From behind, neither Jennifer nor Daniel could get the full view of Nathan's face, or whatever expression might be present. Whether it was indifference, fear, or even an electrifying sense of thrill, his steps were fast and stable, with the resolve of an undefeated warrior marching towards his final battle.
The staircase descended until the wall beside them transformed into uncarved rocks and eventually into an opening where some traces of light shone through. Unlike Daniel's previous description of this secret chamber being a headquarters of some sort, it felt more like an unfinished mine that had redefined its purpose as a training ground away from the views of the public. The opening led them to a large, open cavity with glowing white Runes embedded upon rocks to provide illumination. This was possibly the most common use for Light-Element Rune Arts. It was simple, efficient, and almost crucial in every chamber where sunlight cannot reach. Best of all, the low Elemental Energy expenditure only required Rune Artists to redraw them once every three days. These ones, however, were so large that Nathan would assume they would take at least 10 minutes to sketch, more than five Rune Artists' worth of energy to fully charge, and the assistance of Wind-Element Rune Artists to equip them with the ability to fly.
They found themselves upon a platform with an even steeper staircase ahead of them. It turned out that the aperture behind them was located in the middle of the large, rocky wall. Standing on this large platform, everything about the base was fully in view. There were short buildings connected by unaesthetic tubes extending all the way into the rocks, and an ordered campsite lying in its own quarters. It was evident that people lived and possibly trained there, but suspiciously, there was not even a single silhouette that they could catch traces of.
"Where did those Rune Artists go?" Daniel asked in confusion, both to himself and to the others. "Where are the guards at the entrance?"
Nathan stood silently and watched the base for a short while, but eventually he spoke up again. "They'll appear shortly."
With that, he lifted his leg and trod on the first step of the staircase. The precipitous descent, without anything resembling a handrail, slowed down their pace. The three of them fell silent, concentrating with their entire bodies to control their balance. Daniel even removed the effect of Conceal just so he could see with his bare eyes where his foot landed. Now his body was physically visible; both Nathan and Jennifer sensed that his body was subtly yet uncontrollably shaking, both from the fear of falling and whatever was ahead of them next.
Eventually, the journey that felt minutes longer than it actually was had reached its end, a large, empty square with nothing to mark its significance except for the abraded ground populated with potholes. Looking back at the steep staircase that led them there, their hearts replaced all their current feelings with a sense of awe.
The air reeked of dryness and the stench of shoddy RAPIs operating in the background. To Nathan, this was nothing compared to the miasma in Lostburg, but to Jennifer and Daniel, who had been raised amid the wealthy aroma of perfumes and gardens, every breath became a problematic argument with their lungs.
There was nothing to be heard other than the aforementioned RAPIs and their spinning turbines. This lack of human noise suppressed their own desire to speak. The three of them waited for a few silent minutes. Nathan even sat down on the dusty ground lazily, until Daniel vigilantly alerted them in a trembling voice.
"Someone's here."
Nathan lifted his head from the ground. Above the staircase and upon the platform were two shadowy figures in an almost funny contrast of physiques. One was tall and thin; the other was the opposite of tall and thin.
"Nathan Modernson…" One of them raised his voice. Despite the distance in the vertical levels, the echoes in the closed cavern helpfully delivered his words to them. "I don't quite understand…"
"How did you know of my plan?"
The voice was coated in a thick layer of humourless discontent. Jennifer and Daniel looked at each other, confirming that this speaker was the organiser of whatever this underground base was.
Yet, as the two figures casually walked down the staircase towards them, and as they could finally get a clear view of their faces, the seriousness in their eyes turned into outright horror. Nathan, however, only stood up lazily and shook the dust off his pants.
"I won't blame you, and you don't ask me."
"How does that sound, David Edmonds?"
David sighed. He looked nothing different from the David Edmonds all three of them knew, chubby yet reasonably well-kempt, with a smile always flowing on his face. The only difference was that this smile was bitter, not seeping with hatred, just the bitterness of an unfortunate circumstance.
"The person who blew up the RunaLine building, that must also have been you, then," Nathan said slowly. "I figured it out at last."
Yet suddenly, his tone shifted to his usual self in the academy. "Told you I'd catch him! I didn't break my promise, did I?" he asked cheerfully with a wide smile. "Don't need to thank me, of course. Just see it as my reimbursement for the money you lent me."
David's smile slowly faded into plain bitterness. He sighed deeply and lamented, "Nathan, if you know everything already, why did you still come?" He shook his head in guilt. "You know, I really hoped that you would just report me to the Rune Arts Federation or the Royalty; at least that way, I wouldn't have this chance."
"You want to kill us?" Nathan asked. Unlike David, the smile on his face had not yet disappeared.
"As much as I hate to do it, it's a part of my responsibilities," David said.
"Seize them."
As the last syllable of his command dropped, swarms of agents appeared, growing out of the ground and enveloping them in a circle. With their masked faces and identical uniforms, they seemed like replicated figurines created using a mould.
Multiple shadows pounded towards Daniel and Jennifer, sealing the movement of their limbs before a shriek could escape. Nathan lifted the Talisman of the Lordsent high into the air. Under its solemnity, no men dared to come near, let alone touch him. The agents that formed the encirclement lifted their wands simultaneously, pointing directly towards Nathan.
