—————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Adele’s POV***

  “Are you ok Az?”

  I’m guessing a fit of coughing is as good an indication as any, I feel pressure on the little ball of bones covering us, so I’m guessing we’ve been buried under rubble from the explosion.

  “Adele...”

  “Easy”

  I hold Az arm as she’s staggering to get back up from the ground, now I’m only worried about-

  “Adele! Az!”

  “Heather!? We’re ok! And you!?”

  I yelled to the wall after hearing her voice, hopefully she got out unscathed! At least she’s alive, that’s probably the main concern.

  “Yeah! I jumped back before the explosion or rubble could get to me, but you girls are stuck!”

  The tunnels have settled down, so all I can hear is what I’m gonna guess is Heather removing rubble to try to free us.

  “Careful, it might cause a cave in! Allow me”

  Not the first time something like this has happened to me, and at the very least, we’re not underwater, so I can probably go to where Heather is currently at.

  I grip my staff again, and lift it slightly, casting more of my corpses to do the heavy lifting for me, Az is taken aback by the bones crawling out of the dark mist of the floor, but that’s not as important, these are much better than us, they can dislocate themselves to fit through small gaps, and slowly but surely reform to make an opening.

  Arms of bone start pushing around, shifting rocks and bricks from the way, and when it’s moved upwards enough, ribs stand up making support to avoid more colpse.

  It took a minute or two, but we could finally see an opening, and Heather taking rubble from the pile we were crawling out of.

  “Ah! Heather, are you ok!?”

  Az asked worried, she’s bleeding from her forehead, it looks a bit ugly, but Heather simply brushed the trickle off her eye and doesn’t look moved in the slightest.

  “It’s just a scratch, and you two?”

  “Just a scratch!? That’s a lot of blood!”

  Careful Az! I’m amazed she managed to squeeze herself through the gap and into where Heather is, her hands starting glowing near the knight’s face, closing her wound in its entirety.

  For now, let’s just exit the rubble, I come out and recall all of my servants, they did well, but the damage is piling up for some of them, I’m gonna have to repce them when I get back-

  “Oh!”

  “What’s the matter Adele?”

  “Nothing, someone broke into my home, don’t mind me”

  “Ok?...”

  Fresh meat, not everything has been downhill it seems, I just hope Gwen is safe, I instructed her to hide if someone enters outside me, so nothing bad should happen.

  Hopefully...

  We took a second to caught our bearings, Az is shaken and her clothes got a bit torn but other than that she’s doing fine, Heather is probably the one that took most of the damage, she covered herself with the little dwarves prosthetic arm, while the metal pting from the exterior is bent and broken on certain parts, it seems that the wooden insides are mostly intact, at the very least it still works.

  And me, I’m fine, nothing too worrying, although if things keep going like this, I might exhaust my mana eventually.

  “Well, we have a culprit, let’s just rescue Elizabeth and escape for now”

  That was the pn, as well as to end the culprits if possible, there’s been so many of them however, maybe the knights might have been needed, for arrests instead of murder.

  “Let’s-”

  Another interruption!? The ground is shaking, how much gunpowder did those guys use!? This is not looking good.

  “We need to get out! Immediately!”

  This pce is not long for this world, it's gonna start colpsing soon enough! And if we don’t leave, we’re gonna be pancakes under dirt!

  “But Elizabeth!”

  “If she’s down here, we better look for her asap! We can’t take it slowly anymore!”

  “T-Then what do we do!?”

  “Calm down Az, we split up, we’ll cover more area that way!”

  “B-But!”

  “Adele, can you take Az outside? We should be able to work on our own better that way!”

  Az immediately got shaken, it’s obvious she’s just gonna get in the way, but didn’t you say a healer would be nice to have? Maybe Heather read my mind, since she immediately turned towards us.

  “Think about it! These guys wouldn’t just leave their people to die down here, and even if they did, would they stay and fight knowing they’ll die? There won’t be more enemies down here, at least until the structure stabilizes!”

  “Alright, let’s split up then! Az!”

  “Y-Yes!”

  Look alive, I’m not gonna be able to be babysitting her AND look for the faun, so I lifted my staff, and one of my favorite pets materialized behind me, I dislike using him since they’re rare, but it’s better than nothing, the skeleton of a greater ape, rger than most monkeys, and strong enough to intimidate any normal human.

  “He’ll accompany you outside! Don’t separate ok!”

  “W-What the hell is this!?”

  “There’s no time Az, get to it! Can you carry her out?”

