World of Horrors:
Aqua and Maximus were standing before the door of the first house they walked up to. His hand stretched forth halfway between him and the knob, wondering if he should dare to open the first possible trap.
Aqua noticed the small amount of fear in his eyes as she wondered if he was going to open the door or not. "Are you going to open it or just stare at it all day long? We don't have too much time to spare right now." She said and looked down with her hand over her stomach.
"I know the stakes involving our situation, I'm just trying to ready myself for what possibly could be behind this door. That involves being in the right mind set and since I have to account for you being here, this will prove difficult for me as I do not have much experience in dealing with potential monsters or traps combined with looking out for someone. Now then, let us see if we can find the source of this reality to be on a continuous activation. I would bet the caster of this spell is not in here and is using something to cause mana to flow into it. But that would mean they have a time limit as well. Unless they have an infinite supply to keep this going." He explained to her.
His hand took hold and turned it over. After a few moments he noticed nothing had activated or sprung after them. He took his hand off the knob and kicked it wide open. The door slammed against the wall to the side and he quickly took hold of Aqua in his left arm to back away, expecting something to happen. His right hand stretched out with a fireball ready to launch upon any foe that could come their way.
"Uh, Maximus, what are you,"
"Shh." He snapped at her to keep her quiet as he remained focus on the door and used his senses to see if anything outside was moving towards them.
A few moments went by and nothing had been activated along with no creature sprung from behind any of the buildings to attack.
"No, that is giving him too much or too little credit for a first trap and considering this entire town or Mirror Reality is a dungeon, it would make more sense to give one a false hope of relief. Besides, traps do not have to be the house itself, it can be anything inside as well. Still, best to be ready for anything." He said what was on his mind out loud.
He gently sat her down and she remained quiet, not to disturb him and looked around. She turned back to the house they were about to enter and soon her sense of smell was beginning to go off.
"Hold on a second, I think I smell something rotten, like a,"
Before she could finish what, she was saying, a pack of undead corpses exited through the threshold of the house with all haste. They flooded out like a heavy stream of rushing water that caused the walls around the house to collapse under the pressure they were putting on it. Soon after more of them burst through the bricks.
Maximus quickly took hold of her once more, jumping high in the air and back towards the open field. Aqua began to scream and cry out, remembering the last time she was chased by an undead horde.
"Please, don't let them get anywhere near me, I don't want to die by them!" She shouted with tears rushing out of her eyes.
The two landed near the outskirts of town and readied his spell.
"Heaven's Blaze!" He shouted and the magical attack spring from his hand and immediately engulfed the numerous horde running after them.
Everyone of them were immediately turned to ash and once it was over, he noticed more were pouring out of the house they had first opened.
"So, it must be something within that house that is conjuring up these fiends or the house itself is the culprit for this one." He said to himself.
Jumping up into the air once more and still holding onto Aqua, they hovered over the house. The undead were gathering underneath them and soon began to pile onto each other. The two noticed they were making a makeshift tower of bodies to reach them.
Maximus held his hand above them to form a ball of energy that was the size of a large ball. Once enough was gathered he threw it down upon the house and it was immediately engulfed. Everything within it was destroyed and soon the undead horde began to turn to dust and floated away.
"Thought so." He said out loud.
"What do you mean by that?" She inquired.
"Well, that house or something within was being used to summon the endless wave of undead upon us. I am guessing more so the entire house was the culprit since nothing else was touched after kicking the door in." He briefly explained.
"So, why not just blow up every building in here? Maybe then we could be set free." She said in a cheerful manner.
"Bad idea, what if one of the houses is or has something that could crumble everything upon us. Or unleash an explosion that could easily wipe us out. We need to be careful; traps are not our only concern while being within this place. We need to be more tactful than that, try thinking things through a little more next time, even if it is almost impossible for you to do." He replied. "I, without a doubt, am going to have to make sure to watch what she does in here. Who knows what she might actually accidently unleash? A lot of oversight indeed for this situation." He said to himself.
The two began to slowly walk down the street, keeping a watch for anything. Several of Maximus' familiars returned with information about the area. Each of them fed all notable interests into his mind. Aqua saw the large birds land on his shoulder and a few moments later take flight around town.
