Saint Mallory Underground Passage (3)

Haine gave a warning wrapped in a lie no one would believe.

“Everyone, be careful. With the world growing ever more dangerous these days, the monsters in the underground waterways are also becoming stronger and stronger.”

“What sort are usually the most dangerous?”

“There are usually slimes, amoebas, and other amorphous life-forms called oozes. Even if you cut them with a blade, they do not take much damage, and instead they often swallow people whole.”

Haine was warning them about oozes and slimes when Zebec muttered:

“The Angel of Corruption.”

“…….”

“The Angel of Corruption? What is that?”

“It is the corpse of an angel that died to an impure power. It uses evil magical power, and its combat ability truly surpasses even that of a high-ranking demon… that is why the underground waterways of Saint Mallory are such an impregnable labyrinth.”

“Hmm. At the level of a high-ranking demon, is it? Then would it not be better to just infiltrate the Wisdom Order aboveground instead?”

“If fortunate, we may reach the destination without encountering the Angel of Corruption.”

Having said that, Zebec traced the sign of the cross. A blessed aura radiated from Zebec and enveloped the entire party, including Azadine.

“Oho?”

Haine realized that Zebec’s white magic was quite pure and powerful.

“I do not know the route that begins from here very well. Sir Haine. You know this place well, do you not? Please guide us. But let us avoid the Angel of Corruption.”

The Benevolence Order had its own underground exploration maps and guidelines for routes beginning in their diocese. Since they would know where what kinds of monsters most often appeared, they would surely also have information about areas where the Angel of Corruption appeared often.

‘Would you look at that? He is troublesome after all. As expected of someone from the Shadow Knights.’

Though flustered by Zebec’s sharp observation, Haine calmly guided the way.

“Then I shall guide you. Even if anything happens, please do not suspect me. I am doing my utmost to guide you along the optimal route. It is just that recently, as evil power has grown turbulent, within this underground passage….”

At that moment, Haine’s words stopped short. Scott had gathered up the nearby junk using the undead strewn across the ground, then made a boat out of it and climbed on top. The undead pushed the boat through the water, serving as propulsion.

“Chief! Chief, get on here too. No telling what might jump out of the sewage.”

“I will.”

Azadine climbed aboard Scott’s boat without hesitation. Even Zebec got on the boat without complaint. As the undead churned through the foul water, the boat slowly but steadily cut across the underground waterway.

‘What a bizarre bunch. That man Zebec may have fallen, but he was once a Holy Knight, and he gets aboard a boat operated through necromancy? No, in the first place, Azadine himself is an active Holy Knight, is he not? What a wretched bunch.’

Haine did not like Azadine’s party, but it was still better to ride in the boat with them than to walk with her feet in sewage.

‘For a while, it would be better to go along with whatever they want. I can gauge the extent of their abilities, and if something happens….’

Staying wary of Azadine’s party, Haine boarded the boat.

An orc mage is competent. Though Haine had initially been displeased, even she had no choice but to admit that much.

Scott had the undead pull the boat while casting an aurasight spell.

It was a magic that made it easy to discover living creatures and beings animated by necromancy even in the darkness.

“Ah, there, an ooze. Hmm, what type is it?”

Scott spotted an enemy that ordinary people could never distinguish with the naked eye, since it looked just like muck pooled on the floor of the sewage channel, and sent an undead toward it.

The ooze leaped up from within the water, grabbed the undead, discharged electricity from its whole body to electrocute it, and swallowed it whole.

If it had been an ordinary living being instead? No matter how well-trained a knight or warrior might be, if paralyzed by electric shock and dragged into that sludge, they would die in burning agony as they were digested by the ooze.

Even Haine, confident in her own skill, felt chills just from watching the electric ooze’s surprise attack moments earlier.

“Bone Slug!”

And yet Scott cast the spell as if it were nothing much. From the entire body of the undead caught by the ooze, spear-like bone blades burst outward and tore the ooze to shreds.

“Ghoul’s Gluttony!”

At Scott’s command, a red aura surrounded the undead, and they rushed forward to pick up and eat the shattered pieces of the electric ooze. The electric ooze also released digestive fluids, trying to melt and eat the undead, and discharged electricity to protect itself from attack, but the undead endured the damage and in the end swallowed the electric ooze whole.

“Still splendid as ever, Scott.”

“Well, this much is nothing to a genius without equal.”

Scott spoke as if it were no great matter and continued watching ahead.

This time, young boys suddenly emerged from between the sewage and heaps of garbage.

They were draped in beast hides and writhing in agony. Behind them stood a strange bone altar stained with blood.

Then the boys approached.

“Ugh… we only came here because we did not want to pay pickpocket tribute….”

“Please help us. This will not come off!”

