Chapter 206 — Team Two

Chapter 206: Chapter 206 — Team Two

Chapter 206 — Team Two

Victor looked up to see Zack walking toward him.

For a second, he was completely confused.

Why was Zack down here?

More importantly, how did he even know Victor was here?

Victor stared at him suspiciously.

Zack noticed immediately.

"Don’t look at me like that, man."

"How did you even know I was down here?"

Zack thought for a moment.

"Well, my family is in charge of most of the guards down here. About eighty percent of them answer to us in some way."

Victor paused.

He hadn’t known that.

"My father got word that somebody was going around asking the guards questions. Apparently, that somebody was named Victor Ashcroft."

Zack smiled.

"My father already knows about you, so he told me to come down here and see what was going on."

Victor considered the explanation.

That actually made sense.

Information moved quickly in a place like this, especially when someone started walking around with Elder Benton’s token.

"Okay. Fair enough."

Zack’s attention shifted past him.

He had finally noticed Lyra.

A smile appeared on his face.

"So this is the reason you’re always too busy to hang out with me now, huh?"

Victor ran a hand through his hair and pushed it back.

"Well... yeah."

He turned slightly toward Lyra.

"Let me introduce you. Zack, this is Lyra. Lyra, this is Zack."

Zack smiled at her.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lyra."

"Hello, Zack."

There was a short pause.

Zack looked between the two of them.

"So how did you guys meet?"

Victor shook his head.

"That’s a long story. Not really important right now."

He smiled slightly.

"I’ll tell you one day when we’re grabbing drinks or something."

"Oh."

Zack nodded.

"Fair enough."

For a moment, it looked like the questions were over.

Then Zack continued.

"So what’s with all the questions down here?"

Victor’s smile faded slightly.

"I heard you’re asking about the missing people. And apparently, you’ve been using Elder Benton’s authority?"

Victor hadn’t expected him to know that much.

He gave Zack a slightly awkward smile.

"Yeah. Elder Benton gave me his token so I could ask some questions."

A complete lie.

Zack accepted it without much thought.

"Okay."

Victor almost relaxed.

Then Zack frowned.

"But why are you asking questions about missing people?"

Victor paused.

"Isn’t that Law Enforcement’s job? And why would Elder Benton give you his token to investigate something like that?"

Victor stared at him.

These questions were getting harder to answer.

"I’ve had a few... run-ins that made me want to look into it."

Zack raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of run-ins?"

Victor hesitated.

Zack stared at him.

"Why are you spinning me around?"

Victor sighed internally.

At this point, hiding everything was becoming harder than simply giving him part of the truth.

And Zack’s questions weren’t unreasonable.

He’d been Victor’s friend before Victor disappeared into the Sanctuary. Out of everyone in the Tower, Zack was one of the few people Victor felt he should be able to trust.

That didn’t mean Victor was going to tell him everything.

But he could tell him enough.

"About a week and a half ago, I ran into a situation involving one of the missing people."

Zack’s expression became more serious.

"There was a serial killer who had abducted a child. We found him and managed to rescue her."

Victor kept the explanation simple.

"After that, I started looking into the other disappearances. And the more I looked, the more it seemed like there wasn’t just one person doing it."

Zack listened quietly.

"I think a lot of these disappearances are connected somehow."

Zack nodded.

"Okay. That makes sense."

Then his expression shifted to annoyance.

"Why didn’t you just tell me that from the start? I would’ve been more than happy to help."

Victor didn’t answer immediately.

The truth was simple.

He didn’t want Zack involved.

Victor had already seen what happened when people close to him got dragged into this.

Lyra had nearly been killed by Snake Mask. He’d only recently decided that he didn’t want her involved in any more fights until she became stronger.

Bringing Zack into it wasn’t exactly an improvement.

But keeping him completely outside the investigation might not be possible anymore.

Especially now that Zack knew this much.

Victor sighed.

"We’ve been trying to figure out how everything connects. Who’s disappearing, where they’re disappearing from, things like that."

