Twelve people gathered at the gaping maw of the sewers. The knights held brightly lit lanterns in hand, ready to scour through the horrid tunnels to finally bring an end to the disappearances.

  Among the ten knights, Ega noticed a familiar face. Helm was standing in the group, his face still bruised from the beating that he had received at the inn. Their eyes met for a second, but once Helm had recognized Ega’s face, he quickly looked away.

  “Prepare yourselves.” Hela stood at the foot of the entrance, giving everyone a general idea of the plan. “We are stepping into completely unknown territory. Be wary of whatever may be in those tunnels.”

  Hela swept her gaze across the group, and seeing that their faces didn’t show any sign of fear, she continued. “All of you have been provided with whistles just in case you find our target or if something begins to overwhelm you. Do not, under any circumstance, fight the monster alone. Use the whistle and everyone will arrive at your location shortly, understood?”

  All the knights nodded their heads in unison.

  “Good. I’ve already briefed you on one of the possible enemies that we may be facing, but again, always expect more. Now, let's go.”

  Hela led the way into the sewers with a torch in hand. Though she didn’t need it, being able to rely on soul mixing to see in the dark, having that extra light in the front for her men was vital.

  As they traveled deeper into the crumbling tunnels, a few of the knights winced at the horrid smell pervading their nostrils. It wasn’t just the smell of waste washing away in the waters, but the stench of something else mixed alongside it.

  Ega couldn’t quite put his finger on it, that was, until someone appeared before the group of knights. Hela suddenly stopped as the figure approached, shambling forward. It was shaped like a human, possessing human features, but the way it walked, the way its flesh had been stitched together, he knew that thing was far from human.

  “There is any enemy ahead, prepare—” Before Hela could even finish her sentence, tendrils shot out from the monster’s body, widely thrashing at her.

  Despite the incredible speed of the attacks, she cut them all down in an instant. Still, the onslaught didn’t stop. The monster continued to form tendrils out of its body, slowly shredding itself into bits.

  Realizing that the attacks wouldn’t stop until the thing used up its entire body, Hela charged forward. Weaving and slashing through the attacks, she quickly arrived before the monster and quickly brought it down in a single slash.

  Thankfully, it seemed the monster was quite slow, possessing not a single hint of agility. It was a mindless being made only to attack.

  “Is this the monster that you were talking about, Ega?”

  “No, the thing I faced before had much better control of its tendrils. It also possessed an extremely high level of regeneration.”

  “I see… It seems like we’re going to be dealing with—” Sensing something move, Hela quickly turned her attention to the monster’s dead body.

  Despite having nearly split it into two, it was still squirming, trying its hardest to strike at her. Her face twisted into disgust as she ran her blade through its body a few more times to make sure it was dead.

  “These things are resilient…” Turning back to her knights, she warned them. “When you face these monsters, make sure they are dead. Cut them an extra five or ten times if you have to.”

  The knights nodded their heads. It was clear that the tension was beginning to rise seeing the possible monsters that they would need to face. As they continued to move down the winding sewers, Ega couldn’t help but pause at the corpse of the monster for a second.

  He was feeling a strange pulling sensation from it, though very weak. Crouching down, he stuck his hand out at the corpse, and there it was, a tiny drop of Mithril Blood. Seeping into his hand, Ega began to wonder, just why was there Mithril Blood in this monster?

  The prospect of the monster having a drop of the Old God’s blood made him feel a bit uneasy, though Ega was unsure why. There was something about it, something about how these people were manipulating Mithril Blood and finding ways to use it in such a twisted manner, it worried him.

  Just what possibilities would they unlock with the blood of a god? Would it bless people with change? Or would it bring about a great calamity? Just who was experimenting with Mithril Blood? How many? Just how far have they gotten?

  The questions swirled around in Ega’s mind, but right now, he couldn’t think about them. Standing back up, he quickly caught up with the knights.

  More monsters stood in their way as they traversed the sewers, but they were torn apart quickly. Still, it was a gruesome sight to see the knights constantly slice up even the dead corpses of those humanoid creatures.

