Ophelia looked around the mysterious place, entering doors and even going through walls; all to no avail as she always ended up in the same spot every time.
"Okay… what is going on?" she said to herself. She closed her one exposed eye, scratching her head. "Aw… this is frustrating!"
What did you do now, Ophelia? A voice spoke to her in her head.
"I didn't do anything! I swear! All I remember was arguing with that animal fucker, Havoc, and then I went to take a sip of my drink, and then the next thing I knew, I was here! Aw! Help me, sissy!" she begged the voice.
The voice let out a clear and distinct sigh and then said, I need you to pass through walls for us while we're here so that we can figure out where we are and how to escape. If I switch with you now and constantly switch back that will shoot both our mana…
"Aw! But I'm scared! Raeyney…" Ophelia whined.
Ophelia, please be levelheaded, Raeyn replied.
"Ugh, fine… but I just tried passing through all the walls here, and they all just lead me back to this same place. I can tell that the torch in his hall is the same. It has that distinct crack on the metal thingy that holds it in place—even when I go down the hall, I just end up back here! Ugh! I hate puzzles…"
Did you try sinking underground? Raeyn asked casually.
Ophelia blinked twice and put a finger to her bottom lip, "Uh… I was just about to try that… hehe."
Ophelia… Raeyn sighed and facepalmed sight unseen.
"Okee, I'll try right now, here we go…"
When she sank, the place below them was a labyrinth of stairs and hallways shifting constantly. Free-falling now, Ophelia squealed softly from the height she found herself in.
As she fell into what seemed like a bottomless pit, Raeyn spoke to her again, There! Land there, Ophelia!
"Okay, okay!" she said frantically.
She shot through a plethora of stairs and halls that warped every which way in what seemed like an endless loop, and then finally she landed in a knelt position, head faced down as the sound of her boots echoed in this large and dark space.
"Eeeek! This place is creepy, Raeyn! Was this really the place you wanted me to land in?"
It was the largest thing I saw in that heaping pile…
"Meaning!?"
I'm improvising.
"You mean to tell me you DON'T actually know where we're going!?"
Shhh… You hear that?
When Ophelia faced the direction Raeyn heard the sound, they looked into the darkness of the massive room they were in the middle of.
The sounds seemed like scurrying from something small, and behind it, there was the sound of trudging…
"What is—" Ophelia asked, but then she saw something come into view before she could finish her sentence.
What appeared through the darkness was a girl with purple and blonde ombre hair and gold-plated armor on her breasts and hips. And that sheer cape her Guild was known for…
"Go away, go away, go away, go away!!" the girl screamed.
"Isn't that…" Ophelia said, but stopped after seeing what appeared behind the girl.
When it came out of the dark, its large insect-like legs trudged behind. From the abdomen, a human head and torso protruded out of it like some humanoid beast. It had long, black wild hair as shadows covered its face, leaving only those haunting white eyes to be seen in the dark. Four humanoid arms came out of the torso, and the insect legs that shot out from the abdomen were massive. It looked like a centaur with a spider for a lower half and two humanoid upper halves. And it was quadruple the size of the girl with purple and blonde hair—like the stuff of nightmares.
"Go away, go away!!!" the girl cried. Her face, though she was clearly scared, looked almost comical as she ran directly in Ophelia's direction.
"Raeyn!" she said calmly, dashing afterward.
She became a blur, speeding past the girl and meeting the spider centaur where it was, clashing one of its massive spider legs with a long, exaggerated scythe.
It was gunmetal and glowed crimson darkness from its dramatic edges, curving wildly in sections. The scythe itself carried its own presence, especially when this girl held it—Raeyn.
Her shorter silver and longer purple hair fluttered as she stopped the attack effortlessly.
When the girl with purple and blonde hair saw her, she gaped and was stunned by her presence.
The clash recoiled them both a few feet away. And when the spider centaur landed, from the darkness to its side, a massive snake creature with wings on its head flew right into it, colliding with the spider centaur from its side.
As they watched the winged snake attack, a hand holding a kunai appeared from the shadows to Raeyn's neck.
"Love, are you okay?" the voice from the shadows asked, speaking to the other girl.
"I-I-I-I'm fine, Viper… but you don't have to do that to her… she saved me," Love said as the other two glowered at each other—Viper still in the shadows, her multicolored eyes of green, hazel, and blue piercing through the darkness. And Raeyn glaring over her shoulder past the kunai.
"That so?" Viper replied. "So then, who are you?"
Raeyn remained silent for a moment, keeping watch of the spider centaur as it wrestled with the winged snake ahead of them.
"I'm a Black Wolf," she finally responded.
"I see that. You're wearing the jacket… that wasn't what I was asking, though. I've never seen you before, but you look strikingly like that 2nd Exec Ophelia… Let me rephrase." She tightened the grip on her kunai and held it so close to the girl's neck that it poked. "What's your name and what are you doing here?"
"V-V-Viper!" Love confronted, waving her palms at her.
Raeyn looked back to the spider centaur and the winged snake, and when she saw them, the spider centaur had found its neck and bore its fangs into it. It hissed painfully, flailing as it did, ripping out its throat. Green blood splattered and puddled the ground below them.
Viper shifted her eyes ever so slightly at it, which was enough time for Raeyn to jet forward.
"Hey!" Viper shouted.
The girl dashed toward the spider centaur, swinging her large scythe to her left, dragging it on the ground and skidding as she drew closer to it.
Just as quickly, the spider centaur crawled over to her, and they exchanged heavy slashes one after another.
When she saw an opening, she swung her scythe down to its exposed side and made contact, however…
Figures… she thought, clicking her tongue.
The spider centaur swung its massive leg upward to her, and she backflipped away, kneeling as she landed back to Love and Viper.
When she witnessed it still intact and unscathed after that heavy slash, she realized this was no ordinary beast…
When the other two girls met her there, they both stood on either side of her.
"We can save the introductions for later," Raeyn said as she rose from her crouch and held her long scythe forward, pointing it to the odd creature.
"Let's take care of this thing first."