He still left out most of the important details.

The Evil God Organization.

Snake Mask.

Everything involving Benton and Space Witch.

Zack didn’t need to know any of that.

But he seemed more than happy to help with what Victor had told him.

Victor explained what they’d learned so far about the missing slaves. Several mercenary teams with unusually high numbers of disappearances had ties to the Graveborn family.

Zack nodded.

"That makes sense."

Victor looked at him.

"Why?"

"Because if you’d told me about this earlier, I could’ve saved you some time."

Zack’s expression became more serious.

"The Graveborn family controls most of the slave trade in the Tower."

Victor stopped.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Somewhere around ninety percent of it."

Victor’s eyes narrowed.

That was important.

First Alex.

Then the mercenary teams.

Now the slave trade itself.

More and more things kept pointing toward the Graveborn family.

Victor still didn’t know how they were connected to everything.

But there were too many connections to ignore.

"We were planning on talking to some of the mercenary teams," Victor said. "See if we can get anything useful out of them."

He looked at Zack.

"You’re welcome to come with us."

Zack grinned.

"And I thought you’d never ask."

He stepped forward.

"Look at this. Just like old times."

Victor smiled and started walking.

Lyra didn’t.

She remained where she was for another moment.

Her eyes stayed on Zack.

Zack noticed and gave her a friendly smile.

Lyra didn’t return it.

She turned and followed Victor.

Zack glanced toward the guards behind him.

Only briefly.

Then he followed.

As they walked, Victor checked the information they’d gathered earlier.

"It looks like Team Two is somewhere around Region B right now. We should be able to reach them in a couple of hours."

"Fine with me," Zack said. "Let’s do it."

They continued deeper into Basement Level Five.

The crowds gradually thinned as the tunnels stretched farther from the main entrance. The air grew colder, and the distant noise of guards and mercenaries slowly disappeared behind them.

Victor thought about everything they’d learned.

At this point, he needed to shift more of the investigation toward the Graveborn family.

There were too many connections to ignore.

He also needed to bring Elder Benton up to speed.

That would probably mean admitting he’d been using Benton’s token without permission.

Victor wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.

For now, they needed to find Team Two and get some answers.

A couple of hours passed before Victor heard something in the distance.

Fighting.

He immediately picked up his pace.

"Come on."

Lyra and Zack followed.

The sounds grew louder as they moved through the cavern.

Metal struck something hard.

Someone shouted.

Then came a heavy impact that echoed through the tunnel.

Victor rounded the corner.

Six people were fighting farther ahead.

Their weapons and armor were completely different, but their movements made it obvious they were a team.

One archer moved along the edge of the battlefield, firing whenever an opening appeared.

A second stood farther back, choosing his shots more carefully.

A woman in lighter armor circled the fight like an assassin, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Behind them stood someone who appeared to be a healer.

Then there was another mercenary carrying two enormous shields.

Victor stared at him for a second.

He wasn’t even sure how that fighting style was supposed to work.

At the front of the group was what looked like their leader.

He was currently fighting a massive Ravanger Beast Soldier.

The creature was enormous, its hind legs thick with muscle. Every time it launched itself forward, the ground cracked beneath it.

The leader took the brunt of the attacks while the others struck from different angles.

Victor, Lyra, Zack, and Nala arrived just as the fight reached its end.

A moment later, the leader landed the final blow.

The massive beast crashed into the cavern floor.

Dust rolled outward.

For a few seconds, nobody moved.

Then one of the mercenaries noticed them.

The others followed.

Weapons lowered.

Heads turned.

Victor’s attention settled on the man standing at the front.

He had bright red hair.

Red eyes.

And a face that tugged at Victor’s memory almost immediately.

Victor studied him.

The shape of his eyes.

His nose.

Even the way his jaw narrowed.

He’d seen those features before.

On Alex Graveborn.

Victor’s gaze sharpened.

Another Graveborn.