Chapter 25

SHALLTEAR POV:

Perched like a vigilant hawk on the rooftop of Soma Familia's house, Shalltear observed the three girls—Kaede, Momiji, and Coco—as they hurriedly fled from their now-abandoned home.

"Good, now the girls are heading in the direction of Miach Familia's house... The first part of the plan is complete," she declared with profound satisfaction. Each step forward brought her closer to exacting her revenge upon the evildoers who had wronged Lili.

Her thoughts turned to the next phase of her scheme: the assault on the wine cellar, Zanis's clandestine stronghold. An eerie sense of anticipation washed over her as she contemplated the impending confrontation.

"Haaa, it's been so long since I've stomped on and squashed someone," she mused aloud, a sinister glint in her eyes.

Then, inexplicably, Shalltear's expression shifted to one of confusion. She muttered, "What did I just—?"

Before she could complete her thought, a light-brown-haired hume-bunny girl approached, reporting, "Master, the male members of the familia have been captured as ordered."

Shalltear snapped back to attention, her earlier contemplation momentarily forgotten. "Ah, yes, great," she replied, her tone gleeful.

Descending to the upper floor of the family home, she discovered several male members bound and tied up, including the Familia's god, Soma, who was unconscious. They were under the vigilant guard of the female members, their eyes bearing a crimson tint, indicative of Shalltear's influence.

Throughout the room, packs of wolves and high wraiths patrolled, ever watchful. An adult golden-haired werewolf female had Canoe, who was bound and gagged, in her grasp. She unceremoniously dropped Canoe onto the ground.

A sadistic smile graced Shalltear's lips as she descended the stairs to the ground floor. Addressing the female members of Soma Familia, she commanded, "Now, tie yourselves up and look me in the eye, I am gonna renew the duration of the charm." Her chilling words hung in the air, setting the stage for the impending act of retribution.

I need to do the next step of the plan quickly, the night is short after all...

o-O-o

CHANDRA POV:

While Soma Familia's home was relatively close to the city center, Soma's wine cellar was located only a few blocks from the city wall on Daedalus Street. It was a central keep at the front with five more towers on each side encompassing an open courtyard below with several storage sheds.

Many trees covered the courtyard but left an empty space to see any possible intruder that tried to reach their castle-like wine cellar. The entire area had a fence with metal bars around it, and the front gate of the fence was closed.

Chandra stood atop the lookout tower, clad in his armored cuirass and open sallet helmet. He is mounting guard with a caramel-brown-haired dog man with puppy-looking ears with a sword and wearing silver-colored armor with only one pauldron.

Boredom weighed on him as he gazed out at the city lights below. Guard duty wasn't his favorite pastime, that's for sure. He took a deep breath and adjusted the grip on his axe.

As he scanned the area, he noticed that one of the towers lost its light abruptly, plunging it into darkness. His gruff monotone broke the silence, "What's goin' on?...somethin's off." His sharp eyes continued to sweep the surroundings, searching for any signs of trouble.

In another tower, just for a fleeting moment, he caught sight of a massive figure clutching a person. The lights in that tower went out too, confirming his suspicions. Chandra's scarred face remained as stoic as ever as he muttered to his canine companion, "Ya, we have a problem, a few 'mice' got into the maze."

The dog man looked at Chandra, confusion written all over his face. "Ha?" he asked, struggling to comprehend the situation unfolding before them.

Chandra pointed to the other darkened towers, his gruff voice filled with urgency. "Are those feet of yers fer decoration? Get goin'!" He wasted no time, immediately grabbing the alarm bell's rope and pulling it vigorously.

The dog man sprinted towards the stairwell, eager to heed Chandra's command. However, he suddenly stopped, "Blo-Blood. It smells of blood". It was clear someone had slain the guards on the other towers and was making their way up the stairs.

An irritated "Humph!" escaped Chandra's lips as he made a quick decision. With his axe firmly in hand, he leaped from the tower, gracefully descending the three-story drop. Being a Level Two adventurer had its perks.

