Chapter 15: The Vivia Aqueduct and Prison

In the dead night Rose snuck into the north eastern area of Lady Lake avoiding any soldiers that were on patrol she heard something behind her so she turned her head to see Sergei in a simple shirt and pants. "Sergei?" She whispered.

"I'm going to help you." Sergei whispered back. "I'm certain that I put some of those people in that prison and I figure that regardless of what I do they'll hate me, but just letting the Shepherd take care of my country's problems while I stand by is something that I can't do."

"All right. I'll hold you to your word and don't go running off if you feel uncomfortable." Said Rose.

"I've never run from anything in my life why would I start now?" Said Sergei.

"Let's go. We don't have much time before a soldier searches here." Said Mikleo. The two nodded and jumped into the lake. In the water Rose signaled that they split up and search for the entrance. Sergei agreed and they split. The two searched up and down the underwater portion of the lake only coming back up to get air until Rose found a hole big enough to fit in two people. Mikleo came out, she looked over to him and signaled to get Sergei. Mikleo swam over to where Sergei was and pulled him along. They went through the hole and resurfaced into the aqueducts, in a section not filled with sewage.

"Let's try to get to the entrance to the abandoned building. Does that sound good?" Rose asked.

"Yeah." Said Sergei. They got out of the water onto a platform. Rose took out the miraculously undamaged map and they started walking the sewers in the direction the abandoned building would be. They ran into a dead end in the form of water.

"Hey Edna do you think we could-" Rose started.

"No." Said Mikleo.

"I'm not even done." Said Rose.

"I have an idea of what you were gonna say 'Hey Edna can you destroy part of the architecture and possibly make a lot of noise to make a bridge to get across?' Did I get it?" Said Mikleo.

"Close except I didn't even consider the noise." Said Rose. "If you're so protective over these ruins would you do the honors and make an ice bridge even if it ends up being temporary?"

"All right." Said Mikleo, he put his hand on the water and froze a strip of water, just barely wide enough to walk on, into ice. "I'm not sure how long this'll hold."

"All right, get back in." Rose ordered. Mikleo nodded and turned into energy going back into Rose's body. Rose and Sergei then ran across the ice bridge which managed to last for a good while before melting back into water. They got to the area where the map said the abandoned building should be with a rock slab with jags in it leading up to the hole. Rose went ahead and climbed up the rock wall to the top and reached into the hole in the ceiling. She felt wooden boards. She stabled herself on the wall and pushed up on the floor boards popping them loose. She then pushed them to the side then climbed up to poke her head out. It was still very dark with traces of moonlight peering through boarded up windows and cracks in the walls. She examined the room and noticed the dark patches across the floor and on some of the walls. She saw glimpses of dark red with the small amount of moonlight. She looked around a little more to see if there were any distinguishing marks on any of the other walls or the ceiling but they were pitch black. She slid the floorboards back over the hole and climbed down.

"What's you see?" Sergei asked.

"Well it is abandoned and there is blood on some of the walls." Said Rose.

"Blood?!" Sergei exclaimed.

"I'm thinking that it either was a cult, a back alley medical procedure, or a murder." Said Rose.

"How the hell are you so calm about this?" Sergei asked.

"I hunt shit, plus I've actually seen quite a lot of blood the whole time I've been alive." Said Rose.

"…Okay …" Said Sergei.

"I'm doubting it's a murder." Said Edna. "Murder scenes usually leave malevolence from the victim. I'm thinking cult is the most likely candidate, just due to cult ritual grounds have very little malevolence even though there's blood everywhere from whatever the fuck they're doing."

"Either that or the source of malevolence has been purified about 30 years ago or has simply moved on." Said Mikleo.

"Either way we'll be fine." Rose assured. "We'll take the prisoner's here and try to have them wait for a while."

"All right, let's go." Said Sergei. The group walked further into the aqueducts making bridges along the way. Meanwhile Rose's vision in her right eye started to blur. She closed her eye and rubbed it but it was still blurry. Sergei grabbed her shoulder. "Hey, I think there's something up there." He said. She turned her head to see something sparkly above them. She went up to the wall and started climbing up it. "Rose!" Sergei tried to stop her by grabbing her shoulder but she pushed it off and climbed up the wall anyway. When she got to the shiny she found an orange orb. She picked it up.

"Sergei, catch!" She said tossing it down to him he fumbled with the orb almost dropping it but catching it in the end. She jumped down.

"Another Iris gem?" Said Sergei.

"Yeah, but let's not look at it now." Said Rose taking the gem from Sergei and pocketing it. So they continued to follow the map to where the Palace's kitchen entrance, and the underground prison would be, with Mikleo occasionally making ice bridges. Slowly but surely an awful odor hit their nostrils.

"We're getting close." Said Edna. As they went further in the smell kept getting stronger that Rose and Sergei's eyes started to water and they had a difficult time trying not to gag. They also started hearing voices coughing, retching, groaning, and cursing the royal family and everything they stood for and the malevolence became thicker that it would've been difficult to breathe if she came down there a week ago. They approached the prison through another ice bridge and saw the chamber of filth, death and rot that lay just below the palace. In fact it is a wonder that the palace doesn't stink.

"Mikleo, Edna, how many people can you heal at a time?" Rose asked as the two seraphim came out.

