Chapter 26: Prison
~o~
Orario Times
Issue 45912
"Orario in Flames!"
By Elena Ibis of Thoth Familia
The deadliest attack in the history of Orario occurred yesterday, cementing Evilus' place as the worst organization to have ever existed since the city's founding. In broad daylight, blood stained the ground and explosions rocked the foundation as evil roamed the streets and alleyways in lunatic bands, massacring anyone they could find. In broad daylight, pillars of light flared into the sky as even the gods weren't exempt.
It was Orario's most dire straits ever, the likes of which had never been seen before, even in Zeus and Hera's time. In fact, if those two familias were still here, would we be in these dark times? Even as heroes stepped up in the chaos and brought the dark tide to a halt, even I—the esteemed and award winning reporter—cannot help but think that this would never have happened under Zeus and Hera's rule.
Still, eventually, Loki, Freya, and Ganesha familia prevailed, though not without help. Evilus sought to entrap the people within by taking over the four gates of Orario, but Megumin, seeing through their devious plans, blew the south gate in a grand explosion spell, allowing some of the city to flee to safety beyond the walls and forcing Evilus to redirect a portion of their forces to close that gap.
That includes the black knight who had defeated Ottar, the city's strongest adventurer. Even now, the black knight remains there, unable to move away and cause mayhem elsewhere. With one of their most potent forces disabled, a tense peace ensued in Orario that had lasted throughout the night.
But what will today bring?
~o~
"How long are we just going to wait around!? We need to go and save Kazuma already!"
Finn stayed quiet as Alise's voice echoed throughout the meeting room, but he wasn't the only one doing this. The executives of Freya and Ganesha Familia acted similarly, appearing solemn as they allowed the young woman to vent her frustrations.
"Calm down, Alise," Darkness said as she placed a hand on Alise's shoulder. "If we rush this, things could get worse."
"...I know. Sorry, I'm…" Alise looked down and sighed. "It's just…he almost died and right after that, he gets captured. How are you able to be so calm about this?"
"Kazuma will be fine. He's been in worse situations before," Darkness reassured. "In fact, that idiot could have escaped by now if he wasn't having such a good time."
"Huh?" Alise asked. "Why would he be having a good time?"
Finn coughed into his fist to grab everyone's attention.
While he could understand Alise's grief, they weren't in a position to just rush out there to try and save Kazuma either. Not only did they not even know where he was being held, but there was a letter from Evilus that had been delivered to them in the dead of night, carried by a freed captive who had suffered horrifically.
The demand was simple. If Megumin used her explosion spell again, Kazuma would be executed.
"What do we do?" Finn asked the room. "If Megumin doesn't cast her spell once a day, she'll die."
"Oh, um…" Megumin tentatively raised her hand. "That's an exagg—I mean, it doesn't apply anymore. I only need to cast explosion once a week—no, a month!"
"...okay, that gives us some leeway," Finn slowly said, deliberately ignoring some of the frankly alarming changes she was making mid-sentence. "That still leaves us with a problem."
In order to break Evilus' siege on the city, Megumin's explosion spells were necessary. While Riveria's spell could do a lot of damage, it couldn't be compared to the absolute destruction that Megumin's spell could wreak on structures. That was because Riveria's spells were focused on anti-personnel on a large scale—essentially anti-army—while Megumin's had no real focus; she simply blew everything away regardless of type.
A little known fact, buried in the long thousand year history of the city, was that the walls were not designed to prevent an external invasion. No, it was created to imprison what was inside. That was because, if the dungeon were to ever be unleashed, it would be a return to the ancient times when the world was overrun by monsters. That meant that the wall was made to be indestructible, even in the face of high level spells. The fact that Megumin's explosion spell could destroy it was something that shouldn't have been possible, but reality had proven that her spell was the exception.
Destroying even one more gate would put Evilus at a massive disadvantage, even more so than the present situation. A third gate destruction would essentially break the siege, allowing evacuation of the city's more vulnerable populace.
For Finn, it felt like it would be worthwhile, but the same couldn't be said for everyone.
