With the outcome of Dancer of the Cosmos, they felt comfortable doing two pods at a time. Doing each one individually would take forever and they just didn’t have that sort of time.

  While they waited for the process to finish once again, Synexus made them all a meal which Dancer of the Cosmos ate most of, so he made more food. She was clearly famished and if he could help, then he would.

  One logistics failure was the fact that they would certainly need more clothes. Even giving away every outfit the whole party had on them would only cover half of the prisoners. That led to Synexus buying clothes from the Nexus of varying styles, and sizes. Dancer had told them she felt the clothes were quite odd. Her people rarely covered up as much as she was and they found her a more suitable outfit though she kept the coat since without any fat she was freezing in the metal hell.

  Again, the pods hissed when they were ready and two more bodies fell out. Kumo and Prith were ready to catch them. One was a human male named Treek who last remembered being conscripted to an army against an unknown enemy. On his planet of Yulova, it was common for men in small villages to sell themselves to armies to build their finances. That war was his first. To him he had just left his mother and father three days prior to head to the frontline.

  The other was a scorpion-like being. Its chitin was pure black, and it walked upright on four legs while the other four limbs acted as arms. A tail with a stinger was attached to its lower back and arched over its head. As for intelligence, it had enough to make simple conversation. Its name was impossible to translate to the common tongue as it was a chittering sound, but overall, it seemed calm. Dancer had actually seen the species before and told the party they were normally docile.

  Treek ended up being a great chef. Apparently, it was one of his main duties at home and he fell in love with it. Synexus let him cook while they waited for the next four prisoners to be released from the pods. Part of him was starting to think that every single one was a prisoner of war. No real crimes were committed; they were just on the other side of the battlefield from the Coalition. Still, they decided caution was wise.

  Gene flew into the room while waiting for the new four to wake up and was quite surprised with the news. They said it was most certainly the case that the worlds were in fact real. The owl seemed sad that this was all some plot involving the Coalition, but they didn’t elaborate much and flew back to inform the others.

  Each of the four were of different races yet again. Synexus heard names for more planets than he knew existed. Every race had different customs and new things to learn when they told their stories. One thing that never changed was that they were all in battle before being taken. Two knew it was the Coalition, the third didn’t, and the fourth was not forthcoming. She had been the first one to try and attack the party. Dancer nearly put her down before Synexus stepped in and bound the new woman in vines.

  More food was made when everything calmed down and clothes were passed out. Even though it was the glorious day of their rescue, the mood hanging among the survivors was somber. They had all been plucked from a battlefield and ended up being forced to live in an eternal slumber. None of them knew how long it had been or what happened to the people they were fighting with.

  Vorin devised a better system and soon they were releasing four prisoners at a time and then started the next batch when the first were halfway done that way they still had time with each group before the others were ready, but it wasn’t going to take them days to get through each cell. Dancer lost hope that more of her people were confined in the same prison when the sixteenth group was released. Again, each of the four were of a different species like the Coalition was making some sick collection. Another reason behind it was that they were just that cruel. Separating prisoners so they wouldn’t know each other while in captivity if anything like the current situation happened.

  “Do you believe there are more prisons like this?” Dancer turned to Vorin after laying eyes on the newest awakened.

  “Very possible. We arrived on this prison planet by accident. We don’t know much about the organization, but it seems they spare no expense to experiment. I can almost guarantee this is one piece to a much larger puzzle.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “One that we all must solve. If we can leave this planet, I will hunt down these prisons until I find my people.”

  “A heroic goal. Just be careful, this organization doesn’t like to lose, and hatred already fuels them.”

  Synexus walked over to the two after making rounds to make sure everyone was doing okay and that they didn’t need anything else currently. He was deep in thought and had one burning thought that overcame the rest.

  “Nearly a hundred people. Each one from a different race. Most are from a different world. Nearly a hundred worlds that the Coalition brought war too. What is their goal? We need to learn more.”

  “Admittedly, I thought this organization could be ignored until later. All we knew was that they were hunting you and that they had grievances with your people, but I see now how wrong I was. Synexus, this Coalition is a plague on the universe. A plague that now knows of the existence of Motholo. We must prepare.”

  “You’re afraid they will attack your world like they did mine?” Dancer spoke with hatred and malice, weighing down her words. “Once I find my people, we will come to your aid.”

  “Thank you, but you have one thing wrong. We aren’t afraid. We are class chosen and taking out threats is what we do.”

  Synexus, Dancer, Kumo, and Prith all smiled at Vorin’s comment. Surrounding prisoners overheard and shouted in agreement. The pride of the class chosen mixed with the anger at the Coalition.

  It took four days to release all the prisoners. Most were humanoids ranging from an elf to a succubus to a toughskin—a reptilian humanoid with extremely robust scales. Others were elementals that could barely communicate. The rest were species riding on the edge of beast and man. Quadruped, eight-legged, ten-legged, and one with a hundred tiny legs that was made of a strange liquid that could become solid. All shapes and sizes never exceeded the size of the pods, however. Very few attempted to be hostile and those that did calmed down after an explanation. Class levels varied from level ten to level ninety-six.

  Only one knew of the Zaxillians. He was brought out in the third to last group and was a Vidillow of the planet Cloak-12. Vidillow’s were altered humans who had evolved to experience sensory information at a heightened level. The Cloak Archipelago was a mass of planet slivers originating from the same planet in some explosion hundreds of thousands of years ago. Each sliver is massive and is a planet it its own right. There are ninety-three in all. Humans had settled on the strange floating slivers because of the incredible vibrance of light and colors. Plants varied in billions of colors that the humans originally couldn’t see, but the theory is that overtime their eyes adjusted and the Vidillow’s were born. Within System, that translated to unique perception skills among the race skills.

  Saga was a collector of stories and history. He had heard of the Zaxillians through old tomes and even knew a Vidillow that had met a few who were passing by. Some of the Vidillow’s technology was built by the Zaxillians in exchange for a place to repair their ship. He said he was researching them when he was snatched up. This broke pattern but also made sense. With how crazy the Coalition was about Synexus, he could only imagine that someone researching his race would be deemed an enemy instantly.

  Once the last prisoner was up and understood what was happening, they all made their way towards the exit through the narrow hallways. Some spit on the covered skeletons of their guards as they walked by. Vorin wanted to tell them not to, but they did keep all these people on the edge of death for years. He could understand their hate.

  When they got to the stairs, Shell led them up and out of the small building. That’s when they got the notification.

  Bonus Objective (Free the Prisoners): Completed. Reward earned.

  Bonus Objective (Kill the Prisoners): Failed.

  New Bonus Objective: Find a way for the prisoners to escape with you!

  They had found no evidence of some way for the guards to get off world. It was either on another part of the surface rod or it was a method involving some ship orbiting around the planet. Either way getting a hundred people off the surface, away from the gravity, into the massive ocean above, and out the other side would prove difficult.

  Synexus knew his tree could technically still be viable, but what would they do after getting out of the ocean? What awaited them? Space? Or would the door instantly be available to them? Even if it was instantly available, would the prisoners be able to get through? His mind was filled with questions that seemed to multiply with every new discovery. One thing was for certain, they needed to get to the next floor and figure out how to complete the labyrinth. Vorin’s words echoed in his head about Motholo being a target of the Coalition. He had brought them to his world, and he didn’t want his planet to suffer for it.

  He needed to complete the labyrinth to get more information from the sphinx. If anyone would know where to go and what to do next, it would be them.

  First, they needed a way to get themselves, a hundred prisoners, and hundreds of Pathfinders off the prison world of the Coalition or as the labyrinth had put it: Escape the Bubble.