The air in the deepest chamber of the ruin was heavy, thicker than the gloom that clung to the ancient stone walls. A sharp tang of magic pulsed faintly, the kind of old, latent energy that never truly faded from places like this. It set Ellie’s teeth on edge as they stepped into the vast chamber, the flickering torchlight barely reaching the ceiling high above.

“Do you feel that?” Liora whispered, her voice barely audible over the echo of their footsteps. “It’s... suffocating.”

Ellie nodded, trying to steady her breath. “It’s the magic. We’re not alone down here.”

Something moved in the shadows.

“What was that?” Hannes’s voice broke the silence, higher-pitched than usual. He gripped his staff tightly, eyes darting around the chamber.

“Stay calm.” Keldric stepped forward with his sword drawn. “Whatever it is, we face it together.”

But Ellie could feel it before she could see it—the slow, deliberate stir of something enormous. It was not the simple, aimless magic of a ruin’s traps. This was alive, sentient, a beast drawn from the heart of whatever dark history this place held.

“Do you sense it too, Ren?” Ellie asked quietly, her heart hammering in her chest.

Ren’s eyes were wide, unfocused as he scanned the room with his magic. “Yes... It’s ancient... powerful. And it’s waking up.”

The adventurers fanned out, their hands at the ready, magic gathering in the air around them like coiled snakes.

And then it emerged.

From the shadows lumbered a creature of impossible proportions, a grotesque fusion of stone and sinew, its body slick with the wetness of underground depths. Its eyes, glowing a sickly green, fixed on them with a mindless hunger. Spikes lined its ridged back, and its maw opened to reveal teeth like jagged rocks.

“Stonebeast!” Liora hissed. “Be careful, its hide is nearly impenetrable!”

Nearly. That was not a comforting word.

Hannes and Keldric launched themselves forward without hesitation, their weapons flashing with enchanted light. Spells flew—fire, frost, even a shimmering arc of pure force—but the Stonebeast hardly flinched. It lumbered toward them, each step making the ground shudder beneath Ellie’s feet.

She felt rooted to the spot, panic wrapping around her like a vice. This wasn’t like the smaller traps or the accidental stumbles. This was a monster, something that wouldn’t care that she wasn’t a real mage, that she had no idea what she was doing.

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The others were calling to her, their voices a mix of alarm and expectancy. They thought she could help. They thought she would help.

A wild idea surged in her, a desperate hope: if she could just stay out of its way—just once more, escape unnoticed—

But fate, it seemed, had other plans.

In her attempt to step back, Ellie’s boot caught on a loose stone. The floor was slick with moisture, and in one graceless movement, she stumbled backward, arms flailing. Time seemed to slow as she tried to right herself, but the heel of her boot caught on something again, and this time, she pitched forward.

Her hand shot out, grazing the floor—no, a protruding stone in the wall. The ancient ruin groaned in response, and before she could even think to let go, she heard the unmistakable rumble of shifting rock.

It happened in an instant. The ceiling, already precariously weathered by centuries of decay, began to collapse. Huge slabs of stone came crashing down like the jaws of some ancient, forgotten deity, and Ellie, half-sprawled on the floor, could only watch in horrified disbelief.

The beast roared in fury. But it was too late. The falling stones thundered down onto its massive body, pinning its limbs and crushing the sickly glow from its eyes. Its roar turned into a gurgling whimper before it fell silent, its body still beneath the mountain of rubble.

For a heartbeat, there was only silence. The dust settled, the ruin was quiet, and Ellie, frozen where she had fallen, could hardly comprehend what had just happened.

Then came the cheers.

“Did you see that?” Hannes shouted, his voice echoing off the stone walls. “That was incredible!”

Liora rushed over to Ellie, her face alight with wonder. “You—Lady Liddell, you triggered the ceiling collapse! You knew the ruin’s structure was unstable, didn’t you? I didn’t even see you cast anything!”

Ellie blinked, still sitting on the cold floor, her thoughts a scattered jumble. She hadn’t cast anything. She hadn’t even known about the ceiling. She had just... fallen. But there was no explaining that to them now, not when their eyes gleamed with awe and admiration.

“I... thought it might help...” The words fell from her lips before she could stop them.

“That was brilliant!” Keldric clapped her on the back with a force that nearly sent her sprawling again. “You saved us all!”

Ellie stood shakily, brushing dust from her trousers, trying to find her balance again in more ways than one. The Stonebeast lay buried beneath the rubble, and with it, perhaps, the last shred of hope that she could leave this ruin unnoticed, her incompetence unremarked.

No. Now she was the woman who had brought down a Stonebeast with nothing but a glance at the ceiling, a hidden prodigy who saw through walls and traps, who wielded power beyond their understanding.

Her head throbbed, and her limbs felt weak as she followed the others out of the chamber, their voices filled with praise. They couldn’t stop talking about it. About her.

“Did you see the way she moved?” Liora turned to Hannes. “I’ve never seen someone so in tune with a place’s magic. And that spell—was it some kind of advanced earth-magic? A structural weakening spell?”

“I don’t know.” Hannes shook his head in disbelief. “But whatever it was, it saved us. We’d never have made it out without her.”

Ellie said nothing. She couldn’t. Her mind was reeling with how absurd, how utterly absurd, the whole thing had become.

But she also knew, with the sinking certainty of someone falling through a trapdoor, that she couldn’t stop it now.