Chapter 363: The Rot of Corruption

Late Morning - Late Winter : The Nest

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*fwoosh* *fwoosh* *fwoosh-tap* "So, this is the gate between floors..." -It's quite well built...- Looking up at the ceiling as I walked across a rounded, circular platform held just off the ceiling by massive pillars around its edge as if it were an upside-down pavilion, I closely inspected the countless incredibly complex runes spread across conjoining light-colored mythril slabs that appeared to close the entrance.

It was quite impressive, with the pavilion being about a kilometer across and the entrance itself being closer to five hundred meters. -That's a lot of mythril...- "It looks like the top floor really doesn't want people breaking in from below..."

"Y..Yes..." Chamrosh spoke awkwardly. "It's rarely ever opened. Perhaps once every ten days or so when the lower floor guardian goes up to relay messages to the nobles."

-Huh?- "Relay messages? They don't have their own messengers who can pass through the gate as they wish?"

He quickly shook his head as he stopped walking, seemingly being careful to not to walk in front of me. "The messengers and errand-runners for nobles are typically all non-nobility, so it's quite a taboo to share the method to opening the gate outside of noble families."

A part of me didn't believe it. -They can't be serious...- "Does that not cause issues?" -I can understand separating the nobles and commoners, but to separate them to this extent... No wonder this lower cavern looks like a shit hole...-

Looking down through the platform, I found the insane maze of stone structures, statues, and monuments below us, lit by the warm light of artifacts and torches. Sure, some of the structures were extremely complex and genuinely beautiful, but somehow, the back of my mind couldn't connect that sight to a place where giant oversized hawks lived.

"It's causes a lot of issues..." Chamrosh continued before I could sink too far into thought. "Over the last couple thousand years, it's gotten so bad that it feels like the nobles view us more like slaves, same as they viewed the dwarves that once lived here."

I instantly tensed up before looking at him. "Dwarves?" Although a part of me was a bit taken aback, an odd sensation of nostalgia filled my chest at that moment.

"Yes.. this cavern was actually originally inhabited by dwarves, and was known as the Kingdom of Krunbar, but right after our race was culled..." He paused to watch for my reaction before cautiously continuing. "We came to stay in this mountain since we believed it would hide us from the dragons as well as.. you, my lord..." Seeing me wanting him to continue, he spoke with haste. "I only know what is passed down through stories, but the dwarves that lived here were turned into slaves, and the place was renovated to accommodate us, going as far as installing an artifact on the underside of this platform that would illuminate the entire cavern with the light of the sun and moon, as well as others that gave the cavern rain, winds, and even storms... As a kid I was told the whole place was once covered in green from trees and plants, but.. I find it hard to believe..."

My eyes quickly wandered as he somberly hung his head. -I find that hard to believe too, but.. at the same time...- Looking around at the ceiling, there were indeed places where such artifacts could have been placed. -With how big the cavern is, it could definitely have its own climate and ecosystems too...-

Even on the ground, there were places that looked like they once held greenery and plants, with several places cleared for what could have been trees and small patches of forest. -It looks like the small ponds spread around used to combine into larger lakes too...-

In its prime, it was likely quite a breathtaking place.

-But by the sounds of things, it was ruined by corruption and greed...- Slowly turning back to Chamrosh, I spoke with a stiffness in my voice. "And I'm guessing the fate of the dwarves was..."

He cautiously nodded as he tucked his wings and lowered his stance. "Most of them died... Although a few managed to escape, most of them were either treated as food or worked to death by the nobility."

"Tch..." I clicked my tongue as my mouth was filled with a disgusting, bitter taste. -Acanthis is lucky he's useful... I ought to wring his fucking neck...- I paused before I finally continued walking toward the gate. "I just can't wrap my head around why you guys don't revolt or run away..."

Awkwardly following after me, Chamrosh spoke softly. "Well.. we can't leave the nest in a non-humanoid form because of rules set when we first settled here.. and with Sir Acanthis and the Secretary, we are too weak to fight nobility... Plus, nowadays, not only are they mostly older than us, we don't even outnumber them..."

I gently raised my eyebrow as I looked back at him. "You don't outnumber the nobles?"

He immediately shook his head before finally relaxing his posture. "There hasn't been a child born in the lower cavern for close to three hundred years, and before that child, it had been two hundred. With the upper cavern never slowing down their population growth, it only took a couple thousand years for their population to catch up to our thinning one."

-No kidding... With the rate you thunderbirds can have children, you should at least rival Bahamut's population...- Yet they still numbered in the low thousands. "Just how detached from reality is Acanthis..." -If he wanted to kill me, he should have cultivated his race, but instead, he left them to rot beneath corruption...-

But, to an extent, it ended up working to my benefit.

