The temple was dark, and it only became darker as they ventured further inside and the light from the city outside slowly faded away. The only source of illumination coming from the group were the light sources some of them were carrying.

While Claine and Masse both had flashlights shining at both the front and the back of the party, the other Foxes were carrying lit lamps. On top of that, Kara had cracked open a glow stick and was waving it around, providing a small addition to the combined visibility, even if not by much.

The walls were dripping with water at certain points, occasionally providing a different sight to the stones that lined the walls, as all of them looked completely identical to one another, having the same size and shape with no distinction to set one apart from the other.

For the next few minutes, the group walked through the corridor, enclosed by the same walls that seemed to stretch on forever without widening or narrowing at any single point. It was just one long continuous path.

“So.”

And so, with nothing better to do, Kara slowed down to let the other Foxes overtake her before she sidled up to Dauma as soon as she had the chance, starting up a conversation almost immediately amidst the quietness of the others.

“Have been meaning to tell you, I heard the whole thing between you and Miss An. It’s truly tough, having a lover’s dispute. You have my sympathy.”

“What? How did you…”

“Please,” she amusedly scoffed, “even if I wasn’t spying on you—not that I did, because who would do such a thing like that, obviously—I’m pretty sure everyone could hear it, especially with how loud you two were screaming. Even Teach heard it, and he didn’t even want to.”

“Oh, great,” he groaned and covered his face with one hand, “listen, just forget what we both said, alright? It’s over now, anyway.”

“Nope!”

Great.

“Look,” he sighed, “I don’t know where we’re at right now. I don’t even know what she wants to do. But, as long as we can both understand each other, I think we’ll be fine.”

“Uh huh, uh huh. Say, why didn’t you use my method to convince her again? Worked well last time.”

“I am NOT lying to her or tricking her.”

“Yeah, let me know how that works out for you in the long run. Byeeeee!”

With that, she gave a farewell gesture and hopped to the front of the group again.

…forget being crazy, she’s just evil.

“Hold.”

Suddenly, Claine stopped and raised his hand, signaling the entire group to stop as well, and Dauma quickly halted before he would face-plant into the Fox in front of him.

They had stopped just in front of a doorway at the end of the long corridor, which opened up to a room that was bigger and wider than the space they were currently in. Claine had already taken one step into the room, but he had quickly retreated and stopped behind the doorway.

“Matty, can you confirm?”

“…”

Matty nodded and stepped forward just before the doorway as well, before immediately moving his head to look in all directions of the room in front of him, from top to bottom and then from left to right.

Eventually, he relayed a familiar word to Claine.

“Birds.”

“Thank you, Matty. We know what to do now.”

After rubbing the boy’s head, he turned and faced the group behind him.

“Listen up. We have some mockingbeasts in the next room ahead. Everyone takes a mask from Kara. We’ll sneak past them.”

“Yup,” Kara beamed as she set down her enormous backpack, “everyone gather round!”

One by one, the other Foxes walked forward to retrieve what appeared to be plastic face masks that covered their noses and mouths, take off their Fox masks, and equip them, with Claine helping Matty to put his on.

“Hmph,” Masse rudely remarked as he pushed past Dauma just as he was moving forward to get one, “I don’t think the devil and the spirit need them. It’ll be a waste. They know how to hold their breath just fine. They probably don’t even need to breathe anyway.”

“That… is true. You’ll be fine right, Mister Dau and Miss Yuu?”

“I… believe so.”

Yuu gave a low thumbs up.

“Umm, forgive me for asking, chief, but… wouldn’t it be easier if we sent the devil and the spirit to kill all the mockingbeasts before we continue?” one of the Foxes suddenly suggested.

“Hmm, I think that’s a great idea,” Masse eagerly backed him up, “after all, what’s the reason we brought these two inside other than to help us easily move forward, huh?”

The other Foxes began murmuring as well, and Kara even seemed to ponder the possibility herself. However, Claine shook his head.

“It’s too risky. Besides, this is not the place where we need them anyway, so it’s better to save them for now,” he spoke behind his mask.

In response, the Foxes silently groaned, and Masse clicked his tongue in disappointment.

“Come on, enough stalling. Let’s move,” Claine continued, “remember, try to take deep breaths. The more breaths you take, the more they might sense your presence. Be careful.”

Everyone nodded, and they entered the large room, one person at a time, making slow yet wide steps, covering as much ground as possible until they reached the corridor on the opposite end.

