A lot more gore and death! Also rape towards the end but it's only briefly mentioned and not explicit

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The tunnels seemed never-ending. After clearing out one cave, Hongjoong's orb already alerted them to the next. For hours, they chased through what felt like the entirety of the orkish marches, just below the earth. They freed elves, sent them out with their allies, and kept going, but there was just so much more still to go. Sometime in between, they emerged through a different fort to catch a breath of fresh air and have a meal, since it became impossible to go on.

Morana's eyes looked more and more blocked off as time passed. She was furious with the agony the elves went through and Seonghwa worried that the trauma might be destroying something inside her, even if she didn't remember meeting the orcs once as a baby. But when he gently nudged his arm into her side during their break to ask her with his eyes whether she was fine, the girl huffed an annoyed breath.

"I don't understand what happened here. Why are they doing this? Is this what Thistle came from? Orcs using elves as breeding cattle?" She ranted, and the others fell quiet to listen to her, supporting each other on their journey through this purgatory. They would remember these images for their entire lives, but the satisfaction of freeing the elves outweighed their revolt.

Seonghwa hated how he had to describe the situation to his daughter. She was often more violent than an elf, sought fights and arguments and adrenaline. But she was deeply disturbed by the brutality of the orcs. It was part of her history just as much.

"They always did, but after the war, they took many more than we managed to save. Goblins molest even their own parents. We have to get out everyone we can, so they may recover," San explained. He and his people had been trying to shelter as many elves as possible after the war, but most were taken away while the earth still recovered from the shock of the dragon roaming free. In the aftermath, and with their homes destroyed, too many elves had been sold as slaves or picked off their unsafe hideouts.

"Why are they like that? So cruel?" Morana demanded to know since she knew her father, knew how much more monstrous his appearance became, but he was still gentle, still himself.

Such was the upsetting spectrum of morals.

But with the orcs, it wasn't even that.

"They prefer to follow their animalistic instincts. Breed whatever they want to breed, eat without a care for the world around them. They wish no friendship, love or education. In that regard, orcs are more like animals than people, even if they could learn to talk. We were so surprised about Thistle since it's rare for goblins to do it any different," Yeosang added and Morana frowned at the ground, frustrated at the lack of reason behind their behaviour.

And there was no logic to it. Just greed.

"You must endure, princess. Many of those elves may yet return to their lives. That's what we are here for," Yunho tried to build her up, patting her back with a gentle hand, but Morana continued her brooding while they finished their meal and until they made it back inside.

They found more sleeping quarters and freed the elves there, taking along all the extra keys that might serve different purposes. For a while, it was fine, and they almost got used to it.

Until Morana lifted her head into the air and froze in her tracks. Once the others halted and Jongho spread out to a wall to block off the tunnel behind them in case danger was coming, she glowered down the path at their left.

"I smell blood."

They didn't linger. Hasty steps carried them towards the source of the scent, since the orcs wouldn't be bleeding from the gas. Weapons drawn, they rushed into the next room and Seonghwa once more almost passed out when he realised what they found.

The infirmary the elf had mentioned, or perhaps, a torture chamber.

The scent of blood was thick in the air here, making Seonghwa nauseous. But the sights were worse, since this was the place where the orcs used their little medical skill to treat hurt elves and amputate their limbs to become defenceless like those pitiful souls the family had found before.

Blood splattered the ground and cave walls, seeping into dark spots. The wooden tables were drenched in all colours of elven blood, from black to white until the material seemed to be equal parts blood holding it together. Rusty iron cuffs were fastened to it, keeping the bodies in place.

Their utensils were crude rusty saws, some from metal, some from bone. Seonghwa spotted a massive butcher blade, easily enough to cut through an elf's delicate bones.

The only thing that greeted them in this room was death.

There had been three victims currently in treatment. The orcs had collapsed mid-cut, leaving them to bleed out miserably. A pile of discarded bodies in a cart in the back admitted how often these procedures didn't go as planned. Countless lone arms and legs were strewn about.

It was sickening, and Seonghwa couldn't approach. He had to lean against the wall when his knees felt weak below him, and San sacrificed himself to go in with Jongho to see if anyone could be saved.

Yunho and Yeosang looked deathly ill by Seonghwa's sides and Wooyoung had taken some distance with Hongjoong. So it was on Morana to clench her teeth and pace in the entrance while they waited.

"They probably wouldn't have made it anyway," she muttered to herself, hoping to justify their coming too late. Their guilt in dooming those souls. And she was right. Without arms, legs, eyes, and tongues, the survivors of these operations would need intensive care and might never be the same again, even if they survived. Everything was taken from them until they could only breathe and be used for breeding. They might feel as if all identity was lost to them. If they hadn't gone insane long ago already.

