At first I thought it wouldn’t be too hard to escape my pursuers in this maze of a castle. I would just have to flee around a few corners, go down a floor and then hide in a room until things had calmed down. Unluckily I had underestimated the spectres. 

They followed me through the window sooner than expected and instantly began splitting up. While most of them followed me deeper into the interior, some went to the left and right, presumably to cut off my escape path.

 Because of this I didn’t dare to deviate from my current direction for some long time. But I couldn’t continue like that for long because the spectres were steadily catching up to me, all the while shooting some kind of projectiles. Luckily I soon arrived at an area I had already been to. Knowing the layout of the rooms allowed me to plan a route that would hopefully allow me to escape the spectres. 

When the opportunity arose, I made a sharp turn left, then right into a large room with multiple exits. From what I had seen it had been some kind of meeting room with a large number of armchairs set up in small circles. But now all doors beside the one I had entered through had been blocked with them. Some of the doors had been smashed, but the armchairs were still in place.

 I crawled through the gap under one of them and exited the room. If my plan worked out, the spectres would have to either find a way around the obstacle or invest some time to disband it. Determined not to let this head start go to waste, I hurried to get as far away from the room as possible. I changed directions a few times, so they wouldn’t be able to find me easily. After finding the distance  sufficient I slowed down a bit. 

I had already left the area known to me some time ago, but I knew that the tower had to be somewhere nearby. Even though I had only seen it for a short time, I had memorized its position compared to the former flower beds pretty well. Thinking about it, I got the impression that my memory had improved since I started exploring the castle. 

Back then I had to mark the walls if I didn’t want to get lost. Now I could map out parts of the castle in my mind and even constantly remember where the tower was from my current location. Was it also the result of absorbing crystals? If they allowed me to exert more power, then they might also increase my mental capacities. 

At this point my thoughts were cut short by the sound of steps from an intersection ahead. I wasn’t too worried since steps meant it weren’t spectres, but I still turned around and hid behind a corner to wait until the enemy had passed. As expected it was a group of skeletons, sixteen altogether. But what I hadn’t expected was, what they did upon reaching the intersection. They split up into three groups, each of which went down one of the corridors.

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 This behaviour was new and very inconvenient considering my situation. I was confident in being able to win against five skeletons, but the fight would cost me time and might attract the spectres searching for me. I decided that, for now, it would be best to retreat and find a different path. And so I went back a bit and then choose a different path. But it wasn’t long until I came across other groups of skeletons. I managed to sneak past them but after the third I was seriously worried about what was happening. That’s when it struck me. 

The spectres must have ordered the skeletons to search for me. They are capable of speech, so it isn’t too far off to assume that they are able to command skeletons. Considering the tactic they used, it seems like spectres are more intelligent than I gave them credit for. I should be more careful not to underestimate my opponents.

While advancing I had to be careful not to be seen by any of the skeletons. Sometimes I hid in a room or a niche until they had passed by. Luckily the skeletons were only walking through the corridors without paying much attention to their surroundings. Most likely they were intended to intercept or at least slow me down, so the spectres could then find me in a more thorough search. But this just made it more important to leave this place as soon as possible.

It was an exhausting journey to the tower, despite the fact that the actual distance wasn’t even that large. The constant fear of being discovered took its toll on me. But there it finally was, the central tower. I entered it on the fourth flour, since I had gone up a floor on my way here. A spiral staircase in the middle of the room allowed access to the other flours.

 I was somewhat surprised a place like this wasn’t guarded, but decided that any possible guards must have been tasked with searching for me. If that was really the case it might have actually been beneficial to have been seen by the spectres. The first seven flours were littered with remains of fierce battles. After these came a few flours without anything of interest to me. Soon I ascended to the fifteenth flour. Much to my dismay this one wasn’t as empty as the previous ones. There was a spectre and it was looking right at me.