As Joseph and Strauss make their way towards the mountain; they spotted two men scouting nearby the mountain, Strauss took advantage of their unawareness and jumped them from behind, Strauss was nearly hit by a sword from the other guard but fortunately Joseph landed a devastating hit on to the guard on time. Strauss decides to change clothes with the guards and he also instructed Joseph to do the same; right after doing so they both continued their travels towards the mountain, they luckily avoided other scouts roaming around thanks to the clothes they were wearing.
After walking for quite some time they had finally reached their supposed location, "Joseph, are you sure this is where you came out from?", Strauss asked quietly, "Yes, I'm sure of it.", Joseph replied. Strauss nodded in agreement and headed to the open entrance; they both walked up the stairs eventually leading up to the room that Joseph was once in, they both listened intently behind the bookshelves entrance to see if there is anyone in the room at the time; and after listening for a bit they decided it was clear and slowly pushed the bookshelves aside, they quietly inspected the room for any alarms they may accidentally trip on, and after finding a few, they disarmed them before moving forward.
As they both go further they're back to where Joseph had been locked in, "So where's the cell of the girl you found?", Strauss asked. "About that... I didn't quite remember what the entrance looked like because I was rushing to get out.", Joseph answered. Strauss looked at Joseph and sighs before rethinking the plan he had made; and as this happen a few guards saw them and drew their weapons out, "Look at what we have here.", one of the guards at the front speaked, the other guards cackled and laughed in excitement.
Strauss and Joseph took on a defensive stance keeping high alert on any sudden attacks. The guards smirked and lunged forward; attacking both Joseph and Strauss simultaniously, Joseph being overwhelmed suddenly got knocked down so Strauss decides to take on the offensive; knocking a few of the guards out, "Joseph! Use your bow!", Strauss instructs Joseph. Joseph immediately stood back up holding his bow; he then charged the bow and it glowed in a blue hue, taking the look of something lightning-like figure, Joseph aimed the bow and released it on the group of guards, the guards sees this and tries to scatter but it was all in vain as one of the arrow struck a guard it split into multiple fragments; striking anyone nearby. Strauss commanded Joseph to control his thoughts to only attacking the enemy and so he did, the arrow followed Joseph's orders and strikes enemy.
After finishing all of the enemies in the room both of them decides to split up to have better chances at finding the girl. Joseph goes to the tunnel on the right and Strauss took the tunnel on the left. As Joseph travel through the dark tunnel he hears whispers in his head saying, "Get out before it's too late...", the whispers kept repeating and louder as Joseph goes through the tunnel, he ignores the whispers and keeps going through the dark tunnel finally reaching the end, Joseph stopped walking and looks around seeing nothing but a dark space; Joseph looks around the room and sees that it seemed like a pit for something, he looked down and to his horror he finds piles of bodies in the bottom of the pit and a dark figure lurking inside it, eating the corpses.
Joseph ran out as fast as he could and once he gets out of the tunnel he began puking from the stench of the rotting flesh and the sounds of the flesh being torn as the creature gnaws on the bones whilst it eats the flesh. The sound of Joseph puking attracted some guards and Joseph took notice of this and hides. "What's all that noise?", the guard says as he enters the room, the guard was shocked to see the bodies of the other guards laying lifeless on the floor. He tries to run to alert the others but unfortunately for him Joseph came out of hiding as shoots him in the back with the bow instantly killing him. Joseph then marked the tunnel he came out from with an X-mark using the blood of the guards before continuing to venture to the other tunnels but unfortunately for him all the other tunnels were all dead ends and empty cages yet he keeps on looking for the right path; marking each wrong path with an X-mark.
As all of this happens, an approaching danger was nearing the mountain Joseph and Strauss was in, a person wearing a dark-colored armor riding a horse was approaching; sending off a terrifying aura that made the nearby surroundings wilt and wither away leaving a trail of darkness behind him as he walk pass through the forest. As the man in the armor approach the mountain — the bandits sounded the bell as to welcome the man.
As Joseph run through the tunnels he hears the bell ringing and misinterpreted it as the alarm so he quickly went into hiding to see what's happening nearby, Joseph peaks besides the wall he's hiding behind and sees the guards rushing towards the entrance with weapons at hand. "Are they under attack?", Joseph thinks to his self, "Well I might as well use this time to look for the girl much faster now that they're distracted.", Joseph thought to himself before running to search through more tunnels in the mountain.
Meanwhile the guards rushed outside and then lined up side by side as if to welcome someone, and then the man riding the horse came and all of the guards lined up saluted him saying, "Welcome back boss!", they yelled while saluting the man in armor. The man in armor stepped down from his steed then walked pass all his underlings — he turns around, facing them all, "Everyone, your leader had returned!", he shouts as his underlings cheers for his return. After a few moments of joy they all came back to their duties and the leader went inside with the other guards who are supposed to be on guard inside.
