This chapter is pretty boring. I just wrote it while thinking about what to do next. So yea….
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Knossos was way too quiet. The kind of quiet that made your skin crawl.
Zamasu walked ahead with Filvis slung over his shoulder, her body limp and bloody.
Lefiya stuck close, her boots scuffing against the uneven stone. She was gripping Forest Teardrop so hard her fingers hurt.
The sickly green glow from the crystals painted their shadows long and twisted across the walls.
The air was stale, smelling faintly of damp dirt and blood.
Every step echoed more than it should have. Even the slow drip of water somewhere in the dark felt uncomfortably loud.
Lefiya kept glancing around—at the shadows ahead, the side tunnels, even behind them—before her eyes always drifted back to Filvis's pale, unconscious face on Zamasu's shoulder.
The guy's calm was almost creepier than the place they were in.
He walked like they weren't in any danger at all, silver eyes quietly sweeping the area. No sign of strain or worry—just looking around like he was on a stroll.
Her own heartbeat felt way too loud compared to his quiet steps.
'How is he so calm?' she thought, remembering that golden blast that almost took Filvis's head off.
'He nearly killed her, and now he's hauling her around like a bag of grain. Does anything even rattle him?'
The tunnel just kept going, twisting so much Lefiya couldn't tell which way was which anymore.
Dark stone walls closed in on both sides, broken now and then by patches of sickly green crystal or holes that dropped into pure black.
The air shifted randomly, sometimes carrying faint sounds—skittering legs, a low groan, stone scraping on stone.
The place felt alive… and definitely not friendly.
Zamasu stopped. Not suddenly, but in that quiet, deliberate way of his that somehow made it worse.
Lefiya almost ran into him, catching herself on the wall as her heart kicked up. "What—?"
He didn't answer right away. Just tilted his head, listening.
His silver eyes locked on a side tunnel up ahead—darker than the others, half-hidden behind jagged rock.
The silence got heavier, and Lefiya suddenly felt way too aware of her own breathing.
Then she heard it. A wet dragging sound.
A low, bubbling moan followed.
Then another. And another.
Shapes began to emerge from the darkness, slowly shambling into view.
Lefiya's breath caught.
"Infected Infants," she whispered, her voice tight with fear.
They looked like twisted versions of people—pale, peeling skin and limbs bent the wrong way.
Their empty eye sockets glowed a faint green, the same color as the crystals around them.
Their mouths hung open, dripping black goo.
They moved jerkily, all over the place, pulled by the smell of blood and living things.
There were at least a dozen of them, maybe more, filling the tunnel.
Their moans mixed into a creepy, painful sound.
Panic hit Lefiya hard.
She was still drained, her magic almost gone after healing Filvis and herself.
Taking on that many of those things head-on was a death sentence.
"Zamasu, we have to run! Find another way!" Lefiya urged, her eyes darting down the corridor.
But Zamasu didn't move. He just watched the shambling group coming at them, his face unreadable. He adjusted Filvis on his shoulder, tightening his hold.
"No need," he said calmly, his voice steady over the growls and moans.
Before Lefiya could say anything, Zamasu moved toward the advancing Infants.
He kept his steady, calm pace, carrying Filvis like she weighed nothing. Lefiya could only watch, frozen with shock and fear.
When the first Infants got close, claws reaching out and mouths dripping, Zamasu acted. Without putting Filvis down or changing his hold, he moved his free arm.
A bony hand swung at his face. Zamasu caught the wrist fast with his left hand. There was a sharp crack as the bone broke.
He didn't hesitate—he twisted and slammed the injured Infant into two more coming up behind it, knocking them all down in a heap of broken limbs.
One of them lunged from the side, jaws snapping. Zamasu's foot shot out fast and hit the creature's chest with a crunch.
It flew back, hit the wall hard, and slid down, completely still.
He moved through them without stopping.
Dodging a grab, he elbowed another Infant in the skull. There was a wet cracking sound.
He kept walking, steady and calm.
A palm strike crushed ribs, a quick chop to the neck dropped another right away.
He used their own clumsy attacks against them, pushing them into walls or into each other.
Lefiya watched, both fascinated and scared.
This wasn't fighting—it was more like killing pests.
Zamasu took down the creatures like they were nothing, all while still carrying Filvis like a bag.
His power was crazy strong—way beyond what even top adventurers could do.
In no time, the corridor was a mess.
Broken bodies everywhere, limbs twisted weirdly, heads hanging loose, black ichor pooling on the floor.
The few Infants left behind seemed to hesitate, maybe realizing this fight was pointless.
Zamasu didn't even look at them. He just stepped over the twitching bodies like they were nothing and kept walking down the corridor, like he'd just cleared some trash out of his way.
Lefiya forced her shaky legs to keep up, eyes wide as she watched the mess Zamasu left behind.
They walked on in silence for a few minutes. The only sounds were Lefiya's heavy breathing and the faint, wet rasp from Filvis.
The hallway started sloping down, the air getting colder and damper.
The green crystal light faded away, leaving spots of almost total darkness where Lefiya had to really focus to see the path.
The feeling of being completely alone settled in.
Then, they heard something new—not moans, but low growls. Several of them, close by. And the soft sound of paws on stone coming from the dark ahead.
"Shadow Wolves," Lefiya whispered, tightening her grip on her staff. These weren't mindless infected like before—they were smart hunters from the deeper Dungeon floors.
Fast, coordinated, and able to blend into the shadows. Their dark fur soaked up light, making them hard to spot, and their claws could tear through steel.
