"Is it really that easy?" pondered Rose as she held her rapier, attempting to slot the newly bought gem into her weapon.
Rose had handed me the small wooden chest as she figured out how to slot the gem. I began skimming through the prayerbook that she traded and… I literally don't understand a damn thing. There are quite a lot of diagrams with foreign words inside, but it's beyond my comprehension to understand what it's trying to explain. The only thing which I "think" I understood was something about "The Lands Between," but I could be mistaken.
"Hmm… can't seem to make the right shape to slot this gem in. Can't I just… woah!" she raised her voice as the gem seemingly magnetised itself to the hilt of her rapier, further adjusting itself to fit properly. When it was done, it was as though the gem was part of the original design of the hilt all along.
"What the hell just happened? Does this mean it—worked?" she turned towards me while all I could do was shrug since I've got no idea either. None of my weapons could even slot any gems, unlike hers.
She swung her rapier a couple of times but felt nothing different about it. She was beginning to wonder whether she was scammed, but I assured her that Quasimortuus doesn't sell fake things. He's a legitimate black market seller that has a reputation for selling legitimate items. It was the reason as to why I decided to seek him out in the first place, and I stupidly decided to be a smart-ass by running out of a deal by stealing. Way to go, me.
"What're you going to do with this chest? Are you planning to bring it into battle or something?" I asked her.
"I didn't really think things through, did I? Is Q able to bring it back? I doubt I'll have time to read in the middle of a war," she made a cheeky grin.
"Rose… this chest is literally the same size as him! Are you suggesting that he carry this all the way back home?" I asked her with disbelief.
"Well… doesn't hurt to ask him, right? Q is stronger than he looks. Oh, calm down, you, just a little joke. Q can't even make it down here in the first place," she chuckled.
"I beg to differ. I believe he can. Q, can you hear us?~" I asked aloud.
We kept silent as we waited for him. Strange, I don't hear him coming. I called out to him once more, a little louder this time, which caused his name to echo throughout the entire sewer line. It took a while, but Q did eventually pop up from the ground, seemingly curious to be finding us all the way under the ocean. How he's able to find us within a beck and call is even more bizarre, beyond any logical explanation.
"See, he can make it down here. Q, what do you think? Are you confident in carrying this home?" I showed him the wooden chest.
His eyes widened while his mouth flung agape, seemingly wondering whether it was even possible for him to carry it. He started scratching his head and began climbing up my pants all the way to my hip pouch. He snuck into it and started rummaging for something. I unlocked my pouch to see what he was looking for, and he took out a potion with his mouth. Is that— ah… guess he wants to use my strength potion to test it out.
I removed the two remaining vials that he was carrying and fed him a drop of the strength potion. I have never tried my potions on animals before, but apparently, it works. Q tried dragging the chest with his teeth, and despite being similar in size, he had no difficulty in dragging it around. He gave the thumbs up and pulled the chest underground, once again, leaving no traces of any hole behind.
I passed Rose the three vials for her safekeeping as we continued walking towards the city, explaining to her the effects of the other two vials. The first being a fire resistance potion, while the other one being a blood regeneration potion. I really do hope there's not another lightning user, as I only left about a quarter of a vial for that.
***
My gosh, how long had we been walking?! This sewer is not a maze, and all we had to do was just walk straight forward, but we had been walking for such a long time with no end in sight. Rose had been using Holy Light a couple of times now, but this sewer just kept going. I don't want her to get tired before we even start protecting the city.
Wait a minute, is that—a door? Had we finally made it to the exit? The door certainly looked different, being fully metal and having a large circular handle to turn. I took point and tried to turn the handle. Damn it, it doesn't even budge; did we hit a dead end?
I explored the door itself and found a rather strange hole in the shape of a vertical slit. No way… it can't be. I rummaged my pouch to search for the coin given by the Underwater Dragon King again and slotted it in. Bloody hell, why can't he just tell me that this was also a key? Geez.
I turned the coin, and the circular handle automatically turned itself, unlocking the door without needing me to do anything further. Yosh, now to see where this door leads to.
