How Black the Sky

found what he had hoped for there - an intact stairwell leading up into a central tower. If he could get up high... The stairs were damp with condensation, every step a risky venture.
The stairwell terminated in a hallway that had been barricaded with furniture at some time long past. He charged toward this, barrelling through it with an armored shoulder. Moldy splinters of wood burst forth as he crashed into the hall beyond. He glanced to the left and right, looking for a way to get higher. Outside, the Monstrosity reached the castle and pounded on its remaining walls. Pierce heard the ancient stone blocks tumbling to the hard ground, splatting into the coating of muck, scraping along the wet stone beneath.
A fist the size of a boulder tore through the wall at the other end of the hallway, ripping apart a huge portion of the castle structure. Crashing sounds echoed from every direction. Pierce looked up and moisture from the ceiling dripped onto his faceplate. He looked at the gauntlet on his right hand. Two of the five gems set into it still glowed a deep orange. He growled.
One for the ceiling, one for the giant's skull.
He thrust his gauntleted hand upward and triggered the blast with his mind. A lance of red-orange fire bore into the blocks of dark stone, reducing them to clouds of hot dust. With a mighty thrust, Pierce leaped through the hole and onto the roof. He was met by the Monstrosity's contorted face, skin gnarly like the bark of a tree. Its wet beard dripped black sludge onto the castle roof.
Pierce dashed for its right eye as it opened a mouth full of broken teeth to roar. He drew his longsword from a sheath at his side, its blade glowing bright blue. The giant's attention went immediately to the weapon, and its eyes widened in fear or rage. Pierce cocked his fist back, then thrust it toward the giant's eye and triggered his final blast.
His aim would have been perfect, but for the massive fist that backhanded him by surprise. He nearly lost his grip on his precious sword as he careened through the air, away from the ruined castle. He hit the ground hard, splashing down in the thin layer of muck, feeling it seep into the seams between the pieces of his armor.
"Wasted the shot," he muttered, getting up and starting to run again. The ground was softer here, and it made the boot-sticking worse.
He needed to find a way out of the Underlands. If he didn't get back up to Overland to tell everyone about the invasion, well, there was no one else who knew. The Underlord's plans would proceed unchecked.
The Monstrosity didn't give him another moment to think. It had easily spotted the shining blue blade and came stomp-jogging to catch up. Pierce could see where his desperate gauntlet blast had hit, blowing off the giant's ear, which now dangled from the side of its skull, dripping blood or sludge. The thing didn't seem fazed by this and came on as if no head trauma had been suffered.
Pierce sheathed the sword and scanned the environment desperately for hope. If the ruined castle was anything less than a few thousand years old, it would have been near a temple, and a temple should have been built around a convergence. He could use that to get back up to Overland.
So where was the temple?
There, a mound of earth with a spire protruding upward. That could be it, but if it wasn't... He committed himself. Pierce sprinted toward the mound, searching for that peculiar feeling of unease he knew should be there. He felt nothing.
Then, he did feel something. Right near the spire, not quite where the center of the temple should have been. It was the feeling, like the need to vomit, like his guts desired to crawl out of his body and into the muck. He tried to focus.
"Imagine climbing," he said to himself. The Monstrosity was almost on him. His voice quavered in a whine. "Come on..."
He felt a tingle, then an itch across the surface of his skin, the sensation of moving backward, being pulled up by the neck. The slithering moon faded away, to be replaced by the roiling red fire of the sun. He'd never been so happy to see its bloody tendrils flicking about the black sky, pulling it across the vault of day. Now he was standing on a grassy knoll, the muck of the Underlands slipping off his sabatons. The grass recoiled, but couldn't escape.
Pierce let out a breath of relief.
The ground beneath him heaved abruptly upward, tossing him several feet to the side. Pierce recovered to see that the Monstrosity had appeared, buried from the knees down in the soft earth. It had heaved one foot out of the ground and was working on the other, screaming at Pierce unintelligibly.
He was in shock. People had always said the Monstrosities wouldn't come up to Overland, for they hated the light of the sun. But here it was. He shook his thoughts away and turned to run. There had to be a town around here somewhere.
"So you've paid him up to Jubilee?" Scythia asked her husband.
He grinned and put a rough hand over hers.
"The place is ours till then, darling!" he said. "We don't have to take just any old cliff-licking jobs anymore. Just the good ones."
"There are good cliff-licking jobs?" she quipped. Her husband laughed.
She loved seeing him happy like this, his smile surfacing from beneath that thick red beard. He'd been so proud of that last bounty, so insistent on taking it despite the danger. She had to admit it had paid off. New armor, lots of food, and rent paid for the next five years. She'd been looking to settle down for a while.
"We did good, Axie," she smiled at him, crowning his hand with hers. He blushed a little at the nickname, looking around as if he