Chapter 46: Chapter 122 – Jailbreak Time

After reaching the ground, Asterios and the others found themselves in a short and narrow tunnel dug straight in the earth, supported by occasional wooden arches to prevent it from collapsing. Yellow lanterns hung in regular distance from each other, illuminating the corridor faintly.

The two guards that Umbra had taken care of lay down on the hard, brown mud with their eyes rolled to the back and silly expressions. As everyone expected, they were dwarves from the Damascu Clan.

“Are they done?” Asterios asked his familiar, who loomed as a deep shadow on the earthen wall.

~Not yet, Master. They are just incapacitated. I wanted to ask for permission to perform Deep Dive to quickly check all their memories for any useful information, but that would render them useless just like the Voidtaur.~

Asterios nodded. “Go ahead. I don’t think the far sentries will know anything important but we could get a better understanding of the layout this way.”

The shadow plunged into the body of one of the dwarves and Miria stepped closer to the other one, kneeling by his side.

“What should we do with the second one, Master? Shall I kill him?”

Asterios pondered for a brief moment and shook his head. “Let’s wait and hear what Umbra says about them. If they are forced to work here, we’ll just send them to the temporary prison for the patriarch to deal with them. We shouldn’t immediately judge everyone as evil.”

She withdrew the weapon she held over the dwarf's neck and stood at Ast’s side to enjoy his pleasant touch on her ears.

“Of course,” Asterios continued, “don’t hesitate in a fight. It’s them or us in the end and it’s almost certain we won’t be able to perfectly take down each person like this.”

Umbra emerged from the body he had seeped into and the dwarf’s life signs slowly ceased shortly after his exit.

~Fortunately, Master, we don’t have to worry about guilty conscience here. Looks like this organization handpicked all its members to assure their complete loyalty without risking betrayal in revenge or riots from the oppressed. According to what I saw in this man’s mind, they are all rotten to the core.~

“Well, that’s it then,” Asterios said and nodded at Miria, who swiftly beheaded the other dwarf with a skillful strike.

“Couldn’t we have used one of them like the Voidtaur, my Lord? To gain easier access inside?” Selene asked.

“I don’t think they would have been fooled this easily. I bet the majority of people here are dwarves, right?”

~It is as you say. This man was a low-rank sentry so he didn’t know much but only amongst the higher-ups I noticed other races. And they seem quite strict with their protocols.~

“Yeah. Even if you girls hid away, it would have been a bit suspicious to bring two strangers through a secret entrance like it’s an everyday thing. Anyway, let’s move on. Got anything useful from him, Umbra?”

~I’m sharing the updated layout with all of you right now, after matching the new one with what we managed to map out from Risvi’s memories. Quite a lot of people work down here but they aren’t individually strong. Except for the executives. But it’s hard to judge just from a grunt’s perspective.~

Everyone took a few seconds to go through the map they received from Umbra and prepared to head further inside. Svertaniel suggested breaking the prisoners out first and dealing with the spread-out guards before tackling the core rooms, to minimize the risk of the whole thing collapsing in the midst of battle and burying countless innocent people.

No one objected as even the general layout of the underground complex supported the demon’s idea. Prisoners were held in similar cage rooms as on the Human Continent and the metal chambers spread out on the edges of the whole structure which resembled a more geometrical snowflake, with the core facilities in the very center.

“Let me just test something out,” Asterios said after they got into formation and prepared to walk forward.

He reached for his scorching hot mana, changing his appearance in the process, and filled his eyes with the potent energy as much as they could take, just like he had done during the spar.

His vision gradually changed into a grayscale. Glancing around, Asterios could spot faint traces of magic in the air but no visible formations or magic circles covered the path in front of them. Also, he didn’t feel like the others moved slower than usual so he quickly concluded that his boost in reflexes had come most likely from the enhanced brain that time.

“Alright. Let’s go. Umbra, you take the lead to check for enemies and traps, as usual.”

The ominous shadow dispersed around with a silent whoosh and flew forward over the walls. Asterios left a quick peck on Miria’s lips, who had been adoring his charming crimson eyes, now gleaming even more than usual, and they began moving.

As he thought, even if the sentries had been placed around to watch over the secret entrances, it hadn't stopped whoever had built this place from weaving a few traps into its structure which could catch off-guard anyone not knowledgeable about their placement and triggers.

