Nyra and Sheila reached a certain part of the castle. Now they were longer in the outer part, but the middle part, however, still at the lower level, underneath.

Nyra looked around, at the long passage, "This is the place, I think."

"You think?" Sheila asked, looking puzzled in her fragile state.

"Yeah, I’m almost certain." Nyra replied. "I had always counted the steps of the old dwarf any time he was leaving."

"And according to all those steps, there were forty nine steps in total. And seeing that there were no corners from the time we left, this is surely the place."

Hearing this, Sheila looked even more confused. Her gaze landed on the block of walls at their sides, and the cages built within them.

The gates were empty, and although it was looking like Nyra might be right, she still didn’t understand.

Sheila opened her mouth and asked, "How do you know that this was where they would be held, look, the cages are empty?"

Nyra turned to Sheila, her beauty still radiant but because of the loss of weight she looked different. "I know because, one time the dwarf spoke to a person and told them to set up his lab, something about that he was going to take another specimen for his research."

"But when the voice had asked, he said ’no it’s not from series b, rather series a’ and in that moment I knew that we were series ’b’ and the males were definitely series ’a’."

"Not long after he had spoken to that person, he left and went through this way. I quickly counted the steps and arrived at forty nine, although it was a little distant I still tried my best to pinpoint where he stopped."

Nyra was looking at Sheila, and Sheila, also at Nyra. But Sheila had already spaced out, her eyes were swirling and her head seemed to be releasing smoke.

Nyra saw this and knew that all the information she had just spoken now, Sheila did not get any of it. She wasn’t one to consume so much information.

’Mhm... if Natsu or Chrome was here now, they would have easily explained it to her understanding.’

Nyra smiled, then placed her left hand on Sheila’s head, and the latter was brought back.

Feeling her touch, Sheila raised her hands, took Nyra’s hand from her head and brought it down, while still holding it.

"I am not sure what all that means, but who do you think he was talking to?" Sheila asked.

Hearing this question, Nyra placed her other hand on her chin, thinking, "I don’t really know but exactly who they were. But from my guess, they should be his assistant."

"Because the old man always tells them to step up his lab."

"A monster?" Sheila asked.

"No, it can’t be a monster. Because when he speaks, he also listens to their response. I don’t know how they communicate, but it has to be through some mana connection, it’s not as if they could use a phone, hehe..."

Nyra chuckled as she said this, and so did Sheila. Then she released her hand from Sheila grip and turned to face the straight passage.

Nyra pointed, "We could keep going forward, but I don’t know how long it will take, and also we need to find our weapons. I need to get to Aegon o-"

"Hey!"

Before Nyra could finish sentence, she was interrupted by the call of a familiar voice.

Sheila and Nyra both turned around and saw who it had come from.

"It’s the others!" Sheila exclaimed, excited.

All the ladies who had left the cages had now caught up with Nyra and Sheila, a lady walking up to them.

"You are here?" Nyra asked.

"Yes, of course." The lady spoke, "We did exactly what you had told us to do," she looked at the rest of the ladies then continued, "and as expected there was no movement whatsoever. I think they bought the act."

The lady who was speaking was the same lady who Nyra had held when she was entering the cage, she had blonde hair and brown eyes.

"I see, as expected. Good work Cassie," Nyra turned to other ladies, "and you girls too. You all did well."

At this moment, Sheila’s expression had furrowed, her eyes strained as she couldn’t understand what was being said between the two of them.

The words, they were speaking, not as if she couldn’t understand them. But she couldn’t just make sense of what they were exchanging.

Sheila looked at Nyra, "What are you guys talking about?"

With a smile on her face, Nyra turned to Sheila and said, "You know that person I was telling you about? The one that the old dwarf was talking to?"

Nodding her head, Sheila responded, "Mhmm."

"Yes, that person..." Nyra continued. "I noticed that when the old dwarf comes in, he always carries a strange object in his pocket, then always leaves it behind when he’s going."

Sheila was about to speak, seeing that it didn’t make sense, but Nyra cut her, and continued to speak.

"After the old dwarf had left, the object stayed with us for a while, probably about thirty minutes, and then after, a monster would come and carry it."

Hearing this Sheila’s eyes widened, saying, "Oh you mean that big crocodile that walks on two legs like a human, who also comes to look around and scare us?"

Nyra nodded, "Exactly!"

Cassie jumped in, "Turns out that it wasn’t only there to scare us. In fact, that wasn’t its main goal, it only uses that as a means to distract us when it wants to retrieve the object."

Hearing this, Sheila opened her mouth, "Oh!!"

Nyra continued, "You understand now? It was also trying to scare us, as a distraction, into taking back the object, and I noticed after it had happened for quite a while."

"I had also concluded that the said object was probably a magic device used to transmit sound waves turning it to understandable words."

Nyra turned to the other girls, "If you noticed, it was always after one of us speaks up, in a way of escaping that’s when they would be taken away by the old man or a monster."

Hearing this, they all nodded.

"Exactly, this always happens when that object is still around and hasn’t been taken yet."

Sheila nodded her head understanding it all completely. " My head almost went puff from all that information, but I think I’ve gotten it all."

Nyra was looking at Sheila while she said this, and afterwards turned away when Cassie spoke.

"So what are you waiting for? I thought this was supposed to be where the others were?" Cassie asked, looking at Nyra.

Nyra turned around, her left hand in her waist while the other in her lip. "I’m sure anymore, this was supposed to be the exact place."

Cassie, looking at Nyra while she spoke, thought to herself that there was no way Nyra was wrong.

So, she walked to the cages, looking inside and seeing that it was empty.

"All of them are empty." She said, "And the old dwarf guy never came back after coming here isn’t that right?"

Pointing to the straight long way, Nyra responded, "Yeah, he should have gone through that path, but seeing as the others are not here, maybe I was wrong."

Cassie shook her head in disagreement, scanning her eyes around the entire place, then all of a sudden her eyes landed on a particular place in the wall.

"Hold on, is that what I think it is?"

Cassie walked to the wall she was referring to while the others, their gazes followed her. Then on getting there, she moved her palm on the wall, around, and then stumbled on something.

"Haha... I knew it."

Cassie’s hand stumbled upon a certain block on the wall that felt different from the others, then, by mistake she pushed it in.

In that moment, the wall cracked opened, revealing another pathway.