Devourer

Chapter 27: Under and Into Averlon

I stood outside this large sewer grate, it was about four to five meters tall and honestly looked unnecessarily tall. I’m currently outside Averlon in a secluded corner of the eastern wall. Cecilia and Lily were next to me with magic facemasks to block out the rancid stench of excrement wafting out from the sewer. God it smelt bad, I wish I could turn off my sense of smell… oh wait I just did. That was easy...

This sewer was huge… I could probably barely fit in at full size. I’ve decided to stick with a four meter size for my so-called disguise. Still quite large but considering I could still grow an extra meter it was a far cry from my full size.  Honestly, I don’t know how much a city can shit but I don’t think it’s this much…

“I was wondering how you were gonna squeeze me in…” I said.

“Let me tell you a funny story about the court of Averlon. There was once this noble that was tasked to design the sewers of Averlon. You could say he was a most highborn plumber. He loathed the task and he was ridiculed for it.

So in a show of spite to the crown he decided to make the sewers lavish and unnecessarily large. My great grandfather didn’t even realise until after the sewers were completed. But my great grandfather, ever the pragmatist, decided to make the most of the situation. He explained it as a worthy expense to keep Averlon clean and how this would guard our great city from floods.” Cecilia said with a barely concealed snigger.

“Does Averlon even get a lot of rain? The rain storms I’ve seen aren't even that bad. Or are my definitions of a bad rain storm different from you humans?” I asked.

“No we don’t get alot of rain, the climate isn’t warm enough. If you want monsoons you need to go further up north. Averlon has never flooded actually, with or without this sewer.” Cecilia replied nonchalantly.

“And everyone just bought that bullshit?” I asked curiously.

“Oh the commoners will believe anything. Since there are no floods after the sewers were built the sewers obviously worked. They would most likely think something along those lines. It’s not like most of them read history and study climate patterns. A good portion of them can barely read now that I think about it.” Cecilia replied.

“Well I guess this is our way in. Are you sure the underworld would be in here?” I asked.

“Well with so much space someone must be down here. At the very least I suspect there are some secret stores and tunnels in there.” Cecilia said.

“Alright, so do you want me to open it?” I asked as I faced the metal grate.

“If you don’t mind.” Cecilia said. 

I moved over to the edge of the grate that was barring our way and I pulled. I easily tore the grate free from it’s fittings and I did the same for the other side. In a minute or so I had the grate dumped on the grass behind me.

“Lead on.” I said as I turned back invisible. 

Our plan was rather simple, since the roads were now very well guarded our best bet was to enter the city a different way. The thing was, I couldn’t exactly wait outside and Cecilia needed a little back up in case things got dangerous. So for now Cecilia wanted to try and take over the underworld, then from there they would use the underworld to rile up the people. 

For the revolution to work we needed three parties on our side. The first is the common people, they may be weak in a fight but at the end of the day they grew the food, built the buildings, smithed the weapons and maintained the walls. You couldn’t just kill all of them and expect nothing bad to happen. Furthermore Averlon is a commercial hub, if the traders lose confidence in the throne then they may decide to leave. The commoners were easy enough to manipulate so Cecilia told me she was quite confident with that.

The second party are the adventurers, these were a bit harder but still doable. The adventurers were after all made of mostly commoners. They were commoners who sought their fortunes fighting the monsters that plagued their families. They were more educated on average so they would be a little harder to manipulate but with that village burned down it was a plausible sell.

The third party was the hardest, these were the city guards, banner men and knights who were loyal to Cecilia’s father. Their loyalty however, hinged on the fact that Cecilia’s father promised to always uphold the interests of the people. If he was found to let’s say… burn down a village and kidnap a few people for whatever reason then that was a completely different story.

There was a fourth party that may be turned to our side. The Mage and Alchemist guilds were powerful presences in Averlon. These two guilds worked very closely together but they were mostly focused on their own research. Still, condemnation from these two organisations still carried a lot of weight…

Well let’s see how it goes shall we?

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Caro was your average street urchin turned to guard for the criminal underworld. He was always good in a fight although he wasn’t very bright. Although his dull mind and strong body was still a valuable combination in an environment that values those with a propensity for violence and those who don’t ask too many questions.

Caro scratched his nose that was hidden under this face wrap that helped keep out the stench of the sewer. Besides the discomfort, constant exposure to the fetid air can cause what’s called rot lung. So the face wrap was to stop the guards of the underground base from getting sick and coughing up their lungs.

