Chương 134: 47 - AFRAID OF THE DARK

When darkness infects, it infects all. T'balt and Vienna walked down the rail tunnel for what felt like half an hour. There wasn't anything to see inside, just a long dark tunnel. The flashlight only illuminated the floor directly in front of them, and all they could hear were the echoes of their own footsteps.

"This is usually the part where the monster jumps out," T'balt thought for the third time, and nothing did… for the third time. He was welling up with anxiety, spending this much time in the dark, not knowing what kind of beast they were searching for. Based on one of the flyers he remembered seeing at the Hunter's Club, the Loot Thief was considered an S-grade loot. That meant its strength was likely on par with the Wanderer. Remembering the months of time that one beast had cost him sent shivers down his spine.

He wanted to be ready. He figured one of the reasons he was getting so nervous was because he was lootless. That was something he could fix. He always carried a small pack of his favorite loot with him wherever he went. That way, when he did need to equip something, he'd always have it. It was in the same pocket as his little brown notebook. Though without knowing anything about the beast, he was uncertain about what to pick. Something strong. The God Slayer Sword was typically a good pick for boss battles.

It could easily penetrate any armor with its weaponized light and had options for both close and long-range attacks. He started sorting through the bag, but since he was walking behind Vienna, he had none of the light she was shining ahead.

"Hey, Vienna. Mind giving me some light?" She again shined the light directly at his face, burning his retinas.

"Why?"

"So I can equip some loot," he said, using his hand to shield his face from the light.

"We're doing this the old-fashioned way. No loot."

"What? You expect to take out an S-grade beast with no loot?"

"I know what I'm doing… You should trust me?" The words felt disingenuous coming from her monotonous tone.

"Trust you? I'm guessing Tyene didn't tell you about our history. It wouldn't be the first time you've misled me, so I think you and I still have trust issues to work out."

"I was told I locked you in a dungeon for several weeks, lied about being a Redeemer, and I'm guessing I tried to kill you at least once. Is there more?"

"That pretty much sums it up." Listing it all out like that made one of his more dramatic weeks as a Redeemer sound like no big deal.

"I apologize."

"You what?"

"I apologize. Based on the context, I believe I was being overly cautious in my attempt to protect Tyene." T'balt didn't say anything as he was processing what she said.

"Was that weird to say?" she asked.

"No. I just didn't take you for the apologizing type. More the… shoot first and let someone else deal with the aftermath type." She hesitated a moment.

"Tyene says she wants me to try to make other friends this life. She says to do that, I should apologize and trust others. If I do that, then they might trust me. So… trust me… please." She sounded almost nervous, which was new for him.

"Oh, uhh… sure. I trust you." There wasn't anything else he could say to that. He always knew her reasons. At the end of the day, her extreme distrust was a side effect of Tyene being one of Monan's playthings, just like he was. He wasn't quick to trust other Redeemers either. When he said that, he swore he saw something, but it was too dark to be sure.

"Did you just… smile?"

"No." Vienna quickly turned away, speed-walking into the dark and forcing him to speedwalk after her. But he swore he saw it. If he had more light, he would've taken a picture just to cement it in his brain. A Vienna that smiled was a lot better than the ones he'd gotten before. Though the inside of the cave slowly began to glow with an ominous purple light down the way. It was coming from the ground. As they got closer, they could see some pulsing tubes extending down the floor.

The tubes were connected to the ground, pushing a purple light through them every few seconds, as if something was being pushed, funneled inside. The tubes led further down the tunnel. T'balt let his eyes follow them until Vienna flashed her light ahead. Then there it was, sitting at the end of the tunnel in front of a wall of debris. All the tubes were connected to it, and they were pulsing like veins. It was ginormous, with a large white body that reminded him of a sumo wrestler.

Its arms and legs were thick and round and looked like they were made of ceramic glass. It had something of a rice hat on its head with a white cloth hanging from it to cover its face. There were strange markings on it, similar to the tribal ones he saw on the Wanderer. They led up to a symbol on the cloth that looked like a hand over a small coin. It glowed too, but the glow seemed to fade in and out in the same cadence as the tubes. It was otherworldly to say the least.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Vienna turned off the flashlight, instead opting to rely on the dim purple glows in the tunnel.

"So that's the Loot Thief. Is it sleeping?"

"Not for long," Vienna said. She took a few steps closer, and the ground started to rumble. T'balt braced himself. That Loot Thief had started moving. It slowly stood up from the ground, planting its large gourd -like legs on the ground. As it did this, gusts of wind started shooting from all over the place. Air was blowing out of several hidden orifices on its body, whistling like the woodwind section of a band. The marks on its body then started glowing with an almost blinding radiance.

It took a heavy step towards them. T'balt put one hand on his loot bag, but Vienna put her fist up, indicating for him to stop.

