Leona couldn’t describe what she was seeing in front of her. If anything, it was much larger than anything she’d ever seen before.
“What in the world is that?”
She asked Athena.
“Well, let’s go out for you to find out.” But before she got out of the driver’s seat, she nudged closer to Leona’s ear and whispered. “Close the door on the way out, I don’t want these two to know where we’re heading.”
With a discrete nod, she did exactly as she was told once they headed to the back of the vehicle.
“Hpmmm!”
One of the soldiers was making noises in order to protest but Athena simply kneeled near him and gave him a slight slap on the side of the cheek which he responded with a sudden turn of the head.
“You stay put here, I’m not as evil to leave the door open to the cold, but you better not make too much of a fuss or else bears might want to investigate the pod. Not that one could open the hatch by itself though.” She stood up. “I’ll be taking these as well.”
She grabbed both rifles and gave one to Leona.
“I’m not entirely sure how this works.”
“I’ll tell you how, outside. Come.” Athena put the sling over her head and left the rifle diagonally on her back and proceeded to rotate the crank on the door. “Let’s go.”
Leona glanced back at the two soldiers before grabbing both bags and accompanying the lieutenant outside, a bone freezing breeze made her body shake up from head to toe. It was like day and night from the cozy temperature inside the pod to the frozen white forest.
“Brr…” Leona was holding the rifle between her arms whilst hugging herself in order to keep her bodily warmth. “T-tell me, what exactly was that thing anyway?”
“Our way in.” Athena said as she closed the pod’s hatch and grabbed her bag off the ground. “You see, the construction of Londria was surprisingly well planned, however in time some of the tunnels that were used for waste disposal were closed off in favor of new ones.”
“You’re saying, Londria used to throw its waste in the middle of the forest?”
“Well… yeah. There was no use for this forest at the time.” She hit one of the trees beside her and instead of making the usual sound of wood, it was more like hitting a piece of stone. “For some reason the trees around the capital are mostly frostburnt wood.”
“Wait… then-”
Athena shook her head as if she read the tactician’s mind.
“No need to be alarmed, it’s called frostburnt wood but it’s not the same as the silver. For some reason the affected trees are brittle like stone and can’t be used for anything other than making walls, which then again, they make a poor choice of material since despite its hardiness, it’s less tougher than actual wooden logs.”
“I… see… so they decided to dispose of the waste here because the trees themselves were useless, but you said it’s not in use anymore right? Where does it go then? The waste I mean.”
Athena was checking if her rifle was chambered in while responding.
“The ocean.”
“Eh? But don’t they fish from there why would they-”
“I’m sure you read something about Londria but whatever it was, it is probably before this mana stasis became a problem. A few years ago, a great part of the ocean froze under meters of ice, it was basically impossible to fish. So with the main source of food out of the picture, the need to trade became a problem with the waste expanding all throughout inland.”
“Oh… I didn’t know.”
“Not many outsiders would. It is a local problem after all.”
Leona scratched her head.
“The more I travel to other kingdoms the more I see how much everyone else has different struggles than my own. It is honestly food for thought.”
“In any case…” Seeing how the gun was properly chambered. Athena made sure to take the lead in front of her friend. “Let’s check your rifle before going in. We might need to use your fire magic in order to light the path but it never hurts to have a weapon ready just in case.”
“I’d rather have a sword but this will do too I suppose…”
“First, pull the bolt back.”
“This thing?”
Leona held the bolt handle between her thumb and index finger whilst pointing the barrel downwards to the side.
“Yes, pull it back gently to check whether or not you have a bullet chambered in.”
She did as she was told and slowly pulled the handle back. There was nothing inside.
“Empty.”
“Okay, pull it totally back.”
She tried to pull it further but instead it was stuck, she noticed the grooves in the parts indicating she had to rotate the bolt slightly in order to totally pull the handle back. Upon doing so she noticed a bullet emerging from inside the fixed magazine and stayed inside the chamber.
“Is this how it works?”
“Yeah, now just lock the bolt back in place.”
With a clack, she chambered the round in and the rifle was loaded.
“Huh… interesting. Back in Akrapocalis the general gave me an experimental rifle but it was slightly different than this one.”
