Chương 286: Haste (4)
We started moving forward gradually. Avoiding two pressure plates, we encountered no resistance.
"This is very suspicious; everything can't be so easy," Seleria stood just a step away from the door but hesitated to touch it. "There must be something else."
"I'm afraid we don't have time to find out," I approached the door, and a hidden trap finally activated.
Iron spikes descended between us and the necromancer.
"Now, what's next? Fire, poison, or mass shooting? Those seem to be the most popular options in situations like this," Seleria grumbled, but no one was trying to kill us yet. "What? Just locking us in?"
The answer came in the form of metal grinding. Four armored figures standing against the wall came to life. Swinging halberds, they started advancing towards us.
"Mechanism? No, golems..." Seleria created a crimson flame shield to protect herself from the attackers. "This will only hold them off temporarily; we need to destroy the soul source."
"Golems, like Rumy?" I asked.
"No, nothing like that. These are much more primitive, simple magic binding wandering souls to artificial bodies."
"Do you need help?" Rizel swung her scythe at the steel bars but could only cut through one.
"I don't think it's that difficult; we just need to find the soul stone controlling these bodies."
"Is that all? Then let me try." Seleria put away her shield, and I jumped on the nearest armor. My katars wouldn't do much against the armor, so I drew my blades. My first two strikes were aimed at the heart and the solar plexus. The blades cut through thick steel, but it seemed like I hadn't hit anything vital. I quickly withdrew the blades before the golem retaliated. "I thought that would be the best approach, but I'll try something else."
With a jump, I knocked off the golem's helmet and received a powerful blow to the stomach. The iron head flew away, but it didn't contain the soul stone either.
"Done?" Seleria chuckled.
"You could've helped."
"Alright then, it's my turn." The sorceress wove sharp spears from the crimson flame and impaled two knights on them. More than ten blades pierced through their armor. "Now that should do it."
But as soon as she removed the spears, the armor came back to life.
"They are quite resilient."
"Something more than just luck is needed here!" Rizel finally made her way to us and, using her scythe to block the halberds, pushed the golems away with a burst of shadows. She then headed for the first armors. Two precise strikes completely stopped the golems.
"If they are controlled by soul stones, that's right up my alley. Each of them has three stones: on the waist, in the chest, and at the base of the neck. You even randomly destroyed two of them, but I can handle the rest myself."
Slipping past the first golems, Rizel parried the attacks of the other two, and the sparks from the clash illuminated the corridor. Her silver scythe flashed twice, cleaving the armors' torsos. When the remains of the armors fell to the ground, the necromancer extracted dark purple stones from them and crushed them in her hand with force. The stones crumbled into dust, and their magical energy dissipated in the air.
"Now these spirits will find peace. It's wrong to use them like this."
"I'm not a fan of this magic either, but many Leranian nobles have been practicing it for ages, even though it's officially prohibited... At least they stopped using living sacrifices." Seleria lowered her head guiltily.
"Hmm, I hope you can change that foolish tradition in the future," Rizel brushed off the dust from the shards and approached the door at the end of the corridor. "Is this the vault?"
Half of the passage was occupied by a steel door over two meters wide, with a heavy lock and several keyholes.
"It looks like it, although this door is much larger and heavier than the one in the old treasury."
"And how did you open it?"
"Heh, back then I just burned the lock and slipped inside. But this one might pose some difficulties," Seleria concentrated the crimson flame on her fingertips and turned them into sharp claws. "But it's worth a try."
With a resounding screech, the crimson flame struck the thick steel, sending fiery sparks flying out of the darkness.
"Phew... he thought of this too..." The princess polished the door with the flame for almost five minutes, leaving only five small indentations on the metal, no more than a centimeter deep. "So, he reinforced the door with adamantium... Given its size, it must be fifteen centimeters thick, and it'll take me the entire night to burn through it."
"We don't have that much time. They'll find the unconscious guards before long."
"Any other ideas?"
"Maybe my scythe will help?" Rizel swung her silver blade, enveloping it in the flames of decay, but the blow didn't reach its target. The scythe barely managed to cut through a quarter of the door before getting stuck. "And that's not enough... He's quite persistent."
"We can't just leave like this... Miriam can keep the guards incapacitated for a couple more hours, but we might not make it to the trial."
"Well, what would you do without me," I shrugged and took out a pouch of gray powder from my belt. "Riz, I need to distract the guards. It'll get very noisy here, and we won't have much time to escape."
