Chapter 218

Behind the Lines (II)

She shuffled carefully, ducking beneath the corralling walls that framed tall corridors bounding a spacious set of halls. All were interconnected, Senna quickly realized; all lavish, draped in golden, clear, glass-like tiled floors ushering paths to grandstanding paintings and statues orbiting the mansion. There were countless sets of stairs either digging further down into the ground or leading further up.

Everywhere she looked, all she saw was luxury, causing her to frown and sigh. No matter the world and the reality, it seemed, a cognitive side of a species developed the same.

She continued to lurk in the shadows, often heaving herself up against the ceiling through her weapons to dodge either the patrolling guards or numerous maids and stewards. She also perked her ears up around them, trying to pick up the chatter around the princess. However, most of the conversations she heard were either mundane and pointless or had something to do with the new ‘mysterious entourage’ that had just landed on the compound.

Eventually, though, her patience paid off; a pair of maids carrying rather rugged-looking trays, especially comparing to others she’d seen be carried, were chattering lowly. Though Senna was unable to hear everything they were saying, she did hear the word ‘Princess’ used at least a few times throughout, her eyes alighting.

She quickly began to follow the two from safe distance, trudging through the winding corridors but making sure that she memorizes every single point of it since she still had to get out of this place, with a Princess in tow no less. The two eventually wound up descending one of the stairs, flat and creaky, forcing Senna to actually use a sword to glide down after a few moments as to not make a sound.

The decent was brief but steep, some ten feet altogether, and it led into yet another set of corridors -- but one far damper, older, and far, far less decorated. Rather, there were no decorations; even the walls weren’t bricked but made of ordinary dirt. The only source of light were the occasional torches, forcing Senna to carefully extend her Mana to see where the two maids went.

Following right after their ‘scent’, she found herself entering a domed room, her eyes immediately widening in horror; hundreds of iron-bared cages rattled about, some in isolation, some on top of the others, with likely hundreds of souls inhabiting them. Most were skin and bones, and good dozens were literal corpses rotting away while there were still living inside those very cages.

Most were additionally chained while inside, shaking and slurring words with maddened gazes decorating their sunken eyes. For a moment, she felt sick; while she saw a good deal of horror in this world, and experienced much of it herself, this was still on another level -- this wasn’t about the raw, primal brutality instinctively present within every creature, clever or not. It wasn’t about fighting for survival and trying to beat the others for it.

This, here, was much, much more insidious; it wasn’t about survival anymore, but the absolutely horrid parts of humanity. Senna gagged for a moment but held her innards together as she spotted the two maids making their way through the caged dome indifferently, still chattering as though this was the most ordinary sight in the world.

Gritting her teeth in anger, she followed, using the cages to stay out of sight, eventually ending up following the two maids into a side chamber of the massive hall that only had one cage -- and a young girl chained up inside of it.

“Princess, Princes~~” one of the maids spoke melodically. “Here is your meal, o’ Princess, hi hi~~”

“...” the girl inside looked up, her disheveled hair falling over her banged-up face. A pair of shimmering, green eyes peered beneath the strands of hair; though she looked broken, the light in her eyes still burned, Senna noted. Her lips were bruised, blood dried over her chin, her clothes tattered, one of her arms twisted unnaturally.

“She really might be mute,” the other maid said. “The bitch hasn’t said a word since coming here.”

“She will, eventually,” the other maid scoffed, tossing the tray through the bars without a care in the world. “The self-important bitch thinks she’s above us. Tsk,” she clicked her tongue and spat at the young girl inside the cage. “You’re lucky you’re worth more to us alive. Otherwise...”

“Otherwise... what?”

“Otherwise, we’ll have lynched--” a sharp glint of the sword cleaved through the maid’s neck, snapping her neck off in a singular motion. Before the other could even register what happened, hers flew up as well, blood spraying out of their beheaded bodies like columns as they thumped down, listless. Behind them, an angry visage emerged, gritting her teeth together, staring solemnly at the girl behind bars.

“...” the girl’s eyes widened slightly as she stared at the two headless corpses lying in the ever-increasing pool of blood. She didn’t recognize the armored woman wielding a beautiful blade; but, it didn’t matter. Even if she were to die now, she’d die happy as those two maids have done nothing but demean her for days now, bruising her, beating her, and even breaking her arm.

