Chapter 148 – Scouting out the Lair

Ren

As the two of us scouted the tunnel past the entrance, I kept casting side glances at Deirdee. She never gave me any indication she noticed me doing that, but I had no doubt she did. It was hard to tell for sure though, as her face was impassive and fully focused on the job at hand.

I really wasn’t quite sure what to think about Deirdee. On one hand, she seemed to be perfectly nice, but on the other hand, I just couldn't get past the whole “magical assassin” part of her background. I knew it was a bit hypocritical of me, but, at least in my eyes, there was a massive difference between us. I chose to become what I was, Deirdee was made to serve that purpose. If it wasn't for Lilyth she would have still been a blade for hire.

And I would be dead.

Why couldn't anything in life be simple?

Still, I had to give her a chance, as one was offered to me.

And let’s face it. People I have grown to love trust her.

Plus, if I didn't trust Deirdee maybe I shouldn't have volunteered to scout out the cave with her. And between her being more of a close-ranged fighter and me being an archer, we complemented each other quite well.

The first things we found were the bodies of the two Kisamzo that Lilyth killed. They were large, maybe half a metre long, worm-like creatures with sharp teeth, two short arms ending with wicked, sharp claws, and spindly tendrils running across the sides of their bodies. Their thick, slithery, dark bodies seemed to be mostly muscle.

‘Those would have been a pain to fight,’ Deirdee whispered. ‘Small, fast and likely agile.’

‘Good thing Lilyth took care of them,’ I sighed.

‘It is scary to think what they would be like fully grown.’

My heart sank.

‘Fully grown?’ I repeated.

‘I assume those burst out of those two viemoos. That was what a week ago?’

I nodded.

‘So it is possible those are just… hatchlings, I guess?’ she continued.

This was the first time any of us had even heard of Kisamzo, so we knew nothing about the creatures. By the gods, the only reason we even knew how those were called was because of notifications Lilyth got. The idea of them being able to grow to a large size was seriously disconcerting.

‘Let’s just hope there isn't a momma Kisamzo around, eh?’ I asked and we continued.

After walking a few dozen more steps down the dark corridor, we reached a large cavern, and luckily, there wasn't a massive, angry face-eating millipede waiting there to eat our faces. The stalactite and stalagmite-filled chamber was a fork in the road of sorts with one tunnel directly opposite ours and a second one to the left. I focused on the lines of magic there and the first one seemed to be the right path, but as Lilyth would put it… there was something “fucky” about the other one too. Maybe her expertise would be of help with identifying what was wrong there. That or Taros’s.

We looked around the chamber and agreed it was time to let the others know they could join us. I pulled out one of the two remaining radios we had left, as we didn't have the time to retrieve the one I dropped back in the labyrinth. I still felt bad about that, and due to this, we had to be really careful with them, since losing just one would be the same as losing both of them.

‘Ren to Lilyth,’ I began transmitting, stifling my guilt. ‘Can you hear me?’

‘Y… yo… a… bre…’ came a garbled response.

The gummy fox of mine was afraid that would happen, as she had a feeling our radios wouldn't work that well underground. I hated that she turned out to be right. Still, even the failed attempt at communication proved to be enough and soon, our other companions joined Deirdee and me.

‘You are right, Rennie,’ Lilyth said while downing another stamina potion. ‘There is something very fucky about that side corridor.’

Since her flower powers didn't work down there, the gummy fox had to resort to her scary-eyes-thing.

It was still less disturbing than what Taros found. Or rather what vae didn’t find.

‘I can’t see anything there,’ the demigod said. ‘It is hard to explain, but for me, there is nothing there. It is…’

‘An absence?’ Lilyth suggested.

‘Yes,’ Tee agreed. ‘Though it still does not fully relay what that place is for me… If you wouldn't point it out… I would have never even looked at it or noticed it was there. And every bit of me is screaming to stop looking.’

And so vae did.

‘I’d still rather scout out that corridor,’ Lilyth said. ‘We don’t want something sneaking up on us from behind.’

Aki nodded.

‘Ren, can you go with Lilyth?’ she asked. ‘The two of you have the best chance of figuring it out.’

