“Through here? Really?” Helly spoke entirely too loudly. Her displeasure was understandable this time. No one wanted to crawl next to a waste dump.

The Messanger looked unbothered by the outburst. “It is either this or fighting through the front lines and heavy fortifications.”

Mila studied the supposed path to the centre of this messy tunnel system. It wasn’t pleasant, but they didn’t have to step into the waste drainage channel. There was a small ledge they could use to move along the smelly soup of disgusting, indescribable things. And the place was likely trapped.

A thought Laura shared with Mila. “Do you sm-” She paused, “Sense anything?”

The question was mostly meant for Viola, but Agata was also checking the ledge for anything dangerous.

With a disgusted expression, Viola glared at the mercenary. “What do you think?” She spat out and turned away, refusing to elaborate.

From the short interaction, Mila judged her friend hadn’t sensed anything. It was encouraging. Maybe… It was still not a path Mila wanted to take.

Not that they had any choice. It was too late to turn around. They had to move now. And Mila was confident in sensing anything hazardous before reaching it.

The air had cleared up. Mila corrected herself immediately. ‘Cleared up’ wasn’t the right expression in this situation.

With the ritual stabilising and entering its final phase, Mila could sense her surroundings without the haze the thick mana had made previously.

The decision was made. Mila moved ahead of everyone else and stepped onto the ledge.

After sneezing, Viola rushed after. “Mila… I don’t think you can go much longer. You won’t be much of a help at this rate…”

“Did Ugum send you?” Mila stopped her friend. She had seen them both exchange words.

“If only. I am worried, too, you little shit. You can barely stand.” Viola sneezed again. “Fucking sewers. This place is a dream come true.”

But Viola’s words didn’t change anything. While her friend was right, Mila had several good reasons to accompany the rest.

For one, this was a test. No matter how Mila disliked it, she felt Polonomia’s gaze constantly follow her. Her performance could mean the world in how Isabel was treated.

Andrew was also throwing himself into the most dangerous spot. Mila couldn’t leave him alone.

Despite them not talking to each other, Mila also felt Andrew’s worry. Mr Crow and the wolf had nudged the young man towards her several times. Not that it had resulted in anything. Andrew had just brushed his bonds’s attempts aside.

Furthermore, Mila had to save the city for Isabel’s sanity’s sake. She couldn’t allow her girl to feel guilty about something out of their influence. This would have happened regardless. But it was true their arrival had rushed the perpetrators of this madness.

The old ghost also had something to say about the current situation. His emotional instability had to be addressed.

And… It would be nice to do something good. Even if Mila had selfish goals in mind, she didn’t want the whole city to be wiped out.

Not that Mila regretted what she had done so far. But to have a happy future together with Isabel, she wanted to change… Had to change…

So, Mila crawled further while holding her breath. She paused only to see if any traps had appeared ahead.

A silence once more returned to the group. Mila glanced back at the row of people crawling along.

All, except one beast, who was far too large to fit. The wolf had been coerced into the sludge and was peddling forward. Even if Mila couldn’t communicate with the bonds, she still could feel the vengeance the wolf swore for the injustice done to him.

Mr Crow passed Mila a moment later. But the bird didn’t fly far, soon returning.

“Careful.” Viola grabbed Mila’s arm, not letting the smaller girl fall.

It was a terrible blunder. Mila blinked. It was a simple misstep but spoke volumes of her condition. “I am fine.” She told more to herself than to her friend.

“The fuck you are!” Viola cursed and continued to do so even after they resumed moving.

Mila decided to ignore the just indignation her friend was feeling. It couldn’t be helped. She just had to pull herself together and force herself to move. She always had to move.

Because… If Mila stopped, she knew it would be almost impossible to move again.

“Almost there…”

The whisper was accompanied by a series of muffled roars and sounds of battles. The watery sludge sloshed from the reverberations travelling through the underground. It made it stink even worse.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Another series of roars shook the air. They were almost there. The sounds of the battle and the defending beasts being forced into a frenzy had been getting louder for a while now.

They were almost there.

The simple sentence repeated in Mila’s mind again and again. She was getting distracted, and it almost resulted in her slipping again.

While it didn’t happen, it renewed Viola’s cursing. Even Mr Crow sent Mila a reproachful look while passing by.

But Mila was fine. She really was.

Yes…

Mila really was lying to herself. She knew that. “It is for just a while longer. I won’t fight. No one will even know I am there.”

“That’s a load of crap, Mila.” Viola gagged. “Fuck. Talking fucking hurts my throat and nose.”

“I won’t. I have… I have other goals. I can contribute differently.” Mila stated. She understood Viola or anyone else from the party believed her. Not really.

