"They aren''t returning, are they?" May said, biting her lips.


    Lady Cassandra had her eyes glued to the gate the entire time. It had been over a quarter of an hour since they sent two of them to scout ahead. Their instruction was to jump in ande back after just getting the vibes of the surroundings. There was no need for a more thorough observation.


    Unfortunately, neither of them had returned. None of them thought the two were irresponsible or didn''t know how to takemands. Hell, one of them was a woman from Azalea Garden.


    "We cannot wait much longer," Lady Cassandra opened her mouth for the first time since the battle.


    "I''ll alert everyone," Koyel said and ran towards where the wounded people were resting.


    Warden lurched up to sit upright abruptly, as though he had had a bad dream. He blinked a couple of times and turned to face them. He crept towards them.


    "How long was I asleep?" he asked, checking his skin.


    "It''s barely been a couple of hours," May said, taking a deep breath.


    "I have withdrawn all the array gs while you were asleep," Cole said hesitantly. "Would you mind if I study them for a little longer?"


    Warden seemed like he was about to agree, but then he turned towards Lady Cassandra. "Talk to her about it."


    May shook her head. The guy hade back to his persona again, unaware that more than half of his deeds were clear in their eyes.


    "Is there any problem?" He asked, creeping closer to the gate. "I thought people would be jumping into the gate after everything they had been through."


    May exined to him why they were so hesitant about jumping into the gate without any preparation. It appeared it had urred to him that the forsaken might be on the other side of the gate as well.


    "That''s a valid reason to hesitate." He crouched down next to the gate, cleaning the rubble off the metallic gate frame to look at the scripts. Obviously, most of the runes were hidden from observers'' eyes, but there were instructions written in an ancient runenguage. "Hmm, this is a one-way Teleportation gate. We cannote back through this."


    A silence descended among them, as everyone exchanged looks.


    "Are you sure about that?" Lady Cassandra asked.


    Warden nodded. "There''s possibly other ways to leave the subspace in the secondyer, or theyer after that... Don''t worry, people havee back alive out of here."


    So it turned out they were worrying about nothing. The reason their scouts couldn''te back was that the gate was the only way in. They were likely safe, and hadn''t found any way back. Hopefully.


    With that, everyone joined in a small line and began jumping into the teleportation gate.


    Bright sunlight assaulted her eyes as May found herself in somece else after she jumped into the teleportation gate. Finally, some freaking sunlight. Her spirit was lifted immediately. The suppression was still there, but the disgusting nature of the ambient energy had changed into something purer.


    She felt like she was alive again, her skin colour turned a healthier shade even without doing anything on her part. Perhaps a day or two here, and she would recoverpletely.


    Then she found her otherpanions. Thankfully, the warp gate hadn''t spread their teleportation points. They were all together, even those who entered before them were here, and so were the ones who entered through other gates.


    So, not only was the damnable heir of Alebson there, but the forsakens too, along with all the other humans who safely entered through the other gate, which included the Imperial Prince and Princess. But it appeared they hade to a truce for the time being, as humans and the forsakens were camped on two different sides.


    Her eyes wandered to look for her crewmates, but she didn''t have to search for long as she heard her name being called.


    "May," it was Marcus, "Cole."


    He came running, along with Pierce, and embraced her and them to Cole. He smelled of blood and weariness, but he was mostly fine, only flesh wounds haunted his body.


    "Thank gods, you''re all alright."


    "You too," May said. "Did you find Chae and Ken?"


    Marcus''s expression soured immediately. "Unfortunately, no..."


    "Hopefully, no misfortune has befallen them," May prayed.


    "What''s the deal with the forsaken?" the Janitor asked.


    Marcus lifted his head to shoot a surprised look at the Janitor. He left everything for Pierce to announce.


    "We''re on a very delicate bnce," Pierce said, his eyes drawn to the ranks of the forsaken. There were a couple of hundred of them, only a few dozen trolls, while most were orcs—green and red-skinned, divided by the trolls. Lastly, there were some diminutive goblins. "There had been more of them in the beginning, but we had to break through their obstruction to enter the secondyer.


    Even then, we found more than a couple of asions."


    "How is the truce established?"


    "Calling it a truce is an overstatement... Let''s just say that the Imperial Prince and the authoritative figures of the forsaken came to terms that they wouldn''t wipe each other out until they gained whatever they could from the inheritance ground."


    "That seems very..." May didn''t know what to say.


    "Reactionary?" Marcus tried to help. "Ultimately, neither of the two parties wants to die... While the battle is inevitable, both parties wee the idea of biding their time to gain an upper hand, likely through receiving some gifts from thisyer."


    May could only nod. Then her eyes found Lady Cassandra walking alone towards where Tayl Alebson rested. Her eyes were firm, though veins in her forehead bulged out as her aura curled the natural energy around her.


    She stood before him, supported by four of her sisters. Tayl Alebson met her gaze, equal part antagonism evident in them.


    "I hope you have yed everything in your head before you decided to abandon the fight."


    ______________