To his bewilderment, the dog man followed suit but then veered off running away. Chandra shot a glare and barked, "What are ya doin'?", and a soft "Dammit" escaped his lips as he felt a headache forming at the back of his head.

Upon reaching the central three-story keep, his keen eyes took in the scene. No guards were in sight, and the reinforced door was unlocked—a highly unusual situation. "This is goin' from bad to worse," Chandra muttered to himself.

With his axe at the ready, he cautiously pushed the door open and peeked inside. The wine cellar of Soma Familia was a sight to behold. Wooden floors and green walls decorated with dark wood patterns created an elegant ambiance. Dim green light from magic stone chandeliers bathed the interior in various shades of green.

"Puzzlin'," Chandra muttered as he approached the entrance, his eyes falling upon the armored bodies sprawled on the ground. These were the guards who should have been protecting the door. It was evident that they had met their demise from something within the keep, not an external threat attempting to breach it.

Kneeling beside one of the fallen guards, he grabbed a buckler from the lifeless body, murmuring, "Got a feelin' I am goin' ta need this more than ya." He strapped the buckler to his arm and gave it a quick check.

Unbeknownst to him, behind his back, the dead bodies on the ground began to stir. Their movements were sluggish and silent, but Chandra remained oblivious to their eerie revival. He concluded his equipment check and started sprinting deeper into the keep.

Passing by a room, he continued in the direction of the wooden stairs leading to the next floor. Near the stairs, he spotted the back of another member of his familia. 

The man was an elf with brown hair, clad in a green jacket, black trousers, and dark brown gloves. The elf held a black, slightly curved longsword in his right hand, its tip dragging along the ground.

Chandra approached the elf, his hand resting on the man's shoulder as he asked in his gruff monotone, "Hey! Ya really know what is happenin' here?" The elf's head turned slightly, revealing a deep cut on his left side and an expression that spoke of agonizing death.

"What?!" he exclaimed, taken aback as he quickly distanced himself from the reanimated corpse. The dead man, now animated by some unknown force, clumsily attempted to lift his sword, revealing yet another deep cut in his abdomen, with intestines spilling out.

Chandra didn't hesitate. He waited for the dead man to lunge forward, then sidestepped with the agility of a seasoned adventurer, swiftly cutting the reanimated man's arm with a clean, efficient strike. To his astonishment, the dead man showed no signs of pain or reaction and used his remaining arm to make another attempt on Chandra.

Frowning in perplexity, he executed a second swift cut, severing the dead man's other arm. Now defenseless and lacking any extremities, the reanimated corpse resorted to a desperate attempt to bite Chandra with its mouth. Without hesitation, he decapitated the head with a single, precise swing of his axe.

The lifeless body fell to the ground, finally motionless. Chandra stared down at the unsettling scene with a mix of confusion and concern. "What kind of sorcery is this?" he muttered aloud, his rugged features displaying his discomfort. This was unlike anything he had ever encountered before—dead bodies coming back to life like puppets was beyond his realm of imagination.

o-O-o

ZANIS POV:

He sprinted into a room on the top floor, accompanied by two male members of the familia. This room stood in stark contrast to the rest of the home. Its walls were grey, the floor paved with stone slabs, and a red carpet ran through the center. An elaborate stone desk adorned with leafy vine engravings occupied a prominent place in the room.

The walls held storage jars containing Soma, the godly wine they cherished. "Aiiiiieee! This can't be happening!", panic and despair filled the air as Zanis gripped his head, coming to terms with the dark power invading their home.

The two other familia members rushed to move the stone desk, attempting to barricade the room's wooden door. Zanis, driven by the realization that escape was imperative, cried out, "We need to evacuate...the balcony!" He drew back the dark purple curtains to reveal a door made of metal bars, leading to the balcony beyond.

