Opening the hidden entrance proved easier than expected. At first I feared that it would be like the entrance to the hidden tunnel, in that we needed to perform a series of actions in the right sequence or risk sounding some kind of alarm. However, to my relief, that wasn't the case.
Anna stumbled upon the solution when she leaned against a nearby wall and pushed in one of the glowstones embedded in it. There was a click, before a section of the floor opened outward like a trap door without a sound. Despite the absurdity of this, no one laughed or even smiled.
This was because the hidden entrance revealed a stone stairway leading downward into some dark abyss. For some reason, the sight of it made my skin crawl. The stench of blood, rot, and human waste wafted out, causing me to recoil in disgust.
I glanced at Anna and Cally, both of whom wore serious expressions on their faces. I gestured for them to get closer to me. Once they did, I activated my invisibility bracelet once more. Afterwards, the three of us descended down into the depths.
The three of us remained vigilant as we moved downward, wary of any traps or hidden enemies. However, nothing happened. No needles shot out from the walls, no blades swung down from the ceiling, no hidden runic circles attacked us. This should have reassured me. Instead, it made me even warier.
Given the number of people Lady Isabel kidnapped, she would've put measures into place, just in case any of them tried to escape. This remained true, even if she killed most of the prisoners already by draining their vitality. Given how difficult it was to find the hidden entrance, Lady Isabel already proved that she was a paranoid sort.
So, the lack of security measures worried me. It meant that she either didn't care if the prisoners tried to escape, or she was confident that they wouldn't. Both options boded ill.
As the three of us descended down the stairs, the stench of blood and human waste grew even stronger. So much so that I almost gagged as bile rose up my throat. It took an effort of will to keep it down.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I realized that it wasn't as dark down here as I first thought. There were glowstones embedded in the walls. However, the light they provided was so dim that I still found it difficult to see anything. We were in a hallway that led to a large chamber, I saw that much, but little else beyond that.
I opened my mouth to ask Cally to bring out the glowstone again, but then I stopped. I heard a slithering sound as something in the darkness ahead of us moved. I glanced at my companions, barely able to make out their faces in the dim light. From the expressions they wore, they heard the slithering as well.
There was something down here.
I drew my sword, while the others made their own preparations as well. My intuition warned me that the invisibility bracelet was useless against whatever was down here. Even if it wasn't… Well, it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Cally," I said, speaking just above a whisper. "Get ready to bring out the biggest and brightest glowstone you have."
She nodded. With that, we headed down the hall and into the chamber. There were glowstones embedded into the walls here too. However, the chamber was so large and the glowstones so weak that their light didn't illuminate much. All I could make out were rectangular shapes spread out across the chamber at regular intervals. They looked a bit like altars. Laying atop the altars were…
A shriek rang out, interrupting my train of thought. Less than a moment later, several writhing and wriggling shadows flew in our direction.
Cally reacted first and pulled out a large glowstone, one the size of my fist, and filled the chamber with a bright yellow light. What I saw made my blood run cold.
Flying towards us were about a dozen or so mind eaters. They must've sensed our minds even through the invisibility bracelet. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn't be much of a threat. However, we were in a small and confined space, which left us little room to maneuver.
Faced with an immediate threat, I didn't have much time to take in the rest of the chamber before the mind eaters attacked. They swarmed us, an endless mass of tentacles. My mind revolted at the sheer wrongness of it all. On an instinctual level, I knew that these things didn't belong here.
Gods, I hated demons.
Anna and I activated our Auras right away. Thunder crackled and the smell of ozone filled the air as a silvery dragon surrounded my entire body. At the same time, a suit of armor made of thorny vines surrounded my fiancée. Together, the two of us clashed with the mind eaters while Cally worked her magic.
I slashed one in half with my sword. Thanks to my Aura, I sliced through the mind eater with ease. It didn't even have time to shriek before its two halves fell to the ground, spurting black blood. The other nearby mind eaters hesitated for a moment, before rushing towards me again.
Meanwhile, Anna kicked several of the mind eaters away, forcing them back. Cally, on the other hand, formed dozens of ice spikes with her magic and shot them out towards the mind eaters.
All this gave us enough time to retreat back into the hallway. Otherwise, the mind eaters would've surrounded us and tried to overwhelm us. Once in the hallway, Cally chanted an incantation and formed a series of mudras with her hands. A moment later, two ice walls formed in the hallway. They blocked most of the entrance to the chamber, but left a narrow gap in the middle.
I grinned. Good. This would prevent the mind eaters from overwhelming us with sheer numbers. This made them much less of a threat.
An intelligent foe would've stopped to reassess the situation. However, the mind eaters, despite their diet, weren't all that intelligent. They continued to charge at us through the narrow gap.
I deactivated my invisibility bracelet, since there wasn't any point in using it anymore. Stealth mattered little at this point.
"Here," I said, pulling out the sleeping bombs and handing them to Cally. "The guards must've heard those shrieks. They'll be here soon. Keep them off our backs while we deal with the mind eaters."
