Extra's POV: My Obsessive Villainous Fiancee Is The Game's Final Boss

Ren immediately raised a hand.

They turned a corner and pressed themselves into a shadowed doorway, hiding behind a merchant's stall shuttered for the night.

The patrol passed, six soldiers in silver and red armor, weapons at their belts, helmets polished, faces expressionless.

They moved like they were on edge, like they'd been told someone was hunting among the citizens.

Only when the sound of footsteps faded did Ren motion for them to move again.

They weaved through several streets, looping around marketplaces and cutting across bridges that overlooked shallow caverns.

Then, they reached it.

The stone corridor widened here, forming a circular clearing.

This was the last checkpoint before entry into the deeper restricted layers of Carthage.

A great stone arch stood in the distance, and beyond it was the sloped tunnel that led to the deeper, richer layers where the elite lived.

Warmth radiated from the tunnel mouth, an unnatural heat that hinted at the proximity to the Primordial Flame sealed below.

But the gate was crawling with guards.

Dozens of soldiers manned the walls and towers surrounding the arch.

Their armor looked to be stronger, and their stances rigid.

A checkpoint had been set up before the arch itself, with multiple layers of soldiers to scan anyone trying to pass. It was as if they were planning for a war.

"They're too many." Thorn muttered. "We'll get spotted."

"We're not passing through here," Ren replied. "We'll go around."

Lilith narrowed her eyes. "You think there's another way?"

Ren nodded slowly. "This city is old. Somewhere nearby, there should be a smuggler's route, maybe even a maintenance passage. We just have to find it."

And so, they turned away from the crawling soldiers, melting back into the streets of Carthage.

They kept walking, drifting further away from the central checkpoint and its tight perimeter of soldiers.

Ren took the lead, his pace unhurried but purposeful, eyes scanning every wall, every grate, every alley mouth they passed.

Carthage was a maze.

The streets twisted through rows of stone buildings, some abandoned, some alive with soft light and muffled conversation.

Down here, the air was moist with the distant smell of wet stone.

After nearly half an hour of walking and looping through the alleys, Ren finally slowed down.

He turned down a side path that sloped downwards, its walls lined with moss-streaked pipes that hissed faintly with steam.

"This is it." He murmured.

The alley led to a dead end, but Ren moved to the corner and knelt.

Embedded in the stone floor was a wide, rusted grate, too large to be a simple drain and far sturdier than any runoff system should've needed.

He reached his hands into it, and after rattling it in a specific pattern, the lock clicked.

With a groan of metal, he lifted the grate aside.

A tunnel gaped below them, just tall enough for them to crouch and walk through. Moisture clung to the walls. It stank of algae and rust, but it was wide, dark, and hidden.

"Seriously?" Thorn muttered, peering down into the hole. "This is our shortcut?"

"Is that complaining I hear?" Ren turned to Thorn.

"Sorry." Thorn smiled sheepishly.

"It's far better than being cut down by a Rank 9 for trespassing." Ren turned back to the hole.

They dropped down one by one, the echo of their boots dampened by the sludge-slick floor.

The tunnel stretched far into the dark. Luckily, they didn't need light to see. Each had enhancements or powers that enabled them to see in the dark.

They made their way through the tunnel, and it twisted, sloped, and split more than once, but Ren walked confidently, leading them.

Eventually, the tunnel narrowed, and they reached a heavy stone wall.

There, tucked against the left side, was another tunnel, but this one cleaner, with faint tracks running through the middle of it.

"This is it," Ren said. "Smuggler's route. Some of the deeper layer traders use it when moving goods under the council's nose."

"Let's just hope it's empty," Lilith said, voice low.

It wasn't.

As they neared the end of the tunnel, they slowed, ears straining. Light spilled from ahead, bouncing off the stone with a soft orange glow.

Ren signaled a halt.

Around the corner, just past the tunnel's mouth, a small guard post had been erected. Two braziers flickered beside a steel gate that separated the tunnel from the deeper layer road. And standing there were half a dozen soldiers.

They were not nearly as many as at the official checkpoint, but they were still more than they'd expected. And all of them were Knights.

Thorn exhaled quietly. "Well… this is going to be fun."

Ren didn't respond right away.

He stared at the flickering torchlight ahead of them, his mind already racing. How can they take them off guard?

He didn't move for a long while, his green eyes staying fixed on the soldiers guarding the gate. He was weighing the odds. Counting movement patterns.

"They're too close together for a direct push," Thorn whispered, watching one soldier lift his helmet slightly to scratch the side of his head. "We need a distraction or—"

"There's no time for subtlety." Ren cut in quietly. "We make this clean."

He reached into his pouch and pulled out one of his teleportation coins. He turned it once between his fingers, then looked at the other two.

"We don't have time to sneak around." He said. "This is how we do it."

"I'll throw the coin, and when it's in the middle of them, I'll teleport all three of us there. We'll scatter and take them down as fast and quiet as we can. We can't let them raise an alarm."

"And if they do?" Lilith asked.

"Then we cut through them and keep going." Ren's voice was calm.

Thorn rolled his shoulder. "Straightforward enough."

"Good."

Ren took a breath, turned his wrist, and flung the coin.

It streaked down the tunnel, catching the torchlight and flashing once before clinking against the stone between the two closest guards.

The soldiers stiffened immediately.

"Something's—"

Before the man could finish the sentence, Ren was already there, dragging Lilith and Thorn with him in a blink of distorted space.

The light bent.

Then with a soft pop of air pressure, all three appeared in the middle of the soldiers.

"Move!" Ren barked.

They scattered in three directions.