‘God, what are these two doing here? Did I mess up somewhere?’

  The poor guard was worried, two important people in the entire city were currently checking the warehouse he was in charge of. He had already been yelled at by his direct supervisor for letting the warehouse got robbed — now these two people, the master of the mage tower and the third son of the Count were observing the place, with a deadly serious face in their faces. The poor guard could not hide his nervousness, even his other coworkers were also as scared as him.

  However, the two men did not care about the guards or their performance at all. Their attention was focused on something else — on the dense mana that almost filled the entirety of the warehouse. Using [Aura Vision], they saw trails of mana all over, almost like being surrounded by fog. There was so much mana in the air that they had to use [Aura Vision] only on one of their eyes, otherwise, they could not see where they were going at all, for the mana were so thick it shrouded physical objects when seen through [Aura Vision].

  “Holy… I… I’ve never seen anything like this.” Irvin was flabbergasted. He had seen [Iron Body]’s mana trace before, it was like seeing flakes of snow, barely visible even with [Aura Vision], but this, the mana was like a cloud of flour, even acted like one. When his hand brushed the mana, it spread all over, explaining why the mana traces were all over — every guard, every worker that walked in this warehouse spread the mana around, flooding the entire warehouse. “And it’s been what — more than a week since the robbery? Master, this couldn’t be Rex… right?”

  Kel was silent. He had seen similar mana signatures before. It was… familiar. “No. rather than Rex. This reminds me of… Irvin. I think we’re dealing with a royalty.” The mana reminded him of the mana possessed by the Imperial family. Kel Mauro was an Imperial battle mage before he was a tower master. He fought under Imperial Prince, Augustus Vhan Jasper Azali during the war of the Empress, and he fought under the Emperor himself — both when Alexandross was still an Imperial Prince and when he was an Emperor. Kel Mauro was now sure, the mana in front of him — was owned by an Azali.

  “Royalty?” Irvin was a bit doubtful about his master’s speculation… but it made sense. If someone could leave such mana traces, it must had been one with Azali royal blood. For the Azali’s royal blood was special even among others royal blood. It was the result of three-thousand years of breeding with the best talent the empire had to offer, especially in magical talent. And Magical talent was greatly affected by one’s genealogy.

  ‘Irvin, I think I misheard. But one of the kids mentioned the name Azali.’

  Irvin was also reminded by Kylan’s words, one he brushed off in the past, one that was said when they witnessed a blatant robbery attempt. They did not bother to check mana traces back then, after all they thought they were dealing with Molrrets and children, but now, he regretted his negligence.

  “Hmmmm,” Kel Mauro closed one of his eyes, the one with [Aura Vision] active. He remembered that the thieves came from underground, so he looked for the hole they came from. After a short walk, he found one of them, patched with planks of wood — the warehouse administrator did not have the time to fixed them yet.

  Blam

  Kel fired a simple mana bolt to get rid of the planks.The poor guard who were following them was surprised by his sudden action, but Irvin convinced him that everything was fine. Without any care for the guard’s concern, Kel dropped down the hole — into the sewer. Irvin following behind him, leaving the guard by himself.

  ‘Will I get in trouble for this?’ the poor guard thought to himself.

  *********

  Fwoosh

  A gust of wind burst out from underneath Kel’s boots, softening his landing. Kel had casted [Feather Fall], a simple first-circle spell that even knights often used — effective to help soften one’s landing up to a fifteen meter height drop.

  Fwoosh

  Irvin had dropped next to him. He was a bit late because he had to placate the poor guard. Kel was standing still, observing the sewer, or to be exact the mana traces inside of it. “Master,” Irvin spoke up, “this is pointless.”

  Irvin was right. The whole sewer was filled from up to bottom with the dense mana. With [Aura Vision] on, they could not see anything other than mana. Thus, locating the source of the mana was a fool’s errand.

  “Yes. You’re right.” Kel sighed, he had hoped to find a mana trail they could follow — but the entire sewer was more filled with mana than the warehouses. It was not completely pointless however. Now, he knew one thing — what they were looking for was inside the sewer.

  “Irvin. Allocate every single mage capable of combat to the Carven taskforces.” Kel ordered his apprentice, “and tell your brother, father, uncle, or anyone who’s in charge about this. We have to put everything we got to clear the sewers.”

