- 9TH DUNGEON, 3RD CHAMBER -
The sounds of low murmuring slowly drew Darrel from his sleep, and when he opened his eyes a bright yellow light welcomed his sight. For a moment Darrel watched the firelight bounce about the rocky wall, then he remembered passing out on Greyan's back as they fled from the horde of undead.
"You are finally awake?"
The feminine tone in the voice could not hide its authoritative potency, Darrel had not seen any female prisoners, but that did not mean there were none in Oris. However, realizing who the singular option may have been, he immediately sat upright and was met by a familiar yet rare sight.
"It's... you."
Darrel recognized the lady sitting on a rock across from him, it was the same lady he had encountered when he first woke up in this world.
A fury started to build up inside of him, but he quickly chastened it. Though she was part of the Holy Knights, the lady before him had yet to offend Darrel in any way, and there was no reason for him to despise her as he did with the others.
"Are you alright?"
"Why are you here?" Darrel responded grudgingly. "Here to execute me already?"
The lady knight stood up and walked over to him, seeing her approach Darrel lay back down and accepted his fate. He had already tried to fight against death, it would do no good for him to continue living this way if fate was going to proceed in this manner.
"Why are you laying down Dar-rel?"
The retaliated question came as a surprise to Darrel, he knew it was her way of demeaning her question and preventing him from inquiring further. Darrel recalled this well because she had been there during his interrogation, and used the same method a few times on him already.
"You still haven't answered my question."
Darrel was adamant about his query.
As a Holy Knight, she was not only a high-ranking officer but also a weapon of considerable destruction. Her presence here would mean that she was here to recover their party or exterminate them.
'An unbeatable assassin.'
"There was a situation at the Ingress, something the Second Warden could not ignore."
Darrel sighed.
"We were attacked by a mountain of undead, we managed to quell most of the enemies." Darrel sat back up. "Unfortunately, they kept coming back."
Darrel had a flashback of the undead gripping his heart in its palm, at the time his vision had blurred before he could see it clearly. However, he could tell that it was different from the rest of the undead they had been fighting.
"What of the creature that attacked you, what happened to it?"
Realizing that the lady knight had already interrogated the rest of his party, he continued to explain what had happened as clearly as he could remember it.
"I couldn't see it coming, but it had a weakening touch and chilling aura..." Darrel clasped his head. "That's all I can remember right now."
The lady knight nodded then she sat back down on the rock and took out a scroll from her satchel and wrote some notes.
"Are we done?"
Without a response the lady knight continued to scribble down on the scroll until she was satisfied, then she looked up back at Darrel.
"From your record encounter, I believe that the creature that you faced was a lich." She stated. "It had a fear aura skill greater than your resistance and it used a life-stealing ability on you, that's why your health points were so low."
"My health points? You can tell?"
The lady knight looked at Darrel with an annoyed glance, but ignored him and proceeded to gesture him to leave.
"Your companions are outside Dar-rel."
"A question if I may..." Before he could leave Darrel recalled a particular event that was still troubling him. "A few days ago someone tried to kill me by planting a cursed pickaxe, I think this may be the same people's doing."
Darrel noticed that the lady knight peered at him from the corners of her eyes while trying to seem focused on the scroll before her, from the look of her expression Darrel figured she may have known about what happened.
"Your assailant is still unknown." She responded. "You'd best watch yourself out there."
The blatancy of her disregard left Darrel in shock, he could not believe what he was hearing from the Holy Knight. She was supposed to be in charge of the guards, her presence should have some weight in this place.
"Are you joking with me?" Darrel asked comically then he stood up and started to laugh hysterically.
"You mind sharing your humor Dar-rel?" The lady knight's eyes were now fixated on Darrel.
This delighted Darrel because now he had caught her attention, but from the look on her face, he could tell that she did not share the same feeling. At that moment a light red glow began to emanate from her exterior.
Darrel noted the light and wondered if the fire light was playing tricks on him, but he ignored the signs and continued his verbal assault.
"You brandish your shimmering armor to the masses, but inside you are devious monsters who sneak around in the shadow murdering people!" Darrel stated. "That's right, I see through your facade. I know you are not as holy as you think you are."
"Enough!" A gust of wind blew towards Darrel and sent him crashing back on his bottom. "How dare you talk down on me?! I am Seuvial! The First Princess of Moriandia!"
The red glow that Darrel had been seeing suddenly flared up, and the light in the whole cavern changed from the light yellow color emanating from the fire to a bright hot crimson spewing out from Seuvial's body.
"Lieutenant!"
One of the guards rushed into the cave, Darrel noted that he wore a different armor from the regular prison guards and figured he must have been one of Seuvial's guards.
"What is it?"
As quickly as the raging aura had emerged from Seuvial, it immediately receded back into her body.
"We have just finished exorcising the undead in this chamber." The guard stated. "We also managed to pinpoint where the source of the infestation is coming from."
"The source is a lich." Lieutenant Seuvial stated. Her gaze remained on Darrel who looked back at her with disdain. "Make ready we will head into the final chamber to destroy this fiend."
"Are you sure Lieutenant?"
The lady knight's gaze snapped from Darrel to the guard and with a sour expression, she pointed straight at him.
"Calestian, have you elevated your status to become my advisor this day?"
"My humblest apologies your highness."
Calestian dropped to one knee after being reminded of her multiple statuses of superiority over him, Calestian bowed his head deeply praying that his mentor and majesty's fury would pass over him.
To his fortune, it did.
"Take him and leave."
Darrel was roughly led outside by Calestian who pushed him towards his companions, Darrel bumped into Orimik who yelled at Calestian.
"Hey, he's still recovering you know!"
"I wouldn't care if he dropped dead!" Calestian snared at Darrel's party with a contorted look on his face. "Unless you are challenging a Holy Knight's Squire?"
Calestian's hand lay on his weapon's hilt as he tried to stare the party down, but Darrel and his companions stood there without moving an inch. Seeing their adamancy, Calestian waved his hand and returned to the Lieutenant's side.
The group sat around a fire that had been made a few feet away from the cave, the Holy Knight had placed monster repelling wards around a small area which kept any monster weaker than her away from the area allowing them to rest peacefully.
"Wait I remember that guy." Luca started. "That's the guy you beat up, right Darrel?"
"What?!"
Greyan and Orimik resounded.
"Darrel knocked him and his buddy out with one hit, I still remember it like it was yesterday." Luca chuckled.
Luca then proceeded to explain the events that led to Darrel's capture and how the two met on their way back to the Oris Prison Mines.