Chapter 26: You Just Had to Touch That
The enormous chamber fell silent.
Too silent.
No one moved.
No one breathed louder than necessary.
In the center of the altar, that gigantic figure covered in petrified roots still rested.
It looked like a statue.
A mountain with a human shape.
Motionless.
Asleep.
And yet...
It was terrifying.
Very terrifying.
Aurelion looked at the runes.
"Definitely not student-rank."
Darius snorted.
"You’re exaggerating.
It’s been asleep for centuries.
It probably doesn’t even work."
Kael crossed his arms.
"There’s always someone who says that right before they die.
It’s a universal tradition."
Aurelion nodded.
"Confirmed.
The statistics are worrying."
Darius rolled his eyes.
"Cowards."
Then he placed a hand on one of the runes.
Seraphina looked up.
"No."
Too late.
The rune glowed.
One.
Two.
Ten.
Hundreds.
The entire room began to shake.
Kael closed his eyes.
"Ah...
Of course.
Naturally.
You just had to do it."
Darius stepped back.
"That wasn’t part of the plan."
"DID YOU EVEN HAVE A PLAN!?"
The roots began to crack.
CRACK.
CRACK.
CRACK.
The altar split apart.
Two enormous golden lights illuminated the entire chamber.
The Ancient Guardian awakened.
The ground exploded beneath its feet.
Several students who had managed to get there screamed.
Some immediately stepped back.
Others summoned creatures.
Beasts.
Spirits.
Elementals.
The room filled with magical energy.
And the Guardian simply watched.
As if nothing mattered.
As if all of them were insects.
A voice resonated from within it.
Ancient.
Rusty.
Monstrous.
"Intruders detected."
Silence.
"Proceeding with elimination."
Kael pointed at Darius.
"This is all your fault."
"I couldn’t have known!"
"You literally could have.
There was a giant warning."
"I thought it was decoration!"
"You’re an incredible idiot.
And not in the good way."
The Guardian raised an arm.
The magical pressure spiked.
Aurelion frowned.
"Everyone back."
His Celestial Mirage appeared immediately.
The creature of light launched a burst of energy.
It struck the Guardian directly in the chest.
BOOM.
Dust.
Explosion.
Noise.
When the cloud disappeared...
It had done absolutely nothing.
Aurelion blinked.
"That’s new."
The Guardian didn’t even look at the Mirage.
It just kept advancing.
Ignoring it.
Completely.
Seraphina summoned enormous ice lances.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
The frozen rain descended on the monster.
CRASH.
CRASH.
CRASH.
Several struck.
Others exploded.
The result was exactly the same.
Nothing.
The Guardian kept walking.
Ignoring Seraphina too.
Kael felt a chill.
"Wait a minute.
I’ve seen this before."
Aurelion understood as well.
"Same as during our duel."
Darius looked confused.
"What does that mean?"
Then the Guardian attacked.
Not a summon.
Not the Mirage.
Not the lances.
Not the Fat King.
It attacked a student directly.
BOOOOOOOOM.
The blow destroyed half the platform.
The student barely managed to dodge.
Screams filled the chamber.
And then everyone understood.
The Guardian wasn’t fighting the creatures.
It was fighting them.
The summoners.
The intruders.
Kael paled.
"Oh.
That’s bad.
That’s very bad.
That’s extremely bad."
Aurelion nodded.
"Agreed.
Normally our monsters take the beatings for us."
"Exactly."
Another blow.
More destruction.
The ground cracked.
The giant roots broke.
Several students ran in terror.
"Retreat!"
"Call the teachers!"
"This wasn’t on the exam!"
Kael tried to summon several magical chains.
The chains appeared.
And disappeared immediately.
As if the dungeon had devoured them.
"What?"
He tried again.
Nothing.
Seraphina also frowned.
"My mana is being blocked."
Aurelion looked at the runes.
"Not just yours.
The whole room.
It’s a restriction field."
Darius’s eyes widened.
"Does that mean...?"
"That if our summons disappear...
We won’t be able to call them back."
Silence.
Now everyone was truly scared.
Because it meant something simple.
If a creature was defeated...
It was over.
The Guardian attacked again.
The students were barely surviving.
The Celestial Mirage tried to distract it.
The monster didn’t even look at it.
Seraphina’s lances didn’t work either.
Darius’s beasts roared.
The Guardian ignored them.
As if it knew perfectly well who the real threat was.
The humans.
Not their summons.
Kael looked at the Fat King.
Asleep.
Of course.
Asleep.
"Incredible.
Thanks for your moral support."
"Meow."
"No, that doesn’t count."
Another crash shook the room.
This time closer.
Too close.
The Guardian had changed its target.
And was walking straight toward them.
Kael.
Aurelion.
Seraphina.
Darius.
The core of the group.
"I don’t like that."
"Me neither."
"I definitely don’t like that."
The monster raised a giant fist.
The pressure made the air tremble.
For the first time...
Darius looked nervous.
"We’re not blocking that."
Aurelion shook his head.
"Or dodging it."
Kael looked at the size of the strike.
"Correct.
We’re going to die."
"Also correct."
Seraphina stepped forward.
"No."
Kael turned.
"What?"
Too late.
BOOOOOOOOOOM.
The blow descended.
Seraphina created an instant ice barrier.
A massive wall.
Bright.
Beautiful.
It lasted exactly half a second.
CRASH.
The barrier exploded.
The impact sent everyone flying.
Kael tumbled among the roots.
Aurelion crashed into a column.
Darius disappeared under a cloud of dust.
For a few seconds, no one heard anything.
Just a ringing sound.
Then...
"Kael."
He opened his eyes.
Seraphina was in front of him.
On her knees.
Breathing hard.
And then he saw it.
Blood.
A red line slowly running down her arm.
Another on her forehead.
It didn’t look serious.
But it was still blood.
Kael stood still.
Because until now...
Seraphina had always seemed invincible.
The Glacial Princess.
Number one.
The strongest student.
And yet...
She had just been hurt.
Protecting him.
"Are you okay?"
Seraphina blinked.
She looked at the wound.
"I think so."
"That didn’t sound very convincing."
"Mhm."
"Definitely not convincing."
Aurelion managed to get up.
"We have problems."
"Besides the obvious ones?"
"Besides the obvious ones."
The Guardian kept advancing.
Unstoppable.
Slow.
But unstoppable.
Like a mountain that decided to walk.
Kael looked at Seraphina again.
The blood was still slowly dripping.
And for some reason, that bothered him more than he expected.
A lot more.
Seraphina noticed his gaze.
"I’m fine."
"Yes.
But I’d prefer if you stayed fine."
She seemed surprised.
Just a little.
Very little.
But Kael noticed it.
And then something even stranger happened.
A small sound.
"Meow."
Everyone turned.
The Fat King was still sitting.
But he was no longer asleep.
His eyes were open.
Completely open.
And they were looking directly at Seraphina.
Then they looked at the blood.
Then slowly lifted their gaze toward the Guardian.
The entire chamber seemed to grow cold.
Even the Celestial Mirage took a step back.
For the first time since the battle had begun...
The Fat King was awake.
Truly awake.
And something in his eyes made even Aurelion swallow.
"Oh."
Kael felt a chill.
Because he knew that look.
He had seen it before.
Right before the top of a mountain disappeared.
Right before an Abyssal Beast was sent to another dimension with a slap.
Right before every disaster.
The Guardian took another step forward.
The Fat King didn’t look away.
"Meow."
This time it sounded different.
Annoyed.
Very annoyed.
And for the first time since they had entered the dungeon...
Kael had the feeling that someone had just made a gigantic mistake.
