Nadja pointed her nose toward the hut and sniffed.
“There. The smell is coming from that hut.”
They approached the hut, with Ares’s group remaining behind.
Once they stepped through the open door, the stench of blood was thick enough for even Homura’s nose to detect. A small desk had been placed inside, and there were several weapons lining the wall. There were no other items around, but there was a door built into the floor. This trapdoor was currently open, and they could see a stairway leading underground. The odor was coming from deeper within.
They passed through the trapdoor. The chilly, mold-scented air caressed their skin. Once they made their way down the stairs, they discovered a row of black iron doors, illuminated faintly by orestone lamps.
“It’s a dungeon. Perfect timing, right, Homura?”
“No, it’s not at all!”
There was already another person there at the end of the hallway. She stood before one of the gloomy doors where the orestone’s glow did not reach. It was difficult to tell in this dim light, but she appeared to be an adult woman.
The woman held a large key ring in her hands and had just been on the verge of inserting one of its many keys into the door when she jumped in surprise at the sound of their voices. Noticing them, the woman held out a knife in her trembling hand, pointing it toward the intruders.
“D-don’t come any closer! I mean it!”
The woman was a priestess. The same one who had been waiting behind the stage during Elyliyah’s public spectacle.
“Please, I’m almost finished. Just pretend you didn’t see what I’m…about to…” A look of confusion crossed the priestess’ face as she noticed the demon among the group. “Wait, why is there someone from the Sharktooth Tribe with you?”
“Her? We’re here to free her friends. What’s it to you?” said Psycho.
It was like a cord had snapped. The priestess’s knees wobbled, and the tension drained from her shoulders.
“I see… Forgive me, I had no idea we were here for the same reason…”
“Wait, you’re here to free them? That must mean he’s still alive, right?!” Nadja asked.
“Y-yes!”
Nadja sighed in relief. She was probably hiding how worried she had been.
“I was ordered to feed and heal them, but Ms. Elyliyah has been amusing herself with them almost every single day. He is not in good shape, but he is alive.”
“It’s enough to know that.”
This time, the priestess inserted the key and turned the lock. As the heavy iron door swung open, the thick stench of blood rushed out to greet them. The dank air clung unpleasantly to their skin.
The priestess entered the cell and touched the orestone lamp located directly next to the door, activating the light.
Nadja was grinding her teeth hard enough that it was audible.
There was an emaciated demon inside the cell, bound to the wall by chains. Unlike Nadja, there was no carapace on this demon’s arms and legs, but it was evident that he was of her race.
Although he was uninjured, the dried blood on the floor spoke to the sort of treatment he must have been receiving. The moans that people had heard, night after night, were the sounds of demons being tortured.
“Papa!” Nadja embraced the man inside the cell.
“Nadja, is that you? What happened to your arms…?”
“I’ve been working hard, Papa! I’ve been doing special training, and I’m really strong now! My body also changed a little due to a curse…but I never gave up. I knew I would save everyone!”
Nadja could no longer hold back the hot tears from pouring down her face. A single tear trickled down the haggard cheek of Nadja’s father as well.
There was so much Nadja wanted to tell him, but she was too overjoyed now for words. No trace of the stone-cold warrior from before could be seen in her sobbing face; she was just a young girl again. This was likely who she really was.
Nadja’s face suddenly grew stern once more as she remembered that the humans were standing behind her, watching.
“Shut up! I was fighting for the dignity of our people! I’m still part of the Dark Lord’s army!”
“No one said otherwise! Go on, enjoy your touching reunion!” yelled Psycho.
“Enough! We’re heading back outside!”
“Nadja, when did you learn to talk like that? And what is all this about the Dark Lord’s army?!”
“Papa, you be quiet, too!”
Everybody looked away awkwardly, but right now, the most important thing was to free Nadja’s father and the other Sharktooth prisoners. They removed everyone’s chains and checked to make sure they weren’t injured. While the prisoners weren’t in the best shape, they could still stand, so they quickly left the dungeon behind before Elyliyah could have a chance to notice them.
Ares and his party members cradled their heads in their hands when they saw the band of demons emerge from the hut. The people they thought had been the villains turned out to have been the victims all along, and the person they had given the benefit of the doubt to had turned out to be in the wrong.
“I feel like I’ve just gotten a glimpse into true evil…” Despite his initial wariness, Ares quickly lowered his weapon, his face turning dark. “You two, go with them. Keep them safe until they get back to sea.”
“Okay.”
“You can count on me.”
Ares’s two companions acknowledged their mission to guard the freed prisoners. They did not even question Ares’s decision, immediately accepting it as the right thing to do. It was evident how much faith they placed in him.
