Disclaimer: Neither High School DXD nor Elder Scrolls belongs to me, all rights to their respective owners.
Chapter 57
—Remember, boy. There are people who are willing to do crap to make what they think is right come true, and in some cases, which will piss off the wrong person —
Kodlak to Edzard
The midday sun shone down, allowing its light to illuminate the main street of Asia's hometown. The stone path had been rebuilt along with the rest of the village after being attacked by the Daedras some time ago. The houses had been rebuilt in a simple way, following the previous patterns. That rebuilding had been carried out by Edzard, who had spent quite a bit of his money, but luckily, he hadn't done it alone, as the three factions had worked together to rebuild the town.
"So, this is where you grew up, Mom?" Marie asked as she looked at her mother, who was walking next to her.
"Yes, Marie." Asia replied as she raised her hand and greeted a villager, who had recognized her.
"You seem popular here?"
"Heh, heh, heh… that's relative, honey. Half the town doesn't like me because they think I shouldn't have married, but the other half seem happy that I decided to start a family."
Asia's words confused the little dragon, who didn't understand why someone would be upset that her mother married her father, if they both made a cute couple. Those words were not only hers, but they were also from her aunts Aela and Serana, who always mentioned that when her parents were in their bubble of love, they became so sweet that sometimes it was impossible to look at them, because they were cloying to see them. However, despite her curiosity, Asia's little daughter also felt some sadness, because from what her mother said, it seemed that many people did not want her to exist.
"What's wrong, Marie? Why are you making such a sad face?" Asia asked softly as she saw that her daughter made a face that reflected deep sadness.
"It's... that... from what you told me, there are people who didn't want me to be born." Marie replied as she looked at her mother, showing her that her eyes were watering slightly.
"Oh, my little one." Said Asia quickly, then took her in her arms and began to gently comfort her. "Calm down, don't cry."
"B-b-but…"
"Don't worry, the people who did not want you to be born are very few, while those who are happy that you are here with us are many more."
"Oh really?" Marie asked already calming down as she gave her mother a hopeful look.
"Of course, and if you don't believe me, remember how many people you know love you very much." Asia replied, pointing out some obvious things.
Her mother's words caused Marie to remember the people who were always happy to see her. That memory of her caused her to outline a smile on her face.
"It's true!" Marie yelled happily as she prepared to list those people, or at least almost all of them. "There are Aunts Aela and Serana, Uncles Vilkas, Farkas, Brynjolf, Grandpa Tolfdir, Mommy's friends from the College of Winterhold, ORC members, Student Council, and many more."
"That's right, Marie. Many people are happy with you." Asia said as she put on a smile as her mind went to other concerns. Said concerns were one of the reasons why she was here today. Said reason had been transmitted to her by Mariella, who had quoted her, for that reason she had arrived in her hometown on a day that she had not planned to visit it. For that reason, she had to come to this place quickly, but deciding to bring her daughter with her, since the little girl needed a change of scenery while Kunou was with her mother finishing the preparations for the construction of the Youkai residences in…. Well, the truth is that her husband had not yet chosen a name for the world created by him, but there were already some names on the table, and these were: «New Atmora», «New Akavir» and other names in languages different. 'Unfortunately, we still haven't finished thinking about what to name that world…. Well, that can still wait.'
After those thoughts, Asia decided to stop thinking about it and continue her way to the church. The winding road was long, but she managed it relatively easily and quickly, getting her there before lunchtime.
When she and her daughter arrived at the church, they found that it looked better than it had when the place was attacked by Dagon's forces. That caused a smile to appear on Asia's face, which after that she decided that it was better to knock on the door.
Knock! Knock!
The sound of the knocks on the door allowed the people inside the church to realize that someone was knocking. So, they sent someone to open it. The envoy turned out to be a man no older than thirty, who had light brown hair with blue eyes. His clothing was that of a priest, for he was one of the three priests of the church, the other two being his companions.
"Yes, who is it?" the priest asked as he opened the door.
The moment Asia saw the door open; she put on a smile and greeted the priest. "Good morning, Father."
The priest's face seemed to light up when he saw Asia, so with a cheerful voice he waved back. "Oh, but this is sister Asia. To what do you owe the pleasure of your visit?"
Asia looked at the priest and seeing that he was smiling, she answered him kindly. "I came with my daughter to visit Sister Mariella."
Saying the reason why she came, Asia turned her face and looked at her daughter, who returned her gaze and then gave her mother a small kiss on the bridge of her nose. That action caused both she and Marie to giggle, which prevented them from seeing how the priest's face soured when he saw Marie for a second, and then put a smile back on his face.
When Asia turned her face, she saw that the priest was still smiling, only now he seemed happier, almost as if he was enjoying the mother-daughter moment.
"I see." The priest said as he left the church. "Sister Mariella is in the building that is used as an orphanage. So, if you follow me, I will lead you to that place."
"Thank you." Asia replied with a smile as she started to follow the priest, who had already started walking.
