<~> Chapter 156

When we got the notification all of us slowed to a stop and turned around to look. The taller building had half collapsed over the side of the one we were standing on and had formed a pile of rubble up against it. I peeked over the edge but I couldn't see the monster anymore, it must be under the huge piles of bricks and wood.

"I don't see it, just a pile of rubble," I told everyone.

Everyone was already relaxing on the roof, this one was flat with a little garden on top. It was lucky something like this had been so close to the wall we jumped out of.

I touched Mimi in necklace form. "Good job Mimi."

She pulled away from my fingers and flowed back into her normal body, only a moment later her clothes and equipment appeared back on top of her. It seems she's improving her control over bringing things in and out of her pocket dimension.

I walked back to the edge and looked down the street. I couldn't see any of the guards from here. The two buildings are close, were close, but no one came rushing after us when we ran.

"Let's get out of here, see what's going on with Jasper," I said.

Everyone nodded and agreed. We headed over to the roof access door of the building we were standing on and knocked. When we didn't get a response I cracked the door open and peeked inside. Doesn't look like anyone is home. We walked through a small mansion that was well-furnished. It doesn't look like anyone had been here since the attack, not even looters. Perhaps the building next door with the giant hole in it had dissuaded anyone from poking around too much. There wasn't any way to lock the doors behind us so I just shrugged and closed it.

Before we headed back we poked around the rubble. The entire building had collapsed, between the giant hell hound slamming against the thing and rotting wood from when the hungering corpse had filled the entire place with miasma, the thing couldn't hold up any longer. It was a surprise it held out as long as it did frankly. There were bricks, wood planks, and dust all over the street. I didn't see any signs of the monster's corpse but I also wasn't that interested in digging it out right now, even if parts of it might be worth something. Not that I had access to the guild to sell any of that stuff at the moment.

I turned away from the rubble and looked down the street. "Come on guys, let's go."

When we got back to the building we had raided there was arguing going on between the remaining guards. When Bertrand turned and noticed us he lit up a little. "Oh thank the gods, you're still alive. Does that mean you managed to kill that demon?"

I looked at my friends and shrugged. "Kinda? We were running from it and it dropped a building on itself. We got the kill notification but I don't feel like we did anything."

He sighed in relief. "As long as that thing is dead. Can you heal my arm?" Bella nodded and began to focus as she poured healing magic into him.

I looked around at the guards. "Where's Jasper?" I asked.

Bertrand's face went grim. "Jasper is dead. That monster bit him in half and swallowed him. I was there when it happened, he was being reckless because of Abby." He gestured at the unconscious woman Silva was still carrying.

"After that, the demon switched targets to me and knocked me around until I made it out of the building. I wasn't sure what to do when it chased all of you down the street. We were arguing about following but I don't think any of us were strong enough to kill that thing. Since Jasper is dead and Abby is still knocked out, I'm in charge right now, not that any of us will be half the leader he was. The prisoners weren't only the ones that the hell hound killed when it spit fire at us either. Over a third of us died in this raid." He sighed heavily and tried to wipe some of the dirt off his face.

"Is there anyone left in there?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No, we killed all of the ones who resisted us and the hell hound killed the rest. Everything inside is clear now, all that's left are the prisoners and slaves."

"Prisoners?"

He nodded. "They were keeping some people locked in cages back there. Maybe demon experiments or sacrifices or something. There were also two slaves in there, including one of the ones we were told to look out for, a golden-furred dogfolk that Nathaniel told us about."

I nodded, I remember Matilda mentioning that one. She was the one who looked "sad all the time" if I remember right.

"Was there a deerfolk in there?" Bella asked.

Bertrand nodded. "I'm not sure, the prisoners looked like they were kept in good shape though. We locked the slaves in one of the cells in a separate room and haven't let any of the prisoners out yet. We wanted to clear the entire place before we tried to rescue any of the civilians. When we reached the last room underground, one of those summoners had just finished a ritual and that giant wolf thing came out of it, I had never seen a summoning in person before today. Almost killed Abby and Jasper rushed her out before coming back. When he died I couldn't hold the thing on my own anymore and it knocked me off my feet like three times before I managed to get outside. Without Jasper I wasn't sure how we were going to kill the thing so I was hoping we could surround it in the street where there was more room to fight."

"Yeah." I sighed. "There wasn't any way we were going to be able to kill that thing either. We were only lucky the building fell on it, we could barely even hurt the thing when it was sticking its face through the hole in the stairs."

As the words came out of my mouth I realized something. Lucky. Did our combined luck have something to do with what happened? Sure the building was falling apart but the timing was perfect. It's not only my luck at play anymore. Luck felt like an unreliable stat but there were so many times that we've come out of something like this by the skin of our teeth. If I couldn't attribute that to luck, what could I attribute it to?

I looked at the building and sighed. Jasper was dead. It felt so strange, I had talked to the man less than an hour ago. Silva was suspicious of him but I never felt anything from him but kindness and camaraderie. Now he was gone. ...dead.

I turned back to Bertrand. "Can I speak with their prisoners and slaves? Actually, are you going to free them?"

