Rosaline stopped again in the absolute darkness. Her ears caught a faint sound... the rhythmic, light fluttering of wings.
The others heard it too and halted instantly, but the sound vanished just as abruptly. Silence reclaimed the void, only to be broken by a soft pitter-patter of footsteps.
"Is anyone there? Can you hear me?" a voice called out from the dark.
"Ellia... that's Ellia's voice!" Eugene cried, swinging his flashlight toward the sound. "Ellia! We're over here!"
Rapid footsteps sprinted through the darkness before a girl emerged into the beam. Her face was deathly pale, her eyes wide with terror.
"Ellia... it's really you." Eugene rushed toward his lover immediately.
Rosaline watched with a surge of relief; they had finally found her. Now, only Charlwind remained.
"Wait...?" Edgar sensed something as he scanned the area, his eyes locking onto Ellia. "Rosaline, that thing..."
Before Edgar could finish, Rosaline was already bolting forward. "Eugene, stop! Get back!"
But Eugene, a Tracker with higher agility than a Support like her, reached Ellia first. "I'm so glad you're safe, Ellia."
"Eugene!" Rosaline roared. "Get away from her! That isn't Ellia!"
In an instant, the hopeful reunion dissolved into chaos. Eugene's eyes widened, and he instinctively lurched aside at her warning, even though he couldn't see the danger.
But it was too late.
"Eugene!" Amalin screamed.
A spray of blue blood erupted into the air. Eugene's gaze followed the arc of the fluid until it landed on... his own severed arm.
"ARGH!!!" The young Hunter shrieked, collapsing and rolling across the floor. He looked back at Ellia. One of her arms had transformed into a jagged, lumpy blade—a chitinous weapon with red filaments writhing from it, looking more like a biological growth than a tool.
"You... are so weak," Ellia (?) said in a flat, hollow voice before raising her blade-arm to parry Rosaline's downward strike.
Rosaline swung her amber-headed staff without hesitation, shouting orders. "Amalin, get Eugene! This is a De-von—a shapeshifter that can mimic human forms and voices!"
"Amalin, give me the wounded!" Edgar, in Adrian's form, shifted his burden. He swung the injured Hunter from his back to one shoulder, then hauled another wounded man onto his other shoulder.
With her hands free, Amalin charged in, grabbing Eugene by the collar and snatching up his severed arm. "Hang on!"
"Amalin..." Eugene stammered, his blue blood gushing onto the floor. He was on the verge of losing consciousness. Amalin winced at the sight of the gruesome wound.
"I've got him! Whatever you're going to do, do it now!" Amalin barked, summoning a baseball bat as a swarm of insects buzzed near. She swung with full force, splattering clear yellow fluid across the wood. "These damn bugs!"
Meanwhile, Edgar shrieked, spinning around violently to ward off the swarm. "Get away! Don't touch the wounded! Their meat isn't tasty! Edgar isn't tasty either!"
Rosaline gritted her teeth, ducking and weaving as the creature lunged with its blade-arms. She hesitated for a fraction of a second as her status window flickered.
[Mimicry formed from 'Algeda' Bat-Fly parasites][Level: Unknown]
"You're next," Ellia (?) whispered in a voice so perfect it sent shivers down Rosaline's spine.
"...Where is the real Ellia?" Rosaline demanded.
The creature didn't answer, closing the distance with terrifying speed. Rosaline parried a strike with her staff, the force nearly vibrating her bones. As the creature shifted its other hand into a blade to impale her, Rosaline saw her opening.
In a blur of motion, she pulled a liquid nitrogen grenade from her inventory and jammed it into the creature's maw. Simultaneously, she grabbed the incoming blade with her bare hand, using every ounce of her strength to halt it.
The blade bit into her side, but she held firm.
"Die, you bastard!" Rosaline roared, shoving the grenade deep into its throat and pulling the pin.
The creature tried to gag it out, the parasites within attempting to scatter, but it was too late.
BEEP!
Rosaline threw herself backward, shielding her face. The nitrogen grenade detonated, unleashing a flash of absolute zero.
