Echoes of the Dead

It was still morning, not that it mattered in the dense forest. Krieg and Phoebe lead the group on a wide berth around Karna village, though the mangled corpses on pikes could be seen from a distance, the elf made sure Leona wouldn't look at them anymore.

"Are you alright?"

Neiliel asked while handing the Princess a water skin.

"Yeah… thank you Neil."

Leona's hands were trembling as she held the water bag. While she didn't know any of the corpses hanged on pikes by ropes, the sight of someone brutally murdered by hanging was enough to make her lose her composure. Her slender fingers closed tightly into a fist.

"He… he won't get away with this."

"I understand your anger Princess Leona but don't let it cloud your judgment, we need you level-headed in order to strategize."

Laslow calmly talked to her as they walked. He continued while taking notes on his tome in a frantic manner.

"I may be good at reading other people's intentions but you succeed where I lack and that is in the military stratagem."

"Using innocent people to sully my family's name… he's truly a despicable man."

Deep down Leona knew it was an effective strategy, rallying the people against a common cause was the most effective way to raise the soldier's morale and obtain support from the people. But she had hope, her family wasn't one despised by the people unlike many others in the kingdom.

"Alexander would do anything to make his plans work."

Laslow said as he closed his tome and put it in the bag hanging from his left shoulder. His eyes were serious and focused, as if he was planning something. His voice was filled with bitterness.

"Even go as far as killing his own family."

Laslow's adoptive sister, Lena, was a squire training in order to become a royal knight. They were known as Eleonorian Knights back when Queen Eleonora rose to the throne. Might in power, even mightier against demons as they could wield the powers bestowed by the goddess to slay the fiends. However, after the war was over, Eleonora and the new demon king Reinhardt agreed to end the human demon war that lasted for decades. Peace would rule the land until the disappearance of the Queen and consequently her abdication.

"...then when we thought we might know peace, my sister was assassinated. She was the head of the Lorraine family back then, before Alexander took it all away from me. As an adopted son I didn't have any voice to the matter and was casted away by the rest."

Laslow squeezed his own wrists one at a time as he tried to keep himself calm. Everyone around was silent, some were paying attention such as Leona who couldn't avert her eyes from him, but others like Krieg were keeping an eye out on the forest around them.

"Until we met in Windia a few years back."

Luke had a weak smile on his face, the ups and downs he had through the journey so far seemed to have taken a toll on his morale. Leona raised an eyebrow.

"You didn't know each other?"

Luke's eyes trailed back and forth seemingly flustered by the question.

"My family was nothing influential back then, I just had the title of a noble because of my mother. But as Laslow said so far, after Lena was assassinated the next in line would be my mother."

Leona raised an eyebrow.

"Wait… wouldn't she be the head of the family as the oldest one?"

"The Lorraines are a branch family."

Laslow explained.

"My adoptive sister's name was Lena Lothaire. Originally, the Lothaire family was the previous king's right hand of highly trained knights. But their numbers quickly declined due to the consecutive losses against the demon army until there was only me and Lena."

The Princess stopped on her tracks as she heard the wizard's explanation. Neiliel had to push her from behind for her to keep walking with the group.

"That… that was never in the history books I read in my father's study, how come I never heard of this?"

Luke looked over his shoulder to her.

"It's most likely because of Alexander, influential as he was back then he could easily employ people to erase things from history. After all, not everyone in the kingdom knows how to read or write."

A cold feeling started to grow within Leona's stomach, such planning was beyond her understanding. She studied hard to become a tactician that could save lives, but she was against someone that lived to take them, to go as far to murder the people of his own blood.

"I don't want to interrupt your history lesson but… we are here. Underground tunnels of the Arcadian capital."

Phoebe stopped the conversation as she halted the group. The foot of the mountain was wide with a dark passage within that could easily fit four meters wide and ten meters from ground to ceiling. It was a big passage but something about it seemed to put everyone on edge. An eerie sound of passing wind came from inside, it was biting cold, to the point of making Leona shiver. Luke inspected the large entrance with a small flame to illuminate the surroundings as the forest around them was thick enough to not let much sunlight come through the leaves.

"I have never been here."

