Chapter XXXIX (39) - Plans

  The coven found the entire threat hilarious. Half of the witches wanted to dispose of Kizu and his companions just to see it all play out. But the other half wanted their apprentices punished. They found the idea of the young witches succeeding far more disgusting than continuing with the status quo.

  When Kizu finally glanced back at his companions he was grateful to find their expressions grim. A small part of him was extremely glad his first confession under the truth serum had now been completely overshadowed by the new revelation of the Death Party’s threat. A city being wiped out certainly helped remove any thoughts about romance.

  “He’s trying to control them,” Ione said. “Necro. That’s why he keeps pushing his will on other zombies. It’s like trying to wrestle control of someone’s summons.”

  “That can happen?” Kizu asked.

  “Only in stories. Conjuring is linked to a person. It would take a powerful soul mage to overwrite that bond.”

  Kizu pictured Necro leading an army of ghouls. With that level of power. Well, that was not something he wanted to consider. The necromancer was unhinged and vengeful. Not a combination that power worked well alongside. Even if he failed, releasing that amount of ghouls on the nation would drive Hon to the brink of devastation.

  “You all are dismissed,” the yellow-eyed witch said with a sniff. “Unless you’d like to stay and enjoy a kiss.”

  “But do not forget your bargain,” another witch warned.

  “We know you, Kaga Kizu. None of that oath breaking jargon.”

  Kizu nodded. He had every intention of following through. And he doubted anyone would put up much resistance. Not if they understood exactly how vengeful the coven was. Any punishment served by the government would only measure a fraction of their cruelty.

  “What is it you do here?” Basil asked as they prepared to leave. “Those stone slabs are quite impressive.”

  “It’s an ancient summoning circle,” Ione said.

  The witches who heard her turned their heads and narrowed their eyes.

  “The remnants of an elder stone ring. What do you know of such things?”

  “They’re used to summon extreme threats. There are a few scattered throughout the known world, but all the ones I know of have been dismantled and destroyed. Not that there’s too much of a risk. You would need ten of the most powerful summoners alive to get anything out of one.”

  “Hm. That’s one purpose,” the yellow-eyed witch said. “The most flashy, perhaps. But the other uses are none of your concern. Begone.”

  Kizu didn’t need to be told again. They stepped forward and the foliage split again for them and they left the witch coven behind.

  “Well,” Basil said as the thicket returned to its normal state, “that certainly could have gone worse.”

  “That was terrifying,” Mitsuko whispered.

  “At least they mentioned you had potential,” Ione said. “They barely even acknowledged me.”

  “Potential for what? Being a witch?”

  “Who knows? Maybe for being a really talented masseuse.”

  Mitsuko wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think I want to be noticed by them.”

  “What’s the plan now, Kizu?” Basil asked. “Are we going to run off to the capital to warn everyone?”

  Kizu considered. What was the smartest course of action? How soon would the bomb be ready? He had the bell, he could get to the capital directly using it. But it didn’t offer any directions or an understanding of the World Dungeon. Should he strike the Death Party’s base and attempt to recover his atlas? Would they even be there?

  “First,” Kizu said. “I think we go back to the crone’s hut and see if we can recover my scrying orb. That way, tonight we can contact Aoi. Then we locate the nearest entrance to the World Dungeon and run directly in the direction of the Kyonaka. Does that sound reasonable?”

  “The World Dungeon?” Mitsuko asked. “You mean the place where we were imprisoned? Why go back there?”

  “Kizu has a little bell that he stole from Anata’s father,” Basil said, as if that clarified anything. He dusted off his pointy witch hat and set it on Anata’s head. It sank down to her nose and covered half her face.

  “I’d rather not talk about it here,” Kizu said, purposefully looking back at the thicket. “But the World Dungeon links the entire planet. There are entrances everywhere, including here in the basin and in Kyonaka. So if we know the correct direction, we might be able to cross the distance faster than over land.”

  “Oh,” Mitsuko said, clearly not really understanding.

