The Alpha's Return
Chapter 48 - Moving To The Next Floor

"We need to go to the north end. Yet here we are stuck in the other end. We moved through the wrong direction.", Eva said.

"Can you tell us the directions through the labyrinth now or not? Do I need to blast all the walls again?", Lucas asked coldly.

"I will be at the forefront. I know the directions.", she said quietly.

"Well then. We are at your mercy. If you please.", Lucas moved aside and gave her some place to go front.. She bit her lip as she started walking back into the maze.

"Are you coming or not?", Lucas asked the other council members who were talking amongst themselves.

They stopped talking and started walking as well. All of them followed Eva back through the holes on the walls until they stopped right in front of the center. She took a turn and now the actual problem started.

Although Meredith was dead, and the walls did not keep regenerating, the problem of the maze being a maze still existed. Everyone was silent, and not a single one spoke. The eerie silence was creepy, but the situation was too tense for anyone to care.

Eva stopped in front of a dead end. She glanced at Lucas.

"Here."

"Fine. Move it.", he said as he started massaging his soldier. Without even transforming it, he punched forward heavily, and the wall started crumbling, until it collapsed completely. He took the first step through the new door that he opened. In front of him was the familiar set of elevator and stairs. There were also a set of stairs that went downstairs.

"If we had come through this side, then we could have avoided this floor altogether", he commented.

"You know that is not the case. This building is so confusing. Every stair case is not connected, and we need to go through the entire floor to get to the next.", Angela sighed.

"Well, should we try our luck with the elevator again?", Lucas looked at Praneeth.

"It isn't here. It is locked. Seems like someone wants you to walk through all nine floors to seemingly ready you for something. Placing a guardian through every floor. Isn't this like very similar to the time when we needed to get a small vial from the fountain of youth?", Praneeth chuckled.

"Well, that means that either this Marquess character knows that we did that, or she went as well and really liked the structure. I am going to place my bets in the former.", Lucas said.

"Well, why don't you punch through it anyway? We can climb up the shaft.", Arthur shrugged.

"Didn't you hear me speak downstairs? They are made from reinforced titanium. I may be able to break through them now, but once we go up, then what? I can't just stand on nothing and break them. I will need to stand on solid ground as a support before being able to break through. It will take much more time than it will climbing up the stairs and passing through every goddamn floor.", Lucas said.

"What about just blasting through the ceilings? I am getting kinda bored and frustrated fighting all these people. It feels that they want to split us apart.", Michael asked.

"Not going to work. Jumping is fine, but breaking through concrete with a jump will take all my power. I don't want to do that seven more times. I will need all my power to go against this marquess, if she really is the apostle of Apophis.", Lucas shook his head.

"What? For ten minutes you were killing me for wasting time, and here you are, chatting.", Eva scoffed.

"Fine. Let's get going. Let us hope that the next person that we face will not be so disappointing.", Lucas sighed.

"Wait Lucas. Did you not say that you already spilled first blood. How come I could not smell blood since I walked into the building? Where did you have this fight? I had this question since I arrived but the situation did not let me ask you.", Michael asked Lucas.

"A good question.", Arthur nodded.

"What do you mean, you could not smell it? Wasn't the scent obvious? It was strong even. I killed them all in the basement. From where you entered. There were so many corpses to the side that it wasn't even funny.", Lucas looked bewildered.

"Wait what? There were so many corpses to the side? What are you even talking about?", Praneeth looked at Lucas.

"Eva, are there any curses on him? Is he, or was he under an enchantment?", Praneeth asked Eva.

"Are you kidding me? If there were any illusions, it would be on you guys. No one will ever fool my five senses ever. And, Fenrir would sniff out an illusion a mile away.", Lucas shot down the proposal immediately.

"Well then, something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong.", Praneeth looked down.

"Wait! Could it be?", Lucas looked worried. He disappeared all of a sudden.

"Where the hell did he go?", Mu Chen asked.

Praneeth looked crest fallen as well. "How did I not see it? Impossible. My third eye, it is not communicating with me! This place is blocking off some of the powers that the gods bestowed upon us. That was what the magical barrier must have intended to do."

"And we have another problem in our hand.", Lucas reappeared, panting.

"Where did you disappear off to?", Mu Chen asked him.

"Meredith is missing. Her whole body is. Not a speck of blood on the ground. Nothing. It was as if we are all living in an illusion. Looks like we are not where we even think we are.", Lucas said.

"Now wasn't that boring. To think that you would replace out in the second floor itself. I thought that you would replace out after you get to the ninth and get so disappointed. Well, this works as well.", a sound boomed around them.

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