An hour had passed since the raid on the Cave of the Ancient Moon began, and the attack had gone off without a hitch. The fourth and fifth floors and above had been obliterated by explosions, while the lower floors were engulfed in a frenzy of continuous fighting.

"Damn it, we’re running behind. We need to move faster. Faster, work faster!" Harry roared at his subordinates, who were fighting and gathering information at the same time.

In the distance, Edward and Gideon locked eyes once more.

"You’ve done an excellent job," Gideon said, patting him on the shoulder as he walked past.

Edward glanced at him sideways. "If you want to keep working with us, the information from this cave stays with me," he said.

Gideon smiled. "Do you think the 101st Regiment needs your help that badly, student Edward?"

"Yes." Edward was blunt.

Gideon clamped his mouth shut and stared at him. "You’re very confident in yourself. But all the information you sent to Elder Owen—I uncovered it too."

"You mobilized the entire 101st Regiment to do it. I only needed a few men, without academic support or backing from any elder. I wonder which investigation will be valued more," Edward retorted.

They stared at each other for a full minute before Gideon looked away. "I admit I underestimated you. Even though I was the one who rated you highest in the first place, along with Elder Owen, I didn’t expect you to be this good."

He walked toward the entrance of the office they had just stormed, where many people from the Cave were fighting his men. "Don’t worry, student Edward. I know when I’ve been outdone, and I’m glad it was you who did it." He turned and smiled.

"Let’s work together to find out what happened to the Great Toolmaker 20 years ago. I’m sure we’re just one step away from figuring it out, dear younger brother."

Edward’s body trembled. A strange buzzing filled his mind, and he tried to ask what he meant, but Gideon was no longer standing before him.

He was fighting several people across the room, while the rest of his men went about their business.

The sound of the alarms was what snapped Edward out of his daze, as he realized a long time had passed. Count Hazzard’s troops must be nearby, if not already in the city. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

45 minutes later.

The destruction on the third floor of the Ancient Moon Cave and on the second floor reached its peak. A fire that threatened to burn up all the oxygen raged through the third floor, incinerating many essential items in its path.

Edward and his entire group were pushed back by the terrifying force of the Cave’s powerful beings, while the 101st Regiment destroyed the third floor.

"Young Lord..." Harry approached, wiping the blood from his mouth and chest. He had been struck by a spear that nearly pierced his heart, but he could still move. "The royal troops..."

"They’ve been delayed... or they’re waiting for us upstairs. We’ve taken too long." Even Edward was wounded; his right arm was ruined, and he couldn’t move it. His left shoulder had a deep wound that went down to the bone.

Harry’s expression fell. This mission had been very strange. It was as if they were fighting a powerful enemy who was holding back at every turn.

They had killed two leaders, but where were the rest?

According to the records, there were twelve leaders serving one person. But they hadn’t seen any sign of ten of them, and the two who died had been killed by the 101st Regiment.

As they were talking, Edward suddenly felt a click in his mind. All of a sudden, several things that hadn’t connected until now fell into place.

"I’ve got it!" he said suddenly and started running. "Don’t move too far, Harry, wait for me here!" he shouted.

He soon left the huge room they were in and came face to face with Gideon, who was also running in the same direction. Coincidentally, it was the same one.

"Did you figure something out?" Gideon asked.

"I have a lot of questions for you," Edward replied.

"We can talk about it when we get out."

"Are you planning to accept me into the 101st Regiment? Aurora, Arnold, and I..."

Gideon cut him off. "Do you think I’m the one in charge of the 101st Regiment?" He laughed. "I only oversee the academic side of things, Edward."

"That..." Edward frowned and asked, puzzled. "Do you mean that the 101st Regiment has a pathway to the elite professional sector?"

"You’ll find out once we get out of here." Gideon looked ahead. "By the way, we’re heading in the same direction..."

Edward sighed and realized he wasn’t going to get any more information out of him, so he looked ahead again. "We have to go to Floor 3." He replied firmly.

