"Cough cough…"
A soft coughing sound reverberated underground.
Next, the sound of rocks being removed was heard, followed by a worried male voice.
"… Aya, are you alright?" Bloed asked the girl in his arms.
"I am… Thank you." The cat girl nodded softly.
Bloed sighed in relief before looking at his surroundings and frowning.
The place was very dark, but Bloed's eyes were special. His technologically-advanced blue eyes allowed him to see clearly despite the darkness.
"… So we are in the tunnels, huh." He commented.
Aya lowered her head and nodded.
Looking back, Bloed saw that the entrance was blocked by debris. There were at least five meters of debris stopping them from exiting the tunnels.
Bloed did not know whether to laugh or to cry.
'I sure have bad luck with tunnels, huh…'
It was Bloed's second time being trapped in a tunnel. And both times, it was caused due to an explosion.
Bloed was starting to wonder if he had some kind of bad fate with tunnels.
'Fortunately, it looks like we are uninjured.'
Bloed reacted quickly when the explosion happened. He activated [Door of Nothingness], the defensive technique that he created together with [Imaginary Slash], and used it to receive the explosion.
[Door of Nothingness]'s effects lasted only one second, but that was enough to protect Bloed and Aya from the explosion.
After that, though, the tunnel started to collapse. Fortunately, Leto turned into a metallic ball-like barrier that protected Bloed and Aya, stopping the debris from crushing them.
That was the reason why neither Bloed nor Aya was injured during the explosion.
But despite that, the situation was not good.
Bloed and Aya had fallen underground and the entrance had been sealed when the tunnel collapsed, so the pair was trapped inside.
Moreover–
'I can't communicate with Regina or the others.'
Bloed frowned inwardly.
He tried just now, but something was interfering with the communications.
In other words, he did not have any way to tell the Valkyrie or the others about his situation.
'This is bad… She must be crazy right now…'
He could imagine a very angry Regina rushing towards here right now.
Knowing her, she must be flying towards the alleyway where they found the entrance to the tunnel at full speed.
'At least, it means that we will be rescued quickly, huh.'
With that thought in his mind, Bloed smiled wryly.
He could imagine how angry Regina would be after she rescued him. After all, he was the one that insisted that she stayed behind.
She probably would be mad for a while after this.
While Bloed was lost in his thoughts, he felt Aya pulling his shirt.
"... Bloed, what should we do?"
"Let's wait here." He told her about his plan. "We don't know what kind of dangers are here underground, so it's better if we don't move recklessly. And if we stayed here, we will be rescued by the others silently."
Aya nodded slightly and looked to the ground.
For some reason, though, she was biting her lips with a dejected expression.
"… Sorry. It was my fault."
"Aya?"
"… If I would have not been so reckless, this would have not happened."
Bloed was startled before smiling wryly. He was about to say that it was not her fault, but at that moment, he felt a fluctuation of mana coming from the surface.
Bloed recognized it immediately. It belonged to Eres. She probably was using it to find them.
But all of sudden, Bloed's expression changed.
"Careful!" Bloed shouted. At the same time, he hugged Aya's petite body again and kicked the ground, running away as quickly as possible.
Aya was confused, but in the next instant, her expression changed.
Because she saw several magic circles lit up on the walls of the tunnels.
Just like when the tunnel exploded!
Bloed gritted his teeth. He ordered Leto to turn into a barrier to protect them again. At the same time, he looked at one of the magic circles on the walls with a grave look.
But then, his expression changed.
'That magic circle… It's not an explosion spell! This neither... Dammit, there are many different spells!'
Just when Bloed realized that, the magic circles activated.
The next second, the entire tunnel was filled with flames!
Bloed's expression turned ugly.
'Dammit!'
"Aya! Hug me tightly! And don't use mana!"
Aya nodded and hugged Bloed tightly.
One second later, the pair was covered by the flames.
Fortunately, Bloed's reaction was quick. Thanks to that, he managed to get Leto to protect them.
However, his expression changed again soon.
Because he felt the tunnels trembling slightly.
'It can't be!'
A bad feeling hit Bloed.
Without hesitation, he hugged Aya tightly and ran forward as quickly as he could.
And behind him, the tunnel started to collapse once more.
…
In another part of the tunnels.
No, it could not be called a 'tunnel' anymore. Instead, it was an underground facility.
Twenty pillars held this underground facility, and the many rooms and halls dedicated to experimenting with living beings showed the horror of this place.
Tens of people walked around the facility with hurried and anxious expressions as though they were getting ready to run away from here as soon as possible. At the same time, two men were standing at the entrance of this facility.
*Slap!*
"Idiot!"
One of them, a black-clothed man, slapped another with an expression of rage.
Surprisingly, this man was the abomination that Bloed and the others were chasing!
No, it was not right to call him 'abomination' anymore. If Bloed would have been here, he would have been surprised to find that the abomination had recovered its human features.
"Several sections of the tunnels collapsed just now. Do you know what that means!? It means that someone followed you into the tunnels and triggered the defense mechanism! Fool!"
"… S-Sorry, I-I did not think that they could find the entrance to the tunnels."
"Idiot! Why do you think the masters risked themselves to appear and fight the headmistress? To protect the secret of the tunnels! However, you revealed it just now!"
The man lowered his head with an ashamed expression.
Seeing that, the black-clothed sighed and shook his head. "Whatever. Academy City managed to catch four of our members and another idiot revealed the tunnels as well. We had to abandon this place after that."
The other sighed in relief when he heard that.
But then–
*Spurt!*
A hand pierced his heart.
The man opened his eyes wide. He looked at the black-clothed man in front of him with a stunned expression, before smiling self-deprecatingly.
"So I have to die, huh..."
"This is your punishment." The black-clothed man said.
He then pulled his hand out, tearing the man's heart out.
With blood spurting out of his chest, the man smiled softly before collapsing on the ground, dead.
Seeing that, the black-clothed man wiped the blood on his hand with a piece of cloth before looking at a man nearby.
"Clean everything." He said. "We need to leave for the lower levels in one hour."
"But boss, what about the experiments? We can't move all of them in one hour."
"Then move as many as you can." The man replied coldly. "As for the others… Release them. They will be a nice surprise for the people that will come here later."
...
P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels