Some time before the fall of Yu Valarfin.
This was one of the places Neko should never have been.
It was awful, why on earth had she been brought here? She didn't want to be in the sewers. Neko was a sweet child and a precious lady, someone as exalted as her shouldn't have to wander around in places like this.
Although they tried to protect themselves from the stench of the sewers with cloths tied around their mouths, Neko realized that their precautions against the stench were not effective when she felt nauseous. She had used her wind magic to drive the foul-smelling air away from her and her mother, but the stench of the sewers was already clinging to her.
“What was my mother thinking when she brought me, the superior being, here?”
Ever since Neko had learned the meaning of the word sewer, she had resisted the idea of entering it.
They were in the sewers because a trusted source known to her mother told her that they could reach Sigma Tower by following the sewer system they were in. No one had told Neko what the sewers actually were before they set out.
“I wonder what thou had in mind, mother? Why thou let a superior being like me, a dignified lady, into this place? I demand an explanation immediately.” Neko puffed out her cheeks and tried to look as sweet as she could to get an answer. But she didn't have to force herself to do so.
“Come on Neko, it's not that bad. Okay the smell is bad but I'm happy to be on duty with my master,” Sharley said.
“No one asked you to explain, stupid human.”
Sharley was Neko's mother Rie's apprentice. Like her mother, he was a sorcerer with a knack for dark magic. Because he was a fast learner, he didn't bother his mother and volunteered to run errands for her.
Sharley was not a bad person, but Neko did not like him because of his feelings for Rie.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to be so rude to Sharley? And you're not just rude to Sharley, you're rude to everyone. Even what does this 'stupid person' mean?”
She was happy to hear her mother's beautiful voice scolding her, and her mother's beautiful voice scolding her made her grimace. She had been scolded by her mother because of Sharley and now she had another reason to hate Sharley.
Like every child, Neko wanted to be embraced by her mother's love and affection, to be praised and appreciated by her.
Being scolded was something that Neko was not used to, even if she did experience it from time to time, it hurt her little heart.
“Except my mother! Thou are the smartest person!” She didn't want to call her mother stupid.
Rie, whom she considered her mother, was her creator and a powerful magic user. There was no way she would disrespect her mother by calling her stupid, and even if her mother was stupid, she would not say such a thing.
“Besides, I don't smell, how do you smell, Sharley?”
Neko was only using wind magic to protect herself and her mother from the smell, not to waste mana on Sharley.
“You don't smell? My nose has been breaking for half an hour here... Neko? Why are you laughing?”
Snickering, Neko was pleased with Sharley's condition.
“I protect my mother and myself from the stench with my magic. But a helpless creature like you do not worth to wasting my magic on.”
“Neko...” her mother called out as if accepting her insulting attitude.
“It's all right, master. I'm used to Neko's behavior. Neko acts like this because she has a hard time accepting her feelings, I'm sure she has love for me inside.”
“You're lying yourself, there's no such thing.”
Neko didn't love Sharley. Sharley wasn't right for Neko's mother and she didn't want to share her mother even if someone else came along who was right. As long as Sharley loved Rie, Neko would not love Sharley and would try to get rid of him.
“Really, you're not being honest.” Sharley thought that if he spoke with a smile he might soften Neko.
But Neko was not a girl he could soften easily. She didn't want to be anywhere near him. She didn’t even want Sharley to see Rie’s gorgeous face. She turned to her mother without bothering to give her an answer.
“I want thou to explain why thou brought me to this filthy place, and if thou don't have a proper explanation, and there is no proper explanation for bringing me to this place, I want thee to take me in thine arms. Yes, that's what thou should do. Carry me in thine arms like thou carry a rare work of art, with care, making sure that no dirt gets on me.”
Maybe by excusing her condition she could get her mother to carry her.
“How clever I am,” she thought and smiled. She liked to be close to her mother, to be hugged and kissed. Now she was sure that her words would have an effect and she will hold her.
