Chapter 181: Bella the Blue

Rein searched the body of the guard he knocked out, finding a small key attached to the belt on his waist. He stealthily made his way to the stairs leading down to the basement, where there was a large, underground prison, which was made to harbor the cities criminals until soldiers from the capital came to get them.

There, he saw rows of cells lining the walls, something that he remembered vaguely seeing when he was small, though he wasn't allowed access to it back then. Strangely, there were no guards manning the area, though he still proceeded with caution. The bleak, dimly lit dungeon completely juxtaposed the mansion above, reeking of rats, feces, and rotting corpses. Clearly, this place hadn't been maintained, nor had it been frequented.

As he continued through, he heard faint noises of struggling from up ahead, which finally came in sight. It was the green-haired prince, tied up in a cell and gagged, left on the ground. It looked as though he wasn't being fed, nor was he being hydrated. Had Rein come here a few days later, he would've been dead by now.

As he saw Rein approaching him, his eyes widened, though they didn't look happy to see him, shaking his head from side to side. Rein chalked it up as his usual grudge and continued forward, taking out the key from his pocket and sticking it into the keyhole, without saying a word.

Zane continued struggling, trying to talk through the gag in his mouth relentlessly as Rein tried opening the door. However, the key didn't work, which strangely confused him. There were no guards down here, so who else could have the key. He settled for activating the inverse of Chloe's Spring and bending the steel bars of the prison, however before he could even get the chance, he felt the air of death suddenly loom over him, making him turn around to see glowing blue eyes, a woman swinging an enormous shield at him.

In the split second to react, he put his arms up to block, however, he knew his frail feeling arms wouldn't protect him. If only he had all of his senses, she wouldn't have caught him by surprise. Suddenly, he felt the wind raise him off his feet and blow him off to the side, making his body drag across the ground as he avoided the attack.

The woman's shield impacted with the iron bars of the cell, completely decimating them as if they were fragile twigs. Perhaps he could've survived that attack if he still had his full power, but as he was now, that attack would've killed him ten times over. Rein took a deep breath, realizing that Zane wasn't struggling because of his grudge against him, but to warn him, and ultimately helped him avoid the attack.

"Rein Alister… So you are here then," the woman had a surprisingly high-pitched voice, with long black hair and bright blue eyes, wearing a blue robe.

Her pale face lit up in the dimly lit underground, and her slender arms, somehow, held up a gargantuan shield with ease.

"I assume you're from Crypt then? Leader of the defense squadron?" Rein surmised while catching his breath.

"You would be correct in assuming so. I am Bella, and I serve directly under her majesty the grandmaster."

"So you knew I'd be coming, judging by your reaction. Did your grandmaster tell you that?" He continued stalling.

"I've no need to divulge that information to you," she said as she readied her shield once again.

This time, a faint blue outline enveloped her, leading Rein to believe that he had just activated her Spring. Rein summoned his swords and readied them in front of him. He wanted to decipher what her Spring was, but most importantly, he had to find a way to win, without his usual stats.

He suddenly dashed towards her, using the earth-controlling Spring that he was just about to use to free Zane to boost him forward, making him go faster than he usually would.

"Oh? You're a bold one," she held the shield out in front of her, completely encasing her slender feminine body behind it.

However, before Rein made contact with the shield, he created a spike of earth under his feet, sending him up into the air, landing on the ceiling with his swords crossed in front of him. He propelled downwards, jumping off the ceiling directly towards the woman, who barely reacted in time, putting her shield up towards him.

As the swords and shield collided, a loud clank rattled through the dungeon, the swords bouncing off with ease. However, she felt that it was a little too much ease. As she moved the shield from in front of her vision to reveal two floating swords twirling in the air after coming in contact with her shield. Rein had disappeared.

She turned around, seeing him charging up a punch, his hair had turned black, and an orange aura was surrounding him. With no time to block with the shield, Rein unleashed his full power blow directly into Bella's face, having activated STO, along with the inverse of Xenia's curse.

As his fist collided, he analyzed her Spring.

Unflinching: Astronomical defense and poise. Allows one to wield any defense based weapon with ease.

As he read that, he instantly retracted his arm and jumped back, grabbing his two swords that had just landed on the ground.

"Impressive. I actually felt that one," she held her jaw with one hand as she looked back at Rein with a stern, frowning expression. "However, I won't be caught off guard again," she exclaimed, suddenly summoning a second shield to be held by her other hand.

Rein racked his brain, trying to think of a way to defeat her. None of the Spring he'd acquired until this point helped him against such an overwhelming amount of defense. If he still had his original strength, perhaps he'd have been able to brute force his way through. But he didn't have that luxury.

But that was when it came to him. His newly acquired mystic skill. He just needed a little bit of luck…