Rescue

(General POV)

"They can't be much further up!" Finn said as both he and Riveria broke into the 8th floor and began speeding towards the next. "Unless they did reach the 13th floor, it won't be long before we find them."

"The feeling just keeps getting worse Finn." Riveria replied as her hair blew around her face from running so fast. "The deeper we go, the more I feel that something bad has happened."

Finn gave her a worried frown. "Well bear it a little longer. Those three are exceptionally resilient for ones their age, and the bigger two are impressive for their levels but they have not yet reached a point where they can escape us. We'll find them before you know it."

"Hopefully before whatever is happening takes a turn for the worst." Riveria muttered.

The two carried onwards, effortlessly swatting aside small fry monsters that tried to get in their way. Finn skewered them on the end of his spear as he continued running with them while Riveria simply swayed her staff from side to side almost lazily, smashing the skulls of monsters that came close to her and instantly killing them. Such a sight would have reminded the desperate third class adventurers exactly how far they had left to go before they could reach a level where they could execute such casual slaughter.

After a couple of minutes, the two happened upon a set of female voices ahead of them. Only a moment later they came into view of the party.

"Astraea Familia!" Finn said as he caught the attention of Alise.

"Braver!" The redhead said in surprise as her comrades also turned their heads to greet the first class adventurers with expression that consisted of a mixture of awe, admiration and confusion. Finn and Riveria were quite well known after all. The two members of the Loki Familia's uppermost executives slid to a halt in front of the gathered group of young women momentarily.

"Pardon my hastiness." Finn said. "But did you happen across any of our junior members down here, namely our new record breaker by any chance?"

Alise frowned slightly at the mention of Lyze, but her irritation with him did not stop a pool of worry form in her heart.

"Yes we did actually. He as well as the Sword Princess and a little Pallum supporter. The last time we saw them was on the ninth floor and we've been making our way up again slowly."

"How long ago was this?

"I'd say not more than half an hour." Kaguya replied. "They did not appear to be in any form of danger. Did something happen?"

"That's what we're trying to find out...and hoping that it has not come to pass." Finn said worriedly as he prepared to descend again.

"We would be glad to come back down with you, to increase the chances of securing the children's safety just in case our fears are realised." Alise said, seeing this as an opportunity to gain a small favour with one of the top two Familia.

"We would be grateful." Finn nodded as he took off running again with the high elf already having gained a head start on him. "Let's go. There is no time to waste!"

The group of women looked at each other before following the two down the dark tunnels. As they finally reached halfway though the eighth floor, they began to hear sounds of what could only be abuse as the angry grunts of a man could be heard accompanied with the sobbing of a child.

Simply going off of these details was enough to paint a horrifying image in the minds of the adventurers. After all, down in the dungeon it was easy for people to get away with all kinds of atrocities. This spurred them on down a less tread corridor where they finally came upon a chubby raccoon man harshly kicking a very small figure, one whom Finn came to recognise first.

The blonde Pallum became enraged at seeing yet another one of his people being abused by stronger adventurers, more so over the fact that the girl was practically a member of their Familia already, only having not received the blessing yet. Without so much as a shred of hesitation, Finn's spear pierced right through the man's shoulder causing him to cry out in pain and drop the pack in his hands as he was pinned to the wall.

Finn dashed forward and scooped up Lili away from the beastman as quick as possible while grimacing over the little girl's condition. Lili's face was swollen with bruises and pumps while grazes lined her mouth and forehead.

"A little help here Riveria!" He called out to the elf as she came over and immediately cast a healing spell on the supporter. The injuries quickly faded away as the girl was brought back to life a little more. Her eyes widened as she recognised the two of them as well as the group of women who were currently tearing the man she hated so much down from where he was impaled in the wall and binding him effortlessly.

"Master Finn. Miss Riveria!" She exclaimed.

"It's okay Lili. We're here." Finn smiled. "Forget about him for now. What happened to the other tow? Didn't I tell you to stay together?"

Suddenly remembering the reason why she'd had this nasty encounter, her eyes widened in alarm. Although her soul was crying out in relief and streams of liquid were pouring out of her eyes, her worry for her friend and her 'big brother' overcame those sensations and she desperately clutched onto Finn shirt.

"Please! You have to go save them quickly! They're about to die!"

"Die!?" Riveria exclaimed as she looked down the tunnel. "What happened?"

"We went to the 12th floor." Lili sniffed. "We encountered a strange monster down there that we couldn't see but we couldn't escape from. Big brother Lyze threw me and miss Ais out of there and then blocked off the entrance so he could hold the monster off while we escaped. On our way, we met another adventurer... Phryne Jamil Lili thinks it was. She began fighting miss Ais and miss Ais told Lili to get the Astraea Familia for help while she distracted her." Lili sobbed in fear and worry of her companions. "You have to get to them quickly.

