Rush

Snow flipped through more pages, but it was empty. On the very last page, it read, Black Box no. 00 will save the universe.

With the journal finished. Snow stored it away. There wasn't any new information that she could glean from it, making it useless.

Snow then picked up the small Black Box that was the size of her hand. It was in a cube shape. She flipped it over a few times, trying to figure out what it was. Even when she twirled it around and injected magic into it, nothing happened.

A bit defeated, she stored it away and turned around. Heading straight toward the exit, she had to lower her head and squeeze through the exit.

Eventually, she was able to get out without much trouble.

Upon exiting, Snow noticed that Mike, Levian, and Dairen was over, waiting patiently. When they saw Snow emerge out without any injuries, the tense air between the three of them relaxed.

"Did you find anything?" Dairen asked. He was the first one to come over to her.

"Yes. I found the very first Black Box series No. 0 and a diary."

"What was it about?"

"Well, to put it simply, it's everything that has to do with the history of the doomsday. The new information I got was that No. 0 is a special type of black box that is supposed to help us." Snow pulled out the Black Box No. 0. She handed it to Dairen for him to check out.

Dairen flipped it a few times, but nothing happened. He handed it to Mike, and then Levian checked it out, trying to figure out what it was.

Nothing.

None of them was able to figure out what it could do.

Eventually, Levian gave it back to Snow.

"If what you say is true, I suggest you keep it safe. Maybe one day, we might know what it would do." Levian said. "I never would have thought this would be here."

"See," Mike said with a knowing tone. "The future changed."

"Possibly." Levian didn't say anymore.

Both of them were still in an intense standoff with each other.

Snow didn't pay attention to them. She was getting tired of their bickering.

Instead, she put the Black Box away.

The moment she put it away, the ground trembled.

Loud twisting sound of metal against metal could be heard. It was as if the whole building would collapse at the way the walls moved.

"Quickly, call the others. We should get out of here!" Snow shouted. Everyone bolted toward where they had camped.

They found the others packing their things away in a hurry.

"Head outside!" Snow shouted. "Levian shows them the way!"

Everyone followed, running behind in a hurry. The building shook and rattled, collapsing as they escaped. Even the other buildings near them fell all around them, becoming a rubble of destruction.

Snow was halfway to the ground, trying to find shelter away from the towering buildings that were collapsing all around them. It was as if they were in a movie shoot as dust and debris scattered in the air.

It took a while for the earthquake to finish.

Loud coughing and hacking sound was heard, trying to get rid of the mucus buildup and the debris getting caught in her nose and throat. It even blinded her, making it difficult to tell what was going on.

People groaned and stumbled, trying to find their bearings. It took a while for everything to settle down, allowing them to see their surroundings.

Snow opened her watery eyes; she blinked a few times and wiped away her tears. "Is everyone alright?"

"Yes!" Mike was the first one to shoot. He was the nearest one to her.

"I'm still alive," Levian replied with a cough. He was bent over, spitting out a chunk of his mucus onto the ground. He wiped his lips on his arm, shaking his hair back.

"I'm good too." Dairen had his skeletons covering him like a tent. A few slabs of boulders were leaning against him, almost crushing him. It took the other skeleton to pull it aside for Dairen to escape out.

The others were unharmed as well. Most of them were rattled.

They didn't understand what had happened and why a sudden earthquake appeared out of thin air. Many of them were tired of being stuck in the dungeon and were crying at their misfortune.

"Let's regroup!" Snow motioned her arms overhead to grab everyone's attention.

Everyone came together, checking up for any injury. So far, there was barely anyone who got hurt. Most were just bruises and light cuts. Only two had a bigger injury, but that was easily healed away as they used their healing power for one another.

"What should we do?" Mike asked. "This place is too big of a maze and, strangely, even I don't know what our directives are….."Suddenly, he went silent.

Snow was wondering why Mike froze. She looked over toward him.

"Mike?" Snow asked, a bit concerned.

"We need to run." Mike gasped.

"Why? What?" Dairen had asked with confusion.

"We need to run out of this city now!" Mike bolted.

The others looked at him, confused, but Snow didn't understand what was going on. Snow bolted right after without asking questions. While the others were hesitant at first, when they heard the howling of a monster screeching, they all followed without any questions.

They ran through the rubbles. They were jumping, hopping, and ducking under the debris that blocked their way.

Mike was single-mindedly heading toward an unknown destination that nobody knew where.

It didn't take long for the first monster to catch up to them. A black wolf that was three times its normal size was growling and snapping behind them.

Dairen raised his bow, firing one in mid-air. The first wolf fell onto the ground dead as the arrow was lodged into its skull. Another quickly took its place.

The black wolves nipped and growled, trying to herd the group in a certain direction. Dairen summoned a large force of monsters from his shadows, blocking the oncoming wolves.

A large portion of them were stalled behind, but it wasn't enough to stop them all. Some of the wolves easily dodged past them.

"Levian! They are breaking through!" Dairen shouted. Levian was the closest to the wolves on the right.

Levian spun around. He pushed off from his toe and dashed straight at the wolves. With his sword drawn, he blitzed into the wolves. It didn't take long for the wolves to fall dead.

"Mike! Lead the others to a safe location!" Snow shouted. She knew that many of the survivors would fall to their deaths at the rate this was going.

"On it!" Mike bolted past her. "Follow me!" He waved to catch everyone else's attention.

Snow pulled out her Black Box with her swords. The Black box clank and hissed as it opened. She reached in, taking out Black Widow. Its blade glistened with poison, ready to devour its prey.

She waved her hand, putting away her Black Box, and dashed toward the nearest black wolf. Her sword carved into the lunging wolf, cutting it in half.

Another black wolf zipped through Dairen's skeleton soldier, running at her with mouth agape.

Its sharp white teeth glistened dangerously while its red eyes sparkled with menace. Anyone who caught its deadly stare would have been frozen in fear, but not Snow.

Her battle-hardened spirit had tampered with her like cold steel, allowing her to meet the black wolf head-on. She didn't flinch. Her magical tattoo glowed, covering her head with her white helmet. Even her dragon tail appeared behind her. The claws on her finger and shoes elongated, giving her a better grip on the ground.

A sharp ring of air cut through the air as Black Widow bit into the side of the Black Wolf's neck.

Snow dug down in deeply, using the momentum of her spin to slice through its neck. Another black wolf jumped from behind her. Her tail automatically grabbed the Black Wolf's leg. It picked it up, slamming it into the ground. A loud yelp rang out and escaped the wolf's lips as its bone broke into pieces.

"Keep them away from the others!" Snow shouted. She blitzed into another group of Black Wolves that broke free from Dairen's skeleton.

Dairen continuously fired arrow after arrow, raining down a barrage of arrow showers.

Every time one of his skeletons fell, Dairen would summon up another group of skeleton warriors from the dead, replacing the ones he had lost.

Levian hunted and moved quickly, zigzagging through the skeletons. He stabbed, kicked, and even punched a few into submission, darting around like a dragonfly.

"I don't think we can do this forever!" Levian took out another. He threw his sword in midair, catching the black wolf that jumped in the air toward him. Quickly, he ran over and pulled the sword out of the Black Wolf's body and entangled with another.

It didn't take long for a powerful howl that resonated through their bodies to echo in the air. The black wolves stopped and retreated.