Gideon turned to look at him. "Again? We just came out of there, and all my people are blowing the place up. There’s a fire burning oxygen; going in there would mean certain death for anyone who breathes or is alive."

Edward laughed. "Even though you say that, you haven’t stopped running in the same direction I’m going. You figured something out, didn’t you?"

Gideon smiled slightly. "Not really. I was just thinking... We’re in a cave that’s like an upside-down castle."

"The corridors, the halls, the size, and the way it gets smaller the further in you go... everything tells me this is an inverted castle."

"It is." Edward confirmed. He’d known it from the start. This structure had been very meticulously built; it wasn’t just any ordinary cave.

There wasn’t a huge hollow; rather, there was a castle built into the rock.

Gideon nodded. "Generally, castles have caves or emergency tunnels to escape through in case the inhabitants need to flee, right?"

"These tunnels are built on the lower floors. I once had to raid a castle and found there were more underground emergency exits than direct entrances."

Edward nodded. "You suspect there are secret passages leading out of here. But this is an inverted castle. The escape routes won’t be on the outer floor, but on the inner one. The passages are even deeper underground."

"Yes." Gideon nodded. "Maybe we made a mistake by blowing up the third floor. We won’t be able to find the caves that way."

They both reached the third floor at that moment. The scorching heat of the flames burning everything was reflected on their faces as sweat beaded.

Edward frowned and looked into the depths, walking through the corridors until he soon reached one of the main halls he had visited before; there he stopped short as a wave of dizziness hit him.

He frowned and brought his hand to his head.

"Be careful. There’s not much oxygen around here," said Gideon, helping him steady himself.

This room connected to the main rooms, which were engulfed in flames.

The floor was cracked, but Edward quickly noticed something unusual. A section of the floor that had been blown apart had an abnormally large hole in it.

"Do you think it’s a cave?" Gideon peered into the abnormally large hole and raised his hand.

"Don’t shoot any more fire." Edward interrupted him immediately. "Let me do it." He stepped forward and, instead of using fire to blast the area, did so with his own hand.

The first blow didn’t get him anywhere. Despite being a powerful blow, it didn’t open any trenches there.

That was strange.

So without hesitation, he struck a second blow... same result. Then he struck a third blow, even harder. His fist was sore, but suddenly, just four meters away from them, something exploded.

They both turned and were stunned to see an undead creature burst out of there, charging toward Edward.

Gideon stepped in the way and easily stopped its attack. It was merely a Wight, whose offensive capabilities were far too weak for Gideon.

In a single motion, he stopped the attack, grabbed its neck, and slammed it into the ground. "Even though I’m not a fighter, you’re a piece of cake," he taunted.

"There’s a metal-reinforced cave down here, but I don’t know where it leads," Edward said with complete conviction.

"That you can know that with such precision surprises me. I’m sure we’ll make a good team." Gideon laughed and prepared to rush toward the spot where the undead had emerged.

"No, wait!" Edward suddenly shouted.

"What is it? Did you discover something?" The alarm in Edward’s voice made him stop dead in his tracks. Gideon turned to look at him.

"Red Moon Cave..." Edward suddenly blurted out the name of the organization they were attacking.

He suddenly began muttering things that were incomprehensible to Gideon. "Western Region, the Commercial City west of the Western Region’s capital, also known as the Western Trade City..."

"Is that some kind of tongue twister?" Gideon frowned, feeling a headache coming on just from listening to it.

"The building where the Red Moon Cave is located is in the western part of the City... But you can’t see the Red Moon in the Commercial City, can you?" Edward looked up. "Tell me, Captain Gideon of the 101st Regiment, where can you see the Red Moon?"

Gideon frowned. "Why so many ’wests’?" He shook his head, trying to clear it of the tongue twister he’d just heard. "You can see it from Sunset Mountain. It’s on the western border..." Finally, he frowned.

"No..." he murmured softly, realizing something.