Despite it being underground, the mansion was just as grand as any other. There was a massive front garden, filled with plants that seemed to be sustainable without sunlight. Ryzen and Jarek were walking through it, hoping to find any clue as to what happened to Samuel. Thankfully, the place currently seemed to be abandoned which made sense considering Xeruf’s death. Unfortunately, this also meant that Samuel was nowhere to be seen.

“Ya think there’s anyone still inside of there?” Jarek asked while prodding at the front door to the mansion.

“Only one way to find out,” Ryzen said before kicking the door down prompting Jarek to jump back.

“Alex!” he hissed, obviously surprised by Ryzen’s sudden actions.

“Relax, there is no one here. At least on this floor. Let’s go inside and see if we can find anything relating to Samuel.” Ryzen said before walking inside.

The inside of the mansion was just as nice as the outside. It was intricately built and featured artwork of all kinds. It seemed Xeruf was an art enthusiast.

Everything was perfectly clean and orderly. It didn’t seem like any conflicts occurred here.

“There seems to be two more floors here. I am going to go to the basement and you head to the second floor,” Ryzen proposed.

Jarek slowly nodded and they went their separate ways. Ryzen slowly walked through to the next floor and entered the large basement. There was a den, another kitchen, and a long hallway that split into four rooms. The rooms were held multiple beds in each so Ryzen assumed this was where the servants lived.

Ryzen sighed to himself as he found nothing. He walked back to the staircase up but he noticed something slightly off about one of the paintings on the wall. He slowly walked up to it to get a better view of it. It was slightly crooked. He placed his hands on it and moved it so that it was perfectly straight.

He frowned to himself as he realized there was something off about the weight of the painting. It didn’t feel like he was moving a frame filled with art but something else. Ryzen quickly moved the painting back to its crooked state and continued until it was completely upside down.

A clicking sound started and Ryzen watched as a final room opened up at the end of the hallway. Beyond the door was another staircase that led further down. Ryzen crept down the stairs, preparing himself for just about anything. If someone was trying to hide something then it was likely being done so for a reason.

As Ryzen went down, the air started to grow colder and stone bricks started to make up the structure of the walls around him. Once he reached the floor, everything was completely made up of stone bricks. In front of him were countless cells complete with iron bars to keep people in.

Ryzen walked through the hall with bitter eyes as he observed the terrible conditions of what seemed to be a dungeon. There was blood everywhere and decaying bodies were not too uncommon either.

What’s worse is that as Ryzen continued, the scene only became worse. Decaying bodies turned into mutilated ones and splashes of blood turned into thick puddles. Whoever had made their way back here obviously had not had a good time.

As Ryzen neared the end of the dungeon, he came across the body of a particularly disfigured man. Instead of there being blood layered all over the floor, much of it was splattered all over the walls and floor in different patterns.

It took Ryzen a minute to figure out that these patterns were actually words.

“I’m sorry.”

“They made me.”

“I didn’t want to.”

“I didn’t want to tell them.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Marilee, I’m sorry.”

Ryzen processed the words and immediately, a horrible scenario entered his head. Unfortunately, this scenario seemed like it was the most likely one which meant that Marikon was in big trouble.

The sound of footsteps started closing in on him and Ryzen went into his shadow. Once he saw it was only a horrified Jarek, Ryzen came out.

“Is this Samuel?” Ryzen asked.

Jarek could only nod his head as tears started running down his face.

Ryzen grimaced as he said, “Then we need to go. Now. It seems he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.”

“What! How dare you…” Jarek screamed until he noticed Ryzen pointing at the writing on the wall.

Somehow the horror on his face dramatically increased. “That’s… Why would he do that? If Venis knows then we’re all dead! Do you get it? We’re fucking dead!”

Jarek started rapidly shaking as he fell on the floor. He wrapped his hands around his head and started to break down. Ryzen stared at him pitifully. They were wasting time and if the situation was as bad as it seemed then they wouldn’t have much of it.

“We need to go,” Ryzen said.

“Shut up!” Jarek screamed. “They’re all dead already! Don’t you get it? Venis knows where they are! They’re dead Alex! They’re fucking dead!”

Ryzen was at a loss. He didn’t want to abandon Jarek but he also needed to go. Honestly, he wasn’t too keen on returning to Marikon either. The only reason he was even going back was because he left Enancia there. Yes, he didn’t want to see that dumb demon girl die. She had somewhat grown on him as impossible as it seemed.

“Jarek, I am going with or without you. Now make your choice.” Ryzen growled.

Jarek continued to sob on the ground, completely ignoring Ryzen. Reaching his limit, Ryzen decided to leave Jarek behind. He was running out of time and Jarek was clearly not helping. As he was, he would just slow Ryzen down.

He sprinted out of the mansion and entered into the beautiful garden that was in front of it. He remembered the routes they took to get there but the journey was long and dangerous. He couldn’t afford to get into any drawn-out fights. Unfortunately, Ryzen would not have his way.

“I don’t believe we have met before. Who are you?” a feminine voice called out behind him.

Ryzen swung himself around, prepared for contact with an individual. Yet, the owner of the voice remained calm as they slowly walked towards Ryzen from the mansion.

“Woah, easy there buddy.” a young woman said.

The woman was wearing a set of light armor similar to many of the guards in the first sector. However, her armor quality was more attuned to how Xeruf’s had been. Ryzen hadn’t noticed it before but it seems this black armor was a uniform of sorts. The color of this woman’s armor was even darker than Xeruf’s had been. She had short red and red eyes along with two bloodied axes at her waist. Ryzen could immediately tell that this woman was going to be a problem.

“You know we’ve been keeping tabs on everyone in this little Marikon of yours but you? We don’t know you. Nobody has ever seen you before. So tell me… just what hole did you climb out of?” the woman gave Ryzen a subtle smile as she spoke.

Ryzen refused to speak and just glared at her. He would not give this woman any information. That would be the stupidest thing he could possibly do.

“Refusing to say anything huh?” the woman suddenly grinned crazily.

She threw something over to Ryzen and he prepared to go into his shadow. He stopped as soon as it realized what it was. Jarek’s head.

“We really broke him huh!” the woman said with a laugh. “Poor dude knew he was fucked and just gave up! I mean hell, I would too!”

Ryzen stared at the terrified expression on Jarek’s head. He didn’t know him very well but it was still annoying that he had died. He hadn’t thought that there would be someone in the mansion with them. Unfortunately, it seems they thought this out completely.

The Lightcloaks would send some of their stronger fighters here while the rest of them would be attacked. Considering that Venis was likely to be a part of that attack, there was a good chance nobody was alive besides Enancia. Ryzen knew they wouldn’t kill her but he slightly shuddered at the thought of what else they could do to her.

“You haven’t said a word either. Have you gone and broke on me too? That’s no fun.” the woman continued her harrowing laugh.

Ryzen was done wasting time. He didn’t know how strong this woman was but he knew she couldn’t be worse than Venis, someone he would have to fight too. If he couldn’t get past her then it would be over for him anyway.

Without having ever said a single word, Ryzen raised his dagger. “Come, let’s get this over with.”

The woman’s eyes glazed over with euphoria as she let out a moan. “Yes! Finally! I’m going to rip you to shreds!”

Next, she simply disappeared right before Ryzen’s eyes.