Chapter 67: Survival Horror – Part 2

Chapter 67: Survival Horror – Part 2

Ted and Suzy drench themselves in an MP potion, trying to hasten their mana recovery.

"Did it work?" Ciel asks, worriedly.

"The potion is being absorbed by our metal skeletons," Ted says.

"Our mana regeneration is increasing, but it's three times slower than a humanoid's," Suzy says.

"Huh... so you guys do have a weakness," I say.

"Just until they learn [Redirect Mana]," Ciel says.

"True."

I sit down and sigh. The armor makes it a little awkward to sit, but since it's padded, it isn't too difficult to find a comfortable position.

I raise my visor and look at the girls. The three of us are all uncomfortable and tired of having to smell these fucking rotting zombies for so long.

"I have an idea, how about this?" Yunia says and turns off her [Spirit Light].

"Hm...?" I frown at her, then it dawns on me. "Oh...! That's right! They might be attracted to the light since they healed from [Judgment]."

"So... you want us to fight in complete darkness?" Ciel asks.

"Right, for you girls, it wouldn't work so well, but it can still be useful in a pinch. Anyway, what I thought is to use light to lure them away from the room," I say.

"A light elemental," Ciel suggests, and I nod in agreement.

"I could cast [Ignorance] on all of us, that would make it easier to sneak around them," Yunia suggests.

"Please do," I say.

"Wolfy, we are not alone," Alissa says through [Bind].

"Ciel, throw a [Spirit Light] out of the door to attract the husks away from our closet, then we'll block any gaps around the door that could let light leak out. I'm going to focus on Alissa's team."

"Understood," Ciel says, and they act.

Alissa and the others are in the main hall of the mayor's public office, a wide and open modern-looking building with minimalist paintings covering the walls and floor. The furniture all around them is made of glass, and even the balustrade of the three visible floors are made of glass panels.

The view brings me a hint of nostalgia, reminding me of Earth, but the lack of illumination gives it all a ghostly feeling.

Alissa perceives three presences patrolling the corridors, one on each floor above the one they're on.

"This looks fragile," Aoi says and uses one of her claws to poke a chair made of glass. The gray cushioning looks comfortable, but the lack of details or adornments give it that "soullessness" that plagues a lot of modernist architecture.

"It's reinforced with something. It's still weaker than wood, but it's not as fragile as a cup of glass," Lina says.

"We're not here to admire the architecture," Alissa says and pulls them back into "serious mode."

"If you don't stop to admire the architecture and smell the flowers, can you honestly say that you've really been there?" I question through [Bind], trying to sound as pretentious as possible.

"Please," Alissa pleads, trying to hide her amusement, but [Bind] never lies.

They walk to the reception desk and look over the documents while I translate for them. Alissa finds a map of the area, Lina finds a memo about keycards, and Aoi finds a memo about the new security arrangements. Curiously, the dates on all the documents have faded.

The map says that the keycard creation workshop is located on the top floor. It's a restricted area that requires a red keycard to open, so I don't think that we'll be able to go there just yet.

The keycard memo is about the new mayor requiring a keycard. The chief of security is reminding the public servants that a high-security delivery of the keycard will happen at a predetermined time, and he'll be absent, personally delivering it to the mayor at his mansion.

"Hey, so this might be the mayor's mansion," Roxanne says.

They're currently standing in front of the main entrance to the mansion. Hana is keeping an eye behind them while Roxanne examines an intricate padlock that's securing a chain wrapped around the handles of the double door. There's a mysterious note nailed to the door, clearly a hint about this puzzle.

"You know what, fuck this," Hana says and pushes Roxanne to the side.

"Here we go..." Roxanne says and smiles wryly.

Hana breathes fire on the chain until it glows white-hot, then she pulls out her steel war hammer and slams it onto chains until they break.

The door opens with a wooden creak, and they wait in a combat stance. After a minute of nothing happening, they walk inside.

