Zephyr, though having slept very late, woke up early. Rubbing his eyes, he folded the blanket Grimm had used to cover him and set it aside. Looking out the window, he noticed it wasn't quite bright yet, so he simply sat down on the couch, waiting for the day to fully begin.

  Meanwhile, upstairs, Damon and Gwen were already wide awake, running around the hallway, eagerly exploring the nine extra rooms Grimm had created, as well as Gwen’s own.

  The two of them were clearly making the most of their exploration, though the other right rooms aside from Gwen's room seemed entirely empty. They tried to confirm whether the space was real or just an illusion by knocking on the walls, creating an obnoxious racket that echoed throughout the house.

  Zephyr, downstairs, was growing more annoyed with each passing second.

  Grimm, hearing the commotion, descended the stairs and saw Zephyr holding his forehead, looking as though he regretted why he was born. A small chuckle escaped his lips.

  "Good morning, Zephyr. Sleep well?" Grimm asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

  "Not until that happened," Zephyr grumbled, pointing upward at the noise coming from Damon and Gwen.

  Grimm smiled lightly. "I could make them stop."

  "Please, do," Zephyr replied, not missing a beat.

  With a subtle gesture of his hand, Grimm manipulated the fabric of space, causing Damon and Gwen to be suddenly sucked through the air and brought downstairs.

  Zephyr's eyes widened in shock. "No! I didn’t mean bring them to..."

  Before he could finish, Damon and Gwen appeared before him with a cheerful greeting. "Good morning, Zephyr!"

  Zephyr, clearly uncomfortable with Damon and Gwen's sudden arrival, kept his face neutral but couldn't hide his desire to escape. "I can't do this," he muttered, and in a swirl of wind, he teleported out of the room, vanishing in an instant.

  "Nooooo, he's gone," Damon said playfully.

  "Yes, and now we must fulfill the destiny of our fallen comrade," Gwen added dramatically. "Sail the ships, boy, we're going to war."

  Grimm, who had been standing quietly in the corner, chuckled lightly. "You two seem chipper this morning."

  "We're practicing in case Zephyr falls in battle," Gwen said casually. "We're going back to the east gate."

  "Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you, Grimm," Damon said, describing how things had gone down yesterday with wild hand gestures. Grimm kept a straight face the entire time.

  Noticing this, Damon's face fell. "And you already knew all this, didn't you?"

  Grimm, attempting to act surprised, raised an eyebrow. "Oh... No."

  Damon shot him a side-eye. "Seriously?"

  Grimm, feeling guilty, looked away sheepishly. "Sorry."

  Not before long Zephyr teleported back down from the roof, where he had spent some time getting away from the noise.

  Returning to the room, he noticed Damon and Gwen, who were spinning around in excitement, showing off their new ponytails.

  Grimm had done both their hair in neat, detailed ponytails that were more elaborate than the usual messy ones they tied themselves. He had clearly put some time into it while Zephyr was off brooding on the roof.

  "Grimm did it," Gwen explained with a playful twirl of her hair. "Full makeover this morning."

  Zephyr, who had just been staring at them, raised an eyebrow. "Grimm did both your hair?"

  Damon grinned. "Yep. Didn't know he had the talent, huh?"

  Gwen laughed, spinning around again to show off the full effect. "Not bad, right?"

  Zephyr, keeping his face stoic, took a step back. "Get out of my face," he said flatly, clearly unimpressed.

  "So, when do we leave?" Damon asked, looking at Zephyr.

  "What?" Zephyr replied, obviously confused.

  "I mean, we're going back to the east gate, right? So when do we leave?" Damon clarified.

  "Oh, yeah," Zephyr said, glancing at the time. "It's still past six. So probably around noon," he continued, smiling to himself. Menacing. I have six hours all to myself without these two morons.

  ---

  The next thing Zephyr knew, time seemed to skip ahead, and suddenly it was time.

  "It's time!" Damon and Gwen yelled in unison, as if they'd been watching the clock the entire time.

  Zephyr blinked in utter disbelief. "No, that can't be right," he muttered, rubbing his eyes.

