7. The Break-In


Zael had to find a way to sneak in. Arganan could easily just waltz right in, given that he was dead and no one but Zael could see him. However, Zael was not a dead ghost who was invisible to everyone but one person, so he had to find a way to sneak in.

Going into the castle through the front doors was not a good idea, for obvious reasons.

"Are there any Gurak that are in the castle?" Zael asked, looking towards Arganan. The Outsider's wielder had an idea: To sneak in through one of the windows. He climbed onto the roof of a building close to the castle, checking the castle walls for any guards. There were one or two keeping a lookout, but Zael already bought sleeping arrows earlier.

"There are probably more on the inside than out." Arganan noted. "There's enough guards patrolling the city as is, so that's likely why the castle has a scarce amount of guards directly around the castle. Going in is another story."

"My question is," Zael managed, looking towards him from where he crouched on the roof, just out of eyeshot of the guards, "Do we have enough sleep arrows?"

"How many did you buy?"

"…Probably about fifty." Zael tried to count. He'd need two, minimum, to shoot the guards. He'd been lucky to steal a crossbow off an unsuspecting guard patrolling the city, while the Gurak wasn't looking. He didn't know how many guards were inside the castle, but probably more than fifty, in Zael's opinion. "I'm guessing sneaking our way through the castle is our best bet."

"Probably is." Arganan quipped. "Are you ready?"

Zael wasn't sure if he was. And honestly, it was risky running into the castle like this.

However…time was of the essence. The sooner they retook Lazulis, or at least the castle, the better.

With that in mind, Zael took out two sleep arrows, loaded his crossbow, and fired.

The two guards were out in the blink of an eye. Zael took a deep breath, took a few steps back, and then ran, jumping to get some momentum. His hands grasped the cold, stone edge of the roofing. With a grunt, he hoisted himself onto the rooftop of Lazulis Castle. There were no other guards too close to him on the rooftop, but Zael knew he had to be careful. He ducked down low enough so that no one could see him in the sightlines, before reluctantly scavenging what he could find on the guards that he could easily take with him; the hooded coats of their uniforms and gloves, to disguise himself with as best as he could. It wasn't the best, but it would do for getting further into the castle. He put on the clothes ontop of the ones on his person, as best as he could.

And just in time, too, because two Gurak soldiers made their way onto the rooftops, just in time to see the unconscious Gurak and Zael standing above them.

"What the - !?" One of the Gurak soldiers was confused by Zael's appearance, and Zael was just glad that they couldn't see his face through the hood too easily. "What's going on!?"

"They're completely unconscious!" Zael decided, right on the spur of the moment, to pretend. Pretend to be one of them, and maybe… "I saw a blasted human shoot them down, from the rooftops!"

"What!?" One of the Gurak soldiers ran to the edge of the landing, trying to see, while the other one eyed him suspiciously, speaking up.

"And what are you doing here?"

"Er…" Zael swallowed sheepishly. "I just got up here for duty, sir…?"

He could tell that the other Gurak soldier was not convinced, drawing his sword. Zael took out his own, dodging the other's slash at him before getting close enough to twist the sword in his hand, forcing the soldier to let go of it with a pained cry. Zael then hit the Gurak on the head with the hilt of his sword, hard enough to make him go unconscious.

"What the!?" The Gurak that peered over the landing turned to face Zael, but Zael quickly shot him with a sleeping arrow. The soldier immediately went unconscious, slumping down on the ground.

"Is that all?" Zael breathed, looking around.

Arganan nodded, stepping over the Gurak soldiers. "That's all of them in this area of the roof. Let's get inside, quickly."

Zael found a door to get straight into a hallway. There were paths to his left, right, and down the center. "Are there stairs closeby, from here, to get down?"

"Go straight ahead." Arganan managed. "I'll lead, since no one else can see me."

"Good."


Both men started making their way down the hall, with Arganan being a few paces ahead.

"Which part of the castle are we headed for, if we want to take it over?" Zael asked.

Arganan looked back towards him. "The Turret Control Room. It's where the controls of the Lazulis Cannon are. I don't know if I can activate the Outsider with me being dead, but you're alive. Perhaps it can respond to you."

"Wait," Zael's brows furrowed, "You have no idea if it will even respond to me?"

"I know it can." Arganan corrected himself, nodding once. "It has to. You have its power, so…why wouldn't it?"

The sound of scuffling up ahead made both men turn, just in time to see a few Gurak soldiers. Zael quickly took them out when a few slashes and hits with his sword, downing them, before he and Arganan continued their way through the hall. They made it to a staircase leading down, and after Arganan went ahead to check for any more upcoming guards, Zael followed him.

The stairway was a little dark, even though the walls were lit by torches, but they soon found another door at the end. Upon opening it, it revealed another set of halls.

Zael sighed. How long would this path take to get to the Turret Control Room, anyway? "How far is the Military Wing from here? That's where the Turret Control Room is, right?"

"Yes. And it's at the other side of the castle, unfortunately. We have to go through the main courtyard to get there." An audible groan left Arganan at that, as they continued making their way through the halls. "But first, we need to get into the library. There should be a hidden door somewhere."

"You have hidden doors?"

Arganan glared at him. "It's a castle. Why wouldn't it have hidden doors to get through?"

"Are there any that connect straight to the courtyard, at least, from here?"

