Chapter 362 Prison Break I (2/2)
”... really? Like, really?”
”Yeah, alright.”
”Uhm...” Alison seemed to have slightly recovered for the time being, taking a deep breath. ”L-let's just... let's lay out a plan properly, now that Hannah's arrived.”
”Sure.” Lucky and Hannah nodded as the latter turned toward the man in the corner and hollered at him. ”Get your skinny ass over here. We need your help.”
”Hey! Be gentle with him!” Alison growled, walking over and helping the man stand up, pulling him over gently and sitting him next to her, never letting go of his arm. ”You really haven't changed one bit!”
”She was always like this?” Lucky quickly chimed in. ”Why were you friends with her in the first place?”
”... should you really be asking that question?” Alison fired back at her with a faint frown and a pout, causing Lucky to chuckle.
”Alright, enough of the nonsense,” Hannah said, taking out a bottle of wine as she realized Lucky wasn't going to offer her own. ”Ella gave me the most accurate map of the place she could find,” she added, taking out a medium-sized parchment with fairly few explicit drawings. ”As you can see, it sucks and tells us nothing. The best I could read is that the Submerged area is somewhere around the eastern part and that it's most-likely heavily guarded.”
”I could easily go over and sneak in,” Lucky added. ”But that's about as much as you're gonna get from me. I caught a glimpse of a few beasts and guards, and they'd all wipe the floor with my skinny ass in no time.”
”L---uh, the Empyrean had given me these,” Hannah took out a few, strange-looking talismans that neither Lucky nor Alison recognized. ”These are like ordinary communication talismans... except forged through Magic, meaning that nobody here should be able to detect them. This vile creature will sneak in first and use the talisman to describe the general outlook, and then we'll see.”
”What happens if I get caught?” Lucky asked.
”You're on your own then.”
”No, she's not!” Alison exclaimed, growling at Hannah. ”We're not separating! This place is too dangerous, and if we get caught, we can't count on external help! Very few powers are willing to offend this place!”
”... fine,” Hannah sighed, relenting in the end. ”That will mean, however, making this far more difficult of a journey.”
”Can either one of you two inform me what... exactly are we supposed to do?” Lucky suddenly asked. ”I mean, I know we're after the Cult members, but... what when we find them? Do we kill them? Kidnap them? Follow them around and spy on them? What exactly is the goal here?”
”Eeerh....”
”Seriously?!” Lucky exclaimed as both Alison and Hannah went mum. ”Ugh, no wonder you two are friends. You are both idiots.”
”Were friends!” Alison quickly corrected.
”Yeah, yeah, that's why your eyes lit up like fucking stars when you saw her,” Lucky said. ”Because you were friends and now you absolutely hate her. Geez, you're many things Ally, but a good actor ain't one of them.”
”S-sister Lucky!!”
”Kidnap them?” Hannah proposed.
”Yeah, gun straight for the most difficult one,” Lucky sighed, realizing that it was probably the salvation of the entire mission that she had tagged along. ”We have two options: make this a short-term or a long-term assignment. If we make it short-term, I'll sneak one of you into their area and we'll grab two of them and bolt out. The third one will be in charge of cover-fire, and we'll no doubt rock the entire world with a fight. If we settle on the long-term one, we'll set up a set of bases and merely keep an eye out on them for the first few weeks, jotting down their patterns: guard rotations, cycles, strengths, weaknesses, potential gaps, that sort of a thing. Hopefully, this will reveal some sort of a hole on their defenses that we can exploit.”
”I-I know some... some good blind spots... for... for guards...” the man who had remained silent so far suddenly spoke out; he didn't care anymore whether it was a dream or reality. Whichever it may be, he felt his heart start for the first time in eons. It was a feeling he wished to hold onto for as long as possible.
”You do?” Lucky, Alison and Hannah asked uniformly, glancing at him.
”Y-yes,” the man replied hoarsely, nodding. ”T-their defenses are especially l-loose in-between the boundaries... S-submerged Quarter, uh, borders Hanging Chains and Gardens o-of Nightmares... t-the borders are loosely d-defined, and g-guards are careful n-not to cross into a-another territory... so they al-always make extra space... t-that can be used t-to find a good place f-for a base...”
”Well, what do you know,” Lucky cracked a grin, patting the man's head. ”You just might be very useful!”
”Hey! He's not a tool!” Alison quickly reprimanded, swatting Lucky's arm away. ”Thank you,” she turned toward the man and smiled warmly. ”If what you say is true, it will be extremely helpful to us. When we are done... I promise to take you out of this place with us and give you a proper life that you can enjoy. I promise...” Hannah and Lucky remained silent, holding back on the sighs; they pondered deeply, just how much will Alison be able to endure this place before breaking down at her seams.