“What? What just happened?” Red turned around and fixed his gaze on Pandora. “Did you run out of mana or something?”

“No. No, something else. I still have most of my mana so it has to be something on Yuki’s end. Okay so think. Think. What was the last thing we saw before everything cut out?” Pandora asked. She held her hands out to try and calm down a frantic Red.

“Well, we saw Yuki… oh. I know what happened. She probably knocked him out and hid him somewhere.” Embla crossed her arms and looked at the two.

“Odin damn it!” Red paced back and forth across the branch. Flames licked his fist and punched the trunk, leaving a charred indent in the tree.

“If you three are done arguing, I got a visual on Yuki,” Cal said.

“Jeez. Did you see anything good?” Embla crouched next to him. Her eyes glowed red once more as she activated her Farcast skill. She smiled when she saw Yuki jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

“It looks like she’s making her way to the main castle complex.” Cal’s eyes stopped glowing. He pulled a pair of eye drops from his pouch.

“I got it.” Pandora grabbed the drops from his hand and told him to stay still. “Seriously, keeping Farcast on for that long is bound to hurt your eyes.”

“Yeah yeah but I was worried so I tried my best to continue keeping an eye on Yuki. Sue me.” Cal blinked after Pandora squeezed a drop into both his eyes.

“Aww… you do care about something else other than trying to piss me off.” Embla gave them a thumbs up while she kept track of Yuki.

“Pissing you off isn’t that hard though,” Cal remarked.

Embla felt a vein pop inside her head. She would not respond to that. It would only prove that blonde elf bastard right. A smile graced her face when she saw Yuki reach the main castle.

“Yuki’s there. Should we start moving?” Embla asked.

“Won’t we get caught?” Red said.

“No. Not if it’s just me. I offered to go earlier but Yuki insisted on going in by herself. However, we can’t leave her to do things by herself,” she replied.

“What’s your plan?”

“I’ll go find us a sewer or something to crawl in through. And don’t worry about me getting caught. I’ll just use my Ghille Mimicry skill to get past the guards. It only works against a backdrop though so I have to stick to walls and stuff.”

Red placed a hand on his chin. “Cal. You know Ghille Mimicry. You’ve used it before on quests to scout ahead and see the enemy.”

“Yeah. I’ll head down with her. What about you two?” he asked.

“We’ll wait here. If you two run into trouble, just crush these.” Pandora materialized two golden pearls in her hand. She handed it to them. Embla eyed the pearl curiously.

“What are these?” she asked, rolling it between her fingers.

“They’re pearls with a Teleportation Sigil engraved into them. I only use them in case of emergencies because they need a sigil on the other end to connect. And they’re one-time use,” Pandora explained.

“You can do sigils?”

“I’m trained in multiple forms of magical skills.”

“That’s pretty cool. I can only use basic sigils like the ones you engrave on your armor. Can't use my own though.” Embla pocketed the pearl.

“That’s great. You two can flirt later. Right now, we gotta go.” Cal crossed his arms. Embla growled and stomped on his foot, causing him to wince in pain.

“Good luck you two. Pandora and I will stay here and wait for you guys to come back.” Red nodded at Cal and Embla. The two nodded back and hopped off the branch.

“I should’ve asked which floor they kept that thing on,” Yuki muttered to herself as she hid behind some crates. A bandit walked past her, carrying a bag of food. It had to be food, judging from the smell. They must have been keeping their captives healthy to get better prices from whoever they were selling these people to.

Yuki darted to another stack of crates as soon as the coast was clear.

“Thank Frigg for my Hyper Sensory.” Yuki sighed in relief, thanking whatever deity decided that she should have this passive skill. Hyper Sensory was a passive skill she attained through her training. In addition to her already enhanced senses thanks to her heritage, Yuki’s passive skill enhanced all of her senses, primarily those of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. It was hard when she was younger but now she could focus her Hyper Sensory on certain senses.

“Maybe I can track the mana trail.” Yuki focused her Hyper Sensory on her mana senses. Almost immediately, her eyes picked up faint iridescent strings of light flowing and pooling into one location. The small chromatic ball was above her but it didn’t show how far. She smiled. Exploiting that Gusisnautar’s ability to passively attract mana, even in its inactive state, was a good call on her part. Before she could continue patting herself on the back, Yuki ducked behind the boxes as her senses picked up a large mana signature entering the building. Not just mana but prana too. The presence had a larger collection of both energies than every other living being in this being barring her.

“And Albert’s squad never came back from its patrol?” a gruff voice made its way into Yuki’s ears. Her ears twitched as she partially focused Hyper Sensory to get a better sense of the conversation.

“Yes sir. Another team found them the remains of the party. We have two survivors saying that they found a group of adventurers in the woods.”

