Cassio had been sprinting for a few minutes before another shade invaded the pale-blue hegemony. Tinges of sunlight crawled upon the gradually narrowing walls, and soon the exit emerged in the distance. Cassio almost stumbled from the sight of two silhouettes looming at the glowing maw of the mine.

'More blooming people?!'

Cassio slowed down, apprehensive of the figures drawn out by light. There still remained around a few dozen meters between them, so he could only state with confidence that they each possessed a long spear.

Frowning, Cassio glanced around him: the knight was still far away, apparently not yet returned to his full speed. The prospect of fighting that taciturn incarnation of the Devil seemed ludicrous and promising only the inevitable death, so Cassio carried on, approaching the exit of the mine with taut apprehension.

Soon, however, his worriers withered: no flowers bloomed from under two spearsmen's armors, and humane liveliness permeated their movement – the vigorous swings of arms were not something the flowered ones would usually do.

Then, Cassio even heard voices reverberating through the mine. A fountain of joy erupted within him, tingling the tips of his fingers and dragging the corners of his lips up. Two men noticed himself too, and the talks quieted down.

"Hey!" Cassio cried, summoning the vestiges of his strength for the last run.

While he was approaching, more and more details materialized from the sunlight: the alley stretching out behind two men, people leaving and entering the houses – and no devilish flowers or demonic vines spoiled the serene vista.

Besides the men sat two hounds, identical to those Cassio had encountered earlier, with the same enlarged and deformed skulls, but this time without blooming flowers strewing their bodies. Their eyes even glinted with a vague inkling of intelligence.

"Huh, who is this..." one of the men said.

The distance between them was eroding with each second. Twenty meters. Ten meters.

"There is a blooming bastard chasing after–"

Suddenly, Cassio slammed into the air and dropped to the ground, clutching his forehead with a low grunt. A resonant laughter boomed through the tunnel. Cassio looked up, finding one man bending and holding onto his stomach, while the other washed Cassio with a gaze betraying callous curiosity.

Cassio wobbled up to his feet and took a careful step forward, once again encountering the strange obstacle of mere air, as though an invisible wall stood before him. Having knocked on the wall a few times, he confirmed that he was not hallucinating.

"Oh, man!" the laughing man pushed out through his hysteria. "I never saw a shithead so dumb as to rush head-on into the barrier!"

With knitting brows, Cassio placed the palm on the invisible wall and put his whole weight into the push, yet his feet only slid back in the dust. Dazedly, Cassio looked at two men clad in armor – the one laughing was tall and thin like a stick, the other was constantly stroking his long beard.

"You have a peculiar tattoo on your face," said the bearded guard.

Cassio subconsciously touched his face but then hurriedly glanced over his shoulder and shouted:

"What the hell is this?! That bastard is approaching! Save me! You are the guards, right?!"

"We are!" declared the thin one, shrugging off the vestiges of his laughter. "But why help you?"

"Why?!"

"And what happened to your arm..."

Cassio's stomach twirled, but after looking at his mangled arm, Cassio almost staggered from relief: the vines didn't peek out from under the flesh, as though hiding from the curiosity of two guards.

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"The blooming bastards! This mine is full of them!"

"That's why the barrier is here," said the bearded guard, examining Cassio closely.

He then looked behind Cassio and added calmly:

"Looks like you've brought some company."

Cassio once again turned around and with a shudder observed the jogging knight, who now was no more than two hundred meters away.

"Won't you let me in?! Lift the barrier for me!"

"Why should we?" the thin guard asked with amusement.

Pleadingly, Cassio peered into the face of the other guard, but he was only stroking his beard and scrutinizing Cassio's body.

'Ah, I see...'

Cassio's mind toiled like a tenacious machine, taking in the speed of the knight, the remaining distance, the mirthful tone of the thin guard, the merciless and calculating expression of the other – taking them all in and then assembling like a puzzle that pictured only one viable solution.

'We speak the same language, so I have some material to work with.'

The mine's walls had been narrowing all along to this exit, which was only three meters high and a few meters wide. If the knight managed to reach here, Cassio wouldn't have any room for a maneuvered escape. But he had no intention of roaming around the cave either.

'Two people. Just like my first audience...'

