Lock and Mia were furiously scrubbing the blood off of themselves with clean scraps of cloth, which they'd taken from the corpses. Partly because it was frankly just unhygienic, partly because the blood would cause Lock's metal gear to rust, and partly because they had time, the boss being only halfway through to reaching a point where it could even attempt to stand again.

“Lesson learnt, hopefully.” Lock huffed as he finished the job and threw aside the bloody rag.

“We'll have to do a more thorough cleaning after we leave and have access to water. Just in case the nobles can track us by blood, or something equally as tiresome.”

“Never heard of anything like that, but maybe the Inu's with their dogs would be able to sniff us out.” Mia said.

“Good point. I'll buy some lavender essence after we've washed the armour. It'll be smelling like the undergarments of an overly perfumed whore for the rest of the month, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.” Lock said.

Mia giggled.

“How are you in the mood for jokes right now?” Tia asked in a quiet voice, sitting slightly apart from them in the boss room.

“Death doesn't really phase me.” Lock answered. “And even if it did. If I hated what I'd just done. I'd still insist on cracking jokes. When a soldier can't smile anymore, when nothing can distract him from the 'atrocities' he's committing. That's when the war is over, because while it may be permissible to have pessimistic soldiers. Having soldiers who have become so dulled to what they are doing that they're not even trying to find the best in a bad situation is a dead end.”

“Were you a soldier once?” Mia asked curiously.

Lock remembered countless hours of playing multiplayer shooters, getting screamed at by Russians and twelve-year-olds, the crushing feeling of losing a promotion match. “Something like that.” He said in a grim voice.

“That's what I mean!” Tia shouted. “You just killed someone, I helped you, we killed someone, why are you acting like it's nothing special!”

Lock noted that the shout was more directed at Mia than him and scuttled away a bit so as to not draw aggro. Let the siblings squabble between themselves.

As the argument washed over him, he slowly began the countdown of when he'd be blissfully alone again. Quiet, silence, the sound of nothing. Finish this mission Lock. Just get it over with.

A general consensus seemed to have been reached by the time he decided to stand up and get this farce over with. They hadn't made up by any means, Tia sticking to her viewpoint that Mia should be feeling more affected by having taken a life and shouldn't have asked to take one in the first place. Mia claiming that killing was a necessary and that she may as well learn to deal with it instead of freezing up on a future mission. She even cited Lock as a great teacher in regards to murdering people and that she should try to milk his expertise. Lock didn't know if he should be insulted or flattered. Tia riposted by calling him a sociopath, and that if Mia emulated him she would also turn into someone who glorified murder.

They both eventually decided that it was unprofessional to act like this while on the job, and shelved the discussion for later.

“Alright, the boss is healing pretty well.” Lock said with a clap of his hands, observing as the golem started making stumbling attempts at getting up. “The potions you two are on will run out in about two hours, and I'm getting a murder itch that Light has volunteered to scratch for me. So let's giddy up and be on our way.” He finished, turning around and exiting the boss room, musing internally if it was his fault that the twins appeared to be drifting apart. After all, he'd taken Mia with him on a fairly impactful, on an emotional level, mission, while her sister was left behind to brood. He was slightly curious as to how their relationship would develop from this point on. Would the rift grow, or close?

Lock discarded the thoughts as the twins joined him in the reception room. He put up his hand and laid it on the dimensional knob, aiming to pull it out of the gate and therefore close the door. Couldn't have the boss flanking them as they sought out Light after all. He pulled. Nothing happened. He pulled again. Nothing. Then he remembered that since it was a magical artefact, it would maybe be prudent to use some mana when trying to disengage it from it's task. After inserting a bit of mana into the knob he pulled again. The door got slightly bigger. The knob didn't come off.

He turned to Mia who'd been watching him with bated breath, for some reason. He turned to Tia, only to be greeted by a carefully neutral face, although he could definitely see the contempt dancing within her eyes.

Well, if one of them knew how to operate this thing, the other probably would as well. He turned to the friendlier of the two, Mia. “Any idea how this comes off?” He asked.

She nodded, stepped forward, put her hand on the knob, and twisted it to the left until it plopped out. Revealing the fact that attached to the knob was a screw made out of purple glowing energy. She dropped the knob into his outstretched hand, gazing at him with an expectant face.

“Thanks.” Lock said, and Mia retreated backwards to stand beside her sister, continuing to look at him as he stashed the artefact away.

The door slowly closed and disappeared behind him, taking with it any chances of Lock being able to feast on the Experience that the boss offered. A slight pang of regret filled him, but he discarded it as he contemplated the situation that he would actually have to deal with.

