Chapter 44:
When I bought That Suspect Baroque Closet and Lamp, I Didn't Expect to Be a Mundane Wizard for the Demon Prince of Another World
Kairo followed Genie into the watery catacomb ruins, which appeared untouched for a long time. A dampness and the stench of iron moved through the air.
Flame torches hovered along the path, lighting the way. A winding shale path was all that stood between their landing platform and a freestanding door in the distance. The areas beyond the path were opaque and undefined.
Soil caked the rune patterns and symbols on the flaky clay-stone floor. As he examined the floor more closely, he noted the runes running in a ring around a circular stone platform: an intricate magic pattern was carved at its center. On the compass point edges were four royal emblem impressions.
"Must be a teleportation array."
"One that only a spell and Marsh royal blood can open." Genie closed his eyes and placed his index finger to his forehead, muttering a spell, then drew out a gold ball. His spiritual consciousness was balanced on his fingertip as he pushed it into Kairo's Holy Ama Cross pendant.
Kairo's mind was pulled into his spiritual sea where he faced his star charts in the sky. A new map of stars was being drawn within his sky, which showed a clear network map of catacombs. The key areas were marked with green stars, with the largest one at the far north-west.
"This is the map my brother passed to me. In case we get separated, I'll meet you at the north-west mark. This is the Wing B Records Archive." Genie's voice rebounded around his sea.
"Are you planning to ditch me?" Kairo asked, horrified.
Genie laughed. "If you annoy me enough, I might."
Kairo groaned and rolled his eyes. He changed the subject. "Can we talk like we did during the mage training?"
"Naturally. And like last time, I've added a weak trace of my magic with a spirit-link spell. We'll always be connected in case you need me to bail you out again."
"Again?"
"When we merged our magic to do a power-up attack on that crag-face Leela."
"As I recall, I was the one facing her attacks while you were eating dicks on toast at Lucky Dork's"
Genie chuckled. "Anyway, it's all just in case."
Kairo sighed, his eyes relaxed with a smile. The fact that he was carrying a piece of Genie's spirit within him was reassuring. He thought of his exit to return his mind to the physical world.
"Now that we're all set. Let's go. Watch your step as there's no bottom." Genie soberly warned him.
They carefully stepped their way along the shale path, which was slippery underfoot. Fortunately, they could easily keep their balance.
"Yikes!" Kairo cursed when looked down and nearly lost his footing. Genie was able to catch him and yank him back to safety.
"That's why kids shouldn't walk near edges."
"I slipped, not even close. It's just, I happened to wobble near it."
Genie eyed him with a smug expression. "If you just want this boss to hold your hand, just ask. No near-death experience is required."
Kairo frowned. "If you're trying to say something clever, I might need a translator to understand it." He picked up his pace as he power-walked down the rest of the way to the door.
The rest of the way was uneventful. Then Genie opened the door with another blood-spell, and he saw the corridors of hell being unleashed before him.
Ancient hieroglyphics were etched in rows on aged clay stone columns and wall slabs, which towered beyond the line of sight.
The way was lit by magical arrays on the walls or fire crystals jutting out of the ground or sides. It was the bustling activity within the corridor's space that made him feel like he should've made a will.
"Well, that's not going to be easy," he groaned with his shoulders sagging.
Genie slapped his back with a pep talk, which wasn't making Kairo feel any braver to roll, duck and dive around oversized swinging swords that were on fire. And they just happen to be inconveniently blocking the clear path down the corridor at intervals.
"Once again, I'm saving my damsel in distress." Genie chuckled as he performed a space manipulation spell to free the sword's swung, so they could pass around the blades.
Kairo decided to keep his wry comments to himself, as he focused on walking the safe path Genie's magic was forging for them. He sighed with relief when he reached the other side safely.
Of course, safety is highly overrated if a person is in a catacomb dungeon.
Kairo stood petrified when he heard a hissing kind of shrieking drawing swiftly toward them. His body was trembling with highly strung nerves. The noise rapidly approached.