"Don't react," she said slowly. That was going to be hard, especially when the thing seemed to be looking right at them. She glanced at him.

"Trust me." A tube suddenly shot from a large gourd the Loot Thief was hiding on its back. A shot straight at them before coming to a stop right in front of their faces. It floated there, looking at them like a sentient worm. Though his heart was pounding through his chest, and everything in his body screamed danger, he stared at Vienna.

"I trust you." The tube gently wrapped around his neck, not squeezing but feeling for something at the top of his spine.

"It's looking for loot to steal," he thought. But it didn't find any. Nothing but the Redeemer, which, according to Tyene, couldn't be pulled out. It retracted from him and did the same thing to Vienna. When it found nothing, it quickly retracted back to the gourd on the thief. Then the thing with its massive body stood up straight, and the lights on it seemed to dim. It made one last loud whistle from holes in its body until it plopped back into its seated position on the ground as if it had just been turned off.

T'balt let the relief breathe out his mouth so it wouldn't come out the other end. Vienna veered at him with an oddly satisfied expression.

"See. Everything's fine."

"Is that really all there is to it? No, crazy fight or anything. It just turned off?" Vienna nodded before pulling a knife and walking towards the thing. He watched her climb up its massive frame until she straddled its shoulder. She searched for a specific spot on its back before hitting it with the back of her knife. She then pulled out something else and put it in the spot that she hit.

"Was that a grenade?"

"Get down," she yelled at him before jumping off the thing. T'balt took cover, and a few seconds later a large explosion erupted from the Loot Thief's neck, causing pieces of its body to fly everywhere. When he looked up, the entire back of its head was blown out and the thing tipped over to its side. All the purple lights in the room stopped pulsing, and the place was dark again. Vienna reequipped her flashlight.

"That's the end of it. It went out with a bang." The delivery was deadpan, but a joke was there. T'balt was just too starstruck to recognize it.

"Its skin is too thick to penetrate, but if you put an explosive in one of the holes in its body, that will do the trick. Tyene's words," Vienna said. She then searched for the Loot Thief loot that fell out of it. Once she found it, she pocketed it before throwing the flashlight to T'balt.

"That thing on its back is full of loot. Tyene told me to tell you to go to town… even though we're in a city." After catching his breath after all that, he gladly obliged. Though he couldn't help but be curious about the beast's existence. It didn't fight them. It only wanted to take their loot. Otherwise, it really didn't seem to move from that spot. What even was it? What was its purpose? Why did it look so different from the other demons?

Those questions quickly faded to the wayside when he flashed the light on the absolute mountain of loot on the thief's back. They found Tyene on the side of the highway, holding out her thumb like a hitchhiker. They were a good distance outside of the city, and it didn't look like any of the Seraphs had followed her out here. When she got in the car, T'balt asked, "How'd you manage to get away?"

"They don't like tight spaces. And one of the government buildings has a secret passage under it. I haven't decided if they used it for an emergency escape or some sort of trafficking. Either way, the angels still think I'm inside the building even though they blew it up a while ago… did you get the loot?" He nodded, showing off how thick his little loot bag was now. It couldn't even fit in his pocket.

"Did you see the Loot Thief? Pretty cool, right?"

"What exactly is it?" he asked.

"Don't know. It only attacks people if there's loot to steal. Even then it doesn't kill you. It just takes the loot and hides in that gourd."

"It sounds like more of a shrine than a boss. Like if you can make it there, you can re-equip if you need to."

"Yeah," she said.

"The real boss fight is dealing with the Seraphs outside. The monster at the end of the tunnel is actually part of the loot. But being able to kill the thing probably wasn't intended by the developer." He smiled.

"You talk like an actual weeb."

"I'm not a weeb. I just read a few light novels and play video games when I'm bored like normal people. Don't overthink it, T'bag." Now it was her turn to change the subject.

"How are you doing, Vienna?"

"You said I can be praised when I do something helpful. I've done what you said, and I would like to be praised."

"Wow. Just straightforward about it." Tyene patted Vienna on her dark hair, which seemed to make the woman purr.

"Good job, Vienna." Vienna then attempted to hand the Loot Thief loot to her, but Tyene shook her head and gestured towards T'balt. Vienna agreed and handed it back to him.

"We trust you," she said. T'balt didn't know if he should be grateful or skeptical. He'd already mapped out in his head everything he'd do if he had the loot thief. But based on how protective of it they were before, he never thought he'd get the chance. So he decided on grateful.

"Thank you," he said. Tyene leaned back in her seat.

"Just remember, we're going to kill that bastard Corlander. I don't care how it happens as long as I'm a part of it." Then he remembered the whole reason they were here. They were planning a murder.