THAT DAY I BECAME A STAR

We all enter through the crack one by one, it's so small only one person can enter while walking sideways. This is a very clever plan, because with this, if there is an ambush ahead, there is no way any of us can handle it alone easily.

The crack is not very long, a bit less than five meters long. When we pass it, we find stairs going downward, with torches placed at regular intervals. The stairs are going in a circular way.

Esteban raises two fingers, indicating us to walk in pairs of two. Immediately, I form a pair with Pedro while Peter joins Esteban. We get down the stairs slowly, watching out for anything and everything. At the bottom of the stairs, we find a hall carved in the stone. For how long has this place existed?

The hall has a triangle shape, there are no decorations or whatever but you can see blood's traces here and there on the floor and the walls. I can also feel Longinus in two sides of the triangle. One has way more than the others, though..

There are three doors on each side of the triangle. One of them is especially bloody. And it is the place where I don't sense any Longinus. Esteban looks at that door with great disdain then points at it. We all move silently then as he opens the door slowly, the putrid odor of rotten corpse and blood hits my nose. How many people have died here?

"Don't kill unless necessary. We must capture at least one person." Esteban whispers to us then enters first, Peter follows him then Pedro and I enter.

There is a long corridor behind the door, bloody as well. At the end of the corridor, there are two alleys going left and right. In the middle of it as well. We go to the middle alleys and each team takes one. Pedro and I take the left one. There are two doors side to side at the end of it. Looking behind, it is the same for Esteban's team as well.

We walk and enter the left door. I can hear heartbeats inside, three of them. Four with the crazy heartbeat of Pedro whose hands have started trembling a bit. Has he never seen such scenes or what? How can a knight be so frightened?

As we enter, we find sheets spread like a maze everywhere. They are all bloody and smelly and some of them even still have pieces of meat of them. The three heartbeats are dispersed at corners of the room.

"You go there." Pedro points in a random direction while whispering but I don't need to follow your order.

I follow the direction of the heartbeat I am hearing and as I pass through the sheets, I find some bed-like devices with chains. From all the blood I see on them, I am guessing they were torturing people there.

Finally, after moving another sheet, I find a man, apparently working on a corpse, cutting his flesh. He is wearing black clothes and an apron. I silently and quickly pass my hand around his neck and chokes him.

"Urgh…Urgh…" He tries to break free and stabs my arm with the scissors he had. Sorry, buddy, I am wearing some armor. But even if I wasn't, I don't feel pain.

After a few seconds, he finally stops moving. I release him and bind him all over with the sheets. His hands, his feet, and his mouth.

"Good."

As I finish binding the man, I hear the other one walking towards my position. The third one seems to still be working. What is Pedro doing? I bring out my raizen and prepare. I have captured one so I think that's enough.

"Hey, man. Have you finished yet? I want to-"

As soon as he pushes through the sheet, I stab right in his mouth and removes the upper part of his head. There was no scream or noise. Only the fountain of blood staining the area a bit more.

Finally, I hear some struggles on Pedro's side. We meet a minute later but he isn't carrying anything.

"He resisted too much."

"I didn't ask."

"I know. I was talking to myself. Let's go-"

"I have scanned the whole room, there is nobody else here."

"Then let's go to the other room."

"Okay." I don't hear anything from there anyway.

We enter the other room but it is just a small bathroom. We return and meet Esteban and Peter who have also captured two people. That makes it three. With that, we should be able to-

"Argh!!!"

A scream suddenly echoes and breaks the silence. It came from the left alley at the end of the corridor.

We all look at each other then, I put my prisoner on the floor and bring out my raizen. Esteban does the same and brings out a one-handed sword. Pedro brings out his mace. Peter seems to be the one that will stay with the hostage.

We walk to the area and find two doors again. We take the left one where the scream came from and as we enter, there are no sheets like earlier but four beds. On one of them, a man torturing someone.

Esteban walks to him and cuts his head clean. Then Pedro and I join. Who was it that he was torturing so…

"Impossible."

"Do you know her?"

"I…No, I don't."

To think I would find you here, fate is really weird. Don't you think so, Rose?

***

We free Rose and then Pedro extends his hand and a green light appears. So, he can use healing scripts? That's good for us.

"I can't perform high-level scripts I will only close her wounds for now."

"Just hurry up."

Rose is in a pitiful condition. Her hair have almost all fallen, her eyes have entered their orbits, bones can be seen everywhere, her complexion is ashen. There are too many things to list. I even wonder if that's really her.

After Pedro closes her opened stomach. I carry her but right when we are at the door.

"Krieekkkk!!"

The worst possible sound we could have heard resounded in the whole place.

We sprint out of the room only to find Peter in the principal alley, firing Sting.

"We have been trapped!" He screams as soon as he sees us.

Pedro and Esteban run to him first. I come later and place the unconscious Rose near the only prisoner Peter managed to drag away. When I look in the alley, there are vanguard Longinus as well as Sloins entering through the door, that they have actually destroyed. There are filling that place like stupid chickens that are all trying to pass through the same hole.

"Take your position! Peter! Stop your script! We need to preserve our Angas as much as possible!"

I have made a mistake. I should have told them that there were Longinus behind the other doors. This was a gigantic trap.