'Are you holding up alright?' I asked Lilyth when we were some distance into the corridor and I saw that from time to time she would slightly wince.

There definitely was some weird atmosphere to the passage, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it, and since I knew the furry flower had a very specific relationship with the ambient magic, I was worried that descending down the tunnel could have had negative effects on her, and seeing her in obvious discomfort was not putting my mind at ease.

'I could ask you the same question, Rennie,' she deflected. 'I can't help but notice you have a certain common element with Taros,'

I hated to admit it, but she had a point. I needed to start considering my quasi-divinity as a potential factor when planning things. Still...

'Don't change the subject, weedgirl' I growled.

'You wisened up to my tricks, eh birdie?' she said with a chuckle. 'I'm mostly fine. You know how weather changes can sometimes make your old wounds ache?'

I nodded. I was lucky enough to have never experienced that, but I knew plenty of people who did.

'Back on Earth, whenever the weather would get colder and snow was coming, one of my sinuses, those are these little sacs that make snot, would start hurting.'

She pointed to the area to the left of her right eyebrow.

'It was always this one. It was a nasty pain too so I usually had to resort to painkillers.'

'Why is that important though?' I asked.

'Because I now feel the same pain at the very core of my being. And I am not sure what to think about this.'

'And you call that mostly fine?' I asked, completely flabbergasted.

'Compared to how much it hurt getting those "injuries" or even trying to use magic when it was blocked? Yes.'

I remembered Lilyth writhing in pain back in our mansion.

I see her point.

'And how are you, Rennie?' she asked again.

'Nothing as bad as what you are describing,' I sighed. 'I just feel... off. I guess I would compare that to knowing deep down you are going to be sick, it is just that the symptoms haven't appeared quite yet.'

Lilyth nodded.

'Let's make it quick then,' she said and I squeezed her hand in reassurance.

The tunnel ended up heading deeper underground and had quite a few twists and turns. We considered going back after a few minutes, but given the nature of this tunnel that felt like a bad move to us. This became even more evident when I pressed her for theories, Lilyth, after pointing out she had been on Dwynveia for only a month, theorised that maybe we were under the effects of some weird warding spell, one meant to discourage magical entities from entering rather than preventing them. Which certainly made sense given how it seemed to prioritise highly magical entities like Taros.

'Could this be some sort of a magical deadzone or an anti-magic field?' I asked.

Lilyth shook her head.

'The latter would either incapacitate or, more likely, outright kill me. As for the deadzone area... I don't think so. I have never been in one, but this doesn't feel like any of the times I have lost access to my magic. Not even after my... capture...'

Lilyth seemed lost in thought for a moment and then extended her hand.

'Here goes nothing,' she muttered and [Gust of Wind] flew out of her hand.

'Magic works,' she shrugged. 'And I don't feel any worse than I did before.'

It was a relief, but...

'I wish you had warned me,' I said perhaps with more venom than I intended.

'And what? Would you prefer we find this out once something jumps us?'

I hated how I had no counterargument to that.

'Just warn me the next time,' I finally conceded.

The fucking weedgirl gave me a mock salute, a bow and with a smile said:

'Your wish is my command, oh Duchess of Feathers.'

I kicked her in the shin.

The tunnel ended with a deep shaft going dozens, if not hundreds metres down. There was something deeply unnatural about it. Its square shape was too regular and the walls were too smooth. In fact...

'Was this dug out by someone?' I asked, pointing to the veiny stone, the walls of the shaft seemed to be made from.

'That's not the weirdest part,' Lilyth said and directed my sight to three rusty contraptions that looked to be wheels in some sort of a harness hanging from the ceiling.

Pulleys.

'It seems we find ourselves standing before an elevator shaft,' Lilyth said and started examining the walls.

'There,' she said and pointed to two rows of rows that started on the wall near us and ran into the shaft.

'If I were to guess,' Lilyth continued,' this is where the call button was. It probably triggered some electrical system that summoned the elevator up here. There were probably steel cables running through those pulleys.'

'A-are you saying we are in a Vandarian ruin?' I asked when I finished processing her revelations.

'Gods, no,' Lilyth laughed without mirth. 'This reminds me of Y-Ram.'