The explosion sent a strong shockwave everywhere as fire ignited in the air. People screeched as they rushed as far as they could, stumbling on top of one another as they tried to avoid the burning fire.
Everything inside the kitchen caught in the fire as the gas kept leaking continuously, fueling the flames even more.
“What the hell?!”
“The kitchen! The kitchen is on fire!”
“What should we do?!”
Panic erupted amongst the crowds as people started rushing toward the location from all places. They heard the loud explosion and saw the smoke and fire rising in the air.
‘I think I overdid it…’ Meanwhile, Arthur, the cause of the explosion, stood amongst the crowd, covering his face so that nobody would know him. He knew that if they realized that he was the cause of it, they wouldn’t let him go.
‘I need to get out of here.’ As he thought of that, he heard loud steps as a group of men rushed toward them.
“What is going on here?!”
Seeing their attire, Arthur immediately recognized them as the guards. There were at least 8 of them, all carrying weapons in their arms, ready to engage in case they needed to. The speed at which they arrived at the scene was shocking.
Herculia: “What the hell was that explosion?!”
Emmy: “Arthur? What did you do?”
Danny: “Bastard, did you blow up the building?”
Messages popped in Arthur’s retina from his friends. They had felt the entire building shake from the sheer power of the explosion. Then, the entire building was submerged in chaos as people ran out, thinking the entire place was about to collapse.
Arthur: “Use this opportunity and search the entire place. They will be busy for a moment. I’m about to leave the location.”
He said as he started moving through the crowd, slowly getting the mask off his face as he sneaked out of the guards’ eyes and left the area, heading to the lower floors. He knew that with how much destruction there was, they wouldn’t be able to notice that he was missing.
“Good luck extinguishing that flame, gentlemen.” He said as he walked down to the lower floors.
At the same time, Herculia quickly moved in. He knew this opportunity was simply the perfect time to get every single other guard out. However, instead of dragging them out.
“AGH!”
*BANG*
He decided to simply knock them out one by one as there were only a few remaining. At the same time, Danny and Emmy infiltrated the building from the front. In a matter of seconds, they were spread across the entire place, scouring it left and right for any trace of their friends.
They knew that they were hidden somewhere, perhaps the least place they could’ve expected. That was why, they didn’t spare a single spot their eyes landed on. However, with how big the Red Pearl building was, the task was not easy at all.
On top of that, they knew that they had at most a few minutes before the guards figured out what just happened and then completely trapped them inside. They had to move and move quickly.
‘Where are you guys?’ Arthur moved from one room to another and from one section to another, trying to find anything remotely suspicious.
‘Where are you?’ Emmy’s face was completely shifted with worry. The more they looked around, the more time was running out and the more chances they wouldn’t find them.
“Keep looking around, Emmy. We will find them. I can feel it.” Danny said coldly. “We never fail.”
“…” Seeing the confident look on his face, she nodded her head. ‘I can’t let anxiety get to me yet.’
“We will search this area and the-“
As the two were walking through the corridors, they took a turn to the left, only to suddenly halt as they noticed something.
***
“Not here either. Where the hell is this hidden place?! Did they bury them?” Arthur clenched his teeth in frustration. He was almost certain the kids were alive for one simple reason. They were simply too valuable for these people to just kill them.
Sora was sought after from way before for something he didn’t know yet, and Finlay and Serko were two dwarves and he knew how they were seen by people. If there was any chance, they would be transported to the wall again where they supposedly belong.
‘If I had to think like a villain… Where would I put the hiding cell?’ He asked himself as he stopped to think for a moment.
His options were endless but he knew it could only be one possibility and nothing else. Somewhere where nobody would look… Somewhere that even Arthur could never fathom.
His eyes looked around, left and right, taking in all the details of the bottom floor. He knew that this particular floor had the highest chance of having a secret entrance as it would link to an underground area which was presumably what he should be looking for.
He slowly moved around, tracing the wall and touching everything he saw in hopes of figuring something out. However, nothing happened. He looked around for minutes with no result.
‘Goddamit! I hate this stupid game they’re playing! Where the hell is this secret entrance?!’ He grumbled as he punched the wall slightly. He was growing extremely annoyed with the lack of results.
‘I don’t have time for this shit! The kids are waiting for me!’ Walking around the room, he tapped one of the cutting machines stationed there. He had already inspected this machine beforehand so he didn’t do it intentionally.
However, the moment he touched it, he suddenly heard something click. Then, he felt the machine slowly starting to move on its own. The boy was shocked for a second by what was happening as he jumped back.
“Huh?”
The large machine glided on the ground till it completely moved to the side, opening a dark path into the wall Arthur didn’t see at all.
“…” The boy stared blankly… His face was frozen. Then, his eyes shifted to his hand. “Well… I spoke too soon.” He muttered. “Finally! I finally found it!”
Without wasting any time, Arthur opened his chat group to tell them about his findings.
Arthur: “I found the path! Come to my location now!”
Herculia: “Already?!”
Arthur: “Yes! I’m about to go in! Follow me when you’re done!”
Isla: “I don’t know what you did but I’m on my way.”
Arthur nodded his head with a satisfied smile. ‘I’m coming for you, guys! Just wait a little bit more!’
However, before moving, Arthur noticed that Danny and Emmy didn’t respond yet. This entire time, they were the first to respond to any message so the fact they didn’t respond confused Arthur a little.
Slowly, a weird feeling of suspicion started rising within his chest. ‘Well, they might be too busy to respond. I can’t waste too much time.’
Shaking those weird thoughts away, he turned around and quickly walked into the tunnel. He was now closer than ever to his friends. His anger was slowly rising and his desire to rip the culprits apart for what they did.
‘They better before fine or I’m going to kill you all!’
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3