  I gave my instructions to the skeleton, many people think my magic is like that of a puppeteer, using my mana personally control every part of their movements, the reality is that it’s closer to golemancy, I impart them with mana, and edge what some call ‘new life’ to them, only enough for them to carry my orders.

  “Let’s go!”

  “Heather, I’ll go through the rubble and follow that noble, it might be a trap and as a magician, who better to deal with him than me!”

  “Ok, I’ll run and look around somewhere else!”

  “Ah! Don’t py the hero, if it’s too much, leave the sewers!”

  “I can say the same, best of luck you two!”

  And just like that, we three went our separate ways.

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Heather’s POV***

  “ELIZABETH!!”

  I scream her name as my voice echoes on the rumbling sewer system, but I get no answer, actually I find basically nothing. The only thing that’s alive here are the rats fleeing in terror from the shake, it’s quite gross but I have to continue looking!

  “ELIZABETH! IF YOU HEAR ME SAY SOMETHING!!”

  Where could she even be? I try to remember the halls I’ve been running around in, but at some point I’m gonna get lost as well!

  “ELIZABETH!! Whoa!”

  Who? There’s someone down the hall, not Elizabeth though, a tall shadow is moving in the dark back part of this corridor, it most certainly looks like a man so I pull my sword out just in case, it can’t be Varley since he’s not as beefy, so who?

  And why is it running full speed towards me!?

  “Stand down!”

  I got ready in stance, but all I got in response was a growling sound. One foot in front of the other, firm grasp and a slight side angle, it’s been so long since I got into a proper fight, the towering muscur man came into view and I slid next to him, slicing cleanly across his torso and arm.

  “RAAAAAAAAAAH!”

  What!? Whoa there! That was a really clean and deep cut, he should be dead! How come he’s still managing to attack me, mindless punches that are easy enough to dodge, kinda reminds me of Marisa’s way of attacks, but much, much slower.

  I clearly cut him, the tear in his tattered clothes indicates as much, yet I can’t see a wound, is this one of those church monsters Marisa mentioned, how tasteless.

  Just imagining that this poor guy was desecrated much like my father was makes my blood boil.

  I could almost hear the sound of my teeth grinding together! He might be slower than Marisa but that doesn’t mean he’s generally slow! I still can’t find an opening to attack properly, mostly focusing on evading, the weight of the backpack is starting to feel noticeable as well.

  I need to find an opening, there’s quite a few from his poor form, but shallow slices won’t be able to harm him at all, I need a big opening for a proper attack, He’s bound to slip up! I just-

  “Waa!”

  “RWAAAAH!”

  The floor is shaking! I almost lost bance there, not only that but the ceiling is starting to colpse, bricks and rubble falling from it. This was perfect for me, I saw a loose brick on the verge of falling down, so I dash forward slipping through the monster side again and flee while going backwards to not lose the monster from my sight.

  It was a brief moment, but I managed to lure this abomination under it, falling on top of his head, the moment he averted his gaze was my moment to attack! It might be overboard but we’ve been practicing these things for a reason, let’s give Rushka’s some actual field experience feedback!

  I sliced horizontally, my bde lodging into the monster’s arm, then it only took a moment of concentration, but I managed to imbue the device I’m carrying with mana, my synthetic arm glowed faintly, and after feeling like my shoulder was about to fly off my body, the elbow bent straightened and the bde sliced the monster clearly in half!

  The monster crumbled into pieces, falling unceremoniously into the ground.

  “Hey! I could finally activate the enhanced mode without Rushka’s help!”

  Err... good thing that no one saw me make that small jump, honestly I feel over the moon, I’m never taking this arm and leg off! There’s no time to dilly-dally however, and I doubt this monster died with just this!

  As expected, the limbs and torso are trying to reattach themselves, sorry to do this but this pce won’t stay intact for long.

  A quick cut here and there on the walls, and after a small slice, the tunnel caved in, burying his remains, despite this I can see the struggle under the rocks, is he seriously still alive!?

  Well I can’t exactly go back this way now that it’s blocked anyways, for now let’s just leave him behind and continue, the monster was strong, but nowhere near the one we fought in the pace basement, I wonder why their power was so different?...

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Azaquiel’s POV***

  “O-ok, let’s just leave then”

  What kind of thing is this, that woman is super shady, carrying corpses and looking like a dead body herself, is she even alive?

  “WAAAAAAH!! I CAN WALK! GET ME OOOOOOOOOFF!!”

  This stupid goril skeleton just picked me up by the waist and proceeded to run at top speed across the sewers, the movements are super rocky since he’s only using one of his arms to propel himself on his gait.