  Gwen tugged at his sleeve, pulling him along. "You said twelve, so it's time to go."

  The trio marched out of the house—well, more like Damon and Gwen marched while Zephyr was being dragged behind.

  "Bye, Grimm!" Gwen and Damon yelled, waving back at Grimm, who stood at the door watching them leave with a knowing smile.

  As they reached the alley where the side entrance was, they spotted two guards with their backs against the entrance, lazily standing watch.

  "Not these losers again," Gwen muttered under her breath.

  Stepping forward with a confident grin, she declared, "I'm just gonna go kick their butts."

  But, as always, she was pulled back.

  "We just need to knock them out, not break their bones," Zephyr said, looking at her with a serious expression.

  Zephyr then turned to Damon. "Don't let her go," he warned, and then picked up a can and tossed it toward the side to draw the guards' attention.

  Clank, clank.

  "What was that?" one of the guards asked, peering around.

  The other guard immediately replied, "I know better than to check it out. Watched enough movies to know that's a trap."

  And just then, Zephyr's voice whispered in both their ears, "You sure about that?"

  The guards whipped around in fear, but before they could react, Zephyr was behind them, chopping both on the neck. They crumpled to the ground, knocked out cold.

  "Alright, come on," Zephyr called to Gwen and Damon.

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  They quickly approached the side entrance, but as they checked the guards' coats, they found no keycards.

  "Oh, come on, why don't they have key card, I could get in myself sure, but what about you two?, How are we gonna find one now" Zephyr groaned in frustration. "I mean, I could teleport in and take it off someone and teleport back."

  Damon, unfazed, raised a keycard. "I have one."

  Zephyr narrowed his eyes, suspicious. "How did you get that?"

  Damon shrugged casually. "Took it off one of the guards yesterday. Thought it was the smart thing to do."

  Zephyr's tension eased a bit. "Oh, yeah... that makes sense."

  Zephyr then glanced over at the unconscious guards and started removing their uniforms. He handed them to Damon and Gwen. "Here, put these on."

  "What about you?" Damon asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "I can teleport," Zephyr replied. "It’ll be easier for me to escape if I get spotted. Besides, not everyone who was in uniform were roaming around the last time, though they were very few, so I could blend in with those ones."

  Gwen and Damon put on the last pieces of the clothing, securing the visors over their faces.

  "Let’s go kick some demon butt!" Gwen grinned as they stepped through the side gate and into the building.

  As they stepped out of the shadows, they paused, briefly recalling their plan from outside the gate.

  "I’ll teleport as far away from you two as possible," Zephyr had said earlier. "Then we split up. If anyone sees anything suspicious, we’ll find a way to contact each other."

  "But how will we do that?" Gwen had asked.

  "I can just…" Damon had snapped his fingers, and immediately their thoughts linked, allowing them to communicate silently. "Now we can contact each other anytime, even without speaking."

  Gwen had smiled, tapping Damon on the back. "I knew you’d come in handy."

  Damon’s eyes narrowed in confusion, not sure how to take it, but he had responded with, "Thanks."

  Now, back in the present, Zephyr teleported away as planned, leaving Gwen and Damon to move ahead.

  "Nothing to see here," Gwen muttered under her breath, "just two dashing young guards patrolling this side of.... this place." She said scanning the guards surrounding them.

  When they reached a fork in the path, they split up, each taking a different route.

  After navigating through several twists and turns, Damon came to a halt in front of a staircase. The steps were covered with intricate carvings. "Can you hear me?" Damon called through the Neurolink.

  "Loud and clear," Gwen responded. Zephyr didn’t answer, but Damon knew he was listening.

  "I see a suspicious staircase," Damon said.

  "Already?" Gwen asked, surprised. "What does it look like?"

  "It’s got these intricate carvings on it. Could be nothing, but it’s still worth checking out," Damon answered. "If anything happens to me, you two should leave as fast as you can."

  "Like hell I would do that," Gwen replied quickly, though Zephyr remained silent.

