Hello Scrolls and Followers of Justice, Mr.Bones with chapter.
This chapter is a little longer so as not to cut the action, there is also a change in the way of writing, there are almost no dialogues, I am trying different styles, I hope you like it, comment and share the link in the comments, thanks.
With you
The One Who Came Back
Chapter 09: In the sewers of madness
Zesshi fell through the hole she opened, hitting the bottom of the sewer with a heavy impact. Even without the slightest bit of light, she could see in the dark, whether it was because she was half-elf or because she had items that enabled her to do so didn't matter, but seeing where she'd landed, maybe she'd prefer not to have that ability.
Kami Miyako was the oldest existing human city in this world. Created from the legacy of the Six Gods, it was built with innovations that did not exist elsewhere, one of them was its sewage system, made in order to avoid floods. It was expanded as the city grew and today it has become a labyrinth beneath the city, a labyrinth through which all the waste passed. Even though there wasn't a sewer system in every house, it just meant that the dirt came straight from the streets and everything ended up being dragged through the tunnels until it emptied into a cave system that would likely lead to the ocean.
Sewers are the perfect habitat for various creatures, mice, spiders, slimes, lizards, insects, these animals thrived in this environment, some grew and multiplied to incompatible sizes, then began to spread to the surface. When that happened, adventurers were hired to exterminate these parasites, but sometimes they encountered things bigger than they could handle.
When someone went missing, didn't return from duty, or disappeared, more adventurers were sent out to search. What they rescued was sometimes the part of a body and the creature that took it, usually a giant rat, a monstrous spider sitting in its web with dogs and cats trapped in it. But every now and then something came from outside, from the caves, although there are bars and gates that prevent free passage, they are not properly maintained, so large creatures would enter and make their new nests in this cozy environment.
It was probably something like this that snatched Clementine's body, took the guard, and all those missing in the last few weeks. Zesshi could handle any creature she came across, after all nothing rivaled her, until now. Her strength was indisputable, her exceptional training, at just over 10 years old, was stronger than gold-level adventurers, and she was, at best, annoyed. Having to come down here was exhausting, but she wanted to make sure she found Clementine's body before the creature had time to digest it, and tracking wasn't her forte.
Despite Zesshi's obvious shortcoming, in the sewer, for now, there were only two directions to go. She was about to take the wrong turn when she noticed the rats coming running from the other side, so that was where she should go.
The claustrophobia inflicted by this place would have been oppressive to anyone, but Zesshi was used to the vault's narrow corridors. Being alone didn't bother her anymore, but even so, the feeling that something was watching her was continuous, and whenever she passed the entrance to another tunnel or pipe it felt like something was going to jump on her.
Following the tunnel until she reached a bifurcation, she was again guided by the rats' escape, going through a tunnel particularly piled with dirt and waste, the walls covered in slit, the perfect place for slimes to proliferate, but strangely there were none, just the escape of rats and spiders indicated that something lived there.
Zesshi thought that this search for the spy would be a chance for her to be able to walk around the city, something rare for her, but she didn't imagine that she would be wallowing in dirty water up to her knees, 'has the water level changed?', she thought, it was probably raining somewhere in the city, and if it got too heavy soon everything would be flooded and she would lose the chance to find whatever lived there.
It was then that she heard a muffled sound of something bubbling. The water rose quickly, then she saw the creature, a giant slime moving slowly rippling its body. She saw an unsuspecting mouse being engulfed by the creature that had no eyes but was aware of everything around it, and when it noticed a larger prey, it launched itself straight at it.
Zesshi let out a huff of boredom, 'a slime, what a silly thing', the half-elf thought. Drawing her scythe, she simply swung at the creature, but to her surprise, the blade caught on the ceiling. To cut a creature like that, no greater force needed to be used, so the blade stopped embedded in the stone. This gave the monster a second's head start and a slimy tentacle reached out towards Zesshi's face. With a shake of her head, she avoided being caught, but she caught the scent the tentacle gave off, the smell of acid.
Zesshi's skin was strong enough to withstand most attacks she received during training with the Black Scripture captain, her items also had Greater Resistance, but it wouldn't be pleasant to be hit in the eye by acid.
With a quick flick of her hand, she cut the tentacle that fell into the dirty water. Again, Zesshi positioned herself for another blow, but this time it would be strong enough not to be stopped by the walls. Her blade came down on the creature, cutting it in half, it was like cutting water itself, without the feeling of resistance, it kind of led Zesshi to take a step further than she wanted, then another tentacle shot out of the monster, like a whip. Zesshi dodged it easily, when she noticed that the tentacle changed direction at a ninety degree angle, it was obvious that it wasn't a whip, it was part of the creature, she could control as she wanted, and not only that, the tip of the tentacle that looked malleable suddenly stiffened, like a blade, going straight for her eyes.
