Chapter 148: Spiral Tunnel

"H-hey, wait! Shouldn't we help him?" Chloe shrugged her arm away as they got underground.

"Chloe, we don't have time. There are 2 other enemies guarding your brother, and you're gonna need me to take them out," Rein calmly explained.

"..." Chloe grit her teeth as they left Sho behind, Rein and Emria continuing through, forcing Chloe to run after them.

"I know it's hard, but it had to be done. We just have to put our faith in Sho," Rein consoled. "He's stronger than he looks. If anyone can do it, it's him," he praised, which put Chloe's mind at ease as they descended the stairs.

They were rocky, stone stairs in an ominously placed tunnel, though surprisingly, it was well lit, with torches of fire lined on the sides of the walls as they descended.

The echoes of their footsteps rang through the tunnel as they reached the bottom of the stairs, Rein being in the front, followed by Emria, who was standing in the middle of him and Chloe. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a long, wide, well-lit tunnel that they stopped to look at.

However, the silence was broken as Emria reached the bottom of the stairs behind Rein, stepping on a pressure-plated stone, releasing a barrage of arrows from a contraption behind the walls.

"Emria! Watch out!" Chloe yelled from behind her.

Emria quickly reacted and activated her Spring, the arrows that would've otherwise pierced her body now bouncing off of her defense-enhanced skin.

"*phew*, that was a close one!" Emria laughed as she sighed from relief.

"Be extra careful from now on. This tunnel looks like it's a long one," Rein warned as they all continued through.

As the 3 calmed down, they wandered through the hall, often having to turn around a corner, which they did with extreme caution.

"What is this place..? Some sort of dungeon underneath the church?" Chloe whispered.

"No…" Rein said, putting 2 fingers on his chin in a thinking motion. "This hall… It's spiraling," Rein claimed, which made the 2 behind him raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Emria inquired.

"Look," Rein pointed forward. "Every turn we've taken has been a right turn. And every turn that halls get shorter by about 4 feet," Rein explained as they passed the right turn, looking ahead to see another right turn in front of them.

"I see," Chloe sounded. "What does that tell us?" She posed.

"It means that when we reach the center, there's either going to be a dead-end, or something's gonna be there waiting for us," Rein broke down, making Chloe gulp a ball of spit forming in her mouth out of nerves.

They continued walking through the spiraling halls of the mysterious catacombs, nothing of interest happening until they reached the end of the spiral, where they saw another trap door at the end of the hall.

"Another hatch..?" Chloe remarked with a confused tone in her voice.

"I knew it," Rein claimed, ducking down and putting his palm on the ground.

"You knew what, Rein?" Emria ducked down with him and tried imitating him by putting her palm on the ground, but couldn't feel anything.

"The ground under us… We've been walking on a hollow cavern," Rein revealed, which widened the other 2's eyes in surprise.

"A cavern along that entire hallway?! There's no way…" Chloe reacted.

"Wow, this thing must be as big as the Hasbin Gulf..." Emria whisper shouted as Rein's nose suddenly twitched, the feeling of a cool breeze enchanting his nose.

"Do you 2 feel that?" Rein stood up and looked around as the 2 girls tried feeling what he spoke of.

"Yeah… It feels like a stream of wind…" Chloe uttered, her eyes suddenly widening in jubilation. "My brother's wind!" She exclaimed, Rein putting a hand on her mouth, telling her to be quiet.

"Don't be too loud. Those other 2 I was talking about are right under us," Rein warned, removing his hand from her mouth. "They're guarding your brother's cell down there."

"Wait, where's the current of wind coming from?" Emria inquired.

"There has to be a ventilation system somewhere, right?" Chloe added.

"Yeah, and that vent most likely leads directly to your brother. Let's look around," Rein suggested as the 3 stood up and looked around the tunnel, making sure to stay close to the trap door.

"Oh, found it!" Emria whispered loudly, Chloe and Rein shuffling over to her standing in front of a metal rectangular vent.

It was about the same size as the bricks and the inside was all made of the surrounding slabs of stone. The vents tunnel lead downwards on an incline, all of them still feeling the slight breeze that was rising through the streamed shaft.