  Over the next few hours they traveled through the jungle. Kizu guided them while Mort acted as a scout, altering Kizu of any danger long before the rest of the party encountered it. Ione grumbled about her feet and not having a summon suited to carry her through enough biomes. Basil chatted to Anata and Mitsuko, telling them about the fashions of different cultures and how their environments impacted the styles.

  It took most of the day before they finally arrived at the crone’s hut. Mort did a sweep of the area, checking for divination alarms and anyone posted from either the Elites or the Death Party. Surprisingly, they found nothing. But as they approached the hut, Kizu understood why. There was barely anything left to watch over.

  Kizu gaped at the damage. When he’d witnessed the attack through Mort’s eyes, one of the walls had been busted through, but his familiar had escaped before the end of the fight.

  The battle’s final outcome had collapsed nearly the entire building. A single wall remained. The remnants of the roof dangled over a pile of rubble.

  “This might take us a few minutes to sort through,” Basil said as he nudged a broken piece of wood with a foot.

  The others all looked to Kizu for instruction, but his eyes were glued to the wreckage. Ten years of his life. All in pieces in front of him. Much of it was charred black from the hydra’s fire. He noticed a few familiar objects in the rubble. A straw doll half burned. The roof’s spyglass, now broken. He walked over to a familiar bone amongst the wreckage. It jutted out of the dirt. He picked it up and wiped off the soot. Somehow, despite the fire, it remained a porcelain white

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  “Your rib,” Kizu said dully, offering it to Mitsuko.

  She stared at him blankly, then down at the bone in his hand. Then she cautiously took it from him.

  “Are you serious?”

  Kizu shrugged and continued to wander through his broken home.

  It was dusk when he finally located his bag. It had been upturned with the contents scattered on the ground, likely from Necro searching it. His academy issued scrying orb was next to it with a long crack now marring its smooth surface.

  “Orb,” he said to it.

  “What can I assist you with today, Kaga Kizu?”

  “Can you contact Kotei Aoi? I have a message for her.”

  It paused, processing his request. “Unfortunately, there is a divination block between here and there. Please feel free to reattempt contacting her once you have exited the dead zone.”

  Kizu had suspected as much. Certain divinations didn’t work properly in the Hon Basin. He could manually scry her if they were both reaching out at the same time, but neither could send messages easily. The academy issued orbs hadn’t been enchanted to pierce the basin’s veil. And it would unfortunately be the same once they entered the World Dungeon.

  He asked his orb for the time. They had a little over an hour before they Aoi should reach out to them.

  “Gather up anything you think might be useful,” Kizu said. “And we’ll head back to the World Dungeon.”

  “Do you know of an entrance?” Basil asked.

  Kizu sighed. “Only the one I escaped from. We’ll have to spend tomorrow trekking through the jungle again.” It felt like a complete waste of time backtracking that far and the Death Party’s plan could already be in motion. The coronation was in two days. That meant a day of traveling across the Hon Basin back to the entrance and then another day to cross the World Dungeon. But even then, that would still be at least twice as fast as traveling up into the mountains by foot.

  “Actually, I might know of something,” Mitsuko said.

  They all turned to her. She bit her lip and fiddled with her rib bone.

  “It-it could be nothing. But I have a secret spot I used to sneak away to with my ex. We found it a few months ago. It looked a little bit like those ruins we left. I mean, it’s a lot smaller, but also stone and square looking.”

  “Really?” Kizu asked. “How far is it?”

  “It’s…um, under a large tree not far from the village. A tree on a hill.”

  Kizu knew exactly what tree she was talking about. The crone had set up a scrying location on that exact tree. And he now realized why.

  “What do you guys think, is it worth the hour detour to check?”

  They all agreed. Though Basil hesitated before nodding, clearly concerned about Aoi.

  Kizu wanted to spend more time scavenging for potion ingredients and anything else useful, but they simply didn’t have the time. Especially if Mitsuko’s lead turned out to be a dud. He looked back at the broken building one more time before they left the hut behind.

  “Are you okay,” Ione asked as they marched through the jungle.

  “It’s fine. Just strange. I thought the crone’s hut would always be there. It felt so invincible before. An untouched haven. But now it’s gone.”

