(Brendan POV)

"Alright, it's time," I nudged Sylphy, who had fallen asleep and started drooling on my shoulder. "Get ready your potion."

"Mnngg… Hwa? Nnng…" The self-proclaimed goddess groaned eloquently as she was roused from her sleep.

As luck would have it, there was no moon out tonight.

I managed to drag the yawning girl up and towards the edge of the clearing, inspecting the fortress once more.

"Mmm… So are we going in?" She yawned behind me, her arm wrapping around mine.

I nodded, taking out my potion, "Remember, these are invisibility potions. They make you invisible, not silent. Also, we wouldn't be able to see each other either."

She suddenly perked up, "Oh! We can hold hands! Ehehehe~ This is a date! We're on a da--"

I covered her mouth before she could shout, "Do you want the entire fortress to hear us? Be quiet."

She nodded, her eyes narrowing into an obvious smile.

"Now listen closely, they will make your body and whatever you happen to have on your body turn invisible. But anything you pick up afterwards will not, understood?"

She nodded again.

I released her and uncorked my bottle, downing its contents in a single gulp.

Sylphy mirrored my actions, drinking hers slowly.

The potion quickly took effect on me as I watched my own hands disappear from view, Sylphy experiencing the same thing a few moments after me.

"We're good now. Let's go," I whispered.

Silence.

"Sylphy?" I called out, worried she went off on her own.

Still silence.

I reached my hand out to grasp where she was before, swinging my arm around the area until I grabbed something soft.

"Ehehehe~ How bold, cherry cakes~ We haven't even held hands yet~"

This girl is really unbelievable…

I reached my hand down and grabbed where I guessed her hand was, the girl still giggling when I did so.

"Ahnnn~ Will I get pregnant from this?" She cooed, entwining her fingers with mine.

"Can we just… Please focus on this. Master needs our help right now and if you screw this up, I really will kill you."

"Hehehe~ Got it, got it, I'll behave darling~"

It's times like this I wonder if I might have fared better if I came alone. Too late to back out now anyway.

The two of us made our way towards the fortress's main entrance, the gates watched by a dozen guards.

Thankfully, the main gates were left open or else we might have needed to scale the walls. A little weird for a prison fortress to leave their main gates open but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

I tugged Sylphy's hand and weaved through the guards, making sure not to touch any of them as we passed. It wasn't easy since I can't see where my hands and feet were, making it rather difficult to gauge how far my reach actually was.

I half expected Sylphy to do something but she remained obediently quiet.

Just as we got through the gate, one of the guards suddenly spoke up, "Man… You guys heard about what's going on at the front lines?"

Another one sighed, "Yeah… Even General Han's Immortal Army was slaughtered. These Beiyang bastards are as heartless as they say."

"I hope that prisoner's suffering as much pain as possible."

"You mean the one that's locked at the lowest level?"

"Yep, the stupid envoy that couldn't stop running his mouth, or so I heard."

"Taking out our frustrations on one Beiyang bastard won't bring back our dead brothers."

"It's still at least a little satisfying though."

"Heh heh, I suppose you're right. Man, in this case I envy those torturers for being able to torment him. They've been torturing him everyday haven't they?"

"Yep, six times a day. Poor fool can't even sleep. Not that I'm pitying him or anything."

"Oh, did you hear there were reports of increased monster activity in the borders? I hear they..."

Hearing enough, I pulled Sylphy past the guards and into the fortress, looking for the way down to the deeper parts.

Before I could start to wonder which way I should go, Sylphy pulled at my hand and headed towards one of the corridors, dodging past a guard that was leaning against the wall.

Deciding to trust her, I let her pull me through the fortress, going through doorways and passageways without pause even at intersections.

We passed by several locked cells where prisoners were left inside them. There were even a few dead bodies rotting in them and judging by the injuries on the prisoners, they probably killed one another.

There was one part of the fortress that had an iron gate blocking the path, but we could see the staircase leading down to the deeper levels which meant that was where we needed to go.

I checked that the coast was clear before whispering, "What now?"

"Someone's bound to come here eventually, we'll just have to wait," She whispered back.

"How did you know where to go?"

"Hmmm? Just follow the screams, muffin cake."

Now that she mentioned it, there were indeed the soft sounds of people screaming in agony emanating from the staircase.

I gritted my teeth, "Damn it… To think these infidels dare to torture Master… I'm definitely burning this entire place to the ground!"

"Shhh! Someone's coming."

I turned back to hear the sound of footsteps echoing from where we came from alongside the distinct clink of metal dragging across the ground.

We flattened ourselves against the wall just as a guard appeared, dragging a chain that was linked to a prisoner behind him with two other guards pushing him along.

"Get moving you damned lout, we ain't got all day!" The guard at the front shouted.

The prisoner was resisting as much as he could, "No! No! Not the lower floors!! Come on! He tried to kill me first! I had no choice!"

"I don't want to hear it, you're going there whether you like it or not!"

The guard unlocked the gate and pulled the door open, his grip on the chain loosening enough for the prisoner to pull himself free and try to make a run for it.

The two guards behind immediately jumped on him while the first guard went back to pick up the chain, leaving the gate wide open for us to easily slip through.

We went down the stairs and came to an intersection with three possible routes.

I waited for Sylphy to decide where to go when something crashed against me from behind, throwing me on the ground.

The something ended up being the prisoner from before, apparently managing to break free from his captors before running straight into us with the guards hot on his heels.

He didn't even try to see what he had crashed into, the prisoner picking himself up from the floor immediately before running straight down the corridor.

"Damn it! Stop that bastard!" The lead guard shouted, running down the stairs after him.

I held my breath and pressed myself against the wall to let the guards run past, only letting out a breath when they disappeared.

"Sylphy, where are you?" I whispered, having lost hold of her after being knocked over.

Silence.

"Sylphy! Now's not the time! Where are you?"

Still silence.

I groped around for her, swinging my arms wildly in hopes of finding her only to realise she's not here anymore.

Shit…

Did she get dragged off by the prisoner?

Oh, damn it all to hell...

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