"Why should it matter to us?" Allen Fromel, vice captain of Freya Familia, scoffed derisively. "If there's an escape route, then all the weaklings would just flee like the cowards they are."
It wasn't a wrong statement.
The moment that a way to escape the city was possible, it was likely that most familias, along with their deities, would simply leave. That would place most of the burden of fighting Evilus on the few that stayed, most of whom were represented within this very room. There was no way that they would be able to cover a city of this size. That meant that, even at the cost of civilian lives, they couldn't afford to open a true escape route.
Thankfully, with the remnant of Zeus Familia, Zard the Predator, pinned to the crumbled southern gate, the situation was a bit better. Ottar's loss to Zard was something that couldn't be covered up; it had been seen by way too many people since their fight had been long and catastrophic. Morale was already low from that, but if it was found out that Kazuma had been kidnapped, it would be even worse.
"We'll have to release a statement that Kazuma and Megumin were injured in the fighting."
"Wait, why am I included in that?!" Megumin shouted, jumping up from her seat.
"Do you have any other spells besides explosion?"
"Of course not!"
"Then that should answer your question," Finn replied. "You won't be able to contribute, and you'll still be a primary target for Evilus. We can't spend all our time protecting you for no reason."
Megumin visibly deflated, falling back down into her seat.
"This is also our response to them," Finn stated, glancing at everyone at the table. "They'll know from this that we are taking Megumin out of play."
"This puts us at a disadvantage," Gareth said gruffly.
"No, it doesn't." When the people at the table looked at him questioningly, Finn said, "Unlike before, we now have a clear target."
Ottar, the captain of Freya Familia, slightly leaned forward in his seat.
"They had always used hit and run tactics like ambushes and surprise attacks before fading back into the crowd. However, that isn't exactly possible for all of them now, is it?"
"The ones at the gates."
"Exactly. We'll eliminate them directly." Finn tapped his finger down on the map on the table. "We'll scale the walls and move along its length toward the gates."
"Won't they have patrols on the wall?" Gojouno Kaguya asked skeptically.
"The more, the better. The wall is so long that any patrol on them would be stretched thin, making it easy for us to handle them." The pallum grinned. "They haven't adjusted their strategy with the changing conditions of the battlefield."
"Changing conditions?"
"They planned for a siege, but it's barely one now, thanks to Megumin." He nodded his head at the short human mage. "And yet, they are still trying to hold on to it by restraining her explosion spell. If they had given it up, they wouldn't have even put out that demand. After all, she can't use her spell inside the city without causing too much collateral damage."
"Maybe it's a trick."
"I wouldn't put it past Arachnia," Finn said, emphasizing Valletta Grede's alias venomously. "But I don't believe it is. Megumin's action had severely disrupted their plans. If I were Arachnia, I would be busy trying to save and reorganize my most crucial ones."
"Indeed," Gareth said. "She won't have time to care about guard placement, but we'll need to strike soon."
"And we will. Arachnia thinks people are expendable, even her direct subordinates," Finn said decisively, placing his finger down on the wall of Orario again. "So we'll bleed them out until even she can't ignore it anymore. At the same time, we'll capture some of them alive and find out where they had taken Kazuma. Are you with me?"
"You have my sword!" Darkness shouted, rising up from her seat.
"But you can barely use a sword…"
"And you have my staff!" Megumin yelled, standing up on top of her chair.
"We already said you can't use your magic…"
"And my hagoromo!" Aqua bellowed, surging up from her chair.
"What is a hagoromo…?" Finn asked slowly, just before he shook his head. "Never mind. That's not important. What we need to do now is to prepare for the operation."
"It would be more advisable to conduct this under the cover of darkness," Riveria said. "But knowing Arachnia, that would give her too much time. How long do we have?"
"Two hours," Finn said, looking determined. "We strike at noon."
~o~
Valletta Grede, the executive and mastermind of Evilus, was not in a good mood as she stalked through the adamantite hallway. After the disaster yesterday, they barely had the chance to sleep.
