"LIA!"
I screamed her name as I slammed my fist into the ground where she had fallen, the impact jolting up my arm but it did nothing to cool the fury boiling in my chest.
Why are you always like this?
Why do you always take everything onto yourself?
"Vivian!" Louise called out in panic, rushing toward me with Eko close behind her.
"Stop. Right. There."
My voice cut through them like a blade, sharp and furious, leaving no room for argument.
"You're just going to get in the way," I snapped, every word trembling with restrained rage. "Go. Bring the instructor. Now."
They froze, startled by the venom in my tone.
I growled, "Do what I'm telling you."
They hesitated only a second longer before turning and running, their footsteps echoing as they disappeared down the passage.
I slowly pushed myself to my feet, my hands clenched so tightly my nails bit into my palms. My entire body was shaking not with fear, but with anger so intense it made my vision blur.
"It's just us now," I said coldly, my voice low and dangerous.
I had never felt the urge to punch someone this badly in my life.
Never wanted to grab someone and shake them until they understood.
But Cecilia, had become a different story.
And right now, that rage was screaming to be unleashed.
I didn't feel fear.
Fear is something you notice after you survive.
What I felt was hunger.
The ground split open and the bloody hound boss hauled itself free, a cathedral of muscle and molten flesh, ribs glowing like furnace bars beneath torn skin. Lava drooled from its mouth in thick strands, sizzling as it kissed stone.
My heart didn't race.
It slowed.
The golems advanced first towering stone abominations, their cores pulsing like diseased hearts. Each step shook the dungeon, dust raining down like ash.
One swung.
I didn't dodge.
I lifted my hand.
No words. No thought.
Water collapsed into existence around my arm compressed so violently it screamed, pressure biting into my bones. The pain was sharp, intimate.
I smiled.
I released it.
The jet punched through the golem's leg and detonated it. Stone didn't crack; it burst, fragments shredding the air. Something tore across my cheek. Warm blood slid into my mouth.
Metallic.
The golem stumbled, off-balance, and I slid beneath it as its body collapsed behind me, the impact shaking my teeth.
"Pathetic," I breathed.
I slammed my palms into the floor.
Water flooded every fracture in the stone then froze with a shriek of tortured physics.
The golem's core imploded.
It didn't explode cleanly. It screamed, a sound like rock being flayed alive before erupting in chunks that splattered the walls, glowing orange and dripping like organs.
I laughed.
Another golem charged.
I ripped a shard from the ground, wrapped it in water, hardened it until it screamed in protest and rammed it into the creature's chest. I felt resistance. Then give.
The core split.
Hot slurry poured out like exposed marrow.
The golem collapsed.
That's when the hound roared.
The sound hit me like a physical blow. The heat followed skin blistering, lungs burning, the air thick with sulfur and iron. Its eyes locked onto mine.
It wanted me.
Good.
It lunged.
I threw up a barrier. It shattered instantly, claws ripping through it like wet paper. The impact hurled me into the wall.
The wall cracked around my back.
Something inside my chest popped.
I tasted blood.
I laughed anyway.
The hound's jaws snapped inches from my face. Heat scorched my skin. My arm burned skin splitting, flesh bubbling. The smell was nauseating.
I screamed not from pain.
Something else.
Something tore open inside me.
Mana didn't surge.
It flooded.
It ripped through me like a dam collapsing, shredding restraint and annihilating sense. Water didn't flow it screamed, ripping out of the dungeon itself. Walls bled rivers. The floor drowned. Pressure crushed inward, bending stone, squeezing breath from my lungs.
My vision burned blue-white.
I stood up.
The pain stopped mattering.
The water wrapped around the hound's legs.
I didn't freeze it.
I pulled.
Flesh tore apart with a wet, obscene sound. Tendons snapped. Bone cracked like brittle glass. Molten blood sprayed everywhere, hissing violently as it hit the water and erupted into steam.
The beast howled and charged again, dragging ruined limbs, rage eclipsing agony.
I met it halfway.
I compressed the water into something wrong so dense it vibrated, so thin it sang. A spear formed in my hands, humming with pressure that made my bones ache.
I drove it into its neck.
The spear punched through flesh, vertebrae, and out the other side in a spray of lava and blood.
I twisted slowly.
Deliberately.
The hound collapsed, body spasming violently, molten gore pouring from its wounds. Its heart still beats.
I felt it.
I smiled wider.
I froze the blood in its veins.
Not all at once.
Piece by piece.
