"That ans running back up those stairs to the surface imdiately. If we don’t, we’ll be buried alive. And even if we survive the collapse, we’ll still be trapped here, and those listone stairs won’t hold up either."
Addison could hardly doubt Zion, after all, he had always been the one most fascinated with architecture. His reminder made her realize the problem as well. Whoever built this place must have anticipated all of this from the very beginning.
It seed they would be forced to choose: save the Dark Fairies or save the Light Fairy. The logical choice would be to rescue the Light Fairy first, purge the Night Walkers, and leave the Dark Fairies buried here for eternity.
But the more Addison thought about it, the more it didn’t feel like the true intention of the one who created this prison. If their goal had simply been to destroy the Dark Fairies, why hadn’t they done so long ago, especially when they had a Light Fairy on their side?
Why go to such lengths to build this prison and even use the only Light Fairy left as the Core Source of the barrier?
Perhaps there was a deeper purpose behind all of this. But now wasn’t the ti to unravel the mystery. Shoving her questions aside, Addison ordered everyone to spread out.
Elric stood behind them, chanting the incantation to extract the Dark Fairies. Addison positioned herself near one of the pillars, ready to smash it to pieces, while Maxwell, Levi, and Zion took their places at another.
Once they destroyed the orb in front of them, they planned to move swiftly to the next pillar and shatter that one as well.
They would need to control their strength carefully to avoid crushing the Dark Fairy inside like an insect. The three had volunteered to take on two orbs each, confident their agility would make it possible.
Addison, knowing she couldn’t match an Alpha’s speed in her current condition, didn’t argue. As long as they accomplished the task, she was willing to let them work as they saw fit.
At Addison’s signal, the four of them struck. Orbs shattered under their blows, and in the sa instant, Maxwell, Zion, and Levi darted to the next pillars to destroy the remaining ones.
Elric, having just completed his incantation, acted swiftly, shielding the Dark Fairies inside the orbs from the first impact. As the tiniest cracks began to form, he wove a small protective barrier around each fairy so that when the real force of the strikes ca, they remained unhard.
Even so, Maxwell and Zion still held back so of their strength, wary of accidentally breaking Elric’s mini barrier.
When the spell reached completion, threads of light extended from Elric’s hands to the seven shattered orbs. At the end of each thread, a small bundle of light ford, enveloping a Dark Fairy.
They had succeeded!
But before they could celebrate, a deafening cacophony of shrieks erupted from above. None of them could explain how the sound reached them underground, but they all felt it, an oppressive wave of dread crashing over them again and again.
The Night Walkers were coming!
On Lance’s side, the barrier the mages had conjured was already flickering, threatening to collapse at any second. One mage had already vomited blood from overexertion, while the Night Walkers grew increasingly violent, slamming into the shimring barrier with relentless force.
Holding it together was putting unbearable strain on every mage; it was only a matter of ti before it gave way.
And then, in the final mont, the barrier shattered. The Night Walkers surged forward, yet before they could strike, the mages crumpled to the ground, unconscious, leaving no one to defend the group.
But instead of attacking, the Night Walkers let out a piercing, furious shriek. The sound crawled under their skin, making their eardrums feel like they were about to burst. Many of the guards dropped to the ground, clutching their ears in agony.
Just when they thought it was over, but the Night Walkers... vanished.
Lance noticed the fog seed thinner, though it could have been his imagination. His knees threatened to buckle, his vision blurred into doubles, and his head throbbed like it had been struck. His eyes struggled to focus as a crushing dizziness threatened to drag him into unconsciousness.
On Addison’s side, they now faced two threats: the incoming Night Walkers and the danger above their heads. The mont the orbs shattered, the ceiling rumbled, and dust rained down on them.
"We don’t have much ti. What’s next?" Zion asked, snapping everyone back into focus.
"We need to remove the diums placed by the Dark Witches centuries ago," Addison replied. "Each one still carries lingering malevolent energy. If we touch it barehanded, it will cling to us."
She followed the bundles of light tethered to the threads from Elric’s hands as he gently set the Dark Fairies on the ground near the Core Source. Once he released them, he withdrew his magic, and Addison stepped forward.
"Here, use this." Zion handed her a pair of leather gloves. Luckily, he always made a habit of carrying them. He passed another pair to Maxwell, Elric, and Levi as well. The more hands they had working, the faster they could remove the diums.
Addison slipped on the leather gloves, though they were far too large, crinkling awkwardly around her small hands, the fingertips hanging loose past her own. Still, she had no choice but to make do.
Her gaze settled on the lump of dark mass on the ground. There was no trace of a fairy’s form—only sothing that looked as if it had been smothered in charcoal dust. The black haze writhed and curled over its body like mist, obscuring every feature. She couldn’t even make out its wings.
Finding the dium the Light Fairy had spoken of proved harder than she’d imagined... until she noticed a dark red stone peeking out from within the swirling black shroud. From its placent, it seed to be part of a shackle clasped around the fairy’s feet.
"Here..." Addison pointed toward it. The others had been struggling to spot the dium, and with the rumbling above growing louder, they didn’t have a second to spare.
Zion, Maxwell, Levi, and Elric all leaned in for a closer look. It wasn’t imdiately obvious—just a faint glint of dark red half-hidden in the swirling haze—but now that Addison had pointed at it, they could make out the stone peeking through. At least they now knew where the dium was anchored.
They reached for the fairy’s feet, fingers fumbling through the ashy mist, groping for the object by touch—
Shriek!
A furious shriek tore through the air behind them, and when they looked over, they saw the Night Walkers were forcing their way toward the room. The light radiating from the Core Source kept them at bay, but it didn’t stop them from pressing closer, their screeches echoing off the walls.
The sound was agonizing. Addison winced, her head pounding, each shriek slicing through her concentration. Her heartbeat quickened, panic clawing at her chest. The noise seed to dig into her mind, rattling her thoughts until she felt dizzy and unsteady, as if the Night Walkers’ voices could attack her very sanity.
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