- Returning to the Keep with Hiruko, her friends and Colonel Klaus, after Ageel had joined them.
With one hand on his scabbard and the other on the slaker he had just sheathed, Konrad was about to go on the attack. But Hiruko immediately interrupted him and asked him to calm down.
-He's not our enemy', said Hiruko.
Konrad: Are you really sure of what you're saying? He could well be an enemy to us.
-Uli: Konrad's right, he even threatened you outside the entrance to the dungeon, do you remember?
-You're right, but I could see in his eyes that he was waiting to see us. said Hiruko.
Selene then spoke up and asked him where his comrades were, with whom he had entered the dungeon, adding 'were they killed by draugrs?
-Ageel: 'For me, draugrs aren't really a threat, and you can see that by looking at me. All four draugr cores were tied up in their hands, and it was then that the colonel asked him.
- Tell me, were your comrades killed by these two draugrs?
-Ageel spoke to his conscience: 'How does he know I have two draugrs in my hands? Well, no, we lost three of our members to that Jengu, but we finally got rid of him.
-Selene: Three? But there were five of you? Did the other one leave you for the other group?
-No, the other member you were talking about is called 'GORO', he helped me escape.
Hiruko, taken aback, asked him: 'How could you escape when you seemed to me to be more competent? Or was this Jengu, as the colonel mentioned, not the only one?
-I'll say it was all a bit strange, because it was just me and Goro during the confrontation and a few draugr who weren't easy for us to take down. But suddenly,' he said while clenching his fist and looking at the ground, 'we noticed that the remaining draugr had to stand still for a while. Then they became more aggressive towards Goro and me, and we began to struggle to fight them. The worst thing happened when we saw other Jengu, looking like animals (monkeys, warthogs) appear out of nowhere. It was as if they were possessed and controlled.
- Frederico: The most important thing is that you're alive (he said, touching Ageel on the shoulder).
Thank you, but the strange thing is that Goro, ever since we were children, has never let me face danger alone. And I've never let him take risks on his own.
I was surprised when he told me in sign language, as he was mute, to leave and let him face these draugrs alone.
- Selene: It's called a sense of sacrifice and love between brothers in arms.
- We've been close to death several times before, but he's never behaved like that.
Perhaps fear tends to show us who we really are, in the face of our inability to change something delicate. He behaved like your big brother, and very few people think about the survival of others before thinking about their own.
-And you haven't told us how you came across this little gadget,' said the colonel, pointing at his gadgets.
-Oh, that? When I was running and desperately looking for another group, I came across this beast that guided me to you. Why did you do that? Does this tiny object belong to you, sir?
- Call me 'Colonel Klaus', and no, this gadget doesn't belong to me, it belongs to the other guy behind me, Grimaldi.
-Habon? You're Colonel Klaus and the smartest man in the world? And why are you dressed in a three-piece suit in the middle of a dungeon?
-Ageel was also punched in the head and the colonel told him that 'it's a long story and I don't have time to tell you everything'.
-OK, but the presence of the inventor of modern times, one of the richest men on the planet, here, I'm entitled to my explanation, aren't I?
-Frederico: 'Er, Ageel, I don't think we've got time for that just yet, could you ask Hiruko to explain it to you?' leaving it to Hiruko to explain it to him.
-Hiruko: 'I don't have the time to give that arrogant man, he's quick to forget what happened at the entrance to the dungeon. Hiruko categorically refused, and after all, he didn't have time to explain everything to AGEEL either.
-AGEEL: grumbling, teeth gritted in anger, he said to Hiruko: 'I apologise, so are you happy?
-I accept your apology, but as I don't have time for this, I think we'll talk about it at the end of the dungeon.'
-: Hey, and you're too sure of yourself to think that we'll all get out of this dungeon unscathed. After all, what happened to us.
Behind Grimaldi, the latter was fiddling with something on the little device that had guided AGEEL to where they were. He discovered something essential. Come and see.
In the royal palace, following events closely thanks to Grimaldi's device.
-Sir Kléon: Madame Dorothy, did you see what happened to Hiruko's group? And I see that Colonel Klaus has joined them!
-DOROTHY As she sipped her tea, just as she wanted to put her lips to the cup, she was interrupted and burnt her lip. She took off her lipstick, furious as she was. She replied to Sir: 'I'm surprised at you for such a trivial matter. I did see, and that's that. I hope they don't need me any more, because I can also see number 01, Konrad. So I don't have to worry any more. I'll have to go and make myself pretty.' She put down her cup of tea and, getting up from her chair to go to the toilet, said to Kléon: 'This tea will get cold while I'm making myself beautiful again, and it'll be your fault if I spoil it, Kléon.'
- Um, sorry madam, I thought what we should be concerned about is the situation of our young people and the colonel.
- They're fine, I've told you that over a hundred times already,' she said, looking at her sideways and giving her his back.
*Then, in the next few moments, Sir Kleon spotted something delicate and loudly called her 'Lady Dorothy' before she moved away from them.
Sir Cleon called out her name: 'Lady Dorothy!