He said as he flicked the small flame into the tunnel, illuminating halfway through before it was snuffed out by the wind. Seeing how the flame was easily extinguished, Jonathan grabbed a few things from his bag and with some small effort, he put together three torches made from nearby tree branches and cloth doused in a thick oil.

"Here. And here you go."

He offered one to Luke, threw another one to Laslow and held the last one for Laura. The wizard flicked his fingers and the torch burst into flames.

"Let me go in front."

Laslow walked to the front of the group and as he passed by Krieg he whispered.

"You should stick close to Princess Leona, these tunnels are very dangerous."

The knight simply observed the wizard walk by and when the elf's eyes glanced at him he simply motioned with his thumb before moving to Leona's side. His expression usually didn't change much but this time he was dead serious.

"Leona. Stay close to me as we go through here."

She nodded.

"I'll be right behind you."

One by one, they started to enter the cave, but the Princess stopped them as they walked in.

"Wait, isn't it safer if we walk side by side? Space doesn't seem to be a major issue inside this place."

Laslow scratched the side of his turban and started to nod as she finished her reasoning.

"While there shouldn't be any rational foe inside this place, I believe it's safer to go with Princess' plan. So how should we head in?"

He was intrigued by the point she had made. No one could see it but he was smirking beneath the cloth waiting for her answer.

Leona pondered about how best she could utilize the numbers they had until she raised her hand again with the index finger pointing to the ceiling.

"How about two columns and four rows? That way we have at least someone by our side at every moment."

"Seems like a solid plan."

The wizard nodded in agreement as he took off in the front of the group.

"Alright let's head in."

Laslow and the elf were the first to enter, right behind them Luke and Neiliel with the young man holding the unlit torch on his left hand while the priestess carried her mace. Leona and Krieg were together with their weapons unsheathed, the greatsword blade was gently leaning on his chest while he carried it from the pommel. Jonathan as well as Laura were last, with the thief carefully erasing their tracks and the barbarian holding up the blazing torch as they entered the cave.

It was dark, only a few meters ahead could be seen with the lit torch, rocky walls and uneven terrain made walking very uncomfortable with the shoe made of cloth that Leona was using. The breeze from the inside was unsettlingly cold.This used to be a mining tunnel system until the city of Arcadia was built on the plateau above, more importantly the resources they used to mine here was something known as frostburnt silver, an important metal with the unique property of magic conductivity.

"Careful with your footing, there's water here."

Phoebe warned as she dodged a puddle of water. Everyone kept walking right behind the two in the front, Laslow carefully moved the torch to inspect the walls of the tunnel to check for other passages, but it appeared to be only an upward long hallway of stone. The surface had a lot of markings from the extensive mining operations that took place there.

There was an eerie sound inside the tunnel, with each step they took the more prominent it became, it was like a low hum, but slightly unpleasant to the body.

"What is this sound…?"

Laura asked as she grasped her head, the constant low frequency hum was making her uncomfortable.

"This is most likely the mana running through the walls, it's a common occurrence in mana-rich places. I can help you with it if it's too annoying."

Leona explained as she turned around to face the barbarian who towered above her. The princess reached her hand out.

"Yes please do."

Laura kneeled as Leona's hand touched the right side of her pale blonde short hair.

"Winds of time, bestow protection for my ally, Barrier!"

From the point where she touched her, hexagonal translucent shields started to spread around her body, erected by thin air. Soon after she had finished casting the spell, Laura felt the usual silence inside a cavern which was just the wind echoing in the distance.

"Thank you Princess Leona. This feels much better."

"You're welcome Laura."

Leona smiled at her before Krieg gently tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

"Leona, careful with your footing, it's more slippery here."

"Right, thanks."

Looking down, it was possible to see some water trickling down from the path they were heading towards. The ground had probably been eroding for a long time since there was a thin track deep in the floor leading the water through it. Phoebe crouched to inspect the flow of the liquid, she jammed her finger between the track carved by the water it started to overflow around the crevice.

"Hmm… there is an unusual amount of water coming through here."

"Up there, look."

Laslow pointed to the peak of the long passage they had been walking through. A ghostly light blue light seemed to pulsate in rhythmic intervals like a heartbeat. They approached slowly, the air became colder with each step they took, it was much like having the heat sucked out of the lungs. A biting cold aura enveloped around the place.

