"Elikrom, Elikrom!"
"Enough, I get it!" Arthur slammed his fist into the ground, and the noise abruptly ceased.
Parish helped Arthur up and picked up a half-buried silver sword to hand to him. Parish certainly didn't need it himself; as a mage wielding water magic, he only needed a shield to protect himself.
"Are you okay?" Parish muttered some strange words, and Arthur's dust-covered clothes immediately returned to their original state. This was the only thing Parish could do for Arthur in this underground environment.
"I'm not feeling great; that sound nearly shattered my eardrums." With the nausea from earlier, Arthur truly felt terrible over the past few minutes.
"I don't think we have time to recover. The fact that you just threw up might be beneficial—afterwards, you won't be as sensitive when encountering such corpses."
"No time left? More corpses?" Arthur gasped, feeling increasingly suffocated. This sensation had also appeared when they first descended underground. After Parish did something, that feeling briefly faded, but now, after taking deep breaths, the sense of suffocation had returned.
"You felt it too, didn't you? The difficulty in breathing and the blurry vision—it's because we're going deeper into the earth." Since Parish's magic was still in effect, they couldn't feel the underground chill or the humidity, but every movement was growing harder. With four sharp snaps of his fingers, Parish adjusted their states and then prepared to move forward. Suddenly, there was a disturbance and footsteps from behind them.
Arthur and Parish simultaneously turned to look at the source. Though it wasn't clear, they could be sure that others had descended into this cavern.
"It must be the patrol team. There's quite a few of them. I knew they were watching us."
"Then we better move quickly."
"Don't rush. They can't hear what you're hearing. We still have time."
Arthur gritted his teeth in frustration. With such an urgent situation, Parish didn't seem concerned. He wasn't just worried about himself but also about the Night Eagle who was supposed to be helping them up top. But now, if the patrol team had entered the cave, didn't that suggest something might have happened to Night Eagle?
Just as Arthur feared, Night Eagle was indeed in trouble in the northern district.
Eight minutes earlier, Night Eagle had intentionally run past the Rose Manor and, just as he expected, several well-equipped military units from nearby mansions chased after him.
Gotcha, the patrol team. And the Arbitration Bureau was on his tail as well. Now, the pressure on Parish and Arthur would ease significantly. Night Eagle still had the energy to boast as he fled, proving he wasn't running out of strength just yet.
At this moment, apart from a few scratches, Night Eagle had no other injuries. He knew he didn't need to push himself too hard and could avoid his pursuers' sight early on.
His escape route was already planned: jump to the rooftops near the northern gate, then head back along the path behind the Rose Manor, retracing the way Parish and Arthur came. On the main road of the northern district, the Arbitration Bureau and the patrol team were already set up with defensive blocks. Charging in blindly would be like signing his own death warrant. Night Eagle had confidence in his strength, but he wasn't foolish enough to throw away his life.
Just as he passed the Rose Manor, something unexpected happened.
A man wearing a robe, floating down from the sky on a gust of wind, landed in the weeds of the Rose Manor. Surprisingly, he immediately locked onto Night Eagle's position.
Night Eagle, thanks to his wolf clan's innate night vision, saw the man's pupils turn into slits, turning everything into black and white. This robed man appeared to be a mage, but who was he, and how did he know Night Eagle's location? Night Eagle stood upright, having been running on all fours in order to travel faster.
The robed man was surrounded by a gust of wind, his face obscured, but the murderous intent with which he approached clearly indicated he wasn't someone Parish had sent to help.
A wind mage, huh? This is a serious problem. This was a real crisis. Night Eagle let out a low growl from his throat, extending his claws to charge at the wind mage...
The ground trembled, and Arthur clutched his ears. That elusive sound had returned. He focused and then, with the light sphere in his arms, dashed into the second tunnel on the left.
"So, what you meant was that those people can't tell which path is the right one?" Arthur held the light sphere in one hand and the silver sword in the other, running through the narrowing tunnels.
Parish responded, but he had another guess: "There are likely military personnel down here. Based on the two corpses we saw earlier and all the gear scattered around, the military must have sent a large number of people to explore this cavern. This means the human wave tactics were employed. The last three survivors of the Hebrew family escaped from Brighton City eleven years ago, and the military has no idea how to navigate this underground."
The military likely didn't just send people once, meaning there could still be people exploring the tunnels. This was a very real possibility.
Soon, they reached a larger open area, far bigger than the previous ones. Seven tunnels branched out, and wooden beams were set up, making it resemble an underground base.
"Hebrew, look, there are signs that people have lived here... and..." Parish positioned his shield on the ground, crouching down to pick up a long transparent tube covered with characters and patterns.
"What's this?" Arthur leaned in, curious about the unusual tube.
"This is Dwarven inscription magic. This tube is a breathing conduit, and the inscriptions on it read 'Breathing' in Dwarven." Parish explained the magic of inscriptions.
Inscriptions were the most famous craft of the Dwarves. Since ancient times, they discovered that if Dwarven script was engraved onto certain objects and then forged with their unique methods, the objects would gain related abilities. Like the breathing conduit that Parish was holding.
Parish couldn't help but comment, "The military really lived here, huh? Pretty impressive, don't you think?"
"Is this really the time to be talking about that?" Arthur reminded Parish that their situation was dire, with a lot of pursuers behind them. They were armed only with a sword and a mage.
Arthur stopped at every tunnel entrance, pausing to check for the source of the sounds, then gestured for Parish, who was still inspecting, to follow him. Just as they moved, five armored soldiers with long spears appeared at the entrance behind them.
Upon entering, the five soldiers quickly zeroed in on the footprints in the dust on the ground.
"Seven paths... based on their footprints, it's this way."
The five soldiers rushed toward the tunnel, but they didn't notice the odd sensation as they entered. It was as if they had stepped into water, and the air seemed to pop. As they moved further into the tunnel, the sound of a bubble bursting could be heard.
Meanwhile, Arthur and Parish's footprints appeared at the opposite entrance of the tunnel.
Magic, Mirror World, Mirage.