Hideki didn't particularly like enclosed spaces and the secret passage was a bit unnerving. He wondered how far down it went. There were a couple torches on the wall, which were unlit that they had seen upon entering and he had grabbed one as the door was shutting. Just as darkness was about to overtake their little group, he managed to light the torch. 

Flickering firelight filled the tight corridor as the hidden wall clicked back into place. "Here, take this." Hideki handed the torch over towards Undine who adopted a look as though she had just been forced to eat a lemon.

"I most certainly will not! I'm a high lady, not some damned servant to carry a torch!"

Hideki gave her a suffering glance and continued holding the torch out to her. "You're going to hold it and you'll do whatever else he tells you to do, Undine. The hierarchy here goes me, him, and far down the ladder, you," Megumi said.

Hideki waited a second and then Undine reached over and took the torch. "How dare you force me to do this! I'm not some common slave to be moved around like a puppet! I'm a high lady!"

"And I'm a princess, so shut up and be happy to serve your betters. If you can't shut up on your own, I'll make you, and who knows when I'll remember to give you back your voice."

The aquamancer stared indignantly at Megumi, but didn't say anything else. She let out a quiet whimper of defeat and then stepped behind the two of them. "Any idea how far down this goes, Megumi?"

"No. Reynard and I played in some of the secret passages when we were little, but I never knew about this one. All he told me earlier was that it was ancient and led outside the city. It hasn't been used in hundreds of years, so he advised us to be careful."

"Hopefully there aren't any monster nests or cave ins that have happened over all these years then. I'll stay out front. Ready to go?"

Megumi gave him a nod and he turned away before walking downward in the narrow passage. The passageway was filled with thick spiderwebs, which he cut away with his sword as they made their way ever downward. They had been in the throne room before, so he knew it would take a bit until they were able to get down to ground level.

"Are you sure about this Megumi? You could have stayed here, and been a queen. Why go back to a life of being broke and sleeping in crappy inns when you could have had a life like this?"

The only reply for several moments was the sound of footsteps hitting the hard stone floors behind him. "Part of me wants to stay, but I can't just hide in a castle when I can use my power to make things right. We're going to systematically hunt down each of the Council of Nine and then we're going to liberate my people from the usurper who sits upon the crystal throne."

Those nine people were apparently pulling the strings behind tons of terrible things that were happening around the world. He could get behind fighting against that, but he knew that people like that would be ridiculously strong. They hadn't even been able to defeat that warlock, and he was sure down to his bones that Thera would be far stronger than she had been.

"I don't think we're strong enough to take them on yet. Even with a third member in our group, we'll be going up against some of the most powerful people in the world. Do you have a plan, Megumi?"

"You're probably right, so what we're going to do is go back to Rivean and take on some more requests to get stronger. I had wanted to get out of the mountains, so maybe we can take on something that will take us to the southern part of the continent. Thera is somewhere on this continent, but I don't know where. If she's like Cerberus, then she probably moves around."

"So how are we going to track her down?"

"I know of one guild hall here down past Oleander. We'll make our way there eventually and squeeze some people for information. Most of the locations I know about were for lower tiered Villain's Guild members with someone more powerful who runs each place. Those directly serving the individual council members, usually stay close to them, so we'll have to work our way up the pyramid."

No matter how he looked at this, it sounded like yet another one of Megumi's reckless plans. Unfortunately, he didn't have any better ideas. "Okay. Let's just try to be a little more careful this time before jumping in feet first, all right?"

"I'll try to remember." She poked him in the back gently. "I don't want you getting cursed again on me."

He couldn't help but smile at that. It seemed like something in her had changed a little since being in the castle. He knew that her goals hadn't really changed much, but maybe now she'd use her ruthlessness against those who deserved it rather than innocent guards and the like.

The passageway widened and became more of a large cavern. Hideki was happy to be out of that cramped corridor, and looked around. Large stalactites and stalagmites were everywhere, and there wasn't a clear pathway of which to follow anymore, but the place could be described as nothing less than beautiful. It looked almost like the stone was melting from the ceiling like wax that had been formed into intricate sculptures. He stepped over to one of the stalagmites that jutted up from the ground and ran his hand across the cool stone. These things are amazing. 

He pulled himself out of his thoughts and stepped forward once more. "There doesn't look to be a path. So I guess we just head straight down there as best we can?"

"Looks like it," Megumi replied. "Who would have thought something underground could be so beautiful."

The air was damp and he felt a drop of water fall from one of the stalactites above hit him on the top of the head. A cold shiver ran through him. They moved a little slower now as the ground was uneven at best, and they continued downward into the far reaches of the cavern. Several times along the way they had to avoid large rents in the earth that seemed to lead down into eternity. 

After another half hour of winding around the cavern, they found themselves back in a more narrow section. The stalactites were less prominent here, as were stalagmites. The ground was smoother, but it was damp and a bit slippery. Hideki could hear water trickling somewhere further down, but their torchlight didn't let them see very far ahead.