"Frostburnt silver."

Leona muttered as she tried to keep her body warm with the rest of what used to be her cloak.

"I didn't know how it works exactly but it's said to be a magical silver metal. Oddly it first appeared in the Londrian kingdom but it started spreading everywhere in the country. It must have something to do with the magic currents."

"Most likely."

Laslow commented while he evoked a sphere of fire to warm everyone around. His eyes narrowed focusing on the spell. Strangely, it didn't illuminate more than the torch but it was much hotter near it, it appeared more as a liquid rather than flames. They continued walking with everyone mostly warmed, aside from Laura on the back who didn't feel anything, Laslow was struggling to keep his body temperature in check. He held the torch closer to his body while muttering to himself.

"Ah it's cold…"

It took only a few more minutes for them to reach the peak of the long carved tunnel, the source of the ghostly light came into view as the somewhat narrow corridor gave in to a spacious dome shaped room. A white lustrous amalgamation of metal all around the walls emitted a bright pulsating light blue glow, the edges forming out of the clusters were sharp as a knife with many edges and uniform salience. The arrangement of the mineral was unnatural, it appeared like a disease spreading through the surroundings, with veins stretching from all around the place towards the other side of the dome, which seemed to be another corridor.

"Wow…"

Leona was amazed by the beauty of the place, but it was soon cut short the moment her eyes drifted upwards towards the high ceiling. At first she thought it was the reflection of the light against the uneven rocky roof but the bulbous texture gave her roughly an idea of what it was.

"Are those… slimes?"

Everyone's gaze trailed to her as she pointed upwards, Krieg followed closely with his eyes to where she was looking. The ceiling which was about twenty meters from the ground was engulfed with what seemed to be hundreds of invertebrate monsters, the constant shifting from each individual slime seemed to make the ceiling have a life of its own. Strangely what normally are ground monsters with the usual blue or green color were now hanging upside down from the ceiling with a silver like metal coat around their bodies.

Laslow snuffed out the fire ball he had evoked, only holding the torch higher now.

"They must have bred down here, eating away the silver."

The wizard mentioned as he thought of ways to cross the room without having all of those slimes drop on top of them. Phoebe knocked an arrow on her bow and fired it against the far right wall, the moment it ricocheted off the metal wall a couple of slimes dropped from the ceiling seemingly attracted by the noise. The arrow disappeared in the middle of all the slimes and after they dispersed the projectile was nowhere to be seen, the elf shook her head.

"Well… sound is a no go. What about magic?"

She turned to Luke who upon noticing her gaze started to cast a simple fire spell. With a flick of his right wrist, the young man released a small orb of liquid lava which bounced off the ground a couple of times before rolling into a stop before it started to break up into a puddle of bright fire, shortly thereafter a vast amount of slimes started to fall down after the puddle. The faint light it emitted was snuffed out by the multitude of slimes.

"The true question is whether or not they sense mana coming off our bodies."

Laslow threw a pebble against the nearest slime from the pack, which then promptly started to creep up closer to the wizard. He lit up a small flame on the tip of his right index finger, swiping left and right but the metallic slime seemed to not react to it and instead it creeped even closer to him. His eyes narrowed as he backed away while dissipating the spell.

"Hmmm this is strange… slimes normally react to either mana but this one seems more interested in something else."

While he pondered why that slime had such a strange behaviour, Phoebe came in holding one of the arrows and stabbed the gelatinous monster and before everyone knew, it broke up into a puddle of silver liquid. She inspected the semi-digested arrow head as she turned to the wizard, saying.

"No matter how many of these are out there, we just need to hit their core and they'll die like any other slime."

She raised her head and the moment she did so a gelatinous blob hit her face, the weight of one of those slimes were probably much more than the average one as the elf was knocked back against the ground while trashing her legs as she tried to get rid of the monster on her head, though the slimy body was extremely difficult to grasp bare-handed.

"Ah! Get this thing off me!"

"Pho!"

Laura and Jonathan both shouted at the same time as they rushed in to help her. Neiliel's eyes went wide as she also rushed to her friend's aid. Krieg kept watching the ceiling for any other slime that could drop from above, but fortunately that was no other left there. Leona was frozen in place from the shock. Jonathan dropped the torch beside the princess and started to shout.

