"Ready....."
Asylia signals with her hand, crouching beside the wall and moving forward. Her movements barely make a sound.
Her eyes beneath the suit lock onto one particularly dark spot on the ceiling.
She could make out a faint outline of something hanging upside down — like a gecko clinging to stone.
It was slowly moving across the ceiling as well.
*Three.*
*Two.*
She counted the distance to her attack under her breath, measuring each moment with quiet precision.
To be honest, she wasn't entirely sure she could take it out in one clean strike — but they had no choice.
In the dimness, her hand gradually straightened. An invisible aura gathered at the tips of her fingers.
*One.*
The instant the word formed in her mind — as if something had felt it — the creature hanging upside down on the ceiling went erratic, twisting its body toward whatever it had sensed.
Although Asylia didn't get a clear look at it, she could see it shifting into a posture like it was about to jump.
*I was caught?*
A chill crept up her spine before she could stop it. She had always been confident in her ability to move unseen — the kind of quiet that left her peers genuinely wondering where she'd disappeared to. But whatever this creature was, it wasn't playing around.
Its legs contracted like a frog's, coiled and ready to drop the next second.
Then a flash of light bloomed behind her.
Serein.
A strange trail of cold air curved through the darkness in a sweeping arc, elegant and precise. In a blink it struck something on the ceiling — a sharp crack rang out, ice forming mid-air, followed by a muffled burst of force.
As if struck by something physical, the creature was wrenched from the ceiling and slammed into the ground, making a horrible, wet, struggling sound as it tried to get back to its feet.
"Got it!"
In the brief light of the icy burst, Ren finally saw what they were dealing with — a person, or something shaped like one, with six limbs. Because it had turned toward them, he could see the wide serpentine mouth and the horrible, blood-red eyes staring straight at them.
*We need to kill this thing.*
The thought settled in him the moment he met its gaze. Those were the eyes of something that craved carnage.
---
**Whoosh!**
Asylia moved in fast, using the brief window while the creature was half-frozen to close the distance. Her figure plunged into the darker stretch of corridor like a meteor cutting through a night sky.
**Swoosh!**
Her arms blurred, sweeping through the air in front of her with clean, controlled motion.
"Elysian Wing Style — Silk Wings Sweep."
She whispered it softly beneath the suit. The center of her eyes held a faint luminous glow as her focus sharpened to a single point.
It moved like a butterfly weaving between branches — light tracing its path as it passed.
"Argkk!!"
A harsh scream tore through the corridor and felt like an invisible knife being driven into Ren's ears.
The six-limbed creature had tried to block with one of its arms. But how could it have expected to stop a strike like that? The impact tore through the limb cleanly — flesh and bone parting as if they'd simply decided to — and the remaining force carved a gaping wound into its chest.
Looking closer, something like a heart was beating rapidly beneath the exposed tissue, and the surrounding flesh was already trying to close around it.
The creature snapped. It wrenched its ruined mouth open wide and let out a scream, lurching at Asylia like a mad animal, completely ignoring the wound. Its rash movement sent blood spraying in every direction, dark and strange — the droplets didn't fall the way blood should. They clung to the walls, moving faintly like living things, slow and deliberate.
Whatever they did, it couldn't be good.
Fortunately, the suit kept it from reaching her skin.
Seeing this, the others moved in to back her up.
Ren aimed the strange energy — aether, they called it — into the space between Asylia and the creature. This power he'd only recently acquired gathered at his fingertips in a transparent shimmer, like compressed water or displaced air.
*Pff!*
A small, transparent bullet wove through the air and struck the creature's raised arm. Because of the talent *Unity* feeding into his aim, it landed with surprising precision — better than he had any right to expect given how little time he'd had with any of this.
"Aether Bullet."
**Splash!**
The impact knocked it off balance with a force that seemed disproportionate to what he'd released.
It screamed in sharp annoyance — then went quiet.
A flash of cold light swept past, and without ceremony, its head was separated from its spine, dropping to the ground like a kite with a snapped string.
Even as it fell, the ferocity in its eyes didn't leave. It dimmed slowly, and Ren couldn't tell if it was his imagination, but even in death those eyes seemed to be looking straight through him.
He turned away.
"Okay. Let's go."
Serein said it quietly, already moving. The cold glow at her fingertips faded silently into nothing.
She didn't waste another moment.
"Hey — keep up."
Asylia nudged him with her elbow, pulling him back to the present. Ren pulled his gaze from the creature's body and fell into step behind them.
The fight hadn't been loud, and it hadn't been long — but it had been enough. Somewhere further down the corridors, things had heard it. Faint screeching and distorted, grinding roars filtered through the dark from the other ends of the hallway, alongside the sound of something getting closer.
**Thud.**
In just a few seconds the stillness was gone, replaced by a pressure in the air that made Ren's heartbeat climb without his permission. The sense of urgency moved through them like a current, and their pace quickened without anyone having to say it.
"We're almost at the stairs."
Serein kept her voice low enough that only they could hear.
As they rounded the corner, Ren could make out a dark passage opening in the wall ahead. Their steps slowed instinctively — no one wanted to rush into whatever might be waiting on the other side.
