In stark contrast to the front side of the castle, the Sulfury side led by Aaron and Maxwell were pretty evenly matched with the backside guards. Although the commotion caused by Auros' and Jorgen's rampage on the front side of the castle allowed for an easier surprise storming, the soldiers that opposed to Sulfury Unit were all too quick to stand their ground and recuperate.

"Hold the line! Keep applying pressure!" Maxwell ordered.

"Don't let up! We'll be here to guide you the whole way through!" Aaron added.

Of course, that last part was completely made up, as the actual plan was to have Aaron and Max split up from the Sulfury Unit and sneak into the castle to blow it all sky high. If you had asked one of them now why they were shouting this, they reply with a chuckle and simply explain that this was all part of their mind games against the enemy team. Truly, the pranksters of all time, they are.

"Psst, Aaron." Max nudged him as the Sulfury Unit pushed further in, "See that suspicious looking hole over there?"

"I certainly do, Max." Aaron caught on quick, "Why, that place certainly looks like a fine secret entrance into the heart of the castle. One shutters to even imagine what kind of tomfoolery one could achieve if he jumps inside."

"Shall we?"

"Indubitably so."

Thus, still yelling orders to not let up with all their might, the two Generals carefully make their way away from their troops and into the hole in the wall. Scoping out the scene before dropping down, they were surprised to find... not much, actually.

"What? This is it?" Aaron kicked the dirt ground, "No secret entrance, no convenient explosives of any kind?"

"Shit, now we're gonna have to come back to our troops empty handed." Max realized, "That's gonna be so embarrassing..."

"Wait, you're right! We absolutely can't let that happen!" Aaron gasped as he started anxiously checking the walls, "Come on, there's gotta be a secret lever or something that reveals a trapdoor of some kind...!"

"I don't think-" Max sighed, only for the ground beneath him to give away, "...Eh?"

"Hey, what was that?" Aaron turned around after pulling the first lever he saw, "Whoa, no way that actually worked... Hold on, Max, I'm coming down there as well!"

Dropping down the trapdoor without previously inspecting where it leads to is extremely dangerous, not to mention stupid, but Aaron was in a state of panic after seeing his dear friend fall down so suddenly. Thankfully, they got off easy, as the trapdoor wasn't as much of a drop as it was a huge, elaborate slide. For them, this had actually turned into quite a fun experience.

"Wa~hhh! Unf!" Aaron broke his fall with something, "Holy crap, it's still dark as hell in here. Where are we?"

"Oi, get off me!" Max shot back, "You'll break my spine!"

"Did you step on a line or something?"

"Huh? Quit it with the suggestive jokes, I already told you I'm not interested!"

"Aww... Well, whatever." Aaron jumped to his feet, "Let's get a move on then."

Turning on the flashlight they had kept on their person, the two could finally see some semblance of the room they were presently in. It was oddly colorful, invoking a strange sense of eeriness to it. What resembled a child's playroom when properly lit up now felt like a cursed chamber inside of which a demonic being could pop up from any corner of the room. And pop up it did.

"Graawr!" The tiny gremlin roared.

"Shit!" Aaron prefired, barely missing the tiny thing by a hair's breadth thanks to all the darkness engulfing the room.

"Aaron stop! It's a kid, chill!" Max took the gun from him as he shone the flashlight onto the now crying child.

"Uu... Ubu... A-Ah..." The tiny girl sobbed on the ground.

Looking at her more closely, she resembled the princess Vivia to a T. It was most probable that the child was in some way related to her. Maybe she was a sister or cousin or something. Still, none of that mattered now. The only thing they cared about was if she was alright or not.

"Kid, don't jump out at people like that! I almost blew your head clean off!" Aaron tried reprimanding her, not realizing he was only terrorizing her more with these scary sounding words.

"Waah~! I-I'm sorryyyy~!" She wailed and wailed.

"Hey hey, sorry about that guy." Maxwell squatted down to her level, donning a bright smile, "Here, have some chocolate I had tucked away."

"What? But you said you ate all the chocolate when I asked you for some an hour ago!" Aaron protested.

"I didn't have any for you." Max stuck his tongue out as the little girl nibbled away at the chocolate.

"Tasty..." She finally calmed down.

"Glad to hear it! Now, could you please tell me who you are and what you're doing here?"

"T-The castle is under attack..." She quietly muttered, "This used to be big sister's playroom, and she hid me here to keep me safe."

"Your big sister? Is her name Vivia, perhaps?" Max asked, still trying to act friendly and approachable.

Surprised that he knew of the princess' name, the young girl quickly turned all smiles as she replied, "Yeah! Are you here to help us?"

"Hm? O-Oh, yeah! We came to rescue you." Maxwell's smile turned forced for a second, "So, could you tell us where your big sister is? Could it be that she's here with you right now?"

"No. That'd be way too dangerous." The little girl smiled as she pressed some kind of button she had hidden away.

