A little housekeeping: I'll be trying to post to this story at least once a week until done. I really want to focus on this project for now, so you can expect a pretty steady stream going forward. Some ideas here are borrowed from the Light Novel series, but I'm not sticking strictly to them and the characters are meant to be the ones from the show.
The slog through the abbey was marked by small battles erupting as they came across the guards for the Axis Order. So much of the place was seemingly guards—they came across an honest to god cleric only twice and the person quickly retreated to an area where they had support from other soldiers. Kazuma knew a cleric alone wasn't a joke, but at the same time there was little chance for one of them to stand against a party made up of three advanced classes and a moderate level adventurer with multiple skills (not that they'd know that).
Darkness drove her sword through the back of a robed cleric who was midway through a spell casting, the fabric of his vestments bloomed red from the spot where the weapon jutted through him. He reached down, stunned, before she yanked her weapon out and he dropped to the ground.
It seemed like everyday Kazuma was more glad that he had finally convinced her to put some points into her sword skill. She still missed more often than him, but when she hit it was devastating.
With her arm held high and her staff in hand, Aqua muttered something before she cast her spell. "Flamestrike!" her voice bellowed with a supernatural gusto.
Outside there was an explosion, the abbey rocked slightly.
Kazuma stepped between Megumin and one of the Axis guards, slashing him across the chest and bringing him to his knees before he dispatched of him. "Aqua…what does that spell do…"
"I don't know what happened," Aqua said.
With the last of the guards down, Kazuma approached her. "Flamestrike calls a vertical column of flame from the heavens to strike an enemy; what's above our heads right now?" Kazuma pointed up toward the ceiling and the roof and other floors that were obviously above them.
Aqua threw her fist down, pressing them against her hips as she yelled at him. "Learn some respect you—you—hikiNEET!"
Megumin rolled her eyes. "This is exactly the time for your little two person argument theater…" she said.
"She's right, which way is Wiz?" Asked Darkness.
Aqua sighed and took off running around the bend of the hall. Kazuma ran to keep up with her. Years of running and fighting had made sure that they all had more substantial stamina than they had started with, but they had been through a lot. He hoped that the goddess had remembered that some of them were human.
"Slow down," Megumin said between hurried breaths as she fought to close the distance between them.
Darkness was already alongside Kazuma, even in full armor she never seemed to run out of energy.
The stiff, thick carpet crunched beneath their feet as they charged toward wherever Aqua was leading them. The blue haired goddess slid to a stop and turned to face a door on the side of the hall. She tried the handle only to find it locked.
"The undead are that way, it feels like they're down a flight of stairs," Aqua said pointing hurriedly.
Darkness examined the door. "Hinges don't look reinforced," she said pressing her hand against the door, feeling how much give it had. "It doesn't seem to be terribly sturdy. Let's just knock it down."
Kazuma nodded. "No point in trying to be stealthy; the whole place knows we're here," he said.
"This sounds like one of those not-Aqua things. You two knock yourself out," she said swiping her hand at them dismissively.
Darkness and Kazuma hunkered down shoulder to shoulder, though she was bigger than him. Her blonde hair swished to the side, brushing against Kazuma's cheek. "Okay, on three?" He asked. "One. Two. Three!" Kazuma said.
The pair dashed at the door, hitting the flat wooden surface in in quick succession with Kazuma reaching it first. When Darkness hit the door shuddered and burst inward with the hinges squeaking from the strain. Unfortunately for them there were stairs on the other side of the door. Kazuma tumbled hard down the stone stairs, Darkness hitting him in the back. As they rolled down into the darkness of the this basement area together he struggled to get a hold on anything that could slow them down.
He could hear Darkness's chirps of mirth behind him as they rolled down the stairs. There was vague hint of light somewhere above them…the open door he guessed. But just when it seemed like they might fall endlessly, Kazuma flattened against the stonework floor. Kazuma got one breath of the cool, stale air before Darkness landed in his back, knocking the air out of his lungs.