Some of them were purely physical and mechanical so they didn’t exude a colorful aura like the ones filled with magic, but Asterios was still able to spot the tiny details with his extremely sharp sight. Of course, Umbra was faster and more precise since he could seep into any gap, no matter how thin. Still, it was a good learning experience for Asterios and a bit of practice couldn’t hurt.

Navigating through narrow passageways dug in the earth, they soon reached the first prison complex. A single dwarf guarded a heavy wooden door leading into the corridor with the cages, which were supervised by additional people placed sporadically in front of the metal bars, as Umbra informed everyone after his scouting.

“It would be good to take this one out silently,” Selene commented as they hid behind a corner.

“Master, can’t you place the Alcove of Serenity on me, or on all of us, and completely muffle any sounds we make?” Miria asked curiously.

“That would be quite taxing mentally. It’s fine placing the spell on a stationary object since you can just forget about it, but to keep it up without breaking the silencing barrier while moving is another thing. Otherwise, everyone would be doing that. Simply speaking, there’s a lot of calculations and other things I would need to constantly keep up in my mind to make it work like that,” Asterios responded.

“That’s where artifacts imbued with such spells come in handy,” Svertaniel added. “But, they are extremely pricey, as you could imagine. And consume thrice the amount of mana.”

“Umbra can just take care of him, no?” Selene chimed in. “And the rest too.”

~No issue with this single guard. But, there are seven people on the other side. They are not strong, but they aren’t exactly civilians. It would have been a piece of cake for me in the Nethernight Realm, but here, I can’t instantly disable all of them at once in complete silence. The more targets I attempt to invade, the weaker each individual assault is. I can try, of course.~

“I can help with that,” Svertaniel said. “Just need the one in front of the door gone.”

Asterios nodded and his companions immediately knew what to do without the need to exchange words.

Umbra sped through the shadows towards the single dwarf and the girls immediately jumped out of hiding. The sentry’s eyes widened after two unidentified figures appeared in one of the intersections and he opened his mouth to shout but no sound left his throat and sudden darkness swallowed his vision. He let go of his axe and reached to his neck, desperately trying to scrape away whatever was tightening around his windpipe.

Miria leaned forward close to the ground like a professional sprinter and pushed herself off with both Physical Strengthening focused on her legs and Haste from Asterios while Selene stood by his side with both hands extended forward, her fingers curled into claws and surrounded by blue wisps of energy.

The panthergirl appeared in front of the struggling man whose eyes were covered by a thick band of shadow, throat surrounded and squeezed by blue mana, and his weapon levitating in the air by his side, held up by the same spiritual energy. With determined precision, she sank her sharpened blades in the dwarf’s throat and heart, killing the man on the spot.

Selene gently lowered the axe to the ground and released her grip on the guard’s throat after he stopped moving. Umbra’s shadows helped pull the corpse off Miria’s still extended blades and placed it by the weapon. The panthergirl exhaled softly and listened attentively but no sounds came from the other side of the door.

Everyone else soon joined her and Asterios brushed through her black hair. “Good job.”

Miria smiled at him and then exchanged a nod with Selene, proud of their cooperation. Umbra moved the body to a designated pile outside of the compound through his shadows and Svertaniel brought out his purplish grimoire. The demon man started whispering some incantation with his eyes closed for a few seconds. No one understood the words that sounded ancient.

A magical circle of ominous purple appeared over the book and he opened his eyes. Asterios understood that he was ready and nodded at his girls to prepare again. They had a few more targets to quickly take down this time.

Using the metal key he had picked up from the sentry, he put it in the keyhole and turned the lock. To avoid the potential screech of metal hinges, he yanked the door open in one move, opening up a slightly more spacious corridor in front of them.

“Dead Silence!” Svertaniel chanted in a hushed voice and slammed his right hand into the ground.

All at once, glowing purple rings appeared around the necks of all the dwarves present in the chamber, including every single prisoner, not just the jailers. They looked like extremely ferocious and spiky clock rims with four blades aimed at the necks of their victims. Those sharp knives shot forward and sank into their skin without damaging it.

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Although the people caught by the spell didn’t start thrashing in pain, they must have felt something because everyone looked down at their necks almost at the same time. A few of the guards grabbed the glowing rings and tried to tear them off but only managed to pull their necks to the side.

In a flash, Miria lunged with her Haste to the very end of the corridor and showed up in front of the furthest pair of dwarves with her shortswords already in motion, mercilessly flying towards their throats as she spun around her own axis like a ballerina.

