Sunset in the gods

by red-sun

Act I – Slaves – Chapter 6

"The mines of the northern mountains feel very honored to have them here." Filthy Rich and the guards were kneeling at the entrance to the mine to greet their two visitors. "Welcome goddess Chrysalis, welcome crown princess Mi Amore Cadenza."

Once inside Filthy Rich's mansion he proceeded to attend to the visitors in the guest room. As Filthy Rich poured them wine, Chrysalis spoke. “I am going to be direct with you, I am not here for some matter of the production of the mines. It is the job of the lesser gods to deal with such matters.”

"So... excuse my boldness but what other reason would they have?" Filthy asked in the most humble way possible.

“As you may know, Princess Cadance has been my goddaughter for two years, she recently turned fifteen. And at that young age she is very intelligent and has great ambitions. She wants to possess as many skills as possible to become a great enperatris for the crystal empire... it's a pity that we gods can't teach our divine abilities to humans, however... among humans I can only think of someone who can teach him what he wants... a master of the materialization aura, a survivor of the purge... you Filthy Rich.”

Filthy goes silent and thinks about what Chrysalis said and then responds. “Do you understand what you are asking of me, goddess? After the purge, the council of the gods offered forgiveness to the survivors in exchange for not teaching the art of the materialization aura anymore, we can only teach one of our children, if we disobey that order it would be death for my family and for me, do you understand what you are asking of me?"

"The other gods only believe that I am accompanying the princess, they do not know that she is here to learn the art of the aura."

“Princess… the materialization aura is not something that everyone can learn. If you do not have the physical and mental capacity, it will be useless for you to learn it. Princess, why do you want to spend so much effort on this?”

"Because before ascending the throne I must become strong in every way." Cadance bows in a humble gesture. “please let me stay and learn from you. The moment he thinks I don't have the ability to learn, he can reject me."

"Besides, I could owe you a favor." Chrysalis said. "A favor from one of the great goddesses."

"Although the offer is tempting, at the moment I cannot receive it here." Filthy noticed the curious glances from Chrysalis and Cadance. "To be honest, we've had a problem in the mines... there are some unknown beasts that have been devouring the slaves in recent months."

“Some beasts? How could it happen?" The princess asks.

“It is believed that it is some species of ancient beasts that were buried in the depths of the mines, since the only entrance to the mine is always guarded and nothing suspicious has been seen. I have tried to keep this information secret.”

"HAHAHA! And I thought this trip would be boring... Filthy, I would like to see the hestias with my own eyes.” Chrysalis said.

---

Right in the middle of the mine, Filthy Rich was leading the princess and the goddess as they were escorted by a group of guards. “This is the mining work area. There are approximately two thousand passages and tunnels in which there are approximately one hundred slaves working in each of the tunnels. Tunnels that have a green board are safe to work in, those with a red board are more dangerous because they have toxic minerals so you have to be careful lately we have found many excavations like this. It is easy to get lost due to the large number of intricate corridors. Although in a couple of years we have increased the production of the mine enormously, that acceleration may be the reason why we ran into some tunnel where the beasts lived."

"I remember stories about ancient beasts like Nightmare and Tantabus... I also know that during the last demon incursion before they were totally exiled to Tartarus they let loose their own beasts."

"Goddess Chrysalis, at first I also thought the same but the last demon incursion was more than a hundred years ago and ancient beasts are not something that can go unnoticed."

"What are the details of the matter?" The princess asked.

"I will call someone who is more informed of the situation." Filthy gives an order to a guard, after waiting a while the guard brings a girl with her head completely covered with a piece of cloth except for her eyes. "She is the chief foreman of the mine, her name is Sun, as you will see she is quite young but very intelligent for her age... I would say that she is a couple of years younger than you Princess Cadanze."

When Sunset heard that name she got a little nervous but she tried not to show it. “How can I serve you sir?” Says Sunset and leans in a bit.

“Sun, I present to you the imperial princess Mi Amore Cadenza and the goddess Chrysalis, one of the great goddesses of the plague faction. They will help us with the matter of the beasts. You will inform them about all the details.”

"As you order sir... it all started a few months ago, the slaves began to mysteriously disappear... later someone found the body of a slave in one of the caves... actually he didn't find the body, he just found the arm, then other remains of half-devoured bodies began to appear... the first to disappear were the old, the weakest slaves... at first the beasts chose the easiest prey but... when there were no easy prey left, other stronger slaves began to disappear... the mines are closed to the outside. .. so it was ruled out that the beasts have come from abroad..."

"You said 'the beasts'. What makes you believe that there are more than one beasts in the mines?"

"More than five hundred slaves have died and disappeared, if only they had left the corpses lying around, then they would only defend their territory but... they always take the bodies, that means they are feeding... and with that number of dead... there must be too many beasts”.

"Are there any witnesses?"

“Some slaves who claim to have seen the animal were terrified by what they saw. These beasts are almost as tall as a full-grown man and their bodies are covered with black fur... some are robust and strong others are slender and slender. They have long jaws like a wolf or a bear, and long, sharp claws.”

