Legends of the Halcyon Era: The Devil’s Yard Journey – Part 3

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Legends of the Halcyon Era

The Devil’s Yard Journey

Part 3

by

David Oxford/LBD “Nytetrayn”

*****

The group returned to the intersection to find it was still as brightly lit as before. The trunks – the two remaining ones, at least – were smashed, their pieces scattered about, likely due to the bizarre skeleton creatures that had given chase. Beneath where one had been, though, was revealed to be a shallow hole with something inside.

“My turn!” Nyte shouted, as he leaped into the cavity in the floor before anyone else could, checking it for traps before pulling out his prize. It was a belt of ammunition, handily labeled “Depleted uranium rounds for standard issue minigun.”

“Nuts,” he said as he took the belt and tossed it over to Fenix, who deftly plucked it out of the air. “Oh well, maybe next time.”

“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times,” he said as he stowed the belt in his backpack. “Solid-round is the way to go.”

“Bah, I say.”

As the travelers looked to the paths yet taken, they found the left path still bore a pair of blood red eyes that glowed faintly in the darkness, a scratching sound echoing in the distance. Meanwhile, the middle path simply remained dark and seemingly empty.

“Hmm,” said Fenix. “Decisions, decisions…”

“Glowing scratchy horror, or unseen invisible horror,” added Xenos. “So, wanna find out what those eyes are, or… into dark emptiness?”

“Personally, I think we should go left,” Fenix said. “It’s probably just another pygmy skeleton trying to scare us.”

“Sounds like left it is,” Nyte said, before looking at Fenix. “We ready?”

“Yup,” Fenix said, once again taking the lead. Nyte followed, with Janine behind him, preoccupied by something.

“Nyte,” she asked, “do you work out a lot?”

“Uh, not really?”

“Hm, odd,” she said in a thoughtful tone.

“I think he works out one of his arms a lot, maybe that’s it,” Fenix said.

Nyte smacked Fenix in the back of the head. “You’re one to talk. Your room wasn’t that color when we moved in, I know that much.”

“Neither were your sheets.”

“Were too.”

“Dear lord,” Janine said. “Don’t you guys ever wash anything?”

“I do,” Nyte said.

“We’re bachelors,” said Fenix, “of course not.”

“I don’t think he’s even washed the inside of his helmet since I met him.”

“I take better care of my helmet than you take care of your face.”

“Hey, at least I can show my face without scaring off half the party.”

Though the others couldn’t see, Fenix’s mechanical red eyes lit up at that, and he let out a low, animalistic snarl that made the hairs on the back of Janine’s neck stand up, while Xenos’ armor actually seemed to be scared.

“Let’s… just get this over with,” Fenix said as he stalked off down the tunnel. Nyte nodded in agreement as he and the others followed.

Whispering to Nyte, Janine asked, “What was that about?”

“He gets a little sensitive about that,” Nyte whispered back.

“Do you know why?”
Nyte shrugged, and said, “Eh, you saw him, and you see that mask he wears. All I know to tell you.”

“He really isn’t ugly,” Janine said with a frown, “but there’s just something unnatural about him. I’ve never seen a human with eyes like that, not that I can remember.”

“I’ve seen a few. Cybernetic implants and the like aren’t uncommon, actually… not among Diggers, Pirates, or those retired from either.”

Getting impatient, Xenos looked around and decided to turn on his armor’s floodlights. In front of the group stood what appeared to be a zombie of massive proportions. Nine feet tall, its bones were thick and covered in ancient sinew. Its muscles looked lean, but powerful, while its hands curled into blade-like claws. Drooling, it cackled excitedly at its prospective meal.

“…whoa, momma,” said Fenix.

“Hoo-boy,” added Nyte.

“Eep,” was all Janine could muster.

“…big,” said Xenos.

He then switched the lights off. “Do you think he saw us?”

The barely-decayed lich stumbled forward into the light of the candles lining the tunnel, its jaws gaping and hands raised to slice the Diggers’ heads from their bodies.

“I’m thinking that’s a ‘yes’,” said Nyte, as he aimed his Nyte-Buster and fired at whatever looked vulnerable.

Xenos joined in with his own artillery, while Janine raised her hands and formed a ball of flaming orange energy between them. “Tora Ha!” she yelled as she let the sphere fly.