"Perfect. Emria, you can sneak in through there," Rein stated, Emria putting her stiffened hand up to her face in compliance, giving a soldiers solute. 

"Ai ai captain!" She agreed. "But wait, then what about the 2 of you?" She put her hand down to ask.

Rein ducked down to the nearby trap door and lifted it slightly, allowing them to peek through into the vast cavern that they stood above.

They were awe-stricken as it came into view, a familiar feeling washing over them as they gazed into the cavern. The roof, which is what they were standing on, was just like the Hasbin Gulf, filled with glow stone rocks that also lined the vast, city-sized cavern's walls.

At the bottom, standing on the floor of the cavern was 2 women, one of them sitting down in front of a rectangular opening in the wall, and the other standing in guard. The one sitting had blue hair, an uninterested gaze plastered on her face. The one standing bright yellow hair, which contrasted against the glow of the stones in the cavern.

"Wow… Amazing…" Emria whispered as her eyes sparkled. "It's just like the Hasbin Gulf's cave, but empty…" She remarked.

"You see that opening in the wall where that blue-haired girl is sitting? Through there is the hallway to Prince Zane's jail cell," Rein explained to Chloe, who now had her sights set.

"Okay… I see what you mean," she added as Rien closed the hatch so that they could talk freely.

"While you sneak through that vent and enter the Prince's cell, Chloe and I will be fighting the 2 guards," Rein explained while sitting on his feet, still knelt down towards the hatch under him. "This'll allow you to pick his locks and get him out of there undisturbed. You think you're up to it?" Rein posed, Emria nodding sternly.

"Yeah. I've been practicing my lockpicking skills with Saphy. I'm better than her, except when she cheats and uses her Spring," Emria boasted, to which Rein laughed and patted her on the head.

"We're counting on you, Emria. Isn't that right?" Rein glanced at Chloe, who was looking at Emria with a worried expression, moving in to embrace the girl before they parted.

"Be safe, okay? Don't do anything reckless," Chloe brushed Emria's hair through her fingers, who was laughing happily.

"You worry too much, Chloe. I'll be fine!" She said as Chloe let go of her.

All of them nodded at each other, Emria squeezing through the vent as Rein and Chloe opened the hatch to the cavern, finally alerting the 2 guards.

"Hm, it would seem like we have a couple of visitors," the standing one observed as Rein and Chloe dropped down from the ceiling, breaking their fall with a gust of wind that graced them from below.

"*zzz* *zzz*" the blue-haired one slept uninterrupted, the yellow-haired one stomping her legs to get her to wake up.

"Hey! Wake up, Emma!" The yellow-haired one yelled, startling the one she called Emma awake.

"Huh..? What happened…" She uttered as she rubbed her eyes awake and stood up, revealing her all blue clothes.

The yellow-haired one also wore all blue clothes, though they were different shades of blue, and different styles of clothing.

"We have intruder," the yellow-haired woman summoned her weapon, a beautifully decorated black steel rapier, with edges of gilded sapphire outlining the hilt, and pointed it towards Rein and Chloe.

"Geez, couldn't you take care of them yourself Shuna?" The blue-haired one named Emma yawned, summoning her weapon, which was a reinforced slingshot, a metal band acting as the connector between the 2 ends.

"Don't be ridiculous. Even I would struggle against opponents like these…" Shuna uttered. "Especially the girl… Her Spring feels incredibly powerful," she continued rambling, Rein eventually cutting them off by coughing.

"Excuse me ladies, sorry to cut your chatter short, but would you by any chance hand over the prince you have back there?" Rein yelled across the cavern.

"So then you are the one we were warned about… White hair…" Shuna observed.

"Looks like it matches the description the grandmaster gave us perfectly. I'm not gonna bother asking Jona how he let them in. That idiot's got drills for brains," Emma primed her slingshot with a shiny rock and aimed it at Rein.

"Wow there, watch where you're pointing that thing!" Rein put his arms out in front of him in innocence. "You 2 are a part of Crypt then? Officers in the blue squadron I'm guessing," Rein voiced, Shuna suddenly appearing in front of him, stabbing forward.

Rein summoned his sword at a slower speed than he usually would and blocked her attack just in the nick of time, both of them stuck in a struggle of blades.

"That's none of your business, blaggard!"