Ares stood steadfast as his former enemies departed, his eyes devoid of hostility. The Sharktooth people departed toward the sea, huddled together loosely. Those who could still walk normally lent a shoulder to those who were having trouble.
“If I ever have the chance to repay you, I will do so,” said Nadja before she departed as well. She never looked back.
Ares watched as the demons disappeared into the distance, before finally turning his attention toward the task at hand.
“Rhiann, we need to find Elyliyah and—”
A loud crash filled the air.
It happened so suddenly that they all froze.
Rubble rained down across the plaza. At the center of the chaos, they saw that the plaza stage used for Elyliyah’s punishments had just been destroyed. Something had been thrown into it, splintering it to pieces. A warrior in a bull-antler helmet—it was Torreque!
Once they realized Torreque had just been flung into the stage, they turned their eyes in the direction that the original sound had come from. A half-destroyed building was standing there. It had withstood the crawler-shark invasion, but now it’d been devastated by an explosion from within.
Torreque’s body was riddled with sharp metal shards that had pierced his armor. He was moving slightly, indicating that he was still breathing, but the amount of blood that was welling up from his wounds was immense. Without help, the blood loss would turn critical.
“Captain Torreque!” The priestess quickly rushed to Torreque’s side and began applying her healing magic.
“I thought it seemed quiet out here. What did you do with my toys?! You’ve completely put me off my tea now!”
The clouds of dust drifted past on the night breeze, revealing Elyliyah in the doorway, which had just barely managed to remain upright after the blast. Elyliyah hadn’t gotten stranded like some of the others. No, while the city was under attack, she had been enjoying an elegant cup of tea.
“This was all your doing, wasn’t it? Look at your gross arm—you’re turning into a monster, aren’t you? Clearly, I was in the right to attack you. If I killed you now, no one would blame me.”
Looking closely, Torreque’s left arm was covered in a thick carapace, similar to the crawler sharks. It was the arm that Psycho had hastily constructed for him, deformed and obviously inhuman. Although sturdy and powerful, it obviously did not belong on a normal human body.
“It looks like I managed to keep her busy…just long enough. But I think…I made her angry. You guys should…probably run…,” said Torreque, his breathing ragged.
“I know what you’ve been doing, sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong. All those convicts who people didn’t want around here anymore—you’ve been sending them to live in your old village, haven’t you? And now you’ve gone and let my little toys escape. Providing aid to criminals and monsters—you deserve to be punished!”
In Elyliyah’s mind, she was the law. And as long as there was no one to stand up to her, for all intents and purposes, that was, in fact, what she was.
Elyliyah needed to be handled with kid gloves. Angering her could hurt the relations between Galdorssia and Aurerich. Despite this, Ares stepped forward to stand in her way.
“You were the cause of this attack. If you hadn’t laid a hand on those demons, none of this would have happened.”
“And? Soldiers like you kill monsters all the time.”
“Only to protect the people. Not to indulge our own wants and desires, like you were doing.”
“What exactly are you trying to say…?” said Elyliyah, growing more and more irritated with this lippy new recruit.
“As a soldier of the Aegis Guard, I am taking you into custody for disturbing Aurerich’s peace. You have kidnapped and tortured demons, provoking their allies and thereby inciting chaos. As soldiers of Galdorssia, we, too, are pledged to act in accordance with the law.”
“Huh…?” Elyliyah was so taken aback by Ares’s response that she just stared at him foolishly for a moment. “Custody…? The law…? Are you kidding me…? If you think you can stop me, then go ahead and try it, but be prepared to kill. Not that someone like you ever could.”
She sounded exasperated to the point of disappointment.
“I am well aware I cannot defeat you. That does not change what I need to do.”
Elyliyah saw the spark in the defiant soldier’s eyes. Why was there no fear there? This coward, too gutless to even take a life! Elyliyah’s entire agenda was to inspire fear. For someone like her, a person without fear was a cold slap in the face. A repudiation of all she was.
“Fools, cowards! All so dead set on getting in my way…! Why won’t you look at me? At your Elyliyah?!”
As Elyliyah shouted, something flew from her hand. Ares quickly held up his shield to deflect it. The helmet he had still been attempting to put on fell to the ground with a clunk and rolled away. Although he had been taken by surprise, Ares calmly readied his sword and shield, summoning his lightning to shroud his body.
“Those damned eyes!”
At some point, a whip made of connected blades had appeared in Elyliyah’s hand. The coiled blade was exceptionally long, and it writhed in the air like a tentacle, even when she wasn’t doing anything.
“Prepare yourself,” Ares said before dashing forward.
He was able to close the distance swiftly, moving like a falling bolt of lightning. His feet, shrouded in azure thunder, split the stone pavement as he shot forward.