Book 16, Starmist Sea – Chapter 30, Sledgehammer

The blood-red corridor. The blood-red gate. That overpowering aura of death.

“I need to flee. How can I flee?” Linley was incomparably frantic. The three experts around him were all guarding him, while past that door was the ‘master of the castle’, a person of astonishing power. Most likely, even if he used Sovereign’s Might, it would be hard for him to flee.

“Calm down. Calm down!”

Linley strove to find a chance to escape, but no matter what he thought of, in the end, there was only one possibility.

“I can only entrust my hopes to Lomio. Lomio will be on his guard. He might be able to escape. If he had a violent battle with that ‘master of the castle’ and attract the attention of those three, I’ll be able to seize an opportunity to flee.”

Linley understood that for the master of the castle to be willing to allow Lomio enter meant that he was confident in being able to easily defeat and mentally control Lomio. If it really was that simple, though…then even this final chance Linley had for escape would be gone.

Although he was frantic, Linley still watched carefully for any chance, and was prepared to explode forth and flee at any moment.

“Linley, are you impatient?” Uriah chortled. “Don’t be impatient. Lomio needs a bit of time in the first viewing room to view those scryer recordings. It’ll be your turn soon.”

“It’ll be my turn soon?” Linley felt that Uriah’s laughter was so vile. Uriah clearly knew that this was a lie, a trap, but was still trying to lie to Linley, even now.

“BOOM!” Suddenly, the entire floor trembled violently,...