The journey from the church to the orphanage was short, as both buildings were next to each other. Thanks to this, they managed to arrive quickly, which made the journey silent. When they were in front of the door, the priest opened it and shouted. "Sister Mariella, Sister Asia has arrived!"
The priest's shout was answered by another shout.
"Thank you, Father Marcus!" Mariella shouted from inside the building, to later shout again. "Asia, come to the dining room!"
"Looks like it's my cue to go." Marcus said as he looked at Asia and waved goodbye to her with a smile on his face. "I hope your stay is pleasant. Until next time, sister Asia."
"Thank you, Father Marcus. Until next time!" Asia said goodbye, who looked at her daughter and told her to also say goodbye to the priest, which the little dragon accepted.
After that, Marcus left the place, allowing Asia and Marie to get to where Mariella was.
"Sister Mariella!" Asia yelled with happiness upon seeing the woman who was such a big sister figure to her.
"Asia!" the nun yelled back.
After that greeting, both friends approached and hugged. When they separated, Mariella was about to speak, but was interrupted by a small false cough. Said interruption caused the nun to look towards Asia's arms, which allowed her to see little Marie, who had a small pout on her face, while she had her arms crossed in front of her chest. Seeing this, Mariella just put on an amused smile and then extended her hands and took Marie and then gave her a soft kiss on her forehead. "Of course, I say hello to you too, Marie. How have you been these days?"
"Heh, heh. Thank you. And I've been fine, and I've had a great time, since now I have Ku-chan to play with me all day, Aunt Mariella." Marie responded with a grin from ear to ear.
"That's great, Marie." Mariella commented while she left the little girl on the ground. After that, the nun looked at her former protégé and beckoning with her eyes, indicating that they should talk alone.
Realizing what Mariella wanted, Asia bent down and taking her daughter's face in her hands, spoke to her. "Marie, dear. Why don't you go play with the other kids from the orphanage while Mariella and I talk about boring things?"
The little dragon looked at her mother and even though she felt she should stay to listen to what they were talking about, the mere thought of being caught up in a boring chat made her take up the offer to go play with the other children from the orphanage.
"Okay, I'll go play in the yard." Marie said with a smile as she began to run to the patio to play with the local children.
A smile was plastered on the faces of both women as they watched the little girl run off to play. When they saw that the little girl had disappeared from the room, they both sat down on one of the dining room benches so they could chat comfortably.
"You know, she's not much different from you at that age." Said Mariella, drawing Asia's attention.
"Really?" Asia asked with surprise and confusion, as she didn't remember anything she had done at that age.
"Yes, you were like her in that respect. You used to run all over the place, always smiling and trying to make friends." The nun replied with a smile, which began to disappear as she remembered some other things. "However, that part of you began to leave very soon. You were no more than five years old when you began to lose that hyperactivity. Although, it seems your daughter is more hyperactive than you were."
Mariella's words first caused surprise in Asia, then gave way to confusion when she mentioned that she had lost that facet at the age of five, to finally move on to amusement when she mentioned that her daughter was much more hyperactive than she was. Putting a smile on her face, Asia made a comment about that. "Yes, it seems that this hyperactivity is inherited from her father."
"Oh...your husband, young Edzard." Said Mariella with a smile from ear to ear. "I still can't figure out how you ended up getting together and getting married. I mean, anyone who knew about their respective pasts wouldn't think that a nun and a dragon from another world could fall in love. Although now that I think about it, their love story seems like good material for a romance movie."
Asia's face began to blush when Mariella finished saying those words, because she began to feel ashamed that the love story, she had with her husband was turned into a movie.
'No, it's already too embarrassing to have to record the episodes of the series that tell Ed's story. I don't want to know how embarrassing it would be to have to act like when we first met.' Asia thought as she felt her face turn redder and redder, because even though she shouldn't be in the timeline used for the series, the script writer thought of putting her in the series at a certain special paper. So, thanks to that, she had to attend the recordings.
Although Asia's thoughts were directed towards remembering some scenes from the recording studio, she had to come back to reality when Mariella tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey? What's happening?" Asia asked, a little startled at being taken out of her thoughts.
"Nothing, just that I was calling you several times and you didn't listen to me." Said Mariella with a bit of concern for her former protégé. "Everything is alright?"
"Yeah, I was just thinking about something."
"Is it about the joke I made that your love story would make a good movie?"
"No, no. It's not about that. It's about something else."
"Umm…. Well, I just hope it's not something weird." Said Mariella as she looked at Asia with calculating eyes, because she didn't want her to be doing something bad or weird.
"No, relax. It's nothing bad, in fact, it's something that will surprise you when you see it." Asia said with a smile on her face, trying to calm any concern that Mariella had.
Asia's smile achieved its goal, as it calmed Mariella's fears, which ended up letting out a sigh.
"Okay, I'll trust you, so I won't bother you about it anymore."