Cassio screamed, pouncing on the barrier:

"I'll give you my money, at least some of it! I am a rich person!"

"Money?" the thin guard echoed with a grin. "Look at yourself, buddy!"

"You idiot!" Cassio roared back and glanced behind him: only hundred and eighty meters remained. "How do you think I got access to this place? Money!"

"And what were you doing in this mine?" the bearded guard asked. "Moonstones are not in any need."

"You think I would risk my life for a couple of moonstones? There are rarer gems hidden in there!"

"Why are you alone, then? If you're so rich, why didn't you hire men to go in?" the bearded one pressed on.

Hundred and fifty meters remained.

"And have them rip me off? Think, you idiots!" Cassio scrunched his nose at the guard's words. "That's why the likes of you never make it in life!"

The thin guard's amused expression wrinkled, and the tip of his spear shook ever so slightly. Although the hound beside the bearded guard let out a low growl, he only furrowed his brows slightly, but then immediately evened them out. A malevolent glint appeared in his eyes. The thin guard spoke to his partner in a bitter voice:

"Hey, I want to skin him alive... At least he'll kick the bucket soon."

"Hold on," his companion replied and stopped stroking his beard. "What were you looking for in there?"

A hundred and thirty meters remained. The distant echo of the knight's heavy jog reverberated and bounced from the walls.

"Like I would say!" Cassio let out a haughty chuckle. "Everything has a price."

"And your price?"

"Bring me out of here, you lowly scum!"

"And..."

Cassio looked over his shoulder, yelped loudly, and squeaked in a trembling voice:

"And I'll give you my money! Some of it!"

"Some of it?" the bearded guard sneered. "How much is it?"

"Thousands!"

A greedy twinkle flickered through the guards' eyes, and as the thin one opened his mouth, his companion stopped him with a gesture, forfeited his cold indifference, and droned in a mocking tone:

"Don't you value your life a bit more?"

Patches of red scattered across Cassio's face, distorted in a grimace of bestial outrage.

"Hell no!" Cassio hollered so viciously that his saliva spluttered across the barrier. "I'll be damned if I give more!"

"You'll be dead if you don't."

These words seemed to wash away Cassio's fury, sobering him with the cold judgment of death. Every time Cassio peeked behind, his knees buckled more and more until he was weakly leaning on the barrier, his begging gaze directed upwards at the bearded guy's face split in a wry grin. The thin guard, meanwhile, was avidly licking his lips. Only a hundred meters remained.

"I'll give you a quarter of my wealth!" Cassio cried. "Ten thousand!"

"No, no, no," the guard clutched on his beard as he burst into wicked laughter. "Not enough!"

Cassio bulged his eyes, and a swelling vein started pulsing on his forehead. Eighty meters remained.

"A half! I'll give you a half of everything!"

"Forty thousand coins!" the guard shot back with a brutal smirk.

Sixty meters remained.

"I can't!" Cassio cried. "That's all I've got!"

"I know!"

Cassio slumped to his knees, staring dazedly into the ground. Sunlight reflected in his eyes with a trembling glint. He bit his lip until blood started running down his chin. Cassio feebly turned his head and watched the fiendish vines whip around the knight's mangled figure. Forty meters remained.

Cassio opened his mouth, then closed it again, struggling to push out any sound. The bearded guard couldn't contain a hoarse chuckle at this sight.

"Okay..." Cassio hardly managed to mutter.

"And you'll give us information about those hidden gems too."

Twenty meters remained.

"Yes..."

Cassio's eyes lost their spark, as if his very soul was taken away from him and now only a husk remained. While leaning his forehead on the invisible wall, he looked like a vanquished warrior offering his skull. The bearded guard struck his breastplate with a fist, declaring his flawless victory and commemorating it with a peal of hearty laughter.

The thin guard stared at his partner with awe of a believer who witnessed a divine miracle. Cassio could hear the wriggling vines reaching out for him from behind, and the earth under him tremored stronger and stronger.

"Dismiss the barrier," said the bearded guard, tightening the grip on his spear.

"Pkora, you're a genius!" the thin guard exclaimed while swinging his hand, and at once, the invisible wall propping Cassio's drooped head disappeared.