Chapter 21: Eruption
Once the dreadful game of zombie tag was over, Ruri reunited with Ewan, who had remained near the entrance of the cave.
“You can’t just go running off like that!” Ewan scolded.
“Save your complaints for Heat-sama. I’m the victim in all this,” Ruri retorted. She was an exhausted mess.
“I swear, imagine if something had happened...” Upon closer inspection, Ewan noticed red stains all over Ruri’s face and clothes. He jumped in surprise and yelled, “Hey, wait! What happened?! Did you get hurt?!”
“No, Heat-sama did this to me. He made me zombie bait, the louse! I’ll make tears pour from his eyes one day!”
“Oh, I see. Well, good luck with that,” Ewan replied flippantly, not seeming to care so long as Ruri was safe. He probably didn’t want to get wrapped up in any messes himself either. “Anyway, they’re done raiding the cave. You can go inside now.”
Apparently, everything had concluded while Ruri was out giving the horde of zombies the runaround. Many of the soldiers stood in front of the cave, while others waited on standby further down the mountain.
“What about the members of the Church of God’s Light?”
“They apprehended all the members inside the cave, including their leader. Our soldiers weren’t able to use magic due to all the Spirit Slayer around, but seeing as how they were up against a bunch of regular people who could barely fight, they didn’t have a tough time at all. Actually, they said for all the trouble they caused, they went down pretty anticlimactically.”
“They didn’t attack them with the power they siphoned using Spirit Slayer?” Ruri asked, remembering how Nadasha crafted a magic tool that exploded using Spirit Slayer. She was wary of that possibly happening again.
“No, they’re investigating what the church was using the stolen power for, but they didn’t put up too much of a struggle. They apparently did whine up a storm, though.”
“Did they find the captured dragonkin?”
“Yeah, they did. They drained a lot of his blood, so he’s pretty weak at the moment, but he’s not in any mortal danger. They said he can even answer questions.”
“I see. That’s great news,” Ruri said, relieved that the soldier was safe.
“The soldier is already in transit to the castle. Once he’s in better shape, they plan on questioning him. Though, he is a dragonkin. Our bodies are built out of sturdy stuff, so I’m sure he’ll recover in no time.”
“That means the case is closed, then?”
“Not yet. Joshua has been looking for you. There are some of the dead in there, so he said he wanted to ask the Spirit of Fire to lay them to rest.”
Ruri nodded. “Right, okay.”
While she wasn’t too keen on seeing any more zombies, Ruri reluctantly entered the craggy cave with Heat and Kotaro in tow. The interior was much bigger and more intricately laid than she expected. The cavern was neatly organized, almost as if man-made. Soldiers stood all around, some of them holding lights that brightly illuminated the inside, so Ruri and her crew knew they were on the right path.
They spotted several people dressed in matching robes, all of them with their hands tied behind their back. It was safe to assume they were members of the Church of God’s Light. Old, young, man, woman—there didn’t seem to be any restrictions to becoming a believer of their religion.
They walked on until they eventually reached a huge, open area, presumably the central room of operations. There were more detained members here than anywhere else in the cave. Dozens of them sat wrangled in the center. Including the members they saw along the way, there were at least a hundred in total.
Soldiers stood around the cluster of captured members. In the center of the cluster was a large cage with people inside of it. Standing in front of that was Joshua.
“Hey, Joshua,” Ruri called out, “Ewan said you were looking for me.”
“Oh, hey, you’re here. I was... Wait, why are you a mess?! Did you get hurt?!” Joshua exclaimed, caught off guard by Ruri’s bloody appearance. Possibly in reaction to the blood, the people in the cage started to clamor.
“Don’t worry. I’m not hurt,” Ruri said. She went on to explain her terrifying game of tag with the horde of zombies.
Joshua looked at her with sympathy. “Well, I’m just glad you’re not hurt.”
“Me too. But, anyway, since these people in the cage are reacting to me, are they zombies? They kind of look more human than the ones outside.”
The zombies outside the cave had lifeless eyes and emaciated limbs. They looked like dry husks devoid of any kind of moisture. But the people in the cage, while exhibiting the same lifeless eyes and pale complexions, were clean and healthy-looking. Their flesh was vibrant; they didn’t look much different from a living human being.
“Apparently, the ones in this cage haven’t been dead for very long. That’s why. But they’re the same as the ones outside. They’re not alive.”
“Oh, I see. Then we need to burn them up as well?”
“Yeah, we can’t leave the dead here like this. We need to give them a proper send-off.”
“That’s true. We sure can’t leave them like this.”
They resembled regular people, but they weren’t alive. They moved, but they had already passed. Giving these people a proper cremation was for their benefit.
“Heat-sama, please, if you could.”
Heat scoffed harshly at the prospect of Ruri giving him an order, but he walked over to the cage nonetheless. One of the caged people suddenly caught fire, and it wasn’t long before the blaze spread to each and every one of them.
Even if they were technically dead, seeing people immolated was still hard to watch. Ruri averted her eyes. Just as she did, a host of sorrowful cries rose up in response to the fire.
“No! Please, stop!” one younger woman begged.
“You have to put out those flames, please!” pleaded a man.
“Those people are still alive!” screamed another woman.
The cries were all coming from the captured members of the church. Tears rolled down their faces as they petitioned Ruri and the others not to burn the zombies. It was safe to assume that the zombies were their lost loved ones, and they had all joined the Church of God’s Light in the hope they could be reunited with them.
“You can’t really blame those people, can you?” Ruri commented, knowing they just wanted the people they held dear back.
