Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Zach was in the middle of the city when the tremors started, and he wasn't sure he would make it out before everything collapsed. But that didn't mean he didn't try.

He and Soara ran for his life.

However, after a tremor that brought down the structurally less stable houses, it stopped. Even after thirty breaths, which was many times longer than the interval between the other tremors, not even Soara could detect anything.

Zach stopped running and looked at the ground with a worried frown.

"You don't happen to have any ideas?" He turned to Soara and asked.

"...The scent of death coming from beneath the city increased, Master." That was all Soara had to say. That was all she could say. She didn't know what was going on, nor did she have any ideas. The Underworld was outside her area of expertise.

"But I suggest we leave the city and regroup with the others." Experience more tales on empire

Zach heeded her advice, and they left the city to join up with Violina and the others, who were at her command tent.

Naturally, they asked Zach if he had seen or noticed anything other than the ground shake. Unfortunately, he hadn't. No, when he glanced around the city on his way back, he had felt the underworld energy's restlessness.

It wasn't swirling and fluctuating like it had done when it was first pumped into the city and was settling down. There was a certain tension in the underworld energy similar to the electricity in the air before a storm.

Violina and the others didn't know what to make of that. But even if it was just Zach projecting his worries, it was still cause enough for them to gather their strength and prepare for whatever was coming.

Since it was something that had rattled the entire city, all the students were called. Of course, Yanael and Alzara had returned to Zach's side as soon as they felt something.

A power that could shake the city was still a step or two above Zach and his familiars' strength. Alzara was the only one who could do it with ease, but she would need time and materials, neither of which they had right now.

Lined up with their familiars behind them, the students stood between the city and the Academy. The air was heavy with anxiety and tension. The students didn't know what to expect.

The Great Ugor, the head and leader of the Underworld, probably wasn't making a move directly. That was the most unlikely scenario. But then what was going on?

Zach and the others had killed Mursoth. That was no secret. If anything, they had publicized it as much as they could to ease worry and strengthen the students' morale.

But even the students who had killed Mursoth were staring at the city with tense expressions like they were waiting for it to collapse and sink into the ground. Mursoth alone had put the other students and citizens of Basilia in a chokehold with his presence alone.

If the students who had killed him were this worried, didn't that mean that something worse than Mursoth was making itself known?

Five minutes inched past at a snail's pace.

Ten minutes crawled out of their hands like a dizzy bee.

Fifteen minutes leaped away like a tired frog.

Twenty minutes flapped into the distance like a butterfly, gently and at its own pace.

The students didn't drop their guards, but all of a sudden, thirty minutes had breezed by them and nothing had happened in Basilia. It was like the tremors had been a collective fever dream shared by the students and the city alike.

Violina started considering having a majority of the students retreat after she arranged a schedule to keep watch over the city for a few days. Now that the dolls had stopped crawling up out of the sewers, they didn't have to obsessively defend the talismans. She also didn't have to keep working Zach to the bone just because he was the most capable.

However, before she could make a decision, her Frost Wraith alerted her of a rising heat signature. Before she had time to understand what the Frost Wraith was trying to tell her, it sent her more and more heat signatures.

Underworlders crept out of the sewers.

"Here they come!" Violina shouted. She drew her sword and covered it in a thin layer of ice. The other students also made their preparations and got ready to fight. They couldn't see anything yet, but a few of them could sense the presence of beings through the mist of underworld energy.

It wouldn't take long before they broke out and attacked them.

Strangely enough, there didn't seem to be any coherence in the underworlders. The ones who could sense it reported it to their surroundings.

The underworlders were flooding the city, but it was nothing like the dolls' orchestrated march. They dispersed in every direction and from whichever manhole they could find. They also seemed to somewhat slow down once they reached the surface.

More importantly, they made no move to attack the line of students just outside the city.

It was like they weren't even attacking the surface.

"Hold!" Violina's command reached the other students, and they did not charge the city.

She glanced at Zach, Nessa, Dukiel, and Anerias, silently asking for their opinions. This was outside her expectations and she couldn't handle it alone.

"Shouldn't we attack them?" Anerias asked.

"No. Something's off." Dukiel shook his head. The underworlders in the city were underworlders. They were at war with them. It made sense to attack them, especially when they invaded the city.

But it was a haphazard invasion of weak underworlders who looked more like servants and workers than fighters. It wasn't a real invasion.

"Is it a trap?" Dukiel asked.

"It's too obvious to be a trap. Unless it's reverse psychology or something. It's too obvious to be a trap so it can't be a trap, but in reality, it is a trap." Zach narrowed his eyes skeptically as he looked at the city with crossed arms.

The others looked at him. He was right about it being too obvious to be a trap. But the rest…? For now, they would wait and see.

"More importantly, what does this have to do with the tremors? And why did the dolls stop?" Nessa questioned.

"Mmm, the dolls were pretty fragile. They could have broken by the tremors, especially since they were deeper in the ground." Violina's answer seemed reasonable.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

But that still didn't answer Nesas's first question.

What were those tremors?