“…”

The room was much larger than Dauma had expected. It seemed to have been some grand dining hall in the past, as he walked past large tables and fancy-looking chairs with wooden mugs and scattered objects that he presumed were some forms of ancient cutlery.

The hall stretched horizontally at both sides to his left and right, and the farthest tables on either side could barely be seen, giving him a sense of just how big the room was from a normal person’s perspective.

For a place that was called a ‘temple’, this certainly was not the kind of room one would expect to find inside it. It felt more like a room fit for the mansion they were in earlier, or a palace for wealthy lords.

Although maybe the size of the room was dependent on the number of people who came to this temple. That would make sense…

Still slightly amazed by the extravagance of the hall, he absentmindedly looked up, expecting to see some kind of grand ceiling decorations to complete the look of the room.

“…”

That was when he saw them.

While there were indeed some kind of spherical hanging things that seemed to be the decorations, he could not see what they were supposed to be.

“Rustle, rustle.”

They were completely covered by mockingbeasts. Swarming around the spheres like a group of moths covering a light, they shifted around, ruffling their feathers and shaking their wings, scuttering to and fro, occasionally walking over their fellow brethren, which earned a bite or two from their sharp beaks.

What the hell…

It was a terrifying sight, knowing what they were capable of, but their idle movements and actions made them turn into something unpleasant to watch as well.

As far as the group could see, they were being dormant. Some looked down towards them as they continued to pass through the hall, but quickly turned their attention back to listlessly moving around their resting places.

The scene was tense. No one dared to speak, and even though the masks did permit them to breathe sparingly, they did not dare to take a breath either.

As their body oxygen levels began to run out, the Foxes quickly elected to take faster and further steps than before, all so they could get out of the room as soon as possible.

“Hey, wait…” Claine audibly whispered before covering his mouth again, but the Foxes had already gone past him and were reaching the doorway on the opposite end.

“Phew!”

One of the Foxes had made it, and as soon as he had walked a significant distance into the corridor and apparently decided he was safe, he took a deep breath and let out a long exhale, before turning back toward the rest of the group and giving an okay sign.

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“H…help…”

Yuu had sensed it first before the cry, as she quickly grabbed onto Dauma’s shoulder and pointed at the Fox.

As soon as the cry was heard, the rest noticed it too, including the Fox, who had immediately turned around to confront the beast.

However, it was already too late for him to attack at that point. Before he could even retrieve his weapon, the ‘person’ had leapt out of the shadows and pinned him down with immense strength.

“Agh… gah…”

He futilely struggled to move as it slowly snarled and opened its mouth full of its sharp teeth, moving closer and closer to his head with each second.

“Damn it, not again!” Claine swore, completely ignoring the other elephants in the room as he rushed in without a second thought, raised his rifle, and took aim at the ‘person’.

“Bang!”

A shot was fired, quickly striking its chest, and launching it back and away from the helpless Fox, where it convulsed in pain and howled.

“Help me! Help me!”

However, the shot did not come from Claine’s rifle.

“…”

Casually flipping his smoking rifle, Masse had a smug expression on his face as he watched the ‘person’ writhe in agony.

“…good work, general,” Claine slowly mumbled as he lowered his rifle.

Now that the present threat had been taken care of for now, the group hurriedly joined up with the attacked Fox, who was already recovering from the experience and was now sitting up against the wall, catching his breath.

A quick check by Kara revealed he was still in shock, but largely unhurt, eliciting a quiet sigh of relief by her and the other Foxes. On the other hand, Claine and Masse were not pleased.

“You need to look out for yourself. We can’t always be quick to respond.”

“Yes, chief…” the Fox guiltily replied.

“Help! Help me!”

At the same time, the ‘person’ was still screeching loudly and painfully. The shot appeared to not be fatal, as it was taking an absurdly long time for it to die.

“…I think we should end his misery, I’m kind of getting sick of hearing this,” Kara remarked as she stood up and began rummaging through her backpack.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do it—”

“No,” Masse interrupted Claine before he could move towards it, “I think the spirit girl should do it.”

“…?”

Yuu flinched at the tone of his voice as she looked at him, then to the dying ‘person’, then back to him again, her face puzzled.

“Yes, you,” he confirmed as he pointed at her, “since you’re such an expert on killing these things, I trust that you can do the same here.”

“…”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Get on with it! Show us again!”

“Keep it down, general,” Claine warned, “we’re still in the danger zone.”

