Nathan turned several times into different corridors, but every time he turned back, Lynn ran after him.
Annoyed, Nathan looked back and shouted:
"Why are you following me?"
Lynn, who still had small tears in her eyes, didn't slow down and answered.
"B-because!... Whaaa!... Just run!"
Cursing inwardly, Nathan ignored the girl and kept running.
The corridors of the castle were convoluted like a great labyrinth, leading him down endless paths with the group of creatures getting closer and closer to them. For once mundane humans, they had quite abnormal stamina and speed.
After running for a long time, Nathan saw that the corridors finally ended and led to an open space.
A few meters in front of him, a large golden chandelier with candles still burning hung from the ceiling... well, from the floor at that moment.
Nathan approached the chandelier, glancing behind him where Lynn and the dozens of creatures were still chasing him.
When he was within a few meters of the chandelier, he looked up and saw what appeared to be a large dining room, with a table and more than twenty chairs, one at the end of the table bigger and more ostentatious than the others.
He didn't have much time to look around the place before he felt the gravity shift again. Nathan grew pale and poured more essence into the muscles of his legs, so that he could reach the other side of the corridor and not fall into the dining room when everything spun around.
Passing the large chandelier, Nathan did not hesitate and jumped at the very moment that gravity finished its turn.
As he jumped, his body twisted and he fell just beyond the chandelier, avoiding falling into the dining room. He rolled a few meters before standing up, just as he saw a body coming towards him at full speed.
"Kyaaa!"
Lynn punched him in the chest, knocking him back to the ground.
'...Ughh'
Nathan stayed on the ground for a few seconds before he carelessly pushed the young woman off him and quickly stood up.
Lynn, sitting cross-legged and massaging her head, pouting slightly as she watched him with a slight frown.
"You could be more gentlemanly"
Nathan frowned and ignored her, then walked over to the railing and looked down into the dining room below.
The dozens of... he didn't know whether to call them calamities, they had once been human, so he just defined them as strange creatures.
The point is that the dozens of creatures looked up, baring their sharp teeth, and roaring like wild animals.
'What happened to them?'
It hadn't been more than an hour since he'd woken up and he didn't think it had been more than that since everyone had entered the realm. Nathan turned and looked at Lynn who was still sitting on the floor.
"What are they?" Nathan pointed backwards with his thumb, indicating the dining room.
Lynn looked at him for a few seconds and shrugged.
"Hmmp, I don't know. I woke up, walked out of a room, and ran into them, then I ran away and found you"
Nathan smacked his lips.
"Tch, useless"
Lynn's eyes widened in surprise and offence.
"Hey!"
Nathan ignored her again and looked back down into the dining room.
The change in gravity had been faster than before, maybe 15 minutes or so compared to the almost half hour before. That worried him, because it seemed that the intervals were not constant, so he could not predict when the gravity would change again.
That was a problem, because as soon as the gravity changed again, the creatures would return to the same level. Thinking about this, Nathan stopped looking at the dining room, turned away from the railing and started walking down the corridors again.
Seeing that he was leaving, Lynn quickly got up and followed him.
Nathan stopped and looked at her.
"Why are you following me?"
Lynn looked back at him a little nervously and replied a little embarrassed.
"W-well, you look strong, plus it's better to be together than apart …don't you think?"
Nathan hesitated for a moment before he resigned himself and started walking again.
He really didn't feel comfortable being in the company of a government agent, even if she didn't know he belonged to Khan.
But it was true what Lynn had said, they had a better chance of surviving if they were together. Nathan couldn't say for sure, but he guessed that Lynn must be a first-rank third category... and she had two guns, one on each side of her hip.
Nathan remembered the man she had electrocuted, so he thought the young woman might be useful.
Seeing that Nathan agreed, Lynn made a victory gesture and walked over to him.
"What's your name?"
Nathan was silent for a few seconds without answering. He thought about telling her his new fake name but decided against it. He didn't want her to connect his two identities, so he preferred to remain silent.
Seeing that Nathan had no intention of answering, she crossed her arms and muttered.
"Fine, I'll call you Macabre Mask"
Nathan sighed at his new nickname but said nothing, just looked around.
The castle was really strange, there were too many corridors and rooms than usual, and all the corridors were exactly the same, with the same pictures and the same decorations.
Nathan had tried to enter several rooms and had noticed how many of them were the same, almost as if they were copies. He had even seen the room he had woken up in several times before.
The only place he'd found different was the dining room, where the creatures were still waiting for the gravity to change to hunt them, so that wasn't an option for now.
Nathan had also considered leaving through a window, but he did not want to think about what would happen if the gravity changed at that moment.
Lynn followed in silence as he hummed a song and looked around in fascination.
"Have you ever been inside a castle?"
Nathan pondered Lynn's question for a few seconds. He had never really been in a castle, mainly because most of the ones that had existed in ancient times had been destroyed by calamities, war, or the passage of time.
"No"
Still, he remembered visiting a few places with similar aesthetics.
The two walked on for a while, and several questions came to Nathan's mind.
'Where is my sister?'
If possible, Nathan would prefer not to meet her, but he had to be prepared for any eventuality. He found it a bit complicated though.
He didn't know how many people had been sucked into the rift, but he guessed there must be several hundred, including dozens of people with techniques.
But so far, he had only met Lynn, the other formerly human creatures were mundane without a trace of essence in their bodies.
Nathan also thought of the old man who had fought with Faye and remembered his words. If he followed the thread of the conversation, the old man must be one of the leaders of the outskirts. Someone he did not want to meet either.
Preferably, he didn't want to meet anyone, or if possible, a calamity.