As the passageway cramped back up, thick spiderwebs once more reared their ugly heads. He swiped his sword through them and felt resistance that he hadn't felt the first time as the webbing ripped away. He had a bad feeling just about the time that he heard the skittering sound of chitinous legs on rock off in the darkness. 

"Spiders!" Hideki turned and dashed back to Undine, yanking the torch from her hand. He turned around and stabbed the webs with the fire then jumped backwards as they went up in flames. "Get back!"

He didn't have to tell them twice, as he turned around to get back into a large space for fighting, they had already retreated back a couple dozen paces. He heard squeaks of pain or maybe rage emanating from the web filled corridor that he had started his inferno upon and he jammed the end of the torch into a crack next to him so he'd have both hands free to fight.

Seconds dragged on like hours and he held his cursed blade out in front of him, sweat trickled down his cheeks and a large spider burst out of the flames with a shriek. The beast was almost as big as he was and purple venom dripped from its mandibles. Hideki did not want that thing getting anywhere near him if he could help it, so he performed an overhead Shockwave attack on the monster.

The energy slammed into the creature and bisected it, sending goo flying out in every direction. He would have let out a sigh of relief, but as the spider burst open, hundreds of smaller spiders the size of his fist emerged from the body of the thing. What in the actual fuck is that?! 

The smaller spiders charged at him and he knew that he wouldn't be able to fight such a number. Balls of green flame slammed into the mass of spiders and the screams of dying arachnids filled the cavernous space with a loud hiss. The fireballs wouldn't be enough, however, and the things were getting close. 

Suddenly, a wall of water formed across the width of the cavern in front of him. The spiders slammed into it and got stuck, drowning in the liquid. The water slammed down over the rest of the monsters and then in an instant froze solid. Silence once more filled the cavern. Hundreds of little bodies were now encased in ice and appendages stuck out here and there, motionless. *Ding*

"That was amazing, Undine. I thought we were seriously done for there for a second." He let out a nervous chuckle. He absolutely hated spiders.

The woman didn't reply to his compliment and just stood next to Megumi with that same, haughty look on her face. 

"The ground will be slippery now. Can't you do something about that?" Megumi asked.

"Yes. One moment."

Hideki watched in awe as the sheet of ice that barred their path turned into hot steam. It felt a little warmer in the cavern for a second before the cloud of vapor formed back into a large ball and moved back to the aquamancer. It was amazing how much water was actually in this place that she could have taken care of all the spiders with it. 

Undine siphoned off the water until only a ball the size of a melon remained floating next to her. "Going to keep that around?" he asked.

The stuffy lady simply sniffed and gave him a curt nod. He shrugged and then stomped his way across the dead spider corpses and continued down the hallway. He heard Undine mutter something behind him, probably something about having to carry the torch again, but he was focused on the corridor where the spiderwebs had been.

With a bit of trepidation in his step, he made his way forward into the burned up space. He was surprised to see several more large spider corpses along the way which had been burned to s crisp. The smell was nauseating and he struggled to keep his lunch down as they continued. If you're going to have a secret escape, maybe make sure it's clear of gigantic spiders? I mean seriously, what if they had to evacuate the castle in a hurry and ran into this shit? 

Hideki kicked a medium sized spider corpse to the side. Within a couple minutes of slow moving they found themselves in another wide area of the cavern system. A spring was bubbling out of one of the cracks in the walls and formed into an underground stream that wound downwards. The group followed it along and thankfully found that the stream led to a spot where there was a rock wall and a lever. 

"Hopefully this is the exit. Should I pull it?" Hideki stepped over to the lever and inspected it.

"It probably isn't a trap. Poro-tan, come over here. Undine, you will pull the lever while we stand back."

A look of shock and indignation came across the woman's face but she didn't say a word. Hideki assumed that was because Megumi probably muted her. He was more than happy to not have to be the guinea pig anymore and retreated to Megumi's location as Undine went over and pulled on the lever.

Loud grinding noises could be heard below them for a moment and Hideki's heart flew up into his throat until the wall of the cavern next to the lever slid downward, revealing an opening. They had made it out. He let out a sigh of relief and ran outside into the cool air. It was dark outside, and he hadn't realized just how long they had been in the cavern until now. A grassy hill stood before them and when he turned around he could see the city off in the distance, lit up in the darkness. 

They were further outside the city than he would have thought, but that just meant no prying eyes would be able to see them leaving. There was a cluster of trees off to the side and Megumi was heading in that direction with Undine. He stopped staring back at the city and followed them.

"Reynard told me that he'd hide our wagon near the exit when we came up with this little plan," Megumi said as they walked into the cluster of trees. 

Just as she said, the wagon they had entered the city with was nestled in the group of trees, well hidden from anyone back on the road who might have seen the thing. The horses were tied up and were happily chomping on piles of hay that had been left for them. Megumi climbed into the back of the wagon with Undine while he got everything ready to go. A few minutes later, and they were on their way back towards the road to Rivean.