While it would seem like a victory for Evilus at first, it was—in actuality—a complete failure. They had managed to kill enough to satisfy the peons, but this was supposed to be the start, the foundation for a week-long plan that would end in Orario's complete destruction. However, that bastard pallum—Finn Deimne—had already set up a counter to such a scenario by using something unexpected and inconceivable.
The chaos was supposed to prevent Finn from thinking up a counter for as long as possible, but all of her precautions had been for naught. He had pre-authorized Megumin to use her explosion spell within city limits. Worse, the mage had done it without hesitation, effectively ruining her plans, though it had been in an unexpected way. If her spell had hit a city district, the resulting catastrophe would have still dragged down Finn. However, using it on the wall? That had never even been a possibility in her mind, yet that damn pallum had done it, outplaying her.
Now, Valletta was busy running damage control.
Stationing Zard at the south gate was only a temporary solution—a bandage—to stop the hemorrhaging. Sealing the wound was impossible; she could only use it to buy some time. The wall was a lost cause, but it would still serve some use, not that any of these idiots would appreciate the success or complexity of her plans.
Upon seeing her, her vice-captain ran up to her.
"Valletta, I'm back with a report."
"Hurry up. Don't waste my time with formalities."
"We've managed to bring up almost half of the cages to the wall."
"Half? Only half?!"
"One night is not nearly enough time to transport everything."
Valletta was apoplectic, but she managed to reign in her anger. It wouldn't be enough to flood the city in a monster wave. However, what could she do? She had worked her crew almost half to death throughout the night to get even that many up there.
Maybe she should have killed a couple to make them work faster. Unfortunately, she hadn't gotten that foresight earlier, and it was too late now to do anything about it.
"What about the prisoner?"
"Kazuma Satou? We haven't had much luck. Lord Erebus isn't allowing us to take more severe methods."
Valletta frowned, but there was nothing even she could do without going there personally. In Evilus, if she was the leader on the mortal side, then Erebus was the same for the gods.
Normally, with hostages, even if they kept them alive, torture and maiming weren't out of the question. That was because, as long as they were still breathing, their falna's connection to their patron god wouldn't be severed. However, even then, they still couldn't push too far; dying from the accumulated wounds and injuries wasn't an uncommon occurrence, and it would render the entire point of taking a hostage null if that were to happen.
However, Erebus seemed to be taking an even more cautious approach since Kazuma Satou was a special case. It was understandable; his ability to teleport not only himself but others as well was a first. There had never been anything even remotely close to it. Not only that, but the utility and possibilities of it were endless.
"I'll take care of him myself."
Of course, Valletta wasn't too stuck on the idea. If he proved too stubborn, then she would just use him in other ways. Like how would the goddess Eris feel if her wayward child had his throat slit in front of her?
Just the thought of it made her feel anticipation.
However, she was practical. She would need to use his life and death to at least assassinate Megumin in order to balance the scales once again. That was the minimum benefit she needed to extract from Kazuma's corpse.
It was at that moment that another of her minions ran up to her, looking out of breath. Even before recovering his breath, he spoke while wheezing.
"T-The prisoner is dead!"
~o~
In a room of adamantite walls, a mithril cage—the very same kind that they used to imprison captured monsters—sat at the very center. Inside the cage, Kazuma Satou was lying on the ground with a metal collar around his neck. It was attached by a chain to one of the bars of the cage, designed to constantly drain his magic through the conductive metal and into the embedded magic stone. This was supposed to make him easy to guard since he would be practically helpless.
It was not something that the guard was supposed to take advantage of.
By the time that Valleta Grede had gotten there, there was already a group of people crowding around the cage. While the door to the cage was open, there was only one person in there: a gruff man in a plague doctor uniform: a dark coat and a beaked gas mask. He had his ungloved hand over Kazuma's mouth, but feeling an intense gaze, he looked up and saw her approaching him. Knowing what she wanted to ask, he slowly shook his head, confirming her suspicion.
Kazuma Satou was dead.
