"How did you know the wall was fake?" Lee-Won asked Tthor as they descended some rusty steps to an underground chamber.

   "I didn't know...," Tthor answered, looking around. "And why didn't you tell me that this was that night in which the baldanders came back to life?"

   "Yes, I told you!" Lee -Won replied in a whisper. "Valentine's night..."

   "No, you hadn't mentioned it. Since you hadn't mentioned that there are more than two statues that come back to life..."

   Lee-Won bit his lip nervously.

   "Only a couple more… their encourage."

   Tthor looked at him strangely and said:

   "What?"

   "...encourage..."

   "Entourage!" Tthor bellowed.

   'Yes, that, and what did I say?" The young man defended himself.

   " A couple more..."

   "A couple of dozen more...," Lee-Won said as if passing by.

   " I should have imagined it...," said Tthor, looking at him smiling.

   He looked around. The room was large, with high walls, vaulted and illuminated by several lit torches, scattered throughout the place.

   "How strange!" Said Lee-Won, looking around. "Why build such a large place and go to the trouble of doing it underground to have it empty?"

   "It's empty now," Tthor reflected. "But there was a time when this place housed something…"

   "How do you know?"

   "Look at the ground," Tthor pointed out. "There are marks here." There was something in the center.

   Lee-Won clearly saw that the floor was marked in four different places.

   "A table, perhaps?" Lee-Won asked, looking closely at one of the marks.

   "Maybe..." Tthor said in a low voice, while he scrutinized a wall.

   His fingers came across a loose brick that seemed to be a different color than the rest. Tthor looked at him curiously and, before thinking about anything else, pushed him up.

   Two things happened at the same time: a sharp noise was heard on the opposite wall and another noise, more metallic and out of tune, came from the ceiling.

   Tthor turned around, in time, to see how the back wall opened in half and a caged structure was lowered from the ceiling and reached the floor, in a fraction of seconds, closing with four legs that fit exactly in the marks of the floor.

   Lee-Won found himself completely surrounded by bars. He clung to them and looked at Tthor with apprehension. Tthor turned around and grabbed, with both hands, the brick he had moved, but before returning it to its original position, a scream from Lee-won startled him. He caught a glimpse of a shadow on the wall in front of him and instinctively crouched down. He looked up, hearing a sharp noise, and saw, stuck in the wall, right where his head had been, a sharp blade.

   He opened his eyes wide, unable to believe what he saw: a baldander almost two meters tall, with a completely stone uniform and a long, somewhat rusty sword.

   "Thor?!" Lee-Won shouted, alerting him.

   The young man looked back and saw another baldander charging towards where he was. He crouched down and covered his head with both hands, waiting for the edge of the sword to pierce some part of his body. But only a metallic noise reached him. Curious, he looked out of the corner of his eye, through his arms, and saw the two baldanders facing each other, sword to sword, in a colossal fight.

   With each blow of the sharp blades, small pieces of rock fell away from the burly bodies.

   "Why are they fighting?" Tthor whispered.

   A helmet flew towards the boy. Tthor looked at him and began to understand what was happening. Without wasting time, taking advantage of the fight between the two colossi, he ran towards the opposite wall and lowered the loose brick.

   The iron cage began to rise. And as soon as she left the ground, Lee-Won crouched beneath her and joined Tthor in a mad dash back the way they had come. But before reaching the ascending staircase, they had to brake. Three baldanders were coming down there, in a hurry.

   The boys retraced their steps toward the vaulted chamber. They entered just as one of the statues crushed the other, stabbing its sword into its chest, piercing its armor and causing it to bleed a thick, dark liquid.

   Tthor and Lee-Won stood petrified in the center of the room, surrounded by four great figures with their swords raised, staring at them. Tthor instinctively put Lee-Won behind him. The baldanders let out a war cry and rushed at the young men. Tthor threw himself on Lee-won, seeking to protect him from the attack. But the attack did not come... Tthor looked surprised.

   The baldanders stood before him, bowed in clear bows, their heads buried in their chests and their swords at their sides.

   It took Lee-Won several seconds to understand. Then, he stood up, helping Tthor do the same. He looked at the statues in amazement and whispered:

   "They recognize you as an Asís."

   Tthor looked at them in disbelief. He took a step forward and said:

   "Up, please!"

   The warriors stood up immediately.

   "Guide us to Warghost," Tthor said in a low but firm voice.

   And the baldander who was closest to him pointed out a small door that Tthor had not seen before, in a far wall.

   " Thank you!" Said Tthor. "Go back to the mausoleum to take care of Queen Uquara."

   But, when he wanted to take the first step towards the small entrance, a pair of baldanders entered through the other wall and a new fight began between them and the four who were in the chamber.

   Tthor took Lee-Won's arm and headed towards the opposite wall and they entered a narrow square.

   "Your first order as King," said Lee-Won, with a smile.

   "I am not King! And if we keep getting into trouble, I'll never be one."

   Lee-Won laughed but, seeing the serious face of his friend, he understood that he was very serious. He thought about saying something, but Tthor had already advanced a few meters. Lee-Won took a torch from the wall and followed him, silently.

   They walked for more than ten minutes through a narrow, dimly lit hallway. When they reached the end, they realized with some frustration that another tunnel extended in an upward direction. This was wider and higher, allowing Lee-Won to crawl alongside Tthor.