She stopped abruptly and said to him without even turning round: 'You know, Kléon, I respect you a lot and this is the second time you've interrupted me like this. If we weren't in the royal palace, I wouldn't say what should have happened to you.
-Sir Kléon: stop threatening me, there's something more urgent.
- More urgent than what? These dungeon raiders?
No, there are a lot of them and one of them is using...
Before concluding, Sir Kleon was interrupted by the second examiner, who pointed out that the screen on which they had been following the progress of the recruits had lost the signal to transmit events in the dungeon to them, which surprised Dame Dorothy.
*They returned to their seats in front of the screen with no signal, trying to understand why the signal had been lost.
-Stirring her tea and stirring her spoon, Lady Dorothy asked: 'So, try to make me understand, you called me because Grimaldi's device had lost its signal? They told us it was still in the test phase, didn't they?' pointing with her spoon at the second examiner next to Sir Kléon, who had prompted her to call him that way.
Second organiser: thank you for your kind words. By the way, when Grimaldi was explaining the prototype to us, he said that before it disappeared, it should show signs of interference and then the signal should gradually drop.
Dorothy: So what?
-second organiser: except that here, everything was cut off at once.
-And you, Kléon? Then she pointed at him with her little spoon and started to drink her tea.
- It's about his dungeon raiding.
- Dorothy: What more do you want to tell me that I don't know?
-Did one of them have the power to control the Draugrs?
* She was astonished when she spat out the tea she had been drinking because it had burnt her, but it was even more the message Sir Kléon had just given her that had surprised her.
The second examiner, seeing Lady Dorothy burn herself by spilling tea, asked her if she was all right.
'I'm fine, don't worry,' she murmured, before Sir Cleon glared at her aggressively, as if preparing to fight her.
As Dorothy cleaned the tea-stained areas of her clothing, she said: 'Blimey, I don't think a towel is going to get that off. And don't look at me like that Kléon, I, like you, don't know how those people got into that dungeon.'
He replied in an annoyed tone, banging his fist on the table: 'That's not why I'm angry, damn it! It's because of you, for letting your young recruits down so lightly. We've gone too far.'
- Can you lower your voice, Kléon, and calm down?
No, you want me to remain calm in the face of a mass slaughter of children that is taking place?
- Calm down Kléon, and I won't tell you a third time,' she said, giving him a murderous look, her eyes glowing a dark pink that immediately changed the atmosphere in the room where the three of them were standing.
But when they saw Prince Gabriel enter the room, they calmed down.
The Prince greeted Lady Dorothy: 'How do you do, Lady Dorothy? If you're still here, you haven't had time to fall asleep, which is dangerous for your health.
- Dorothy: That comes with practice, Your Highness. And, seeing you, I hope you slept like a baby?
-That's for sure, but I was looking forward to following the exploits of the soldiers in this dungeon. As she glanced off into the distance, she noticed that the broadcast screen had changed. In fact, why was there nothing on the broadcast screen?
-Ah, I see. I'm sorry, but someone must have destroyed and attacked the equipment that was broadcasting the images to us in real time.
Gabriel: But why attack machines? Aren't they supposed to be attacking the draugrs?
-Yes, but it's the work of the looters and assassins who destroyed everything and apparently they know how useful these devices are for transmitting images to us, the examiners. replied Sir Kleon.
Lady Dorothy smiled at this and said: 'Goodbye, dear Prince. If you'll excuse me, I'll take my leave.
Gabriel: Are you leaving? Don't you want to go and rescue the soldiers from this band of raiders who are more dangerous than the Draugrs?
-I've got things to do first, my prince,' she told him as she walked away.
-Annoyed as he was, Sir Kléon banged his fist on the table.
-Second examiner: You've really upset him this time, Sir Cleon.
-I don't care, and I refuse to close my eyes any longer,' he said, rising from his chair.
-Curious to know, the second examiner asked him: 'And where are you planning to go? You don't know how many there are or what they're capable of. It's better to go with several men.
Kléon: I'm not going to wait another second, I'll go first and it will take me longer to get several dozen or fifteen men together.
Gabriel: You really think you're going alone when they must really be in danger.
- Kléon: My prince, without lying to you, it's even possible that your friends are already dead or facing a horde of enraged draugrs as we speak. I'm not going to wait for Dorothy's reaction.
-Gabriel: Please sit down, Sir Kléon,' he said in a calm, soothing voice.
-Kléon: Haven't you heard? The other soldiers may be dead or in danger and there's no one to go and help them.
- ' Hiruko will win and I have every confidence in him. Please prepare the doctors for the survivors. Those who have already died cannot be saved, alas. And look for the source of the magic in this dungeon to find out which exit they will be taken to, because they won't be spending another night in this place,' said the young prince Gabriel.
-But Your Highness, what are you relying on? What makes you so sure?
- Believe me, I'm prepared to put my life on the line if you want me to. The second examiner will take us as witnesses.
Seeing just how far the prince, who had unshakeable faith in Hiruko, was prepared to go, he decided to sit down and tell his assistant Kertis to take the message to the mages so that they could start looking for the energy in the dungeon to extract.
