3 The Doors Opened (Part 2)

Heiness sprang up the moment she heard the news that came out of the soldier's mouth. She suddenly felt nervous at what could possibly be inside. It has been sealed for a long time after all, and the heroes themselves were even wary, that was the cause of her anxiety.

Therefore, this situation must not be underestimated.

"Send everyone to the entrance!"

The soldier left immediately and carried out his order.

"Well, that's interesting."

Neolen casually said as he stood up and grabbed his sword.

"Let's check it out."

The two knights moved out of the cabin. Heiness watched as she walked quickly at the soldiers quickly moving out and preparing their weapons.

"Make it quick people!" Heiness announced to everyone and that spurred everyone to move faster than they already were.

The pair of knights moved with the soldiers, leaving four to watch the outpost.

"You curious what could be inside?" Neolen asked.

"A little, but I think I would have preferred it remained closed…"

She just had a bad feeling that whatever was inside could be dangerous. Entering inside now was out of the question. But it would still be best to check the situation firsthand. With a fast stride, it took only a short time to arrive at the place.

However, Heiness stopped as well as the others when they saw the scene. Soldiers laid lifelessly on the ground, their armors undamaged, nor was there any blood. It was as if life just escaped them.

Then the most confusing thing of all, was the state of their body. Heiness was unable to process what she was beholding. Their faces were so thin that their skin wrinkled completely, and their cheeks had been seen through it. Not only their faces but also their hands.

It was like their fats and muscles had been taken out, or like how someone would be if they never ate at all, but worse than that. The corpses were complete husks.

As there were no signs of violence or struggle, it could be concluded there was no fight, but their swords were drawn.

Then shifting her eyes forward, there was something sprawled to the ground — no, it was someone. There was a person completely bare. Heiness glanced towards a group of soldiers and indicated towards that person.

The soldiers nodded and they slowly approached the person. Meanwhile, Heiness drew her sword and everyone else followed.

The soldiers on point pointed their swords towards that person, but kept their distance.

The person's body was so thin that it almost resembled the other corpses. Their skin was pale like a dead body, and they had long silver hair that reached to her waist.

"Oooh…"

Everyone raised their guard at the instant that they heard a groan from the person.

"Who are you?"

A soldier on point asked sternly.

Heiness had a weird feeling about all this. Who was this person? And what happened to the other soldiers? Did this person do it? But, this person wasn't that much different from the others. Perhaps another entity did it?

At that moment, the person raised their head, and Heiness saw a pair of beautiful blue eyes, as blue as the sea. From the way she saw it, it would seem that this person was perhaps a girl? She was quite young.

The girl slowly raised her hand.

"Don't move!"

The soldier shouted, but the woman did not stop. She moved her hand forward and clutched the ground and dragged herself forward. It must be painful to do so as her body grinded with the soil and pebbles. But it didn't stop the girl.

Heiness wanted to help, but it was too dangerous to be rash with this.

"... People…"

The girl muttered, desperation in her eyes.

"I said don't move!"

The soldier stepped forward and placed the point of his blade to the girl's forehead. The girl stopped in place, before she muttered again.

"Life… perfect…"

It was then that a cold air engulfed them, then a horrendous feeling stormed their body. Heiness heard a shriek as she fell to her knees as though her strength failed to carry her body. Something was weakening her.

When she looked forward, she saw some sort of white mist coming out of the soldier's entire body. All of the soldiers sent on point. The mist was coming towards the girl, and it looked like she was absorbing it. Then gradually, the soldiers thinned down until they became husk and fell to the ground lifelessly, the same as the other corpses.

Heiness eyes widened upon seeing this.

She wasn't affected much by the weakening, but she felt like something was absorbing something from her, though only faint. This could mean that phenomena had an effective range.

The girl was weak, so they could end this easily. She might be a curse sealed from the other side of that door.

"Neolen! Let's strike her down quickly!"

He nodded his head.

Heiness's sword radiated a cold white mist while Neolen's cackled with the power of lightning. As knights they were, they forced themselves and stood up before instantly charging forward. It was essential to strike her down in an instant. Otherwise, she might do to them what she did to the others.

They moved so fast that normal humans could barely follow them with their eyes. However, as their blades were about to touch the girl's skin, her body darkened before she turned into haze, causing their attacks to pass through the smoke and hit the soil instead.

They instantly looked back and saw the haze was going towards the common soldiers in a speed way faster than the two knights. Therefore, the soldier's were not able to react in time.

