Honey : The Empire's Treasure 348 Down Below

Mika didn't pay any mind to Ailwin disciplining his soldier as she jumped off the back of the monster to walk underneath its body.

"What are you going now?" Ailwin walk towards her and monster.

Seeing a new prey getting closer to its body, the monster let out a warning even though it couldn't move.

*Grrr-screeech!*

Hearing the sound coming from the creature, drove Ailwin and his guards to draw their guns.

"Don't!" Mika called out, quickly stopping Ailwin and his soldier from shooting.

It wasn't that she was going to leave the monster alive, she just didn't trust that they wouldn't damage the brain while shooting.

Back under the creature she position the sword at it its beating heart. Having located it when she took the skin and blood samples, Mika stabbed the sword in, directly pierced the organ.

The monster gave a slight twitch before collapsing.

Moving out of the way, Mika pulled the sword with her to escape being buried under the beast's ma.s.sive body.

With the stabbing being clean and precise, little to no blood spattered her clothes and body.

Looking towards the now skeleton of the main residence and the darkening sky, Mika promptly got to work.

"Prince Ailwin, you might want to have your men check the smoking building…" Mika offhandedly suggested.

"Is there-" Ailwin stop speaking when he remembered his men were standing behind him. He wanted to ask questions but thought better of it.

Since the monster was slain and Ruven was nowhere insight, he figured that to would be safe to leave Mika alone.

"Captain...have your men follow me."

"Yes, sir."

As the men left behind Ailwin's retreating figure, Mika breathed deep to calm her nerves.

She didn't know Ailwin's soldiers as well as he did. She wasn't comfortable having them watch her dissect the monster's brain.

"Do you have to do this?" Drago spoke from inside her head.

"En. There no other way for me to fully understand what the virus does to its host body."

"Say a prayer before you begin, for this lost soul." 

"En, of course…" Mika had said a prayer before stabbing the heart, but she guessed it couldn't hurt to say another one.

Drago led the incantation as Mika followed along. When it was done he retreated deep inside her mind, cutting the connection between them.

"Okay, let's begin."

Moving to the head of the monster, she took the short sword in her hand and began the procedure.

Meanwhile, Ailwin guided his men to the now smoldering destroyed main residence.

"Sir, I don't think we'll find anything within the remains."

Ailwin held his arm over his nose and mouth as he walk closer to the ruins. "Let's see first before coming to that conclusion."

"Yes, sir."

Watching out for falling beams and toppled walls structures, the soldiers moved throughout the smoky ruins.

Ailwin made his way to Lord Elre's bedroom, or what was left of it, to see if there was anything there.

Unfortunately, everything was burnt to a crisp, nothing was left of the original room.

"Sigh….d.a.m.n." Puffs of ash s.h.i.+fted into the air as he walk deeper and deeper into the back of the house.

Glimpsing left and right, Ailwin surmised that if anything have survived it would be a miracle.

"Sir!" His captain shouted out from behind him. "We found something!"

Walking back the way he came, Ailwin followed his captain to a dark corner at the edge of the house.

"What am I looking at, captain?"

"Sir, I believe that there are levels underneath this house…" s.h.i.+ning his flashlight into the s.p.a.ce, the captain showed Ailwin a hidden room below the present room.

Ailwin stared into the open for a long time before deciding to go exploring.

"Get me a ladder and better light."

"Yes, sir."

Ailwin and three of his soldiers went down the ladder with high beams fashlight in their hands.

"We don't know how much of the fire damaged the lower level, so we'll move slow and cautiously."

The soldiers fanned out, lighting up the s.p.a.ce. The lower level walls seem to have been made of a strong material as the fire didn't do much damage to it before it went out.

After examining the s.p.a.ce for some time, they realizing there wasn't much to see so he led the team out of the room.

Once they stepped out of that small area, the amount of  natural light decreased drastically. The fashlights in their hands were their only source of light for them. Due to this, Ailwin chose to use a tighter formation than to have everyone fan out in whichever direction.

In a diamond formation, they moved through what Ailwin surmised was a hallway before it stretched out to a sizable room.

With everyone using their light source around the room, it wasn't long before Ailwin saw levers on the wall.