Elle catches her breath, mind still racing from the fight. In front of her, Thermal props himself up on a pew, his back towards her. His shoulders heave, exhausted by the run and large use of magic. He dealt the most damage to the wolves while she focused on saving Serena from the strange man. Thankfully, she’s still at half her aura capacity even after that fight.

She glances over at the half-nymph. Serena leans against the wall beside her, her hazel eyes distant. Elle has never seen the traveller look so tired before. She doesn’t know if it’s from the fight or leaving Sanu behind. A pang of guilt stabs through her heart.

When she saw the wolves ignore the stranger, she gave up on the idea of winning the fight. If the man could somehow work alongside monsters, it’d explain why Bleck’s group disappeared. They were likely overwhelmed by sheer numbers. She doesn’t know Sanu that well, so she doesn’t regret the choice that she made. Elle looks away from Serena.

Focusing on their next steps, she thinks about her last attack on the stranger. In a moment of desperation, she used her spatial splitting ability to rip apart his arm, but it didn’t work. Elle’s powers hit his aura instead and lowered it, but she couldn’t bypass it entirely. If they run into him again, she doesn’t know how many times it’ll take for her spatial rend to completely drop it.

Despite Serena absolutely whaling upon the guy, he seemed to take zero damage from her strikes. Is he absorbing aura as he feeds? They should fight him from a distance then. Elle frowns as she considers this fact: why does someone working alongside monsters have aura? No monsters she’s fought has shown aura.

Serena pushes herself off the wall, turning to face Elle completely. “Why did you jump straight to running away? I know we just met Sanu, but he didn’t deserve to be left behind before we figured out what that guy’s deal was.”

Her disappointed stare pierces into Elle, so she averts her gaze. “If that guy can control monsters, he’s way above our paygrade. I didn’t want to waste any time on a losing fight.”

Serena stares for a moment longer before looking away. “What if I left you guys behind in that tunnel on Mt. Aspirash?”

She replies softly, “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you did. We can’t get out of every situation.”

The traveller looks like she wants to argue more, but Thermal interrupts them. “Then let us agree on a new plan to protect all of us. Given the strength of our enemies, we cannot let them separate us.”

Elle glances at the door. “Yeah, we shouldn’t stay here for too long.” She takes in the rest of the chapel, scanning the empty, dusty pews. A podium stands in front of the far wall, backdropped by a beautiful mural depicting a spiral sun above a congregation.

Thermal stares at it too. “I believe this is a chapel intended to worship the System which is the creator deity of Nessaprine. A campus would be a convenient place for worship, and the neighbouring buildings might be for theological studies.”

“Yeah, since it’s at the centre of campus, it’ll be well-defended.” As she approaches the podium, Elle notices that the area around it isn’t dusty, and a stairwell sits beneath it. However, the podium itself doesn’t have any notches or buttons to reveal a secret passageway. She supposes a popular chapel wouldn’t leave secrets lying around in plain sight.

Serena reluctantly joins her in the search. “Maybe it needs a magical key. They wouldn’t want someone to accidentally open it.”

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Thermal frowns. “I do not think they would place an entryway into a secure location inside of a public building. Perhaps this tunnel is meant for evacuation as stated in those notes we discovered.”

Elle nods, “That makes sense to me.” She glances around the chapel, noting a hallway on her right. On the wall to her left, there’s a pattern which looks like a circuit. It reminds her of physics class where lines were connected in series to a lightbulb and battery. “Hey, Thermal. Does this look like anything to you?”

He wanders closer to the wall. “This appears to be a magical array. Although it does not follow the exact conventions of my studies, I believe I can make a good attempt at interpreting it.” Thermal holds his hand close to the array, his aura glowing violet. They hear several clicks as though someone is fiddling with a lock. He tilts his head, paying attention to something they can’t see.

Thermal pokes around at the array for several minutes. Serena explores the hallway while Elle guards his back. She grips her javelin as her eyes dart between him and the chapel door. As the minutes trickle by, Serena picks open locked doors but then returns, shaking her head. “There’s just papers left here. Nothing useful. Someone might have already cleaned it out.”

Elle tugs at her collar. “Yeah, probably. Bleck’s group wasn’t the only one that went missing.”

“Aha!” Thermal beams as they suddenly hear gears turning and clicking into place. The podium rises, revealing a staircase beneath it. Light from the stained glass windows barely permeates the darkness below them. Despite the dimness, they can see several sets of footprints outlined in the thick dust.

Elle stretches her senses but can’t detect any monsters. “I think it’s safe? Feels like it goes into the tunnel network.” With Thermal and Serena guarding her back, she descends the staircase. Thermal resets the podium once they’re all in the tunnel, letting darkness overtake them. Elle turns on her flashlight, and they proceed.

Following the footprints, they prick their ears for noises outside of their group. A faint rattling sound can be heard in the distance, and Elle thinks it might be rattling pipes. As they walk forward, they begin to see signs on the walls written in Common. They give a general outline of emergency procedures, guiding everyone to congregate at the sports field on the west side of campus.

Pipes like Tiami described stretch along the tunnel walls. They risk tapping on them to alert their allies, hoping it reached the hunters instead of the monsters above them.

Elle leads them past many doors and stairwells, scanning for more interesting areas. After awhile, her head starts hurting from the strain of using her powers. Thermal gently reminds her that they can simply follow the footprints. They don’t need to overuse her powers, but she feels so jumpy without them. She reluctantly limits herself to a pulse every couple of minutes.

The footprints eventually lead to a sealed-off entry way, closed by bricks covered in runes. They can’t see any hinges, so she assumes the door requires magic to open. Thermal tries to unlock it but shakes his head after about ten minutes. “This requires a magical key. The security of this lock is too high for me to break.”

Elle tugs at her collar, considering their options. “I mean, do we have to go in? We could just find an exit out of here. On the other hand, what if there’s something that could help us in there?”

Serena looks down both ways of the corridor. “There’s three of us, and who knows how many of them. And they probably know we’re here. I say we take whatever advantage we can get.”

Thermal nods. “I concur.”

Elle takes a deep breath. “Okay then. Thermal, do you want me to try teleporting you to the other side and then you can unlock the pathway? I’ll understand if you decline.”

He stares at her for a long moment, and Elle tries to keep a neutral expression. She wants him to believe in her. After a few seconds, he steels his expression. “Yes, I believe in you.”

Closing her eyes to steady herself, Elle mentally spins open a revolving portal in place of the locked door.

Thermal walks through it.