Deep within the mansion overlooking the town on a hill, the young lord found himself running down the long storied halls of his ancestors. As a child, his father would have scolded him for that, but now he commanded it. He ran into the library at the end of his path and shut the door with his back resting on it. Among the shelves was one in particular that held a book he needed. One tug of it made the shelf click and open with a tug.
"Get back here Caius!" yelled Shiro, igniting his blade in holy luster.
"You'll pay for daring to strike a noble!" Caius retorted.
As Caius pulled the door shut the hero raised his blade and flooded the room with a wave of energy. It cut across the library tearing it apart in its path before its wave of destruction blasted a hole in the mansion. The lamplights of the town could be seen below as the holy energy flew across the sky. A distance below, an amber explosion rumbled the ground Shiro stood on.
"This is going to be a long night," Shiro sighed in his head. "I'll have to check that out later, but Sera and Violet are counting on me to stop that monster."
Shiro ran to the hidden passage Caius took, leading him deeper into the mansion. An echoing roar filled the halls from above and below him in terrifying harmony. When Shiro reached the bottom of the stairs the sword hummed in his hand as a putrid stench filled his nose. The room was filled with shells of giant eggs and the bodies of ground dragon hatchlings. Caius stood over one with swords in both hands. He glowed a sickly rainbow light as magic flared around him.
"You're too late, hero," Caius mocked. "Even you won't be able to stop me! First I'll take you down and take that sword! Then I'll make the empire pay for making a fool of the Martels. Heck, I might even take the demon lord down for fun!"
"Save the speech, you're just another megalomaniac you see in every isekai," Shiro responded while taking a fighting stance. "But hey, you'll make great practice. Let's put Sera’s teachings to good use and make this quick!"
Shiro couldn't help but grin while the two charged each other. Their weapons clashed and burst.
Elsewhere
Dust shook and fell from above landing squarely in Kuro’s nose. The sleep he was in was interrupted by a fit of sneezing that seemed like it would never end. He put his nose firmly underneath his shirt and rubbed his eyes when another rumble from above sent another fog into the air.
"That must be my cue," Kuro thought between sneezes.
Kuro made his way closer towards the flickering light of the candle until the bars of his cell were in his hands. He reached into his pocket and pulled a toothpick sized object and held it horizontally between the gaps.
"Extend and get wider if you would," Kuro mused.
The toothpick sized stick grew enough for Kuro to require two hands to grab on while the bars screeched violently as they bent away.
"I'll never get used to that sound," Kuro joked as his skin crawled.
There was a wide enough gap for one Kuro sized object to squeeze through which he happily took. The air on the other side of the bars felt refreshing despite still being within the dank enclosed space. A heavy wooden door stood between Kuro and further freedom, but his makeshift "key" made picking the lock childsplay as the metal casing crunched around its expansion. Beyond the door there were no other sounds save for the odd rumblings from above.
No other soul was in the prison. All the times Kuro traveled through the single path out it never once occurred to him he was the only one there. The town must have been extremely peaceful, or worse the complete opposite, Kuro reasoned but there was no time to dwell on such thoughts during an escape. Distant sounds of hurried footsteps had Kuro duck into an empty cell when a shaft of light pierced the dim halls. He put his back to the wall to listen to every footfall until they were within striking distance.
“BOO!” Kuro yelled as he jumped from around the corner.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHNG!” cried Milly while a punch flew out towards Kuro’s gut. “YOU SCARED ME!”
Kuro burst out in laughter as if he had never been apart from the girl who let off a torrent of “hmphs” while continuing her assault. A dark shadow darted around his feet while jumping up to his leg punching him with their paws.
“That’s so mean! How did you even know it was me!?” Milly protested.
“That,” Kuro said as he flicked the light on her forehead.
“Stop observing me! Although it’s nice to know my assistant is capable it’s still creepy how you knew! Geez!”
“I really can’t help it, was that your handiwork by the way?”
Kuro pointed upwards, getting the attention of the girl who folded her arms in frustration. The sparkle returned to her eye from having someone so astute by her side. She posed pulling her fist to her chest while she shot her hand out and across the opposite way to show pride in her work.
“I’m glad you noticed! I set up five explosives to distract the guards with the mother of them all to go off near the town’s walls. Noelle is going to lead the soldiers out while we make our escape!”
“What was it? Three that went off already?”
“Yeah! Just follow me, I’ll lead us out of here!”
Kuro gave Milly a thumbs up where she returned it with a grin. The two made their way through the halls of the dungeon until the sound of soldiers running about were just a few steps away. They ducked into a corner using a veil of shadows to let more soldiers pass when the organization they once held dissolved into panic.
"WHERE ARE THE WEAPONS!?" a distant voice yelled.
"What do you mean they've disappeared!?"
"Just grab the wooden training one from the yard! We can't let those scalies into town!"
Kuro tapped on Milly’s shoulder, but she refused to turn around despite his shaking now. He then turned to the small dog behind him and it let out a ferrous smelling burp between licking its lips and panting.
"No… you didn't…" Kuro gasped.
"Well… we took a secret passage through the armory to get here. Chomper must've had a bit of a snack," Milly reasoned weakly.
"I guess he did!" Kuro panicked.
Milly and Kuro waited for all the sounds in the stoney hallways to disperse before they made their way to their exit. The armory was indeed barren with not a single scrap of metal shined in the waving torchlight. Milly led Kuro to an empty shelf that she struggled to pull open. After watching her struggle for a bit Kuro figured the direction she needed to pull and assisted her with the heavy disguised door.
"How did you learn about this hidden passage, Milly?" Kuro questioned while being handed a light similar to the one on her head.
"Noelle told me that on one of her arrests of Lord Idiot that he made her just release him here since it leads up to the manor. Serves him right for being lazy. Now we can use it for ourselves to get out of here. Apparently there are tunnels that also lead to other parts of the town."
"I have to say, for my first prison break this was surprisingly easy," Kuro joked.
"All according to plan!"
After a bit of uneventful travel through the tunnels the scent of fresh air permeated a wooden doorway. Life breathed into Kuro with every inhale closer to the exit. Beyond the door was a starry sky that greeted him. To his surprise, they were right beside the adventurer’s guild. In the distance, a fourth grand explosion lit the night sky in an amber glow. Smoke filled the air beyond the town walls but a sickening roar blew it all away.
"What was that?" Milly cried.
"You don't know? I thought you did that!" Kuro retorted.
"I don't have that technology… yet?" she pondered with her hand on her chin.
Bells rang from above calling for all the adventurers in town to arms. Milly and Kuro looked at each other again in dread.
A familiar voice boomed from the top of the guild hall, "All adventurers to arms! Lizardfolk and a ground dragon have breached the outer walls!"
"Don't tell me we're going to answer that…" Milly sighed.
"Not this time, let's stick to your plan, but we'll help out as much as we can on the way."
"Great, let's get to the smithy, our little project is finally complete!"
Kuro nodded, giving Milly a thumbs up with her giving him one in response. The two ran off into the night and through the town with the sound of panic and clashing filling the streets.
"Another long night," he thought. "I just might be having the worst night out of everybody in this town."
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