The Grand Catastrophe

Chapter Five: Dwarves and Jewels

There they were, at the front gates. He could almost taste the ore that the dwarves surely had. The bridge was out in front of him, and the corpses of several guards lay around him and his comrades.

It had been surprisingly easy to just take what they wanted. They had ran through the guards like tissue paper. The lightning from the enchanted weapons surely hurt their numbers, but at the end of the day they were dead meat.

The cave that he was in was large. The ceiling was high. The whole of the place was alight with light. All around, it was a good place for a battle. At the far end of the canyon that split the area, was a set of doors.

These doors led to the city that held the last of the dwarves. He smiled as the doors finally started to close. Yet the smile vanished as he saw them open wide again, and something stalked out.

…

There she sat, in the waiting area waiting for the guide that she had been issued by the rulers around here. The waiting room the dwarves had was rather nice. It felt like a comfy hotel room, or just a homely area. The ceiling was short, of course. The seats were low and wide. The table itself was like that as well.

If one were to ask Momonga why she felt how annoyed she was, she would say very. Why she was annoyed was another story altogether. Now, it had all started when she had arrived at the back of the entrance into the dwarven city, she had been met with rather hostile people.

Sure, it had been fine when they had just been racist against people from the surface. Yet, when they had realized that she was undead, they started being even more racist. Sure, it had devolved from that after she shared a glass of mead with them, but she was still annoyed.

She had then offered her services to them, in the form of two undead Death Knights. They, while they didn’t really like this idea, took it. Now, after she had explained that she wasn’t here to kill them all even after that, she was still being treated poorly.

Then, about an hour ago, when she had been discussing with the council about why she was here, she had gotten the notification that her Death Knights had died. She assumed, as none of the Quagoa had the power, that they had gotten back up.

She sighed in her mind. Why couldn’t she have just come here, saved them, and gotten the Runesmiths like she wanted? It was simple. It was so simple. Now she had to plan, well she had already made a plan.

It was, “Layer as many buffs on herself as possible while peaking her head out of the door,” a tried and tested method back in Yggdrasil. After that, she would need to truly try and find out what she needed for this.

Because, during that meeting, she had agreed to take back the capital of these people as well as start up a trade route between the two nations, as well as being able to employ the Runesmiths in her nation. Honestly, she had been a bit too eager there. They hadn’t seen it of course, but it was still annoying.

To her left was the entryway into the room where the meeting had taken place. In front of her, was the entryway to the building itself. Behind her was an exit. That leads into more areas of the building. It was then that a guard entered.

“My lady, the guide has arrived, if you would follow me,” he said, and she nodded her head as she walked out of the building itself.

There, at the entrance, other than the guards of course, was Gondo. The Dwarve that didn’t seem to like booze. She nodded to him as they locked eyes for a moment.

“Gondo, I didn’t expect you to be the one to bring us to the capital city. How did you get them to agree?” she asked, and he explained.

“Well, I've been there before. I also already know you and have vouched for you,” he said, and she nodded her head.

As she nodded he seemed to get despondent suddenly. She blinked her eyes in a tad bit of confusion, before the realization kicked in. He was saddened by the lack of connection.

“Since they agreed, I can assume that they had no qualms with letting us go?” he asked, and she nodded her head, “My own nation has no use for us anymore. My own nation doesn’t care about Runecraft anymore,” he said, turned away and walked down the steps.

“My own nation does, doesn’t it? After all, I am the one the sponsored you. There is someone that cares about your craft,” Momonga said, and Gondo sucked in a breath and sighed.

“Yeah,” he said simply, and shrugged.

She blinked again, a little shocked how he could have shrugged it off that fast. He had come off to her as a more emotional dwarve than anything. Yet, here he was, just kind of shrugging it off.

“I mean, I do have the promise of your nation, now do I?” he said.

“That is true. You do have that. Now, let’s get to it. I’d rather get this wrapped up quickly,” she said and Gondo grunted an affirmation.

…

“Now, there are three great obstacles. First is the great chasm,” Gondo started describing the many dangers as they neared the doors to said great chasm.

Said doors were rather large, and made of solid orichalcum. The dull reflection of the metal glinted as they neared it. Then, without much fanfare, Shalltear opened the door.

On the other side was death. Corpses of the dwarves that the Quagoa had killed littered the place. Yet, more so than that, were the dead of the Quagoa. Their pieces were scattered all about that place.

The walls were painted red with their blood. Their body pieces covered the ground. It stank as well. The dead had started to rot right away, at least the ones that had been blown apart that is.

It wasn’t all too shocking for Momonga and her group. Yet, Gondo very nearly wretched all over the floor. Sure, it was a bit gross. To Momonga though, it was Tuesday. Even before she was isekai’d, she was used to sights like this back on earth.

“The bridge is out,” Aura said as she pointed to the dangling ropes on the other side of the chasm.

Momonga nodded her head, and cast, “Mass Fly.” A simple spell. It simply lets multiple people fly, very useful.

“Come on then, we must check out what has happened to the bridge before we leave. Whoever took out my Death Knights must have destroyed it as well,” she said, and they were off.

…