I stood as still as possible, the metal intruding in my neck not touching anything vital but as annoying as a knife to the neck should be.
"Ha, caught ya! Look at it Vline! Its aura got all sad.. it thinks its gonna die!"
The girl laughed for someone so powerful. After a close inspection of her stats, I found that she had a skill to prevent me from seeing her real status. I assumed either Vline was using a better version of this technique or he had nothing to hide.. either way the uncertainty of her strength unsettled me.
"Just put it in the cage with the other things and put it in to be sent to the Royal Treasury," Vline ordered, getting up from the tree. After his message was given, he dashed into the canopy in the direction of the door.
The girl had took the knife out, giving me enough time to subtly regenerate the area branded with a hole.
She seemed to not care about me as much though, as she simply walked in the direction of the door without saying a word, giving me time to think.
Toothless was nearly out of the equation and I didn't think fighting this girl would have been a good idea.. as much as I wanted to get out of her grasp and escape this hellish place with my freedom, she seemed competent enough not to die to a monster out here so at least I'd be safe.
I think the main issue with being carried off was that they shared I would be taken somewhere Royal.. however I'm pretty sure that I wasn't going to be going to the surface world yet. Being apart of a Treasury without a second glance also worried me.. I mean, I'm assuming its some sort of vault or museum where I would be set on display for years on end until all of the human reincarnates were well into their middle ages!
The stressing got to me, my little body seeming to have trouble regulating its tempature and I could feel overly warm. Somehow in the grasp of this girl I felt like I had been spinning for hours on and and my head was dizzy to the point of sitting down was the only way I could feel comfort.
Discussing this with my captor did come to mind, but that would only spark more interest and make the display idea seem more unbearable.
The suffering ended sometime after about an hour or so of me counting the seconds as they passed, until we made it to a line of wagons and carriages going into the door. The whole scene seemed serene, the comically large door just being accepted by the humans.
It seemed to be any normal checkpoint where there would be guards checking the people and their purpose of travel into the new levels of the labyrinth. The guards were stone-faced and fitted in green and white uniform, branded with what seemed to be burning paper on the back of it, which I noted to either be a sign of allegiance that this worlds militaries and soldiers displayed with pride, or something more sinister and deep.
"The Sigils should keep their business out of Vein, the whole lot of them are idiotic cultists.. but you suspected that, didn't you, Kura?"
WHAAAAAAAA-
:Huh.. how did you hear me?!
"Your aura speaks volumes. I'd been listening to it during our whole walk. You show discomfort with your situation, and you got suspicious and observant when the Sigil was in your view," she assessed, speaking more like a scholar than I could have ever spoke.
I gave a tiny nod to the girl and she laughed, walking the almost five minute distance to the guard with a skip.
"I'm gonna call you Kura, Kura. I'm gonna show you all the cool stuff in Vein!"
I didn't object to it, smiling as much as I could to try and trick her aura, but whenever I started cheesing a little too hard, she pinched my cheeks.
The "Sigil", as she called them, inspected her closely before turning to her with a sharp turn and coughing into his hand before addressing her with a condescending disgust.
"Aha.. Lady Maryi, you've brought another pet to add to your little collection. This one seems to be," he would poke my cheek and snicker a bit, "alive."
Alive?! Was she used to bringing her pets in dead? or worse.. stuffed!
Maryi coughed into her hand to mock the Sigil and laughed in his face, pausing to look at his serious face that had just turned to the other Sigils and gave them a look to absorb all the pity they had decided to give him. When his eyes locked with the girl he scratched the back of his head.
"Remember your scheduled with Duke Farmound, and this is your last chance," he would mumble, before taking out a glowing blue cube from his green robes and reciting a very long incantation. The cube would light up green and a screen would appear above it, showing a very fancy room fitted with nice armchairs and a coffee table between it.
Maryi snorted again, laughing at the scene.
"Later, Sigil. Tell your leader to get haircut!" And with that, she put her finger into the vision before I or him could say something. Everything around me turned black for approximately two minutes, before the scene in the vision was a reality.
Had we used some sort of teleportation magic, or maybe something more tied to the Sigil directly. Whatever it was, I assumed it had something to do with that dimensional magic Toothless was nagging me about.
Maryi set me down on the table and went to press down an invisible skirt, visibily confused, and then flustered. She pulled out a similar cube and used it to pull out some acceptable clothes.
"Kura, stay here. I gotta handle some business," she said this as if she was talking to a child who was being left home alone for the first time. She kept her eyes on me before darting into a hall and then disappearing into one of the many rooms.
From this conjuction from the long halls, the area I was placed in seemed nice enough, the windows selling it the most for me. Despite the sky being a dark and wavy blue that gave it the appearance of an ocean, the new level I was in seemed to be more civilized and advanced than anywhere I had seen.
