Less than an hour. That was all the time they had. Alina's estimate had been grim—if Trinity Blade was still alive, they wouldn't last much longer. They had to hurry.
But there was a problem.
Belle kept a steady pace beside Kai as they walked through the open fields beyond Dawnstead's gates. The wind whipped against them, rustling the tall grass and sending ripples through the golden plains stretching toward the distant forest.
"How far is this dungeon?" she asked, her voice calm but expectant.
Kai, focused on the road ahead, exhaled sharply. "Half a day's walk."
Belle skidded to a stop.
Kai took two more steps before realizing she wasn't beside him anymore. He turned, brows furrowed. "What are you—"
"We don't have half a day." Belle grabbed his wrist, her grip firm. "We're not walking."
Kai crossed his arms. "You got a horse I don't know about?"
"Nope." Belle rolled her shoulders, flexing her arms. "I'll carry you."
Silence.
Kai blinked. "…What?"
"I carry you—" she crouched slightly, patting her back, "—piggyback ride. Then I run."
Kai's soul visibly left his body. "…I would rather die."
"Oh, come on." Belle rolled her eyes. "I've got super speed! It's the fastest way there."
Kai took a step back, looking at her like she had just suggested him to crawl into hell. "Absolutely not."
Belle gave him a flat look. "You'd rather let Trinity Blade die because you have a fragile ego?"
Kai exhaled sharply through his nose. "It's not about my ego—"
"Sounds like it is."
"Listen, I'm a swordsman. I have pride."
"You're also an idiot."
Kai scowled. "I don't see you offering to let me carry you."
"Because I'm faster than you." Belle cracked her knuckles. "Now quit whining and get on."
Kai pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering something about 'this is humiliating' and 'I swear to the gods if you tell anyone' before finally, reluctantly, climbing onto Belle's back.
She adjusted his weight, bending her knees slightly. "See? Not so bad."
"…I hate this. This is so humiliating."
Then—without warning, she launched forward.
A burst of wind exploded behind them, her sheer acceleration kicking up a trail of dust. The world blurred into streaks of green and brown as the forest whipped past them at inhuman speeds.
Kai's grip tightened around her shoulders as his stomach lurched. "WHAT THE HELL—"
"You better hold on!" Belle called over the roaring wind, grinning.
Kai squeezed his eyes shut, his dignity shattering with every second.
His voice cracked. "I SWEAR IF YOU DROP ME—"
"Relax, I've got you!" Belle laughed, enjoying his suffering just a little too much.
Kai gritted his teeth. "THIS IS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!"
"Not even top five for me."
"STOP TALKING AND WATCH THE ROAD!"
Kai screamed.
By the time they reached the dungeon's entrance, Kai looked half-dead.
His red hair was an absolute disaster, strands sticking up in every direction like he had just survived a natural disaster. His face was pale from motion sickness, and his arms were still locked around Belle's shoulders in a death grip.
Belle, on the other hand, looked completely fine.
She stretched her arms with a satisfied sigh, rolling her shoulders like she had just finished a light jog. "See? That was efficient."
Kai weakly slid off her back. His legs immediately gave out.
"I will never recover from this," he wheezed, grabbing his knees as if he had barely escaped death itself.
Belle patted his back, her voice dripping with amusement. "You did great, buddy."
Kai glared at her. "I will throw you into the dungeon."
Belle smirked. "Oh? Gonna carry me in there, then?"
Kai opened his mouth to retort, then stopped. He was still struggling to stand. "…Tch."
Belle chuckled before turning to the massive stone archway that loomed before them. The entrance was a swirling void of dark mist, exuding an eerie, unnatural presence—almost like a living thing.
Deep within, Trinity Blade was waiting.
Belle's expression hardened. They didn't have time to waste.
She cracked her knuckles. "Alright. Shortcut time."
Kai groaned. "What now?"
Belle stepped forward and placed a hand on the ground. Electricity crackled at her fingertips.
"Floor Six is down there, right?" she asked.
Kai's eye twitched. "...Yes?"
Belle grinned. "Then let's just break through the ground."
Kai stared at her, waiting for her to say something else. A joke, maybe. Anything that would indicate she wasn't being serious.
Belle simply reared her fist back. Sparks danced across her knuckles, energy coiling like a thunderstorm ready to be unleashed.
Kai's soul nearly left his body. "WAIT—WAIT—WAIT—STOP!"
Belle blinked. "What?"
Kai frantically grabbed her wrist, his entire being radiating pure panic. "We are NOT doing this."
Belle tilted her head. "Why not?"
Kai took a deep breath, rubbing his temples like he was trying to physically push away the headache forming.
"That's not how dungeons work."
Belle frowned. "What do you mean?"
Kai pointed at the ground, like a teacher explaining something to a particularly dense student.