Even at a glance, Valletta could tell. His face was pale, and his chest wasn't moving. It didn't look like he had been beaten, but it could be hidden under the clothes. More important than that was the fact that her plans were in ruins. Having him as a hostage was a stopgap measure, but with even that now gone, it put her into a dire situation. The corpse's goddess would immediately know what happened through their severed connection, and that meant that it wouldn't be long before Finn finds out about it.
They were now on a time limit, but first things first.
"...bring me that guard."
From the crowd, two men dragged a toned werewolf woman in skimpy clothes. There were shackles on her wrists, and she was struggling with a look of fear on her face, but the two warriors forced her forward onto her knees. The moment she was in front of Valletta, she started spouting out words like a broken faucet.
"Please! You have to believe me! He was just so annoying that I was just going to punch him once, but before I could, he fell down and died by himself! I didn't do any—ack!"
Valletta's hand had snaked out and closed onto the woman's throat, constricting it enough that only a strangled gasp could filter out. Just when she was about to crush her throat, a voice spoke out from the crowd, one that she couldn't ignore.
"She's not lying."
Valletta crushed the werewolf's throat anyway before turning to glance at the speaker. The woman who emerged from the crowd was someone who she didn't like interacting with. Even then, that woman was necessary for the festival, and she was far stronger than her, as much as she was loath to admit it.
"Was that truly necessary? Now, the only person who knows what really happened is dead."
"Did you rush here after you came back from the surface?"
The remnant of Hera Familia, Alfia of the Silence, slightly opened her narrowed eyes, revealing an icy gaze that seemed to penetrate everyone present.
"That's not your concern. Answer the question."
"Does it matter?" Valletta scoffed. "What's important is that Kazuma Satou is dead. Now, everything will need to be changed."
"They might have to be," Alfia said, closing her eyes. "But this is not the place to talk about that."
"Fine."
Valletta turned to the plague doctor.
"Cut off his head and preserve it. I'll need it to—"
"Wait, wait! I'm up, I'm up!"
Kazuma suddenly sprung to his feet, looking far more alive than he was just seconds ago. His face had fully regained its color, and he wasn't acting injured at all. Everyone in the room beside one person simply stared at him in disbelief.
"Oh?" Alfia looked pleasantly surprised, unlike the rest of the people around her. "How interesting. I didn't even hear a heartbeat until now."
Valletta felt a vein almost burst in her head. Was this damn joker messing with her!? She'd make him wish he actually was dead.
"You bastard!" Valletta took a step toward him, but Alfia moved in front of her. "Get out of my way."
"No."
"Why not!?"
"I wish to speak with him. Alone."
There was a brief staredown between the two, but Valletta eventually backed down from the confrontation. Alfia was far stronger than her and only Erebus could order her around so there was nothing she could do it. She wasn't foolish enough to try and test Alfia of the Silence over something like this.
So, reigning in her anger, she turned around and stalked away.
~o~
Well, that didn't work.
Kazuma Satou was back to where he started, stuck in a cage with a chained collar like a stray mutt. The idea was to use Feign Death to get them to take off the collar and use that moment to teleport away. Of course, that idea went out the window the moment that guy with a bird beak mask started taking out a blade. It was pointless to keep up the act when they were going to saw off his neck, all without unlocking the collar first.
However, instead of sitting on the floor, Kazuma was now seated on a wooden chair. Also, instead of being alone in the cage, the one in the opposing chair was Alfia.
She didn't speak, and neither did he.
They both stared at each other in complete silence.
Alfia of the Silence was what they had called her. An epitaph that had been given to her by the gods. The same woman who had shown up by herself at his familia's church. The same one who had told him about her sister. And the very same woman who had been fighting against his allies before he and Alise showed up.
And now, she was here again.
It seemed like she was working with Evilus and with how that crazy purple-haired psycho seemed to obey her, she might even be one of their higher-ups. He couldn't help but think something seemed off, however. Why was she working with Evilus? What was her objective here? It didn't make sense to him because if she really was working with Evilus, she could have killed him during any of their meetings back at the church.