The zombie shrieked madly as its flesh was rent asunder by the various blasts, with Janine’s ripping off its right arm. Nyte switched to his Gatling Buster and opened fire all over it, then Janine let loose another blast of energy, right before Fenix leaped in with his beam sabers and cross-slashed at the beast. An unholy roar could be heard echoing down the tunnel as it fell backwards, being reduced to dust.

“Guess that’s that,” said Nyte.

A short distance ahead, the tunnel ended abruptly with an unusual room. Ten feet high, fifteen feet wide, and thirty feet long, its most unusual feature was that it was plated with metal. However, nothing was there, save for a single chest at the far end of the room.

Nyte studied the chest for traps. Behind him, Fenix asked, “Well?”

“Nothing obvious.”

Elsewhere in the room, Janine noted the peculiarity of the metal floor, while Xenos tested it by stomping a few times. Nyte stepped to the side of the chest and opened it up, revealing… nothing.

But as soon as the lid was thrown back, an eerie screech reverberated throughout the room as the doorway through which they had entered sealed itself with a sliding door, trapping them inside. Ancient machinery groaned to life behind the back wall, while thousands of spear blades emerged from the side walls before they began to close in on the Diggers.

“…right,” said Xenos.

“Scrap,” said Nytetrayn.

Fenix let out an extremely loud and fierce expletive.

“Oh, you guys worry too much,” said Janine.

After getting nowhere with trying to blast the blades apart, the group looked for some other exit, or a switch, or something that might stop the oncoming walls.

Looking over at the chest, Nyte had an idea, and tried closing the lid again.

Nothing. The walls continued to close in.

Xenos scanned the chest, and finding nothing, tried to fumble around inside for some sort of switch. Still nothing.

“That’s it,” Fenix said. “We’re all gonna die. And Nyte is still a virgin, how sad.”

“Poor guy,” said Xenos.

“Bite me, both of you,” said Nyte.

“Wouldn’t you prefer Janine to?” asked Xenos.

Janine grabbed Nyte and pulled him close as he yelped. “I can fix that. Take me, you dark-armored demon of lust!”

“I hope someone’s trying to think of something,” Nyte said, sweating.

“Oh hell,” Janine said. “The pointy things are starting to get close, guys…”

Then it hit Nyte. The sound.

Pulling himself free of Janine’s grasp, he said, “Everyone! The back wall! Give it everything you’ve got!”

Getting clear of the back wall, the group let loose with a flurry of Buster shots, chain gun rounds and missiles, grenades, and energy blasts, reducing the wall to rubble and leaving behind nothing but fragments of metal among a shower of earth and stone. The spiked walls come to a screeching halt and the blades retract, followed by the door groaning open once more as the candles in the tunnel flicker back to life.

“I ought to shoot first more often,” Xenos said.

“Indeed,” Fenix said.

Meanwhile, Janine gulped as she stood mere millimeters from where the tip of one spike had been just seconds ago.

“Less talk, more walk, how ‘bout it?” Nyte said as he headed out the door. Fenix and Janine followed, with Xenos rolling along behind them.

Back at the intersection, Fenix noted, “Only one way to go, now.”

“Indeed,” said Nyte.

“And it can only get worse,” added Janine.

“Of course.”

“Nyte, you sure you don’t want to take Jan up on her offer before we move on?” Fenix asked.

“Uh, er…” Nyte stammered nervously.

“Come on, Nyte,” said Xenos. “Be a man… or become one, whichever.”

“Um… what was it that thing was saying was next?”

“Next, we get to the end of this dungeon, then we move on to the bog,” said Fenix.

“…right. Let’s do that, so we can get out of here, eh?”

“Okay, you want some privacy then?”

“Yeah,” said Janine. “I think you two watching would ruin the experience.”

“Right-o,” Xenos said. “Hey, Fenix, I’ve got a TV in this thing, is there a game on?”

Nyte’s face had a look of nervous annoyance.

“I think the Novas are playing the Dash today.”

“Excellent.”

“I thought it was the Neo Vs. the Legends,” Nyte said, eager to be a part of any other subject – even that one.

“That’s next week,” Xenos said.

“What do you care?” Fenix added. “You’re getting laid.”