A wave of slimy-blue like intense energy was cast along the corridors, and headed for them.
Genie instinctively pushed Kairo onto a nearby path, as he leapt on top of him to pin him to the ground.
They narrowly avoided the slimy-blue magic wave.
Kairo's heart went for a marathon as he felt Genie's breath on his cheek. The man's weight was making him experience a myriad of feelings and aches that weren't unpleasant.
"Sorry." Genie got up and helped Kairo to his feet. "We better hurry. That was a shrieker net cast. They emit magic waves to detect prey, then strike fast in numbers."
"Don't need to tell me twice."
The men picked up the pace once the imminent threats of being sliced, diced and fried along a corridor was clear.
Fortunately, most of their way to Wing B was clear or with small fry monsters. They had been able to eliminate wasp-like fire monsters (spitting acid fireballs at them) with ease using light-based spells.
Well, most of the magic cast was Genie's, but Kairo's use of the Space Manipulation:freeze spell allowed the finishing blows.
"Frolite are easy to deal with in small numbers. But if we come across as a swarm, we're in trouble." Genie had informed Kairo whilst doing a mad sprint through stone corridors.
Kairo was seriously frustrated at why nothing sounding normal was actually normal.
The Mage Library was a jungle and rainforest teeming with flora and fauna monsters wanting to kill you. Now the Ancestral Records Archive was a monster dungeon crawl from hell!
"Why can't this world have normal administrations? You know, the ones where the only threat to my life is processing wait times and getting my name wrong on a government form?!" He complained at the top of his lungs when he felt his legs about to drop off from all his excessive sprinting.
Suddenly, they had everything hunting them. It was worse when they had to navigate through death traps that ambushed them.
A heart-racing and short for breath eventually, they arrived at the teleportation platform for Wing B.
"Frosssa." Kairo madly panted. He was so exhausted his words came out of his mouth like he was speaking in tongues.
Genie could see they were safe for the time being, so had them recover their magic and health with some mediation. When he saw they were ready to go, he activated the portal into the records archive.
Kairo groaned, feeling a migraine when he saw the archive was a vast stone-maze chamber. "Great, as if I haven't sprinted for my life enough."
Genie laughed. "It's not that bad. The spell I use will draw us to the record. So hold on."
He grabbed Kairo's hand as he cast the spell that made them move through time at light speed to stand before a slab of wall.
The entire surface held columns of ancient runes.
Kairo gasped when he realized he could easily understand the alien language. He suspected it was to do with Genie's mind-link to him.
"Let's see, Manning, where are you?" Genie searched the columns and did an ah-moment when he spotted it.
He had Kairo stand back as he performed an unsealing spell then drew out the record, which was captured within a blue-meteorite hexagon disk with tiny runes scrawled all over it.
The man's finger traced the line he wanted, whilst his mind was scanning through the records. Then he dropped his blood on the line to validate the forgery.
"That should do it." Genie sighed with relief and exhaustion when he returned the record to the archive.
When they returned to the teleportation platform, they saw Leela and at least twenty rogues exiting a teleport.
Genie cursed that they shared a drop of the same royal blood.
"Mother and our sekkat spies were right." She tossed a badly damaged cat at them. "She said it was my punishment task, trawling this awful hole for something. But as it turns out, mother's tough love."
"Eldor-sekkat!" Kairo rushed to catch him.
"I'm... sorry. I tried… to warn..." The poor malkin was struggling for breath in Kairo's arms.
"Keep still, I'll heal you." He gently reassured the malkin as he carefully fed a healing pill into its small mouth. "Get some rest to recover."
"Recovery? None of you are leaving here alive."
Genie readied his weapons.
Kairo carefully placed Eldor-sekkat to the safest spot he could find on the ground. His rage was overflowing.
"He honored the chance to life he was given. You take those chances away." His voice was stony with an edge to his tones, as his emotions pulled his focus into the desires for justice and carnage.
Leela snapped orders for her men to attack.
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