136. The Castle (II)

The castle was unusually large inside. Every twist and turn the group made, they were introduced with another. What was weirder was that there were barely any doors that they could go through, but instead, they were given many split pathways that they had to choose.

“I get the feeling we are stuck in a maze,” Dairen said. He was touching the walls.

“I had the same feeling after we made a few right turns and didn’t make it back to where we started.” Mike agreed with Dairen’s words. He knocked against a few other walls to see if they were a hidden pathway, hoping that he would find the answer, but instead.

“Have you guys noticed that we are missing quite a few people?” Snow said. It wasn’t until she had been told that did they all glanced around, trying to figure out who was missing or not.

It took a few moments, but they were able to tally the number of people that were gone.

“We lost fifty people already,” Dairen said. “How did we lose so many so quickly?”

“I don’t know, but I like this castle less and less.” Snow, who had been using her magic to feel around, could tell that the castle was alive. She could see the hectic magic squiggling around in the wall like worms. If she didn’t know any better, she would think that they were inside the stomach of a monster.

“Everybody, double up!” Mike motioned his hand over his head, “I’m going to need you guys to keep track of your buddy. If you find them gone or missing, I need you to tell me.”

The guild member mumbled, worrying about what was going on. They never had such a thing happen before, especially because many of them were confident of surviving in the harshest of environments and were becoming veteran dungeon divers.

“Did you check their names on the guild?” Mike hurriedly asked as the panic in his voice was cracking through.

“Yea, I’m doing it now,” said Dairen. “So far, everyone is alive and active.”

A large sigh of relief escaped Mike’s lip. He didn’t want any of them to die.

“This doesn’t make any sense, how did they just up and disappear?”

“There is magic running through this castle.” Snow answered, “I don’t know how strong the owner of this castle is, but it seems that it is definitely stronger than me or is a different type of magic that I don’t know about.”

The thought of something magically stronger than Snow was worrisome. Most of the monsters that they have faced weren't as powerful magically as Snow and only on rare occasions were they strong enough to at least contend with her, but even then, they would be quickly subdued by her teammates without any problems.

“It could be an illusion type of magic.”

“Possibly.”

“Where is Jacob?” asked Mike, he searched for the familiar scared player that was always huddled behind a few of their loud and boisterous players.

“Over here.” Angie pulled him out from the crowd, fighting a bit to get out of her grasp. She had to threaten him in his ear to make him stop fighting so hard.

“Jacob,” said Mike. He surrounded him, looking at him with crossed arms.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Yes?” Jacob squeaked.

“We need more information about this castle. You have been through all of this.” Mike waved his hand around him, emphasizing the word all of this.

“I...don’t remember everything.”

“What? How?”Mike thundered.

Jacob cringed even further, becoming smaller in size for fear of being eaten alive by Mike’s heated glare.

“I was s-s-scared the whole time.” Jacob stuttered. “Everything is in bits and pieces.”

Snow walked over, she placed her hand on his shoulder. Jacob flinched from the sudden contact. He snapped towards her direction, ready to bolt.

“Let’s start it slow.” Snow tried to direct the nervous energy away. She patted him gently to calm his nerves, and her light energy swept around him, bringing along with it a peacefulness that she unconsciously summoned.

The others saw what she was trying to do. They stayed silent, waiting for some answer. It took a moment for Jacob to calm down. His breath became steady, and his mind a bit more clearer than before.

Gazing up at Snow, he thanked her silently. Opening his mouth, he tried to say a few words but was stopped for a brief moment. He coughed, clearing away the spit that smeared on the side of his lips.

“I-I’m sorry.” Jacob was finally able to say a few words. “It’s just everything seems to happen again, the same way it happened last time.”

“What do you mean?”

Jacob squirmed, he shifted uncomfortably. “It happens every day when the sun sinks further into the ground. We would walk for hours, losing people one-by-one. Nobody knew where they had disappeared off to, but they were gone. It took a while for us to be able to get out of the maze.”

Snow paid close attention. She felt like there was a clue somewhere, but she didn’t quite know what. A few times, when her hands felt a bit hot, but just as quickly as it came, it disappeared.

“When the night falls…” Jacob shuddered, his snapped towards the side, where the window was open with light.

Snow didn’t realize that the sun was setting, and they were stuck inside the castle for long

periods.

“It’s going to start.” Jacob had cryptically.

“What is?” Dairen asked.

“Our nightmares are going to come true!” Jacob panicked, throwing his hand in the air. He smacked Snow in the face, causing her to lurch back. Everything went white as Snow tried to find her footing. She didn’t expect to get hit so violently in the face that she lost her balance.

She felt arms, slunk under her armpit, holding her in place. The pitter-patter of the madness of Jacob screams dissipated into the hallway.

“Don’t chase him!” Mike ordered in a hurry. A few of the guild members started to chase him down but were abruptly stopped.

“Why?” One of them called out.

“Because the idiot wants to die. Let him go. If we sprint off and get lost, we will not be able to find you.”

Everyone understood what Mike was trying to say. They were being picked off one-by-one, and they didn’t realize how. Breaking apart any further was going to make this an even more difficult journey, mostly because they would have less and less people to fight alongside with them.

So far, they had a run-in with at least three groups of metal gargoyles, which they didn’t have too many difficulties dispatching. But what would happen if the gargoyles kept coming? The number of people to fight them was shrinking as there were less of their teammates.

“Are we not going to save him?”

“We will. Just we’ll go at a steady pace.” Mike reassured his guildmate of what he was going to do. He glanced at Dairen, waiting for his answer.

Dairen acknowledged him, he had Snow in his arms. A swirl of dark energy slipped out of his shadows, summoning up a handful of skeletal minions that were humanoids.

The skeletons dashed off after Jacob, leaving the crowd a bit more settled. The panic in Jacob’s voice had put many of them on edge, wondering what this so-called danger was that it was supposed to be coming at night.

Snow stabilized herself, blinking a few times. Thanking Dairen, she started to follow in the direction that Jacob had left.

The whole guild members went with her, carefully watching for any suspicious movements. It was a tense moment, but when nothing transpired, everyone became slightly more relaxed.

Hours passed, and the skeleton’s that Dairen had summoned had not returned. The night started to set, bringing with it darkness. Only the moonlight bounced back into the hallway, casting its blue light.

“Let’s set up for the night.” Mike rounded up everyone.

People started to settle down, pulling out their sleeping bags and food. Some even made their dinner, making the others around them hungry.

Even Snow, who was on edge, couldn’t stave away her hunger. She walked over towards the wall, a bit away from the side of the group. Sitting down, she started to summon up some magical tools to cook food for the night.

It was a simple dinner of reheated soup and bread.

Dairen, Mike, and Angie came over and sat around, bringing out a few things. They settled with a sandwich, which they gobbled down quickly from their ravenous hunger. Not once did they stop to take a full rest until now, and they didn’t realize how hungry they were.

“Where do you think Jacob has run off too?” Angie asked if she was munching on her bologna sandwich.

“I don’t know, but that bastard probably knows how to get out of this shit hole,” Mike growled, he was pissed that Jacob had run off and left them behind. “Any luck on his location?”

“No.” Dairen took a bite out of his beef jerky in one hand and took a deep gulp of water on the other. “It’s a bit strange.”

“What is?”

“I feel like my minions are running around in a circle?”

“That could explain a lot of things on why we are trapped,” Mike said. “But getting out of this endless loop is another problem. Have any of you noticed anything?”

Nobody answered.

“Well, I had to ask.” Mike slumped back onto the wall.

“There might be something.” Snow pointed out. She wasn’t sure herself, but she did find a few peculiar things during the whole chase.