Asia put on a calm smile after hearing that, as she didn't want to be bothered by it anymore.
After that exchange of words, the two women fell into a comfortable silence, which was broken by Mariella.
"Asia, I think it's time to talk about the reason I called you, but first I have a question." Said Mariella with a solemn and serious voice. "Why did you come alone with your daughter when I asked you to come with your husband?"
Mariella's question caused Asia to sigh because she knew that she would ask her about it.
"Ed couldn't come with me because he received a message from someone, who summoned him to a place urgently. Therefore, he left and when you called, he was no longer in the palace."
Asia's response caused Mariella to sigh, as she had not expected this development. She hoped he was here too, since she wanted him to know what was going on.
"Do you know why he called him?" asked Mariella, hoping that it was the pact that called him so that they could comment on what was happening.
"Don't know. He just told me that someone we both knew called him. But what I am sure of is that it was not the pact that called him since they do not usually contact him that way."
Asia's response caused the nun to start to worry, causing Asia to worry as well, because she could see from Mariella's body expression that she was extremely worried about something.
"Mariella. What's going on? You are scaring me a bit with your behavior."
Asia's words caused Mariella to look at her before speaking. "There are problems in the church, Asia, very big problems."
Asia's eyes fixed on Mariella's face, trying to discern if she was lying. Seeing that she wasn't lying, Asia sighed. The young ex-nun had mixed feelings now. If she had received this news years ago, she would most likely have been concerned about the church, but now the story was different. Her time in Nirm and the recent discoveries of dark acts that had been done in the church like the "holy sword project" had caused her opinion of the institution to drop. Yet despite that, a large part of her still believed the institution was a good thing for the world.
"Are the branches of the church about to have another schism?" Asia asked almost as if she took it for granted that something like that was happening. This thought came from the fact that Christianity was one, the Christian church had fragmented into different branches such as Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, among others. Although they all belonged to Christianity and were under the jurisdiction of Heaven, these branches do not usually get along very well, although they can work together, many of them tend to accuse others for not being very believers, which has leading to problems between them.
"You could say it's a schism, but not a normal one." Mariella answered while she looked at Asia, which she put on a confused face, because she did not understand what was happening, so Mariella prepared to tell her what was happening. "Asia, what I'm going to tell you is a secret for now. So very few people know about this."
"You are scaring me, Mariella." Asia said as she felt like a stone started to go down her stomach.
"Believe me, Asia, what I'm about to tell you is terrifying in a certain sense." Mariella said while she took a little air to continue. "Recently there have been reports of some exorcists not agreeing with the current state of the three factions. Many of them felt that making peace with the devils and the Fallen Angels is an aberration that is leading them away from their path. While much of this discontent was silenced by the presence of the daedras, recently some exorcists have become convinced that the devils and the fallen are in league with the daedras, making it necessary to break out of the pact to fight against all the enemies of Christendom."
Mariella's words caused Asia to look at her friend for a few moments and then drop to where she was sitting. She began to have a slight headache from what she had heard.
'How can they think something so absurd?' Asia thought with annoyance, because she couldn't believe that there was someone who thought that Heaven could face the daedras alone. 'If the pact already has problems with the daedras as a whole, I don't even want to think about how difficult heaven and the church would have it alone.'
"What do you think of what I told you Asia?" asked Mariella, taking Asia out of her musings.
Asia looked at her friend and spoke bluntly and without lies. "My honest opinion is that these guys are stupid idiots who need to be locked in a vault and then thrown away the key to make sure they never see sunlight again."
Mariella's face was shocked to hear Asia speak in that way, since she had never spoken in that way in the past, so, frowning, she got up from where she was sitting and reaching out her hand, took the Asia's right cheek and began to stretch it, causing the young ex-nun a slight pain.
"Where in our lord's name did you learn to be so rude?" growled Mariella as she scolded Asia.
Asia could not answer, because to her surprise, Mariella had more strength than expected, which prevented her from speaking correctly.
The scene of Mariella scolding Asia continued for a few moments, until the nun let go of Asia's cheek.
"Ouch… that hurt. Why did you do that, Mariella?" Asia asked as she rubbed her sore cheek.
"Because you shouldn't be talking like that." Mariella answered frowning. "I don't know who taught you to talk like that, but the day she meets her I'll give her a good blow to the head."
Mariella's words caused a certain vampire and werewolf to sneeze in Nirm, while they felt a chill that confused them, because due to their unique biology, none of them could get sick.
For some reason unknown to her, Asia felt that she must feel sorry for her two friends in Nirm, almost feeling as if they were in danger. However, while that feeling was uncomfortable, it didn't last long, as she needed to focus on what was happening in this world.
"Mariella, you can continue scolding me later." Asia said as she listened as the nun began to chatter about bad influences that dared to corrupt her little sister. "Tell me something, do you know which branch of the church most of these rebels come from?"
