Our footsteps echoed in the dark. For the nth time, I regretted not taking a torch from the sconces. The only thing warning me of Iruna's presence behind me was her labored breathing. Black leashed around my chest, squeezing my neck until there wasn't any air to reach my lungs. My own heartbeat pounded in my head, making blood swirl in and rush towards my limbs. Like it turned hyperactive after being inhibited for the longest time.

I looked behind me. Nothing but the darkness. Up north, the same scenery.

"You okay?" I asked Iruna whose presence was still heavy behind me.

Clothes rustled and soles tapped against the stone floor. Debris crunched beneath us. "Fine," she breathed. "I don't sense anyone behind us."

That's good. "How do you 'sense' a presence, anyway?" I wondered aloud. My voice bounced against the walls before the darkness gobbled it all up. "I'm still new to this whole magic thing, you see."

I could only imagine Iruna raising an eyebrow because of the inflection in her next statement. It could only have been intrigue. "How did you go so far in your career while being new?"

My shoulders jerked even though I was sure nobody would be there to see it. "Luck," I said. It's true. Everything I did and that happened to me in this world could all be ascribed to luck. Back then, I believed my destiny was something I could control. How did my mind change so much, to the point where I didn't even know who I was sharing a headspace with?

After I felt like I was walking in the dark for an hour, I stopped and turned. It was quiet. I strained my ears for any movement. "Iruna?" I called. No answer. What—

"I didn't think you'd make it this far," came Arzo's voice ringing from somewhere in the dark. My magic flared to life as my blade appeared in my hands. I turned. In the dark, it was impossible to tell which way was which. Where did I come from? Which direction was I going? Where was Arzo?

I wouldn't know. It was too dark. I needed light.

So, I prayed for one.

This time, it wasn't answered, even if through some twisted means.

Before I could react, the invisible chains snapped towards me, gripping my limbs and wrapping around my magic. He didn't need to utter the spell for me to know what it was. Skill lock. Combine that with the hold he has over my mind, making it malleable and sensitive to his orders, I was trapped.

I hated it more than walking alone in a dark tunnel. Even if said tunnel didn't have any light at the end of it.

Something rustled in the shadows. Footsteps other than mine crunched against the displaced debris from the ceiling and walls. "Now, be a good girl and head to the atrium," Arzo's voice was like silk against my ears. I clenched and unclenched my fists to find them unmoving at my sides, forever shackled. My feet followed the order and started moving backwards.

"To think you'd give me a hard time running through these tunnels," he chuckled, my own set of unwilling steps echoing along with his. "I'd say you're one elusive vixen."

Ew. I couldn't believe I ever thought we'd pass off as a couple, even if it's just to spite Rin. How much stupider could Hye-jin get?

If he didn't have a hold on my mouth, I would have ripped him to shreds with just my words alone. But it seemed like he had already learned his lesson from the last time we spoke.

Then, my body swerved into a corner I couldn't see. All the while, I focused on moving one of my fingers at least a twinge. Nothing happened. What could I do to loosen his hold on his magic? Kick him in the balls? I couldn't even see where he was. And I think he's keeping it that way because he knew I could still pack a punch even if I didn't have any magic.

Maybe. Never tried it. I had noodle arms back in the real world.

But I'd take my chances. I let my body relax, relishing in the foreignness of my movements. With half of my mind restricted, the rest focused on the sound of each of his steps and the rustle of his cloak and sleeves. Near. He's near. He couldn't be far.

As soon as he releases his hold on me, I'd ram him from behind. That was, if I figured out when and where he would remove his spell.

Perpendicular streaks of light emanated in the distance. A door! We're nearing a door. I hoped it led to a field where I could break into the maddest run I would do in my lifetime. Much to my chagrin, Arzo never relinquished an ounce of control back to me, even as he gripped the doors' ornate vertical handles and pushed them inside.

The motion swept a barrage of light straight into my eyeballs. After spending a long time in the darkness, my eyes felt like they're slapped by pure fire. A hand gripped my arm as dark spots began dancing in my vision. Something hard slammed against the back of my knees, forcing me down. My hands slapped the dusty marble floors, the cold seeping into my skin.

As my vision cleared, the ornate details of the room began creeping into the surface. We're in some kind of circular hall, giving way into a domed ceiling. From what I saw when Arzo first brought me here, this was in the dead middle of the temple.

