Chapter 26 Netherdepths Of Sandork II

With an annoying smirk, shivering lips and a resolute gaze, Constantine decided that enough was enough.

He already had enough intel about the awful Valkyrie to deduce a few things.

His silence only served to irk Zamira who desired to know more about him, or even tell him some more information about their empire... his reactions, his lack of information, everything drew a picture of her saviour within her mind.

Meanwhile, Constantine argued on his own battlefield.

'So… this is a world where I'm going to be discriminated against for being handsome and looking a... and I quote 'pretty boy'; aside from that… I have no privacy, correct?'

[That is correct.] Zebellia didn't make herself wait, in fact, her tonality sounded amused.

'You could hear my thoughts all along…'

[I could.]

'But you didn't say anything.'

[I wanted you to look like a fool in front of others~] The Valkyrie clearly didn't know her own limits if ever she had any.

'Fair enough, I can deal with it, however... now in a different tone, focusing... I want you to write in my personal note that I must slaughter this God Dior and this cult for sullying the beauty of this world'

...

There wasn't even a single stutter in Constantine's voice.

[Excuse me?] The Valkyrie asked in disbelief, the naturality with which the sentence was said, didn't diminish its impact and of course, she would have to react accordingly.

'Did you hear me stutter? I said write it in my personal note… you're my secretary, aren't you?~'

And there it was, the comeback.

[B-But] He didn't stutter, but she did... the proud divine being planned to back off.

'No buts, are you… a divine and prominent being; not going to abide by her words, have you no honour at all!?' His voice contained utter disdain, the tone of an emperor looking from above at a peasant, both being individuals with distinctive degrees of honour, her being apparently superior... how dare she go back on her words!?

[…] The Valkyrie was 'hands' tied.

For a long time as he crawled there was silence, each second of silence did nothing but further curl up his lips as a solemn aura spread through his mind.

'You used the wrong word, right?' The Conqueror -having once again conquered an argument- said naturally, no remorse whatsoever.

[I did… I should have used-] The woman could no longer ignore his words, but he wasn't planning on letting go of this opportunity.

'Slave or servant… I would have hoped, but we can't go back in time and therefore, should be content with our lot, right Zebellia?'

[… Shameless]

'Ha... Haha! No... you definitely beat me there, so sit down tight and start writing… Kill that God Dior and slaughter that cult, they're not needed in my future empire.'

...

Once again there was silence until the Time Valkyrie resigned to her new fate, now she has a role and has to abide by it, her divine honour on the line.

[Okay… I will- w-wait, Empire?]

'Stablish my own Empire, make sure to write that as well… and I hope your handwriting is not as bad as your maths, otherwise, you're writing it again.'

[… aren't you even going to say thank you?]

'Since when does a boss have to thank his secretary? that's your job'

[...]

**

**

The hours passed and there was just crawling, heat, claustrophobia and limited amounts of air, Constantine had to create it for them aside from using earth magic to dig, it was taxing, but despite everything, that sinning smile never left his expression.

"Ugh!" The group grunted and crawled out of the small hole one by one.

There was finally a breakthrough, Constantine's calculations came to fruition.

"H-How did you do it?"

"Uh, algebra?"

"Algebra? What is that? Some sort of sorcery?"

'No wonder, Zebellia.'

[Bastard! I know maths very well, stop with your nonsense! a one time mistake, ONE TIME!]

'Haha, sure…' The poison was already spewed, and he would not rest until the valkyrie's honour, soul, body and mind were tainted.

...

Once again there was a period of rest, crawling down for hours, his cores were once again empty, and if something he would not allow was to place himself in a vulnerable situation again with his back to his enemy; spear in hand he leaned against a wall with all of them in his visual perimeter.

"You really won't allow us to ask you any questions?" Zamira was dying to ask, but since he said no, she wanted to respect him.

"Not now, we reached the main channel, you all better be prepared because I don't know what lays ahead."

If there was someone he had a good opinion of in this group it was Zamira, the natural bias a man can have towards a beautiful lady, but Constantine was not an idiot.

If something he knew as a womanizer, is that the most beautiful ones are also the most dangerous.

Yet the woman disdained her beauty, moreover... her actions, expressions and even willingness to assist her group whilst the others didn't even try to assist her when pinned by his spear were events shocking enough to tell him what kind of people he was dealing with.

If there was anyone to trust, it was her.

Best

The group nodded and started to rest, but the other lady of the group, Anne... was quick to point towards their back after feeling a sudden heat and rustling from behind.

"T-That…" Anne pointed towards the path behind them, there, smoke was coming out from several of the fissures and if one looked closely, something was protruding.

A scorched hand of one of the ants.

!!!

While the group was shocked in bewilderment, Constantine's gaze was calculative.

"So they reached that far, it seems I didn't make them thick enough." He said, referring to the wall.

'That or those ants are extremely good at digging, which is likely the case...'

"I have another question, this 'Blood of Sandork' is it valuable?" He referred to the big piece of stalactite that the big baddy ant had, which is likely still inside that accursed clearing of the cave.

At his enquiry, there was a variety of reactions from the group, but most of them were greed...

"It is extremely valuable, a single gram can get you a hundred gold coins in any exchange shop of the empire, the joker god left his blood, literally as a joke... most of the mineral is extremely volatile; exploding upon contact, but the ones that don't explode have an immense amount of compressed mana, Lumen, moreover, wisps of divinity are still inside, they're treasures graves by alchemists and witches." One of the bulky guys leaned against the wall and spoke what he knew, having the others nod.

"What can it be used for? why would it be valuable for them?" He was only gauging whether it was worthy to come back for those things, or perhaps... even take them from here straight away.

For some reason, they all redirected their gazes at Anne as if she was the one who would likely know the answer to this question.

"To produce catalysts for arrays, potions to breakthrough the magus ranks, even heal soul injuries… they have plenty of uses all over the empire and even beyond, two days ago we saw the leader of those ants hold one that weighted at least ten kilograms… the value of such a piece is incalculable, it won't be sold merely by its price in weight!" She answered after some consideration, her eyes were even shining with emotion and also, regret...

Regret at the fact that they entered this miraculous cave and were about to leave empty-handed.

He remained silent, considering his options, truthfully her words triggered his greedier side, but it wouldn't be able to overshadow his reasoning, Zamira's words however served as the last push forward.

"The Netherdepths of Sandork are a miraculously sculped complex of caves that are extremely difficult to access, right now we are merely at the 'surface'... their entry points vary and it is said that the joker god created a ridiculously immense array only to conceal its existence, yet... its dangers are equally devastating... as much as we'd like to investigate, going further down would only result in death, even for someone like you... those ants are one of the weakest tribes living here" She tried to convince him from the thoughts that were likely lurking in his mind presently.

"I see..."

'But that won't stop me from taking at least one of those stalactites with me... if what the guy says is the truth, then the entrance of this cave is somehow not always the same...'

He had a hard time coping with that nuisance, how could the entrance of a cave move?

Every argument turned watery before his magic, this is no longer a common world.

This is Sandoria.