When the blinding pain of the impact was gone he could feel her on his back, drinking in huge, excited breaths of air. Kazuma could picture the face she must have had: all pink across the nose and cheeks with her mouth hanging open in poorly restrained ecstasy.
"Are you two okay?" Megumin's voice was distant, echoing down the stone stairwell.
"I think Darkness is a little better than…better," said Kazuma. "Did you soil your armor?" He asked the crusader.
Darkness rolled off of him in one smooth motion, her movements only marked by the glint of her armor in what little light there was available. "Well, I never…what makes you think that you…you can ask a proper lady such a question?" She said. Kazuma had learned over the years how to hear the arousal that tainted the humiliation in her voice.
Kazuma pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. "Be careful coming down. The steps are sharp." There was a flash of pain in his abdomen. "I may need some healing," Kazuma adds.
In a rush of footfalls, Megumin and Aqua descended the stairs; taking them seemingly two at time judging by the sound. Darkness moved to the side as Aqua knelt down to cast one of her curative spells. The soreness and stiffness in Kazuma's body went warm with a subtle numbness as the pain was drained away from him. He pushed up off the ground to get on his feet.
Even in this kind of thick darkness, Kazuma had a skill that allowed him to see to a degree in the darkness. It wasn't to the standard of Aqua (or at least from what she described herself being able to do), but he could see well enough to avoid being attacked by anything that just ran up on him.
And then Aqua Held her staff aloft and muttered a short bit of something that Kazuma couldn't understand. Light erupted from the tip of her staff, illuminating the hallway around them in bluish light. "That's better," she said.
Darkness rubbed her arm across her face, as if in an attempt to gather herself. "I guess…it's this way then?"
They pressed on, sticking close to Aqua and her light. The basement was the total opposite of the upstairs hallway. There was no paint or wallpaper anywhere. The floor was solid stonework and damp in spots where water had leaked down from above. "It's much stronger now; we're closer," Aqua said.
"Look out!" Megumin shouted in the split second before a figure charged out of the blackness with a spear at the ready.
Darkness pushed to the front of the group, deflecting the attack with the wing-like shoulder guard. The tip of the weapon narrowly missed her face as it glanced off of her armor with a heavy metallic sound. Kazuma shoved Megumin into Aqua, knocking them away from the danger as he drew his blade.
"Sounds like more are coming!" Darkness said. She and Kazuma engaged the first guy, sticking closer to him to make his reach ineffective. Their swords sliced through his chest and stomach in an 'X' shape, spilling blood onto the floor in front of him
"Barrier!" Aqua cried. A sheen of light blue spread across the hallway in front of them for a flash stopping three arrows from hitting anyone.
"Thats it, you bastards!" Kazuma charged down the hall, his body dropped low and his arms spread out to the side. His sword dragged a sparking trail through the stones as his screams echoed off into the darkness. "Bloooooody PATH!"
Kazuma was enveloped in blue light that trailed in his wake as his feet pounded down the hallway. With sharp, skill-enhanced movements he jammed his sword into one guard, then another, then their accompanying cleric and an archer. He came to a stop in almost a flash of motion, down on one knee with his sword held out to the side.
"Seems we might have to fight our way all the way down this hall," said Megumin, matter-of-a-factly as she readied her staff for any close-quarters combat they might see.
Darkness and Aqua closed the gap between themselves and Kazuma, as the adventurer rose to his feet, his cape fluttering from the abrupt movement. "How many of these guys are there?"
"What are these idiots doing in this—this—house of the goddess? My house! How dare they defile it like this!" Aqua trembled with such emotion that the light from her staff shook around them.
Footfalls in the hallway, so many of them this time. Why were they all gathered here? Kazuma jerked his head back so that he was looking over his shoulder toward Megumin, the younger mage was barely visible at this range. "Do you think you have one in you?"
"I can manage three. First one today; I've been saving up!" Megumin twirled her staff expertly and the jewel at the hooked end of the glimmered in the dull light. She planted her feet and began to chant an incantation.