But Mila wasn’t lying. She raised her chin to look at the ceiling. They were now below where the ritual’s centre was - still at the edge, but they had arrived. Her senses screamed of danger. The mana was the thickest here, still forming complex signs and pathways.

While it was invisible to everyone, Mila didn’t doubt the group was feeling like they had been entangled in a spiderweb. She sure did.

Except, there wasn’t any path up. Mila squinted and tried to see through the dark. “You-” She paused. Mila really didn’t want to call the Messanger by his title. “Where is the path upwards?” She finally chose to address no one in particular.

The answer came soon after. “A little bit further ahead.” The Messanger didn’t bother to conceal his voice.

The rumbling had intensified. A cacophony of sounds was making it hard to hear anything. So it was no surprise Mila hadn't noticed the drainage leaking liquids into sewage.

“Here.” The Messanger stopped them.

Mila looked up at the small opening. If she wasn’t wrong, then…

“It’s a fucking toilet.” Viola helped Mila to voice her thoughts. “We can’t fit through that pipe!”

“Of course not, Pepper.” The Messanger's dry voice made the spy quiet down. “There is a hidden passage leading up. It was probably meant for cleaners to come down.”

“Where?” Viola demanded.

But Mila was already looking. Her fingers brushed against the disgusting, wet surface, searching for gaps. The Messanger gave a few more instructions, and soon, Mila found it.

A thin line stretching up and down. “Found it. Is there a switch?” She raised her voice over the sudden impact above.

“I don’t know.”

“But of course, you don’t,” Mila muttered before moving forward. “Raran, you turn. See if you can find it.” She gave the way to the rest of the bunch.

While the mage was looking, Mila returned to studying the patterns mana made and noted the occasional mana signature that brushed against the limits of her senses.

There had been several different signatures Mila had noticed passing over them. The distance was too much to tell anything more, just that there was a rush above. Perhaps the Military had reached the premises, and fighting had broken.

Although, there was too little noise for that to be true. Mila then frowned as she recognised another chunk of the pattern.

It was a remarkable work. The intricacies of the ritual circle Mila had seen in her dream and parts of it here were far above what was added afterwards.

While it all worked together somehow, Mila knew it wasn’t efficient. No wonder the casters had gathered resources for so long.

Mila shuddered as another large portion of mana rushed towards the centre of the ritual. This wasn’t the constant stream of the blood…

Just how many… Just how many people had died? Mila followed the flow with her eyes. The air practically hummed with potency.

“There!” Raran exclaimed as the passage opened. The doors slid outwards and revealed a ladder leading up.

“Move.” Mila hurried the crowd. She needed to do something. After the first wave, another followed. Hundreds of people had died just moments ago.

And more died while Mila was climbing up. Even as she stepped out into a room full of cleaning tools, Mila felt more mana rush to feed the sickening ritual.

Next to Mila, Viola took a long breath of air. “Finally.” She continued to huff. “It was a torture. Also, there are fucker right outside the doors.”

A bit of information Mila had yet to be privy to. She glanced at the doors while stepping forward to let more people into the room. The constant rumbling, roars and distant sounds of battle made it hard to hear anything.

But now that Mila focused, there indeed were voices behind the doors. She caught a stray phrase now and then. Whoever it was outside was weak and insignificant in the grand scheme and planned to run using the same path Mila’s group had arrived from. It was already a wonder they had not been sacrificed like the rest of the common folk down here.

Mila also learned the place was being watched. The voices outside were waiting for a distraction to happen before fleeing.

And they didn’t need to wait for long. The cadence of the roars increased suddenly. Everything else seemed to fade away from the raw emotion in the voices of the experiments.

“SURENDER AND YOU WILL BE JUDGED FAIRLY!”

Mila scowled and accepted Ugum’s touch as he made rounds to check everyone's condition. The shout had been extremely loud but was cut down in volume a moment later. She guessed it had been a spell to protect people from sound attacks, which the ultimatum could be counted as.

“ATTACK!”

Despite the protective measures, the order to charge still made Mila reel. Yet, this was also the time they had to move. “They are coming.” She warned before the doors opened.

Three surprised guards blinked at the unexpected group before being yanked inside and swiftly killed.

Mila removed her dagger from the body and looked at the doors that had been left ajar. The light was breaking through the gap, blinding her for a moment.

After blinking away the momentary blindness, Mila moved. “I’ll go first. Don’t look for me. Stay safe.” She trusted her friends and comrades to not do anything stupid. Before vanishing, she looked at the Messanger. “Remember your promise.”

Then, Mila cloaked herself to the best of her ability and stepped out inside the light.

It was time to see if Mila could interrupt the ritual. Or… If she was reading the old apparition’s emotions correctly, redirect it.