Lifting up the rubble that covered the entrance, we checked our surroundings before we descended into the tunnels.
The inside of the tunnel was damp and sticky, with wetness beneath us as a bad stench surrounded it, mixed with god knew what it was.
"This area… it is connected to the north?" Mumbe voiced out, covering her nose.
"You can sense that?" Saemon asked with eyebrows raised as Diablo nodded slightly.
"It connects to the outskirts of Black Weed Mountains, although It takes months to travel on foot." He surprisingly said, which made Saemon frown.
But we still proceeded quietly into the tunnel, the only light being the one radiated by Mumbe Berknalz.
"A good place for ambush in general…" Saemon stated, "If it were me, I would definitely set traps across the tunnel, making sure the northerners or southerners couldn't cross through."
"It is already filled with such things," Diablo voiced out, to which Mumbe Berknalz nodded heavily.
Looking around, it was a tunnel crudely filled with black and white stones, as the stones on the either sides of the tunnel were placed irregularly, looking like a tower of cards, where if one card was removed, the whole tower would fall apart.
In between the small gaps placed between the irregular intervals, small vines and moss grew, although the vines had a yellowish colour to them, looking ready to fall apart on touch.
That wasn't even the worst part. The area on which they were walking on was covered by vicious green liquid, which was often sticky, making it difficult to walk.
As we reached even further though, the tunnel became wider and wider, the sides growing larger and larger along with the asymmetrically placed stones which threatened to fall.
"Is it even safe to travel here…" I asked, more out of concern than fear.
At my words, Saemon Havaris replied condescendingly, "The tunnels are totally safe with Mister Orsent here, though that applies more to that kid out there than the both of us…"
He gestured to Mumbe as he accentuated his last sentence, making Diablo answer methodically.
"Even if I give you the artifacts bestowed by His Majesty, you'll doom yourselves by your own hands."
"Sure, sure…" Saemon whistled, covering his nose with the collars of his coat while waving his hands in front of his nose.
Soon though, we all noticed that the green wet liquid beneath us was rising up as steam, and the surroundings were getting harder with lesser oxygen.
The light that Mumbe Berknalz radiated shone even brightly as green and thin steam obfuscated our vision.
Just then, though, we saw a figure fall down in front of us with a "plop—" sound, its body totally drowning in the shallow green liquid.
Just as we tensed, the figure — the figure of a small baby, stood up.
It had a swollen belly with its eyes clamped shut, black soil-like mud layered over its body with strange symbols drawn over it, its figure not clearly visible.
"O… margrave. The lands are inarable…" It said before it screamed, its voice reaching a crescendo as I covered my ears.
Just then, Mumbe Berknalz's light condensed into a single point, accruing and moving towards the figure of a small baby in a straight line.
The light turned yellow, hitting not the baby but the green liquid beneath its feet as the baby fell and clambered, before giving up resistance.
"W-what was that?" I asked, my ears still ringing from the shout.
Diablo waited for me to recover before explaining, "An evil spirit, but a common one that roams in such places. Perhaps belonging to a farmer…"
After the minor inconvenience, the group continued forward as Diablo explained the directions to us.
"...first, we will go north until we cannot see the path properly, then, we will move south…"
As various agonizing faces started becoming visible on the asymmetrical white and black stones covering the sides of the wall, I stuck closer to the others, obviously being the weakest one.
At that time, Saemon clicked his tongue. "Tch, this was supposed to become a large defensive line, now it is merely supported by vengeful evil spirits covering it."
"So those things in the wall are evil spirits? So many of them?"
Saemon chuckled derisively at my question, "No, the whole tunnel is just a pathway inside an evil spirit."
I looked at him in disbelief. Inside an evil spirit? Was that even possible?
"But don't worry, the evil spirit was put to rest long ago, so the threats are minimised…"
Just as we were talking, we noticed a middle-aged man leaning weakly against the wall.
He wore a black trenchcoat, his hand hanging limply by his side as he clutched his stomach with the other.
