Clair POV:

“What do you think killed the demons Rin`Tu spoke of?” Ilza asked as we walked through the corridor. We haven't found anything until now and were already walking for more than 20 minutes.

“There are some natural hunters deep down in the mines. They might have come across some of them,” Drull answered.

“I'll say they met with something that was found by the dwarfs who were living here long ago,” I said.

“How come?” Ilza

“Because it's the standard setting for old and forsaken dwarven mines or cities. They mine and mine until they find something that they shouldn't. This something then kills them all and some adventurers stumble over their remains and either narrowly manage to escape or die trying,” I answered and used the light bulb to illuminate my face like it was a flashlight in a horror story.

“Stop that, from where do you even got that story?” Ilza said and shuddered.

“Of course from all the stories I've read in my old world,” I said with a grin.

“I thought your old world only has humans,” Ilza

“They do, but someone came up with demons, dwarfs, and beastkin. We even have elfs, we only call them elves. They are mostly used in stories and games with a fantasy setting. A reason why I'm here in this world is because I wanted to see such beings in real,” I answered.

We then walked in silence and came a few minutes later to a stop. A large metal door was in front of us and closed. A tablet stood in the middle of the passage with something written on it.

“Drull, are you able to read that?” I asked and Drull stepped closer.

“It says °Don't open, the Garnesh are behind!°. I don't know what the Garnesh are, but it kinda sounds like a warning,” Drull said and ended his sentence sarcastically.

“Good that I'm incapable of understanding anything that is said sarcastically,” I said and touched the large door.

“How come? You're constantly speaking with sarcasm,” Ilza.

“Had once a test with a sarcastic answer, the teacher needed a couple of minutes to explain it to me. I was never good with this kind of things. So how should we open these doors? Blasting them away or does anyone have a better idea?” Me.

“Try to push,” was Ilza's answer.

“Okay,” I said and pushed a little. Naturally, the door didn't budge, so I pushed harder and harder until it creaked loudly. A little more pressure and the door began to open and tables, carts, and other things fell through the gap.

“Thy must've tried to blockade the door,” commented Drull as he climbed over the hindrances.

“Who uses these things as a blockade if he's inside a mine? I mean wouldn't it be better to use steel or other metal that can be nailed or welded at the door?” I said back and followed suit.

“They must've been in a hurry,” said Ilza.

We climbed over the hindrances and reached a larger hall. The roof was probably higher than 40 and shelves stood everywhere. They were as high as the hall and had different kinds of metal inside of them.

“A warehouse,” commented Drull.

“These things must be worth a lot,” said Ilza and touched a few gold ingots.

“Drull, where's the exit?” I asked.

“Don't know, last time I was here it wasn't as dark and it was also a hundreds of years ago,” Drull answered and grabbed an ingot of orichalcum.

“Take what you want, I'll search for the exit,” I said and followed a wall. You must find an exit if you simply follow a wall, it's bound to happen.

And it did happen, I found a new door, this one was open.

“Found it!” I shouted and they both came over.

The other side had a large plaza with wells, stands and things you generally find in a marketplace. The only thing that wasn't common for a market were the skeletons of hundreds of little people. Probably remains of the here living dwarfs.

“What do you think killed them?” Ilza asked and looked over one of the skeletons. It held a smaller one and was backed against a wall, the clothes were still whole in some parts but many holes were in it.

“Something with claws,” Commented Drull and pointed at the claw marks on their bones.

“Let's search for the main entrance, we might find some of the demons there,” I said and looked at Drull.

“Sorry, can't remember. It's too long ago,” he said after a moment.

“Don't mind it, it's more fun this way,” I answered and took a random route.

We walked along the road and found more skeletons and broken doors or signs of a fight. An occasional screech or roar was also audible, but those were further away.

It took us an hour to find the main entrance and that also only because Ilza found a street map on a wall. These dwarfs were good architects. The houses are still standing and the layout of the city looked more modern. As if it was planned and not grown naturally. You know, the difference between American and European cities.

And with the exit came new corpses, this time not rotten to the bones and larger than those we already found.

“Looks like we found the demons,” I commented. In front of us was a group of thirty dead demons. All of them showed the same kind of wounds as the skeletons. But some of them also had wounds that were different.

“Looks like they were attacked by the same thing as the dwarfs,” commented Drull.

“Told you they found something deep in the mines,” I said with a smug grin.

