Three Hundred Thousand Souls

Her haven was the library. The only things that made sense during the busy, chaotic lunch hour were the reassuring advanced calculus textbook and the quiet, orderly rows of books.

Of course, she could hear them. A few rows away, girls are whispering at a table.

“...should we ask her? Haruna said she’s nice. Maybe she’d help us study for the finals?”

A nervous giggle is heard. “Are you insane? That’s Suzuha-san. She’d probably look at our notes and her brain would melt from our stupidity.”

“But she always sits alone…” the first voice said.

“Yeah,” another replied, “Because she’s on a different planet than us. Look at that book. I don’t even understand the title.”

Suzuha didn't raise her gaze.

Though the numbers had now vanished into meaningless squiggles, she continued to stare at the paper. She had lost her attention. 

She wasn't a monster. 

She wasn't a snob. 

She wasn't even certain that she was the sharpest person in the room, but that's how everyone behaves.

And that was the world's most lonely thing.

She stiffened, expecting them to have gone away, but she sensed a presence next to her. Instead, a cheery, bright voice broke through her loneliness.

“Suzuha! There you are!”

It was Haruna. She plopped down in the chair opposite, “My mom made too much lunch for me again,” she said with a grin. “Want some?”

Suzuha looked up from her book, at her one and only friend. She gave a small, genuine smile. “Thanks, Haruna.”

The vision passed, leaving her with a lingering, cold dread she couldn't explain.

“…Haruna…” Anna said after just waking up.

-ooo-

“This will grant you access to all levels,” he said, his voice grim. “My orders from the Queen are to give you what you need. My advice as a soldier is not to get near any of the prisoners. They are not your concern.” He gave her a final, conflicted look.

“Be careful, Lady Anna.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, her tone flat.

Destrian nodded and departed, leaving her alone before the dark entrance. As the sound of his horse faded, Maren, in her sword form, began to tremble in Anna’s hand.

“Ars Terran…” the sword whispered, her voice tight with a fear Anna had never heard before.

“If she’s really in here… she must be crazy! Why in a mine?! Has she been burying herself for the past two thousand years?!”

“Chill down, Maren,” Anna murmured, looking at the dark tunnel ahead.

“Maybe your sister just wants to be left alone and not be seen.” She thought of the kingdom’s relentless, fifteen-hundred-year search. “Though I can understand why they’d want to find an unmatched holy weapon from the gods’ age.”

The key felt heavy in her hand as she stepped forward. When the guards at the door saw her and the key, they silently parted. 

When she entered the main tunnel, which was illuminated by torches, a smug man in an officer's uniform stepped out to block her path.

“Oohhh,” he said as he looked her up and down. “A new vampire slaves.”

Anna stopped, 

“Anna! Cut him in half!” Maren shrieked in her mind.

But killing him would be messy.

Anna didn’t move. She just looked at him. Her orange eyes began to glow, the pupils igniting with the molten crimson of her new evolution.

“What,” Anna asked, “did you just call me?”

The officer's sword clattered to the floor as he fell to his knees. 

He was unable to form a single word and could only tremble.

Anna cast a disdainful glance down at the trembling, pitiful man. “I am not a slave. I am the one who holds the key. Remember your place.”

She turned and continued her walk deeper into the mines, leaving him a broken, terrified mess in her wake. But unbeknownst to her, that man got silenced by something else in the darkness.

An enormous cavern that sloped quickly downhill was reached by the entry tunnel. The underground city was excavated from the center of the mountain after generations of work. Anna stood on a slender wooden platform with a broad perspective of incredible industry. 

Massive, glittering crystals set into the ceiling threw a sickening light on the cavern below. Scaffolding clung to the stone walls like tangled webs, and tunnels broke off in all directions.

A faint, metallic taste lingered in the air, the heavy residue of ages, dust layered thick with blood and misery.

“Anna…”

“How many, Maren?”

“Mnnaa.... I can feel them. There are over three hundred thousand dark beings down here. Dark elves, demons, other vampires… so many beastkin…”

Three hundred thousand souls, mining non-stop for fifteen hundred years, all for a holy weapon who probably wasn’t even here. The sheer, obsessive madness of it was staggering.

“NYAAA!! WHAT IS THIS!”

Anna spun around, Maren flaring to life in her hand. Uetum dropped down from a shadowy ledge above, landing silently on the platform beside her, her yellow eyes wide with a mixture of awe and horror.

“Uetum?!” Anna exclaimed, shocked. “How did you get in here?”

The catgirl just grinned, her usual carefree energy returning for a moment. “Hehe, Uetum wanted to see, nyaa! You got the key, and Uetum is a very good sneaker! I wanted to see the big secret mine!”

As she surveyed the entire cavern below, her smile falter. Now they could see them clearly: long lines of beastkin hauling huge carts of ore up a steep ramp, chained together at the ankle. From fortified guard posts, human overseers wielding crossbows and whips observed them.

A low, guttural growl that rumbled deep in Uetum's chest replaced her playful manner. In rage, her tail became rigid and began to lather back and forth.

“Look at them,” she hissed, “They treat them like animals. Worse than animals.” She clenched her fists, her claws extending slightly. “This is what they do to our kind, Anna-chan. I don’t know why but human just think they’re better than us.”

She turned to Anna, her yellow eyes blazing with a new, fierce, and utterly reckless fire. “Let's free them,” she said, “All of them. Right now. You have the key! We can find the main shackles, break them, and start the biggest riot this kingdom has ever seen! It'll be the most explosive, most grand distraction ever!”

She placed a calming hand on Uetum’s shoulder, her voice firm but not dismissive. “Uetum, stop. Think about it.”

“Think about what?!” Uetum shot back, her tail lashing. “We have to do something, nyaa!”

“And we will,” Anna said, her tone patient. “But your plan is a death sentence. It’s impossible to free three hundred thousand dark beings like this. Look at the entrance we came through; the main gate is small. It would create a bottleneck. The guards would slaughter them by the thousands before one percent even saw the sky.”

She gestured to the sprawling, multi-leveled city below them. “And this mine is really big. How would we even get the message to everyone at once? How would we organize them?”

The fire in Uetum’s eyes dimmed, replaced by a frustrated, dejected look. “But… we can’t just leave them here…”

She pointed towards a less-guarded side tunnel, where a lone, elderly dark elf was chipping away at a rock face. “For now, let’s just go ask one of the mine workers.”

Uetum blinked. “Ask them? About what?”

“About everything,” Anna replied, her strategic mind taking over. “We need maps of the tunnels. We need to know the guard shift patterns, the location of the wardens’ offices, and where the central shackle controls are. We can’t save anyone if we’re blind.”

She looked back at the dejected catgirl, her voice softening slightly. “The corruption is a week away from hitting the city, right? That’s the deadline. It gives us time to do this properly. We can’t save everyone in one grand, foolish gesture, but surely, we can help who we can help.”