But once again he heard trouble arise. Now it wasn’t just a countable number of people getting closer at him, no. Instead, a few dozens, maybe hundreds of people were coming closer and closer to him and his vicinity.

He would have prepared something to fight them had he anything left to fight with, but he was pooped. And even if he had the energy and will to put some sort of defense, it would be impossible for him to fight against that many people.

He decided to lay on the wall and sit there until he was apprehended and taken wherever he would be taken to, but once the noisy individuals started appearing in front of him, he realized that he had spent the entire night inside the cube and the sun was starting to come out outside.

Therefore, his allies had started attacking and he sighed in delightful calmness. Still, he decided it was best to go to his boss to thank him for rescuing him, so he started walking against the tide and to the exits of the cube.

But it took him some time as he was now walking slower as he knew that he wasn’t in danger and used this trip to help his muscles relax. He used the trip to think as well. He heard Dieb talk to him, and it didn’t seem like he was lying, but he might have been tricked from the start…

Gabriel decided to be more careful around his boss from that point on and chose not to thank his boss at first to see how he reacted to his presence before he said anything that could influence his reaction. Maybe then he could find out more about his boss… Gabriel would stay there quietly and observe.

And so, he did. And he was glad he did so. Gabriel wasn’t received with any thanks or welcome after his arduous and visibly dangerous mission, given the state he and his clothes were in. Instead, he was angrily questioned as to why he failed to get out of the cube or save his teammates. Gabriel’s safety wasn’t close to being important for his boss, he was clearly just another pawn.

But there was one question that sprung into mind after hearing his critiques. How did his boss know that it was safe in there if no one from his team had made it out before they attacked? He wasn’t sure whether to open his mouth but ended up asking this question. He was met with a grunt and a sigh and then the answer.

- Why can’t you think!? Obviously, you weren’t the only team I sent; it would be foolish to only send a single group of people.

- Why… wasn’t I told? Don’t you trust me? – Gabriel quickly replied.

- Since when do you have such a big mouth and ask everything!? I know you can look at yourself and your surroundings and find the answer for yourself. Now leave this room. – He dismissed Gabriel.

Gabriel was shocked by his boss’ behavior, he wasn’t like this before… Or maybe he always had been, and it was just now that he realized his true self. Perhaps he was just like Kupi who showed one face to people he knew and a completely different one for everyone else.

Why did people do this all the time? Gabriel asked himself only to reach the most obvious answers. They did so for personal gain, be it power in whatever shape it came, image, whether to create or change it, or simply “instinctively” because they trust people more the more, they feel like they know them.

But this created a sort of paradox in Gabriel’s mind. Because if two people showed a certain face to each other but it wasn’t their true selves and they end up liking each other’s fake facets, when they show each other how they really are they may not like the other person anymore.

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He decided that he would try not to fall into those mind-games so that others would do the same… in front of him, at least. He wasn’t ordered to join back into the attack, and he was quite tired, but decided that he should at least see how it went as he was part of the operation.

Gabriel laid on the wall of the entranceway and observed the fires and battles ensuing in front of him. Due to the distance between him and the chaos what he saw looked almost like a painting, with red and yellow colors illuminating a brown and black background of houses and shacks.

But this illusion ended in a flash as a few dozen houses were immediately destructed by an explosion which created a blast of air from which Gabriel protected himself behind a pillar inside the luxurious entrance hall. When the air rushed by him a loud howl was created and the sound also stuck on the room he was in for a while.

This forced him to leave outside of the whole cube compound with his ears still ringing and into the makeshift camp that was created in the zone that was already invisible to everyone without the qualifications. For the attack everyone was made qualified, of course.

Gabriel searched for a tent he could use to rest, and he did while inside the cube the remains were collapsing one after the other. They weren’t killed, if possible, by the orders of the boss, but sometimes accidents and “accidents” happened and there were also people who resisted too much to their apprehension and even committed suicide in order to escape what could come next.

All the captives would be then taken to the prison inside the same cube to save time and resources. Though they had to invest some time to explore the dungeons themselves to make sure there weren’t any secret exits or anything that could cause trouble for them.

The next morning Gabriel went there himself to see if Dieb had gotten captured, as he wasn’t on the pile of corpses that people had collected. Therefore, if he wasn’t in the prison, he had to have either escaped or hidden somewhere.

Going through the maze-like hallways and inspecting everyone inside the building Gabriel confirmed his suspicions that Dieb had indeed somehow gotten away from any truly dangerous scenario. But where could he be? Gabriel though to himself while he walked through the streets of the cube…

Then, he got somewhere familiar, where he had been less than a day ago. He had subconsciously walked towards Dieb’s house. Curious if his latent instincts were correct and Dieb had indeed holed up inside his home. The entrance door creaked as he opened and he carefully listened to any noise coming inside, but there was nothing… No sound at all.

Usually this wouldn’t have been weird, had the house been carefully organized before anyone left, but Gabriel knew the situation of the building when he had left with Dieb. Not only were some windows open, which should have created some sort of sound with the wind current, the chair and table where he had expressed his feelings wasn’t trashed anymore.

Gabriel didn’t believe that anyone would have come inside to order things from his side and even less from the people living inside the cube when their lives were in danger, so it only made sense that the disappearing Dieb was at fault.

Gabriel carefully sneaked inside of Dieb’s house, he didn’t want him to escape, after all… He had to at least give him an explanation for what he had done if not pay for his crimes against him… and he would probably get something for trapping an escaping enemy soldier…

Dieb wasn’t on the first floor, which meant that he would either have to escape through a window and the roofs or he wouldn’t escape at all. Creeping around the stairs he opened the first door he had opened before, the door which led to Dieb’s bedroom, but he wasn’t there. The next room also had a bed, but it was empty too. Then a bathroom came and then he heard a noise two rooms over.

Gabriel stealthily creeped to the door and decided to play it safe by rushing in with a restraining spell already ready to use, but Dieb was in no shape to escape. He was sweating buckets as he raised his arms to the window of the room. Gabriel looked that way and saw a grayish bird jump and start flying outside. He managed to quickly scan it before it got too far and realized that it was “wearing” confusing magic which he didn’t understand.

- What was that?! – He ordered an answer, to which Dieb simply said.

- Your doom… - And then fell unconscious.