William's friends kept watching the image until it slowly faded away. The wind coming from the holes took one minute to calm down. And when it did vanish, the white substance started to slowly move to the ceiling, and the image went blank and vanished in a few seconds.
"But… We don't have him with us," Ibra was the first to speak up, "he didn't yet come."
"I heard," Anjie nodded, and in her tone, there was some sort of reluctance or sadness, "but you are his team, the one he personally selected and trained. So, you can help both of us if you just scout what lies behind these walls."
Anjie's request made little sense to everyone, and yet they also felt something else. "May I ask the crown princess about waiting for him to return?" Lara was the first to speak up, placing light over this little issue, "there isn't a reason for us to rush, right?"
This was what all felt from her words, rashness and anxiety. She felt like a desperate person, one who was drowning and finally found a straw to stick to and survive.
If this place was connected to William, then they should have waited for him to come. Yet even when she knew he wasn't with them, she insisted on bringing them here. And that meant she was trying to race time to fix, stop, or save something.
They were right indeed, and there was a very important reason behind her rashing actions. And yet she never intended to share such news with them. After all, this was something related not only to the royal family of the kingdom, but also to the fate of all the lives living within.
"This is something highly classified," she instantly rejected explaining anything about her reasons, "all you need to know is that your help will be greatly appreciated by the kingdom, and you'll get heavily rewarded. But we have no time, and you need to start now!"
"This…" everyone on William's team knew this looked much worse by the words she just said. From her tone and attitude, they got that some sort of huge disaster hit the kingdom, or at least was threatening the capital. And that danger was related to this place, to this weird wind, to the drawing on the ceiling.
Even if they thought about investigating things out before William would arrive out of curiosity, they dropped any idea of doing this after hearing what Anjie said.
No one on Anjie's side needed to ask to guess about how William's friends intended to reject. And before any of them would say anything, one of the cloaked masters standing by Anjie's side said in a cold and vicious tone:
"Don't mistake our intentions, but you have no choice at all in this matter. All of your team members are now held captive and waiting for death if you don't comply."
"You…"
"How dare you?"
"Are you insane?!"
Few shouted, and yet the response they got was silence. It was clear how Anjie was desperate to solve this mystery, even going off limits and crossing all lines like this.
"In normal times, we won't have pushed you to such an extent. But we have lots of things that forced our hands," Anjie spoke, calmly as if she was speaking about casual daily stuff or something, "but as my mentor said, you have no choice here. You either agree to do what we want, or you and everyone on your side will die. Not to mention when William will come here, we'll also kill him."
"I dare you say it again!" Berry on impulse shouted, and yet Anjie didn't care about her threatening words or attitude. She and others on her side simply stayed silent, watching William's friends suffer and struggle to take a decision.
It was clear now that going beyond these walls was a risky endeavour, one that held more death chances than hope.
"Can we have our team with us?" as everyone was looking at each other, questioning in silence about what they should do, Lara suddenly said, making everyone's eyes fall on her, from both sides.
"No," Anjie's mentor who spoke coldly before instantly responded, "if you died, we need them to make sure William will listen to us."
"..."
This time the mentor said it clearly, they were going to face imminent deadly situations once they passed these walls. And that made them hesitate more in accepting such a task.
But as it was already said, what choice did they have? If they refused, then their entire team would die with them. "At least we'll make sure most of our team will survive this," Lina suddenly said, shaking her head as if she was regretting something. And she did indeed regret not having William by her side now.
If William was here, then nothing of this would matter. Even if they knew they were stepping through the death doors.
"Tsk," Ibra waved his glaive, feeling more frustrated by this. If they were in the middle of a battle, then things would look much better and easier for him to accept. Yet getting threatened like this made him hate his lack of power and strength.
Without even realising it, he envied William for the first time ever. Even if William was weaker than him, he was enough to change the entire situation. He wasn't just strong, but also cunning and resourceful.
Ibra wasn't the only one thinking like this, others also thought the same. They always leant on William and considered him as their immovable pillar and backing. And yet here they were, surrounded in a remote place, far away from William, and were this close from losing their lives without having any chances of winning.
Such a feeling was crushing and mind blowing, a decisive moment that would change their futures forever.
"Don't feel that bad, we won't send you like this without telling you everything we know about this place," Anjie wanted to raise their morale a little bit, a hopeless effort that didn't yield any results at all.
Foll𝑜w current novels on fre(e)w𝒆bnovel