Chapter 47: Chapter 123 – A Ghost From the Past

“Umbra!” Asterios shouted.

~Already on it!~

Moments after Svertaniel had mentioned his scouting spell getting canceled, Umbra was already jumping into the shadows.

~Which one, Master?~

Asterios relayed the question and Svertaniel quickly responded. “The second one we have visited.”

Since they couldn’t do anything else without their shadowy friend, everyone focused on getting the rest of the captives from their cells and checking their health. Fortunately, no one had been in a critical state so far and this prison chamber was no different so the girls only had to apply some first-aid, leaving the rest to the patriarch’s men.

Meanwhile, Umbra quickly arrived at the designated point and spread himself over a wall. He immediately caught the sight of the open door which led to the empty jail. One person stood inside, shocked by the empty cages.

Before rushing in to take them down as soon as possible, Umbra noticed footsteps echoing in the distance. They were clearly heading away from the entrance to the prison room in a hurry. It was obvious who he should focus on first and Umbra launched himself after the second witness.

With two quick jumps through Shadow Movement, he caught up with the runner and attacked the person’s mind the second he got in range. Unfortunately, his opponent didn’t seem to be a weak grunt and activated their mental defenses shortly after something invaded their head. The defensive barrier managed to push Umbra out before he drilled deep enough to cause any serious harm to them.

The tall figure in dark robes stopped for a moment, turned around, and waved their arm horizontally. Black energy shot from the tips of their slender and dark-skinned fingers straight at Umbra’s regathering shadow.

He managed to avoid getting hit but the dodge gave his opponent enough time to cast a more complex spell and surround themselves with a black protective net resembling a pinecone in shape and structure. 

Umbra could tell that this layer wasn’t easy to penetrate both mentally and physically and he would have to turn serious with either his shadow manipulation or spiritual pressure. Unfortunately, either choice was dangerous underground, especially when all the earth at the outer rim of the facility was supported only by wooden beams and arches.

Slightly dissatisfied but Umbra decided to withdraw and transferred himself back to the prison cells. He hadn’t forgotten to place a mark on his former opponent to keep an eye on them since they seemed better than most of the people they had met. 

After arriving in the empty jail, he swiftly dispatched the single dwarf enemy that had still remained inside by piercing the man’s mind with all he had to not repeat his earlier mistake. With just a quick scan of their brain, Umbra returned to the rest of the party.

~I apologize, Master. I allowed one to escape,~ he spoke in everyone’s minds after materializing as a big raven.

“I know. Good work anyway. Finish moving the dwarves as quickly as possible.”

Nodding his ebony beak, Umbra got to work and started swallowing people with his shadows. Asterios and the rest moved aside for a moment.

“What now, Master?” Miria glanced at him anxiously.

“We are moving on to the second part of our plan. Good that we managed to get most of the prisoners out before getting noticed. The moment Umbra finishes, we are heading to the core chambers to catch some executives in their offices. I think it’s safe to assume that they are of races other than dwarves.”

“Like that person Umbra fought?” Selene asked.

“Most likely.”

“What did you see?” Svertaniel joined in.

“Not sure if it was a man or a woman, but it was a tall and slender figure clad in dark grey robes. We could spot threads of white hair and their onyx skin under the hood. They used black energy. Additionally, I caught the sight of a white snake tattoo coiling around their forearm and wrist as they flung their hand.” Asterios then rolled his eyes. “Why do bad guys always pick snakes as their symbols? They are not even close to evil creatures and not the only ones that are poisonous.”

Svertaniel sighed while rubbing his forehead. “I’m fairly sure they were noctis.”

“Noctis?” Miria tilted her head.

“They are a humanoid race called abyssal elves in the past but earned themselves a new name due to their evildoings which made all the other elves want to have nothing to do with them. It was long ago and their kin isn’t receiving pure hate for their past deeds anymore but this person certainly doesn’t help in thwarting the stereotypes.”

“Right. I read a bit about them and this is very interesting but we have to move on before that messenger makes any progress,” Asterios interjected when Umbra perched on his shoulder. “Selene, you are going to the surface with Umbra and staying there together.”

“My Lord, there’s no need—”

“That’s an order.” Asterios pointed a finger at her and then stepped closer to hug Selene from the front. “You will be vulnerable while upholding the formation and someone has to keep an eye on you.”

“The knights will arrive shortly after I activate it from the outside, my Lord. And no one will be able to do anything from the inside through the barrier.”

“I don’t care. There can be traitors in their ranks. I’m not going to risk losing you over something so stupid.”

