Chapter 371: Mysterious Underworlder
The only one who managed to resist the new foe was Soara, but alone, she was no match for him. In the end, even with her currently unleashed state, she could only lightly scratch him. The Aspect of Untouchable Death still worked against him, at least until she ran out of power.
In the end, she could only curse her powerless and weak self before joining the students and their familiars in their mysterious fate.
***
Yanael had recognized the presence even before the underworlder opened the door to the storage room. She wasn't sure how when not even Alzara or Mandra noticed anything. Maybe it was just a bad premonition that only she could feel because only she had encountered it before.
The door swung open fully without the underworlder moving so much as a muscle. It was like someone else had taken control of it, opening it to invite them in.
By now, even Alzara and Mandra had noticed that something was wrong.
They hadn't sensed anyone inside the storage room. Yet, there was someone there. He was strong enough to have avoided their detection. And he spoke with a calm voice like he had been waiting for them.
"L-lord—" the underworlder recognized the figure inside but his mouth was forcibly shut before he could finish. The figure inside had pinched his fingers together with a flourish and flicked them to the side like a conductor asking for silence.
The underworlder had no choice but to obey.
The figure inside invited them into the storage room with another gesture.
Alzara and Mandra were suspicious, especially since they could sense Yanael's nervousness. Her reaction wasn't proportional to what they had seen of this mysterious underworlder so far. She seemed scared.
She hadn't reacted like this even in front of the Basilisk.
But to their surprise, she was the first to enter the storage room. She even carried Zach with her.
Alzara and Mandra exchanged a glance before following her.
The underworlder was at a loss. Was he supposed to follow them or disappear? The underworlder inside the storage room made that decision for him. With a flick of the wrist, the four-armed underworlder was sucked into the storage room and grabbed by the mysterious underworlder's green hand.
The mysterious underworlder squeezed the four-armed one's neck with a stable hand. Despite the four-armed one's struggles and efforts, there was nothing he could do in the face of overwhelming strength. The four-armed underworlder scratched at the mysterious underworlder's muscular arm until his fingers bled but without scratching the mysterious one's green skin.
A few seconds later, a crack rang out in the otherwise deathly silent storage room.
The four-armed underworlder was dead. The mysterious underworlder snorted and tossed him in a corner like a piece of trash.
"Sorry about that. He had been getting on my nerves recently." The mysterious underworlder snapped his fingers, granting light to the storage room similar to how he had lit up the swamp Locale.
"Did you bring the heart with you?" The mysterious underworlder asked.
Alzara instinctively clutched a leather sack on her side.
"This is me asking peacefully. Return it," he ordered.
Alzara hesitated. If Zach couldn't overcome the petrification, the heart would be their best bet for saving him.
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"Do it," Yanael said with almost as strict a voice as the underworlder.
"Wh—"
"That's Jigak," Yanael interrupted Alzara's protest. Alzara stiffened. She had heard both Yanael and Zach talk about Jigak.
Every time they did, they did so with overwhelming respect for his strength. But it wasn't just respect for his strength. There was also the fact that he had helped with their training, spared their lives, and given Dukiel and Julius a bunch of stuff.
If there was an exception to the underworlders' hostility against the surface dwellers, it was Jigak. He had especially mentioned that he wasn't interested in the conflict between the Great Ugor and the Academy for Summoners since he had once been a student himself.
When she took a moment to sense more carefully, Alzara also noticed that Yanael's and Zach's fear wasn't unfounded.
Jigak was strong.
"Alright." She sighed and handed the faintly pulsating black and green heart to Jigak.
Jigak gently received the heart, his eyes smoldering with a fiery intensity of unknown emotion.
"Thank you," he said, surprising the maids.
"I would like to help you with that," he nodded toward Zach, "But that's something he will have to overcome on his own."
"Oh, I have this thing." Alzara pulled out the clay-like lump Zach had extracted and showed it to Jigak. By now, it was clear that he had only been threatening because he wanted the artificial life heart. He wasn't hostile.
Jigak narrowed his eyes as he looked at the lump.
"It would be a waste to use it to get rid of the petrification. Give it to him when he overcomes it on his own. This is an opportunity. Don't take it away from him," Jigak said pretty strictly.
The maids frowned. Was he saying they made this trip for nothing? If they couldn't help Zach, what were they supposed to do? Stand around and wait? Like useless bums? Worthless ingrates?
As if he could read their minds through their sharp looks, Jigak opened his mouth again.
"Do you not trust your Master?" He asked, poking a hole in their joint ferocity.
They didn't like it but at the same time, they had to admit that he had a point. If they trusted Zach, they had nothing to worry about. As long as he kept fighting, he would eventually overcome the petrification and free himself without them needing to do anything.
Jigak let them gather their thoughts for a moment before asking,
"Do you need my assistance to return to the surface? Otherwise, I have something I need to do." He could figure out how they had ended up in the Underworld. They had been forced to hitch a ride on the Basilisk. They killed it but not before starting its descent into the Underworld. And there was no way the students and familiars could climb up the Hole, especially with Zach in his current state.
To Jigak, it made sense that a small team of elites would try to restore Zach before they tried to escape back to the surface.
"The plan is not to return to the surface," Yanael said. Revealing the plan to an underworlder was risky. But she had a feeling that Zach would have included Jigak in their plan, so she did the same.