“Oh that was a poorly made one. I didn’t exactly have the time to fix the minor problems with the schematic but I intend to take the one my father made to the Loraexion household.”
“Let me put this on properly…”
She wore the sling like Athena did, leaving the gun beside the bag on her back.
“Regardless, you can shoot five bullets out of that gun. You can probably kill just about anything with a well placed shot.”
“I hope I don’t have to use this…”
“Me too, but it never hurts to be ready.”
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The large hole coming off the side of a mound was all she could make out of the middle of the snow. Upon breathing a bit harder Leona noticed the smell of old waste coming inside her lungs.
She coughed a few times.
“Argh! What is this foul smell?!”
“Keep breathing through your nose, you’ll get used to it.” Athena carefully climbed up the pipe and inspected the brick floor of it with the tip of her boot. “It’s a bit slippery so be careful.”
“I don’t know how you handle this smell-” Leona spoke whilst pinching her nose. “This has been unused for years as you said, right?”
“All kinds of waste were disposed here, it could be a mix of many things. But it is most likely human excrement.”
“Goddess above, why did you have to tell me that?!”
“Aren’t you the one who likes to acquire more knowledge? I’m just helping you with that.”
“Eugh.”
Without much choice, Leona decided to take short breaths through her nose in order to get used to the foul smell assaulting her senses. As they walked further inside, both the smell and visibility got worse, which forced the tactician to cast a small flame in order to light up the interior of the tunnel. With a bit of a walk, they made their way through until they reached a rectangular gallery.
There was a puddle of murky green water in the middle of said gallery but thankfully with the generous walkways on the side of the room there was enough space to avoid stepping in it. Athena inspected the tunnels that connected to that room and some of them were blocked off with rubble which left only three options, one on the right to the entrance where they came from, another on the left side where the puddle of waste was bigger or another across the gallery, though the last was almost completely blocked off so it would be a tight squeeze, should they try to go through it.
“Shouldn’t be too far. Jano’s inn is near the walls anyway. Which means…” The lieutenant whipped out what seemed to be a silver pocket watch from her satchel except there was another neat feature inside it when she opened its cover. “This way.”
She pointed to the one across the gallery.
“Huh? How can you be so sure?”
“I have a compass, naturally, I’d pick the option which is most likely to lead us north, which is that one.”
“Most likely huh?”
“We are bound to get close to it, better than aimlessly walking around these filthy sewers don’t you think?”
“I guess so.”
So they began walking towards where Athena pointed. Though the most challenging part was trying to get past the rubble of fallen bricks and dirt without touching any of the surfaces stained with gods knew what substances. Upon reaching the other side the first thing she noticed was the floor’s considerably worse condition than from the gallery before, with plenty of missing bricks making an uneven walk and the ceiling being much higher than the last room.
There was a certain feeling of dread being in that place, sure it was void of anything else other than bad smell and the eventual sound of dripping water, but Leona couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched.
“Hey Athena, you’re positively sure there is nothing else in these tunnels, right?” She quickly glanced over her shoulder, but there was nothing behind them. “I feel like there’s something or someone eyeing us.”
“Could be rats or something of the sort, it is a sewer after all.”
Would the stare of a stray rat make her so uncomfortable? The tactician wasn’t totally convinced it was simply rats.
“I don’t know, something doesn’t quite feel right- hm?” She stopped when she felt something caught underneath her left foot. “What is this?”
Upon attempting to lift her foot she felt like the underside of her boot was being pulled back towards the ground. The sticky nature of the substance beneath her footwear and strange silver sheen when she approached the fire on her hand made all her senses scream out in fear.
“Hmm? What’s the mat-”
The split second she turned to look at the tactician, she noticed the sticky web beneath her foot and without a second thought she threw herself against Leona, knocking her back about two meters.
“Oof!”
Leona fell on the ground and witnessed the most terrifying sight she had ever seen in her entire life. A brown eight legged monster was hanging from the ceiling as it threw its net-like web from its six frontal legs against Athena, since the lieutenant saw it coming she rolled to her right side, however the sheer size of the web caught her left shin.
“Dammit!” In a fraction of a second she was flung upward as the giant spider retracted its legs. “Aaaaaaaaaaah!”