  This monkey is fast, but looking at the skull makes me shiver. I want him to put me down, but no matter how much I struggle, he doesn’t let go of me, not only that but he’s gonna crush my waist at this rate! Do they seriously see me as dead weight? Why bring me along then?

  Even Miss Knight sent me off the moment things got ugly, I know I can’t fight, but it’s not really my fault is it!?

  Father also sent me away constantly, am I really that unreliable? The monkey is swaying around rubble that’s trying to fall on top of us, and I can’t exactly do anything to help, I think I should start trying to learn offensive magic as well...

  ...

  ...

  The exit...

  The skeleton just fizzled into a dark hole the moment we escaped, probably going back with that undead girl. She gives me the creeps, more so since she looks so young...

  Well, I’m out... Now what? I want to be useful! I want to clean my name for the sins I’ve committed, I can’t let myself get lost in my own despair.

  For now I did what I’m only good for at the moment. I flew, the rumblings did a number outside it seems.

  I need to inform the knights about the underground disaster! Or better yet Celestial, she will know what to do!

  My wings carried me as fast as I could, nding on the open courtyard of the pace and dashing through the halls, where did Celestial go? I hate this huge pce!

  “Are you kidding me!? How is this even possible!”

  That’s Celestial’s voice! She seems agitated, don’t tell me something happened here as well! I rushed smming the door open.

  “Celestial!”

  “You girls are cheating right!? How come you keep winning!”

  Errr... well the visage was not something I was expecting, Lassie, Celestial and even Elizabeth are here, casually sitting on a table and pying cards! I just closed the door again, and took a moment to think, my mind must be pying tricks on me right? I was gonna open the door again but Celestial came crashing into it, while opening it.

  “Az, what happened!?”

  “Err...”

  I expined the situation as quickly as possible about the occurrences underground!

  “If we don’t do something Heather and Rushka are going to get crushed in that pce!”

  “This... this is all my fault! I can’t believe it! I-”

  Lassie tugged at Celestial’s sleeve, and showed her the notebook in her hands, the message read ‘Rushka and Ellie haven’t come back either’.

  Celestial is so scary! More so with a frown on her face, so different from her usual stoic face!

  “Ok, we just keep getting separated, enough of this ‘hold the fort’ and ‘power vacuum’ thing, we need to regroup now!”

  Celestial touched Elizabeth and Lassie, teleporting them away!

  “Az, show me the way to the sewer entrance”

  “R-Right away!”

  “Ah but first a detour to go pick up Rushka, I can trace her mana signature from here, come with”

  And like that, both Celestial and I left the pace flying...

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Adele’s POV***

  Well, I have no reason to protect anybody, so I can advance the sewers without any hitch, for now I turned my body into mist, reforming on the other side of the blockade made by the explosion, were it not for that church woman, I wouldn’t have to spend so much mana protecting her.

  Now what, if they think they can outspeed me in a dungeon crawl then, oh how wrong they are!

  How dare that second grade noble destroy this pce! Sure they’re sewers but they hold as much historical value as other ruins, there’s no reason for such needless destruction!

  I will see that he pays for his crimes! Marisa is the town lord, maybe we should work some ws to get anthropological sites like this protected!

  Speaking of encroaching, this part is clearly used by these guys, there’s even newer construction, making these halls not colpse by the explosion. The man had this pnned out, the question is where is everyone?

  I doubt this is only his work, and there were other ckeys following him, did they flee after some died unceremoniously? Or perhaps they realized following that excuse of nobility wouldn’t yield any results.

  “Oh there you are! I was expecting more of a resistance or will to hide”

  “Adele, with you monsters on the prowl, is there a pce I could possibly hide?”

  “Fair enough, now tell me where you’re hiding Elizabeth, if you value your life that is”

  The man simply shrugged, raising his arms and shoulders in a mocking gesture, does this man not know how outmatched he is!?

  “I hate to break the news but, I don’t know where Elizabeth is, we monitor her from time to time, but ultimately decided to leave her alone, to prevent ‘this’ exact situation, you know”

  “Typical, nothing but lies come from your mouth”

  “Oh it’s the truth my friend, the st thing WE need is to have the daughter of the demon lord, and the Celestial dragon on our tail, if we were in their sights then we would be screwed, we are already”

  Well, he certainly sounds reasonable, but trusting the man who tried to bury us alive sounds like the worst idea imaginable, so I’ll take his words with a grain of salt.

  “Do you have time to waste here however? The faun woman is fine but, I can’t say the same for that ex-captain friend of yours”

  “Heather, she can take care of herself, I’m not worried”

  “I would be in your pce~”

  The man said, shaking his hand, using the catalysts on his many ornate rings, to shape the earth and create a chair where he sat without a care in the world.

