Isaiah slept like a baby. His body was refreshed, and his mind was ready to go. He felt as if yesterday's exhausting operations were all a lie.

Looking around, he saw Senzuki peacefully sleeping beside him, her face rather close to his neck. Her rhythmic breathing beating his cheek showed she was still deep in her sleep. It was rare to find her still asleep especially this late.

So Isaiah decided to go and enjoy the view while he could. He suddenly found himself unable to pry his eyes off her sleeping face and was in a blank state of mind when the flaps to the tent suddenly opened. A rush of wind followed by the blinding sun obfuscated the newcomer but her voice betrayed her identity.

"Nee, Senzuki, how are you not... Awake... Yet?" Fei found the two lying on the ground, immediately, her face lit up with a grin, "Ooooh..."

"Nothing-nothing happened." Isaiah replied with the tiniest of voices from embarrassment as he pulled himself away from Senzuki, "Like... Nothing."

"Ooooooh."

"Fei... Its..."

"Oh my, what is this liquid?" Fei tried to remove the blanket covering them but Isaiah placed his hand to stop her,

"She-she just asked me to sleep with her... Cause she was scared." Isaiah felt his voice get weaker the more he said anything,

"And nothing happened?"

"N-Nothing."

However, her eyes were doubting him.

"A beautiful woman, clinging that closely to you and nothing happened?"

"Trust me, I would never touch her unless she tells... Like... I mean..." Isaiah paused and began eating his words. He took a deep breath, paused, and tried to say something, but the words did not materialize. Instead, he sighed again.

"Ahahahanya, it's fine, it's fine, I was just messing with you. Congratulations on making it this far."

"Y-yeah."

"Senzuki deserves to find someone who could make her happy, at the very least."

"Yeah. I'll try my best."

"Right... Anyway, you wake your wife up. We are about to launch a rescue mission within a few hours. Let's go and eat. The food is excellent; they did not skimp out today."

"Wife?" Isaiah exclaimed as his cheeks turned red, "She is... Noth... Aah."

Fei covered her mouth as she laughed herself away, Isaiah wiped his face and sighed, then when he turned around he saw Senzuki's eyes open. She was looking at him,

"Oh... Uhh."

Senzuki poked his nose,

"I am your wife now?"

"Not, like... Its..."

She chuckled then got up, stretched herself, and took a deep breath. "Good morning, Isaiah-kun."

"Morning, Senzuki-sa-chan."

"Senki. Call me Senki."

"Senki."

"Senki-chan."

"Senki-chan."

She nodded and took another deep breath, "Good morning, Isaiah-kun."

"Good morning... Senki-chan."

She nodded happily this time. "Call me that from now on."

"Okay... Wait, does this mean-"

"Come, let's go, we must eat breakfast quickly so we can prepare for the rescue mission." She cut him off before he could complete his question.

"Uh... O-okay." Isaiah nodded, he couldn't find the courage to ask her again so nodded along. But still, if Senzuki asked him to call her with a nickname, then that meant he got even closer.

Today's breakfast was a large and luxurious spread.

Bacon, Pancakes, Fruits, and Eggs. The adventurers felt like they were nobles as they ate to their heart's content, though some ate sparingly.

Richter decided to splurge out this time, knowing that this mission would end up deciding whether he lost everything even his life, or win himself a promotion.

-

With breakfast complete, the adventurers all gathered at the mouth of the cave and began their final preparations for the dive. Tools were checked, potions sealed, muscles stretched, and blood boiling. Everyone was ready.

Leading the party was the knight Galand, who was accompanied by his two squires and Uir, one of Jair's girlfriends. They were decked in their battle gear, which carried the crest of Mango. Though they were armed with swords, they held an axe and hammer hybrid as their main weapon. Uir meanwhile wore a light set of armor, chainmail covering her body while she was mostly decked in padded clothing. She carried knives around her waist, each with a distinct design and shape.

Following closely was Taro. Though Lea was still recovering, her insistence to join the rescue ops was strong and in the end, Richter agreed. She was still strong despite her injuries and so wasn't much of a liability, the same could not be said with the rest of her troupe. Apart from Mary, Fern, and their ranger, the rest had to be confined in the hospital as they were too weak to join. The same could also be said about the troupe Sommo lent to Lea, only two were fit enough to serve in the rescue op.

Hannibal and his troupe were the only ones who were complete, in fact, they had an extra member. Though unregistered and technically illegal, the green viper, named Vipol, was a sight to behold, towering over the buildings the snake had been calm throughout the night and had shown an appetite for eggs and honey which it ate voraciously during breakfast. Today, it was to join them in defeating its former master. This boosted the morale of the adventurers but some held a wary eye over the monster, it was still a monster after all.