"Stay still Pho!"

The thief pulled out one of his daggers while taking a hold of the elf's right shoulder.

"Easier said than-!"

At that point her face was covered by the metallic gel. Laslow and Luke were standing close to her but neither of them had a spell that could help in that situation.

"Shit! Laura can't you rip this thing off her face?!"

Not known where the core was, Jonathan was having a hard time stabbing the slime without hurting Phoebe in the process.

"What do you think I'm trying to do here?!"

Meanwhile the barbarian's grip was ineffective in grasping the monster's body as it slipped between her fingers. The elf's legs were trashing even harder, eventually hitting the ground and making more noise. Seeing the desperation kicking in made Laura shout at the priestess.

"Neil! Quick! Your magic! At this rate she'll-!"

"I don't know any magic that can help! I'll try to keep her alive but you must get that thing off her face!"

"Leona, you know how to take care of this right?"

Leona suddenly snapped out of the shock when she heard Krieg's voice whilst he shook her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed into a sharp glare as she ran towards the elf, she then placed her hand on the slime. Everyone's eyes darted to her as she quickly chanted a word.

"Freeze!"

The slime started solidifying and the moment it did so Laura yanked it out of Phoebe's scarred face.

"Gah! My face!"

She gasped for air, her pale face was red with spots of exposed flesh, she looked at the priestess who was already in the process of healing her wounds. Leona fell on her butt from relief, knowing the slime's body composition is almost all water, freezing it would make removing it much easier.

"You know ice magic as well?"

Laslow spoke as he stood beside her while looking at the elf being treated.

"Yes, my mother taught me. Even though she couldn't use any magic herself."

"Thank you for saving her."

"It's… the least I could do."

Leona took deep breaths to calm herself down, amidst the panic she had lost her composure and froze, she felt pathetic. She buried her face between her hands with her fingers slowly grasping the sides of her head in frustration.

Something on the other side of the dome room caught Krieg's attention. A few slimes dropped from the ceiling, but they started to slowly form a mound of sorts, with many slimes climbing on each other.

"We got company."

The knight's voice made Luke, Laslow and Leona turn towards him then to the abomination in the middle of the dome room. Amounting to the height of a normal person, the slimes started to melt and shift around taking a humanoid form. The Princess' jaw dropped.

"What… what is this?!"

The humanoid form took the appearance of a two horned maid with bright crimson eyes, her metallic skin slowly took the usual pale complexion of the former maid in service of the Princess.

"Prin… cess..."

Seemingly intelligent the doppelganger bowed ceremoniously with her hands grasping the edges of her long skirt, as she lifted her face a familiar smile surged from her face. It was painful yet it seemed like a dream seeing Adele one more time after all what happened about a week ago.

But in the end Leona was well aware that wasn't possible, she saw the maid on the brink of death back then and no matter how strong she was, it was simply too much for anyone to handle.

"Krieg…"

Leona couldn't avert her gaze while she muttered with her voice filled with pain and sadness.

"Help me to make this quick."

Her left hand charged with a blue glow as she started to walk towards the fake clone, her aquamarine eyes narrowed into a sharp, concentrated gaze when she raised her hand with ice crystals forming on her left wrist slowly creeping up her fingers. Krieg dashed in from behind the Princess with an overhead slash coming down on the imitation of the beloved maid.

"Ehe… eee..."

The blade bounced right off a metallic whip that came from the maid's back as she smiled with her half open mouth with an unnerving chuckle. Krieg tried an upward slash which the slime simply morphed through the metal blade, avoiding the attack entirely. During said time Leona rushed in with her left hand fully encased in ice, but the moment she tried to grab the slime's body it simply dissolved only to reform a few meters away from her.

"I don- wan- t- k-kill y-"

The bizarre speech finally formed a somewhat understandable expression which made Leona even more angry, promptly making her sprint towards the slime with killing intent. However the knight's hand held her shoulder before she could take another step.

"Princess don't."

A fireball suddenly hit the ceiling in front of them, suddenly brightening up the place as well as emitting a surprising amount of heat. Laura carried the elf on her back while leading the charge through the slimes Neiliel and Luke right behind her with Jonathan quickly calling the duo to come along.

"Come on! We got to go!"

