Chapter 398 - The Bunker
It felt as though the entire world had stopped. Like slow motion in their eyes as they watched Rowena's body drop to the floor.
The fire dome that once shielded them from harm disappeared in a blink of an eye. The remaining fire elementals couldn't conjure such a high grade skill. All the leaders died out in the wars against Malice. Rowena was one of a kind for them.
"I guess this is it," the fire elemental who was being chased by the spider said. "The end of Shyako."
The spiders screeched and rushed to them. Seitan and all his people closed their eyes and accepted their fate. It was the end for them.
"Infernal Wheel of Flames!"
"Eternal Chaos Strike!"
Two huge auras came together and blasted the spiders. The beasts screeched in pain as the attacks burned their flesh.
Seitan opened his eyes and saw two men in front of them. They were their savior.
"You forgetful idiot!" Ed smacked Connor in the back of his head. "If we were late for just a moment, these people could've perished."
"Don't blame me though!" Connor grunted, returning the slap. "The buildings here looked the same, it's hard to differentiate. And I can't read the barely visible letters."
Ed rolled his eyes dismissively and turned around to see that everyone was kneeling in front of them. He looked at Connor, face contorted in confusion. "What are you doing?"
"We humbly thank you for saving us," Seitan said. "We offer our lives as your servants."
"Wow," Connor smirked. "You were an emperor, yet you offer yourself as a servant just because someone was doing their job."
Seitan raised his head and his eyebrows met, "Pardon?"
"We are Adventurers," Connor said. "We save people. That's what we do."
"Such noble man," Seitan said in awe. "Please, we do not have anything in our hands, but we have knowledge. At least we can offer you that."
"What kind of knowle?" Ed quirked his brow up. "You seem to be old–" Connor elbowed him. "I mean wise. You seem to be wise. What can you tell us?"
"More specifically, about the Earth Master," Connor added. "That man had the guts to challenge us. He should be strong or else I'll slam his head on the floor."
Seitan suddenly bowed down. From the looks of it, he wasn't comfortable after the Earth Master was mentioned.
"Oh," Connor pursed his lips. "Dis something happened with the Earth Master?"
"The Earth Master is a rather peculiar man," Seitan spoke. "I believe only his emperor had seen his true form, therefore none of us know how powerful he is exactly."
"But judging from his puppets that can equal the powers of even military generals, the Earth Master is a man to be scared of," the man being chased by the spider said. "My name is Vin. I was a lieutenant before Malice's invasion."
"A lieutenant, huh?" Connor narrowed his eyes. "Your magic is a bit too held back don't you think? You need to provide more power into your every attack. Currently, you can serve no one with your performance."
"You're steering away from the conversation," Ed said. "Emperor Seitan, why are there a swarm of spiders here?"
"I do not know either," Seitan replied. "I sent out troops to examine the area, but Vin here only discovered spiders."
The duo turned their heads to Vin with Connor asking, "Have you noticed something peculiar from where you saw the spiders?"
"Not exactly," Vin muttered. It was dark and the only light we have was my wisp. The three of us ventured around these tunnles when I realized that I was alone. My allies were gone."
"So, you don't know anything," Connor placed his finger on his chin. "But there must be something here, yeah? When we opened the vault earlier, we could feel air escape from it. Meaning–"
"There's another entrance," Ed finished. "Connor, you're a genous!"
"Among five of us, I'm the second in intelligence. Why are you so surprised?" Connor teased.
"Whatever," Ed rolled his eyes. He nudged Connor to summon wisps, to which the latter obliged.
He waved his right hand in the air and conjured several wisps that lit up the entire hall. They were in a large room with walls made of concrete and stone. There were dead vines on the walls, indicating that it had seen air and water not long ago.
The hall was rather large and could fit up to a thousand people inside. There were even stone chairs and tables on the side and even a small stone platform in the center that were eroded by time.
"Where did you find the spiders?" Connor asked Vin.
The man looked around and pointed at the only other tunnel besides the entrance. "There. I saw that tunnel and it led me to the den of the spiders."
"Den of the spiders?" Connor asked. "You mean that they have their own lair?
Vin nodded. "That place was filled with spider web and humans wrapped with their silk. Blood everywhere, the stench of corpse filling my nose. It was a disgusting sight to see, really."
"Humans?" Connot and Ed chorused. "What do you mean humans?"
"I saw humans being wrapped with the spiders' silk," Vin said slowly, his face starting to contort in confusion. "Why?"
"This room is at least a hundred years old," Connor said. "If there were traces of humanity here, it would date back to at least 50 years. Human blood would dry up by that time."
"I don't know," Vin pouted. "Maybe they preserved that body?"
"Now I know why you're stuck at lieutenant despite that mana reserve," Connor deadpanned. "Lead the way then. There's definitely another entrance."
Without hesitation, Vin led them to the tunnel. Connor and Ed even had a small problem in their hands back when they were only starting to enter.
They didn't know if the place was safe or not, so they thought of leaving the people behind. At the same time, more beasts could've roamed this bunker therefore if they leave them alone, the people could be in danger.
So, Connor decided to ride his staff and hover above them. The roof of the tunnel was rather tall, so he had no trouble flying. he positioned himself at the back lines and assigned capable men there.
Meanwhile, Ed was with Vin while he led the way. Vin was rather talkative that it was almost surpassing Ed's temper.
It was not long after that Vin said that they arrived. It felt as though there were joyful sirens singing aftet Ed heard the man said that they arrived.
And just as expected, there were dead bodies wrapped with silk hanging from the roof. Connor almost slammed his body on one of the dead bodies, making him grunt and stepped off his staff to walk.
Blood was dripping everywhere where the bodies were. Ed unsheathed his sword just in case something would attack them, but he was not too sure since they have eradicated a lot of spiders back at the bunker.
A few more steps and Ed's eyes widened, Connor too. They felt a thousand presence coming towards them, closer and closer.
"Do you feel this Connor?!" Ed yelled. Not a second later, Connor appeared beside him.. He ignited his sword with his flames and fired a giant wisp forward, only for it to stop when it reached a wall of black baby spiders.