Chapter 250: Necros Osiris
February 9, 2012
11:18 AM — Dungeon Gate Entry — Group 7 (Wildcard)
(Kaiser Everhart)
The heavy stone gate groaned shut behind us, plunging the staging room into the damp, moss-scented darkness of the dungeon.
I looked down at the Lumina in my hand.
The screen glowed faintly, projecting the blue architectural grid of the first floor. It was an incredibly crude build. Designing a multi-spectral mana-radar using scrap metal and off-the-shelf academy circuitry was pretty hard to construct as a beginner engineer. But it came out better than expected, even with its inherent flaws.
Hopefully nobody finds the diesel-powered antenna system inside the casing... I thought, sliding my thumb over the bezel. Or else my reputation is going down the drain. They’re gonna call me prehistoric.
"Listen up." Axel said.
He stood in front of the corridor, his great-axe resting on his shoulder. Static electricity crackled along the blade.
"I lead. You follow. Do not get in my way."
I didn’t say anything. I just adjusted the daggers on my belt.
"That’s not how a team works." Scarlet argued, her voice tight with anxiety. "We need a standard rotation. If we run into an ambush—"
"I am the ambush." Axel interrupted, his voice dropping into a harsh, aggressive growl. "You’re just here to not die. Stay in the back with the dead weight."
He glared at me. I offered a mild, agreeable nod.
Scarlet looked like she wanted to argue, her hands gripping her staff, but the sheer hostility in Axel’s posture made her swallow her words. She stepped back, aligning herself slightly in front of me.
We moved forward.
Floors 1, 2, and 3 were completely empty. Not a single monster in sight. The corridors smelled like ozone and burnt ash.
Then we reached Floor 4.
The cavern was massive, but the threat level was non-existent. A cluster of crawler-monsters and gargoyles were pinned helplessly to the cavern walls, bound by glowing, sticky ropes of frozen starlight. They thrashed and hissed, completely immobilized.
Scarlet blinked in confusion, but raised her staff.
She fired a rapid volley of ice shards and high-pressure water bullets, executing three crawlers and two gargoyles in quick succession. The dungeon’s internal registry chimed, logging her credits.
Before she could target the next one, Axel rushed past her.
"Thunder Cleave!" he roared.
He swung his heavy axe in a massive, sweeping arc. Lightning erupted from the steel head, chaining across the cavern wall. He slaughtered the remaining twelve monsters in a single, brutal combination of electric magic and heavy melee strikes. The pinned monsters didn’t even have a chance to defend themselves before they were reduced to smoking chunks of stone and carapace.
Scarlet dropped her staff, her eyes wide with outrage. "We are supposed to share the credits!"
Axel turned around. Sparks jumped off his shoulders.
"He doesn’t need any," Axel said, pointing the tip of his axe directly at my chest. "He can take the leftovers before the boss room. Right now, I need them more."
"Why?" Scarlet demanded.
"I have a deal with Elfina," Axel said, puffing his chest out. "If I secure my place in the top individual creditors, she promised to add me as a friend on the DIS. That way, I can message her freely. So don’t get in my way."
I looked at him. Then I looked at the smoking remains of the monsters.
Welp, I thought. I suppose I won’t be getting more than ten credits today.
We kept walking.
Floors 6, 7, and 8 were identical. Dozens of monsters, perfectly pinned to the walls with constellation ribbons. Easy, helpless prey.
Axel stole every single kill. He dashed ahead the moment we entered a room, spamming lightning strikes and heavy axe-blows, roaring about his true power being unleashed on stationary targets. Scarlet barely managed to snatch the scraps, firing water bullets to secure her minimum quota before Axel could obliterate the room.
"Why are there so many trapped?" Axel muttered, kicking the corpse of a gargoyle. "Pathetic. The dungeon is handing us easy prey."
I stared at the glowing, slowly melting ribbons of starlight ice.
Elfie must’ve trapped them all specifically for me, I deduced, doing the math. But at this rate, I literally won’t be getting any credits.
I turned around, scanning the empty corridor behind us.