"You can't just punch your way to Floor Six."
"…Why not?"
Kai exhaled through gritted teeth. "Because dungeons don't follow normal space. Each floor exists in its own pocket dimension."
Belle frowned. "Okay, but it's below us."
"Physically? Yes." Kai gestured around them. "But if you destroy the ground here, you're not gonna drop down to Floor Six. You'll just break the entrance."
Belle squinted at him. "That sounds fake."
Kai let out a strangled noise. "OH MY GODS—who even taught you dungeon mechanics?!"
Belle shrugged. "I think I read it from somewhere?"
Kai looked like he aged five years in real time.
Belle, completely unbothered, glanced back at the entrance. The dark mist swirled ominously, almost beckoning them forward. Every second they wasted… Trinity Blade's time ran out.
Kai saw the shift in her expression. His serious gaze met hers.
"I know," he said quietly. "We don't have much time. But this is the only way."
Belle clenched her fists. Damn it.
"Then we better move fast."
Kai nodded.
The moment they stepped into the dungeon, a heavy, oppressive weight settled over them.
The air was thick with stagnant mana, an unnatural presence pressing against Belle's skin like an unseen force. The cavern walls, jagged and uneven, loomed on either side, illuminated only by dim, pulsating blue crystals embedded in the rock. Their eerie glow cast long, shifting shadows that twisted with each flicker of light.
A faint, musty scent of damp stone and decay lingered in the air. Somewhere in the distance, the sound of dripping water echoed faintly—an unnatural silence stretching between each drop.
Then—Belle's boots touched the ground. Her Aura Sense activated instantly.
A pulse of energy radiated outward from her body, expanding like ripples in a vast, invisible ocean. She felt the mana signatures of everything within range—every shifting pebble, every stagnant gust of air—every moving entity.
The moment she sensed them, her breath hitched. "…Damn it."
Kai, already unsheathing his katana, immediately tensed. "What?"
"There's more of them." Belle's eyes narrowed. "Kobolds. Skeletons. A lot of them."
Kai's grip on his katana tightened. "How bad?"
"They're converging on Trinity Blade's position." Belle's voice was grim. "They're fighting back, but… they're struggling. They won't hold out for much longer."
Kai clicked his tongue in frustration. "No time to waste, then."
Belle crouched slightly.
Kai took an instinctive step back.
"…Oh no. No, no, no. Don't even think about it."
Belle gave him a deadpan look. "Kai, we don't have time to argue. You said it yourself, there's no time to waste."
"I would rather crawl on broken legs than—"
Too late.
Belle grabbed him by the waist like a sack of potatoes, effortlessly hoisting him onto her back before he could react.
Kai made a noise that was absolutely not a dignified battle cry.
"BELLE, PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW—"
"Shhh. Hold on tight."
BOOM.
Belle vanished.
A shockwave erupted in her wake, sending loose gravel scattering across the cavern floor. The dungeon walls trembled as she propelled forward at blinding speed. Wind roared past them, an overwhelming rush of force compressing the air itself. The dim crystal light stretched into streaks as the world around them blurred into darkness.
Kai flailed for a moment before gripping Belle's shoulders for dear life. "I WASN'T READY—"
"You never are!"
They ripped through the tunnels like a lightning bolt, a surge of pure velocity carving a direct path to their destination. The chaotic flickers of Trinity Blade's auras came into sharper focus—desperate, flickering like candle flames in a storm.
The monsters surrounding them hadn't noticed yet.
Big mistake.
Belle didn't slow down. The last thing the horde saw was a silver-blue blur and the faint, horrified scream of a red-haired swordsman.
IMPACT.
Belle exploded into the chamber like a comet.
The force of her arrival was cataclysmic. The shockwave of her landing blasted through the monsters, sending kobolds flying into the cavern walls with bone-crushing force. Skeletons shattered on impact, their brittle bodies reduced to piles of dust and fragments before they even realized what hit them.
A massive, armor-clad undead barely had time to turn before Belle plowed straight through its torso, tearing it in half like paper.
Kai leapt off Belle's back mid-motion, flipping through the air and landing in a crouch, katana already drawn. The air crackled with the residual energy of their entrance, dust swirling around them in a spiraling vortex.
For a moment—silence.
Trinity Blade stood frozen, weapons raised, staring at the absolute carnage that had unfolded before them in mere seconds.
Kai stumbled slightly. His face was burning red. He took a deep breath, dusted himself off, and turned toward the stunned group.
"…You saw nothing."
Darin blinked. "…What?"
Kai's eye twitched. "You. Saw. Nothing."
Lena tilted her head. "Are we not gonna talk about how you just—"
"No. We are not."
Belle, completely unbothered, crossed her arms with a smug grin. "You're welcome, by the way."
Darin, still stunned, shook his head. "Hold on. Why are you even here?"
