My (Monster?) Hero Life

"Grugda, you stay here with the girls. See if you can find anything else of use in these books." Kace waved a hand at the room around them. "Jal has to show me somewhere important. But there might be people watching us. I can't take anyone with me since it would look suspicious if so many of us disappear at once."

Grugda nodded his head to show that he understood what Kace was getting at. With those parting words, Kace asked Jal to take him to the surface. He had to see the site where all of this occurred no matter what!

The palace remained empty, feeling as Jal led him out into the courtyard. After looking around for a bit, he led Kace to the rear of the palace outside its walls. When Jal was confident that they had not been followed, he pressed on a section of the cavern's wall that slid to the slide to reveal a secret chamber.

"This is a secret entry point used only by Lady Rysa. Nobody else except her guards knows anything about it." Jal whispered as if even mentioning it would be a death sentence.

"Makes sense. If she did not want to be followed, then she would have to have a few secrets. Otherwise, there might be a crowd around her all the time." Kace nodded his approval of Lady Rysa's methods. He had already experienced how secret tunnels like this could save his life in a tight spot.

The journey to the chamber that was precisely the same as the first one he arrived in was a short one. Barely ten minutes had gone by when Jal took Kace's arm. At least this time, Kace knew precisely what to expect as Jal placed a hand on the wall. The pair sunk through it and into the earth as Jal began to swim his way up to the surface dragging Kace along behind him.

'There are only a few things I need to confirm. After that, I need to break the curse on Phillip, which means his life is about to end for good.' Kace smirked savagely at the thought of finally being rid of this long term nuisance. 'Just because Yul has him for now, that doesn't mean he won't get away in the future. This is perfect timing to remove that threat.'

Kace was lost in thoughts as they finally surfaced. As the sand ran off his body and even managed to make its way inside his armour, he took a look around at where they were. It was just a small single room that looked like a storage area. Great big jars that were sealed shut lined the walls. Kace was curious about their contents as he raised an eyebrow.

"That's Lady Rysa's private collection of wines. She would enjoy them whenever she would soak in the oasis." Jal mumbled from his leather wrappings with a complicated tone. 

Kace shrugged his shoulders and guessed that the ruler had probably displayed a few choice moments to the guards when she was drunk. Sometimes it could ruin people's perspective of a person when they witnessed someone in that state, so Kace would not question the matter any further.

Kace headed towards the only doorway, only to feel the ground beneath his feet tremble. 'Damn, looks like those worms are moving around just now. We'll have to be careful about this.' He opted to stay still and wait for the danger to pass. Time passed slowly until the trembles became weaker, eventually stopping altogether.

Now that the coast seemed to be clear, Kace wanted to get to work quickly. Who knew how long they had before someone realised they were gone? Setting foot out of the room revealed that they were smack dab in the centre on an area of enclosed walls. They even cut directly through the oasis turning a small section into something like a private beach.

Kace clicked his tongue at the sight of it. 'Must be nice to live in luxury. There was a few palm tree looking things around that grew purple fruits. All in all, it looked like an idyllic private getaway location. The only thing that marred the beautiful sight were the traces of a brutal fight. Some sand had turned to glass, and scorch marks were on a few dead trees and sections of the walls.

Just from the looks of the place, Jal definitely was not lying to him. Kace moved around this private area and studied each mark that he could find. Whenever he came close to the epicentre of where the fight had occurred, his phantom hydra-head would hiss. It seemed to be picking up some unnatural traces around here!

Kace grew excited but kept a poker face as he tried to decipher the signals the hydra was sending to him. For the most part, he could not make sense of it. However, he had a feeling that it was probably something to do with the young Phoenix's spark that had been stolen. Kace studied the area a bit more but came up empty-handed. 

'There's some secret around how he stole it, but that doesn't matter for now. I've confirmed Jal's story, which leaves the question of how Phillip made it in here. If I had to guess, I would believe that the Chamber of Merchants secretly worked with the heroes. Did they make some kind of deal? Lady Rysa definitely would have been a thorn in the side for both of them.'

A warning hiss entered Kace's mind, who quickly reacted to it! He dove forward into a roll that brought him back onto his feet. He scattered sand everywhere as he performed the evasive manoeuvre! A single black arrow struck the spot where he had just been standing a few moments ago. 

Using Tracking, he discovered no traces of whoever had launched the attack! As he glanced around the oasis, an image was transmitted to him from the hydra-head that showed a black-robed figure descending on his location from above! Kace quickly used Stampede to avoid the blow, turning to stare at the figure that landed heavily on the ground. 'Looks like we have a volunteer to test out my new abilities.' Kace licked his lips in excitement.