A single, weak slime monster was wriggling near a cracked floorboard, having somehow avoided the initial sweep.
Hmmm. Better get at least one credit in this entire exam.
I walked over, drew my standard-issue dagger, and stabbed the slime in its core. It popped into a puddle of harmless blue liquid.
"Yay," I said in a deadpan tone. "One credit."
Just as I sheathed my dagger, the cavern shook.
A rogue spawn. The dungeon’s anti-camping mechanic had triggered. A pack of six armored shadow-wolves dropped from the ceiling vents, completely untethered.
Axel’s eyes lit up. He immediately abandoned us, charging straight into the center of the pack to fight the largest, strongest Alpha wolf, completely ignoring the other five that instantly lunged toward the backline.
Toward me.
Scarlet moved.
She didn’t wear armor, but she was an Elf. She didn’t run; she glided, her gravity magic allowing her to skate across the stone floor with zero vertical oscillation. She stepped right in front of me.
The first shadow-wolf lunged for my throat.
Scarlet didn’t panic. She raised her hand, projecting a massive spike in localized gravity directly over the wolf’s spine. Gravity-Pinning. The beast slammed into the floor, its own momentum crushing its ribs against the stone.
She followed up seamlessly, weaving elemental ice to impale a second wolf, while manipulating the earth to raise a jagged wall that deflected the third. She fought silently, shielding me completely from the chaotic melee.
Thank you, Scarlet, I thought, standing perfectly still with my hands in my pockets, as if I couldn’t protect myself.
A minute later, the cavern was quiet again.
Axel was standing over the crushed skull of the Alpha. Scarlet was breathing heavily, her staff glowing with residual mana.
She turned to me and pointed at the corner. One shadow-wolf was left, its back legs crushed by an earth spike, whining pathetically.
"Hey," Scarlet panted. "This one is wounded. Kaiser, you can take it."
I took a step forward.
A flash of blue lightning struck the corner. Axel’s axe came down, decapitating the wounded wolf in a shower of sparks.
"Finders keepers," Axel sneered, ripping his axe out of the stone. "Too slowpoke."
Scarlet’s calm demeanor shattered.
"Are you insane?!" she yelled, stepping toward him. "He needs the credits to avoid expulsion! You already have enough!"
Axel’s expression darkened. He hoisted the heavy axe, stepping into Scarlet’s personal space. The air crackled with aggressive, volatile mana.
"Watch your mouth, Elf," Axel warned aggressively. "Or I’ll make sure you don’t walk out of this dungeon."
I stepped forward, placing myself smoothly between Axel’s crackling axe and Scarlet’s trembling staff.
"My bad," I said, keeping my voice flat and completely devoid of challenge. I looked at Axel. "She’s just on edge. Let’s keep moving. Boss room is next."
Axel snorted, lowering his axe. "Know your place."
He turned and marched toward the descent.
We followed behind him in silence.
As we approached the entrance to Floor 10, I stopped.
The air was wrong.
Dungeons possessed a specific atmospheric pressure—a damp, heavy mana signature that tasted like stagnant water. But the air rushing up from the 10th floor was completely sterile. It smelled like burnt ozone and pure, structural vacuum.
The environmental mana has been completely stripped, I deduced, looking down the dark stairwell. As if it’s been manipulated and subsequently erased by some sort of extreme, violently chaotic magic.
I thought of Elfie’s innocent, sunny smile right before we entered.
I let out a slow sigh.
Well. Not like I’ll be doing anything anyway.
We descended into the cavern.
The Hydraveil was waiting. Or rather, it had already respawned. Its five heads thrashed in the center of a blackened, cratered room.
"Out of my way!" Axel roared, launching himself off a stone pillar. "This boss is mine!"
He swung his lightning-wreathed axe wildly. Scarlet glided into the fray, her grimoire humming as she cast elemental ice shields to deflect the Hydra’s acidic spit.
I didn’t attack. I didn’t even draw my weapon.
