The time to finally put the plan into motion had finally come. After placing the explosives for the escape plan in case something went wrong, the young woman who volunteered to hold the map for the escapees was given the string that was connected to them.
"If you hear many explosions back to back, pull this without hesitation, okay? There is already something that will delay the explosion to give us time to escape, so you don't have to give us time to escape. Just pull it, and tell everyone to run away as fast as possible, since the mountain might collapse partly.", said Corvin to the young woman.
She was the commoner mage that volunteered to hold the magical map to everyone and lead them. Her magic was also the same as Corvin's, vector magic, so she was most likely the best candidate for this task. She was a petite woman, and even though she was slightly older than Corvin, she looked younger than him.
"I-I understand...", said the woman while blushing slightly and quickly went away.
"...Why does it look like she ran away?"
"Because she did."
Hearing Noah's voice from behind, Corvin turned towards his friend.
"What? Why?"
"Maybe it's because she likes you?"
"Huh? Don't make fun of me."
"You are as realist as ever. It's probably because of your face."
"What about it? Do I look scary?"
"No... more like dominant?"
"What?"
"When you are serious, you have a more mature air around you, you know? And since your face already looks more mature than your age, when your eyes get serious, you might scare some women like her, who are timid."
"...So I look scary, is what you mean..."
"Not exactly, hmm... More like scarily attractive, would be a better way to put it."
"How does that work now?"
"I don't know how it works, I am not a woman. But it must be kind of like the unsettling or nervous feeling you get when you are close to an attractive woman."
"Huh... I don't think I get it exactly but somehow that makes some sense as well..."
"Hey! You two! Stop the chit chat and get ready!"
While they were talking, they were interrupted by Clair's shout.
""Sigh~""
After sighing at the same time, Noah and Corvin went to prepare their bags and the long strip of connected explosives for the escape plan. After getting ready to leave, Corvin hooked one end of the explosive line to a small mechanism. They were going to pull off the pin using the explosive line that would give a signal to the escapees to start getting out of the nest when they reached the Queen's room and pull the attention of the nest towards themselves.
"Alright, the line is connected to the butcher room, we can start walking now..."
"Ugh... I could ignore it when we were preparing but, we really are heading into danger, right?"
"Yeah, who would have guessed we would run into something this dangerous while looking for bat poop..."
"What? Bat poop?", asked Acherie who heard their small chat.
"Ah, that's a really long story, you can just ignore it."
"Okay..."
After a small chat, Kharon, who sent the last spearmen that were going to protect the escapees from behind came to the exit and met with them. Corvin stepped forwards and turned towards the other five.
"Please do your last check to see if anything is missing."
With that, all of them checked their bags to see if anything was missing. After confirming there was nothing forgotten, Corvin continued.
"If nothing is missing, then we can start moving. I am going to walk in the front to make sure the explosive line is tense so that the signal doesn't fail. Amy and Clair are going to make sure it stays tense as we walk. Noah will tell where to go and Acherie, Kharon and I are going to look out for monsters. Are we all okay on that?"
"""""Yes..."""""
"Great. Then let's start our Queen slaying journey!"
"""""Yaay..."""""
'He is getting too into it...'
'He definitely is...'
Corvin got out of the room and started walking as everyone followed him while talking behind his back with their eyes.
Noah told where to go towards while they were walking inside the labyrinth like nest's dark corridors. From time to time, they encountered some bugs from the depths of the nest. They were similar to the the bugs they fought with before on the surface, but they were just slightly bigger and slightly stronger, probably because they were protecting the Queen and most of the eggs laid by the Queen.
Slaying the bugs they encountered wasn't a problem since the corridors were wide enough and they had really experienced fighters with them now.
So they went futher down the nest. When they found a room where the next generation of the nest workers was located, they got rid of the eggs even though it cost them time. But they decided to do it anyways because they were worried about something similar to what the Plaguehorn did happening again.
If all of these eggs and larvae were to suddenly turn into monsters and go on a rampage, they would be impossible to keep under control and would attack human settlements.
While killing any offspring of the nest and placing explosives on the ground, they walked deeper and deeper into the nest. The ventilation carved by the bugs were now almost useless as well, and their environment got warmer. But even still, by using pills made by Amy, they didn't stop and continued going deeper.
*****
Closer to the surface in the nest, inside the room filled with animal bones and dried blood, were more than two hundred people, standing and waiting nervously. The people were talking among themselves with whispers silent enough to not alert any bugs that might be close by.
Then, a petite woman that would normally be ignored by a crowd of such size because of her small stature got on top of a boulder inside the room and talked. She used a small trick using her magic that Corvin taught her to make everyone hear her.
"Listen to me, everyone. Now, I am going to use this map on everyone. You already know it probably, but please make sure you are under the effects of the map. And when the signal to leave arrives, please don't hesitate but also don't be too hasty. We have enough time for everyone to leave. The corridors are wide enough to let everyone leave on time, so don't try to run past others. Guards will be there to protect you, so don't shout in case you see a monster and without creating panic, call a guard. They will deal with the monster in case it attacks you."
After repeating the same instructions in the Ale-Rin language as well, she got off the boulder and activated the map. The map of the nest entered her brain along with the inforation on where she is and the easiest way to get out. After the using the map on everyone, the magical map seperated everyone into three groups and gave every one of them a new route that led outside automatically.
The young woman seperated the groups and placed them in order.
Clank!
The metal rod that was connected to the signal mechanism dropped from it's place. The sound echoed inside the butcher room. Hearing this, everyone suddenly went silent and stared at her, waiting for instructions.
"We heard the signal! It is time to leave this nest!", she shouted with her tiny voice as she lifted her fist into the air.
""OOHHH!!""
The crowd shouted in excitement and started to leave the nest. Surprisingly, most of it went smoothly, even when some accidents happened. But no one cared about being pushed once or twice or having to fight with some bugs.
Because they were finally free.