"What if destroying the chains triggered the alarm?" I ask.

"Oops, didn't think of that," Hana says and cringes.

"It would be a waste to put an alarm enchantment on a padlock and chain," Roxanne says.

"Y-yeah, exactly," Hana says and laughs.

Roxanne shakes her head and smiles wryly, then she says, "We'll search for the mayor's office."

The security memo that Aoi found is about the three new guards that will patrol during the night. Elite special soldiers with extreme mental conditioning. The public servants are warned that nobody will be allowed to stay in the office once it closes and that disobedience will most likely result in death.

"You don't put such extreme security practices in place if you're not protecting something very important," Alissa says.

Yunia nods and says, "That keycard creation workshop is worth it, not to mention all the valuable information that's probably stored in the building. The entire leadership of this station works over there, so almost everything relevant to espionage is concentrated in a single location." All of which I relay to the others.

"We should try to fight those patrolling soldiers first, then we'll explore the building after they've been dealt with," Alissa suggests.

"I agree," Lina says, and Aoi nods with a toothy grin.

"I'll remain on standby to pull you girls out of there," I say.

"Shad, follow Aoi for now," Alissa orders, and the silent shadow obeys.

The husks slowly make their way to Ciel's [Spirit Light], then one of them eats it and heals a little. Now, without any light that they can see, they all forget about us and resume aimlessly shambling around.

Alissa's team crosses through the main hall and slowly climbs up a set of stairs. Meanwhile, Hana and Roxanne get lost in the creepy and dark mansion.

"Aoi, you'll stay in front, Lina will stay closer to me. At first, we'll focus on observing the enemy and keeping it away from us instead of engaging it in melee combat," Alissa orders, and they both nod.

They walk through the corridors and cautiously await the floor's guard. They stand still, ready for battle, as the sound of heavy boots slowly grows in volume as it comes closer to them.

A large figure makes the turn around the corner; it's immediately illuminated by their [Spirit Light]s and stops before them. He's a beast of a man at over two-meters tall; his skin is as pale as Roxanne's; his muscles are huge and veiny; his creepy face is chubby and bald like a baby's; his right arm is fused with a metal cannon; his left one is fused with a sledgehammer; the only bit of clothing on him is his pair of heavy, dark boots; and thankfully, he doesn't have genitals.

Alissa fires a thin mana arrow designed to pierce his flesh. It hits right in the middle of his forehead and enters his skull, but the man doesn't even react, his baby face is completely expressionless. Then the arrow is pushed back out of his head. It falls to the ground, and not even a wound remains in his flesh.

Mana leaves his body, and a ball of light flies out of his cannon-arm with frightening speed. Even through Alissa's eyes, I can tell that this light is "dangerous," just like Ciel's [Judgment].

Alissa dodges and grimaces; Aoi and Lina might not be able to avoid that attack. The ball of light illuminates the corridor as it passes beside them, then it hits the end of the hallway and instantly dissipates.

The Baby Brute starts walking towards them. He looks so menacing that he causes waves of stress to crash into the girls with each of his heavy steps.

Aoi spreads her wings, nearly blocking the whole corridor, and bends the air to her will. She compresses it, then launches crude [Wind Blade]s towards the Baby.

"Since when can you do that?" I ask.

"Since always. It was just too weak to be used before," she answers.

The blades cut into his chest and open deep wounds, but not even a single drop of blood falls from them. After a mere three seconds, the wounds simply close by themselves.

"[Cursing Magic] isn't working," Lina says.

The Baby Brute picks up speed and starts jogging towards them.

Alissa fires two mana arrows at the same time, and each of them sinks into one of his eyes. The arrows are promptly pushed out, and the eyes return to normal as if nothing had happened.

Alissa clicks her tongue and says, "I'm starting to hate these stupid regeneration abilities."

"Turn off your [Spirit Light]s and hide," I say, and Alissa nods.

