City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

“And the murders?” I asked.

“They’ve been going on for a few months. The city guard wasn’t that interested until a few of the merchant’s sons and daughters were taken; then guards started patrolling the merchant quarter and the surrounding homes. The slums… well… nobody cares what happens there.”

“Okay, so you’ve got a city of nobles who want the land that the Enclave is using, plus they wouldn’t have to give you the taxes if they got rid of you; they’ve got a murderer in the city that they’re probably blaming the Legion General for; and they’ve whipped up the population against you. Is that about, right?”

“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Tang said gloomily.

“Well, that’s just fucking brilliant,” I muttered. “This has become a real shit sandwich, you know that?” I grimaced, shaking my head.

“A shit sandwich?” Tang asked, a grin quirking his lips.

“Yeah, good-bad-good,” I said, catching the confused expressions on their faces, and I elaborated. “You tell me, ‘Hey, you’ve got the Legion here to help,’ and that’s good. Then you say, ‘But we’re under house arrest and are probably going to be attacked soon, which will end in either being booted out of the city, or every Legionnaire killed…’ that’s the bad.”

“And the last good bit?” Amaat asked, and I grinned at him.

“You’ve just given me a way to get my people out of the city, but it’s gonna be fucking difficult.”

Chapter Five

“What are our chances of making it to the Cloudring from here, and to the arena?” I asked, and Yen shrugged.

“The streets were fairly busy, and the mob was spilling out into the side streets, but we chose gear that wasn’t too obvious. What worries me is the fact that, despite none of it being Legion standard, Amaat was still targeted. He should have looked like just another armed Alkyon flying in for a look. If the gang was waiting for him and tried to bring him down, that means either they’re out to get anyone they can, or they knew he was Legion.”

“Are they still up there, Oracle?” I asked, and she zipped out of the top of a broken window. She was shrunk down to her smallest size, but it still made my butt pucker when she was out of arm’s reach, ever since the Drow had captured her.

It didn’t take long for her to return, and she landed on my shoulder again, reaching out to stroke the back of my neck as she quietly updated us on the streets around the building.

“The Harpies are circling nearby; they clearly don’t know where we are, but they know Amaat went this way…”

“I could try to draw them off?” Amaat said, drawing a deep breath. “Or I could fight them, see how many I can take down?”

“No,” I said coldly as I moved to the window, looking up at the night sky between the buildings. I could make out a patch of darkness, filled with smoke and floating ash. As I watched, a flash of movement caught my eye, followed quickly by two more.

“Tell me about the Harpies,” I murmured.

“They’re a street gang,” Yen replied. “One of the strongest of a dozen that fill the city; thugs and criminals, essentially, but they dominate the sky. There’s around a hundred of them, or so we guess. Nobody really knows.”

“And what do the Guard do about them?” I asked, still staring up and watching as another one passed by.

“Nothing,” Yen said, and I turned to look at her in surprise.

“The Guard isn’t interested in the gangs, so long as they keep their business confined to the slums and the normal folk. Once in a while, they cross the line and hit a merchant who screams loud enough, pays enough, or has important friends, and then the Guard goes out and hits the gangs. Then they all back off, things go quiet for a bit, and people wait for the next time.”

“So, the city guard are corrupt as well?” I asked and got a nod in return. “Okay, what about the merchants? You said there are guards on the bridges to stop the mob from going that way; explain that for me,” I said to Amaat.

“There’s a river that runs through the center of the city. It splits the industrial docks in the north from the commercial docks in the south and runs up to the slums. There are three bridges across the river, with the majority of the merchant’s quarter on the far side of the river from us. The guards are lined up around the merchant houses and the bridges, keeping the mobs back from crossing into the area.”

“And what are the chances that there were enough guards just hanging around to be able to do that, and to cut off the Noble Quarter as well?” I asked.

“None. They had to have been in place before this. It would require a huge force to do both; easily all the guards in the city, plus some of the army. Hell, there’s probably some of the Dark Legion fucking around as well, and that’s all we need,” Yen said gloomily.

“Hold up, who the fuck is the ‘Dark Legion’?” I asked.

“They’re the Legion of Nimon, the God of Death.” Tang glowered out of the window. “They were set up by the church, copied most of the Legion’s training methods and gear, then given a fortune to spend to improve it. Everything the Legion used to be; respected, strong, backed by the people, and fully supplied? That’s the Dark Legion now. They took the Legion and twisted it. Now they use our skills, our training, and our knowledge to kill and to spread the Law of Nimon, the Dark God of Death.”

“Well, that’s just fucking peachy,” I snarled. “Is there anything else you want to tell me about? Any other minor details you forgot to mention?”

“Well, no…” Yen said, swallowing hard and straightening. “I