Before Too Late

Seeing the sudden eruption, Rama, Shoji, Axel, and Veyne instinctively jumped back. But they had no room. Behind them was nothing but solid concrete and rusted sheet-metal walls.

"What the hell just happened?" Veyne asked, his voice tense.

"It's Mana," Axel muttered, eyes narrowed. "Same kind of Mana that we saw in that underground mausoleum."

Veyne didn't fully understand, but he knew one thing, that mausoleum had been the place his guildmaster went to with them. The place that killed the senior members of his guild. Whatever was thre was something they weren't meant to mess with. But now? It was too late to turn away.

The three thugs were screaming now. They let out hoarse ragged cries that lasted only seconds before falling silent. Their bodies went still.

Then it happened.

The violet threads of Mana snaked into them like living tendrils and vanished inside their skin. The glow faded.

They stood silent and otionless.