-Kertis: Yes, Master.
* A few minutes earlier in the dungeon.
-Klaus: Yes Grimaldi, what do you have to tell us?
- Frédéric: Well, we've lost contact with the last gadgets I launched.
-Scared out of his wits, Ageel asked him: 'Have they got Goro?
-In relation to your friend, I've received images of my gadgets that I'd like you to be able to see.
He walked over to Grimaldi and pulled a cable from his stick, which ran to a hole in the gadget. The gadget then projected an image above them.
-Everyone was dazzled by what had just happened, Hiruko first, but then AgEEL spoke aloud about what each of them was feeling in a low voice.
-Ageel: Is this magic?
-Grimaldi: No, Ageel, it's pure science.
'Then you're a genius, Grimaldi' said Hiruko, who received Ageel's support.
- Grimaldi: But that's not why we're here, young man. We're trying to find out what made my gadgets disappear. I'm going to change frequencies and show what my camera last saw and that's what I was able to see. He loaded the images until they arrived at the scene before, where they had lost the signals.
When they saw the scene, they were looking at the fight scene of a large man covered all over his body. Ageel looked over and said: 'That's him, that's Goro, he's my friend who helped me escape'.
Frederico: Wait a little longer, look.
The part where Goro started to show signs of weakness followed in the video. A few minutes later, the Draugrs invaded the battlefield again, and then the images cut out. This melted Ageel's heart.
-ULI: That's all we can see, are you sure Grimaldi?
- At first sight yes, but if I link the images, because I made these devices as a prototype with the capacity to record events at 30 frames per second. So you could reconstruct everything by touching several of these buttons to bring out the images. 'You can see detail by detail, except in blind spots, and what do you see in the distance?
- Selene: a woman covering her face in the middle of her draugrs? But that doesn't make any sense.
-Frédéric: 'I was quite right, they do have someone capable of controlling and manipulating the Draugrs.
The rest of the group were shocked and began to fear Dave's group, except for one man.
Klaus: 'Controlling the Draugr? But that's a power beyond comprehension. I'm not convinced.'
-Uli: But that's what we've just seen, Colonel.
-Klaus: So why did the big snake almost devour Hiruko instead of the pregnant woman? And how lucid does she have to be to be able to control so many draugrs, if that's even possible? I've just realised that the reason they did what they did was because Dave finally realised that you, Hiruko, Uli and Selene were still alive. I think this lady is...
He didn't have time to finish what he had to say when he suddenly saw a big punch the size of his face trying to crush them where they had gathered to watch the images of Grimaldi being blown to smithereens. The impact had smashed the floor to smithereens, and just as he was about to be hit, the colonel pushed them aside, shouting: 'Get away!
'Well done on the dodge, Klaus. I thought I'd be quicker than your deductions, but it looks like you were quicker than me to see my move coming,' said a man, putting his fist into the ground and coming close to crushing Hiruko and all his companions.
-ULI: Luckily we had a narrow escape, he's much better than a sergeant and I don't think the colonel will be able to beat him as he doesn't have a slaker with him. 'Who are you?' shouted Uli.
My name's Gaga and I've been given carte blanche to crush you all and bring back the stone that this light-skinned, tanned kid has!
- Klaus: He's talking about Hiruko.
- Hiruko: Hey, it's racist to judge someone by the colour of their skin.
- klaus:His name is Hiruko and what do you want from him? Are you here to attack the Kosuga?
- I couldn't care less. I don't know what you're telling me, but I'm not very good at remembering names, apart from those of people who've entertained me and given me a good fight. The others, I see as insects to be crushed.
Klaus felt a shoulder charge hit him and shatter him, whereas what he had seen in the previous moment was his enemy clenching his fists together and the yellow energy running through his fists, which frightened his protégés, who thought he had died crushed by Gaga's 200kg charge.
'Colonel!' shouted Selene, looking worried for her superior.
- Haahaah, unfortunately for you my little Klaus, I didn't come here to talk too much with you. It's your blood I'm going to feed on, not your talk, you weak insect.
Then he continued to take the colonel around the walls with him, keeping him on his right shoulder as he charged. He was in the process of doing this to him when suddenly he changed his trajectory downwards, crushing him to the ground. He saw the colonel escape from the technique he was doing to him, which surprised Gaga: 'What? Why did I start crushing the ground? What's more, it's disappeared?'
- You brute, do you know how much I paid for his clothes? It cost me half my salary. said the colonel, who saw his jacket shredded by Gaga's attack. It tore his jacket and waistcoat, as well as part of the right forearm of his shirt.
- Gaga: can you explain what happened first?
- And shut up, because given your build and your attacks, you've got to respect me, because first and foremost, I'm your elder and you owe me respect and consideration. And lastly, it saddens me because I've never liked taking the life of the youngest or the oldest. But in your case, you have no honour in wanting to harm Hiruko, so I'll show you no mercy.' And he tore off the other half at the level of his forearm and shirt, then said: 'Like that, it's symmetrical, I think.'