"The tower of rebellion creeps upon man's world. The unspoken faith displayed before me. The time has come! Now, awaken from your slumber and by my madness, be wrought! Strike forth, EXPLOSION!" Megumin bellowed. As her words neared their inevitable conclusion a red beam of light pierced the darkness going straight down the hall. Through the illumination caused by it Kazuma could see their foes charging. Circular runes whirled around the beam and then everything erupted in light.
A normal explosion spell was vertical, striking down from the heavens in a massive column. But Megumin had been working on shape spell techniques; she could bend the weave of magic to her will now, curl her explosions around corners or just loose them in straight lines. It seemed more impressive than it really was considering her only skills were the explosion spell and spells that enhanced that spell.
When the light of the massive spell cleared the walls were still glowing red from the intensity of the blast. The charred bodies of their would-be attackers were strewn about the hallway. Kazuma continued on, using the light coming out of the stonework to guide him. Megumin's spell had done something else too: the door at the end of the hall had been blown off.
"Why put this so far out?" Darkness asked. "There's nothing else down here. No other doors or anything."
"If undead were directly below the abbey it would be easier for visitor clerics and archpriests who weren't in on the secret to sense them," Aqua said.
Kazuma was kind of impressed with her thought processes sometimes. She was pretty stupid, but she had her sparks of brilliance.
"What they didn't count on was a fabulous goddess like myself and my finely tuned senses!" Aqua said jamming a thumb into her chest with pride.
Aqua's brilliance was generally on display when it would make her look the best and give her bragging rights.
Megumin's feet were dragging behind him, her steps were slow and he could hear her breathing.
"We okay?" He asked her.
"I might have put a bit too much into it. I'll—I'll be fine," Megumin said. The mage had come a long way since he first met her. She could manage three or four castings of explosion a day now.
The door that was blown off was just a little ways now and Kazuma thought he smelled something: food. As they made their way toward the door he was sure he could see the faint flicker of torchlight and hear the muffled voices of dozens of people. He steeled himself, looking to Darkness. "Get ready," he said.
As they reached the door and stepped through it the smell of fresh breads and meats and steamed vegetables washed over him. He was more hungry than he had expected. The second thing that he noticed, and only a hair's breadth of a second after the first, was that the room had a small crown of people in some of the finest clothes he had seen since coming to this world. Nobles with puffed out pants that gave way to white stockings and who wore huge stiff ruffs around their necks.
Kazuma's sword felt ten times heavier and sagged down to his side, clinking against the stone floor. The men and women, the nobles, present in this room all had one other thing in common: masquerade masks. Their eyes all locked onto Kazuma and his companions.
At the far side of the room, past all of the buffet tables lined with steaming food there was a raised stage with a podium. A masked man in a maroon robe stood with his hands gripping the podium, staring down at the party.
"What's going on here?" Asked Kazuma.
Aqua pushed her way toward the stage, bowling past the nobles in attendance. "Just who do you think you are using MY temple to have some kind of undead celebration dinner party or whatever this is…"
"…an auction. This is some kind of auction for the undead," Megumin's eyes traced a line through the crowd and as Kazuma followed her gaze he saw it too. The small paddles with numbers scratched on them in charcoal held in the hands of many of the guests, the little gavel sitting atop the podium—he knew her to be right the moment those connections clicked in his head.
The nobles began to shrink back to the sides of the room. A plate fell to the floor and shattered somewhere. "I think it'd be best if you ran. Now!" Megumin yelled as she flared a bright orange circle of runes in the air at the tip of her staff. The light from it caused some of the people nearest to her to shield their eyes.
The moment that she dropped the precursor for the spell the nobles charged past them screaming and dropping their paddles and covering their faces so as not to be seen.
Kazuma pointed his sword at the man who still stood at the podium. "You look like you're in charge," he said. "Where's Wiz?"
