Mira walked to the nearest door, and just as her hand touched the handle, Lin Yuan said, "Not this one."
"You've found the real one?"
"No. Those sounds weren't coming from behind the door."
Lin Yuan closed his eyes.
The cries echoed through the room only after being deflected three times, while the footsteps were broken into varying lengths of echoes by a dozen connecting points. The castle deliberately allowed the sounds to constantly shift, yet the actual space behind the door would experience extremely brief pauses as the connections changed.
He sent a wisp of black silver magic into the nearest door.
The magic seeped through the crack in the door, instantly appearing in seven different locations, only to be bounced back from six of them. It continued to extend into the distance in only one direction.
"The fourth door from the left."
Mira flung open the door.
Behind the door was a large hall filled with tattered armor. Six mages in Magic Council uniforms were huddled in a corner, using a crumbling barrier to hold off a dozen armored puppets.
Upon hearing the door open, the leader immediately shouted, "Don't come in! The door will—"
The connection has begun to move.
The door frame twisted to the right, and the exit that was originally facing the hall was gradually replaced by an ice field. Lin Yuan gripped the edge with his five fingers, and black silver magic power pierced into the space on both sides along the door frame, forcibly pinning the separating connection in place.
I can only hold on for a little while longer.
That's enough.
Mira stepped into the hall.
Black magic exploded from her back, and her arms were covered in demonic scales. The first two puppets that rushed at her were sent flying by her head-on, along with their companions behind them, crashing into the wall.
"Those who can still walk, walk on your own!"
One investigator carried his injured companion on his back, while the other four maintained the barrier and retreated towards the door. Armored puppets surrounded them from both sides. Mira grabbed a spear that had fallen to the ground and swept it around, breaking the shaft on the spot, but also overturning all the puppets.
By the time the last person passed through the doorway, the ice field had already swallowed up most of the hall.
" Mira!"
Mira stepped onto the breastplate of a doll, using it as leverage to leap up. Lin Yuan released the connection and reached out, folding the last few meters between her and the door frame together.
The two of them retreated back into the room at the same time.
The door turned into a layer of ice in front of me, and then sank completely into the wall.
The rescued investigation team leader leaned against the wall, panting for a long time, before he finally recognized the guild crests on Lin Yuan and Mira's chests.
Fairy Tail?
"How many people are still trapped?" Lin Yuan asked.
"We found eleven people when we came in, but then the rooms were separated. There's no fixed route here; we only see one or two of them every so often."
"Are there any aspects that will never change?"
"A large circular hall. Every time the bells are heard, all the rooms pass through there."
Lin Yuan reactivated his senses.
The doors to the rooms are still changing, but deeper within all the connections, there is indeed a relatively stable, spacious area. It's not completely still, but rather the entire castle is rearranged around it.
"Go to the lobby first."
This time, he no longer looked for the right door.
The Boundary-Severing Blade materialized into a short blade in his palm and pierced the right corner of the wall. The spatial rift did not destroy the wall, but rather cut through the erroneous connection covering the surface. The true distance hidden behind the wall was exposed, and Lin Yuan seized that moment to forcibly pull the current room and the circular hall together.
The walls extend to both sides.
After everyone stepped over, Lin Yuan used his black silver magic to pin down the four corners of the hall. This place would still move with the castle, but it would no longer easily separate from the ground beneath their feet.
"You stay here and take care of the wounded," Mira told the investigation team leader.
"And the others—"
"We'll go and bring it back."
The subsequent rescue efforts lacked a proper road.
Lin Yuan repeatedly traced the source of the sounds through the chaotic connections, then briefly reconnected the hall with the corresponding rooms. Mira was responsible for crossing those doors that could close at any moment to bring back the missing persons hiding in the wine cellar, tower, and water dungeon.
Sometimes there are only terrified crowds behind the door, and sometimes it is crowded with guard dolls.
When the connection was activated for the fifth time, three spears simultaneously thrust towards the doorway. Mira dodged to the side, grabbed the spear shafts, dragged the three puppets into the hall, and then kicked them into pieces all over the floor.
The seventh time, she carried an unconscious lumberjack in one arm and two young villagers in the other. Behind her, the room was beginning to crumble from the ground.
Lin Yuan maintained the connection until the Demon Wings had completely crossed the door frame before letting go.
The sound of shattering was completely cut off the moment the wall closed.
The investigation team leader counted the number of people three times.
Twenty-three.
The first people to go missing had been trapped in the castle for nearly a month; everyone was extremely weak, yet they were still alive.
Mira deactivated the Take Over and sat down against a stone pillar. She had just caught her breath when she felt a dull tremor beneath her feet.
Thump--
It was as if an unseen giant bell was being tolled deep within the ancient castle.
The investigation team leader's expression changed drastically. "That's the sound. Every time the bell tolls, the castle changes location."
The second chime followed immediately.
The black and silver magic that Lin Yuan had pinned to the four corners of the hall began to shake simultaneously. Outside the hall, hundreds of rooms were rapidly moving away from their original positions, and the entire castle was once again preparing to abandon its current coordinates.
Mira looked up at him. "What do we do now?"
Lin Yuan placed his hand on the shaking ground.
"The people have all been found."
The black and silver magic spread along the cracks in the bricks into the depths of the ancient castle.
"Next, stop it."