Chapter 178 – Paths of Exiles

Ren

‘Why the fuck, of all places, did she have to send us here?’ Caei screamed, apparently recognising the place we were in. ‘I am going to feed that bitch to Phosi for this!’

We were in a heavily damaged, large room with a counter in the centre. There was a skeleton of what looked to be a soldier slumped against it, and behind it there was a double door that used to have windows in it.

I then realised there was only one place that agitated Caei so much.

Akh’ret's Mercy.

Fuck.

Caei walked up to the skeleton, took a gun in its hands and handed it over to Deirdee.

‘The Storm?’ she asked.

‘Since we are unlikely to get your carbine fixed, this one should be less of an issue.’

Deirdee walked over to the counter and placed both guns on it. She checked the place where Kirsee had found the maker's mark on her carbine, located it, and then moved to examine the Storm.

She frowned upon locating it.

‘Same maker,’ she said.

‘Huh,’ Caei muttered. ‘Unexpected.’

The woman I loved then walked over to the door and tried to open it, only to be stopped by a green glyph that appeared on it.

‘OF FUCKING COURSE!’ she yelled and angrily kicked the door.

This achieving nothing didn't deter her, and she unslung her carbine, aimed it at the door and fired several times.

The bullets were harmlessly stopped by the barrier and fell to the ground.

‘FUUUUUUUCK!’

Unable to contain her frustration anymore, Caei began to take it out on what was left of the furniture in the room and the skeleton.

When she was done, she fell to her knees and began crying. I knelt beside her and took her into my arms.

‘There, there…’

‘W- We- we were so helpless,’ she sobbed. ‘And now we may never see the others.’

That's what this is about.

‘We’ll find them, don’t worry,’ I tried reassuring her.

‘Yeah,’ Deirdee, sitting next to where the skeleton was, agreed. ‘I think she left all of us alive. You were the second and third person she knocked out. I was the sixth. So if I am alive, then it means that Sav and Phosi must be too.’

I can’t help but notice she left Lilyth out.

‘Lilyth is probably fine too,’ I said. ‘I was as much of a threat to that bitch as our stupid jelly was, and she left me alive. So it is just a matter of getting out of here.’

‘I know where to go,’ Caei sighed, wiping the tears away. ‘We’ll just need to make a few extra stops. The bitch’s mom was here, so we should gather all the documents we can.’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ I smiled and helped her get up.

It took us maybe three hours to clear the place. By the end, I could understand why Caei hated the place so much, even though, thanks to her knowledge of the hospital, the dungeon was relatively a breeze.

The biggest issue definitely was the Sierra Squad members around the armoury. Caei knew little about that place since it was Lilyth who fought there. I avoided death by a hair when one of the bullets from the “machine gun thing” grazed my temple and another pierced my stomach. Deirdee nearly lost a leg after getting shot in the knee with a semi-automatic rifle. Between healing potions and Caei’s magic, we recovered, though poor Dee developed a bit of a limp.

‘I understand now why Lilyth… well… the Huntress did what she did here,’ Caei sighed after finishing patching us up.

‘This is where she lost most of her ability to use magic, isn't it?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ Caei confirmed with a sad expression. ‘While trying to save me after I got shot.’

The Chimaera thing, at least that's what we thought it was, didn't stand much of a chance. One quarter-mana shot from my bow took it down, and the Greater Rot Hound proved to be of little threat as well.

All in all, we managed to get quite a few levels, with Caei getting to level seventeen, me to fifteen and Deirdee to thirteen. We also scored a bounty of healing potions, though we had to leave most of the guns behind. Caei did grab a rifle for herself and a lot of ammo for it. We also took a shotgun and a pistol for Lilyth.

‘What do you think Persephone wanted to achieve by sending us here?’ Deirdee asked once we were outside.

‘Beats me,’ Caei shrugged. ‘I don’t speak “crazy bitch”. Maybe she wanted us to open this place. Maybe it was the only place she could send us to due to it being linked to her monster of a mother.’

Her guesses were as good as mine, so we left the matter be.

‘Where to now?’ my beloved asked me.

‘Ror-Bhyk,’ I answered without hesitation. ‘Then home.’

Aki

‘Where the fuck are we?’ I heard Savri shout.

She’s alive! Wait… so am I!

I opened my eyes and looked around. I was lying on the grass in a decrepit cemetery inside a large chamber. It seemed awfully familiar, but I couldn't just…

Oh. Oh no.

We were below Y-Ram.

Great. Just Great.

I sat up and hollered to Savri, who was standing a small distance away. I also noticed Phosi milling around. I looked around, desperately hoping to see the rest, but it was just the three of us.

‘Where are the others?’ I asked, finding that a more pressing matter than answering Sav’s question.

‘Haven’t seen them yet,’ she shrugged.

‘Can’t smell them anywhere,’ Phosi confirmed. ‘They likely were sent elsewhere then.’

‘Or maybe on a different level of this place,’ I said and explained where we were.