“No, no.”
Rie, focused on her task, firmly refused Neko's request, just as Neko had refused Sharley's love.
The little cat-eared girl felt her heart breaking. How could someone like Neko, an elegant young lady, a sweetness, be rejected? The floor was dirty and the soles of her shoes would get dirty when she stepped on it. It was also possible that the clean white dress she wore when she walked would get dirty. Neko had to be protected like a weak and beautiful flower under a hailstorm.
In protest, she grabbed her skirts and lifted them, quickened her pace and cut her mother off, her cheeks flushed with anger.
“What do thou mean no? What if I get dirty? The stench is already on my delicate skin. What if my clothes get dirty? Thou bring me here without informing me and thou don't even provide me with protection! Because I was rude to Sharley? Is that why I, Neko, was rejected? If so, should I apologize for that low life form? Will thou take me in thine arms if I do?”
She pointed her finger at her mother and spoke in a loud but respectful tone, without missing a beat. Neko could not be rejected. Even if she was rejected, it should not be by the one she loved the most.
“If we were walking in the safe streets of the city, I would say okay, Neko, but there might be giant bugs or something. If there are, I need to be ready for a fight, we could get hurt if I'm caught unprepared while carrying you.”
She hadn't been informed that there would be monsters, and if there were such a thing, that was another reason why she should be carried. With her strength she could kill a giant insect if it came her way, but fighting insects was no job for a lady.
“If there are bugs, I need to be carried so they can't get to me. And when the bugs come, Sharley will go ahead and be the bait for us to escape - I mean... He sacrifices himself. I shouldn't have to deal with bugs, and neither should thee.”
“If it's for my master, I don't mind, but if there's a scenario where I don't get eaten by bugs, I prefer that.” Sharley again tried to sound sweet to gain Neko's sympathy and thinned her voice to sound like a child's.
“It would be best if you were the bait. That way there wouldn't be another unwanted person between me and my mother.”
The argument was going nowhere and Neko's answers were not going to change, so instead of answering, she stopped talking to him, but she was smiling at the thought of Sharley as bait.
“I'd at least like to hold my mom’s hand.” Neko sighed and looked at her mother's elegant fingers. Her hands were busy as she held a map with both hands.
“According to this map, somewhere near us there is a staircase leading down one floor. The professor told me that when we go down from here, we will enter a larger area that is not connected to the sewers. After we go down, there will be a few forks in the road, and after we cross them, we will go straight ahead and we will be under the Sigma Tower.”
“Here!” Sharley, who had found the ladder as soon as Rie had finished, was glad that he was useful to Rie and looked at Rie as if expecting a praise.
Rie didn't give him the praise he wanted and Sharley was the first one down the stairs to check if the path was dangerous. It was better that way, if there was something dangerous down there, Sharley, the weak link, would be eliminated first and Neko, realizing the danger, would escape with her mother.
“Mom, I have to go down first so that the life form below doesn’t look thine underneath as thou descend.” Neko stepped in front of her mother who was preparing to descend the stairs.
Her mother thought Neko had a good point and let her go down first.
“Get out of there, low life form, I’ll tear you to pieces if I notice you lifting your head up.”
Sharley was disappointed that Rie was not the first one down. He moved away from the stairs as Neko descended. After Neko came down, making sure Sharley looked away, she told her mother to come down.
“My mother's chastity has been preserved, well done me!”
A proud smile appeared on her face and she puffed out her chest, placing her hands on her waist as if she had accomplished the greatest task of her life.
Downstairs was separate from the sewer system, just as her mother had said. There were bugs here too, and cobwebs in the corners of the walls, but without a river of excrement running through the middle of the road, it was a more acceptable route than upstairs.
“Thou can carry me on back.”
Neko's suggestion was rejected by her mother's silence.
At other times, such rejection would have been devastating for Neko, but knowing that her mother was overly focused on a mission, she was only a little saddened by the rejection.