Joseph hears the commotion outside and rushes to finish the job but he still couldn't find where the girl is, he rushes to the entrance of the tunnel he came from and to his shock he sees Strauss all bloodied by the side of a tunnel entrance, "Joseph... The kid's... In there with them...", Strauss whispers to Joseph before he stopped breathing, Joseph was stunned, feeling a mixed emotion of sadness and anger as he stood up next to Strauss's corpse, he slowly walked to where Strauss pointed him to go, Joseph's mind went blank as the emotions overwhelms his ability to think properly; the ground starts showing cracks each steps Joseph takes, he goes through the tunnel whilst leaving a trail of dark smoke behind him.
At the leader's room, there stood the leader himself with the girl beside him, all tied up and some of the other guards with him. The leader brainstorms of what to do with the orders given to him by his higher ups but before he could — sudden rumbling and clashing were heard from behind the doors of the room. One of the guards was about to open the door but the door shattered causing the guard to stumble back. Joseph appears infront of them al and they all stared at him as he holds one of the bodies of the guard. The leader ordered two of the men to capture Joseph but they miserably failed as Joseph flung them around the room, the leader's eyes widen a bit in surprise; he claps his hands in applause for Joseph, "My my, you were able to single handedly wipe out the guards.", the man said in amuse but Joseph remains unfazed, "Not quite the talker I see. Well I should introduce myself, I am Estel Urs, the person in charge of this group, one that you-", Estel said before being being abruptly interrupted by Joseph trying to land a punch on him.
"Why isn't that a bit disrespectful young one, I wasn't done speaking.", Estel said, clearly annoyed. "I'm not interested in anything you have to say.", Joseph replies, Joseph launched another unexpected attack but Estel dodged it easily. Joseph backed away in fear as he feels Estel's blood lust, "Ugh, these mortals have no sense of manners.", Estel whispers to himself. Estel grabs Joseph by the neck in an instant despite their distance and threw him across the whole room and through the walls, Estel knocked the girl out unconscious and left her there before going after Joseph.
Estel dashed swiftly across the hole Joseph had created from being thrown away. Soon Estel reached the end but didn't see Joseph's lifeless body as he expected and unknowingly to him Joseph was already above him — waiting to pounce on Estel from behind; Estel felt a sudden presence of malice from above but before he could act, Joseph had already striked him from behind leaving a large scar on Estel's back. Estel tried to fight back but Joseph kept disappearing in a flash not giving Estel time to attack. "I should finish this quickly.", Joseph says to himself as he dashes from one place to another; but as he dodges his vision suddenly blurred out and caused him to break his balance. Estel noticed this and quickly took the offensive, landing multiple blows to Josephs body. Joseph spats out blood whilst he tries to think clearly but due to Estel not stopping on his offense; Joseph had no choice but to take a step back and lands on a tree branch. "What happened to me... I suddenly felt weak.", he thinks to himself while keeping an eye on Estels' movement, he starts to feel weaker and weaker each minute he stays in his aggravated self. "I need to get away from here quickly.", Joseph thinks as he looks around for any escape route. Estel took this distraction as a chance to strike but unfortunately for him Joseph noticed him and dodged in time and as he jump he catches a glimpse of the unconscious girl at the corner of his eyes, remembering the purpose of what he came there for, Joseph went back after finding his resolve to continue.
As he gets back, he was ambushed by Estel and was knocked onto the ground; Estel held his grip tight on Joseph as he talks to him, "What a foolish boy you are... Did you really think you'd be able to get away that easily?", he lectures Joseph before ending him. Unbeknownst to him — as the smoke from his punch clears up, all there was infront of him was dust. Estel, confused by the situation was suddenly taken aback, "Huh? Why is... There sand here? Where's the boy?", as he realizes too late; Joseph had set up that only as decoy, and before he knew it — Joseph had already left with the girl and already on the run to get as far away from the place as possible. Estel was fumed by this and releases his anger onto his surroundings, creating a large crater in the process.
"Thank god she was alright, I'm glad to have made it out of there alive... If it weren't for the item I had secretly bought with me; I would've perished..." Joseph thinks to himself worrily, "I need to get my priorities straight. As of now I need to get this little girl out of here and to a safe place.", he snaps back from his worried self.
Sooner or later they ended up in some place that is quite far from they were at, a place called Arcan, it seems as though the place is quite peaceful but Joseph refuses to let his guard down. He roams around the area looking for an inn to stay at, and soon he finds one. He lays the unconscious girl on the bed before sitting on the chair nearby.
"What do I do now...", He asks himself, "How am I suppose to get out of this mess on my own... I'm wanted all throughout the place, they'll think I escaped there in my own accord, what a troublesome experience this is...", He says out loud in frustration, contnuously sighing each pause he makes.