World of Karik: A Game of Villains 81 The Forbidden City

"We must protect each other during the campaign," I announced and grimaced as I sounded really snobbish. "There can be no secrets between us if we want to come back alive."

"Why wouldn't we?" Egor asked. "Even if we die, we will respawn next to our tombstones, won't we?"
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The panic in his voice was obvious. Vlada decided to add fuel to the fire.

"That doesn't guarantee our safety," she said and stared at me clearly alluding to her story and Ruslan, who had met his final death.

"What are we waiting for?!" Egor exclaimed, fear gone from his voice.

"Follow me," I ordered, and we headed toward the Forbidden City.

It was located relatively close. Judging by hearsay and a rough map, sketched with a pencil stub, it was some five or six hours of walking away from our base. However, as we had no idea who or what we could encounter on our way there, we had to be very careful.

"Why did you choose me?" Vlada asked quietly, having caught up with me. "Because I have already been there?"

"That's one of the reasons," I nodded. "Even if you haven't, I still would have still chosen you."

She looked at me with suspicion, tidying her hair on the go. Oh, those feminine wiles!

"You are a good fighter," I cleared up.

"Sure," she sounded a bit disappointed.

"Wow, what's that?!" Egor, who was far ahead of us, suddenly exclaimed.

Everyone immediately summoned their weapons, expecting an attack. However, what we encountered was the same piece of highway that the girls and I had already found.

"I've seen that before," said Anton, a forty-five-year-old man with a belly and a mustache. "Even wider, perhaps."

"Where have you seen that?" I got interested.

"There," the man waved somewhere south of us. "We were hunting with Matvey then. Do you remember, Igor?"

"I do," he confirmed. "Matvey was delighted. Poor man, he thought we were back in our world."

"Yeah," Anton nodded gloomily.

"What happened to him?" I didn't know that Igor's detachment had at least one more person.

"He left," Stepan responded. "He got mad after that episode. He must've been missing his home. He told us that he had met someone who promised to help him return to the real world. One day we got up in the morning and he was already gone. He took his tombstone with him."

I wondered who could have made a grown man in something like that. Jones had been living here since the eighties, but even he didn't know how to get back to our world, except the well-known exit. Lost in thought, I anxiously realized how many dangers might be waiting for us that I couldn't even imagine.

"Let's move on," Semyon said irritably. "There's nothing interesting here."

"Actually, Cat is the commander!" Egor butted in.

"Semyon's right," I decided not to make a controversy out of nothing. Besides, the cop was a part of the detachment, despite my attitude toward him. Lastly, there really was nothing interesting about the piece of the old road. "There is no reason for us to stay here."

After a while, we got lost in fir woods and almost lost our way, but Vlada saved us. She either still remembered the way or the Mark of the Abyss was leading her toward the Forbidden City. Save for a couple of Wolves, Giant Slugs, Skeletons and a Kappa that had obviously had wandered here from a local swamp, we encountered nothing that could've considerably hindered our progress. An old, mangy Wolf gave us a bit of a tough time though. It was weak, but it had about 6,000 HP, so the fight with him took a bit longer than expected.

Once we were about to take a breather, Vlada groaned all of a sudden and collapsed onto the ground, curling up in pain.

"What's wrong with her?" Stepan asked in fear when Lena knelt down next to Vlada and began to tenderly stroke her cheek.

"Keep your eyes open!" Semyon shouted. "Someone's here!"

Everybody summoned their weapons and looked around. Only I apparently knew why Vlada was feeling the way she was. Igor, too, was as pale as a sheet and was clearly trying to cope with immense pain. The Forbidden City was torturing them, there was no doubt about it. Seems we've had already come too close. I was afraid that something even worse would happen as soon as we approach it.

"I'm alright," Vlada said, her voice weak. "It's almost that time of the month."

"Ugh!" The cop spat furiously, putting away his dagger.

The others sighed in relief, especially Igor who looked rather satisfied. Some color returned to his cheeks and he was no longer grimacing in pain.

"All right, the break's over!" I shouted.

"Cat," Semyon quietly called me after we had walked a couple hundred steps. "Did you notice something?"

"What was I supposed to notice?" I decided to play dumb.

"Igor," Semyon whispered. "Did you see how bad he looked? Addicts suffering from withdrawal look like that. They try to hide it from their relatives, of course. If their brains haven't dissolved from heroin yet that is."

"I noticed," I admitted. "What do you think?"

"Nothing yet," Semyon said intently. "But I really don't like it."

"Doesn't Vlada worry you too?" I asked. Why did he pay attention only to Igor? Just because he was trying to hide his pain?

"She does," the cop nodded. "But she's a woman. Maybe it really was just that time of the month or something."

"Look!" Egor interrupted our conversation. He managed to get ahead of us again.

Behind the fir trees was a wide stone platform covered with moss and lichen, crumbled columns, broken pedestals, and ruined buildings with empty windows.

"Welcome to the Forbidden City," Cyril said, speaking for the first time during our journey.

Chapter end