Not that he would have stayed dead with Aqua around, but still, it would have been a hassle.
Oh wait, Aqua did mention months ago that she was having issues with that…
In any case, on the battlefield, she had him dead to rights. Not that anything would have actually happened; he was pretty confident that he would have been alright regardless. However, Alfia didn't know that.
"You look like you have something to say, Kazuma Satou."
He frowned. "Is it that obvious?"
"It's written all over your face."
"Why are you working with Evilus?"
Her eyes flicked toward the cell door, then back to him. "Regardless of my reasons, I'm still your enemy."
"It just doesn't make sense to me," he replied. "You don't seem like them."
"Oh?" A hint of something that reminded him of amusement touched her voice. "You presume to know me?"
Kazuma just shrugged in response.
"I know enough. You don't give me the same vibes."
"And pray tell, what 'vibes' are those?" Alfia dryly asked.
"Psycho, power-hungry, loves the sound of her own voice way too much," he said, ticking off fingers. "A typical two-bit villain from some crappy anime."
A beat passed. Then two.
"And you think I'm different?" She eventually asked, her voice cool and clinical. "Do you know how much blood is on my hands already?"
Kazuma just scoffed.
"I didn't say you were a saint. You just don't give off that 'murdering is fun' vibe." He leaned forward, his shackle rattling slightly. "Is whatever you're after worth working with them?"
Her silence was telling.
"Do you think your sister would be happy with this?"
Alfia's eyes turned sharp, but Kazuma didn't look away, even if he really did want to flinch. This woman could be pretty damn terrifying when she wanted to be.
Another silence soon enveloped the room. This one stretched longer than the last.
"...has anyone ever told you that you talk too much, Kazuma Satou?"
"Yeah. Pretty regularly, actually," he replied with a smirk. "Still waiting for your response, by the way."
"I don't plan to make one."
"Tch." Kazuma clicked his tongue and leaned back into his chair. "So, what are you here for then? To keep me company?"
"Making sure that the fools don't kill you. Or worse," Alfia simply answered. "There's someone who is very interested in speaking to you."
"Oh, great. It sure is nice being this popular," he sarcastically replied. "I'm sure after this 'talk' with whoever, you're just going to let the rest of those thugs do whatever they want, right?"
"If you persist in being an annoyance."
Silence once again filled the room.
Alfia seemed content just sitting there in silence with her eyes closed. Kazuma couldn't say the same, however. He was already getting antsy. He didn't even know how long he had been a prisoner for; there wasn't any sunlight in this room so he had long lost track of time. It could have been a few days or even a week. He wasn't sure, but the fact that no one had come to rescue him yet didn't exactly bode well for him.
"Hey."
"What is it?" Alfia asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"How long has it been since you brought me here?"
"Twelve hours. Now, be quiet."
Oh, so it wasn't all that long.
Still, he really needed to figure out a way to get out of here. If only half a day felt like days, he didn't want to imagine how an actual week would feel like. Sure, he had been defeated by two very big reasons—and it was very well worth it at the time—but nobody was perfect. It wasn't like he was some overpowered isekai main character with cheat skills after all so they couldn't blame him for losing every now and then. Once he finally got out of here, he would be sure to not make the same mistake a third time.
Though, he had to admit, unlike the first time, these felt all natural.
"Hey."
No response.
"Hey, I need to use the toilet."
Still nothing.
"Hellooooo?" He started tapping his chair's armrest. "You there?"
One of her eyebrows twitched.
"Must you be so incessantly loud?" she replied, sounding quite annoyed with her eyes still closed. "If you need to go about your business, then do so."
"How am I going to do that while you're still here?" Kazuma glanced at the 'toilet' in the corner, which was essentially two buckets.
"Are you embarrassed?" Alfia scoffed. "I couldn't care less about your little toothpick."
"W-Who's got a little toothpick!? It's an Excalibur!" Kazuma shot back, turning slightly red. "It's a legendary sword, alright? It's just…uhh…sealed! I can show you its full power, but I'll need a little help for that…"
Alfia didn't even bother dignifying that with a response.
