Meera huffed on one knee as her giant foe bled from a dozen cuts. By rights, he should have fallen, never to rise again, but she had missed his head. Maybe that's why. Thankfully, she still had some Stamina remaining, even if Health and Mana were down to double digits.

She pushed off the ground to her feet and walked past the bleeding undead, whose eye tracked her, as she went to the Crystal of Darthin. She extended a hand to pick it up.

"Stop!" Edwyn barked. "You thief…you come into my cave…my home, and steal the fruits of my labor, and now…" He huffed and took deep breaths. Meera found this odd, as he was technically dead. Edwyn continued. "And now you're going to take my life's work." He shook his head. "I won't let that happen."

He extended a hand towards Meera and fired his darkness beam. She raised a trio of Mirror Shields and blocked his attack. The beam did go through the first mirror but not the second. Meera didn't think it would even go through the first.

"Give it up, Edwyn. You're done," Meera said, dropping her shields and looking at the beaten giant.

He was a sad sight. Missing an arm and an eye and leaking his black goo blood from all the holes that Meera had cut into him. She should have put him out of his misery. If she had enough strength and Mana remaining, she would have, and a part of her wanted him to suffer for all the suffering he had caused. She wanted him to watch as she took his prized possession and left him there until the flesh fell off his bones and his soul was the only soul remaining, left to wander these empty caves. Cursed, never allowed to move on. His punishment for his sins. But…she was not that cruel. She did decide to finish him off after this.

Meera bent down and picked up the green crystal that apparently possessed the powers of a god. It was the color of grass and held no cracks or blemishes. Meera could see her disheveled visage in it. It was about the size of an ostrich egg.

Behind her, Edwyn roared. "Let go of it, you bitch. You dirty it with your filthy hands."

Meera looked from him to his decomposing hand, which had held the crystal. "And yours were so clean."

"I will make an example of you by hanging your bleached bones from the cavern's entrance."

He tried to get on his feet and turn toward her, only to fall on his face. He wouldn't be able to walk ever again. She had made sure to cut his hamstrings. But that wasn't enough to hinder him. He crawled to her, dragging himself forward by his lone hand. His nails ripped and fell, but his hate of her was stronger than the pain.

It was a sad sight. Meera raised a hand and shot a Mirror Shard Barrage in his other eye, blinding him forever. He roared in pain as he clutched at his other eye.

Meera ignored him and looked at her friends on the second floor. "Let's get out of this dank cave."

Edwyn stopped his screaming and began to laugh. It started slowly but then all at once. "As if I will let you get out of here alive."

He began radiating a dark aura, which did not give Meera a good feeling. She hadn't seen this attack before, but maybe it was a last resort.

"I'm going to bury you in this cave," Edwyn growled. "If I cannot give my life's work to her, then I will not let you take it either. I will blow you all to smithereens."

"M-Meera…" Onyx whimpered. He didn't need to say anymore. They had to get out of the cave. Now.

She Stepped to the closest mirror to them, which was on the wall right below Onyx, and pulled herself up, realizing she should've just thrown a chakram. It would have been faster. All the while, the darkness around Edwyn grew, and its very essence began to shake the cavern.

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"Onyx, you're going to have to carry us," Meera yelled over the rumbling ground. "I don't have the Mana left to teleport us out of here. Do you know the way out?"

“I-I d-d-do…” Cinders form was flickering like a candle flame in the wind. Shade wasn't doing any better.

"Good." Meera hopped to them and tried to pick them up in her arm, only to find that her hand went right through them. "Shit. You have to let me touch you."

"I don't-t-t think…w-we can…anymore." Gone was Shade's sarcastic tone. It was replaced by this hollow sound that didn't even sound like him.

Meera turned to look at Onyx, who looked like Meera had asked him to kiss Edwyn on the mouth.

"Onyx, please, or we're doomed," Meera pleaded. "We need Cinders to get out of here."

"H-Hey!" Shade cried.

"Yes, and Shade, too."

Onyx clopped here and there, no doubt trying to come up with some excuse, but in the end, he hung his head. "Okay. But please refrain from moving around too much in my mouth."