Janine smiled demurely.

“Anyways, we aren’t getting any younger here,” Nyte said, hoping to get things back on track.

“Right!” said Janine, just before a lacy, black garment hit Nyte in the face. “So much for that,” Nyte thought as he pulled it off his face.

“Oh, yeah. C’mon, Fenix, I saw a nice spot to wait back there,” Xenos said as he wheeled his armor away, with Fenix following.

Wincing, Nyte handed the garment back to Janine between his thumb and forefinger, a bit nervously. “Uh, not here,” he said.

“…something wrong?”

“Uh,” Nyte said as he desperately tried to think of something. “The surroundings are too… ah, distracting.”

“Ehhh, I guess they are a little gloomy,” she said.

“Yeah!” said Nyte. “All that… death, and… uh, more death. And dying! Don’t forget the dying. The dying is a big part of it. Big, um, downer… that.”

“Another time, then.”

“Er, right.”

Janine turned to call out to the others. “Hey, Fenix! We’re done!” Behind her, Nytetrayn let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Already?” Fenix answered back. “I figured he’d be quick, but this is ridiculous…”

“Jeezus,” said Xenos. “Kid needs more stamina.”

“It was the best hot sweaty ten seconds of my life,” Jan said.

Nyte was so done with this, as one could tell from the frustrated, exasperated expression on his face.

“Well then, shall we go?” Fenix asked.

“Yes, let’s,” said Nyte.

Fenix led the way, with Janine behind, waving her hips seductively in front of Nyte and Xenos. Nyte just wanted this all to end, while Xenos followed Janine as if hypnotized. Fenix, meanwhile, could barely keep from laughing.

For five minutes of walking, the tunnel stretched on until the Diggers came to a massive oak door, inlaid with black iron and fitted with two huge rings to open it. The tunnel was silent as a tomb as the travelers approached.

“Right,” said Xenos. “Want me to open it right now, or wanna scan for traps first?”

Before anyone could answer, the earth beside the door exploded inward as shrieks erupted throughout the close confines of the tunnel. A mass of skeletons appeared, unearthing themselves and hurling their sharpened fingers at those who would intrude upon their turf.

Janine let out a shriek, while Xenos simply said,”Okie-dokie” before bashing one skeleton to bits. Nyte and Fenix opened fire on them with their Buster and Gatling arm, respectively, as Jan steeled herself to beat more back with a sword formed from her energy. Once the last skeleton was slain…

“I am a golden god,” Fenix proclaimed.

“…right,” Nyte said, unimpressed.

Fenix grabbed one of the door rings. “Well then, let’s open her up!”
The door creaked open slowly, but easily. Beyond lay an enormous subterranean cave, a natural limestone cavern, complete with strange rock formations and a narrow stream. The chamber was vaguely circular, stretching over a hundred feet in diameter. In its center rested what looked like an iron box, not only locked securely, but fastened tightly to the ground with chains and stakes.

“Do we even want this?” Nyte asked.

“I think we have to,” said Xenos. “Want me to scan it in infrared, so I can say nothing’s unusual about it before we open it and spring the trap?”

“Isn’t that SOP? Go for it, Xen.”

“Oh man,” said Janine. “I have a really bad feeling about this.”

“Right,” Xenos said as his scanners read nothing but snow. “There’s something here, all my sensors are jammed.”

“My skin’s crawling,” said Janine.

“So, one of you guys want to try the box?” Xenos asked. “Unless Pandora’s inscribed on it or something.”

“I got the last one,” said Nyte. “I’m waiting right here in the doorway.”

The Pirate relented. “Fine, I’ll go,” he said as he walked up to the box and examined it for any signs of Epimetheus, Pandora, Prometheus, or just anything Greek. Not finding anything of the sort, he tried knocking on the box.

Suddenly, an abrupt gust of wind blew through the cave, strong enough to force Nyte off his feet, falling forward into the chamber and landing on his face as the door swung shut behind him. Screeching could be heard, metallic and mechanical in quality, as heavy footsteps began to emanate from the far end of the cavern and a humongous humanoid silhouette appeared.

“Crap in a hat,” muttered Nytetrayn.

