"MENTALITY? THE FREAK WITH A MASK," Jiehong asked.

  He shook his head 'yes' and said, "But calling him a freak is a bit much...maybe," he added, thinking of his adversary's intensity and how it was, in fact, a bit much.

  "Regardless, why would you think he is here?" Jiehong continued. "He's surely scurrying to find his golem legion. Or whatever... whatever he is doing as part of the invasion force, he has bigger fish to fry than us. Especially after we downed that fancy airship of his. I'm sure his handlers were really peeved at that!"

  "We don't know anything about Mentality," Whiskey added to the conversation. "For all we know, he is the supreme commander of the invasion. If that was the case, downing an airship wouldn't be a big deal... or it would come with minimal consequences, if any. I doubt you saw him, Zan. He would need to use unfathomably potent magics to sneak his way into an Order structure, right? I don't think this is something we should concern ourselves with; you're probably panicked or over-stressed. Maybe we should head back to camp so you can rest."

  Grunting, Jiehong pinged his earpiece and asked one of the Screen Masters if it was possible for someone who wasn't supposed to be in an Order structure to go inside of an order structure. Simulacrum replied, saying, "It is as Whiskey suggested. For an individual to pass into an Order structure would mean bypassing many degrees of glyphs and magical devices aimed at keeping out the wrongdoers of the world. To circumvent such precautions would mean a magical immensity beyond most people's comprehension. Additional: I do not detect any infiltrative impressions within the fabrics of the bunker's build."

  "I guess I... made it up? It seemed so real, though. Like he was here with me like you guys. But it was only for a moment! Crap. Clearly this isn't the case. Maybe I am tired. Let's wade deeper into the bunker, though. I am with you, Jie, I want to see what's deeper..."

  Not sure if his teammates bought his excuse or not, he began his way down the staircase with his friends behind. 'Sometimes, you just need to move on,' he said to himself, summing up the weirdness he couldn't explain. He didn't know why he saw, or thought he saw, Mentality, and regardless of the situation, Mentality clearly wasn't here with them. His mind was being overly fanciful. Again. How surprising.

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  Emerging into the second floor, this second floor was much the same as the first floor above them. Small rooms, low rooms, and smooth bunker walls. Though he should not be so hasty with himself, he reminded himself. The room the staircase brought them down into wasn't so much 'small' as it was of moderate size. The door into the complex was to the side of the chamber.

  "Crap... says we need to imbue it with five mana units," he said upon seeing the locked door.

  "Fine. No sense in complaining. Let's get it done," Whiskey said, her tone sharp. Had he done something to upset her?

  "I agree," Jiehong said, his tone less sharp but still critical. Maybe his team was off put by his mentioning of what he thought he saw?

  All three placed their palms flat facing the door and channeled magic into it. Slowly, lowly, they followed his gentle remainders and kept a steady infusion rate. It took the rest of his magic, and he reckoned a good deal of Whiskey and Jiehong's magic as well, but they filled the door till it pulsed green and unlocked.

  Opening the door to the thirty-fourth room they saw a hallway which was vastly longer, and oddly colored, than any corridor they had seen on the floor above them. "Darn. What was the idea here?" he asked his friends.

  Jiehong whistled. "No clue. But I am intrigued. Can't say I would put down a simple trek, though. Better, I think, than getting lost in a maze."

  "The first floor wasn't that bad," Whiskey said, the group crossing the threshold into the extraordinarily lengthy hallway.

  "Only because we had Zan to lead us. If we didn't have him and his headset map, we would've spent many times as long navigating," Jiehong replied.

  "I would have just led the way. I'm a hunter. Remember, Mister Jie?" she said, keeping to her place in formation.

  "I guess. I just don't know how much good forest navigation skills would do you in a place like this. I guess some skills are transferrable, though..."

  "Alert! Alert!" their earpieces went off. "Fae-construct detected: Fatal Graze, Dynamism Level 2, detected."

  "What?! Where?!" he said before seeing what the Screen Master picked up upon. It was right in front of them. Literally.

  What before had seemed a discoloration was, in fact, the Fatal Graze warned about through their headsets. Squinting his eyes, he wondered if what he saw was true. "Guys," he asked his team. "Are you seeing this? Is this entire hallway really a single fae-construct?"