“Do you want me to carry you?” asked Sharley.
“I’d rather swim in the river of shit up there.”
He snapped at Sharley rudely and began to walk more carefully so as not to stain his shoes with the blood of an insect.
“Interesting, I got tired very quickly.”
This time it wasn't an excuse for being carried. In fact, the things she had said before also were not excuses but logical truths, but this time she meant it. Neko was really getting tired and there was something unnatural about her getting tired so quickly.
Since she had night duty, she had slept beforehand and when she was awake she was energetic like a normal child. Neko was not the kind of person to get tired easily after a little walk.
“I feel a little tired too. Maybe it's the smell of the sewers.”
“Actually, I'm not really tired.”
It bothered her to agree with Sharley. If Sharley was tired, Neko would have enough energy to stand for hours. After all, she was stronger, smarter, sweeter and more special than Sharley. Neko was the only one who worthy for Rie's love.
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Neko's superiority aside, she was really tired. Maybe the smell had something to do with it, as Sharley had said, but Neko was immune to it thanks to her magic. Neko knew that the reason she was feeling tired right now was something else.
“I don't need to worry,” she thought. She might just be psychologically tired because she didn't want to be here. If it was something else that was making them tired, her mother would have already realized it and taken precautions. They were completely safe with her.
Sharley moved ahead of Neko and Rie to ensure the safety of the road. The flames of the torch Sharley held in his hand illuminated the path and revealed the webs woven between the wall and the ceiling.
After a few minutes in the tunnel, they came to a fork in the road. Sharley stopped abruptly at the junction.
“We’ll turn right.” Rie looked at the map in her hand and pointed in the direction.
“Wait a minute.” Sharley sounded agitated in a way that worried Neko. “I'm sure I sense something ahead.”
Sharley kept himself close to the wall and took a step onto the path to the right. Then he turned around and checked the surroundings.
Neko might have thought it was a false alarm, since Sharley had worried them for nothing several times before. Neko wouldn't have been surprised if it was Sharley's misunderstanding, but the tense look on Sharley's face scared Neko.
If Sharley had frightened her for some ridiculous reason, he would have to be punished severely. And even if Sharley was worrying unnecessarily, Neko decided it was a good idea to be prepared for danger. She began to gather the wind around her body, ready to cast a spell at any moment. She wanted to protect her mother.
The silence increased Neko's uneasiness with every passing second. It would be best if they left. She grabbed her mother's arm and opened her mouth to ask her to leave.
“AAAGHH!”
Sharley's scream stopped Neko from speaking. Rie hugged Neko and jumped away from Sharley.
Before them stood a large creature with four arms, beast’s orange scales glowed like armor in the light of the torch that had fallen from Sharley's hand. Sharley was crushed under the beast’s feet, which resembled a hand.
No, crushed was not enough. The creature's hand-like feet had long claws, and those claws dug into Sharley's torso.
Neko's hand tightened around her leg at the creature's sudden exit, and she hugged her mother tightly, not knowing what to do. She had no love for Sharley, but she was horrified to see him like this.
Sharley's bones must have been broken and his organs ripped apart by the beast’s claws. He was as mortally wounded on the inside as he was on the outside. Yet he could still move his fingers.
The types of magic that Neko was most familiar with were wind and light. She could heal Sharley with using light magic. Since Neko was the only one on their team who could use light magic, healing was her job.
“But I can’t heal very severe wounds right away.”
Even if she could, she would have to spend her mana, and Neko wanted to save it for her mother.
Locking eyes with the beast, Rie lowered Neko to the ground, handed her the map and put it behind her back.
“Stay away.”
Rie continued to stare at the beast, waiting for the first attack from her opponent. The creature didn’t wait long, leaping over Sharley towards Rie. Sharley was crushed and vomited blood as the beast pushed Sharley with his feet.
