The two figures lorded over us from the hole in the mountain, even though the difference in their mana was night and day. One of them—the leaner one—they were the weaker of the two. I could barely sense their presence.

The one beside them was the problem…I’m confident of it now. The feeling in my stomach that wouldn’t pass over, was because of that thing. It nearly doubled once they arrived, once I felt it in person.

An enormous pillar of black mana poured out from their body and rose into the air like an erupting volcano. That kind of power wasn’t something a human could produce. At least not a human I’ve ever heard of.

The smoke cleared and we got a good look at who was challenging us. I’m sure my face must have resembled a ghost after seeing her. A figure I could never forget, her radiant looks were unmatched.

“Well, I see that we have you all together now. That makes this easier~” She stated.

The angelic voice of a demon entered my ears, clear as day. She was up there yet I could hear her perfectly fine as if she were standing right in front of me.

“Rei…I’m seeing things right? That can’t be here can it?!”

There was a real look of panic in Arga’s eyes, understandably so. She got hurt pretty badly trying to fight Ilinore last time.

She was beyond tough, a nightmare on two feet.

Arga’s hands shook at her sides, she tried clenching them into a fist but it wouldn’t hold. She was terrified!

I felt bad for her but I knew that I wasn’t too far off from how she felt, I was nervous too. Hell—I was scared out of my mind.

“Why is she back? We defeated her didn’t we?” I called out.

“…Rei.” Alice whimpered at my side.

“So that’s the demon then, the one who’s chasing Alice?” Mister Ed asked.

Zephier and Akai stepped forward, their eyes were glaring daggers up at the figures. I could tell they were mad but it didn’t look like Ilinore was all that was on their mind. Akai was more than enough to handle her, so naturally I was confused.

Why do they look so worried? Is it because they hunted Alice last time…no this is more. What if it isn't Ilinore?

“Aki…standing next to the demon. Is that…him?”

Akai clenched his teeth and tightened two fists at his sides. “Tch! Yeah, that’s him.” An intense burn of hatred brewed in his eyes.

They were focused on the guy standing beside her, I didn’t recognise him. I was so absorbed with Ilinore that I forgot about the powerful aura standing beside her.

I focused harder, saw the horns on his head and flinched.

He was covered in pitch-black armour, so dark that it looked like a void. His body was unbelievably muscular, even under all that armour it was visible. Speaking of, I had no idea what that armour was made from. It didn’t look like metal, it looked more like…scales.

My lips moved to the realisation that appeared in my head. “He’s a dragon.”

Stolen story; please report.

“What do you mean he’s a dragon, are you sure?” Arga panicked.

I pointed towards him and muttered. “Look, on his head.”

Arga turned silent and the distant sound of steps raced towards us.

Veldor approached with his gear in hand, he had been with the rest of his guild up to that point but it looked like things were starting up again. The guild members grew restless, only they didn’t know our enemies as we did. They looked like they wanted to fight and were moments away from acting.

“They’ll be slaughtered…” Mister Ed voiced his thoughts out loud.

Suddenly Ilinore’s voice travelled throughout the Hollow and brought us all the same message.

“I took you lightly last time humans, this time I won’t be so sparing. It was my lord's wish to have you all die but…this one is just for me.”

There was an object in her hand, one that didn’t look manmade at all. A shiny glare reflected off from it as she raised it into the air. An intense glow similar to the one she had on her body last time lit up the object.

The ground picked up from where it left off and shook us around, the floor rose into the air like a wave of water.

Nowhere was safe to stand, we were all at the ground's mercy as we were tossed around helplessly.

“Leader!” Veldor jumped into the fray and was tossed across the air towards—me?!

Alice and I were pushed back as Veldor landed over us. Our balance was beyond shattered and nobody seemed to have their heads upright.

Arga was forced away from us and bobbed over towards Mister Ed. We had control of where to go as the floor melted and moved like water.

Akai held out his hand and tried to reach for Alice, the look in his eyes said it all. He was powerless to grab hold of her but ultimately moved further away. His face turned frantic and his voice pierced through the air like an arrow.

“ALICE!!”

The ground rose in the shape of walls. Countless walls were erected around us and sectioned us off from each other.

Up above, where the two figures stood. The larger one dressed in black broke away and jumped out from the hole in the cliff, he was plunged directly into the ground between us all. The walls around us blocked him out of sight before I could make out where he landed.

I turned to Arga and reached out my hand for her but she was cut out of sight before I could blink. Mister Ed, Zephier and even Akai had all disappeared from around us. Alice and I were the only ones in sight, grabbing hold of each other for dear life.

Once it settled, nothing but the dim brown walls of stone stood around us. At least the ground had stopped moving, it seemed as though the worst of it was behind us. Yet suddenly, we were faced with a whole new challenge.

“Alice, are you okay?”

She rubbed her head and stood up with my support. “I think so…my head hurts though. Ow~” She moaned in pain while rubbing her head.

It wasn’t anything serious, just a few scratches and bruises on her arm and forehead. I took most of the damage when shielding her but we made it out okay…somewhat.

“Is it just us?” Alice asked gingerly.

Cough—Cough!

Across the room, Veldor was on his hands and knees, hunched over the ground as his shield fell off his back. He seemed to have taken a pretty hard hit himself during all that tossing.

“Veldor…you’re here too?!”

He looked at me with his trademark glare. “I’m not thrilled about it either.”

“I didn’t mean…ugh, never mind. Where’s the others, we were all standing together a second ago?”

“Well they’re not here now, so they must be on the other sides of these walls.” He pressed his hand against the wall and examined it.

“That thing in her hand lit up just before all of this happened. Do you think it was some sort of magic device?”

He held the bottom of his chin and went into deep thought. “It’s possible, but does it matter right now? What we do know is that we’re the only ones here. It’s just us.”

I pressed my hand against the wall and tried to move it but the damn thing was sturdy. There were three walls around us in total, with one long passage that led out from the room.

It's way too symmetrical to be an accident…Ilinore meant to put us in this room. Which means the others might be in rooms just like this one.

“We should move ahead.”

Veldor looked at me like I was a crazy person. “What?!”

“Think about it, this room is designed to be like this. She couldn't have known that we three would have ended up together, so the others must have been put somewhere else right? They’re probably in one of these rooms too, we just have to find them.”

“What if that demon finds us first?” Veldor pressed.

He had a point, if Ilinore found us before we got to the others then we were as good as dead. Sure we managed to beat her last time but we were still recovering. Not to mention that Alice was there too, so we had to focus on protecting her as well.

We didn’t have another option though.

I let out a nervous smile.

“Then we fight for our lives.”