"...so you gonna let me have some privacy or what?"
"No."
"This is inhumane! What, are you just into voyeurism? Sorry to break it to you, but I'm not into that. You'd be better off talking to Darkness."
She cracked one eye open. "...your capacity for shamelessness is truly unparalleled."
"Says the one with the voyeurism fetish."
Another eyebrow twitch.
"You're worse than Zeus," she grumbled to herself. "Maybe I should have just let Archania have her way."
"Hey, I heard that! So, you really are a sadist after all! I'm not into femdom, alright!?"
Without so much as a warning, Alfia stood up to her feet and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"Would you just shut up already—"
The door to the room suddenly flung open and a smiling black-haired man that had the unmistakable aura of a god stepped into the room.
"Hey there! How's it going, guys?" The god paused and then blinked. "Oh. Am I interrupting something here?"
Alfia quickly let go of his collar and coughed into her fist. Her cheeks were slightly red.
"No. Feel free to speak with him."
The god in question just smiled in response. Alfia stepped out of the way and let him sit in the chair directly across from Kazuma.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Kazuma Satou! My name's Eren. I've been wanting to speak with you for a while now."
The first thing that came to mind for Kazuma was that this guy had the most punchable face he had ever seen. For some reason, he really wanted to punch this guy in the face. Maybe because he was such a damn pretty boy. But more than anything, he just gave off the vibe of a liar, especially with his narrow eyes, such that he couldn't even see his pupils.
He would know since he was also someone who lied all the time.
"Tell me, Kazuma Satou," the narrow-eyed liar began. "What is justice?"
"...justice?"
"Yes." Eren leaned forward. "Regale to me your idea of what justice is."
"Justice is where the heart is, teehee!"
"...you know, as a god, I can immediately tell if you're lying." Eren had a disgusted look on his face. "And don't use that mannerism ever again. It's nauseating to even think about."
"My justice is the drill that will pierce the heavens!"
"Stop with the nonsense."
"I am a proponent of lazy justice."
"What does that even mean…?" The god quickly shook his head, as if to dispel the thought. "Never mind that. Why are you avoiding the question?"
"I'm answering to the best of my ability."
"That's…" Eren's face twisted. "...not a lie."
"Besides, why does it even matter?"
"As the Hero of Justice, I would have expected a more definite answer. Such as following the core tenets of Orario's laws."
"The government? You think justice is about what's legal and illegal?" Kazuma's face scrunched up. "That's not right. Is it justice for erotic visual novels to be restricted above a certain age limit? No, that's tyranny! It is the duty of those with power to right the wrongs of society!"
"That's not a lie, but I feel that this conversation is starting to stray away from common sense…" Eren muttered. "And what is a 'visual novel'?"
"Should the girl who formed a verbal binding contract to get married to her childhood friend when they grow older not be jailed for breaking her oath? How is it that she could sit on the back of a delinquent's bicycle, not even recognizing her childhood friend when they rode past? Isn't that netorare? That's injustice, plain and simple!"
"Why do you believe in something so nonsensical? Are you really the Hero of Justice?"
"It's because I am the Hero of Justice that I can confidently say that my justice is mainstream! NTR is a trash fetish! I may have enjoyed some doujins about it a few times, but that was purely fictional and only because the art was good! In real life, it must be punished to the fullest extent. In fact, as a proponent of gender equality, I'd give a reality-changing smack to all three participants!"
"...am I the one who doesn't truly understand then?" Eren grasped his head, brushing back his hair. "What is it that Astraea sees in you…?"
"No. No, it's not," Alfia said, intervening into the conversation with an annoyed look on her face. "Stop messing around, Erebus."
"...don't call me Erebus here. I'm Eren right now, remember?" Despite saying that, Eren easily regained his composure, though he took off the scarf around his neck. He turned his gaze back to Kazuma. "I think I understand your viewpoint now. Justice and injustice are subjective and relative to you, isn't it?"