She didn't need to say anything twice as Finn handed her over to Alise. "Please take care of her while we go and retrieve our other two members." Finn said to them. He then cocked his head towards Canoe who was laying face down on the ground with his hands tied, Lyra sitting on his back with Neze's foot pressing his skull down. "Keep an eye on him as well. We'll hand him over to the authorities when we return to the surface as he is on a wanted list."

He spared them no more glances, even when they nodded in reply. They wouldn't be much help against Phryne. Finn knew her well enough that the sadistic woman who focused her efforts on developing a fortress type of battle stratagem would have no qualms about killing the girls. They would just get in Finn's way, who was confident that he would take her out easy enough before they moved onto rescuing Lyze from a few floors down.

"Judging by what she told us, Ais should be with that woman here on the ninth floor." Finn said to Riveria as they travelled through that floor. Soon enough, they could hear what was undoubtedly that sounds of a battle going on although the screams they were hearing did not appear to be that off any of the other two children from what they could tell.

"Looks like we found them." Riveria grimly replied as they both rounded a corner, prepared to leap into the fray to save Ais's life. As powerful as the little girl was, they knew she could not win against the toad.

But the scene that greeted them was something that left them both in a state of shock. For one thing, Ais was curled upon the ground fast asleep, the evident sign of battles on her in the form of torn clothes and scuff marks. But not an injury was visible. The two elder adventurers credited it to the person who was actually occupying their full attention.

Lyze was surrounded in a dark, oppressive and cold aura as he lashed out at his adversary. The sheer malice that radiated off his being was enough to make Finn pause and gulp as something built up in his throat.

Trepidation? Horror? Bewilderment?

All Finn knew was that his skin crawled seeing Lyze in whatever state this was. A symbol shone on his forehead. But not in a way like light shines, but the mark on his forehead was so dark that it stood out form the shadows cast upon them by their underground surroundings. What was even more shocking was what he was doing at the moment.

Finn was not a person that spoke badly of anyone if he could help it, even when it came to his enemies. The Pallum captain always maintained an air of chivalry and did his best not to outright describe people bluntly in a negative light even if it was true. However Finn could not deny that Phryne Jamil was indeed perhaps the most hideous looking mortal he'd come across and that was saying something considering the people he'd had to interact with over the years.

But the giant toadish Amazoness looked to be a completely different person now, as in that she was so horribly disfigured that if Lili had not told him exactly who it was that Ais had confronted down here, it probably would have taken him a bit of time to figure it out.

Phryne's scalp had been burned off completely of her hair, and her skin was covered in severe burns and blisters. One ear looked to have bene ripped halfway and one of her eyes hung in a horrid mess under her eye socket. Rips in the front of the woman's outfit displayed deep gashes and one of her arms was missing. There was an axe lodged into her knee that looked to be in need of amputation if healing magic could not be used on it.

Lyze was in his demon form and he was smashing his fists into the toad's face again and again, each impact stronger than the last as he seemed to relish disfiguring her ugly mug. One side of her face had the cheek completely ripped off revealing the molars at the back of her mouth.

Despite her extensive injuries, the woman seemed to be holding the enraged boy off with fury and hatred burning in her remaining eye. It screamed of a thirst for blood, and she appeared to be gunning for it with all her solve despite constantly being thrown aside by him.

It was truly a horrific sight to see and although it was not something Finn was unfamiliar with, this was the highest level of brutality he'd seen in person from Lyze...and he hadn't seen much of the boy's fighting capabilities since their first spar the day Lyze joined them. Riveria however instantly recognised what was going on.

"Oh, no!" She gasped, mortified at what she was seeing.

"Do you know what's happened Riveria?" Finn asked, seeing her reaction. "Why is he like that?"

"I've seen this before." She replied as she turned to her captain, her grip tightening on her Magna Alfs. "He used this power against Goliath the day I too him down to the 17th floor. He told me it's a power that turns his raw negative emotions like hatred and rage into dark magical power which he uses to empower his body. There is a price though..."

"What?" Finn asked.

"If he isn't able to control his emotions, he loses sense of awareness and eventually nothing is on his mind except his desire to finish his opponent. In this state, there is no difference between his enemy...and the one who comes between them." She gave Finn a look. "If you step in, he may turn on you."

Finn brandished his Fortia spear. "Well I can't let him carry on. If he continues, he may end up killing her."

Riveria put a hand on his shoulder. "This isn't the surface Finn. If they are engaged in a battle to the death in the dungeon, no consequence will come out of him killing her. She is the offending party after all."

"Perhaps, but I cannot allow an act like that to weigh on his conscience. He's too young for something like that." Finn lurched forwards as Lyze blasted Phryne with a storm of red lightning. The toad began screaming in pain as her croaky voice garbled in agony. "I'm going to stop him."