Galand inspected the party as they got ready and things got tense when he faced Isaiah and Senzuki. That said he was extremely cautious, though the viper was one thing Richter had made it very clear to him last night that Isaiah was the only one of the group that was capable of dealing with the mess ahead, and as such he is not to be touched. Though Galand hated Isaiah, he also recognized his importance and as such kept his peace.

'I swear...' He grunted under his breath as he left. His eyes glared at him and at the snake which hissed back, both of his squires flinched and almost fell.

"Keep a tight leash on that." One of them grunted.

Galand then proceeded to the front, once the party was ready they left for the cave.

The trek down was smooth, as they did not need to investigate there was no need to stop frequently. Eventually, they reached the area where the encounter happened, though they carried torches the light was too weak. Fei fired off a small fireball to light up the place.

"What is that?"

Along the walls were thick woody vines with a purplish hue. Large bulbs glowed around the vines with some seemingly beating like a heart. One of the squires touched the vine and it was squishy.

Everyone was alarmed and instead of proceeding further, they waited.

"This changed..."

"You..." Galand turned to Uir, "What is this?"

"I-I don't know my lord." The silver-haired silver-ranker shook her head "I never saw this."

"Never? What about when you all ran?" Lea asked which caused Uir to shake.

"I-I don't know... Please, I don't know anything."

"Stupid bastard."

"Eek."

"Lea..." Mary held her wrist, "Let her be..."

"Cut it... Let's see what's inside these bulbs." Galland gestured to his squires,

"Wa-wait." Uir spoke up but quickly quieted down. "Ahm like..."

"What?" Lea asked.

"Well... Nothing, I just thought, they look similar."

"To what?"

"Nothing..."

"Tell me."

"Its... It's the viper eggs... Tree vipers."

"This?"

"Looks like them, but they are different."

A squire unsheathed his sword and poked the bulb, it glowed when disturbed. He then pushed his sword deeper, cutting the bulb. It released a yellowish goo as multiple elongated string-like objects fell to the ground. Galland and his squires retreated, and so did the others.

"Aah..."

Galland picked one of the strings up with his sword, the moment his blade touched the water it began to hiss. He dropped the object, but then it moved. It wasn't alone, all of the strings began moving.

It was no object.

"Snakes... They are vipers?"

"No... Baby vipers don't look like that... They... Oh, God."

One of the squires suddenly found himself surrounded by the creature. They began crawling up his armor melting away iron while entering the openings.

"Ohh... Aah!" He began to flail around as the creatures flooded him. The others took a step back as they didn't know what to do. "Help me!"

"What... What are you waiting for!?" Galand screamed at Lea who tackled the man down. He was then helped by the other adventurers while Fei and Isaiah worked to contain the ones that had dropped.

In an instant, it was over. But the squire was shaking in fear. All around his body, burn marks resembling the worm-like monster were present. Not just that but some had managed to enter his body by digging through his pores. It was very ugly and many realized that the enemy they were facing now was unlike the ones they just faced.

"What the fuck is that?"

"A parasite..." Lea replied, "I remember hearing about them... But why are they here."

Suddenly, there was a low grumbling sound as the vines started to move, and then it happened. The bulbs began to burst as they were struck by the vines, their contents spilling out as thousands upon thousands of the white parasites began their invasion.

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"Fuck!"

Isaiah's body erupted into electricity as he began saturating their rear. The worst part is that most of the adventurers are geared for solo combat, against thousands they were not prepared.

"Retreat! Let us re..."

"I don't think so..."

The elf from before emerged from the only exit.

"It's him, that's him!" Lea screamed as she ran towards the elf. With her sword ready she swung it as hard as she could.

"Woah there! Hahaha... Miss me?"

"Fuck off..." Lea swung again, barely hitting the elf who bent his body backward,

Meanwhile, Fei began saturating their front allowing some of the adventurers to chase after the elf.

While the elf was busy dodging Lea's attack, Galand suddenly leaped at him axe at hand. The elf managed to dodge his attacks at first but as time progressed, his body began to release a steam of air and suddenly his speed increased and increased until the elf's grin disappeared.

The elf started retreating but Galand followed closely. The elf was unable to escape Galand's relentless pursuit.

"You..." Galand swung his axe and this time it struck. The elf fell to the ground and into a pool of the parasite. Though the parasite ignored him, Fei did not.

[Salamander's Breath!]

