And it happened so. One of the attackers was decapitated, while the other hurried to position herself between intruders and the throne.
After throwing a quick glance around, Nick realized that actually this was the last priestess alive. Apparently when YunYun came over to help, she disposed of a few, but he was confident there were more of them in the beginning. Be as it may, Nick didn't linger around but quickly closed up to her while avoiding a couple of slashes from her whip and cut her in two.
"Nooooo! My children!" The creepy voice screamed again.
"Oh? So you felt the last one dying? Apparently bishop's technique isn't his at all." Nick mused aloud.
"You will pay! My sisters will avenge me!" The creep on the throne continued to scream.
"Oh? Where are your sisters?" Nick cheekily asked.
"Hahaha! You will die! You all will die! The third sister will soon open the gates!" This wasn't much, but at least from Nick's point of view, the thing was cooperating.
"And where is your second sister?" Nick tried to get more.
"You will die! Dieeeeee!" It screamed continuously, maybe feeling the end nearing.
For Nick's standards this went already for too long. He had seen enough movies in his previous life and knew one shouldn't discuss anything before killing the main adversary. But he decided to remain cautious as well and simply threw few long needles at the creature to finish it off. He already experienced how handy they could be in Olava when infiltrating the Holy Order's mansion and since then always carried few spare. He wasn't a specialist of concealed throwing weapons, but for a Qi master like him it was not that challenging to hit the eye sockets and the heart from the two meter distance.
When the creature let out its last scream, Nick shouted at Zia, "Twenty seconds, maximum destruction!"
The girl shouted some kind of battle-cry in excitement and began slashing her huge 'Pig Sticker' left and right without care. Meanwhile Nick carefully approached the throne. He decided to take this thing with him so Simon Den and the rest could inspect – this was way too strange to describe with just words.
Nick finally confirmed why there was the strange supporting construction around its head. Indeed, as soon as Nick removed it, the creatures head fell down and almost teared off the thin neck. Now it looked like a weird broken doll.
He shuddered at the view and tried to put it in his wristband, but no matter how he tried – moving around, holding it up with one or two hands, it simply refused to comply. Nick's curiosity was instantly peaked and he took a sack of some cheaper herbs out from his wristband, emptied it where he stood and stuffed the creature inside.
"Let's go!" He shouted at his demolition tool, also known as Zia, and both of them quickly ran towards the door. YunYun already stood there, patiently guarding. Even though she was itching to go and wreck chaos just like Zia did few moments ago, she clearly understood the importance of her task.
Before leaving, all three of them looked back and sighed at the same time. They spent here maximum three minutes and the tranquil silence already returned to the cavern, but now there were multiple mutilated bodies lying around the platform and it was dyed in blood.
"Do you think there might be any prisoners in those hidden rooms?" YunYun asked before they departed.
"There might – what do you think those whips were for? But this is not the Paradise city and I'm not willing to stay here a second longer to investigate." Nick said and rushed up the stairs.
"Do you think people upstairs could already be waiting for us?" YunYun asked and followed.
"Mhm." Nick nodded.
"Why are you carrying that sack?" Zia asked.
"I put that thing in there. For some reason I can't get it in the wristband." Nick answered.
"Which part?" Zia asked.
"What?" Both YunYun and Nick blurted out at the same time.
"Which part? Top or the bottom?" Zia 'explained'.
"Why would I …" Nick almost wanted to curse her, when YunYun interrupted.
"Even if that sounds disgusting, Zia has a point. If you can't store neither half, then its problem with that creature, but if only one of those, then there is something on it that prevents you from storing it."
"Sigh. I understand that much but …" Nick tried to argue.
"You don't expect us to leave with that sack over your shoulder?" YunYun smiled back at him.
"Fine! Let's just try to not make it too messy. We have seen enough blood for one day."
Nick opened the sack and threw the creature on the ground. Then took out Wakizashi and with a light swing cut it in half. Then he took the top, put it back in the sack and it instantly disappeared.
"Alright! What's so special about the lower half?" Zia's adrenaline was still pumping and she was way too excited for current endeavor.
Holding back his disgust, Nick stretched out the legs, rolled the remains over a couple of times, but didn't find anything special.
"Oh my god! The belt!" YunYun almost screamed out.
"Mine!" Before anyone else could react, Zia already pulled it off the body and inspected while her eyes were burning with excitement.
Only now it registered in Nick's brain – the belt was made from the same material his bracers were! But his shock only grew when suddenly Zia threw the belt back on the ground.
"Don't want it, you can have it!"
Both Nick and YunYun looked at her with almost square eyes. What exactly was wrong with her? Then Nick sighed and picked it up.
"Oh, god!" He almost unconsciously dropped it, but Zia started hysterically laugh, pointing a finger at him while trying to stay as quiet as possible.