“Boring day…” Caro said.

“We guard a sewer, Caro. Do you expect a pair of beautiful maidens to walk past here?” Caro’s partner Decan replied.

“Would be nice… some Beralian Marching Powder would be good too.” Caro replied, Decan just scoffed at his words.

“Yeah, sure the boss is gonna give us Heaven’s Dust. Why not amirite? Let’s just get the guys guarding the door in a toxic fetid sewer as high as a kite.” Decan replied sarcastically.

“It would motivate us a little more.” Caro said grumpily.

“Unlikely, the boss is getting a little skittish recently, he’s not exactly in the mood to entertain requests. Both the boss and that woman look like they’re being stalked by death.” Decan replied.

“Yeah he looks spooked.” Caro said.

“Not surprising, the Syndicate is making moves, crime lords are ending up splattered on their bedroom walls. The boss must be wondering when it’s his turn.” Decan muttered.

“Well if the boss ends up dead we could always work for someone else.” Caro replied.

“There is no one else, splattered on the walls, remember?” Decan said as he turned to look at Caro. Sometimes Decan seriously wondered how Caro even learned to breathe…

“Well then we could go to another city.” Caro replied.

“...” Decan looked at Caro silently, sometimes this guy's lack of intelligence boggles the mind. What did he think those crime lords were killed for? Littering?

“Oh shut up Caro.” Decan replied with a shake of his head.

Then the two of them heard footsteps coming from the left. The pair of them drew their rusted swords and turned to face the sound. They weren’t expecting anyone here today… an intruder? The guards? A rival gang? 

Caro grabbed the torch hanging on the wall and raised it towards the noise. Then from the darkness stepped through a pair of beautiful blonde women wearing cloaks. They both had similar faces, the same blonde coloured hair and green eyes. These two were easily the most beautiful women he had ever seen.

“Hello.” the first woman said with a smile.

“Who are you?” Decan asked as he pointed his sword at the pair of women. Two beautiful women do not just appear here. These two looked like they belonged in the noble district not in the middle of a sewer.

“I want to see your leader. I have a proposition to make…” the first woman said.

“A proposition? I’m not taking you anywhere unless I know who the hell you are. How did you even find this place? This entrance is hidden behind an illusion and a secret door.” Decan demanded.

The woman merely smiled and raised a glowing blue hand. 

“The illusion was weak and the false door was easy enough to detect with the right spell. But I’m not going to tell you why I’m here. You are going to take me to see your boss or all of you will die and I’ll find another crime lord.” the woman said calmly as her eyes froze over.

Another crime lord? This woman isn’t from around here, she doesn’t know what the Syndicate is doing to the underworld…

“There are alot of us, you think you can kill all of us?” Decan challenged.

“The three of us are more than enough to whatever strength you can muster… don’t scream if you want to live...” the woman said with a smile.

Three?

Then Decan felt a breath of hot air behind him. A very big breath of hot air…

Decan slowly turned around to see a massive mouth filled with serrated teeth smiling at him. Decan looked up and saw a white domed head. This monster was huge…

“Boo…” the monster said.

Then Decan felt a rush of wind and heard a gurgle to his right. He tentatively turned around to see Caro impaled through the chest by one of the beast's massive blades. His mouth was open as if to scream but it looked like the beast got to him first...

“She told you not to scream…” the beast said with a rumbling laugh. Was it his imagination or did this beast sound very… civilised… It sounded like how a noble would speak...

“Now then, shall you show me in?” the woman said from behind Decan. 

Decan didn’t reply; he just watched as the beast raised one of it’s upper arms that were tipped with blades and brought Caro’s body to it’s mouth. The beast then bit Caro off it’s blade like one would a piece of meat on a skewer. The beast ate him armor and all…

“She asked you a question.” the beast drawled before it spat out Caro’s helmet. The helmet now deformed rolled along the stone bricks before plopping into the fetid water. 

“Yes… of course…” Decan muttered in reply.

◦◦,`°.✽✦✽.♚.✽✦✽.°`,◦◦

I returned back to invisibility as the doorman opened the large double doors that led into the secret area. Judging by the scratch marks on the floor my best guess was that this was the loading area. Even the false door was large enough for a wagon to fit through.

Cecilia had used a spell to map the sewers. There were a few entrances to this place, this one just happened to have the largest opening which meant I could get in…

I shrunk my body down to be about as small as I could make it, which was just over two and half meters. My body was long and not wide so that meant I could get through doors with a little effort. 

