Chapter 288: Asaka all Alone.

Chapter 288: Asaka all Alone.

What is this place? Urgh, the smell

Sneaking around wasnt my forte.

I was more the type of person who would cause trouble and then run away, rather than staying inconspicuous about things. If I did, if my actions didnt leave a mark behind, then how could I rub my shitty behavior in my parents faces? The daughter of two respectful politicians was a little bitchy delinquent. It sounded better when I read the actual article after my first arrest.

However, that was when getting into big trouble never really was a problem. My parents couldnt just disown me since my brother had taken his life and our relatives despised my parents so much they didnt even want to speak with me. As such, even if I was arrested, I would be out and my name was taken off any jail time records. Bribery also worked when it came to silencing any news articles that were written about my arrest, defaming the writers until they were fired.

Now, though? I was all alone. Yoshka wasnt around. Neither were my party members. The idiot that I was forgot to ask Hestia for some [Room] runes, so I couldnt call for help. If I were to get caught here? Most likely, I would get killed if I couldnt talk myself out of this.

Which begs the question, why was my first instinct to avenge the girl those two guards killed? The situation became even funnier after I had calmed down and my onnikais had informed me the girl was just an onnikai possessing a body, similar to Segawas puppies. In other words, that small girl was dead already, she just had been turned into an undead puppet.

Unluckily for me, I only heard that from my onnikais after I had already infiltrated this place. I wanted to bash those two guards with my mace, but before I could, more guards showed up and walked into the area behind the metal walls. Using my onnikais to distract the guards standing in front of the gate, I entered the place easily enough.Ñøv€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

And that was when my mind calmed down after getting exposed to the atrocious smell. No wonder those guards were wearing gas masks. Not only did they wear the same armor those assassins had on when they attacked the Layavete cartels base, they also had a similar mask style.

Regardless, this was my situation now. My onnikais notified me of a guard station where masks were stored. Since this place just reeked of rotting corpses and probably crap, I couldnt really focus on anything if I couldnt breathe properly. Not like escaping was a real option since the gates were closed now and the only way to open them was through physical means.

Oh, this is so much better I spent a moment relishing the clean air after I put the mask on behind a tree, but my mood instantly soured when I returned to reality.

[What is this place?] I asked the onnikais.

I turned around the corner of the tree, where I saw piles of bodies being stacked upon. Corpses, from what [Identify] told me. That terrible smell had to come from them. Looking at it closer, I noticed the body of that little girl from before on that mountain.

Weirdly enough, all the bodies had some black slime crawling out of the wounds they had on their bodies. For example, the girl from earlier had her legs cut and her head pierced by a sword. That ooze surrounded those spots like flies, acting like blood, in my opinion.

Gouuueee As I continued staring in that area, the peace of the night was abruptly disturbed by the groans of a man. One of the bodies began to move, struggling out of the corpses it was covered with.

Notagain.

Bodies fell off the pile of corpses like dominos, rolling around in their lifeless state until I flinched back at how some of them twitched around as if they were spasming. I felt an incredible urge to puke at this sight. I was used to the dead at this point, even dead humans, but this brought it to another level.

When I saw the one groaning body crawling around, I expected the twitching bodies to start moving also, only for the sound of metal clattering around to appear and weapons to suddenly stab into those bodies. It was those guards again.

Always the same fucking shit. Every single day and night! one of them complained as he furiously stabbed the corpse over and over again.

Stop complaining! A female guard chastised him. Similar to the assassins from before, all these people were beastmen. Weve been given another chance to live normally. This is all part of giving back to our saviors. Just wait until our Mistress and Master are finally done with the project.

A third guard nodded as he placed the corpses back onto the pile. Shes right, mate. Soon, all these onnikais will vanish. Well get our chance and then we can live normally with all the others. Dont forget, in this human-infested world, we beasts have to stick together. Unity! For the Resurrection!

Unity! For the Resurrection! The other two guards exclaimed with a pound to their chest. It looked like a pose to me.

So this confirms it. The Resurrection and this village must be working together, or something like this.

Hey, you guys are quite loud. As I was thinking through this situation, I noticed a group of guards coming over with torches in their hands. The western area is currently being covered by the Master. The bears these damn onnikais spawned using the dungeon are slowly getting whittled down.

What? Already? Did the Master suddenly create a new masterpiece? He couldnt have improved his body so soon after repairing it, right?

Repairing your body? What?

Ha! Well, he has eight hands, technically, so he probably did. Whatever. It doesnt matter. Come on, lets burn these bodies and hope they dont regenerate them for a week before the next accident. The chief managed to sneak in a bottle of fine Greenveil rice wine for us, so lets drink later. To nobody dying today!

Yeah!

In merriment, the guards threw their torches onto the pile of corpses, setting it on fire like a bonfire before walking away. A few screams were coming from it, but they were quickly snuffed up, replaced by the disappearing laughter of the guards.

Seriously, what is this place? Did they really say these bodies could regenerate? How?

[Asaka, we should move deeper.] My onnkais gave me a suggestion to my horror.

[W-What?! Are you kidding me? You know I dont have much fighting power, especially against several people at once. I only have [Sacred Magic Lv. 1] and my mace. If I get caught, its all over.]

[We can protect you.]

[The only thing you can provide is a shield, thats about it. You dont have any offensive abilities, and I cant shoot my spells out when the barrier is up.] I shook my head in exasperation and began looking for a way out. There had to be another way since that onnikai girl managed to escape this place.

However, the onnikais squirmed around in the catalyst, sounding offended in their reply. [Asaka, we have offensive abilities. You just never tried experimenting with us.]

