I Own A Brothel In Another World (Ch. 1-196)

Chapter 163 - A Trip Down the Memory Lane

I take a glance up at the massive body of the lovely emerald Slime lady after we calm our breaths down with Meru. "How are things on your and Safi's side?"

Emi grins at me from above and shows thumbs up. "Emi took care of the fish guys in Emi's part of the village just as Emi said earlier. Safi was slowly finishing too."

"Great. Regroup with her and go around to see if you can find any survivors. Check on Cornelia and Neira on the way too. They will most likely uphold the ice cage until we let them know that all the Sahuagins are dead. I will take care of things here with Meru," I instruct her.

"As you wish, Master! Emi won't let any bad fishes escape!" She salutes playfully and starts stomping away while causing quite some tremors under our feet.

"Won't we need the Shaman that is still inside her body?" Meru asks from my side.

"He is already dead as far as I've seen. Not much we can get out of him. Well, maybe I should inform the others to spare one or two of these bastards if any that look semi-important cross their paths." I tap my lips while pondering out loud. "But, let's first worry about the ominous shit right in front of us."

I do exactly as I mentioned and contact all my teammates to share the new orders and all of them agree to be on the lookout. Emi apologises for raising the lethality of her slime too much but I assure her that it wasn't a problem since that dude was quite a problem anyway. I'd rather not risk Meru getting hurt if he had some vile tricks up his sleeve.

With that out of the way, we walk closer to the dark patterns painted with the blood of this village's residents. Those fuckers must have turned all the men, and the women that weren't taken away, into blood bags. I really didn't expect to step into cultist shit of this calibre, but maybe I was a little bit delusional after seeing how seemingly clean Umbra's magic and preparations were, even if still completely malicious.

Thankfully, the full array hasn't been finished and not all the ugly paths are connected with each other. The Shaman must have been testing the integrity of the already completed parts earlier. It was enough to let Umbra's dark magic flow through the lines. Who knows how long until they would have completed this thing? An hour or two and we might have been too late.

But, since we haven't really encountered any Abyssals during our entire underwater trip, I assume that they aren't activating them as soon as the construction finishes. Perhaps Lumina's sister wants to avoid bringing the world's attention to the sea until it's full of those dimensional doors kindly inviting her spawn into this realm.

Granted, she is the one issuing the commands over this operation. With the existences like the Chieftains that we encountered, I wouldn't be surprised if a variation more specialised in managing the monsters and strategising was amongst their ranks too. She might be a goddess, but trying to invade a world from so many places at once can't be so easy. I guess I could ask Lumina the next time we speak how hard it is for her to observe Naharren and keep it in proper balance.

In any case, our current issue is disabling the formation in the least destructive way. I only hope that they don't explode or implode when damaged. There might not be a single person alive in the village at this time, but it's still Meru's precious home. It would be the worst thing to ruin the place she's grown up in. After everything settles down, this reef might thrive again. Or, at least, it will help some tribe running away in this direction find decent shelter to rest in.

"I'll take a closer look. Stay here. Be ready to get away if I give you a signal," I say to Meru, brushing through her dark hair.

She gives me a worried look, most likely considering arguing against the idea of me going alone, but she holds herself back and makes a faint nod. I smile at her and lean down to place a gentle peck on her pretty lips before going ahead. Soon, I'm right in front of the formation's outer edge and rest my fists on my hips.