In a circular room, the group is standing around William, who is sitting down in the center of the room, in the front of a crystal from which strings of light are coming out towards the walls, and at the same time in back into the Crystal.

“Do you see her?” Tomoe asks.

William opens his eyes. Standing up, he replies “Yes, but we have an issue in our hands.”

“What is it?” Amelia asks.

“Somehow, they have been able to push through the self-defense system. There’s a trail of destruction that starts from the plains further beyond, and continues all the way until the end of the main hall.”

“What?! Do you mean that-” Tomoe starts, but she is quickly interrupted.

“They are more combat-ready than I thought.” William says “Which concerns me. These gargoyles are really tough to fight against.”

“What does that mean? The plan didn’t work?” Bran says.

“I hoped that they would, at the very least, hinder the speed of Alexander and his troops. They are already at the doors of the throne room, still being swarmed by new gargoyles and the ones that self-regenerate. We have to hurry.” William says as he puts himself beside the next dark corridor “Come on, if we want to reach them, we need to get going.”

Tomoe nodded and grabs William’s hand. Forming the entire chain again, they enter the dark corridor.

Going through two dark corridors, the group comes out in a corridor that is open to the main hall, to the side, into the wall, and elevated from the floor. When Tomoe comes out, she gives a good look to the main hall, to the plains, and sees the entire destruction of the gargoyles that have lost the capacity to self regenerate.

“That level of destruction is not normal.”

“Alexander lost only three soldiers right there.” William says.

“What do you think about that?” Lorelei asks.

“It shouldn’t be possible, not against that many gargoyles.”

“How would you know?” Bran asks.

“It wasn’t until recently that we discovered that the Grand Castle had a self-defense system. I was in a group, giving orders, when we made the mistake of activating the system. We were forty, at that time only four gargoyles found us and came to us, and even when we were superior four to one, we ended the fight with many gravely injured people, and two deaths… This is how Titania’s father passed away.”

Tomoe felt a stinger in her stomach. From the bottom of her very being, she wished that Titania was still alive, just right outside of the Grand Castle.

While Tomoe was thinking this, her mind wandered for just a moment, but it was enough to not make her notice the sound that suddenly got really close, and a half-destroyed gargoyle, still flying, went into a high-speed dive to just behind her position. Noticing it, Tomoe turns to find Lorelei right behind her, looking at the other side of the bridge. Leaping forward, Tomoe pushes Lorelei back, with all of her might. Falling into Lorelei’s position, Tomoe raises her Aura and puts a barrier, but instead of the gargoyle, she feels another strong push from behind, almost instantly, that pushes her too out of the way. The strike of the gargoyle with the corridor is really loud, and echoes alongside the main hall. The rest of the gargoyle ends up falling down.

Turning to see what happened, while the dust settles, Tomoe manages to see William laying on the floor.

“William, William!” Tomoe yells, calling for William as she comes closer and yanks him.

Putting a hand to his head, William stands up. Turning, Tomoe lets a gasp escape: William is injured, one of his eyes is gone, and blood is pouring out of it.

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“Lorelei, Bran, we need to heal him now!” Tomoe says.

William raises his hand, and puts it over Tomoe’s shoulder “We can’t. Healing me from a wound like this would take too much time. We need to save Lady Aquamarine from certain death. She is the priority.”

“But-”

“Can you even direct us through the dark corridors that are left with an injury like that? Look at you, you can’t even stand straight.” Bran says.

“I can. If we make haste, we will have no problem.”

Tomoe falls into silence. After some moments, she says “Let’s keep going. Mother may die at any moment.”

“Yes” William says, as he takes lead again. Putting himself besides William, Bran gives him help by allowing William to take support on him.

“Thank you” William says.

“Sure.” Bran says.

Crossing over three other dark corridors, William’s state starts to worsen fast. Switching places with Bran, Tomoe gives William support so he can walk straight.

Facing the next dark corridor, William says “This is the last one. On the other side, we will be alongside the area around the throne room doors.”

“Let’s enter.” Amelia says “Time is running short.”

Once in the dark corridor, having walked for some minutes, William says “Wait. Stop.”

“What’s the matter?” Tomoe says.

“Let me go for a moment.”

In the utter darkness, Tomoe lets go of William but keeps grabbing his arm with her right hand.

“Tomoe.”

“Yes?”

“We are facing a bifurcation. Left and right.”

“And one of them is the correct one.” Tomoe could hear Amelia say from behind.

“Correct.” William says “I’ll take the left. Count until ten. If I haven’t called you back until then, you will know that the right is the correct path.”

Tomoe’s heart makes a jump. Many words come towards her mouth, but her mouth didn’t move. Instead, she bites her lower lip, and said a really heavy “Thank you.”

From behind, Tomoe could hear Amelia say “Just in case, William, thanks for your service.” In a tone that is unusually heavy to hear from her.

“Yeah. I agree. For everything old man, thank you.”

Tomoe could swear that William just let a little snort escape.

“Once I let go, take one step forward. If ten seconds passes and you don’t hear anything about me… take the right.” William says. A slight silence and Tomoe can hear him adding “See you all at the other side.”

Tomoe felt how William’s arm escaped her hand. She then took a step forward and waited.

One, two, three… five… seven… nine…

… … … … … …Ten…

Tomoe takes the right, and comes at the other side of the dark corridor. Behind her, Amelia, Lorelei and Bran come out.

It was so silent. Just a moment ago he was there, and then, he was there no more. The man that was for her the closest thing she had for a father… just gone. Just like that. No fanfare, no heroic act, he was just taken by who knows what, and he will never come back.

Tomoe felt how a gaping hole just formed inside her. Even when she was still processing what just happened, her heart already understood since some tears started rolling down her cheeks. A storm contained in a droplet.

“Keep them for later. We have to go.” Bran says, putting a hand to her shoulder.

Tomoe nods, wiping her face “we… we have a more pressing matter at hand.” She says, struggling to keep her voice together as the group faces the doors of the throne room already open, and around forty gargoyles entering in it.

Alexander… You will not end this day alive… I’ll make sure of that…