I slid down from my post on the table and clambered my way to a window, where I used bodily spikes to help me reach the pane so I could gaze outside. The buildings had a European feeling, with the architecture being mostly gothic towers and medieval buildings. Just then I lost my balance and fell down from the window.
If Maryi had rushed back out and into the grand meeting room that I walked past after my first walk through the palace, she must have been awfully quiet. I discovered there were about 26 rooms in just the left wing of the palace, five of those being kitchens and the vast majority empty rooms.
I had walked in these supposedly empty rooms to find people bearing the mark of the Sigil on their green robes, sleeping on maps. Infact, most rooms followed this theme. I had never heard of a palace that housed commoners, but the Sigil seemed to be a little more powerful than that.
I decided now would be the great time to learn more about this place, and I did the best thing I've thought about for a while.. steal.
The easy part was launching myself with a body spike like I was a pole jumper, then safely landing on a leather satchel. I picked the equipment up and held it above my head in triumph, screaming at my victory. Sadly my idea startled one of the Sigils who swatted at the dark furry creature, that being me, before screaming out and opening his eyes wide.
The other Sigils almost comically raised from their mats spread across the wide room, and groaned at being woken up. The first one to wake threw a knife right at me aiming for the neck, however with the use of a bodily spike, I was able to catch the knife and rebuke it back at the culprit of my awesome thieving skills.
I used that same spike to launch myself into the air, landing on a chandelier. It was good enough for me to begin launching spikes the size of a toilet paper roll at the alarmed Sigils, then using slow falling to give me time to make another spike as I fell from the chandelier. I used my generated spike to launch myself out of the frame, leaving my large spike to fall on the last sleeping head in that room.
After tapping the hornets nest with a stick, I ran from the bottom side of the left wing, all the way to the middle of the right wing in inhumane speeds. I looked behind myself with [Spatial Awareness] to catch four Sigils hot on pursuit, yelling out at me with their fists raised. I cut a sharp corner and turned back around to wait for them to turn the corner as well. With the power of stupidity and bravery, I used [Darkness Tendrils] to wrap alll of them up and throw them in another room full of the "cultists."
I ran into an actual empty room to catch my breath, realizing the satchel wasn't in my hands this whole time. Yeah.. so that happened.
Leaving the room took a lot of courage, but if I wanted to get out of here alive, Maryi was my best shot. I was welcomed to no resistance after running out, so I was able to run back all the way to the spot the wings converged, and where the large meeting hall resided. As I stopped infront of it, I could see the door open and Maryi step out with a man in white robes behind her, his face one of boredom. His eyes dropped to me before he paused, then fixed his monocle and adjusted his golden cap.
"La.. Lady Maryi?! Is that a Demon of Darkness? You found this in the Third Level?" He would point out at me.
A demon of darkness, eh?
Maryi gave him a little punch to the arm as if he was her brother and this was routine for them. The man straightened his regal posture and laughed a bit, Maryi saying something to him awfully loud, but my world had been tuned out. This man, he.. he reminded me of something. Like I had seen him before. His smile kindled something in me.
Maryi ran up to me and picked me up, setting me ontop of her pink hair, giving me a better view of the golden cap.
"Alrighty, me and my new friend are off! Later, Fazel!"
The man waved at her, and his gaze settled on me, sending a shock through my body. His smile curled in a sinister way and he waved.
"May the Paper follow you, and the Sigil carry its will to you!"
After exiting the palace, we were set down onto a brick path that merged with a public one, setting us on another brick road polluted with other pedestrians and carriages. A train station was visible to me aswell. Maryi hummed a peaceful tune as we made it down the street, while I looked around, more specifically, up, at the sky.
Except for the occasional blur whizzing by, the sky continued to look like an ocean resided above it. The dark blue sea that covered the sky was if anything marvelous. The sky seemed to be separated from this level of the labyrinth by a thick glass barrier, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was something more native to this world, like magic.
The sea stopped being much of a mystery, except the origin of it, how to get to the first level from here, and why it is so huge... for perspective, from what I could see, the ocean curved from my sight, meaning that it was larger than the entire landmass I was on which could not stop but intrigue me.
If I had to make an estimate, I would say this ocean encompassed most of the levels I was on and that it was bigger than this level by.. a whole lot.
I couldn't help but sigh, at having to accept the entire ocean that was sitting above me right now. I just sucked it all inside of my "aura" and tried to appear happy for now.
Why gods?! Why was I stuck down here? I thought demons got to wreck havoc on things and stuff, but now I'm just stuck underground with an ocean looming over me.. I just wanna breath some fresh air!