Chương 92: Chapter 90 – Captured.

"(●︿●)""Why are you looking at me like that?"

"(●︿●) …"

"How was I supposed to know those humans would take him with them? In the demon world, no one cares about leaving a body in an alley! They'd even insist on leaving evidence to show strength!"

"(⇀ ‸ ↼)""I know, calm down, little lady. I'll help you get Rusty back, don't worry. We just need to follow them. They'll never expect an escaped monster to be tracking them while they search for you." Atop a building, an ant hid behind some bricks. She wasn't entirely alone as a ball of black light hovered just in front of her head. Aburdon's plan had partially succeeded: Rusty was being hauled away by their enemies.

Ideally, they would have left his helmet behind so he could reform himself, but that hadn't happened. It seemed these people didn't want to leave any evidence of their crime, which complicated things.

"Well, we're lucky my hunch paid off, at least."

"(╹ -╹)?"

"A hunch? Did I say hunch? No, of course, I knew it would work from the start, my little ant friend!"

"(•̀ - •)""Stop looking at me like that and let's focus on the task at hand, shall we?" Aburdon tried to change the subject as Gleam stared at him with her unblinking ant eyes. His idea had come to him in a flash while they were enveloped in Rusty's mist. With little time to think, he took a gamble. Since Gleam shared a bonding contract with Rusty and his guides were connected to his soul in some way, Aburdon had figured he could work with that connection.

A deep bonding contract involved a degree of soul sharing and imprinting, magic Aburdon had researched extensively in the past. So, he took a chance and attached himself to Gleam instead of Rusty. And it worked. As long as he stayed close to the ant, he would not fade away. To make things even better, his demonic heritage even allowed him to communicate with her. Gleam stared at Aburdon's spectral form, her antennae twitching with frustration and worry.

Rusty was being taken away, and although she trusted her partner, the odds seemed stacked against them more than ever. Gleam shifted on her legs, glancing from the alleyway below to the narrow street where the soldiers and mage were now carrying Rusty's body down. She was small and agile enough to follow, but she'd need Aburdon's guidance - and a touch of luck.

"Fret not, my little friend. I have this city's plans memorized. Coupled with your tracking skills, this should be rather easy. Just remain quiet, and they will never notice! However, watch your step, if they hear us then this will be quite a short rescue attempt."

"(• ̀ω•́)✧""Oh? Have you learned something that could help us? What is it?" Gleam wiggled with her antennae and then began casting. Her aura flickered, and a hush fell over the air. The soft sounds of the night grew faint, muffled as if blanketed by an unseen veil. Aburdon blinked in astonishment before praising Gleam's new achievement.

"Ah, I see. You've mastered a silencing spell! Clever ant. Your levels didn't rise, where did you learn it?"

"(•̀ᴗ•́)و""Oh? It was like that? You must have a knack for magic if you can copy spells in such a fashion, bravo." Gleam nodded, her small eyes glinting with pride. She knew how to maintain silence now, a spell she'd picked up during her captivity. She'd watched her captors silence rowdy creatures one by one until their cells fell into utter quiet. Over time, she'd deciphered the patterns, feeling the currents of the spell's binding energy as they pulsed through the air.

It had taken patience, but with each use, she'd come closer to grasping its essence.

"Marvelous. Use it well now, and we can get far closer to them than they'd ever suspect." Aburdon glanced ahead. The soldiers and the mage were nearing a carriage hidden under a tarp at the end of the alley, likely their escape vehicle.

"We'll need to stay in close range to hear where they plan to take him. Use your skill to cover our movements." Without a sound, Gleam moved across the rooftop, scurrying over ledges and gaps, keeping her tiny form low and tucked into the shadows. With Aburdon as her guide, she tailed the group, her silence spell reducing even the creak of a rooftop tile underfoot to a mere whisper. Aburdon monitored the soldiers, listening carefully, his attention divided between watching Rusty's abductors and guiding Gleam.

They were almost to the carriage when one of the soldiers spoke.