I simply ran. I stayed strictly on the perimeter, ducking under a sweeping tail and casually sidestepping a lunge from the right-most head. I didn’t use mana. I just read the monster’s kinetic telegraphing—the slight shift in its shoulder muscles before a strike—and moved exactly a half-second before the attack landed.
"Stop running around like a coward!" Axel shouted, deflecting a bite with the shaft of his axe. "Do something useful!"
"I’m distracting it!" I yelled back, feigning panic as I lazily parried a stray claw with the flat of my dagger.
Scarlet slid in front of me, raising a jagged wall of earth to block another acid volley. "Stay behind me, Kaiser!" she panted, her forehead slick with sweat.
I stood behind her earth wall, my breathing perfectly even. I watched the Hydraveil thrash.
Hmm lemme reason a bit...
The Hydra regenerates its heads when severed.
What biological mechanism triggers the regeneration?
Standard reptilian biology combined with mana-infused hyper-cellular division. When a head is severed, the violent severing of the spinal cord sends an emergency distress signal to the monster’s core, initiating a massive mana-dump to rapidly rebuild the lost tissue.
Regeneration is an evolutionary contradiction. It requires massive metabolic energy, triggered only by a specific trauma signal. If you cut the head off, it regrows. But what if you don’t cut it? If you strike the aortic arches at the base of the necks with blunt force trauma, crushing the arteries without breaking the skin or severing the spine, you cut off the blood and oxygen supply to the brains. The heads asphyxiate.
Because the heads are still technically attached, the spinal distress signal is never sent. No regeneration occurs. The monster dies of internal hemorrhaging and brain death within 60 seconds.
What shall I do? Oh I know! Let’s watch the idiot.
Axel laughed, his axe surging with electricity. "Too easy!"
He leaped into the air and brought his blade down in a brutal arc, cleanly slicing off the center head.
The stump spurted black blood for a fraction of a second before the wound boiled with violent mana. Tendons snapped together, scales crystallized, and within four seconds, a brand new head erupted from the stump, hissing furiously.
My theory was spot on. The clean severing triggered the response.
I looked at the daggers and short-sword on my belt. I could step in, use the hilt of my sword to crush its arteries, and end this fight in exactly one minute without using a single drop of magic.
Nah... Leaning casually against the earth wall. Revealing my physical capabilities for a few mere credits isn’t worth the headache.
"Get out of the way!" Scarlet yelled.
She abandoned her defensive stance, her elven grimoire flipping pages rapidly. She tapped into her gravity manipulation.
"Gravity Reversal: Zenith!"
The localized gravity beneath the Hydraveil inverted. The massive beast shrieked as it was forcefully ripped off the ground and thrown fifty feet into the air, slamming violently against the cavern ceiling.
As the spell broke and the monster plummeted back down, Axel’s eyes widened with manic glee.
He planted his feet, gripping his axe with both hands. As the Hydra fell into his range, he unleashed a horizontal tornado of lightning. The sheer force of the electrified blade cleaved the falling beast cleanly in half through its torso.
Before the two halves could hit the ground, Scarlet fired a concentrated beam of absolute zero frost, flash-freezing the severed stumps and all five heads in a block of solid, shimmering ice.
Axel didn’t waste a second. He leaped up and brought his heel down on the frozen block, shattering the Hydra’s core into a thousand pieces of glittering dust.
The dungeon clear tone rang out.
I stood far away, near the entrance of the cavern, brushing some imaginary dust off my shoulder.
Well. It was fun while it lasted...
Time to face the criticism back up top.
But the atmosphere in the room didn’t lighten.
"What is that?" Scarlet whispered, her voice trembling.
From the shattered remains of the Hydra’s core, something was crawling out. It was a parasite. It was the size of a large dog, violently purple, covered in pulsing veins and dripping with a thick, acidic sludge. It didn’t belong to the dungeon’s ecosystem. It looked entirely foreign, corrupted.
It shrieked, a high-pitched, metallic sound, and lunged.
"Axel, move!" Scarlet screamed.
Axel panicked. He swung his axe like a baseball bat, striking the parasite mid-air. He didn’t kill it; he simply deflected it.