A pillar of fire emerged from a magic circle engulfing the worms and the elf. But suddenly, the same vines that once littered the walls began to fall,

No, they did not fall,

They started to pound on the adventurers.

Vipol, the viper, was the first to be struck, it leaped as its tail got hit falling towards the burning pile and extinguishing the flame. But the elf had already escaped and was now situated above standing on top of a vine.

"You will regret this day."

The vines swallowed him before Galand could give chase, and then multiple vines attacked him. Though he managed to fend them off, they were now trapped as the vines covered the two escape routes. Lea tried to cut through them but they quickly healed and more came to cover, not just that they also began attacking those who got close. Then around them more bulbs grew from the vines exploding once they reached a certain size or when touched no matter how lightly.

They were to be drowned,

More and more explosions, as the group began to climb toward rocks and dead vines just to create some space from the ground. More and more parasites attacked, they began climbing the bodies, burning off their skin before being whisked away. It was already bad that only two could fight larger numbers, but with Fei rapidly running out of mana things only got worse.

"Onto me!" Isaiah shouted as he raised his hand, a large mound emerged which Isaiah quickly ran towards. Everyone dropped their baggage and ran with only their weapons in hand towards the mound, once everyone was inside Isaiah had Vipol launch thick blobs of venom around them which he spread out to blanket the dome which he then closed down. Darkness fell on them but Isaiah remained calm.

"Hold your breath..."

Isaiah then planted both his hands onto the ground, creating a massive hole which they all fell into.

"Aah!"

He quickly got up and started shifting the ground towards their rear as he dug deeper and deeper.

"Help!" He gasped as the others quickly got on their feet and began to dig, using their hands and their weapons they frantically clawed their way at the hard rocks as their lives depended on it.

Galland, who was at their rear noticed the flow of goo entering their hole.

"Dig faster!" He shouted as he began chipping away at the stone with his axe,

Eventually, their efforts paid off as they managed to reach an open hallway. The moment fresh air entered their lung they crashed down.

Galand took some deep breaths, then turned to Isaiah.

"Not bad." He said before standing up... "Is everyone here?"

"Yes."

"I think so."

A quick count revealed that everyone was indeed present and so Galand nodded,

"Right..." He looked around, "Where are we?"

All eyes were on Isaiah, truth be told he had panicked and just dug wherever and so did not know where they were, but he wasn't going to admit that.

"I dug ground, then turned left."

"Left from where?"

"My left, at that time, wherever."

Water started to burst out from where they were and Isaiah hastily covered that part up, the rest of the squad cleaning up those that got out.

"So we are lost?"

"N-no... I doubt it, We are still in the cavern section right?"

"I see footprints." Iska said as she studied the ground, "They are large boots."

"That's Sommo's, I remember his boots, they looked expensive."

"So we just follow that."

"Yeah."

Galand nodded, "Right, off we go."

"Wait... Let us rest for a while." Mary asked as she sat down, having finished healing one of his squires she had run out of mana. "The potions, give them..."

Most of their supplies had been left upstairs in panic, though Fei had carried her bag regardless and it was filled mostly with mana potions,

"Use this sparingly, we don't have much left and we need Isaiah in his best condition," Fei told Mary who started chugging them down, Fei gave some to Isaiah who was not happy with his previous experience with the potion, but with such thin atmosphere around it was difficult to recover mana quickly so he had no choice. He opened up the bottles and their foul smell assaulted his nose. Instantly Isaiah heaved and almost vomited.

Everyone looked at him but said nothing. Time was given to allow the mages to rest and the others to recoup, once a few minutes had gone past Galand took the lead and led them deeper into the cave, following the many footsteps that dotted the ground.

They were getting deeper, they don't know how deep but they were moving far away from the surface. Then they reached a certain place, it was a 5 meter by 5 meter carved-out room where multiple metal carts lay everywhere, but the ground states another story.

There was a battle.

It is unknown who Sommo's group faced but based on the records they had encountered something and fought here.

And then...

"My God... Peter." The adventurer from Sommo gasped when they saw the corpse of their teammate, it had already bloated and half its skin was eaten away by the white stringy parasites. "You bastards!"

Isaiah watched horrified as they fought off the parasites, despite their skins burning from the acid they kept on until the body was clean from the worms. Isaiah gulped down, he did not know what caused his death but this was painful. He lowered his head and looked away, he saw Senzuki looking at the corpse with a worried face.

"Don't worry, I won't let that happen to you. Ever."

She turned to him and nodded,

"If ever I die... Burn me."

"N-..." Isaiah nodded, "Yes."

"Let me." Fei's came a red glowing magic circle. "May your soul rest, Volcanic Heart."