“It’s alright, she knows what my request is already, she’ll carry it out if she’s capable,” he retorted as he crossed his arms and stared at her, waiting.

“Hey…”

“You have something to say now, devil? Are you volunteering, perhaps? Or are you just going to stand there again, acting like a half-assed piece of shit?”

“Leave him alone.”

“…no, it’s alright,” Dauma responded, looking away from his haughty glare, “I’ll do it.”

He turned and slowly walked towards the ‘person’ convulsing on the ground.

It’s fine, he’s going to die anyway, might as well ease his suffering…

In just a few seconds, he had created his sword, which caused everyone to instinctively draw out their weapons except for Yuu and Kara, and plunged it into its head before deactivating it again.

Gradually, the screams and movements ceased, leading to a peaceful silence once again.

“Hm.”

Masse sniffed as he put down his rifle.

“Guess you are good for something after all.”

“…”

Dauma looked at him with slight irritation but did not respond.

“Alright, enough distractions. We don’t have much time, so let’s keep moving,” Claine quickly cut in as he stood up again and stretched a little before walking down the corridor, forcing everyone, the attacked Fox included, to rush to catch up to him.

With that, the journey continued further into the mysterious temple.

**********************

“I need to ask you a question.”

“Oh? That’s a surprise. Never thought you would be the type for it, ue he he.”

After walking for approximately thirty more minutes, during which the path had slowly begun to go downwards, the group had reached one of the traps labeled on the diagram.

It looked like an open spike trap that covered the entire floor in front of them and continued for a few meters down the corridor.

It seemed like it would have been a hard trap to get past, but the Foxes had already solved it, as there was a small pathway on the left that the group could walk on without the certain danger of falling and getting impaled.

One by one, the group slowly walked sideways on the pathway, trying not to think about the possibility.

Seizing the opportunity, Dauma quickly moved over to the space beside Kara, and as they crossed together, they began to hold another whispered conversation with each other.

“I’m serious.”

“Sorry. What is your question?”

“Masse. He seems to be targeting me and Yuu. I would understand a general disliking, but I think he genuinely wants both of us dead. Since you know so much about everything, what do you know about him?”

In response, Kara paused and leaned her head out, looking back at Masse, who was still looking straight at him even as he was standing at the back, waiting for the other Foxes to cross the pathway before doing it himself.

“Sorry, Mister Dau,” she shrugged, “I may be curious, but I’m not the type of person to dig into tragic backstories. Not my style.”

“So… something did happen?”

Kara sarcastically sighed before smirking at him.

“Mister Dau. Remember when I said the Foxes all had one foot in the grave?”

“Yes.”

“Connect the dots,” she remarked, “people aren’t usually that determined unless they have nothing to lose, and they’ve usually lost plenty before that. It’s a simple answer of motivation.”

“Wait… does that mean you…”

“Like I said, not my style.”

“But…”

“…”

As she stopped talking and focused back on crossing the spike pit, his question was left hanging, and he made the choice to not bring it up again for now.

However, he did look back at Masse more frequently than before, making intentional eye contact with him. In response, it prompted a much angrier glare back at him.

What exactly did you lose, Masse?

**********************

“There. That’s the one.”

After another hour of going further down and crossing two more traps that were already beaten, Claine pointed at something in the distant darkness.

“ZZZZZZZZZZZZ…”

Before they could make it out, they could feel and hear it. They could feel the soft rumbling of the ground. They could hear the loud snoring and breathing. And finally, after a while, they could see it in full as the lights shined on it.

It was a greyish-white, boulder-shaped, gigantic creature that blocked their path ahead.

It could have easily been confused for a giant rock if not for the rising and falling movements of its body as it breathed, and its closed eyes that involuntarily flinched as the lights shone on it.

Strangely, even though it did not look like it had a mouth anywhere on it, they could still hear it sleeping, loud and clear as day.

“ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…”

That’s it?

Despite its size being as big as the corridor, it did not seem like much of a threat at all to Dauma. It appeared to have no limbs to grab onto things or a mouth to feed on them, there were no bloodstains or body parts littered around it, and its expression, for lack of a better word, looked docile.

The only way that he could see it actually killing someone, if it did, would most likely be if it crushed them, but once again, any signs of death around it were visibly non-existent.

“ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…”

“This bastard’s been blocking our way in from the start, and we can’t do anything about it,” Masse growled as he stepped forward and, without warning, fired at it.