"I don't know about that, but it would probably be justice to punch you in the face."
"Because I'm a part of Evilus?"
"No." Kazuma shook his head. "It's because I just don't like you."
"Indeed, indeed." Eren nodded to himself. "I see now. Your justice really is subjective."
"How is that subjective? I think I speak for most of Orario in that making you a little uglier would be best for the world. In fact, get me out of these chains and let me be the first volunteer!"
"Not many would speak so freely about harming a god nor be so truthful about it," Eren said with a laugh as he stood up from his chair. "It's been interesting, Kazuma Satou, but my time is short. I hope our next chat will continue to be just as amusing."
"You're leaving?"
"Yes," the god said lightly. "We can't very well have a true conversation on a shoddy stage like this."
"Wait, what about my safety?"
"Safety?" Eren glanced over at Alfia who merely nodded.
"Valletta had overstepped her bounds. Her servant tried to harm him, and when that didn't work, she attempted to do it herself until I intervened."
"Hm, I'll have a talk with her," Eren intoned with a frown. "For now, it's best if no one enters this room until one of us returns. Set a lock on the door."
"Oi!" Kazuma shouted, pretending to look alarmed. "What if you don't return?!"
"Then you'll have to starve to death, I suppose."
It was only after Eren and Alfia left the room that Kazuma let the tension out of his body. As much as he would like to say otherwise, dealing with beings that were living lie detectors was always a hassle. Fortunately, Eris—being from a different world and system—didn't seem to have that ability so he didn't have to deal with it at home.
At least now, he didn't have any guards watching over him. Without witnesses, there was no need for him to hold back anymore. He reached a hand up to his metal collar.
"Drain Touch."
Unlike his other spells which used mana which would get siphoned from him before he could cast the spell, this ability didn't have that issue. It was the innate skill of the undead class, and since it could steal both health and mana, it would be odd if it needed mana to drain mana. Of course, that was just a guess—since it could have used such a low amount of mana that he never noticed regardless of the fact that he never had that high of a mana pool—but it seemed like it was the correct answer.
However, nothing came out of the collar. Frowning, he moved his hand to the chain, but nothing came out of that either. If there was no mana in either of them…
His eyes moved to the bar that the chain was attached to.
There were two possibilities. The metal was either too thick for Drain Touch to pierce through or his mana was being drained through a pipeline. For now, he had to test the latter; it was the only option that held some hope of escape.
It was only after feeling around the bars while using Drain Touch that he finally found a reaction.
"...the floor?"
It was only a tiny bit of mana that he was siphoning, but it showed him a direction. He slid his hand across the ground, following the trail. It was at the corner of the cage where the drain was at its strongest.
Was this…a magic stone…?
It had a familiar feel, but it was faint.
Feeling outside the cage—through the bars—revealed nothing but the smooth walls of the cage. However, the drain significantly increased when he hovered his hand over one section. That must have been where the hidden compartment was. Even as he continued to use Drain Touch, he continued to search for it, fingering every part of the metal.
If a guard had been here, he would have already been stopped by now.
"Where is it, where is it, where is—ah."
Kazuma blinked.
It was not that he found the compartment; the reason for his confusion was that the drain from Drain Touch had completely stopped all of a sudden. No matter where he put his hand around the area, there was no reaction anymore.
However, a devious grin slowly came onto his face.
How could he not know what happened? After using high quality magic stones for so long as a fuel source, he was already used to this: the magic stone crumbling to dust after being completely drained.
"Unlock."
His completely restored mana fueled the wizard-class spell without being drained, allowing the spell to form. The collar clicked as it popped open and fell off his neck, hitting the ground with a rattle from its chain. Now, he could escape immediately or he could wreak as much havoc as possible in their base before teleporting out of here.
And considering the amount of crap Evilus had been putting him through lately…
The choice was an obvious one.
It was time for some payback!
~o~
Valletta frowned as one of the lights in the hallway cut off again.
This was the third one she had seen already. Who was the one responsible for switching out the depleted magic stones? The idiot couldn't even do his job correctly with how many lights were flickering on and off.
