Inside the dark cave where barely any light came in, Phoebe walked alongside the wall as Leona followed her movements on the opposite side. The high elf knew some traps could be on the ground and with the poor visibility and without any means to make a light without attracting unwanted attention, there was no other choice but to avoid instead of disarm them. Leona however didn’t know any of that and was simply imitating what she did in order to not do anything that could give them away.

The cave itself didn’t seem deep at first, but after threading along the wall it was possible to see a curve towards the right side of Leona’s wall that seemed to be another passage.

Phoebe raised her hand in order to make her stop before proceeding. With the young lady waiting against the right wall, Phoebe carefully approached the curve and peeked inside the next pathway, revealing to be an oval shaped room lit with slow burning torches hanging from the walls with iron support embedded into the rock illuminating what seemed to be wooden boxes stacked on top of one another in the far corner of the room.

She kept scanning the room until she was certain no one was inside, motioning to Leona to approach her only after she made sure it was safe to do so. Upon closing in, she whispered to the high elf.

“Any signs of people?”

“Not yet at least, I think this is merely a storeroom for plundered goods.”

“I see… how do you think we should do this?”

“Eliminate one by one. Even with sire Krieg outside, he is strong enough against the cold that we don’t need to needlessly rush this. Let’s take our time and be extra careful with our engagements.”

Leona was hesitant, even if she knew that he would be ok, she didn’t want to leave him out there more than she needed to.

“Right. But let’s try to be swift, I would rather not leave him unattended for long, should they have more people coming from outside-”

She didn’t want to think of that possibility, instead she had chosen to stay quiet, only gripping the sword handle tighter as result of her anxiety. Upon noticing her own arm trembling from it, she grabbed her own right wrist firmly to stop the blade from shaking and took a deep breath.

‘Calm down Leona, you mustn’t give in to despair. Remember who you are, who you want to become… don’t let those who gave their lives for you be in vain.’

Each deep breath worked to slow down her pulse, calming herself and sharpening all senses in the process. Her eyes opened with a light blue glint under the irises, the blade felt lighter on her hand and her feet moved like feathers on the wind while following the high elf who in turn was quite surprised by how silent she moved.

Both of them made their way through the storeroom to the next corridor, this one however was very well illuminated unlike the entrance as there was almost no shadows to be had from the amount of torches placed against the rocky walls.

Phoebe once again leaned against the wall that preceded the corridor as she heard footsteps coming towards their direction, she held the dagger with the pommel near her chest while the left hand held the other dagger as if ready to stab the next unfortunate victim.

“Princess, I’ll attack the second person who comes by this, I want you to kill the first person that comes in. Preferably aim for their throat.”

“Got it.”

Leona stood right in front of her with both hands tightly holding the longsword handle at hip’s height with the tip of the sword diagonally along her bent upper body.

Phoebe seemed to silently count down as the footsteps grew louder, until the moment she noticed a boot to appear around the corner as a brown haired man with almost Krieg’s height came in wearing the same fluff coat the high elf had taken from the bandits a while back, behind him there was a black haired younger man holding a wooden box similar to those across the room.

At that point Leona dashed in with her sword winded up behind her back, going for an all out diagonal slash towards the first man’s neck, but even with her fast movements, the man noticed her before she could fully land the blow, but even so she managed to nick his neck before he stumbled to the right side holding the wounded neck with the left hand while pulling the sword out of the scabbard on his hip with the right.

“Dammit! Intruders!”

Seeing what happened in front of him, the young man was about to scream as he dropped the wooden box.

“No you won’t!”

Phoebe managed to run in and slash his throat once before plunging the dagger in between the neck and chest, leaving him to die from blood loss as he squirmed on the ground in agony as a fountain of red painted the cave’s floor.

Leona stumbled to the left side as most of the swing missed, but the man she had attacked was determined to kill her as he raised the longsword above his head.

“You little-!”

She noticed the attack coming and stepped to the right while bringing the longsword in a horizontal slash. When both blades collided sparks went flying to the right as she staggered to the right side.

‘Heavy!’

Her arms felt the brunt of the strike. Even using only one hand, most of the man’s weight was into that attack which made it very difficult for her to parry without feeling through the handle of her own weapon.

“Call the others! We have intruders!” The man called out towards the young man that was behind him, but instead when he turned he saw Phoebe rushing in with the dagger in hand. “Joe?! What the hell!”

She tried to stab him but the blade simply screeched through the metallic armor he wore underneath the fur coat.

The man quickly turned while swinging the longsword diagonally upwards but the high elf was much faster and simply hopped back while reaching for the longbow as she jumped.

Even while panting, seeing how he was wide open Leona decided to wind up the blade once again above her head and go for an overhead slash aimed at the man’s head.

‘Please die!”

She empowered her hands with wind magic to strengthen the blow and for a split second she closed her eyes shut. As if working against her favor, she felt the sensation much clearer as her hands brought the blade down with the sound of shattering bone before the disgusting sensation of cleaving flesh was transmitted through the handle of the weapon towards her own brain.