"Have you seen these beasts with your own eyes?" The Goddess asks.

"I've seen them from afar after they catch a slave... I've never seen them up close."

"Godmother, if this beast is still on the loose it can affect the level of production, we could stay to hunt the beasts and in return Mr. Filthy could teach me about the aura... what do you think Mr. Filthy?" The princess asks.

Filthy Rich bows to the princess and the goddess. “Any help to fix this is greatly appreciated. Sun, as chief foreman it will be your duty to provide any necessities that our guests need”.

"As you order sir."

The princess approaches Sunset. "I hope we can work well together." She tells him with a smile.

"Me too princess." She replied as she bowed. Then Sunset noticed that the princess was looking at her intently. "Has something happened to you princess?"

"No...I'm just curious...why do you have your head covered?"

"I and other slaves had to go into the caves that have toxic minerals."

"Why? isn't that dangerous?"

“Yes, it is dangerous but it is our job, we are also looking at the possibility that the beasts are hiding in those caves. Please understand".

The princess makes a sad look. "I understand... please be careful, you're still a girl."

"Princess... it's been years since I stopped being a girl."

---

When Sunset returned to the cave where she was resting, she saw Velvet very worried.

"Is something wrong?"

"Your Majesty... I heard that the princess Mi Amore Cadenza came to the mines."

"Yes, I just saw it, Filthy wanted me to show her the mines."

“Your Majesty… she knew the other you… the two of you were close friends. Did she not recognize you? truth?".

“Who would have thought that the universe has a sense of humor? don't worry, I had my head covered because I had to get out of the 'dangerous tunnels'”

"Did you know the princess in her world?"

"Yes". Sunset replies bitterly. "Even though we weren't exactly friends with her...I hated her...at first I hated her because she was given something that she had to win...something that I wanted to have."

"Don't you hate her anymore?"

"Not anymore. I realized that it wasn't her fault that they gave her that gift... we didn't become friends but I stopped being ostile with her... What else can you tell me about the princess?

"She is that she is the King Sombra niece and his heiress."

“His heir to her? Does the king have no sons?

"It was a pact he had with the previous king... the mother of the princess was not fit for the throne and Sombra, who was more fit despite being the youngest of the brothers, asked his father to give him the throne." . Sombra became king but to avoid a civil war between the brothers an oath was made that his niece would be the next in line of succession.”

"Would you say that the princess is fit to inherit the throne...?"

"Yes"

“Call Shining and Flash. I'll need those two to check something."

“What does she plan to do, Your Majesty?”

---

That same night Sunset was together with some guards and slaves who were watching the surroundings.

"Amazing! The imperial princess herself and one of the great goddesses will help us!” Said a guard.

"I hope the rumors about the goddess Chrysalis are false." Said another guard.

That got Sunset's attention. "What kind of rumours?" Sunset Question

They say that wherever the goddess Chrysalis goes, some children always disappear. The guard whispered to him.

“Children disappearing?”

“It turns out that the goddess and the princess have been traveling together with the excuse that the princess is studying for when she ascends the throne. But wherever they go the princess always brings a child or two to the goddess, and those children are never seen again...”

"The beast!!! The beast is attacking!!!” The mine bells rang loudly as the guards raised the alarm.

The mine guards can see two of the beasts darting through the more open area of the mine. The beasts are too agile when moving since they could easily dodge the guards but at that moment the princess appeared carrying a halberd to attack the beasts. The beasts go towards the princess but instead of attacking her they dodge her to be able to surround her, the princess makes a move to attack one of the beasts tearing open the animal's abdomen, appearing to seriously injure it as she sheds too much blood, but the beasts manage to escape from her.

“Princess! Alright?!" one of the guards asks.

"I'm fine, one of the beasts is wounded, we have to follow the trail of blood."

After a long time while the princess and the guards followed the trail of blood, Cadance noticed something strange. “How long have we been following the trail of blood?”

"Like an hour princess." A guard answers.

“The wound that the animal has must have caused the animal to bleed to death and because of the trail of blood it left on the road, it must have already died... what kind of animal is it?”

---

The beasts managed to hide from their pursuers but then they noticed that someone else was inside the hiding place.

"They did a great job with all that ruckus they caused." Said the intruder who turned out to be Sunset.

"What did you want to accomplish by ordering us to make all that ruckus?" One of the beasts removes its false head revealing itself to be Flash Sentry.

"I wanted to know how competent the princess was... Shining, are you hurt?"

The second beast removes its disguise revealing itself to be Shining Armor. “I'm fine, Your Majesty, the blood bag I was carrying with me just got pierced. I wanted to try to get another slave by pretending that the beast killed him."

"It doesn't matter anymore, with the princess and the goddess we run the risk of being discovered."

"We'll have to be more careful." Flash said.

“Not only will we have to be more careful... we will have to advance the plan. It's time for us to get out of here."

"Should we get out of here...? That means...?"

Sunset smiles. "Yes, gather all the foremen, we start the escape plan".