When Seyoung’s portal had opened, the group and stepped out into an empty hallway. Seyoung had gone first, checking that it really was empty before waving for everyone to follow him. He then explained that this was the castle of the beast who ruled the demon realm and this Kihyun and his brothers were being held in the dungeons located in the basement. When asked why he hadn’t opened a portal there, he’d explained that the dungeons were probably crawling with guards so just showing up there wasn’t the best strategy.

Much smarter to sneak in, taking out as many other guards on the way down as they could. Then, when they confronted those guards in the dungeons they wouldn’t be able to get back up as easily. The leaders had all agreed to this strategy and then the group was off to find the captured demons.

“This way,” Seyoung said, pointing down a hallway, “they should be in this direction.”

“Should be?” N asked, “We need better then should, Seyoung.”

“I know that they’re this direction,” Seyoung amended, “I’m just not sure if we’re gonna hit a wall or some enemies or something.”

“We can deal with both,” JB shrugged, “so let’s get moving.”

“I can hear some baddies up ahead,” Ken warned, “attack plan?”

“How many?” Listen questioned.

“I’m hearing seven,” the sound demon reported, “wait, no. one more just walked into the room. There’s no one else around.”

“Hyuk,” N ordered, “knock them out. Once they’re down, we’ll head past them.”

“Don’t you want to make sure that they stay down for good?” Mark wondered, “nullify any chance of them walking up and alerting all the other guards.”

“Fine,” N nodded, “everyone, don’t mess around. Just kill them and keep moving.”

Everyone did as ordered, easily putting down the eight beasts that Hyuk knocked out before they started moving again.

“Stairs ahead,” Ken said, “I can hear someone walking up them.”

“Everyone fall back,” N ordered, “hide in the shadows. I’ll take this one out once he’s at the top.”

N vanished from sight and everyone else moved to hide. When the beast, a large horse and rider-like beast (A/N: basically a nuckelavee), made it to the top of the staircase N made his move. The beast made a grunt of pain before it dropped to the ground. When N become visible again he told everyone to come out and follow him.

The trip down the massive staircase was thankfully uneventful. For the most part. They did have a couple of close calls, several enemies passing by in the halls that the stairway serviced, but they didn’t have to fight anyone until they hit their target floor. Even then, there weren’t that many guards.

“Be careful,” Seyoung whispered as the group scoped out the room, “there could be more hidden away. Or these guards could be really strong.”

“Were there more before?” Listen asked.

“We tried to take their king’s life,” Seyoung nodded, “so seeing so few guards now……it makes me worry.”

“Can you hear anyone nearby?” JB asked, turning to Ken.

“No,” Ken frowned, “just these twenty.”

“Should have brought Jaehyuk,” Changsun muttered, “then we could know what we’re dealing with.”

“I agree that this is odd,” N scowled, “so let’s just take them out quickly. Hyuk, when I give word, drop as many as you can. As soon as he does, I want everyone else to rush in there and drop the rest.”

“I should be able to get maybe a third of them,” Hyuk said, thinking it over, “might be able to make a couple others a bit drowsy.”

“That will be helpful,” Jackson smiled slightly, “put them off their A game enough to give us more of an advantage.”

“In three,” N counted down, “two……now!”

Hyuk dropped about six beasts right away and three others stumbled or fell to their knees as they tried to fight off the sudden sleepy feeling that took them. those who Hyuk hadn’t effected quickly got ready to fight, but they simply were no match for the attack coming their way.

“Boom,” BamBam smirked slightly as he blew up a couple of beasts who were making a run for what BamBam suspected was backup.

“Make sure that they’re down for good,” Jackson yelled, working with Hyorin to freeze another beast where it stood, its wings raised like it was about to shoot off a bunch of feathers at the pair.

“On it!” Yugyeon called, finishing up what BamBam had started.

“Everyone is down,” N called as he stood beside Leo who was just wrapping up melting a beast, “someone open those cages and get Cross Gene and Kihyun out.”

“Portal’s already open,” Seyoung said, eying the stairs carefully, “that was too easy, makes me worry.”

“He’s right,” Listen scowled, “everyone, double time it. Heck, triple time it. I want out of here yesterday.”

Everyone did as asked, getting the same bad feeling as Seyoung and Listen. That had been far too easy. While some might brush it off as ‘we’re simply that good’, no one in the group was that cocky. Especially after all the build up about coming to this place.

“You saved us?” Shin asked as he and N watched everyone else entering the portal home.

“Yeah,” N nodded, “we did.”

“Even after everything?” the other leader question.

“Even after everything,” N nodded again, “we couldn’t leave you all to die. It wouldn’t be right.”

“Thank you,” Shin said after a long moment.

“No problem,” N replied, “now let’s get out of here.”

The leaders entered the portal and Seyoung quickly shut it, leaving only the dead bodies behind.

A/N: that was rather easy, wasn’t it?