Onyx bent down, picked up the two flickering ghosts, and held them between his teeth with such care as if he were holding two poison vials. Meera gripped his hair and jumped on his back. "Go!"

The stallion moved like a blur. Meera's eyes watered so much that if not for her Mirror Eagle skill, she would have been blind. She shut her eyes and relied on it for vision. Edwyn laughed as they blasted past him.

"There is no escape for you. No matter how fast you run."

Cinders gave Onyx directions, which Meera had difficulty hearing over the wind and the rumbling. They had just crossed into the first tunnel when Edwyn blew himself up. The skill was the darkness variant of her Mirror Blast.

But luckily, her horse friend wasn't much affected by the cavern's destruction, but Meera was almost knocked off his back. She gripped his hair tighter and leaned closer to his neck. Behind them, the tunnel caved in on itself. Rocks, bigger than Onyx, fell from the ceiling and nearly crushed them, but Onyx managed to stay one step ahead. Many smaller ones pelted her back continuously. She had half a mind to have a Mirror Sheild on, but given that she could see everywhere, she decided to save it for dire situations.

"Onyx, speed up," Meera said. "You might be able to survive these rocks, but I can't."

He got the message and tried to pick up the pace, but he could only do so much with so many twists and turns. He made a tight turn and sent Meera into the opposite wall, but the tunnels were so tight that she kept her seat.

Behind them, rocks continued to fall, blocking the tunnels. Then the tight tunnel ended, and they came out in a wide tunnel. Meera realized this was the tunnel where she had first fought the horde. Onyx zoomed past it on Cinders' direction. She saw the arrow she had made, which gave her some relief that they were heading in the right direction.

Just when she saw a light up ahead, Onyx came to an abrupt stop, sending her flying over his head. She rolled a couple of times, hit the tunnel wall, and nearly cracked her skull.

She was about to yell at him, but she knew what the problem was when he gently deposited Cinders and Shade to the side. They had reached a barrier. This was as far as they could go.

"How? The exit to the cave is still around this bend," Meera yelled.

"Not for us," Onyx said.

Meera yelled in frustration. I can't leave them. I wouldn't be alive if not for them. She had promised them she would get them out of here and was not in the habit of breaking her promises.

She ran to them and, with the last remnants of her Mana, activated a Mirror Sheild over their heads.

"M-Meera, you need…to…g-go," Cinders cried.

"Not without you three."

"B-But—"

"No, buts. When the rocks fall, I'll handle them," Meera said with conviction, but she didn't know how as she was running on fumes.

The rocks continued to fall behind her friends, crushing the tunnel. Meera still had some Stamina, so she activated Druvis Power, ready to pulverize the rocks to stones. But it never came to that. Just as abruptly the rocks had begun to fall, they stopped. The ground stopped shaking a moment later, and Edwyn's blast had finally stopped.

Meera looked to her friends and began to laugh, as did her friends. Though, Shade and Cinders mostly chuckled.

"W-W-Well, your luck…i-iss…better than…ours," Shade dribbled out.

Meera snorted. "Sure, looks like it, but how come you cannot get out…"

"E-Edwyn is…" Cinders started.

"—Not dead." Meera finished for her, and there was no way for Meera to go back and finish the job. "That hateful, mad idiot doomed himself to an eternity of torture so we could not escape."

His animal friends had nothing to say to that. Meera was quiet, too. She didn't know what she could say to make things better. They had run all this while and gone through so much only to come to this bitter end.

"Looks like we'll always stay one step away from freedom," Onyx said.

Meera wanted to weep at her failure. "It's my fault. I should have killed him when I had the chance." She punched the ground hard. Her hand hurt, and she wanted it to hurt. "If only I were stronger."

"It-t-t's not…your f-fault," Shade said. Since it was coming from him, Meera really wanted to cry.

“Y-Y-You go on…” Cinders said. "You h-h-have a l-life left to live. D-Don't waste it…o-on a…b-b-bunch of ghosts."

Meera couldn't hold back the dam behind her eyes any longer.