The sense of despair and dread had returned in full force as the trio emerged into the main lobby of the dungeon, their double take of their deceased comrades more than enough to sully morale and reveal the hopelessness of the situation. The maiden had offered a silent prayer and plea for forgiveness as they passed the slain members of the rebel force, before cursing her foolishness once again.
Even Veikh himself couldn't deny the reality they were faced with. Whether he wanted to fully admit it or not, getting out with his life seemed wishful thinking at best. Ariesia was far too weak to fully use her magic, with her spell to stall his Corruption clearly taking more of a toll than she wanted to admit. Iliph on the other hand, was less than equipped for battle if they were to come across any guards or armored constructs.
"Alright, kiddo." Veikh directed towards Iliph upon pushing the cynical thoughts from his mind, opting to focus his gaze on the entrance blocked by the up-turned table at the wall opposite to where they had entered. "Gonna throw out a guess and say this 'secret' entrance is through there?"
"No need for guessing when you got the cheat sheet, friendo." Iliph hummed and proceeded to hold the map in front of his face, claws clicking against the cobblestone as he stepped forward to the center of the dungeon entrance to the puzzlement of his human cohorts. His single green eye lifted from the parchment to the table-blocked entrance, before shifting to his right where the blank wall of stone sat.
Stuffing the map into the recesses of his cloak, the blue kobold scampered along to the seemingly uninteresting, inconspicuous cobble wall without so much as a word to reveal what he was doing. Tapping his scaled knuckles against the stone as he trekked to the far corner of the room, Iliph turned to face the pair of humans once more; tracing a claw from left to right along the length of the wall before a victorious grin spread across his maw.
It wasn't long before Veikh and Ariesia's mutual puzzlement gave way, the sound of a faint rumbling making its way into the dungeon lobby. As if admiring his own expertise, Iliph backed away from the wall with his hands on his hips and a sly grin; a good portion of the cobble sliding away to reveal a third passage.
"There's our secret passage, Sir Vik." The kobold motioned with his head and an extended arm. "Never doubt a thief's intuition. A 'bold one at that, yeah?"
"...And you called me a show-off?" Veikh murmured upon nearing the newly gleaned entryway, Ariesia a few paces behind him. A quick glance beyond revealed another corridor, though compared to the previous, the torches were far and few, and even appeared to go out further in.
"Oi, what can I say? Gotta use the full extent of my abilities for the fair maiden, yeah?" Iliph gave a bow in Ariesia's direction, before rising back to return his gaze to his platinum-haired companion who had yet to make another move. "Well, what're you waiting for, hero? Secret passage! Lead the way!"
"Right…" Veikh's eyes closed with a sigh as he lifted the torch overhead, though he turned to the maiden behind him as he prepared to enter. "Can't say I'm confident about what comes next, so if we encounter a monster or something like that…" he shifted his gaze to Iliph before continuing, "I'm entrusting Sir Scales here to lead you to safety while I-"
"Yeesh, y'know I was just joking about the hero part, right?" The one-eyed kobold cut him off with a frown, tapping his claw against the side of his face. "And now you've gone up and beyond to underestimate a woman? Pretty rude for a knight."
"I agree with Iliph." Ariesia nodded to the kobold thief's shock, his single widened eye rising to glance at her. "Weak as I am, I have suffered far worse under far different circumstances." She reassured with a smile, gaze fixed on the floor rising to meet Veikh's. "And while noble, your sacrifice would weigh heavily upon my consciousness should we be forced to leave you behind. I can't allow that, not when so many have already died in my place. You've already endured the blooming effect of Corruption as well." She gestured to his monstrous appendage solemnly.
"Alright, alright, I get it. If you say so." Veikh exhaled in defeated exasperation, brushing his platinum hair from his eyes as he turned to face the formerly solid and inconspicuous wall. "We've been idling long enough anyways."
Torch held aloft and shield raised, the crimson-clad knight stepped through the secret passage and entered into the dim corridor beyond; the hands of the maiden behind him flickering with a faint white glow to aid in their trek down the stone hall. With a dagger held in one hand and claws on the other clenched tight, the kobold lockpick flanked the two while sparing a few glances behind them with his single green eye. The view of the dungeon lobby was out of sight as the trio rounded the end of the corridor to enter into a more open intersection, with what little torches lining the cobblestone walls on the verge of going out.
