299 Chapter 299: Underground

The Blood Slaughter Sect walked through the underground tunnels, encountering a few subterranean monsters here and there, but they otherwise faced little impediment in their progress. Even though the monsters, such as Massive Moles, Dril Sarges, Tunneler Wurms and Giant Ants, were no match for the skilled combatants of the Blood Slaughter Sect, the humans found themselves mired in an endless labyrinth.

"Where are we?"

"The compasses aren't working!"

"This doesn't look like it's on the map?!"

The Blood Slaughter Sect disciples were struggling not to panic, but lost inside such a dark and claustrophobic space, they were unable to suppress their fears. Liu glared at them in disgust, but said nothing because he knew that reprimanding them now would only serve to lower their morale further. That was something he couldn't afford, particularly after the sect's morale had hit rock-bottom upon the calamitous defeat that the Silver Wolves mercenaries inflicted upon them.

"Calm down!" he instructed. "We'll definitely find our way past these tunnels! I did warn you that the journey wouldn't be easy. We just need to keep going. Give me some time and I'll lead all of you out of this godforsaken place."

"Yes, Elder Liu!" the disciples chorused, feeling more encouraged. The old man tried not to smirk as he watched them march forward. In the distance, the roar of a Tunneler Wurm echoed, and the twenty-meter long monster burst out of rock and soil to shower the front row of disciples with sand.

"Retreat!"

"Fall back!"

The veterans among the disciples recognized the threat that the rank D monster posed. Keeping their distance as the row of razor-sharp teeth that ringed the gaping maw of the eyeless monster spun rapidly, almost like a chainsaw, the disciples scattered. The Tunneler Wurm plunged after them, but hesitated for just a second when it saw its targets splitting in different directions. With a bellow, it decided to choose the Blood Slaughter Sect disciple unlucky enough to be closest to it.

The pursued disciple did not resent his fate. Instead, he spun around and readied himself, moving to engage the approaching Tunneler Wurm in combat. Blood arced about him and turned into huge, crimson scythes before hurtling forward at the massive monster. The blood scythes bit in deeply, causing scales to flake off and ichor to pour out from large ruptures, but the Tunneler Wurm continued barreling onward, undeterred.

"Ugh!"

The disciple waited until the last moment before he dove to the side, rolling on the ground as the Tunneler Wurm's massive bulk swept past above him. furious at being deprived at its prey, the Tunneler Wurm twisted around, its maw wide open to swallow both rock and human alike, but a volley of blood lances speared through it, impaling it to the ground.

"Wasting our time, what a fool."

Liu mercilessly decapitated it with a single swipe of his hand, a gigantic blood blade materializing above him before beheading the poor monster instantly. Pinned and helpless, there was no way for the Tunneler Wurm to escape the attack.

"Whoa…"

The Blood Slaughter Sect disciples turned to stare at their elder in amazement, but Liu impatiently waved them forward.

"Let's go," he ordered stiffly as he strode ahead. "We don't have much time."

Even though he knew that to be true, as he stepped into the vast darkness in front of him, he couldn't help but wonder if his sect would be trapped within the labyrinthine tunnels and doomed to wander through the endless subterranean networks for eternity.

*

A few days had passed since the attack from the Blood Slaughter Sect, but thankfully they hadn't returned.

Brent and Redfield were pretty sure they would be back, however, and constantly drilled us to remain vigilant and on the lookout for any sign of enemies.

"Now that their fighting force has been drastically destroyed, they will most certainly resort to more insidious means of subterfuge. That will actually make them a lot more dangerous than before."

The captain had a great point. But after days of fighting nothing but monsters, the constant tension was starting to wear me down. No matter how many reminders you received daily, it was only human nature to lower one's guard. After all, it was not biologically natural for a person to constantly dope himself up on adrenaline and keep watch for 24/7. Not only would the consistent tension be mentally draining and psychologically detrimental, attempting to maintain such a state of mind would also affect the body physically, such as hormonal imbalance, indigestion and other side-effects.

Of course the perfect soldier was one who could stay vigilant and on alert 24/7 all year round, but there was only so much the human body could do.