*kachang
Huh? I made a quick glance towards Rose, showing a tiny bit of concern but decided to try pushing again.
*kachang kachang*
Ah, shit, is the door stuck? I thought it was supposed to be unlocked?! Let's see… don't see any rust around or on the door itself, so it shouldn't be stuck due to that. I placed my body weight on the door, attempting to place more force in opening the bloody door. There was a bit of a creak, almost like—something is blocking from the opposite side.
Alright, at least we know that the door is functioning as intended. Rose and I placed our body weights against the door to push, but it was still not enough to move the door big enough for us to squeeze through. I sighed and decided not to waste any more time. I took out my strength potion and swallowed half of it, passing the remaining to Rose in case she needs to take it as well.
I pushed hard, causing the door to creak a little bit more but still not big enough for either of us to squeeze through. That was Rose's cue to drink and help with the push. We placed all our weight and increased strength on the door, thankfully somehow being enough to push the door further in for us to squeeze through. The loud creaking noise of the door dragging across the floor was painful, but thankfully we didn't need to push too much. The Underwater Dragon King must be insane for placing such a heavy object behind a secret door in the first place.
I took point and squeezed my way out, getting ready to rage at the stupid design of this "secret" door when you put something obstructing it. However, I was met with a scene that made me realise that I had just stepped into the middle of a war. There was a huge stack of collapsed, broken wood everywhere, and judging by the sight, it would appear that we had emerged from someone's collapsed house. Ah, now it made more sense. I was beginning to wonder why anyone would make such a strange door design in the first place.
Rose squeezed through and made a loud gasp as I scouted our surroundings for clues as to where we had emerged. This place looks familiar, but I can't quite place my finger on it since it's in such a wrecked state. Are we really in Marrydia?
Rose found something among the wreckage and called out to me, lifting up a plaque that showed us exactly where we were. The word "Mayor" was written on it.
"No other entrance, huh? Fairly certain he knew about this secret passageway when it's linked directly to his workplace," I sighed.
This does not bode well. If the mayor's building is in such a state, what about the rest of the city? Is he dead? Let's see… no sign of blood anywhere or any smell of decomposition, which is a good sign. Here's hoping that the mayor is still alive and kicking ass somewhere in the city with his soldiers. Rose and I stood at the edge of what remains of the mayor's building to get a better view of the city's situation.
Blood littered the streets no matter which direction we gazed, but there were no bodies to be found. Strange, it's almost like a bloodbath in this city, and from what I'm seeing, there should be casualties from either side. But why are there no bodies of the dead? That is certainly a strange yet bad sign.
"What should we do, Onii-chan? Where do we even go from here?" she asked, sounding worried.
"As with all wars, information is key. What we need right now is a situation assessment. There, that clock tower at the shipyard is the tallest building in the city. That's the best place for us to gain intel. Let's go, and keep your eyes peeled," I told her, to which she nodded in agreement.
Let's hope we don't meet up with anything strange along the way before we gather more info. I hate to be caught off guard.
***
What… the hell… is that?! Is that some sort of zombie? Why are his eyes swollen and pulsating like that? Oh my goodness, that is another horrid thing that I've ever seen in my life. We were making our way towards the clock tower but were met with a rather strange… thing that was walking about as though it was half-dead.
"What the fuck is that thing, Onii-chan?! Why does it look… like that? Is that supposed to be an elf?" she whispered.
"I've no idea, my dear wifey. Aside from those swollen, pulsating green broodsacs filled eyes, and some bite marks, the other parts do appear to be elven-like. I wonder if he's even still alive?" I answered.
"What a horrible way to die if that's true. If I end up like that, please, just kill me. I don't want my body to be sullied this way," she responded.
"Likewise. I'll take point while you cover me. We won't know how it'll react so— please keep me alive," I uttered to her as I walked out of cover into the open and proceeded cautiously towards the strange elf.
Seemingly unaware of my existence, it continued to face the opposite direction as I crouched towards its position. Should I perform a takedown or should I ensure whether it's hostile first? Hmm… I don't think that's a risk I'm about to take. Performing a takedown will expose myself to getting bitten, especially with my arm being so close to its mouth. I should gain its attention first to determine whether it's friend or foe.
