"That's him! Follow him!"
The moment Nathan jumped into the hole in the middle of the street, he naturally drew the attention of everyone around him, including the Khan members.
Not much knew his false face, so they were searching almost blindly before with a rather ambiguous description. However, when Nathan jumped out, he basically shouted that he was the person they were looking for.
What person in their right mind would jump into a place where you don't know how many dangers there might be? Well, only Nathan.
The hole was big enough for two people to enter at the same time, so gradually almost half of the Khan members started to follow him down while the other half stayed in the camp.
A few minutes later, when everyone had already gone down, two men who were watching from afar looked at each other and nodded before mingling with the crowd again.
***
Nathan was walking at a slow pace along a footbridge beside the canal where the sewer water was passing through.
'As much as I've gotten used to smelling not so pleasant things, this is definitely on the podium of worst smells'
Holding his nose, he continued walking in the dark corridors of the sewer.
'Sometimes I miss having senses... sometimes I don't' Amelia whispered knowing Nathan was having a hard time.
Bad smells aside, Nathan had been walking for a couple of minutes now and hadn't seen any signs of calamity. But he had seen the trail they had left behind.
All along the walls of the sewers, there were hundreds of holes the diameter of a baseball ball. Although Nathan wasn't entirely sure, he guessed they were tunnels created by the same calamities that had shattered that poor man's legs back at the camp.
'Where are we headed?' Amelia asked to which Nathan looked back and shrugged.
'No idea, I guess to whatever exit we can find'
Amelia looked at a ladder a couple of meters in front of them that led to the surface.
'That exit won't do?'
Nathan shook his head.
'We've haven't walked too much, we must still be inside the city, surely there are thousands of calamities, Khan members and government agents after my life... it's just not an option'
Nathan looked back after hearing something, then sighed and continued walking.
'It would be nice to find an exit that leads to the outside of the city... although it might be tricky to find'
At that precise moment they reached an intersection, and he looked down the three corridors without knowing where to go.
Leaving it to chance, Nathan chose one of the three corridors and walked towards it.
'I don't even know where north and south are anymore... it would have been nice if they had signs under here'
'Well, I don't think when they built this place they thought that someday someone would try to escape through here' Amelia said.
Nathan tried to remember a little of the history of Radford City.
'Many years ago there was a war... so it is possible that there are secret tunnels under the city, although it is unlikely to found those'
Suddenly Nathan heard voices approaching behind him and picked up speed knowing that the Khan members were getting closer and closer to him.
After about an hour, Nathan was tired of always looking at the same walls.
He had managed to lose the Khan members and the walls were no longer as leaky as cheese, which meant that the chances of him encountering any calamity were low... or so he wanted to think.
'We've been walking for long enough... aren't we already close to leaving the city?' Amelia asked.
Nathan denied.
'You greatly underestimate the size of Radford City. It may not be an objectively large city, still, an hour is not enough time to walk around it'
Nathan suddenly stopped abruptly and frowned.
'The walls changed'
'...That's true'
At some point, the style of the sewer walls had completely changed. Nathan did not understand the reason behind this change but continued walking after observing his surroundings and considering it safe to move forward.
Finally, after about five minutes, Nathan reached the end of the corridor and frowned.
'What about the exit?'
In front of him, there was an almost... ancient stone wall.
'Look at the edges, it looks as if the wall was forcibly embedded in the middle of the sewer' Amelia said, then Nathan realized that what she was saying was true.
Then an idea crossed his mind.
'You don't think that...' Amelia whispered.
Nathan swallowed and nodded.
Maybe we went back to the castle.
As soon as those words passed through his head, Nathan laughed lightly and sighed, then pulled the mask out from under his coat and put it over his face.
'Can I have worse luck?'
For a while, Nathan stood in front of the thinking what to do. He looked back and saw only the darkness of the sewers and the few trails of light that some holes in the roofs where the water fell during the rains.
'Do I have any other choice?'
Amelia kept quiet so as not to interrupt his thoughts.
Nathan continued to ponder, then finally sighed, and looked at the wall blocking his path.
'Well... damn. I must be crazy wanting to go back inside'
Amelia heard his thoughts and couldn't help but hesitate.
'Are you sure about this? We can still go back and look for another way'
Nathan shook his head.
'And walk aimlessly again?'
A small smile appeared on his face.
'Besides, with the recent surge, most of the calamities must have left the castle'
Amelia said nothing for a couple of seconds, then sighed mentally.
Nathan took a deep breath and raised his fist circulating essence to his hand.
'Okay... here we go'
Letting go of his hesitation, Nathan stretched out his arm and punched the wall, destroying it as a cloud of dust rose up and blinded him.
Nathan coughed slightly and waved his hand in the air to blow the dust away, when it settled on the floor, Nathan looked at what was behind the wall and frowned.
'Cages?'