Chapter 149 – Bonds Forged in Darkness

Caeileera

‘They are surely taking their sweet time,’ Aki said, tapping her foot impatiently. ‘I hope nothing happened to them.’

‘I would be more worried about Lilyth and Ren killing each other than that anything is an actual threat to them,’ I sighed.

I checked the clock on the interface. Over twenty minutes had passed since they left, which indeed was starting to be concerning.

‘Well… maybe they stopped for a quick f…’ I began to lighten the mood, but then clicking and heavy rattling footsteps started coming from the main corridor.

‘Spread out!’ Aki shouted.

I hid behind one of the stalagmites and drew the Blade of the Black Rose. I was a terrible swordswoman, but I had to conserve mana.

I looked at where the others were. Deirdee was also hiding behind one of the pillars, aiming her new carbine at the entrance to the tunnel; Aki didn't bother much with cover since the poor thing couldn't see in the dark without her [Abyssal Spark] and I could see Taros joined her, vaer cutlass drawn. My blue-haired lioness also had her swords drawn.

The sounds drew closer and soon four skeletal beings emerged into the cave. They were hunched and maybe a metre tall with bird-like skulls and hands ending with sharp talons.

Upon seeing Aki and Taros, the creatures dropped on all fours and began to charge us, but it quickly became apparent they wouldn't be much of a threat. Deirdee dropped one with a shot that shattered its skull, Tee got another with a [Water Bolt] and the remaining two were quickly dispatched by my wife when she jumped between them, cut off the head of one and severed the leg of the second one. She then finished it off by smashing its head with her boot.

The fight didn't even take thirty seconds.

‘What were those things?’ I asked, genuinely curious because of how easy it was.

‘Lesser Bone Constructs,’ Aki said. ‘Both level five.’

The ones Deirdee and Taros got were the same. Those weren't much but I was mad I didn't get in on them. I need to get to level fifteen. I was sitting on so many Perk Points I could use for the nice traits and abilities that unlocked then. Instead, I was stuck on healing duty. Again. I pulled my stats for the umpteenth time.

Unfortunately, the numbers refused to budge. It was the worst kind of edging. Still… like with the fun one, the release would be so worth it.

This reminds me that I need to test it on Aki and Lilyth.

I had a lot of fun things to show my wives that I learned back in the Badlands.

Once we are back home, we will spend a lot of time in our room just the three of us.

Maybe I would let Ren join sometimes, but our trio rarely had an opportunity for quality time together, so it was time to fix that. We were married after all and we seemed to live as three separate couples.

I looked at Aki. She was back to looking uneasily at the entrance to the tunnel Lilyth and Ren disappeared to.

Time to be the woman of the house, Caeileera of the Sanguine. No. Caeileera of Mer-Cas.

I approached Aki and offered her my hand. She smiled and took it into her hands. And so, holding hands, we waited together.

Aki

I really appreciated Caei’s presence as we waited for our two stray comrades to come back.

Did they really stop to have sex?

Finally, after twenty more minutes, they were back.

Luckily, they were unharmed, and after their explanation, I was happy they took the time to be thorough in their search. The idea of there being Y-Ramite ruins so close to Dan-Hem was very concerning.

‘We need to investigate that place!’ I said.

‘I agree,’ Lilyth nodded. ‘The problem is getting down there. Other than the whole deep vertical shaft thing, I don’t think the corridor will be accessible to us much longer.’

She then told us about her theory that the effects of the corridor would scale with how much magic the person had in their body. So soon, likely Taros wouldn't be the only one of us unable to enter, and we would need an alternative way in. Of course, I acted as a responsible leader then and did not immediately go to disprove Lilyth's theory as the concern for my home overrode my common sense. And there is no truth to claims that Caei and Lilyth had to retrieve me when my body was wracked by the second worst pain I have ever felt. Those are all slanderous rumours. That you know of. Pure slander!