Cally took the sleeping bombs and nodded, before heading back up the stairs. However, she made sure to give me the fist-sized glowstone before she left.
Anna kept the mind eaters at bay during that entire exchange. Once Cally left, I joined her. Together, we made short work of the mind eaters. We even developed a routine.
Anna would lure the mind eaters towards her, keeping safe thanks to her Aura. Once the mind eaters overextended themselves, I would finish them off with my Aura. Lightning was the natural bane of demons, which made killing the mind eater simple for me.
After a while, the mind eaters stopped charging through the narrow gap. They must've realized that trying to attack us from such a disadvantageous position was suicide. However, it was already too late. By this point, there were only three or four mind eaters left.
Anna and I entered through the gap and attacked the remaining mind eaters. Once the last one lay dead, I dismissed my Aura and breathed out a sigh of relief.
Despite the relative ease of defeating all those mind eaters, the fight took a lot out of me. My mana was low. That was the downside of defeating enemies above my power level.
However, I didn't have the luxury to rest at the moment. Right now, Cally was facing against Lady Isabel's thralls. With her magic and the sleeping bombs, she'd be able to hold them off for a while. We needed to finish up here and get out as soon as possible.
I looked at Anna and opened my mouth to say something, but paused at the expression on her face. She looked ready to murder someone.
No. That wasn't right.
Anna looked ready to rip someone apart with her bare hands. I followed her gaze, to figure out why, and froze at what I saw. This was my first time getting a good look at the chamber. Earlier, I hadn't noticed anything because it was too dark or because I was too focused on the mind eaters.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The chamber itself wasn't anything special. It was about the size of the cellar above and spherical in shape, with walls made of rough-hewn stone. Wooden doors led to other rooms and chambers.
The rectangular shapes scattered across the chamber were indeed altars, each one made of stone. There were a few dozen of them. Laying atop these altars were people, each one young and attractive. None of them were tied or bound in any way.
It took me a moment to realize why. All of them were awake and staring up at the ceiling above, their eyes vacant and empty. The lights were on, but no one was home. I glanced at the mind eaters.
A horrifying realization washed over me.
As soon as I made the connection, I couldn't hold back anymore. I rushed to a nearby corner and emptied out the contents of my stomach. I heaved and heaved, until there was nothing left. Worst of all, I couldn't smell my vomit over the stench in the chamber. That caused me to heave again, but nothing came out.
I had seen a lot of fucked up things in my life, both of them. However, this… This was one of the worst by far.
After a while, I felt a warm hand on my back.
"Why?" I asked, my voice rough. "Just… Why? She could've left them alive until she drained their vitality. There was no need to feed them to those things."
I thought that Lady Isabel had taken care of her victims, feeding them and keeping them alive until she drained them of their vitality.
I was wrong. I was so wrong. How naive of me.
"She just needed their vitality, not their minds," Anna said. "This way, she doesn't have to worry about them trying to escape or causing trouble."
"This is…" I shook my head, before looking up at Anna. "This is beyond inhumane. This is monstrous. Demonic. Why would anyone do this?"
Anna looked at me with a sorrowful expression on her face.
"This is what we're fighting against," she said. "If we don't stop the demons and their servants, this sort of thing will become commonplace."
I looked into Anna's eyes and noticed the same pain I felt. However, hers was several times stronger. How many scenes like these had she witnessed? How many scars did her heart bear? Most of all…
"How do you do it?" I asked. "How do you keep going despite the horrors you've witnessed?"
"I keep going because I don't have any other choice," Anna said. "I keep going because if I don't, things will only get worse."
Despite the bleakness of her words, they filled me with a strange sense of reassurance.
"Thank you," I said, before wiping my mouth. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that."
Anna shrugged, before giving me a wry smile. It didn't reach her eyes.
"We all went through it at some point," she said. "There's no shame in reacting this way." Her expression hardened. "We just need to make sure to kill the bitch who did this."
I nodded, my expression matching hers. Yes. She was right. While we couldn't save these people, we could avenge them. They deserved that much. Anger and hate replaced the horror and disgust.
I stood up and straightened myself out. After I regained my composure, or as much of it as I could given the circumstances, I took another look around. Other than the altars and Lady Isabel's victim's, I didn't see anything else.
"Lord Benicio must be in another chamber," I said.
Anna nodded, before gesturing to the doors.
"I take one side, you take the other, and we meet in the middle?"
I nodded. The two of us opened the other doors and searched through them. One led to some kind of storage room. Another to a study, one with bookshelves filled with all kinds of sinister looking tomes. I assumed these belonged to the demon worshipers that Lady Isabel killed.
While she wasn't a demon worshiper herself, she was well on her way to becoming a demon summoner. If she wasn't already. Those mind eaters came from somewhere. If Lady Isabel hadn't summoned them, then she must've taken them from the demon worshipers she killed.
