Overlord And The Blue Citadel 1 『Sanctified Tower Of Hel』

A faint smile curved over her lips, but as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. Her eyes drifted to the equipment in which she carried for her superiors. She was not the Paladin she had originally wanted to be, but she was useful as she was now.

Running a hand through her short blonde hair, her feral eyes nearly jumped at the sound of her mother's voice. "Keep up!" Her mother called out, not even looking in her general direction as she did, Neia had been lagging behind.

Hearing the order loud and clear, she couldn't help but nod quickly and picked up the pace. There was no room for questioning her mother, nor her superiors. Though she did detest the leader of the Paladin Order, Remedios.

The woman had the audacity to take on her position without ever having to be a Squire herself, simply thanks to her talents alone. It angered her so.

With her white and blue tunic's skirting following her hips, covered in black leather pants, as she moved along she smiled to herself. As she did, Neia could hear the jingling of the equipment she hauled over her shoulder and under her arm and the light fluttering of her cloak.

For a moment her eyes lowered to her thigh-high boots, which were lightly armored on the flat top of her foot and along her shin. What changed, however, was a sudden shadow which arched over the entire wall ahead of her.

Instinctively she froze in place, slowly lowering her raised foot to the ground. Her mother and fellow Paladin both did the same before turning their heads to see the disturbance.

A fortress of menacing proportions shadowed over the land, capable of cutting a sun's light in two. Mists and fog covered the grounds surrounding it in all directions, creeping along the exterior walls of the Holy Roble Kingdom.

What had just happened, couldn't even correlate in their minds. A ma.s.sive fortress diagonally submerged in the ground, they couldn't even see the bottom of the wall anymore.

The structure was layered, what appeared to be the base was wider. What appeared to be a few more stories up, got smaller and at the very top was a pointed spire. There, however, were no windows. Not a single place for a spygla.s.s or a scrying tool to take a gander through. There was one visible entrance, a towering archway that stood in ruin.

Everyone on the wall was mystified, but after a few seconds of realizing nothing else was occurring, they began reacting by scurrying about along the wall.

The warning bells began to ring in such vigor that panic was destined to ensue. The people of the City could be heard shouting and screaming, believing the worst was going to occur. They were to shut themselves away into the shelters, their homes, as the Paladins were going to deploy from their regional camp.

Whether or not it was an invasion of some sort, it was clear they were now dealing with something or someone of another level. They needed to learn how this gigantic structure had gotten here, where it came from, who or what lived within it... No human known could've done this.

Without another word, Neia knew to follow her mother, as the Paladins were a.s.sembling, to the courtyard of one of their many many churches closest to the wall.

Forming rows, a number of higher-ranked Paladins were in the front, while she stood amongst the other squires behind their superior Knight.

Her eyes narrowed on Gustav, the adjutant under the current Grandmaster. Her eyes traced over the light-greyish brown hair cut short and dapper, down to his middle-aged face. This man often defended her skill, despite the lack of it with that of a sword. He was good to her, so she forced a blatant smile which caused many of her colleagues to give a bit more s.p.a.ce.

She watched as he selected a number of skilled Paladins, ones she did and didn't know by name. However, her mother was not amongst those selected to go and investigate.

Seeing her smile, Gustav nearly stopped in his tracks with a jolt, before chuckling to himself. Those sharp eyes and almost creepily murderous looking smile seemed to steal away her charm. Despite that though, he walked over to her and held out a journal for her to take.

She blinked lightly as she reached out and accepted it in her hands, her wrists enforced by leather bracers.

With unquestionable charisma, he spoke encouragingly, "My young friend, it is imperative that you record the findings within this... Abberation. By all means, it must be returned, for we must know what we face. Do you accept this burden?"

Her lips parted slightly as her smile faltered, a stern expression took her face as she nodded lightly to this task. "Yes, Gustav-dono. I will accept this with honor, and swear to return with it intact." It was an honor to deviate from her current responsibilities to be thrown into the excitement of a possible battle!

Neia's gaze drifted to her mother, finding eyes of approval as she had accepted this task dutifully.

For the next couple of hours, other Paladin groups were sent out to investigate the exterior, search for enemies outside. There was nothing, no visible defenses. The gra.s.s was frozen and crunched under their feet.

It was eerily quiet, they couldn't even hear the bells ringing along the walls as they moved about in the frosty mists that didn't belong. Being in the mist felt as if they were exploring a winter wasteland, one could quite easily claim that it is not something they'd ever experienced before.

However, it felt as if they were being watched.

Every so often they saw blue eyes peering through the mist from the corner of their eyes, but as quickly as they turned to see it, those eyes had vanished.

