"What are we still waiting for? You can tell as many fairy tales as you want once our business is done, but if you delay my goal any further, I might have to add you to the list!"
Even though Dimitri left the decision to her, Dona Gracia was succumbing to her rage. Her master's attitude had also affected the dwarf servant; when the strange creature drew its daggers and bared its teeth, Sasha drew his sword and took a combat stance.
"Alright, alright, calm down! We'll do exactly as you wish, dear Dona Gracia, but there is one thing I must warn you and the others about before we enter!
No matter what, I ask that you do not open your eyes. Trust the direction your heart shows, believe in your intuition; otherwise, you cannot escape being a victim of the things that enter your body through your eyes!"
Sasha leaned his back against his master's without sheathing his sword and closed his eyes. As soon as Dimitri opened the door, the two men walked in with rapid steps and vanished from sight; neither their footsteps, nor their shadows, nor any trace of their presence could be sensed.
"Let's go!"
Once Dona Gracia gave the order to her servant, who was ready to attack at any moment, two more people passed through the Third Door and disappeared. When the Mercenaries came to the edge and checked the interior, they saw an empty space, but none of those who had entered were anywhere to be found.
They couldn't stay here; they knew what happened when they fell a few steps behind earlier. Closing their eyes, they crowded inside; order and formation were gone, as everyone was now fighting for their own lives.
"Master, are you alright?"
As Sasha walked with his swords crossed over his chest, he asked the same question every three steps. He had not received an answer yet, but the golden-haired young man showed no sign of giving up.
From the outside, this behavior might have seemed absurd, but if you had the chance to see his inner world, you would admire his fortitude. The Third Section, which appeared as an empty space from the outside, was actually the place that gave the Rusty Tower its name.
Had Dona Gracia wanted to hear the rest of the story, Dimitri Balsici would have explained everything, but the beautiful woman's hunger for revenge was overriding her logic. She chose threats instead of listening—or perhaps the area she stood before was manipulating her. It was impossible to know for sure, because they were walking in the place where the last drops of blood from the heads brought for rewards flowed.
They were unaware, and it was impossible for them to be, but they were walking in a lake of blood that reached almost to their waists. This was a place that had not dried for centuries, ensuring the rust of the iron tower never ended, and harboring the final desires of millions of people.
There was only one way to withstand the wills attacking the occupant's body from all sides: do not open your eyes no matter what. Sasha was being manipulated regarding his master. As his body advanced, he was watching scenarios that constantly changed in his mind.
Watching films of Dimitri being lost, dead, in need of help, or cruel, Sasha felt each one as if he were living it in real life. Not only his mind but also his body was subject to the same effects; it was no joke—he was being called to death by an area composed of the remnants of the wills of hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people.
Feelings trapped in the same place for centuries would grow malignant over time. If a soul who had not fallen into their situation entered their domain, they would do their best to join that soul to their ranks. If they could suck even a fragment of high-vibration energy, it would be priceless to them.
Indeed, one of the surviving Mercenaries had cried out "My daughter!" and opened his eyes, and the shaped forms of malignant emotions bursting from the blood clung to the man's body like leeches.
Opening one's eyes was equivalent to giving them permission; he was now completely defenseless. His transformation into a pool of blood occurred within the time of a few breaths. Whatever vision the poor man was tested with regarding his daughter, he couldn't endure and opened his eyes—and he was not alone.
Today was like a festival for the malignant emotions that had not had new victims for a long time. Consuming the Mercenaries who opened their eyes one after another, they added them to their ranks; they fed their bellies with high-frequency emotions and strengthened their armies with low-frequency ones.
Dimitri might have seemed to take the burden of those who died by dragging the group of twenty after him despite no apparent danger, if he hadn't warned them at the entrance of every section. The purpose of the Balsici Family Leader was unknown, and what he aimed to achieve by bringing this group along was a question mark, but reaching the exit door without saying a single word showed he was not acting in vain.
When he caught the handle of the door, his eyes opened; he could see everything in its full nakedness. The man, whom the visions regarding his father failed to affect, first noticed his apprentice circling a few steps away.