[Yeah, and risk whatever you four are planning with that dog. And, besides, how do you expect me to train with you when all the four of you have been doing for these past three months was annoy me with Oh, find the successor. Ooooh, persuade the successor to meet the Alpha. Tsk, fuck that. Im losing sleep cause of the four of you!]

Imagine having four annoying people you cant get rid of. Imagine these four being with you all the time. And whenever you put them somewhere you couldnt hear them, they would complain about how I should bring them everywhere for my safety. It would infuriate anybody.

The less I had to deal with them, the better. Which meant I had little to no time to actually know them better. While Tatsuya kept using his druid form despite knowing that a giant wolf might try something on our mind, I was more reserved since these onnikais were a gift to us. Who knew how much control Belzac had over them? Being suspicious and apprehensive was the obvious choice here.

As such, I rejected the onnikais idea and went in the direction of the guards. They wanted to go drink, right? This meant that they must want to go back to that village. If I could distract them with the onnikais, I could slip through their attention just like when I got inside.

While making sure I wasn't seen, I began following after the guards. Yorshkas training was still fresh in my mind after the whole Belzac forest visit, I was able to notice the footsteps ingrained in the ground. Theyre already too far away to hear properly anymore, but they still left a lot of footsteps behind to follow.

Hopefully Yorshka is done on her side. I really want to go home alr

Imila!

First, all five of these zombies were humans and, from the look of their armor, they were not a bunch of random goons. They had weapons on their hips and none of them looked too worn out. Same with the armor; aside from some damage to the leather and gambeson, they could still be used with no problems after some repairs. They honestly looked like mercenaries, but I would hazard a guess they didnt belong to the beastmen guards. Definitely not.

I shook my head in exasperation. Jeez, did they come from somewhere? Did they attack

Who are you and how were you able to?!

Kyaaaaaak!

I shrieked. I shrieked once again, and pointed my enchanted mace in the direction of the voice only for my eyes to widen up widely.

It was the man from before.

Tsk! Who are you? He scowled at me and pulled out some sorta talisman from his belt and held it up. Talk! Or I will make you talk after you die!

Grrrouuuu

I snapped my head around. The zombies were moving again and began attacking the barrier.

What? What is that thing? The man stared at the purple barrier in confusion, but somehow wasnt able to see the onnikais. Dammit! An unknown intruder!

Shit! I noticed the exposed hands of the arm forming that black slime again. I didnt know what he was trying to do, so this was the perfect time to use one of the few things my parents actually managed to teach me.

Speaking.

Wait! I didnt come here for hostilities! I just came to look! I held up the amulet hanging from my neck, hoping its ability to speak with onnikais also worked on this one. Well, I hoped he was an onnikai.

Y-You?! That amulet, where did you get it?! I can sense the aura of Goddess Death on it!

Goddess Death?

The man started to become unnerved, against my expectations. I thought he would settle down but showing him the amulet just made him more distrustful of me.

Y-You must be an enemy! The living! You are a human! You stole that from a follower of Goddess Death! You are here to extract more of our mana! Intruder! Ravager! Barbarian!

Oi?! What is with all these accusations?!

The slime on his hands exploded forward, clashing against the barrier and pushing it back. The zombies were covered in that ooze, but instead of being taken out of this encounter, they simply became even more feral. What the hell was going on here?!

[Hey! You four! Speak with him! Now!]

[We are trying but he isnt registering our voices! Hes ignoring us.]

[Then speak fucking louder! Dammit! There has to be something we can do?!]

Think! Think! A tool? An item? A spell?

But I had nothing in my arsenal. I wasnt prepared for this kinda encounter. The barrier wouldnt break unless the onnikais disappeared, but until something happened to stop him, I was trapped inside this ball. All I could do now was to lament how useless I was without the others.

[Stop! Emil!]

But suddenly, a girls voice resounded in my head and the black slime waves stopped entirely. The ooze moved, moving away from the barrier.

I saw the zombies falling on the ground, back to being lifeless, and a black cloud floating around their former master. The robed figure had his head turned towards that cloud, listening to its words.

[That miss isnt an enemy! Shes a faemancer. She has onnikais with her and that amulet has to be hers! She has to be a fellow follower of Goddess Ilsaphone!]

What? The man turned back to me. That woman? That human?

Recognizing the rope tossed at me, I grabbed onto this opportunity and told my onnikais to break down the barrier and show themselves to the man. I clearly shouted Onnikais! Show yourselves! to make it believable that I was in control of them.

As he stared at the wolf spirits, I landed the finishing blow to persuade him. And, yes, that onnikai is correct. This amulet is mine, but Im not a faemancer. I can just speak with you through it.

The robbed man went silent, tilting his head around and around as if he was evaluating me. Eventually, he took his hood off, revealing the mangled, insect-infested face of his. It was horrendous to look at and I could feel my heart skipping a beat as I wanted to scream out.

However, I didnt. I swallowed that shriek and remained steadfast. Negotiations were all about your poker face.

Come. We made too much noise. Youll be killed if the guards find you, human. And it looked like it paid off.

[Yes! Good choice, Emil! This must be the one Goddess Ilsaphone told us to wait for! This has to be her!]

Silence, Imila We will know soon enough.

He turned his back around, moving with the onnikai floating next to him. In the next moment, numerous black clouds revealed themselves hiding behind all the trees around me. They had me surrounded.

Grrrrrrrrroummmmm! I screamed internally in my head.

I swallowed my saliva and began moving with them. To where? I didnt know.

Please, everybody! Find me!

All I could hope was that the others would find me with their party bracelets.