"So, anything useful they may have found yet?" She curiously inquired. "It is so amazing how he could do all of that. Having familiars be used for not only fighting, but also scouting around." She said to herself waiting for his reply.
Maximus was finished with the last familiar and turned to her. "Nothing as of yet, but there has been evidence of a struggle not far from us."
"Really, someone else is in here! I wonder who else could have been sent to this place. I thought only you made Lord Alderp mad enough to send his lacky to capture us. And to think this beautiful and innocent Goddess was caught in the middle of your grudge match with him. That is a bit shameful for you to do and allow to happen to me, just so you know. You will pay dearly for this when we get out of this place." She said giggling to cheer him up from his frowning face.
"Well, my lady, I guess I have no choice but to make it up to you someway in the future." He stopped for a moment to put his right arm around her with his left arm pointing out in front of them. "Maybe when this is over the two of us can just call it quits, as in no more adventuring at all. Maybe we can acquire Lord Alderp's assets and money to payoff our debt and move back to the resort town. What say you to that idea?" He inquired.
"But what about the whole idea with those firearms you been working on?" She inquired.
"I may wrap that up once I find the right kind of metal or just bypass the whole gemstone attachment to activate them. But then I would need to find out where the right materials for gunpowder are in this world. That is if this world even has those materials. But we will cross that bridge after getting out of here. Plus, we need to see who else is here not far, up ahead to be exact." He replied keeping his gaze upon her and she nodded.
"Alright, but I want to stay living in the castle of ours. Maybe we can convince Darkness and Megumin to leave too. I want no distractions from your attention to me at night, you got that?" She said with her finger pointing at him.
"It's a deal then." He smiled back at her and turned to look forward. "Now, to see about who is within this place, be on your guard." He instructed.
"Yes sir." She said cheerfully.
The two rounded the corner and looked down where the marketplace was and saw a frightening sight. Glancing down the street, they saw webbing crisscrossing to either side and scaled up the buildings. They also saw several handfuls of what they could only guess to be people who had been wrapped up within the webs. Some were ripped open, showing the decaying corpse of the unfortunate souls who became prey.
Aqua turned away, horrified by the sight she beheld and was starting to panic, thinking she would suffer the same fate. Maximus moved his right arm across her back, feeling the quaking state her body was in.
"Poor fellows, I wonder who they were and how they got here? Maxwell must have used prisoners they have captured or gathered some unfortunate souls who were possibly within the jails from the Kingdom. They may have taken the downtrodden homeless people from there too. Using them as test subjects to practice his "World of Horrors" and fill it with all manner of creatures he could capture. At least, that is what I would do if I were in his position. If he has arachnids within this place, then there is no telling what else could have been caught by him. What a disturbing individual this Maxwell is turning out to be." He said to himself.
The next moment he felt an uneasy feeling along with a familiar presence. The hairs on the back of his neck were starting to stand up as if his six sense were screaming at him to move quickly.
Maximus instantly teleported the two of them to a nearby roof which overlooked the entrance to the webbed marketplace. He looked down and saw nothing out of the ordinary. The next instant he saw a pair of slashing marks, as though something was embedding into the road. The second after he heard a screeching sound from a large creature. The sound was all too familiar to him. It was the sound of a Giant Arachnid reacting to the pain its fangs endured hitting against the stone road.
To his surprise and disbelief, he did not see anything down below on the street. Aqua was about to cry out when he placed his hand over her mouth and motioned his finger over his lips. He instantly used his magic and looked down below to see the arachnid twist and turned to look for its prey.
"Brilliant, not only are there Giant Arachnids, but they are invisible as well, pesky creatures." His body shivered as the thought of being caught by one interrupted what he was thinking. "If I had it my way, they all would burn in the fires of Hell itself just so I can live in peace without the thought of having one crawl on me, no matter how big or small they are." He finished his thought.
"What's going on down there, what was making that scary noise just now?" Aqua whispered to him as her body was quaking from the sound.
"It's a Giant Arachnid that is somehow invisible, though considering Maxwell's knowledge of magic, and I am sure it is extensive, he may have made them be that way. Or given them the gift of active camouflage. Making themselves blend in with the area even when moving. This would be a perfect place to hide the source of this spell or the conduit for it. At least, I would think so." He said as he watched the arachnid climb its way back up the building to the right of the marketplace.