Having secured the area around the tower, they rested until morning, she could hardly sleep.

When it came time to disembark for the tower's interior, Neia walked slowly behind her superior Holy Knights of the Paladin Order. The book in one hand and a writing utensil in another. She could feel the unknown eyes upon her and on all of the others as well. It gave her a slight shiver upon her spine, one that caused gooseb.u.mps to take shape under her attire, almost making her want to pull her cloak closer to herself.

"What is this feeling...?" She uttered under her breath, whispering to herself, noticing how her breath then appeared before her in the frost. With her heart rate rising, she quickened her pace after her compatriots.

It took them nearly fifteen minutes to reach the gaping mouth of the archway. Having gotten a closer look, the Paladin all looked on in awe. The walls were inscribed with glowing ancient-looking runic ill.u.s.trations, telling the tale of the Underworld, this alone inspired fear in them.

Neia watched as many of their faces paled, but they didn't stop their advance. She followed them with the book given to her in hand, she began etching out quick rundowns of the ill.u.s.trations as she moved along.

To her, all of these were fascinating as if they answered questions about the afterlife and what was to come soon after death. This place though it gave death a place, it didn't quite feel real...

As they wandered down the long corridor, it felt like they were walking for miles, even hours. She had filled several of the pages with etchings of ill.u.s.trations and notes of her observations. It was as if the inside of this ma.s.sive tower, was even larger on the inside than it was on the out.

As that idea became realized in all of their minds it felt very, very, unsettling.

"How long does this tunnel go...?" One of them questioned in frustration.

"Keep yourself tempered, Paladin. If we cannot remain calm, we cannot vanquish the possible evil that roams these halls." One of the men said with a very stern and harsh tone as if he was hushing him into silence with a hiss through his teeth.

Neia's eyes danced over each of the older men within the group and a couple of the women. They all had their weapons drawn. She could see easily that some of them were more than willing to break rank and retreat at the first sign of danger.

It wasn't something she was used to, not at all, seeing all of these heavily trained Holy Knights being such cowards before the unknown ahead of them.

That was when they spotted the light, it was the end of the tunnel.

Strange, Neia thought, as she swore she could hear a waterfall and the tweeting of birds.

As they exited the mouth of the corridor, they found themselves staring out to a thickly forested area. They were dumbfounded, seeing such a ma.s.sive biome and even an unfamiliar sky up above.

Looking forward to the trees, there appeared to have a pa.s.sageway carved through it, the grounds were coated in heavy mist.

"What in the h.e.l.l is thi--" One of the Paladins stopped talking as if they had choked on their tongue, before stepping back slightly seeing a tall figure almost eight feet tall. An aura nearly made the man fall backward screaming, before doubling back, pushing the other paladins out of his way.

Neia blinked several times at the display, she had never thought someone of such caliber would just up and run away like a child. How were they going to protect the Kingdom if they couldn't stand their ground here?

Standing by the entrance of what appeared to be a labyrinth of some kind, was the figure that caused the Paladin to go into ma.s.s hysteria and flee. It was dressed in black half-plate armor with a silver muster, partially covered and skirted by dark blue robes with a silver lining. A white-furred dark blue cloak also decorated the man's shoulders, as it was tattered on the end and seemingly moving without wind. Looking to his armored boots, it could be seen that he wore baggy trousers skirted by black armor plating, with the layered robing hanging from beneath the plates.

She was almost instantly enamored by the holy aura that she felt from it, but after a few seconds, she felt the very same horror as the previous man. Her attention was suddenly taken by the charging of her fellow Paladins. Despite the fear, they moved forward with their weapons at the ready. It was like seeing beastmen mindlessly being lured in to be slaughtered like pigs!

Neia's legs, however, didn't budge, she couldn't turn to run and she couldn't look away. She was frozen stiff watching as two of the Paladins charged the man as if they were being drawn in by death itself. "Wha..."

In utter amazement and genuine horror, her eyes locked with the man's. His left eye held a color like a burning ember to a flame and the other ice blue like a winter lake, with the pupils of a wolf. A nearly impossible to discern, callous, expression on his face.

"Who are you...?" His strong aristocratic tone was the only thing that echoed her in-ears over the clashing of his gauntlet as he broke a holy blade with his hand, sending them all stumbling back.

At first, he didn't try to kill them, but his transformation had already begun. The sickening sound of muscles expanding, bones snapping and moving about beneath. His face hardly contorted with pain as it merely twitched with mere annoyance as a green light momentary covered him.

She dared not look, closing her eyes as the dreadful sight began.