'It wants to blind me!? How does this monster know what to do?'
Hitting the weak spot was an attitude imbued with intelligence, and until now Zesshi had treated the creature like an animal, that had been her first mistake. Zesshi used her scythe to defend herself, when she noticed another tentacle coming towards her, then another and another, soon she was dealing with ten of them at once, defending and cutting them off. Sometimes they were malleable as whips, then they became hard as swords, coming from directions impossible for a human to execute, but to the creature it seemed simple.
Zesshi had never been cornered in a fight, she had been hit before, but never pressed like this. Her fury only increased and her blows capable of cutting stones just passed the monster ripping tentacles, but without a definitive effect, then something almost hit her from behind, with her agility she dodged running along the tunnel wall in a perfect circle.
What tried to stab her was another slime, smaller but using the same tricks, but where had this one come from, how could there be two with the same attack characteristics? Then Zesshi realized that it wasn't another slime, it was the same, the cut tentacles didn't stay still, they crawled and joined together forming another creature that attacked it simultaneously, too coordinated to be independent, probably sharing the same mind even if separated.
The blows increased in frequency, Zesshi could still avoid them, but it was then that she realized what her own blows had done to the tunnel, that was her second mistake, not caring about collateral damage. The entire structure was cut or destroyed, stones began to fall, this realization was almost too late to react in time. Throwing herself into a side passage that appeared before everything came crashing down, Zesshi slipped through the tunnel until she fell into a larger one tens of meters deep.
Zesshi pulled out her scythe to fend off the blow that didn't come. Spitting up dirty water, she started to walk through the new tunnel, following the opposite path of the small lizards. If it worked once, maybe it would work again, she would have to watch out for her blows, being buried alive with a giant slime was the last thing she wanted right now.
The tunnel sloped steadily downwards for hundreds of feet, covered in slime, but no sign of the creature, or mice, or spiders, or anything, just that slime everywhere.
"BY THE GODS!!", shouted Zesshi when the realization came too late, she wasn't in a slime-covered tunnel, she was inside the creature.
The monster fell on her from all directions, engulfing her body, if she knew what jelly was, she would say it was like swimming in one. Even though she tried to wave her arms, she wouldn't budge. Zesshi pulled out her scythe and tried to swing in all directions, this was her third mistake and perhaps her last.
Zesshi Zetsumei possessed a serious weakness: the lack of actual combat against someone as strong as herself. Crushing an army was easy, all it took was just swinging her scythe and enemies were pulverized, but now she fought with something that was invulnerable to her weapon.
Zesshi thought she could try burning the creature with a fireball. She wasn't a specifically powerful spell caster, but at least that was what she was capable of. But how to do it inside the monster?
'I can't breathe, I can't throw fireball, if I open my mouth this monster will enter through it, my eyes, I can feel it pressing my eyes! I have to cover my nose, my ears, it will burst my eardrums, enter my brain, melt me from the inside!'.
It was then that Zesshi felt the moisture invade her clothes, the creature slipping through the openings, over her skin, inside her armor, down to her underwear trying to invade her being.
'BY THE SIX!! I'M GOING TO BE RAPED BY A MONSTER!', traumatized by the fact that her mother was raped by the king of the elves, Zesshi never approached anyone intimately, the most she had done was flirt with her opponents about conceiving a strong son if she was defeated. She'd never imagined a monster like this could overwhelm her, shyer than she'd really admitted, she had never been touched, until that moment when she felt the goo seep into her underwear from the front…and back.
Such agony resulted in an unexpected blow, Zesshi tried to slap the slime that was running down her clothes, unable to push the creature away, she struck with all her strength as if she was going to kill a fly that was everywhere.
The Mantis Shrimp is a very small but particularly powerful species of crustacean, at just four inches on average, its claws can deliver a punch equivalent to half the force of an adult human. Their impact is capable of generating a microbubble that travels at supersonic speed, producing an effect known as sonoluminescence. These bubbles implode with such speed that they generate light and heat that, for a fraction of a second, reaches a temperature of nearly nine thousand nine hundred and forty-one degrees Fahrenheit, just below the surface temperature of the sun.
Zesshi was much larger than the Mantis Shrimp crustacean, but she didn't know what a crustacean or a shrimp was, nor could she tell if she had ever eaten one or if they existed in the New World, none of that crossed the half-elf's mind, all she wanted was for the creature to stop touching her.
With the clap of Zesshi's palms, she produced a sonic blast so strong that it ripped the creature apart in all directions, flinging the monster tens of meters down the tunnel, and what was left in the center was a superheated Zesshi breathing loudly.
