After a while, we arrived at the entrance of the capital's sewers, before entering, I talked with Fei Xue.
-How many beasts do we have?
-Here are fifty beasts gathered, according to the guild's level of danger, among them are twenty class D, fifteen class C, thirteen class B, and a pair of class A.
The guild´s level of danger.
It´s a categorization system made by the adventurer's guilds together with the kingdoms of all the world, with it, the level of danger of magic and demonic beasts are categorized.
This is the order:
F- Almost null lethality, any person can kill it with anything in hand.
D- Low lethality, previous training, and a weapon are recommended to kill it.
C- Lethal, only armored and trained groups can kill it.
B- High lethality, only experienced armored groups with mages can kill it.
A- Extremely lethal, it requires a great number of mages and armored people with combat experience and high quiality gear to kill it.
S- Calamity, the participation of the kingdoms are required to kill it.
SS- Dark god, only a hero can kill it.
My numbers weren´t very high, but the quiality compensate for it.
-Mmm, all right, Iris, How many exits are?
Taking her hand to her chin, Iris closed her eyes in silence.
After few seconds, she answered the question.
-There are eight exits in total, four pointing to the cardinal points and the other four in diagonal, the cult may have escape passages that we unknown.
-Nothing out of the ordinary.
Then I looked at the magic beasts.
-Fei Xue, I want the twenty class D flying in a radius of one to three kilometers around the castle´s walls, two class C and three class B flying according to the clock's hands from every cardinal point, make sure that their elements don´t bother each other, the class A that can fight in closed spaces comes with us, if not possible, I want them flying above the capital until a strong enemy appears.
...
Contemplating that none of the beasts were moving I glanced at Fei Xue, only to realize the astonishing face she had.
It wasn´t a surprise since she didn´t know about my past, but I didn´t have the time to talk about it right now.
-Do I need to repeat myself?!
-Ah! Ehem* Not at all master, right away.
After clearing her throat, Fei Xue transmitted my instructions to the birds, in a short time, they started to fly in the pointed directions.
In the end, just some kind of ostrich with metallic feathers and a horn with a knife´s shape was left.
...What in the actual fuck?
-Gweek! *
The ostrich seemed... Strong?
You´d probably feel threatened for having a giant metallic bird in front of you.
-... Those feathers are too noisy, Can´t you do something about it?
I don´t know how that thing understood me, but the feathers of the ostrich turned fluffy after a weird shake.
Problem solved.
I had accustomed to the absurdities of this world, so I forgot what happened quickly.
-... Let´s go.
Both Iris and Fei Xue nodded with confused faces and we stepped into the sewers.
Flowing water, large halls of humid gray stone, and the smell of stagnant.
The roofs had tiny crystals that brought a bit of light, but it still was hard to see where to go, due to this, Fei Xue held my left arm and Iris my right sleeve, the ostrich had its peak grabbing my back.
-How do you know this is the right way?
-It´s the same with you, I just need to follow the flow of my sister's mana, she probably made the trace stronger in purpose so I could find her.
-Well, at least it seems like the other sister has some functional neurons.
-Are you calling me dumb?!
-If you feel dumb then you're probably dumb.
-Humph!
It didn´t seem like Iris was leading us to a trap, so I believed in her method.
-By the way, Are you a general from another kingdom?
-Who knows, Why do you think so?
-I don´t think that a normal person could command such a large group of magic beasts that well.
-I´m also curious master, Where did you learn to do that?
Understanding that I wasn´t able to avoid this question I thought my answer carefully.
-... I was a member of a certain army, I learned one or two things about ordering people there... that´s all.
-Oh, C´mon, you can´t just cut it there!
I stopped my steps, let go of Fei Xue´s hand, and looked at Iris.
-I said...
Then I grabbed her cheeks.
-That.
-Weh?
Pinched them.
-Is.
-Ow!
And then pulled.
-All.
-Ow! Ow! Ow! All right! All right! I get it!
When her cheeks were red I let go of her.
-Then keep walking.
-Nnnn... Dick!
-Heh.
We walked through the sewers for a time until Iris stopped in front of a wall.
-... It should be here...
Iris started to touch the wall, she just needed some seconds to find a brick that worked as a button.
-Here!
Tick*
Once the brick was pushed, a sliding door formed in the wall.
Inside there was a long twisting passage lightened by crystals.
When a passage seemed to have an end, it flowed in shorter passages, it was basically a labyrinth, but it would be no problem thanks to our guide.
-I´ve got the flow, just follow me.
-Wait.
Before Iris could pass through the door, I glanced at Fei Xue.
-Any barrier I need to worry about?
With a movement of her hand, five invisible walls materialized in front of us, and a hole opened long enough to let us walk through it.
-Nothing I can´t handle.
-Nice.
We kept our way with Iris beside me, we encountered some cultists, but all of them received a knife in the head or the neck before they could realize what hit them.
I supposed that Iris wasn´t used to this kind of scene, since she looked quite disturbed.
If a fight comes, she´ll only be a nuisance.
I striped the cultist and made everyone except the ostrich wear their clothes.
-It´s a bit stained with blood, but you´ll have to bear with it.
-... How can you be so calm after doing that?
-Unfortunately, you get used.
-If you know is unfortunate, Then why do you keep doing it?
-Because sometimes there´s no other choice.
-... There´s always another choice.
-You´ve never killed to survive before, Right?
-S-So what?
-Because the people that have killed to survive never say something about other choices, it´s your life or theirs, nothing more.
-B-But...
-Shh! Seems like we´re almost there.
I didn´t want to keep this useless conversation since we were arriving at the source of strange noises.
Behind one door of stone, the chants of blasphemous languages were developing with the same energy of a party on Friday night.
-Life detection.
Thanks to how close we were, it didn´t take long before my skill could localize all living beings in the surroundings.
Without counting the rats and insects, there were a hundred people in total, twenty of them were trapped and being sacrificed.
-From the flesh of the invaders the true owners will be reborn!
-N-NO! WAIT! PLEASE! AAHHHH!!
The number was decreasing fast.
It was a large and rectangular space, while two people were doing sacrifices over a podium, the spectators were kneeling and throwing chants that seemed screams.
Before entering, I looked at my companions.
-Iris.
-Yes?
-Go back and search for the capital´s guards, tell them what´s going on, and don´t look back.
-What?! I´m not doing that! I´ll go with yo- HMPH*
Before she could keep talking, I covered her mouth with my hand and took off my mask.
-Stop making stupid requests to the person with experience, if I tell you to go back, is not for sentimentalism, is because the situation requires it, Understood?
I didn´t know what face I had or the tune of voice I was using, but the worried look from the elf made clear that they weren´t too kind.
-...Mmmhmm...
Accepting the logic of my actions, Iris nodded.
-Good, now do as I say and start running, use that cloak to point who is the enemy, and don´t talk with anyone who doesn´t have a griffon on its armor.
I put on the mask again and released Iris.
-Go, now.
The elf turned around and began to run as fast as a frightened bunny, but she stopped halfway.
Iris looked straight where my eyes were and did a deep bow.
-Please, save my sister, I´m sure that if it's you, that is possible.
-... Keep running...
I didn´t give her any guarantees, but Iris smiled.
Then eventually I stopped hearing her footsteps resonating through the passage.
-... Haaahh*
-You did the right thing master, if she had stayed her protection wouldn´t have been easy, and I doubt her mind is ready for what´s behind that door.
-I didn´t do that to protect her, I just don´t want dead weight holding me back.
-... Huuh* Whatever you say.
The tired expression of Fei Xue made obvious the fact that she didn´t believe me, but none of us considered to have the time to discuss about it.