“Adventurers?” Yuki’s heart skipped a beat in fear when she began to deduce the direction in which this conversation was headed.

“So those bastards went against our deal huh?” the person she assumed was the leader said.

“I think so, boss. Do you want me to get a party to go out and burn the village down?” the bandit lackey asked.

“No. Find those adventurers first and bring them here.” Yuki held her breath as she heard the heavy footsteps move away from her position. She peeked out slightly from behind the boxes and saw that the other bandit was moving away as well.

“I need to hurry and get to the Gusisnautar,” she said to herself. Without another word, she jumped out from her cover and made a beeline for the stairs.

“Where are we even supposed to find this thing?” Cal asked. Embla placed her finger in front of her mouth as a bandit passed by. The two were hidden in a bush, their presence masked by the Ghille Mimicry skill. Ghille Mimicry is a skill that allowed the user to blend in with their surroundings, being most effective when against a backdrop such as a wall.

“It’s called a sewer and how am I supposed to know? I’ve never been in an old ruin like this. Let’s just look for a waste disposal pipe. Old forts usually have those around.” Embla looked around.

“Well, we’re not going to find it near the entrance. Let’s double around and see if we can find it around the wall or something,” Cal said.

She nodded and the two crept from their spot. Cal raised his hand when he saw one of the patrol guards on the wall, looking in their direction.

“We need to wait,” Embla said.

“Yeah wait.” Cal grabbed a small rock and threw it. The rock flew sharply through the air and hit the guard that was watching them between the eyes. The man went down like a sack of potatoes. “We’re clear.”

Embla nodded and the two darted out from the shrubs, dashing as fast as they could towards the wall. Their plan was to stick to the wall and use the Ghille Mimicry Skill to try and blend in with the wall. They successfully made it, having been only nearly spotted once, however, the bandits took no notice.

“That was a close one.” Embla wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead and sighed in relief.

“So, let’s go find a sewer grate,” Cal said. She nodded and followed him along the wall.

“There,” Embla said, pointing to a large circular tube that stuck out. In front of it was a stream.

“At least it’s empty,” Cal said, looking into the tunnel. This place had been abandoned for decades. Despite that, water still flowed out of it but it lacked the abundance of waste that it would normally dispose of if people still lived here. Well, bandits did live here but it wasn’t as much as an entire army.

“It smells like shit.” Embla pointed out.

“Well, it’s a sewer and bandits live here,” Cal said.

“Let’s go get Red and Pandora first then come back,” Embla said.

“Pull out those pearls Pan gave you.” Cal held his hand out.

She looked at him strangely before handing the pearls over to him. “Sure. But aren’t we supposed to use them for-!” her eyes grew wide when he threw them on the ground and stepped on them. A crunching noise made her heart sink as he stomped on them repeatedly.

“What the he-!”

“What’s wrong? Are you alright!?”

Embla turned her head to see Red and Pandora ready for a fight.

“No, we just needed you to come over here. We found the exit pipe.” Cal stuck his thumb out to the sewer.

Pandora clenched her fist and punched her brother in the face. “YOU IDIOT! WE THOUGHT YOU GOT HURT!”

“Ow! Hey! We weren’t going to walk all the way back and risk getting caught! Cut us some slack!” Cal fired back.

“I said they were for emergencies!” Pandora hissed.

“Shut up! Just shut up! Do you want to get caught?” Embla got in between the twins and pushed them apart. The two looked away and shook their heads. “Good. Now, Red. Help me open this.”

Red nodded, having remained silent throughout the entire interaction. He had to admit, he was expecting nothing or Cal and Embla to be surrounded. Red was thoroughly relieved when he saw no one there. But that didn’t change the fact that the situation thoroughly scared the daylights out of him. He and Embla walked over to the sewer gate.

“Ready? Wait…I need to…” Embla cast the skill, Enhance Parameter. She felt a rush of strength enter her body and she nodded. The two lifted the gate.

“Go go!” Red said, “I’ll hold it open while you guys get inside.”

“Come on!” Embla said.

Cal and Pandora rushed past them into the sewers with Embla entering after. Red ducked under the gate and slowly backed himself into the sewers, lightly closing it.

“Well, this is kinda gross.” Pandora looked down at her boots which were now soaked in water.

“At least there isn’t that much waste,” Embla said.

“Remind me as to why we’re doing this again. Yuki could’ve disabled the Gusisnautar by now and could be heading back,” Red said.

“But she didn’t yet. Probably. She just got into the main castle and there are plenty of places to look. Besides, how would she get out?” Cal said.

“Umm… this is Yuki we’re talking about,” Pandora said.