Asterios moved his hand to Selene’s cheek and pulled himself closer to join their lips together. She was a tad surprised by his sudden initiative but quickly forgot about it and relished in the pleasant warmth spreading over her mouth as she threw her arms over his shoulders. 

A wave of hot mana flowed into her in copious amounts as their tongues gently danced together with care, affection, and hurry. She sucked as much energy out of this short exchange as she could and broke the kiss with a jubilant smile.

“Be careful, my Lord.”

She glanced at Miria, nodded, receiving the same gesture in response, and left a peck on Ast’s lips before plunging into the ground in a shadowy pillar. The panthergirl walked to his side and rubbed her cheek against Ast’s.

“I will surely protect you, Master. It would be better to have more members in our party, though.”

Asterios shook his head with a soft smile. “Who would have thought I would be starting summoning rituals left and right so quickly… Anyway, we are already set for the Blood Summoning. We will do it right after arriving on the Demon Continent.”

He turned his face to the side and pulled Miria for a passionate kiss too, already sensing her eagerness to receive some affection. And mana, of course.

Their exchange was brief and interrupted by a faint rumble coming from the surface which shook the underground system a bit.

“That’s our cue. Let’s go.”

Miria stepped back and closed her eyes. She had practiced a lot since the last time she had drawn from her bloodline and it took her only a moment to turn a bit more feral in front of their eyes. Her fur crawled up her arms and legs a bit over the joints and her face turned fiercer.

“Beautiful,” Asterios complimented her and they broke into a run.

They knew that not every single prisoner had been rescued and there should be a few or more still held in similar research rooms like the one they had stumbled on but they had no time to check them all right now. First, they had to confront and capture the leaders of this place. Or at least try to. They might have already started destroying evidence.

As they ran through the tunnels that switched from earth to wood with occasional reinforcement of stone, Asterios filled his body and circuits with spiritual energy in a similar way to the day of the duel. He didn’t want to be a dead weight in the current scenario, and with just three of them, it would be good if he joined the fray not just from the backline but also directly.

On their way to the inner circle, the party stumbled on a few dwarf guards standing by the doors to various rooms and chambers. There was no time to waste so Miria swiftly dealt with most of them using her speed and Haste controlled by herself. Asterios cut through the opponents she skipped with his artifact blade. Without igniting it, though, to not start a fire underground with how powerful the flames were.

After a few short minutes, they reached an open chamber with multiple ways out. One of them was metal double doors, slightly arched. The rest of the tunnels were open and spanned in all other directions. The group approached the silvery entrance.

“Damascus Steel, as expected,” Svertaniel commented after brushing his fingers over the metal. “Will be a pain to get through with force. Can you see the mechanism like the last time, Asterios?”

“Yes, I do, but it’s way more complex. No doubt these doors lead to a much more important part of the facility.”

“Too bad.” The demon sighed. “I can have a try at it. There’s enough open space. I think.”

“No need to do that,” Asterios replied. “I’ll take care of the door. You two protect me in the meanwhile. People are running in, most likely to this exact door after receiving some kind of notice.”

“Wow, Master, even I haven't heard anything yet!” Miria exclaimed with wide, excited eyes and a bright smile.

“You will soon. Looks like Dragons have keener hearing than Werepanthers,” Asterios joked with a smile of his own. “Five, seven, ten, twelve o’clock.”

Miria giggled and lunged towards the first pair of tunnels while Svertaniel remained by his side with a raised brow. His curiosity was sated when the single edge of Ast’s blade suddenly caught on violent crimson fire which quickly seeped into the weapon, turning the metal hotter and hotter until the sharp side glowed scarlet.

He didn’t waste any more time as even he could now hear the incoming footsteps and jogged to the other two mentioned corridors while preparing his magic. Soon after, the first shouts and screams of surprise filled the air from all the directions Asterios had pointed out.

While Svertaniel and Miria kept the incoming crowd busy, Asterios pointed the tip of his sword at the right wing and reaffirmed his grip on the hilt, using both hands. He pushed forward with all he had and the blade connected with the solid surface, releasing melodic tink.

In less than two seconds, the metal heated up enough for the sword to start sinking into the Damascus Steel, and Asterios kept shoving it further and further until he reached a satisfactory point. With the blade around halfway in, he grunted and began dragging it up. If not for the sounds of battle behind his back, the chamber would have been filled with his strained groans as he used all his strength to melt through the impressive gate.

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A minute in, Ast’s sword made an arc about one-fourth of a full circle, leaving a blazing trail of dripping Damascus Steel behind. From what he knew, it was one of the alloys most difficult to smelt and the metal retained that attribute.

