Oof…
It wasn’t some trap I fell into, that lich just materialised a portal underneath me as I was walking to make me fall into it.
Wherever this is that he teleported me to, it was completely dark where I could not even see my hand if it was right in front of my face.
Also, the floor feels kind of squishy… Like it was made of rubber or something.
I went ahead to cast [Spotlight] to illuminate the area around me.
The moment I did so, I almost wished I hadn’t done it after all.
The floor that I had initially thought was made of rubber was not made of rubber at all. It was corpses in varying degrees of decomposition…
It wasn’t just a few bodies either, the entire cave here was as big as an Olympic size swimming pool and it was entirely filled from one end to the other with corpses.
Some of them looked like normal villagers while others were obviously either Mercenaries or Dungeoneers with their armour and weapons.
I don’t know how I didn’t notice this before but the smell… Urk… The smell is so bad… How old are these corpses?!
“Mistress? Are you alright?”
I jumped a little at the unexpected voice by my side and turned to see Katsuki looking at me with concern.
“E… Eh? Katsuki? How did you come here?”
“Did Mistress not see? When you fell into the portal, I grabbed the hem of your skirt and we both got pulled into it…”
Oh, I didn’t notice that at all.
I then gestured to the place around us, “Speaking of which… Does this not bother you at all?”
“What doesn’t bother me, Mistress?”
“Umm… The fact that this entire place is filled with dead bodies?”
Katsuki looked around as though seeing the place for the first time, “Is there something weird about the dead bodies, Mistress?”
Eh? Is finding an entire cavern full of dead bodies something normal in this World or something? Why isn’t she freaking out at this at all? Is it just me?
“Umm… Nevermind… I guess the most important thing is to find a way to get out of here and rejoin the rest.” I decided.
“Understood Mistress, I believe I see a door over there that might lead to outside,” She remarked, pointing behind me.
I turned around and sure enough, half hidden behind a pile of corpses was the outline of a door built into the wall.
Ugh… But to get there, it means I will need to walk on all these dead bodies… I don’t want to do that…
I reached out my hand to Katsuki, “Come over here, Katsuki, I’ll fly us there.”
She took my hand without hesitation and I spread my wings to their full size, leaping up into the air before I glided over towards the door.
I was sincerely hoping that these corpses wouldn’t start rising up from the dead as zombies and start attacking me…
Hey, that guy’s a Necromancer, I’m pretty sure that was part of his plan too.
The fact that he had chosen to teleport me here must not be a coincidence either so there must be a reason why he brought me to this room. I highly doubt he would just put me here and let me escape without trying to do something, right?
But surprisingly, nothing happened even as I reached the door. I even expected the corpses at the door to suddenly grab me or something but literally nothing happened.
I couldn’t really tell how big the door was considering half of it was buried under the corpses and I could barely see the handle above one of the bodies.
eαglesnᴏνel Trying not to think too much about the dead bodies I was standing on, I tried to push open the door only to find that it did not budge.
That’s just great… Did he really lock me inside a room full of dead people? Or was this a ‘pull’ door?
No wait… What if this was actually a trap all along and the dead bodies here were people unfortunate enough to fall into the trap?
The corpses of the Dungeoneers and Mercenaries do not seem to have drawn their weapons and I doubt that lich is considerate enough to help them put back their weapons into their sheaths before dumping them here.
So does that mean… The people transported into this cavern were dropped here and died afterwards? Does that mean there’s perhaps a poison of some sort around here?!
Not good, I need to escape from here as soon as I can!
Seeing no other way out, I concentrated on the door that was still shut tight. If the door wouldn’t open… Then I’ll just force it open!
I pulled back my fist and punched the door with a loud ‘bang’, the sound loud enough to reverberate throughout the cavern a few times before dissipating.
Tsk… If this door wants to be difficult… Then I’ll show you how difficult I can be too!
I pulled back my fist and used [Body Current] to strengthen my fist before punching forward again.
This time, the door was blown clean off its hinges but that led to another problem… The corpses that had been in front of the door quickly spilled out from the room to whatever was behind the door.
I allowed myself to slide out of the room alongside the corpses, making sure that I was holding onto Katsuki’s hand properly so that we stayed together and not get buried under the avalanche of bodies.
Sliding out of the room, I realised I had entered into a sort of throne room seeing that there was a very conspicuous throne at the very end of the room. What’s more the throne itself was also occupied by a certain lich, who was none other than the source of my problems himself.
The lich tilted his head slightly the moment I appeared from the room, “Oh? So one of your maids actually managed to come through the portal with you? No matter, I can deal with one of them at least.”
Katsuki immediately stepped in front of me with two daggers equipped in her hands pulled out from god knows where.
Just like before, Katsuki didn’t seem interested in talking and was ready to engage the lich in combat right away.
My Inugami maid rushed towards him, intending to decapitate him with her daggers but her blades clashed against the lich’s ice shield that rebounded her back in front of me.
“Hmph, it’s obvious that you are merely just a newly trained maid. You’re not even on par with the normal servants trained in the Nilm Family and I’m already able to deal with them myself. For you, I don’t even need to use my full power to beat you.”
Katsuki still kept her mouth shut, making sure to keep herself between the lich and me.
The lich raised his hand and muttered a spell, materialising several ice spikes in the air that he shot towards Katsuki.
I was thinking of jumping in but Katsuki calmly raised her own hands in response.
“Heat and flames burn my enemies, render them all to ashes and witness my burning passion! [Fire Blast]!”
A large gout of flames was shot out from in front of her, burning up the icicles before heading straight towards the lich.
He conjured a wall of ice that the fire smashed against, leaving several cracks on it but the wall held firm.
Katsuki took advantage of the break in line of sight to cast another [Fire Blast], expecting him to lower the wall after it had served its purpose.
Sure enough, the lich had dematerialised the ice wall in order to attack again, only to see another ball of fire being hurled at him.
He barely had time to raise his arms in defence before it hit him in the chest, sending him flying back to crash against the throne. He looked dazed but otherwise unharmed.
Katsuki was about to leap forward when she suddenly stopped and leapt back instead, her dagger slashing towards me.
I wasn’t worried and stood completely still for her, just as an ice spike exploded out from the ground in front of me with its tip aimed for my neck.
Katsuki’s dagger deflected the ice spike away from me, leaving me completely unharmed while she moved behind me to deflect another ice spike aimed for my back.𝗈𝒱𝑙xt.𝐜𝒪𝓶
“Hmph… Seems like you’re at least talented in other areas,” The lich scoffed, patting off the dust on his robes. “I may have underestimated you a little.”
Katsuki still remained silent.
I decided to at least engage him in some conversation, “Why are you targeting me? I don’t think I’ve done anything to you?”
He turned his bony skull towards me, “Hmm? Do you think I’m trying to kill you simply because you’ve done something to me?”
“Why else would you be after my life then?”
“Hmph! I suppose I never did introduce myself, did I? I am Balor Jules! Hear my name and despair!!”
…
Both Katsuki and I just stared at him.
“I already know that though?” I informed him.
He sputtered, “Wh… What?! How?!”
“Err… Mary found out I guess?” I half-lied.
I thought he would then have some comeback or even start explaining his goals but he suddenly started stomping his foot in frustration before throwing his arms up in the air, spewing out curses the entire time.
“If they already knew, they chose not to take action all this while until now?! And they didn’t even bother sending that head maid?! This is an insult!!”
Umm… You ok there, bro?