Her search for the Prince had ended with the sudden arrival of Bell. When he stumbled out into her path, tired and injured, his face scrunched in hatred and he rained blame upon her.

“Do you see this?” He pointed to three gems on his pink sword. “I used all three of my lives, because you weren’t there! Where did you go off?”

Through her mask’s eye slits she gave him a cross look.

“I was doing my job. I found the prince, but he escaped.”

“You let him escape? You’re useless!” He screamed.

She placed her hand on her sword, considering whether she should just kill him. But the church certainly wouldn’t like that. She couldn’t understand for what qualities this man was chosen, other than being able to be manipulated easily.

“Where did you go?” She returned his question.

His face fell and he looked down at his feet.

“I told you, I was fighting for my life. I fought three people.”

She cross her arms.“I fought six.”

“I mean twenty!” He screamed. “It was really hard! I fought them and because they were so cheap, I had to use Doom Slayer. I’ve overused my Gate, and I’m close to turning to Dust because of you!”

Using Aurasight, she could see his Gate. It was almost closed, and cracked. Forcing it open with a Key could cause that if overused.

“You should have been more careful,” she told him.

“I wouldn’t have had to if I didn’t have to fight an army!” He snapped.

“Enough!” Aura flared from her and he shut up. “We were sent down here to do one job and you decided to go off in your own direction. Playing hero isn’t a game.”

His face darkened, but she returned a scowl which put him in his place.

“S-so you fought six people. Big deal. I fought twelve.” He avoided her gaze.

“I don’t care. We have more problems. The Warden has set his sights on us.”

Bell froze at that.

“What do you mean?”

“He asked us to come meet with him.”

“Oh!” Relief poured onto his face. “Well, he probably just wants to meet us. I feel like I could use a shower after that fight.”

What this man was saying was unbelievable. She shook her head, wondering if his brain was mush.

“He’s going to try kill us. We are interrupting his ritual. Just because he’s guarding this Seal and the Church agrees that it shouldn’t be tampered, doesn’t mean our presence is welcome down here.”

“Well, if we know he’s going to try and kill us, then we have the upper hand. We can make a plan to take care of him!” He puffed his chest in pride at his stupid thought.

And she couldn’t believe that he could say that so easily.

“Do you hear yourself? This is a man that has been alive for a hundred years. He certainly won’t go down easily,” she told him. But he didn’t want to hear it.

“No!” He stomped his feet. “Let’s go meet him! I’m tired! I’m at my limit! If I fight anymore, I’ll turn to ash!”

“I told you, you shouldn’t abuse the Keys so much.” She couldn’t help but sigh. “You’re no use to me, use your token and leave.”

“I don’t have it.” Bell said.

“You don’t have it?” Her eyes narrowed upon the boy. “Are you saying you were stupid enough to lose it?”

“I dropped it somewhere when I fought the twelve people.”

“…We’re not going.”

“Hah.” Bell rubbed the back of his head. “I didn’t want to have to do this, but your other job is to protect me isn’t it? If you let me die, what will the Goddess do to you? Will she help you with your loved one?”

It happened quickly. Her hand dripped with blood, and Bell held his nose, tears dripping from his face as he cried it in shock and pain.

She had hit the Hero.

Something had snapped but she decided not to temper that rage, not when he deserved it.

“If you ever bring that up again, I don’t care what the consequences are, I will kill you.”

Her bloodlust washed over him, and the color from his face drained turning ghost white. He gave a nod to her.

“We will go find the Prince. Do you understand?”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Bell gave a slight nod.

“Good. Then we go.”

#

His fingers glided over the broken and mangled body of hers. Just from looking at it, he could tell that the Black Sun woman was incredibly strong to cut through her wood from the the Starcone Pines.

More than anything else, he felt relief to see her still functioning. Tears dribbled down his face, hitting Ariel’s non emotive face.

“Master what is wrong? Are you hurt?” The doll asked him.

“Yes, I thought I would lose you. What do you think of that?”

“You can always create another one of me,” she answered. She still didn’t understand how important she was to him.

He gave her a tender smile. If she still had a hand, he would have taken it.

“There’s no other you. Do you understand that?”

“No, I don’t understand.”

“I see.”

He closed his eyes. She still wasn’t there. When would she awaken?

“Master. The Black Sun assassin was strong. She defeated all of us with ease. Based on that, I would say that you would have a hard time handling her.”

“Ahhh, that’s right.” He rose his voice in anger. “I forgot that they were here. Descending upon the ritual. The Church should know better. Don’t you worry, I’m quite strong. I’ll make sure to present those two in a body bag to the Church.

“But before that.” He breathed out, relaxing. “I must fix you and bring you back to combat ready specifications. I see you haven’t been able to open your own Gate yet.”

“Not yet.”

“You will.”

And so the Warden grabbed a tool from the table on the side, and starting to repair Ariel.

