Meanwhile, Hermes, opened the door after he noticed its safe, entering the room cautiously when the monsters including his human subjects disappeared. With a smile of relief on his face that his strategy worked, he syncronized his plan of saving first the civilians from the dungeon. His face was disgusted when he smelled the water that his mouth wanted to puke when he stepped in the flooded place. He thanked his subjects of doing their job with the worse possible scenario than he wanted to.
From the rear side of the unlighted torch, it caught his interest due to its unique standing and the Quoe monsters strange behaviors were guarding it with their lives earlier. It had a dark portion surrounded its corner, a symbol of the old Celtic symbol similar to the illustration he saw from the book he read recently from the Emorial Inn. A smooth and slow stepped with the sound of the wave from the water when he moved. When his hand dragged down the torch, a secret door opened and stairs connected to a new room showed up. This torch gave him a new glimpse of knowledge from his old times as a player for doing a side mission of saving useless NPC’s.
He moved in to investigate the discovered path. He lighted up all the torches he saw as he climbed up to uncover the next path. However, it gave him a lot of headaches when he reached the end. A huge rectangular cemented red wall was blocking on his flat way. There’s no way this wall had no secret behind and his efforts of searching went out of palm this time. So he checked if there’s a key to prevent himself to name it as a dead end.
He searched for a clue about opening it. In front of him was colored red wall, the right side had blue while the left was colored yellow. His eyes saw a huge illustration of a huge sun and on the surface had a moon. He compared these pictures from light and night. This gave him a huge disadvantage again. The colors were really giving him a huge gap of success too. each corner and other parts that could help him to find a clue. But these disadvantages was his advantage to find the key.
His foot stepped something on the surface and a huge templated with emptied three square-shaped panels appeared from the ground. He carefully looked at the thing and his eyes discovered on its side the three twelve inches colored squares. It had the same colors as tainted as the walls. Therefore, it gave him a new hint to find the door.
Hermes put his hand on his chin, sat down in seiza sit and began to think for the plausible ideas correlated to the colors. Long-time ago, it was an old fortress before it was converted into a dungeon during the first Holy Mafia war a hundred years ago. Looking at the symbol of the square-shaped objects he picked up from the template, he grasped the colors comparing it to the old flag of the Old Empire of Ratican. It was the last empire ever built before it collapsed from a civil war that divided all of its territories from one to thirteen nations in which the first kingdom of Italia had founded. Therefore, the colors must be connected to the old empire.
According to history, the colors of the flag had a deep meaning. It was not an ordinary flag compared to America and the United Kingdom from his previous world. With the symbol of the old empire intact from the objects, his theory gave him hope of his discovery. The red symbolized the bloodshed of all brothers in arms to protect the nation, blue color was about peace while the last color - yellow - was meant for unity and domination.
If these objects were the key then the square-shaped emptied panels of the template were the keyholes for the doorknob. He began his experiment of inserting the objects one by one inside the panels according to the order of the old empire’s flag. He heaved a sigh of relief when the objects moved in.
Suddenly, the floor quaked and the red wall began to collapse. A huge smoke blinded his sight for a few seconds when the bricks fell down. His vision returned; an old empire’s logo in the middle of two huge doors showed up.
“Seriously, another door? You fuckin’ kiddin’ me,” he scratched his chin and moved closer towards the huge door. “Guess, I need to solve this again.”
Hermes planned to use the undiscovered path to connect it to the secret chamber where the civilians and his comrades hiding. But to think he had to solve such irritating puzzles first in narrow and small space place. It was a really frustrating fact for his character. Therefore, he must find a way to secure the safety of all NPC before he searched for his servant, Justin.
But he realized doing such a heroic act was impossible especially for himself. His original character was a villain and he was set to murder his civilians by giving pain and vain. Hermes was originally the one who caused this kind of scenario but the opposite was happening right now. Moreover, he faced palm when he realized the fact that he was stealing one of the major quests from the game.
“Shit,” He hesitated. “I think I should stop doing this kind of crap.”
His foot pressed another secret button when he stepped back. A huge board fell down in front of him but he dodged the falling object by jumping away.
“... What the hell?” he saw some letters on the board. “A long journey awaits the person who first read the forbidden words. To open the path to the gods, cite your true full name and the demon angel will acknowledge your presence. Upon a new empire will emerge and conquer the divided lost territories. To find a way to unify one nation; to finally rebuilt unified Eurasia. Don’t cite these words if you’re not ready to fulfill the role of all past Emperors.”