  "Thanks, Gwen," Damon said. "I’m heading up now."

  "Be safe," Gwen added, worry creeping into her tone.

  Damon moved up the stairs, careful to make no sound.

  "There are a lot of rooms with the same carvings on the doors," Damon reported through the Neurolink.

  "Try checking inside the rooms," Zephyr finally spoke.

  "On it," Damon replied, stepping forward without hesitation.

  He slowly opened the first door, met with an eerie silence. The room was empty except for towering bookshelves lining the walls, thick with dust, as though no one had entered for years.

  "Nothing here," Damon whispered through the Neurolink. "Just a storage room. Moving on."

  He closed the door quietly and made his way to the next one, "Nothing here also, just books" he said, his footsteps barely audible on the old wooden floor.

  "Keep us posted," Gwen's voice came through, calm but sharp. "Let us know if you find anything."

  As Damon reached the third door, he paused. There was something off about this one—an unnatural chill radiated from beneath it. He carefully turned the handle and pushed the door open with a creak.

  "I think I found something, guys," Damon called in.

  "What is it?" Gwen asked immediately.

  "Not sure yet," Damon replied, gradually opening the door wider. The room inside was enormous, stone pillars lining the sides. At the far end, he saw an altar with a large map spread across it.

  "It's a map," Damon said, his voice low.

  "What kind of map?" Zephyr asked.

  "Not sure, but it shows a lot of marked realms and villages... even here, Valtoria," Damon answered.

  "Okay, that map's coming with us," Gwen said.

  "Already on it," Damon said, reaching for the map. But just as he was about to take it, his eyes widened at a menacing aura from the other end of the hallway, it sent a shiver down his spine. He quickly folded the map, shoved it into his pocket, and made his way out of the room.

  Almost at the staircase, he heard a voice call from far behind him.

  Trying to ignore it, Damon took another step forward—but in the blink of an eye, a hand gripped his shoulder, pulling him back.

  The man’s aura was so overwhelming that Damon felt the pressure in his chest, he knew that no less, if he was slightly weaker, he would pass out from the sheer intensity in an instant. The man was nearly as tall as Grimm, if not exactly the same height, and his presence looked large in the hallway.

  Looking back, Damon tried to glimpse the man’s face, but it was obscured by a thick black veil, both front and back. The man was dressed in a long, flowing black yukata adorned with intricate symbols—just like the ones on the doors and staircase.

  "Hey, buddy," the man spoke, his voice calm and playful yet commanding.

  Damon froze in shock for a moment, but then he remembered he was wearing a guard’s uniform. Quickly adjusting his posture, he greeted the man, "Good day, sir."

  The man leaned in slightly, his voice lowering. "Don't you know this area is off-limits to guards?"

  Damon’s senses sharpened as the man's aura intensified again, but he managed to keep his cool. "Sorry, sir, I’m new here. I didn’t know that," Damon replied smoothly.

  "Or is it?" the man muttered, tilting his head. His aura suddenly dropped as he scratched the back of his head. "Honestly... I’m not even sure if I'm supposed to be in here. Or maybe it’s not off-limits? Who knows..." he said, chuckling awkwardly.

  "You shouldn’t be wandering these creepy halls, newbie," the man continued. "Now, hurry back."

  "Thank you, sir," Damon said, taking a step forward, ready to get away.

  But the man’s voice echoed behind him, much more deeper now, no trace of confusion.

  "Actually, I am sure about that."

  With a sudden burst of his aura, Damon was knocked out cold instantly, collapsing to the floor.

  The man squatted down next to Damon’s unconscious body, muttering to himself. "No guard in the lower division is strong enough to withstand the aura I let off the moment I stepped into this hallway."

  He sighed dramatically. “Man… I hate work.”

  The moment Damon’s body hit the floor, the Neurolink between him, Gwen, and Zephyr cut off abruptly.

  But by then, Gwen and Zephyr had already begun sprinting in his direction—the moment his strange conversation with that man started, their instincts kicked in.

