Back in the maze, both Baron and Serene were looking around only to stop when they met up with Muta who waved to them.

"Hey." He called, which made Serene smile.

"You found us, Muta." She greeted him as Baron looked at him.

"What's that way like?" He asked.

"Just dead ends." Muta told him as he pointed to another way they could take.

This made Baron hummed suspiciously but started to head to where Muta pointed.

Baron, Serene and Muta all walked down to another path. Along the way, Serene's ears twitched and she looked behind them only to see nothing. She could have sworn she heard something. She shrugged it off and followed her friends as they went through turns and corners to find a way to the tower.

Spying on them, the king snickered mischievously as he, Natori and Natoru were watching them having trouble navigating through the maze.

"Now this is more like it, babe." The Cat King smirked.

The trio shockingly came up to another dead end as Baron was confused about it while Serene eyed a wall. Strange, she could have sworn they walked through here before and that there wasn't a wall here.

"Hm, another dead end. My, my, this is getting interesting." Baron deduced curiously after seeing another dead end.

Serene looked at the wall up and down before she noticed that the wall wasn't matching the line of the wall.

"Something's not right here. Two rights and a left... Wait a minute, I know there wasn't a wall here earlier." Serene pointed as Muta looked at her in confusion.

"Your brain's overheating." He said as Serene turned to him.

She can't shake it off her gut that they did walk through here a minute ago.

"I'm serious! We walked through here, Muta!" Serene reasoned as Muta was still confused.

"What do you think? That the walls have legs?" He questioned.

Baron heard their small banter and quickly checked the wall over as both Muta and Serene turned to him as Baron realized that it was indeed fake.

"She's right, Muta. This wall is fake." Baron said.

Baron kicked it which caused a domino effect of the other ones in front of it and the fake fallen walls were all leading straight towards the tower.

"I told you!" Serene grinned widely.

"Good work, Serene!" Baron commented with a smile as Muta just stared in shock.

"What the heck?!" He gaped in shock.

The king, Natori and Natoru were shocked and their faces were priceless, especially the cat king's.

"How stupid do you have to be to line up like dominos?!" Natori complained in dismay.

Without wasting any time and taking the opportunity, Baron, Serene and Muta ran on the tumbled walls while hearing yelps of pain from those under as they did so and were all getting closer to the tower.

The king saw that and ran to stop them from escaping.

"Princess!" The cat king cried out as he ran towards the maze.

"Wait! It's not safe, Your Majesty!" Natori called out worriedly as he, Natori, the guards and servants ran after the king.

The trio made it to the base of the tower and they started to climb it up the stairs. Baron went up first with Muta following behind. Serene halted as she tried to catch her breath. All that running made her legs feel like jelly and she was exhausted. Baron and Muta stopped and looked down towards her as she looked up to them.

"Go ahead. I'll catch up to you eventually." She told them as she slowly regained her breathing.

Baron didn't say anything but ran down the stairs before picking Serene up in his arms much to her surprise and he ran ahead with Muta quick to follow.

"Oh!" She yelped slightly in surprise.

"What a show-off." Muta muttered as he ran after the two.

Serene was in so much shock that Baron was literally carrying her up the tower.

"Baron, wait, I can walk." Serene said but Baron won't let her since they have to hurry.

"Don't worry." He reassured her while unconsciously bringing her closer.

The trio were ascending the tower much more quickly than before as Muta decided to run on all fours to keep up with Baron. Serene was strangely quiet but for good reasons. She was staring at Baron's face in silent awe and admiration. She was amazed at the great lengths that Baron did to protect her, even rescuing her from getting married to the prince. She was in a trance while staring at Baron's face before he noticed her staring and looked at her in confusion and curiosity. Realizing that she was staring, Serene quickly looked away with her cheeks a rosy pink. She couldn't believe she was checking him out!

Unknown to Serene, when Baron picked her up, he was surprised that she was light as a feather and he just ran up the stairs with her in his arms. He knew that she was staring at him and when he looked at her, he saw that she looked away with a rosy pink color to her cheeks which he found adorable as he hid a small smile as he continued to run up the stairs.