"What is it?" YunYun obviously felt left out.
"You don't want to see that …" Nick didn't even finish his sentence when she snatched the belt from his hands and inspected, just to throw it away accompanied with the same 'oh, god!'.
What all of them saw was the space inside, over the double compared to what Nick had in his two wristbands combined, almost completely filled with dried up corpses. There were hundreds and hundreds of people piled up and it looked like the creature was simply using it as a trashcan to throw out the leftovers after feeding.
Nick sighed and picked the belt up and along with the lower part of the creature's body stored in the elder Sonor's ring.
"But why you can put it in the meteorite ring, but can't in the wristband?" YunYun asked.
"No idea. I tested this interaction between wristbands and wristband interaction with the meteorite rings long ago, but I can't tell for sure why it works this way. Maybe it has something to do with the creature those were made of or maybe because of other peculiarities the meteorites have – I have no idea how the storage dimension actually works. Alright, let's get moving!" Nick said, "We'll need to change back to the red robes. Focus and calm your breathing, the hardest part is about to start."
Indeed, while they marched in together with the bishop, their success was mostly based on luck and they were prepared to charge back out at any time in case of emergency and probably would have succeeded as well.
Now they had to leave on their own walking through the whole temple and then the temple grounds and there was no telling if the ruckus they created downstairs was noticed in the temple, if alarm was raised or simply there was some protocol in place they didn't know of and they were not allowed to move around the premises without someone accompanying them.
There were too many 'ifs' and even Zia instantly calmed down facing the serious situation.
While climbing back the long stairs, they quietly discussed their options and possible tactics, but there was nothing much they could do. Thus, when they entered the hall once again, Nick took out the two dead Qi masters and they pinned them to the wall near the stairway and fixed their positions so from the distance in the dim lighting it looked like they were guarding the entrance.
Then, all three of them, once again checked each other if there were no mistakes in their clothing and makeup and proceeded to the door.
Nick knocked a couple of times and when the guard opened, said imitating elder Sonor, "Bishop will come in a bit."
To their great relief guard glanced behind them, saw the two Qi masters at the staircase, then nodded and let them pass – apparently lady luck was still on their side. With steady steps they went towards the exit while gathering all the willpower and resisting the urge to start running down this seemingly unending hallway.
Step by step they neared the exit and their hearts were beating louder and louder, when at some point they understood there was no one here who could hold them back anymore. Even if the alarm was raised and the guards closed the main door which looked more like a gate, they still could cut through it and run away.
This realization struck all three of them almost at the same time and the fully relaxed the trio left the temple and a minute later, the temple grounds.
Maybe their minds suddenly matured or the gained experience transformed their consciousness in some way, but all three were confident that if there was another undertaking like this in the future, their state of mind wouldn't be disturbed even a bit.
Nick understood that most likely everything he felt was just because of the mess the raging cocktail of hormones and pheromones was causing, therefore, after leaving the temple gates, hissed, "Keep on walking!"
They continued for two more blocks until slipped in a dark alley and disappeared. The adventure was over.
Needless to say, Feroz was surprised to see them, or rather, surprised they showed up without alarm bells ringing around the whole Moira. Nick quickly reported the most important parts of the event and, while Feroz with trembling hands was writing the report to his king, trio left the capital.
Even though they were in the clear, there was no need to take any risks. In fact, tonight they had taken more risks than one should in ten years. The only plan they had at the moment was to leave, then find a secluded spot and rest for a day or two.
They decided on the 'evacuation' route back when they arrived in Moira for the first time. Since directly to the east there was only a large desert, if they wanted to go to the Sun kingdom's southern border, they had only two options. If they went around the desert towards the south east, they could make a detour and visit Sand kingdom's capital Nisip and maybe few larger cities and on the way, potentially, wreck some havoc just like they did in Lori kingdom. But, such actions might seem too suspicious and linked to the resent events in the Lori kingdom, therefore this idea was quickly scratched.
The route to north east was approximately of a similar length, but for a large part stretched along the slopes of almost endless mountain ranges, south of mount Corbus. The large portion of the distance would still be in Lori kingdom, but most of it was a half desert and basically inhabitable because of the lack of water. Therefore to take that route carried a smaller risk of them being discovered.
From the first time they met up in Moira, girls kept complaining about the dry climate, therefore Nick's main objective was to find a water source and throw them both in to soak for the while so they would stop grumbling about their dry skin.
It was a difficult task though.
After running for several hours shortly before midday they found an oasis, that was basically a few meters wide puddle of mud surrounded by scarce bamboos what theoretically could be considered a grove. It seemed to be home of few larger fire lizards, probably around rank three, but the trio casually shooed them away. They decided to rest here till the afternoon and Nick erected a primitive tent for them to hide from the sun.