Rie remained calm as the monster came at her, and in the blink of an eye she erected a purple wall of dark crystals in front of the creature.
“Mom!”
Neko shouted, wanting to help her mother, but Rie didn't have time to answer her. The creature broke the crystal wall and Rie jumped back as the wall she had erected collapsed.
Even though the wall was down, it stopped the creature from coming at her and gave Rie a brief moment to think of a plan.
The beast roared and ran at Rie. Rie built a stronger wall this time, but the running beast broke through it with its shoulder.
Rie and Neko backed away, the beast still running at them.
“It’s a hunting gorilla,” Neko remembered the beast’s name.
Hunter gorillas were four-armed beasts that usually made the forests of the Aram Empire in the western continent their home. Their enemy was by no means a dumb animal. Not only were they intelligent enough to devise complex plans for hunting, they also possessed high speed, the strength to easily crush a human head, and hard scales that served as armor.
The so-called hunter gorilla's favorite thing was mana, and since humans had more mana than any other animal in the forest, they developed strategies to hunt humans, especially hunters in the forests.
One of the strategies used by the dangerous four-armed hunters was to exploit human emotions. The hunter gorilla had devised a quick-thinking plan to capture the main target it had set his sights on. Although Neko had a higher mana level, Rie's was no less, and beast targeted her because she was a bigger threat in the creature's eyes.
If Rie had been the first to fall into the hunter gorilla's trap, beast would have finished it off quickly, but sensing Sharley's uneasiness, he decided to catch him first.
So the gorilla captured his rival's friend. If Rie chose to fight to save Sharley instead of running away, the hunter gorilla's plan would work and he could hunt her down.
Rie seemed determined to stand up to the beast. Little did the hunter gorilla and Neko know that Rie was not fighting to save the life of her apprentice Sharley, but for her own benefit.
Neko's mother was faster and stronger than a normal human due to the dense mana circulating in her body. Yet relying on her own strength and underestimating the hunting gorilla could have led to a bad ending.
What they should have been worried about was why they didn’t sense the hunter gorilla until it appeared. Since the hunting gorilla is a creature that carries mana in its body, Rie, Neko and Sharley, who are mages, should have been able to sense it.
But they hadn’t sensed him until he showed up, and even though they could see him now, they could hardly feel the mana in his body.
Neko and Rie had never heard of hunting gorillas having the ability to completely hide their presence. Rie could feel her senses dulling and an unexplained tiredness came over her body.
“Did we walk into a trap?” Rie muttered in a low voice that Neko could barely hear.
Instead of waiting for the gorilla to attack next, Rie cast shadows around herself. The shadows solidified and turned into purple crystals, which turned into pointed spears. With a single sweep of Rie's arm, the spears flew at the creature.
For the hunter gorilla, meeting the attack was simple. Gorilla shielded his arms over his head to protect his face. Rie’s spears smashed into the scales of the hunting gorilla, leaving the creature unharmed.
In fact, it was not even hurt, let alone wounded. To demonstrate his superiority, beast raised his four arms and roared, displaying his three-meter body in all its majesty.
The creature did not let its guard down, quickly checking Sharley behind it to make sure he posed no threat. According to the hunter gorilla, it was Rie's desire to save him that made her fight.
As Sharley tried to crawl towards Rie, he looked so pathetic that even Neko felt sorry for him. The hunter gorilla didn't feel the need to do anything about Sharley. Because Sharley needed to keep his mana in his body to avoid dying, he didn't expect an attack from him.
A strong attack by Sharley at this moment would be suicidal and too weak for the hunter gorilla to see as a threat.
As Neko watched the battle between her mother and the creature, she kept the wind around her body. She waited for the right moment to attack the beast.
And as her mother continued to fight the gorilla, Neko found an opening to attack.
She pointed both hands at the gorilla and in two seconds, she exploded the orb of light she had accumulated in the palm of her hand. Neko's skill would have burned the eyes of Sharley, who was watching the battle behind the gorilla, but Neko didn't care what happened to him at that moment.