   The dark-haired young man bit his lip and glanced at Tthor out of the corner of his eye every two or three meters.

   "Tthor," he said suddenly, taking him by the arm and forcing him to stop, "If it is your destiny, as I know it is, you will become King. And I promise you that, from now on, I won't get you into any more trouble. Because every time you're in danger, it's because of me..."

   Tthor stared at him.

   "That's not what I meant when I said what I said. If I do not become King, it will be because I will abdicate the throne before being appointed. Because if we keep getting into trouble, there will come a time when I'm afraid something bad will happen to you. And if something bad happened to you..., I couldn't stand it. Without you...I'm not interested in being King."

   Lee-Won felt his heart gallop inside his chest, uncontrollably. His mouth was dry and his whole body was trembling slightly. He wanted to speak but his voice didn't come out.

   Tthor felt a noise behind him and became alert.

   "Shall we continue?" He said, pulling him by the arm.

   Lee-Won had to make an effort to get his legs to respond. He advanced, slowly at first, and after a few minutes his body seemed to relax a little.

   "Do you know why the baldanders fought among themselves?" Lee-Won asked, trying to recover.

   "Yes, the plumes were different. But they also had different symbols on their swords."

   "When did you have time to see all that?"

   Tthor smiled and said:

   " I have a pretty deep cut on my face. I saw those swords closer than I would have liked."

   "You are injured?! Show me!" Said Lee-Won, worried, taking him by the arm again.

   Tthor looked at him and said, mischievously:

   "You believed!"

   "Never do that to me again!" the young man snapped, breathing hard.

   He held his chest and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes.

   "Lee-Won! What's the matter? Talk to me!" Tthor said, approaching him and shaking him a little.

   " How was it? Oh yes…you believed it!"

   Tthor breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but laugh.

   "As I told you...," said Tthor, looking at him out of the corner of his eye and resuming his path. "Due to the difference in the symbols, I deduced that one group of the baldanders belongs to the Queen's entourage and the other, to Frendäl's."

   "…Which means that the statue of frendäl is also in Meaghdose," Lee-Won reflected.

   Tthor questioned him with his gaze.

   "Everyone believes that that statue was destroyed during the Great War...," Lee-Won explained.

   They continued along the path, crawling quite slowly, along the ascending corridor that now seemed to grow higher and wider, allowing the young people to advance standing.

   "And what symbols were those? Were you able to see them well?" Lee-Won wanted to know, removing a spider web that had gotten tangled in his face.

   Tthor remembered. One of the symbols was easy for him to recognize: the hooked X, which was part of his “treasures.” The other, curiously, also seemed familiar: a snake devouring his own tail.

   But before he could speak, a tremor shook them and threw them against a nearby wall.

   "Lee-Won?"

   " I'm fine! And you...?" Answered the other, sitting up.

   Another tremor, stronger than the first, knocked them down again.

   Lee-Won was forced to hold on to avoid hitting a pointed brick that protruded dangerously from the wall. As he did so, he dropped the torch, which went out as soon as it touched the ground.

   "We were left in the dark," said the young dark-skinned man, a little nervous. "Why did it go out?"

   "There is water on the floor," Tthor explained, realizing that his ankles felt wet. "I hope the tremors don't flood this hallway. We must reach the end."

   " I think it's late...I already have water up to my knees." Lee-Won sounded quite worried.

   Tthor felt his legs begin to shake.

   " I think the next...next thing I'll do w...when we get out of here...will be...learn to swim."

   Lee-Won grabbed Tthor's arm and squeezed it a little. He knew it wasn't a good sign when his friend started to stutter.

   "Don't worry, Tthor, the tunnel ascends. We'll get to the end before the water rises. And I'm here with you... Can you see anything?"

   Tthor felt the boy's warmth and his voice so close to him encouraged him. He looked up and managed to calm down a bit.

   "There is light... and it looks pretty close."

   They advanced about fifteen meters and reached a circular cover. With a couple of blows, it gave way. They took it out and both of them went through the metal-edged hole. Only when they put the lid back in place, making sure it was sealed and airtight so that the water wouldn't get through, did they look around.

   They were almost crowded, in a small space in which they could barely move. With the lid at their feet, they only had room to stand, brushing against the walls. Tthor looked up and saw a small crack at the height of his head. He rose on his heels and looked through her. With his eyes wild, he managed to stammer:

   "You won't believe it..."

   The young dark-haired man bit his lip. He no longer knew what else could happen to them. But before he questioned Tthor about finding him, a familiar voice, thick and monotonous, came to them, wrapped in a heavy breeze:

   "…Thirty…, thirty-five…, forty…"

   Tthor, without wasting time, pushed the small window with his hands and it fell with a crash. Asmodeus was startled as he saw two small figures fall to the ground near him. He looked up at the window near the ceiling, now reduced to just a hole, and then at the boys smiling at him.

   "Hello, Asmodeus!" They both said, as if appearing through the window was the most normal way to enter the attic.

   Asmodeus smiled. He approached Tthor and, with visible happiness, stretched his arms towards him, offering him, radiantly, his marbled plate, which still had traces of raw intestines that had been left over from his breakfast.