“Got that right. The leader and the original members are to blame here. From what I’ve heard, the people who joined the church to pay for reviving their loved ones are pretty much in the dark about the inner workings of the organization. The mastermind and the perpetrators of all this are the leader and his original followers.”
“What in the world were they trying to do?” Ruri asked.
“We’re interrogating them now. We need to get to the bottom of why they were using Spirit Slayer—and why they wanted dragonkin blood too.”
The Church of God’s Light assaulted Celestine, a Beloved in the spirit-religious Nation of the Beast King. The soldiers probably weren’t going to use kid gloves when interrogating the captured members. However, these people had to reap what they sowed. They manipulated Noah, a mere child, into becoming an assassin for their cause, so even Ruri wanted to give them a piece of her mind and then some.
“By the way, where are Rin and Chi? They were at the front of the pack coming in here, weren’t they?” asked Ruri, looking around to find both spirits missing. She had been worried the entire time about them doing something out of the ordinary and inconveniencing the soldiers.
“Yeah, they were. They said Spirit Slayer was in use here. They wanted to hurry and dispose of it for the other spirits, but these guys wouldn’t give up the location, so they went looking for it.”
Just as Joshua was explaining, Rin and Chi came out from the depths of the cave. They had found the source. Beckoning everyone to follow them, they led Ruri’s party even deeper into the cave. However, they eventually came to a dead end. There was nothing there.
“Where is it?” Ruri asked.
“Here. Right here,” Rin insisted, pointing at the cave wall.
Ruri curiously put her hand on the wall and lightly pushed. The wall started slowly moving inward.
“Ooh! A secret room,” Ruri exclaimed as she started to step inside, but Joshua stopped her before she could.
“Wait a sec, Ruri. I’ll go in first.” After he checked that it was safe, he let Ruri come in as well.
The room itself wasn’t very big, but instruments and apparatuses lay all around like it was some sort of laboratory. There were also what appeared to be vials containing a red liquid that sat in long rows next to each other.
“What is this stuff?”
“From the color, it looks like medicine made from dragon blood. Here. Take a look at this,” Joshua said, looking down at a magic circle drawn on the floor. Directly above it on the ceiling was a gigantic stone that resembled a lens. And atop the magic circle was a glass filled with a liquid much redder than what was in the vials.
Joshua carefully picked up the glass and sniffed the contents. “Yup, it’s blood. Blood drawn from the dragonkin soldier they held captive, I’m guessing. This might be what’s allowing them to resurrect the dead. But what about this magic circle...” Joshua trailed off and looked at Rin and the other spirits.
“The stone on the ceiling is a magic tool enchanted with Spirit Slayer,” Rin explained. “They’ve been using it to funnel the mountain’s power into the magic circle and infusing the blood sitting atop it with that power. That triggers some sort of reaction, allowing them to create something that can raise the dead, as far as I can tell.”
Joshua sighed. “So, we’ll have to get the details out of them, huh? Well, we’re gonna have to take this all in as evidence. There’s a lot of stuff here, so I’ll get some help.”
Joshua rushed out of the room and returned shortly with several soldiers. They started to carefully collect the vials and instruments for evidence, but they ran into a problem—namely, the huge stone affixed to the ceiling. It was still sapping power from the mountain even as they spoke.
“Should I put this whole thing into my pocket space? I did practically the same thing before.”
Ruri had put the volatile stones Nadasha used into her pocket space before. Since they couldn’t chance the stone triggering an explosion by destroying it, throwing it into the pocket space was probably the safest option. It at least wouldn’t be able to steal any more power from inside there.
“That’s right. If we bust it up and something happens, it’d be bad news. But, uh, ain’t this magic circle active? Is it safe to just take it off the wall?” Joshua asked.
Ruri didn’t have any answers, so she looked to Rin and the spirits.
“I believe you can stop the flow of siphoned power as long as you destroy the magic circle,” Rin explained.
“Ooh! Then I’ll do the honors!” Chi raised his paw and volunteered himself, looking like he was having the time of his life. Humming a little tune, he used his earth powers to move the ground the magic circle was drawn on, lumping up the surface and breaking down the shape of the circle.
“Okay, destroying the magic circle stopped the flow, but we can’t stop the stone from stealing power, so hurry up and put it in the pocket space,” Rin said.
“Got it,” Ruri replied. She asked a few of the soldiers to help her take down the stone. Then they swiftly tossed it into her pocket space.
Just as they sighed in relief, happy that the Spirit Slayer was gone and magic was available again, Heat shuffled up, having finished his zombie cremation.
“I heard you found the Spirit Slayer, but you didn’t destroy it, did you?”
Something about Heat’s words caused Ruri and the others to freeze in place. They slowly turned to look at him.
“Oh, um, we destroyed...the magic circle, at least. And we put the Spirit Slayer into my pocket space, but were we...not supposed to do that?”
Heat heaved a sigh. “Don’t blame me for what happens next.”
“Okay, that’s really ominous. What’s that supposed to mean?” Ruri asked, her face filling with worry.
“The power balance of this mountain has been thrown off after all the years of the Spirit Slayer siphoning off its energy. Since I’m a supreme-level spirit, I was able to regulate that balance by remaining asleep. However, now that I’m awake, there’s no one left to regulate it. On top of that, if you suddenly destroy the Spirit Slayer, all that power it stole will shoot right back to the mountain.”
“And if it does, what happens?”
Just as Ruri asked that question, the ground quaked more than it ever had in recent days. Then a thunderous sound and shaking akin to an explosion assaulted Ruri’s party.
“Wait, wait, what is this?” Ruri asked, panicking.
“I just told you. The power returning to the mountain triggered an explosion—an eruption, if you will.”
“An eruption?!”
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login