As Athena was pulled, Leona tried to follow her using her eyes but all she could make out before the insect retreated in the cover of darkness was the ogre-like features of its face. Two big round eyes accompanied by two thick pedipalps and fangs that could pierce through armor like paper.
“ATHENA!”
Instinctively, she charged the fire spell on her right hand creating a roaring ball of fire that illuminated all the way up the ceiling. With enough light this time, she saw the lieutenant pulling her rifle from the sling just in time before a curtain of web covered her entire upper body.
“Shit! You damn oversized bug!” Athena yelled as she took a shot from the hip, managing to nick the spider’s elongated body. “Gah!”
Instead of releasing her, the giant insect simply covered her with more web and was about to retreat deeper in the sewer.
‘I need to do something!’ Leona thought. ‘But fire will kill her too if I-’
She clenched her teeth in anger of her own insecurity.
“No! I can’t let it get away with her!” She further increased the strength of her spell and released against the ceiling behind the spider. “Flames of destruction heed my call, bring ruin to mine enemies, Fireball!”
The spinning bright orange sphere of fire curved from beneath the front legs of the spider and exploded behind it creating a blazing inferno that forced the arachnid to swing its body forward and the moment it did so Leona noticed the sack of web Athena was already being held by both pedipalps near its mouth.
“Ngh!” Seeing how the giant blast of fire didn’t do anything other than make the lieutenant’s escape even harder, the tactician decided to go for a different approach. “Great power of the sea, sever the shackles of our enemies, Water Blade!”
By swinging her left hand horizontally, she managed to release a high pressure blade of water against the spider clinging parallel to the ceiling hitting directly against its large abdomen. The force of the impact was enough to rip parts of the ceiling and send down more rubble.
After jumping back to dodge the debris and destabilizing the spider’s foothold, Leona began to utilize a combination of spells in order to inflict as much damage as she could in the shortest span of time.
“Piercing Flame! Piercing Ice! Cutting Wave! Crushing Wind!”
With each quick chant, another took its place in each hand. First a flaming spear followed by an ice lance, then a half moon blade of water with a violent blast of wind. Upon releasing a torrent of spells against its abdomen the spider finally let go of its prey as it spewed webs everywhere.
Leona's quick thinking allowed her to slide through the dirty floor and catch Athena just before she could plummet straight into the ground.
“Mmmhpmm!”
The cocoon was wriggling as if she was trying to say something but the tactician scarcely had the time to stop. With the help of wind strengthening spell, Leona made a mad dash deeper into the tunnel while also carrying a bound Athena between her arms.
She was going much faster than expected because of the slippery brick floor, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing as she was quickly starting to lose her balance with each step.
“Ah wawawawawa!” Fighting against the slippery floor, she managed to just keep her legs stable to finish sliding a few more meters before stopping in her tracks underneath some sunlight coming from grades above them. “Phew.”
Suddenly, a knife popped out of the cocoon she was carrying, almost stabbing her face.
“AH!”
She accidentally let go of it, dropping Athena on the moist floor.
“Gah!” The lieutenant protested before she cut the cocoon open from the inside and peeked outside. “Couldn’t have you been more gentle?”
“Hey now, you almost stabbed my face.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Nnnngh!” She managed to rip off part of the web covering her right arm before looking at Leona with her hand extended. “If you can give me a lil’ hand.”
“Ah, sure.”
She chanted a small flame and used it to burn through the thickest parts of the web, managing to free Athena within a few minutes.
“That’s much better.” The once bound lieutenant stretched out her arms. “Oh and would you look at that, we’re close.”
Leona followed her eyes towards the ceiling, there were grades with frozen water between each gap in the metal, allowing some sunlight to enter the sewer depths.
“How can you tell?”
“These grades only exist within the city, we are already inside, now the actual problem is finding a way out that doesn’t require us to alert half of the capital’s guards with an explosion spell.”
“Right… and how exactly are we going to do that with that spider up our tails?”
“I don’t think it’ll follow us outside its nest so we should be safe here… at least from it.”
“What do you mean?” The moment she asked, a scuttling noise could be heard from deeper within the tunnels as if there were many small steps coming from every direction, prompting Leona to look around. “Great. Me and my big mouth.”