The moment Lyra's blade struck the shifting creature's core, she felt it fracture—and reform.
Again.
It never truly died.
It merely reshaped.
A blast of crystallized mana detonated in a circular shockwave, sending her skidding back across the fractured floor. Frost bloomed across the ground in her wake, quelling the worst of the explosion.
"Saria—" she gasped through gritted teeth.
"I see it!" Saria yelled, leaping upward. Her halberd crackled with burning kinetic light, splitting into afterimages as she twisted in mid-air and slammed it down.
The abomination reacted faster than either of them expected.
It wasn't a beast. It wasn't even a weapon.
It was memory given shape—a dungeon's wrath. A guardian. A curse.
And now it had both of their combat signatures imprinted into its ever-shifting form.
Lyra dodged a spike of copied ice crashing toward her, then retaliated with a precise flick of her wrist. A volley of frost blades burst from her cloak, seeking weak points. None struck true. The creature melted into mist—reappearing behind Saria.
The halberd-user didn't falter. She twisted mid-spin, planting the butt of her weapon into the ground and launching herself sideways as a cascade of spectral chains lashed out toward her.
She rolled once, hard, then pushed back up. Her breath was ragged.
"It's learning too fast," she said between gasps. "Our attacks are fueling it."
Lyra landed beside her, cloak torn and face smeared with ash. "Then we stop feeding it."
"Meaning?"
Lyra's eyes flicked toward the shifting terrain around them. The chamber pulsed. Metallic ruins flickered, half-phased in and out of existence. They were standing inside something alive—aware. Even now, the ground twisted like it was reacting to the fight.
"If we hit it harder, it'll evolve," Lyra said. "But what if we hit it smarter?"
Saria exhaled slowly. "Use its mimicry against it?"
"Exactly."
Before either could speak again, a new wave of pressure rippled through the room.
It didn't come from the creature.
It came from above.
Lyra paused. "You feel that?"
Saria frowned. "Yeah."
A cold, familiar echo resonated through the sealed corridors they had come from. Not hostile. Controlled. Intentional.
"Mana signatures," Lyra muttered, eyes widening.
"…It's them," Saria said softly. "The others."
Another quake rolled through the chamber—not from the monster's attack, but from something deeper. Like a door closing… or opening.
The abomination shrieked as if it, too, sensed what was coming.
It shifted erratically now. Less confident. Less precise.
Saria narrowed her eyes. "It knows it's about to be outnumbered."
Lyra smirked, frost dripping from her fingertips. "Then let's keep it busy until they get here."
The two charged again—not recklessly, but with precision.
Saria pivoted around the creature's lunge, striking its joints with half-force bursts designed to destabilize, not destroy. Meanwhile, Lyra layered the floor with thin sheets of freezing glyphs—traps woven in delicate arcs.
The creature adapted, yes—but it didn't think.
And this time, they used that.
Each time it mimicked Saria's enhanced strikes, it triggered one of Lyra's frost runes—delaying it just enough for the next trap. It became a rhythm: provoke, predict, punish.
Still, they were tiring.
Their auras dimmed. Blood trickled from cuts reopened. They weren't designed for long-term duels against adaptive foes.
But they held.
Because now, they weren't alone.
From behind them, through the trembling corridor, came a sudden flare—a brilliant pulse of elemental energy that exploded through the far wall.
Stone shattered.
And through the dust stepped Theron Kaelis—sword in hand, cloak swept back by the force of his arrival.
Behind him, Veyra, Elric, and Galen emerged in practiced formation.
"About damn time," Saria barked, sliding back to regroup.
Theron didn't miss a beat. "You two held this line alone?"
Lyra gave him a tight nod, brushing frost from her lashes. "It's not a line. It's a furnace."
Galen analyzed the creature instantly. "It's echoing their abilities."
"Then let's give it something new," Elric said, raising his staff.
The air ignited with overlapping auras as all six guild masters now stood in a circle around the shifting creature.
The monster paused, uncertain for the first time.
Lyra raised a hand. "Aim to restrain. It's tied to the dungeon's will. Kill it wrong, and we collapse this entire ruin."
Theron nodded. "Form the star."
Without needing further instruction, they moved.
It was an ancient formation—once used to suppress mana beasts too powerful to destroy. Six points. Six guild masters. One intention: containment.
The creature screeched—now less a hunter, more a trapped animal.
It lunged.
And the fight truly began.
They didn't know how long the battle lasted.
Could've been minutes. Could've been hours.
When the dust finally settled, the creature lay motionless—dispersed into shards of inert mana and fractured memory. Saria leaned on her halberd, chest heaving. Lyra knelt, one hand pressed to the cold floor as frost slowly faded from her veins.
Theron stood tall, blade lowered.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Then Veyra exhaled. "We good?"
Galen nodded slowly. "It's done."
"No." Elric was staring at the far end of the room. "It just began."
They followed his gaze.
There, behind where the creature had been anchored—stood a door.
Not of stone.
Not of relic metal.
But of light.
Flickering.
Waiting.
The final layer of the dungeon.
No longer sealed.
No longer dormant.
Calling.
Lyra rose to her feet slowly, frost trailing from her fingers.
"So," she whispered, "what now?"
Theron looked at each of them, gaze settling on the doorway.
"We finish it."
End of Chapter.
Thank you for reading.
(A/N):Hey guys, it's been a while! I've been caught up with work, which is why I haven't been able to upload any chapters recently.