Her ears were ringing, her eyes were burning, her teeth were vibrating, her nose and ears were dripping with blood, but she no longer felt the creature crawling through her body. The small pieces that remained inside her clothes were incinerated by the high temperature, including whatever dirt or residue there was, she was cleaner now than when she entered the tunnel, but not for long.
Even though she was hurt, her ears hadn't popped, and despite the constant humming, she could hear the strange rattle coming from both sides of the tunnel.
Coming towards her was something that could only be described as a nightmare, the creature now occupied the entire tunnel in both directions and in front of the thing were tentacles lashing through the walls with countless mouths, slimes don't have mouths, but this creature created something resembling one, which appeared, oozed, and moved through the body as the creature advanced. Inside them, spikes like swords instead of teeth, producing an incessant rattling "tek tek tek telek tek".
Zesshi needed to get out of there, she couldn't be engulfed again. Running towards the lower part, she braced herself for the blow, and before the creature touched her, she slammed both hands together in the monster's direction and the shock wave split the creature in half, scattering the body against the walls, opening a path that Zesshi could take advantage of using her speed.
The creature quickly composed itself, not knowing if these impacts could really hurt the monster, Zesshi needed space. Running, she saw the end of the tunnel that ended in an opening, but when she got there it wasn't a hall, but a huge sinkhole, a giant hole where the other tunnels drained, the rain must have been huge for the amount of water that was pouring there.
With the tentacles almost reaching her, Zesshi, without slowing down, used her strength to leap over the huge opening, projecting herself to the opposite wall where she stuck her scythe to hold on, and with one swift movement launched fireball several times in the monster's direction, who was now stretching in the air trying to reach her.
With its weight, only a few tentacles almost managed to capture the half-elf. The monster tumbled into the maelstrom below, and only now was Zesshi able to contemplate the creature's gigantic size, 'how does something this size lives under our feet and without we noticing it?'.
The monster snaked through the waters trying to hold on to the smooth stones, until it began to be definitively sucked into the whirlpool, being dragged down to the caves below. If Kami Miyako was lucky, the monster would be taken to the sea, otherwise, someone would have to guard this place for the rest of their lives, and that guard was not Zesshi Zetsumei, in her opinion.
Exhausted as she could never remember being before, Zesshi threw herself to the nearby maintenance ladder that nearly gave way under her weight, and then slowly began the grand climb that would take her to the surface hundreds of meters above.
This mission had turned out to be more than what she wanted, facing an old colleague, fighting in the sewers and maybe, just maybe, she could have died. Making a report of it would be the biggest headache, thankfully she didn't care at all about it, screw the report, screw the cardinals, screw what they think of her, that's all for later, what Zesshi needed now was a hot shower and to sleep for a week.
From the maelstrom below, on the opposite side of the wall where Zesshi had climbed, a hair-thin slimy tentacle protruded from the water. As the half-elf had already left, a few minutes ago, the tentacle began to run upwards, slowly climbing the wall, following the recesses of the rocks so as not to be detected. When it reached the maintenance tunnel, it began to accumulate in a puddle, then a small bubble that began to roll, and then to expand. Soon it was waist-high of an adult, then it started to crawl, then rudimentary legs and arms appeared, and when it reached the size of a person, its appearance changed to a beautiful smiling maid.
Solution is a slime, and like all slimes, its true form is fluid. The maid appearance was created by Hero-Hero, but is maintained by her willpower, she does not have a dimensional space like the others, as she herself contains her own pocket dimension internally, being larger on the inside than the outside. She is capable of holding multiple bodies within herself until they are digested. In this "personal space", she even manages to keep her own mass compressed inside her, this was the only time she could remember having released and expanded her body so much, an enriching experience.
Her intention was never to defeat the half-elf, nor would she be able to in a direct confrontation. Her orders were to identify the traveler and return, avoid confrontation and preserve the disguise, all prerogatives had been followed, and when she was cornered, there was only one way to escape without exposing Nazarick, and being mistaken for someone else played in her favor.
She needed to lose the fight quickly so they wouldn't realize the mistake, so her initial idea would be to project herself like a slime underneath her dead "body", stealing the body before being checked. It was pure luck that the guards appeared at the same time, being followed was not good, but it helped more with the disguise and was still able to test the child, guiding her through the sewer. In this confined space the half-elf didn't fare too well, Solution had all the advantages, and despite those sonic blows being quite effective, she could think of a way or two to avoid them next time.
Now she should follow the tunnel that had been studied before, going to the farthest exit from the city. From there, she would go to another city, then she would take a portal to deliver her final report to the Supreme Being who commanded her. Maybe she would get a reward, she knew exactly what to ask for, 'that little Miyoshi will be out of work for a long time', laughed the battle maid.