. If there are more nests like this..."

"We’ll burn them too," Meryl said flatly.

Inigo stood, facing the jungle. The dawn was breaking—but it brought no comfort.

Just questions.

"How deep does it go?" he whispered.

Feron’s voice was quiet. "Far deeper than we’re ready for."

And somewhere beneath their feet, something ancient shifted in the dark—still slumbering.