"Then why not obliterate the entire area and be done with it?" She asked.
"I would, however, there are still two people alive down there. I need to see if they are infected with their venom first before writing them off and engulfing the entire place with one of my spells." He said.
The next moment he sent his familiar upon the creature at high speeds. The bird activated a spell to allow its body to be hard as steel. The next moment it cleaved the arachnid in two and it fell back towards the ground.
Aqua was able to see it the moment after being cleaved and her fear of it grew ever more. She quickly latched onto Maximus as he maintained his composure. He moved his hands up to lift the two pieces of its body off the ground. After it was motioned to be in front of the entrance, he noticed smaller arachnids dropping out of it. The moment they hit the ground they almost instantly folded their legs inward, dying.
"Must have not been the time for those to be born yet, oh well, less of a nuisance they will be in the future." He said to himself.
The next moment he snapped his fingers and fire momentarily burst upon the two body parts. He moved one of them on the other side of the market via teleportation and moved his hands together. The large fireballs moved in sync with his hands and met in the middle of the street.
The flames consumed the webbing lines as he used his magic to ensure the last two people within were not harmed. The fires zigged zagged to and fro all the while catching other of the large arachnids on fire. Each of them scurried around, frantically, until their brains were consumed and they died after a few moments. The thick smoke pillars rose high above the town from their bodies, causing the sky to be littered with its darkness. Maximus began to wonder if he made a bad decision as he studied the cloud formation. The two of them sensed something ominous within it and wondered what it could turn out to be.
"I do not like the feel of this." He said as a terrible feeling came over him while keeping his eyes up.
"This is where I come in," Aqua said confidently and stepped in front of him. "Sacred Dispel!" She shouted and a ray of magical light shot forth upon the cloud.
The next moment it collided with the dark mass and soon he noticed it began to shrink until there was nothing left of it at all.
"That's what I thought, I knew it was filled to the brim of dark magic and used my spell to cancel it out." She said with a smirk and clapped her hands together to dust them off. She quickly turned around to look at Maximus. "Well, what did you think, I am not so helpless all the time and I also have my uses too." She said resting her fists on her hips.
Maximus cracked a half smile and tilted his head to the side, chuckling a little. "Funny how you were scared to death over that thing becoming visible, but when you dispelled the black cloud, you showed you are capable of taking on something a little scary. You are an interesting person to say the least." He said and walked up to her.
The moment they were about to embrace each other, he saw another Giant Arachnid jump up behind her. He quickly snapped his fingers and an explosion erupted within the creature. The moment after, she was showered in its slushy substance. Her body flinched in disgust and soon began to cry out.
"Why did you have to do that, why couldn't you just send that creature up in the sky. Now I am covered in its slimy insides, ruined for all to see once again." She fell to her knees, crying her eyes out.
He quickly cancelled the magic upon his eyes and walked up to her. "Pardon me for saving your life once again, and oh, by the way, you are welcome for that." He said sighing with a little frustration. "Here," He stopped to snap his fingers and the next instant warmer water came rushing down over her head to wash the nasty substance away. "Now the innards of the arachnid have been rinsed off of you. Also, you are welcome for that as well." He said with a little attitude and conjured up a towel to put on her head.
He saw her sad face morph into an upset one and growled at him a little. "Why did you have to do that, this is no way to treat a beautiful Goddess such as my self in this way." She snapped at him.
"Well, at least I did not use ice cold water to make it stick to you a lot more." He shot back walking towards the presence of the last two people who were still alive, but barely. "Now, we should look into who is within that area and inquire as to why they are even here." He finished, turning around to notice she had unbuttoned and took off her vest. Her upper body was exposed and she began to twist her top to rinse the excess water out of it. "Do you really need to do that now? Someone's life could be at stake and you are just standing here drying off your clothing." He said feeling annoyed as she ignored him.
After getting much of the water out, she placed her vest back on. "There, now that will be a little more comfortable. Okay, I am ready to go." She said enthusiastically and skipped over to be at his side. "Waiting on you now, dearie." She finished with a smile on her face.