Laslow blasted the doppelganger maid with another fireball which created a curtain of smoke and dashed alongside the princess and knight. Anger was still visible on her face, Krieg made sure she went first as they rushed through the narrow passageway.

"What was that thing…!?"

The priestess asked while healing Phoebe. Leona averted her gaze when she muttered.

"A former ally and friend, that slime took the exact appearance of her."

"I am so sorry…"

Neiliel felt bad for asking such a sensitive question.

"No it's alright, I have to face the truth from now on, both my family and kingdom needs me more than ever. I can't allow myself to be pampered any longer."

She stared at her own hands, closing them into a tight fist. Krieg patted her back a few times after they moved far enough away from the previous room, she was clearly bothered by the slime's appearance and speech, while it wasn't able to clearly voice whatever it was thinking, if it was indeed thinking of anything, it had the same tone of the demon maid.

"Dammit. Why? Why is this happening…?"

Leona slumped against the tunnel wall, strength seeming to leave her body after the surge of anger. Krieg knew just how painful it was to see a former comrade again, especially if their body was being used by someone, or something else.

"Leona, we'll find a way to exterminate that thing, but for now we must keep moving. This place is much more dangerous than it seems."

The moment he finished talking a minor tremor happened. Jonathan turned around to where they came from and blurr of metallic silver was moving towards them with increased speed.

"This ain't good-! Everyone! Run!"

He shouted from the top of his lungs and started to sprint. Krieg scooped Leona from the ground between his arms and started to run, Neiliel had to stop her healing to focus on fleeing as everyone picked up the thief's pace. As a long upward climb, Luke and Laslow had more difficulty keeping up with the group. The unending flood of ooze was catching up speed as the upward motion didn't seem to impede its movement.

"We will be caught at this rate!"

Laslow shouted as he started to charge another fireball on his left hand but Luke blocked his way with his arm and stood his ground seemingly determined to keep the wave of slimes from reaching them.

"Luke?! What the hell are you doing?!"

The wizard turned around yelling at his cousin.

"I'll hold it off just go!"

"What?! No way I'm letting you die here!"

"If you blast that thing with a fireball we'll all die!"

Laslow was about to turn around and help Luke but the young lad was dead serious on stopping the monstrous wave of deadly gelatinous silver. His dark hazel eyes had a subtle blue tint, a familiar spark for the wizard who studied magic all his life.

"You and I, we both have duties to finish, mine is to make amends for being weak. Now go!"

"Grr… dammit Luke!"

Laslow turned around with his teeth clenched sprinting for his life. Luke took one last look at the group becoming more distant, time felt like it came to a stop. Maybe his sacrifice would make a difference, maybe everything he fought for to become stronger would have made a difference, his life being nothing more than a puppet to his older brother had ended, that day, he chose his own fate.

"By the powers granted to myself, upon my body and bastion, I beseech thy power, Rampart of the Earth!"

The ground trembled, with all strength of his mind he shaped the walls of the tunnels. Behind him it created a dead end of multiple layers of crags seemingly woven together and bound by the metal found in the soil, in front of himself, many spikes of stone started to erupt from the sides of the tunnel creating an impassable stone blockade, such powerful magic left him spent. He slumped against the wall he had just created behind him, in the lonely darkness he grasped the unlit torch and kindled it with a very weak fire spell. Imprisoned in stone while leaving the torch beside him on the ground, he laughed at himself.

"Leo, I'm sorry for being selfish once again… I hope… I hope in the future, when all of this is done. You would forgive me."

The trembling earth dropped dust from the small chamber he made for himself, the sound of crumbling rock came from the barricade he had just made. He tried to get up but his body was too frail.

"No way…"

They reached another room after running for minutes, a giant spiral pathway upwards to the surface's sun was in reach, many other tunnels connected to that single room, apparently it was the main hub of the mining operations that took place underground. Ropes, mining equipment, old lanterns and many other necessities were found around them as they exited the narrow tunnel, before them there was a drop of a few meters down to access the start of the spiraling ramp.

Everyone gasped for breath, Laura put Phoebe down and rested alongside her while Neiliel, who was still panting, started to cast another healing spell on the elf. Krieg let go of Leona who seemed a bit dizzy from the shaking on the knight's arms, Laslow and Jonathan appeared last from the tunnel.