"It was a fault on our part. But it doesn't look as if the orcs rarely succeed in treating such wounds either way," Seonghwa got out, feeling his stomach cramping around his meal. He experienced the phantom pain of their wounds, as if the anguish of their lingering souls could still connect with him and burn in his shoulders and thighs. There was no ointment here, no magic since the orcs were dull towards it. Only pain and hellish pleasure until the elves couldn't tell them apart anymore.

Seonghwa had to close his eyes and distance himself from it. Not think about how he would have known people who ended up here. How he himself or his family could have been here. It was too much.

When San returned with hasty steps, Seonghwa was all too ready to leave.

"Jongho offered to bury their remains. We can erect a monument, but it's impossible to identify all the corpses. Some have been... violated or gnawed on after death," San said, his strong arm supporting Seonghwa to get some distance from the scene. The visions haunted the elf.

"It's for the best... We can't retrieve all the bodies, but they deserve peace," the elf sniffled, tears coming after the shock and no one could soothe him. They shared the pain of all those who suffered here under the rough hands of the orcs, dying in fear and pain.

Elves were no matches for the massive brutes. And the orcs knew that. Hunting them for sport and pleasure, never out of need.

"I'll send their souls on their way," Hongjoong said, also pale but not as bad as Wooyoung, who had taken to his drinking horn and was trying to purge the vision from his brain before it could settle. Seonghwa wished he would slow down, but he couldn't blame him.

"Thank you," Seonghwa muttered as the two went to work, collapsing the end of the tunnel behind them to smother all remaining suffering. Hongjoong wove his spells, his magic coiling around invisible souls until they moved on through the earth to find their freedom. Seonghwa would visit the spire later, find their necromancers and pay his respects to the spirits of his dead.

But they were still not finished. After a brief break to catch their breaths, they marched on, haunted agonised faces without eyes. They stumbled through the tunnels, unconcentrated and disturbed, until muffled cries in the distance once more directed their path. These sounded different. More taunting, mischievous perhaps. They were snickers and howls, the occasional pleasured grunt.

Something was still alive down there, and it was having too much fun to be a prisoner.

"Goblins," Hongjoong guessed and his cane materialised in his hand, ready to point all the excess energy of his rage right at them.

"We must be close to their breeding rooms. Let's be swift," San told them, and his steely resolve kept them going. His rage was cold, his need to protect stronger than ever. When he led them, the rest rushed in with him.

The goblins came in a whole horde, easily amounting to the most populated race in their empire because of these very caves. A few dozen of them found one of the discarded breeding rooms, elves still strung up while the orcs were out cold and wouldn't shoo them off to claim the elves for themselves. Using the opportunity, the goblins had crawled all over the elves, thrusting themselves into every hole they could find or tormenting them with sharp claws. The female goblins were none the better, either enjoying the helpless reactions of the male elves or scratching the chests of the women bloody playing with them.

San rushed into them with his wings flared as soon as the cave allowed him to. His white-hot fury struck down with scary precision, halving goblins while leaving the elves in their grasp entirely unharmed.

Morana als ran in with her axe, her need to kill taking over as she yelled like a dragon when she chopped down on the vicious abusers. Hongjoong helped out here and there, but he mostly used his cane to stab the goblins with, conserving his energy. As Yunho helped them clear out the brood, the rest followed behind to aid the tormented elves. Jongho broke their chains and Yeosang helped them onto the ground while Wooyoung kicked off any stragglers, digging his much bigger talons into them as revenge.

The elves might be used to the treatment, but they were weeping now that they felt Seonghwa's soul, realised who came to their aid. One by one, they could assemble away from the corpses, huddling close together to come to their senses as Seonghwa handed out some sage to them, infused with the magic of the nymphs to ease all pains momentarily. Chewing distracted them until they calmed from their quivering.

The noise of combat soon died down. The goblins had come unarmed and their bodies now littered the ground. Green blood splattered San's gleaming armour and wings, but he sported a look of grim satisfaction. They made sure all the goblins were dead while Wooyoung arranged their pick up at the nearest exit.

But a sudden thundering startled everyone in the room. Seonghwa flinched, detecting no immediate danger. Too loud to be overlooked.

Something crashed and thudded, but it wasn't the skies sharing their rage. The noise came from further down the tunnel, where an iron gate divided this part of the labyrinth from whatever had higher priority, since there had been no gates even up to the forts since the ramparts were a death trap in themselves.

Another bang, as if something massive was throwing itself against the barrier. It was too far to see, but San immediately backed away, blade directed at the thundering noise. Something huge was moving down here, and the gas hadn't been able to knock it out.

"Out, now," Hongjoong hissed at the elves and they scrambled towards the exit in fear, leaving the family to crowd together in a tight ball with Seonghwa in their midst. The crashing got louder and louder, iron screeching and the earth shaking around them as if a titan stomped overhead.

Seonghwa clutched his spear tightly.

This would be the last part of the labyrinth where their chieftains got entertained. Their treasures guarded extra well.

No turning back now.