"Huh? Whoa-!" Aaron and Max suddenly felt the entire room start to turn, "Dammit, is everyone in this family evil?!"

***

"Fuck, grab onto something, the room is turning!" Aaron warned Max.

"Hey! Where'd the kid go?!"

Looking around, it seems the little girl had used the panic of the situation to her advantage to escape to a safe room just outside the tilting one. Looking through the glass with a devilish grin, the lights inside the room finally turned on. One after another, the corners of the room had lit up, showing all the dangerous looking saws and other similarly sharp weapons poking out.

"Shit! That damned girl put saws in the walls! Oh wait, now they're the ceiling. Or no, now they're the ground... Yikes, the ground! Aaron, jump!"

Just barely dodging the saws, another round was soon approaching. This time, the jump was wider, but you didn't have to jump as high as the previous time. They were hanging on for now, but just how long will their stamina let them go on for? This is the kind of sick torture methods the Royal Family resorts to.

"That damned gremlin's smirking and cackling behind the glass is annoying me!" Aaron shouted as he whipped out his gun, "I should've shot her when I had the chance, dammit!"

"Aaron, don't!" Max's shouting made Aaron's shot miss, hitting the wall next to the glass window, "If you kill her now, we'll just be stuck in here indefinitely! We need to find another way."

"Tch, I hate it when you're right..." Aaron rolled his Eyes, "But how do we go about making it out of here, then?"

"Hmm... I think I have an idea, just follow my lead!"

Thus, the young girl cackling behind the window had suddenly noticed something about her toys that struck her as odd. They weren't desperately struggling to get out, they weren't begging for their lives either. No, instead they were... frolicking about in the death chamber?

"Haha! This is actually kinda fun!" Max did a flashy flip over the saws.

"Y-Yeah! Totally!" Aaron followed suit, if a bit nervous at first, "Alright, let's say a flourish is worth 5 points, and a flip is worth 10! First to 100!"

"H-Huh?!" The little girl put her face up to the window, "What the hell are they doing in there? Are they having fun?"

"Wahaha! Double backflip, now that's GOTTA account for something!" Aaron smirked.

"Not bad, I'll give you 15 points for that!" Max replied.

"Only fifteen!? Dude, I literally did a double of 10, so that's 20 points at least!"

Bickering with a lighthearted tone to them, the two bros just chuckled as they kept downplaying the young girl's death trap. Biting her dress in envy, the young girl couldn't stand seeing her plans foiled, so she quickly stopped the tilting room from turning even a single rotation more.

"Whoah!?" Aaron didn't account for the sudden change in momentum, resulting in him faceplanting on the ground (wall?), "Damned brat, I was THIS close to a hundred..."

"What are you two doing!?" The girl finally opened the door separating her from the death trap room, "What kind of game is that!?"

"A very fun game! Wanna join us?" Max teased.

"How are you not scared of getting sliced up? That's super dangerous!" She suddenly thought to worry for their safety.

"Oh please, we've done plenty of dangerous things in our lives. This is nothing to us." Aaron puffed out his chest.

"Is that so?" She hovered her finger right above the button she used to start the system back up, "Then by all means, don't let me hold you back~!"

"Wait-!"

*shwoop*

Looking down, the little girl was horrified to see an arrow pass straight through her hand, simultaneously breaking both the button and hurting her all at once. Falling down from the hanging door in the wall, she appeared to have gone unconscious from the shock. Though the question still remained: who shot the arrow? The room was pretty dark, but even then, Aaron and Max could faintly make out the shadowy silhouette of a cloaked archer putting the bow back around themselves and stealthily leaving through the trapdoor they had come from.

"Now THAT was sick." Aaron noted.

"Yeah, definitely a hundred points." Max added, "Now come on, help me tie this little gremlin up before she wakes up and pulls another death trap out of her skirt or something."

"Think she'd actually do that?"

"I certainly don't want to stick around and find out." Max said as he tightened the rope around her, "Come on now, let's take her outside with us."

"Aww, whaaaat~? You're saying you'll just let her roam free after all the crap she pulled on us?" Aaron asked.

"Didn't you hear what she said? Vivia is her older sister, meaning we could easily use her as a hostage if there is a need for one." Max reasoned.

"Ohhh, I get it! Man, I love it when you're right!" Aaron praised.

"That's not what you said earlier..." Max sighed, "Hey, how many points did you say you had? Let's make a deal: The person with the least points has to carry her."

"No fair, you had a headstart! I want no part in this deal!"

Bickering as they usually do after a job well done, the two couldn't help but wonder who was the highly capable and brave lone archer that had just saved their lives. Still, they weren't ones to waste the chance they had been given, so instead of dawdling on it, they simply saluted before dragging the tied up little girl outside.

It is said that the Generals had strengthened their bond immensely in this mission, and whilst they hadn't accomplished the goal they had originally set out to accomplish, it was still an incredible feat to take the princess' little sister as a live hostage. They didn't yet know this, but this action had actually helped out the war effort way more than any explosions could ever hope for.