He remembered how easily his artifact blade had cut through Skeletal Dragon’s bone and compared it to this thick metal door, but Asterios had no idea how much weaker it had gotten after the Dragon’s second death so there was no real point comparing a magically reinforced Damascus Steel with a piece of the leftover skeleton. Even if the sword exerted more power now with Ast’s condensed Aura Flame.

At around halfway through, Ast’s senses picked up on someone rushing towards him from behind, clearly not with good intentions. Amazed by how perceptive he had become after enhancing his organs with the fiery energy, he didn’t even look away from the doors and directed his left arm back, sending a pulse of mana into the bracer.

An awkward gurgle followed and something fell to the ground with a thud. Poison Fang’s needle had struck someone right into the throat and paralyzed them in an instant. Miria’s concern soon reached his mind.

~I’m fine. Keep up what you are doing. One must have snuck past Svertaniel. He’s a mage after all.~

Asterios returned to his task and Miria sent him a mental nod with a peck on the cheek, refocusing on the opponents in front of her. Not that many had come initially, but as time passed, more and more dwarves kept showing up in pairs or trios, with one or two people of other races mixed in this flow from time to time.

Fighting much shorter opponents in front of two entrances while keeping them from crossing into the chamber where her master was working on the door proved to be a slight challenge that Miria was more than happy to overcome. Asterios wasn’t the only one constantly growing stronger from his unusual, occasional gains.

Miria’s heightened senses from her awakened bloodline at around half-strength allowed her to perceive many attacks and movements with ease while swiftly moving around her targets like a light gust of wind flowing around numerous bushes with long branches in the form of various bladed weapons.

But, with her beloved master’s well-being resting on her shoulders, she couldn’t stop at that. 

After Asterios had explained to his familiars about his experience during the bout with Silvia, she started practicing with his fiery energy more, using it for other things than just fueling her abilities. Just like him, she tried condensing that hot mana in her organs and quickly learned that she could achieve something similar to her master. With a much weaker effect and only focusing on a single part of her body, but the difference was staggering.

Right now, with her ears filled with Ast’s power, she could perceive the slightest changes in the atmosphere around her, including the faintest vibrations of air the enemies caused with their weapons and bodies. She felt like she had eyes facing every angle from her position. 

No. It was more than that. She felt like a spectator of her own performance. She danced around her opponents with unimaginable swiftness and grace, being aware of their position at all times. Needless to say, no one was able to graze her fur, not even mentioning going past her.

A merry smile painted her lips from the knowledge that she would never be able to reach such a level of strength on her own, without the help of her beloved master and mate. She wouldn’t be able to grow in power so fast even if she had been extremely talented in using her own bloodline and raising her efficiency with it. She owed so much to Asterios for accepting her wholeheartedly and allowing her to stay with him as his summon in the first place.

A loud metallic gong interrupted her casual thoughts in the midst of the heavy battle with seven opponents, which were possible to exist only thanks to Ast’s energy enhancing her ears to unbelievable levels that allowed Miria to overpower her enemies without breaking a sweat.

Looking through Ast’s eyes for a brief second, she saw a huge hole in the Damascus door and smiled even wider. He had done it. In less than three minutes. A big part of the gate lay on the ground by his side, cut in the shape of a circle almost as thick as Asterios’ waist.

~Wrap it up if you can. I’ll help Svertaniel.~ Ast’s voice reached her mind and Miria turned all her focus into decimating the poor dwarves.

Asterios rushed towards the demon man struggling to keep his power in check to not bring the ceiling down on his head and dove under his armpit with the artifact sword ready for action. 

Being very careful not to graze the wooden parts of the underground tunnels, Asterios cut through three dwarves standing by each other like through butter, completely ignoring the existence of their weapons which resisted the crimson blade as much as their owners. Both ends of the horizontally cut dwarves had been cauterized immediately and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.

“Is it weird that I somehow enjoy this scent?” Asterios pondered more to himself than anyone else. “Oh well. Runs in the family if we are not wrong, I guess.”

With the enemy's attention off him, Svertaniel was able to utilize more fine-tuned spells and had no issues getting rid of the remaining enemies that had reached their chamber. The duo of void-wielding Mage and fire-sword-wielding Summoner cleared the corridors in a flash.

Miria had been already done with her side when they finished and trotted to Asterios for some pats. They didn’t waste time and immediately headed to the hole in the door. Three corpses lay on the other side with their own holes in their chests, clearly smoldered from a certain heated blade.