The creature shattered from the inside out, its meat bursting, bones exploding, and organs rupturing as ice bloomed violently through its body. Burning chunks slammed into the ground, steaming, twitching, still alive for seconds too long.
The smell was unbearable.
I inhaled it anyway.
Silence fell like a corpse.
I stood alone in the ruin, stone bodies crushed and broken, frozen blood coating the floor, steam rising in pale, ghostlike spirals.
My hands shook.
Not from exhaustion.
From want.
My knees gave out. I collapsed to the ground, fingers digging into the stone, breath ragged and uneven.
I stared at the carnage.
At the pieces.
At myself.
"…Lia," I whispered, voice cracking not with fear.
With understanding.
This wasn't luck.
This wasn't desperation.
This wasn't survival.
It was what I am or could become when I stop pretending.
I stood there, chest tearing itself apart with every breath, arms shaking so hard I couldn't tell where the pain ended and the fear began.
Ruin surrounded me.
Stone corpses lay scattered like broken statues, their bodies split and crushed beyond recognition. Frozen blood glazed the floor in dark, glassy sheets, some of it not even cooling yet. Steam curled upward from shattered limbs and torn flesh, rising slow and pale, like ghosts crawling out of the ground to accuse me.
My legs gave out.
I hit the floor on my knees, the impact dull, distant. My hands trembled violently as I pressed them into the slick stone, fingers slipping through blood and grit. I tried to breathe. Tried. My lungs refused to cooperate, dragging in air like I was drowning on dry ground.
I looked around.
I couldn't stop looking.
This wasn't a battlefield anymore. It was a graveyard I had made.
My stomach twisted violently, bile burning my throat. My heart hammered so hard it felt like it might burst through my ribs. I stared at the destruction, at the shapes that had once been monsters and now were… nothing. Just ruined the matter. Just proof.
Proof of what I could do.
The power was still there.
Still roaring through my veins, hot and violent, like something alive that hadn't finished feeding. It buzzed under my skin, coiled in my muscles, begging to be used again. My fingers twitched, instinctively curling, as if ready to tear something else apart.
That scared me more than anything.
Not the golems.
Not the bloody hound.
Not the screams, or the bones snapping, or the way flesh had given way beneath my hands.
This.
The fact that part of me didn't feel done yet.
I swallowed hard, my throat tight, my vision blurring. "What… what did I do?" The words barely came out, raw and broken, swallowed by the empty dungeon.
I could still feel it every strike, every impact, every moment I'd crossed a line and kept going. I hadn't stopped when they fell. I hadn't stopped when they broke. I'd stopped only when there was nothing left to fight.
Because I decided there was nothing left.
My arms wrapped around myself, nails digging into my sleeves like I could hold myself together by force. My body shook, not from exhaustion but from realization.
This was something darker. Something that didn't hesitate. Something that answered fear with annihilation.
And the worst part?
It answered me.
The truly horrifying part—Was that I wanted more.
I stayed there on the blood-soaked floor, breathing hard, staring at the ruin I'd carved into the world, knowing with sick certainty that the monsters hadn't been the most dangerous thing in this dungeon.
I was.
"Vivian, we brought the instructor!" Eko shouted as they came running.
The moment they crossed into the chamber, their voices died.
Louise froze mid-step. Eko's breath hitched. Even the instructor stiffened as his eyes swept over the scene.
Shattered golems lay strewn across the cavern like broken statues. The floor was slick with frozen blood and scorched stone. Steam still coiled lazily upward, carrying the stench of iron and burnt flesh.
And at the center of it all—
I sat amid the carnage, shoulders rising and falling, blood streaked across my clothes and skin.
"Miss Vivian," the instructor said carefully, forcing his voice steady. "Are you injured?"
"I'm fine," I replied, pushing myself to her feet despite the sharp wince she couldn't suppress. Pain flared through her body, but she ignored it. "But that's not what matters."
I lifted my head, eyes hard.
"Instructor, Cecilia fell through a fissure in the ground," she said. "The crack sealed itself right after."
The instructor's expression darkened.
"That is… troubling," he muttered. "Asier also vanished earlier. Witnesses reported he fell through a similar rupture. We've been searching for him since."
My stomach dropped.
"What if…" I began, then forced the words out, "…what if they're together?"
The colour drained from every face around her. The instructor didn't hesitate.
"Then we have no time," he said sharply. "Find them immediately before they kill each other… or worse, before they kill us."
