Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

A slight tremor in the ground and a wave running through the underworld energy soon after were the first signs Zach, Dukiel, Nessa, Anerias, Violina, and their herd of conspicuous familiars got.

The tremor was nothing like the violent ones that shook the ground like it was a punching bag earlier. It was gentle. It was the same with the gust. It was like someone had flapped a large fan on the other end of the tunnel or gently tapped the worm of smoky underworld energy filling the tunnel.

Neither of that had happened, though. Zach and the others knew that what Maer had warned them about was the cause for both the tremor and the wave of air.

They didn't stop moving. At this point, all they could do was live or die with their choice.

Another tremor came after a couple of seconds. Then, a gust again. Then, complete silence and stillness for more than a minute.

Another tremor. The interval between the tremor and the gust was much shorter this time. Both were also much clearer this time.

The students were much closer to the source. They gulped nervously.

The tremor and the gust hadn't been the only things they sensed. They had also heard something that sounded like a thump of some kind like someone or something had hit the ground perhaps.

A couple of them stopped in their tracks, but they kept moving when they saw that Zach didn't even flinch or hesitate for half a second.

The next time they heard and felt it, the tremor, the gust, and the thump sounded like it came from just around the corner.

It did.

Zach and the others could sense the tunnel that had slowly widened lately open up into a large underground cavern. The underworld energy should have made it difficult to see, but as soon as they popped their heads out of the tunnel, they could see as clear as day.

There was a device that looked like a large black pearl on the side of the wall next to the tunnel entrance that sealed the underworld energy into the tunnel, but it did nothing to Zach and the others.

Still, they didn't move after peering into the cavern. They could but couldn't move.

The sight inside the hall had frozen them stiff.

All of them were used to blood and gore by now. It was only natural after all the fighting with monsters they had done. So, the blood of varying dark shades splatter all over the wall wasn't why they couldn't move, neither were the dozen or so surprisingly small fist-shaped indents in the walls, ceiling, and floor.

They weren't even frozen due to the large mound of what looked like flesh that still had streams of underworld energy occasionally pouring out of bulbous pores in its body. After all, it was dead. Only a part of it was intact. The rest was a mangled mess, smashed to bits.

That part was related to why they were frozen, however.

Sitting in that bloody mess of flesh, blood, and churning underworld energy was a baby.

There was an air of strangeness around the whole situation since children did not belong in pools of blood and piles of broken flesh, nor were they supposed to be absorbing underworld energy.

But even without all of those, there was something about the baby that made it unnatural. At first glance, it looked like a baby, but the strangeness would force anyone to take a second look.

It wouldn't be enough to see what was wrong with it, though, except maybe its grey hair. If it had been turned toward Zach and the others, they might have also seen the completely dark eyes, sclera and all.

It took thorough analysis to realize that the baby's movements as it grabbed a head-like thing that should have been too big to fit in its hands were too natural. They were too perfect.

There was none of the clumsiness that a baby should have due to a lack of muscles.

The baby gently rammed the head into the floor like it had done several times now. For such a seemingly gentle action, the fallout was too much.

The baby did not lack muscles, which explained why its movements were so perfectly coordinated.

When it thumped the head against the floor, the ground shook slightly, a gently shockwave traveled through the air along with the unnerving sound of bone against stone, only muted by the flesh and blood where the baby had struck.

The baby let out a disappointed hum-like sigh. It pouted. The head didn't react. Boring.

However, as if it realized something, the baby's head rose and turned around to look straight at Zach's group. The fully black eyes stood in stark contrast to the baby's pale skin. Even its lips were white.

Zach's group was still frozen. They couldn't believe what they were saying.

All signs pointed toward the baby being the experiment gone awry that Maer had warned them about. They understood why he hadn't mentioned it being a baby. Zach wouldn't have believed him and done something less than nice.

It was unbelievable.

Why was there a baby in the Underworld? It looked like a special human baby. Underworlders, including ones who were human first, all looked like mutated, discolored freaks of some kind. They had extra limbs, different-colored skin, horns, pointy ears, wings, or other mutations.

The baby's only mutation was its dark eyes. Even its light-colored hair and white lips could be attributed to a genetic inheritance.

Zach's mind spun like the wheels of a carriage going downhill.
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The experiment from the swamp Locale, the piece of created life Jigak had retrieved.

All the humans the Underworld had kidnapped.

The Underworld had

created

a human underworlder. They hadn't turned a human born to others into an underworlder by subjecting them to underworld energy.

The baby in front of them was

manufactured.

And its makers hadn't held back when making it. They had made it as strong as possible.

At this point, it didn't matter why the Underworld had done something like that. The results spoke for themselves. If the baby was strong enough to turn Named underworlders into fleeing cowards or bloodstains on the wall right now, how strong wouldn't it be if it grew up?

They couldn't let that happen.

The baby couldn't be allowed to live.