As Asterios launched two spiritually boosted needles from his Poison Fang straight into the foreheads of the two closest guards that had just begun turning towards the entrance, Selene dashed past him with his artifact sword in her hands, filling it with Ast’s mana through her own circuits.

She gave the remaining trio no chance to respond and gracefully danced from one to another while slicing the short, silver-skinned people in half with the unimaginably sharp blade. Selene met up with Miria at the last one of the three and they hacked the poor man into pieces together.

Silence fell on the prison chamber, only filled with the quiet gasps of the girls trying to calm their breathing down. They looked around and saw tens of dwarves of various ages staring at them with a full range of expressions. If not for Svertaniel including them in the spell too, they had no doubt that some of the captives would have screamed and shouted in shock.

Asterios reached the middle of the corridor with rows of prison cells on both sides and glanced over the captured dwarves.

“Please, don’t be alarmed. We are here to get you all out. A field clinic is waiting for your arrival and you will receive medical help the moment my familiar transports you there. We will open the cells one by one so please, quietly line up in front of me and wait for your turn, okay?” Asterios spoke in a hushed voice but loud enough for most of them to hear.

Just as he said, Svertaniel proceeded to open the metal cages and guided people outside. They were hesitant at first, uncertain how they could escape this facility, but after witnessing how a few of their brethren plunged into the ground within a thick shadow and then returned shortly after, confirming Ast’s words about the clinic, everyone got eager to be next.

Umbra dealt with everyone in three minutes and Ast’s party continued forward, following the layout by going around the edges, from one prison complex to another, and freeing the captives in a similar fashion. 

Svertaniel took care of not only silencing the guards inside but also summoning a creepy floating eye to stay by the entrance to each jail so they could get notified if anyone arrived there after them. If someone did stumble on the empty cells, Selene had to immediately move outside and start up the trapping array.

After taking care of the third complex, they headed towards what they believed was one of the workshops working on the poisons. They still had to deal with one more prison on the eastern side, but this research chamber was on their way there so everyone agreed to check it out for some useful information.

Two dwarves watched the entrance this time and the door was made purely of metal, which Asterios assumed was Damascus Steel. A complex magical pattern was inscribed into it, inactive at the moment, but he could read it as an open book with his special sight. It both served as a silencing formation and a defensive mechanism, increasing the metal’s durability and resistances when attempted to be opened without proper means.

Thankfully, Asterios could tell that the noise-canceling bit worked both ways so Miria and Selene swiftly dispatched the guards with Umbra’s help, who moved them to the dwarves’ sides through his shadows. The girls quickly covered their mouths and sliced their throats in perfect sync, resulting only in some faint gasps and muffled gurgling escaping into the air.

“What now, Master?” Miria asked after placing the dead body down.

“Are you able to check inside, Umbra?” Asterios glanced at his shadowy companion while moving closer to study the yellow glow only he could see.

Without an answer, Umbra’s shadow seeped through the frame and disappeared. Shortly after, all of Ast’s companions could peek inside through the slightly smoking vision. Three people worked by separate counters filled with test tubes and alchemical equipment while an adult dwarf man was tied up to a tilted rectangular plate with a gag in his mouth.

His state left nothing to the imagination. Countless dark tiny dots riddled various areas of the man’s naked body, clearly from getting stabbed with tens of syringes. His head was shaking, most likely from pain and suffering. If not for the restraints holding him in place, they had no doubts he would be thrashing around.

Besides all the alchemical equipment, a few bookshelves and cabinets stood by the four walls of dark stone. It was the first time they saw something else than just hardened earth and mud, even in the cells.

As for the other people inside, two of them were dwarves and one looked like a high elf woman. One of the dwarves was a female too. She was examining her racial brother, taking notes while the other two worked by their stations. Asterios could notice the begging, pleading gaze the bound man shot the woman but she regarded him as nothing, completely unbothered with what she was doing to her kin.

“We should capture at least one alive,” Svertaniel said after Umbra shared what they saw with him. “Preferably, the elf. She might lead us to some interracial connections and maybe even know about a similar facility in her homeland.”

“I agree. Go in after I deal with this formation. I think I know how to break it without triggering the safety. They should be non-combatants but don’t let your guards down. You can get as loud as you want after I close the door behind us,” Asterios instructed everyone.

