Chapter 107: The Monster Unleashed (1) (1/2)

Separated, Aiden walked a few steps into the right hallway before he stopped and turned out to see as Drake's figure vanished in the other corridor.

Once he was certain that he trekked a decent distance in his own hallway, Aiden's grin under the cover of his mask turned vicious. The eye sockets basked in golden light momentarily.

With a low sadistic undertone, he growled into the air.

”I know we discussed to keep a low profile… But they hurt Lily! There's a price to pay for that…”

As the sinister grin took its rightful place on his face, the golden luster kept the eye sockets radiating their glory to the long eerie tunnel that was in front of him.

Steel-framed doors ruled the journey ahead, tightly placed to his left and right. The weak, faint muffled moans and hollow cries warned the outsider to their miserable existence. They were all slaves, some used for the nightly gladiator matches, some served as servants while others used for other… services.

No option was better or worse than the other. If you were placed as a warrior, you had to put your life on the line just for the entertainment of some nobles and the like. Fighting against the other slaves in usually a life and death battle, or sometimes together against captured monsters, only to be mauled or eaten.

If you were picked as a servant, one would think you lucked out. Sadly, being a servant meant to humiliate yourself to the lecherous nobility, serving them drinks and food as they took their places and in the case of VIP's your body as well. They could beat you, torture you, mutilate you, or just simply use you. The death rates for this line of the job was almost as high as for the warrior route.

Then, there was the third option, where you were directly used as escorts or just straight up prostitutes. While this was the safest in terms of life preservation, it was still counted as the worst of the three. The amount of mental damage one suffered through this line of work was tremendous. An ordinary slave usually could handle at most two to three months of service before they were considered broken beyond repair and used as substance for the captured monsters.

Life wasn't good for these people. Some of these were political captures, some came from military conquests, some were transferred here from the city jails, and some sold themselves as a means to provide income for their families. The contracts they got made sure that even if they were to decease, the family would still continue to survive.

So, it came to no surprise that none of the wails that slipped through the cracks between the steel frames and the rocky surfaces were hollow.

Gritting his teeth, and clenching his fists, Aiden walked past them, not offering his help. They have already agreed to focus on their objective for now and leave the rest for later. Number 3 and Granny told Aiden that Drake was a member of royalty, the highest-ranking family in the entire kingdom. His family, while troubled and suffering, still carried the highest authority and could command the military and city guards at ease.

The last part of their plan actually relied on their family's power and authority to make sure that this hellhole would be closed down for good.

Well, it was a good plan, but Aiden had some other plans. Every time he heard Lily's desperate plea or pain-filled cry ring in his mind, the rage and anger that he kept locked away in the depth of his soul started boiling, threatening to overwhelm his senses, turn him berserk as it erupted like a volcano.

He followed the route that he already mapped out with his system without stopping. Reaching the end of the first hallway he was greeted with a similar intersection that Drake found; three identical tunnels going the same direction. The same wails and cries echoed through the walls reaching his ears.

Since he already had the route set, he decisively picked the rightmost tunnel and entered the dark corridor. As he was paying attention to the road ahead, he wasn't surprised when the first sounds of the guards reached his ears. In fact, he was already grinning from ear to ear under his mask.

His arms at the ready, his muscles tensed, his hand contorted and ready to swipe at a moment's notice he walked in front of the two armored guards standing in front of a small corridor that would reach further into the tunnel system, to the rest of the slaves.

The two guards were garbed in similar uniforms as the pair Drake met. Both wore a sleeveless padded leather vest protecting their upper body. The edges of their chest plates where the front and back connected were etched with heraldic designs and laced with bits of gold leaf. Beneath their belts, their reinforced pants were similarly decorated.

Hanging on their sides, both had the same dark brown leather sheath with a short sword resting in it. The sheath had their group's emblem, the red eagle logo crudely painted on it. Both had a black cloth piece serving as a mask, hiding the lower half of their faces and only leaving their glowering, sinister eyes free for everyone to gaze into.