Nearly a week after Marcus and his party had defeated the Revenant Witch ruling Houten's former capital's sewers, they finally found an entrance directly into the castle.
It had been hidden well as appeared to be a secret passage meant for evacuation in the case of an unwinnable siege, or internal coup.
The undead had caused them little trouble once they had defeated the one creating the seemingly unending monsters. Thanks to this it was relatively easy for Marcus and his companions to explore the labyrinth beneath the city.
Of course, they made sure not to report their success to their liaison Major Leopold and convinced Novak and his party to do the same. For their plan to succeed they needed unrestricted access to the sewers. So as far as anyone else knew, the place was still crawling with powerful monsters, and they had made barely any progress mapping the place.
Thankfully the situation above ground assault was just as stagnant as Houten's military believed that the operation to clear the underground was.
Even with all the forces they had gathered, the commanders of the army were failing at just about every turn. Not that their lack of success mattered much to Marcus. To him they were just a distraction to thin out the monsters and give the hordes of undead a more enticing target than his group.
"It seems that they are going to attempt a large-scale attack tomorrow to push past the points they have been stuck at. I'd say that this is the chance we have been waiting for." Mrazivý said, having just got back from collecting information about the army's movements.
While they had found the secret entrance into the castle, they had refrained from entering right away and instead were waiting for the opportune moment.
"Sound good to me. When the others get back, we can tell them that begin tomorrow."
As darkness cloaked the sky and the light of the sun faded, the remaining members of Marcus' party reconvinced at their tents after going out on their own to gather intel.
There everyone shared what they had found and easily came to a consensus to sneak into the castle. Their main objective was Ghost King Arriba Houten, but a secondary prize was any treasure left in the castle. The disaster that had plunged the entire city into undeath happened suddenly. It was almost certain that no one had time to loot the castle's vaults.
This would be underhanded and against the contracts they signed, but it was what they had intended from the beginning. At the end of the day their efforts would go a long way to reclaiming the city, so it was honestly not a bad deal. Though, Houten's authorities would have no idea what actually went on behind the scenes.
"And what about our shadows? Are they still watching us?" Marcus asked Roxene.
"Yeah, they've kept watch over us since day one. Still, they don't show any signs of making a move."
Following where Roxene was pointing Marcus could just barely make out a shimmer in the area when he enhanced his eyes with mana and spiritual energy.
"Magic Disruption."
Using one of his unique skills, Alaric destroyed the scrying spell that was being used to observe them.
"Well, they certainly know that we're on to them now." Lilia commented.
"Yeah, no doubt about that. Let's move quickly before they can respond." Marcus said, taking the lead and running down the path leading to the secret entrance into the castle.
Within only around forty minutes their party reached the false wall in the sewers that served as an emergency escape route.
Using his glyph tuning skill, Marcus disabled the protective enchantments and the wall opened to reveal a staircase covered in thick dust. Clearly no one had used this place in a very long time.
With everything appearing to be clear, all of them walked up the staircase until it opened into a small room. There were old and long rotted away supplies that those fleeing the castle would have taken in case of an emergency.
"This is it. Once I open this wall, we will be in the castle proper." Marcus said, urging everyone to brace themselves.
There was no telling if there would be an immediate response to their trespassing. Skelton and spectral warriors could come rushing towards them the moment that they entered.
Yet, despite expecting the worst, when Marcus activated the mechanism to open the wall, all that awaited them was an empty room.
"I think that this must have been a laundry room." Mrazivý said.
There were degraded baskets full of mostly rotted clothing, and large shallow tubs through the room.
Just like the hidden room that they had just come from, this laundry area was equally undisturbed. No one had been in this place for centuries. They had undoubtably entered into a castle devoid of the living.