"Hu…"

I wearily returned to the space allocated as our sleeping quarters, wondering how much longer the expedition would take. On the other hand, there would be a change in shifts soon, and my contract had stipulated that I would be sent back to the academy in less than a week. I still had to participate in the national tournament, after all. So I would be rorated out with the existing personnel when they send in a fresh batch of mercenaries to take over.

"Oh! Richard! Are you heading back to rest after your shift?"

While I was on my way, Principal Porter happened to pass by and catch sight of me. He gave me a friendly wave and beckoned me over. Even though I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to hit the sack, I was obligated to politely indulge my employer.

"What is it, Principal Porter?"

"I wanted to ask you for your perspective regarding the tomb. I know that you don't know much about the Dark Age of Technology, or the Era of Unification, but I'm confident that you'll still provide an alternative perspective."

What use was my "alternative" perspective when it was uninformed and terribly lacking? At least that was what I wanted to say, but I didn't want to offend Principal Porter, so I nodded amicably and followed him to the inner chamber of the tomb.

"As per the advice from the mercenaries, we have checked underneath the ground and dug into yet another chamber." Principal Porter was rambling excitedly. Normally I would be curious and inquisitive enough to ask what they found, but at the moment I was too tired. So I merely nodded and went along with the old man. Completely oblivious to my current condition, the principal of Vermillion Academy continued enthusiastically. "We thought we had discovered another layer to the tomb, but we were mistaken!"

Now that caught my attention, and I almost snapped back to full wakefulness.

"Wait, what? Are you saying that there's something else underneath the tomb?" Recalling what we had discussed several days ago, I frowned. "A research facility…?"

"Doesn't look like it, to be honest." Principal Porter laughed. "Honestly, we have too little information or intelligence regarding the Blood Slaughter Sect, so we cannot even begin to guess at what their motives for claiming the tomb site could be. Captain Brent might have raised a likely possibility, but with all due respect to him, he is only looking from a monetary or pragmatic point of view. The Blood Slaughter Sect might not necessarily be looking for technological relics or treasure to sell on the black market."

"That's true," I agreed with a shrug. "But I'm not sure what else they could possibly be looking for. Knowledge? But they don't strike me as scholars…and their actions don't certainly match those of people searching for knowledge or historical information. Why the hell would you kill other people and hoard the knowledge for yourself? What use is that?"

"Hah! Don't put such barbarians in the same vein as us!" Principal Porter actually scoffed at my speculation. "They certainly aren't academics like us, resorting to violence and visiting destruction upon the tomb's premises without any consideration. Do you know how much damage your battles from several days ago did to the site? Lots of priceless monuments and historical clues gone in just the matter of minutes!"

"Sorry about that…"

"No, no. I don't mean to blame you. It's not your fault. If anything, we're grateful." Porter waved my apology away. "We understand the necessity and the nature of these enemies. If you didn't stop them, they would have murdered all of us and plundered the tomb for themselves. That would have been worse than losing a few important historical clues."

Well, I could certainly see that, but…

"In any case, from their wanton destruction, we can see that they are not interested in gaining any historical knowledge from the tomb at all," Porter explained patiently. He also smiled. "And they aren't concerned with accidentally wrecking whatever treasure they plan to steal if that was their goal…which is why I doubt that their motive is anything so monetary."

"Huh…so why…?"

My mind blanked out, and I couldn't think of another reason why the Blood Slaughter Sect would come here.

Porter laughed. "Come on, I know you're smarter than that. Here's a clue. What we found under the tomb was something that was more akin to…a temple. Not a research facility, not a treasure room filled with gold, but a religious site that bore idols and statues dedicated to certain…deities. Altars and shrines…places of worship."

I immediately understood what Porter was getting at, and swallowed uneasily.

"Religion. They want this place because their sect belongs to some sort of cult…a cult that built the temple that housed this tomb? So they want to take it back for their cult now?"