  After some time of walking and killing monsters, Ega and the knights ran into a split in the sewers. Without any clues to where the culprits might be, they would have to split up to search the entirety of the sewers.

  Before Hela could give out any orders, Ega spoke. “I can go on my own down this right tunnel here.”

  “Are you sure? Going alone is…”

  “Don’t worry, you gave me the whistle, didn’t you?” Ega pulled it out from his pockets. “I’ll mark my path, and if I ever need help, you’ll hear me.”

  Though there was some worry on Hela’s expression, she knew that he was dead set on going by himself.

  “Fine.” Turning toward her men, she began to divide everyone up. The path split into three, and deciding to take two knights with her, she sent the other eight on their own.

  Before they went their ways however, Hela confronted Ega again.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Are you sure about going on your own? If the sewers split off on your side again, you won’t be able to—”

  “I have my ways.” There was a reason that Ega had chosen to go down the right tunnel.

  He was beginning to feel it again, that pulling sensation. His target was down there, and using this sixth sense granted by his fusion with a piece of the Old God, it would guide him straight to them.

  Despite having this power, he didn’t want to reveal it to anyone just yet. The piece that he had fused with wasn’t just one of the souls flowing through Yolu’s flesh, but a true, genuine piece of the soul of a god.

  “Fine, but make sure to use that whistle if you encounter the main threat.”

  “Don’t worry. Haven’t I always followed your orders?”

  “Never my orders but—”

  “Your intentions.” Ega finished the sentence for her.

  “Yes…” Turning back toward her men, she prepared herself to search down the tunnels. “Don’t die.”

  With those parting words, everyone began to move down their respective tunnels. Now that he was on his own, Ega started to mix the souls of the salamander and bear into his own. Despite only having four different souls mixed, he was already beginning to feel the weight of having so many souls mixed together.

  Taking a moment to readjust himself, he pushed forward, keeping his ears and eyes open for any enemies. Strangely enough however, there wasn’t a single monster that Ega was going down. He could still hear the sound of fighting echoing from the other tunnels, so it wasn’t like they were lacking in terms of manpower.

  Maybe they were trying to play mind games with whoever was going to investigate the sewers, but that just seemed too risky of a plan. Walking for a few more minutes and marking his path, Ega finally understood what the plan was.

  It wasn’t that they lacked the manpower nor were they trying to play mind games, but that they already had one monster strong enough to guard this tunnel. Just as he was growing complacent, something suddenly dashed towards him.

  Tendrils shot out from its body as it swiped its claws at him, and though he was able to cut down the tendrils, he couldn’t completely avoid the claw swipe. The monster dug into his arm as it dashed past him. Ega had expected a fight after the surprise attack, but instead of standing its ground, it only glanced at him, amber eyes shaking as it recognized his face.

  Just as his wounds began to mend themselves, the monster moved again. Instead of dashing toward him, it quickly surriced toward the direction that he was coming from.

  ‘Is it trying to escape?’ He was unsure what that monster was doing, but he didn’t care.

  That thing wasn’t his target, and even if that monster was trying to attack the knights, they’d be able to hold their own. All this would mean is that he’d have one less obstacle to go against. Still, Ega couldn’t help but feel uneasy about where that monster was running toward.

  Pushing forward, Ega had finally found something aside from crumbling bricks and moss. There was a large metal door carved into the wall, its frame already half rusted away. As he stood in front of it, that pulling feeling began to grow even stronger. He was finally here, the place where his target was hiding.

  Tightening the grip on his blade, Ega blew onto the whistle. The piercing sound echoed through the sewers, and as it subsided, he suddenly heard something coming from the other side of the wall.

  “Run! Quick!”

  ‘They’re trying to escape.’ Ega had realized the instant he heard those words. ‘Is there another way out or…’

  Not wanting to take the risk, kicked down the metal door, tearing it from its hinges. As the room entered his view, he caught sight of two figures, a different monstrous creature and a thin man, black haired man.

