[DCI] Chapter 53 - Bold Accusations (Patreon)

We departed right after grouping up in front of our apartment. Lulu led the way, obviously, while we followed closely after her. Aisha jogged first, then Levia, and finally me. That way, our strongest member could watch the front while I kept an eye on the back of the party. Either of us could react in time to protect our Witch friend, who was physically the weakest.

Additionally, I asked Rose not to show herself and tail us from some distance. In case someone or something followed us, she would be able to spot them and inform us ahead of time. Plus, Lulu being unaware of the cheerful Pixie could give us an edge if a fight broke out or something unexpected happened.

We moved through the ruined stone hallways at a decent pace. Lulu was clearly in a hurry and her expression remained highly distressed. If she was acting, then she was more than good at it. She did glance over her shoulder at us from time to time, looking nervous and somewhat hesitant. Most likely due to my earlier statement about us being the killers.

The corridors seemed mostly safe since we were in the vicinity of the destroyed pylon, meaning no undead should technically be roaming around these parts of the Dungeon. Still, we didn’t lower our guards, put up against both Lulu and other possible ambushes. If she was in cahoots with the Priest, there always was a chance that we were being led into a surefire trap. With Ashmel gone, it was only us who could be normal people.

I hadn’t had time to properly set up the map app on either my phone or smartwatch so I only turned out the function to draw a line on the empty canvas as we moved. It wasn’t much, but it showed how far away we’d gone from our home and in which direction we were heading, more or less. One thing was for sure. We weren’t heading towards the section with the broken crystal.

After about ten minutes of jogging, we ran into some Skeletons holding various bladed and projectile-based weapons. They weren’t even a challenge for the four of us and we basically rushed through every single monster without slowing down. Lulu would draw the aggro since she was in the front, then Aisha would smack the enemies around with her hammer, and finally, I would hit any targets that their attacks didn’t pulverize into bits. Levia mostly abstained from the fights, saving her mana and arcanas for a much more critical moment. She currently was the ace in our sleeve.

“It’s close now, just next to the chamber with another crystal pylon,” Lulu announced another ten minutes later. “There weren’t any strong monsters in the area when I was leaving but I don’t know if that changed since then.”

“Let’s hope that the body is still there,” Aisha commented, definitely trying to fish out some kind of a reaction from the distressed imp.

It didn’t result in anything noteworthy and Lulu just nodded faintly at her words. A moment later, we stepped into a long and wide hallway with plenty of stone coffins and caskets placed in rectangular niches on the walls. Some of them were opened but most remained sealed. Short pedestals ran through the middle at even intervals, decorated with black metal braziers burning with blue fire at the top. We didn’t spot any enemies in that long chamber.

Lulu bolted forward and took a sharp turn behind one of those short pillars. As we reached her position, a body was revealed to us. Judging by the armor and clothing, it definitely was Ashmel, the Assassin Defender who’d introduced himself as a Rogue. He lay on his stomach flat on the ground with one arm extended towards the stone structure. Some blood marks ran down the column, most likely made by his fingers as he’d fallen and tried to support himself over it.

“I found him like this while I was checking the surroundings of the crystal to make sure that there were no other enemies around. I poked him only a little to see if he really was dead. Otherwise, I didn’t do anything. Though, I was worried that he would turn into an undead or something. The crystal responsible for raising them is still over that wall,” Lulu explained in a fidgety manner, pointing behind us with her thumb.

The three of us shared a glance and Levia moved closer to crouch by his side. Aisha turned towards one end of the hallway while I watched the other one. We let the expert work out the details while securing the perimeter. It was obvious that Levia was the most knowledgeable about things like medicine or such out of the three of us. Maybe Aisha could take a peek at the wound later too to see if she could say anything about it.

Levia shuffled with the body while our duo kept an eye on the suspicious imp and our surroundings. No monsters came to crash the party but we could tell that there were at least a few skeletal entities somewhere close. The characteristic noise of bones and old weapons echoed through the other corridors connected to this one.

