Guard Door

The crescent moon lit up the tents in it's violet hue. All the tents in the camp was dark, but this one tent was illuminated with light from the inside, and shadows of six people could be seen.

"So you three really were not with Odis?" Avery Gray question the three in front of him with his raspy voice.

"No. We were not." Ben answered him looking down at the ground.

Avery turned to his left, "Is this true Len?"

Len Beale was staring at the three cadets in front of him. "He's lying Sir. I saw them leave from the camp together." He looked at Avery.

The three cadets widened their eyes and looked towards Len. "Y-Yes, but he split off soon after saying he wanted to go with his original group."

"DON'T LIE KID!" Avery raised his voice at them, running out of patience.

The trio's faces fell and their legs shook with fear. They were unable to produce even a sound due to the fright Avery gave them.

"Haah.." Thorn sighed. "Do you guys at least know where he went?"

"T-the west!" Annie blurted. "H-he went towards the west!"

"Okay you guys can go, for now." Thorn walked them towards the tent's entrance and sent them away. Then he turned towards Avery.

"We should move right away. The children could be in danger, maybe Edana is also with them." He approached.

"Move and go where? We only have a general direction. And are we supposed to trust what these kids say?" Avery complained and shook his head.

Thorn's eyes lingered at Avery for a second. "We can't just sit around here doing nothing! This is the only lead we have right now. So, it's better if we at least follow this lead."

Even though Thorn acted like he was unsure about the lead, he already had an idea about where they were. 'The cult of Mayhem.. They must be in the place marked in the parchment.'

Avery let out a long sigh and looked at Thorn with his one blue eye. "Okay... Then we'll go. Len! You come with us too."

"Yes Sir!" Len shouted.

"Let's go." Thorn took the initiative and left the tent, Avery and Len followed.

They ran through the forest like the wind, until they came across a splitting path.

"Where should we go now? The path's split here." Avery questioned Thorn, who was ahead of them.

Thorn put his hand on his chin contemplated for a bit before turning towards Avery. "Where do you think we should go? I can't figure it out." He put a defeated look on his face.

Avery looked at Thorn's face with dubious eyes. Then he finally spoke, "Let's go towards the left then, maybe we'll find something..."

---

"Gods..." Thorn exclaimed looking at the corpse of the beast in front of him.

"A beast like this was living in this forest?"

Len examined the corpse and reported back to his superiors, "Judging by the wounds on the beast, it was definitely defeated by the missing cadets. The wounds match the weapons used by those three."

Thorn looked at Len, amazed. "You're really observant. You got a nice subordinate Avery."

Avery laughed, which sounded like metal grating against each other. "Don't compliment him too much, it tends to get in his head."

Len scratched his head in embarrassment.

"So where do we go now?" Avery glanced at Thorn.

"Hmm... The cadets successfully killed the beast but they didn't take anything from the corpse. So they must not have left this cave at all. Let's search every corner of this cave first."

The three split up and began searching the cave for clues.

"Sir! Here!" Len shouted, calling his superiors.

Thorn and Avery heard his call and walked towards him. "Yes? Did you find something?" Thorn asked.

"Sir! These rocks here. They look like they're blocking a path of some sort. Maybe the cadets went inside and the rocks fell down after?" He presented his theory.

"Hmm.. It's possible. Only one way to find out, stand back." Avery responded and walked towards the rocks.

Both Len and Thorn moved towards the back, observing Avery closely.

Avery moved his hands close to each other and began focusing. Mist began to converge towards his hands from the surrounding and a dense ball of water started forming in between.

After the water ball was a bit bigger in size, Avery looked ahead and pushed his hands towards the rocks.

*Swoosh* The water ball transformed into a column of water, destroying the rocks instantly due to it's pressure.

"Wow! You've grown a lot stronger Avery." Thorn walked towards him.

"No.. This much is already difficult for me. It may be my limit." Avery smiled.

"Haha.. No need to be humble." He glanced at Avery before looking forward towards the newly formed path. "There really was a path here! Well done! Now let's get going."

The three started moving through the path.

---

""Val! The wolf was mocking me!" hahahah he was making some lame excuse when he couldn't bring back anything from his hunt!" Valentina was chatting away with Edana and Ouida.

Edana and Ouida both looked towards Zane and started laughing.

"Hey! That was not an excuse, it really was a strange wolf." Zane protested, his face red.

"Yeah sure sure!" Valentina replied sarcastically

"Anyways," She changed the topic, "Brother, I'm curious. How'd you beat sister Edana? She's a knight! and a pretty strong one at that!"

Edana immediately stopped laughing and looked at Valentina, startled, "Why are you asking him that!?"

"Hahahahaha! Strong? More like pretty stupid! Didn't even check her surroundings!" It was Zane's turn to laugh now.

"Ehh... So you just beat her by surprise?" Valentina stared at him with a disappointed look.

"Huh?" Zane stopped laughing. "N-No way! Look, I used a relic! I'm pretty strong too!"

"A relic!?" The eyes of the three cadets sparkled, while Edana rolled hers.

Zane fished inside his pockets and took out a normal looking rock. "Look!" He extended his hands so all of them could see.

"... It's just a rock." They all expressed their disappointment.

"Aha! Now look!" Zane threw the rock on the ground in front of them.

"Hello" The rock grew a mouth and greeted them in a heavy voice.

"Isn't that cool!?" Zane put his arms on his hips, and closed his eyes with his chin up, feeling proud of himself.

Not getting any response, he opened one of his eyes to look at the kids.

"Hey, wait up." They were already walking ahead with Edana, having lost interest in the talking stone.

---

"Shh! Don't make any sounds." Edana looked back and whispered to the group.

They had come out of the tunnel already and were on a stone path with nice walls and torches.

Edana warned them not to make any sounds as they had reached a corner. They all hugged the wall and moved towards the end of the corner.

Edana peeked around the corner and she found a person wearing a brown robe, guarding a door at the end.