Chapter 3874: Dragon’s Lair (Part 1)

"No." Lilax shook her head after pondering the issue. "Damn, I thought becoming rich would be easier."

"What’s wrong with this place?" Aryk asked. "This isn’t how I pictured the house of a powerful evil mage. This looks like the wet dream of a compulsive hoarder. Where are the beautiful women, the tasty food, and the fine clothes?"

They had just entered a wide space with piles of books arranged along the walls and dozens of empty alembics and crystal containers forming a path leading from one door to the other.

"I told you. I forced Azith to abandon his lair just two days ago." Leegaain replied. "Dimensional amulets make storing your possessions easy, but arranging them after you get yourself a new place takes time.

"Also, my son has turned into one of those shadow creatures we met before. He has no need for women, food, or clothes. He only craves the lives of others and power. It’s why he brought you two and the other prisoners here."

Aryk and Lilax shuddered at the thought. The mere sight of Balagh the Corpseweaver had given them the fright of their lives. Everything about him screamed of death and danger. If a creature like that was just a foot soldier, Azith was bound to be much, much worse.

On the one hand, the two youths wanted to run away and keep themselves as far away from such a monster as possible. On the other hand, there was no place safer than a Dragon’s back, and they stood beside the Father of All Dragons.

"This entire place is a death trap." Leegaain said, smelling the fear that radiated from the youths as cold sweat drenched their clothes. "You are free to run if you want, but that would also mean that you have to deal with those creatures on your own."

Aryk and Lilax held hands for courage and kept following the small form of Owl.

The next chamber was empty, with only one occupant.

"Who are you and how did you get here?" Xagit the Bloodless asked, conjuring several Chaos spells without waiting for an answer.

She was on surveillance room duty and suspected that something was wrong. The guards she had sent to contain the prison break had yet to report to her, and her watch partner, Balagh, was taking too long to check on the holding cells.

Even a sadist like Corpseweaver would never defy Raum’s orders and mess with the prisoners. The leader of the Empowered Abominations had already proven more than once that if one of his followers caused a shortage of humans, she would take their place in his experiments.

Bolts of Howling Void eclipsed the entire area of the door, leaving the three youths no way out. The dimensional-compressing array powered by the mana geyser sealed Blink spells, and not even a Zouwu could dodge Chaos from such a short distance.

"You too, Bloodless?" Leegaain narrowed his eyes and stopped the barrage of Howling Void with Domination. "Let me guess..."

He threw the spells back at the Empowered Abomination, who also turned into a living lightning bolt brimming with Chaos, moving so fast that she dodged the hail of spells with ease.

Xagit covered the short distance separating her from the intruders and struck at Owl/Leegaain. He faced her head-on, conjuring a layer of emerald energy to coat his right hand.

The palm strike intercepted the living bolt of Chaos and forced Xagit back into her humanoid form.

The impact produced a shockwave strong enough to crack the stone of the surveillance room and a noise that would have been heard for kilometers if not for the Guardian silencing it with a Hush spell.

"I knew it!" Leegaain recalled the Howling Voids and Dominated them to tear apart Xagit’s energy body, being careful not to damage the runes of the surveillance arrays and triggering no alarm.

"You are as fast as Balagh and almost as strong as an Eldritch, yet you are just an Abomination."

What remained of her form looked like a black firefly that Leegaain spared on purpose.

"Do your worst, kid." Xagit snarled. "I’m not going to talk."

"Good, because I’m not going to ask." Leegaain sealed her the same way he had done with Balagh, but not before making sure with Leegaain Eyes she didn’t have an omni pocket or any means to warn Azith of his arrival.

On his way in, the Guardian met more Empowered Abominations and sealed them inside Black Shells after stripping them of any artifact they carried.

’There’s not a single Puppeteer here.’ He thought. ’That and the recurring abilities of Azith’s followers confirm my suspicions. The question is how far he has progressed with his research.’

"What are those things?" Aryk asked as they advanced deeper into Raum’s lair.

His encounter with the Corpseweaver had left the young man needing sheer willpower not to wet his pants. Yet with each Abomination they met and Leegaain effortlessly defeated, Aryk’s confidence in his guide and curiosity about his captors grew.

"Abominations." Leegaain replied. "A kind of undead you don’t find in folk tales, only in military archives. It takes a whole lot of well-armed people and luck to hold an Abomination back long enough to report about their existence."

"If the Empire knows about them, then why did I never hear of them?"

"What good would it make?" Leegaain shrugged. "Warning people to beware of the shadows because they might be unstoppable monsters would only cause mass hysteria.

"How do you think your life would have been if you knew about Abominations and that every dark corner of your alleys might hide one?"

Madness, terror, and suicide were the first things that came to Aryk’s mind. He had managed to keep his sanity and cool so far, but he knew that it was only thanks to the reassuring presence of the Guardian.

"I’d rather not think about that." Aryk shuddered.

"Yeah, same." Lilax nodded.

As they moved from one room to another, Leegaain noticed a few things. After escaping from the holding cells, he had followed the mana lines connecting the arrays with the power core of the structure, and, albeit small, there was a slope in the ground.

The facility extended deep below the ground, and with each corridor he crossed, he entered a lower level. Moreover, past the surveillance room, the number of enchanted traps and alarms decreased while the number of protective wards increased.

It was the kind of array designed to keep people and energy in rather than out. Also, the size of the rooms increased as they progressed. Only the first levels, those closest to the surface, were built to accommodate humans.

The room Leegaain had entered now had the high ceiling, wide space, and heavy furniture necessary to host an Emperor Beast or a Fae. Whether as prisoners or guests, he couldn’t tell.

The air was sterile, and so was every surface of the ’guest area’. Regular pulses of darkness magic destroyed smells, dirt, and everything one could use to understand the purpose of that area.

"Why are you following me?" Leegaain asked.

"Please, don’t send me away. I didn’t mean to bother you with my questions. I promise I’ll be quiet." Aryk went pale, his eyes begging the small form of Owl not to abandon him.

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