“Ping!”

“ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…”

The bullet effortlessly bounced off the creature like butter. It did not seem to be fazed by it either as it continued to sleep peacefully, unaware that an angry human had just tried to shoot it.

“As you can see, nothing we have done can hurt it. So, do what you need to do to get rid of it, or we’ll be stuck at this point forever,” he ordered as he looked at Yuu.

“…I could use my sword…”

“No,” Claine immediately shot Dauma’s idea down, “we’re not killing it. We’re simply going to tell it to move, and if Kara’s prediction is correct…”

“Of course they are, ue he he.”

“…then the spirit girl should be able to tell it to do so by… connecting with its soul, if I’m using the term correctly.”

Yuu lowered her head in thought, but Dauma responded first.

“Hang on. That seems a bit out of the blue, doesn’t it? How is that a certainty? I don’t think we know what she’s capable of, let alone her.”

“You got a better idea for us, devil?”

“I… I…”

“Exactly the same type of response as Miss An, I see,” Kara noted with interest, “perhaps she is growing on you.”

“But…”

“…it’s fine. I’ll try it.”

Without anyone noticing, Yuu was already standing beside him, reassuringly whispering in his ear, before taking a step back and nodding to Claine and Masse.

“You see? She’s completely fine with it,” Masse sneered as she walked slowly and cautiously toward the creature.

“…”

As soon as she was directly in front of it, she silently placed her hand on its shifting body and closed her eyes.

“…”

“…”

“…”

The Foxes all trained their rifles on her, while the others watched. No one said a word as they waited for the next action from either her or the creature.

“ZZZZZZZZZZZ…?”

The snoring stopped. The rumbling, which had been just occasional minor tremors at that point, now grew stronger and more frequent, almost as though an earthquake was going through the entire temple.

Did it… work?

The creature was now shaking intensely. With that, Yuu quickly opened her eyes, took her hand off and stepped back.

“MMMMMMMMMMM…”

The snoring had been replaced by a low droning sound, and the ground shook even more violently now.

“It’s happening…” he heard someone behind him gasp in sudden amazement.

However, as he looked back, he saw that it was not Kara who had said it. It was Masse, with a strangely excited look in his eyes that he had never seen before.

In front of them, the two small eyes that belonged to the creature opened and repeatedly blinked as it made eye contact with them.

“MMMMMMMMMM…”

“That’s it…”

It was awake now, and ready to move.

“Spirit girl,” Claine shouted amidst the loud noises being generated by its movements, “tell it to move away.”

However, there was no need for that order to be carried out.

“MMMMMMMMMMMM…”

The creature’s eyes quickly darted to the left and stayed there, as though it had just noticed something, and with rapid vibrations from its body, it began pushing against the stone wall.

Against its massive size, even the sturdy structure could not withstand its force, and it crumbled to bits in just a matter of seconds, allowing it to begin moving into the new hole it had just created.

“MMMMMMMMM…”

With its low droning noise persisting above the crumbling and soon after digging noises, it slid inside with ease, its massive body moving away from the corridor as it continued to tunnel towards its unknown destination.

“MMMmmmmm…”

As the noises subsided, everyone stood silently for a few moments before they began walking towards Yuu.

“Good work.”

Surprisingly, out of everyone, the first person to step forward and compliment her was not Dauma, Claine or Kara. It was Masse again, with a strangely awkward warm smile on his face.

“…”

Naturally, Yuu stepped away from him. He paused for a second before shrugging and continuing to walk further down the corridor, his steps noticeably quicker than before.

That… doesn’t seem right. Not at all.

Coupled with Kara’s vague answer earlier, his actions, which had been uncharacteristically different from the ones he had shown to him so far, only made Dauma even more suspicious.

Maybe he’s just excited that she helped the group move forward? Or is it something else?

Either way, it was unsettling for him to see. This kind of reaction felt like it would have come more from Kara, and even she was staring silently, her mouth pursed into a slight frown.

“Tch. How dare he steal my thunder…” she muttered to herself.

…perhaps I was mistaken about him.

“Let’s go!” Masse called out, his tone eager and excited, as he walked further and further away from them, “we’re getting close, I just know it!”

“…he’s right. Let’s move,” Claine concurred as he followed.

And so, with the clearing of the obstacle that had blocked their path, and with Masse now leading, the group made their way ever closer to the ‘weapon’ at the bottom of the temple, none the wiser about what it could possibly be.