"Will that work?" Seleria looked at my supplies with skepticism.
"It should."
"Let's hope Rumy can handle it," Rizel closed her eyes, and the shadow around her shivered abruptly.
"It's time," Rumy smirked as she watched a bat dissolve into the shadows.
Taking a big sip from the wine bottle, the girl staggered out from behind the corner. Guards were also stationed at some other houses besides the Oregol estate, but they wouldn't interfere. The key was to make some noise without involving the city guards.
"Hmm-hmm-hmm," she hummed something under her breath while leisurely strolling along the wall. Though alcohol had little effect on her, Rumy pretended to be intoxicated to get closer to the guards. "Soldier, don't you want to share a drink with a lady?"
Boldly draping herself on one of the guards, she whispered something tenderly in his ear.
"I'm on duty, don't bother me."
"Tch, what a killjoy. Maybe your partner is more talkative?" Rumy swiftly shifted to the next guard, considering that she, a golem, weighed quite a bit by human standards. It was surprising they didn't shoo her away immediately. "Come on, let's have a little drink. It's just what you need; you're so lethargic."
"Don't bother us; we have important work."
"Oh, important work, that's rich! Standing here guarding a toothpick of a door, hah!" Rumy pushed the guard in the back, and he almost fell to the ground. "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to hurt you!"
The guards were slowly losing their composure.
"Get out of here! We don't have time to babysit you," the offended guard pointed his halberd at the warrior and smirked. "Or we'll provide you with a couple of extra holes to ventilate your head."
"Pff," taking a hefty gulp from the bottle, the golem easily snapped off the blade of the halberd with her free hand. "What junk are they made of? And you're threatening me with this stick? I told you, let's just go have some drinks. Otherwise, I'll get rough with you!"
The guard looked bewildered at the broken blade, then tried to find support from his partner, but the latter just averted his gaze in embarrassment.
"Alright, you've had enough! Get out of here!" The guard swung the halberd, but Rumy effortlessly sidestepped, and the blade scraped against the stones. He swung a few more times, but the warrior effortlessly dodged all the attacks. With the last strike, another piece of the already cracked blade broke off. "Damn it! I'll have to pay for its repair out of my own allowance!"
"Ha, not my problem," Rumy shrugged and took another sip from the bottle.
"Oh, you drunkard," the guard jerked the halberd upward and snatched the coveted bottle from the golem's hands.
"My bottle!" Rumy gazed helplessly as the remnants of the expensive wine soaked into the sandy ground.
"Pff, not my problem," the guard smirked, satisfied with himself, and tried to return to his post.
"Oh, they're definitely your problem," Rumy deftly snatched the weapon from the guy's hands and smacked him with the iron tip on his back. "And now go fetch me a new bottle."
"How dare you! You started it first!" The guard tried to dodge, but the blows landed precisely on his helmet, then on his back, and even lower. "Stop it!"
"Enough of this!" The second guard finally decided to intervene and grabbed the rebel by the shoulder, but she quickly twisted his arm and effortlessly tossed him into the nearest bushes.
"And you're letting her get away with this!" The guard frantically knocked on the door he was supposed to guard.
"How unsightly of you two. You can't handle a poor girl between the two of you, and now you want to gang up on an unarmed victim," Rumy playfully pretended to be an innocent lamb, but then quickly switched to a malicious smile. "Looks like I need to teach someone a lesson! Mwahaha!"
"Mmm, it's getting loud. Did it happen so quickly?" I listened closely to what was happening on the first floor. "I think we can start now."
"So what did you decide to do?"
"Well, you won't be able to burn it, and Riz couldn't melt it either. Throwing fireballs at it is a waste of time. So, I decided to turn it from the inside!"
"What do you mean? You think I can hit the gap between the walls?"
"No, I just borrowed this powder from the market. It's almost the same as the one Aileen uses in her bombs."
"I doubt her bombs could penetrate the door."
"From the outside, probably not," I ran my hand along the edge of the door, looking for a weak spot. "Mmm, there's no draft here, most likely the hinges are here, holding it up."
From the entire perimeter of the door, the wind didn't blow from the section on the left, where the lock was, and the two sections on the right, at the top and bottom, probably where the door was attached with two rows of hinges.
"Let's sprinkle some powder in this area, and if we're lucky, it will loosen the attachments."
"The explosion won't be powerful enough."