  “How do I explain this, master?” Irvin agreed with his master’s assessment, but he knew it would be difficult to convince anybody to put all their manpower and resources on a practically unknown threat. “Tell them… we have a threat equal to a dragon underneath our sewer.”

  *********

  The crow was watching.

  It stalked the two mages from before they entered the warehouse, and it followed them when they entered the sewer.

  It knew that the two mages were finally noticing Regulus’ existence — and it felt uneasy. The crow knew that the mages were preparing for a potential confrontation with Regulus…

  And the crow knew it was a conflict they could not win. No one in Hazen could challenge him.

  ********

  BAAAM

  A black hand sprouted from underneath the stone floor.

  BAAAM

  And then another black hand burst out. They grabbed nearby solid ground, then used it as an anchor as Regulus pushed himself out. He had dug a hole through a solid stone floor. Once he was on solid ground, he shook his body, getting rid of all the dust and dirt.

  John, D’aka, and all the older kids came out from inside the hole. They had done this countless times by now. At first, they all struggled climbing out of the hole dug by Regulus and the Molrrets — by now, they were able to effortlessly climb out. Those who got out first either positioned themselves to watch the perimeter or helped the others who were still in the process of climbing out. They had become expert robbers and underground people.

  “Grab my hand.” Paulie offered his hand to the last kid to got out, D’aka, who volunteered to climb last, protecting the rear in case they got attacked. “Are we in the clear?” asked D’aka.

  “Seems so. John’s intel is good.” Paulie had given the place a quick glance, and the others had also looked around — so far, they saw no other humans other than them. More importantly, Paulie had checked Regulus’ reaction, he was calm and unbothered. The kids subconsciously trusted Regulus, but Paulie knew for a fact that Regulus had superhuman awareness based on the couple of… excursions they had — man, were those devil lettuce good.

  “John, everything is clear. We’re good.” Cooper reported to John. Uri, Yenn, and Jacob also nodded. They had checked all the windows, entrances, and corners. There were no other humans but them in the armory. Only them, and a mountain of weapons, armors, and gunpowders, all theirs for the taking. “We should grab the cannon.” Uri said while eyeing the single cannon in the corner of the room. He said it as a joke, transporting the cannon with just them would be a pain in the ass… but things were going so well so far, they might even have the time to actually do it.

  But John was not listening — his face pale, shocked by the revelation… that there was no one here but them. “This is not right.” John mumbled to himself. “Where are they?”

  “John?” John was looking disturbed. He was muttering, and looking around. “Cooper! Are you sure?” John asked Cooper, checking if the place was really in the clear. “Uhhhm… yeah.” Just in case, Cooper and the other kids checked outside the armory windows and doorways once again. “It’s clear, John.” The other kids also agreed with Cooper assessment.

  John looked more erratic, worried, confused. Everyone was confused by John’s behavior and emotion on his face. They could not make heads or tails of it — Regulus, he was curious.

  “John… Why is your heart beating so fast?” asked Regulus. “John… who are ‘they’?” He heard John’s mumbling.

  “Regulus…” now John looked scared. Cold sweat rushed out from every pore of his body. D’aka was familiar with the face John put on right now — his face resembled the face the Burhans’ had before they were torn apart by Regulus’ hand. John feared that Regulus would kill him… but why?

  “Regulus I can explain.” John’s tone was desperate, but Regulus turned his gaze somewhere else. He was no longer facing John.

  BAM

  “Kieee!”

  A Molrret burst out of the ground, startling everybody but Regulus. John was so startled he fumbled backward, almost pissing his pants.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Kiiii” The kids could not understand Molrret’s squeal, but they felt that the Molrret tone was distraught, and so was Regulus' face. He looked shocked — then the Molrret pissed itself. Once the smell reached Regulus’ nose, his mouth was agape.

  “Everyone…” Regulus announced. “We need to go back.”

  “What?” The situation just got more confusing for everyone, including John.

  **********

  A gaping mouth, starving, desiring to be fed. In its hand, its poor victim held firmly in its grasp. The poor thing could not stop its impending doom, as the hand brought it closer to the jaw of death.

  Crunch

  The mouth devoured… an apple.

  Crunch crunch

  Andy, who was lying on the cavern floor, chewing his apple without a care in the world. He was tasked by John to watch over the rest of the kids until Kisara came back, but he did not need to do much, for he delegated most of the responsibility to Brett, who was happily shouting orders at the other kids to behave.