The third door I checked was locked. However, since stealth didn't matter anymore, I just kicked it until it broke down and clattered to the ground. On the other side I found a small room. It was just large enough to hold a wooden bed, a wooden nightstand, and a wooden dresser. A small glowstone lamp hung from the ceiling.
A ragged man sat on the floor, leaning against the far wall. He wore what had once been an expensive outfit. However, it looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks, if not months. The rest of him didn't look much better. His hair was long and matted, and he had a big, bushy beard.
The man didn't react to me breaking down the door. Instead, he just stared at the ground, a hollow expression on his face. His eyes looked lifeless. If it weren't for the slight movement of his chest, I would've thought he was dead.
I caught Anna's attention and gestured for her to come over, before I turned my attention back to the man in the prison cell.
"Lord Benicio?" I asked.
The man stirred at that. He lifted his head and looked up at me, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
"Are you here to kill me?" he asked, his voice rusty as if he hadn't used it in a while.
I shook my head.
"No," I said. "We're here to rescue you."
The glimmer of hope died.
"Oh." Lord Benicio looked back down at the ground.
I grimaced. This wasn't good. Lord Benicio looked hollow and empty, devoid of all emotion. Broken. What had happened to him?
You know what? Nevermind. I already knew the answer.
Hell.
He had been through hell. That was what happened to him.
I walked forward and stopped a few feet away from Lord Benicio, before crouching down.
"Lord Benicio," I said in a gentle voice. "My name is Gabriel. Your brother sent me to rescue you."
Lord Benicio stirred once again. This time, when he looked up at me, he had a spark of life in his eyes. It wasn't much, but it was more than the glimmer from before.
"César?" Lord Benicio asked. "César's alive? Alive and free?"
I nodded.
"Yes," I said. "When he found out what your grandmother was doing-"
Lord Benicio spat on the floor, interrupting me.
"Don't call that… creature my grandmother," he snarled. "I want nothing to do with her. She…" He paused and let out a sob. "She made me watch. She made me watch as those demons…"
Lord Benicio stopped and didn't resume. Instead, he covered his face with his hands and started wailing. It was a high-pitched keening. I sucked in a breath. It sounded as if someone wounded the very foundation of Lord Benicio's being.
"I don't think we'll get much more out of him," Anna said from behind me.
I sighed.
"Grab him and meet up with Cally," I said. "I'll join you guys after I finish up here."
I stood up and looked back at Anna. She nodded in understanding, before pulling several large jugs out of her inventory ring and placing them on the ground.
"Oil," she said. "So you can burn this place down afterwards."
I nodded in thanks. Anna walked past me and picked up Lord Benicio, heaving him over her shoulder. He showed no reaction to this and kept wailing.
After Anna left with our target in tow, I took my sword and walked up to the nearest altar. One by one, I put Lady Isabel's victims out of their misery. If there had been any other way, I would've taken it. However, there was no coming back from having one's mind consumed by a mind eater. It was better to send them to the afterlife.
Knowing this didn't make it any easier for me.
After I finished with my grim work, I took the jugs that Anna gave me and spread oil all over the chamber, including the rooms beyond. I paid particular attention to the study, making sure to cover all the books.
Perhaps it would've been smarter to take the books and study them, so we could use the knowledge they contained against our enemies. However, I didn't care. I was filled with too much disgust to even consider that an option. I just wanted to destroy everything demonic or tainted by demons.
After I covered everything in oil, I walked to the chamber's entrance and ignited the oil. The fire spread fast with a loud whoosh, burning everything in its wake. Thick black smoke started to fill the chamber and the smell of burning flesh overpowered every other stench.
I said a small prayer for Lady Isabel's victims, wishing them peace in the afterlife, before I turned around and left.
Once I reached the top of the stairs, I heard the sound of fighting. I rushed over and found Cally and Anna at the stairway leading upstairs, fending off the guards. Lord Benicio sat off to the side, hunched over. My companions looked like they were holding their own for now, but it was just a matter of time before the guards overwhelmed them.
"Ready?" Cally called out when she saw me.
"Ready!" I yelled back.
Cally nodded, before she spoke an incantation and formed a series of mudras with her hands. A wall of ice filled the stairway, preventing the guards from coming down the stairs.
"Thanks the gods," Cally said, sagging with relief. "I barely had enough mana left to cast that spell. I didn't know how much longer I could hold out." She nodded with satisfaction. "That should hold back them for a bit." She threw a glare my way. "You know I'm still just a Second Circle wizard right now, right? Fending off that many Third Ranked Awakened took a lot out of me."
"Thank you," I said in a listless voice.
Cally's glare faded away and she looked at me with concern.
"That bad?" she asked.
I nodded.
"Let's just get out of here," I said. "Before the guards find Arturo and the others."
Anna and Cally nodded, before the former picked up Lord Benicio. With that, the three of us left through the escape tunnel and made our way out of the cellar.