A voice echoed throughout the chamber, its source indiscernible by listening alone. Deep and booming, it carried with it a hysterical edge of madness as it began to speak, not in the unintelligible manner of the zombies before it, but in comprehensible human speech.

“Who dares…? Mortals! You have wandered further than is good for you. Those who disturb the slumber of Yog-Sothoth must die!”

Stepping out of the shadows, the massive form of Yog-Sothoth stood well over twelve feet tall, and was encased in black armor covered with demonic engravings, spikes, horns, and blades. Whereas his right hand wielded a broadsword with an enormous blade, his left needed no weapon, as its fingers extended into large, blade-like claws. A large, domed helmet sat atop his shoulders, bearing four holes through which it could gaze upon those unfortunate enough to cross its path. And as it lurched forward, one could hear the screeching and creaking of joints and other mechanisms one could only guess at.

He took a step towards the Diggers gathered before him. And another. And still another, each emanating a feeling of murderous intent.

“Right, big guy with arcane weaponry,” Xenos said, as Yog-Sothoth took a shuddering step forward, rearing his blade back for an enormous swing. “Now, that’s uh… quite the name you have there…”

“Insects… prepare to feel my wrath…”

Xenos whispered to Janine, “You still have any of that big-ass blasty power left?” “Yes,” she replied. “Excellent,” Xenos said as he began to scale the walls.

Nytetrayn sighed, raised his Buster, and fired a shot right between Yog’s eyes, while Janine shouted “Hame Tsunami!” and unleashed a wave of raw flame at the creature.

Yog-Sothoth stood still, not flinching at either attack.

“…great,” said Nytetrayn, as he went for his Gatling Buster.

“Worthless scum!” the monster bellowed. “You are nothing to me! Less than nothing!”

“Right-o!” said Xenos, attempting to fire through the eye holes with his machine guns. Unfortunately, even as they raked over his face, Yog proceeded to lumber towards Nytetrayn.

“Crap,” said Nyte, but an idea came to mind, and he stood his ground.

“Prepare to feel mine ancient steel…” it said, as it wound its blade back for a wide horizontal slash, ready to cleave the young Digger at the waist.

Xenox, taking his armor up along the ceiling and over the box in the middle of the room, yelled out, “Nyte, move!”

The blade followed through cleanly… a little too cleanly, as there was nothing left where Nytetrayn had once stood. “What the?!” Yog exclaimed, as he tried to figure out where his chosen victim had gone.

From the tip of Yog’s blade, a crouching Nytetrayn motioned for the others to keep quiet before rushing up the giant’s arm and onto his shoulder. Pointing his Buster at Yog-Sothoth’s ear, he switches to Saber mode, the energy blade extending outward… but unfortunately, to no avail, as he tried to swat Nyte away, but missed as the Digger leaped down to avoid his clawed reach.

Meanwhile, Xenos dropped from above down onto the box, which got a rise out of their enormous foe as he yelled, “get away!!!” and charged at the Air Pirate, blade swinging frantically.

“Guess that didn’t work,” Nyte said, as he moved behind a stalagmite for cover while he quickly disassembled his Gatling Buster and put together a different weapon kit.

“Whatever we hit it with doesn’t seem to hurt it!” Fenix added.

“He’s probably a zombie, too,” said Janine, “but since he’s covered in armor, he won’t just fall apart!”

“The box!” Xenos shouted, leaping away to avoid the terror’s fearsome swings. “He’s protecting the box!” With that, Xenos turned his plasma cannons on the box, prompting Yog-Sothoth to leap in front of the box, taking the blasts full on by himself. “We have to shoot the box!” Xenos cried out again.

“Screw the box!” said Fenix as he pulled out his plasma caster and loaded the strange cartridge he found earlier. “Eat this!”

Fenix pulled the trigger, and an enormous beam of red and black energy lashed out, striking Yog-Sothoth in the face.

“Stupid humans,” the giant seemed to say. Which was an impressive feat, as he no longer had a head with which to say it. Nevertheless, he staggered forward and swiped at Fenix using his claws, striking the Digger and sending him flying.

“Guys, we could nuke him and I don’t think he’d give a crap. Get the frickin’ box.”

“You two handle the box!” Nyte said as he made his way back up atop the goliath, trying to keep his balance. “I’ll keep Yoggy-boy here distracted!”

