Finn was ready to fire. His cannon contained all of his mana, minus what he would need to stay conscious after the fact. His target was stationary, just a hand stuck in a huge pillar of energy.

‘If only it were just a hand…’

Some mutants had unusually high magical powers, others were exceedingly strong or fast. However, it was clear to Finn that Mammon was different. His crystal covered flesh contained countless, intricate formations that would make Annie drool. The teen couldn’t understand most of them, but he did know this:

‘There are at least 500 defensive formations on his skin alone.’

‘Nine! Eight! Seven! …’

‘Fuck! Is this how I’ll die: In slow motion, so I can experience everything?’

‘Just do it, Mark. Maybe you’ll get lucky.’

‘Since when do I get…’

Suddenly, Finn felt a fourth energy source. It was not the demon, it was not him, and it was definitely not the exhausted Annie.

It was familiar, yet foreign, hot beyond belief and so complex it almost reached Mammon's level.

Instinctively, Finn turned his head towards Michael just in time to see the flaming parrot's clone burst out of his chest. The director's Phoenix flew straight at Finn, piercing through his forehead and filling him with its mana.

'Listen,' Finn heard a strange voice. 'Loki cannot hear me, so listen closely. You are a hero, yet you are not. You can destroy this world, or you can save it.

Your predecessor will search for you, he will find you. When he does, you must kill him… and you must die in the process.'

'What!?'

'Mark, stop talking to yourself and shoot!'

The Phoenix clone's consciousness slowly dissipated as his mana transferred over to Finn. Before he vanished completely, he muttered 'Oh, twisted fate. Perhaps this world is not completely devoid of luck.'

'Luck? Seriously? Fuck it, we make our own luck.'

'Five! Four! …'

"See you next time, demon and you, Goddamn, prophetic, confusing, seriously unhelpful, cliche, fiery bird!"

'Three!...'

Finn took every ounce of energy the phoenix had left him and shoved it all into his cannon. It was so much energy, it surpassed even what his hero's body could handle.

With no way to control it, he hastily aimed and shot. Finn discharged the entirety of his power, in the form of a single, compressed, flaming ball.

The explosion which followed almost destroyed the labyrinth. Nunac's formation was crushed and the pillar of energy was destroyed.

The walls and ceiling of the cave were compressed and then started collapsing.

Finn rushed to where his friends were and used the last of his magic to summon a two layer rock tent that took the brunt of the damage. In the meantime, Annie managed to wake everyone up, starting with Tommy, Michael, and then finally Natalie.

"Explain!" she shouted, but there was no time. The five feet of dirt that was kept in place by the labyrinth's magic collapsed on top of their tent, burying the teens alive.

Moments later, a cracking sound reached their ears.

The magic which reinforced the wall between the fifth and sixth layer suddenly dissipated.

'The labyrinth has given up on the sixth floor,' said Loki. 'I suggest you brace for impact.'

'I'm out of mana!'

'Then it's been nice knowing you.'

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Finn's blast had sent reverberations into the chunk of soil between the labyrinth’s floor. Now, the energy which kept it all together retreated upwards as well.

Half a kilometer of dirt, the equivalent of a skyscraper collapsed on top of Finn and his friends. His tiny tent was crushed, but thanks to it and their reinforced bodies, they barely managed to survive.

However, that was about it. They were sandwiched inside the planet, several kilometers deep, destined to surface only as mummified remains a few million years into the future along with the next great earthquake or volcano.

'Yay, you've won,' Loki laughed out loud.

'Can you send me another ball of mana?' asked Finn.

'Nope.'

'Thought so.'

'Don't get me wrong, I'd love to help my loyal servant. It’s just, I have a strict one ball per century policy and that last one was it. There was a time when I didn't have this policy, and well… You’ve read the history books.

Anyway, good luck getting out. If you die, I won't come to your funeral. I'mma go back to watching Vistacia go insane and the south getting invaded. Adios.'