Asia's words caused Mariella to stop talking to herself and turn her gaze on her former protégé. Seeing the way, she changed the subject to deal with such a worrying topic as a possible rebellion within the ranks of the church filled her with pride, as it showed how much she had grown from that almost insecure young woman she had been years ago. A proud smile appeared for an instant on Mariella's face, and then vanished, since she was about to talk about very serious things.
"No, to our misfortune we have not been able to find out which branches of the church they come from. But…"
"It is possible that they come from all branches, from the Western Christian churches to those in the East, right?" Asia interrupted Mariella.
"That's right. I'm afraid the whole church is involved in this." Mariella said while she nodded her head, to then say something else. "Though that doesn't seem to be the full scope of it."
"Really? What other venues would be involved?" Asia asked with a bit of confusion.
"There have been more discreet rumors, or rather more rare rumors, that it is possible that all faiths belonging to the Abrahamic religions are involved."
The words that came out of Mariella's mouth shocked Asia, whose eyes widened as she hadn't expected this.
'Th-th-this is impossible… How is this possible? The three main branches that make up the religions that formed the children of Abraham have never gotten along quite well. How is it possible that they have come together for this and not for more important things in the past?" Asia thought as she tried to make some sense of what she was hearing. After thinking about it for a bit, her mind was unable to figure out what was going on.
"Are you one hundred percent sure?" Asia asked once she got over the shock of the news she had received.
"No, like I told you, it's just guesswork and sporadic rumors. We have not been able to capture any information about this."
Mariella's response seemed to reassure Asia a bit, but after listening to it, a doubt arose in the ex-nun... and that is that she did not understand how Mariella had access to this type of information.
"Mariella... how come you have access to this information?" Asia asked looking at the woman who was like a sister to her.
Mariella looked at Asia and, tilting her head, answered her with a tone of voice that indicated the obvious. "Cardinal Strada communicated it to me so that I can tell you and your husband in person."
"Cardinal Vasco Strada?"
"If the same. He is the one in charge of the investigation into these rumors." Mariella replied while she took a folder from under the table where they were sitting.
"What's that?" Asia asked as she curiously looked at the folder.
"It is all the information that has been collected on this subject." Mariella responded seriously as she handed Asia the folder. "The cardinal ordered me to let you know that he is looking forward to the team made up of you, your husband and the other girls to help us stop these rebels."
When she heard those words, Asia was finally able to understand what was happening. So, looking at Mariella, she told her that she would talk about this with her companions and that she would talk to her husband. Therefore, after talking about this, Asia and Mariella changed the course of the conversation to something more trivial. And so, both friends were talking for a few hours, until Asia realized that she had to go home. Therefore, getting up, she began to go to the patio, being followed by Mariella.
When they both reached the courtyard, they were greeted by a terrifying sight.
The former courtyard was destroyed, but that wasn't the ugly part. No, the scary thing was that the bodies of all the orphans were lying there.
"Guys!" Asia and Mariella shouted in unison as they ran to where they were. When they arrived, they quickly began to examine them and to their good fortune found that they were fine, just unconscious. However, the sense of calm they felt when they saw that everyone was okay, quickly turned into panic when they realized someone was missing.
"Marie." Asia said as she looked around the place, frantically looking for her daughter in the room. Seeing that she received no response, her heart began to flutter, her stomach felt heavy, and fear flooded every part of her being. That led her to search for her daughter more erratically, as she yelled her name louder and louder. "Marie…Marie! MARIE!"
Mariella did the same as Asia, looking everywhere to see if she could find the little girl, but she couldn't do it. The cries of despair that she heard coming from her little sister's lips were heartbreaking. However, when she was about to give up, one of the children coughed, drawing their attention. Hearing him, both women quickly approached and saw how he slowly opened his eyes.
"Sister Asia... Sister Mariella..." The boy whispered with difficulty. The child who was being lovingly carried by Mariella had black hair with blue eyes.
"Arsan..." Mariella said with concern.
"Arsan where is she?! Where is my daughter?!" Asia yelled as she saw the boy wake up.
"H-h-he took her…"
The words that the child released left both women in shock, since they did not expect him to say that.
"Who took Marie, Arsan?" Mariella asked.
"F-Father Marcus and others." The little boy replied. "We were playing when the father came in and demanded that Marie go with him. At first, we thought it was a game, but then we saw that his hands were covered in blood... We-we tried to run away, but those who accompanied him looked like magicians and paralyzed us all. One of them tried to catch Marie, but she resisted and seeing that she couldn't take her for good, they began to beat us and threatened to kill us if she didn't surrender. And to make her point, one of them started choking me, that's where Marie yelled for them to stop, as she was going with them. After that, everything went black."
The little boy's response froze both, since they had not expected this development.
Mariella's eyes went from Arsan to Asia and what she saw terrified her. For the first time in her life, the nun saw something she never thought she could see in her life. And it's that, there, next to her was Asia, which she had gotten up from, but that wasn't surprising. The surprising thing was that she was standing calmly or at least that was what her body showed, but when Mariella saw her hands she saw that they were closed in a fist, one so tight that she could see thin lines of blood running from her palms. . That sight made her swallow a little saliva, but whatever she was about to say, died on her lips when she looked up, because, seeing her eyes, she felt her soul escape of her body.
