They gave chase to the hooded figure through the first floor labyrinth. They knew somehow that this direction led toward the rat kingdom's portal. But they couldn't figure out why it was going there. Was it a ratman without a tail after all? Or something else entirely?
While they pursued, Benny had already arrived at the portal and entered without hesitation. Beyond it, he wasn't entirely sure if it was safe. This place was usually heavily guarded, and it had been some time since he was last here. Things might have changed.
Gustav shouted a command that cut through the sound of running feet. "Stop! Everyone stop!"
This made everyone who had been giving chase slow down in their tracks. Even Rippler, who was ahead of them all, his anger driving him forward. They all stopped and stared at the space in front of them. They couldn't really see the portal well with the naked eye. Only if you looked keenly almost at a hands length would you be able to notice the minor disturbances in the air. The slight shimmer. The way light bent wrong. The space distorts every now and then.
Gustav's voice was sharp and measured. "Do we really need to give chase inside that thing? What if we encounter those ratmen bastards on the other side? Are we prepared for that kind of fight? And what are we even going to do if we catch up to that being? It seems like it has no plans of speaking to us. Is it even capable of speech or understanding our words?"
He paused, letting his questions sink in.
"You all felt it too, right? It wasn't just me. That thing, whatever it was, is dangerous. Are we prepared to take those risks just to satisfy our curiosity?"
This was definitely what everyone had been thinking while giving chase. They knew they had only followed Rippler and his impulses. Nothing more. No real plan. No clear objective beyond catching the mysterious figure.
Even Rippler had to agree it was a dumb thing to do in retrospect. But he was still annoyed. That thing was fast, faster than any of them. And the fact that it escaped inside the portal was just one of those mysteries of this place they would never have a definitive answer to.
He took a deep breath and cleared his mind. Forced the anger down. They had more important things to worry about than giving chase to something that didn't even make a move to attack them in the first place.
But it was definitely weird how it had appeared in front of them just when they were about to arrive at the entrance that led upward. Coincidence? Or had it been watching them and miscalculated?
"You're right, Gustav," Rippler said, his jaw tight. "Let's regroup for now and discuss this amongst ourselves. We have more to worry about than chasing something that means no harm to us, at least for now. But if that thing ever shows hostile actions, I will kill it."
The chances of him succeeding at that would be fifty-fifty at best. And if he wanted to succeed, he would need the entire team working together. Even with that they would definitely have losses on their already dwindling numbers.
They regrouped and made their way back toward the first floor sanctuary. They were still on guard, watching both their front and rear. They didn't want to get ambushed on the way. Not after everything that had just happened.
Thankfully, they had some rough ideas forming. Maybe that thing was the one who had slept and used the sanctuaries. The one who had eaten their food stocks. It was a bet they were willing to gamble on. And if their assumptions were correct, then no one would be at the sanctuary right now.
Thankfully, they had a scout in their team who could do an advance reconnaissance toward their destination.
Senna moved ahead of the group, disappearing into the shadows. She returned five minutes later. She had gone ahead, but the others had maintained a reasonable distance. Just in case something went terribly wrong, they could quickly deploy and help her.
After arriving, she reported that the area was clear but had definitely been used recently. "Whoever or whatever is gathering resources and tools is definitely surviving down here," she said. "And they know what they're doing."
Then Nida spoke something unusual. Something that even she, an assassin trained to suppress emotion, had felt guilty about for months. The death of a former teammate. A name she hadn't spoken aloud in a long while.
Benny.
When they arrived at the sanctuary and she saw the signs up close, she became sure of her gut feeling. Though she couldn't be completely certain, after examining how things were arranged, she realized this was exactly how they had met Benny before. How he had hunted and gathered resources. The organization. The efficiency. The careful planning.
But she had seen him die in her arms. She had left him there to die. A guilt she had never truly recovered from.
"Benny," her whispered mumble was almost too quiet for the others to hear.
"What if Benny was here? What if he's been alive all this time?"
The others stopped what they were doing and looked at her. The question hung in the air like smoke.
"What did you say, Nida?" Gustav asked carefully.
"I said, what if this was Benny's doing? Don't you see? This is exactly how he set up his camp when we first met him. When he brought us to the sanctuaries he'd been using. The food stocks. The materials. Even the way the weapons are arranged over here. Doesn't it remind you of him?"
This created a definite pause. A silence that stretched too long.
"Let's say what you're saying is true," Kael said slowly, working through the logic. "Then he should've approached us, right? Where is he now and what was he doing? Shouldn't he have come to us by now? How long has it even been?"
One of them tried to deny the facts with questions of their own. While the possibility wasn't slim, it also wasn't high. "And wasn't it you who said he was dead? That you watched him die? We weren't there so we trusted your words but what you're saying right now is contradictory to your statements before."
All heads turned to Nida for answers. She could only bite her lip until it bled. She wasn't sure. This was just her own speculation anyway. Hope mixed with guilt and shaped into a theory she couldn't prove.
Then Meredith spoke up. "So then, is that thing, that being we met earlier, him? Is that Benny? But why would he run away and not say anything to us?"
Nida really couldn't answer. She had no explanation that made sense.
"Now, now, everyone calm down," Senna interjected, her voice deliberately cheerful. Their optimistic scout is trying to ease the tension. "Let's not rush into anything and spoil our moods any further. These are just what-ifs and speculations. We don't know anything for certain."
Their discussion died down for now. They had more questions than answers at this point, and arguing in circles wouldn't help.
"Let's just calm ourselves for now," Gustav said with finality. "Take a break. Check on your equipment and supplies. We'll figure this out with clear heads."
While that was happening, Benny was inside the dimensional portal, already creating problems for the ratmen once more.
Because just as he arrived on the other side, he saw that everything had changed. The dimensional portal exit, which had once opened into a forested area, was now cordoned off into a military facility. The area was being watched by elite ratmen guards. Filthguards, heavily armed and alert.
But Benny was quick to take action. He created chaos at the gates, killing the guards within a matter of seconds before they could raise an alarm. They weren't even able to properly process what was happening before their heads rolled across the ground. Blood sprayed. Bodies fell.
Benny escaped from that installation immediately and went to find a place to hide in the ruins of the city he had burned. It seemed it would be harder to go back out to the labyrinth for a while unless he broke into this installation once more. The portal was now under heavy guard and constant surveillance.
Literally, what a pain in the ass these monsters with intellect were. They learned. They adapted. They built defenses against him.
For now, the meeting with his former team members had been postponed. They had been so close to uncovering the truth. So close to recognizing each other. But now it seemed to have slipped away once again, separated by a dimensional barrier and mutual misunderstanding.
In the sanctuary, Nida sat alone, staring at the arrangement of supplies. Her mind turned over the possibility again and again.
Could it really be him? Could Benny really be alive?
And if so, what had this place done to him?