On the balcony, against the backdrop of the night sky, a towering figure stood menacingly at six and a half feet tall. Its body was twisted and crooked, exuding malevolence. Clad in black metal armor adorned with crimson bloodlines, the bone-chilling monster gripped a rippled sword and wielded a massive tower shield. Its very presence seemed to embody death, and it let out a thunderous roar that sent shivers down the spine.

This was the moment when Zanis' despair began to consume him. "Aiiiiieee!" he screamed and bolted in the opposite direction, only to realize that the barricaded door had turned the room into a nightmarish trap.

The towering monstrosity took a single step into the room, and the supposedly sturdy metal bars gave way as if they were made of paper. Tension filled the air as everyone in the room clutched their swords, their hearts pounding with fear.

Desperation gripped him, and he shouted at his subordinates, "I'm not someone who should die here! All of you, hurry up and protect me! Be my shields!" But his orders fell on deaf ears. Zanis might have held the title of captain, but his unpopularity was undeniable. None were willing to throw their lives away for a man like him.

The dark knight of death, however, paid heed to his frantic pleas and advanced menacingly towards him. Panic consumed Zanis as he blurted out, "Money, I'll give you money! A million Valis!! No, twenty million Valis!!!" The sums he offered were astronomical, but in the face of impending doom, it was akin to asking his subordinates to leap off a thousand-foot cliff for a fee.

Paralyzed by fear, not a single soul in the room dared to respond to Zanis' desperate cries for help.

Zanis stopped screaming and fell like a puppet whose strings had been cut, his face one of true despair looking up, as if to the heavens. He must have passed out. The dark monster drew closer to the defenseless man and stabbed its wavy-blade flamberge down.

Woken by the incredible pain, he screamed: "Leh, leh me guh!!!!! Ah beggehg yeh!!!!!! Ah duh anythuh!!!!!!!".

Using both hands, Zanis desperately grabbed the flamberge that had already penetrated his body, but the monstrosity paid his futile struggles no heed and worked the flamberge like a saw, up and down, up and down, up and down. 

His flesh and clothes were cruelly torn open, and fresh blood flew everywhere. "Aah eeeh ah gib ya monni, leh, leh meh guh" Zanis' body shuddered, and then he breathed his last. 

Only then was the dark knight satisfied, and it stepped away from his corpse and looked to the other men standing in fear, pissing themselves. 

o-O-o

CHANDRA POV:

He continued his frantic run in the green hallway and stumbled upon yet another seemingly lifeless body attempting to rise.

Another of those things, whatever they are...

From his previous encounters, Chandra quickly learned that decapitation was the most effective method to dispatch these unnatural foes. With determination, he positioned himself and swung his axe with both hands. One hack, two hacks, three hacks—it took considerable effort, but he finally severed the head. To his shock and dismay, the decapitated body continued to move, grabbing onto the buckler attached to his arm.

"—Still not dyin'?!" he exclaimed in surprise as he grappled with the living dead. Escape seemed impossible; the dead body was unexpectedly strong. "This strength! It's like level three!!" Chandra realized, a hint of fear creeping into his voice.

In a swift move, he used the blade of his axe to cut the straps on the buckler, freeing himself. The headless corpse clung to the buckler for a moment before releasing it and thudding to the floor. With eerie precision, the headless body turned as if to face Chandra directly, sending shivers down his spine.

Frustration boiled within him as he screamed, "What in hell is goin' on?!" Spooked and overwhelmed, he sprinted toward the stairs, the decapitated body trailing behind but moving at a sluggish pace.

Chandra hurriedly ascended the stairs, aiming for the top floor and the room of the god Soma. Thoughts raced through his mind; perhaps he could find someone there who could explain the chaos unfolding around him. If not, he at least had the option of leaping from the only room in the house with a balcony.

Approaching the room, he discovered more of the living dead lurking nearby, relentlessly attacking the wooden door. "Damn my luck!" he muttered under his breath. Then, with a deafening crash, someone was hurled from within the room like a projectile, smashing through the door and the living dead blocking it.

