Hope in Despair 2 (Patreon)

Hope in Despair 2 - or ‘’ (Fear & Hunger SI)

D’arce was the name of the female Knight.

An Alll-merian warrior born from the high nobility of the Kingdom of Rondon, she had been a proficient swordswoman among the high order of knights within her country.

Her dedication to the cause of her Lord had seen her make some difficult decisions- knowing that her King and the many nobles she once saw as family behind the plight of the common folk, she decided to leave the official High Order, and join the mercenary company led by the boisterous knight Le’garde.

The Knights of the Midnight Sun were honest men and women that had rallied behind the vision of this individual. Le’garde wanted to create a good kingdom- one shaped under a new God that would be of Mercy and Justice.

Of course, such a dedication in a world where even Alll-mer, who I could easily correlate to be this world’s Jesus, was known to have slaughtered his fair share of people was not bound to be paved by wholesome steps.

So, after a few years of being the common mercenary band, doing little to secure peace in the world and, at times, even following strictly the brutal guidance of their patron God, the Knights were unable to make steps forward. And this made Le’garde go full Griffith-

In fact, the tale the young woman gave me was what the First Part of Berserk was all about. And she was giving me Casca’s vibes due to her appearance, devotion to the case and… well, vibes..

I don’t need to think of Berserk in this already-dreadful world!

Despite that, her explanation was helpful in understanding what kind of situation I was in. I had been aware from the get-go that this medieval setting was too different, too inhuman, and I was further given a taste of it as we found our way to a staircase that led to the lower grounds.

D’arce told me this dungeon was not something that many knew about. In fact, no one knew how it came to be- only that it was infamous for its brutality and ‘cursed grounds’.

Nothing could have prepared us both as we entered a large hall that was made of… flesh. Numerous rotting corpses had been squished together in a seemingly ‘even’ structure that led to… somewhere. Staring upon the darkness stirred in me a deep sense of dread. It got so bad that, right as we found a path on the side that led into a proper stone corridor, we took it.

“W-What is going on here?” D’arce muttered quietly, stunned by the grotesque sight we were bestowed with. “This- how could men… be able to commit this?”

“Maybe it wasn’t men,” I replied quietly, squeezing the little girl’s hand as I was keeping her close. The poor thing had been pressing against my leg, her nostrils clearly upsetted by the stench of decomposing flesh. “And it could be tied to these monsters.”

“But what could it be? What kind of monstrosity could be behind all of this!?” The redhead asked, unnerved by the experience we were having. “Le’garde, I hope he is-”

“Maybe,” I interrupted. “But for now, we need to focus on surviving. This situation is far from pleasant.”

A slow nod came from D’arce as the female knight led the way into what we both understood being-

“The prison area!” She exclaimed, relief washing briefly over her as this felt like a proper prison.

The dungeons had cages and a few isolated cells, but this was an outright prison block with several cells all connected to one another. We moved forward, carefully dodging a few guards and taking care of one that was using a ballista by one of the bridges connecting to another section of cells.

At this point, I dropped the meat cleaver and picked one of the ballista’s large arrows, thus ditching some of the strength given by the cleaver in return to extra mobility and not having to drag the damn thing around. I ‘stored’ the Cleaver away, but I doubted I was going to use it unless strictly necessary.

Our search into the cells confirmed one thing- Le’garde was not kept here. And it frustrated D’arce a fair bit from the growing scowl on her face.

“Maybe he is kept at a lower level. You told me that he was given a pretty hefty sentence, so he is not stored among the rest.”

The knight perked up at this and, while it didn’t provide her full peace of mind, it returned some resolve in her steps. And, as we killed another guard, with D’arce doing most of the grunt work, we finally found something. A lever.

The young woman paused before it, puzzled by its purpose, while I recalled seeing a strange elevator-like cage that could be lowered into a hole by the flesh hall.

I reached for it, looking around for anything that could suggest this being a trap but… I saw no mechanisms in the room that would see me pause in dread. No, I just pulled the lever, heard the noise of a lever and-

Elevator is now available.

Well, ain’t that convenient.

Or that should have been just that. As we turned to backtrack to the hole, explaining my understanding of the mechanism to D’arce, a new notification came to my attention together with an ominous noise.

A Terrifying Presence is entering the area…

Wha–!!

We all paused and turned to a spot in the wall as we heard something crack through it. A large wood weapon with spikes firmly stuck into a human stump had broken into the barrier, scattering rocks as its owner came through. Human only in most of its body, the crow-headed monster we were greeted with was towering in his height, and wore only some cloth around his lower body.

The Crow Mauler has entered the area.

His large beak opened and- A loud inhuman echo that barely resembled a crow’s angry cawing and a scream came through.

“W-We can’t fight this one.”

D’arce snapped out of her horror-filled stare, turning to me with an agreeing look. She rushed away, and I picked up the girl off the ground before bolting after her. The beast was far slower than us, but it started to wave its armed limb around, breaking into the halls and causing the platform connecting the two cell blocks together to shake.

Right as we were crossing through it, the platform was struck by the mauling item. It groaned and cracked, pressured to bend and then break as we barely had the means to cross it before it fully collapsed.

We made it through but… that thing stared at us with so much hatred, I could barely look back at it. We had some supplies and I was quickly eating some of the cheese we found around. I felt the fear add to my hunger, boosting it and draining me of energy. The girl joined me too, while D’arce took some dried up mushroom that she knew was edible despite its appearance.

We made it back to where the elevator truly was and- Someone was waiting for us.

“Well, well, well, so… I am not the only one venturing to this place,” The short-haired man with light leather armor and a knife already unsheathed greeted us by the elevator. “Hello, my name is Cahara… and I am willing to work for you for a fee.”

Who the fuck is this edgelord?

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AN

The descent continues…