With that, Nyte unloaded his Grenade Arm’s ammo into the hole where Yog’s head had once been. “Bombs away!” he said, before leaping clear of not just the explosion, but another irritated swipe from Yog. “Yikes!”

The sound of Yog-Sothoth’s voice seemed to narrow as one approached the middle of the cavern. In fact, it seemed that the voice was actually coming from the box in the middle.

“Idiots,” Xenos muttered as he fired at the box again, this time with his shots finding their mark… only for the box to remain largely unharmed. “…oh.”

“I have an idea!” said Janine, as she formed an energy sword and slashed at the box, slicing apart the chains which had been holding it shut.

As this was going on, Nyte had taken cover again to switch to another weapon kit.

“Oh, crap,” Xenos realized. “It just occurred to me… whatever’s in that box may damn well be worse, and this guy’s just trying to keep it locked up!”

As he was saying this, Janine had kicked the lid off the box. Inside, a human head of disturbing size and proportion stared back at them, as it managed to rock back and forth in rage, despite a complete lack of a body. Its eyes opened wide with feverish madness and its mouth carried forth an ear-piercing scream, ranting and raving and hurling curses at those who had the misfortune of gazing upon its twisted visage.

“Damn you, humans! Damn you all! I’ll kill you, kill you…!!!!”

Janine backed away, looking nauseous and gasping for breath. Meanwhile, though Nyte was glad to be the distraction instead of whatever they were doing, he was annoyed that the Splash Mines he was placing in the giant’s path weren’t as effective as he’d hoped they would be in slowing the creature’s stride. With the flat of his blade, Yog-Sothoth was able to smack Janine away from the box with a yelp, but Xenos was able to catch her before she hit anything.

As Nyte prepared his next weapon, Fenix returned to the fight, finally managing to do some damage to Yog’s body by ripping the back of his armor open with his beam sabers. You wouldn’t know it, however, from how the unflinching form whirled around and slashed at Fenix.

“Xenos! Nyte! Now!” Fenix yelled, just before getting caught by the attack. “G’argh!” he cried out as he fell back, clutching his chest from the blow.

At that, an angry Nytetrayn took aim with his Powered Buster at the opening left in Yog’s back, and without any quips or banter, opened fire. Yog stumbled forward as the blast struck him, his limbs flailing before Nyte let off another round, and then another.

Elsewhere in the room, Xenos had set Janine down and made his way back to the box in the center. There, he tried not to look too closely at the head inside before blasting it. Yog-Sothoth let out one final cry as Xenos’ attack reduced the head to nothing more than a small pile of charred bone and roasted flesh.

At the same time, the body of Yog-Sothath stopped lurching, and finally fell to the ground with a metallic thud.

That done, Xenos went to find a place to politely throw up.

As that was happening, Nyte quickly rushed to his friend’s aid. “Fenix! You okay?”

“Ow… that’s going to leave a bruise, or something.”

Nyte helped him sit up, getting Fenix’s energy canteen out and giving it to him. After a few sips, Nyte and Fenix got to their feet, the latter holding a huge dent in his armor.

“Jeez,” Nyte said grimly as he took in the damage, before trying to say more cheerfully, “Don’t worry! I’m sure that’ll buff right out! Especially with all the stuff Xenos has in his workshop!”

“Oog, yeah,” Fenix said. “Right…”

On the other side of the cavern, Janine sat in a dark corner with head on her knees, sobbing to herself before letting out a particularly loud cry. Xenos sprang out of his armor and ran to her side.

“Is she okay?” Fenix asked as Nytetrayn helped him to where Janine and Xenos were..

“Janine! What’s wrong?” asked Nyte .

“Janine,” Xenos said, “are you alright?”

Shuddering, Janine simply replied, “That… that face…!”

“Face?” Nyte asked.

“There was a head in the box,” Fenix said. “Yog’s head.”

“It’s gone, don’t worry,” Xenos told her. “Just forget about it.”

“Ew. No wonder he was so protective of that thing.” After a moment, he added, “I guess you could say he lost his head over it.”

Janine snorted, making a sound that was like half sob and half laugh. Meanwhile, Xenos took a moment to check himself for any head bits, while Fenix flicked a tooth he found on himself away disdainfully.