  Life had been great for Andy ever since Regulus joined. Before,a lot of the other kids outside of his clique resented him. He ate quite a lot compared to the other kids, and John kept his portion big, for his strength was quite useful for John — making him a convenient enforcer for any job that D’aka usually hesitate to take. Now that Regulus had joined them, food became abundant, erasing the kids' resentment towards him. Some of them actually started to approach him and befriend him. One of those kids was Grigori, and he was currently sulking in front of him.

  “What’s wrong, bud?” He asked Grigori not because he was actually curious, but because Grigori pretended to draw on the ground with a stick in front of him, while occasionally shooting glances at him. He definitely wanted to complain to him, but he did not want to start the conversation.

  “Nothing,” Grigori was acting bashful. But Andy could not be bothered, “Ok.” Andy replied as he grabbed more food from the crate next to him. Grigori was a bit annoyed that Andy did not show more concern, but he talked more anyway. “I just want to do more, you know. I don’t like this feeling… the feeling that I’m a burden…” Grigori trailed off, he was not sure if the feeling he described just now was accurate.

  “You’re like what? Ten? Chill a bit buddy. Once you’re older, you're going to have more jobs thrown at you.”

  “I’m Thirteen… I think.” Grigori corrected Andy. “Same thing. You’re still small. Eat some more and get bigger body.” Andy threw a fresh apple at Grigori, then he continued munching away. Grigori stared at the apple he received — before, eating such apple was a luxury for the gang, but after Regulus, it was just a part of their diet now. “Regulus small too. Smaller than me.”

  “Regulus different.” Grigori sighed hearing Andy’s reply. He could not deny that. “Look, if you want to be useful — why don’t you guard the entrance? Replace Daniel, poor kid had been guarding the entrance for a while.”

  Grigori wanted to complain, guarding the entrance was a boring job. But he just expressed dissatisfaction about not getting anything to do— he could not backtrack now. He stood up and walked towards the entrance, grumbling the whole way there. Andy just chuckled looking at the boy.

  “Where you going, Grigori?” The voice was Azali. She was playing house with Eda when she saw Grigori heading to the entrance. “Just going to guard the entrance. Switching with Daniel.”

  “Can I come? We can play house together while we guard the entrance.” Grigori was tempted. He did not know what playing house entailed, but it beats the boredom of just standing guard. However, that might mean playing with Eda too. Grigori looked at Eda who was sitting a bit far away, their gaze met.

  “Hmmph” Eda immediately turned her head away, she was still holding a grudge over their argument a few days ago. That pissed off Grigori, so he chose not to play for a while. “Nah, not today Azali. Gotta take this job serious. Tomorrow okay.” Grigori said while he ruffled Azali’s hair.

  “You just don't want to play with Eda. You should apologize to each other.” Azali lectured Grigori, she did not know why they were fighting, but she knew it was not that serious and one of them should concede and apologize first. “Tomorrow, okay.” Grigori smiled wryly, He was just lectured by a kid half his age and he knew that she was right. He bailed to the entrance before Azali could force him to talk to Eda.

  “Sigh. What a bunch of brats. Ain’t I right, Mr.Butter.” Azali rue her current predicament. Both Grigori and Eda were stubborn and childish, and they refused to listen to her sagely advice and made up with each other. She shook her head, and went back to play with Eda. Grigori already disappeared, she might have a better chance to convince Eda instead.

  *********

  “Yaaawn,” Daniel, a fifteen years old boy with the height and size of a twelve years old, was sitting on top of a crate, guarding the entrance with a Molrret who was taking a nap. His supposed guard partner, Carl, ditched him to go up and stole some poor sods’ purses.

  In all honesty, there was no need for the urchins to take up guard duty. The Molrrets were happy to do it and were more than enough to handle any threats that might wander into their tunnel. However, Daniel had volunteered to do it these past few days. He had been listless recently, and by being a guard, no one could invite him to do some job. The guard duty might have been boring as hell, but it was not bad. The sound of the sewer running and the company of Molrrets were peaceful — healing for him. Occasionally, Paulie and the other kids hung out with him, just chilling and talking while practically doing nothing of importance. Once in a while, he saw some fish swam by — he was thinking of crafting a fishing pole to help him pass the time.

  “Danielee,” a voice echoed from inside the tunnel— it was Grigori’s. “I came here to replace you. You can come back in now.”

