The flurry of bladed weapons struck Malloch relentlessly. Mana gushed out of him in streams, condensing into seven orbs around Rosaline before the excess dissipated into the air.
Malloch crashed to the floor with a thunderous thud. Dust and debris billowed up, shrouding the area as his body went limp—his skills forcibly deactivated by the onset of a Mana Down state.
"I-Is he dead?" The female Hunter beside Eugene trembled. She had never witnessed a battle this violent and was frozen in shock. "Should I... should I go help him?"
"Please check on him," Amalin said politely, though her lips were pressed thin as she stared at Malloch's broken form. "If you can heal him, do it immediately. We cannot let him die here, regardless of what happened."
The low-rank Hunter nodded, casting a bubble-like shield and a protection spell around herself for safety before cautiously approaching Malloch's body.
Rosaline stood still. She had expended a significant amount of energy, and the physical toll of resisting the electrical currents had left her body wracked with throbbing pain and numbness.
Noticing Rosaline's condition, Charlwind spoke to the man in the black cloak. "Mr. Alka, please check on Grey Hood."
Alka nodded and rushed to her side. Rosaline was still gripping her graphene ropes tightly, her muscles twitching and her legs shaking slightly from the aftereffects of the electricity.
"You'll die if you do that again," Alka remarked as he cast a healing spell on her. "That was incredibly reckless."
Rosaline didn't answer. In fact, she didn't even look at him. Her eyes were fixed on the fallen body across the room as if the battle weren't over. Her boots were sunken into the glass lava, which was slowly cooling and hardening, anchoring her graphene footwear to the floor.
Through her fox mask, her deep blue eyes focused on a specific spot on Malloch—a place where he was still bleeding.
The only severe wound was his knee, where she had fired the mana orb with such force that nearly half the bone and flesh had been vaporized.
The blood... seeping from the wound and dripping onto the floor... was blue.
"GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" Rosaline screamed, her voice echoing through the cavern and startling everyone.
The female Hunter froze. A second later, black lightning erupted from Malloch's body once more, snaking across the floor.
CRACKLE!
"AAAHHH!" the woman shrieked as her shield began to splinter and crack ominously.
"Ellia!" Eugene cried out her name, but he was too terrified to move.
Rosaline reacted, lashing her graphene rope around Malloch's ankle to ground the current once more. "Professor, get everyone out of here!"
Charlwind grit his teeth. "It's too late."
Rosaline watched the lightning surge up the walls and across the ceiling. The intensity was far greater than before, causing the cavern walls to melt into glowing orange liquid sand.
"Shields!" Alka and Ellia shouted simultaneously, deploying their skills to protect everyone from the molten floor, which had turned into a sea of glass lava.
"ARGH!" Malloch's skin blistered horribly before his body collapsed into the melting floor. As the sand-like floor liquified and turned into molten glass, the ground gave way.
As Malloch fell, Rosaline released her graphene ropes. To hold on would have been suicide.
Exhaustion finally claimed her. The throbbing pain and numbness returned with a vengeance, rendering her unable to move freely.
"See you all at the bottom," Charlwind said to those standing on the glass lava, just before the floor gave way entirely, plunging everyone into a darkness deeper than any they had ever known.
In that final moment, a sudden gust of wind rose up to cushion their fall.
…
…
Meanwhile, on the streets above, traffic remained gridlocked. Traffic police worked tirelessly to divert the flow of vehicles. Marvin's team, along with several low and mid-rank Hunters, secured the perimeter in case more De-vons emerged from the pit.
"Containment team, do you copy? Over," Marvin tried the radio. "You contacted me a moment ago. What's the status down there? Over."
He had heard Charlwind calling for him earlier and was trying to reconnect, but now there was only silence.
"Grey Hood, do you copy? Over," Marvin tried Rosaline. "If you can hear me, please respond. Over."
He attempted to reach every member of the team, but the result was the same. A sense of unease settled in his gut; even if Charlwind or Rosaline couldn't answer, surely someone else would have spoken up.
"What exactly is happening down there?" Marvin muttered, looking at the doll in his hand before deciding to call Commander Drake.
…
…
[Grey Hood, do you copy? If you can hear me, please respond. Over.]
Rosaline slowly opened her eyes as she heard Marvin's voice in her earpiece.
"Marvin, can you hear me? Over," Rosaline spoke into the mic. When he simply repeated the same words, she realized the truth. 'The magnetic field fried the equipment. Dammit.'
She stared into the absolute darkness, the sound of her own heartbeat deafeningly loud. Her hands shook as memories of the past bubbled up in her mind.
'No... it won't be like The Darkness. Stay calm,' she whispered to herself. She switched off the comms to save power and set her earpiece to GPS-only mode. While communication was dead, the positioning system was—luckily—still barely functional.
She pulled off her graphene gloves and boots, tossing them into her inventory. They were a mess, but unlike the ropes she had abandoned, they weren't beyond repair.
Rosaline hesitantly summoned her amber-headed staff. She clicked on a flashlight to scan her surroundings but sighed when the beam revealed almost nothing in the vast void.
"Activate Aeternum System."
The Hunter girl decided to tap into the power of Aeternum. It was a risk, but if she used only a small amount for a fleeting moment, her body should be able to handle it.
Her deep blue eyes turned crimson, and for a split second, the darkness was illuminated. she summoned a "Cold Glow Stick" and began to explore, dropping them periodically to mark her trail.
As far as her eyes could see, she was in a massive cavern riddled with branching paths. She hypothesized that this was the deepest part of the Gate Dungeon.
'The Key might be here. I can't be careless. I have to find the others first,' she thought. Suddenly, she felt a presence. Turning around, she saw someone holding one of the glow sticks she had dropped.
The person followed the light toward her. As they drew closer, she saw it was... Eugene.
"Grey Hood," the boy said, looking visibly relieved. "I'm so glad I found you."
Rosaline nodded and gave him a small smile. He was covered in grime, and a faint, fermented odor clung to him. She realized she likely smelled of bat guano as well.
"Eugene... don't even think about lighting a fire here. It'll be a disaster."
"Ah, right. I understand." Eugene managed a small laugh. Being near Rosaline made him feel safer than the terrifying trek through the dark. "Have you seen any of the others?"
"No. I thought I'd find someone nearby, but there was no one." Rosaline remembered Alka being the last person beside her before the fall, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"I see," Eugene said, falling silent for a moment. "Do you think... Malloch is dead?"
"I don't know. But... no one should die on this mission," Rosaline replied flatly. A suspicion flickered behind her fox mask. "...Are you and Malloch in the same guild?"
Eugene's eyes widened before he nodded.
"...Work is work. Personal matters are personal," Rosaline warned.
"Actually, Ellia and I are in the same guild. We're dating," Eugene confessed. "Malloch... he harassed her constantly. I..."
"Eugene. Work is work, and personal matters are personal. Let's get out of here before we discuss this further," Rosaline said sternly.
"...I'm sorry, Grey Hood," Eugene apologized. Then he asked, "Is that staff of yours an artifact?"
He was staring at the amber-headed wooden staff in her hand.
"Yes... why?" Rosaline asked, watching his expression.
"Nothing, Grey Hood," he said. "Let's go find the others."