An hour later I woke up beside the elevator down at the tower entrance level. I noticed that Seris and Nyaya drank tea from their metal cups. What are we doing so that they has the leisure to drink tea? Then I heard Izumi and Nino chatting, and various sounds of metal being hit and bolts being adjusted.

Then Seris noticed I had woken up, and sitting up dazed. She smiled and waved at me.

”Finally awake? Hehehe. Since we are not going anywhere, want tea?”

She asked me. I wonder why she is so cheerful all the time? No matter.

”Yeah, sure...”

I let out a long yawn after I asked for tea. After rubbing my eyes, I noticed that my hands had golden colored pearlescent stones embedded on top of them. Their size was about the size of a marble and reacted whenever I channeled magic in my hands. Also looks a lot like my Phylactery under my ribcage... Then I checked my level status shallowly.

[Cleric (Mistral) LV.5]

[Lesser Lich (Holy) LV.8] !!! 2 levels until evolution !!!

Somehow my monster levels got ahead of my cleric levels. What is the meaning of this? Also evolution, huh? I will become a proper lich then within two levels. I wonder what that will mean for me. After a short while of thinking for myself, Seris handed me mug of piping hot herb tea.

”Thanks Seris.”

I smiled as I thanked her. Then after the tea had cooled down enough to drink, I heard a familiar sound of a generator powering up. Izumi cheered and looked at us with his face full of grease and dirt. No idea how he got it to work, but did he have a hobby of being a mechanic in his old life? I took a sip of tea and questioned him.

”How did you get it to work? Thought it was broken beyond repair.”

I curiously asked Izumi.

”We replaced all completely rusted and worn down components, and then applied oil where neccesary using the crate we brought down.”

He then pointed at the crate that was as big as him. He must had the help of Nino to pull this stunt off.

”Huh, that is cool. Now we won’t need to use the stairs.”

I drank up half of the tea in one swoop. He then gave me a half-hearted smile.

”We won’t know how far it will go without trying it. Also we found the key required to operate it in the same room as the crate. Also, did you hear something?”

Izumi sure love to explain himself. It was at this point my, Nyayas and Seris ears twitched. In the distance we heard a dozen footsteps and angry voices.

”Uhh, master. We should get the hell out of here!”

”No good! Angry men walking towards us!”

”Bad men!”

Me, Nyaya and Seris panicked as we cried out to Izumi. The source of our fear was still about two hundred meters away, so we had time still.

”Nino! Move the crate behind the girls!”

With a fast order Nino effortlessly picked up the crate and threw it behind me, Nyaya and Seris with a loud crashing sound.

”What the fuck was that sound?”

We heard a manly gravely voice which was now approximately one hundred meters away. It was now when we had to decide whether to fight or escape. Izumi then climbed on top of the crate after he gave the elevator key to Nino.

”Nino, this is really bad. Get the elevator in working order.”

Izumi gently told Nino his orders. Now we heard the footsteps stop, and the sound of a dozen bows being drawn to be ready to fire at a moments notice.

”So you are the cocksucker that killed my men?”

The gravely voice was now very close, I then took a peek out from the crate. And in the background I heard the key being inserted into the elevator access panel.

”What if I did? Your men got no honor. All they live for is raping defenseless women, gorging themselves like pigs and drinking enough alcohol kill a dragon. They are the scum of the world.”

Izumi sounded quite confident as he faced the battle hardened man, whom I assume is the bandit leader.

The bandit leader looked like he was in his early fourties. His hair had started graying at a few places and he got a permanent shadow from being shaven. The face was covered with scars and his left ear was missing its lower part. His equipment was a lot better than his bandit men as well. He do not look like the type of man you want to cross.

As I peeked out the bandit leader noticed me, and he gave a perverse smile toward Izumi.

”Hahahaha! Who cares about my men? There are always more I can recruit. I see you on the other hand have brought with you a fine lass. I will let you live a little longer if you hand over that girl. You will have the prime seat as I impregnate her over and over until I get tired of her. Then I will kill her slowly, and after that you.”

My Phylactery felt frozen for a moment and I started cold sweating. This man just screams of danger and death to me! My breathing became irregular and I hid myself behind the crate. Izumi had a look of pure disgust at this proposed ”deal”.

”I will never let you sully my woman with your tainted touch. If you lay as much as a finger on her, I will hunt you to the ends of the world. Even the thought of it breaks my heart.”

