Done with their brief testing, the ice walls slowly melted away, leaving the two identical Mia’s standing alone on their platform. The faded Mia, scratched up and looking a bit worse for ware, leaped from the platform and started making her way to the guild hall while the one left behind quickly dove into the gash in the side of the ship.
Faded Mia, the one recording, was to head over to Ria and Roxie to fill them in and more importantly, check if everything was ok.
While Mia would head into the bisected ship, briefly hearing some protests as she dived into the hole but one quick seal made with ice would halt anyone pursuing her.
Her feet clattered onto the metal floor of the ship, momentarily losing her balance. The ship was still leaning, only held up by the erected pillars made by the other adventures, but it seemed stable. As to why she was doing this, she was curious and warry. She knew from personal experience when backed into a corner like this, the church would blow everything up.
She wanted to find the trigger before that happened, surprised it hadn’t gone off already… did they have to make a speech every time before they could explode? Either way, she needed to find where they kept those devices, if the others hadn’t already taken care of it while she was messing around.
Looking down the hall, lit by flickering torches, she could see light in the distance “from outside” and turned around, if she wanted to avoid other adventurers stopping her she’d have to avoid the biggest makeshift entrance in the ship. Instead she made her way down the hallway that ran the side of the ship, looking for a way down or any rooms.
Now being inside the ship, she wondered at how large it was, even if she went the other way towards the gash, she’d figure it take her awhile to reach it, but still, to be safe.
Wondering down the hall she tapped the side of the hallway, her knuckles clinking on the mental “how did they build this… when?” seemed a bit resource heavy for a cult…
[A landlocked cult…No the other one. You just ignore me.]
“Hm, landlocked?” she came up to a metal door, swinging it open and glancing inside, showing a room with a bunch of beds and metal boxes “...bed room?” she glanced around, making sure no one was hiding inside before moving on.
[The only port they have access to is Leaffin, the port you passed through. You would remember seeing a ship this size docked there.]
“Bigger than the one we rode on.” She came to another door, kicking it open to reveal more barracks “empty” she shrugged, continuing on, the next door she came to was the same as the last, before she came to a flight of stairs she proceeded down without hesitation.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Her face squinted, there was a faint smell of… something, in the air, not apparent enough to recognize the smell, but just noticeable enough to tinge her nose. She glanced down the torch lit hallways, picking a side without dwelling on it she continued, checking the nearest door “oh, getting somewhere.” A storage room, she ducked inside and started rummaging, checking every metal container inside.
“Robes, necklaces, swords…underwear…” disappointed she moved on, it was just a storage unit for spare uniforms for the standard person. Even the necklaces were just made from wood and nothing special.
She turned a corner, halting in her tracks “woah, Jack did a lot of damage.” The entire hallway in front of her was torn asunder by a hail of blades, clean slashes had punctured the walls, the floor and surrounding area falling below, Mia leaned over the side, looking down to see a bloodied mess, at least one guy had the debris fall on top of them “did she even fire in this direction?” she questioned, remembering Jack’s haphazard barrage of shots, it was likely.
She jumped down, floating down and landing ontop of the wreckage and quickly covering her nose “G-eh?! The smell?!” the smell she noticed on the floor above suddenly became a lot worse when she landed, it was permeating in the air of this floor, a sharp, horrid smell “almost like, erg…hard to think.” She shook her head, leaping down from her perch.
“?!” she turned around, something had grabbed her leg, a slender hand from beneath the rubble.
“H-help me…” a voice, weak and barely holding on, spoke from underneath, begging for help “please…”
“…” Mia slowly lowered her head, just enough to see the familiar white robes on the person’s arm, ripped and dyed in blood. A bit further she saw the women, face pinned to the ground, probably unaware of who she was even grasping at that moment.
Wordlessly, Mia pulled her leg away from the weak women’s grasp and made a giant hammer, swinging it down on top of the rock that was pinning the girl, a wet squelch was all Mia heard “…” she tossed the hammer to the side, continuing down the hall while holding her nose.
Ducking below a fallen pipe, she continued, ignoring the splattered blood and severed limbs “Why all the way down here?” she questioned, a lot of the damage seeming random. She stopped in front of a slash, peering inside to see that the blade had come from below, slashing through the floor and some unlucky soul sitting at a desk before changing angles and cutting into the hallway wall.
She found that odd, going inside the room to confirm and there was only one blade entry point “they were just flying around inside the ship?”
[Seems like it, Ria is ok, by the way.]
Mia sighed in relief, glad she didn’t have to go back “but why? How?” she went to the hole in the floor, flinching and backing all the way up against the far wall “Eaurgh?! The smell is even worse!”
The smell of rot was the only way to describe it, like a piece of meat had been forgotten about after falling between the crack between the fridge or a bucket of milk forgotten in the closet. A sharp, disgusting smell. She was having second thoughts about going down here…
Yup, no, no further.
She spun on her heels, going back towards the door as the entire ship shook, Mia grabbing onto some hastily made ice for support while the ship settled, what sounded like screaming children coming from below.
She squinted her eyes towards the hole “…Hey Ami? Can you tell my other to kill themselves so I can save and send them down there?”
[…You know it would still be you going down… right?]
“I’d like to save though…” she groaned, she really did give her other too much mana, even with their experiments. She scooted over to the edge, looking down into the pitch black below. She plugged her nose and held her breath, kneeling down to shuffle her way to the floor below.