While everyone above was panicking voices overlapping, orders shouted, minds unravelling
Meanwhile…them.
"That's strange," I muttered, scanning the surroundings. "I'm certain it was right around here."
The air felt wrong. Too still. Too clean.
"Where did it go…?"
"Nox," I said quietly. "Come out."
He materialized beside me, eyes narrowing as he surveyed the surroundings. "You're not mistaken. It was here." He paused, gaze drifting toward the far end. "And don't you find that lake concerning?"
I followed his line of sight.
The water was unnaturally still, its surface smooth as glass.
"It wasn't here two days ago," he added.
I clicked my tongue. "So that means I have to, don't I?"
He nodded without hesitation.
"You always make me do the most unreasonable things," I grumbled.
Still, I stepped closer and grabbed his shoulder for balance, slipping off my shoes first, then my pants. The cold stone bit into my bare skin as I rolled up my sleeves.
"You owe me for this," I said flatly.
Behind me, that vermin remained silent, watching us.
Taking a steady breath, I stepped forward and dove into the lake, the cold swallowing me whole as the surface sealed above my head.
It was dark, bitingly cold as I plunged deeper into the lake. The chill clawed at my skin, sharp and invasive, gnawing its way into my bones. Dungeon lakes were always deceiving. What looked shallow from above always hid a depth that wanted to swallow you whole.
Bottomless, like an abyss most of the time.
"Let's see…" I muttered, breath controlled despite the pressure squeezing in. "Where's Nox's core?"
My eyes adjusted slowly, cutting through the murk.
Then I saw it.
Resting on the lakebed like a discarded heart, dimly glowing, cracked but intact, his core.
Of course.
I didn't even need to look around to know better.
Five sea serpents were wrapped around it, their massive bodies intertwined in a slow, breathing knot. Thick scales scraped stone as they shifted. Pale, lidless eyes snapped open the instant my focus lingered too long.
I sighed underwater, irritation sharp and familiar.
"Naturally."
When has anything ever gone the way I wanted?
I tried to drift closer, slow and precise, fingers extending toward the core.
The water shuddered.
The serpents moved.
Their coils loosened, bodies unspooling with a sound like grinding armour. The pressure around me changed instantly, predatory intent bleeding into the water itself. Low hisses vibrated through my skull, not sound so much as threat.
Figures.
"Well," I thought, power answering my irritation with a hungry hum, "it'd be boring without a challenge."
My lips curved playfully, "I'll roast you fucking snakes to a crisp."
The lightning answered immediately.
It didn't spark.
It ignited.
Violet power exploded into existence around my hands, violent and dense, the kind of lightning that didn't flicker. It dominated. The water screamed as energy crushed through it, pressure collapsing inward like the lake itself was kneeling.
"Lux Infernus."
The discharge detonated.
Purple lightning tore outward in a brutal shockwave, splitting the water apart. Electricity flooded the lake, not dispersing, claiming. Arcs snapped through serpentine bodies with merciless precision, crawling over scales, piercing flesh, locking muscles solid.
They convulsed.
Hard.
Their massive forms seized as the current overwhelmed them, scales blackening, flesh rupturing. Blood boiled instantly, blooming into thick, inky clouds that churned violently in the electrified water. The lake became a storm, heat, power, and death all colliding at once.
I laughed.
A sharp, breathless sound, half exhilaration, half release.
"Hell yeah."
The lightning didn't fade until I allowed it to.
Their bodies finally went slack, sinking slowly to the lakebed like discarded husks. Smoke and scorched blood drifted upward, curling through the water like ink in glass.
I swam down, boots hitting stone, and reached for Nox's core. It was warm in my hand, still pulsing faintly.
I kicked off hard, shooting toward the surface as the darkness closed behind me.
Residual lightning still danced around my fingers, crackling softly, eager.
Behind me, the lake held only corpses.
And the certainty that, if something else had been down there. It wouldn't have mattered.
"I got it," I said, surfacing triumphantly, cradling it as if I'd captured a treasure. It wasn't for me, but for Nox, it might as well have been.
Nox lifted me effortlessly, spinning me around. Droplets of water scattered, catching the dim light like a cascade of tiny crystals.
"You're making me dizzy," I giggled, clutching my stomach as he set me down gently.
"Here," I said, holding out the core. He absorbed it, and instantly, the air around us shifted dark, heavy, almost sentient. The mana thickened, chilling every inch of space. Where he had looked like a child moments ago, he now towered over me, height rivalling or perhaps surpassing that vermin's.
