A few minutes ago.
Quick, quick! They have to run, fast!
Anna’s eyes were covered in bloody red lines, with beads of sweat dripping down her strained face. In a matter of a single minute, they had gone from the eleventh floor of the labyrinth to the eighth, but this distance was a trivial matter to the mysterious crazy lunatic known as Mammon Heist.
The earth around her moved like liquid mud as she carried the bodies of Noel, Kain, Alice, and Rhett with the help of the earth spirits. They sensed her urgency and utter fear, so the strain on her mind was significantly less compared to usual, but still, it was a fucking pain.
Luckily, Noel seemed to have been freed from his mysterious ploy as he gasped for breath and hurriedly recovered.
“Fuck, so many layers of illusions just destroyed like that,” Noel murmured with a pale face, but his eyes glowed brightly with a colorful flair. After a few seconds, he had gathered enough mana and instructed her to stop moving.
Space around them then warped as light fluctuated rapidly like a light bulb flickering on and off. When the light returned to normal, she found herself standing in the middle of a dimly lit alley, with the unconscious bodies of the three floating in the air.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Noel rubbed his aching head and clutched his right hand which was trembling profusely. Vague scorch marks can be found on the outer layer of his skin that formed an intricate magic array, perhaps damage brought by the intensive illusion spell he had just performed a few minutes before.
“Mammon seems to like to keep himself a secret from the public eye, so the chances of him attacking us in broad daylight is pretty low,” Noel murmured, monologuing his reasonings to no one in particular. “And being here on the surface is many times safer than down there.”
Anna didn’t relax though as he remained tense. She looked around the alleyway for a bit while she waited for any sudden attack.
Noel took this time to further recuperate as he leaned his back to a wall and uncorked a potion to drink. When a few minutes passed and the coast seemed clear, the two heaved a sigh of relief and Noel teleported them back to the academy.
The five reappeared in front of a large open field of grass, with benches and tables near to the side. Noel casually placed the sleeping trio on one bench while he sat on another, and since there was no other place to sit, Anna sat right beside Noel.
“Why did we go to the academy? Shouldn’t we go somewhere more private?” Anna asked worriedly while looking around the open space.
“Relax, the academy is a lot more reliable, and besides, the principal is here,” said Noel. “You shouldn’t underestimate the power of an Archmage. Even Mammon, with all his strength, is simply incomparable to a proper powerhouse with his quasi-Arch Knight strength.”
“If you say so…” Anna mumbled and eased up her worries.
Just as she finished speaking, Rhett released a pained groan as his body trembled. Then, his piercing yellow eyes slowly opened into a squint. When he regained more semblance of being awake, he shot right up into a defensive stance as his claws extended out of his hand.
Right as his claw was about to cut through Anna’s throat, a barrier appeared right in front of his hand and stopped him, while a downward pressure pressed him to the ground like a giant’s palm was on top of him.
“Calm down,” said Noel with a calm gaze. With a snap, the pressure disappeared, while Rhett seemed to have regained his reasoning.
“Noel?” Rhett muttered, confused as to why he was here, out on a familiar open field, with his classmate sitting on a bench right in front of him.
That’s when he recalled everything. The molten monkey, the wall, the fight, Noel and an unknown girl’s sudden appearance, and then… darkness.
“What happened… back then?” Rhett murmured in a pained tone. “I seemed to have lost consciousness?”
As he sat down on his chair while rubbing his head, Kain and Alice subsequently groaned out in pain just like him and they too woke up in sudden bewilderment.
“Huh, where are we?” Alice asked as she looked around the open field of grass with alarmed eyes.
“This is… the academy?” Kain asked, while one of the rings on his hand glowed with a soothing light, and the headache he felt swiftly disappeared. “You, you two saved us?”
“Do you remember anything after you were knocked unconscious?” Noel leaned forward and asked mysteriously while calmly giving the three a couple of potions to help fizzle their memories.
“Remember?” Kain mumbled as his eyes turned into squinted slits. In a split-second, a golden light flashed in his gaze, and he shrugged his shoulders with a regretful sigh, “I don’t remember anything after that.”
“I remember something,” Rhett interjected as the same golden flash appeared in his piercing yellow pupils.
“What?” Anna enthusiastically asked. Perhaps he might have an important clue that would lead to unraveling this web of mystery another step further.
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“It was a dream,” said Rhett mysteriously. “A vague, blurry dream.”
Just like the one I had? Anna thought, her eyes wide in surprise. “What did you dream about?”
Rhett snickered as the golden light in his eyes deepened, but because his eyes were originally yellow, they didn’t manage to notice this strange occurrence and instead focused more on his upcoming words with bated breaths.
“I dreamed…” Rhett paused for intentional suspense as his face turned cold and serious. “I dreamed about eating some delicious meaty bread.”
“…” Anna nearly choked on her words as she strained a smile. “Oh, a pleasant dream.”
“Yep, that’s right,” Rhett laughed and leaned back on his chair.
“Ugh, you just nearly died and now you’re joking in front of your saviors,” Alice groaned with a golden hue on top of her originally purple eyes.
“Oh, how could I forget to give my thanks!” Kain gasped exaggeratedly. “That’s bad manners for the one in line for the crown.”
“It’s no problem!” Anna hurriedly said.
“No, it’s a big deal, Miss… Auburn? Yes, you’re from the Auburn family indeed!” Kain exclaimed. “I didn’t know such a talented lass was born from there, how surprising!”