Tension hung in the air as a second passed, and Chandra cautiously peeked inside the room. What he saw chilled him to the bone: a towering black monstrosity crushing another person's head with a single hand. On the floor lay his boss, Zanis, cleaved by a massive flambergue claymore.

The ominous figure, standing at six and a half feet tall, seemed to notice Chandra's presence. Panic surged within him, and he screamed, "Gods fuckin' damm it all!!!" He turned to flee, but his escape was abruptly halted as a black whirlwind rushed from the door, materializing into the same monstrous entity.

The towering creature, oozing death, loomed over him, brandishing the flambergue and a tower shield as tall as Chandra himself. 

He turned back to run away, only for the creature to melt into darkness and block his path again.

Despair and fear gripped him as he laughed with a tone that hinted at his overwhelming dread. He raised his left hand to clutch his face, realizing that escape was no longer an option. "Ha-ha-ha... But of course, ya ain't allowin' me to escape!", he quipped in a laughter tinged with despair.

In the crucible of such extreme circumstances, it was only natural for people to reach their breaking point. It was said that this breaking point revealed a person's true nature. When there was no way out, even a cornered rat would fight back with every ounce of strength, claws, and teeth.

He spat on the floor, his resolve unwavering as he addressed the black creature of death. "A man's job is a man's job," he declared with pure determination etched across his face. Without hesitation, he charged at the ominous entity with his axe, fully committing himself to the attack. However, his weapon shattered upon contact with the creature's body, leaving Chandra stunned.

The dark creature remained immobile, unfazed by his futile attempt, casting an oppressive atmosphere over the surroundings. Chandra, undeterred, leaped backward and cast aside his broken axe. His eyes locked onto the creature, a manifestation of death itself, as he screamed defiantly, "I know... I know that I am dyin' today... But I am not goin' down without at least givin' ya a jab!!"

With bulging muscles and a fierce determination, he charged at the creature once more. He let out a relentless barrage of punches, one after another, raining blows upon the menacing entity. His knuckles grew sore and began to bleed from the relentless assault.

After a grueling bout of punches, Chandra's breaths came ragged and heavy. He gazed upon his bloodied and battered hands, the exterior of which was breaking down from the force he had exerted.

He turned his gaze back to the black monstrosity, its posture unyielding as it raised the flambergue sword, poised to deliver a deadly strike. His face bore an expression of unwavering determination, prepared to confront death itself.

"HHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Chandra bellowed as he lunged at the black monster, embracing it with his powerful arms and pushing with all his might as if engaging in a sumo wrestling match with an otherworldly foe. The unyielding monster of death stands like an immovable wall. Suddenly, against all odds, the towering monstrosity seemed to take half a step back in response to his heroic effort.

He continued to wrestle with the creature, pouring every ounce of his strength into the struggle, even as the hand holding the flambergue descended menacingly toward him. At that moment, Chandra knew that if he were to meet his end, it would be while fighting valiantly, having achieved something against his formidable adversary. He was determined to die as a man doing his job, facing death head-on.

But in a surprising turn of events, as the hand of certain death came down, it didn't strike Chandra down as expected. Instead, it delivered a powerful blow that left him unconscious.

o-O-o

SHALLTEAR POV:

After unleashing her Death Knights, their Squire Zombies, and normal zombies to exact retribution on Zanis and assaulting Soma Familia's wine cellar, she found herself holding Chandra, who was now unconscious but still breathing.

"Sheesh... you really like to jump into danger, don't you?" she sighed, her expression a mix of exasperation and disbelief. With Chandra draped unceremoniously over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, the sight was almost comical. The size difference between Shalltear, who stood at nearly five feet tall, and the adult man hanging limply from her shoulder was striking.

Using her hand and fingers to count off the events, she continued, "The three girls escaped...the other members and Soma are captured...I got Chandra...everybody else here is dead...now...now comes the best part—giving Soma the long-awaited retribution." A sadistic smile crept across her lips, her anticipation for what lay ahead palpable.