His body burst into flames, before being consumed by the fire quickly. The two cried their hearts out as the rest gave them some space.

"Let us continue, have them follow us." Garland gave the order as they continued.

They proceeded slowly, this time finding the tracks on the ground to be more and more messy until it was impossible to figure out whose track was who. Worse still, other unknown footprints were spotted as well. Then when they noticed that the hallway got wider and wider they took out their weapons.

As they had guessed, they arrived in an area that was large enough to host the entire camp underground. It was dark however and so the group split up, each carrying a source of light. The place was littered with rock formations, acting like walls with some reaching all the way to the top. However, what they thought was a maze turned out to be something else as further into the walls was a large open space and everyone found each other.

They were confused until Isaiah realized it was not naturally forming walls but rather.

"Earth magic."

"A fight... Of this scale?"

"I remember that one of Jair's can use earth magic... Sommo had none in his team."

"Woah, above us look!"

As they turned their heads, they saw two human beings suspended by chains, it was too dark to see who these were but that was not the case with Uir,

"Jair!" Uir ran towards one of the suspended beings. It was difficult to tell if it was Jair but when she threw her sword, cutting up the chains, the human was lowered into the light and it proved to indeed be Jair.

"How could she tell?" Hugo asked, and in fact, everyone was surprised.

Uir freed the unconscious Jair, removing the shackles and combing his hair, then as if she was holding a baby lifted his head up with her shaking hands, "Jair please, don't die on me..."

She then gave him a deep and long kiss.

Cough Cough.

The man began to breathe as Uir helped him relax,

"Uir..."

"Jair... You..."

"It's fine... I'm fine."

"The others?"

He looked around and found Lea's angry scowl.

"You fuckwad, you caused all this."

Isaiah lowered the other body and found that to be

"Sommo..." The rest of the group rushed to his aid and in no time he was set free. They were chained by the same chains that locked Isaiah up at Eisansurburg. He could feel them tightening on his wrist.

Jair got up and the two spoke in hushed tones, and then his eyes turned to Isaiah. He felt hostility at his stare, almost as if he wanted to kill him. When Isaiah turned it disappeared but a smile was formed underneath his nose. A suspicious smile.

Meanwhile, Senzuki was looking at him.

"Aah, Senki-chan."

"Hai?" She turned to Isaiah.

"Is there a problem?"

"Doesnt... Jair... He looks suspicious."

"Hmm?"

"Sommo, are you alright?" Hannibal asked.

Cough cough cough.

Sommo coughed out his lungs as he woke up,

"Wha-" He looked around, "Hannibal, oh... Its... Where..."

"It's fine, it's fine..." Hannibal turned to Mary who began healing Sommo.

"Haa, haa, the rest..." He took a deep breath as he held onto Hannibal, "Jair..."

"What?"

"Jair! That bastard!"

"What about him?"

"He, he- He tried to kill us all!"

"Sommo, it's up to Richter to decide that..."

"No, please, listen, he ambushed us!"

"Nonsense." Jair laughed himself as he began to move towards the entrance, "Why would I do that?" His eyes then turned to Isaiah as he positioned himself to block his escape.

"Let me go."

"No..."

Jair glared as he clenched his fist, "I am not asking twice."

"Make me."

Jair sighed.

For a split second, Isaiah sensed a killing intent behind him and moved his head just in time as a streak of blood grazed his left ear and cheek. He clutched his face, feeling the warm blood, but he had no time to process what had happened. The ceiling suddenly collapsed, and Isaiah instinctively raised his hand to stop it. Pain shot through his head, but he held firm, knowing that if he let go, everyone would die. Blood poured from his nose as massive, woody vines burst through the rubble from above and on all sides.

In an instant, half of the adventurers were down. Without exception, everyone was either injured or maimed. Galand tried to regain control, but the relentless vines left no room to even breathe. The unconscious adventurers were targeted first, the vines opening their mouths to swallow them whole. Those still able to fight were ensnared or struck down until they could no longer move.

Mary, with Galand's help, managed to free herself and quickly moved around the battlefield to heal the wounded. She wrestled Fern’s unconscious body from the grasp of a vine, but as she did, the vine suddenly lunged at her, throwing her aside and swallowing Fern whole. The vine then turned its attention toward Mary. Knowing her combat abilities were limited, she desperately searched for help and spotted Lea. She sprinted toward her with all her might, but she was caught before she could reach her.

A smaller vine tripped her, and before she could even fall, she was lifted into the air, immediately enveloped in a tight, woody embrace.