“Mmm, that’s right!” Rhett added and he flexed his muscles, showing off his defined, bare, muscular upper body. “Just thinking about how you two defeated that monkey makes my blood boil! I’m just roaring for a fight right now! Ahahaha!”
“It is surprising indeed. To think Mister Crowley here is so strong. It seems you’ve been hiding your strength all this while,” mumbled Alice with an inquisitive look.
Anna stared at the three with a hint of… confusion? Or was it perhaps a strange sense of uncanniness?
Noel didn’t seem to feel the same though, as he seamlessly dragged the conversation to the one thing he wanted most, “Since we saved you, dear Crown Prince… then would you mind giving me a little reward?”
“Please do tell!” Kain said and spread out his hands to show his utmost sincerity and openness.
“Can you give me access… to the Royal Library?”
The Royal Library, one of the most coveted storage of knowledge out in the world of Tyr, was a library that belonged solely to the Vizwel Royal Family and gave access to very few people. And now, Noel was asking to be let inside such a precious treasure trove of books and tomes.
“The Royal Library…?” Kain rubbed his chin in a contemplative manner, then soon smirked in delight. “Ha! I can do that just fine!”
“That’s a deal then,” said Noel with a satisfied grin.
“What about you, Miss Auburn?” Kain soon turned to look at her with a dazzling smile.
“Uh… uhm…” Anna, who was still focused on the strange weirdness she felt, was taken back to reality and was now flustered.
Indeed. What should she wish for indeed?
“Hmm, I do suppose not everyone is as decisive as Mister Crowley here,” Alice butted in. “Why don’t you give her some time, Kain?”
“That’s alright,” agreed Kain with a nod of his head. “Just treat it as a sort of favor. As long as you need me, and that the help you want is within my capabilities, I’ll come and be your support!”
“Oh, uh, okay…?” Anna mumbled.
“Well then, now that’s over,” said Noel. He clasped his hands together, squinting his eyes into slits, and released an oppressing and serious aura. “Let’s talk about how you three got into that situation.”
…
As Anna and Noel watched the three big shots leave, Noel snapped his hands and the two found themselves back inside his house.
Anna walked towards the familiar couch and sat down, while Noel walked towards a nearby table and released illusory lights to form shapes and lines in the air. After a short while of doing those strange gestures, he stopped and nodded his head.
“So?” Anna asked.
“It’s a pretty straightforward scheme as far as I can tell,” said Noel. “He led the three to encounter the molten monkey, trapped them, and would use the monster as a decoy to him killing them.”
“But why the need for a monkey though? And why does he want to kill them in the first place?” Anna was confused. Even Grim Hallow, with all their crazy actions, still had an underlying goal of bringing forward the descent of their demonic lord.
Mammon, on the other hand, was a complete unknown. The villagers that have died seemed to have been used as experimental subjects for him to acquire Royal Knight and even up to Quasi-Arch Knight level of strength… but she has no idea why he wanted to specifically kill Kain, Alice, and Rhett.
There was just no connection that she could link to. Even her game knowledge doesn’t help since Mammon never existed in the game in the first place.
Another thing that concerned her was… why them? Kain and Alice were kind of understandable since they were the Crown Prince and the fiancee of the Crown Prince, essentially the future Emperor and Empress, but why Rhett?
While still a future Duke, it’s just not on the same level as a Crown Prince… but if you knew that he was a male lead though…
“Why?” Noel laughed. “I don’t know!”
“You don’t know?”
“How would I know? I’m not omniscient.” Noel clicked his tongue and ruffled his hair. “It’s just… bizarre. Killing them will lead to a lot of chaos, so maybe he can use it as smoke to hide his actions later, but from what I know, Mammon isn’t someone who wants to mindlessly kill or cause chaos.”
“So even you don’t have a single clue…” Anna sighed. “But… You are classmates with those three, right?”
“Yes,” said Noel.
“Then, did you notice perhaps anything… strange about them?” Anna asked with bated breath.
“Strange… maybe.” Noel shook his head. “I did find them a bit weird and off, but only a bit. You do know that being a bit off after being knocked unconscious is normal, right?”
“Well, there is Mammon,” said Anna.
“True…” Noel groaned. “I’ll keep an eye on them then. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“Okay, okay.” Anna smiled.
But, even though she was smiling on the surface, deep inside her, a foreboding feeling continuously grew as if her instincts were telling her that things had only started.
Things were far from over.
….
Plip. Plop.
Inside a dark cave, deep into the ground below the surface, a droplet of water fell from a stalactite in the ceiling, dripping down to the ground to form a glowing green puddle. Ripples formed on its mesmerizing surface like undulating waves, but were quickly disturbed as two black amorphous blobs rolled over and absorbed every last bit of the green puddle.
The two slimy balls of darkness continued to roll in a seemingly lazed manner, with black tentacles extending out of the surface of their body.
They intermingled and combined, while the two slimes squirmed in intoxicating delight.
“Fuck, we should really stop,” one of them groaned, releasing a high-pitched and warped voice.
“We don’t have to stop, baby. So what if monsters are watching us, my love for you will never dry off,” the other slime extended out more tentacles and wrapped them around the other one.
The two wriggled and squirmed like gooey liquid experiencing a severe earthquake. Moans and groans resounded through the dark tunnels of the underground cave as monsters and beasts lurking in the shadows crept away with perplexed gazes.
Unperturbed by the watching eyes, the two slimes continued to move, through rocky ground and mossy floors, disappearing slowly but surely into the depths of the shadows.