The middle one looked around suspiciously and in her expression a look of anger was shown, the shadow on the left was a little taller than the middle one, she put her hand on her waist seeming to think and soon Arthur heard a female voice.
"Tytew, did you leave that goddamn house open? What are you going to do if there are invaders?"
The female voice had the aggressive tone, meanwhile the bigger shadow seemed to put its hands together.
"Why, Miss Lohrr, there are no more residents here, they're all doing their jobs. What else can come here from all this distance? Haha ha."
The voice was male and seemed to be that of a slightly older man, right after the sentence, the female voice clicked an infuriated tongue and began to speak.
"If we can avoid any threat, we will do so while Lord Corun is not here. If any threat arises it will be your fault, I'm sick of working with incompetents."
"Well, don't be like that… hahaha."
The voice exuded kindness and a certain charisma, Chris listened attentively, still staring through the bottom of the door while questioning himself.
"Corun? Are they talking about these roles?"
While Arthur watched the shadows remain at the entrance, generating strangeness in the swordsman who continued to watch feeling his heart beat in an accelerated way that gradually calmed down.
The moonlight remained hidden by the clouds, until the sound of a cold wind hit the windows while Arthur's eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness.
The shadows remained still while little by little the cloud left, letting a little light begin to appear.
As the brightness increased, little by little Arthur could see the appearance of the shadows that were there.
The female voice had long red hair, in addition to wearing a long dress of the same color, her skin was light and her ears were slightly pointed, in her hand was a red ring that contrasted with her yellow eyes.
The man with the kind voice was tall, his hair was white and his skin was completely pale, in addition to there being some sewn features of different skin tones, he had a pointed ear and on the other side there was nothing, on his finger was a ring with the black colors looking kind of scratchy and his eyes were also yellowish as he wore a tailored suit as well.
Arthur could see them clearly and the cloud continued to move away so he could see them better, but as soon as he turned his eyes to the smaller one he noticed a black outfit that seemed to have some torn lines.
His hair was dark and his ears were also pointed, in addition to his face looking a little thinner, he seemed to be the youngest of them all and he seemed to stare at the hatch with curiosity.
Arthur adjusted as he brought his hand slowly to the hilt of his sword, pulling it lightly from the scabbard making a subtle sound audible only to the swordsman in the room.
However, before he withdrew the sword completely, he felt a chill down his spine and saw the smaller's yellow eyes turned towards him.
It was as if he was staring directly into his eyes despite being in the dark, in an instinctive movement, Arthur pulled back still seeing the yellow eyes in his direction, feeling his heavy breathing again as he put his hand over his mouth to not make any sound.
Chris saw the smaller one turn his head towards Arthur and then took a deep breath, bringing his hand to the hilt of his wooden sword, feeling his body begin to sweat in the face of the threat.
The two continued to stare at the smaller one, attentive as if expecting a movement, while the shadows remained in their places, until Tytew questioned.
"Is there a problem, young master Pharos?"
The smallest continued to stare at the door that seemed to be slightly open, he didn't know if his eyes were deceiving him, but soon after he turned to the front and spoke.
"Stop wasting time, what's done is done. Let's go."
He walked with grandiose steps towards the stairs, the duo that protected his back looked confused and they exchanged glances, but soon after they went after the young man with black hair.
The group went to the stairs and reached the hatch, Tytew calmly lowered and removed the mat in front of the hatch already with a black key in hand.
The hatch was easily opened with the padlock releasing a slight locking noise, soon after the man opened the hatch, releasing an even stronger smell of garbage throughout the mansion, demonstrating that there was the source of all the horrible smell.
Right after opening, Tytew walked away and made a sign of respect to Pharos, lowering his posture and indicating with his body for the young man to enter, and seeing that, Pharos frowned when he smelled the place where he would go.
His features continued to show contempt, but he again looked towards the door that was cracked, seeming to stare at it while Arthur looked back feeling his body fail.
It was as if he knew something was there and Arthur had the same feeling, but he soon jumped into the hole, disappearing after that.
Lohrr also responded negatively to his expression as he spoke.
"Damn place."
And in a moment she also descended, leaving only Tytew behind who remained with a smile on his face despite his macabre appearance, soon after he was descending calmly towards the hole, closing the hatch after that.
From the other side of the second floor, Christopher could see the three of them entering the hatch and then he stood up, with a worried expression.
He hurried the steps and went towards the room where Arthur was, opening the door and scaring the swordsman who was sitting on the floor breathing heavily while he spoke.
"Damn it."
Arthur looked tired and brought his hand to his face still trying to calm down, Chris soon after extended his hand for the swordsman to take and then helped him up.
Chris wore a worried expression and then looked back towards the hatch.
"They have the key, I doubt they'll stay here long enough for us to steal it and also even if we do, if we're still inside when they wake up, we're sure to be trapped or at least surrounded..."
"And they look dangerous, this place isn't safe enough to walk around at night unarmed, so they must have something, that big guy, Tytew looks dangerous and the others are not far behind, we should leave, this looks too dangerous.. ."
