The trek outside the city didn't last very long, and the casual atmosphere didn't ease my nerves either. Though, maybe I would have admired the scenery, if maybe I didn't think I was walking towards death.
The sewer entrance wasn't too far from the gate, only around 20 minutes of walking. It was oddly clean for something meant for draining excrement.
The opening was huge, it almost seemed like more of a cavern than anything else. It was surrounded by large stones, which were also scattered around the field outside of it. The creeping darkness within seemed almost unnatural in the slowly fading daylight.
Vale casually walked up to the entrance, not even drawing his sword, and walked right in.
"Wha..." There was no light in the sewer, how could he even see?
He walked back outside, turning to me. "It's an Arc, there's light inside." He turned around and walked right back inside. "Oh."
I step inside, feeling an empty cold pierce me, I shiver, my body quaking under invisible pressure. I need to escape, to leave this place. The thought of turning back is tempting but I have to find Vale. I work my way forwards, getting colder all the while, until, like tearing out of a prison, I emerge onto the other side.
The cold was gone, the light of torches lit the way forwards, and Vale was standing there, waiting for me.
He raised an eyebrow at my appearance. The cold sweat dripping off my face, my labored breaths compared to his eternal, unflustered calm.
He almost seems to mentally shrug as he walks down the path, deeper into the sewer.
"You can't give me a minute?" I stagger forwards, catching up to walk slightly behind him.
"No." He doesn't even turn back as I try to compose myself.
I took a deep breath and kept walking behind him, gradually, body parts sporadically began appearing through the tunnel. His pale blue aura seeming to be a lantern in the darkness.
At first it was hardly noticeable, some fingers or eyes. But as we went deeper, parts became much larger, and even... eaten. Entire torsos without head, arms and legs with chunks taken out of them, they shallow water beneath us tinted red with blood. The dark shadows of parts floating by put my stomach to the test as well as the smell.
I try my best to hold my breath but the foul stench is impossible to block out. Luckily the water was still shallow enough to move around in.
After what seemed like minutes, we come up to what I'd guess was a storm overflow, only it wasn't anymore.
At the bottom, the grisly sound of crunching echoes around the chamber. Pained whimpers and sniffles come from one side of the room, but I can't see well enough at this distance, the only light coming from Vale, a pale blue glow, only lit up enough to see a few meters in front of me.
Vale looks to me and cocks his head towards the overflow.
I whisper, "You want me to go down there? You can fuck right off."
The crunching from below comes to a sudden stop, something that almost sounded like a chirp came from below.
I see what looks like a shadow move across the floor, its figure hard to discern from the inky black surrounding it. It was like the darkness moved with it.
I look towards Vale, who's face almost seemed tense. He moved his hand down the the sheathe of his sword and scanned the pit. I nudge him, whispering "The crying from before stopped too, what's going on?".
The shadow below us stopped moving and almost seemed to grow. Vale looks over to me, looks me up and down, and speaks.
"You're kind of an idiot aren't you." He shoves me to the side as a flash of darkness engulfed him, and the sound of screeching metal screams down the path we'd just taken as the darkness disappears.
"Well shit." I look down into the now reasonably lit chamber, seeing a huddled up body towards the left side. But quickly coming towards it, are long eaten corpses. None were complete, all were partially eaten, missing limbs, or decomposed to some degree.
The person being slowly attacked looks on in fear, a sliver of sanity just a glint in their eyes as they look on towards their death.
*Honor System Activated: Though lost, a Ronin is still a Samurai. Abide by Your Honor, or risk losing yourself.
Looking at the notification, then back at the zombies, then back at the notification, then back at the zombies, I pull out my Katana.
"Vampire zombies, sounds like something I could probably take. Maybe." I take a headcount, seeing maybe three that can actually attack me properly and decide to focus on them.
I take a deep breath and take the leap, staring down my first real threat in this world, and wishing I could go back.