He sighed and the two were teleported before the marketplace within the next instant. They began to walk down the street, looking around every corner. After a few moments, he sensed where the two presences were at. The two turned down an alleyway until they saw two lumps of wrapped up figures. They dashed over and began to open them up to reveal two familiar individuals.
"Chris, Kazuma, what are the two of you doing here?" Aqua asked and soon noticed they did not answer.
Maximus noticed they seemed asleep yet had an uncomfortable look on their faces.
Chris could hear the voices of Aqua and Maximus ring in her ears. She slowly opened her eyes to look up and wondered if it was a dream. Maximus saw her eyes open for just a moment and placed the back side of his hand on her forehead.
"She has a high fever; I believe the two of them may be poisoned by the venom of those arachnids. We have to hurry, there is not much time we can spare." He said with urgency as the heat from her head was still present on his hand.
Chris could feel the sensation of his hand on her head and struggled to open her eyes once more. "Maximus, help us." She struggled to speak.
Maximus used his Analysis spell to see how bad off she was and noticed there was only moments before her life would expire. He used his healing magic to isolate the venom and caused her body to sweat it out rapidly along with Aqua's healing spell. He looked over to Kazuma and saw he was mere inches away from passing on. The two used the same healing magic upon him as well and waited to see if they would awake after several minutes.
"Do you think we got to them in time?" Aqua asked feeling concerned for the two.
"Only time will tell and depends on how strong their will to live is. I have removed the venom from them along with your healing spell, but their bodies may have gone too long without treatment to know for sure. Plus, I am unfamiliar with the arachnids of this world, so I do not know how potent their poison is." He answered while standing a few feet away.
The next moment the two of them heard the coughing of Chris and Kazuma as they awoke. They turned around and noticed their weakened state was still loaming over them. Chris slowly sat up and noticed Maximus and Aqua looking at them.
"If you are wondering about whether or not you are still in the trapped world Maxwell put you in, you are." He said before she could ask any question. "That's a bold thing you two did for us several weeks back. Trying to disrupt the plans and steal from Lord Alderp was a brave act. I can tell you were not expecting a Duke of Hell to be waiting for the two of you. Also, yes, I read Kazuma's mind to find out how you both got here since I was unable to read your mind." He continued as he remembered trying to look into her mind and was blinded mentally by a bright light. "I can guess Aqua would be the same with that whole mental block the two have. That is quite the neat trick, at least I won't have to worry about the two of them being under a mind control spell." He said to himself.
"Well, I guess there is no sense in explaining everything to you then is there?" Chris inquired.
"No," Maximus replied shaking his head to the sides. "Even so, there would have been no time to do so in the first place. We need to get out of here before the mana supply or some unknown timer runs out or we end up falling prey to whatever else is in here. Do you have any clues or possibly came across something out of the ordinary?" He inquired.
"Unfortunately, no, not long after arriving we were caught by those things. I get the feeling we may never get out of here." She said curling up in the fetal position and buried her head upon her knees.
"What are you saying?!" Aqua snapped at her and took hold of Chris' scarf. "How dare you lose hope like that, especially when Maximus is here with us. Just so you know, he knows all kinds of magic most people have only dreamed of doing or have not even thought of. So of course, we can get out with him by our side." She finished shouting as she let her go and stood next to Maximus. "Isn't that right?"
He nodded his head. "There is a way out, however, we must find something where there is a huge source of magic. Problem is with this whole town as a collection of random death traps, ready to spring upon us once active, we could be searching for some time before finding it. Also, that means taking very precautious and unsafe risks to get out of here. Let us hope we can find it before we run out of time." He said and turned around to head out of the alleyway.
"Where are you going?" Kazuma asked feeling dizzy.
"You three wait here for now, while you two were recovering, I set up my own traps and familiars to watch over the area. You are safer here than by my side from this point on." He stopped to turn around towards them. "Besides, Maxwell wanted it that way to begin with. Do not fret too much Aqua, I am only going to look around for a few moments. I will return shortly once those two have some time to regain themselves." He said and began to walk out of the marketplace.
"You better come back to me and do not take too long to do it either, okay." She ordered him.
He continued waving back at her and quickly gave her a thumbs up and a smile.