The haze went through the ranks of soldiers and then a person reformed at the rearmost part of the formation. At the instant, the soldiers froze in place and white mist came out of their body. This was happening to dozens of soldiers, and the rest that were lucky enough to be away from her ranged ran back frantically towards the knights.

"What is that?!"

"How should I know?!"

The soldiers' panicked questions rang in the air.

"Everyone, that's a monster, kill it!"

The pair of knights charged again as the soldiers close to the girl fell to the ground. The girl waved her hand, and an invisible blast sent them flying away with strong force. Heiness was in disbelief at that casual gesture.

But she and the other knight immediately regained their footing, it was then that they saw the girl who once looked terrible had started to change, her body transformed into a healthy girl with an alluring figure and flawless skin. As her face had turned healthy, everyone could now see the beauty of the one who easily took the life of their allies.

Heiness now understood what was going on. The girl was absorbing their energy or something. And she was using those to nourish herself.

Heiness almost trembled at the idea of how powerful this creature could be when she just swept them away with a simple wave. She was reminded of the stories she heard about the demon king who ravaged the land a long time ago.

The girl looked at her hand and spread her fingers as though checking her entire body. After that, she saw a faint smile form on the girl's lips as if she was feeling genuine joy.

Heiness glanced at Neonel, their eyes made contact and they subtly nodded their heads. They positioned their legs, it was then that the girl finally spoke to them with vigor.

"Give it up, it is futile to fight against me. You stand no chance."

It was a somewhat soothing voice, so soft and endearing to the ears. The girl merely stared blankly at them and everyone froze in place, given the intimidating presence the girl was giving out.

"Ah, it's quite embarrassing to be naked," she giggled. "Excuse me."

Her body glowed and a dress of smooth darkish blue appeared to cover her once exposed body. The dress was finely made, and the seams were pretty neat as if the entire thing was made with one cloth.

"Mm, much better."

Heiness was utterly creeped out by the casualness of this creature.

"Alright, who are you people?"

"Oi, look at you monster, shouldn't we be the ones asking that after you killed our men?" Neolen bravely asked.

"Monster? Wow, do I look like a monster to you? To me I definitely look like a human."

"Nah, your actions are monstrous enough."

The girl's eyes widened.

"Hahahahaha! Is that so? Then, if that's the case, isn't the entirety of the human race monsters then? Violent, annoying, traitorous."

The girl definitely thought of it as comical.

"Haaah, it's great to laugh at last, I miss it so much…" she said in a solemn tone. "I sincerely thank you. For that, you will get to live a second longer."

Heiness's grips on her sword tightened, the way she phrased it, this girl definitely had no intention of letting them live. Then there was no choice but to fight in the end. Besides, they couldn't let this monster go.

"Oh really? Well then, if it's fine with you to ask, what are you? No, rather, who are you?"

The girl grinned as her eyes sharpened.

"Greetings, I am Syndra Cerzana, nice to meet you… Does the name ring a bell?"

"... No clue."

Neolen casually said that, but Heiness was different. The name the girl just uttered, it felt like it was familiar. Where had she known of it? The gears of her brain turned at full speed until she finally remembered.

But her grip on the sword loosened as she had realized where that name came from. But she was in disbelief, it was impossible.

Neolen sensed the wavering of Heiness and he quietly called to her.

"Hey, what's wrong with you, focus."

" — sorry, it's just that… I know that name."

"What?"

"Oh! Really, hm I wonder what sort of things they said about me, must be pretty hurtful things. So then, Miss knight…? What do you know about me?"

"... You're… one of the heroes summoned to this world."

"What?!"

"Correct! What else?"

"... That you died inside that place, the forbidden dungeon…"

"What else?"

"... That's all…"

"...What?" The tone of her voice darkened which made everyone tense. "Are you serious? Nothing else? They didn't even say anything good about me after they threw me at death's maw?!"

Her enraged voice made the air itself shake in the sheer pressure that it even made the trees rustle.

"Unbelievable… no, I suppose this shouldn't come as a surprise. They are all traitorous scums anyway."

"So, you're originally a hero? You sure don't look like one, looking all evil and like. But you survive inside that place, huh?"

"Survive? Haha! No, not quite. In any case, I suppose you know about the other heroes?"

"We do, but it's not like we'll tell you anything," Heiness said.

"Yeah, you're too dangerous to be let loose. So we'll take you down here and now."

The girl, Syndra, chuckled in amusement.

"Okay, if that's what you want. We can talk better once you guys are dead anyway. Hm, let's see. Let me try this."

She snapped her fingers, and after that, the corpses twitched and glowing blue veins appeared all over their body. Slowly, they began to rise, growling as their dead yet sharp eyes glared towards the living.