Outside the hidden chamber, the rest of the group had already settled into their respective positions for the night. The cave had become surprisingly comfortable after Mary and Agatha restored the damaged sections. What had once looked like a dangerous battlefield now resembled a strange underground refuge, with smooth crystal walls glowing faintly around them and enough open space for everyone to rest without feeling cramped.
Several bags had been placed near the center, while the horses remained safely inside the hidden chamber. Gregor was lying nearby, still unconscious but breathing normally. Leonid was sitting beside him, keeping an eye on his condition while Agatha and Mary quietly discussed the events of the night.
Liam and Tatiana approached.
They did not have to wait long.
Gregor’s fingers moved.
Leonid immediately noticed.
"Hold on."
Everyone turned.
Gregor’s eyelids slowly opened.
At first his eyes were unfocused. The crystal light above him appeared as little blurred shapes, and the faces surrounding him seemed to move in and out of focus. He groaned softly and lifted one hand to his forehead.
"My head..."
His voice was weak.
Liam crouched beside him.
"You’re awake."
Gregor blinked several times before his vision finally cleared.
He looked at Liam.
Then Tatiana.
Then Leonid.
Then everyone else.
"What happened?"
Leonid answered with a completely straight face.
"You got kidnapped, my friend."
Gregor stared at him.
"What?"
Leonid’s expression remained perfectly serious.
"Yeah. The child you thought was dead was actually a trap. An old, ugly witch kidnapped you."
Gregor’s face immediately changed.
The moment Leonid mentioned the witch, fragments of memory began rushing through his mind.
A child lying motionless in the road.
The sudden movement.
A hand grabbing his.
The bushes.
The strange sensation of being dragged somewhere.
Then a face.
An old woman with deeply wrinkled skin.
A disgusting smile.
The memory was so vivid that Gregor’s entire expression twisted with disgust.
"I think..."
He squeezed his eyes shut.
"I think I remember her."
Tatiana covered her mouth for a moment.
Liam noticed.
Leonid noticed too.
The three exchanged a brief glance.
Gregor opened his eyes again.
"What happened to me?"
Nobody answered immediately.
The silence was suspicious.
Gregor looked from one face to another.
Liam suddenly became very interested in the cave floor.
Leonid looked toward the opposite wall.
Tatiana turned her head away as though something incredibly interesting had suddenly appeared beside her.
Gregor narrowed his eyes.
"Why are you all looking away?"
Nobody answered.
His suspicion grew.
"Guys?"
Still nothing.
Liam finally sighed.
"Well..."
He scratched the back of his head.
"I suppose there is no easy way to say this."
Gregor swallowed.
"What?"
Liam looked at him with an expression that was almost painfully sympathetic.
"Why do you think the old, wrinkled woman would choose an handsome man like yourself?"
Gregor stared.
"What are you talking about?"
Liam shook his head slowly.
"She was probably..."
He paused.
Tatiana immediately understood what Liam was doing.
Her lips twitched.
Leonid lowered his head so Gregor would not see his expression.
Liam continued.
"She was probably..."
Gregor’s face became increasingly worried.
"...interested in you."
Silence.
Gregor slowly looked down.
His clothes were different.
He frowned.
He looked at his shirt.
Then his trousers.
Then back at Liam.
His eyes widened.
The color drained from his face.
"Wait."
He touched his clothes.
"These aren’t mine."
Nobody said anything.
Gregor’s eyes widened even further.
"Oh no."
Liam pressed his lips together.
Tatiana turned away.
Leonid’s shoulders began trembling.
Gregor looked at all three of them.
Then he looked down again.
His face became one of absolute horror.
"Ah..."
His voice cracked.
"Fuck!"
The word echoed throughout the cavern.
For several seconds nobody moved.
Then Liam’s shoulders began shaking.
Leonid finally covered his mouth.
Tatiana turned completely away, desperately trying not to laugh.
Gregor stared at them in confusion and growing panic.
"Why are you laughing?"
That only made it worse.
Liam finally lost the battle and started laughing.
Leonid followed.
Tatiana could no longer hold herself together either.
Gregor’s expression slowly changed from confusion to suspicion.
He looked at the three of them.
Then back at his clothes.
