The puzzle only took me a few moments to solve, but I wished I'd taken longer, because the next room was pure chaos. We were supposed to have a combat room next, but instead we were greeted with a massive crowd of boys from Falling Shards. One had a larger boy at the front of it, while the other had two boys and a girl. It was clear by the crowd's movements that the ones in the front were leading whatever was going on. The muscular boy stepped forward, eliciting cheers.

"Listen up," he said. "Seth Kerres. Lucian. You two act like you run the place. You think you're all that. I bet you both think Gwen likes you the best."

The two boys turned to the girl beside them, who blushed.

"But seriously, Seth Kerres? I, Achilles, am going to truly defeat you this time." He knocked the boy's baseball cap off.

"I think that's Seth Kerres," Sai said as they elbowed Anastasia. "And Achilles!"

"Pfft," Anastasia looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh, which was a curious sight as I'd only seen her scowling since she unmasked.

"What is it? Do you know them?" I asked.

"No, Sai's just..." Anastasia couldn't hold her laughter any longer.

"I've never seen any of those guys before, ever, and I don't really care," Sai said.

"It's the way they said it that's..." Anastasia said. "They're gonna fight, we shouldn't be laughing."

The two's banter reminded me of the jokes Kalei, Oka, and Zeta would make that I didn't fully understand.

"Why not? Do you really care if they fight or not?" Sai asked.

"It might be a good cover," Charmaine said. "For what, I don't really know."

"If we had a way to sneak off, we probably could without being noticed," Esther said. "But then we'd miss Seth Kerres!"

"And heaven knows we can never miss anything Seth Kerres does," Charmaine said.

For some reason, this was really cracking Anastasia up. If it was like myself and my friends, sometimes the delivery of it was funnier than what was actually being said. Anastasia sounded remarkably like her sister when she laughed.

As if Esther had summoned a passageway herself, part of the wall opened behind us. I felt fire brewing in my mouth immediately as Syval was part of it, almost blinding me to the fact that others were there as well. My dear friends, even, as Zeta and Oka walked right into Anastasia, whose laughter was unplugged as her face contorted back into a scowl. Myles and Raytris were with them as well.

"Oops! Heh, sorry," Zeta said. "Howdy, Anastasia."

"Shut up," Anastasia said.

"Try that again," Oka said. "What did I say about talking to Zeta that way?"

Anastasia huffed.

"Oh phew, some familiar faces," Myles said. "I was trying to have a chat with Raytris, then we fell into some stupidity."

"Yeah, we did too," Anastasia said.

Reed's voice echoed around us. "It looks like there's a bit of a blockage in room 4-C, but maybe it wasn't a mix up, maybe I want to escalate this game and really test out the Tension Betrayal System, which in case you forgot would activate the Killing Game Bypass System. So if any of you fellas want to get to some murder, then we'll have some new sorts of fun!"

Achilles bumped his chest into Seth. "You hear that, Seth Kerres? Maybe I, Achilles, could a-kill-you."

"Ugh," Anastasia said. "God, that's just..."

"Real bad." Sai said.

"Listen, Achilles, you've always had an issue with me," Seth said, getting his baseball cap back on at some point. "But my bro, we could be pals someday, I think."

"Ha, but never best pals," Lucian added, a soft smile spreading across his face slowly. "I'm always your best friend, Seth Kerres."

"And I'm always your best girl friend, right?" Gwen said.

We hung back as this slowly unfolded.

"Why are we watching this, again?" Oka asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Zeta said. "I'm kinda miffed that Reed guy said fellas. He knows it's not just boys here, right?"

"It's like we're totally invisible," I said.

"I was just saying we should use it to our advantage," Esther said.

"There are enough of us now, I think," Anastasia said, nodding at Myles. "Everyone good with a circular blast?"

The other devils nodded. The devils stood side by side, and without another word, they let loose a burst of shadowy power, punching a hole in the wall.

While I cared greatly for my friends, I felt immediately envious of a team that could strategize well enough to utilize their powers in unison that way. The hole they cut through the wall was clean, too, leaving a circular doorway that made an entire new hallway.

Oka and Zeta looked at the crowd, where everyone was still fixated on the boys' circling each other.

"Seriously?" Zeta said.

"Really, it really is like we're invisible," Oka said.

"We're leaving," Anastasia announced, marching away.

"Can we come with?" Zeta asked. "Wait, no, I mean we are coming with! I'm sick of this stupid game."

"I figured you'd want to flee, coward," Anastasia said.

"Whatever, you're fleeing too," Zeta said.

"I'm bored of this, so I'm making a tactical retreat, very different," Anastasia said. "I was telling the rest of the room that they could be done with this if they really wanted!"

The boys didn't even notice, even as Anastasia raised her voice.

"You think Reed will try to stop us if we go?" Esther asked.

"He can try," Anastasia said.

"I did kinda want to see how we'd do in a combat room," Sai said. "And if Lillia can solve any other puzzles that fast."

"Huh?" I said, but the devils had already pressed on. Oka, Zeta, and I shrugged at each other before following.

It felt like walking through a cavern as we followed the path left by the devils' blast.

"It feels like the layout is way different here," Zeta said. "Like this doesn't feel like the way we came."

"I wouldn't be at all surprised if we ended up in the void," Oka said.

Anastasia tapped on her wristband, sending a scan around us. A voice came out from her band, saying, "Scan inconclusive."

"We might be, might not be," Anastasia said.

"Either way, I think it's good to get as far away from those guys as possible, honestly," Oka said. "That Lucian guy is probably gonna reveal his evil plan, or that he was behind all of it, then do a big speech explaining it all smugly."

"You know it's gonna be a big speech." I said.

"Why him?" Esther asked.

"He totally did it!" Oka said.

"He's behind all of it, we're pretty certain," I said.

"Do you have a clue? Like you know him or something?" Charmaine said.

"Just a feeling," Oka said.

"Wait..." Zeta looked around. "Dang, Syval slipped away again I think."

Oka and I sighed deeply. I tolerated Syval in the gamer group, but my estimation of him was dropping rapidly.

"It's not like he was telling us anything," Oka said.

"How'd you find him?" I asked. "He evaded me."

"He fell out of a vent," Oka explained. "Then he tried to trick us into thinking that we were the problem and wouldn't answer anything about Kalei in a really suspicious way. So we still don't know anything."

Anastasia turned back, a glint in her eye.

"I could tell you what's going on with Kalei," Anastasia said. "I won't, but I could."

"Well, hold on!" Zeta said. "Why do you know and not us?"

Ana's slight smile turned to a grin, and she turned back. "I just said I won't tell you."