"Hey!" Daniel Whitedawn cried out. "Nathan!"
Jennifer, however, remained silent. Her gaze towards Nathan coldened back to the original murderous hollowness that had not appeared in quite some time.
"If I disappear right after I attended Julius Edmonds' birthday celebration," Nathan didn't seem too bothered by what happened, "that would be trouble on your behalf. Do you really dare to kill me, David?"
"It's over for the Edmonds family the moment you connected the dots," David said. "Between despair and the smallest chance of hope, I'd rather choose the latter."
David hesitated for a moment and added shortly after, "It's been over ever since you became the president. You don't know when to let go of something, a fine quality that everyone else around our status possesses. I thought that if I could get rid of you before you could sketch the whole picture... but as it turns out, my biggest mistake was leaking any information to you."
Daniel's mouth closed little by little under the realisation that it was he who had led them to the doom they were facing now. Both he and Nathan should've known better. Why hadn't anyone raised the suspicion that it was a trap?
"It didn't matter," Nathan reassured, as if he were comforting Daniel Whitedawn behind him. "I would've tracked this base down eventually, just like how I tracked down that you are behind all of this."
"You are absolutely correct; it's over for the Edmonds family," Nathan continued calmly, with the voice he usually chose to use when he was giving a speech.
"But that doesn't mean it's over for you, David."
David froze. "Pardon?"
"How much do you know, Nathan Modernson?"
Nathan swallowed and began, "There are a lot of things I don't know, like why this underground project was launched in the first place, but I do know that it was Julius Edmonds' idea."
"Wrong," David objected instantly. "I am the administrator of this project, from the first day it began to the present."
"You very well are, and very well could be," Nathan interrupted confidently, "if you are nothing more than the scapegoat if anything Julius Edmonds planned goes wrong."
David's face twitched uncomfortably. "Even if that's the case, it would be my honour to serve the clan."
Nathan laughed. "You know, some things don't need to be discovered. Small details gave them away."
"David, you are not the son of Julius Edmonds; alas, you are not even a member of the Edmonds family," he continued. "Julius wouldn't treat you like a stray found on the side of the street on his big day if you were, am I wrong?"
David froze again, this time bringing the entire environment down with him. Jennifer and Daniel looked at each other again in desperation. Perhaps it wasn't as hopeless as they had initially thought. They should've never doubted Nathan's competence.
"Nathan, do you know what starvation feels like?" David broke the silence he had created.
"It's the feeling that nothing else is real: dreams, love, happiness, sorrow, all of them are merely fabrications in the face of humanity's most basic demand. It's the feeling of hunger when you stare at your parents' corpses instead of sorrow. It's the feeling that I would rather be banished to Lostburg if there were food to keep me alive there. It's the feeling that if someone were there to feed me, I'd spend my entire life feeding them, no matter the cost."
"You've hidden it so well," Nathan's voice lowered. "I even doubted myself."
"Julius Edmonds gave me life," David ignored him completely, "and that's more persuasive than any of your empty speeches."
"Kill him."
Runes in all sorts of different colours began materialising in the wands of the surrounding agents. The mythical illumination of Runes no longer sparkled with miraculous curiosity and wisdom; it served only as a signal of death moments before its arrival.
In the face of death, Nathan Modernson still had the indifferent calmness that almost felt intimidating.
"Julius saved you not because he cared about you, but because he needed someone with the exact mindset you have," he explained while throwing his two wands onto the ground, signalling that he had no intention of defending himself. Then he lifted his hands to his sides and said, "The mindset to always pay back what others gave you. This mindset, David, is no different from a spiteful revenger, selfishly and arrogantly believing that an eye must be traded for an eye."
"What are you all waiting for!" David raised his voice, almost crying out. "Kill him!"
Even though the Talisman of the Lordsent was in Nathan Modernson's hands, the agents decided to give in to their director's command.
Simultaneously, orbs, spikes, and beams of elemental energy barraged towards Nathan. There was no place or time for Nathan to dodge or defend against the attack. As the elemental energy soared past Jennifer and Daniel, Nathan looked back.
On his face was a confident smile that radiated with madness.
"Only I can save Julius Edmonds!" he said seconds before the Rune Arts arrived.
"Jeremy!" David called at the last second.
The elemental energy collided in the middle. The Rune Arts were controlled on such a scale that they didn't cause massive explosions, but due to the reactions of so many elements fired at one point, smoke instantly eclipsed the square, leaving no line of sight for anyone to see whether Nathan Modernson was alive or not.
Everyone held their breath as the smoke quickly vanished. What was left in the middle was a fort made out of rocks erupted from the ground. As the fort collapsed, Nathan Modernson remained standing in the same pose and expression in the middle; not a single hair on his body was harmed.
"Wise choice." Nathan's smile widened, lowering his arms into a victorious stance.
"I didn't look wrong... You are one of a kind." David almost collapsed to the ground, his eyes glowing with raw fear. "Nathan Modernson, you really had no hidden cards up your sleeve. What if I hadn't commanded Jeremy to save you? Are you not afraid of death at all?"
Nathan laughed.
"Have you heard of The New Prophecy?"
"I was told that I was probably the saviour destined to liberate this kingdom from its chains, so before I complete my duty, how is it possible for me to die here?"
"What if you are not?"
"Then…"
"What's the point of me surviving through this anyway?"