Within the next few seconds, a wolf on all fours and twice the size of a standard horse stood before them. With a low snarl, it let out an all-deafening and painful howl that shook the earth beneath their feet.

It was no normal wolf!

As if woken by the sound of imminent death itself, Neia stumbled over her own feet as she twisted around on her heel to run away. She only made it a few feet before she felt a full plate boot, pick up her leg from behind and suddenly shoved backward.

"Your n.o.ble sacrifice to save our lives won't be in vain Criminal Eyes!" The culprit called out as they continued on running after snagging the book from her grasp.

First, she saw the fake sky above, it was a greyish-blue and lifeless, which she couldn't defer from a real one. Following the next few seconds, she felt the back of her head smack hard into the cold ground beneath her, causing her to briefly blackout from the intense throbbing pain the shot through her senses.

When she opened them, however, only to see a ma.s.sive shadow pa.s.sing overhead leaving a trail smoky black mist seeping from its backside. Her eyes widened as she watched the creature chase after her colleagues till they reached the mouth of the corridor.

Then, as she was pushing herself up on her elbows, it stopped and turned its head to the side. She could see sharp white fangs glistening in the daylight. Suddenly, the aura the monster emitted before which caused such panic vanished without a trace. Still fear had already settled into her heart and she scooted back, her cloak popping off from around her neck as she did so.

Just as Neia was about to scurry unto her feet, its voice snarled out, "Halt!"

That was when she found herself unable to move again, stuck in a vulnerable position, but this time the sensation was different. It was as if she was being held in place as her back was to the monster.

Her lips quivered, she didn't want to die, with great effort she hesitantly turned her head.

In the coming seconds, she watched as he returned to his original size and shape. His armor had returned, having strangely vanished during his transformation.

He had short stylish salt and pepper hair with greyish-silver hair on the sides and black on top, along with a Vand.y.k.e beard on his chin and under his nose. From a glance, he appeared as a n.o.bleman, a warrior, and a mage with heavy holy aura about him.

"Who... Who are you...?" Fearful for her life, these were the only words she could muster.

Though he held a callous expression, he was curious about her. But what was most notable was that he was also curious about what seemed to be his surroundings.

He knew where he was, but seemed entirely confused about why he wasn't seeing his HUB. The transformation had felt almost instinctual to him. His eyes wandered her up and down.

Neia swore she could hear him muttering about there being no clock or hot bar of any kind. She had no idea what he was mumbling about to himself.

"Jakku Gurahamu... And you lady...?" His voice as harsh as his eyes were as they finally narrowed on her face. This beast was looking into her eyes as if they were windows to her soul. That was when he cast a spell, one that she did not necessarily recognize.

『Discern Enemy』

Still, she couldn't even move a single member of her major muscle groups, let alone her big toe. "N-Neia..." The young squire hardly made out her own name.

When he had cast that spell, he had become just a bit more confused. Rather than seeing a screen with information, it just flooded into his mind. This girl, she was weaker than any player that would dare enter the largest base on Niflheim.

"Hah! What is the meaning of this?" Going from harsh to almost seeing her as pathetic, he reached forward and pinched her cheek, lightly stretching it enough to reveal her teeth.

A faint, though forced, a smile formed over her lips as she raised both her brows. Was... Was he going to spare her? Let her return to the Roble Kingdom alive? No, his eyes of heterochomia traced over her face, before he lightly ran a hand through her hair.

Based on his tone, she expected a smile to be stretched legions across his lips, but instead, there was a distinctive morose frown conquering them. This frown was that of one that couldn't be mistaken for anything else other than someone who was lost and empty.

There was no excitement from the brief chase of the Paladins, not a single hint in his eyes.

"Where did you come from...?"

"I uh... I come from... The Holy Roble Kingdom..." Neia managed to squeak aloud though softly, able to clearly move her mouth without regard to what held her in place.

"... I've... Never heard of it." Jakku stared at her confounded, he could hear her heartbeat, smell her pheromones and very much so even here fear. "Wherever you came from, no matter who you're affiliated with, you are now my prisoner. You will tell me everything you know... And until then, you are stuck in that pitiful position."
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It was clear she was going to be stuck here for a while, but how much did she really know?

Neia was but a squire, she was no Paladin and she wasn't a Knight. Her only talent laid in that of a ranger, but even then, she was no master of the arts she was blessed with. So what exactly was everything? What did he find interesting, important? She gulped as he brought his face close to hers as he lowered his towering self to match her height, imposing his shadow upon her.

The only thing on her mind? There was no escape from him, her only thought was that she was going to die here, alone, by his b.l.o.o.d.y hands... She was coming close to fainting from the a.s.sumption entirely, knowing she would die on her feet either way.