Chapter 146 – Leaving Without Too Much Trouble

    By a miracle, according to Luna. Anlesa was able to throw Susan and Billy down the wall and land them in the nearby alley near the house.

    [Perfect execution.] (Syrus)

    [Shut up.] Luna sighed. [Let’s find Jerry.]

    [Your lead.] (Syrus)

    Due to their investigation from before, they were confident Jerry wasn’t locked away in the general area. That meant he could either be locked up in the top or bottom area or the central church, and if he was being purposely contained and kept out of sight, it would be the lower halls.

    These places even had spots for people to sleep and live, which helped with the fact that Alen was near the child.

    Luna immediately reached one of the locked doors to the lower tunnels to the central area. She pushed the rocks on the door in an anti-clockwise direction and the door opened.

    Once in, it was a tight walk space with small holes in the wall.

    [This is like a catacomb.] (Eva)

    [A what?] (Syrus)

    [An underground cemetery.] (Luna)

    [Wow… why would people store dead like that?] (Syrus)

    [More respectful than throwing them in a pit of bodies.] (Eva)

    [Debatable, becoming a good fertiliser is a good way to end up.] (Syrus)

    Their conversation ended quickly as the area opened up, and they made it into the central area. The lower section would still be considered tight, but there was more space to move. Walking forward, there was a series of spaced-out stone doors along the curved hallway, spaced apart at varying distances.

    [I’m going to ask something insane, Syrus. Is it possible for you to tell the number of people behind a closed door? All these rooms are small, so…] (Luna)

    [Don’t worry, I get it. Unless they don’t breathe in their sleep, I should be able to hear them if I focus on my hearing.] (Syrus)

    [Thank you.] (Luna)

    Luna knew there was a risk with their plan, but there were so many rooms, and checking them all would be time-consuming and dangerous. All it took was for them to open a room with people inside and awake for all manner of hell to break loose.

    [Someone’s coming.] (Syrus)

    [How far off?] (Luna)

    [Enough time to get into one of these doors; the three on your right are empty.] (Syrus)

    Luna quickly examined the handles and mechanisms on the doors. She went for the furthest one from her, poured some Moonlight into the lock, opened the door, and quickly jumped inside.

    With the door closed behind them, Anlesa found themselves in a small prayer room.

    The footsteps slowly went by.

    [I didn’t know Moonlight was so good at picking locks.] (Syrus)

    [It’s not. There are a few different types of doors down here; each type has its own kind of lock. This door required an individual to fill the lock with a hard mana construct and turn. Technically, if you had the proper tools, you could pick it. I know someone filled one of the locks with water and froze it to open the door.] (Luna)

    [I am assuming it was intentionally designed that these doors were ones that were easily accessible by Light attributes wielders.] (Eva)

    [Correct. The door to Alen’s room isn’t likely to be one of these doors, as if he had the Light attribute, he wouldn’t be a rook.] (Luna)

    [Though, you are still having me check them.] (Syrus)

    [Yes, because we can’t be too careful. They could’ve found easy ways to enter the doors, because while I was alive, people had complained about certain rooms down here being a waste of space due to them being unused.] (Luna)

    [Fair enough.] (Syrus)

    They continued their search in the underground basement tunnel. Syrus checked the rooms for breathing. With the doors to each room being solid stone, they weren’t able to look inside, so Syrus'' enhanced hearing was mandatory to locate the correct room.

    The rooms they heard no noises from were considered clear. Syrus was trying to focus on people’s breathing, especially if she heard a child’s voice. If she could hear a sound that sounded like one adult, there was no point checking the room; she was trying to find a room that either had the breathing sound of one young child or an adult and a child. If they were awake, the process would be even easier, as Syrus could tell the voices apart more easily.

    The rooms down in the basement had many purposes, from praying and resting to torture, but Luna didn’t know what room was what; there were far too many for her to remember the details of every room. There were a few that she knew what was inside, which helped speed up the process only slightly.