And for a moment, Veikh wished they had.
Not unlike the hall proceeding the cells where Ariesia had been held, the echo of a bloody battle tainted this very room. As though a crude piece of art, dried blood stained the cobble ground akin to the strokes of a brush; the corpses of a dozen or so men clad in simple chain armor strewn about without rhyme or reason. Some held swords whose blades appeared to be on the verge of shattering, while some who still managed to hold their lances in death found the tip of the blade torn and the base splintered beyond repair.
The platinum-haired knight nearly jumped as Ariesia trekked past him in a solemn gait, her hazel eyes drifting about across the lifeless bodies of the guardsmen.
"So, uh…" Iliph tore through the silence as he scampered forth next to his crimson-clad companion. "Guess this explains the no guards policy, huh?" His nose twitched as he took in the scent of death, maw scrunching in disgust as he examined the sight.
"Yeah." Veikh murmured quietly, pulling the collar of his rain cloak across his mouth with his shield hand. "Doesn't explain what they're all doing in here. Or what killed them. Not that I'm dying to know."
He shivered as the scale-like skin at his transformed leg tensed, the clawed digits at the end of the appendage clenching almost instinctively; not unlike the hairs on one's neck rising at the sense of danger. Surveying the room once more failed to confirm his suspicions, aside from the already established corpses. He shoved the back of his gauntlet-clad forearm against his brow in a gesture of exasperation, shaking his head as he turned his attention to the corridor behind them.
Turning back to the scene of the second massacre, Veikh's gaze settled on Ariesia; the maiden's hands clenched together in a show of prayer. She stared down at the bloodied blades of the broken weapons strewn about the place, her lips whispering a silent ode to forgiveness to whatever god may be listening.
"Let's go. Don't want whatever killed them to kill us next." Veikh whispered as he walked to her side, a tap on her shoulder and she would turn to him, auburn hair falling in waves across her shoulders.
After signalling to Iliph, the trio departed from the corridor of carnage to resume their journey through the secret, and seemingly endless passageway. The torches dwindled with each step, flames growing weaker as the dampness through the tunnels increased. At last, the torches, even the one in Veikh's grasp, died out altogether, darkness surely consuming them had it not been for the holy light radiating from Ariesia's palms. The twisting and turning of the dungeon drew to a close, ending in a short tunnel opening up to yet another intersection, the stench of blood and heavy silence drowned out by the scent of grime and rushing water.
"Bleh, smells… not so nice down here." Iliph observed upon shoving his maw inside his cloak, wiping his snout with a grunt.
The blue-scaled kobold nearly lost his footing as he stepped on a patch of slime, stifling a gag from the atrocious substance tainting his bare scales. To his horror, the piece of parchment serving as their map was not spared from this small indiscretion, as it flew from the recesses of his cloak before landing into the thick waves below long after he had regained his balance.
Paying no heed nor care to the thief's panicked comments and not even offering one of his own, Veikh lifted his gaze to examine the sewer intersection with a sigh; a three-way fork without any indication of where each path led. He'd expected a linear pathway, but instead all he'd been offered was a labyrinth in disguise. As if the environment hadn't already irked him enough, even Ithulmian architecture was a sight to witness. And not a pleasant one at that.
Which left the stinging question of which path they needed to take due to Iliph's sudden bout of incompetence.
As if reading his mind, Ariesia strode forth, wading through the ankle-deep waves of tainted waves and passing the left fork, much to the confusion of her two rescuers. Clearly sensing this, she turned to face them; the light in her palms beckoning them.
"This way."
"Pardon my impudence, fair maiden," Iliph's single eye narrowed curiously, voice muffled beneath his cloak, "how do you know where to go with no map? Magical senses? Woman's intuition?"
"A mix of both." She redirected the pair's gazes upon pointing a finger to a worn etching of letters at the top of the left corridor, wording faded yet legible enough to where the term 'church entryway' could be made out clear as day.
"How convenient." Veikh grumbled, stifling a groan as he descended into the sewer waters; left leg practically bare fully exposed to whatever god-awful substances made up the foul waves he was going to have to trudge through for who knows how long.