“Still. I don’t like that she’s going in by herself,” Embla said, “Let’s at least try not to get caught. Once we get inside, we stay inside the sewer and wait, while one of us goes and finds her so we can get out!”

“This is the most idiotic plan I’ve ever heard.” the elf priestess had a deadpan expression on her face. She scowled at Embla and Cal for dragging them into this.

“Hey, you agreed and this could’ve been avoided if Yuki had one of those pearls.” Embla held her hand out and cast Flash.

“Fuck, I should’ve done that before sending her in.” Pandora slapped her forehead at her own stupidity.

“So… got any idea where we’re going, Miss Guide?” Cal asked.

Embla ignored his jabs and held her hand out. The light illuminated the tunnel and she walked forward. The rest of them followed her without saying a word.

“So do you know where we’re going?” Red asked, gripping his sword. He kept his eye out for anything that might jump out. Sewer Gators. Giant Rats. Giant Snakes. Bandit Patrols.

“We’ll just follow the tunnel until we find an exit or access point to the ground,” Embla said.

“Embla, this isn’t the sewers of Yggdrasil. They probably don’t have stairs for maintenance crews going into the sewer,” Pandora remarked.

“They probably do…” she pointed to a door ahead of them. A smile graced her face as she ran over to the door and grabbed the handle. Embla frowned when the door didn’t budge.

“Why does this need to be locked?” Cal asked, catching up to her.

“Maybe they’re hiding something inside but it proves that there’s an access point down here. In the war, if this fort was overrun, they probably took the sewage system to escape out into the woods. These rooms could be armories for all we know,” Embla said, inspecting the handle. She bent down a little and examined the lock. Once she was done, Embla reached into her pocket and pulled out a lock pick.

“Why do you have that?” Red asked, looking at her pick.

"During my time bouncing around Midgard, I found that people locked their barns. How was I supposed to sleep whenever I wasn’t in a town? Sleeping in the woods isn't all it's cracked up to be.” Embla didn’t spare him a glance as she began picking the lock. She furrowed her brow as she twisted the pick around inside, trying to unlock the door. After a few seconds, Embla smiled as she heard a click! coming from the knob. She opened the door, throwing it wide open.

“Huh. Looks like you were right,” Cal said, walking inside.

Inside the room were stacks upon stacks of rations and preserved food. The boxes stacked as high as the ceiling and had different labels. There was a small desk with a lamp that no longer burned. Pandora walked over and spotted a clipboard with some writing on it.

“Can you even read those?” Embla glanced over her shoulder, shining her Flash orb on it.

“No, this is in Sutrtian. I can’t read this,” Pandora said, reading the foreign symbols.

“Well, they look really well stocked. Some of this is still good,” Cal said, grabbing some of the food. It was a small can of beans.

“Put that down. We don’t even know if it’s still good.” Red grabbed the food from his hand and put it back.

"It's a can of beans. It's probably going to survive the next decade," Cal argued, waving the can in his face.

“Whatever, we need to get out of here and find a way to the surface,” Embla said, turning back towards the door.

“Here’s a map.” Cal pulled a map out of one of the boxes. “It looks like whoever had this fort left it here when it was abandoned at the end of the war.”

“Can we still read it?” Red asked.

“I can’t read Surtian but it seems pretty straightforward with the arrows and stuff. Looks like there’s a manhole about… a couple of hundred meters from where we are. We can get over there and climb out,” he said.

“Well. Let’s go,” Red said.

How much further is this thing? Yuki thought as she peeked out from behind the door. She had her hand on her sword just in case someone walked by. The upper floors had barely any places to hide save for the odd closet or two. And it had tighter security. Even tighter than the security in the room that held the people the bandits planned to sell off. Yuki bit her lip as she watched a patrol walk by.

“Time to-!” She pulled the door shut when a group ran by. Yuki pressed her eye against the keyhole and looked out. More? Where the hell? she thought they ran by the door. Yuki was confused. They looked panicked almost. Like they were in a rush to take care of something. A chill ran down her spine, causing her to shiver. Whatever feeling she was getting was not good. “I have to take care of this now…” Yuki opened the door and reactivated her Hyper Sensory.

“There!” Yuki brandished her swords when she saw five mana signatures a distance from the mana ball on the floor above. She spotted the stairs and jumped to the next floor. Yuki landed and took off in a mad dash towards the door with the bandits in front of it.

“Huh? Look! There they are!” the bandit said, pointing his manacaster at her. The others turned and drew their weapons.

She remained silent as she cast the skill, Shadowless Flight, and blurred out of their vision. In an instant, she appeared in between them. In a flurry of white, two of the bandits lost their arms and the other was kicked into the wall.

