The distant bang echoed through the underground corridors, a sharp metallic sound that carried the weight of impending disaster.
Hikaru exhaled, tucking his deck into his coat as he turned to Budi. "So, quick question—on a scale of one to 'we're completely screwed,' how bad do you think this is?"
Budi adjusted his mask, rolling his shoulders. "I'd say… we should already be running."
Arman, still seated cross-legged in the dim light, merely sighed. "They've come to erase what remains. If you stay, you will be erased with it."
Hikaru smirked. "Good thing I never follow the script."
The iron door rattled.
Not from someone unlocking it.
From something slamming against it.
The sound wasn't normal. It wasn't just brute force—it was something unnatural, a warping pulse that rippled through the stone itself, distorting reality for a split second before settling back into place.
Hikaru's grin faltered slightly. "That's new."
Arman's voice remained calm. "They are here to finish what they started."
Budi moved closer to the door, placing his hand on the metal. His mask shifted, darkening slightly as he focused. "It's not guards," he muttered. "Something's… wrong."
Another slam. This time, the iron door buckled inward, deep cracks splitting through the enchanted runes carved into its surface.
Hikaru flicked a card into his palm. "Alright. Plan B."
Budi sighed. "You didn't even tell me Plan A."
"Exactly."
Before Budi could respond, Hikaru flipped his card into the air.
[Skill Activated: ♠9 – Trickster's Exit]
The room flickered.
For exactly two seconds, reality itself shifted. The layout of the chamber—the position of the walls, the floor, the entrance—all became fluid, uncertain.
The door warped, its solid form blurring like an illusion.
And in that moment, Hikaru moved.
He grabbed Arman's wrist and stepped through the distortion—
Just as the door exploded.
The impact of the blast sent stone and twisting shadows in every direction. The air cracked with something ancient, something wrong.
And standing in the wreckage—
Were not guards.
Hikaru blinked.
Then let out a slow breath. "Oh. That's bad."
They weren't human.
They weren't anything.
Figures wrapped in shifting darkness, humanoid but featureless. Their forms pulsed, flickering between existence and nothingness—as if reality itself couldn't decide whether they belonged.
Budi exhaled. "That's worse than normal guards."
One of the creatures turned its head—or where a head should have been—toward them. The air around it wavered.
Then—it lunged.
Budi moved instantly, his staff slamming into its torso—only for it to pass through as if hitting water.
Hikaru flicked another card. [Skill Activated: ♦6 – Loaded Chance]
The moment he stepped sideways, the creature's attack barely missed him. Not luck. Just weighted odds.
Budi twisted his staff, flipping back beside him. "Alright. New plan."
"Still working on it," Hikaru admitted.
Selene's voice cut through the air.
"Move!"
The entire corridor erupted in light.
Selene stood at the far end, sigils glowing around her hands. A burst of pure silver magic surged forward, crashing into the shadowed figures. They shrank back, their forms distorting as if the light was unraveling them.
Budi didn't wait for instructions—he grabbed Arman and ran.
Hikaru followed, throwing another card behind him for good measure. [Skill Activated: ♠5 – Misdirection]
The shadow creatures twitched, momentarily turning toward the wrong direction.
They burst through the doorway, running down the crumbling corridor. The underground levels weren't just flooding with those things—
The entire structure was collapsing.
Hikaru grinned. "This keeps getting better."
Budi shot him a look. "Do you ever stop enjoying this?!"
"Nope."
Selene ran beside them, her silver eyes sharp. "We can't escape through the main halls. There's another way."
Hikaru raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Secret tunnels?"
Selene didn't answer.
Instead, she skidded to a stop near a seemingly normal stone wall and pressed her hand against it. The runes carved into the surface flickered.
Then—
The wall shimmered and disappeared.
Beyond it—
A staircase leading downward.
Hikaru stared. "Why are we going deeper? I thought we were escaping?"
Selene glanced back, her expression unreadable.
"This prison wasn't built on something."
She stepped inside.
"It was built to hold something."
Hikaru felt the chill return.
Something was waiting below.
And they were about to find out what.
With no other choice, Hikaru and Budi followed Selene into the unknown.
The shadows behind them whispered as they stepped through the hidden passage.
And then—
The entrance sealed shut.
No turning back now.