The real reason.

After they were gathered around Ares looked at the two brothers. It seemed they understood the magic circles too as they were looking at the door in apprehension.

"What exactly was living here Ares?" Jason asked

"My best guess are researchers; although from the map, there are an awful lot of traps on this floor." Ares said.

"Either way, I guess we need to go; where about are the stairs to the fourth level?" Sky asked; there was no point over thinking it they had already agreed to take the risk.

Consulting the mental map, Ares realised that this time, his luck had ended. The closest stairs were almost completely the other side of the facility; there were probably more hidden stairs, but nothing that came up on his map.

"It's the other side of the facility. You need to follow me closely though." Ares said.

After receiving a nod from both of them. Ares pushed the door open, and stepped into the hallway. The corridor was a droning grey with an endless darkness in the distance. Unlike level 1 this floor had handles on each of the door to the side. Only by consulting the map would Ares see the rooms that looked like potential traps.

The path they had picked led them to a huge cavern-like room that had what appeared to be numerous paths leading from them. After going down one of these paths, it would lead to the stairs to the next level. Still, before getting to this room, they had a considerable distance down the grey corridor.

As they walked the group lapsed into silence. Only their steps could be heard as they made their way. On one occasion, Ares came across a door left ajar; after getting closer and glancing through the gap briefly, he hurriedly continued on his walk. Whilst there was nothing visible in the open room, an overpowering smell of metallic blood came out.

The place seemed fairly deserted as the trio finally made their way outside the cavern. He wasn't sure if he was lucky or if the security on this floor was poor; either way, having arrived at the cavern, all three of them were quite relieved.

Ares broke the silence to speak to the other two.

"We are almost there; there is a cavern coming up in front. From what I can see, there are hundreds of paths coming off, they all appear to be blocked by a door of sorts. I will direct you to the right one." He then continued forwards and stepped into the cavern followed closely by the other two.

The cavern was huge and somewhat circular in nature; unlike the previous areas within the facility this one almost seemed like it was natural in its formation. The walls had turned from the grey corridors into a jagged dark rock like substance. Furthermore, like a cave formation there were Stalactites hanging from the ceiling. The room was so large when they first stepped in neither Ares or the others had seen that it wasn't unoccupied.

Only after properly entering the room did Ares see a huge group of people dressed in white robes near to the many exits of the cave.

"it's the light guild" Sky said to the others. They were all instantly on edge.

The group must have numbered more then 500 people; whilst it wasn't the entire light guild it was clear they had suffered some casualties after arriving. There were several laid down and around 10 or 12 bodies with their white robes laid over their face.

As they noticed the group so too did the light mages. They looked to be surprised initially however after a few seconds a larger man walked from the centre towards them.

"I am Caesar, how did you get here friends?" The man said. He must have been around 15 years old and had golden hair. His face was angular and sculpted probably handsome to most. Whilst his tone was friendly the trio did not feel at ease; around 500 light mages were eyeing them like wolves.

"I am Julian." Ares said reverting to his prior alias; unfortunately this time he hadn't remembered to change his face again so his true appearance was now on show.

"I am Sky."

"Jason." The other two added.

"So how did you find this place?" Caesar asked again.

"We found some stairs on the first floor and then found ourselves on this floor. This place is huge how did you guys manage to all gather together so quickly?" Ares asked giving a partial truth.

Caesars face didn't change as he responded.

"We were lucky to be honest; it just seemed like we all ended up close to eachother by chance." He smiled amiably.

No one was stupid here; despite what Caesar said the group composed of only Light mages and there were so many of them. If it was chance how come their wasn't anyone else in their group; or had they already disposed of them?

"It's a good thing you guys are here; from what we have discovered this is a vault of some sort." Caesar said.

Ares frowned; what did he mean it was a good thing; how would three mages help this situation.

"You see the tunnels leading away from here all contain various traps however we worked out there are likely treasures down each path once you overcome them." Caesar still had a harmless look about him.

"We just need people to try each tunnel; once we work out what kind of trap it is we can dismantle it and proceed." He raised his shoulders to shrug. There was a cold glint in his eyes as he did.

The group knew immediately they had just been volunteered as guinea pigs; unfortunately with the size of the group even if they were stronger mages there was not a chance of overpowering the group.

It seemed their fate was set.