“Yes, yes,” he said back and looked back. He then started to grin and pointed upwards.

I looked up and came face to... well mandible. A giant spider was directly over me and looked at me with it's creepy six eyes and 30 centimetre long and obviously pointy looking mandibles.

It noticed that I saw it and let itself fall down.

My reaction was natural and everyone would have reacted like me..., I screamed like a little girl and burned the creepy as hell thing into oblivion. Well I burned it and everything in a radius of 20 metres above me.

Drull began to laugh and even fell down because he was laughing too hard.

“Shut up,” I hissed and looked around. There might be more of these fuckers. And they will BURN when I find them.

“Your reaction, priceless,” he said and tried to get up, but fell back in his laughing fit.

“Come on,” I said desperately, but he ignored me.

“You are heralded as a god and are afraid of spiders?” he asked with teary eyes.

“They are just creepy. Who in his right mind came up with the idea of an animal that has eight fucking legs, six eyes, webs that can be as hard as steel and on top of that poison? It's also harry as fuck and lays eggs,” I said as a counter but he ignored me and laughed again.

“I can understand you, I'm also afraid of spiders,” came from Ilza, who put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a supportive smile.

“mou...,” I said and pouted silently in a corner. I also had to wait for five minutes before Drull managed to not laugh whenever he saw me.

“Haha, well, this kinda shows that I was right with my thesis. They were attacked by monster,” Drull said and wished his last tears away.

“Why do you think that these spiders attacked them?” Asked Ilza.

“The spider had claw-like legs,” Drull simply said.

“But spiders aren't known for their group hunting and they can't be strong enough to single-handedly kill all these demons, hardly to mention a whole city of dwarfs,” I said as a counter.

“We'll see,” Drull simply said and began to walk along the main road. More dead demons and skeletons were here and there. More skeletons than demons but there weren't only a few demons.

“Why aren't there any rats? Shouldn't these demons already been eaten?” Asked Ilza.

“Rats are animals that come alongside civilisation, they aren't really made for the live in a city without people in it. They live naturally in a forest, which you can't find under a mountain. The rats probably died shortly after the dwarfs. They must've eaten the remains of the dwarfs, than the remaining food and then starved to death. There are surely thousands of small dead rat skeletons in the darkness,” I said and Ilza shuddered.

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“You know, your knowledge is often more creepy than helpful,” Ilza said with a weak smile.

“Thanks, I always try my best,” I replied with my most beautiful smile.

°Groal° “You heard that?” Asked Drull.

“Yes, sounded like a growl from a monster,” I answered.

“Or your stomach,” added Ilza.

“Is today the make fun of Clair day?” I asked back but only got a shrug from both of them.

°Groal°°Groal° “It got nearer and more, ” said Drull.

“I hope it's not a spider,” I mumbled silently. Drull must've heard it because he began to snicker.

A few moments later it came around a corner.

“Yes, not a spider! But what is that?” I shouted. It wasn't tall, maybe only as tall as me. It was humanoid, had arms which ended in a large claw and a skin that looked as withered as a mummy.

“I think these are or better were dwarfs,” Drull said as more and more of these things came into view.

“So I was right,” I said with a laugh and threw a stone at one of these things. The stone hit and the thing fell down, only to rise back up. A small hole was now visible where I hit it.

°GROAL!° they all shouted and the began to run at us.

“They are tougher than they look,” I commented.

“And a lot of them are also here,” said Ilza and true, there were already hundreds of them.

“They must be these so-called Garnesh,” I said and raised a wall in front of them, only a moment before they would have hit us.

They ran into it, growled loudly and then began to hack at the wall with their claws.

°Groal° came now also from the sides and the back, so I raised more wall around us.

“What now? How should we kill them?” Asked Ilza.

“Maybe fire? They looked brittle and dry,” suggested Drull.

“Can't do that, the fire would burn the oxygen and you would suffocate, while I and Ilza would feel like suffocating,” I said. The regeneration runes would keep Ilza and me alive, but Drull didn't want to get one.

“Can't you make new oxygen?” Asked Ilza.

“Oh yeah, I could do that,” I said and smiled awkwardly.

“So we're going to burn them to ashes?” Drull asked to be sure.

“Yes,” I said and jumped on the wall. They stopped with the clawing and began to form a tower of bodies. It almost reached the top.

Drull and Ilza jumped next to me and we started to cast fire spells at them. They did burn like we thought, alas it took three minutes before they stopped moving.