When the gorilla's eyes burned and it briefly lost its sight, Rie gathered the shadows around the gorilla, and the shadows hardened into crystal blades.
Suffering from the burning of his eyes, the hunter gorilla had no chance to meet the second attack with his arms. However, Rie's attack, which would have riddled a human with holes, only knocked the gorilla off balance because of his hard scales.
But one of Rie's dark crystals was able to hit the beast in the face. Although not fatal, it cut deep into the beast’s face, shattering his nose.
Screaming in pain and enraged, the gorilla lunged at Rie. With Neko on her back, if Rie did not meet her opponent's attack, the hunter gorilla would overtake her and reach Neko. Of course Rie did not want her daughter to be harmed.
Even though she knew the walls would collapse, she built a wall in the path of her opponent to slow him down. Then another wall, then a third.
When the hunter gorilla managed to break down all three walls, crystal spears charged towards his head. The gorilla met them with his hand. Rie, whose aim had been to slow his opponent down and avoid his attack, had failed to slow him down, and as the last thing to do she focused on neutralizing the lethal effect of the attack.
The hunter gorilla raised both right arms and swung his hands at Rie, accompanied by Neko’s scream. In order to slow down the hunter gorilla's blow, Rie created another wall right next to it. After the wall, she directed her mana in the direction of the beast’s hands to strengthen her body against the blow.
When the blow slammed Rie against the wall of the tunnel, at least she was not caught off guard as Sharley had been. She coughed up some blood but suffered no wounds that would prevent her from moving. If she was lucky, her internal organs would still be intact.
Rie quickly wiped the blood from her mouth and began to gather the shadows again as the hunter gorilla raised his arms to avenge its snout.
“Wind!”
When she heard her mother's voice, she knew it was her turn, and she directed the wind she had gathered around her body so far to her fingertips, and from there she sent it towards the feet of the beast.
Neko's wind attack knocked the beast off his feet and onto his back. Seeing the opportunity she had been waiting for, Rie transformed the shadows she had gathered into spears and unleashed them at the orange beast.
The spears struck the gorilla in the face, unprotected by the scales, causing it to roar again. As the gorilla writhed in pain, Neko wasted no time in jumping off the beast and joining her mother. Because Sharley unable to run, Rie put him on her shoulder and together they ran away.
They going forward was a decision Neko was against. She would have preferred to turn back and get out of here because there was no telling what trap, perhaps a dead end, awaited them ahead. But Rie was determined to reach her goal.
It was hard for Neko to keep up with her mother's pace. Her mother was trying to prepare herself for the risk of a second attack. She channeled the mana in her body into Sharley to keep him alive. Since Rie was not a healing mage, the mana she sent only helped to keep Sharley's soul in his body for a while longer.
They continued straight ahead in the direction Rie had indicated. When they heard the roar of the hunter gorilla behind them, Neko knew they were not far behind. The creature would catch up with them.
“Neko, I want you to heal him.”
When Rie realized she had to fight again, she began to save her mana in her own body instead of wasting it on Sharley.
Neko couldn't focus on casting spells as she ran. She grabbed Sharley's limp arm and tried to cast a healing spell. Sharley was already unconscious.
As the sound of earth-shaking footsteps grew closer, they emerged from the tunnel they had traveled so far and reached a large cave. Many tunnels converged here and the ceiling was very high. After a quick scan, Rie dropped Sharley next to a rock and showed Neko the tunnel they needed to enter.
As Neko dragged Sharley into the tunnel, her mother prepared herself for her opponent. As the horrible creature with orange scales entered the cave, Rie threw a crystal of light from her pocket into the air to illuminate the surroundings, the crystal exploded in the air and turned into a temporary light source.
