[Volume 2] Nebula: Villainess of Never-ending Beyond

12. The Arena (2)

"We already got one of the stones, an octagon ruby. We're only left with the cleanup."

"Great! But... What happened to you, Guinelle?"

"Don't talk to me and test my morals, Ellen! I'm inevitably irked right now."

"I hope the author didn't do something dirty."

After growling for seconds, Guinelle turned off her transmission. Ellen, who's currently with Kingsley, looked at him with narrowed eyes, questioning themselves on what happened on Guinelle's end.

The rustling of leaves in the breeze, the distant call of birds, and the soft murmur of wind through hollow arches crafted the ambiance of profound stillness as Ellen and Kingsley stood before an ancient ruin a few meters away from the kingdom's borders. The weather-worn stone pillars accompanied the half-crumbled buildings that are made of mossy bricks.

The chalky dust, scented of aged stone, mildew, and moistened earth, got mixed with the earthy accent of dead leaves as it entered their lungs. The stones were weathered and uneven, cool to the touch and rough with centuries of erosion, while some of them presented intricate carvings.

Ellen, currently wearing heavy armor mixed with touches of silver and gray and a helmet with a portion of its face cut away, picked up her dug silver greatsword from the ground. Kingsley wore a navy-blue cloak over his tank top and a black-and-white mask that was divided in the middle. His mask only had a hole on its eyes for his vision.

Quimora already provided their mission hours after she was kidnapped. Like Guinelle and Xenos did, they initiated the mission with their disguises as Noir and Silence. Their mission was to track the red dot in their digital map showing Mary's location.

"Old, abandoned, with no people lying around, this would be the best place to fuck. What are your plans, Silence?" Ellen asked.

Silence's necklace was left intentionally on. However, the voice of a crying boy from the speaker resonated instead. "Mama... I wanna go home..."

"Was your persona a scared kid now? At least I'm expecting you to do anything but cause trouble."

Silence's gaze was fixated on a piece of cloth lying on the ground. It had a tiny distinct marking of a serpent wrapping a crow on its lower-left edge. Silence intended to avoid any attention as he closed his eyes in an attempt to stay calm, but his necklace... "I'm scared... Mama... MAMA! DON'T LEAVE ME, MAMA!"

Noir's lips pressed together, flattening, as her face tightened. She crossed her arms, unable to discern Silence's expression behind his mask. "I'll try to bear with it and not get irritated. Just don't try to speak when we're saving the kids. It diminishes my morale."

For every ruined building that existed, each had a trapdoor that leads to the underground tunnels. They ventured on the Church-looking building and walked the slanted slope down the mysterious path. At the end of the road, a thick metallic gate welcomed them. A pedestal stood beside it, containing a flat plate with a thumb-sized hole in the middle.

"What's this? An ancient fingerprint security system? That's the most mysterious and threatening of all the things I've fingered," Noir commented.

"Mama, let's go back... I'm scared!"

"Don't call me Mama! It's a nightmare if I discover that I have a forgotten abandoned son. Why are you becoming so out-of-character? Please be grateful that even if you're mute, the author can fill out those missing word count quota. Go on, say something different. Show don't tell does apply."

Their earpieces emitted a second of static sound before they got connected to Quimora. "Noir, where are you now?"

"We're currently before a giant metallic door blocking the path below. It seems to need some body fluids."