His Golden Secret

Chapter 12

As the sun rose, the group wasted no time making their way to Beacontown. It wasn't long before they had finally made it there. However, things did not look the same as they had before. Otto froze abruptly in fear at the sight. It had been the exact same as in his vision he had. The sky was a deep crimson with layers of dark gray clouds hovering overhead. The older man shook his head before continuing onwards with the rest of the group.

Once they were past the gates, everything came in clear view. Every building was dim in color from corruption, as if all life had been ripped out of the place.. The stone brick roads were all cracked and pebbled from excess building debris. And in the center of the town, a floating island with a castle looking tower on top of it. Most of the group looked around in utter shock, but the twins were horrified. Jessica looked at her brother on the verge of tears; meanwhile, Jesse had a look of pure hatred on his face. They had seen this once before, but they didn't expect for thai to happen once again.

"Alright, we need to keep to the shadows! If anyone under Romeo's control spots us, it's game over! Are we clear?" Jesse asked in a whisper.

The group nodded in response. With that, they all split into smaller groups in order to cover more ground. Isa, Milo, Jesse, Petra, and Jessica all headed towards the tower, Ellegaard, Magnus, Gabriel, and Soren all headed towards the west side of town, and Harper, Ivor, Mevia, and Otto headed to the east side of town. Before they split, Otto stuffed his wings under his robes, not wanting the golden glow of the feathers to give away his group's location.

As Ellegaard, Magnus, Gabriel, and Soren started to flank the west side of the town, the group had to make an unexpected stop when some black golems passed by. Magnus tried to keep going, but yelped softly when Ellegaard grabbed him by the collar of his armor. She yanked him back harshly, covering his mouth with her hand when he went to yell at her. Thankfully, his yells were muffled by the thick material of her armor glove.

"Would you shut up?! You're going to blow it for us!" she scolded in a whisper-shouting tone.

Magnus rolled his eyes and huffed. The engineer pulled her hand away, allowing him to speak once again.

"Well, I'm sorry! I'm not used to sneaking around an Admin possessed city!" he whisper-shouted back at her.

Soren scowled softly at them, "This is not the time for one of your petty bickering sessions! Our goal is to find out where HE is before we get caught!"

The couple sighed in defeat. Gabriel, annoyed with the bickering of the group, took the lead. He led their group as far towards the west as he could, scouting out the area for any signs of the Admin.

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Meanwhile, Lukas, Olivia, and Axel were in the treasure room waiting for the "twins'" arrival. Lukas's suspicions of "Jesse" and "Jessica" were eating at him more and more since Petra's unexpected disappearance. He hadn't voiced anything about it to Olivia and Axel, but he felt the need to say something about it. So when he was able to compose himself, he took a deep breath before speaking up,

"Hey guys..."

Olivia perked up and hummed, "Hm?"

"What is it, Lukas?" Axel asked.

"Well, you know how Petra's been gone for a while?" Lukas continued, looking up at them finally.

Axel and Olivia looked at each other in concern. Now that they thought about it, the disappearance of their friend had been very sudden and unexplained. On top of that, whenever they did ask the "twins", they would always respond with "Oh she's just running an errand" or "She'll be back soon". But, she would never return that day, or the next, or... the next...