He batted it directly toward Scarlet.
Scarlet threw her hands up, projecting a dense elemental water barrier. But the parasite didn’t crash into it. Its purple flesh rippled, phasing cleanly through the magical shield like a ghost.
It latched onto Scarlet’s forearm, sinking its jagged teeth deep into her flesh.
"AHHH!" Scarlet shrieked, a raw, agonizing scream that echoed off the walls. She collapsed to the stone floor, thrashing violently.
I didn’t think. I sprinted.
I crossed the room in two seconds, dropping to my knees beside her. Her wrist was rapidly turning a sickening shade of dark purple, the poison visibly spreading through her veins.
Axel rushed over, his axe raised high. "I’ll chop it off!"
"Stop!" I barked, grabbing Axel’s forearm with a grip that felt like steel. He froze, startled by my physical strength.
If he slashed it while its teeth were embedded in her veins, the physical trauma would cause the parasite’s venom sac to rupture, dumping a lethal dose directly into her bloodstream.
The parasite finished its bite, disengaging its jaw as it prepared to scurry away into the shadows.
I let go of Axel’s arm. "Kill it."
Axel brought the axe down, splitting the purple creature in two.
The moment it died, its blood splashed across the stone floor, instantly melting the solid rock into a bubbling, acidic crater. A few drops hit the edge of Axel’s axe, sizzling as they ate into the reinforced steel.
"What the hell..." Axel muttered, stepping back in horror.
I ignored him. I looked down at Scarlet.
She was weeping uncontrollably on the floor, clutching her arm. The puncture wound was deep, and the purple discoloration was creeping past her elbow, burning her skin.
I stared at her blankly. My mind was rapidly processing the variables.
Then, the cavern floor violently jerked beneath us.
A massive, deafening explosion rocked the ceiling. Huge chunks of stone began to rain down around us. The dungeon wasn’t just shaking; it was collapsing. A chain reaction of structural failures was rippling down from Floor 1, tearing the dungeon apart.
I scooped Scarlet off the floor, throwing her over my shoulder without hesitation.
"Run!" I shouted, pointing toward the only intact corridor at the back of the boss room—the descent to Floor 11.
"What the hell is going on?!" Axel screamed, looking up at the collapsing ceiling.
"Go, or you’re dead!" I warned, sprinting full speed toward the dark stairwell.
Axel didn’t argue. He ran.
We threw ourselves down the spiraling stairs just as the ceiling of Floor 10 completely caved in, sealing the exit with thousands of tons of crushed stone and dirt. A cloud of thick, suffocating dust blasted past us.
We were trapped on Floor 11.
I set Scarlet down gently against the wall. She was still whimpering, her face pale, the purple poison slowly coursing through her elven physiology.
I stood in the darkness, looking up at the caved-in ceiling. My expression was perfectly blank, but my mind was running at terminal velocity.
An unknown, highly-lethal parasite injected into a boss monster. A structural collapse immediately sealing off the exits right after we clear the floor.
I narrowed my eyes.
This is too coincidental. The dungeon didn’t malfunction.
Someone was targeting our group.
---
Perspective: Asier Yeshe
I sat on the wooden bench outside the primary academy pavilion, staring out at the distant, glittering expanse of the Celestine Sea.
My expression was perfectly blank.
The dungeon’s architecture was a basic foundational arch. Its structural integrity relied entirely on the continuous atmospheric pressure generated by the ambient mana of the monster population. A simple counterbalance system.
If you wanted to collapse it, you couldn’t just blow up a wall. The magic would repair it.
However. I reasoned, tracing the horizon with my eyes. If you sanitize every single floor—completely erasing the mana output on Floors 1 through 10—and if someone were to put a trapping system on the last floor, that can simultaneously trigger an explosive anti-magic vacuum on the lowest load-bearing level, the structural pressure inverts.
The ceiling wouldn’t just fall. It would be violently sucked down by the vacuum. It was a perfect, untraceable structural collapse that required absolute, meticulous manipulation of the environment’s baseline mana. Someone would have to engineer the collapse perfectly to look like an accident.