'Th-those eyes...' Mariella thought with fear when she saw Asia's eyes.
Asia's eyes didn't show the kindness that they used to show, but now they showed nothing but anger and utter fury. Also, her irises had changed from green to deep red. But that was not the worst, because she began to speak, but she did it in a language that she did not know. However, she was able to deduce that those words were insult.
Unfortunately, when she was about to speak, a magic circle appeared at Asia's feet and she left the place, leaving Mariella alone.
Edzard's and Zakir's footsteps were muffled by the enchantments on their respective armors. Edzard's armor was his Nightingale armor, while Zakir wore black hardened leather armor, also, he had initially worn a hood, but seeing that it would allow some of his bestial features to be seen, Edzard decided to help him avoid that he be recognized. So, to accomplish that task, Akatosh's son had given him the mask of Zahkriisos. Zahkriisos's mask was a mask that had the appearance of a human face, but whose lower base, where the jaw should be, were shaped like octopus tentacles. The color of the mask was silver, and it had an enchantment that enhanced destruction spells that were based on lightning.
"How do you feel in the mask, fluffball?" Edzard asked as he stopped to admire the landscape in front of him. The land that stretched out in front of his eyes was, in a few words, a wasteland devoid of any kind of animal and especially plant life. There were no trees, much less bushes, which made it possible to see only dry land with nothing else.
"It feels a bit weird, but it's possible to breathe and see well, so I'm not complaining, brat." Zakir replied, who also stopped, being a few steps from Edzard.
"Okay… that's good. Now, tell me… why did you ask me to accompany you to this place?"
Edzard's words were loaded with a certain curiosity, since he never expected that the furball would call him for help so soon.
"I needed someone who could help me with something and unlike the Nervarine, you do meet one of the requirements to be in this place." Zakir answered, not wanting to mention that he wouldn't ask Aryne for another favor until a few centuries later.
Edzard raised an eyebrow at Zakir's words and feeling his curiosity increase, he decided to ask him more questions.
"Okay, now I understand that you called me for something. But the thing is, what are you looking for? And what is this place?" Edzard asked as he looked at Zakir. Seeing that the Lilmothiit wouldn't tell him anything, he decided to mention something else. "If you don't answer what I asked, I won't take another step."
Zakir looked at Roland and Selene's son for a few seconds before finally ending up frowning. Although sometimes prudence was a more than exalting virtue, at this moment he was annoyed by said action, since he did not want to tell him everything that he had recently discovered among the ranks of the Khaos Brigade. However, knowing Edzard, he knew that he would not take another step until he knew what he asked for, he decided to tell the young dragon what he knew, or at least part of it, since he planned to leave him some things as a surprise.
"Ahhh…. Alright, I'll tell you what's up." Zakir answered before beginning to tell something about what was happening, because there was another reason why he wanted to go there. "You see, brat. A few days ago, I received some disturbing rumors about the Hero Faction. This information indicated that it seemed that they were looking for something and that they had contacted someone to get it. After doing some more research, that is, capturing one of their members and reading his mind, I found out that Molag Bal had told them to find a way to eliminate you, since you were becoming a nuisance to his plans. So, they started searching for items with dragon-slaying properties in order to find one that can kill you easily."
"I see…. So, you seek to stop them from obtaining an item with the power to kill me." Edzard said, understanding the reason they were here. "Though now that leaves the other question, where exactly are we?"
Zakir looked at the sky of the place and letting out a sigh decided to tell Edzard the name of the exact place. The question of the son of his acquaintance was understandable, since he had not told him where they were going, he only took him through a portal to this place.
"We are in one of the deepest areas of the underworld, to be more exact we are in a place relatively close to the Cocytus."
When the last word Zakir said reached Edzard's ears, he stood still as a stone, because thanks to Azazel and Sirzechs, he had studied the strata or areas of the Underworld, which allowed him to know where they were.
"D-don't fuck with me…. We are in the «Kingdom of the Dead»." Edzard said in a whisper.
"Yes, it could be said yes." Zakir commented with a flat voice and almost without concern.
"Don't fuck me Zakir!" Edzard yelled as he approached the Lilmothiit and grabbed him by the collar of the tunic he wore under his armor. "We are in the territory of Hades. Do you know that this place is dangerous for normal living things?"
"Yes, I know." Zakir answered without concern, before continuing to speak. "Why do you think I brought you here?"
"What do you mean?"
"The reason neither you nor I are affected by this is because we have already been to the realm of the dead in Aurbis. That has changed us slightly, so this place will not affect us at all."
"I see…. But that doesn't reassure me at all." Edzard said with slight concern as he released Zakir.