The walls were bare. They must have been painted stark white but time and war peeled off the paint to reveal slate gray surfaces behind. Several pillars ran along the circumference, holding up the frieze depicting scenes from a mythology I wouldn't ever unpack in such a short lifespan. Standing in concentric circles towards the middle were marble stanchions. They could have contained a lot of artifacts and maybe magic items, but now, only dust and dead carcasses of insects sat on them.

All these led to a wide dais in the middle of the room where Arzo and I were. And on the floor...

My heart stopped at the sight of the faded purple runes painted on the edge of the dais. Lines ran in geometric patterns from one rune to another, burying me in a carpet of a web-like design. I would have gritted my teeth if I could, and urged my hands and legs to run fast if I could. Instead, I sat on my knees and my palms like a dog.

"Look at me, Seline," a voice latched on the nerves at the back of my neck, my muscles, and my eyes. Slowly, I raised my head and rested my gaze on Arzo's smiling face. He looked more like a nobody than someone who deserved a spot on the movie poster. A hand cupped my cheek. Revulsion crawled against my skin as my mind struggled to pull away from his touch.

From the sheath behind him, Arzo drew a knife. Its blade caught the light shining from the glass panes of the domed ceiling. Some of them were reduced to shards on the floor. He raised his hand with the dagger in it.

"With the loss of one life, another will rise," he said, more to himself than to me. The purple runes and lines around us started glowing brighter. If I could feel with my skin, I would say they began to burn. "With this sacrifice, I call forth the soul of Laela Betradis, the Greatest Monarch of the Western Tower. Answer my call and take this blood as your own, this soul as your own. I pray to you, to the Guardians of the Gates of Life. I summon you!"

If I had any control left in my body, I would have looked away or covered my head with my arms. But I couldn't do any of that. So, I saw how the blade sailed down, aimed towards my chest. I saw how it would have pierced skin, bone, heart. I saw how Arzo would toss me away like a discarded doll, convulsing as Laela's soul merged with mine.

I saw how I would cease as Joon Hye-jin. As Seline Nightfore.

Blood rained in the air. It wasn't mine.

"Hands off, prick," came Rin's voice bleeding into my ears. A cloak fluttered in my periphery as his shadow fell over me. When he looked over at me, his eyes were dark with something I could only attribute to anger. "You okay, Hye-jin?" he asked.

I could only nod, Arzo's hold on my faculties already ebbing into the recesses of my mind. Rin leveled his sword and smiled at me. "Let's get this son of a bitch."

Arzo clicked his tongue and braced his knees on his way up. "Kora," he said, not an ounce of respect left in his tone. To him, Rin was probably an annoying blunder more than actual threat. "That hurt."

I shot up, summoning my sword into my hands. "Here I thought you've lost all your senses," I said.

A wide grin spread in Arzo's lips. "And here I thought I own all of yours," he quipped.

I opened my mouth just as the chains of control sped towards me once more. Rin gripped my arm by the elbow. "This won't hurt," he said. "But it'd be annoying."

Before I could ask what's going on, he chanted, "Skill Lock."

The chains from Arzo bounced against Rin's. Now, a different set bound my magic and my skills, one that might be unhostile, but—Rin's right—annoying, nonetheless. "What's your plan?" I asked as Arzo lunged towards us, knife flashing in the air. "Do you have any idea what he is?"

Rin met Arzo's blade, never taking his eyes off him. Two against one seemed like a bad deal, and without my sword, I'd only get in the way. "I have my guesses," he said. "He's really not a spiria, right?"

"How about you clam your mouth and focus on me before I skewer you," Arzo hissed. He leaped back and extended his hand. Light burst from his fingertips, all black strands whizzing towards Rin. I've never seen that spell being used by anyone. Iruna's words flitted back to my head. Dark Magic.

Wait. What happened to Iruna?

"Where are you going?" Rin demanded as I picked my way towards the base of the dais, jumping past the short steps. Behind me, the semi-activated runes still glowed bright purple; they were almost white. Rin grunted as he dodged another one of Arzo's attacks. The stone underneath their feet crunched and cracked as the black tendrils hit it instead.