It was a brilliantly Machiavellian strategy.
I looked up at the slow-moving white clouds.
Are you truly 000981?
If so, you will survive a falling ceiling.
If not, then Class C will lose three students today.
---
Perspective: Ivy Faerydae
I sat by the edge of the Moonpetal Gardens, my legs pulled up to my chest.
My strawberry ice cream was melting, dripping sticky pink trails down the side of the cone and onto the grass, but I didn’t feel like eating it. I just watched it melt.
My heart felt heavy. A terrible, crushing weight pressed against my chest.
Was doing that really necessary? My crystalline wings drooping sadly behind my back.
[ "It was essential, my sweet child." ] The voice didn’t come from beside me. It echoed directly inside my mind. A god-like presence that smelled of blooming jasmine and ancient forests.
Sylaphine Blossom. The Fairy Sovereign.
[ "Do not let your gentle heart weep for the necessary moves on the board, Ivy." ] Sylaphine’s voice murmured, a soft caress against my soul. [ "Class A was an open book. I had my eyes firmly planted there. However... even with my sight and foresight, Class C was pulling stunts that fell entirely out of my predictions." ]
I swallowed hard, staring at the melting ice cream. You mean the dungeon practicals, Mother?
[ "Indeed. Elfina Lunaris’s orchestrated speech and calculated victory in the previous exam sounded far too fantasy-like. And now, a device like the ’Lumina’..." ] Syla’s voice carried a hint of cold amusement. [ "That requires high-tier Dwarven engineering skills. A celestial girl engineering something like that is entirely off the table. Someone is pulling the strings." ]
Is our plan going to work? I asked quietly.
[ "Unfortunately not," ] Syla replied, though she didn’t sound angry. [ "My original trap was set for Elfina. However, her otherworldly-level thinking allowed her to survive." ]
I blinked, my eyes widening in shock. What?
[ "The Lumina and her spells were otherworldly-level thinking, Ivy. Which is why she survived the trap. Her battle with the boss was marvelous—she nova’d the entire floor. The parasitic poison planted inside the beast had no chance to latch onto her before it was turned to ash." ]
I let out a shaky breath.
[ "However," ] Syla continued, her tone shifting to something more calculating. [ "The dungeon respawned the anomaly. The next group to enter was their wild card. It contains Axel, Scarlet, and her little underling... I believe his name was Kaiser." ]
I looked down at the grass. My chest tightened painfully.
Was it right to set a trap like that, Mother? They won’t be able to live...
[ "It was essential to trap Elfina." ] Syla reaffirmed gently. [ "But since she escaped, one of those three will be trapped instead." ]
I shivered. How does the poison work?
[ "It is a beautifully complex creation." ] Syla explained, the pride evident in her soothing tone.
[ "I engineered the ’Necrotic Phage.’ It is a biological fusion—a prion disease crossed with a necrotic mana-virus. Once it enters the bloodstream, it forcibly rewrites the victim’s mana channels to attack their own nervous system. It paralyzes them, burns their skin purple, and slowly stops their heart." ]
She paused, letting the weight of the design settle.
[ "And because I artificially laced it with a residual Draconic mana signature, the academy will blame the Dragonics for the corruption. The fairies will remain entirely unseen." ]
I wiped a stray tear from my eye. Why is it incurable? Can’t they just use high-tier healing magic?
[ "Because, my sweet child," ] Syla’s voice dropped, carrying a heartbreaking, absolute finality, [ "To cure it is to rewrite the victim’s soul. Whoever is inflicted will die. Only I can cure it with my fairy blessings and sovereign healing magic. Nothing else can heal it, not even the greatest healers in Asura. If the greatest minds of this generation worked together, it would take them over a decade to solve the chemical structure." ]
A tear finally spilled over, trailing down my cheek. It’s too cruel... I feel so bad for whichever one of them got bitten.
[ "Do not weep," ] Syla soothed. [ "Even if our main target survived, Class C will lose one student today. And that is a good enough victory for us." ]
I looked up at the sky, the heavy clouds slowly rolling over the academy.