~The cause of death of this person is definitely bleeding,~ Levia said to us mentally after a few short minutes. ~There is only one wound in his lower back. Internal organs were damaged and he quickly bled out. According to my judgment, it comes from a dagger. I would go as far as to say that it is the same dagger that injured the Priest.~

~Uh huh. Things are getting interesting.~ Aisha glanced at us over her shoulder. ~Seems like this little bitch is behind everything?~

~Possibly. But, if she is smart and experienced enough to act as a victim this well, I would assume that she is also smart enough to make this look nothing like her doing. She doesn’t exactly hide the dagger attached to her belt. Are you able to confirm that it’s that dagger that made this wound, Levia?~ I asked.

~It is hard to say without examining it from up close and that might definitely make the female imp realize that we are indirectly suspecting her. From an external angle, it looks like her dagger could possibly make such a wound,~ Levia replied, still moving her hands all over the body. ~I am surprised that he did not do anything to fight the bleeding. He certainly had the means to with the items he stored in his quite deep inner pockets. I need to collect his blood to examine it thoroughly after we return home.~

~That might raise her suspicion too. I’ll distract her and then you do it,~ I instructed the smart Witch and received a mental confirmation in response.

Still somewhat keeping an eye on my side of the hallway, I turned around just enough to be able to look comfortably at Lulu, who was watching Levia’s movements deeply. Her eyes jumped everywhere Levia touched or fiddled with. Overall, she still seemed scared about the entire situation.

“Did you find any strong monsters in this area before you stumbled on the body?” I asked calmly.

Lulu still jumped a little and turned her head to face me. “There was one big Skeletal Bear roaming these hallways, but that was all. Its bones are partially covered with old armor made of black metal which is already falling apart and full of holes. Because of that, you can hear it coming from way ahead. We should be safe here. As much as we can inside a Dungeon. Why?”

“Since we are already here, we might as well get rid of this crystal. It won’t accidentally raise Ashmel from the dead that way. Plus, we do have to take them down anyway. The fewer of them around, the easier it is for us,” I replied.

“You are right. Although we are down by one person, we should still be able to do it. And it’s true that the earlier the better. It’s really unfortunate, though. I’m sure he would have survived if only I found him earlier. He must have been scouting this region too.” Lulu glanced at the body again.

Levia skilfully hid the glass test tube inside her big sleeve, acting as if she was still poking around the wound to examine it. It didn’t feel like Lulu noticed the movement and we were most likely safe.

“You couldn’t know so there is no reason to blame yourself for it,” Aisha joined in, drawing Lulu’s attention away from the body again.

“I still can’t believe that a Priest would be the killer. It’s the last person you would really think of.” Lulu shook her head. “He seemed so friendly and kind when I met him. To think that it was all an act to lower my guard. That must be why he wanted to escort me home so badly, hardly relenting after my constant refusals. I thought he just was into me or something, but this is so much worse.”

“No longer suspecting us?” Aisha smirked at Lulu over her shoulder.

Lulu’s eyes widened and she waved her hands at us. “Gods, no, I didn’t!”

I chuckled lightly. “There’s no need to deny it. We all saw how frightened you were in front of our door.”

“I’m really sorry. It just dawned on me how stupid that was at that moment. But what you said earlier is true. You could have lured me into some kind of a trap and used your numbers against me at any time.” She smiled wryly, playing with her tail, kneading the tip in her fingers.

“Right. On another note, how did you even know where we live? We split up by the previous pylon.” I raised a brow at her.

“Oh. Ummm… Well… I might have tagged you with my Shadow Magic a little…?” She tried to avoid looking my way but still snuck a few glances at my face. “I wanted to know where everyone lives just in case and I used them like a tracking spell. The moment you stepped into your Personal Domain and sealed the magical entrance, I lost control over those bits of shadow I attached to you or anyone else. I was able to sense where that happened. And as for the illusion in front of your home, my shadows could see through it since the nearby torches cast enough darkness onto the hidden doorway.”

“And who is the suspicious one here now?” Aisha snickered, causing Lulu to tense more.

“We all are, I guess.” I shrugged. “How is it going, Levia?”

