Reaching the closest wall to the Grand Castle, Tomoe looks back, seeing the distance they have already covered in just minutes.

“Cotton! Stop standing there and come up.”

Tomoe turns back and up, nods to Amelia, and then takes the stairs of one of the abandoned buildings to its fifth floor. These stairs are outside of the building, which allows Tomoe to see the entirety of the city from another perspective, and lets her see what is located to the other side of the wall: A large forest, with smoke coming off at some places, then another city, a beyond, what looks like another wall, and a large plain beyond that.

The sheer size of the place would stop Tomoe in her tracks if only her mother wasn’t taken by the enemy.

Reaching the fifth floor, she sees William against the wall of the Grand Castle, touching it with his hands, and light coming off the points that he is touching. Bran, Lorelei and Amelia are to the side, taking in the view.

“What is William doing?” Tomoe asks as she comes closer to the group.

“He says that he needs a moment to open the passage that we are going to take.” Lorelei answers.

“So, we are waiting, taking in the sheer insanity of this place.” Bran says.

Amelia nods a couple of times. Pointing upward, she adds “they aren’t particularly noticeable from below, but look.”

The group, looking up as Amelia told them, found that closer to the ceiling, a large number of gargoyles are lined up. One after another, covering the entire space from one side to the other.

“What is with that? Why so many gargoyles? Not even the oldest building back in the city had this many reunited at one point… and they are quite ugly.” Lorelei remarks.

“One thing is certain: They are really well kept. You can distinguish their features even from this far.” Bran adds.

“Never liked the things. Always gives me the creeps if I’m honest.” Tomoe says.

A heavy, loud sound comes from behind. The group, turning, see William besides the wall, and a hole in it, in the shape of a rectangle door.

“Come, the way is now open.”

Nodding, Tomoe enters, followed by the entire group.

Moving through the corridors, William leads the way. The corridors are far smaller, and still, they too are glowing with light. Touching the walls, they gave a feeling as if they were made of Ivory, and the ground had the toughness of marble.

Flooded within her own emotions, Tomoe couldn’t sit still. Her mother is there with that horrible person, and she will surely die if Tomoe doesn’t do anything to help her, and fast.

Every step resonated within her, as a thousand steps made by the rain invaded her ears.

Shall she ask William and make a run for it?… No, that wouldn’t help. Slightly slapping her cheeks, she takes a deep breath, recognizing the absurdity of what would happen even if she indeed managed to get to her mother, alone and without backup.

Even so, her feet felt lighter, a bit too willing to leave everyone behind.

After turning many times in the corridors, and going up and down, Tomoe asks “How much until we get to the room?”

William answers “About to get there.”

“Really?” Tomoe says as she runs past William and makes a turn to the right after a corner, but then, she is faced with something out of the ordinary, even more than the Grand Castle itself: The corridor in front of her is in total darkness. Even when the walls that connect all the corridors are glowing with light, it is like light doesn’t enter and doesn’t leave this corridor. Tomoe can’t see into the corridor, nor can see the end of it.

Without having noticed, William’s hand was on Tomoe’s shoulder. It was grabbing her shoulder with a lot of strength, which made Tomoe look again at the unusual corridor, with a chill running down her back.

“What in the-” Amelia starts saying as she too turns the corner.

“What is happening?” says Lorelei from beyond the corner.

Having the group catch up, William proceeds to explain “This is what we call a dark corridor.”

“Very… apt name.” Tomoe remarks.

Bran just nods.

“And it is really dangerous.” William continues “One false step, and the corridor will vanish instantly the person who took said wrong step.”

Silence. Amelia then takes the word and says “Vanish?… what do you mean?” clearly showing concern in the tone of her voice.

“Exactly what I meant: Anyone taking the wrong step suddenly vanishes. And no matter where we look, scouring the entire area, the entire Grand Castle, all the people that vanish just… disappear. They don’t go anywhere else that we know off, they are just… gone.”

Tomoe takes the word now “How are we supposed to cross this then? Is there a way?”

“There is a way. Completely reliable too, and we must cross it in order to get to the self defense room, which is too far away otherwise. Let me explain: We will form a chain of people, holding hands both with the one in front of you and the one in your back. I’ll go first since I know how to navigate the dark corridor, and the one after me, holding my hand, will follow all the directions I take inside the dark corridor. Do this, and we all can cross safely and reach the other side.”

“Are you joking right now, William?” Lorelei asks at the same time that William stretches his hand. Then she adds “I guess not.”

Stepping forward, Tomoe grabs William’s hand “Are you sure about this?” William asks.

“We need to reach my mom. If you truly know how to cross this, then I’ll put my faith entirely on you and decisively move forward. We can’t waste any more time.”

Stretching her own hand towards Amelia, Tomoe says “And I know that Lia thinks the same.”

A slight smug is drawn in Amelia’s face, while she takes Tomoe’s hand while saying “And Cotton’s dangerous side is finally back.”

Finally, with everyone holding hands in a chain formation, William says “Remember, follow my exact steps and direction, and we will be at the other side in no time.”

The entire group nods and William enters the dark corridor, which causes some ripples in the dark as if William just entered in some sort of liquid. Soon after, the entire group was inside.

The short moment Tomoe was inside the dark corridor felt like an out of this world experience. No light was reaching her eyes, she couldn’t see even her nose. She could still breath, it was air what was getting into her nose. The solid sensation of the floor transmitted really well to her feet, and the sounds of all the steps the entire group were making could be heard clearly in the dark. The hand she was using to hold William’s, she could still feel it, the pulling when William walked forward, the rest when William stopped for a second before changing directions. The dark was getting into her nerves, and so on the grip on both of her hands was getting stronger and stronger.

“Cotton!, you’re hurting me!” Tomoe could hear Amelia's complaint.

Tomoe couldn’t understand what was she complaining about though, not until she finally reached the other side of the dark corridor, and when the light hit her, she finally understood what was happening: her Aura was already engaged, and she was sweating a lot.

Little by little everyone crossed into the light.

Taking deep breaths, Tomoe turns to Amelia and says “I’m sorry Lia… don’t know what happened.”

Amelia too was frizzled by the dark corridor “Cotton, I like my hands, so please don’t try and crush them.”

Tomoe snorts.

“I feel my guts about to spill from my mouth.” Bran remarks, as he, the last in the line, enters the room.

“Now I’m grateful that I didn’t eat anything since the morning.” Lorelei follows.

William gets to the center of the room, where a white floating crystal is suspended in the air. Tomoe follows him with her sight. Raising his hand, William engages his Aura and infuses the crystal with it. Then, light comes from the Crystal. Lines of light shoot against the walls of the room, multiply and run off towards the corridors that connect to the room, even the dark corridor. A loud sound can be heard, followed by many light and heavy sounds. Some of the corridors that connected to the room were suddenly enveloped in darkness: new dark corridors were activated.

“The self-defense system has been activated.” William says. Then, turning, he adds “now, the entire castle is connected through the dark corridors. With this, we can move and cover large distances in less time, and reach in time the next room that will allow us to see where our Lady is located.”

William stretches his hand to Tomoe.

The entire group went silent, trying to grasp what just happened, and only nodded, following William through the next dark corridor after taking a couple of additional deep breaths.