The boys burst into tears and begged Azadine’s party for rescue. They were pitiful, but grotesque as well.

“How exactly should I help you?”

Azadine asked, placing his hands on Aurelia Dawn and the Blue Executioner.

“If you soak these hides with your blood, I think they will come off!”

In an instant, the children transformed into beasts and charged at Azadine’s party.

“Oh, brother.”

Of course, Azadine had not trusted them from the start, so the moment they lunged, he swung sword and axe and sent their heads flying.

Haine, too, smashed apart the deformed boys rushing at them with Duskbiter, the knuckles on both her hands. She struck their vital points with precision and burned the wounds with ceramite so they could not regenerate.

An ordinary person would have died instantly with the spinal cord pierced, but the boys in beast-form twisted their bodies, unable to die, and let out grotesque groans.

Haine was newly astonished. Azadine mowing down enemies like autumn leaves, well, that much she could accept.

But Zebec’s ability, not to mention that of the orc necromancer Scott, was unexpected.

Zebec swung his sword, cut through the necks and the backs of the knees of the charging beasts, and slipped away as though dancing.

Scott cackled merrily and used necromancy to subdue and secure the bodies of the cultists felled by Azadine and Zebec.

They had consumed many corpses on the way here, so he regarded this as a fine chance to replenish his supply.

‘I need to be careful.’

Thinking that, Haine cautiously relayed the situation in her mind.

[We are currently passing through Block 2-7. This Messenger Clan bastard, of course, but also those he brought with him, are all highly skilled.]

Just as the King’s Church had explored the underground from its own diocese and drawn up maps of the passageways, the Benevolence Order also had its own underground maps.

As they passed along the routes on that map, Haine kept in telepathic contact with the command room.

[Sir Haine. Your progress is fast. Do not overextend yourself by assisting too much. Let them wear themselves down.]

The command room told Haine not to participate directly in combat and to make Azadine’s party expend themselves more. Apparently their progress was too fast, so they assumed Haine was taking an active role in battle.

[I am merely keeping up appearances. They are simply skilled. There also seem to be more monsters, aberrations, and cultists than usual….]

[Understood. Be careful, Sir Haine. A magical rampage has been detected below ground. It seems the Angel of Corruption is active.]

At that moment, her telepathy with command was cut off.

Indeed, a storm of magical power was raging through the sewer, and insects and rats, startled out of their wits, were seen moving all at once in confusion.

“This is….”

“It seems to be the Angel of Corruption.”

Zebec offered his judgment.

“Scott! Can you tell the direction?”

“Of course, chief.”

Scott cast a spell on one of the undead under his control. The cultist undead then stretched both arms forward, spun in place, and pointed in a certain direction.

“It is pointing by the shortest distance, so the direction gets a little off underground, but I feel it from there.”

“Then we can go while avoiding that direction.”

Azadine avoided the place indicated by Scott’s necromancy and moved westward.

But the underground passage twisted and curled in complex ways, so they could not avoid it forever.

The real problem was that the Angel of Corruption was moving.

From far beyond the underground passage came the sound of people screaming and weapons clashing.

“Hmm. Huh?”

At that moment, Scott sounded surprised.

“Why?”

“It vanished!”

“What do you mean, vanished?”

“It looks like someone got rid of the Angel of Corruption.”

“What? That cannot possibly be.”

Hearing that, Haine was horrified. The reason even the headquarters of the Rescue Knights Order had been forced to leave this underground infested with monsters was precisely because of the Angel of Corruption.

Because such a powerful monster appeared here and the Rescue Knights Order had suffered such enormous losses, they had simply sealed the entrances so the Angel of Corruption could not emerge from underground.

The Angel of Corruption could not find its way and had trapped itself within this labyrinth, so merely blocking the entrances had been enough to prevent casualties.

In other words, the Angel of Corruption was a monster that even the Rescue Knights Order had judged better left sealed and abandoned, since touching it would bring more harm than benefit.

And now that Angel of Corruption had been slain by someone?

Sir Ject the Arbiter gave a bitter smile as he adjusted his armor.

The armor once adorned with golden ornaments was stained with blood, and some of it had been corroded on the surface by acidic fluid, releasing a sharp toxic gas.

“Urgh….”

Ject’s subordinates lay sprawled around him.

“Heal those who can be saved, and grant rest to those who cannot. If they die here, they will become monsters.”

Having said that, Ject furrowed his brow.

Even those who could be saved had lost their combat ability. Half the unit was dead, and a quarter wounded, so by military standards this was a situation that had to be called annihilation.

They had not even gone very deep yet and were still only at the entrance, and yet they had run into the Angel of Corruption of all things.

“By the way, what in the world is this? It appears to be an angel’s corpse….”