The face of the hunter gorilla illuminated by the light was covered in blood and he had lost an eye. Rie did not want to prolong the fight and waste more time with her opponent. She had to kill the hunter gorilla quickly and small attacks would not be enough to achieve this.
Rie formed a purple ring on the ground as the hunter gorilla ran towards her. When the creature who unaware of the ring came upon Rie's trap, Rie's ring filled and rose into the sky in the form of a pillar.
The pillar on which the gorilla remained rose up and crashed into the ceiling of the cave. Hunter gorilla caught between the ceiling and the pillar, roared again in pain.
When the mana that made up the pillar dissipated, the hunter gorilla crashed to the ground. Rie sent more crystal spears at the beast. This time the spears managed to damage the scales of the gorilla on the ground and knocked some of them off.
Rie kept her distance from the creature as she saved mana for the next attack. The creature stood up and started running towards Rie.
The hunter gorilla continued to hurl magic crystals at it as it ran towards him, damaging his scales, weakened by the blows. When the beast closed the distance, Rie somersaulted several times in mid-air, dodging beast’s punches and pulling the beast away from the tunnel she was about to enter.
With her back to the cave wall, the hunter gorilla raised his fist to strike Rie in the face. Rie jumped behind his opponent and the gorilla's fist slammed into the cave wall.
The hunter gorilla's fist was so powerful that the crack where it struck traveled the length of the wall and reached the ceiling.
Noticing the falling stone fragments, Rie realized that the ceiling had been weakened when she had just pinned the gorilla to the ceiling, and that the hunter gorilla's current attack had only strengthened this weakness. The ceiling could collapse.
If, despite all the attacks she had made so far, the hunting gorilla could still throw such a powerful punch, she had to try something more effective to kill it, and Rie was going to try to leave the hunting gorilla under the debris.
Rie jumped again and approached the tunnel she was going to enter. The next step had to be executed before her opponent closed the distance between them.
She formed purple circles on the floor in the same way she had just done. As the hunter gorilla ran at her again, this time he noticed the traps on the ground and being experienced from the previous attack he was able to dodge the crystal pillars rising into the air.
Rie had calculated her opponent's move. She activated the trap she had set before the hunter gorilla reached her. Just in front of his opponent, a crystal pillar appeared out of nowhere, struck the hunter gorilla and threw him into the levitating pillars.
As the hunter gorilla landed on other pillars, the pillars continued to rise rapidly and the hunter gorilla was crushed again, caught between the pillars and the ceiling of the cave.
The attack cracked the ceiling of the cave, the cracks spread rapidly and when the mana that made up the pillars disintegrated, the ceiling of the cave collapsed with the fallen hunter gorilla.
A cloud of dust covered the area. Neko could not see her mother who was jumping to avoid being trapped under the collapsing ceiling.
Needless to say, Rie was more important to Neko than Sharley. Even if there was a chance that Sharley might die, she stopped her healing spell and ran into the dust cloud.
When the dust dispersed, there was someone she didn't recognize standing in front of her. A strange young man who had fallen down with the collapsing cave ceiling and had miraculously survived.
The young man barely pushed the boulder off him and managed to get to his feet, groaning. He was coughing blood out of his mouth. He put his weight on one leg and locked eyes with Neko.
The young man had a strange air about him. His brown hair was disheveled and matted with blood and dust, his elegant violet eyes were shocked and horrified. His face and arms were bruised and it was easy to see that he was in pain.
As Neko and the strange youth looked at each other, the rubble moved and a hunting gorilla rose from the rubble. He roared in all his majesty, as if to say, “I am not failed, I am standing!”
When the youth saw the beast and took a step backwards, Neko heard her mother shouting behind her.
“Neko! Run now!”
Her mother then stepped in front of Neko and used the rest of her mana to form a purple orb in her hand. By the time Rie noticed the young man behind the creature, it was too late. The purple orb she threw grew into a deadly attack, destroying both the hunter gorilla, who was barely standing, and the stranger who had fallen here by chance.