Finally walking up under the giant circular gate, I injected my mana into the runes lining the mythril slabs in a specific sequence, almost immediately triggering the gate to open, *rumble* retracting the stone slabs to reveal a long vertical tunnel about four kilometers long, with a bright light at the very end.

As I spread my wings, ready to hurl myself up through it, I glanced at Chamrosh. "If you want to stay in the lower cavern, you may. I'll be back in a moment."

But his gaze instantly turned firm as he looked up the tunnel at the bright light shining down. "No. I want to see what they took from us."

I paused before finally looking away. "Do what you wish." *flap-FWOOOOSH* An immense wind instantly ripped through the lower cavern as I hurled myself up through the gate.

But as the bright light grew in size, as if I were flying up out of a well, my expression only darkened.

*woooOOOSH* Finally blasting out the other side of the tunnel and coming into the upper cavern, I found myself flying in a blue sky filled with clouds, winds, and sunlight as if it were outside. -I was really hoping Chamrosh would be wrong...-

The ground was littered with greenery, leaving only a few stone structures visible beneath the canopy of massive trees nearly a kilometer tall.

Some of the trees appeared to have been partially hollowed out, while others had structures spread through their canopies, clearly meant to accommodate not only thunderbirds but other wildlife as well. Although they were likely silenced by my aura, there were all kinds of regular animals spread about, from birds to insects, horses, and oxen. It truly felt like I had been teleported somewhere. -What a disgusting difference...-

The air itself was completely different as well, with close to three times the mana density, a steady, cool breeze, and enough moisture for rain clouds to form.

Looking up at the light embedded in the ceiling some sixty kilometers over us, I found an artifact almost half a kilometer wide, mimicking the sun to a tee. -It looks like the artifact even moves across the ceiling to mimic the time of day...-

It was an insane feat of engineering. -If a human came in here, they might actually think they're outside...-

But while it was undoubtedly beautiful to look over, as Chamrosh finally made it into the cavern, it looked like his mind was on the verge of crumbling from a mix of anxiety and disgust.

All the stories he had been told when he was young, about days long since passed, suddenly gained validity, and with it, his understanding of his own race crumbled.

-Looks like I've lost my guide for now...- Speaking through my aura, I tried to redirect the flood of emotions in his mind. "If you'd like, you can go bring others up here to see this."

And as expected, all it did was stoke the flame. Before I knew it, anger washed over his body, raising the feathers on his back and stiffening his wing flaps before he finally folded his wings and dove back through the tunnel.

-Good...- It was the spark I needed to light a fire. -Now.. time to make a statement...- Looking back up, I immediately saw several thunderbirds coming at me, zipping through the cavern far beyond the speed of sound, with one specifically donning armor. -She must be the floor guardian...-

She was considerably larger than even the first-floor guardian, only being about ten meters shorter than Acanthis, with light blue, almost white feathers and an aura that more than matched her size. -She looks like she might be a proper demigod...-

But unfortunately, he didn't seem to recognize me like the lower cavern's guardian.

As she prepared an antimatter spell, her chest started glowing. "Which arrogant bastard DARES TO LAY FOOT-"

But before she could get close to firing it off, I simply pitched up my paw and pointed it at her. *crackle-FWOOOM* The focused blast of several grams of antimatters instantaneously engulfed one of her wings before exiting my aura, expanding, and plowing into the opposite side of the cavern, devouring the rounded wall in an instant.

By the time the light could fade and the floor guardian could react, her left wing was nothing but a mix of destroyed bones and charred flesh held together by a web of divinity, and before she could scream, I appeared in front of her, using my aura to hold her in place.

*Vwoom* "Now, why don't you be a good chicken and tell me where the Secretary is..."

Her face instantly drained of every emotion but fear as she shakily but quickly raised one of her talons and pointed behind me.

-Is that so?- "Alright." *pat* Dropping her on the spot, I turned around before ripping through the cavern so fast it left a trail of clouds behind me. -Let's see if I can find this bitch...-

Since I didn't know who I was actually looking for, I expected it to take quite a while, but after flying for just a few seconds, I found an aura comparable to the upper-floor guardian's in a massive tree close to the size of a small treant, towering over the rest. -That must be it...-

Quickly closing the distance to it, I flooded the tree with my aura, showing me an unbelievably intricate structure of rooms inside, with one containing the aura I was looking for. *Vwoop*

*Vwoop* All it took was a short jump through the void for me to appear in the room itself.

But instead of coming face to face with the source of the aura, the moment I came out of the void, I found myself staring straight into the eyes of a dragon with mostly red scales, standing right in front of me. -H..huh?-

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