The bandit with the manacaster fired at her. However, this bullet came in practically slow motion. Her eyes caught every detail as it inched its way towards her. Grinning, she twisted her body out of the way and darted to the bandit that fired.

The bandit pointed and prepared to fire when Yuki’s knee made contact with the underside of his jaw. A sick crunch was heard as he felt the bone in his mouth break as he was sent careening into a wall.

Yuki landed in front of him and kicked the caster away from his hands. “Is that door locked?”

“Awawa auaua!” he babbled, rubbing his jaw in pain. She got the cue, seeing how his jaw hung awkwardly from his mouth.

“Nod if yes. Shake your head if no. Is that door locked?” she asked.

The bandit nodded.

“Is there a key?”

He nodded.

“Do you have it?”

He nodded.

“Will you give it to me?” Yuki tilted her head.

He shook his head.

“If you give it to me, I’ll get my teammate to heal your jaw.” She crouched in front of him and held her hand out. Her eyes gleamed with a blood-red glow that sent shivers down the bandit’s spine.

The bandit hesitantly reached into his pocket and handed her the keys. She thanked him and pulled a potion out of her pocket.

“Try and guzzle that down your throat. That should heal you enough,” Yuki said as she got up. Without any warning, Yuki knocked him out with a chop to his neck. She walked over to the door and unlocked it.

The Gusisnautar was a fairly large weapon. It had to be since it had enough firepower to injure an adult dragon or destroy a building within a single shot. The weapon’s barrel was a large cylindrical tube with a ray of smaller tubes that stuck out of the rear of the barrel. These smaller tubes radiated a faint white glow as they gathered mana and prana from the surroundings. There were two pillars running parallel to each other that served as part of the Gusisnautar’s barrel to focus and channel the energy that was collected by the weapon.

“How do I disable this?” Yuki placed a hand on her chin, running her hand across the smooth metallic surface. She walked around and saw the chair where the user fired the cannon. Sitting down, Yuki noticed that the firing mechanics were rather simple. There was a small sight with two buttons that needed to be pressed at the same time in order for it to fire.

“Maybe I should just blow it up?” Yuki inspected the collector tubes of the cannon. Mixing mana and prana was dangerous without the proper level of control as it could deal a massive amount of damage to the surroundings. It was this thought that made her think of other options. One false move and she could destroy the entire floor and collapse the tower on her head.

“Is it even active?” While she didn’t know the exact mechanics of how it worked, her Hyper Sensory skill allowed her to sense how much energy it had gathered. From what Yuki could see, it looked like the weapon had only gathered them in the cells and not the actual barrel itself. She grinned. “This will be much easier than I thought it’d be…” White energy coated her blades. With a single swing, she severed the barrel of the cannon, disabling the weapon.

“That’s that… now all I have to do is find a way to sabotage the fort so we don’t have a hard time storming it.” Yuki sheathed her blades and walked towards the door. She stopped when the possibility of getting spotted entered her mind.

“Window it is then,” she said. Yuki looked around and saw that the room had small windows, big enough for a bird to pass through but not a person. Her red eyes kept roaming until she saw an exit to what she assumed was a balcony. Or where they fired this thing from, she added.

As Yuki exited the tower and prepared to jump to the nearest roof, an explosion caught her attention.

“What the…?” her eyes widened. Her Hyper Sensory was still on. No, no no! Those energy signatures! Pandora! Cal! Embla! Red! What the hell are you doing here!? Worry filled her mind as she jumped from the tower. Her body went into free fall before she expelled a jet of ice from her feet. Yuki propelled herself to the nearest roof and landed, startling a bandit.

“Free-!”

“No, you.” A jet of white was expelled from her body as she cast Frost on the guard. His entire body was encased in ice.

Hang on! Yuki thought as she jumped from rooftop to rooftop. She gulped at the thought of having to use that but it might be necessary with whatever trouble they might have gotten themselves into.

“There!” Yuki landed in between two bandits. “Icicle Raid.” The two around her and the others within a radius of 3 feet were all pierced by a wave of icicles. “Guys! Are you-!”

“That’s quite enough girl.”

Yuki’s eyes grew wide when she saw the situation they were in. Red, Cal, and Pandora all had their weapons pointed at a man. The man was large. His arms couldn’t even be called arms. Each one was a pillar. The same could be said for his legs. If she had to guess, each limb was as wide as a pole. His chest was thick, as was his neck. Even with the armor on, it failed to hide the fact that this man was rather muscular.

But Yuki’s focus was on something else. She gritted her teeth when she saw the person in his arms. Embla was being held by the man with his ax’s blade at her throat. She struggled to break free, thrashing and clawing at the man's beefy arms.

“Well?” the man said, “Let’s get started shall we?”

A grin of triumph etched itself across his face.