"Help! Pl..." Her voice was cut off as the vines wrapped around her neck, tightening until she began to choke. Her vision darkened as she was swallowed whole. Lea saw what happened and rushed to her aid, slicing through some of the vines, but more and more gathered around her, quickly overwhelming her.

"Ma... Mary! Gaah!"

"Vipol!" Isaiah screamed as the viper rushed forward, its acidic venom proving highly effective against the vines, which burned and retreated upon contact.

Suddenly, vines emerged from below, seizing the snake and slamming it to the ground. It was immediately surrounded, but Vipol’s venom burned through them all. The viper then darted toward the vine that had taken Mary, biting it until the brown sack containing her fell to the ground. Vipol grabbed the sack with its tail and tried to retreat, but a vine struck its head, forcing it to release the healer out of pain.

Vipol fought desperately to destroy the vines and save her, but it was no use. The more vines it burned down, the more replaced them. It seemed as if there was an endless supply of them, and soon Vipol and the rest of the adventurers were drowning in wood.

The vines attacked Vipol from all sides. The viper tried to endure, but it couldn’t hold on. A powerful strike to the head sent it flying into the wall, where it was instantly ensnared by the vines, which wrapped around its long body, squeezing it with deadly force. Vipol used its herculean strength to pull itself out of the grasp and managed to cut through meter-thick long vines before falling to the ground exhausted. Iska and the squires ran to protect the viper as it recovered its strength.

Isaiah had managed to redirect the falling rocks toward the front, and he now found the ceiling replaced with vegetation. A massive flower with yellowish-purple petals hung in the middle of the room as if observing their battle.

"Fuck you!" Isaiah shouted, sending massive streaks of light from his hands that shot toward the flower. But the flower remained unscathed. Suddenly, it turned to look at its attacker.

Isaiah prepared to fire another round when vines shot up from below, grabbing his hands.

"Gah!"

Senzuki, who had been helping Fei, saw Isaiah's plight and quickly rushed to his aid. She picked up Hugo’s axe, which had been left on the ground, and chopped through the vines. Now free, Isaiah unleashed bolt after bolt of lightning, this time striking the flower and causing it to thrash about before it went still. But then it turned its gaze on Isaiah and began firing green missiles.

Isaiah raised his hand to deflect them, sending them back toward the flower, which quickly wrapped itself in vines for protection. Isaiah grinned, realizing he could fight back against this thing. He was preparing to fire another bolt of lightning when the ground beneath him suddenly broke open, revealing a massive, mouth-like appendage. Its tongue shot out, grabbing Isaiah and dragging him into its throat.

"What the—!"

Isaiah fired off lightning, but it was no use. Vines quickly attacked, wrapping around his head, body, and legs, binding him like wooden spaghetti. He struggled but couldn’t break free. Senzuki watched in horror as he was dragged into the darkness of the creature’s mouth.

"Isaiah-san! Wait!"

The mouth began to close.

Suddenly, Vipol realized his master was in danger. The viper quickly disengaged from its fight and rushed toward the chasm, burning away most of the vines in its path but injuring some adventurers in its haste. It dove into the creature's mouth, creating a powerful force that pulled Senzuki in as well.

"Aah, waah!"

Lea saw Vipol dive in but couldn’t react as she was too preoccupied with dealing with the vines targetting the unconscious. With Vipol gone and Lea injured, Galand was now the only one who posed a threat and as such became subjected to a concentrated flurry of vines and was separated from the group.

None knew if they could still live after this.

...

Jair had escaped just as the attacks arrived, he blinked towards the ceiling and just above the petals hidden from the adventurers down. He was alone and brought none of his girlfriends.

"As promised, the one you wanted your revenge." The elf told him as he emerged from the stem.

"Yes..." Jair grunted, his eyes filled with suspicion towards the elf "That man... I will make sure to repay the humiliation he gave me tenfold."

"Right, however, though you may torture him, his life must be intact." The elf flashed a sinister grin, "He will prove to be a useful recipe."

"Wha!" He was about to complain but one glance from the elf made him shut up. He wasn't happy having his revenge denied,

"He is to live... Go, Mary is in the cellars, you go meet her." The elf then leaped from the vine to join the battle below. "Time to make that knight pay."

Jair clicked his tongue, but he obeyed. He still remembered everything that happened the month before. His team was badly beaten by the elf who ambushed them on their way to Heinz, and then he was given mercy to be the elf's servant.

But he would not do the same.

There was no mercy to be shown to those who had wronged him. Just like Isaiah, that elf too will suffer the consequences.

But for now, he must bide his time. He had heard from the elf about a certain crystal deep beneath this mine. That would be the key to enacting his plans.