After Nyte checked himself over and came up clean, he asked, “So, where do we go from here?”

“Back to the main corridor, I think,” answered Fenix, as Janine got back to her feet.

“Great,” Nyte said. “I hope we get out of here before nightfall. This is not on my list of favorite overnight places to stay.”

After Xenos checked to see if Janine looked stable, he said “I wonder, what was he guarding? I mean, other than his head?” while he proceeded to check his armor’s scanners.

“I have a bad feeling,” Janine said, “like this was just a decoy or something. Whatever’s hidden down here, I think it’s behind that fifth door.”

“I think I’m gonna be ill,” Fenix said.

“Alright, you guys wanna push it and find a way out of here, other than getting to the end?” asked Xenos. “I could call up the Helpbots and have them get us out.”

“Eh, we’ve come this far,” Nyte said as he looked around for anything of value that might have been dropped. Really, though, he figured that whatever way they were getting out, it wasn’t going to be the easy way.

“We’ve come this far,” said Xenos, “and we find this crazy Yog Sothoth guy.”

“I wonder how much all that armor’s worth?” Janine said. “Or the sword?”

“She has a point,” said Fenix.

“How do we get the sword out, though?” asked Nyte. “It’s a bit big.”

“Xenos,” said Fenix, “maybe we could tie it to your suit?”

“It’s strong enough,” the Air Pirate replied, “but not if we’re going to be digging more.”

“We could leave it at the intersection,” said Nyte.

“Yeah,” Xenos said.

“So let’s do that,” Fenix said, and everyone agreed.

Nyte removed some rope from his backpack, and was preparing to tie it to Xenos’ mech when Janine took a step and stumbled, almost losing her balance. “You okay?” he asked.

“I… I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not tired, I just… feel shaky…” As she started rubbing her bare arms, she added, “And cold.”

Fenix removed his cloak and put it around her shoulders. “It’s just the shock… you’ve been through some serious stuff down here.

“Okay, I think we should find a place to rest for a while,” said Xenos. “Let Janine recover.”

“Sounds good,” Nyte said, and Fenix agreed.

“Yeah… I’m fine,” Janine said. “Just… need to rest…”

“I’ll stand watch,” Xenos said as he started removing a tent from his survival pack and setting it up. “You guys rest in the tent. It’ll probably be less… eerie in there.”

“You’re gonna set up a camp right here?” Fenix asked, while Nyte simply gave the pirate a look of disbelief.

“It’s okay,” Janine said. “He’s right, this cave’s a little cleaner, at least.”

“How long a break are we taking?” asked Nytetrayn.

“Until everyone’s ready,” said Xenos. “Don’t worry… I went the extra mile and have some sound proofing on the tent, it should be easy enough to sleep.”

“Just a few hours, long enough for a nap,” Fenix said. “Xenos, I’ll take a watch in a while so you can sleep.”

“Naw, don’t worry. I’ve got some motion sensors on my armor, and I’ve been known to fall asleep in the engine room.”

“Alright, come on then, let’s get a bit of rest,” Fenix told Nyte and Jan. “And Nyte, you can’t have any sex right now. Jan’s tired, and if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, I ain’t into that!”

After a silent pause and a moment of digging around for some Splash Mines to put into Fenix’s knapsack, Nytetrayn sighed and went for a rest. Janine just shook her head and stepped into the tent, and Fenix followed.

Meanwhile, Xenos got back into his armor and set it to its defensive mode, its motion sensors active.

To be continued…

—–

Legends of the Halcyon Era is a work of fan fiction set in the world of Mega Man Legends. It is largely adapted from a series of freeform RPG sessions, combining ideas from several contributors, and further fleshed out here in a prose format.

David Oxford, also known as LBD “Nytetrayn,” is a lifelong Mega Man fan who, along with his wife Nadia, has co-written the Mega Man Robot Master Field Guide and Mega Man X Maverick Hunter’s Field Guide from UDON Entertainment, and runs The Mega Man Network (themmnetwork dot com). You can also find him on Twitter @LBD_Nytetrayn and @themmnetwork, and on Twitch and YouTube under the name “Nyteworks.”

You can also find Legends of the Halcyon Era as it updates at Archive of Our Own.

Thanks for reading!