“Light has probably realised that he is trapped by now, thus he's going to try and think of a plan that will let him escape this situation with his life. I'm not going to contemplate what this plan might be, and I don't really care. He's outnumbered, outmatched, and unlike me, the odds can definitely stand against him.” Lock said, walking towards the door that held 20 golems. “I'll be going first, you two follow behind me. We're going to be ignoring the golems and simply walk past them, they're not our goal.”

Lock stretched out his hand and opened the door. What greeted him was a scene of complete comedy. An armoured figure that he was easily capable of recognizing as Light was running around tiredly, more than a dozen earth golems following him around and taking swipes at him whenever he was cornered. Light always seemed to dodge some of the more dangerous attacks, the less threatening ones sliding and pinging off his armour, before breaking out of the enclosure. He started escaping again, got cornered, and the game began anew.

Lock stepped back and closed the door.

“Alright, new plan. We wait here.” He said, and leaned against the wall next to the door.

The twins, who had also been granted a glance into the room shared a confused look. A conversation appeared to have happened between the two of them, Mia eventually being singled out to speak up.

“I know why we're... letting him tire himself out with whatever he's doing and all. But,” She hesitated, “what exactly is he doing.”

“Trying to survive.” Lock answered quietly in a bemused voice, before explaining himself in a louder one. “The only explanation that I can come up with is that he's using the Vanguard skill Retaliate. What the skill does is that it lets its user store the energy with which he is attacked with, as long as he doesn't attack back, and eventually consume the energy to buff up his stats.”

“Shouldn't we be, you know, stopping him then, so he doesn't build up any more power?” Mia asked.

“Nothing is infinite.” Tia grumbled in response.

Lock nodded. “The skill only lets one store a certain amount of energy, and it can only be stored for a certain amount of time. We've just come off a half-hour long break. As long as he's been doing the play for at least ten minutes, he's already reached the maximum. The amount of energy stored remains the same, the only thing that changes is his stamina, since he needs to continue getting hit to keep up the maximum output of the skill.”

He suddenly had an epiphany, and furrowed his brows.

“Well, with us just opening the door and closing it again he knows that we know, and thus he's going to change his approach accordingly.” He mumbled as his thoughts ran off, sluggishly. His mind was starting to tire.

Jumping up he took up a defensive position against the door.

“Since it's unsustainable, there are only two options left for him. He either retreats, and comes up with a new plan, or he uses up the stored energy to take the fight to us.” He said clearly, but as he stood there, sword pointed at the door, and it became apparent that nobody was coming to rush through it, he felt a lick of embarrassment start to build up. Ruthlessly squashing he directed his next words at Mia.

“Mia, cast hidden mist. In the case that he decides to take the fight to us, it's better for him to not see anything and run around like a blind chicken until his stored energy runs out. There's not need to fight him head on when we know that he is working on a time limit.” He said, Mia replying before he was even finished with his order and explanation.

“On it.” Were her only words, before he hands started flying through hand-signs at a finger breaking speed, which ended in her hands held above her head and a thick mist starting to roll outwards from her body.

Not five seconds later the entire room was engulfed in white fog that ruined visibility for anything further than a few inches.

“If he comes rushing in, just take to the walls.” Lock cautioned, straining his ears trying to hear if the door was being opened, but alas, the fog also meant that his sense of hearing was being impaired.

Lock contemplated the usefulness of the hidden mist technique in an enclosed space where it was unable to be blown off anywhere. Interesting synergy, although it also ruined any chances of an ambush. Fog was not a natural occurrence within enclosed spaces.

They waited like that for what felt like several hours, but what were probably only a few minutes.

“I'm reaching 3⁄4 mana capacity.” Words came floating to his ear from somewhere in the fog. It was Mia's voice.

“The only chance of him still attacking us with the saved up energy is if he's only waiting for us to let down our guard. Mia, warn us once you reach half mana capacity, then cut off the technique. By then we'll know for sure that he's run further ahead and we can recuperate your mana before following.” Lock eventually ordered.

No answer was forthcoming.

“Mia, I can't see you nod through this fog.” He said.

“A-ah sorry, yes, half capacity.” Mia stuttered out.

They waited like this for another few minutes. No attack came, and Mia dispersed her mist.

“Alright, let's wait a bit for your mana to recover, and then we can give chase.” Lock said.

“Light, you might be the underdog now, but let me assure you, there will be no drawn-out dramatic fight where you can clinch a victory. This isn't fiction, I don't need to give you anything, except for a slow dismantling of your opportunities, followed by a swift execution.” Lock muttered to himself, looking forward to the feeling of vindictive accomplishment that he'd receive upon completing the mission.

They waited.