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Chapter 90: The Darkness

Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Blake's words confused everyone even more. "Blake, what do you mean?"

"I am sure you all have heard of the war between the devils and gods. Well, when the fallen god disappeared no one was able to find him and then he reappeared with an army of millions. Now seeing this statue I have a speculation that the fallen god did not create his army from scratch but did so by enslaving the Subterranean race. He must have caused some kind of change in the subterranean race to turn them into what we now call devils. This is only my speculation but since the Subterranean race lived underground they were rarely seen and there above ground entrances were all well hidden. For a fallen god it would have been the best place to hide." Blake explained.

"And this is a statue of what the Subterranean race looked like?" Starla asked.

"No, the Subterranean race looked just like the devil you met back in Brown Village. This here might be some kind of religious statue." Blake explained.

Alicia examined the statue and adjusted the eye that was detecting the thermal signature. "I think there is something hidden underneath the statue..." Alicia continued to look around until she saw what looked to be old scratch marks on the rocky floor. "Blake help me push from the side!"

Alicia and Blake went to the left side of the statue and started to push. It took a bit but after some hard pushing creaking sounds could be heard as what sounded like ancient gears started to turn. Soon the statue moved slowly centimeter by centimeter until finally, a hole opened up in the floor with a staircase leading down. Warm air could be felt coming up from the stairwell.

"Now I know why I was able to detect the statue. This air is warm but not overly hot. But compared to the cold rock walls it would show up on my detection magic when I combine it with my eye." Alicia tried to detect if there was anything in the stairwell that they would need to watch out for. But she did not detect anything that seemed out of place.

"Should we go?" Rose asked. You could tell she was overly excited about the situation.

"Since we found it we might as well check it out!" Alicia said as she drew her sword and cautiously stepped on to the first step.

Everyone else followed suit and pulled out their weapons as they slowly made their way down the stairs. Loeri held a flame in her hand to light the way. As they made their way down the stairwell the scenery changed dramatically. It went from rocky cave walls to plated metal walls. Not only the walls but the stairs as well.

It took almost ten minutes to finally reach the bottom of the stairwell but what was in front of them was something they truly never expected.

"Is this a city!?" Starla cried out. The area they came out on seemed to be some kind of terrace that overlooked a massive city. Tall buildings could be seen stretching out for kilometers.

"Such an expansive city could have held millions. But from what I can see this city seems to be dead. There are many heat sources but nothing that seems alive." Alicia said. She had scanned the whole area with detection magic but could only find what seemed to be some kind of heating vents.

"Let's make our way down. We can search around a bit and see if we can find anything about what happened here." Blake suggested. He himself was somewhat excited to find a Subterranean city.

The staircase on the way down was somewhat rickety but was still strong enough to support everyone. This time it took even longer to reach the ground. An entire hour passed before they stepped foot on a metal road.

"The whole place really is made entirely out of metal." Rose exclaimed. The capital city rarely used metal for construction but here everything was completely made of metal which seemed strange to her.

"There seems to be a shop of some sort over there. Let's check that out first." Alicia said as she pointed to a small building. Too, Alicia, this building seemed to resemble the convenience stores back on earth.

The group made their way to the small building that had no windows on it. The door to the place was slightly ajar which made for easy entry with both Alicia and Blake pulling on the door which seemed to be a bit rusted at the hinges. But what surprised Alicia though was how well preserved everything was. While there was some rust it was not so bad to cause any issues and if it was sanded down and oiled it would be like new again. With the door open they walked into what seemed to not be a store but more of an office building or workshop. There were a few tables and chairs strewn about with some machines sitting on top of them.

Alicia walked around but stopped her steps when she saw what seemed like a letter or note of some kind laying on one of the tables. The strange letters were not something Alicia recognized. "Hey Blake, can you read this?"

Blake walked over and his eyes opened wide. "Ancient god language!"

"Can you read it?" Alicia asked.

"Yeah, I can." Blake nodded. "It says.."'To whoever reads this. I want you to know what has occurred here. I have been stuck in this workshop for many months now. We can not go outside. Covalia is the last of the cities to still be holding out against the darkness. Those touched by the darkness change and become violent. They attack anyone and everyone. What's worse is the eating. The touched as we call them will consume the flesh and drink the blood of those they kill. Millions have died already. If only the old bastards that run the city could have called for help from the surface dwellers, we might not be in such a dire straight. But they refused to do so out of their own pride! I have not eaten for days and I will probably end up dying here in this workshop. If only I did not return to get something I had forgotten. But I would rather die with my mind intact than to turn into one of those beasts out there. I just did not think the darkness would spread so fast. If you have discovered this city I warn you, beware of the darkness as it can consume anything and turn it into a beast.'