Looking at us through the obscuring green steam, he extended his hand towards us and called out, "H-help…"
Even with the steam covering us and obfuscating our vision, I recognised him. He was Wa'eru's father!
"He is Wa'eru's father, help him, quick." Just as I was about to rush forward, Saemon gripped my wrist and grinned.
"Now wait a second, things can't be trusted so easily in these tunnels." He said to me, going forward all by himself as he examined the man, helping him up.
"How did you end up here, oldy?" He asked with a grin to Wa'eru's father as he struggled to stand, his legs trembling.
"W-water… please, if any one of…" he obviously struggles to continue the sentence.
Sighing, I took out a bottle of water from the Pouch of Myths that I had brought with me and handed it to Diablo.
Diablo took the bottle of water and made the middle-aged man drink it slowly.
"Ah… thank you, really… I haven't had anything to drink or eat."
"You didn't carry anything with you?" Mumbe sceptically asked.
"I did, but I got trapped in a strange maze for days…"
Just as the man was talking, a mosquito came buzzing in front of me as I slapped it out, puzzled.
Just as I was about to ask, I saw various green colour goblins the size of insects climbing on my legs and shouted.
"Something's strange…!"
Besides me, Mumbe Berknalz clicked her tongue as she raised her palm upwards, points of light condensing rapidly, the goblin-like insects climbing on my legs rapidly shedding their skin and decaying.
Just at that moment, "Eekkk…!"
Wa'eru's father, who we had just saved, placed a knife on his own neck as Diablo and Saemon simultaneously frowned.
"Ha, I thought I could take that one hostage, but how peculiar… he has fragments of another soul in him…"
My head buzzed as blood flowed from my nostrils and eyes. I dropped to one knee as my shadow writhed, seemingly protecting me.
Then, the figure of a young man not older than me walked towards us, clapping.
"You've done well, eh? Librarian old man, switching sides not twice but thrice!"
The voice contained mockery in it as Diablo's eyes widened.
"You… you are from Cvoilics' Magic Academy…"
"Right I am," the figure of a sixteen or something year old young man stopped, smiling. "Along with the directors and executives, I was one of the prisoners who fortunately or not, escaped."
Saemon narrowed his eyes as he asked, "Who is he?"
But without wasting time talking, brilliant light radiated from Mumbe, condensing into a single point and flowing like a rapid stream towards the young man.
The young man rolled, barely avoiding the light as Diablo simultaneously said,
"He is the heir of one of the Sixteen Star Noble Families of the Welleysworths Union, Eric Kofter."
…
At the same time as Eric was engaging in conversation with Diablo and others, Rosalyn, who had somehow reached here, looked at them in mid-air and sighed, her slender legs dangling in the air.
"Looks like the destined one isn't me, but you, Ruiki Imara." Her eyes shone with complex emotions while looking at him, then, her purple robe and the medallion she now wore glowed brilliantly, points of purple mixing with faint red bringing forth a powerful hailstorm.
…
As if sensing the purple hailstorm behind him, Eric started blabbering, "Heh, my father, reigning over powerful regions, obviously wouldn't send me here without a powerful artifact that would help me in a critical juncture."
He then avoided a beam of light as the middle-aged man pointed the knife at Diablo.
"So, he gave me this ring, and many other artifacts… but they were lost to that thief." he said, pointing to the red ring on his middle finger, bearing the symbol of a red and majestic chariot.
Diablo's expression changed as he instantly called forth his shadows, obscuring Eric's entire figure as he clenched his fists tightly.
Eric's figure vanished, coalescing into his own shadow, but the ring that he wore fell down with a "clank—!" As purple points of light started emerging from it.
Rose? I frowned as my entire surroundings were draped in darkness, with only Diablo, Mumbe, Saemon and the distant purple hailstorm that we weren't able to perceive before being visible.
"I warned you, Ruiki," Rose said with a smile as Diablo drew an ominous black greatsword, his shadows merging with him as their figures overlapped into two, as if layered in the same yet different plane.