"I haven't a clue on Aqua's blue ocean what you're talking about." He spoke the line in a rehearsed register
Kazuma could hear Aqua's knuckles crack and he looked to the side to see her fists clenched tightly at her side. "Behind that wall," she pointed. "There's dozens of undead. You can't lie to me."
The man at the podium moved and before Kazuma could say anything, he grabbed a strange crystal ball like object from just out of sight. The moment that he touched the ball a huge wall behind him began to rumble. "Oh, you mean these undead?" He broke for the door, darting down the side of the room.
As the wall slid away, the man ducked out behind the podium and darted somewhere off through the room. "Handle this here!" Kazuma called as he took off after the auctioneer.
"Where are you going?" Asked Aqua.
"Where do you think…" he said before taking a breath. "…you useless Goddess."
Megumin and Darkness pressed in close on either side of Aqua as the wall grumbled and rocked open. She raised her staff up above her head, the light shining bright from its tip. "Here they come," she said.
"Turn undead?" Asked Darkness.
"Not until we find Wiz," Megumin said.
"I've got other way to deal with undead," said Aqua.
The first of the zombies through the door was charging straight at them. It was rare for an undead of this type to be able to move that fast and be that spry. Its gnarled hands jerked out in front of its body, readied to grab the first of them that it came to. Aqua aimed her staff at the creature. "Undeath to death!"
A wet explosion rocked the room as that zombie and several of the others following behind it popped like balloons spraying viscera across all over the room. The thing had gotten too close and there was some risk a bit of it might get on them. Then Darkness jostled them out of the way, throwing her arms out to the sides and letting it cover her.
"Ew," Megumin said.
Darkness's whole form shook, though Aqua had good reason to believe it wasn't from disgust. "I've never been so humiliated in my entire life…" she glanced back at her companions, her cheeks and bangs streaked with blood.
"You get off on the worst things," Aqua said.
Zombies moaned, their bare feet slapping at the stone floor as they fought against each other to get through the opening. They were nude, their skin sickly greens, and pale blues and in various states of decay. A few of them even had bloated stomachs taut with gasses from decomposition. This had happened many times before, but Aqua forgot the experience. The undead were drawn to her. They were drawn to life and hated it and nothing was more alive than a Goddess.
Even a Goddess who was mostly de-powered and running around in the realm of mortals. The funky smell of their rotten bodies washed over them before any more were close.
Darkness stepped in, her breathing still heavy. "I'll hold them back, we need to find Wiz." The blonde crusader lifted her sword, it glinted in the torchlight.
One of them made it past, diving for Megumin as she was the closest to it. She whacked the thing across the face with her stick, knocking it to the side so that it fell through a small table where they were serving bread. Taking a knife from the side of one of the platters, she drove it down through the thing's head. "We might have to get resourceful, I might only have one more explosion in me."
"Then save it," Darkness said. Her sword caught one of the runners at the leg, snapping his ankle so that his foot flopped around only loosely connected by twisted skin. She knocked another to the side and still another grappled her, biting at her armored forearm until she could push it away. "We're going to get overrun!"
"Turn—" Aqua was tackled, her back pressed against the table. The zombie that had grabbed her looked like graying hamburger meat. His—she thought it had been male—teeth and gums were exposed through a lipless mouth and his eyes were wide and yellow. The thing bit into her neck and she felt a sharp, warm pain.
Concentrate. She had to concentrate and call up her strength to push the thing off, but it hurt so bad. Blood ran down her chest, soaking into the top of her clothing. Her staff had fallen from her hand somewhere. She screamed.
Megumin was struggling, she could see the young made using her stick to hold back three of the zombies. Darkness was lost in a crowd of the things. How many had there been? How could this happen?
No.
Whistling bolts of energy ripped through the air so hard that Aqua felt her skin shudder and tighten. The zombie was blown off of her flipping through the air to land rolling through some chairs. Two more bolts of white hot magical energy tore through the zombies that were about to best Megumin. Another three hit the crowd around Darkness allowing her to break free.