‘I think I was happier not knowing that,’ Sav sighed. ‘Combing through a massive monster-filled underground city was not how I envisioned my afternoon. On the upside,

Nyxie is telling me that everyone else is alive. She can't tell me where they are, I hate those rules sometimes. The bad news is that there is no contact with Lilyth, so even she has no idea where she ended up. I’ll be honest, that last bit has me very worried. The last time Nyxie couldn't find our furball was when she was dosed with Zalikh.’

My stomach sank.

‘Oh no…’ I whimpered.

‘I wouldn't worry ahead of time,’ Savri said. ‘Based on my interface clock, it has just been a few minutes since we “fought” that bitch, so there was definitely no time for anyone to dose her. There are other options too. Like… whatever she did with Ereshkigal’s powers could have fucked her up real bad.’

‘She could also be in an area with a high concentration of Zalikh plants,’ Phosi rasped. ‘I remember hearing stories about large patches of those being used to create “cheap” anti-magic defence fields in the past. The old Empire banned that practice, though and did its best to eradicate the plant.’

‘That’s not exactly reassuring,’ I replied.

‘Yes and no. Ending up near one of these won’t be healthy for her, but if she manages to get far enough from it, she should recover sooner or later.’

That was a relief.

‘Sorry to derail the happy thoughts train, Akster,’ Savri decided to ruin what was left of my day,’ but Lilyth will have to fend for herself for now. She has proven hard to kill over and over again, so we should focus on us living long enough to reunite with her.’

True. Stay strong, Lilyth.

There were far fewer Tooth Horrors in Y-Ram than I remembered from our first visit to that godsforsaken place. Maybe it was tied to the Tower of Trials being dead, or maybe the place didn't wake up quite yet, since it took a while for the monsters to appear then, too.

‘By the gods,’ Savri spat after we dispatched a group of five. ‘Those things are fucking awful. I’d hate being caught by those.’

My mind then flashed to the moment one of them surprised me after I ran away from Lilyth and Caei. It pinning me to the ground and nearly devouring me.

My swords clattered to the ground after they fell from my shaking hands.

‘Shit,’ Savri covered her mouth with her hand. ‘I forgot, Akster. Sorry.’

‘I- It’s okay,’ I lied.

While my nightmares usually centred around either my goblin captivity or the loss of my hand, that… encounter sometimes made a surprise appearance in them.

Soon to be joined by our meeting with my cunt of a “cousin”, I imagine.

I never expected to have to admit it, but my family fucking sucked.

No. Bergia, Lilyth, Caei, Rennie, Sav, Deirdee, and, I guess, Phosi are my real family now. Wish my mom and Matis could have met them. As our jelly would put it, my blood relatives could go fuck themselves.

We didn't find any of the others inside Y-Ram, and since searching the entire place was impossible, we decided to wait for a few hours on top of it for any stragglers. The only one I was really worried about finding her way out was Rennie, since Lilyth, Caei and Deirdee have all been in the city before.

Still, after three hours, we had to accept that the three of us were likely the only ones there, so we started making our way to the surface.

Not willing to risk an encounter with the corrupted Dar’hun, we climbed to the top floor and blew our way into the deathly quiet Tower of Trials.

‘I hate this place,’ I said under my breath and led Sav and Phosi outside.

The medic suggested we wait near the exit, just in case, but I shut the idea down.

‘If they ended up in a different part of the dungeon, they would have likely already been here by now. Or maybe they left through Goblintown.’

Savri wasn’t happy about it, but couldn't argue with my logic.

‘Where to then, Akster?’

I thought about it for a moment and said:

‘Ror-Bhyk. Bergia and your mom are likely already there, and if anything, I want to let them know that we are fine.’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ Sav smiled.

Lilyth

I was getting hungry. The sunset has somehow changed into an afternoon, so unless the place I ended up in had some mighty weird time zones, I must have slept through the night and most of the following day.

I guess regrowing an arm takes a lot out of you. Can't do it on an empty stomach, though, I guess.

I looked at my wound. Not much has changed other than my right shoulder mostly looking like one again.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, I suppose. Maybe if I eat something, it will be faster.

It took me several attempts to drag myself to my feet. When I was finally vertical and vertigo-free, I looked around my place of exile again for any food trucks or fast-food places. Alas, there weren't any around.

Gonna have to do it the hard way then, I thought while doubtfully looking at the forest.

I immediately identified a core problem: I didn't have the fuckingest idea what Zalikh was. I only knew that shit I was force-fed by Kojiro was its root. Or maybe it was a fucking root vegetable.

This is going to suck.

I then remembered the basic, usually useless, function of the interface - identifying everyday objects.

Okay, Mr “Ununique Ring”, don’t fuck me now.

I walked up to a tree I thought I recognised and broke off a small branch.

Item: Small branch from the blue-and-orange tree

Class: Plant part

Rarity: Common

Quality: Common

Durability: 3/5

‘FUUUUUCK!’ I calmly reacted by screaming from the top of my lungs.

Correction: This is really going to suck.