I used Tengu-kaze's scabbard to poke it from behind since it was the longest thing I had with me and it turned to face me with zombie-like behaviour. Goodness gracious, it looked even more hideous up close. Those pulsating eyes are mesmerising but it's giving me hypnotic vibes. The elf approached closer to me but I kept my distance, asking it a couple of questions but was met with silence.
I decided that since it was not responding to words, there was no point in wasting time any further, and I took a swing using the blunt side of Inazuma at it. Despite hitting home, the elf made no reaction to getting hit. It lunged at me unnaturally, but I'd already moved aside, causing it to drop to the ground. No point in playing safe anymore; I should just kill it since it's acting relatively hostile.
I adjusted Inazuma with a quick spin of my grip to have the sharp end facing the proper way. Before I even thought of how I was going to attack the elf, Rose rushed in and stabbed through the eye of the elf and ripped out— "something"from within. Some sort of colourful green-banded looking worm was ripped out from one of the eyes, and she tossed it aside quickly. It wriggled for a while but eventually stopped moving, not before the body of the elf slumped to the ground motionless. What the hell is that thing? What's a worm of this size doing inside a body of a dead elf? It is dead, right?
Just when we thought we were safe, the elf's body began to rise again, seemingly defying all odds. It would appear that each eye contains a worm of its own. What the hell is going on here?!
"Onii-chan, we're going to have to kill the other worm if we want to put this one down. Shall we?" Rose asked.
"Guess we don't have a choice, do we? Let's kill these weird worms," I spat.
***
"Geez! How many are there inside this body?!" panted Rose as we finally made sure that the body no longer moved.
We inspected the inside of the body of the elf, and it was completely empty inside; all of the major organs and such were missing completely. The body was moving completely due to the many, many worms controlling its movements from the inside. No wonder it was moving all sluggishly like a zombie.
"Have you seen worms like this, Onii-chan? Why were there so many inside him? What was it trying to accomplish?" asked Rose as she was puzzled. There were about ten of these worms inside this single body alone.
"No idea, Rose. Some sort of parasitic flatworms or something. But something feels—off. From what I recall, these worms are usually non-hostile and turn their host into bait. Why was this one trying to attack us?" I pondered in thought.
"How do you know? You said you had never even seen such a worm before. Is your curse at work again?" asked Rose as she squinted at me.
"Well, I briefly recall reading about it before, I think?" I answered with a shrug.
"How do you know?" she asked again.
"You just asked this, Rose," I replied without turning my gaze towards her.
"How do you know?" she repeated once again.
"Rose, why are you… huh?" I glanced around as she was nowhere to be seen. Where did she go all of a sudden? Wait a minute… where— did the body of the worm and the elf go too? What the hell is going on?
I glanced around, trying to find anything but eventually noticed that my arms were… pulsating. Oh god, are they inside me now?! I traced the body of the worm and realised it was originating from my heart. I quickly took out the dagger behind my back and readied to stab myself, aiming for my heart directly to prevent myself from being taken over by these worms.
I was breathing frantically as I held the dagger close to my heart. I need to—stop these worms. Can't let them take over my body and sully it. I need to stab it, I need to stab it now! I was breathing extremely hard and frantically before deciding to take the swing. The dagger stopped short, just inches away from my heart. Something was seemingly preventing my arms from moving further, as though some imaginary arms were wrapped around mine. The worms must be preventing me from killing myself, which means I must be doing something right.
I pressed on, trying to move my arms further in, but I could barely move them as it felt as though more arms were trying to stop my movements. Fuck, I don't want to be a freaking worm zombie, move your damn arms, move!
As I continued my struggle, something heavy knocked my head from behind, causing me to lose consciousness. The last thing I recalled was cursing myself for not being able to stop myself from turning into some host body for the worms. Hopefully, whoever stumbles upon my body will end it quickly.
PS: The worms in question are green-banded broodsac that usually takes control of a snail's mind and turning them into some sort of zombie. Very interesting to research on and decided to use it in my story.