Well, at least the chains patched you up just fine. Let"s move." Yondra said.

"What about the others?" Rainer asked.

"Good question." Yondra sneered, looking at her colleagues who had yet to move a finger.

"My a.s.sistant Nilla died at the hands of the fungal creature. I have no obligation towards any of these kids. I already failed to protect myself, taking care of someone else is out of the question." Gaakhu said.

"I"m sorry, Onma, but Professor Gaakhu is right." Ellkas said. "I promise you that if I manage to escape from here, I"ll send the whole army to your rescue. If I fail, I hope you"ll be able to kill me, because whatever the Odi have planned for us I"m certain it"s worse than death.

"But all of you are powerful mages!" Rainer stuttered. Quylla"s voice calling him a coward still echoed in his head, driving him to be a better man. "Is there really nothing you can do?"

"Kid, grow up." Gaakhu said. "Saving everyone, beating the odds, those are all fairy tales. I bet that our story will end with "and then they died too". If Yondra wants to burden herself with you, it"s none of my business."

She then freed the imprisoned soldiers, who immediately started to eat and drink to recover their strength.

"As the head of the expedition, in the absence of Captain Ernas I"m the highest-ranked officer." Gaakhu said. "I order you to help me find a way out of Kulah to alert the Kingdom of the threat the Odi still pose. Is that clear?"

The soldiers gave her a salute, turning to look at the weeping a.s.sistants only once. As members of the military, they were all too familiar with collateral damage, but that didn"t mean that they liked it.

Yet, there was nothing they could do. The a.s.sistants had proved to be dead weight more than once. Sure, the soldiers had fallen by the hands of the Golems as well, but they had gone down fighting, not crying and begging for mercy.

Phloria"s soldiers had all someone waiting for them at home and none of them was willing to die for nothing. They would either get out of there or die trying to alert the Kingdom. Everything and everyone else was irrelevant.

"You heard her, she only cares about herself." Yondra whispered to Ellkas while her esteemed colleague was playing her part as Yondra had predicted. "I need you to read the Odi gibberish and you need me to operate the Odi technology. Deal?"

Ellkas nodded and shook her hand. The door to the prison was open as well, which gave everyone an eerie feeling. It could only mean that no one had ever managed to escape.

They entered in a wide room, from which branched several corridors, each one with its own tag. Gaakhu guided the soldiers in the second hallway to her right, without even looking at her colleagues.

"Where is she going?" Yondra asked.

"To the warehouse." Ellkas replied before reading and pointing the other signs one at a time. "Mana Reactor, Meat s.h.i.+elds, Golem Factory, bathrooms, administrative office, stairs, and canteen."

"It"s a good idea, that"s why we"ll go to the Meat s.h.i.+elds room." Yondra said after scanning the corridor of her choosing.

"And why is that?" Ellkas trusted no one, but at least Yondra needed him. He was afraid of outliving his usefulness and needed to be ready to fend for himself.

"Because when she triggers the alarm, because she will, I want to be as far away as possible. Plus, Lith and Phloria took a look at the room and told us what kind of arrays we can expect. It"s our safest bet."

Ellkas nodded, realizing that the Odi must have had prepared multiple exit points for their guards, and maybe one of them was near a town whose name he might be able to recognize.

Yet he kept that idea for himself. After abandoning his own a.s.sistant, leaving Yondra behind to increase his chances of survival was easy as cake.

***

Meanwhile, on the upper floor, Lith and Phloria had reached the door leading to the research are. The Flesh Golems had managed to find them a few times only to witness the humans Warping away.

With the cameras down Lith was free to go back to any place he had previously visited, forcing the constructs to split up and search for them.

"Now this is the reason why I waited." Lith used Invigoration on the others, restoring about half their strength.

"How long was I unconscious and where are we?" Neshal asked while stretching her limbs.

"Three hours." Lith replied. Barely ten minutes had pa.s.sed, his lie almost made Phloria yelp in surprise. "We decided to rest before moving, but we were forced to Warp several times to avoid the Golems."

"Thanks for letting me rest and for not leaving me behind." Neshal gave Lith a deep bow. "Now let"s get out of here."

While she operated the door, Morok and Quylla wolfed down quite some food, both amazed by their perfect physical condition despite all the wounds they had sustained. Just watching them made Phloria hungry, forcing her to eat again.

"Bad news. This door is full of arrays but none of them is linked to the lock. They are all linked to that slot." Neshal pointed to the keycard reader. "Which means this is a work for a Forgemaster."

After thanking her for the great news, Lith chanted gibberish and used Invigoration. Just as he hoped, there were two relays again, but this time only the wrong one was linked to the arrays.

All he had to do was to send a pulse of mana to the relay a.s.sociated with the lock to make it click.

"Sure a keycard energy signature is much harder to mimic compared to a key, but with such a design, I don"t need to." Lith thought. "Unlike the holo-pads on the upper floor, there is no such thing as repet.i.tion or correct order of characters, only right or wrong impulse. Against a true mage, it"s like not having a lock at all."

"Good G.o.ds, I should have learned Forgemastering." Neshal thought. "No one of us knows how to read the Odi, but at least if we can open all the rooms, we are bound to find a way out. Without Gaakhu and Yondra, these guys are my best bet."

Quylla had taken down more Golems than anyone else, Morok seemed to be immortal, and Lith appeared to Neshal"s eyes like a genius.

They found themselves in a T junction with several doors s.p.a.ced between them so much that each room had to be as big as a hotel"s suite.

"Wait, before we continue, I need to know which array do you prefer. Earth Blocking, Air Blocking, or the Power Detection?" Neshal asked.

"Can"t we have them all?" Morok asked.

"You wish. Keeping an entire magical formation at the ready is already draining, two would make me collapse in just a few minutes."

"Do you have more of those enchanted nails?" Lith asked.

"Yes, but the last time the Golems were completely still. I can"t kill them on my own if that"s what you"re asking me." Neshal replied.

"Then the Power Detection. That way all three of us can destroy the Golems and use dimensional magic. Okay?" Phloria and Morok nodded at his words, both shapes.h.i.+fting their weapons into thin, high density blades that would more easily pierce the constructs" thick sh.e.l.l.