-Callia-

  The outer gate is carved into the base of the tower itself with various stairways and paths all leading to one heavily fortified gatehouse. A chokepoint limiting entry and exit through one point. I pause as a sort of absurd idea comes to mind.

  “What protects the walls of the tower itself?” the question whispers out as I face the issue. Enchanting the entire tower was unreasonable, and runes have a flaw that requires regular maintenance to sustain. My gaze drifts over to the empty landing pad for the flying platforms. More than just one aspect of the citadel didn’t make logical sense even from a magical standpoint. I may not be Callen, but his relentless pursuit of alternative power sources shows just how taxing a structure like this should be.

  I place my palm against the wall next to me and narrow my focus to the extreme. I’m not searching with mana sense but letting my instincts guide my Divine sense into the wall itself. It takes a moment to pierce the sticky fog of evil and reach the comforting warmth dutifully holding the stones in place. A smirk crawls onto my face at the discovery. The enemy felt safe behind walls that should be untouchable to anyone, but the very force holding the tower up was my ally. I lowered my head and muttered out a quiet request.

  “Please grant me passage.” I raised my head and found no surprise seeing the stones; the stones curled back, opening a narrow passage bypassing the gate entirely. I step through the passage into the dimly lit room, taking my time to adjust to the change as I go. My tunnel leads into the back of a familiar room. I’m looking down into the portion of the granary that had been left untouched in my previous acquisition. However, I need a minute to try wrapping my head around the dimensions that could possibly lead to an entry into this part of the tower. This floor should’ve been much deeper and much further in the vault, somewhere in one of the many layers of basement.

  I set the issue aside, considering what I learned about the foundation of the citadel itself. I suppose having spatial distortions to increase the size of the granary was within the realm of acceptable design. For a moment I look at the remaining barrels of food innocently sitting on their shelves, and the temptation to snatch the rest jumps into my heart. I reach for the first barrel but stop myself. If I wanted to grab the remaining food, it would end up taking many hours, including breaks to recover my mana. I’m still brimming with energy, but expending myself like that before going to rescue civilians was a bad idea. That didn’t mean I couldn’t deny my enemy. Dug through the various wands Callen had stored away for a moment before summoning the wand I had put to use the most, the firestarter wand. A short gesture, and the base of the first shelf began to glow as the seed of its destruction began to bloom.

  I turned and ran deeper into the room towards the exit, deeper into the vault. Behind me the shelves started glowing a soft orange as the fire began to spread and grow. In a few short minutes the empty shelves that had felt like they took forever to walk through the first time rapidly passed by. As I moved, I took a moment to focus on my senses to see if I was feeling any malice from the evil presence. I felt the earlier bubble that shielded me from its influence wrapping quietly around me, and instead of burning away the sticky evil, it acted like a lubricant, letting me slip through the presence unnoticed. The evil presence itself was just beginning to panic as it realized there was a fire in the granary.

  The sound of footsteps reached me first as I rounded the last of the empty shelves between me and the doorway. I slipped to the side and hid as teams of men rushed into the granary with buckets and blankets. Other than the standard arms that some of the soldiers carried under normal circumstances, a large number of the responders were unarmed. None of them seem to expect combat, likely since the evil presence itself still seemed unaware of me. I waited quietly as the first of the men returning to refill their buckets began to trickle back from the fire. I jumped from an empty shelf onto an unsuspecting responder, knocking the man out cold with a firm fist delivered to his face. Once he was on the ground, I hoisted the man up, depositing him out of sight on the upper portion of one of the shelves. I grabbed his bucket and blended in with the responders, bypassing the guards posted at the exit. From there I followed the group running back towards the main gates right up until I ghosted the group and slipped into the passage that leads down to the prison complex.

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  The debris I left in my previous escape had only partially been cleared. The smell of sewage mixed with stone and dirt, and only a relatively narrow corridor open for me to follow into the depths of the vault. As I reached the end of the stairs, I slowed down and listened carefully for the guards that were likely posted in the waiting room between the stairs and the cells. The sound of helmet-muffled breathing whispered through the door ahead. Four distinct sources, so four guards on duty, but unlike last time, I can’t just bust down the door killing everything with a pulse. I don’t know if killing the vault guards will alert the presence, but I suspect it will. It’s moments like this I regret not taking the time to devise non-lethal quiet takedowns like knockout gas.

  I need to cross a room with four guards without them noticing, part of which will require me to open my door, and the door on the far side is probably locked or bolted shut, meaning it’ll take a couple seconds to open. I could try sneaking, but the doors again are a huge issue. If I only needed to slip by, I'm certain I could, but opening doors is a touch too revealing. If I had a decent disguise, I might be able to pass by pretending to be one of the guards, but I don't, so that plan is out. I let out a faint sigh in frustration as I accept that I’ll just have to hope the demon isn’t paying too close attention to its minions. At the very least it seemed possible that I might slip by its notice since it never noticed me taking out the abduction team from before. I summon my knife and take a slow breath.

  I reach forward gently, grabbing the handle of the door and gently twisting it. A soft nudge frees it to slowly swing open while I crouch behind, ready to pounce. I hear the scraping of metal as one of the guards gets up, moving towards the door. Right as he reaches for the door, I pounce forward, pushing past the door, and hop over his shoulder while opening his neck with a precise swipe. My jump sends me past the first and towards the second, whose face meets both my legs as I do a horizontal flying double kick. One arm whips up, sending my knife flying towards the third while I blink to the fourth, grabbing and twisting his skull. The sound of metal ringing out signifies the failure of my throw. My vision snaps over, locking on the survivor who managed to deflect the blade with his arm. My feet hit the ground as I summon my spear, and I lunge forward, delivering a stab straight through my next victim’s chestplate. I focused on my senses, searching for any stranglers I might’ve missed, but found nothing immediately after I focused on the evil presence, which felt distracted.

  I shifted all the bodies from the floor into the void and cleaned up the room briefly before moving on into the cells. I unbolted the door and passed through into the dark corridor lined in cell upon cell, stacked and lined up, reaching off into the darkness that lay unnaturally upon the place. Immediately the people closest started crying out.

  “Please let us out! Why are you doing this?" An old priest cried out immediately, even before checking who it was that left. I reached into the void, pulling out the master key from the guards in the previous room, and slid it into the lock.

  “I don’t mind letting you out, but I’m not the one who locked you up to begin with.” I casually stated as the old man eagerly left the cell and started clinging to me, giving thanks.

  “It’s not just me here to help. I’ve had a bit of help from above, if you know what I mean.” I give the man a wink as he seems to brighten even further at his newfound freedom. I hold up the master key that I used to unlock his cell. “Mind lending a hand? I’ve got to hold our escape route open while everyone passes through, and I could use an extra hand to let people out of their cells.” He gives a firm nod, accepting the key solemnly and jumping to the door of his neighbor's cell. I watch briefly as he starts freeing people and sending them to me. I summon Callen’s void gate and quietly wait for more people to gather so I can send them over in batches.