  “Nah, I’m good. Just accompany me, Grigori.” Daniel rejected Grigori’s offer to go back in. He was already comfortable in his seat. “You by yourself?” Grigori asked. Normally, there was someone… some other kids with him. “Yeah. Carl left to pickpocket. He got bored.”

  Grigori thought maybe he should just go up and follow Carl in his pickpocketing endeavor, but he decided against it. Andy gave him a job, and he would prove that he was reliable and responsible, even though guard duty might be the most boring job in the world. He stood next to Daniel, eyes watching like a hawk— vigilant on every movement.

  “Just sit down and chill, Grigori. Nothing going to happen.” Daniel insisted. “What if a sewer king decided to come in? Or undead?”

  “Don’t worry. If a sewer king is nearby, our buddy over there,” Daniel pointed at the napping Molrret, “It would immediately wake up. They usually squealed and moved frantically. That’s how we know a sewer king is nearby.”

  Grigori gulped. He put his hand on his pistol nervously. “Then… What do we do?”

  “We go inside the tunnel and let the Molrrets handle it.” Daniel answered casually. “Trust me, they can handle it better than any of us can.” He had witnessed two poor sewer kings tried to enter the cave and got butchered by a gang of Molrrets. Seeing those scenes, he understood where Regulus got his brutality from.

  “Ok… what about undead? Same thing?”

  “Well, undead don’t usually come near…” Daniel's voice trailed off. He saw an unusual sight. A zombie, approaching them as soon as he was about to say they were not an issue. “...us.”

  Daniel put his hand on his pistol and drew it. Grigori immediately followed suit. One zombie, two zombies, three, four, five— dozens of zombies approached them from the other side of the sewer water. They walked past the sewer floor edge and into the water.

  Splash Splash Splash

  One by one the zombies fell into the water — and swam towards them. The sound woke the sleeping Molrret. It started to pee and squealed in panic, more panicked than when a sewer king was nearby. With its body, it tried to push the kids inside, as it was telling them to hide and protect themselves.

  “Daniel! Is this normal!?” Grigori asked him with fear in his voice. Something was happening, and he did not like it. “No.” Daniel answered bluntly. “GET INSIDE GRIGORI. NOW!” and he fired his flintlock at the horde of zombies that were approaching them.

  *********

  BANG

  BANG

  Two loud noises rang from outside the cave. The sound startled everyone inside, including Andy who was leisurely snacking. He dropped the food in his hand and drew his pistol and handaxe.

  ‘What the hell?’ Those were obviously gunshots. The only ones outside were Daniel, Grigori, and possibly Carl. Why would they fire their pistol? “Daniel! You there? What’s happening?” Andy shouted, hoping to hear a reply from Daniel.

  And reply he got. “ANDY! TROUBLE!” Daniel and Grigori came out running from the tunnel, breath ragged even though it was only a short distance. Those were not breaths of exhaustion, but fear and panic. “ZOMBIES. ANDY. ZOMBIES ARE COMING.” Daniel screamed from the top of his lungs. The situation was so dire that he could not control his volume.

  “How many?” Andy asked. “HORDES. HORDES, ANDY!!!”

  Andy was about to tell him to calm down before he heard terrifying noises.

  KIIEEEEEE

  GRAAAH

  RIIIP

  The sound of desperate Molrrets’ cries drowned by hundreds of groans and moans followed by the sound of muscles being torn apart. The sound lasted for a few seconds before it went silent… and blood dripped from inside the tunnels. Smelling the blood, all the kids stepped back from the tunnel, and the Molrrets that were inside with them started to squeak loudly, sounding like a warcry.

  Daniel’s report was true, and the zombies were coming. “WEAPONS! DRAW YOUR WEAPONS!” Andy shouted his order. Hearing it, all the children drew their weapons, preparing themselves for combat. Even Azali dropped Mr.Butter and drew her knife, holding it with both hands.

  The Molrrets dug down, disappearing in an instant. “ARE THEY LEAVING US?” some of the children were so scared, they panicked when they saw the Molrrets digging, accusing them of abandoning the children. “Calm Do—”

  Andy cuts off himself, the first zombie had entered the cave, behind him, shadows of more zombies. Once they saw the children— they rushed towards them.

  BANG

  Andy fired the first shot. The other kids followed suit.

  BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

  Multiple gunshots rang inside the cave — the echoes hurt the children’s ears, but they had no time to think of the pain. Their volley of gunshots were able to take down three zombies… But dozens more poured in.

