'Bastards! They didn't even let a small pitiful child live happily.' She cursed at the Light Church believers in her heart and slowly shifted her gaze towards the metallic door.
The corridor under her feet was more than two times the width of an ordinary street in any small town, wide enough to allow four or five carriages to gallop in parallel.
Without any fear in her heart, Aliza advanced and soon arrived in front of the metal door.
'Hm? It's not locked.' She was a little surprised. Without glancing at the angel statues, she raised her hands and pushed the door with full strength.
Screech!
The metal door opened with a loud noise. Unlike the outer corridor, the inside was completely dark. Aliza took a step into the shaded area and slowly walked forward. The only sounds that echoed inside the dark hall were those water droplets falling from her wet black hair and her quiet footsteps.
Before taking the fourth step, she heard a growling sound from the darkness and halted her footsteps.
'What was that?' She furrowed her eyebrows.
Within seconds, her black eyes adjusted to the darkness and revealed multiple prison-like cells to her eyes.
Soon, she stepped in like a cat and moved deeper toward the nearby cell.
'I think the sound came from this prison cell.' She muttered inwardly.
After some thought, she moved closer with courage and noticed a small figure lying at the prison cell center.
'Hm? Is that the child I saw in the murals?' Her face slowly turned serious. That sea child was around five years old and appeared motionlessly on the prison floor. She had the same wide shark-like jaws, blue skin, long sky blue hair, and wore simple cloth that barely covered her important body parts.
As Aliza took a closer look at the girl child, her expression froze. She noticed the mask-like artifacts scattered all over the floor, which appeared identical to her right hand's transparent mask.
'It's a shed skin of the child's face?'
Aliza also noticed that a sharp black rod penetrated the girl's chest and pinned her to the white floor.
'Humans are cruel.' She sighed with a pitying look on her face. That small girl's fingers started twitching as Aliza was about to step back and move to the next cell.
'How is she still alive?! How is that possible?' Aliza almost shouted in surprise and took two steps closer to the prison cell.
"W-Water. T-Thirsty." Aliza barely heard that child's words and wondered what to do with this situation. She didn't even feel something was wrong when that child spoke in a common language and silently looked at her with concerned eyes.
'Should I help her?' Her eyes wandered towards that girl's lean figure and got worried inside.
Without knowing her, Aliza's legs moved near the prison cell to help her.
'They even built this prison with rare Nullify stone, huh?' Aliza was surprised as she looked at the prison bars and moved towards the metal door to pick up the key. After picking up all the keys, Aliza walked back to the prison cell, found the right key using the cell number, and opened the prison door with a click.
She pushed the cell door and walked near the petite figure. But still, she only heard small mutters from the petty figure's mouth and became more worried.
"Little girl, please stay still for a few more seconds. I will take this rod out." Aliza comforted the small girl and grabbed the nullify rod with her soft hands. She felt that the mana inside her body was being wholly sucked out and got dizziness.
Alas, she gritted her teeth and pulled the two-inch diameter black rod with all her strength.
Pluck!
"ARRGGGG!" The small girl screamed in pain and then started panting heavily. Deep bluish blood gushed out from her chest and splattered everywhere on the floor. Within seconds, the white concrete floor was replaced with deep blue-colored blood.
'What the hell? Blue-color blood?' Aliza got surprised by the blood color and hurriedly moved her hand to help the little girl.
But without Aliza's help, the small girl instantly stood up with shining azure eyes and sprinted out of the prison cell, leaving blurry images behind. Before Aliza could notice what had happened, that little figure was nowhere to be seen!
"Wha-??"
She looked at the empty prison cell with a stupefied expression and slowly calmed down.
She walked out of the prison cell without wasting time and moved toward the next cell.
'Hm? Why am I moving to release other prisoners?' She was startled by the sudden emotional change. But before she knew it, her legs had already arrived in front of the next cell.
This time, Aliza saw a large two-meter tall humanoid creature with a lizard head in the prison cell and was pinned on the other side of the wall with many two-inch diameter circular rods. The red lizard figure slowly opened its brown eyes and stared at her.
'It's a dragonkin from the legends!' She couldn't help but grow anxious inside.