They jumped through before anyone else arrived and glanced at the opening they had just passed.

“Let me,” Svertaniel said, placing a hand on Ast’s shoulder, and nodded at him.

They watched the demon man whisper some incomprehensible words to his grimoire, which fluttered with its purple glowing pages flipping from side to side. He then shoved his right hand into the paper after they stopped and pulled out something looking like a piece of violet chalk seeping with ominous energy.

Svertaniel pressed it over the surface of the Damascus door and traced a circle around the hole. After the endings connected, the inside filled with evil-looking color from the edges to the center, and the whole thing vanished.

Asterios was going to ask what had happened but Svertaniel shushed him down with a silencing gesture over his own lips and then pointed at the hole. A dwarf with a greatsword appropriate for her size hurried towards the opening. 

The trio saw her try to hastily dive through the hole to save time, but the moment the short woman made the jump, she quickly but gradually disappeared into thin air in the motion of someone jumping behind a cover.

“Where did she go?” Miria tilted her head.

“I wonder,” Svertaniel mused with a slightly sinister smile. “Let’s go. This should stop them for a while.”

The duo nodded and resumed their run. It didn’t take them long to come across people other than dwarves, dressed in dark grey robes and similar clothes. Most of them were of tall humanoid races, mostly elves, and demons. 

A few figures wore uniforms resembling military attire and those were knocked out instead of killed as they charged through the stone corridors with Damascus reinforcements. Asterios called Umbra to pick them up and throw them into the confinement they had prepared. So far, there had been no issues on Selene’s side and the army was slowly pouring in from behind her, circling the activated barrier.

As for the formation itself, on the surface, a tall, blue, octagonal cone had risen around the area which hid the secret underground facility. Asterios and his team had verified all the hidden entrances and escape paths running from it and placed the barrier over them. It also bore slightly into the ground to prevent the enemies from quickly creating new escape tunnels.

Selene levitated in a lotus position inside the main magical circle out of the eight they had drawn the previous day and meditated with all five of her tails out and closed eyes. Upholding such a huge and complex formation required a copious amount of focus so Umbra watched over her, hidden in her shadow.

Back below the surface, Ast’s group rushed towards the supposed location of the main offices of the administrators and leaders of the facility, ignoring all the side chambers for now. If the operation succeeded, they would go through them then, or leave it to the patriarch’s men.

~Selene, can you let people from the outside through the barrier or not?~ Asterios asked with just a light mental pat to not disrupt her focus.

~I’m afraid not, my Lord. That could break the link due to the spells and abilities that are hitting the formation right now.~

~Alright. I’ll give you a signal when we engage with the boss of this vile den and they turn out to be strong. Umbra will let the armies know so they are ready for the barrier to go down and you two will join us. Good work so far.~

She didn’t reply but sent him a mischievous, echoing soft chuckle. Asterios was going to shake his head but an explosion interrupted him and they all stopped in front of a destroyed wall.

Two figures stepped outside of the nearby chamber and stood in the falling dust. One was a human woman of exceptional beauty and appeal, wearing the fanciest uniform they had seen so far, and the other was an elf woman of onyx skin and shoulder-long white hair, most likely a noctis.

“Well, well, well,” the human spoke first with a melodic tone. “So those are the rats that have been running around my lovely home and forcefully kidnapping my precious guests. Bold.” She chuckled musically. “Now, dears, please do tell me… how the fuck did you find this place?” The woman emphasized the third word with a charming smile.

Her efforts were commendable, but both men facing her couldn’t care less about the woman’s allure. Asterios already had a group of girls he found much more charming than her and Svertaniel’s only love was the Abyss.

Asterios decided to try something out.

“Simple. Dane sends his greetings.”

The human woman’s brows furrowed for a moment before she snorted and exploded in a hearty laugh.

“Hahahah! That worthless idiot? What, did you meet his ghost or something? There’s no way he is alive. I made sure of that.”

Asterios smirked at his luck. He expected nothing more than one of them recognizing the overseer’s name.

“You? I thought a man killed him?” he asked, stalling for time to learn as much about their enemies from their spiritual signatures as he could.

The human woman grinned and licked her lips seductively. “A man, a woman, I can be anything you want, darling.”

Right in front of their eyes, the woman’s facial features started shifting and took a bit more masculine shape, retaining the previous beauty and turning into a quite handsome visage.

“A changeling… Because of course you and noctis would be involved in something this despicable…” Svertaniel scoffed to the side.

That explained the chaotic energy Asterios had found inside the woman’s body.

~Selene, Umbra. We need you. Fast.~

 

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