Then at Liam.
"You bastards..."
Liam wiped the corner of his eye.
"Welcome back, Gregor."
Gregor stared at him.
"I swear, if this is some kind of joke..."
Liam’s grin only widened.
And judging from the way Leonid was struggling to breathe through his laughter, Gregor was beginning to realize that perhaps the horrifying story he had just imagined was not quite what had actually happened.
Mary approached Gregor with a smile that immediately made the confusion on his face deepen. She had clearly been listening to the conversation from nearby, and judging from the amusement in her eyes, she had already figured out exactly what Liam, Leonid and Tatiana had been doing to him. She stopped beside him and gave his shoulder a light pat before finally putting him out of his misery.
"They were just messing with you."
Gregor stared at her.
For several seconds he said absolutely nothing.
Then he slowly looked toward Liam.
Liam was still trying not to laugh.
Leonid had already turned his face away.
Tatiana was covering her mouth, but the slight movement of her shoulders made it obvious she was still laughing.
Gregor’s expression darkened.
"You people are horrible."
Mary laughed softly.
"You should have seen your face."
Gregor groaned and rubbed his forehead again. "I genuinely thought that woman..."
He stopped himself.
There was no need to finish the sentence.
Liam finally managed to regain his composure, though the grin on his face remained.
"But you should be lucky we found you in time."
Gregor looked at him.
"Lucky?"
"Very lucky."
The amusement in Liam’s voice disappeared.
"You were about to become dinner."
Silence.
The entire group stared at him.
Gregor blinked.
Leonid’s eyebrows slowly rose.
Mary stopped smiling.
Tatiana turned toward Liam with a confused expression.
Agatha, who had been sorting through some of their belongings nearby, slowly lifted her head.
"What?"
Liam looked around at everyone as though he had just stated something obvious.
"You guys don’t know?"
Nobody answered.
Liam frowned.
"No way. You seriously didn’t realize that the witch ate her victims?"
The atmosphere changed immediately.
Gregor’s face lost some of its color.
"What?"
Liam pointed toward the far side of the lair.
"Look around."
Everyone followed the direction of his finger.
At first there seemed to be nothing unusual. The lair was still littered with remnants of the witch’s strange existence, but because everything had been spread throughout the chamber, most of them had simply treated the objects as part of the clutter.
Liam walked toward one of the darker corners and crouched beside a collection of strange metal tools.
He picked one up.
"This isn’t a normal knife."
He turned it slightly beneath the crystal light.
"It was designed for cutting through flesh."
Nobody spoke.
Liam placed it back down and moved toward another object.
Then another.
A heavy table.
Metal hooks.
Sharp instruments.
Containers that had been scrubbed repeatedly but still carried dark stains around their edges.
And then there was the enormous iron pot sitting against the wall.
Liam stared at it for a moment.
"That’s not for making soup."
Leonid slowly walked closer.
Mary followed.
Agatha’s expression became increasingly uncomfortable as she examined the objects with a witch’s understanding.
Tatiana remained beside Gregor, but even she had stopped smiling.
Liam pointed toward the pot.
"Put all of this together and tell me what you think."
Nobody answered.
They didn’t need to.
The realization came slowly, piece by piece, until the scattered objects suddenly formed a horrifying picture.
The old witch had not merely kidnapped people.
She had prepared them.
She had butchered them.
And judging from the equipment, she had done it more than once.
Agatha’s face became grim.
"She kept all of this..."
Mary swallowed.
"Which means there were others."
Liam nodded.
"Exactly."
The silence that followed felt heavier than anything they had experienced during the battle.
Gregor looked around the room with wide eyes.
His gaze eventually settled on the tools Liam had pointed out.
Then he looked down at himself.
His breathing became slower.
He finally understood what Liam had meant.
He had not merely been kidnapped.
He had been brought here for a reason.
And if Liam and the others had arrived even a little later, there was a very real possibility that Gregor would never have woken up.
His face became pale.
"I..."
He couldn’t finish.
Liam noticed the change in his expression and walked over. Instead of making another joke, he placed a hand on Gregor’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring pat.
"But you’re here now."
Gregor looked up at him.
Liam smiled.
"Glad to have you back."
