I was sitting in my room, considering if I should bother Elmidath tonight or not, when I heard her voice in my head. “Are you free to talk?”

I was relieved. She sounded excited, with no trace of previous melancholy. “Sure.”

“I’ve figured out our next move. We’re going into the tunnels beneath the manor.”

“Beneath the manor? Why?” Were we supposed to escape? I touched the collar around my throat. We wouldn’t get far before Lord Sariknell burnt us to a crisp.

“My father spoke of them from time to time. He never went into specifics but he mentioned that something lives down there. Something ancient and powerful. I believe we may be able to turn it to our advantage.”

It sounded like trouble. Had Elmidath actually thought this through? “Do you have a plan for how to win it over?”

“… not exactly, it’s hard to come up with one when I know so little about it. I didn’t get the impression that it was hostile though, so I believe we should be able to communicate with it. I’ll think up something on the fly, once we know more.”

As usual, her idea sounded like borderline suicide. Couldn’t we do something easy for once? Had I left any chance of a peaceful life behind when I came to this world? It was probably silly to even ask at this point. “I’m guessing you won’t listen if I argue against this idea or say I don’t want to do it.”

“Not unless you have a better idea. We can’t afford to keep sitting around, time is running out.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Depending on the mercy of Lord Sarinknell was more foolish than investigating the tunnels below. When I thought about it that way, Elmidath’s plan didn’t sound so bad. I definitely wasn’t just rationalizing it because I was being forced into it, nope. “Fine. When do we go?”

“Right now, I’m already at the entrance. Hurry up. We have to win them over or get back before morning or my uncle will trigger these stupid things.”

Concentrating, the world around me vanished and I appeared at Elmidath’s side. We were in what looked to be a cellar, standing before a passage of worked stone. The walls around us were covered in jagged protrusions, like little claws. Seeing them shudder and flex, I made a mental note to keep the hell away from them. “What is this place?”

Elmidath stood at the top of the stairs, inspecting the way down. Was she afraid?

“This is where the dungeons and torture chamber are located, among other things.”

“Other things? And what would they be?”

“I don’t really know. My father was always loath to speak of what was down here. This is the first time I’ve actually been here.”

We were going in blind, great. Exploring a magical underground area in a world overrun by demons was definitely something I’d missed out on up to this point. Staying close, we descended the rough stairs, the stone here was covered in cracks and a thick layer of dust along with more protrusions.

The lantern in Sarinknell’s hand struggled to light the way and each step sent shadows dancing across the walls. A faint cry echoed from the tunnel ahead, too quiet to make out any detail about the speaker. Whatever it was, at least we’d have company. I tried to smile at my private joke but all I managed was a grimace. My nerves were getting the better of me.

Whatever was down here couldn’t be worse than the things on the surface, right? Thinking about it like that took the edge off my fear. I’d already been through plenty of horrible things but I was still standing. There had to be more than just dumb luck on my side. Or so I hoped.

The stairs ended, replaced by a rock floor. Thankfully there were no spikes on the ground. Though I could feel the sharp edges of the rock through my boots. Did people actually come down here? There wasn’t even any light beyond what we’d brought. “You said part of this place was dungeons. Are there any prisoners down here?”

Lady Sarinknell stopped, raising her lantern so it illuminated our faces. “Not that I know of.” The flickering light played across her concerned expression. “No one that was taken recently at least.”

Anyone left down here for long was likely dead. It felt dangerous enough to visit, let alone stay. But what about ghosts? I hadn’t believed in them back on Earth but things might be different here. If magic was real, there was no reason ghosts couldn’t be as well.

I thought about asking the young Demon Lord by my side, but I decided against it. If they were real, I was better off not knowing. There was enough to worry about as it was. The passage sloped downward, winding deeper and deeper beneath the ground. “How far do these tunnels go?”

Her voice was just above a whisper, as if she feared to disturb the silence. “Far beyond the grounds of the manor, beyond that I don’t really know. They were here long before I was born, long before my home was built.”

Feeling a fool for having spoken so loudly, I lowered my voice to match. “Who made them? And what for?”

“I’m not sure anyone made them so much as they made themselves. There’s something magical about them, something alive.”

It sounded ridiculous, but the way the spikes around us moved lent credence to the idea. Was the rock around us moving as well? Or was it just my imagination? The lantern’s meagre flame made it hard to tell. It was a pity we didn’t have any fire magic like Lord Sarinknell’s, ice and blood weren’t much help for finding your way.

After what felt like hours, the endless tunnel… ended. A dark pit loomed before us, its depths extending far beyond the lantern’s light. Despite the unsettling nature of the gaping void before us, it was more confusing than anything. This was the first stop? A hole in the ground? “We’re… not going in there, are we/”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Anger lent her voice a little volume. “Why would we jump into a pit?”

It did sound stupid when she put it that way, but she was missing my point. “Isn’t that what it’s here for? As a passage to somewhere? Why else would they put it up the front?” It was far too obvious to be a trap, and there was plenty of room to go around. No, it was clearly intended to be accessible.

The only uses I could think of for a pit were dumping stuff in and travel. Dumping was the obvious choice, but why would someone need to drop things down here? It was a long way to haul something. Maybe it was for things they wanted to keep away from the surface. Was that a thing? “Is there any reason why someone might want to keep things away from the surface?”

Sarinknell scratched the edge of her horn. “None that I can think of. But they might want to store something deep underground if they wanted it to soak up a lot of mana.”

Magic came from underground? Huh. “Does that mean there could be some sort of powerful item at the bottom?”

“I guess it’s possible.” She moved to the edge of the pit and stared down into darkness. “If you want to jump in, be my guest. But it looks pretty deep.”

I didn’t have any rope and the pit was too wide to climb down without one. I could descend by falling and anchoring my sword to the side with ice every so often to reduce my momentum, but… That didn’t seem like it would do much to reduce my chances of dying. “Maybe later. That can wait until we’ve done some more exploring.”

Staying away from the edge, I circled the pit.

“Just so we’re clear, I’d prefer you didn’t fall to your death. It took a lot of work to summon you in the first place.”

I stopped. “Why did you summon me, anyway? Couldn’t you just have used someone from this world?”

“No, I needed someone who was uncorrupted but also not bound to any god. Which pretty much rules out every person in this world.”

“Bound to a god? Is that what all the humans do then?”

She sniffed in distaste. “Indeed. They consecrate their children as babies to one of the various gods. The same ones that protect their cities.”

“Isn’t that a good thing? Why does it sound like you hate them?”

“Because this corruption you see everywhere is their fault. But do they try to fix anything? No, they just sit around in their little bubbles, safe from the rest of the world. While we’re left to- “she stopped midtirade and sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it, there’s no point.” The conversation over, we continued on.