“Hey,” Senna crouched in front of the cage, trying to break it open. “I’m here to help you.”

“...” seeing the girl remain silent, Senna thought they might have ripped her tongue out or that her bruised lips hurt too much to talk.

“Your sister Anna and brother Izirdul asked us to,” she added, finally getting a reaction from the girl.

“Big... sister? And brother?”

“Y-yes,” Senna nodded, sighing in relief. “Let me just get this damn cage open...” finally running out of patience, she used Mana to muffle the sound of a hammer breaking down the iron bars. She rushed inside and clipped the chains, finally alleviating some of the pain the girl likely felt. The latter fell into Senna’s arm instantly, collapsing from exhaustion, both physical and mental, gasping for breath. “Shit, I’m sorry -- I don’t know any healing spells or anything. Our healer’s waiting outside this place. He’s a real good guy, he’ll patch you up quickly.”

“I--I’m fine,” the girl replied, pushing herself out Senna’s arms and sitting up on her own. “Just a bit thirsty. You have anything to drink?”

“Sure, sure,” Senna quickly took out a few bottles of water and uncapped them, gently bringing them up to the girl’s lips and, despite the latter shining protest with her eyes, forcing her to drink it slowly. Senna made sure that the bottle never actually touched the girl’s lips, and she didn’t let her drink too much at once. “All right, that should hold you for now; once we’re out and you’re fixed, there’s gonna be a bunch of nice stuff to drink and to eat.”

“... will there?” the girl asked. “This entire place is falling apart. What happens when you’re caught up in it?”

“Well, I’ll share in a secret with you,” Senna said as she gently held the girl up, helping her up to her feet. “We’re gonna fix everything.”

“H-huh?”

“Well, to be more precise,” Senna added, glancing out of the side chamber. “My dad will. With our help this time, I hope.”

“Is... is your dad strong?” Sera asked.

“Hm,” Senna nodded. “The strongest.”

“Is he stronger than my Third Brother?”

“Hm,” Senna nodded confidently again without an ounce of hesitation. “Like I said, the strongest. I’m also pretty strong, even if not on his level. There’s also mom, she’s plenty strong herself -- in more ways than one. There’s a bunch of other uncles and old dudes leading a generation. Together, we’re strong enough to handle anything.”

“... anything? Aren’t you just bragging now?” Sera called her out with arched brows.

“Aay, shit, sorry--it’s a bad habit I picked up from him...” Senna sighed, feeling slightly embarrassed.

“Him? You mean your dad?”

“Yup. He’s a mean braggart, actually, even if he can back up a lot of his claims. Ah, don’t worry about that; we first have to worry about how to sneak back out of here.”

“There’s a side path,” Sera said. “It smells like crap since, well, we’ll be walking through crap, but nobody else will be there.”

“A’right,” Senna shrugged. “Let’s go walk through crap. I guess it’s an experience.”

“What power are you from?”

“Power? None,” Senna shook her head. “We’re the new guys in the Tower.”

“E-eh? You mean... you’re a Conqueror?” Sera asked with a certain trace of fanaticism in her eyes.

“Yup,” Senna grinned. “We all are, actually. We’re also the group that cleared the first floor. Furthermore, dad has already Awoken, if you’d believe it.”

“What?!! That’s impossible!!” Sera exclaimed, nearly screaming out, barely holding herself back. “There... there are no Awakening Shrines anywhere here! You’re lying!”

“No, no, I’m serious,” Senna shook her head, surprised at that strong of a reaction. “In the process, he did do a lot of world-ending shit, including beating one of those mysterious, dimensional merchants to death. Aah, he can’t ever just relax and--hmm? Why’d you stop?”

“... he’s insane.”

“Hm?”

“If he’s killed a dimensional merchant,” Sera said. “He’s insane.”

“Oh, yeah, there’s no denying that.”

“He’ll be hunted down by powers beyond his comprehension!”

“...” Senna merely grinned, suddenly patting Sera’s head gently, startling the latter. “I’ve already told you,” she added. “While the rest of us definitely can’t handle anything and everything... he can. Just like your sister and your brother, you’ll realize it the moment you meet him. He just... makes you believe in miracles.”