“Ughh. Rgghh”

Darkness surrounded Thompson. He himself never believed in hell. But he never disbelieved it either. He liked the life of freedom and pleasure above all else. So much so that he ended up leaving his sister in a dire situation just because he didn’t feel like being responsible for her. But at last. The journey was over and the play had ended. Still, his back ached and hurt like a bloody bitch. Was death like this?

He pushed his back off of the cold ground and stood on his feet. 

Blasted hell. I’m not in hell. It’s just so bloody dark in here. he thought.

There was no one to answer his calls so he courageously walked forward blindly.

There is no point in standing still. Must move forward!  

But his legs stumbled upon something and he fell forward on someone.

“Ouch. Darn it” yelled a voice.

“Oww, hey. You’re Kenji?” asked Thompson who identified the familiar voice. 

“Uhh, yeah”.

“Activate your triplet orbs, mate. Otherwise, it’s impossible to navigate”

“You crushed my doublet orbs. I need time to recover” said Kenji with pain.

“Oh, sorry mate” 

Panting and groaning Kenji typed on his wristboard and the two men could see each other much more clearly now.

“Alright, let’s go” said Thompson.

Together they walked along the darkness. Kenji had his ears open. He allowed no thoughts to enter his mind. A second of allowing the sounds of the inner to disrupt his awareness meant a chance of death from a mouser attack. Soon they were inside a narrow tunnel with crystals on top of it to light the way. This made both of them feel a little relieved but they still had their guards up. But soon they were out of the tunnel and were facing a peculiar scene. Pathways separated by ice walls lay in front of them. The ice walls themselves emitted heavenly light upon them as if they were diamonds. They watched the scenery in awe.
 
“Hey, you two!” said a man’s voice from behind them.

When they turned around, Vlad and Natalia were standing there. And behind those two they could see two tunnels. From one tunnel Kenji and Thompson had arrived here. From the other Vlad and Natalia travelled to here most likely.   

“Have you seen the others?” asked Natalia.

“No” replied Kenji.

Vlad walked past them and observed the pathways carefully and said:

“Shall we pick a path randomly? We could split up but-“

“That would be too dangerous” interrupted Natalia. 

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s take the middle path” said Vlad.  

He led the team and walked ahead. He was followed by Natalia and Thompson. Kenji walked behind all three of them. They walked along the pathway that immediately turned right, then left, again to the left and then right. It was a mess. Now that they entered deeply into the path that was surrounded by the ice walls, it was clear that the ice walls were here to create a maze. If they could somehow get on top of the walls then reaching the exit would be easy. But none of them had that utility. While Vlad strolled cautiously, he heard Natalia’s voice behind him.

“Wait, where is Kenji?”

Thompson turned around to see that there was no one there.

“Quite strange. He is not the one to run off without a warning” said Thompson.
 
“Kenji?!” yelled Vlad.

There was no answer. They stood there waiting until Vlad ran out of patience and went past the two.

“I’ll retread our track and look for him. You two stay here”.

With that said Vlad ran off.

“Vlad, wait” said Natalia

“He said to-“ 

“He is an idiot”
 
She went past Thompson and pranced away. Thompson grumbled and followed her. After a few corner turns they saw Vlad standing and staring blankly at the wall while holding his sword in one hand.

“Oh, thank goodness” said Natalia and ran over to him.

She grabbed his hand and said:

“Please don’t run on your own again. It’s too dangerous”.

Vlad turned his head and gave her a cold look. Natalia could not understand what made him angry. And in a moment Vlad raised his sword and stabbed her in the abdomen. She cried out in pain and fell on the floor.

“V-Vlad, you, why?” she muttered. 

Vlad grabbed the handle of the sword tightly with both hands and landed a thunderous blow on her head. Or at least he attempted to before Thompson blocked it with his blade.

“King’s ignition!”

His blade burst with flame and he attempted to stab Vlad but he hopped backwards to dodge it. 

“Darn it, What happened to you?!” roared Thompson.  

Vlad turned around and ran away.

“Wait!?” yelled Thompson and gave chase after him. Just as Vlad was about to reach the corner another Vlad appeared from the other side of the corner.

“Uhh” said Thompson with a confused expression.

Without hesitation, the newly appeared Vlad drew his sword and slammed it towards the faker but the other Vlad successfully blocked the blow and jumped into the wall. Almost like he was made out of liquid, he merged into the wall and vanished.

“Wha- What is going on here“ yelled Thompson.

Natalia’s scream came from behind him and they focused their attention towards her. The fake Vlad’s upper body was now pulling Natalia downwards into the floor. Half of her body was already submerged into it. Vlad and Thompson ran towards her but in a matter of moments, she melted into the floor and disappeared with the faker.       
                                          
“Ragghhhh”

Vlad slashed the wall with rage. Thompson kicked the wall in anger and asked:

“What do we do now?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know!”

Then suddenly a light bulb appeared on top of Vlad’s head. He brought out the seal from his bag.

“Assembly summon Natalia”
  
Nothing happened. The seal was used once and it could not be used again. Enraged by the result, Thompson cut through the ice wall with his fiery blade. But starting from the scratch that was made by his blade, the ice wall started to melt. And soon it formed a hole big enough for a person to go through.

“Ho ho. This is the first-time anger has solved my problems” yelled Thompson enthusiastically.

“Let’s go” said Vlad and sprinted forwards.

Using his fiery blade Thompson made a path through the walls with ease. After slashing through a few walls they reached a square area with no walls and obstacles. At the center of the area were two Natalias. The first Natalia was lying on the ground with her chest while the other Natalia pinned her down with her entire body and wrapped her arm around her neck.