  “Eborate...”

  “Oh it’s simple, the church owed me a favor or two, st time I had to help kidnap a bunch of orphans, but their payment is quite handsome, one of those monsters they try to keep under covers, I was expecting it to distract you girls while I fled, but I guess it’s too te now~”

  That smile is not of someone who’s been cornered, far from it. But if what he’s saying is true, then Heather is in trouble. Even I had some issues with the church of light’s chimeras, I hope Heather is ok...

  “You speak confidently for someone that lost, what’s the pn? Why would you just blurt out your actions?”

  “Well, the answer is simple, trust, trust for bargain”

  “Bargain?”

  “Of course, you let me and my people leave this town in peace, and I’ll give you the device used to control that monster”

  I lifted my staff and pointed it towards him, problems will continue brewing if he’s left unchecked.

  “No thanks”

  “Don’t be like that, I’m just a businessman, you can understand that much no? I think it’s a good deal if you ask me”

  “A good deal would be to conserve your corpse!”

  I immediately bsted the man with a spell, a simple attack of lighting, the man is a wizard like me, this much won’t faze him but I want him to stagger for a second.

  “You underestimate me love~”

  “Tch!”

  It seems he realized my mana spreading on the floor to conjure a trap on his feet, intercepting it with his own to break the flow, A surprise attack won’t be effective either huh? At the very least my pet is back, which means Az got out safe and sound.

  “How about we sweetened the deal, you’re an adventurer no, I’m willing to pay handsomely”

  “I don’t want your extortion money”

  “Resources are neither good nor evil, what does the procurement method matter, if they can be put to good use?”

  “Like keep the loan shark work? Elizabeth suffered greatly thanks to your questionable business”

  I lifted my staff, did he think I wouldn’t notice the fireball trap set on his back? It just dissipated it before reaching me, a clever trick to put it on a timer instead of remote activation, so I can’t pick up his own mana shooting behind him, still, nothing on my knowledge of dungeon traps.

  In fact the floor that I’m standing on is gonna make a pitfall very soon, so I levitated myself before it happened, making the stupid grin of the noble turn into a mirk.

  “Look, A fight would go nowhere, I’ve been told you were a big fan of dungeons, then how about this? I can find you rare artifacts, some in possession of some nobles, you will never be able to get to them without my help”

  “I’m not pnning on cooperating with criminals”

  “And how about this?”

  The man pulled a ring box, it was one thing when Marisa did it, but this guy is gonna make me pop a vein on my forehead, if I had any blood flowing through my body to begin with that is.

  “What makes you think-”

  “Let me finish first”

  He opened the box, it was one of the 12 rings! I can’t mistake it, the rusty thing that looks like it’s gonna turn to dust at any moment!

  “Where did you get that!?”

  “I have my connections~”

  “Well, I’ll just have to take it from you!”

  “Woah! And I’m the bad guy!?”

  I simply slid above the floor towards him, holding my staff into the sky, summoning two skeletons to my side, to get him on a pincer attack.

  “So it comes to violence at the end!”

  A frontal attack? How simpleminded, the whip he created of bent stones off the ground is an imposing weapon, but that won’t be able to stop me, the skeleton on my right got the whip, making it tangle into its body, and once I got within striking range, I bsted him with a fireball of my own.

  “Clever! But not quite~”

  “What? Kyaah!”

  The whip slithers on its own! The tip opened up, making the appearance of a snake, it managed to grace my leg with its fangs, but didn’t do significant damage if any, so it was a golem? Unfortunately for him I’m not alive, so poison does nothing to my body.

  The man catches that it seems, his confidence is eroding with each second.

  “What kind of monsters does that spawn of evil get for her ckeys! What even are you!?”

  “We’re not Marisa’s ckeys, We’re just friends!”

  As I was about to give the final blow, a shake caught both of our attention, and then Celestial came running to where I am.

  “Oh shit!”

  “You’re not getting away!”

  “Catch this, shithead!”

  Waa!? The man threw the ring, getting both mine and Celestial’s attention. I went to pick it up, but the moment I had it in my hands, and we looked at the person who threw it, he was nowhere to be seen.

  “He teleported away”

  “Dammit, I let my guard down!”

  “I doubt we can find him right now, but we better leave, before the ceiling falls on top of us!”

  “But Elizabeth! And Heather!”

  “They’re both safe, I teleported them to my mountain, you’re the st one missing!”

  Well, the boss managed to flee, but at least everyone is safe...

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Elizabeth’s POV***

  “Where... are we?”

