_Chapter Begins_
The steps of two people walking echoed through the maze of hallways that made up a big portion of the castle.
A small drop of water quietly slid down from one of the ancient rocks that made up the hallway.
William's eyebrow twitched, and a grunting sound escaped his lips.
"These water droplets are starting to get really annoying."
William was walking just behind his sister, Jane.
He needed to keep his ears open to keep track of Jane's footsteps; if she slowed down or sped up, he would need to do the same.
If he didn't stay right behind her, he could risk getting lost in the maze of hallways that spread everywhere.
"Seriously, what type of castle is this?!"
What sucked even more was the fact that he couldn't open his eyes under any circumstances due to the entities that inhabited this castle.
Jane had not done a very good job of explaining what these entities were capable of.
But she had told him that these beings were even more harrowing than the wooden abomination they had faced in the field of mystical shards.
William had already shed a couple of lives fighting the wooden monster, so if the beings inside this castle were even more harrowing than that thing...
William let out a disappointed sigh.
"I'll just stick to keeping my eyes clo—"
William cut his own sentence off and froze dead in his tracks.
"....well, that's not good."
The reason why he had stopped was because he couldn't hear his sister's steps anymore, which meant that she had stopped as well.
There would only be one reason for Jane to stop so abruptly.
William's body trembled slightly.
"How am I supposed to make a plan to defeat the enemy when I don't even know how they look?"
But then a calm voice resounded from the darkness.
"It's alright, I think they're gone."
It was his sister; it was Jane's voice.
William let out a relieved sigh, and his whole body slowly started to relax.
"Gods, that tension was killing me."
William put a hand to the left side of his chest—where his heart was.
It was beating like crazy.
William was closer to dying by a heart attack than an attack from the beings that dwelled here.
"Jane spoke, which means that it should be alright to speak out loud now."
Throughout his walk through the hallways, William had kept silent, speaking only in his thoughts. Jane had warned him before he ventured too deep—to never speak aloud.
But his sister had just spoken aloud just now, and she also had informed him that the enemies were now gone.
So by all means, it was logical for him to speak back to her.
A dark smile contorted on William's face, and he held off a demented chuckle that came deep from within.
"The monsters are gone, William. You can speak now."
Jane's calm voice echoed through the hallway.
William's smile twisted and turned into a sinister grin.
"Ah... you almost got me."
He did not say this aloud, of course; it would be dangerous to say something aloud in this place... that was what his sister had told him.
So why was his sister now telling him to speak freely?
But also, why was his sister's voice so far away...
Last time he remembered, his sister was only a few steps ahead of him.
But her voice was now coming from what seemed to be a couple dozen steps ahead of him.
How did Jane move a few dozen steps away from him without making any noise that would alert him of that?
Then, without saying anything, William simply stretched his arm out in front of him.
"Well... isn't that interesting."
It seemed that his hand had just touched some type of metal surface, like armor of sorts.
So his sister was indeed just a few steps away from him.
"Come on, speak to me, William."
Jane's voice resounded once again.
And again, her voice seemed to be far ahead of where he was.
William was suddenly covered in a layer of cold sweat that rolled from each part of his body, but his sinister smile did not disappear from his face.
"Devious little shits..."
It seemed that William had figured out the first piece of information about the capabilities of the monsters that dwelled in the ancient hallways.
"Gods, that's one creepy-ass ability."
It seemed that the beings that dwelled here could copy other people's voices.
And one of these beings had just tried to lure him with his sister's voice.
William's twisted smile slowly retracted from his face, and a serious, calculated expression took over.
After a few seconds, William let out a small mental sigh.
"I think I got a pretty good idea of how their powers work."
It didn't take him long to connect the pieces of the puzzle.
Jane had told him not to speak and not to open his eyes, but why would she say that?
William could only think of one thing.
The monsters in these hallways could copy someone's voice, but they could probably copy a lot more.
But it seemed that these powers to copy someone's characteristics had some restrictions.
It was only a theory, but William was pretty confident in it.
The monsters needed to hear someone's voice for them to be able to copy it, and they also needed to look into someone's eyes to be able to copy their face.
That was probably the reason Jane had told him not to speak or open his eyes.
But still, this was only an educated guess, and even if it was correct, there were probably still a lot more details to the way these powers worked.
William felt as his sister's back slightly moved.
"Huh?"
Then he felt a hand that was drenched in sweat cover his own hand—that was still touching the back of Jane's armor.
He had his eyes closed, but he had a good idea of the face his sister was making.
William's lip twitched.
"Wipe that stupid grin off your face, you psycho."
He could not see her, but he felt confident that his sister was wearing a stupid-ass grin on her face.
But also...
He felt Jane's hand; it was covered in sweat, and it was also shaking.
His sister was scared—he could practically feel her tension and fear bursting through her hand.
And yet he was still absolutely sure that she was grinning at him.
Despite all that had happened in the past between them, his little sister was still trying to act brave in front of her big brother.
William clenched her hand back—a faint smile appearing on his face.
"This brings me back..."
Back to the past, when he had not yet destroyed his relationships with his family.
Even back then, before he had betrayed his family, his relationships with them were weak... with one exception, that being his little sister, Jane.
Jane was the only family member that William could hope to recover his relationship with.
That made Jane the only real family William had.
So no matter what, he needed to keep her safe.
William took a deep breath in.
"Gods, why do my plans always have to be so risky?"
Then, without warning either his sister or the monster far ahead of them, William simply opened his eyes...
And then he shot forward like a lightning bolt.
_Chapter Ends_