Chapter 331: Truths and Lies (1/2)

Zac, who was about to head over to interrogate the two terrified merchants stopped in his tracks when he heard Emily’s cry. He turned over with confusion to see the teenager clawing at the manacles binding a malnourished teenager.

“Don’t let those two move,” Zac said to Joanna, who nodded in confirmation.

He walked over to Emily and with a tug ripped the chains apart, freeing the young woman.

“What’s going on?” he asked as he turned to Emily.

“This is Millie, Camilla. She went to the same school as me. She’s from Allentown!” she said with some panic in her eyes.

Zac understood the thoughts running through her head. If one of her schoolmates had found herself captured by the Union, then it wasn't a great sign for the well-being of her siblings. They might even be in the large pile of corpses.

“Calm down, we’ll get to the bottom of things,” Zac said as he took out a healing pill.

Millie wasn’t truly wounded, but she was clearly malnourished and it looked like she had been whipped judging by the tears in her tunic’s back. But mostly she seemed to have shut down from trauma. She looked at Zac with a blank stare and only took the pill when he directly put it in her hands.

“This is a healing pill,” Zac said before taking a step back, aware of the immense pressure he had just released across the whole town.

“Millie, it’s me, Emily Larkin from Southfield High,” she said as she handed Millie a canteen. “Hurry and take the pill to regain your strength.”

The mention of the school seemed to wake the girl out from her stupor, and she rapidly blinked at Emily.

“Emily? From class B? I never saw you in the tutorial, what’s going on?” the girl asked, making some of the close-by slaves surreptitiously look over.

“I was too young to enter the tutorial. We come from the surface,” Emily explained after receiving a nod from Zac. “We work for the Super Brother-Man, and we have come to close the incursions in the Underworld. But when we arrived we heard about the Union capturing people and selling them to the invaders, so we came here first to free you.”

The words were like a match igniting a fire, and a wave of clamors for help rose from the captives. The situation felt a bit annoying, but when Zac looked around he couldn’t find the demon or Verana anywhere. Both were keeping a low profile as to not spread any rumors about invaders before their position was completely solidified.

“What about the other cultivators of Allentown? Where are they?” Emily pressed on. “Do you know where my siblings are? Oscar and Johanna.”

“The town we were dropped off in was destroyed by the flame golems four months ago,” Millie said with a sigh. “But most of us managed to flee since it had so many exits. Some of us settled in various towns, others joined the Union or the Council. I think your sister joined the Council to fight the invaders.”

“And my brother? Do you know what happened to Oscar, Oscar Larkin?” Emily hurriedly asked.

“He... Died…” Millie said, looking down at the ground. “He joined the town guard after the tutorial ended. The flame golems killed all the guards to cause chaos and slow our response.”

Emily slumped down on the ground when she heard the news, a blank stare in her face. Zac sighed with a pang of sadness in his heart. He knew had been the most likely outcome from the start with how few that were still alive after the integration.

“Let’s find your sister. She’ll know what happened for sure,” Zac said as he crouched down next to Emily.

The teenager quickly perked up, desperately grasping on to his words.

“You’re right! Millie, you never saw Oscar die, right?” she said, getting a hesitant nod in response. ”He might have survived!”

Zac personally wasn’t so sure, especially considering the actions of her sister. Joining the Council to fight the invaders sounded like something a person looking for revenge would do. But he didn’t say anything, not wanting to dash her hopes. After giving the teenager a comforting pat he walked over to Joanna, who still kept guard over the terrified merchants.

Emily’s words had been heard by quite a few people in the camp, and the clamors from the slaves were getting louder and louder. Conversely, the guards had turned even more subdued, looking like they wished they could simply sink into the ground.

“Can you handle this?” Zac asked with a wave toward the ruckus when he came back.

“Sure, but could you silence them first?” Joanna said.

Zac nodded, and another burst of his aura erupted through the camp, immediately cutting all conversations short. Joanna winked at him before jumping up at a rooftop, making her visible to all the captured slaves.

“I am Joanna Thompson, Ranked at the 96th spot of the power ladder,” she said, her voice echoing across the camp. “As some of you heard, we come from the surface. Zachary Atwood, also known as the Super Brother-Man is currently busy closing the Incursions on the surface, leading humanity in the battle against the invaders. But after hearing of the plight of the Underworld he spared no expense to find a way to reach this place. We have come to liberate you all, and rebuff the underworld invaders.”

Another wave of exclamations immediately erupted in the crowd. Some were jubilant while others were confused. There were also a decent number of people who suspiciously looked at the proceedings, perhaps not trusting such a fantastical tale.

“You might be skeptical, but let me show you something,” Joanna said, and the next moment a System screen appeared in front of her.

It was the quest that she and the other Valkyries received after closing three Incursions, where they were supposed to assist in closing as many Incursions as possible within a month. It already showed the progress of four, meaning that golem incursion she assisted in closing before she received the quest was counted as well.

“As you can see I have personally assisted the forces of Port Atwood in closing four incursions, just one shy of the total number of Incursions in the underworld. The Super Brother-Man has closed even more, sometimes only relying on his own power,” she explained. “I only show you this to prove the truth of my words.”