Aelthrie’s Underground II — Virion

Dressed in smelly rags, I wandered about my new environment and wondered where I was in the underworld. I wasn't somewhere obscure, that was for sure.

There were pipes that gleamed a fierce blue flowing across the many buildings and into the earth, deep beneath my feet. I could feel the city's heartbeat every step of the way. A tell-tale sign that I was still wandering about the metropolis.

I spotted someone else, who was also dressed in rags. They walked lazily as if they would fall out of balance at any time as they dragged their bare, blistered feet on the ground. The smell of sickness lingered about their solitary form.

"Mana Deficiency," My voice was a hushed whisper, "They look like living dead..."

Fog and smoke obscured most of my vision as I turned corner after corner, getting increasingly lost in this concrete jungle. I could hear the voice of people and children flitting in and out of range. They echoed out from above me.

I couldn't help but follow those sounds, so I looked up. Blurs of movement caught my eye, swinging from building to building on ropes and clotheslines.

Moreover, judging from their movements and the light amounts of combat on display, they were lithe and agile thieves who were escaping the chase of law enforcement officers. They were relying on their proficiency in traversing the area to evade getting surrounded and captured.

Eventually, after collecting all the sparse clues I had available to me, I realised that I was in a northern street of Aelthrie's underworld.

I was being led towards one of the "Underworld Pockets" that existed in the huge Aelthrie Metropolis. A region where smoke and fog obscured the area from the outside world. A place where many criminals thrived.

I couldn't help but wonder how they could avoid being destroyed. Was there some monstrous backer behind all these criminals that even the Valorous Government could do nothing about it? Was it some natural occurrence that inevitably develops in society, and everyone else was simply too lazy to exterminate them unless they cross a line?

I had many questions, yet too few answers. As such, I shoved the thought aside and moved on.

My footsteps had brought me to the edge of the fog and smoke. My instincts were telling me that I would instantly regret stepping out of its obscuration spells. I would surely be found by those nobles who wanted me dead.

I looked out and witnessed the lives of those in the light. They subconsciously steered clear of this region and went about their law-abiding lives despite the oppression the weak would experience.

"Hah," A long sigh escaped my lips.

I felt helpless. I realised that I had no idea how to start. I didn't even have a weapon to defend myself.

I went to the side of the road and sat down. I buried my face into my hands as my initial anger fully faded away.

I had nothing. I had lost everything after a fit of rage. Those words that I had uttered earlier all felt so distant.

Was I still a Sun Saint in the first place? With the decline of my family's status, siding with me against the Valorous Government was going to be a horrible idea. I wouldn't blame them if they abandoned me.

After all, although there was a great distance between Aelthrie and the Kingdom of Paura, powerful individuals could cause havoc anywhere they went. A piece of Mana Technology literature likened these powerful individuals to missiles—some kind of high-tech weapon that inventors have yet to create.

"What do I do?" A sense of emptiness was filling my entire being, "What can I even do in the first place?"

"You should start with gathering information." A voice suddenly sprouted from behind me, and a sharp killing intent engulfed my entire form.

Goosebumps appeared all over my body and I sprung to my feet in the blink of an eye. My head spun as I glanced behind me, only to see a contradicting face gazing down at me.

She had a face that was cute yet seductive. The gleam in her eyes displayed an arrogance that rivalled that of a lioness. She was a hunter. Decisive, cunning, and dangerous.

In her hand was a fist-sized orb of blue... mana? I did not know but just looking at the item terrified me and irked me at the same time. Similar to my encounter with Jiontar, something within it felt eerily familiar.

"Who... Who are you?" I had to cough up my words. Her intentions were palpable, and I could feel my life teetering on a cliff's edge.

Surely, one wrong word and one wrong move would spell my doom.

"That is not something for you to know. Now, you have something I need. Hand it over." The woman glared at me with great ferocity. Whatever she thought I had was probably something important.

The problem was... everything that I owned was gone. What could I possibly have that she could want this badly?

"Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding." I tried to straighten myself up, but a wave of frost forced me onto my knees.

"A misunderstanding?" The woman glanced at the orb in her hand, and it gleamed with a fierce blue.

Out of nowhere, a humanoid figure appeared all around her. A pair of gleaming white eyes stared me down, oppressing me with some strange aura of mana. My entire existence felt naked at this moment as it peered into me.

"I'm afraid it isn't." The woman's tone made it clear that she was confident in what she knew. "Attempt to deceive me another time and I will simply pluck out your limbs to get what I want."

"Ma'am..." I took a step back and raised my hands. Nervousness engulfed me as I witnessed a long spike of ice appear out of thin air. "I promise you... I do not have single clue as to what you are referring to. Please, can you make your request a bit clearer?"

The woman raised an eyebrow and fell into thought for a moment. Had my sincerity reached her? Will she not resort to violence now that it has?

"Show me your arm." She said.