"Wow, it seems that someone who has easily killed a god a while ago is somewhat afraid of attacking another god. That's kind of pathetic…"
A vein appeared on Edzard's forehead when he heard Zakir call him a coward.
"It's not that I'm afraid to attack Hades, but that I'm not stupid. We are talking about someone who is in the top ten of the most powerful beings in this world, so it would not be easy to defeat him, even fighting together I don't know if we could be able to defeat him or if we do, we will have to use all our power, so our identities would be revealed and that is not practical, since Serafall is in talks to make the Greek pantheon part of the pact."
"I see… if you put it that way, the truth is that this mission is dangerous for that. Although, the fact that the Khaos Brigade is here is a dead giveaway that Hades is going behind his faction's back."
"Yes, it seems so. And with what you mention about the Khaos brigade, especially one of the factions that we have confirmed to have an alliance with daedras, well, that's reason enough to see what happens. So, I think we can go ahead with this."
"Okay, then let's go to Hades's castle." Zakir said as he started to move forward slowly before starting to run.
Seeing how the Lilmothiit was advancing quickly, Edzard decided to do the same, so he began to run after it.
Both heroes ran at such speed that they seemed like black blurs running across the entire barren field of Hades' realm. Although they could advance quickly, they did not do it at all the speed they could, since from time to time they had to stop in order to avoid being detected by the only inhabitants of this kingdom.
"This is the fifteenth time we have encountered a group of Grim Reapers." Edzard said with slight annoyance as he watched as a patrol of those beings passed by.
Both he and Zakir were crouched down, hidden by a rock that allowed them not to be seen, although, as a bonus, they were also hiding their presence with a bit of magic, more precisely the invisibility spell.
"Yes, it's annoying to have to meet them. But luckily they haven't seen us." Zakir said as he examined the Grim Reapers. The beings known as Grim Reapers wore black robes that did not allow their faces to be seen. Said robes had some decorations with some ornaments, all different from each other, which showed some individualism. These beings were floating and had in one of their hands a kind of scythe, which were large and had some decorations related to death, such as skulls.
The group made up of five Grim Reapers continued their patrol, moving away from the place where Edzard and Zakir were, who, seeing that there was no longer any danger, quickly left the place where they were hiding. Looking both ways, they began to walk, for of the fifteen groups of Grim Reapers they had encountered, the last five had been in a relatively short area. So, by doing that, they would avoid crash stops and have a little leeway in case they ran into a Grim Reaper.
"Looks like we'll have to walk from here." Edzard said as he looked ahead and kept his senses alert in case any enemies appeared.
"Yes, we can't risk being found out." Zakir commented, who, like Edzard, also kept his senses on alert.
After that little exchange of words, both heroes continued walking, passing through hills and small hills of barren land. However, after walking several kilometers and avoiding being discovered by several groups of Grim Reapers, they saw something in the distance.
"So... Is that the castle of Hades?" Edzard asked looking at the structure in the distance.
"I don't know, but we don't lose anything by investigating it."
"Yes, you're right."
After that short exchange of words, the group of two heroes began to walk towards that direction. After walking for more than an hour, they finally reached the vicinity of the structure and what they saw was that it was not a castle, but rather seemed to be some kind of mansion in ruins.
"What is this place?" Zakir asked as he looked closely at the place.
"It looks like it's a laboratory." Edzard replied, who had identified a scent like the place where Ingvild had been when he found her in Leviathan clan territory.
"I see, but it looks like it's completely abandoned." Zakir said as he used a bit of force on one of the remaining walls, causing it to fall off.
"Yes, the facade yes, but some of these laboratories have this facade to hide from the world, while secretly they are different." Edzard said as he approached some kind of collapsed wall, to then hit it. The force of the blow ended up destroying the wall, showing that there was some kind of steel door below. "Yes, it is a secret laboratory. Zakir, can you help me open this."
Hearing Edzard's words, Zakir approached him and placing their hands on each of the doors, they both used their strength to open them. The double door began to creak and open slowly, until it finally opened completely, revealing that there was a staircase inside.
"It looks like it's the entrance." Zakir said as his eyes began to look at the bottom of the stairs, which was completely dark.
"I recommend you not use your night vision." Edzard said as he approached with a newly summoned sphere of light. "These things have generators that allow them to have artificial light. So, better avoid the clash of lights that can blind us."
Hearing Edzard's words, Zakir nodded and began to follow him into the laboratory.
The interior of the laboratory, or at least the first parts of it, was just a white corridor, completely sterile as far as decorations were concerned.
"It seems that this place is not very big." Edzard commented as he turned a corner and entered a room. When he stepped foot into the room, the entire room lit up as the automatic light generator was activated. Seeing that, Edzard faded his ball of light and began to see the room they were in.
"It doesn't look like anything out of this world." Zakir said, while he watched that the place was full of shelves with books.
"Yes, but there is something that draws attention to this place."
"The location, right?"
"So, it is. Why would someone build something like that in the middle of Hades territory?" Edzard asked as he looked at one of the folders there.