"Master, are you alright?"
Observing the movements of Sasha, who did not stop asking the same question accompanying his every step, Dimitri waited, waited, and waited, and risking the danger of Sasha opening his eyes at any moment, he took action at the closest point.
After firmly grasping the door handle with one hand, he grabbed his apprentice's arm with the other. At that moment, Sasha's eyes flew wide open, and taking a deep breath, the golden-haired boy began to vomit.
"Get a hold of yourself, boy, now is not the time. Catch Dona Gracia immediately!"
Hearing his master's words, Sasha tried to compose himself by nodding. Without even daring to wipe the fluid flowing from his mouth, he turned his head the other way and began searching for the beautiful woman.
He wouldn't have much trouble with this; Dona Gracia, who was muttering the name of a woman he didn't recognize, was walking in circles just as he had been doing a moment ago. If the mind could not withstand the heavy pressure it was subjected to, intuition would become blinded and one would start walking in circles in the waist-deep blood until they regained the strength of their will and managed to advance.
Sasha waited for the right moment and grabbed the woman passing right beside him by the arm, just as his master had done. While one of his hands held his master's hand, the other was in the hand of the beautiful woman who had just opened her eyes.
"You idiot, get closer over here!"
Dona Gracia was trying to reach the dwarf servant, following the line passed to her, but it was impossible for her to achieve this due to the target's physical characteristics. The three surviving Mercenaries were very close to each other; if the dwarf servant opened his eyes, they could all be saved, but the man who looked more like a freak than a human was the biggest obstacle to this.
"The longer he stays in the blood, the harder it will be for him to escape. If we don't catch him within a hundred breaths, we'll have to continue the journey as three people!"
Dimitri shouted when he saw the hand holding the door handle trembling; he might have saved himself, but his body was still halfway in the blood, and the malignant emotions continued to attack.
"Come here, you fool!"
Dona Gracia was shouting, but it was impossible to make her servant hear her voice; yet at the same time, it wasn't hard to guess what the dwarf man was seeing. He was muttering Dona Gracia's name, but the adjectives he added to the end of the name were not things that would come out of his mouth under normal circumstances.
"Dona, my love!" "How beautiful it is to feel your breath in my ear while touching your skin, my darling!"
Everyone's test was different; the dwarf servant was being tested with visions where he managed to be with the woman he loved. As Dimitri said, even if you had opened your eyes, you could be drained by the malignant emotions in the blood, but the dwarf servant was currently being prepared for death, deceived by fantasies he didn't want to leave.
"You numbskull! Once we get out of here, I'm going to beat you so hard you won't be able to lie down or sit for three days!"
Dona Gracia cried out in anger, and a breath later, something completely unexpected happened. The dwarf servant was shaken, faltered, and was tossed to within one step of the beautiful woman. His mistress, not missing the opportunity, grabbed him by the head; the man opened his eyes and stood still for a few breaths, but immediately after, he began to cry uncontrollably.
"Quickly, grab the person nearest to you or you'll never see my face again!"
Dona Gracia played her biggest card. With a flexibility unexpected for his height, the servant caught one of the survivors from the twenty-man team chosen from the Balsici Army ranks. That Mercenary grabbed his other friend, who caught the one at the very end, and with the final efforts of Dimitri, whose whole body was now trembling, they managed to survive the Third Section.
"We can't waste time! Rest for a hundred breaths and start walking for your new life!"
Dimitri declared that the three survivors were now seniors of the Golden Leaf Merchant Guild. He would be the Leader, Sasha his assistant, and according to their proximity to the door, the others would be titled as the first, second, and third seniors.
The reason for the twenty-man unit entering with them was finally becoming clear. Dimitri had first subjected the individuals chosen from within his army to one final test; those who died had died, and those who remained turned their faces toward a bright future.
"That's enough! Walk!"
As soon as the Balsici Family Leader finished his words, Dona Gracia jumped to her feet and started walking toward the door at the end of the long corridor. Since they entered the Rusty Tower, everything Dimitri said had turned out to be true, and he had said that the three Great Merchant Guild Leaders were behind this door.