We set off down the dark main corridor guided by my [Abyssal Spark], Lilyth and me on point, holding hands. I think it made both of us feel more certain in our steps. We probably would have had Caei join us but there wasn't enough space. Well… that and it was bad to have our only healer on the first line.

The passage led to an irregular chamber that was slightly smaller than the previous one, and also like the previous ones, had all those rock spikes all over the ceiling and floor. Stalactites and stalagmites they were called, I think?

‘Wait…’ Lilyth said and pointed to one of the spikes off the path.

I moved my [Abyssal Spark] over it and saw that there was another skeleton sprawled next to it.

‘Cover me,’ my wife said and started slowly approaching it.

‘Lilyth,’ I said firmly. ‘You are doing it again.’

‘Doing what…’ she began, but then horror dawned on her face. ‘I’m sorry…’

‘Don’t worry about it, this time around, ‘I sighed. ‘Just go and check it out. Deirdee… go with her.’

I hope I didn't shatter her confidence. But yes… Irmen is right. I have to sometimes look past my feelings and put my foot down.

I just had to hope I would always know when to do that.

Lilyth

I hated how easily I relapsed into old behaviour patterns. Thank fuck Aki was there for me.

We slowly crept towards the skeleton, nervously looking around. The chamber seemed empty, but I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, which, given how keen my instincts were these days, we most likely were. The thing was… I couldn't see or hear anything though. What was extra worrisome was the large hole in the cavern floor between the rock pillars near the exit that wasn't visible from the main path.

I showed it to Deirdee and then pointed it out to Aki. My wife nodded and ordered Ren to watch that direction.

She sure is getting the hang of this.

‘There is one thing I don't understand,’ I whispered to Deirdee when we reached our objective. ‘By all accounts, we are facing a Necromancer. And yet… this is the fourth skeleton we find.’

The former assassin pointed to a large hole in the dead person’s rib cage.

‘Too damaged,’ she said simply. ‘You want corpses as intact as possible for necromancy.’

‘Why not take the one killed by the Kisamzo then?’

‘Could have been left as a warning. Maybe it wasn't worth the bother. Contrary to popular belief, Necromancers don’t utilise every corpse they can find. Undead minions take a lot of mana to make and even more to maintain. Like… they will eventually use it up.’

‘Which is why many undead stay dormant until you trigger them?’

She nodded.

‘How do you know so much about Necromancy?’

‘Remember that I was an assassin, Lilyth,’ Deirdee smiled. ‘Such knowledge is the difference between life and death for us.’

Makes sense…

Then it hit.

Wait a fucking second…

‘Does that mean…’ I began trying to control my voice.

‘Yes,’ Deirdee answered. ‘For all it is worth, I am so sorry.’

I put my hand on her shoulder.

‘At the time… you made the best choice for yourself,’ I said. ‘You couldn't have known. We certainly didn't. So… I absolve you of any wrongdoing.’

I saw tears of relief welling in Deirdee's eyes. I gently put my hand on her shoulder and smiled reassuringly.

We gave the skeleton a quick once-over, and just as we were about to move, I had a faint clicking coming from behind one of the stalactites near the exit. Judging by how she tensed up Deirdee heard it too. The others I activated [Enhanced Acoustic Processing], listened for a few seconds and upon hearing nothing turned it off.

I caught Aki’s gaze and pointed towards where the noise came from. She nodded and drew her swords, the others readying themselves as well. My wife then slowly made a wide sweeping gesture with her right arm.

I wasn't sure whether giving out battlefield directions with a divine-made sword was a good idea, but it carried the message to spread out loud and clear. Even if it was to get away from my absolutely adorable sword-wielding maniac of a wife.

I was about to activate [Enhance Acoustic Processing] again when the ground shook and something let out a deafening shrieking roar that felt as if ten thousand red-hot sledgehammers slammed into my body. My vision went red, and then went out, and the pain almost pushed me to my knees. I somehow managed to support myself by gripping one of the rocks, but for the time I was completely deaf and blind, and there was something large attacking us.