Thank you, Mother. I thought softly. I will inform you the final results after the exam ends.
The soothing presence in my mind slowly faded, leaving me alone on the grass.
I stared at the puddle of pink ice cream by my shoes.
An incurable poison... that takes a person’s life regardless of their magic...
---
Perspective: Elfina Lunaris
"What do you mean the floors collapsed?!" I screamed, my voice echoing sharply across the Evaluation Hall.
I stood in front of the primary dungeon portal, my hands balled into tight fists. My heart was hammering so violently against my ribs I thought it might shatter them.
Instructor Sukuna, the demon homeroom teacher for Class B, let out a raspy, exhausted sigh. He was dressed in his usual sharp black business suit, looking entirely annoyed that he had been called in for an emergency.
"It’s an anomaly." Sukuna muttered, tapping the glowing screen of his academy tablet. "We’re trying to see if the three of them survived the cave-in. Screaming isn’t helping, kid."
Kai didn’t survive? The thought slammed into my brain like a physical blow. No. No. No.
I couldn’t stay calm.
Leena stepped forward from the huddled, terrified crowd of Class C students. She placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Elfie, you need to stay calm—"
I shrugged her off roughly, turning my frantic gaze to our homeroom instructor. "Aisha! Answer me! Where is he?!"
Aisha was pale, her usual warm demeanor completely absent as she furiously punched codes into the portal terminal. Behind her, the rest of Class C was a mess of emotions. Milo was glaring at the gate, Roman was pacing nervously, and the others were whispering in tense, fearful gossip.
The heavy double doors of the hall slammed open.
Columbina Olyvra and Theodor Russell strode in. Columbina looked regal and serious, her dark hair flowing behind her white Class A robes, while Theodor’s booming, muscular presence immediately commanded the room.
Columbina approached Aisha and Sukuna. "Three students are stuck beyond the threshold." she stated clinically.
"Then remove the rubble!" I demanded, taking a step toward them. "Dig them out!"
Sukuna glared at me, his red eyes flashing with irritation. "Shut up. We can’t."
"Why not?!"
"Because it’s impossible." Sukuna snapped, rubbing his temples. "The structural integrity is compromised. If we use magic to forcefully move thousands of tons of enchanted rock, the entire cavern network will trigger a cascading collapse and crush them instantly."
Theodor raised a massive hand, calming the irritated demon down. He turned to me, his voice booming but surprisingly gentle. "Best case scenario, they managed to outrun the collapse and made it to Floor 11. We can use the emergency instructor array to teleport to Floor 20, then clear the path upward and pull them out safely."
A fleeting sense of calmness washed over me. They can teleport to him.
"Do it." I said, my voice trembling. "Right now."
Columbina stepped up to the primary teleportation stone embedded in the wall. She raised her hand, channeling a massive surge of pure Elven mana into the crystalline surface. The stone glowed a blinding white...
And then it violently shattered into a thousand jagged fragments.
All the instructors froze in shock.
"The receiving gate..." Columbina whispered, her piercing blue eyes wide.
Rigel stepped out from the crowd of students, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "What if the teleporter was damaged in the collapse?"
"Impossible." Theodor boomed, shaking his head. "Nothing from Floor 20 can damage an emergency gate. The material bypasses conventional magic entirely."
"What if a stronger monster broke it?" Rigel countered calmly.
Sukuna rapidly tapped his tablet, scanning the mana residuals of the dungeon network. He stopped, his sharp-toothed jaw tightening.
"The kid is right."
I took a step forward. "Are they okay?!"
"Floor 30 is also broken." Sukuna stated, his raspy voice dead serious. "The only functioning receiving gate left is on Floor 40."
"Then teleport there and climb up!" I yelled.
"That’s unreasonable." Theodor argued, his expression grim. "The distance between Floor 40 and Floor 11 is longer than a week on foot. As the dungeon layers go deeper, the volume and complexity of the environment grow exponentially."