The words were simple, but they carried more weight than Gregor expected.
He nodded slowly.
"Yeah."
Liam turned away.
"Now get some rest."
With that, he left Gregor with the others and began looking around the lair for somewhere to sleep.
There were plenty of places available, but Liam wasn’t particularly interested in sleeping on the ground. His eyes moved upward, scanning the crystal walls until he noticed something interesting.
A thick collection of vines had grown across one of the upper sections of the cavern.
The vines had intertwined naturally, creating a broad platform several metres above the floor.
Liam stared at it.
"That’ll do."
He pointed upward.
"Mary."
Mary looked at him.
"What?"
"Can you make that comfortable?"
She followed his gaze and smiled.
"You want to sleep up there?"
"Looks peaceful."
Mary sighed.
"Fine."
She walked beneath the vines and raised one hand.
Mana slowly gathered around her fingers.
The vines immediately responded.
They began moving.
Not violently, but gently, almost like living ropes obeying a command.
Several vines loosened from the wall and intertwined with one another, creating a broad, smooth surface. Others curled around the edges, forming a natural barrier that prevented anyone from accidentally rolling off during sleep.
Mary continued guiding them until the platform looked less like a collection of wild vines and more like a carefully constructed bed suspended above the cave floor.
She even added several thick layers underneath to make the surface softer.
Liam stared upward.
He had only asked for somewhere comfortable to sleep.
Mary had practically built him a private room.
He smiled.
"Thanks."
Mary shrugged.
"Don’t fall off."
"I won’t."
Liam bent his knees slightly.
Then he jumped.
His body shot upward effortlessly and landed on the vine platform with barely a sound.
He tested the surface with his hand before sitting down.
It was surprisingly comfortable.
He eventually stretched out onto his back and placed both hands behind his head.
From up there, the cave looked completely different.
The others seemed smaller below him, moving around the chamber as they prepared themselves for sleep. The crystal formations on the ceiling gave off a faint glow that illuminated the cavern without ever becoming bright enough to hurt the eyes.
For the first time since entering this world, Liam allowed himself to simply lie there.
His thoughts wandered.
Earth.
He wondered what was happening there.
Three months had passed since he disappeared.
Three months was a long time.
He thought about Dickson.
Lana.
Lilith.
Vanessa.
Sergei.
Mikhail.
All of them.
He wondered whether they were still fighting.
Liam stared silently at the crystal-covered ceiling.
"I hope you guys are doing alright."
He knew they were strong.
He knew they could fight.
But strength wasn’t always enough.
That was something he had learned over and over again.
There were enemies that could not simply be punched away.
There were mysteries that could not be solved by brute force.
And there were things happening on Earth that Liam still didn’t understand.
His thoughts were interrupted by movement.
He heard footsteps below.
Then Tatiana looked up at him.
She smiled.
Liam immediately recognized that expression.
"No."
Tatiana crouched.
"Tatiana..."
She jumped.
Liam’s eyes widened.
"Wait!"
She landed on the platform.
Unfortunately, she had aimed her jump directly toward where Liam’s head had been.
He rolled out of the way at the last second.
Tatiana landed where he had been lying only a moment earlier.
Liam grabbed his head.
"You almost crushed me!"
Tatiana laughed.
"I knew you’d move."
"That doesn’t make it better."
She turned toward him with an innocent expression that Liam didn’t believe for even a second.
Then she lowered herself beside him.
"Move over."
Liam sighed.
"You have an entire cave."
"I want to sleep here."
She smiled.
"I’m sleeping with you."
Before Liam could argue, Tatiana settled beside him and turned onto her side, pressing her back comfortably against him.
She reached backward and found his hand.
Liam looked down.
Tatiana gently pulled his arm around her waist.
"There."
She smiled.
"Much better."
Liam stared at the ceiling again.
For a moment he considered complaining.
Then he felt her relax against him.
Her breathing slowly became quieter.
The faint smile remained on her face.
Liam’s expression softened.
"Goodnight, Tatiana."
"Goodnight."
The cavern gradually became quiet.
Below them, the others settled into their own sleeping places while the horses remained peacefully unconscious in the hidden chamber.
Above them, the crystals continued to glow faintly.
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