Ellia's (?) upper torso froze instantly before tilting and shattering into a thousand crystalline shards. The lower half remained standing, but the wound revealed no blood—only a mass of finger-sized insects packed together, their tiny legs twitching frantically before the frozen structure collapsed. White mist swirled around the remains, the cold breath of the grave.
The remaining insects took flight, vanishing back into the impenetrable shadows.
"Good... that it wasn't the real one," Rosaline muttered through clenched teeth, her voice trembling. She felt a sharp itch in her side and on her hand.
Looking down, she saw tiny white larvae, thinner than a strand of hair, burrowing into her wounds.
"Aeternum System," she commanded.
As her eyes turned into blood-red moons, the parasites sensed the overwhelming, predatory mana. They shrieked in their own way, leaping from her flesh and scurrying away in a desperate bid for survival.
Rosaline sprayed her wounds with hemostatic foam. In this nightmare, the sight of her own red blood was the most beautiful thing she could see. She hurried back to the group.
"How's Eugene?"
"Fading. His blood is turning dark blue," Amalin said, shaking a can of spray. Eugene was clutching his stump, gasping. "And these huge white worms are crawling out of the wound!"
"We have to find the Professor," Eugene wheezed, his face ghostly.
Rosaline bit her lip, finishing the last of the spray on his arm. "Does anyone have a specimen box?"
Amalin and Eugene shook their heads.
"Ellia had one," Eugene whispered, realizing the irony.
Rosaline hesitated, then summoned a transparent box made of enchanted ice. It pulsed with a power that made Amalin and Eugene's skin crawl. She placed Eugene's severed arm inside, then turned to Edgar.
"Edgar, can you keep this safe?"
"How?"
"In yourself." Without waiting, she shoved the ice box into Edgar's stomach. "You're made of clay, aren't you?"
"Ah! Adrian's six-pack!!" Edgar cried out in a panic as the box phased through his clay body and settled inside his torso.
"Protect it with your life," Rosaline said. "Whether Eugene gets his arm back depends on you."
"Right! Understood!" Edgar, now burdened with two men and a box in his gut, looked ridiculous. Rosaline topped it off by embedding a high-powered flashlight into his clay forehead.
Amalin picked up the armless Eugene, carrying him as they prepared to move. But then, the sound of wings returned—louder, heavier, echoing from every corner of the abyss.
"Oh, hell..." Amalin cursed. Edgar's face went pale as the light on his forehead cut through the gloom, revealing hundreds upon hundreds of insects swarming toward them.
"Run! RUN!" Rosaline screamed.
They bolted. Amalin led the way with Eugene, followed by Edgar in Adrian's form. Rosaline stayed at the rear, her amber staff held tight.
"Damn it! I really have to use it now?!" Rosaline grumbled. she had wanted to save her mana for the dungeon's true master, but they were about to be buried alive.
She spun her staff and slammed it into the ground.
"Lost Alexandria!"
The stench of rot and sewage was instantly replaced by the smell of salt spray and a fresh sea breeze. The ground transformed into stone cobbles and shimmering water. Behind her, a colossal lighthouse of white stone erupted from the void, surrounded by high, circular walls. The darkness was pushed back by a vast, illusory ocean.
"Tower of Guidance."
Rosaline activated the domain's core skill. The lighthouse's beacon flared to life, sweeping a blinding, holy light across the cavern. The creatures of the dark, having never known such radiance, shrieked in agony. Those caught in the direct beam fell into a shock-induced stupor, twitching on the ground.
The swarm retreated into the fringes. But even this light couldn't reach everything. Far off in the lingering shadows, a gargantuan silhouette hovered.
It was a massive insect, its four segmented legs covered in thick, spider-like hair. It was as large as a two-story building. Multiple eyes, large and small, were embedded in its massive head, staring unblinkingly at the beacon.
"That... must be the one," Rosaline whispered.
The creature's oval head, covered in pulsating nodules, split into four jagged mandibles. Each was lined with rows of inner and outer teeth. Red, fleshy tentacles squirmed from its throat.
The De-von master exhaled a low hiss, its mandibles quivering as a guttural growl vibrated through the air.
"...Absolutely disgusting," Rosaline spat, her grip tightening on the amber staff.