Up ahead, she could see someone doubled over by a wall puking his guts out.
That was already the sixth person she'd seen suffering from a bout of food poisoning in the last hour. What the hell was going on here? She knew that most of the idiots they had recruited were incompetent, but this was getting ridiculous. They couldn't even keep the food stores properly clean now?
Ah, her mood was getting even worse.
She really needed to kill someone. As if that damn silence wench looking down on her wasn't even enough. Now she had to deal with managing all these idiots who couldn't even do the simplest of jobs correctly.
A pallum frantically ran down the opposite hallway, nimbly jumping over some puke on the ground as he rushed toward her.
"B-Boss, they're attacking the wall!" the pallum yelled. "It's Braver and his group!"
God damn it!
As if she didn't have enough shit to worry about already.
"What the hell are you waiting for then!? Get out there and fight! Tell all the idiots to carry some explosives with them!"
"Y-Yes ma'am!"
The pallum scurried off leaving Valetta to stew.
"Can't rely on anyone here…" she grumbled to herself as she began making her way down the halls.
Further up ahead, she could see a few clothed Evilus members who were busy transporting large boxes of bombs toward the walls. One person was carrying a large crate on each side of him. She stormed past them, making her way further down the hallway before she suddenly heard a loud explosion.
Turning her head back, she could see the remains of what used to be people. Blood stained the halls and—while the explosions weren't strong enough to blow up any of the adamintate walls—it still made a mess.
Was this a damn joke? Were these idiots so incompetent that they couldn't even transport some explosives properly now?
Valletta could see that there was still one survivor from the original transport group still alive. Her legs were missing from the knee down, but she was still breathing for now. Storming over there in a fury, Valletta grabbed the idiot by the neck and pinned her against the wall.
"What the hell happened!?"
"G-Gah! I-I don't know!" The elf girl stammered out in pain. "One of the boxes suddenly blew up! I don't know what happened!"
"Are you fucking with me!?" Valletta squeezed harder. "Bombs don't just suddenly blow up for no reason!"
The elf girl's neck snapped, and she fell limp in her hands. Valletta swore before simply tossing the corpse off to the side. Absolutely useless trash, the lot of them. They couldn't even transport explosives properly now. Unbelievable. That bastard Finn wasn't better than her, if he had to work with the same level of incompetence she had to deal with on a daily basis, he'd be dead ten times over by now.
A second explosion rang out. Further away from her this time, but her enhanced hearing as a high-level adventurer could easily pick up the noise. And then another explosion from a floor directly above her.
"What the fuck is going on!?"
Valletta growled as she picked up her pace and started to sprint up toward the floor above her.
"B-Boss!"
That same irritating voice from before grabbed her attention. The pallum she had already told off earlier was running straight for her again, holding a piece of paper in his hand.
"What is it now!?"
"S-Someone found this attached to the door to the weapons storage room!"
"Give me that!" Valletta snatched the piece of paper from his hands.
On the parchment was a crudely drawn picture of what looked like a boy pulling his eyelid down and sticking his tongue out. Right below the drawing were two simple words:
Later, losers!
-Kazuma
Valletta felt one of her eyes twitch in response.
"The prisoner!" She snarled. "What happened to him!?"
"W-What? I-I don't know! No one has been inside since Erebus' orders!"
Valletta pushed the fool out of her way before she rushed toward the room where Kazuma was supposed to be held. She cut open the lock with her sword and kicked down the door before rushing inside, only to feel a splash of water fall directly over her head. It was followed by a bucket falling down on top of her head, harmlessly bouncing off.
Looking down at the liquid, the rancid smell suddenly caused her to realize that it wasn't water, but something else entirely. A quick glance showed her that one of the buckets in the prisoner's cage was missing. Valletta's whole body started shaking as she clenched her fists so hard that her nails were digging into her skin, drawing blood.
"B-Boss?" The pallum from before finally caught up. "W-What happened?"
"...BRING ME HIS HEAD!"
~o~