The king ran down the stairs and on the wall of the maze with his own group following.

"Your Majesty! Please! This is very dangerous!" Natori pleaded for the king to stop.

The king just ignored him and continued to chase after the trio.

"I can't let them escape!" The cat king exclaimed.

"You'll never reach them in time!" Natori reasoned with him as he and the others ran after their king.

"Besides, we have guards stationed in the tower!" He added.

That made the king stop and looked towards him as everyone bumped into each other only for one of the guards to fall off.

"Why didn't you just say so?" The cat king said as he was handed a pair of binoculars.

The trio were almost to the top when five guards came out and blocked their path. Baron set Serene down as he readied to fight them.

The king was watching through the binoculars and was pleased by what he was seeing.

"Toast." The cat king smirked with a small laugh.

Just as Baron readied his staff, the stairs that the guards were standing on suddenly gave way and sent the guards falling to the ground as the king gaped in shock.

"Whoa!" Both Natori and the cat king gaped in shock.

The trio watched in shock and surprise by what happened but they quickly yet carefully walked up the stairs before running again to the top.

The king's eye was twitching in annoyance. Can't they be any more useless on getting his daughter-in-law?!

"I'll have a word with the contractors." Natori noted. Fixing the tower will take time though.

This just made the king even more annoyed and turned to him.

"It's too late for that!" He snapped as his pupils were slits as he figured that they had no choice but to use it.

"We'll have to use the detonator." He said as Natori looked at him in shock.

"What?" Natori said as he realized what the king meant and tried to stop him.

"Not that! I beg of you, sire! Think of what it will do to your approval ratings!" Natori pleaded. The king can't be that insane just to get the girl can he?!

But the king didn't listen.

"Button." The cat king said as he wanted the button to activate the bombs that were in the tower.

Natori quickly shook his head. He won't do it! He'd rather let Miss Serene go than let the image of the king blow up into dust!

"I don't have it. I must have left it in the castle." Natori said.

But much to his dismay, Natoru handed the king said button.

"Look what I found." The Scottish fold said cheekily.

"No! Oh! No!" This made Natori panicked as the king laughed evilly.

The trio finally made it as Serene panted heavily but was relieved that she's almost home free.

"We finally made it to the top." She said as Baron came up beside her.

"Not much further now." He said as she smiled up at him which he returned.

Natori watched in fear as the cat king was ready to press the button that would activate the explosions.

"Buh-bye, tower." The cat king smirked before pressing the tower and almost immediately explosions can be seen on certain parts of the tower.

Explosions went off going from below to the top. Serene yelped in shock as she, Baron and Muta backed away from the edge from slight shock.

"What was that?" Serene shakily asked.

Realizing what it was, Baron quickly rushed to Serene and covered her from the outside as Muta grabbed on the pillar.

"Brace yourselves!" Baron shouted as the tower started to shake.

The tower started to crumble down and fall down to the ground. Serene almost flew off but Baron was able to hold onto her and put his arm around her waist as she screamed in fear while holding on Baron's coat. The tower finally stopped falling as the king laughed victoriously.

"Excellent explosion, Your Majesty." Natoru complimented as the cat king grinned.

"Let's go." He said as he started to run to the fallen tower and the others quickly followed.

Serene looked up from Baron's chest and saw that they were back on the ground.

"You've got to be kidding. We're back where we started." Serene muttered in dismay.

Realizing that she was still holding onto Baron which made her look up at him as he looked at her. Realizing their position, the two pulled away almost immediately out of embarrassment as Baron felt his cheeks warm up with Serene having a blush on her cheeks.

Good thing Muta didn't see them as Baron dusted himself off as the big cat turned to him.

"Now what do we do? Just stand here?" He asked as Baron turned to him.

"Nothing else we can do." Baron answered before turning to Serene as he clenched his hands.

They were so close to getting her home! But the tower collapsed. It will only take a miracle to help them right now and he didn't get any answers on what happened to Louise three years ago.
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Sorry for the delay. Some stuff happened but updates are still slow. Hope you like it and I'll try and finish this story as soon as possible so I can continue the other ones.