  Hmm, not that I can expect an answer from someone who’s mute, still, we were teleported somewhere, it seems to be a spacious opening and an immense gss panel, I approached it and was left completely speechless, we’re so high up, I can see the clouds below us!

  Lassie is as amazed as me! Was she never here before? She simply took her notebook and started writing.

  ‘Is this not the mountain where we train?’

  “Oh you’re right! It might be that huge mountain!”

  We could never see the peak from the skirt where they usually take me, then what’s this pce? Wasn’t this mountain Celestial’s?

  ‘Maybe this is Celestial’s home?’

  “It’s breathtaking...”

  I can’t help but feel so... small! Everyone is so important, the town lord, the celestial dragon, the captain of the knights, a renowned adventurer, even a princess!

  They’re all so... so astounding! I wonder how I ended up meeting such a lovely group and...

  Compared to them I’m no one, just a simple baker...

  “Hmm?”

  Lassie poked at my shoulder, and showed me her notepad.

  ‘Are you ok?’

  “Yeah, I was just... thinking you know, Marisa hired me but... I’m not special in any way, I’m just... me. I feel like I don’t belong...”

  Sure she mentions that she wants my skill as an accountant but, I don’t even have a background in such a job, surely there’s countless people that can do my job, why me?

  I look back at where Lassie is pointing to her handwriting.

  ‘I think you fit perfectly, we’re friends after all’

  “Lassie...”

  I hugged the mute samander girl, I never noticed it but she smells kinda nice...

  ...

  ...

  “And this pce?”

  I started looking around the pce, if Celestial doesn’t pick us up, how would we leave this mountain? There has to be an exit, and after entering a room, we were greeted with a gigantic pile of stuff!

  “W-What is all of this!?”

  There’s all assortments of things ying around, from instruments that I can’t put my finger on what they are, to many different types of jewelry and precious materials! It really is just a pile of treasure!

  ‘I think those are Celestial’s belongings, we shouldn’t touch them!’

  Lassie wrote and showed me.

  “She’s literally sitting in a pile of money! Do you know how much we could make by selling all of this!? Why are we even in a financial crisis!?”

  ...Then again, this isn’t Marisa’s, and Celestial is unreted to her rule, so maybe asking her for money would be rude...

  She’s lived so long too, maybe these things hold emotional value to her in some way, I shouldn’t pry into these things or say things like that without a second thought...

  “Lassie...”

  “...”

  “Umm, Lassie? Lassie, what happened with ‘we shouldn’t touch things’? Lassie? Can you hear me, Lassie!?”

  She took what seemed to be a weird wooden icon, and while holding it in her hands, she looked at me, then the artifact, then got red as a beet and pced it back...

  ...what even?

  —————————————————————————————————————————

  ***Rushka’s POV***

  What chaotic moments we lived, Celestial found me in Adele’s home, and then we were teleported to her home before the skeletons started attacking her. Not long after that Heather arrived with some minor bruises, but mostly ok, she was being treated by Az who also teleported here seconds after.

  Ellie and Heather had an intimate moment together, because Ellie was worried about the blood in Heather’s face, not long after that Celestial and Adele joined, and like that, we were all gathered together.

  ...

  ...

  The town suffered quite a bit of damage, and Celestial agreed to let us sell off some of her stuff for repairs, but Heather and Elizabeth will try to make things work out with just our funds, I doubt it will be possible though.

  Things calmed down, and we all agreed that even though we improved, there’s still a long way to go, plus the Mafia ring leader is still free, although I doubt we’ll see him anytime soon, we did find entrances from our sewer system to the lower sewer system so they have nowhere to hide anymore.

  Elizabeth’s bakery was fortunately mostly intact, and she’ll be able to go back to her work. It might have been underwhelming, but I want to believe it was a happy ending.

  For the most part, Celestial went towards Atrille, to request my ancestors old research, I told her to wait back then for a reason, I wrote to dad asking him if he could help Celestial get inside, the elves are quite zealous about letting people into their country, but we dwarves and elves go a long way back, I doubt they’ll refuse.

  Celestial made quite a face when she realized she’ll have to hit Dagdar for a letter from my father before reaching Atrille. I wonder why she hates my country so much?

  “Rushka!”

  “Heather, what’s up?”

  She came running to me, as amazing as always considering she only has 1 leg.

  “I-I just received news that King Arthur dropped by our town without any warning! Do you know something about this!?”

  “Not really”

  He didn’t send a messenger or letter, then again uncle Arthur has always been like this, so I’m not surprised he would show up uninvited, I wonder what he wants?

  Joanne_carper