"It may be an installation of Hades himself."
"I don't believe it. If I were from Hades, this structure wouldn't be so abandoned. Because of the accumulated dust, this place has not been visited in more than half a year. So…"
"That means that it was a third party that built it."
"That's right, now, as to why he did it, well I couldn't say."
"It seems you have a bit of experience with this secret laboratory thing." Zakir commented as he took out one of the reports and began to review it. Although he did not understand the words, there were images that were a bit disturbing to him.
"I've been to a few before." Edzard pointed out that he remembered the moment he met Ingvild.
"Well, I hope you have a lot of experience, because I have found the possible reason why this laboratory is here." Zakir said as he walked over to Edzard and handed him the folder.
When Akatosh's son held that folder with information in his hands, he began to read the contents of it. When he finally finished doing it, he was in total shock.
"Shit…" was the only thing he could say before starting to walk towards the deepest room of the laboratory with quick steps while being followed by Zakir.
Both heroes passed through several doors and gates, completely ignoring any room other than those that would lead them to the deepest place in the laboratory. They were able to do that because Edzard was using the clairvoyance spell to show they the way.
"There is the place!" Edzard yelled when he saw the last door, which was the one that would take them to what was hidden in this laboratory.
As they got closer, Edzard noticed that this door didn't seem to open at all, as it hadn't moved automatically like the previous ones. Knowing that he wouldn't have time to stop, he simply increased his speed and when he was within ten feet, he jumped up and attacked the door with a flying kick.
The hinges of this door tried in vain to withstand the blow, but in the end, they gave way and fell with a loud noise into the room.
"Ugghh..." was the snort Edzard let out when he landed. Getting up quickly, since he had fallen to his knees, Edzard began to examine the place and finally saw what was in the depths of this room.
"That was a good hit." Zakir said as he stopped a few meters from Edzard. The Lilmothiit's eyes widened when he saw the object that took up the most space in this room. The object itself was a kind of tube flooded with water, which had several colored lights along with some artifacts and screens, the last ones showing some information.
"By the blood of my ancestors, what is this?" Zakir asked as he and Edzard approached the tube.
"It looks like some kind of capsule, but I don't know what it is." Edzard replied, who was also just as confused as Zakir.
After that exchange of words, the two heroes advanced calmly and reached the front of the glass that made up that kind of chamber. What his eyes saw there caused both to feel bad as well as to feel astonished. These feelings were since there, inside that capsule, floating in a kind of transparent liquid, was a woman breathing... well, breathing could be a metaphor, since the woman's body, which was completely naked, it showed signs of deteriorating rapidly as there were some parts of the body that had black spots, unmistakable signs that the meat was rotting.
"It looks like it's not quite right." Edzard said as he looked at the monitor showing the woman's vital signs. "Though knowing the stress, she was put through, well, it's normal for her to end up in that state."
"You seem to know who she is." Zakir commented as he took a long look at the woman. "Though, seeing how you reacted to learning about her, I'm not too surprised. Who is she to make you come so fast to where she is?
Edzard stopped checking the information on the screens to respond to the Vestige. "She is called Lilith and she is known as the mother of devils."
"The mother of devils?"
"Yes, she is the progenitor of all devils, or so humans think. I don't really know how it is, the only thing I know is that she had been missing since the end of the Great War, and I can already see why."
Edzard's words caused Zakir to raise an eyebrow and ask him to mention the cause.
"It seems like she's in a coma from the stress of non-stop giving birth to devils." Edzard responded frankly and directly. "Which in turn has caused her to be in a stage of postpartum death. That's causing much of her body to rot, but it seems that this liquid prevents her body from degenerating at her normal rate, though it can't heal her."
"I see, that explains the darkened areas. What do you plan to do with this? I say, since this was not planned."
"The truth is, I would like to know if I could teleport her to my dimension and then call the devils to take her away, since if they manage to take her to the Underworld, their faction will gain more political power if they manage to save her." Edzard said as he began to examine the machinery. "Though for that I'll have to examine the machinery."
"How long would that take you?"
"A few minutes."
"OK. Hurry up." Zakir said as he went to sit to the side, to let Edzard work in peace.
Hearing Zakir say that he could work on it, Edzard began examining the connections to the device that was keeping Lilith alive. He was examining cable by cable, to see where she was getting to and when he discovered what the power source was, he sighed, because he realized something.
'The entire power supply system is interconnected, so if I move this pod, it will stop working and she could die.' Edzard thought as he tried to find a way to take her away. After thinking for a few moments, he was finally able to find a way. Seeing that this way was very complicated to do, he decided to call Zakir to help him. When the Lilmothiit stood before him, he told him of the plan he had devised.
"Let me understand…. Do you want to teleport the entire building?" Zakir asked with a bit of surprise in his voice.
"That's right. I'm afraid that if I move only the capsule, she will die, since the entire power supply system is interconnected. So, I must take the whole place with me."