  Daniel and Grigori forgot to reload their pistol when they ran in. so they threw it towards the horde, a futile effort. The other kids were about to hurl their pistol too— they knew there was no time to reload them. Before they could…

  BAM BAM BAM

  Molrrets burst out from underneath the zombies. Their claws ripping apart the charging hordes legs, dropping them down. The children breathed a sigh of relief, they were not abandoned… Though their relief did not last long.

  The initial ambush from the Molrrets were successful, but it was only effective for the first few zombies. Their bodies were stuck halfway up. They could not dive back inside the ground fast enough to avoid the oncoming hordes of zombies. The zombies dived and grabbed the Molrrets — pulling them out from the ground. The Molrrets flail wildly, their claws tear some of the zombies apart, but it was not enough to prevent them from being surrounded — and ripped apart.

  KIEEEE

  The Molrrets’ death cries pierced the ears of the children. It did not harm their ears like the gunshots, but it killed their morale. They were next.

  “HOLES!!! TO THE HOLES!!”

  Andy’s shout lit up a light of hope for the children. While their cave only had one main entrance that was currently overrun by the zombies— there were many holes all over the cavern walls— holes dug by Regulus and the Molrrets to allow airflow— air from above. Their escape.

  Most of the children rushed towards the nearest hole, climbing out as fast as they could. Andy and some of the braver kids positioned themselves as rearguards. They knew all of them would not be able to escape fast enough— some must stay to slow down the zombies.

  Eda and Azali had run to the hole nearest to them. Another kid was in the process of entering the hole, so they had to wait a bit. “Azali, you go first.” Eda told her. Azali wanted to protest that, she wanted to go together, but she knew right now was not the time to argue. As soon as the kid in front of them disappeared from sight, Eda helped Azali climb the hole…

  GRAAAH

  “KYAAAA” but she was interrupted when a zombie grabbed her from behind. The zombie pulled her away from the hole, and because she was in the middle of helping Azali, she reflexively pulled Azali along with her. She let go as soon as she realized it, but the damage were done. Azali was pulled from the hole and fell hard on the ground.

  “LET GO OF HER” Grigori came rushing towards the zombie who grabbed Eda. He smashed his body towards the zombie’s legs, breaking its balance and dropping it. All three of them fell to the ground. Eda fell from quite high, so she was late to stand back up. Grigori was able to stand up first, and he wasted no time stabbing the zombie’s head with his knife.

  GRAAAH

  The knife lodged deep inside the zombie head, but it was still moving. Grigori tried to pull the knife back out, but he did not have the strength for it. He changed plans and hammerfisted the knife instead, driving it deeper inside the zombie’s head. “RAAAAH.”

  He smashed his fist multiple times, keeping the zombies pinned to the ground and split its head open. “Grigori! Your hand!” By the time Grigori was done, the zombie had stopped moving and Grigori’s hand was visibly injured from hitting the knife handle. “I’m okay… Azali!” Now that Eda was safe, his concern was now Azali… who was sitting near the hole, stunned silent and shaking uncontrollably. Unable to move due to fear.

  “Azali! Get insi- Heuph” This time, it was Grigori who was grabbed by the zombie. “GRIGORI!” Eda shouted, she was about to charge at the zombie and saved Grigori, “EDA! AZALI FIRST!” but Grigori’s command stopped her in her tracks.

  BAM

  The zombie that grabbed Grigori smashed him to the ground, knocking him out instantly. Other zombies were coming close towards them. She scoured the entire place in an instant. The zombies were either grabbing the kids who failed to escape fast enough, or ripping apart kids like Andy who were fighting back. She was running out of time, so she chose to save Azali.

  She rushed towards the shaking Azali and threw her inside the hole, “AZALI! GO! GO!” She pushed her in, encouraging her to climb before she was grabbed once more by a zombie. Scared, Azali started to climb out as fast as possible.

  ‘Regulus. Regulus. Save us.’ As she climbed, she kept calling for Regulus inside her mind.

  BRRK BRRK

  There was a noise behind her, and it was not the sound of Regulus or Molrret digging. It was the sound of a zombie, forcing itself inside the hole.

  “HIEEEE,” Azali shrieked in fear, rushing to climb faster— but she was not fast enough. The zombie’s hand managed to grab one of her legs…

  … and dragged her outside of the hole.