As I entered door after door, I could tell the guard was getting more and more terrified. Well the reason was simple, he could hear me crawling through the door that I had no business being able to fit through. If there is one thing that terrifies, it is something you can’t understand…

Finally we arrived at this doorway that led towards what looked to be a large open area. As I crawled along the ceiling I looked down to see whores and what looked to be clients having the time of their lives. Alot of them were sniffing this red powder… hmm that seems interesting. I wonder what my body will do with drugs? Will I get high or will I get a new ability? Questions and possibilities…

Strangely no one even seemed to care that Cecilia was walking straight in. Those two at the couch at the far end of the room were looking at Cecilia suspiciously however…

One of them looked strange, green skin… fangs… looked weak though. Like those dwarfs, all they gave me was improved [Fine motor Skills], [Advanced Cognition] and [Magic Resistance]. Bunch of disappointing midgets…

I wonder what this one was… an orc? Or something else…

The woman next to him was also weak, but I could tell the two of them were afraid of Cecilia. Did they know who she was? Or were they smart enough to realise that anyone who can waltz right in here was no one to sneeze at…

“Hello miss…” the green man said as he cautiously stood up.

“Greetings… before we begin I have a simple question. Is there anyone in this room you can’t afford to lose? Besides Lady Sarana. Meeting you here is certainly opportune, your presence here saved me a lot of trouble… spymaster...” Cecilia said with a small cruel smile and I watched as the woman flinched. 

So this is the spymaster… well I better keep her alive. My body isn’t exactly subtle, and I’ll struggle to move around the streets of any major population center. Then what about the rest? To be honest most of them were barely worth eating, at this point the only reason I was eating humans was that I wanted to get to Human Genome level 10. I’m at level 7 now, I think I need strong humans to make up the difference but every little bit counts I suppose... 

Cecilia's words made the whole room grow silent as everyone realised that Cecilia wasn’t just your average visitor.

“Well. Tell you what, let’s speed things up.” Cecilia said.

[Event Horizon] Cecilia said and the guard that brought them in stiffened. Then his body exploded and the blood formed an orb above Cecilia. The orb of blood glowed before flashing outwards. Instantly the whole word lost its colour, everything was in greyscale.

“We are now in a pocket dimension, no way in no way out. Unless I dispel this little trick of Dark magic. You can try to kill me but I don’t know what will happen if you do. All of you might get stuck in this grey world... forever…” Cecilia said with a smirk.

“What spell is this…” Sarana asked softly.

“A little trick from the Elysian Empire.” Cecilia replied calmly as Sarana went as pale as parchment at her reply.

“Now then I’ll ask you again, is there anyone in this room you can’t afford to lose? Because at this point only five people are walking out this room alive.” Cecilia said.

“No…” the green man replied.

“Five people?” Sarana asked as she looked around the room warily. 

Cecilia smiled as she heard Sarana’s question. By now I was off the ceiling and right behind her and back into my four and a half meter state. 

“I have a proposition for you sir. If you have a moment of time…” Cecilia said slyly.

“What is it?” the green man asked.

“First introductions are in order. Allow me to introduce you to a friend of mine. You might have heard of him. I’m not sure.” Cecilia said.

On cue I rematerialised behind her and everyone in the room flinched in fear.

“Meet the reason the roads are locked down.” Cecilia said.

“You tamed it?” one of the guards asked in horror.

At those words I sensed a spike of displeasure in Cecilia at the comment. Cecilia's face curled into a snarl as she shot a bolt of lightning at the guard frying him to ash.

“He is not a tamed beast or pet. You will give my friend the respect he is due.” Cecilia said coldly. 

We agreed ahead of time that the story was that I was a male. Some of them suspected that I had a child because of the spines I fired when I was smaller. I fixed this by making it so that I could fire smaller spines from the tips of my wings. A simple modification to implement when I was in the chrysalis. The story was that I had smaller spines to hit small weak areas with venom. This naturally needed fine control which is why I put it on my wings instead of my shoulder. 

“Now now Cecilia, no need to worry about the opinions of dead men…” I said with a laugh.

“Hmm, I suppose you are right friend. I forgot what kind of people these men are. The only thing they understand is the fist and boot. Violence and fear is their language…” Cecilia said.

“Don’t worry I speak that very well…” I said with another laugh.

Besides I don’t care what they think

Do you humans care what your livestock think before you slaughter them?