Serein closed her eyes and held still, listening.
"I can't sense any movement."
She opened them and shook her head.
"Stay alert."
Asylia studied the passage for a long moment before stepping through first. Ren followed, scanning the walls around him.
Stone on all sides. Stairs winding upward. The same bioluminescent glow as the rest of the building — but dimmer here, and patchy. In some places it had gone out entirely, as if something had gutted the light deliberately. What remained felt oppressive, like a darkness that was actively consuming what little glow was left rather than simply existing alongside it.
*Better to have no light at all than this.*
The visibility wasn't zero, but it was close enough to feel that way.
"This place gives me chills," he muttered.
He thought briefly of the suit's features, then remembered — no night vision. He'd have to work with what he had. Fortunately *Unity* had sharpened his senses enough that he wasn't completely blind; he was managing, even if barely.
**Thud!**
Something slammed hard against metal directly above them. The sound hit before he had time to brace for it, and the group froze in place.
"What is it?!"
Through the dimness he could make out their silhouettes — both girls had gone still, exchanging signals with their hands.
"*Ren.*"
"Hm?"
One of them turned back toward him — Asylia, he could tell by the slight difference in height.
"Don't make any noise. Follow our lead and read the situation."
She whispered it softly, one finger raised in a quiet, deliberate *stay still*.
He nodded and swallowed whatever question had been forming.
The silence stretched. Then it came again — softer this time, but rhythmic. Footsteps, somewhere above, making their way down toward them.
As the sound grew clearer, something else arrived with it.
Even through the suit's filter, a foul smell managed to reach him — vague but unmistakable, like meat left to rot in a closed room. It violated something instinctual.
Ren quietly activated the suit's air filter. Outside air cut off; the suit's own oxygen cycled in. The mask pressed smooth and cool against his mouth, and the breath that followed felt clean — surprisingly clean, like stepping outside into open air. It helped more than he'd expected.
He brought his focus back.
In the dimness above, a foot appeared on the stairs. Huge, with an unusual bumpy silhouette that made his skin prickle.
Ahead of him, he could feel both girls tensing, the same quiet coiling he'd seen before a strike.
Then a second sound came — from behind them.
They all flinched.
Out of the corner of his eye, something was creeping along the wall from the direction they'd come. Long limbs gripping the stone like a gecko, moving in near silence except for the occasional low, rasping shriek that raised the hair on the back of his neck.
*Fuck.*
One look was enough to understand what was happening. The sound of their earlier fight had drawn it. Now they had something descending from above and something closing in from behind — a cliff in front, a beast behind.
Fear moved through him, but under it, something else stirred — fiercer, quieter, and harder to shake.
*He wasn't going out without a fight.*
Then a hand closed around his wrist.
"What do we do?"
A voice, barely above a breath, beside him — edged with something it was trying hard not to show.
Ren turned. Both girls had drawn close to each other in the dark, standing shoulder to shoulder. The one who had spoken was Serein. She was composed on the surface, but the way she said it gave her away.
Strangely, it steadied him. It should have made the situation feel worse — hearing that anxiety in her voice — but instead something in him went quiet.
*They're just kids.*
He felt it then, clearly, for the first time. Her grip on his wrist. The way they'd pressed together. He'd been so caught up in the competence they moved with that he'd stopped noticing the age underneath it — two children caught in the middle of something terrible, holding themselves together through sheer force of will.
"Asylia, should we—"
I kept my voice just low enough for us to hear.
The creature descending from the stairs had already come close, but hadn't reacted to our presence — it seemed like neither of them could see well in the dark.
Looking at the silhouette above, something moved in my mind — a dangerous, calculated thought.
"*Ren?*"
Serein lifted her head toward me. I couldn't see her face, but I could feel her surprise at the direction my thoughts had gone.
Two creatures of unknown strength. Engaging them when we had another option would be reckless.
"Just let them pass."
Asylia had already read the situation. She signaled behind her without turning — *stay still, stay quiet.*
I hesitated for a moment, then let it go. The energy I'd been quietly gathering at my hand dispersed as I slowly lowered it.
*Oh well.*
I closed my eyes slightly, focusing on keeping every part of my body still as the creature from the stairs came within a few meters of us, its footsteps heavy in the quiet.
Then — movement at the edge of my vision.
**Bang!**
Something hit my helmet with a force that rattled my skull like a struck bell, and my sense of direction came apart completely. My body slammed hard into the wall before I understood what had happened.
Pain arrived like a wave — deep and blunt, the kind that makes you wonder what's broken.
"Arg!"
I couldn't get my bearings. The world was sideways.
"*What—?*"
"*Ren!*"
Their voices reached me through the ringing, sharp with alarm. A distorted roar erupted somewhere close. Through the cracked edge of my visor I caught glimpses — the two of them already moving to engage the creature from the stairs, and behind them, the long-limbed thing from the wall drawing closer.
*Fuck.*
I pushed against the floor, trying to get upright. My head felt wrong — heavy and slow, like thinking through water.
*I need to get up. I need to help them.*