I looked around for some kind of weapon I could swing around since my blade was inaccessible at the moment. "I'm looking for a friend," I yelled back. Lights flashed and male voices yelled and exchanged tirades. Metal and magic crackled like a stoked fire. "Release your skill!"

Something whizzed in my periphery, followed by a series of stanchions toppling over each other and breaking into an explosion of shards the moment a man slammed into the first line. Rin's eyes could never stay on me as he whirled, bringing his sword up just as Arzo beamed from the sky, dagger and magic whips flashing with both the sunlight and the glow of the runes.

"Can't!" Rin shouted, scrambling out of the way as at least five tendrils sped towards him, knocking over more stanchions and embedding their tips into pillars when they failed to catch him. "That's how he controls people. Locks their abilities first and then uses his thingamajig to get them to follow him."

Yeah. That made sense. I remember Arzo locking my skills first before controlling my senses. I looked around the room. No sign of yellow-green hair dancing between the stanchions. So, Iruna wasn't in this room. Where was she then? Did she get out? If she did, that meant there was a way out of here and she found it.

I clenched my fists, grateful to Rin I still could. Should I try and figure out which door Iruna might have taken? Also, why did she leave me alone in that tunnel? Was it because she sensed Arzo calling and she needed to save herself first? Wow. Brutal. But she did tell me about the hidden tunnel behind my cell.

Wait. Did she just use me? And like a fool, I believed her, thought of her as a pleasant acquaintance. Not necessarily a friend, but my point stood. "She's not here! She might have found a way out," I yelled over the noise of men just bashing the hell out of each other.

"I have the way out!" Rin shouted as he slashed his sword in a wide arc. If we're doing this in real life, it couldn't have been this serious. "It's through that door," he jerked his chin in a vague direction before cursing as Arzo bore down on him. "Go! I'll buy you some time."

I nodded and dashed towards the doors flung open by Rin's entry. How come I hadn't noticed them before? When I looked behind me, the one we emerged from from the tunnels was closed, like they're accomplices in hiding whatever's going in this room.

To put it simply: human sacrifice. Well...spiria sacrifice, if we're being political.

I was about to reach it when the floor liquefied into pools of shadow. The roar and the unmistakable stench of wet fur filled the air. A shadow fell over me, forcing me to crane my neck up to a netherbeast as big as the dome itself. Mammoth tusks gleaming against the runes' purple glow sped towards me. And were those...tentacles?

That's right. Whipping past the tusks were a barrage of fleshy ropes filled with suction cups down on one side. "What the f—"

Whatever's coming out of my mouth was cut off when I ducked to avoid one of the tentacles from sucker-punching me into oblivion. I wouldn't want to find out how much it'd hurt, so I covered my head with my arms and scrambled underneath the beast. Surely, it couldn't lick its own bum. Right?

Wrong.

A tentacle wrapped around my ankles in a wet splotch. My world blurred and time stretched on to forever as I felt my body whip across the space between its legs. "Kora!" I screamed, half-blind from the nausea pulsing at the base of my neck and half-choking from the force of leaving my gut from where the beast grabbed me. "Release my skills. Now!"

"Can't!" Rin answered, his voice muffled by both Arzo's barrage and the beast's roar. Something wet and slimy whisked into me. Ew. Ew. Ew. "I know you're dying to, but—"

He stopped, sensing the gravity of the situation. Arzo's smug chuckle floated to my ears as he and Rin crossed weapons with a large clang. My world whirled once more as the tentacle around my ankle tightened. My hair fell into a curtain over my head when it brought me closer to its mouth where a thousand sharp fangs awaited for a taste of me. I could only wonder how I would taste to the beast. Like cardboard, I hoped. Should teach it a lesson to not eat defenseless spirias.

Rin's cursing turned thicker and more frequent as Arzo's chuckles developed into full-blown laughter. Of course. It's a stalemate. If Rin withdrew his magic, Arzo's would replace it, meaning he could re-start the ritual once more.

The beast's edged me over, opening its mouth as if it's savoring the anticipation of eating a grape. I groaned as I folded up, clawing at the grip around my ankle. My nails scratched something like stone and rubber melded into one. In short, I was doomed.

Then, the tentacle loosened. Ha! I did something. I was sure of it.

I began falling.

Into the beast's waiting mouth.