Lena frowned. "Yeah, and how the hell did you find us so fast? We only sent out the distress signal a little while ago."
Belle cracked her knuckles. "Let's focus on getting out of here first."
Kai sighed, rubbing his temples. "We're wasting time. If there's more coming, we need to be ready."
Lena's question hung in the air, but neither Belle nor Kai answered.
They weren't here to explain. They were here to fight.
The aftermath of Belle's high-speed entrance still lingered in the air. Dust swirled, mixing with the fading remnants of her impact—shattered skeletons, twitching kobolds, and the broken remnants of the undead that had stood in their way.
But this was far from over.
Belle's sharp gaze swept over the battlefield, taking in the sight of Trinity Blade—battered, bruised, and clearly exhausted. Their breaths came in ragged gasps, their stances uneven from fatigue.
Kai, however, had his focus elsewhere.
His grip on his katana tightened, his crimson eyes narrowing as he observed the remaining kobolds and skeletons that had survived their initial assault. Something was off.
Their movements were wrong—erratic, unnatural.
A dark mist clung to their bodies, writhing and curling like phantom tendrils, sinking into their very forms like an invisible parasite.
Kai's expression darkened. His voice dropped low.
"…Miasma corruption."
Belle didn't speak, but she agreed silently. She could feel it too.
Lena inhaled sharply. "So that means—"
Her voice faltered. She already knew the answer.
Before anyone could respond, the monsters reacted. A chilling, unnatural howl echoed through the cavern.
The kobolds' bodies jerked violently, their blood-red eyes glowing brighter. Their muscles bulged grotesquely, claws elongating into razor-sharp talons. The skeletons, previously frail and brittle, began to regenerate, their cracked bones reforming, shifting unnaturally as if puppeteered by an unseen force.
Then—they charged.
Kai's blade flared to life, a deep crimson glow illuminating the chamber. His expression hardened. No hesitation.
A skeletal warrior lunged, its rusted sword descending in a deadly arc. Kai sidestepped effortlessly avoiding the strike. The cold steel sliced through the air inches from his face. Before the skeleton could react, Kai's katana flashed, cleaving through its brittle spine with a single fluid stroke.
The skeleton crumbled, but Kai was already moving.
Another enemy. A kobold snarled, lunging with a jagged spear aimed for his heart—
CLANG!
Kai's blade intercepted the attack mid-strike, sparks flying from the impact. He twisted his wrist, redirecting the force, sending the spear skidding harmlessly across the floor.
Before the kobold could recover—SLASH!
A fiery arc carved through its chest. Flames erupted from the wound, devouring the creature in seconds.
More enemies swarmed him. Kai welcomed them.
His body moved like a flame in the wind—dodging, weaving, and cutting through foes with precise, lethal grace. He wasn't just attacking; he was dancing between blades, his movements a flawless blend of fluid motion and controlled destruction.
A kobold leapt at him from behind. Kai's hand shot out mid-air, grabbing the creature by the throat. With a single motion, he slammed it into the ground—CRACK.
The kobold's skull shattered instantly, its body twitching once before going still. But the fight wasn't over.
A monstrous skeleton, twice the size of the others, lunged with a massive halberd—its weapon cutting through the air with deadly force.
Kai's instincts flared. Too fast. Too close.
There was only one option.
He raised his katana—BOOM!
Belle appeared in front of him in an instant, her palm slamming into the halberd's shaft with raw, explosive force. The sheer impact shattered the weapon on contact. The massive skeleton reeled back—but Belle didn't let it recover.
She launched forward, her foot crashing into its ribcage with enough force to obliterate its entire torso. The creature erupted into a burst of dust and bone, its remnants scattering across the chamber.
Silence.
Kai exhaled, flicking blackened blood off his katana before sliding it into its sheath. "That should do it."
Belle, in the meantime, had already moved to Trinity Blade. She knelt beside them, pulling a handful of potions from her pouch. "Drink these."
Darin, too exhausted to argue, took one and downed it in a single gulp. The rest of Trinity Blade followed suit, the potions restoring color to their faces as their wounds began to heal.
Then—Garron spoke, his voice grim. "…There are ogres and minotaurs waiting outside this chamber."
Belle and Kai exchanged glances. "…How many?" Belle asked.
Lena's face darkened. "There are three minotaurs. And they're not normal too."
Belle's expression remained unreadable, but she felt her pulse quicken.
Minotaurs were strong. Far stronger than skeletons and kobolds. If they were also corrupted by miasma… this could get ugly.
Kai, however, merely sighed, rolling his shoulders. "Alright." He took a step toward the exit, his grip tightening around his katana. "Let's get this over with and get out of here."
From beyond the passage, a deep, guttural growl rumbled—Something massive was coming.
End of Chapter 42