Lucianna stared at the back of the golden-haired figure standing proudly over the arch bridge that was destroyed and turned to clouds of smoke.

The feeling of intense heat permeated the air—caused by a powerful blast of golden energy that briefly illuminated the dark space underneath the shadow of the gigantic spire.

—However, there was one thing she didn’t quite understand.

“Why did you… have to verbally announce your attack, though?”

“Because…”

Immediately, Eden turned to answer.

“It’s cool.”

“...Please don’t say something like that with a deadpan face, it’s kind of annoying."

Lucianna’s eyes narrowed involuntarily.

But then...

—As the smoke lifted, the two of them saw something emerge from the darkness.

On the other end of the arch bridge where the shadowy mass wearing red clothing used to stand, a huge [blood-colored cocoon] had taken its place in the middle of a small crater.

Lucianna tensed up slightly at the sight, and in the next moment…

The cocoon suddenly exploded, and a figure shot out from within toward the two of them, unfolding a pair of shadowy black wings!

Bang—!

At the first sight of that, Lucianna attempted to turn around and ran in the opposite direction.

However, deep inside the corridor behind her, there was another [Shadow Angel] running toward them, throwing a silkbound dagger!

“...!”

Lucianna stood frozen, unable to move out of the way of the double attack!

BoOoooom—!

A loud crashing sound, a flash, and a brief moment of darkness, and when she opened her eyes…

—Her hand was being pulled along by Eden’s, running down the spiraling path, following the trail of golden hair fluttering in the wind.

…It seemed, she was saved yet again.

“Look out behind you.”

“Ah!”

Breaking Lucianna out of her momentary trance, Eden’s calm voice called her attention to a silkbound dagger flying through the air toward her from behind.

Eden briefly turned around and shot out a blast of golden energy from his finger, veering the dagger off its course.

However, right behind it, another dagger of the same design continued to fly forward.

—From behind the gigantic black spire, three [Shadow Angels] emerged, spreading their black wings wide and flying after them at incredible speed.

Back in front of Eden and Lucianna, the second silkbound dagger stabbed into the path, burying deep into the weathered, cracks-filled surface.

Then, after straightening with tension, it completely broke off one of the steps from the spiraling path, sending the chunk of thick black stone flying backward toward Eden and Lucianna.

—Without hesitation, the two of them turned right and ran inside the central black spire using a nearby door.

Kkkrrrroam~!

The broken piece of the gigantic structure crashed into itself, making a loud impact sound.

The inside of the maze-like corridor of the spire was dark, but not impossible to navigate. Although there was no way to know exactly where they would end up, they continued to run forward anyway.

Then, as they ran, Eden and Luciana noticed something. In the darkness, a bright red line cut across their fields of vision, barely visible, as if an artificial screen ‘tearing’ was appearing across the horizon. At first, they both thought it was some trick of the light.

However, that notion quickly proved itself false as in the next moment, the red line began to move...

—Slicing through the walls of the maze-like corridors like paper, coming toward them.

“...!”

At the same time, from either side of the wall, through the gap created by the deadly silk string, two pairs of flying daggers were traveling toward them simultaneously.

Suppressing a rising corner of the lips, Eden pointed down and shot a beam of golden energy.

Bang—!

With an explosion, the floor immediately caved in, dropping Eden and Lucianna to the floor below.

Above them, the silk string cleanly sliced through the entire floor, and the flying dagger flew into each other, tangled, before separating in opposite directions.

Landing safely, the two collected themselves briefly before continuing to run.

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"Maybe… it would be better if I shoot the laser out of my eye by winking instead?" Eden said while running, using his hand wasn’t linked with Lucianna’s to hold his chin curiously.

“H-how is that sort of thing important at all right now?” also running, Lucianna retorted with a pale face.

Outside: one of the [Shadow Angels] floating in the air beside the black spire suddenly opened her palms, before twisting them and swinging one of her hands behind her head in a smooth motion.

—On her fingers, two red lines lit up.

Inside: a large chunk of the wall was sliced off, falling beside Eden and Lucianna, as two more red lines suddenly appeared around them.

"As a joke, don't you think it would be at least a little bit funny?"

“Of course not! There’s nothing funny about this situation!”

Outside: the [Shadow Angel] repeated the same motions of twisting her hands, just as she did.

Except that this time, on all her fingers, ten red rings began to burn brightly.

Inside the central black spire, across the span of almost ten floors, red crisscrossing lines began cutting through everything!

Sensing the tension, Lucianna looked behind her. There, she saw the ten red lines almost converging on a single point at what seemed to be the center of the spire itself.

—Simultaneously, they all began to rotate.

Lucianna sucked in a cold breath. Eden calmly narrowed his eyes.

The walls began to slide off; the black metal bars that held each empty prison cell and the various other objects were being sliced in ten different directions.