With her eyes still shut, she tried to slightly pull the blade but once she felt bones scratching through the metal she simply gave up and stood still.

From Phoebe’s point of view it was something gruesome to watch, she put away the longbow and approached the dead kneeling man before prying his right hand open for the longsword he wielded.

“Princess.” She called out while touching her stiffened hands. “You can let go. He’s dead.”

Leona slowly opened her eyes and saw a portion of the blood spilled on her hands but she couldn’t dare to look at the other end of the longsword, instead she let go of the weapon’s handle, falling on her back gasping for air as she was holding her breath for the entire time she was holding the sword.

It felt too vivid, the feeling of hacking through someone’s flesh and bones, it was the same a few weeks back, but this time was much worse. Thankfully she didn’t look and instead just averted her gaze towards the ground as she carefully stood up, resisting the urge to throw up while going around the dead body.

“Here Princess.”

The high elf handed her another longsword, but just by glancing at it she could tell it was from the man she had just killed, but to avoid any further burden on her mind she decided to keep moving without looking back at him.

After pulling the bodies inside the far corner of the room Phoebe remained hidden against the corner while peeking in the corridor to check if no one else was coming.

“How many are left again?”

Leona, who was standing right behind her, asked.

“Four from what I counted the footprints outside, but always assume there’s more.” Seeing how some minutes passed and no one else was showing up, she decided to move. “Come on, let’s go.”

She swiftly moved through the corridor while Leona tailed behind her while taking care to not let her footsteps make much noise. The young lass couldn’t help but wonder why and how that place was built, it seemed to be more than just a hidden warehouse as the corridor expanded much deeper into the mountain.

Once they reached the end of the tunnel the high elf stood dumbstruck against the entrance.

“No way…”

Her mutter under her breath prompted Leona to approach her.

“What’s the matter Phoe-”

She was cut short by the high elf’s arm blocking her path forward, beyond that entrance was a huge trove of stolen goods.

“-be…”

Leona was without words, there were mountains of treasure lying around in different piles of glistering gold riches in the area meters below the entrance, the place seemed like a vault of coin bustling with cutthroats, bandits and all manner of ill-intentioned folk. Groups seemed to form around the stashes of gold sitting on short wooden stools by round tables, drinking away in laugher as bottles of alcohol were tossed around to each person in the same group.

“A pit of fiends…” Phoebe clicked her tongue in disgust. “Never once I thought I’d see one of these.”

“I never heard of anything quite like this.” Leona took one step back and scanned their surroundings. “Wait a minute… isn’t that a cage?”

Deep into the room, there was a cubic cage with thick bars of metal barring a man and a woman inside, they wore sophisticated clothes but appeared unarmed, the man was grasping the bars whilst shouting something, until one of the nearby bandits wearing what seemed to be the same clothing Phoebe had ‘borrowed’ from one of their members hit the man through the bars with his sheathed longsword. The young woman beside him seemed to shout at the assailant who simply laughed.

Leona tried to discern who they were and what they said, but at that distance it was impossible to ascertain due to the plethora of voices coming from inside the room.

“Seems like prisoners to me.” Phoebe whispered. “Those are for ransom most likely from the way they are dressed. The other unfortunate souls over there however…”

With a motion of her chin, she pointed the way to Leona which upon glancing past the mountain of coins on the right side of the room, she saw.

“No…”

Young men and women, a few dozen or so no more older than herself probably, buck naked and broken, left in a ditch in the corner of the cold cavern to rot away after being spent in order to satisfy the lascivious desires of the sinners inside that place.

It was a sickening sight, Leona could feel her insides stirr from the nauseating thoughts of the depravity that happened inside that cavern, so many that could be otherwise living their lives to the fullest, left to die a meaningless death after being a toy for some nameless scumbag.

The nausea gave place for anger, the glint in her eyes started to change from light blue to a faint orange color as her right hand started to charge an ice spell, but after stepping towards the entrance she remembered her previous mistakes born from haste. Luke’s death as well as Neiliel’s was on her hands, they died because in her haste of saving her father she had chosen the easier path.

Upon breathing deeply and slowly, she glanced at the high elf standing beside the entrance seemingly analyzing the situation at hand. Leona asked.

“Phoebe. Do you think we can free the prisoners while killing all of these people inside?”

She shook her head slowly, without taking her eyes away from inside the room.

“Unlikely. There are far too many for us to take them on. If we are able to hide the bodies of the people we eliminate however, that is a different story.” Without any hint of hesitation she pulled out her longbow and drew it to its maximum power. “Like this.”

Her slender reddened fingers let go of the arrow, piercing through the room before carving itself into an unfortunate bandit’s skull as he was disposing of food in the corner of the room. Phoebe kneeled and set some arrows against the wall for easier access while Leona grasped the longsword tightly as she stepped to the side of the entrance.

“I’ll head inside, I wager the woman is capable of fighting.”

“Princess that’s too dangerous, what if they-”

“Even if we were to pick them one by one, eventually someone will notice and a fight would break out. We better have more on our side by then.”

The high elf hesitantly nodded as she started to sneak inside.