'The south's getting invaded!? God… damn it'

Finn tried to close his fist but couldn't. There was too much weight on his palm, on his entire body.

The best he could do was push the dirt out of his nostrils using magic and then summon air in tiny portions for him to breathe.

Since becoming a hero, his senses had increased tremendously. Even now, he could feel his friends' weakening mana nearby.

Like himself, Annie was summoning air to keep herself alive. Unfortunately, the other three didn't have this option.

After trying to suck in air out of the dirt and failing, all three of them were now turning blue in the face and suffocating. Their hearts were beating overtime trying to make up for the deficit, which only heightened the oxygen shortage and brought them closer to death.

'They have a minute at best, but I don't have enough mana to create a cave or a tunnel. Shit!'

Suddenly, he noticed the little energy Annie had acquired started to move. It formed a tiny tendril, no wider than a needle which pierced through the soil towards Natalie's location.

'Her mana recovery is too low. She won't make it in time, but if I try the same…'

Finn focused his mind and created two different tendrils of mana. One of them moved through the ground, capturing foreign energy and pushing it towards Finn. The other slowly made its way towards Natalie.

30 seconds later, he managed to make contact with his friend and deliver a tiny sliver of air. It was not enough for her to take a proper breath, but sufficient to delay her organs from collapsing.

In exchange for saving her life, Finn sucked in the little mana Natalie had managed to recover and created another tendril which moved towards Tommy. After another 30 seconds, the boy was saved.

'Now to get Michael. You're still fine, aren't you?'

A rock had pierced through the boy's ribs and had crushed one of his lungs. All of them had broken bones due to the collapse, but this injury was by far the worst.

Finn knew this, yet he left Michael for last. Fortunately, when he finally reached him, his suspicion was confirmed.

'The gloves kept him alive, barely. Thank God for magic. I need to teach it to everyone.'

For the next hour, all five of them were stuck, crushed beneath a mountain of soil, breathing magical air fed directly into their lungs by Finn. Eventually, Annie made contact with him and they shared their mana, relieving some of the burden.

Mages recovered their energy over time. With Finn being a hero and Annie a prodigy, this process was hastened significantly.

After observing how Finn sent more and more tendrils into the soil to fish out mana, Annie started doing the same.

One hour and 15 minutes into their burial, all five teens had a steady supply of oxygen. Another hour later, Finn created a tiny space between his body and the soil. Similar to a small tomb tailored to his physique, it had the invaluable benefit of relieving the pressure Finn felt on his body.

For every hour which passed, Finn did the same for one of his friends, and over the next 10 hours, he gradually healed their injuries.

'After four more hours we can speak to each other. 12 more and we'll have a tunnel. The problem isn't the lack of mana, it's time.'

As expected, by the time the teens could hear each other's voices, the first words out of their mouths were:

"I'm starving. You?"

"Same."

"Yep."

"Is the lion dead?" asked Michael. "We might have to eat him."

It was a bleak idea, but unfortunately, magic could not summon organic matter.

"There's a worm five feet to our left," said Finn. "I'll try to catch it."

"We should dig towards the array," said Annie.

"Why? I blew it up."

"There might still be traces of mana we can use, maybe even a piece of Mammon’s hand."

Like Annie predicted, after digging their way close to the array, they found Mammon's severed ring finger right next to it.

Even on its own, it contained enough mana to fill up half of Annie's energy and a quarter of Finn’s.

"Hallelujah, now we can definitely get to that worm."

"If we need to cut off limbs anytime soon, I just want to say…"

"Not it," Natalie interrupted.

"Not it," said Tommy, Finn and Annie all at the same time.

"Aah, crap." Michael looked at his right arm with loving eyes and gave it a kiss as if saying goodbye.

"We might not have to go that far," said Annie. "If we dig up the remains of Nunac's array, I might be able to fix it."

"How long will that take?" asked Finn.

“I don’t know, but it beats digging up."