Chapter 313 Escape [2]
The beasts around the girls fell dead on the ground while Leon landed before them. Putting his sword in its sheath he instantly pulled out two advanced healing potions from his inventory—that were provided to him by the system—without getting noticed and then turned to the girls.
"Here, drink this," he said, passing the potion bottles.
"You noticed very quickly, didn't you?" Ellyn commented as she let out an exhausted sigh.
"Sorry," Leon replied, an expression of remorse taking upon his face. How quickly this guy could change his mood and expressions was a wonder.
Both of them drank the potions, and within minutes their wounds were healed and the bleeding was stopped.
"Now, we should hurry," Leon said, and following his lead both of the girls ran toward the Harts. Within walking distance, they meet the teachers who were standing on guard and constantly engaged in a battle with the beasts.
Leon's natural impulse caused by his hero syndrome was to stop and help the teachers, but for the moment he decided against it. Perhaps even he knew that right now it would be reckless to act in such a way.
Shortly thereafter, the trio joined the rest of the students, swiftly making their way toward the Harts. Amidst a surge of urgency, they entered the building and were directed through a passage that descended into a basement beneath the structure.
None of them had expected that such a place existed, and they had pretty astonished reactions when they finally reached the said location.
The basement down the ground was big, and not just big, it was huge. The ceiling was about the height of a three-story building, and the area itself was quite spacious. It had the floor tiled with marble with various patterns carved on it, and the walls were decorated in a similar fashion as well.
However, there was not much furniture lying about. Aside from the student body and a small podium placed near the end of the walls, the basement was void of anything else.
Leon, Anya, and Ellyn along with the other students settled inside and once everyone was within, the gates were closed shut. From the looks of it, the gates weren't anything normal either.
The gates possessed an impressive thickness, equivalent to the width of five individuals standing shoulder to shoulder.
Their construction boasted a layered composition, incorporating a blend of materials including iron, magic bricks, concrete, marble, sand, and steel. Upon closure, a magical sigil materialized on the inner surface of the gate, followed by another in a distinctive triangular configuration, suggesting the presence of powerful enchantments imbued within.
The magic circles had complex runes in them, so it was no mistake to say that they were created by a mage who advanced in magic.
Half of the teachers came inside with the students, while the rest stayed outside guarding the doors.
Inside chaos was breaking among the students as a good number of them were panicking. Some were injured, some were missing limbs, some were dead, and some had their friends dead. It was natural for them to panic in such a situation.
Although the majority was still of groups who were calm and composed despite being put in a tight situation—just like the academy had taught them to be. In the midst of all that was Anya. From the moment she entered the basement and all the time she took to come here, she was constantly looking for Zero.
However, things didn't seem good as her eyes weren't able to catch sight of him. Once inside the basement, she separated from Leon and Ellyn and went off on her own to search for him. She ran through the number of students, making way for herself in the crowd. Yet she was not able to find him.
Then a terrifying thought—which she had been trying to ignore all this time—occurred in her mind.
What if Zero wasn't able to come inside the basement? What if he was cornered by those monsters and couldn't get the opportunity to come here? What if he was ki—no, that was not possible.
Even in the worst of situations, she knew he wasn't as weak as to die from this—though that didn't reduce her worries. She looked at the gates of the basement; they were closed. Now he won't be able to come here if he was somehow left outside.
Her heartbeat was increasing with each passing second. Her face was covered in sweat and she was breathing rapidly. Her body was in constant motion, going from one spot to another as her eyes tried to look everywhere in hopes of finding him.
But no matter how much she tried, no matter how desperate she was, she soon met a dead end.
As she stood there, a surge of heightened awareness coursed through her veins, causing her heartbeat to quicken and reverberate throughout her entire being. The weight in her chest felt oppressive, like a massive boulder burdening her, making each breath an arduous task. Uncertainty gripped her, leaving her momentarily at a loss.
She didn't know what to do....except that she did.
There was but one way to save Zero if he was still somewhere out there, and it was to go outside herself and look for him. She quickly stole a look at the doors. They were rigid, and breaking through them was impossible. Though it was not as if they couldn't be unlocked.
The complex magic circles that were carved on the gates seemed like the most overwhelming part of it all, but the reality was different. They were made for security purposes so that nothing can break the doors from outside and come in, therefore opening them from the other side was almost impossible.
But they were designed to be opened instantly from the inside in case some misfortune happened and the people in the basement had to leave outside.
Spending time unlocking the doors could easily result in many causalities, that's why most of these doors were unlocked just by putting your hand at the center of the magic circle and passing mana through it.
This was common knowledge in the world. Naturally, Anya was aware of this too.
After looking for Zero in the basement for a bit more when she had finally made sure that he wasn't there, she decided to go outside and search for him.