"… Only one at a time." Said Mikleo.

"About … 5 at a time." Said Edna. Rose rubbed her chin.

"Sergei, you break out the prisoners and protect Edna from any hellions that may attack her, Edna, you heal them." Said Rose. "Oh and tell them something comforting about the Shepherd."

"What about you?" Sergei asked.

"Mikleo and I will investigate further down to find the big hellion." Said Rose.

"Lucky bastard." Edna mumbled.

"This way." Said Mikleo guiding Rose to where the hellion would be. They walked further taking care of other hellions along the way until they approached a slimy fish looking hellion supporting its weight on two tentacles in the front of its body with a single eye and a mouth that contained rows and rows of teeth. Ooze dripped off its body leaving sticky masses on the floor which got smeared as the creature moved towards them.

"That's it isn't it?" Said Rose.

"Yep." Said Mikleo.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"An aboleth." Said Mikleo. The aboleth wormed up to them then started wheezing and hacking until it threw up a ball of some mucous substance. The two tried not to cringe at the sight. The Aboleth snarled at them then whipped one of its tentacles at them.

"Luzrov Rulay!" Rose shouted. She backed up and shot an arrow at the hellion. However it didn't seem like it had much of an effect. She shot a few more energy arrows at it but they still didn't affect the hellion. "Hey, do you think that the slime covering it is protecting it?"

"Think so." Said Mikleo.

"Let's try a different arte." Said Rose.

"Okay." Said Mikleo.

"Open the floodgates!" They chanted. "Bubble arrow!" Three orbs of water surrounded them and they popped when the aboleth hit them with one of its tentacles. Rose saw that the ooze that covered its body was off that tentacle but was quickly reforming. So she lifted up the bow.

"Rose don-!" Mikleo tried to warn but she jabbed one of the edges of the bow into the tentacle and the hellion shrieked in pain. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Rose what are you thinking?" Mikleo asked outside of her head, signaling her that she separated from him.

"Mikleo, use your artes, spray it, douse it, drench it, shove it into the aqueduct if you have to. I just need that ooze off so I can attack the parts you end up exposing." Said Rose.

"Oh … though I don't really recommend that last one cuz that's shit water." Said Mikleo. "Just distract it."

"On it." Said Rose walking over to the side. "Hey ugly! Over here!" She shouted. The aboleth looked over to her. She then threw a knife at the hellion which subsequently bounced off and landed on the ground after nearly stabbing Mikleo.

"Hey watch it!" He shouted.

"Sorry!" She shouted back. However it did the aboleth's attention as it roared at her with strings of mucous spraying at her. "God what are you? Made of prisoner puke?" The aboleth sprung up in the air. Rose's eyes widened and her mouth dropped before she sprinted out of the aboleth's way as it slopped onto the ground with its face slamming straight into a wall. "Wow you're ugly and stupid, what do you have going for you?" Meanwhile Mikleo muttered incantations to not draw any attention to himself. He even said the name of the arte quietly then water materialized out of nowhere and splashed on the aboleth washing off some of the ooze. Rose rushed forward and stabbed the hellion several times until the slime reformed around the exposed parts, however unlike the bow which might as well have left a bruise, the ooze seeped into its wounds and it wailed in pain. "You know I'm starting to feel kind of bad for you. Not only are you some manifestation of … something but the ooze that's supposed to protect you will hurt you as well. We should finish this quickly to not to cause you any more pain." However it went on much longer than Rose had hoped as they repeated the process multiple times the aboleth kept screaming in pain as the slime started to eat at its wounds. "For the love of God we're trying to purify you!" Rose screamed at one point. After another splash of water Mikleo ran up to the hellion and whacked it over the head knocking it out causing the aboleth to finally be purified and the malevolence that plagued the palace's underground faded. They went back to Sergei and Edna who were taking care of the last of the living prisoners. Rose looked around and counted fifteen of them.

"This all of them?" She asked.

"Yeah they're all the ones that are alive. The rest are dead." Said Sergei. "And the prison won't be used for quite a while." Rose looked around her to see that the prison doors were completely bent open, by likely a boulder, or Sergei apparently having super strength while some of the other cells had locks that were obviously busted. The prisoners shot her some looks, some more hopeful than others, while others whispered to each other.

"Let's get out of here." Said Rose. "Mikleo let's go."

"You sure about this?" He asked. She nodded. He then armatized with her and she froze a strip of water back the way they came. There were some gasps and mutters among the crowd.

"Well come one, let's go before any of the guards show up and this bridge melts away." Said Rose then walking ahead. Rose and Sergei lead the prisoners the same way they came until they got to the wall that lead up to the abandoned building. Rose deactivated the armatus and climbed up the wall again and opened the floor boards. She got out and looked around to make sure the place was untampered when she last left it. When she found that there were no changes she signaled everyone to climb up. By the time they finished Rose looked outside to see glimpses of the sky turning pinkish indicating that the sun will rise sometime soon.

"Now what?" Sergei asked.

"Now we lay low and help these people." Said Rose.

Well it's been a while but yeah I had school and stuff. However break is coming up so I should be able to have more chapters coming up then. Followed by a halt due to finals but then another break which should have me back to updating this fic weekly.

Guest- Thanks man I'm glad you think this is good so far.