  She put a hand on his shoulder and they continued to walk. Anata listened to Basil whistling and Mitsuko muttered to herself.

  “Do you…want to talk about anything else?” Ione asked.

  Kizu’s heart skipped a beat. He kept walking forward, step by step. Did she mean what he thought? He’d sort of hoped she might have forgotten about what he’d said while under the truth potion. But of course she hadn’t. Why would she? Him putting it out of his mind didn’t force her to put it out of hers.

  “I…I think now is a bad time. Can we talk about this some other time? Maybe when the nation isn’t on the brink of collapse?”

  “Ha, of course. Just don’t forget what happened when you asked me to the dance. You can’t expect the world to stand still for you.” She elbowed him but he barely felt it.

  Kizu didn’t say anything. Did that imply she was interested? That was good. But what did he want? He was barely free of the fiasco with Emilia. Plunging into another relationship sounded dreadful. But he liked Ione. What he’d said it out loud to the witches had been a gut reaction truth, but the more he thought about it, the more he understood. He enjoyed her company. And she was always there for him whenever he needed her, whether he asked for her help or not.

  In many ways, she was the opposite of Emilia. Uninterested in people or politics. Rude. Lazy. But she also hid a passion in her. A fire, exactly like Emilia’s.

  Kizu took a deep breath. This was not the time to get his thoughts all muddled. He focused and ran through the plan again through his mind.

  They reached the tree a few minutes before Aoi was scheduled to contact them.

  The tree was truly massive. Kizu had only ever seen it from afar, but it ripped through the canopy above and stood as a monument able to be seen for kilometers. Kizu suspected that it was the reason the village was originally founded nearby to begin with. It acted like a beacon, bringing lost travelers home. The roots alone were each the size of normal trees and they gripped into the hill, claiming the entire area as its own territory.

  “It’s down here,” Mitsuko said. She led them away from the center trunk and down the back side of the hill. Then she ducked under a root into a small cavern.

  Kizu followed her, his companions right behind him.

  They entered a stone room covered in vines with one of the roots hanging above them. A large bedroll had been sprawled out on the mossy floor alongside several rumpled blankets and an unturned lantern. It was all covered in a layer of dirt, obviously not having been used in a little while.

  It looked similar to the World Dungeon; however, Kizu saw no doors. It was a dead-end. Kizu circled the room, running his hand along the stone walls in search of secret passages. Nothing.

  “Contact Aoi,” Basil suggested. “Maybe this is some sort of tomb or catacomb. She might have some answers.”

  Mitsuko visibly shuddered at his comment.

  Kizu pulled out the orb. One minute early. He reached out to Aoi and waited. The meeting time arrived. Nothing. He waited another five minutes. Still nothing.

  “She’s probably busy,” Kizu said. “Maybe she fell out of habit after several days of us not answering her.”

  “Maybe,” Basil said. He stared into the empty glass orb, clearly crestfallen.

  “Well. We have a long way to walk tomorrow,” Kizu said. “Let’s rest now and we’ll set out as soon as the sun rises.”

  As the rest of them started getting ready to sleep, Anata approached him and shook her head.

  “You don’t like it here?” Kizu asked.

  She shook her head again, looking irritated. She pointed at him.

  “What? Is there something wrong with me?”

  In answer, Anata shoved her hand into his chest. Not hard, but with force. Kizu stepped aside, confused. Then he realized she’d reached for his pocket. The pocket with the bell Mort had given him after they’d regrouped. He took it out and showed it to her.

  Now Anata was nodding enthusiastically. She pointed at the wall and Kizu’s eyes widened as he thought he understood.

  Before anything else, he removed his two enchanted rings, then his ear piercing. He set all his jewelry to the side, recalling his destroyed enchanted objects from the first time he’d used the bell. He removed his enchanted clothing, much to the distress of Mitsuko and amusement of Basil. He ignored them.

  Then Kizu removed the small rag he kept glued inside the bell’s mouth to keep it from ringing unintentionally. He let his shoulders relax and let out a breath in an attempt to calm himself.

  He rang the bell.

  And the World Dungeon answered.

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