Deep within the ruins beneath Royal Crown University, King’s Campus.
In the dark corridor, rhythmic footsteps echoed as Dorothy cautiously moved forward, stepping on the cracked stone floor. Beside her, a corpse marionette carried a lantern, providing limited illumination.
In the faint light, Dorothy surveyed her surroundings. The spacious corridor was empty except for scattered rubble. The stone walls were pockmarked, as if someone had chiseled away the original surface. Every few steps, she encountered doorless rooms, but a quick glance inside revealed they were completely empty.
After descending the stairs from the altar room, Dorothy had reached the deeper parts of the ruins. She soon realized that the ruins had become increasingly complex, with not only stairs but also branching paths, rooms, and corridors. Navigating through this maze-like environment, Dorothy had to rely on her intuition, marking her path as she went.
The complexity of the ruins’ depths exceeded Dorothy’s expectations. Stairs leading up and down, crossroads, and rooms everywhere—combined with poor visibility—made it a true labyrinth. Dorothy had been searching this maze for quite some time but had found nothing. Every corridor and room was empty, devoid of anything but stone and dust.
“Damn... this place isn’t just a maze... it’s also completely empty except for rocks and dust! Just as Beverly said, this place has been picked clean by several societies, leaving nothing behind.”
As she wandered through the depths of the ruins, Dorothy thought this to herself. It seemed the Eight-Spired Nest had only utilized the first and second levels of the ruins, with their main focus being the altar on the second level. The maze-like areas below had been ignored, as there was nothing of value there.
“Good thing I prepared in advance. I stocked my magic box with water, rations, and lamp oil, so I could stay down here for a while. Otherwise, I’d have to turn back.”
Thinking this, Dorothy continued forward. Soon, the corridor she was walking through came to an end, revealing yet another set of stairs leading downward.
Looking at the stairs before her, Dorothy couldn’t help but complain inwardly. She then checked her connection with the corpse marionette she had left on the first level as a lookout and found that the connection was still intact.
“Good, it’s not too deep. I’ve probably only gone down about a hundred meters so far. I’ve explored most of this level and found nothing, so I’ll just keep going down.”
With this thought, Dorothy began descending the stairs.
However, just as she reached the new level and hadn’t gone far, she suddenly froze, her expression turning serious.
“Someone’s come in from above... Did those guys manage to escape and return?”
Frowning, Dorothy looked upward. The small corpse marionette she had left on the first level had detected the sound of footsteps growing louder, coming from the entrance corridor.
Thorn Velvet hurried through the corridor with quick, urgent steps. Soon, he emerged into the torture chamber on the first level of the ruins. The sight before him immediately stunned him.
“What... what’s going on? Where is everyone? Where did they all go?”
Standing at the entrance to the torture chamber, Thorn Velvet exclaimed in shock. Before him was a completely empty chamber. Not only were the prisoners in the cages gone, but even the guards he had specifically ordered to stay behind were nowhere to be seen. The scene was eerily silent.
Earlier, when Thorn Velvet had heard from two students at the Scholarly Society’s gathering point that a group of ragged people had suddenly emerged from the Inner Area, he had begun to worry. Now, seeing this scene, his worst fears had come true.
“It seems I was right. We’ve been deceived.”
At that moment, a cold voice came from behind Thorn Velvet. Claudius, pale-skinned and bald, stepped forward slowly, standing beside Thorn Velvet and gazing at the scene before them.
“Deceived... Was this a trap set by the black dogs? Not only did they lure us into an ambush, but they also took the opportunity to raid our base?”
Looking at the scene before him, Thorn Velvet spoke in disbelief. Meanwhile, Claudius scanned the area briefly before walking into the torture chamber, with Thorn Velvet following closely behind.
“The smell of blood is strong. There’s blood on the ground. There was a fight, but it wasn’t intense. The guards were taken out with almost no resistance...”
Claudius muttered as he observed the scene. Thorn Velvet, standing beside him, spoke with concern.
“Everyone’s gone... Could they have been captured by the black dogs?”
“It’s still unclear whether this was done by the black dogs...”
Claudius replied. At that moment, his expression suddenly sharpened, as if he had sensed something. He looked up toward the ceiling.
Claudius focused his gaze on a spot on the ceiling, where he saw a gecko staring at them.
With a wave of his hand, a bat flew out from Claudius’s sleeve, swiftly darting toward the gecko on the ceiling. The gecko tried to escape but was caught by the bat’s claws before it could get far. The bat flew back, dropping the gecko into Claudius’s hand.
Seeing the struggling creature in Claudius’s hand, Thorn Velvet recalled the gecko that had once tried to spy on him by crossing the webbed corridor.
“This is a flesh puppet created and sustained by the power of Chalice.”
Claudius said coldly. He then tossed the gecko aside, where it splattered into a bloody pulp. Without hesitation, Claudius strode toward the end of the torture chamber, heading for the stairs leading to the second level. Thorn Velvet quickly followed.
On the second level, where the altar stood, Claudius scanned the area. His eyes soon fell on a pile of bricks in front of a wall covered by a black cloth. Seeing the bricks, which hadn’t been there before, Thorn Velvet immediately spoke up.
“The inscription wall has been dismantled! It was them!”
Ignoring Thorn Velvet’s words, Claudius turned his gaze toward the entrance leading further down and spoke coldly.
“They went down. And they’re probably still down there.”
With that, Claudius’s body was enveloped in a layer of shadow, which then dispersed into a swarm of black bats.
Amidst the chattering sounds, dozens of bats surged toward the stairs leading deeper into the ruins. As they entered the maze-like depths, the bats spread out, searching every path and every room without exception.
In an instant, Claudius began searching the ruins at an incredible speed, hunting for the hidden enemy.
“Huff... huff... Damn it... how did such a guy suddenly show up?!”
In the deepest part of the ruins, Dorothy ran through a dark corridor, a corpse marionette carrying a lantern running beside her to light the way.
Dorothy’s heart was racing. She hadn’t expected such an unexpected and formidable opponent to appear.
“Where did this guy come from? Not only can he detect the small corpse marionettes I use for surveillance, but he can also turn into a swarm of bats. And now they’re all coming down to find me…”
As she ran, Dorothy thought frantically. She knew about the swarm of bats because she had placed several human-shaped corpse marionettes at key points in the upper levels of the ruins to prevent getting lost. Through their vision, she had seen the swarm of bats descending, surrounding her marionettes, sucking their blood, and tearing them apart until they were completely destroyed.
Now, Dorothy was acutely aware that a large swarm of bats was searching for her, level by level. With that kind of search density, there was no place she could hide without being found.
Facing this swarm of bats, hiding was useless. Dorothy’s only option was to run deeper into the ruins—the only direction left for her to escape.