Special Chapter XV - Fear (part 1)

When the final undead dropped down from the captain's slash, everyone else dropped their butts on the floor.

They're all panting for air. They have been fighting for a very long time, and their stamina was very close to running out. Everyone let go of their weapons and even took out water bottles to drink.

"Oh, god. That was too much..."

Belmar said as he tried gasping for air while sitting on the ground. On his right, Gajah isn't doing any better.

"Well... Hah... I... Can't even... Move..."

Once the fight was over, Gajah immediately dropped his body to the ground and lay down. He took out a water bottle from his bag and drank it while still being laid back. He choked on the water, and immediately sat up to cough it out.

"It's not over yet. We have to help the mask."

Kirene said as she turned towards the next entrance. 

She was always the strongest in terms of physical strength, so it doesn't really confuse everyone seeing her still standing. Aside from her, the only one who can still stand is the captain.

"That's right. Drink some energy drinks or something. We have to help her out."

Hearing the captain's words, Gajah quickly became reminded of something. He turned his gaze to the captain and asked.

"Say, captain. Why did you call her Rize, earlier? Wasn't his name Rile?"

The captain turned his gaze to Gajah.

"Rile?"

The captain pondered over what Gajah meant. Seeing the confused captain, Gajah confirmed it, and quickly asked another question.

"And you said 'her', was that mask guy a lady?"

"Y-Yeah… Wait, you just know?"

The knights and Gajah's group nodded. The captain suddenly felt stupid for leaking out such an important detail. He covered his mouth with his hand.

"Whoops."

"Anyways, we have to help her."

Belmar stood up. For some reason, he gained confidence from just knowing that Rile is a her.

"Everybody, get up. The battle isn't over yet!"

The captain commanded his knights. Everyone else also started to stand back up while drinking some water or energy drinks. But before they can walk, an explosion can be heard from the top.

BARR!!!

"W-What was that?"

Gajah suddenly became alerted, and so did everybody else. The explosion sounded quite far, so everyone wasn't that panicked.

But then some more occurred, and each explosion sounded even closer than before.

BARRRR!!!

BLAAARRRRR!!!

It's getting closer and closer from each explosion. Above them, the ceiling is starting to crack as dust falls from the top. As more explosions occur, more and more pebbles begin falling to the ground.

But that's not the worst news that they received.

Above the ceiling, there's a pressure… much heavier than what they can handle. They knew immediately that something powerful was coming.

Or… someone.

Gajah turned to the captain with a panicked expression.

"Captain!"

"Yeah... I know."

The captain unsheathed his sword.

"They are coming. Get ready!"

Everyone else is also unsheathing their weapons. They all cleared out from the cracks, hoping whatever thing causing those explosions won't drop any rocks on them. 

But after a while, the explosion stopped. It was very close to them, and they could even hear what was happening on the other side.

"Hey! Are you sure it's here!?"

The sound of a male. The voice can be heard from on top of the ceiling. It sounded like a middle-aged man.

"Yeah! Just keep digging!"

Another sound came from further away, and it's also a guy's sound. From the voice, everyone can hear that the two were talking at quite a distance from one another.

Everyone in the cave became even more alarmed.

This is no monster... 

It's people.

"Okay, then!"

The guy at the other said screamed one last time before doing one final explosion. As he lifted his hand, a wave of heavy pressure was sent in all directions.

The heavy pressure was sensed by everyone inside the cave. They knew that the person was about to break through with one final push, so they all jumped away even further from the source.

BLAAARRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

The ceiling collapsed from that one giant explosion. Tons of rocks and pebbles fell down from the tall ceiling, completely filling the centre of the cave. The cave was completely filled with sand and dust flying around, limiting everybody's vision.

Once the dust cleared, the ones in the cave could see clearly about what is right in front of them.

The cave is bright now, due to the sunlight piercing in from the hole that was punched open from above. Right in the center of the cave, is a large pile of rocks and dirt, leftovers of whatever was above the cave previously.

Standing on top of the mountain of rocks is a single man. Bare chested, tall, muscular, brown skinned, and bald. His fearsome eyes peered at the room, studying the situation inside. When he found the people in here, he immediately grinned.

Everyone who was already inside the cave immediately turned petrified. That man was grinning, but his pressure... is intense!

Nobody from the rebellion group or the knights was able to move even an inch. They can only stare at the giant man standing and grinning on top of the piles of rock.