"Sadly, no. There should be one connected to the library from here, though. We can sneak to the courtyard downstairs from there."

"Okay." Zael took a deep breath, looking around. One of his hands felt across the walls as he did so, hoping to touch something that might open the hidden door.

He felt a switch of some sort, and he pressed it. A doorway opened beside it, and he heard Arganan hum lightly. "That's the one. Let's go."


Zael made his way into the library. There were a few Gurak beings in there, browsing through the books, but Zael snuck past them fast enough before they could notice. He couldn't help but envy Arganan, who could leisurely take his time just walking through the library at a normal pace, since no one could see him but Zael himself. The benefits of being dead, Zael supposed.

As the two snuck into the main hallway, Zael used a few more sleeping arrows to take out more Gurak soldiers, moving quickly afterwards. He also stole a few arrows off an archer he accidentally hit, in the chaos of it all.

By the time they made it to the courtyard, however, Zael realized two things:

1. There were at least ten Gurak in the area.

2. None of them noticed Zael yet, but they were too close to the Turret Control Room to just approach them and take them all out in one fell swoop alone.

The reason for this was due to two of them clearly being archers, another two being magic users, and then the rest were more heavily-armored Gurak, given the thicker armor and larger swords on their persons.

Zael frowned, hiding behind a pillar. "How are we supposed to get past them? They'll notice me if I start firing." He whispered to Arganan.

The older man frowned, looking towards the Gurak, then Zael. "Do you think I can distract them?"

"They can't hear you." Zael reminded him. "Nor can they see you."

"Maybe not. But…" Arganan's eye flickered towards some bushes close to the doors. "Let me borrow some of those sleep arrows and your crossbow. I could get close enough to shoot them from there point blank, and then you can charge in and take out the rest."

"You can use a crossbow?" Zael raised a brow. He didn't recall the former Count of Lazulis ever using ranged weapons, as far as he could remember.

"I used to be more capable of fighting, before I gained my prosthetics." The older man reminded him. "And I'm capable of using a crossbow."

Zael wasn't sure if he had any better ideas, and he didn't know how good Arganan was with a crossbow, but…at least he could be a distraction, even if he didn't take out any Gurak with what he had planned. "Okay. Just…be careful."

Arganan took about seven sleep arrows and took Zael's crossbow, carefully moving around he outer perimeter of the courtyard. Zael wondered if the Gurak would just see a floating crossbow and arrows moving around on their own, but Arganan, too, stayed somewhat stealthy. He hid behind pillars on the way to the bushes, before crouching down behind the bushes by the door. Zael noticed him load the crossbow, aim…

And fire.

Two Gurak mages were out like a light, but the two archers quickly shot right back at Arganan. Zael winced as the two arrows easily tore through Arganan, but it did nothing to stop Arganan from firing three more arrows, given his already-deceased state. One of them hit one of the more heavily-armored ones in the neck, sending them down, and then another hit one of the archers. However, the third one missed, and the other heavily-armored Gurak soldier started approaching the bushes.

Zael took the opportunity to run at the Gurak, yelling. "Hey! Over here!"

The still-awake archer fired at him, but Zael dodged, hiding behind a pillar. He heard footsteps come closer, and he readied his sword. Just as he saw them about to round the corner, he struck at them, quickly disarming them before slashing in a low sweep, trying to make them lose their balance. Itw as one of the heavily armored Gurak that got caught up in the attack, but because Zael caught him off by surprise, it made the soldier hit the ground.

Zael dodged another arrow aimed at him, before using his sword to instinctively block an offensive spell from a mage. He grimaced as he felt the harsh energy course through his body, but he pressed forwards, running at the mage and striking them down with a few hits, before dodging another arrow from the archer. He then was about to strike the archer –

Just as the archer suddenly went still, and fell over, unconscious. As it did so, Zael noticed that Arganan had just fired his last sleep arrow, taking a deep breath as he lowered the crossbow.

"Behind you!" Arganan called, and Zael turned, blocking one of the heavily-armored soldiers. There were only so many Gurak down, and more to go. Zael knew, in the back of his mind, that he'd be fighting even more of them in the near future, no matter where he was. At least, until Zangurak was defeated.


It took a matter of minutes to finish off the rest of the Gurak. Arganan did his best to heal any wounds Zael sustained, and the two snuck into the Military Wing.

"Lock the door behind you," Arganan breathed, and Zael did so, after making sure the doors behind him were firmly closed before locking them. Even if the Gurak were aware that someone broke into the castle, hopefully this would deter them from searching the Military wing if it hadn't been seemingly opened. After further thought. Zael looked for something to further bar the door; a piece of thick wood or something sturdy through the door handles would suffice, right? He did find some rubble on the ground nearby, and he picked up an old, rusted sword, before shoving through the door handles. It wasn't the best, but it would do.

Zael took a deep breath as he looked around the space ahead of him. The Military wing was surprisingly…well, it was huge, but it was also a wreck. Old armor and rubble lined the floors, and they looked like they hadn't been moved in forever. The only light coming into the castle was through a few side windows, rusted with age.

"I'm surprised they haven't bothered utilizing this space in a hundred years." Arganan muttered, and Zael turned to face him, seeing him shake his head. "Why keep it so heavily guarded on the outside, and yet do nothing to renovate the inside?"

Before Zael could answer, a voice spoke, disembodied as it echoed through the halls.

"Master Zael? Can you hear me?"