Descent
After a while, Sunny regained enough of his senses to warily look around.
The tunnel they were currently in was somewhat different from those they had traversed while fighting the horde of undead monsters. It looked more weathered and decrepit, with its walls and floor smoothed and uneven, as though eroded by something over the course of countless years.
What's worse, it was… wet. With a cold shiver, Sunny realized that they were surrounded by puddles of black water.
The smell of sea salt permeated the air.
Looking up, he found the tall figure of the boisterous huntress and asked in a raspy voice:
"Where are we?"
Effie glanced at him and gestured up.
"A hundred meters or so below the surface, pretty much exactly under the city wall."
He stared at her blankly, slowly comprehending the meaning of these words. The huntress gave him a nod.
"Yeah, you guessed correctly. Come night, this place is going to be full of seawater. That chasm behind us is what prevents the catacombs from being flooded by the dark sea."
She sighed tiredly.
"So, unless we want to drown or be eaten by some depth dweller, we need to get out of here as soon as possible."
Sunny closed his eyes, imagining a roaring torrent of black water erupting from the mouths of countless tunnels and falling into the abyssal chasm like waterfalls made of pure darkness.
Yeah, if they were still underground when that happened, sea monsters would be the least of their problems. The sea itself would kill them.
Luckily, the day was still young.
Effie's words served as a signal. A few moments later, Nephis rose to her feet and glanced at the members of the cohort. Her pale face was calm and composed.
"Time to go. Gather your strength."
With sighs and groans of pain, everyone stood up. Sunny was the last one to follow suit.
'Ouch, that hurts. I'm really starting to wonder if fighting Harus was a better choice.'
But no, it wasn't. Terrible as it might have been, the battle with the skeletons was at least predictable. The damned hunchback, on the other hand, was a complete unknown.
There was nothing worse than facing an enemy that you knew nothing about.
As the cohort headed deeper into the tunnel, Sunny caught up with Effie and asked with a hint of idle curiosity in his voice:
"By the way, how do you even know your way around the catacombs?"
It wasn't like she could have leisurely explored these deadly tunnels alone.
The huntress gave him a dubious look and shrugged.
"This knowledge is sort of passed down between the outer settlement hunters. I've been here a couple of times before, trying to escape from especially terrible Nightmare Creatures. Although, to be honest, I only descended this deep into the catacombs once."
Effie shivered.
"I was new in the Dark City at that time. Back then, the strongest hunter in the outer settlement sort of took me under her wing. We went down here with an entire party."
Sunny scratched the back of his head and grimaced when his battered body protested against the sudden movement.
"Yeah? That party must have been very strong, to return from this place alive."
The huntress glanced at him and smiled darkly.
"...Who said anything about returning alive? Actually, they all died. I was the only one to survive."
Sunny stared at her for a long time, and then asked:
"If they all died, then why the hell did you bring us here?"
Effie shrugged.
"Because no matter how strong that party was, they weren't even close to this one. Do you even realize how powerful the six of us are, all put together? Goddamn. I wouldn't want to be our enemy."
Then, she hesitated for a few moments and added:
"Plus, this time, I know what we're going to face. We'll get out of here in one piece, trust me."
Sunny wasn't a particularly trusting person, but at this point, he didn't really have a choice. Leaving the tall huntress alone, he walked in silence for a while.
The tunnels were now strongly angled down. With each minute, the cohort was descending deeper and deeper underground.
Slowly, his curiosity awakened. Now that the harrowing battle against the army of the dead was behind them, Sunny began to wonder about something peculiar.
Where exactly did all those human skeletons come from?
There were hundreds, if not thousands of them down here in the catacombs. Even if every hunter that had ever lived in the outer settlement died in these tunnels, their number wouldn't account for that much.
Not to mention that people who perished in the Dark City tended to end up eaten by some terrible monster, their bones pulverized into dust by its teeth.
His pointless pondering was interrupted by Effie, who suddenly gestured for the cohort to stop.
After discussing something with Nephis, she gave her a nod and turned to the rest of them:
"Listen up. We're close to the central chamber of this maze. The exit to the surface is right ahead. However, getting to it won't be easy."
The tall huntress hesitated, and then said:
"If we want to make it outside, we will have to act fast. There's a big fat bastard of a Nightmare Creature that lives in that chamber. However, it takes time for it to fully wake up. So… don't stop to look at it, don't panic, don't lose your cool. It might look scary, but if you follow Neph and do what she tells you to do, you should be alright."
She waited for a bit to make sure that everyone understood her meaning, and then grinned.
"Alright. If everyone is ready, let's go meet the Lord of the Dead."
'Wha… Lord of the Dead?'
Not liking the sound of this name one bit, Sunny summoned the Midnight Shard and reluctantly followed after Effie.
…Soon, they entered a giant underground chamber.
Once Sunny saw what was inside of it, his eyes grew wide.
He finally understood where all those skeletal wraiths came from.
He also understood where the inhabitants of the ancient city had disappeared to.
…They were all here.