He shrugged. "I suppose you can talk to them. I probably shouldn't let you but I can give two fucks about that with the way today has turned out. I had hoped watching my friends die would have stopped after things started going back to normal, appears not. As for the slaves, you'll have to ask Nathaniel what he plans to do with them. He was looking for that dogfolk so he may free them or he may not. He's a Morkinnen priest so he's no friend of slavery. Probably why no one objected to him acting in Baron Morrister's place." He turned to Bella. "Thank you, ma'am. My arm feels a lot better now. Forgive me but I need to refocus on my men. You can snoop around inside if you like but be quick. I need to get back and talk to Nathaniel soon, especially now that Jasper is dead."

Bella gave him a nod before stepping back behind me and Silva handed the unconscious beastfolk woman to one of the nearby guards. We walked toward the door and off to the side a bit to give Bertrand some space.

I noticed Silva looking around at the guards. "You see something Silva?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Not sure. I'm going to keep an eye on things out here while you go inside. I think it would be a good idea to stay alert while you're in there."

"Mimi, will you stay out here with Silva, make sure no one bothers her? Bella needs to go in to heal anyone that's still hurt and I don't want to leave anyone out here alone right now."

Mimi nodded but looked a bit confused. "Sure I can stay out here. Are all the rest of you going inside?"

I turned to my group who all looked at each other at the unsaid question.

"I want to look around inside," Torien said. "There have to be some clues as to who this cult is and what their goals are. I think I'm the most likely to find some information in there."

I nodded, agreeing with her.

Morrigan shifted her weight, I got the sense that she was uncomfortable. "I suppose I could wait outside with these two. You can already see mana so I don't think there is much I could contribute in there. ...just be careful."

"I will." I turned to face the doorway and steeled myself. Even if this place has been cleared, several guards died here today. It was another grim reminder that despite all the magic and healing, this world was still brutal, people can still die.

One of the guards led Bella, Torien, and me into the ruined building. The walls were scorched and all of the furniture was destroyed. Several of the bodies had been dragged into two separate piles, one for the guards and another for the cultists. ...the pile of cultists was larger.

Deeper into the building there was a large office with a hidden wall that led down into a cave. The cool grey stone of the foundation looked to be carved out manually with small tools before turning to packed dirt reinforced with wood, I could still see the pick marks.

"These tunnels aren't made by an earth mage," Torien said, touching the wall. "They had to have been pretty dedicated to carve their way through the building's foundation without magic."

"Why wouldn't they just have an earth mage help them?" I asked.

"Not sure, could just be that they don't have one in their ranks. Earth mages that would be able to do this kind of thing wouldn't be lacking for job opportunities, especially with the frontier opening up."

I nodded and we continued down the dirt slope into the large tunnel. There was fresh blood in places on the dirt. There were signs of battle here. Fresh claw marks from where the hell hound had chased people through were still visible in the dirt walls and floor.

"The prisoners are down the tunnel to the right." The guard pointed to an opening in the tunnel marked by a torch.

Inside the room were large cages built right into the walls. The places where the bars met the edges of the tunneled-out room looked reinforced with wood and stone. I wasn't sure how sturdy the cells were but I doubted any of the prisoners would be able to do anything about the bars with the cultists watching over them. Especially not at their level. I scanned across them, none of them felt like they were even a quarter of my strength.

Most of the prisoners looked weak and malnourished. Not to the extent that they weren't being fed at all but more that the food they were being given probably wasn't good enough. Most of them were humans which made the deer-kin in a cell with only two others stand out even more.

My group walked over to the cell and I pointed to the deerfolk. "Are you Matilda's brother?" I asked.

He frowned and furrowed his brows. "Who's asking?"

Fair, he didn't know me, had no reason to trust me, and it wasn't like any of them had been let out of their cages yet.

"We're here to rescue all of you. Your sister was worried about you so we've kept an eye out."

His face grew more concerned. "Is she... still alive? They said that they left her to die in the castle when she started fighting them..."

"She's still alive but it's... complicated. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be able to see her again soon."

There were whispers among the prisoners, the news that we were going to rescue them was met with cautious optimism. With how long I assume these people have been here, I wouldn't expect a much better reaction. I was relieved that Matilda's brother had survived the ordeal, that she hadn't done all of that only for her brother to be killed anyway. It wasn't a large consolation but it was something.

"Is anyone hurt?" I asked as I put a hand on Bella's shoulder. "My... companion here is a healer."

This led to another round of whispers as a few of the prisoners came forward nursing broken arms and sickly bodies. As Bella began to heal them I stepped to the side with Torien.

"What do you think they were being kept for?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "I'd rather not speculate, to be honest. Demon summoning has been said to have ritual sacrifices and such. They could also be political prisoners or hostages like Matilda's brother was. Jas— The guard will have to question all of them thoroughly to see what they know."

"Should we be asking questions?"

Torien paused in thought before shaking her head. "No, probably not worth the time. We don't know how long the guard will allow us to 'snoop around' and I'd rather look for something Nathaniel would be less likely to share with us."

"Okay. Once Bella is finished let's go see what we can find."

I scratched the base of my horn as Bella finished up with the last prisoner. The spirits of the people inside already looked a lot better. They were starting to believe they might actually be able to escape from this place.

Saine

Rest in peace Jasper, poor guy got eaten. Not much else to say so see you next time.

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