27: Catacombs

Your journey through the mountain tunnels proceeds surprisingly swiftly and without any incidents thus far. Sure, you still came upon human bones here and there. And you also passed another cave, lit from far above, swarming with troglodytes. However, Twinkle continues to faithfully guide you further down and not a single troglodyte has attacked your party. This eases your worry that this is a trap by the troglodytes to ambush you below, as, by now, they had plenty of chances already.

Each time you reach a fork in the tunnels Twinkle either taps you on the shoulder and points the way, or flies into the correct tunnel himself. You start to realize just how lucky you were in your hunger-induced rush through the tunnels. Now, the labyrinth that infests the mountain like roots of weeds is truly apparent.

On your way down you decide to question Alpha about what awaits you, as you quickly find that, during her time with the bandits, Alpha used to pay way more attention to her surroundings than Gamma did.

“Gamma said there are about two hundred people inside. Is that true?” You ask her.

“Those that are combat-able should not be more than a hundred and fifty,” Alpha answers without a single care about what she is saying.

Unless there were changes since yesterday, you add to her statement in your head and ask, “How many of them are stronger than you?”

“There are about twenty I would consider a challenge in a duel.”

Well, that still doesn’t say much, you think. Even if Alpha could beat them one by one, it is unlikely that she, or even Ariadne, could take on twenty at once. Not to mention that to begin with it’s a biased opinion, and as I remember she used to think highly of herself.

“Consider a challenge?” Gamma questioningly parrots what Alpha said. “You’d be lucky to still have limbs attached after two minutes of fighting against one of the Red Ears.”

Alpha doesn’t respond and continues to walk forward.

“Red Ears?” you ask the two of them.

“The most loyal of Xi’s fanatics,” Alpha says.

“And if all of those “Red Ears” attacked Chi all at once, would they stand a chance of beating her?”

“No,” Alpha says.

“No way in hell!” Gamma exclaims.

Tch, still holding their leader in high regard. Oh, right!

“Where would we find the equipment summoner that you had plans to boil in milk?” you ask Alpha.

“He’s probably long dead. We didn’t plan to boil him – Xi did. And that was scheduled for yesterday.”

“Oh, a pity—I planned to gift him to Ariadne,” you say that, but you are legitimately disappointed. Even aside of having revenge for the trouble he caused before, an equipment summoner could have had many uses. Perhaps there’s still a chance he could be alive?

As the tunnel narrows more and more you realize you must be close. Eventually, the tunnel grows so narrow that you brush against the sides of the tunnel with your shoulders. You hear scratching of metal against rock—Gamma is dragging her shields, one in front of her, one behind to squeeze through the tunnel. And once you hear a splash and feel your boots soaking through, you know you’ve arrived. Twinkle flies off your shoulder and hovers in the air as you take your last steps out of the tunnel.

“Ew!” Ariadne lets out a sound that you manage to keep in and lifts one of her legs to shake off the water. Not that it helps the situation in any way, so she follows you through the crack in the wall inside the catacombs.

The first level is nothing spectacular. More water, more rock, more narrow corridors, more darkness, with only Ariadne’s crystal for guidance. Maybe that’s why this tunnel is left as it is—you wonder—nobody even knows it’s here as the flooded level has been abandoned. The walls have countless openings, each with stone coffin, adorned with carved symbols that have faded with time.

“Stay quiet,” you whisper to the others, though at this point it does little good. With all of you ankle deep in water, you make noise with each step you take anyway. Luckily, you come upon an eroded flight of stairs, and can finally, at least, get out of the water.

The next level shows the first signs of life—spider webs. As you cautiously proceed further, you hear noise coming from above. There must be dozens of people up there, you think. You use the noise for guidance to find the right path up and come upon the next flight of stairs with torchlight breaking through the winding path. With the noise growing louder you can hear shouting and laughter. It must be quite a party.

Unfortunately, the way up is blocked by a steel door with bars, eerily reminiscent of the one used in your cells.

“Ariadne?” you ask your sister. She understands what you want, takes her greataxe, and with a mighty swing destroys the lock on the door. The sound of metal crashing into metal echoes through this level, but you suspect that the noise from the part above prevented your intrusion from being noticed. Still, better hurry, you think and proceed up the stairs.

As you go up the stairs, you begin to wonder about the nature of the party. At first, you dismiss it as your perverted imagination. But once you reach the top, there can no longer be any doubt. Just up ahead, through a narrow corridor, there is a dome-like hall, adorned with skulls and lit brightly by many torches. Inside there’s a sea of naked bodies. Thirty, no, forty people at least. It’s a full-blown orgy!

“What the hell,” you utter in shock. “Alpha?”

“During his raids, Xi takes great care to take as many captives as possible,” Alpha explains nonchalantly. “The prettiest girls he takes for himself. The rest—along with the ones he grows bored with—are brought here for his gang to have fun with. Male and female—whichever preference his crew has. Those that do not submit are first boiled alive in milk, and eventually, their skulls are added to the growing collection on these walls.”

“Chi-sama had many arguments with her brother about this,” Gamma adds.

“I see,” you say.

YuujiEveryleaf

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