"Haa… ah… we're… we're safe."

Jonathan was out of breath, still holding his torch. Leona looked around but couldn't see her friend anywhere.

"Where is Luke?"

Only Laslow didn't turn to her, everyone scanned the room and near the tunnel entrance but there was no sign of the young man. Another tremor happened and she instinctively turned to the tunnel.

"We need to go back."

"Princess, it's too dangerous."

Krieg put himself in her way.

"Krieg. Move."

The moment his eyes met hers seemed like an unexpected shock as her serious glare suggested him to not stand in her way.

"It's no use."

Laslow mutters reached her ears and she walked up to him with her shortsword still on hand without hesitating.

"Laslow, where is he?"

"He… he stayed behind to save us all."

She grabbed him by the collar of his cloak with her left hand, bringing him closer to her as she was a bit shorter than the mage. The ice previously on her hand started to encroach around his clothing, it was like a light blue poison spreading through the cloth, making it brittle the longer she touched it.

"You knew and you left him?! You know how deadly those slimes are and yet, despite all of this, you left your cousin to die there?!"

"You wouldn't understand, he knew we couldn't escape if no one acted. He did this for us."

Leona raised her blade as readying to strike him. Luke had suffered much before she met him and even after that he was still a main target for everyone else in school, being a scrawny shy kid who didn't put much of a fight, he was a prime target for other nobles, however, it didn't change the fact that he was her friend. She clenched her teeth in anger, so much so her gums started to bleed, but in the end she lowered the blade.

"This- this won't change anything."

She let go of his collar and walked away towards Krieg, who seemed ready to hold her arm if she really decided to attack the wizard.

"Princess."

"I'm sorry Krieg but… I'd like to be left alone."

The knight nodded once and observed her walk alongside the edge of the steep cliff, sitting down far from the group. She put the shortsword on her lap and gazed on the blade. A few dents and scratches on the surface of the metal showed just how worn the weapon was, its previous owner used to train a lot with that specific blade.

"Why Luke…? You selfish idiot…"

A long and unceremonious sigh left her mouth as she tightened the grip on the handle. She kept playing what just happened inside her head. Could have she prevented that? Was there another solution? Maybe if she did something different that wouldn't have happened, but it was no use thinking of the past. It wouldn't bring the young lad back.

Tears ran down her face. It happened again, someone she cared for, expired, left to become nourishment to the ground. She felt helplessly, powerless against the whims of the world. Once again her knowledge didn't serve for anything.

"Why… why does this keep happening?"

She slammed her left fist on the ground, breaking up parts of the ice encasing her skin which started to bleed in the process. The pain didn't affect her as much as the pain she felt from losing Luke. It was like being shot through the chest, a hollow feeling void of meaning.

Droplets of blood stained the edge of where she was sitting, the crimson liquid started to seep through the ground while some started to run alongside the steep cliff.

Leona spent a few minutes with her eyes closed, mourning silently for her friend. Until an usual skittering noise caught her attention, the moment she opened her eyes she saw in the edge of her vision, a dark blurr climbing the cliff she was sitting on. She quickly threw herself backwards while pointing the blade to the creature.

As it finished climbing the edge it became visible. A six legged long creature with two thick snapping pincers the size of her head with serrated mandibles for a mouth, much like a scorpion, but unlike the small insect that monstrosity had its outer exoskeleton made of stone.

"Wha-!"

Out of nowhere, it sprung towards Leona's body, but a greatsword suddenly cut it in half before it could get anywhere near her.

"Princess, are you alright?"

Krieg removed the blade that became stuck on the ground. She swallowed trying to keep her calm after witnessing such an abomination try to attack her.

"I- I'm alright. Thank you Krieg."

She stood up with his help and the rest of the group gathered together after hearing her startled voice.

"What's going on?"

Laslow asked as he glanced between everyone in the group to the slain monster lying on a pool of blue murky liquid which was quickly drying up into strange fumes. His eyes went wide after witnessing it.

"That's a geocyte spawn… we have to run!"

Not long after he shouted, a deafening sound of hundreds of legs skittering through the various tunnels echoed through the cavern. They were surrounded, many were different in sizes but one thing was in common, all of them snapped their pincers as if looking for prey.