Now I heard the sound of the elevator door opening, and the key being taken out. It was the signal for Izumi to retreat. Izumi performed a low backflip and landed in front of us, at the same time a hail of arrows just grazed him.

”Run into the elevator, NOW!”

As if my legs moved by themselves, I ran together with Izumi and the girls into the elevator. Nino slammed the button that goes to the top hard with her closed hand. And with a grinding noise the elevator slowly started to pick up speed and ascend.

The elevator itself was of a open cage design. So if you were skilled you could hit your target between the bars.

”Fucking hell! Do not let them escape, men!”

The bandit leader screamed in anger. And with that another hail of arrows was fired toward us. At this point the elevator was halfway up to the first floor. This damn thing accelerates slowly. The bandit leader and his men now swarmed up the staircase, only about ten at a time had the chance to fire their arrows at us. Fuck it I thought, and started casting Divine Shield at all of us.

With a bright flash our cage was now covered with shields, and I felt pretty tired after that. Because the shields are one-way this gave us the chance to fight back.

Now another wave of arrows came toward us, but all of them got stopped by the divine shields. Seris countered by firing a empowered fireball into the crowd. As the bandit men saw the fireball flying towards them, they rolled out of the way even if they hit their fellow bandits. Because of this she only managed to kill three instead of twenty in one go. Meanwhile did Nyaya snipe archers with her bow, but after a while she was completely out of arrows.

At the second floor the elevator finally outpaced the bandits, so we could now rest easily. Below us they futilely fired arrows at us and cursed. This sure is one hell of an adventure. I hope whatever we find up there is worth this.

As the elevator ascended we all fell asleep in one big pile with Izumi in the middle. The stress for all of us, really worn us all down both physically and mentally. I then thought of what he said before we made our grand escape. I am his woman, not his slave? It makes me happy though, that he thinks so highly of me. And that he would go to such extreme lengths in order to protect me. I slept soundly with a happy grin as I gripped his shirt. Am I really falling for this idiot?

I woke up with drool coming down from my mouth and onto Izumis shirt. The elevator had now stopped at the 90th floor, and it made weird grinding noises. When I looked up I noticed that the rails going up are completely broken, and the floor we are on was unusally breezy. The source of the breeze are the broken sections of wall around us.

From here we could see the capital city from where we came from, and also all the way to the border of the kingdom. Also now had the sunset started. The sun was still above the horizon. We must had been traveling up this elevator for several hours then...

I rose up and yawned. Izumi and the other girls had already been awake for a while, but it seems they did not want to disturb my peaceful sleep. How nice of them.

”You are finally awake, you was so cute when you slept, we did not have the heart to wake you up.”

Izumi patted my head as I yawned yet again. Am I a cat or something?

”We are on the 90th floor now, but that is okay. My client said it was around these floors where our target item could be found.”

He still had his hand on my head as he looked out toward the capital.

”Prepare yourself now girls. We may have to fight incredibly dangerous monsters now. I will be heartbroken if I lose you all.”

Seris started sniffling as soon as he said it, she is such a sensitive girl. Make me wonder how she dealt with being a slave before Izumi became her master. She must had a really hard life... He then rubbed her cheek and smiled at her. It seems to have made her feel better. Nino who otherwise is quiet showed signs of distress, but did her best to hide it. Nyaya sighed deeply and hugged Nino.

They are good girls who love and support eachother. Being with them all this time shattered all my preconceived notions of slavery and love. Good masters like Izumi who love their slaves, are as rare as hens teeth. The love from the girls towards him is proof of that. A symbiotic relationship. Us girls get protection from his personal power and status. In return he gets our love and support.

I should stop getting sentimental, we got a quest to do after all.

Once everyone had got up and got rid of the stiffness in their bodies we walked off the elevator which still in vain tried to go up. Looks like we need to find another way down. Or preferably another way out. Those bastard bandits will probably be waiting for us when we get back.

It was nice for once that fresh air came in here. I had gotten tired of the dank smell of moss and dust. Having smells of grass, flowers and tree sap from trees from below raised my mood quite a bit.

We traversed the platform away from the elevator and got onto the floor entrance section. The stairs still winded up in the ever so gentle slope. Whoever designed this place was a proper madman. Why would they need to make this tower so needlessly big and complicated?

As we entered the 90th floor a strong gust of wind appeared from within the door. What we saw on the other side was truly unexplainable.

We are going to die, right? At that moment I felt my Phylactery become cold as ice.