The collapse didn't come as an explosion.
It came as a roar that swallowed the sound of everything else.
The ground trembled, cracking into lightning-shaped lines beneath their feet.
The pillars began to give way, dust rose, and the air became a weight pushing down.
Alexius raised his hand — the crystal in his glove flared crimson, spreading rings of fire in every direction, trying to contain the fall.
The barrier formed, but lasted only seconds.
The flames spun around the students, trying to hold them together.
A crack, a vibration — and then the circle split in two.
Arthur felt the floor dissolve beneath him.
Mia shouted his name — the voice vanished into the wind.
The blaze twisted in on itself, and the group was pulled in opposite directions.
When the world finally stopped falling, silence seemed alive.
Arthur woke first.
The air was thick, a faint green mist floating over the floor.
There was no ceiling, only darkness.
Mia coughed beside him, her hair dust-covered.
Kidero stood up, visibly angry, kicking a piece of stone aside.
Ayame rubbed her arm where the armor had cracked.
Kazuko breathed heavily, venom pulsing faintly beneath his skin.
Tomomi sat curled up, staring at the ground, clutching one of the torches Alexius had given them at the start of the journey.
— So you fell here too, Arthur? — Kidero scoffed, brushing off his shoulder. — Thought you'd have the sense to stay with the strong ones.
— The strong ones are still alive, then? — Arthur replied, dryly.
— For now. — Kidero smirked.
Mia stood, surveying the chamber.
The wind she summoned had no direction.
Every gust circled back on itself.
The air quivered, and even sound seemed to bend.
— This place... it's breathing — Kazuko whispered.
Arthur glanced around, noticing the warped walls — shaped, not carved.
Long cracks glowed faintly green, pulsing at uneven rhythms — alive, yet decaying.
They began to walk.
The walls bore deep, spiraling scratches.
Some looked clawed, others carved by blades.
The uneven floor echoed with a delay, as if sound had to think before returning.
Ayame ran a finger along one of the grooves.
— This isn't natural.
— Nothing here is — Arthur answered.
Further ahead, Tomomi's torchlight revealed ancient figures etched into the stone.
Human shapes — small, kneeling — and before them, taller shadowy forms with undefined shapes.
Some had elongated bodies, others too many arms, and one faint outline resembled that of a spider.
None of the students knew what they were seeing.
— Looks like people worshipping something — Mia said.
— Or shadows remembering what they used to be — Arthur replied.
The sound began then.
A deep hum, directionless, vibrating beneath the ground.
Kazuko flinched.
— The air... changed — he murmured.
Arthur turned toward him and saw a dark stain spreading across his back, as if his skin were being erased.
— Don't let it touch you! — Arthur shouted. — Mia, light!
She looked around — confused. There was no light, no spell.
But there was the torch.
Mia knelt and pressed the flame against the darkened spot.
The fire hissed, spreading a reddish glow that forced the shadow away.
The air vibrated, and the ground shuddered — like something holding its breath.
The shadow dissipated, but its trace crawled along the wall.
Kidero stepped forward, furious.
— Coward. — He struck the spot where it vanished.
His blade hit the rock hard.
The impact opened a thin fissure, dust rising in a straight line.
A hollow echo answered from within — followed by a widening crack that revealed a staircase descending in a spiral, made of petrified bones and dark crystals.
— Great — Kidero muttered. — The road to hell comes with stairs.
— Looks like the only way forward — Arthur said.
— Or the fastest way to die — Ayame added.
— Either way, it's still the only one. — Arthur stepped first.
The torch lit step after step, but the light refused to climb — it spread only downward, as if the air itself drained the brightness.
Kazuko gripped his sword, the venom faintly reacting to the surroundings, his eyes following cracks that seemed to watch them.
As they descended, the mist thickened, and the hum turned into slow, rhythmic beats — like a heartbeat.
Mia tightened her grip on the torch.
— Feels like this place is alive.
Arthur looked at her.
— Maybe it is.
— That should scare you.
— It does. I just don't know what difference it makes anymore.
---
Elsewhere in the mountain, Alexius lifted his head.
Dust still fell from the ceiling, and the gallery trembled.
Sora used ice to reinforce a crossing between two broken columns.
Kensha kept her bow ready but lacked the mana to fire.
Alexius approached a wall covered in ancient markings, tracing them with his hand.
— This... isn't just stone — he muttered. — It's the living structure of the seal.
— The Guardian's? — Shirō asked.
— No — the sensei replied, focused on the symbols. — The mountain's itself.
He exhaled. — Arthur... the circle recognized him.
Dakenno frowned.
— Recognized? How?
Alexius looked up.
— It means the mountain doesn't want to devour him. It wants to show him the way.
And far off, something answered — a deep echo, as if the mountain itself had a voice.
---
Arthur and the others reached the bottom of the staircase.
The air felt almost liquid.
Before them stood a colossal door, cracked and half-open.
Symbols pulsed with bluish light, beating in slow intervals.
Arthur stepped closer, feeling the vibration beneath his palm.
The magical pressure grew, and a voice echoed inside his mind — the same one from the circle:
> Not every passage leads to the same place...
Mia stepped back.
— Arthur... was that you?
— No — he replied, eyes fixed on the dark gap. — But it knows me.
The group exchanged silent looks.
And, with nothing left to say, they passed through the opening.
Behind them, in the shadows of the corridor, a massive shape lifted its head — slow, silent — as if it had just awakened.