#

They stuffed his mouth with a cloth, not to make sure Kagami could speak, but so Kagami wouldn’t bite them. Walnut had been the first victim, having some painful bite marks on near the base of his thumb. The man on his shoulder certainly wasn’t princely by any metrics. He was sure in the legends and stories, there was none of a prince biting a bandit.

They made their way to the outer ridge of the floor to try to get to the exit.

Another fire ape ambushed them. Walnut sliced it in two with his great broad axe.

“How many does that make?” Subaru asked him as another blew fire at them. The flames bounced off of the mercenary’s sound barrier. Subaru whistled and a light drilled through the monkey, leaving a whole where his heart had been.

“I stopped counting after five.” Walnut paused and looked back to regard the trail of dead animals behind them. He was starting to feel sorry for them. “They’ve become a lot more aggressive the further out from the center we go.” He noted.

“There are more of those elves guarding the bridge.” Subaru told him. “Do you have a plan to deal with them?”

“Cut through them.” Walnut grunted.

He had broken in by using the hole the Black Suns. The boy, Bell, had blown a hole through the ceiling of this floor. Since he couldn’t fly, he couldn’t go back that way. That left the only other entrance. Walnut had come down here a few times as the Representative of the Council. He had been led through here as a guest.

Walnut was no guest now. He was an intruder.

That much was evident by the elves that guarded the only bridge out of here. All three of them had the same doll like face and fake friendly smile plastered on their face. The colors of their hair were different: red, green, and blue.

“Walnut,” the red one spoke first. “What a shame this has come down to. To think you were the intruder.”

“A shame indeed.” The blue one continued. “Of course, we will have to report this to the Warden. I’m sure he has some choice words for you.”

“He will not be happy,” The green one said. “We would ask that you turn back and head closer to the Crimson Tree.”

Walnut readied himself to rush them. Aura coursed through his circuits and was ready to transform given the moment.

That was until ‘that’ came along.

“Hey, hey. Walnut, I’d like to ask that you stop.”

In synchronous movement, the three elves parted ways and a fourth elf walked forward. Unlike the three, his face wrapped in bandages. His physique and voice were different, He was a head shorter than the other three. The newcomer had his face wrapped in bandages, the only thing that could be seen where his bloodshot eyes and his pointed ears that poked out of the bandages.

“Have we met?” There was something familiar about this man that Walnut couldn’t put his finger on.

“I suppose you don’t recognize me in this form do you?” The elf snickered. “You might not recognize me, but we have met. But that might be a good thing. I suppose you’re here to escape, but I’ve given instructions from the Warden to kill anyone that tries to cross the bridge.”

The bandaged elf turned to the bridge. He struck it with his fist and the bridge collapsed into the crevice.

“Well too bad! Looks like you can’t escape. Now turn around.” He shooed them.

It had happened so quick. He wasn’t sure what happened, but the torn bridge reflected upon his eyes and soon he became angry.

“You bastard!”

“Stop!”

Kagami’s voice stopped Walnut in his tracks. At some point, the prince had somehow removed his gag.

“Don’t fight him.” His eyes serious. “You would lose.”

“You think I would lose to a crippled elf?” Walnut growled.

“I don’t know what that thing is, but I’d rather fight the Warden than him.”

“Oh, the young prince has good instinct. You heard him Walnut. You should turn tail and go to the Crimson Tree.”

His grip on his broad axe tightened.

“Look down.” Kagami told him.

Walnut looked to his feet.

There was a severed finger hidden in the grass.

“Oh, did I forgot to pick one up?” There was a pop, and the finger appeared on the elf’s hand. He tugged at his bandages, showing off his sharp fangs as bit into the finger like a carrot stick. “What a shame. It’s such a waste, to leave it lying like that don’t you know?”

A shiver went down his spine. All will to fight left him as he understood what Kagami meant. Whoever this man was, he wasn’t to be messed with. That ability as well, what was it?

“Do you not want to play with me anymore?” He asked as blood dribbled from hit little snack. His bandages around his mouth stained red.

He felt like the ground beneath him rose. He hadn’t felt this kind of fear for a long while, but he knew when it was time to turn back.

“No,” he managed to say. “The bridge is destroyed. There’s really no way out.”

“Yes, I suppose I shouldn’t have done that.” The bandaged elf snickered. “Do you boys think the Warden will get angry with me?”

“He’ll probably make you build a new one,” the blue one snickered.

“You’re in so much trouble brother.” The green one joined in the snickering.

“But not as much trouble as him.” The red one pointed at Walnut. “He’s going to lose everything.”

“Well, then I suppose that that.” The bandaged one clapped his hand together. “I hope to see you real soon, Walnut.”

Walnut and the rest turned around and walked back towards the Crimson Tree. He kept on walking, noticing that the monsters had stopped attacking them. Then, when he was far enough, his knees collapsed on him. Cold sweat dripped from his face.

He looked over to Subaru, who had a pale look to him.

Only Kagami didn’t seem affected by it. He met his gaze and he smiled.

“Can you put my shoulders back in place?”