"Do you think you can do that stealthily?"
"No way. I'm afraid that when I do so, I'll cause such a scandal that all the Grim Reapers within fifty kilometers will sense us, so if I do it right now, we might alert this entire section of the underworld to our presence."
"That would not be a good thing. Only us is supposed to know we're here. So, if we're found out, it'll be a pain in the ass."
"That's right. That's why I plan to teleport the entire place when it's all over."
Edzard's words caused Zakir to raise an eyebrow in confusion. "How do you plan to do that?"
"With these." Edzard replied showing Zakir various papers, which had a magic circle engraved on them.
"I see... you plan to use magic from this world to do it, right?" Zakir asked with a smile on his face.
"That's right, I'll apply some illusion magic to hide the magic circle, thus diverting the attention of my group."
"A very good plan."
"That's right."
"How long will that take you?"
"Not much, but if you help me, it will be faster." Edzard said as he reached out his hand and gave Zakir several pieces of paper.
The Lilmothiit saw the papers and with a grunt of annoyance, accepted them.
"Okay, where should I put it?"
"One on each wall and corner of the laboratory." Edzard said as he walked away and began to put his papers on the walls and corners of the laboratory.
Zakir nodded and after that, he began to move around the place to place those papers.
The two heroes were placing the papers all over the laboratory, a task that took them a long time, since it was bigger than they had initially thought.
"Well, this seems to be the last one." Zakir said as he pasted the last of the papers. When he stuck it on the wall, he started to head back to the main room.
When the Lilmothiit arrived, it saw that Edzard had finished as well.
"Are you finished, furball?" Edzard asked.
"Yeah, brat." Zakir replied.
"Okay then, we're ready to go now."
After those words, Edzard and Zakir began to walk towards the exit of the laboratory.
The darkness made the road that connected the entrance of an underground fortification, which was in one of the mountains of the Italian Alps, very difficult to navigate by people who were not familiar with the internal layout of the fortress. This was a great help to those who were inside, since in that way they could avoid infiltrations by strangers. This was easily demonstrated thanks to the large number of corpses that were on the sides of the path, since the path itself was a natural stone bridge which linked two different sections of the fortress.
Following the path, you could reach several rooms where hundreds of people could be seen walking and talking, some did so with a smile on their faces, while others were serious and with unfriendly faces. These people wore black priestly robes.
In the middle of a room, which was on the top floor of the second section of the fortress, a group of individuals were gathered, who seemed to be the one who ran this entire fortress. The individuals that made up this group wore the same robes as the rest of the other individuals inside the fortress, except with the difference that they also wore masks, which hid their faces.
"So, how's the plan going?" asked one of the masked men.
"Good. We have managed to obtain the piece we need to attract them."
"Good. So, who was responsible for bringing her here?"
"He was one of the new members who have joined our noble cause." Answered another of the hooded men while he handed a folder to the other members.
"Subject's name is Marcus Spinola and he is one of the most promising supporters we have on our side."
"If you can see. He has very good abilities, especially in infiltration and manipulation. Since otherwise he would not have been able to sneak into that church, knowing how well protected it is."
"That's right, he accomplished something that we thought would take years, but he did it in less than three months. That is something to be praised for. "
"I suppose they are right. Although despite his achievements, the little amount of time he has with us makes him someone to watch. He may be a spy sent by our enemies to bring us down."
The other masked men nodded at their colleague's words, as it was a sensible thing to think about. Especially in these recent times, where they could be betrayed by anyone.
"Well, now tell me. How is phase two of the plan going?"
"It is going well. Marcus did what he was told to do flawlessly. For this moment, that woman's mind must be focused solely on finding the monster that she has as her daughter."
"While that being can be considered a monster, she is still her daughter, so her motherly instincts will force her to come with us and when that happens, we will make sure she joins us, one way or another, she will become the spearhead of our just rebellion against heaven."
The other masked men nodded after the words of their other partner.
"Okay, so everything is planned. Soon, she will belong to us and with it we will obtain the power of our war dog."
Author's note:
To those who have made it this far, Thanks for reading. Because being honest, I don't know how to write much in English and I'm relying on Google translators and the dictionaries that come with office 2019.
And chapter 57 is ready…
Now we start a new arc in which several things will happen in parallel with different characters, so there will be several points of view, which will make it the longest arc I've written so far.
We started something strong with the kidnapping of the Dovahkiin's daughter along with him discovering where Lilith is. Now, although in the original canon of the series it is known that she was somewhere in the underworld in one of Rizevim's laboratories, the exact place is never mentioned (Or if it is mentioned, I don't remember XD), so wanting to put something like "Hades you had the mother of devils under your nose and you didn't know it" is that I wrote that Lilith was in the kingdom of Hades.
Well, I apologize for any misspelling. Do not forget to leave a review if you liked the chapter or if there is something that needs to be improved or if you have any questions about the story. Also, any constructive advice is welcome. With nothing more to say, until the next chapter.