Ariadne and Edmund exited the truck and saw the giant crystal on the dungeon's ceiling. The surrounding soldiers found it interesting that neither of them reacted to any of that; everyone who got out of the transports was taken back by the crystal alone.

At that moment, the hero’s memories transported Edmund to the past. In front of him, there were farms between the city and the hallway and people walked by him as he sat there acting like a guardian with his hands on top of the pommel of his sword, but the hero was letting out a sigh of sadness and that pulled him back to the present.

‘What a joke... thinking for a moment he was a guardian.’ Edmund spoke quietly to himself.

‘There is a problem, peasant?’ Ariadne looked at him from the corner of her eye.

‘No, but this place was used as farmland in the past; maybe can be used again.’ He let out a momentary smile.

‘Perhaps, but before that, let’s plan the invasion; in those buildings, there will be a problem.’ She started to walk toward the bigger tent around.

As Ariadne entered the tent, everyone inside saluted her at the same time. The air around was heavy, and it was clear that everyone was nervous about even being inside such an absurd location; the situation was unreal.

‘Your Highness, with all due respect, I think we should call this off. Those buildings are dangerous; I don’t think we have the men for this mission.’ The blond-haired A-Dam spoke.

Before Alon opened his mouth and reprimanded the platoon leader, Ariadne took a step forward and motioned her hand, and the captain just nodded at the duchess in a sign of respect.

‘I understand your concern, Lieutenant Orfar, but this is all we got. The rest, as you all know, is protecting the people of the duchy. We have nothing to spare.’ Ariadne looked at all the platoon leaders.

‘Her Highness is right, but I too understand your concern; this is going to be a challenge.’ Alon put his two hands on the table, looking at his lieutenants.

The sentiment coming from them was one of frustration; the buildings were just too tall and they would need to take them one by one; there was no going around that.

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‘I think we have the people. The real problem is the enemies. If they are the same demons Egor’s platoon fought against, it will be a hard fight.' Zaken crossed his brownish fur arms.

‘We will advance slowly; the only time we will need to push and give or all is going to be when the duchess and Edmund here are fighting against the dungeon guardian.’ Alon frowns his eyebrows, pointing at the map on the table.

‘Yes, I don’t want any of you to die in vain; if it is too much fallback, me and the peasant here are going to provide you all with the opportunity to save yourselves, don’t die for me.’ Ariadne looked right into their eyes as she spoke.

‘And don’t worry, I will die before letting anything happen to her.’ Edmund gave a quick smile.

His words were true but only because for him, if they failed, it was better for him to die inside of the dungeon as there was no point in returning alive; he didn’t believe their power now would be enough to resist the full power of Lavan or Velvent.

The platoon leaders and Alon looked at one another and smirked. They gave Ariadne a salute but stopped for a moment with their eyes closed. She took a deep breath like a bucket of cold water had been thrown on her head but instead traveled through her body's extremities until it all reached her heart and she couldn’t control the urge to smile.

Edmund found her behavior strange but remembered her words about the link she felt with some people; in the end, he shrugged it off like it didn’t matter; maybe it was the only thinking pushing those soldiers forward into doing this dangerous mission.

‘Don’t worry, Your Highness; it will be done by your will.’ Alon saluted her again.

The initial plan didn’t change, only complicated things; their ammunition was not unlimited even with the rechargers; they also needed to prioritize soldiers' lives, as that too couldn’t be replaced; each death would take a toll on everyone inside of the dungeon.

As time passed inside the dungeon, they noticed that the light started to dim and it was becoming darker but not totally; the color of the light on the ceiling was blueish now and it was starting to get cold. That alone wasn’t something out of the ordinary, and that was the problem; it was like they were outside under the moon.

‘Ethan, what do you think?’ Samal spoke while throwing a card on top of another on the ground.

‘Think about what?’ Ethan tapped the ground two times.

‘He is asking if we are going to die tomorrow, Ethan.’ Asher spoke in an annoyed manner.

‘Come on, Asher.’ Oran threw a card on the pile in the middle.

‘Why are you so negative?’ Caleb tapped the ground, holding four cards in his hand.

‘Negative? I was there patching you guys up; you guys and I died in every mission.’ Asher scratched his head, annoyed at his squadmates.

‘I didn’t die; I’m right here.’ Samal threw a card in the pile, with a confused expression on his face.

Ethan was just observing his team talk and looking at the distance where he could see the silhouette of the buildings from time to time, thinking about how things were going to be tomorrow if his child saw his father.

'Like I said before in the hallway, if it wasn’t for Eliza, we would have died a long time ago. What are you talking about? Sir, put some sense into this lunatic.’ Asher slammed his hand on the ground.

‘Well, Asher is not wrong, but let’s worry about that when it happens, ok? Try to stay alive and watch each other's backs; we can do this, all right?’ Ethan looked everyone in the eye.

The soldiers continued to play their card game; other soldiers were doing the same. There was complete silence aside from the noise coming from the duchess camp. Edmund walked outside of his tent for a moment to see the soldiers walking around, playing cards, laughing, or having conversations.

‘The effects of her presence are crazy; it's like we are on vacation, not fighting against ancient monsters.’ Edmund spoke to himself in a lower tone.