Lina gathers all the papers they can, and they hide behind one of the large sofas. Alissa casts [Ignorance], just in case. Without [Spirit Light], I can now only see through their Holly and Shad.

After half a minute, the Brute appears in front of the door. His eyes scan the room before he moves towards the desk.

Everything is so quiet that the girls' breathing sounds like wheezing, and the Brute's heavy steps feel like stomps.

He stops to stare at the document shelves, then he turns around and crouches, noticing that the drawer was ripped open.

Alissa winces as she suddenly hears a high-pitched screech, hurting her ears. Lina looks at her in confusion, it seems that only Alissa can hear it.

The Brute suddenly stands up and starts quickly searching the room. Alissa and Lina brace themselves, but the Brute walks past them without reacting; he even looks in their direction, but [Ignorance] prevents him from seeing them. The other two Brutes speed up and make their way to the third floor. Then it leaves the room and starts searching the next one

"Trying to sneak past them will be rather risky now. Any ideas?" Alissa asks.

The Brutes start searching inside the other rooms, and out of the few that are unlocked, most don't have any reliable hiding spots. Now, if they try to use [Ignorance] to sneak past the Brutes, Alissa likely won't have enough MP to keep it up all the way to the stairs.

"Summoning Solid Snake," I say with a grin.

"Reference. Video games," Suzy says.

Alissa rolls her eyes and lets me control her. I make her grab the cart and park it outside, right beside the wall of the corridor. Then I return her to her hiding place and wait. She breathes calmly and easily controls her own arousal from me using [Bind] to control her.

A Brute passes by, and his eyes lock onto the cart, but he simply passes by it without doing anything else.

"Well, well, well. We found our box," I say and guide the girls towards the cart. It's pretty small and cramped, but they both fit. A long tablecloth blocks both of them from view.

Lina feels a little hot from having Alissa's face pressed against hers, then Alissa also starts feeling it from my own fetishes bleeding through to her through [Bind]. I sigh and control myself. The smell of rotten flesh is a great help with that.

The girls push the cart along and slowly make their way towards the stairs. Without the Brutes staring directly at them, [Ignorance] doesn't drain Alissa's MP as much.

They finally reach the corridor leading to the stairs and stop a few meters away from them. Then a Brute stops in front of the cart, and our blood runs cold.

He's so close that I can see him through Shad's vision. He's staring at the cups, then he lifts his sledgehammer and uses it to align one of the cups with its plate.

Suddenly, his cannon lifts the tablecloth and aims directly at the girls.

Lina fires an [Earth Bullet] at the cannon, clogging it, then Alissa grabs her and rolls out of the cart. She turns into a fox with Lina already on top and leaps to the side as the sledgehammer crushes the floor beside her.

She dashes down the stairs, and all three Brutes go to the balcony. They jump down to the main hall and wait for Alissa to come to them.

"Uh..." Alissa's brain stops for a moment as she processes what's going on. "It seems like they don't know that I can sense their exact positions."

She goes to the balcony of the first floor and waits for the Brutes to move.

"Make a [Double Image] of yourself outside the office, let's see if they fall for it," I suggest.

She first casts [Mesmerizing Butterflies] to make them look behind themselves, then she casts a long-range [Double Image] for a moment. Any mage worth their salt would instantly recognize the illusion and interrupt it effortlessly, but these are Brutes that are easily fooled by it and believe that their target has escaped.

They leave the main hall and start coming up the stairs again.

"I'm very thankful that they're dumb," Alissa says.

"If they weren't, then they would be quite overpowered," I say.

The girls snort, and Alissa leaps down to the main hall. They cross through the exit and finally escape.

I sigh and get up. "Now, let's deal with these stinky fuckers outside," I say.

Announcement

Hall of Fame of Patrons

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Oracle Maximillian Hübner.

Prince PreownedFIN.

Lord Andrew Meyers.

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