A pack here, in these tight, dark tunnels, was a serious problem.
Zamasu stopped again. He didn't look worried, but he got more alert. His eyes scanned the dark like he could see right through it.
"Lots of enemies this tight of a space. Not really great for much movement," he said.
The growls got louder, coming from all around.
Lefiya saw red eyes glowing in the shadows—up ahead, on the sides, even behind some rocks by the path.
Maybe ten pairs, maybe fifteen. They were getting surrounded.
"Zamasu, we need light! They hunt in the dark!" Lefiya said, raising her staff and gathering what little mana she had left.
She could probably manage a small light spell to mess with their camouflage, but only briefly. "I can—"
"No need," Zamasu said.
A dark shape lunged from the left, a blur of snapping jaws aimed at Zamasu's legs.
Without dodging, Zamasu reacted. His free hand shot out, palm open. No chant, no flashy move — just a small, bright ball of golden energy appeared instantly in his palm.
With a quick flick, he launched it at the attacking wolf.
It wasn't a beam but a fast-moving projectile, too quick to see clearly.
It hit the Shadow Wolf in mid-leap.
No big explosion, just a sharp crack and a flash of golden light that lit up the corridor for a moment.
The wolf just vanished — gone from snarling muscle and shadow to a quiet shower of dark ash falling onto the floor.
Lefiya froze, her spell fading away. Disintegrated? Just gone?
But the others didn't back off. If anything, they got angrier.
Snarls came from every direction as more shadows slipped out of the darkness, attacking all at once.
Zamasu moved like a whirlwind, but precise and controlled.
He didn't waste energy with big blasts. Instead, he dodged a snapping jaw with a small shift of his body, then fired tiny ki blasts from his fingertips.
Each one hit perfectly — a quick flash of gold, a sharp crack, and a Shadow Wolf turned to dust.
When one lunged at his back, he didn't even look — just fired a blast over his shoulder.
It curved mid-air and the wolf disintegrated before it could reach him.
Zamasu moved with barely any effort.
A quick sidestep here, a pivot there, his arm snapping forward like a piston. Each tiny golden blast was instant death.
He kept Filvis safe, making sure no attack got near her.
In seconds, the wolves' coordinated attack fell apart.
Their growls turned to panicked yelps as they tried to run, but Zamasu's ki blasts chased them down, glowing like little golden comets.
Crack. Dust. Crack. Dust.
Lefiya just stood there, frozen, Forest Teardrop hanging loosely in her hand.
She watched in stunned silence, a mix of fear and awe settling in her gut.
No noise, no mess. It was clean, almost like a machine doing its job. Terrifying.
The Infants had been smashed, but the Shadow Wolves were just… erased. Gone.
Then, just like that, it was over.
The growls stopped. The glowing red eyes disappeared.
Only the faint smell of ozone and tiny specks of dust floating down the corridor remained.
Zamasu lowered his hand, the darkness swallowing the corridor again, lit only by the faint green crystals far away.
He shifted Filvis a bit and started walking like he'd just taken a quick break to swat some bugs.
Lefiya stumbled after him, her mind spinning. The silence felt heavier now, filled with the memory of that terrifying power.
She couldn't wrap her head around the calm, almost relaxed guy carrying an injured friend and the same person who could wipe out monsters like that.
"You… you destroyed them," she whispered, barely able to get the words out, her voice thick with shock.
Zamasu glanced at her and said simply, "I took care of it. It's faster this way."
He sounded pretty casual, like it was no big deal.
"It's easier than fighting them for a long time."
Lefiya shivered, hugging herself even though her injured limbs were starting to feel better.
They kept going, heading deeper down. The corridor opened up into a bigger cavern.
Here, signs of a battle were clear—older damage, not what Zamasu had just caused.
It pulled Lefiya's mind away from her worries for a moment, reminding her this place had seen worse fights.
Shattered stone was scattered all over the floor. Deep gouges, some still smoking a little, marked the walls—clearly from powerful magic blasts.
Dark, dried blood stained the rocks in places.
Then Lefiya saw it: a battered pauldron with the Loki Familia's emblem. It was dented and scratched but still easy to recognize.
"Raul's squad!" Lefiya said, rushing forward to grab the armor piece. Her heart beat faster with a flicker of hope.
"They were here. Recently! Look at those blast marks—that's Alicia's magic! And those claw marks? Probably a War Shadow! They fought their way through!" she said, pointing to the scars on the wall.
She quickly scanned the chamber.
More signs appeared—a broken dagger with the Loki Familia emblem on the pommel, crushed ration wrappers, and footprints in the dust leading to a worn tunnel exit on the far side.
The trail was messy, showing signs of a running fight, but it was something. A direction.
"They went this way!" Lefiya said, pointing toward the exit, feeling a sudden rush of energy pushing back her tiredness and worry.
"We have to follow! If we hurry, we might catch them!"
Zamasu glanced at the blast marks and gear, then gave a slow nod.
"Yeah, this path is more likely to lead to your team." He shifted Filvis a little. "Let's go."
Lefiya didn't waste any time. A small spark of hope lit up inside her as she hurried toward the tunnel. Zamasu followed, walking steadily.
The tunnel got wider and taller, showing signs people passed through often.
The green light was a bit stronger, lighting up broken weapons, dead monsters, and dried blood.
They were definitely getting closer to the rest of the raid.
After a few minutes, the tunnel opened up into a bigger room.
Chapter 44 end