“I am pretty much finished.” The petite Witch stood up, fixing her big hat. “It is obvious that someone stabbed this person in the back. There was no hesitation with a wound this clean. He must have been betrayed by another person. According to the results of my examination, the murder happened today, about an hour or two ago. Naturally, there is not much that we can do for the deceased now.”

“Phony bastard. We’ll have to get him before he gets us. What now?” Aisha asked.

“I would suggest leaving the body as is. Seeing that it was not moved or stripped of equipment, the culprit might assume that we still have not stumbled on it. That will give us a great advantage,” Levia suggested.

“I agree. It hurts me to leave him like that since he felt like a great guy, but we can’t be picky in our current predicament. If no monsters get to him, we’ll figure out what to do with the body later. Let’s bring down the pylon now. Are you in?” I turned to Lulu.

“Yes. We do have to clear this Dungeon at some point and a few days have already passed since it opened. We can’t be slacking or else we will have to rush the final moments, and that’s the worst thing that can happen. I don’t want to ever again end so close to the break timer.” Lulu shuddered, clearly showing that she’d lived through at least one interesting experience.

Sparing one more glance at our deceased ally, we began heading out of the tomb-filled hallway. Of course, Levia had set his body back into its initial position, just as she’d said to Lulu. It didn’t really matter if the imp girl was the killer but we had to keep appearances no matter what. And, in case she actually wasn’t, then Levia’s suggestion would have been spot on.

Lulu led us through a few other corridors until we reached the chamber with the pylon. Its arrangement was pretty much the same as the previous one. We now knew how to deal with the crystal so the only issue was to get to it. The room was filled with monsters, which seemed to revolve around more animalistic themes this time.

We could spot a lot of skeletal dogs, wolves, boars, tigers, and so on. All those undead beasts wandered around the chamber or lay on the cold stone ground at random spots. Besides them, there was the big bear Lulu had mentioned.

The clearly elite monster was much taller than Aisha and almost as bulky as the more narrow hallways. Perhaps that was also the fault of its armor, which definitely added some oomph to the ominous grizzly. As for its actions, it was peacefully napping at the feet of the crystal’s raised platform.

Since Lulu was still somewhat shaken and couldn’t focus perfectly well, we decided to try a strategy revolving around luring the enemies away from the pylon and destroying it while unprotected. If things worked the same as they had with the other one, everything would drop to the ground right after it was disabled. That was honestly our only hope if we didn’t want to go all out on those Skeletons gathered inside.

Aisha was still the strongest so she received the most important role of deactivating the pylon through sheer force and brutality. She’d hoped to receive a more direct task, involving much more brawling and fighting, but she didn’t voice her dissatisfaction about the subject if it even existed in the first place. The rest of us just had to buy her enough time.

After discussing the plan amongst ourselves for a short while, we jumped into action.

Levia began with a wide-range Hex that brought the movement speed of all the non-living things inside the chamber down by about one-third. That action alerted the skeletal beasts and I jumped inside alongside Lulu. She started making use of her abilities to jump around through the shadows and slice through her enemies without that much of an issue.

As for me, I had my trusty mace and a buckler to repel the ferocious assault of various canine and feline species. My bonded handaxe circled me protectively, deflecting a swipe or bite now and then. The sounds of bones being crushed filled the chamber in a flash and the already shattered bits crunched underneath our shoes as we continued dancing over them all over.

The problematic part was the giant bear wearing rusted armor. It did technically help us whenever it charged at one of us and smacked the other, smaller beasts around with enough force to cause their bones to crack. For some reason, it picked me as its main target, even though Lulu definitely scored more connecting attacks against it.

We didn’t need a lot of time for Aisha to do her job but we really wanted to make a good window of opportunity for her. If the bear wasn’t distracted enough, there was a chance that it would charge at her, and that could end in a bunch of different ways.

Thankfully, we had Levia with us.

Trying to act sneaky to cover the use of her Arcanas, Levia prepared a card linked with the Heat Metal spell and cast it onto our miniboss. I had to protect the clever Witch for a bit while Lulu held the monster down with her shadows for like a second but less. Finding a good opportunity, Levia touched the bear’s armor and activated the card.

