That whole conversation felt like it’d happened a lifetime ago, especially after all the time we’d wasted running away from the faeries. Thanks to Loradd, the enemy couldn’t easily surround us, but it felt like they were steadily luring us deeper into the ruins. Not that there was much we could do about it.
After escaping the last room, we found another one with a slightly sturdier door. It had been secured by a heavy lock, but Tsav picked it while humming a little tune. I complimented his skill, but he just said, “If Dotta were here, he’d have gotten it open before I even reached the chorus.”
We must have been down here for over a day already.
Up on the surface, it was probably the middle of the night. If it was already past midnight, that meant the election would be this afternoon. We had no time to waste. Ideally, we would have already gotten the name of the one behind this and passed it on to Adhiff, but…
There isn’t enough time to get his help now. I didn’t want to have to do this, but we’re in no position to be picky. And besides…
I brushed my fingers over the emblem used to fasten my cloak. Its faint blue glow was quickly dimming. The luminescent paint acted as a rough indicator of how much energy I had left. I’d been conservative with my internal luminescence, but I was now alarmingly low.
At this rate, I could manage maybe two more battles at full strength, but that was it. I could no longer afford to use Zatte Finde carelessly, and I needed to be more conservative with Loradd as well.
The situation was dire, but we could still win.
If they were trying to trap us down here to slow us down or kill us, they wouldn’t just send faeries. That would be too risky.
If it looked like we might escape, I was sure the one behind all this would show up to stop us. That would be our way out.
I suspected the enemy had already destroyed the ladders we’d used to get down into the ruins, and the paths we’d traveled would now be heavily guarded. At least, that was what I would have done. Fortunately, after all our time wandering around and Loradd’s help, I’d found another exit—a ladder that led straight to the surface. All we had to do was break through the enemy forces and get out.
This was just a short break before our final spurt.
“…Oh! Looks like it’s our lucky day, Bro! Check out the weapons in here.” Tsav’s cheerful voice broke into my thoughts. “Bro! I think these are artifacts from the Old Kingdom! Look at this sword! Think it’s some super-famous weapon from the past?”
He rummaged gleefully through the pile, eventually picking up a broad-bladed sword and thrusting it out toward me. He was even wearing a massive horned helmet like some kid in a toy store.
“Check out the sacred seal engraved on the blade!” He whirled the weapon around, sending sparks flying from its tip. “It shot out fire! Maybe it has some kind of special ancient powers lost to time.”
“You’re not gonna find any good weapons just lying around in here…”
This was an underground fortress. There might be some weapons stockpiled in case a battle broke out, but they’d be the kind of thing an average soldier might wield. If this was an armory, they were likely all mass-produced, low-level junk.
Of course, a semi-ancient ruin like this might have something with a powerful sacred seal no longer in use, but you’d have a better chance of being struck by lightning than of finding something like that. The ruins might be semi-ancient, but tons of groups had been using them right up to the present day. There probably wasn’t anything left from before the modern era.
“That kind of seal is pretty common.”
I’d seen tons of stuff like that. People were always carving seals into metal to try to make their weapons more useful. But their work was usually pretty shoddy, and the weapons wound up thrown into armories like this and forgotten.
“They’re extremely fuel-inefficient and hardly worth the trouble. Think about it. Have you ever seen a torch with an attached blade? The flames would soften the blade in no time, and even putting that aside, you’d probably just burn yourself.”
Patausche used a sacred seal weapon with a similar effect, but hers used a complex combination of seals known as a seal compound. Advanced techniques had been incorporated to increase heat resistance.
“Whaaat? Seriously? Then what about this helmet?”
“That’s from back when humans were fighting each other. It has a sacred seal on it to protect against bolts from lightning staffs.”
“Aw, come on! How about this huge cylinder? This has to be something incredible!”
“That’s a flare for raising smoke signals. But it’s poorly made, so don’t even think about using it. They randomly explode all the time.”
“Awww…” Tsav looked visibly disappointed. He tossed the helmet to one side, and it rolled back into the pile of junk with a clatter. “Anyway, you sure know a lot about this stuff, huh?”
“My friend had a bizarre obsession with history. Used to talk endlessly about the difference between semi-ancient and ancient ruins and so on. Apparently, anything up to the First War of Subjugation is considered ‘ancient,’ and everything from then up to the Second War of Subjugation is ‘semi-ancient.’”
“You know a lot of weird people, huh?”
That was rich, coming from Tsav. Had he forgotten the man currently lying at our feet, glaring up at us?
“Hey, Necrus.” I tried to make my voice as soft and gentle as I could. “Help us get out of here. We need to work together if we want to escape.”
It was almost time for the divine election. If we didn’t get out of these ruins soon, the mastermind of this operation was going to make sure their candidate won. They’d already betrayed Gwen Mohsa—they were clearly willing to do whatever it took. If we stayed down here, we’d just be a couple of idiot rats caught in a trap.
And in that case, I wouldn’t be able to look Patausche in the eye.
I’d been full of confidence when I chose to come down here, saying it would be easy and I’d be back in no time. If I failed now, I’d look like a total dunce.
I have to get out of here, no matter what. At the very least, I need to find a place where I can contact the surface.
For some reason, we were unable to communicate with anyone aboveground. It was as though something was interfering with our communications.
“Come on, Necrus, talk. The one who hired you betrayed you and left you to die. Why be so stubborn? Who put you up to this?”
The man’s gaze was hostile and filled with bloodlust. If his leg weren’t mangled and his hands weren’t bound, he’d probably have attacked us already.
“I know you were put up to this, and by someone with a lot of authority among the coexisters.” I grabbed the bottle of water I’d brought with me, tilting the bottle to my lips right in front of him. “As you can see, we have food and water. We can share it with you, if you want.”
But Necrus remained silent, his expression unchanged. As I began to lose hope I could persuade him, Tsav interjected.
“You’re wasting your time, Bro. Necrus despises us.”
“Looks that way. You must have done something to really piss him off back in the day. Don’t tell me that scar on his face was your doing?”
“No! Oh, well… I mean, yeah… But he hates you way more than he does me. Probably.”
“Me?”
I hadn’t seen that coming. If Tsav had left that scar on his face, what the heck had I done?
“You killed a goddess, then forged a pact with Teo, right? Let’s just say that didn’t make you too popular with these guys. Gwen Mohsa’s teachings state that there are exactly twelve goddesses. No more, no less.”
“…Exactly. Yet you worship a false goddess, you—you traitor!”
At last, Necrus spoke, fixing me with his hateful gaze. I was uncomfortable to be the target of such animosity, to say the least. I understood that killing Senerva went against their teachings, and I was prepared for them to condemn me for it. I didn’t think they’d forgive me, but if they only knew why I’d done it… No, I’d probably still be a monster in their eyes.