Arthur spoke and put his hand on his mouth still remembering the look of Pharos, right after he sheathed his sword and went to the door, but soon he heard Chris speak.
"Art, wait..."
Chris spoke as he turned to Arthur, pulling out papers and showing them to the questioning swordsman.
"What is that?"
"They are papers that I found in the room I was in, they all seem to be written by a single person, I found one that said a report about a creature they created and apparently it was going well, he cited such a miasma that I found reports about. .."
Christopher pulled a sheet between the pile that had written a report, but mainly the drawing of a symbol at the top of the paper stood out, Arthur recognized the symbol and turned to the wall, comparing them and noticing that it was the same.
"Apparently, miasma is something that has the ability to absorb life or energy, this whole village seems to have been influenced by it and it explains why the food was not destroyed, but all the crops or grasses in the place died, even the soil rotted because of it. it influences it... I don't know what it is and I've never heard of it in my life..."
On the paper there was a report explaining in detail what Chris had explained, detailing the effects and even the appearance that was similar to a thick brownish liquid capable of absorbing life and rotting any being or object, at that moment, Arthur felt his mind clear and then he spoke.
"That was..."
"What melted the ceiling, maybe they could have done it with brute force, but it would have caused a lot of uproar. Maybe it explains why they didn't run away, maybe only Kaila noticed."
"And a child talking about a monster that kidnaps people, no one would take it seriously, but it still seems incomplete to me, why just cause this small village to be destroyed? And what does the mansion have to do with it?"
The blonde questioned while looking at Arthur who squinted still staring at the papers, but soon after the swordsman stared at the note and then questioned.
"Is there still something you want me to see?"
The question made Christopher lower his eyebrows and squint, then he pulled out one last piece of paper and showed an image drawn on the paper.
It was of a slender humanoid creature, its torso was elongated and in it there was something gigantic similar to a mouth with misshapen teeth, the body was completely covered in black and there were no features or any other sign beyond all the dark color that covered it, at the same time. by her side there was a second drawing that showed some lines coming out of her body similar to thick ribbons that came out of her arms and face.
Seeing what was on the paper, the two knew it was a creature unlike any animal that either of them had killed, Arthur took a deep breath and spoke.
"So somehow they're raising and feeding a monster... he's the one who's caused all the misfortune this village has gone through, I doubt they'll be able to rise from this dead ground..."
"In some ways he is the cause of the miasma, but in previous papers there has been talk of him not being able to tell friend from foe… that might give us a chance, plus there was mention of him being weak despite having power."
"That sounds contradictory..."
Christopher nodded and again lifted the first paper he had found.
"The continuation indicates that he could be a good source of energy, he took all the soil in the village, and that could have something to do with what happened to us... they have a different way of working, but it's still... ."
The blonde felt a certain fear in finishing the sentence and Arthur lowered his head, the memories that the two were trying to ignore slowly came back while Arthur's eyes shone a little brighter, as if he were almost tearing up.
"Down there are also people we can save, even if they could have done the same to us, I want to think about saving them because still..."
"There may still be a chance..."
Arthur's sentence made Chris face the swordsman looking anxious for an answer, Arthur again took a deep breath with the paper in hand as he approached the door and stared at the hatch, seeming to observe it from afar.
"Even if there isn't a second exit, it will still be possible for us to wait for them to come back... in a chance we can keep all the villagers with us and flee in a gap, it's risky but we need to do something."
Chris would stop to think and it would make sense, but then his eyebrows would lower and he would comment.
"But even if we go in, there's no guarantee they won't find us, besides that even unarmed, that big man looks dangerous..."
"I don't know, they look strange and to walk unarmed they must be strong enough to be able to deal with enemies without weapons, but about them finding us, in fact nothing guarantees, but as you said yourself they can find us, what can we do? is to go down and try to hide until they leave."
Chris looked at it with fear, but then sighed.
"There are still the other rooms for us to look at, but we may be short on time. So we have to hurry."
"I agree..."
Arthur looked at his sword and then looked at the hatch as he sighed, gathering strength to walk as he squeezed the paper in his hands, crumpling it, as he seemed determined to continue.
"If we're going to do this, we better do it soon, but I want to make sure that if we're going to go into this together, we're going to go out together. What was the motto that was handed to you when you joined the training center?"
Chris was taken aback, but smiled right away as he spoke.
"You say something about there, it's really a strange day..."
It was a fond memory and Arthur smiled afterwards as he walked to the hatch, down the stairs as he approached the iron door.
"If it's possible, we do it..."
Soon after he opened the door, again revealing the smell of garbage and dirt that the place emanated and making him frown as he faced the path made of rocks with an iron support for them to hold, even if he felt the discomfort, again he took a deep breath and looked at Chris who nodded while changing his smile to a serious expression.
Arthur also consented and so the two went down the rocks path, while feeling a chill in their spine demonstrating that something big was going to happen.