“Anticlimactic,” said Drull while we burned the remaining Garnesh to our sides and back.

“What do you expect? We are the strongest people on this planet. Some wannabe zombies aren't able to kill us. You two are probably fucked if it is a virus, but I don't think it's transferred through air. I would've gained a message if it does,” I said and stopped my fire spell as the last of them fell down.

“You think there are notes somewhere that might tell us what happened?” Ilza asked.

“Could be, is there a hospital or a town hall?” I asked Drull.

“I only came to this city a couple of times and never needed to know this kind of things,” he said.

“Hmm, okay. Then let's go back to the map we've found. It should be on it, if there is one,” I said and we walked back. We had to burn more Garnesh on the way, but it was already clear that they aren't a problem for us. Sometimes I wish I hadn't make myself so strong. There isn't any action or adrenaline in a fight. Only my overwhelming strength and the struggling enemy who gets mocked by me.

We reached the map and Drull looked over it.

“Here we are, town hall, town hall..., there,” Drull said and then pointed at the middle of the map.

“Really the middle? This city is really planned on a board,” I said and we made our way through more Garnesh before we reached a large building. Barricades were built around it and more skeletons lay around. Most of them had armour on.

“Let's go inside, we might find a journal or documents. It would be the best to first go to the highest floor,” I said.

“Why?” Asked Ilza.

“Almost all important people have their office on the highest floor,” I said and we climbed the stairs.

Again I was right and we found a large office on the top floor. Documents and other things were on the main desk. But there wasn't a skeleton.

“And?” I asked expectantly.

“Wait a moment,” said Drull while skimming through some documents.

“Here, it is about a plague that kills the miners. It first makes them sick with heavy fewer and then aggressive. They also have an increase in mana capacity and rapidly lose weight and water. Sounds like them. The affected loose all sense of pain and fear. They also gain resistance to blunt and piercing attacks. Fire helped, but they couldn't use it too much in fear of suffocation.

They managed to isolate the ill people, but more and more people got sick a few days later.

They haven't found a cure or a reason as for why. They also don't know from where this illness came. The town fell into chaos shortly after and the higher ups decided to flee while sealing the whole city off of the world. They simply left the sick and weak to die,” Drull said and put the documents down.

“Understandable, they saved a few before all of them died. Look for an earlier report about something that they found in the mines. You said that a plague killed the miners, this must mean that they found something, like I said,” I said with a winning grin at the end.

Drull grumbled a little but did as I said and found something a few minutes later.

“here, this one tells something about a new black ore that they found and that the miners got sick after mining it. They quickly stopped mining, however, it seems like it was already to late. What do you think was the reason for the sudden increase of sick people after the isolation?”

“The thing inside the ore they found must have been a virus ore something like that. It must've mutated and then started to went through the air,” I thought out loud.

“But didn't you say that it isn't something that comes through the air?” Ilza asked.

“It might not be able to survive for a long time. It could also be that it somehow came inside the water. One of the sick people could have fallen inside a well. It might be possible that the wells are connected. Or some vermin like flies or rats transferred the virus. There are many ways for an illness to get to a host. Touch, fluids and air are the most common. But mana can also be a factor in this case, you've said that the sick got an increase in mana capacity. This must be why they are still around, some kind of mana feeding,” I explained and speculated at the same time.

“So we know that it probably came with the new ore and killed the whole city. We also know that we shouldn't touch or drink anything while we are here?” Asked Ilza.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“Then let's get out of here,” said Drull. “I don't want to get sick,” he then added.

We walked out and had to burn a few thousand more Garnesh before we reached the other side of the city. This time, the main tunnel wasn't blocked and we saw sunlight a few hours later.

And with the sunlight came many corpses of Garnesh. They all looked burned.

“What do you think happened?” I asked and against my expectations it wasn't Drull or Ilza who answered me, it was a demon.

“They came out on mass and then began to scream before something black came out of them. They then burned on some places on their body and fell down, where they stayed,” said the demon, who looked over a barricade.

“And who might you be?” Asked Drull.

“I'm Yure, Sergeant of the fifth army of the Duren Empire,” he said proudly.

“How did you manage to come through the mountain?” He then added.

“We heard of the demon army that came and wanted to look how they managed to do that,” I said.

“Follow me, I bring you to my superior,” he simply said and we followed him. A few more demons flanked us and we were escorted to a fortress that stood only a few hundred metres away from the tunnel.