Hermes coughed and ignored the warning. The scripture must be bluffing. He who cite the words by reading it out loud was impossible. He won’t become a conqueror though.
“Yeah, there’s no way… it will become possible.” He covered his eyes. “My true name is Aljen Mura and not Hermes Archnemesis anyways.”
The door’s gear activated. Without meaning to, Hermes was astonished. How the hell did the door open? It was one of the questions he wanted to know.
“Mr. Aljen!”
A familiar voice caught his glance. The light from the torches enlightened his field of vision and the path behind his back. Everyone stood up and lowered their heads to his presence including the volunteers who left him behind.
“Hello, Wendy,” Hermes greeted. “How’s everyone?”
“Oh my goodness, how did you get in there? Is that a new secret passage, sir?” Kurosaki asked, slowly moving closer to the young Don.
“The phase 1 of the plan has begun. “ He pointed his thumb behind. “You guys go straight to this path and escape. Kurosaki, I leave the leadership of these people under your care. Don’t screw this up.”
Kurosaki, lowered his head, followed his orders. “Everyone, you heard him. Let’s move out!”
“Hmmm,” the young Don felt strange. “Little Wendy, where’s the young idiot maid?”
“Mr. Aljen,” she hesitated. “She’s peeing.”
Hermes had a strange feeling that the little girl was lying this time. His face moved closer to her eyes. And he asked, “Y’know I hate liars. Where the hell is Ms. ―”
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
His question was interrupted when the whole place quaked. Everyone was surprised and lose their balance.
“―What the hell is that?” the young Don was quickly stood up and removed the dust from his shoulders and pants. “Little Wendy, where the hell is Ms. Zairena?”
“I’m so sorry.” he bowed her head several times, “I’m so sorry. I lost my sight on her in the third level, sir.”
“What? Shit, this is bad. I told her not to go to the next floor without my permission.”
“Mr. Aljen, ” she grabbed his sleeves, “Please save Sis Zairena. She just wants to save her siblings. Please don’t get mad at her.”
Hermes clicked his tongue. He kneeled down and he promised her that everything’s going to be fine. So she didn’t need to be sorry about it. Little Wendy smiled at him, wiping her tears that she couldn’t stop because of guilt earlier.
“Everyone proceed to the escape route.” He declared. “I’m going back to secure those stupid people.”
Herman, on the other hand, was desperately opening the door where the control room. It was the only way to open the huge barricade blocked on their way. He had no time so he used force to enter the room.
“The button. The button. The Button.” he searched for the button to activate it. “Where’s the fuckin’ button?”
“Sir Herman, you’ve found it?” Hildo asked.
“Y’fuckin’ moron. I still can’t find the right button.” he retorted. “Y’ should help me, stupid!”
The scream was getting closer than before. There’s no enough time for shivering in fear. There the only objective was to transfer the monster to the other side.
“May lady Veronica forgive my sin.” he finally pressed the right button. “Finally!”
The door split into two separate ways. A large echo from the sounds of the opening made the monsters went over to the location, ignoring the remaining people ran away from their hunting ground.
Two mafia groups, stationed in the room, questioned the weird sound coming from their side. When one of them looked at the side, the wall was slowly opening. He was going to tell to his comrades about the matter but his lower body disappeared and his blood scattered everywhere. He screamed while the others were panicking.
“Who the hell opened that door?”
“T-T-The Quoe monsters!”
All of them began to reload their guns and fired the monsters swarming the place.
“Someone must warn the underboss. Right now!”
“Fire at will. Don’t let the monsters go berserk and destroy the weaponry warehouse!”
“Oh crap, don’t light up that molotov.” the leader of the group warned one of his teammates. The newbie ignored his orders and he threw it straight to the monsters. But the monsters didn’t feel any pain and the person who throw it had disappeared in a glance. The Molotov he ignited fell down and rolled over next to the caters containing explosives.
A huge explosion quaked the surroundings and the walls supporting the place began to collapse. The floor above the room collapsed, killing all of the remaining troops that tried to stop the monsters in an instant. After the fall, the corpses were one by one sucked by the monsters like a juice.
