The Sinful and the Innocent

"Abot? Who is that?" Keita asked, while scouring for a dagger under his robe.

"No use denying it. I've seen your eyes more times than I can count." the innkeeper responded.

Keita stayed silent. From first appearances, that man was not an enemy. There was no reason to confront him, if he was. He could have called the city guards while Keita was asleep and that would have been it. But Keita didn't let his guard down. Even if he wasn't an enemy, that did not make him an ally. The innkeeper, noticing Keita's silence decided to talk instead.

"This is the closest inn to Lord's Abot's estate. I see people like you every so often. Fathers, boyfriends, brothers. They all come for the same reason and they all have the same eyes as you." he explained.

"I see." Keita said in a cold voice. The innkeeper's tone infuriated him. He knew what he was going to say next.

"I'll tell you the same thing I told everyone before you. Give up on the girl. None of the people that go in this estate return."

Keita still stayed silent.

"You have more reason than most to give up. You are too late! You understand? Even if you somehow get inside and save the girl, you won't find the happy ending you are looking for. It's already been a week since the wedding you-" the innkeeper was interrupted by Keita's shouts.

"Shut up!"

Keita was looking at the innkeeper as if he was ready to attack him. He tried calming himself a little bit.

"Helene is alive. She is fine. I will taker her back and kill every one that stands in the way. Including you. If that was all you had to say then leave." he said in a low voice.

The innkeeper looked at him for second. He understood that he was a lost cost and let out a deep sigh.

"This city was build upon the ruins of the one before it. There is a whole underground town just bellow us. If you want to save that girl, keep going North. Make sure you don't stray too far. There are goblins, cutthroats and many shady characters who made roots down there. You will find a passage that leads underground the estate. It is bigger than you think. The underground city I mean. Make sure not to get lost. Good luck kid."

He left without any more words. Keita was still suspicious. There shouldn't be any merit in the innkeeper telling him all this. He decided to give it a try anyway. Even if it was some kind of trap, it couldn't be much worse than taking on one hundred armed guards and whatever is inside the estate. Besides... he knew where the innkeeper lived.

Keita didn't get much sleep that night.

'Should I have just killed him? That would have been easier...' he thought, turning in his bed.

The notion that someone knew his objective made him uneasy. He kept a close watch to the innkeepers magic power. Sleep only took him, when the innkeeper retired for the night.

A few hours before the crack of dawn. Keita got ready for his mission. After making a last check to his equipment, he set off.

He found the entrance to the ruined underground city and got in with no hesitation. He kept checking for magic power sources but there were none to be found. It was dark and the only sound, was that of running water. It seemed, there where underground canals all over Merioles.

'It smells like shit... Still, not as bad as a real battle...' he thought.

The smell of blood, decomposing bodies, feces and urine. It was truly similar to the smell of a battlefield.

Keita lit a torch and made his way North. The shadows became clearer. The structures went dozens of meters up, touching the ceiling. They didn't look as much as a ruin, rather it looked like the buildings were build one on top of each other, most likely because the city itself was sinking ever so slightly over the years.

He had no time for sightseeing though.

'Helene.' that was the only thought in his head.

Keita quickly found the entrance the innkeeper told him about. It led to an underground dungeon bellow the Abot estate. He stealthily entered the basement and tossed the torch to the canal.

'No traps so far... That innkeeper, what was his angle in all this... Could he just be a good guy?' he thought. The changes inside his heart have already taken root. Trusting a stranger, was already something unthinkable for Keita.

A fortified wooden door led inside the basement. From now on, he was intruding in Lord Abot's estate. A crime punished by death. Keita felt nothing from inside.

"Heaven's Path: Shroud." with three swings of the blade, the door was cut to pieces and he entered.

"What is this?" he couldn't help but ask.

There were about a hundred cells. Most of them had skeletons inside. As he walked through the dungeon, there was one thing every corpse had in common. The dead held a small blade in their hand.

'Why would someone give a weapon to a prisoner?'

The answer soon came. The closer he walked to the door, the "fresher" the corpses were. They were all women. And they all had the same cause of death. Suicide.

'What is this place?'

The women had been left to rot. No one bothered to give them a proper burial or hide the evidence. The role of the knife became apparent. They have all stabbed their stomachs repeatedly. The more Keita walked, the less he wanted to see. Some of the women were pregnant. No, most of them more likely. It looked like, they died trying to kill their unborn children.

"Helene!" Keita panicked. There were too many corpses here. He had to see Helene this instant.

Keita took the stairs to the higher floors.

"Intrud-" the guard that shouted was immediately silenced.

"Stop! Intruder!" another one shouted.

Keita showed him no mercy. Soon six more guards appeared in the corridor.

"Do you... Do you people even know what you are protecting?" he tried asking but got no answer. The dead couldn't talk.

There was no one to stop him, no one to hold him back. Keita kept slaughtering everything on sight. Whether it was a guard or a simple maid. No one escaped his fury. He finally went to the top floor. That was where Lord Abot resided. The two doors were the only thing between them. That and two dozen guards.

Keita calmly opened the doors. Crossbow bolts flew and he dodged them with ease. He grabbed six of the daggers on his belt.

"Heaven's Path: Needle." he shouted and four of the guards fell down. He didn't stop there.

Keita kept throwing his daggers, killing the guards one by one while dodging their attacks, until there was only one man in the room.

"Where is Helene?" Keita asked. His eyes were filled with blood lust. He couldn't hide his killing intend like he normally does. This time, he truly had inhuman eyes.