Slowly but surely, the black armor started changing colors, soon becoming dark red and bright orange. It didn’t take long before it reached its melting point, becoming less solid and more gluey. The more the bear moved and swiped its front pavs at us, the more its protective plating got deformed.

Just a minute later, Levia pulled out another arcana and cast a cold, winter breeze at the target. Its armor cooled down in an instant, retaining its malformed shape. Easy to imagine, the ferocious bear suddenly found it hard to move around or attack any of us. Its protection was ruined and it even exposed it much more.

That was enough for Aisha as she jumped straight at the pylon with her Launch, flying into the chamber from past its borders. The monsters gathered around had sensed the upcoming danger and started turning around, watching the drakan lady soar through the air while preparing another technique in mid-air. We made sure that no Skeletons could get any close to the point of impact.

And, a moment later, the entire place shook as Aisha slammed her wooden hammer down with the use of her Ground Pound, additionally paired with Impairing Blast. The head of her weapon smashed into one of the support arms upholding the crystal, knocking most beasts onto the floor. With another, well-aimed hit, she smashed the brittle metal into pieces. One more blow and the crystal rolled down from its sitting place. Aisha didn’t hold herself back and started hammering the fallen crystal with all she had, soon splitting it in half.

Exactly as we wanted, every single enemy in the vicinity of this chamber crumbled into pieces with lots of clattering noise. We waited for a few seconds to make sure that they wouldn’t unexpectedly recollect themselves and launch a sudden counterattack but nothing like that happened.

“This went much better than the previous attempt.” Aisha smiled at us, resting her massive hammer on her shoulder.

“We knew exactly what to do so it’s only natural.” I smiled back at her and then turned to Lulu. “Are you interested in the loot or would you rather return to your Personal Domain already to rest a bit?”

“Well…” She played with her hair while somewhat delaying her reply.

“It’s alright. There isn’t much of it anyway. Just a bunch of nuclei. And you definitely look like you could use some time to relax a tiny bit in a safe environment. You can leave things to us from here and return home. We’ll be in touch regarding the murder suspect.” I stepped closer and gently ruffled through her pinkish hair.

“I think I should. I’ll see you guys again soon. We need to take care of that other person before he gets us first. Thanks for your help.” Lulu made a small bow, gave the silent battlefield one more glance, and headed out through one of the entrances.

~Rose, can you tail her and see where she lives? If you could let us know if she actually comes back or does something else. Or if she leaves once more,~ I asked our cute Pixie companion.

The adorable sphere zoomed into the room and circled us a few times before flying after Lulu. Our alarm was now set and we didn’t have to worry about her that much. Not wasting any more time, we harvested all the possible nuclei and picked the fragments of the crystal for Levia. Aisha hoisted the big chunk onto her shoulder and we began the journey back to our place.

Closing the door to my apartment behind us, we all released a sigh of relief, varying in intensity.

“I have used the arcana you made with the shiny metal to test how it works,” Levia spoke first, capturing our attention.

“And? What’s the verdict?” I glanced at her curiously.

“I found no issues with it. I think it’s good enough to be sold on the D-Market. The power and efficiency are amazing. There still is some room for improvement but, in my opinion, we should not give away everything you know.” She showed us the card, which even though it had been used, still looked ready to be activated again.

“That’s great to hear. We need to send all the designs to Zeke’s friend and start production. We should do it as soon as possible since I have a feeling that we will be spending most of our time in the Dungeon from this point,” I replied.

“Yeah, that’s for sure. Let’s discuss this entire, confusing murder guessing game while we work. I feel like it’s the girl but maybe the examination of the man’s blood will either support or exclude that possibility. Time isn’t infinite and it would be great to have at least one more person to wrap this assignment up together before the killer gets them,” Aisha said, shedding her armor with my help.

“I agree. Come on. Let’s sum up all the evidence and testimonies we have gathered. It’s time to crack this case for good.” I gestured at them and they followed me into Levia’s workshop.

Before we tackled the assignment, we had to tackle down the person ruining our chances for a safe clear. And that was a huge no-no.

★━━━━━━━━━━━━Author's Notes━━━━━━━━━━━━★

Those were quite long "few hours" hah. Apologies for that. Things always pop up at the worst times.