Columbina closed her eyes, placing her hands flat against the stone wall of the portal. Her Elven sensory magic rippled outward.
She opened her eyes. "I sense an alarming monster presence at Floor 20."
Sukuna looked up from his tablet. "The Floor 40 boss has escaped its gates and climbed its way up."
Columbina swallowed hard. "It’s Necros Osiris."
I stepped back, my breath catching in my throat. I demanded they do something, but the instructors fell dead silent, their minds racing as they processed the nightmare.
I looked down at the Lumina in my hand. The screen was completely blank. It couldn’t track anything beyond Floor 10.
Rigel stepped beside me, his voice low and analytical. "Dungeon ecology shifts past Floor 10. The monsters down there possess advanced intelligence. They form hierarchies based on pure strength. It’s called a Predation Cascade—weaker monsters follow the strongest apex predator to survive."
He adjusted his glasses, his eyes filled with dread. "A Floor 40 boss... that’s easily an A-rank to S-rank category threat."
"Rigel is right." Theodor confirmed grimly.
Leena touched my arm again. "Elfie... Talk to me... are you okay?"
Around me, the students erupted into terrified gossip.
Kai is down there.
The realization didn’t hit me all at once; it seeped into my chest like cold, suffocating poison.
To the rest of the academy, he was just a weak, talentless boy who barely managed to scrape by. But to me, he was the only one who kept me from drifting into the dark. If he died... if he was torn apart down there, alone in the pitch black...
No. No, no, no.
He has no magic. He has no defenses. He can’t fight an S-rank monster.
A horrific image flashed in my mind—Kai, pale and broken on the damp cavern floor, calling out my name while some rotting, massive beast loomed over him. The thought made my chest spasm, a physical pain so sharp I almost doubled over. The walls of the Evaluation Hall seemed to tilt, the voices of the gossiping students fading into a distant, muffled hum.
I won’t let it happen. I will not lose him. Not to a monster, not to this dungeon, not to anyone.
My breathing turned shallow and frantic, each gasp hot and dry in my throat. My vision blurred, stained with a rising, violent shade of violet.
A sickening, absolute terror gripped my heart, and then it snapped into something raw and possessive. The ambient mana in the room didn’t just warp; it screamed. The air pressure plummeted, making the ears of nearby students pop, and the overhead magic lights flickered and buzzed as tendrils of raw, unfiltered celestial mana began to bleed from my skin. My eyes, usually masked in a harmless, friendly blue, cracked.
The illusion shattered, revealing their natural, glowing, neon-pink depth—wide, unblinking, and entirely wild.
If the teleporters are broken, I’ll tear a new path. I’ll rewrite the spatial coordinates. I’ll fuse celestial gravity with elemental fire to rip a hole directly through the bedrock. I don’t care if the entire dungeon collapses into a black hole. I don’t care if I collapse the school above us. I will reach him first, and the rest of this place can burn to ash.
The pressure of my leaking mana was getting heavy enough to draw the instructors’ attention. Sukuna’s head snapped toward me, his hand reaching for his side, and Aisha gasped.
But then, a memory slipped through the chaotic noise of my mind.
It was the quiet warmth of our orphanage. A hand gently patting my head, smoothing down my messy hair. I could almost hear his dry, slightly amused, and entirely steady voice right next to my ear.
"Elfie, when you overthink, your head gets hot. Calm down."
The memory hit me like a splash of ice water.
I froze. The chaotic, thrashing torrent of pink mana hovering around my shoulders stalled, then slowly, agonizingly, began to sink back beneath my skin.
I closed my eyes, taking a deep, shuddering breath. I forced the violent celestial energy back into its container, lock by lock, until the air pressure in the hall normalized and the lights stopped flickering.
When I opened my eyes, the panic was gone. The wild, frenzied look had vanished, leaving only a cold, razor-sharp focus.
My eyes remained their true, luminous pink, refusing to take back their false blue disguise.
I stared at the shattered remains of the teleportation stone.
I will find a way to reach him.
He belongs to me.
Not even death can take him from me.