"Take him away, let them dispose of the body…" By now, the mage had taken his leave, his lofty status apparently too high for him to bother chasing after a runaway monster ant. In his place, a group of shady figures in hooded cloaks arrived at the scene. Rusty was tossed into a darkened carriage, which began moving down the dimly lit streets. Gleam followed close behind, with Aburdon's shadowy form blending seamlessly into the darkness.

"If I'm not mistaken, they're heading toward the city slums. Has their nobility always handled things like this?" Aburdon was surprised by how blatantly they operated in the open, even in the dead of night. It seemed the mage and his guards were confident that their influence or connections in the city could cover for them. Gleam and Aburdon, however, had a clear advantage in stealth, especially with her newly acquired silencing spell.

They crept silently along the rooftops, shadows among shadows, as the carriage rumbled down toward the slums. Gleam's tiny form and agility allowed her to keep up, darting from rooftop to rooftop with Aburdon guiding her like a seasoned scout. As they neared the slums, the carriage turned down a hidden alleyway before stopping in front of a small, dimly lit warehouse. It was a rundown building, with ivy crawling up the stone walls and patches of crumbling mortar.

Gleam paused on the ledge of a nearby rooftop, watching as the hooded figures pulled Rusty's body out of the carriage and dragged him inside. She held her breath as the warehouse doors creaked shut. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"This seems like the end of the line, but why a warehouse? Why not just throw him into the sewers or the moat?" Aburdon pondered the scene as it didn't make much sense. The mage could have probably melted Rusty's whole body to hide it or they could have disposed of it in many other ways. What was the point of bringing it into such a secluded location? It was as if they needed that body for something or had some kind of use for it.

"Could it be some kind of forbidden spell? Necromancy perhaps?"

"（ꐦ𝅒_𝅒）" Gleam twitched her antennae, her irritation rising at Aburdon's constant babbling. Rather than helping, he kept prattling on while she struggled to focus on maintaining the silencing spell. As a low-level monster, not even E rank, holding the spell for this long while chasing a moving carriage was no small feat.

"Yes, yes, I know. There's probably a window or a hole you could squeeze through. But be careful. This building is unusually well-defended. They even have someone patrolling outside… what could they be doing in there?" Aburdon was intrigued by the activity, but Gleam's only concern was retrieving her partner. They had only just been reunited when Rusty was taken again, and she wasn't about to let him disappear without a fight. She hurried down the wall, keeping to the shadows.

Her silvery-white carapace wasn't ideal for stealth, as it reflected any light that caught it. But, thanks to the tall grass, she managed to cross to the other side of the building unseen. Once there, she waited for the guard to pass before approaching a small window barred with rusty metal. Though small herself, the opening was even smaller. Fortunately, her mandibles were sharp; after a few minutes of nibbling through the center of one bar, she managed to slip inside.

Inside, she found herself in a dim, cobwebbed room filled with debris and dust.

"This place doesn't look like it's been used in ages, but if they're bringing people here, maybe there's a hidden passage somewhere?" Aburdon wondered aloud, wondering if this building might be connected to the thieves' guild. From the outside, it appeared to be nothing more than an abandoned warehouse, empty and neglected. The room they entered was littered with trash, but faint sounds came from deeper within. Gleam skittered up onto the ceiling and crept slowly forward, inching toward the source of the noise.

"Just put it with the rest of the bodies…"

"Alright." Gleam peered around the corner to see a few people talking. Their hoodies had been taken down to reveal their faces. They were all humans that she did not recognize but one thing was clear, they had her companion with them. They were at the end of their conversation as soon after her arrival. She wasn't sure what they did but suddenly a hole started to open up, with circular stairs going down.

"How interesting, it's not magical but mechanical in nature." Aburdon called out while Gleam was attempting to not pass out from the overstrain on her mana reserves. The silencing spell had been on for a while and even though it didn't use that much MP, she didn't have that much of it either. Luckily, these people were not paying much attention to what was happening around them. A few of the cloaked figures descended the now-open staircase, carrying Rusty's limp body.

They had taken his helmet with them, so following closely behind was still necessary. Gleam's antennae drooped slightly, feeling the weight of her exhaustion. She would need to recharge her mana soon or risk falling behind.