Seeing the encroaching red lines from all around them, Eden and Lucianna immediately focused on quickening their steps.

On the other side of the corridor that was being cut into pieces, a doorway that led outside suddenly came into view.

Krroam~!

In time, they emerged out the other side onto the spiraling steps, as the corridor behind them shivered due to the rampaging silk strings without collapsing, somehow still holding onto most of its structural integrity.

Lucianna slightly stumbled, but quickly picked herself back into a steady sprint with the help of Eden.

Just then, a flying dagger flew around the spire, and then down at the two of them.

Without slowing down his steps, Eden pointed his hand behind him to quickly send a laser beam to the flying dagger, changing its direction.

Seeing another one coming from the front. Eden shot yet another blast of golden energy at the flying dagger. The silkbound weapon collided with his attack and bounced off, but without losing much of its momentum.

Shhkk~!

It stabbed into the wall, before straightening and ripping off one whole chunk, dropping it on the spiraling path, forcing the two of them to slow down.

During this time, their shadowy owners had caught up.

Reacting quickly, Eden and Lucianna rushed into one of the nearby crevices—a crack in the walls of the gigantic black spire.

Hiding in the shadows, Lucianna and Eden peeked out, raising their heads to try to see the appearances of their pursuers.

The first [Shadow Angel] was still using its red strings to cut whole floors of the black spire in multiple directions. While the second and third ones were flying around beside her, sending their flying daggers in random places.

Seeing that they didn’t know their exact location, Eden and Lucianna were able to breathe a little.

“Perhaps… defeating all of them might not be so easy,” Eden said in a soft whisper.

“Weren't you the one who confidently started attacking them though?”

Catching her breath, Lucianna cast a skeptical look toward Eden.

“You’re right but, that was just a bluff basically.”

“...”

But then, tilting his head curiously, Eden suddenly changed his tone.

"Ah. On second thought, wait here."

—Oh?

Lucianna raised her eyebrows, hopeful that the cute little ‘helper’ in front of her might have suddenly come up with a solution to their current predicament.

Eden got out of the crevice and started running up the spiraling path toward the three floating shadows…

But when he got close enough for them to perhaps notice him.

—Three more [Shadow Angels] suddenly appeared, flying up from below.

Eden ran back.

“On third thought, there’s too many of them.”

He grabbed Lucianna’s hand and started pulling her along again.

“...”

The corner of Lucianna’s mouth twitched very visibly. To borrow an expression from her homeland, right now, she didn’t know whether or not she should laugh or she should cry.

Boom—!

Jumping over the rumbles from the collapsed wall, something behind them exploded. However, neither of the two even cared to turn around to look at what it was.

Eventually, the spiraling path led them to another intersection, where a more elaborately constructed arch bridge sprouted out of the opening of the spire; too large to simply be called a corridor, it was more of a gateway that led into a vast chamber inside the gigantic structure.

—But more importantly.

—Karzio was there, casually sitting on the arch bridge’s railing, resting his head on his hand, waiting for them.

“This way.”

Without even waiting for him to speak, Eden and Lucianna turned right and tried to run inside the spire again.

However…

Shhhhiing!

—Two more.

—And then three more.

A flash of a longsword. A rustling of a paper talisman. A faint smell of burned skin and the sound of sizzling blood.

Every possible path they could try to take, stood the rest of the shadowy figures of the [Shadow Angels] that had now revealed themselves.

Even the edge of the pathway was blocked by the five flying [Shadow Angels] floating above the seemingly bottomless abyss.

And sure enough, the six from before had also caught up as well.

—They were completely surrounded.

“How rude of you, Lucianna.”

Hopping down from the railing, Karzio started slowly walking toward Eden and Lucianna, as the two of them stared at him and the shadows that crawled on his face with caution.

“Running away while we’re still in the middle of something important.”

The blonde-haired young man smirked mockingly, reprimanding the actions of the two of them as though they were actually something unseemly, and the black-haired girl could only grit her teeth and glared at him in reply.

Karzio then glanced at the golden-haired figure standing beside her, Eden, who rather than paying attention to him was glancing at Lucianna's face instead.

From her hand, he felt a slight trembling.

“As for you, the angels will be enough.”

Immediately as soon as Karzio said that.

—At a speed that was almost impossible to follow with the naked eye, two blood-colored flying daggers flew toward Eden.

Immediately, Eden shot yet another blast of golden energy in an attempt to deflect them, but this time, the daggers curved through the air, coiling around the straight golden line, and continued to fly toward Eden as if they had a mind of their own.

Without giving him a chance to resist, the daggers circled his waist and arms, binding his body tightly, before pulling him strongly to the edge of the spiraling path.

Then, another angel swooped in from above to grab his face…

“Ah.”

—And dragged him down into the depth of the Abyss.

—————……….