  Using his surprise entrance, Ega quickly chucked a dagger straight at Olian, trying to gauge his skill level. Seeing Lliam block the attack with his bear-like claws and seeing Olian’s slow reaction, he knew that the man in the blood stained coat was weak.

  Dashing forward, he tried to set the tempo for the fight. Lliam tried to intercept his dash by swiping at Ega, but he simply ducked down and countered with a thrust at the monster's chest. Aiming straight at its flesh, he was about to pierce the monster only for something to suddenly block it.

  “You blood hunting bastard!” Olian’s hand was suddenly encased in bone, and though he couldn’t knock Ega’s attack away, he had stopped it from cutting into his son.

  With that failed strike, he quickly backed away, dodging another one of Lliam’s attacks. Not giving Ega a chance to recover, Lliam charged forward like an enraged beast.

  “Don’t fight him! We just need to run!”

  But it was already too late. Engaging in a close quarters fight, Lliam began to swing wildly at Ega. Although each attack was infused with an incredible amount of speed and power, they held no technique.

  Dodging the attacks, he waited until a gap appeared in Lliam’s mindless strikes. As Ega dodged a wide swing, he quickly countered with a sword thrust straight at the monster’s chest. Lliam quickly blocked it, stopping the blade from piercing his heart.

  The attack stunned Lliam for a second, and using that opportunity, Ega threw a dagger at the target that he was aiming for the entire time: Olian. Despite seeing the attack coming his way, Olian didn’t dodge it. He could have, especially now that Ega lacked the element of surprise, but as Olian’s eyes darted at the object behind him, he decided to take it head on.

  The dagger sent him staggering a few steps back as it pierced his hand, and though the damage wasn’t significant, Ega had not let Olian’s glance backward slip from his gaze. Looking behind the man, he noticed the body of a woman placed on an operating table and a jar with a soul in it.

  Despite only seeing it for a second, he noticed how special the jar was. It was rare to store souls into jars when you could put it inside of your soul realm unless…

  Unless it was a human soul. Living beings can not store a soul too similar to their own. Remembering this, Ega suddenly got an idea.

  Pulling his blade out of Lliam’s hand, he slipped off his coat starting from the left sleeve, dropped his sword from his right hand down to his left, and flung his coat into Lliam’s face. It blinded him for only a second, but a second was all Ega needed.

  Dashing past Lliam, he aimed straight for Olian. Tearing the coat off from his face, Lliam acted quickly, running right in front of his father to block whatever attack Ega was going to deliver. But attacking Olian wasn’t his goal in the first place

  Snatching the soul containing jar on the operating table, he quickly dashed away from them.

  “Not another goddamned inch or I’m breaking this soul free!” He got ready to throw it, aiming it at the ground.

  “Wait. Wait!” Olian desperately cried out.

  It seemed like Ega was right to assume that this was important to them.

  “Please! I’ll do anything you want, just don’t… Don’t scatter my wife’s soul away.”

  ‘Wife?’ Ega couldn’t help but dwell on the word for a second, finally understanding what was going on.

  “If you don’t want me to burn it, then give me your Mithril Blood. Every. Last. Drop.”

  Olian hesitated. “Wait, I need—”

  “All of it!” Ega made himself clear, bringing the lantern ever closer to the body.

  “Fine! Fine…” As he slowly walked to him, ready to give up his Mirthil Blood, footsteps began to echo from outside of the room.

  At first, Ega thought it was reinforcements finally coming in response to his whistle, but he was severely wrong. Lily appeared through the door, but she didn’t come alone. In her claws was a child shivering in fear. Ega’s blood ran cold as he recognized her face, as he realized Ella was in Lily’s grasp. For a second, his mind went blank.

  Keeping one’s heart steady in the heat of battle was one of the most important things Ega had learned, but right now, there was a torrent of emotions swirling around in his heart. He remembered what he had told Ella, that he’d put his life over her life above all else. Maybe it was already time to live up to his own words.