'Wow! Human f*cked this dragonkin pretty hard, huh?' She felt sympathy for the dragonkin and looked at it with curiosity. But before Aliza could say anything, she felt elemental fluctuation coming from the metallic gate direction.
"Did you release the Syreni, human?" A croaky male voice echoed inside her mind. Aliza flinched at the sudden voice and stared back at the dragonkin's face with wide eyes. She could tell this dragonkin's mouth was sealed by the same metallic rods and felt puzzled about how it managed to speak.
'Is it the same as Soul telepathy?' Aliza furrowed her brows.
Within a second, she recovered to her calm state and nodded towards the dragonkin in response.
"I thought the one who comes and releases me would be my kin. But I never expected it would be a human." continued the dragonkin.
At the same time, the dragonkin started to blink its round brown eyes and released a strange imposing aura.
"Who are you?" The dragon kin's imposing aura didn't faze Aliza at all. She coldly looked into its eyes and asked.
"Hmm, there is a smell of 'death' in you." The dragonkin didn't respond to her question; instead, he nodded his lizard head while looking at her body with interest.
"Help me to remove these Nullify metals." Dragonkin motionlessly stayed in the wall and ordered in a flat tone. Meanwhile, Aliza stared back at the dragonkin for a few moments and finally asked.
"Who are you? How can I trust you? Why should I release you?"
"But you did release the Syreni child without asking anything, right?" That dragon kin retorted in a sarcastic tone, which made her furrow her eyebrows.
"Tsk, she is just a harmless child. So, of course, I will feel sympathy for her. Also, she won't hurt me." Aliza replied while clicking her tongue in annoyance.
"You truly are a foolish human, aren't you? You must have hit your head somewhere." The dragonkin said with a sigh, causing Aliza to be stunned.
'Did I do something I shouldn't?' Aliza's face slowly changed.
"Who is she? Why are you all imprisoned here?" She asked but soon noticed the dragonkin was not responding to her question.
"So, what is this place?" After a short pause, Aliza asked once again.
"Release me first. Don't worry about your safety; I'm not that hateful person to kill a savior." Dragonkin replied.
She stared back at the dragonkin and pondered in silence. After a short time, Aliza quickly unlocked the prison cell door and entered.
'I don't know if that child is a good person or evil. But I already released her on impulse. I think there will be no harm in releasing this dragonkin.' She muttered inwardly.
"Good! Before that Syreni comes back, can you remove these rods?" The dragonkin asked in an urging tone.
Meanwhile, Aliza felt uneasy as she heard Dragonkin's urging voice.
"Why do I feel you are afraid of that blue-skinned child?" She cast a questionable gaze while pulling the two rods from the Dragonkin's hand. Unlike the rod she took from the Syreni child, these two rods had low nullifying effects, making her job easier.
"Ughh!"
Red blood gushed out from the pierced areas and stained the floor red. Aliza felt dizzy when she looked at the pool of blood. A mixture of blood and iron-like smell assaulted her nose.
"Remove every rod quickly." Again, the dragon kin's voice brought her back to her senses. She realized the urgency in his voice and pulled another two rods without wasting any time.
Clang! Clang!...
"So what you name, mister dragon?"
"Argh! Huff! I'm Ulzez. I'm from the Red Dragonkin tribe."
"I never heard any of them, even in storybooks. So, for how many years are you in this prison?" Aliza continued to pull another two other metal rods from his thighs and asked.
"Years, huh! I even forgot to count the numbers. But they imprisoned me during the end of the Third Abyss Planar invasion along with these monsters." Aliza frowned as she couldn't understand what this dragonkin was talking about and continued her work.
Clang!
"Ha! It's the last rod." She quickly pulled out the final rod on Ulzez's chest and threw it on the ground.
Meanwhile, Ulzez slowly fell, panted heavily, and soon stood unsteadily. He tried to walk but fell again.
"Are you okay?!" As Aliza saw Ulzez was falling, she called out in worry.
"Huff! Huff! Wait. I will be fine in a few seconds." Ulzez replied to her in a loud tone and started to chant in abyssal language. After a short chant, Aliza noticed the surrounding atmosphere began to change, and then a strange black-colored miasma gathered around his body.
Instinctively, she took a few steps backward and covered her mouth in shock.
'F*ck! I just released a Chaos Being!' She stood there nervously and soon noticed an astonishing scene.