"What am I going to do without you?" Nox murmured, leaning in to pepper my face with kisses. I couldn't help but grin.
"You little demon," he teased.
"You could stay with me," I said softly.
"Sorry to ruin the moment," Asier's voice cut through, and he stepped forward, offering me his cloak.
"What's this for?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well…" He looked away, his cheeks faintly pink. "…it's… see-through."
I froze, crimson creeping up my neck. "You… bastard," I stammered, still taking the cloak.
"Why couldn't I learn wind magic," I muttered, half to myself.
Nox, ever amused, chuckled.
"What are you smiling about?" I demanded, tugging at him.
"Tie my hair," I ordered, shaking my head as he leaned in, fingers deftly twisting the strands.
The warmth of him contrasted with the icy chill of the dungeon, and for a fleeting moment, the chaos around us felt like it didn't exist.
After Nox finished braiding my hair, I straightened and said, "Let's get going before this becomes troublesome." He melted back into the pendant, silent as always.
"Keep a distance of ten paces," I added without looking at him.
We moved through the dungeon quietly. The silence wasn't uncomfortable, but every fibre of me screamed danger. I knew the depths the temple could stoop to, how far they'd go to take what they wanted.
Barely ten minutes later, we emerged at the entrance.
"Finally, I'm—" he began.
Before he could finish, shouts rang out. "We found them!" Within seconds, our classmates surrounded us, the instructor at the forefront, eyes sharp and demanding.
"Where were the two of you?" the instructor asked, voice laced with worry and authority.
"Well…" he started, but I shot him a look that froze him mid-word.
"We actually don't know. We just walked, and before we knew it, here we are," he said, voice calm but cutting, leaving no room for argument.
"And you two didn't fight the entire time?" the instructor pressed.
"Nope," I said, shrugging lightly. "I actually fell into a lake. And I didn't feel like fighting with him."
"Is that true?" Vivian's voice cut sharply from behind. The crowd parted as she stormed forward and slapped me hard, her expression furious.
"The fuck was that?" I said, my tone cold, dangerous, carrying a lethal edge that made even the instructor flinch.
"Control yourself, Cecilia," Nox murmured quietly in my mind.
"Do you know we searched for you the entire night and still couldn't find you?" Vivian snapped, anger rolling off her in waves. "Would you care to explain where the hell you were?"
"And why," I said quietly, "should I tell you?"
My voice didn't rise. It didn't need to. It was flat, glacial, so cold it stripped the air of warmth as it left my mouth.
"Just because we spent a year together," I continued, eyes locking onto her without a flicker, "you think that gives you the right to put your hands on me whenever it suits you—"
I took a slow step forward.
The distance between us shrank. The threat didn't.
"—does not mean I owe you anything."
Not an explanation.
Not patience.
Not mercy.
My gaze sharpened, something lethal bleeding through the calm, the kind of stillness that comes right before violence.
"You don't get answers because you demand them," I said, voice dropping lower, darker. "You don't get to touch me and then expect compliance like I'm something you own."
A faint smile touched my lips.
It wasn't kind.
"Be very careful," I murmured.
The words were barely sound, more a verdict than a warning.
"I'm in no mood to be generous."
My voice was empty of heat, empty of anger. Just cold, precise, final. The kind of tone that didn't threaten because it didn't need to. It simply stated what would happen next if you made the wrong move.
I didn't raise my voice. I didn't step back.
I held her gaze, unblinking, letting the silence stretch until it cut.
"Generosity implies restraint," I went on softly. "And restraint is something I'm choosing to exercise for now."
A fraction of a smile ghosted across my lips, sharp as a blade.
"Don't give me a reason to stop."
Vivian froze, stunned, and the rest of the class went silent, clearly shocked by the venom in my words.
I didn't look at them.
"I'll be going ahead," I said calmly.
Effortlessly, I rose from the ground, my feet leaving the floor without a sound. No rush. No flair. Just control so absolute it felt wrong to witness.
I took the cloak the vermin had given me.
I didn't look at him as I turned, fingers tightening briefly around the fabric before I tossed it back.
"Here's your cloak," I said.
My voice was flat. Cold. Utterly devoid of care.
The cloak hit him and fell, useless and heavy, like a verdict already delivered. I moved without hesitation, already gone, leaving them frozen in the emptiness I left behind. Only the chill of my words lingered, and the stunned silence of everyone who suddenly understood just how thoroughly they had misjudged me.
To be continued...