He then reached out with both hands and started trailing over the metal door with his fingers. At first, Miria and Selene thought he was following the inscribed paths, but they quickly noticed that he strayed off them a lot and moved according to what only he could see through his spiritually enhanced eyes, which glowed ferocious crimson.

Ten seconds later, the magical pattern lit up in a yellow hue and something clicked. Asterios looked at everyone and nodded. He pushed the door inside and the girls immediately dashed forward, already knowing after which target to go. As Svertaniel followed them, Asterios shut the door as quickly as he could.

The researchers did not expect such a violent entrance of four strangers and turned their heads towards the door the moment it had opened violently. Without an ounce of hesitation in her actions, the elf woman made a big swing, scooping some glass container on the way and launching it straight at the newcomers.

The girls easily ducked under the flying vial which soared at Svertaniel and Asterios. The former stepped away without any issues too, but due to Asterios walking inside as the last person, the demon man obstructed part of his vision and he barely avoided getting hit straight in the face by yanking his head to the side. 

Crashing into the metal door, the glass flask shattered and the liquid started sizzling loudly while melting the metal. A few drops fell onto Ast’s shoulder and crimson tongues of fire shot from his brown spiritual coat, evaporating the corrosive substance in an instant, quickly regenerating the small hole it managed to create.

“That would have ended badly if I wore my old gear,” Asterios commented while focusing on the situation in the room.

The elf woman had been knocked out and rested peacefully unconscious inside a ruined bookshelf, with her body buried under a myriad of tomes, notebooks, and scrolls. He knew exactly who could have sent her flying with such a devastating punch, and surely, Miria was currently facing off against the male dwarf who wielded dual daggers and Selene was speeding to help her after incapacitating her own opponent on the other side of the room.

He noticed the dwarf woman desperately darting towards one of the corners of the chamber while somehow avoiding getting slammed or captured by numerous thick eldritch tentacles coming out of small ominous tears in the fabric of this realm. Their movements seemed a little awkward and uncertain.

A quick glance at Svertaniel reminded him of the demon man’s own words about his magic being quite destructive and volatile. He was clearly limiting himself not to turn this whole chamber into a pile of dust or bring the ceiling onto their heads.

In the direction where the woman was hurriedly headed, Asterios saw a weird red formation hidden inside a closed cupboard. It connected through a spiritual line somewhere outside of the room. He instantly realized it had to be some kind of an alarm or communication array.

There was no time to order Svertaniel to get her no matter the cost or even to get the attention of Ast’s companions through the bond they shared so he swung his arm upwards while releasing all three needles from his Poison Fang at once, activating the mechanism to cover them with the strongest paralyzing poison he had currently stored in the glass container inside. He hoped for at least one to land a hit.

But, contrary to his lack of confidence in the abrupt action, his body moved exactly as he wished and the ruthless spikes sank into the woman’s knee, neck, and head from behind. The poison was unnecessary. She died on the spot, flopping down onto the ground a moment after three whizzes cut through the air.

Miria and Selene had taken down the other person without killing them in the meantime. Svertaniel’s tentacles retracted to their holes and the demon sighed. Everything went quiet. Even the struggling dwarf stopped his movements and stared at the party wide-eyed.

“Two out of three. Could have gone worse,” Selene commented.

“Right.” Asterios nodded and turned away from the dead woman. “Svertaniel, help the man down. Selene, look for the antidote. They should have one here. Miria, shove all the documents and books through the portal. We don’t have time to go through all of them right now. Someone can discover us at any moment.”

Everyone followed his commands and Asterios assisted Svertaniel. They gave the dwarf man a few small gulps of water and explained the transfer. Selene succeeded in finding the antidote, Asterios verified it, and they fed some of it to the dwarf while she jumped to work with Miria.

Umbra received orders to deliver the casket of vials that held the antidote along with the people and explain both what it was and who the other two were. While he was gone, the others finished ransacking the research chamber as much as they could in case something happened and the evidence would be lost.

They moved out immediately after finishing and jogged towards the last big prison complex they knew of, using that time to recover a little through potions or other means that only Ast’s companions could utilize. Eager to save time, they dispatched the guards stationed by the cells in a flash and began evacuating the captives.

In the middle of the operation, Svertaniel flinched and grabbed the side of his head. 

Asterios glanced at him. “You good?”

“We’ve been found out. One of my eyes is gone.”

“Shit.”

 

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