Herman and Hildo witnessed the brutal death of their former comrades. They covered their mouth and felt guilty of doing it. After few minutes, the Quoe monsters disppeared from their glance.
“That kid…. That kid is a monster!” Herman snapped. “I know this would happen but still…. I can’t believe. Shit. What we’ve done?”
“Sir, calm down.” Hildo patted his shoulder. “At least, we’re still alive.”
“Yeah, we should ignore the death and move forward. We finally fulfill our roles. What should we do next?”
“Sir, the door connected to the library is still fine. Look,” he pointed his index to the door who survived from the massive destruction. “We can use it to escape.”
“I see,” Herman smirked. “The monsters will climb up to kill all of our comrades but it will buy us some time to use that door to escape from this dungeon. The bastard kid won’t be able to activate our curse though. Right?”
“I don’t know,” Hildo scratched his head. “But we need to try. Our curse will remain inside of our bodies but I think the range will lift off his limits. So where should we go then?”
“I don’t have any idea too.” Herman put his hand on his chin. “Hail to Naples?”
“Do you want to form a new group, sir?”
“Naah… I can’t.” he sighed. “We have a role to fulfill yet. That kid has another motive why he wants us here.”
“Crap, he told us after the monsters have finally changed place. We’re going to find a certain person named Justin.” Hildo emphasized, “But the only place he’ll be prisoned in the Main court where our underboss located at..”
“Sir Herman, that kid is not a bastard! He’s our savior!”
The voice of one of the survivors from the hunting ground caught their attention.
“Oh, you guys are still alive, huh?”
Three people exhausted from running. One of them stated his intention.
“Sir Herman, we should follow the kid. We don’t need to escape.. Take a look. This is a challenging event for us.” one of his loyal kins concluded. “For all these years of service, we’ve never had this kind of treatment. Money and fame? We never experienced that kind of life. That kid is really special. We need to admit that we saw darkness behind his back and his eyes are full of pure evil. He’s more complicated than to our former leader - Lady Veronica Verdugo.”
Herman didn’t understand if these people needed some psychological therapy. They wanted him to follow the kid but why? He used them as a subject. He’s cunning but uncanny. He’s a bastard and looked down at them in a retorted manner.
“Wait a sec.” He emphasized the situation. “That’s basically a good leadership! One of the major standards and qualities of being a true mafia. Hey guys, that’s how mafia works. Yeah, a true mafia boss uses his men to destroy buildings by an explosion. A true mafia member is recruited by force and becoming a true member by betraying your former comrades. Don’t tell me…. This kid... This kid is a rising star? He’s rising from the ranks by doing this dirty job behind the shadows. That’s a true mafia Don’s quality!”
Hildo finally caught up with his words, supported his words. “Then that kid was just teaching us about how should the mafia works. We’re here like an asshole hitting little girls like pets. But I think that kid knew it all along that we’re pedophiles. He used us to see it through our eyes how the real mafia works. That kid has a bright future of being a mob leader.”
“Yeah, he spared our lives because he saw a good opportunity for all of us,” Herman replied with joy. “Then, we should offer the underboss’s body for his life. Before we saved the person named Justin, we must recruit our fellow low ranking officials and join in for our new group under that person’s leadership. We’re no longer a bunch of morons under the leadership of Lady Veronica Verdugo. This is Italia. This is the world of the mafia. That kid is not a bastard kid but a bright supreme leader. He’s the right boss we should serve!”
“Sir Herman,” Hildo cried. “We’re following you. Yeah, even though that kid cursed us. He is the right boss to serve. He is using as a subject but not as a human being. He thinks of us as a mere tool to fulfill his troubles. I guess that kid just wants us to realize who’s the right person-in-charge in this island. One of the rules of the Law of Mafia: A true step to becoming a true mafia is to kill your comrades and become a new member of the new Don. That’s what our family thought us at school.”
Everyone cried in joy. They finally realized what the young Don wanted them to realize from the beginning. It was not arson and treason. It was how they should manage to become a true mafia.
“Change of plans, Hildo. We’re going to kill all of our comrades inside this dungeon. No one shall escape and we’re going to save this person named Justin before we join together with our new boss. Whatever you do. If you see that kid…. Protect that kid at all cost.”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
The five of them walked in with determination.
Well, that was not really the intention of Hermes Archnemesis but these lads drove their own conclusion.