"Then we'll enhance it," I smiled and pulled out a small tube from my leather pouch, carefully pouring the gray powder into the gap. "Now let's step back; who knows how it will go off."
I sealed the remaining powder in the same tube and inserted it into the gap as a fuse.
"Shall we light it?" Seleria hid behind the corner and ignited a small flame in her hand.
"No, just to be sure, I'll add some penetrating force to it."
I drew the small blade from my back and charged it with lightning magic. My magic wouldn't last long, but it would be enough for the throw.
I swung and threw the blade directly at the target. I had practiced throwing knives before, but this was the first time I threw such a large sword. Sparking with lightning, the blade precisely hit the gap and exploded with a thunderous roar. The blade rebounded back into the corridor. If I hadn't taken cover, it would have been sticking out of my shoulder right now.
"Well, not exactly a stealthy entry... let's hope no one heard that."
Seleria hurried to the door, dispersing the smoke that had accumulated in the dungeon.
"It didn't work," Rizel looked disappointed at the door.
The explosion blew off the upper corner of the door and tore off part of the hinges, but even through that hole, not even a slender necromancer could fit.
"We don't have time to come up with something else. What are we going to do?" Seleria looked at me with obvious annoyance.
"It doesn't matter. We've loosened one attachment; we just need to push it a bit, and it will collapse on its own. Can you bend it?"
"What do you think I am, a monster? How am I supposed to bend an adamantite door fifteen centimeters thick?"
"But you used crimson flames to stop Ragni's attacks, so you do have strength."
"Hmm, well, if you put it that way, you're right about something."
Seleria wrapped her hands in crimson flames, creating a semblance of dragon claws. She inserted her claws into the opened gap, trying to pry the sturdy metal apart.
"Damn, it's hard," after five minutes of effort, the sorceress managed to move the door back by only a few centimeters.
"Don't open the entire door; just push it back, and I'll try to cut the hinges at the bottom," Rizel placed the scythe blade against the base of the door, attempting to slide it into the gap.
"Are you sure you won't break your little toy?"
"Don't insult, please, my weapon. It's much stronger than it seems."
Seleria wrapped one leg in crimson flames and forcefully struck the door. The metal slightly yielded, and the necromancer let the force of decay pass through the blade. With a creak, the last hinges fell off the red metal, and the door collapsed inward with a dull thud.
"We've caused enough commotion. Let's grab what we need and leave quickly!"
"Alright, I think my gold should be close to the entrance."
Illuminating the way with flames, the princess entered the room. The space, about ten meters on each side, was filled with chests of precious gems, pedestals with expensive attire, and exquisite weaponry.
"Look at all this money!" The gleam in the necromancer's eyes momentarily changed its hue to a golden shade.
"We don't have time for that now. Search for all the chests with empire coins."
We quickly dispersed throughout the vault, opening one chest after another.
"What if we come across enchanted coins like the ones that killed the mercenaries?" I looked around with caution at the contents of the chests.
"I hope Voren isn't that foolish; otherwise, we'd stop dealing with him soon enough. Ah, here are a couple of chests," Seleria pulled out three chests from the pile and dragged them toward the exit. Rizel and I found a couple more containing empire coins.
"And now what?"
"I marked a few coins; let's check if they're here," the sorceress gathered flames in her hand, making it exceptionally bright. "They'll reveal themselves when heated thoroughly."
The first three test coins showed no deviations, but the fourth one, before it melted, revealed a symbol resembling a dagger.
"Here they are. If you engrave some symbol in the gold and then rub it out, it will show up when heated, no matter how many years have passed."
"Then let's take them as evidence, but that won't be enough," Rizel faked the chest on her scythe and hung it on her back.
"Let's hope Hilda makes it to the trial in time; then they won't be able to accuse Aileen."
Putting the extra chests back in their places, we left the vault. As a farewell gesture, Seleria put the adamantite door back in place and melted it to the hinges, making it impossible to open without cutting it. Smirking, the princess left a note on the door: "Not this time, fool."
When we stepped out into the courtyard, the guards were still causing a commotion at the gates, allowing us to escape from the estate freely.
"I wonder how Rumy is doing," Rizel peeked around the corner but quickly retreated. "Hmm... she's taken down almost all of the guards, settled on top, and is commanding two others to fetch her some drinks, or she won't let them go..."
"Why did we complicate everything when we could have just used the reckless golem?" With a sigh of sadness, we headed toward the nearest gate. The sun was rising, which meant we didn't have much time left before the trial.
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