Chapter 91: Old Bones

Phantasia: The Princess Knight

After Blake read the message everyone's eyes dimmed. To think that a race was wiped out by this thing called darkness that caused them to go crazy and start eating each other. Alicia had many questions that she wanted to ask Blake but she knew she could not ask them with everyone else around. "Let's keep looking around."

"Ahh!" Starla yelled out. "Stupid bones! Scare me half to death!" She looked at the bones on the ground and frowned a bit. They were laid out on a makeshift bed wit hits arms were crossed across its chest. You could tell that this person knew they were going to die and decided to lay down and wait for it to happen.

"Starla you okay!?" Alicia yelled over.

"Yeah, but I think I found the body of the person who wrote that letter." Starla answered.

Everyone else came over to where she was and looked at the set of bones on the makeshift bed. "There seems to be something in his hands." Loeri said as she moved her flame over to get a better look. She pulled out what looked to be another letter and handed it to Blake.

Blake unfolded the letter and began to read it out loud. 'My days are numbered. I no longer have the energy to even move around anymore. There is nothing left of me but skin and bones… I can hear the screams and mournful cries coming from the outside. I no longer wish to live. I only write this letter to ask the one who finds my bones to take me to this location and allow my bones to rest in my own home once again. Although I have a feeling this will not happen for many years to come I beg you to have mercy on me and let me rest in a place of my own choosing.'

"The message ends there. What do you girls want to do?" Blake asked.

"I will take their bones. This person died a horrible death. The feeling of hunger is something no one should have to live with." Alicia's eyes looked at the bones on the makeshift bed with an expression of sympathy and knowing. When she first came to this world she had experienced what it was like to truly be hungry beyond belief. Luckily for her, she was able to go to the forest to find food. But this person had no such luck. Being trapped inside this warehouse knowing if they went out they would die. Having no choice but to put up with the hunger, hoping one day that someone will come to the rescue. But unfortunately, sometimes hope is not enough.

Only Blake understood why Alicia had such an expression on her face. He stepped forward and pulled out a large cloth from his space pouch. He then gathered up all the bones and wrapped them up in the cloth. Once he was done, Blake smiled warmly at Alicia and said: "I will go with you."

Blakes warm smile stunned Alicia for a few seconds as she wondered why he looked at her in such a way. But she quickly shook her head pushing any strange thoughts right out of her head. She let out a small sigh before saying: "If we go we should all go. There is no telling what s out there so splitting up is not a good idea. Plus we still have a while before we have to head back. We need to gather as much information as we can from this place. So on the way to return this person's bones to where it was requested in this letter we can check the other buildings. The mission with the fire and ice lizard is on hold for the time being. Is everyone okay with this?"

"I think it's fine. You're the leader of the group anyway." Starla said while nodding her head.

Rose also nodded her head in agreement. "Mhm! Young Miss makes a good leader. "

Alicia only smiled and said: "Then let's head out!"

The map on the letter showed that the person who was stuck in the warehouse seemed to live more towards the center of the city. From where they were it would most likely take a half a day to reach there and this was not counting them stopping and investigating the nearby buildings.

"Hmm, this building seems to be locked from the inside…" The building they were at was like a tightly sealed box. They could see where the entrance was due to a handle stick out of the door. But the edges of the door were so tight against the doorframe that even Alicia could not get her fingers in to try to pry the door open.

"Let me try." Loeri stepped forward and waved her hand. A fine white flame appeared at the tip of her finger that grew longer and longer. When it hit the metal door the metal instantly melted causing a small hole to appear. When Alicia saw this she quickly helped out as she did the same as Loeri and created a long thin flame. The only difference was that her flame was white and a little blue at the tip. Loeri looked at Alicia a bit surprised since normally nothing was hotter than her true dragon flame but here Alicia was with a flame that was just as hot or maybe even hotter!

The two girls worked for a few good minutes each taking a side and cutting the door open. When they needed to get to the higher parts Rose put Loeri on her shoulders while Blake picked up Alicia. Being in such close contact with Blake had made Alicia's cheeks turn slightly pink. When the door was finally cut open it fell inward, kicking up a bit of dust as it hit the floor.

"This is?" Rose asked as she walked into the building.

"I am not quite sure… Reminds me of a hospital..." Alicia said absentmindedly as she looked around.

"A hospital?" Rose asked she had never heard of such a word before.

"Nothing! I was just making something up." Alicia said quickly. Rose only stuck her tongue out at Alicia causing Alicia to let out a small sigh of relief. She cursed herself for saying something that did not exist in this world. There were no actual hospitals in this world. The doctors did home visits only. Something Alicia thought should be changed at some point.

While everyone else paid no mind to Alicia's words Blake who always kept Alicia in his vision picked up on her sigh of relief and wondered what exactly Alicia was hiding. He, of course, did not pry since Alicia did not seem to want to explain.