With Archibald giving directions, Hamon led the way forward, creating a walkway out of ice, allowing the trio to avoid the woes that awaited them should they walk on the icy ground below.
Anika walked beside Archibald, stealing subtle glances in his direction while holding some thoughts close to her chest.
Soon, they arrived at an intersection, one of quite a few they had come across since their sojourn into the fortress and just as before, Archibald pointed out a direction for them to follow.
Hamon didn’t hesitate to chart the course with ice while Anika spoke, deciding to ask a question that was bothering her, a question she felt Hamon would have asked if he were not a majestic white wolf.
"You seem to know this fortress like the back of your hand, boss. Have you been here before?"
Her voice echoed in the otherwise empty hallways, if one ignored the ice statues standing around.
Jolting from the awe he felt, Archibald glanced at her before ultimately replying while shaking his head. "Never, in truth, this is my first time, same as yours."
"But how come?... Aren’t you a true werewolf?... It should be easy for you to come and go as you please."
"True werewolf?" Archibald chuckled. "Quite the contrary, actually. I would be what the werewolves referred to as an impurity."
"Indeed. The difference between you and I is that you achieved your state through mystical means while I achieved mine by being born."
"What do you mean?" Anika asked, realizing that this was an opportunity to learn more about the mysterious man that had approached Hamon and herself with an offer they couldn’t refuse, a chance at a better life.
Taking a deep breath, Archibald spoke, his calm voice bouncing against the crystalline ceiling. "I was born at a time when unions between Cryptids and humans were frowned upon. My mother, bless her heart, fell in love with a human and chose to abandon everything for him. A foolish decision if I do say so myself."
A pause and then... "They came for her." Archibald muttered.
"The Paragons. They would have taken me away as well if not that they saw me as a waste. I didn’t have the alpha status they were searching for, so they abandoned me... and then my father abandoned me as well."
Silence filled with melancholy settled on the party with Hamon arriving at yet another intersection.
Archibald gave directions and the wolf continued with its assignment.
"Is that why you are doing this?... You wish to use the treasures of the wolves to get back at the Paragons?" Anika asked, rather naively.
Of course, Archibald couldn’t blame her.
To those that are unaffected by the course, the Paragons are just another coven in Judah Dynasty.
Only those like him understood that they were much more, that they held enough power to rival Judah.
If not for their existence, Salem would not be so careful with their desire to conquer Emet.
They were the single most deadly force in all of Judah and without them, it was safe to say that Judah was almost nothing.
"No amount of treasure can help me fight the Paragons, Anika." Archibald replied before adding. "And even if it did, I do not care for it."
"You wouldn’t understand." Archibald replied.
Silence followed once again and this time, for an extended period.
By now, the trio had already spent more than an hour within Twilight, leaving Hamon running on fumes.
His pneuma had already begun to act out, causing him to return to his human form while Anika took his place.
Roughly an hour later, they arrived before a vault, once made out of metal, but now encased in ice.
"That’s the treasury." Archibald remarked while pointing at it.
He spoke not out of prior knowledge of its whereabouts, but simply out of instinct.
After she created a walkway to the vault, leaving an arms length between the walkway and the vault, Anika transformed back while Hamon and Archibald approached the vault door.
"Beyond this is our future, Anika." Hamon said in excitement. "We can finally be rich, rich enough to do whatever we like!"
Though the duo were from two different continents, their time together had made them closer than siblings.
Of course, though she was just as happy as Hamon, Anika spared a moment for Archibald who had a lonely air about him.
"What next?" She asked. "You said you don’t want the treasures, so then what?"
Pursing his lips, Archibald replied. "I’m after a different kind of treasure, the kind that could give me the opportunity to bring back the wolves."
"Bring back the wolves?" Hamon displayed an expression of disbelief as he remarked. "That’s impossible, right?"
"I’d hope not." Archibald remarked, leaving much unsaid.
Others might consider his fixation on bringing back the wolves as unhealthy but only he understood how important it was to him and he wasn’t about to explain it as he didn’t expect anyone to understand.
Anika and Hamon exchanged a look and after a bit of back and forth, decided not to push the matter.
With that understanding, they focused on what was in front of them and what awaited beyond.
"I thought I smelled something familiar and it seems I wasn’t wrong."
A familiar voice rang out, accompanied by a terrifying pressure that kept them in place, unable to do anything.
Sayda approached with steady steps from behind, her only arm holding on to the Midnight Pearl.
"Tell me, how did you survive your neck being snapped?" Sayda asked. "I could have sworn I saw life leave your body."
Aware that she was addressing him, Archibald didn’t hesitate to act, biting down on his tongue and severing it entirely, causing his mouth to swiftly pool with blood.
Realizing that something was wrong, Sayda rushed over but by the time she arrived, Archibald had already given up the ghost, a process that was accelerated by his own desire for death.