Lyze meanwhile was having the time of his life. The sheer pleasure he was getting from messing up her ugly mug and watching her scream in agony while drowning in her delusions of her 'beautiful face being ruined', was enough to satisfy his blood thirst a thousand times over. He'd dreamed countless times in his past life where he could mess up this woman beyond repair.

Getting the chance to actually do it in real life was better than a daydream a million times over. And even though his hatred and rage was at an all time high as his new demon form afforded him more strength, he took the care to lengthen her suffering as much as possible which helped him keep his sense of reasoning. Had he lost it altogether the woman would be dead now.

It had been amusing seeing the woman swinging her axe about as he deflected each blow with Excalibur. Everytime he deflected a blow, he took the care to plunge Excalibur deep in to the rolls of flab on her body. He had the urge to lick the blood off his blade, and revel in the ecstasy of this treatment of her while driving her further round the bend. But he didn't want to risk contracting an STD that way considering the kind of things the woman got up to. But as much as he was enjoying this, he was determined to not let the woman walk away alive.

He was enjoying dousing her in painful bouts of Force Lightning as well, hence why there were so many burnt patches and blisters littering the woman who was slowly going insane. Once again though, he noticed how he seemed to feel physically stronger everytime he used it on her. By now he'd realised that this feeling would only emerge whenever he used it on an adventurer and not a monster. It had happened one too many times to ignore.

So every chance he could get, he made sure to drown her in torrents of electricity as he slowly fried her to death. Each time he did, he was filled with a surge of energy while the Amazoness seemed to grow weaker. Somehow...he had a feeling that he was stealing strength from her. Which made no sense at all...but he was determined to find out later. For now he would relish every second of pain he could inflict upon this vile piece of work.

Just as he was about to finish her off once and for all, 'Thread' picked up a familiar presence closing in on him. He lifted a hand to intercept the spear while catching Finn's other hand in his grip. They were locked in a hand hold, trying to push each other back. Finn's eyes widened as he felt Lyze hold himself against what was supposed to be a greater physical strength.

'How can this be the power of a level 2? He's able to create a stalemate between us on pure strength alone!' Finn thought in both amazement and alarm.

The Pallum was not someone who focused so much on raising his strength as much as his other stats. Strength was more of Gareth's thing as the dwarf preferred to be a walking fortress. But Finn knew he was strong regardless. Yet to be locked in a contest like this with a younger and less experienced adventurer...it began to open Finn's eyes to how terrifying of a potential the boy they'd taken in had.

"Why are you trying to stop me Captain?" Lyze asked angrily. "Do you have any idea of the things this ...THING does?"

"I'm well aware of the rumours Lyze." Finn replied with more firmness, as befitting of his position as Captain. "But you should not take the law into your own hands."

"This more than the law Captain! This is personal! She was about to kill Ais! And if I hadn't lobbed off her arm when I did, she wouldn't be alive now!"

"I believe you have repaid Phryne enough for whatever torment she made Ais endure. But you are not at an age where you can afford to hold the death of another mortal over your head. I will not allow you to darken your path like this this early on in your life."

'You're too late. I've already started doing just that.' Lyze thought grimly.

"You said that you would let us help you Lyze." Finn said. "Well this is me trying to do the same. Instead of doing something as dark as killing off Phryne, fill that space with doing something good. Like carrying Ais out of here."

"Ais was the one who got hurt!"

"Do you think SHE would want you to do this? To give her this...revenge that you seek so much on her behalf?"

"..."

"Neither do I. For the sake of your sanity, and the relationship between you two, let go your murderous intent and focus on helping your friend. 'We' will handle Phryne in your stead."

The two looked at each other, Finn scanning Lyze's face desperately for any sign as he could not use the boy's eyes to gauge his reaction. Lyze gritted his teeth before throwing Finn's hands aside and letting go of his demon form. He walked up to the peacefully sleeping Ais and picked her up.

"Then don't let her escape!" Lyze said to them tow as he began walking up to the floor above. 'I can ask Freya to arrange the toad bitch's demise anyway.'

He walked straight past Riveria, ignoring the elf entirely.

As he walked along, Ais stirred slightly partially waking up and looking up at him. Her insides fluttered a little at the expression he bore. She could proudly say that she'd come to read him the best out of all her Familia, and though his blindfold made it extremely hard to gauge his expressions in full, she could see that the one he carried now was one of worry.

Worry for her.

Her cheeks warmed a little as she realized that he was carrying her while wearing that expression at the same time. Lyze reminded her so much of 'him' in a weird way...both of them had dark hair and they both loved the way of the sword...and they were both so 'strong'.

What was it her father once said to her?

Something about...wanting to meet someone?...someone special...special...to...her...

Ais was not afforded the chance to dig through her memories anymore as she succumbed to her fatigue again. The last thing that came to her mind before she went back to sleep was the of sensation of two lips pressed to her head...and the wonderful warmth that filled her right afterwards.

What...did this mean?

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