I ran through the streets of Kerudark, trying to get to the abandoned church as fast as possible. Luckily for me, I met Evelyn on my way there.
She was also running around frantically, as if looking for something.
Grinning at my absurd luck, I ran up to her while shouting, "Evelyn!"
***
"Evelyn!"
Hearing the familiar shout, Evelyn's ears perked up as she immediately turned around. Widening her eyes in surprise at her absurd luck to have found Theodore this soon, she shouted back, "Theodore! Primel has—"
But he interrupted her. "Don't talk! We don't have much time, follow me!"
"But—"
"No but's! It's urgent!"
And with that, Theodore grabbed her hand and pulled her toward some sort of dark and shady alleyway. Making 5 more turns, they arrived at a dead-end.
"There's nowhere else to go, Theodore, w—"
But before she could finish her sentence, Theodore made a mad dash toward the wall that was the dead-end.
"WAIT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Screamed Evelyn as she looked at the wall in horror.
Ignoring her pleas, Theodore rushed straight into the wall without slowly down or letting go of her hand.
Evelyn sensed imminent impact and thus, closed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth to brace herself for the pain. However, a few seconds passed and she didn't feel any pain. Slowly opening her eyes, she let out a short gasp of surprise upon seeing that she was now inside some kind of dark building.
Soon, she lowered her eyes at Theodore and grumbled, "At least tell me beforehand that it's an illusory wall..."
In response, Theodore merely waved his hand dismissively and led her deeper into the building; a putrid smell assaulted Evelyn's nose as she followed Theodore.
Eventually, they arrived at a wooden door. Theodore raised his foot up and kicked the door down, not caring about the residents who might've been living inside this building.
"Theodore! Pulling me with you and forcing me into a shady building that smells like corpses; you owe me an explanation!"
"Yeah... I probably do," said Theodore as he scratched the back of his head and shifted to the side to give Evelyn full view of the area beyond the door.
With her golden eyes that shone in the dark, Evelyn could see barely-illuminated room better than Theodore could ever have. She saw children of all races being stuffed tightly into metal cages, some of them had bruises all over their bodies; most looked like they weren't fed for several weeks.
Instinctively, Evelyn clenched her hands into fists and glared at Theodore. "You... did you do this?!"
Theodore's body turned stiff as his mouth hung open in surprise from Evelyn's words. Calming down a bit, he hurriedly spoke up, "What? Of course not! Why'd I show you this if I'd kidnapped them?"
"...Makes sense... sorry."
"Whatever. Now, I'll explain the reason why I called you here, I need your help freeing these children."
Evelyn nodded and stepped closer to the cages. Surprisingly, she could see a familiar face.
"Ayla?"
The little Elf girl cheered in happiness upon noticing Evelyn's presence. "Ah! It's the big sis cat! Are you here to save us with Saint Theodore?"
"Yes. But... why are you here? Aren't you with your mother?"
"I was... but some funny-looking guys in black clothes dragged mommy away and took me here. P-Please save us! The men b-beat me up whenever I ask for m-mommy..."
Evelyn stayed in silence as she grasped the girl's hand reassuringly with a blank look. In her mind right now, seeds of doubt was sowing.
Theodore, who saw this, grinned in satisfaction. However, he knew that this was not enough to fuck with Lumaria's plans. Thus, he placed a hand on Evelyn's shoulder to wake her up from her trance. "Don't relax just yet, our job is still not done."
"What do you mean? Don't we just free the children?"
"No," said Theodore with a tired sigh. "As long as the slave ring exists, these children will be captured again if they are freed. We have to exterminate it from the root."
"I-I see, so what do we do? Wait for them to come back?"
"There's no need to," smirked Theodore as he tightened his grip on Evelyn's shoulder.
He tapped on the floor with his foot on the floor once.
"You hate humans more than anything else, correct?"
Without waiting for her answer, he tapped his foot on the floor a second time and continued.
"I know why you're like that—"
Tap.
"—You were sold as a slave—"
Tap.
"—Alongside your mother—"
Tap.
"—You watched your mother get raped, beaten up, and eventually killed in front of your own eyes just for trying to protect you—"
"Shut up! What do you know?!"
Tap.
Theodore shook his head bitterly at Evelyn's outburst. "I know everything."
Tap.
"Ummm..." Ayla suddenly spoke up. "...A-Are you going to save us?"
Theodore took his eyes away from Evelyn for a split moment to reassure her. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to rescue you once we finish our business below."
Tap.
"Now Evelyn, you used humans as a target for your hate, thinking that the entire race is despicable just because of the vile actions of the few. Thus, I'll show you just how vile living beings can be."
Tap.
"Wha—"
"Shhhhh!" Theodore shushed her by putting a finger to her lips. "You don't need to talk. My dear Evelyn, I hope that after this, you'll—"
Tap.
"—Hate everyone equally."
Then, the floor became transparent, and they fell through it.
"AHHHHHH!" Screamed Evelyn as she fell through the air. Scared shitless, she desperately clung onto Theodore.
Unlike the first time he was here, Theodore wasn't afraid of alerting the slavers anymore. Pointing his left arm up and agglomerating Wind mana, he—
[Wind burst]
—Accelerated their descend with a burst of Wind. As he sensed that they were close to the floor, he redirected his left and down and used another [Wind burst], this time with much more intensity, creating a loud boom. It was almost as if he wanted to announce to everyone in this underground slave den that he was here.
Landing on the ground safely, Theodore picked up the still scared stiff Evelyn and carried her toward the metal cages; the deathly smell coming from the cages was so bad that it woke Evelyn up from her blank state.
"Here you go," said Theodore as he placed her right at a specific spot right in front of the cage. "Here's your Jacob. Come pick him up or whatever."
As soon as he finished his words, the door to this dark room was burst open.
"Oh, great timing. Evelyn, you handle this, and I'll take on everything else."
And with those words, Theodore jumped up and disappeared onto the ceiling beams, leaving Evelyn behind to deal with whoever that had just kicked the door open.
Gulping and slowly turning her head around, Evelyn met eyes with a human man who was gripping a strong-looking spear in his hands.
"Who are you," said the man as he pointed his spear toward Evelyn.
Evelyn quickly calmed down and assessed the situation. Jacob was indeed there in the cage, looking at her with a mixture of hope and fear. The man, who had weird scars on the top of his head and butt, was of roughly the same rank as her. However, in this dark space, she had an advantage thanks to her night vision.
As such, she hurriedly punched the ground to cover her fists in wood splinters and the stones that were underneath the floor. Getting into a fighting stance, she shouted provocatively.
"Come! I'll kill you dead, filthy human!"