Cassie's brows raised through her blindfold as she showed a visible reaction for the first time. Her shoulders tensed as her palms began to sweat.
'Abyss...' she muttered under her breath as a cold sweat broke out her temple.
Caster quickly glanced at Nephis before looking at Asher with dilated pupils. Asher didn't miss this. He didn't really care if Caster knew about this. Why would he?
The poor guy had only a few more months to live.
"Hey... that dark-sounding name doesn't suit you at all!" Effie exclaimed before, gesturing her arms in a moment of ponder. "I would believe it if your True name was something like... The Pulchritudinous One."
Asher tilted his head in confusing, "What is this... P-Puffernoodlous- something?" He wasn't some dictionary to know what that meant!
Kai came closer to him, whispering into Asher's ear, "It's Pulchritudinous and it means beautiful. Like bewitchingly attractive."
Asher's face froze. He didn't really know what to say to that...
His face suddenly felt hot, completely flushed.
"Aww... You look so cute when you blush!" Effie teased, poking at Asher shoulders.
Asher pursed his lips as his blush intensified, "Shut up-"
"Let's go." Nephis ended the conversation before it could advance.
Asher quickly nodded, appreciating Nephis while Effie clicked her tongue, "Your no fun princess."
Nephis didn't reply as the cohort began to move once more. Over all, the reaction wasn't anything over the top but Asher was fine with this. More than that...
'Damned Flaw...'
In the end of the day. Asher was human. Since the academy, many called Asher alluring words but... Pulchritudinous?! Asher couldn't help but blush due to being caught so off guard, thankfully Nephis stopped it in time.
Effie... was a dangerous woman.
***
The coral maze itself was pretty much identical to how it had been east of the gargantuan crater. However, the creatures populating it in these parts were vastly different.
There were no members of the carapace legion around, at least not anywhere Sunny could see. Instead, the dominant tribe of Nightmare Creatures in this region seemed to consist of nasty, spider-like critters that had a habit of decorating the walls and passages of the Labyrinth with endless amounts of grey, incredibly sticky cobwebs.
What's worse, their web seemed to be made not out of spider silk, but out of thin metal wires that were as tough as iron and could cut the victim into little pieces if it thrashed too much after getting caught.
Those webs... Asher couldn't say he was unfamiliar with them.
All of a sudden, several massive spider-like creatures jumped out of the cracks in the coral and attacked them.
'These bastards again..'
Asher was tired of these guys.
As soon as the spiders attacked, the members of the cohort reacted with the deadly calmness of experienced Dark City hunters. Weapons flashed in the air, severing limbs and piercing through iron as though it was paper. Effie straight up flattened one of the creatures with a devastating strike of her battered shield. The poor beast didn't even have time to understand what a huge mistake it had made.
The others were no less efficient. Sunny himself threw the Prowling Thorn and pulled on the invisible string as soon as it sunk into the flesh of one of the spiders, bringing its jump to an abrupt end and sending it crashing to the ground. Before the beast could stand up, Quiet Dancer streaked through the air and pierced its head clean through.
Asher, used to these guys, didn't even bother.
Summoning Azure Blade, Asher just threw it up high.
'Dahila, your up.'
The blade halted mid-fall, as if the air itself had caught it, then spun into motion—swift and perfectly precise. In a single fluid arc, it sliced through the taut iron strings above them, then carried on, shearing through a spider's body as easily as cutting paper.
Just a few short seconds after the spiders had tried to ambush the group of humans, the battle was over. Three dead Nightmare Creatures were sprawled in the mud, while the fourth one ended up pinned to a coral wall with several arrows.
The cohort's eyes found him—just for a moment. Brows lifted. A flicker of surprise. Then the expressions smoothed away, as if nothing had happened.
Asher could guess the assumption they'd made: that he was using his gravity manipulation to suspend the weapon and fight remotely, the way Quiet Dancer did.
They weren't wrong… but that wasn't the truth either.
His gaze drifted to the spiders' remains, each one carved apart with flawless precision. Every stroke of Dahlia's blade had been surgical—effortless.
A faint, wry thought stirred in the back of his mind.
'If only I had such skill.'
Nephis cleaned the blade of her sword with a piece of cloth, listened to the silence for a few moments to make sure that nothing else was going to attack them, and then gave the cohort a go-ahead to start dressing the monsters down.
Soon, soul shards, strips of meat and other useful parts were cut, cleaned, and put into Effie's enchanted bag. Everything was done with efficient speed and professionalism that could only come from a lot of experience.
After several more minor skirmishes with the iron spiders, they had finally reached their destination. Not too far away from them, a magnificent arch of white marble rose high above the sea of crimson coral.
The giant structure was clearly created by the same people who had built the Bright Castle, and made from the same stone. It looked like a much larger sibling of the pristine arch that guarded the entrance to the white road which climbed all the way to the outer settlement.
Only this one was much more weathered, bleak, and damaged. Signs of corrosion and deep cracks covered its surface, with one of its sides being partially collapsed.
Asher looked at the sky. The sun was hanging directly above them. Of course it was, Asher helped them finish the catacombs in a unnatural speed.
Soon, they reached the giant arch. Kai summoned his bow and flew up, only to return a few minutes later and report that no terrible monster was nesting on top of the ancient structure.
With sighs of relief, the members of the cohort climbed the golden rope one after another and were soon standing far above the Labyrinth, silently watching as the flood of black water drowned it in the lightless depths.
Asher crouched down as he looked at the black water touching the edges of their platform. There was no reflection....
Well, there was no moonlight either...
He looked at his hand, clenching and unclenching them. He then looked up, the sky was black and bleak. For no real reason, a soft chuckle slipped from his lips. He drew his knees in, resting his arms loosely over them.
Behind him, the faint sound of breathing filled the stillness. He glanced over his shoulder to find the cohort asleep, their faces slack in rare peace.
A small smile tugged at his mouth before he turned back to the darkness ahead, burying his face in his knees.
He kind of missed home.
Life here… in Shadow Slave… was hard.