"Hang in there, Lady Gleam. Just a little more. We need to get down those stairs without them spotting us." The mechanism that had opened the path below started creaking; it was clear the way forward would soon close, so they needed to hurry. Gleam scurried down the wall, dropping onto the steps and inching forward with quick, careful movements.

Just before the stairs transformed back into a solid rocky floor, she managed to slip through a gap and found herself inside what looked to be a cylindrical chute leading down.

"Oh? The mechanism is still running?" Fortunately, Gleam was a skilled climber, so she had no trouble clinging to the wall. The steps leading downward shifted on their own, sliding back into the wall they emerged from. The people that were descending with Rusty reached a cavernous underground room at the base of the hidden staircase. Dim, flickering lights hung from the ceiling, casting eerie shadows on the stone walls. They carried Rusty's further in and only once they were a distance away did Gleam descend.

Her MP was almost gone, so she had to continue with caution. Her limbs were now producing some sound but she managed to keep it to a minimum. Some rubble fell along the way but luckily the mechanism retracting the stairs produced enough sound to mask her descent. Eventually, she popped her head through the only exit to see inside the underground chamber. It was a round chamber with multiple paths branching off in various directions, reminding Gleam of the dungeon she had come from.

Numbers were marked above each corridor leading out, and at the center of the chamber stood a peculiar stone monument. It resembled an obelisk, carved with strange symbols. In the center of these symbols was a crescent moon encircling a scythe - a symbol Aburdon vaguely recognized.

"That's strange... I'm sure I've seen this before, but where?" The demon king was surprised he couldn't recall the origin of the symbol. There was no time to dwell on it, however; they needed to press on. The moment they arrived, one thing became clear - Rusty was not the only person brought down here. From within the many corridors, unsettling sounds began to echo: cries, screams, and sobs.

"Hoh? Is this some kind of prison? But why would they bring a corpse here? Are they performing some kind of dark ritual right under the city? Some of these symbols are ancient, they should belong to some kind of deity…" Something was undeniably wrong with this place. Faint traces of mana pulsed along the walls, saturated with dark, sinister energy. This chamber held the presence of gods and in this case, it was a malevolent one.

The evil deities demanded blood sacrifices from their followers, and Aburdon suspected that Rusty, along with the other captives, was meant to be offered up to them.

"Let's go Gleam, it's better if we get out of this place, evil god worshippers do not like to barter…" Gleam didn't waste time with a response, quickly scampering across the floor of the cavern, staying low to avoid detection. The cloaked figures had gone down one of the side passages, and though they were far ahead, she could still sense where Rusty was taken. Her tracking skill allowed her to find him but she could also feel him through their bond and knew that he wasn't far away.

The corridors branched into a series of winding passages, lined with cells carved roughly from stone. Some held gaunt prisoners whose hollow eyes followed her as she crept past, but most were empty. The air grew colder, and a faint smell of decay hung in the darkness. Aburdon's voice broke the silence, his tone edged with unease.

"It doesn't seem they care about their prisoners' well-being, which god accepted such sacrifices? Could it be the god of the dead? or perhaps the god of blood?"

"(ꐦ≖_≖)" Gleam didn't know what the ball of light was talking about and she snapped her mandibles in anger to shut him down. To her dismay, even though this guide could come along, she could not order it around. It seemed the bond with Rusty only offered her limited control over this being. At one point, Gleam darted up toward the ceiling, hiding herself behind a jagged rock formation. These corridors were uneven, as was the ceiling, which in this case was a boon.

The men who had taken her friend began to return, splitting off in various directions.

"(˶°ㅁ°)!!"

"Is that Rusty's helmet? Did they separate it from his body?" Gleam peeked out from her hiding place, spotting Rusty's remains being tossed onto a large pile near a row of cells filled with prisoners. However, his most important part had been taken by one of the kidnappers and was transported elsewhere. Though Rusty could regenerate from his helmet alone, it would still be wise to retrieve Albert's body.

Without it, moving through the city during daylight would be a considerable challenge but would it be possible and wise to attempt it?