  Rounding a curve, Zephyr spotted Gwen. “Where’s Damon?” he asked, urgency sharp in his voice.

  “I haven’t seen him,” Gwen replied, still moving fast.

  “Do you at least know where he went?”

  “Yeah—this way,” Gwen said quickly, pointing down the path Damon had taken after they split up.

  Without wasting a second, they bolted down the corridor, cutting corners with practiced speed. Eventually, they reached the stairs Damon had described—the ones with the intricate symbols carved into the stone.

  Gwen shot up the staircase first, Zephyr close behind. They searched the entire hallway from end to end, but Damon was nowhere in sight.

  “This is bad,” Gwen muttered, eyes scanning desperately. “This is really bad.”

  Still disoriented and tense, they descended the stairs again. As they reached the bottom, one of the guards spotted them. His expression shifted immediately.

  No one was allowed up there. Ever.

  He approached them calmly, though Gwen could already hear heavy footsteps echoing from the far end of the hall—reinforcements were coming.

  “You two,” the guard called out firmly.

  Gwen and Zephyr turned toward him silently. For some reason, the guard gave Zephyr a respectful nod—likely because he wasn’t in uniform.

  “That area is strictly off-limits, sir,” the guard addressed Zephyr. Then, turning to Gwen, his tone hardened. “And you—you know better. Following someone up there is highly prohibited. Didn’t they teach you that?”

  Gwen’s eyes flicked around the hallway, instantly spotting the growing number of guards closing in on all sides.

  She leaned toward Zephyr, voice low and tense. “It’s a trap.”

  “I know,” Zephyr replied, eyes narrowing.

  The approaching guard, now seeing his backup surrounding them, slowly unsheathed his sword with a smug grin. “You’ve got nowhere to run.”

  But before he could even blink, Zephyr vanished.

  A gust of wind whipped past.

  In the blink of an eye, Zephyr was crouched right beneath him, palm gently pressed to the guard’s stomach.

  “Wrong,” Zephyr muttered—and released a sharp burst of wind hitting with a loud bang.

  The guard flew like a missile, crashing into the wave of reinforcements behind him like a bowling ball striking pins.

  Without wasting a second, Gwen and Zephyr bolted. Staying to fight would only drag things out—there were too many of them.

  Spotting a nearby corridor, they slipped inside, pressing against the walls as the guards stormed past, none the wiser.

  Zephyr gripped Gwen’s shoulder. “Yh, we need to leave. Now. Whatever took Damon… it wasn’t normal. I felt it—bone-chilling, even through the Neuro Link. We did look for him and we didn't see him, you heard what he said. If he got caught, we’re supposed to leave.”

  Gwen’s eyes darted around in disbelief. “What?” she whispered, her voice low and tight. “What are you even saying right now?”

  She took a step forward, her tone rising slightly as the confusion twisted into frustration. “Now you want to listen to him? You never listen to him—never. And the one time he says, don’t save me, you’re ready to turn your back and run like a coward?”

  Her tone softened, but the fire in her eyes didn’t. “You can go if you want. You can teleport right, it'll be EASIER for you to escape But I’m going back. Call me stupid, call me na?ve—I don’t care. Yeah, I just met him. But I’m going back for him… and I don’t care if I die doing it.”

  Zephyr's gaze shifted, her words striking a chord deep inside. His mind flashed back to a memory long buried:

  Everything was on fire. Two children—a boy and a girl—clung to each other in the chaos. The girl looked up at him with the same fiery defiance Gwen now wore, her voice gentle but firm.

  "I'm going back to save him, and I don't care if I die doing it," she said with a radiant smile. A smile that said: I’m at peace with the life I’ve lived.

  A warmth spread across Zephyr’s chest. For the first time in forever, he smiled.

  Then out of nowhere he slapped himself across the face.

  Gwen flinched. “Ha! What the hell?! Why did you do that?!”

  Zephyr then took a deep breath, in and out. “Let’s go save Damon." he said, calmly but with resolve.

  Gwen’s eyes widened, then lit up with joy—because for the first time… he’d called Damon by his name.