The hall was finally silent as the group had gone deeper into the castle. However, Parlo's body was nowhere to be seen.
"Tch, I...did not expect that" Parlo said, leaning against the wall on the mezzanine floor, hiding at the far corner. Apart from heavily breathing, he was completely fine.
"Thankfully, that was one of my special mannequins, similar to Anthony" Parlo said with a slight smirk. "Nobody can know the difference between me and my special mannequins as they are exactly the same as normal humans."
Parlo then started to slowly move towards the giant door. "Anyway, I need to get out of here."
But before he could open it by himself, the door suddenly opened without him doing anything.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Barrett had opened the door effortlessly and everyone in Group A was following him closely. Including Alex and Elvis.
"Alex, so Petro betrayed us and you awakened?" Luke asked, raising his eyebrow. "I don't think I can believe that."
"You don't have to believe me" Alex firmly replied.
Before their conversation could continue further, Cilia noticed a person standing in front of them.
"Fuck...I don't know who these people are but I need to act" Parlo thought.
"Who is that?" Cilia said, pointing to Parlo.
Parlo immediately started shouting, his face full of 'despair'. "HELP! THAT RAVEN GUY IS GOING TO KILL ME, H-HE ALMOST KILLED ME, PLEASE KILL HIM!"
Parlo then started to run towards the door, acting like a normal civilian.
But before he completely disappeared from their eyes, Alex stopped him.
"Wait...who are you and why are you in this castle? You said that he almost killed you but that doesn't add up since you are completely fine" Alex said, grabbing his collar from behind, his eyebrow raised.
"Uhm...I am just a normal civilian from a far away land and he captured me! H-He tortured me! He was about to kill me with a knife but I ran away!" Parlo said, fake tears running down his face.
Alex sharpened his eyes and didn't say anything, he simply looked at him, not fully believing him.
"Hm...this is quite perfect actually" Alex said with a smirk. "How about you help us find him?"
"W-What...but-" Parlo was interrupted by Alex, who put his finger on his mouth. "SShhhh, if you want to make it out alive, you have to do what I say."
Parlo looked at him with a serious gaze, his act completely gone and in the very next moment, Parlo gave a wide evil grin and pushed Alex, freeing himself from him.
"Mannequins! Attack!" Parlo screamed, going down the stairs extremely fast.
Before anyone could go after him, three mannequins instantly appeared in front of them, dropping down from the sky. They looked exactly like humans and one of them was Anthony. This was most likely Parlo's special mannequins.
"Anthony...? why are you...?" Alex said, his face turning pale and his mouth wide open from surprise and shock.
Anthony didn't respond, he simply attacked Alex with a kick that was aimed right at his head.
"Anthony...what's gotten into you?!" Alex screamed but Anthony didn't even look at him, instead he responded with yet another attack.
However, before the mannequin could attack Alex once again, Barrett stepped in front of him and launched a devastating slash, completely destroying the mannequin. "Alex, I am sorry but this isn't the Anthony you know."
"What did you do?!! He could- He could have been saved!" Alex said while yelling at Barrett.
"Alex, weren't you the one who taught me that in battles everything could happen and that you must be prepared to even kill your own comrades?" Barrett said, sheathing his sword.
Alex clenched his teeth and his face turned serious. "You...are right, this is no time to be in grief."
While Anthony was quickly defeated, it wasn't the same for the two other mannequins. One of them had attacked Ronx, who had blocked the attack with his two arms. However, in the very next moment, something unexpected happened.
Ronx created a sphere of blood and shot a straight line of blood towards the mannequin. The mannequin dodged but suddenly as the straight went behind it, the line curved and pierced the mannequin from behind.
Then, it curved again and pierced the mannequin's head, killing it right there. "What...It can curve? And I didn't even do that...?" Ronx thought.
Alex looked at Ronx with a surprised face, though, suddenly, his face turned into a slight smile, though it was still filled with sadness for Anthony, it had a slight glimmer that showed he was impressed by Ronx. "So he awakened too. Fuck, this day couldn't get any worse...but why am I smiling, Awakening isn't a good thing" Alex thought.
While all of this was happening, Ken was sitting in a corner, trembling and unable to open his eyes. "Please! Please! Come on! The blessing! Why isn't it working?! Am I not scared?!" Ken thought.
Suddenly, the last remaining mannequin attacked Ken, who still hadn't realized that he was being attacked since he had closed his eyes and covered his ears with his hands.
The mannequin was only a few inches away from Ken but before it could reach him, Luke appeared out of nowhere and touched the mannequin's stomach, causing the mannequin to explode.
Ken suddenly opened his eyes as he noticed the explosion and saw a small glimpse of the mannequin getting exploded and Luke saving him. "Thank you...sir."
"Don't mention it, we are team members aren't we?" Luke said with a smile.
Cilia meanwhile was calmly watching the entire fight as no mannequin had attacked her. "I guess with that all of the mannequins are dead. Time to enter the castle!"