    During their search, there was more than one close call as individuals roamed the halls and others left or exited rooms. Anlesa was able to find spots to hide, but each encounter was a danger to their operation. They were fully back in their priest Morph disguise, as they only switched back to ‘Syrus’ to break out the children so they would be comfortable. However, the disguise would only save them for a brief moment if they were noticed. No one would question a priest being in the church, but they would for sure ask for their identification at this time of night.

    Finally, through the dimly torchlit hallways. [I hear a child’s voice…] Syrus could hear the pained breathing of a child. [And someone else, who appears to be asleep.]

    [This is our best bet, will we go in and check it out.] (Luna)

    [How do we open this door? Another lightshow?] (Syrus)

    Looking at the stone door in front of them, which had no clear lock and only indents on large circular shapes.

    [These are a type of door locked by a code. You have to turn the stone.] (Luna)

    [How are we supposed to learn the code?] (Syrus)

    [They never change it.] (Luna) Sear?h the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    [Seems like a bad security practice.] (Eva)

    [To change the code, that would require rebuilding the whole mechanism from what I heard, so they only ever did that once the doors broke. Well, in those instances, they would replace the door with a different type; these doors are a relic.] (Luna)

    Luna put her hands in the holes in the rock and quietly turned it into the correct positions.

    Click

    With a quiet click, the door was unlocked.

    [Stay quiet.] (Luna)

    Anlesa entered a small room that appeared to be a jail and sleeping quarters. In the corner of the room was a tiny cage built into the stone brick wall. Trapped within it, tied to the ground, was Jerry.

    He looked exhausted, clearly unconscious, but his body was forcibly held up in an upright position. His brown hair looked lighter in shade, and red rope burns could be seen on his wrists and legs.

    [Jerry..!] Eva screamed internally; seeing the child in this awful state brought pain to her soul.

    [Calm done, we have something to deal with first.] (Syrus)

    While only a small portion of the room was dedicated to this prison chamber, the rest of the room was sparkling in its appearance. Clean and pristine. There was a desk, a closet, and a bed elevated off the ground.

    In the bed was a man with golden curled hair; his face didn’t have a single blemish, and he was sleeping completely soundly.

    [That’s him?] (Eva)

    [Yes.] (Syrus)

    In an immediate and sudden action, Syrus grabbed the knife hidden under their dress and stabbed Alen in his sleep.

    Thud.

    The knife easily penetrated through the man’s soft garb. Syrus’s other hand was clasped on the man’s mouth to prevent any noise from leaking.

    [It’s done.] (Syrus)

    The second of three witnesses was removed from this world.

    Syrus cleans the knife with a cloth and sheathes it away.

    Anlesa walked to the cage and unlocked the door.

    “Jerry, don’t worry, I am here.”

    Before his eyes opened, they morphed back into the Syrus’ disguise.

    Tired and exhausted, his vision was blurred, and he saw the faint glimmer of red hair. “S–a?

    “Don’t worry, you don’t need to talk. Stay quiet, I got you.” Anlesa picked Jerry up and moved him out of the cage.

    [What do you want to do with the rest of the bombs?] (Eva)

    [Just drop them and let’s leave.] (Syrus)

    Syrus wanted an explosion to tear this room apart.

    [We should put at least one in a different room.] (Luna)

    [Why?] (Eva)

    [To keep the chaos up, if it is just this room and the house that could alert the last member of the trio.] (Luna)

    [I think it would alert him anyway.] (Syrus)

    [True, I just want the rest of the church to have less of an idea of what is going on. If they argue amongst themselves, that is the best case for us.] (Luna)

    [Fine.] (Syrus)

    Eva concocted the bomb and placed it on in the dead body; her usual restraint had seemingly lessened after seeing the state Jerry was in.

    Once that was done, they immediately left the room and dumped the third and final bomb in an empty room they had marked out earlier. As they neared the exit of the tunnels.

    Boom!

    A large, deafening bang rang out into the night.

    [What..?] (Syrus)

    [The noise is far worse than the actual effect of the bomb.] Eva explained.

    They left through a different door from the one they entered from, and saw wooden planks of a former building fall from the sky.