The captain studied what just happened. This giant man somehow dug from the top of the mountain, all the way down here until he was able to reach this cave. 

This man isn't just anybody.

And suddenly he reminded himself of the heavy pressure back at the beach's main road. Knowing this, the captain opened his mouth.

"Trio of Destruction..."

The captain mumbled, the bald man heard it and grinned.

"Oh~? So you know us?"

The captain then felt like he was about to pee in his pants, because two more heavy presences are coming down from the hole. Two more people dropped at the pile of rocks, right next to the bald guy. One of them is a beautiful woman with long hair, while another is a blonde young man.

None of them are carrying a weapon, but they might have something like a magic space ring where they stored those. Forget weapons, just them standing there already bring fear to the group.

"Oya~? We found the undead guy's hideout!"

The female spoke out. She gave the cave a look around, and even studied the people inside the cave. It didn't take long for her to notice the dead undead on the floor.

"Hey, Prym. Aren't those undead... Dead?"

The female pointed at the corpses on the floor that belonged to the undead. The blonde guy, Prym, studied the corpses for a while before turning his gaze back to the group.

"Hmm, I see what's going on."

Prym lifted his right hand up. Gajah closed his eyes because he understood that Prym was about to kill them, but then nothing happened.

He reopened his eyes, and found Prym simply pointing his finger at them.

"You guys... somehow got trapped inside this cave and had to fight the undead, right?"

Prym said while laughing. He must have thought that the group was actually trapped in this cave, and had to fend off the undead.

"T-That's right, lord Prym! We are-"

"Who told you to speak?"

Prym suddenly changed his tone, and the temperature of the room rose once again. Gajah turned stone cold right after Prym spoke. He was laughing before, but then he flicked his switch and turned cold.

"Prym is so cute when he is angry!"

The female stared at Prym like a maniac. It does sound like she is crazy about him. The bald guy can only let out a sigh and facepalmed hearing the lady's comment.

The captain turned his gaze to Gajah worriedly, only to find Gajah completely frozen.

"Let me ask one of you."

Prym lowered his body and sat down at the pile of rocks right under his feet. His beautiful blue eyes are glaring fearsomely at the group in front of him, who is chickening out at the side of the wall.

"Why are you guys in this cave?"

Both Gajah and the captain can only swallow their dry saliva. The two looked at each other, and they both agreed that the captain should talk without even saying anything.

The captain turned his gaze back, and took a step forward.

"We are... Kh--!"

The captain was about to talk, but then he stopped his words. He couldn't continue because the deadly pressure was somehow fully dropped on him. All three sources of the heavy pressures, where just one can already make a normal person faint.

"Woah!! Amazing!! You can still stand!"

Prym complimented the captain, which shows that he is doing this on purpose. The captain is still standing, but his mind is nearly blank. The moment the pressure was dropped, the captain immediately fell to the floor.

Prym let out a slight chuckle before continuing his speech.

"You know, we asked around a bunch of people today..."

The captain turned his gaze back to Prym, and immediately looked shocked. Prym took out an item from his pocket, and he started playing with it. It's sunglasses, and somehow the captain recognized it.

"A lot of them were cooperative, thankfully. But there are some... who just don't."

Prym played with the sunglasses for a while before throwing it to the captain. The sunglasses fell on the ground in front of him, and the captain was able to see clearly. 

There's blood on the sunglasses... and he only knows one person who owns the sunglasses.

These sunglasses belong to his new friend, Amburt.

"A lot of them said that there was a group of... muscular men, entered the beach and asked some weird questions..."

Prym stopped to move his gaze towards the knights and the rebellion group.

"Another said that there was a… peculiar muscular lady who... messed around a group of younger boys..."

Prym's glare turned to Kisene, who felt the weight of the glare and looked horrified instantly. Seeing Kisene's reaction, Prym chuckled again.

"And based on all the evidence we have gathered, we have concluded something… funny."

Prym summoned an item from his magic ring. It was... quite big, almost at the size of a head. The item was quite dark, so they couldn't quite get what that item was.

But then Prym threw the item towards where Gajah and the captain were standing. Everyone watched as the item rolled on the ground before finally stopping next to the captain.

As soon as they recognized it, the knights stared at them with great horror as the captain slowly lost his sanity.

It really was… a head. 

And it belonged to Gulrey, a fellow knight who was previously kidnapped.