Kuroinu Souls

Chapter 3

"Did you find the keys?"

"Don't you dare order us around human!"

"Chloe, enough. Sir Knight, here are the cell keys"

The Ashen One was searching the corpses of the men he took down, looking for the cell keys and anything that could give him more information. Olga seemed to have found the keys as she approached him and showed him the set of keys.

"Perfect. Let's get the rest of the women out, most, if not all show some kind of injury and we need to treat them, can you heal them?"

"Afraid not sir knight, we are being prevented from using magic somehow." "No good, group all the injured, i'll heal them."

"Huh?" "We don't have much time, if you all want to escape group together now. Someone should watch the entrance in case anyone comes by, it won't take long but better to be safe."

Seeing that the Ashen One wouldn't take no for an answer Olga ordered her warriors to group all the injured. Chloe reluctantly went near the entrance and stood in watch with both daggersthe Ashen One used, in case anyones comes by, she'll dispose of them before they raise the alarm. When all the female injured were grouped together, the Ashen One took what it looked like a talisman, knelt in front of the group and chanted the miracles.

"Caressing Tears.....Great Heal........Bountiful Light....."

Olga saw as soon as the knight chanted those words, runes formed a small circle around him and surrounded the vicinity in a yellow light. What she saw surprised her, her warriors injurieswhere closing, those that were bleeding saw the open wounds closing back up, all the scratches, external wounds that they carried were being healed, as if they never happened. Physical injuries were one thing, Olga was now worried about the mental scars that could have been made, especially to the younger ones, but that would have to be addressed another time, now they had to escape immediately and reunite with the civilians, hopefully they haven't been found by those mercenaries, she made sure of that.

"Everyone follow me, the escape route is over here, Chloe make sure no one stays behind, Sir Knight you.....Sir Knight? What are you doing?"

The Ashen One had moved all the corpses near the dungeon entrance, same as before, he knelt, and chanted..."...Dead Again..."

 The corpses trembled slightly, runes formed under them, this time in a deep black color, and what seemed to be black fire enveloped them momentarily, but soon vanished.

"I really hate using this but i have no choice, consider this your atonement for all the harm you've caused."

Getting back up the Ashen One joined with the group of Dark Elves, they were in one of the cells, seems it was the biggest one of the dungeon. When he joined them, he saw Olga touching some of the stones in the wall, the Ashen One focused for a moment and sensed that the stones Olga was touching had magic imbued in them. After repeating the process with a few more stones, a click was heard and the wall opened a passage into a cave like hall.

"This will lead us outside of the castle, when i evacuated the civilians i used this passage, only a handful of people outside of Chloe know of this passage, thankfully, none of the men knew about this. Quickly lets up proceed so i can close the passage from the other side."

All the women crossed to the passage, with the Ashen One being last, making sure no one stayed behind, after he passed, Olga repeated the process of touching certain stones, another click,and the passage was closed again. Immediately they started moving forward, they coudn't afford time to lose.

"Will they be able to access the passage?" "I would like to say no Sir Knight, but seeing that they managed to block temporarily our magic, i can't be certain. At worst it will buy us time."

After that little exchange they didn't speak another word, and just focused on escaping, after moving for a while, they managed to reach the exit of the passage, which lead to the outskirts of her domain, where a great forest resided.

"When i left my people here i made sure to place protection and illusion magic on them to make sure they remained undetected."

Olga could get a better sense of where she placed her people under protection, it seems that whatever restricted their use of magic was range based. She quickly followed the magic trail and found the spot a bit far from the exit, in a cave. As soon as she canceled the magic and entered the cave with her warriors she was received by her citizens, her people with criesof joy, relief, and worry."Lady Olga!" "Lady Olga thank the gods that you are here with us!" "Our queen has returned!"

"(Oh, she was their queen? Seems she is loved by her people. Good.)" The Ashen One just stood outside of the cave in watch, while Olga and her troops were with the rest of her people.

Olga raised a hand, indicating to let her speak, all the people went silent almost immediately."My people, i thank you for your worry and concern for my well being, but now, we must escape from our lands, we are overrun by the enemy and will soon find us. I want you all to follow meso that we can live another day, together."

Back at the castle Vult was perplexed of what he just witnessed, he received a report that the prisoners had escaped and the squad that were keeping watch over them had died. He tooksome of his men and went to the dungeons, near the entrance he saw the corpses of his men, the mercenaries that accompanied him approached the corpses and then it happened. The corpses stood up and with growls as a greeting clung to the mercenaries, soon their eyes and mouth seemed to spew a white fire, and seconds later they exploded, taking along the mercenaries that approached, leaving nothing but small dark flames surrounding the blast zone.

"Impossible!? What happened here?! They weren't supposed to be able to use magic! I need answers immediately, they must not escape!"

Needless to say Vult wasn't happy about this, all the planning, precautions and contingencies he prepared in order to succeed, and just like that they escaped?

He needed answers, and he would get them.