Breathing heavily, she slowly looked back over her shoulder. Beyond the dizzying replica manufacturing process now teetering unstably, on a circr device anchored on the opposite wall, she could see someone. The one person she did not want to run into.


    Noah wasn’t the only one to have spotted him.


    “He has the override button.” Pecker muttered under his breath.


    “Gods… We should run.” Noah turned back to face Pecker and Lenia. “Get to the window, find a way to the bottom floor, hide… It doesn’t matter! We need to go!” Noah said, preparing herself to run. No sooner had she set off, however, she ran straight into Adrian.


    “Hello, Noah. I’ve been looking for you. Adrian smiled down at her, his grin stretching out from ear to ear. He waved the override button by his head. “You know what this is, don’t you? And what it is capable of doing?”


    Noah swallowed hard. In that man’s hand, twirling under and over his fingers, was the override button With a single press of the button, everyone inside, including the experiments, would perish as the hotel exploded. All would be buried within the rubble, along with all of the secrets hidden within the walls.


    Noah weighed up her options. Between her subduing Adrian with magic and him pressing the button, which would be faster? She could see his thumb rubbing the surface of the button, and instantly knew that it was thetter. Even the slightest sign of her attacking him would turn this whole ce into a pile of steel and cement.


    “I’ll make you a deal, Noah.” Adrian said, giving away no indication if he was real or a replica, “You give me Eleonora’s body and the dragon, and I’ll surrender to you. It’s as simple as that.”


    Noah stared at him, wondering if the world had gone crazy. What was it that Adrian wanted? If it’s thepletion of the replica project that he wanted, wasn’t that already finished?


    But Noah didn’t have time to think deeper about that. No matter how she looked at Adrian he didn’t seem normal. There was no sparkle in his eyes, no slurring tone, nor his usual metaphorical way of speaking. Every time the remote control twirled in his hand, Noah’s stomach twisted at the fear of him pressing the button by ident.


    She turned around and nced at the window, where she could hear faint screams and shouts. She knew that Muell, and by extension, Kyle, were nearby. He was a man of more than five hundred senses, so he would know what to do the moment he sees her. But that did not mean that she didn’t have some half-baked n up her sleeve.


    After scanning the level floor of the hotel, she turned her head back toward Adrian.


    “I will cooperate.” She said, taking a step away from Adrian. “If you catch me..”


    Adrian squinted as if he was trying to gauge Noah’s intention. She simply gave him a light smile.


    “I’m the only one who has what you want, Adrian. I am talking about the dragon. The most omnipotent supernatural being in the world. So, if you want him,e and get him.” She said, taking another step away from Adrian. Her words were more than enough to cause him to let out an inhuman roar andsh out at her. Noah had already dodged out of the way, and quickly turned on her heels and ran towards the fifth floor balcony, where she would be able to make her escape.


    ***


    Outside, Kyle watched as the people mingled outside the hotel. If it could even be called a hotel. Normally, hotels were well-kept buildings that appeared weing to guests, but the building in front of him was anything but.


    The reddish-brown walls were stained with a ck substance, therge arched windows had cracks in the ss, the old outer-walldders that connected floors looked as though they were on theirst legs… It was such a mess that one could consider it a deserted home. Or an abandoned warehouse of sorts.


    But very faintly, Kyle could sense that something was wrong about the ce. There was a deepvender smell that lingered in the air, one that Kyle knew spelled bad news.


    “Muell, Noah went in here?” He frowned. “And alone, at that. Surely she realised how dangerous this ce was?”


    “This is where her trace stopped.” Muell hummed and stroked his chin., I think Perri went in, as well. I can sense her aura about the ce.”


    He hopped off Kyle’s shoulder and began to toddle towards the right. Kyle followed him close behind, curious as to what he was tracking. Muell sniffed around for a bit, obviously trying to find any trace of Noah left. His head shot up into the sky, his deep red eyes brimming with anticipation.