"Who?" Aqua asked out loud as she clamped her hand down on her neck to stop the flow of blood.
Wiz appeared in the opening where the zombies had come from, her hands held out in front of her ready to cast another spell.
"Wiz!" Megumin, Aqua, and Darkness said in unison.
"I didn't know you knew that spell? A Magic Missile, nice," Aqua said. "It's a good thing you didn't let Kazuma see. He'd try to steal it."
A zombie moved to attack again and Wiz was on it, she turned her gaze on it and wordlessly cast a spell that pulled it under her thrall. She closed her eyes and held a fist out in front of her, opening it to see the zombie collapse into a heap on the floor.
"There's more of them than we have daily spells," Megumin said. "Best to get outside and blow the whole place up!"
With some of the panic passed it became very apparent that Wiz was nude. Aqua could really see her now and there was something hypnotic about the curvature of her form. Her hips and thighs were round and flawless and though she wasn't a small woman there was something natural about the small rise of her stomach that quickly hooked back under her legs into a field of darkened hair.
Megumin removed her cloak and ran to see the Lich, throwing it around the other woman's shoulders. "There. We have to go. Now!"
Kazuma hadn't planned this out in any real fashion.
His eyes didn't work in the dark the way that Aqua's did and even with his abilities, he was moving much faster than intended. Everything around him became a darkened blur. The air was still hot from Megumin's explosion spell.
Lucky for him, his target was human and seemed to have neglected to have an escape plan at all. The crowds that had left before them were probably out of here, but Kazuma could hear the auctioneer out front of him. He could hear the panicked breathing, feel the floor vibrate as the other man tripped over one of the fallen bodies of his guards.
"No, you don't understand," his voice was muffled by the mask. He huffed at the air, a breath caught in his throat before he let out a short scream.
"I understand you and your perverted friends were planning to do—whatever with my friend just because she's dead," Kazuma said. "And you used my other friend's religious order to cover your crimes."
The man toppled over a large dark form on the ground, another body, and rolled down the hall. Before he could stand up Kazuma put the cold blade of his sword against the exposed side of his neck.
"If you want her back—you could just take her. I'm sure her body's still fresh." Kazuma could feel him trembling against the steel. "Is that what it is, she's yours? I regret not getting to test her out my—"
Kazuma ripped his sword away, slicing the man's throat wide open and causing blood to spill out in a black poor around the shadowy figure on the ground. He stood over his kill, soaking in the metallic smell of the air, before falling back against the wall to catch his breath.
Something was wrong. He killed men all the time and for far less than zombie sex trafficking or whatever this was. Something was out of place.
He rested on the wall for he didn't know how long.
A hand touched his shoulder and he jerked away. Megumin was next to him, light now filled the hall being emitted by Aqau's staff. Wiz was with them, wrapped very tightly in a too-small cloak that he recognized as Megumin's. He spotted Darkness by the body, looking down into his face.
"You got him?" She said.
Kazuma nodded and stepped toward the corpse. He peered down into the face and froze.
"We have to keep moving. We didn't finish the zombies off," Megumin said.
"What's your problem Kazuma?" Aqua yelled, running up to shake him.
He glared up and spotted Wiz, disheveled and very nervous looking. Then he looked down into the face of the dead body, its head wreathed in blood. "Tanaka."
"You know this freak?" Aqua said. "It figures you'd—wait, I think I remember him too, Kaito Tanaka. I think—I sent him down here."
"He was a classmate, always a little weird. I don't even remember his first name, but he committed suicide a few years before I…got here," Kazuma said.
"It doesn't look like he got very far into trying to stop the Demon King," Aqua said smugly. She stooped down to take the mask and used a jet of water from her finger to clear the blood away. "It's magical."
Darkness giggled with delight. "I can hear more of them coming."
"We won't get far in another fight like that," Wiz said finally.
"Aqua," Kazuma said, seeing her for the first time, "You're bleeding."
"Oh yeah," she said. "I forgot. They're right, let's go."