Then, he thrust the black sword at Rose, as the purple hailstorm suddenly dispersed and Rose coughed out blood.
"Too late… it's too late…"
Just then, the green steam that covered us suddenly and quickly receded, as if moving back to its origin before a miscellaneous red fog covered our surroundings.
I, along with others, found ourselves standing in front of a huge red tree whose leaves were entirely red along with its bark, its roots rapidly rising and coalescing into a red chariot.
"Dammit, it is the remains of a War Chariot!" Saemon screamed at the top of his lungs as fear gripped his entire features, drawing forth an artifact resembling a red paper-drawn hawk from his bosom as it shone briefly.
Diablo wasn't quiet either as the black sword in his hand, purportedly the Sword of Light's Bane, enlarged enough to encompass the whole tree as he slashed at it.
Rumble—!!
The whole terrain was split in half as I was lifted into the air, a massive shockwave throwing me off my feet as I felt myself rapidly being thrown away.
But thankfully Saemon caught me and helped me up, Diablo's entire shadow covering our whole expanse.
The War Chariot as they called it, circled the outskirts of the area we were transported to as its speed increased every single moment, Diablo's and Saemon's expressions darkening as it completed its rotation.
Mumbe Berknalz was surrounded by pure and white radiance as a golden circle formed in her eyes, tracing the movements of the War Chariot but failing to bring any changes to it.
At the War Chariot steadily speeding and the roots rapidly attacking us, I noticed that Diablo's shadow draped over him, covering him entirely as it formed the figure of a human.
The shadow, its lower half becoming a robe that covered Diablo, its upper half that of a woman who embraced him, became slightly tinted with red as it spread its hands towards the Sword of Light's Bane, making the sword extend.
The Black sword quickly extended, cutting off all the red roots in its paths as it stabbed into the red coloured tree's bark.
Then, I noticed the shadow of the matured woman turn entirely red, merging Diablo's robe.
"No, Diablo! Don't!" Seeing Saemon hurriedly summon various coffins and undead creatures, I instantly backed away, as he seemingly didn't even care about my presence right now.
"Burning your lifespan like that is going to do you no good," he shouted, summoning a large coffin, through which a steel giant surrounded by black plants emerged, tackling the red tree.
The red tree swayed but remained firm, yet, the ground below it gave in as the steel giant lifted it and tackled it to the ground, rapidly punching it.
I saw Saemon's blood red eyes, and heard him shout "Die, die!" As I felt my head buzzing.
Right, perhaps they were teleported as well.
In this battlefield covered with red fog, purple light condensed into the figure of Rose as she appeared before me.
"Do not resist," she said loudly, "it will do you more harm than good,"
But Diablo merely swung the huge sword in her direction as she immediately scattered into purple light.
Without anyone being in the state to help me, I used the spell Hawk of Bane to fend off against the roots.
Although it was basically impossible for me to cut them, it was possible with Mumbe constantly helping me, but a root bearing a red flower suddenly emerged below me, burrowing into my chest.
As I split a mouthful of blood, the pain reached my brain as I barely remained conscious.
Seeing this, Diablo extended his hands, the robe and the woman converging into him as half of his body turned into a red and thick shadow, its mouth bearing vicious teeth that were as red as blood.
Then, Diablo chanted, "Slumbering Death Spell!"
Boom—!!! Bam—! Bam—!
The entire sword was raised up into the sky as it slammed against the ground, splitting both the tree and the steel giant tackling it.
But before the tree could split, a red radiance covered us, the light growing thicker and thicker as it turned into a red fog of clouds, making me lose the sense of everything as the pain in my chest subsided.
Then, I heard a whisper, "Peace is merely the preparation for war…"
Just then, I saw myself… no, experienced myself plummet, the very experience being awfully painful as shadows somehow came to my rescue.
Then, before losing my consciousness, I saw below me a vast city, a city that was covered in red, black, green and yellow colours, with blue being recessive currently.