I WILL FOLLOW YOU TO THE GRAVEYARD

Silencing The Forge

The Grand Forge of Solis stood as the lifeblood of the Holy Empire's military might, pulsating deep within the fortified belly of the military high-quarter. This vast underground complex channeled molten steel into weapon molds, crafting the impenetrable armor and formidable blades that kept neighboring kingdoms in constant dread.

Colonel Darius Ironheart commanded this blazing empire. He led the mighty Nine with a belief that any threat, be it rebellious factions or supernatural dangers, could be obliterated with enough steel and black powder.

Under Darius's stringent watch, the forge's surface levels were more secure than the imperial vault. Heavy gates sealed every entrance, paladins guarded the parapets, and thermal detection systems mapped the heat of each room, ensuring even a mouse couldn't pass unnoticed.

However, Darius and the Nine underestimated their adversaries, believing their enemies were confined to the laws of mortal physics.

Exodus Thorne, navigating the primary ventilation shafts three hundred feet below the forge's main floor, skillfully bypassed the upper security checkpoints. Down here, the heat was stifling, a furnace capable of boiling a human alive in minutes. Sulfuric gas and soot filled the air, illuminated by the glowing orange magma pipelines feeding the smelting vats.

Yet, Exodus remained unfazed. The absolute cold of the Revenant corruption within him acted as an unyielding barrier against the heat. His face stayed icy cold, and dark veins across his torso pulsed with an eerie green glow.

Beside him, his ash-hound, recently awakened, slipped through the iron grates like smoke. The creature's green embers flared as it sniffed the structural pipelines, mapping the facility's layout.

Exodus wasn't there to assassinate Darius. In strategic warfare, one doesn't attack a fortress head-on when it's possible to dismantle it from within.

His mission was to sabotage the fuel supply.

The Grand Forge depended on Hell-Fire Oil, a volatile, alchemically enhanced liquid. This fuel, pumped from deep underground, heated the smelting vats to temperatures necessary for refining imperial titan-steel. Stopping its flow would solidify the vats into useless cold iron, rendering Darius’s artillery division impotent.

Exodus sprinted across narrow catwalks above magma rivers, his speed and agility enhanced by the soul of Kael Darkwater. He moved silently, a shadow in a landscape of fire and iron.

He reached the primary fuel junction, a vast chamber with three towering brass cylinders humming with pressurized Hell-Fire Oil. The pipes were reinforced with iron rings and secured with massive valves.

"Choke the heart," whispered the Graveyard's voice in his mind. "Let him face the cold embrace of death."

Exodus leapt down onto the central valve platform, his undead form absorbing the impact effortlessly, even as the stone beneath him cracked.

Approaching the main valve, Exodus gripped the iron wheel. He unleashed the icy chill of the underworld, freezing the machinery. A violent hiss followed as the cold met the boiling oil, and black ice raced across the cylinders, freezing the iron pipes.

The metal strained under the sudden temperature change, groaning as it warped. Exodus twisted the valve wheel with supernatural strength, breaking it from its axle. He plunged his hand into the secondary cylinder, his cold fingers gripping the pressure regulator.

Void-magic siphoned the heat from the Hell-Fire Oil, transforming it into a thick, frozen sludge that jammed the pumps.

Warning sirens wailed through the forge, signaling a total pressure collapse. Above, the molten steel rivers slowed and dimmed, throwing the forge masters into chaos.

Exodus stepped back from the ruined junction, his ash-hound snarling in satisfaction as black ice enveloped the main fuel lines.

"Let Darius search the skies for answers," Exodus murmured, his eyes glowing with green fire. "The true threat comes from below."

With that, he vanished into the ventilation shafts, moving faster than any guard could react. The Empire's industrial heart was now crippled, leaving Darius blind and vulnerable, as the stage was set for the next step in the campaign against the second grave.