"That is very likely." Porter nodded. "At least that's the conclusion I came to after conducting a preliminary investigation of the small portion of the temple beneath the tomb." His smile widened. "And yes, that's but a small portion of the temple. A single chamber out of hundreds. From diagrams and texts scribbled over the walls, it appears that the actual temple is much larger…the ancients built an almost city-sized temple underground before the entire place was swallowed up by swamps and Mother Nature during the Dark Age."

"That's…" I gulped and then cocked my head. "Have you told Captain Brent yet?"

Porter grimaced. "Yeah. But the captain being a mercenary and professional soldier…he didn't take me seriously. He told me to dig harder, says there's probably something else hidden underneath the temple. Even though what we've unearthed so far points to the contrary."

"Oh well…" I raised a hand. "For what it's worth, I believe you."

"Thank you." Porter beamed. "I knew you would, as a fellow scholar. Now, if you would please come with me…I would like your perspective on this."

"My perspective? I'm not sure it'll be helpful…"

"I'll be the judge on that. Besides, we've exhausted our ideas and run to a dead end, so I'm hoping you can inject something new…something fresh into the discussion. Ah…I should explain from the beginning." Porter looked sheepish. "Basically, none of us could identify the religion or cult that built the temple. There are several…disturbing diagrams, but we have trouble deciphering them. They look weird. In addition, they have been giving our graduate students and even several of the professors nightmares."

"Eh? If you guys don't know what they are, how would I…?"

"Can't hurt to take a look and try, right?"

I supposed Porter had a point. Besides, I was curious as to what sort of temple existed underneath the tomb. In ancient Japan, Shinto regarded death as polluting, and it was unusual for shrines to ever commemorate the dead or serve as burial grounds. Before Buddhism became a major influence, Emperors moved entire capitals whenever their predecessors died, for fear of pollution, and this continued on until the Nara period in the early 6th century. I wasn't as well-versed in other temples and religions because I majored in Japanese stuff, but even in ancient China, I didn't recall anybody building a tomb on top of a temple. That said, temples did serve as sacred sites to house the urns of the cremated dead, to enshrine them in tablets for descendants to pay their respects to their late relatives, so it wasn't all that unusual.

However, since Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and most other major religions continued to exist even in the 31st century (what? they had existed for thousands of years prior to the 21st century, why was it unusual for them to continue existing another thousand years later?), if this was a religion that Porter and his archaeological team couldn't identify, then they must bee a very odd one indeed.

I followed Porter down into the inner tomb chamber where the coffins were kept. Most of the dead were gone by now, having decomposed and were reduced to nothing, not even bones. The expedition had dug through the center, which revealed a hole that granted access to the level below.

"Here. we have a…"

Porter was about to hand me a harness, which was hooked to a pulley to allow the archaeologists to safely descend into the level below, but I ignored him and just jumped down, using physical reinforcement spells to soften my landing.

Porter shook his head, and muttered something about me taking after my adopted father, but he slipped on the harness and allowed the team above to slowly lower him. While he did, I surveyed the area and my jaw dropped.

I found that I did indeed recognize the motifs, diagrams and illustrations splayed across the walls in blood-red ink somewhat, but not because they belonged to any real religion that I knew. Instead, they belonged to a fictitious cult that I read about in a fictional universe that I often engaged in tabletop gameplay.

The eight-pointed star. The daemons with horns, hooves and blazing swords, illustrated in red skin. The chalices overflowing with blood. Greater daemons with wings, axes and whips, towering over their smaller brethren. The swirling masses of berserk humans tearing into each other, their faces frozen in enraged howls and ectasy as they sought to butcher each other and spill as much blood as possible.

"Blood for the Blood God," I murmured in utter disbelief. "This can't be right…"

"Blood God? What is that?" Porter demanded as his feet touched the ground, and he unstrapped his harness to approach me. I turned to him frantically.

"We should evacuate the entire area and leave right now. I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Porter grabbed my shoulders. "Start speaking some sense, young man!"

I gestured to the gigantic two-headed dragon with blood-red scales that was depicted in the middle mural, the largest and most imposing illustration that dwarfed even the bellowing greater daemons with wings.

"That's the Blood God," I whispered, almost unable to find my voice. "And if the Blood Slaughter Sect successfully summons him to our dimension, we're all doomed."