Lyone walked away calmly, but the mont he turned a corner, his pace quickened. His hands clenched into fists.
The tunnels.
Damien had left them behind on purpose, but Lyone wasn’t about to let him shoulder everything alone. He wasn’t the sa boy he’d been when he first arrived at Delwig. Training with Apnoch’s squad, fighting beasts, learning to harness his courage—every step had carved steel into him.
And today, he’d prove it.
Instead of heading ho, Lyone veered toward the part where the breached tunnels had been sealed. The guards stationed there looked weary but alert, standing straight at their posts.
Lyone crouched in a corner across the street, heart thudding, mind racing. He didn’t have a plan, not yet. But he knew one thing with clarity sharper than any blade:
He was going after Damien.
~~~~~
The tunnels split like veins in the earth.
Damien stood with Apnoch and his squad at the intersection, a map of confusion carved into the stone. The path they had followed simply ended—flat, sealed rock where a tunnel should have continued.
Yet behind them, other passages had peeled open, jagged cracks splitting into narrow corridors that vanished into shadow.
"What in the hell is this?" one soldier muttered, pressing a hand against the dead end. It was solid stone, no trace of recent collapse.
"Not natural," Damien said, crouching. His fingertips grazed the ground, brushing against faint, burned markings that shimred briefly before vanishing. "The array shifted. The tunnels are... filling themselves."
"Filling themselves?" Apnoch repeated, brows drawn.
Damien’s gaze was cold. "It’s like they’re healing up. Getting covered once again. Soone designed this to trap intruders."
Even as he spoke, a tremor rippled underfoot. Dust drifted from the ceiling. Sowhere deeper within the maze, a sound rose—a chorus of snarls and pounding, like claws raking stone.
Then ca the first scream.
"Arghhh!!" A soldier’s desperate cry echoed through the labyrinth, bouncing until it felt as if voices ca from every direction at once. More shouts followed, overlapping, filled with panic.
Apnoch’s n stiffened. One swore under his breath.
"Move!" Apnoch barked, his voice sharp. "Follow the sound!"
They sprinted, boots slapping the stone, torches throwing wild shadows across the walls. The echoes made it hard to pinpoint the exact direction, but Damien sharpened his senses, closing his eyes briefly as he felt the vibrations through the ground.
"Left," he said, voice certain. "They’re collapsing under attack from the left path."
The squad veered as one, racing down the corridor.
Above ground, another story was unfolding.
Lyone had slipped past the distracted guards so minutes ago, determination fueling his steps.
How?
"Okay, Lyone. You can do this. Just focus. Damien said never to use it unless it’s important and this looks really important." Lyone tried to convince himself as he planned to head into the tunnels.
"Phew... Here goes nothing." Without another mont of delay, he consciously activated his talent allowing him to slow down ti to a large extent that the guards seed to have paused and then he moved without hesitation.
It was going to take a till on him but he didn’t mind it.
As ti remained still, Lyone made his way through the guards who couldn’t see him ass by.
Then it happened. A drop of blood trailed out of his nose. The backlash had co.
Stopping ti on multiple people? He’d never tried this but he could afford to disable it yet.
"Ugh!" Lyone grunted in pain as he leaped into the tunnel landing on his back and rolling further in so they wouldn’t see him before deactivating the skill.
As ti returned to normal, the guards returned to their duty of watching the tunnel, unaware that soone had already sneaked in.
The tunnel was damp, colder than he expected, the air heavy with sothing sour. Yet he pressed on after wiping the blood from his nose with one hand, the other hand tight on his sword hilt.
’I’ll catch up to Damien. I’ll prove I can fight beside him.’
That thought carried him deeper as he moved around the snaking tunnel paths with no idea where he was headed—until shapes blurred past him.
At first, Lyone froze. Three n, armor scratched, eyes wide, bolted from the darkness. Their faces twisted with terror as they scread for help, their voices ragged from shouting.
They didn’t even glance at Lyone. Just pushed past, stumbling toward the exit.
The boy’s grip tightened on his sword. What... what are they running from?
The ground answered before he could.
The tunnel quivered under his boots. A faint vibration at first, like distant thunder, then stronger, rattling loose stones from the ceiling. Dust filled his lungs.
From the shadows where the n had co, sothing moved.
Lyone’s breath hitched. Figures stepped into the torchlight, but they were far too large to be human. Their shoulders brushed the ceiling, their limbs twisted, claws dragging across stone. Their auras pressed against him like crushing waves, and beneath the stench of dirt and sweat ca the unmistakable taint of demonic essence.
Mana beasts. Corrupted. Mutated.
Lyone’s knees nearly buckled. He had fought against soldiers, sparred with Apnoch’s n, even faced down captured beasts in training—but these were different. These were alive, snarling, reeking of essence that scread violence, blood, and death.
’I can’t fight them. Not alone.’ His instincts scread louder than reason. Lyone spun and bolted, heart pounding against his ribs as he tore down the tunnel in the sa direction the fleeing soldiers had gone. His sword banged against his leg, useless weight at his side.
The tunnel shook harder as the beasts advanced, snarls rising to roars that made the stone vibrate. Lyone’s breath ca ragged, eyes darting for light, for safety, for anything.
And then he did the only thing he could think of.
"DAMIEN!" His voice cracked, echoing down the tunnels. "DAMIIIEN!"
~~~~~
On Damien’s side of the tunnel, the shout reached them faint but clear, bouncing through stone until every soldier heard it.
Apnoch skidded to a halt. "That was—"
"Lyone," Damien finished, his tone flat but eyes sharp.
Apnoch cursed. "What in the gods’ nas is he doing down here?!"
But Damien didn’t answer that question. "Go after the others. I’ll deal with this myself."
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