"I told you mate, you should stay here, and take it easy," Francis told Baulder, "Like my Mamma said, 'You can't put pecorino on the pasta, without grating it first.'"
"Like I'm gonna stay put. This is my fault, I'm going along," Baulder replied, "And what is that supposed to mean?!"
I didn't care either way. If he's coming with, he'll be a help, and if he's not, he can rest, and come in, if we need him. Francis was right, in some sense, but we shouldn't take our enemies lightly. We failed already, thanks to underestimating them, we can't continue with that trend. I told Baulder that he can decide, but Francis won't take that. He's too much of a mother for that.
We set out a bit later, with Baulder coming with, and we decided to leave the jet unattended, they probably won't be coming back, seen as they already got what they came here for. How did they even get the info? So, it was just the four of us, against the world, once again.
This time, it took us considerably less time to make it to the other end of the city. We really took are pace up, and we eventually made it to the sign. Looking at it, it was telling a story, for sure. It looks like two letters were taken from it, from the beggining of both words. Maybe someone has took it down? Someone who didn't like the way it looked, probably.
We set up camp on the hill, just a little bit above the sign itself, far enough, that surveillance wouldn't reach us, and we decided to lie there in wait. We had only two options, we could either break in, and make a grand entrance, which would probably instantly lead to our demise, or option two, we wait until someone comes out, and unlocks the door for us.
The only problem with number two, was that we didn't know what they were planning to do with Caleb. If they just wanted to question, or maybe even torture him, that's fine. He'll at least survive. If they plan on killing him, well, that would suck. Not quite optimal results. Taking both options into account, I decided that it would be better to just wait a while, maybe a few hours, and if no one shows up in that time, we can just break in after.
We probably spent about two hours there, nearing the three hours mark, where I decided to draw the line. Whilst waiting, we would change duties quite frequently. About every ten minutes, to maximize our attention rate. We'd have two at surveillance, at all times, and two to guard them. By my luck, I got to be one of the lookouts, when someone actually showed up at the exact spot that rabbit teeth dude told us about.
It was a fairly short man, quite muscular in built, but not the most exceptional. He looked around, before typing in a code, that I caught as 1427, and suddenly, he started to descend into the ground. I tapped the shoulder of Francis, who was currently on lookout duty with me, and guided his attention to the hole in the ground. He almost jumped up in happiness, but I caught him by the shoulder, and pulled him back down. This was it, our time to shine.
We decided to wait for a little bit, so that security won't find it that unordinary that the 'lift' activated twice in a row, and after about ten or so minutes of waiting, we rushed down the hillside, slowly tiptoing our way to the panel. Upon our arrivel, I quickly typed in the code, and waited that something would happen.
And just like that, something happened. Well, the descent into the top secret base of our enemies happened, and it really didn't make us nervous, not even one bit. Like, we don't have a chance of dying, or even that our VIP is already dead down there. No, really, nothing like that crossed our minds. Like I definitely couldn't see it on literally everyone's faces.
Even Meda seemed anxious about this ridiculous endeavor. And you know what? I couldn't blame her. I was slightly on edge as well, and I'm usually not like that. I usually like to be as calm as possible, and I like to play as if I'm not, but this was really different. This kinda went against my personality, in some ways, yet I couldn't just leave one of us die like this.
On that note, we started to slowly descend into the depths of our enemies lair. I was sort of expecting some creepy creeking noises, yet nothing of that sort happened. The lift went down without any red flags going off, so I got maybe a bit more anxious because of that. The lift stopped, with a slight hump at the bottom, and what waited us, was something I didn't really expect all that much. About a dozen armed henchmen, and a man, wearing a corsette, and a long flowing skirt. I know I shouldn't be weirded out by that, but I didn't expect to see that sight in a sort of religious sect's base. Doesn't it go against their moral creed, or is that time over already?
"Why would you we'd just let you in, love?" he said in a coarse forced high-pitch, "We aren't going to fail that easy, you know."
For a second I was shocked. I didn't think they'd let us in on purpose, and well, you know. Him. Her? Anyways, this situation was a bit much for me at first, but I gotta roll with it.
"You think I'd just stroll in here, unknowing of your little scheme?" I bluffed, "I was waiting for this to happen."
Sometimes I surprise even myself. Like in this situation, I managed to make a blatant lie like that? When did I become a liar? Is this sort of thing okay? Like I know I'm a villain, but is this okay? Where are my boundaries? I noticed that my group was looking at me in a weird way, but I couldn't discern whether they realized that I was lying, or that they believed it.
"Oh my, oh my," he replied, "Let me introduce myself. My name is Ivan Dubinsky, Deacon of the Order. And you are -"
"Tentazione, weilder of [Temptation]," I interrupted.
"I see. We weren't sure who was coming in, but to have a Sin come in here, quite Greedy, wouldn't you say?" he cackled.
"I'm sure that made more sense in your head," I replied to his taunt.
I'm entirely sure we won't make it without a fight, well, multiple. This is the second Deacon we run into, and if there's two, there's probably more. As I took a stance to fight, I felt a familiar tap on my back.
"Let me handle this," Meda whispered, "I can take him on without a problem."
"Got it," I replied.
I looked at the rest, and nodded towards the corridor behind the Deacon. They nodded back, and we started running.
"I'm sorry, Deacon Sir, but we ain't have time for you," I yelled in his direction.
"Like you can run from me!" he shouted, and charged up some sort of fireball in his hands.
"Not gonna give you that chance!" Meda rushed in, kicking his hand from the bottom, towards the ceiling, making the firaball explode upwards, bringing down quite a bit of debris on some of the henchmen.
We continued running down the hallway, trying to find our way through the maze of this building. It took quite a bit of time, as we couldn't get any blueprints from our previous scans. Actually, we didn't even know, if Caleb is here, or if he's still here. We didn't know whether they even brought him here. I mean it was quite likely, but still, we had no tangible evidence. We may have just busted up this place for absolutely no reason.
After truning quite a few times, we finally made it to a huge rather empty room. Maybe more of an atreum, actually. There was absolutely no one there, but what worried me more, is the distinct lack of open doors. I quickly signaled the guys to turn around, but it was too late. A huge clash, and the shutters of towards the hallway have already touched the ground.
We were trapped. Quite a bit trapped, actually. I asked Baulder to lift the door, but he couldn't budge it one bit. This made me rather frustrated, and I bombarded it a little bit as well, with my [Greed Binder]. Didn't help a bit, sadly. Francis gave it a shot, using his [Aolus], but even his strongest gusts of wind wouldn't move the door. Maybe his mother had a good saying for these sort of situations.
"Quite unlucky, aren't you, [Temptation], Sin of Greed," a rather unfamiliar voice said. Francis seemed a bit panicked, though.
"Dude, this is bad. Like pretty bad," he said, trying to find the source of the voice, "We couldn't get him earlier, and I don't know if we can now."