Chapter 8: Only the Shadows Survive.

Arkhiel conjured an ice dagger with a simple gesture as he rushed toward the nearest creature. He cut it down instantly, slicing through its neck.

They were less sensitive to light than their mother.

A single drop of blood flew and landed on Lina's cheek.

She froze for a second. The light in her eyes went out. With one fluid motion, she unsheathed her dagger.

She was no longer Lina the white mage.

She was Lina, the assassin.

Everyone had already taken their positions. Celica stepped to the front, eyes locked on the creatures emerging from the cracks. Lina positioned herself near Mirell.

Darien and Eldrick flanked Celica.

But Arkhiel knew it wouldn't be enough.

He ran to one of the side openings and placed both hands on the stone. Channeling his mana swiftly, he froze the entrance before another creature could slip through.

"Seal them all!" Mirell shouted, firing at an enemy moving too fast.

Arkhiel didn't answer. He was already headed for the next opening. Meanwhile, the creatures kept attacking.

The situation was spiraling out of control, and their shrieks grew more unbearable by the second. Erina still lay unconscious.

Darien, the closest one to her, was surrounded. Three creatures harassed him at once. He screamed as he swung his sword. Mirell kept firing, but sweat blurred her vision.

Arkhiel sealed the third opening.

Eldrick turned toward Erina.

One of the creatures was already upon her. It tore open her throat in a single motion. No one reached her in time. Her blood mixed with the damp floor.

"Erina!" Darien screamed as he saw her.

He tried to run to her, forgetting the beasts around him for a split second.

That second was all they needed. One creature latched onto his neck. Another sank its fangs into his leg, ripping muscle and flesh. He dropped to his knees, screaming.

Lina didn't even glance at him. Her eyes were locked on the nearest enemy. In her mind, there were only two things that mattered: the enemies she had to eliminate, and the two people she had to protect.

Arkhiel and Celica.

Everything else was irrelevant.

Arkhiel looked at Lina. He saw her fighting, drenched in blood, her face empty of emotion.

Mirell let out a choked cry but didn't move. She was busy reloading her weapon, cursing as she tried to aim through the chaos.

Eldrick hesitated, his sword trembling in his grip. He gritted his teeth, not in anger, but in sheer helplessness.

Arkhiel watched in silence.

Erina was dead.

In the future, she would've helped the protagonist improve her mana control.

But that future no longer existed.

Arkhiel had grown overconfident.

He hesitated internally. He could wipe out all the creatures in seconds if he revealed his true nature as a Shadewalker. But that would mean exposing himself and Eldrick, Darien, and Mirell already knew too much. He couldn't afford for them to know more.

Maybe he could no longer tell strategy apart from indifference.

Was this really the most rational decision?

Or had he simply become numb a long time ago?

He would only use his Shadewalker abilities if Celica or Lina were truly in danger.

Until then, the beasts could devour whomever they pleased.

He would deal with the consequences later.

"Lina, left!" Celica shouted as she ran a creature through with a clean thrust.

Eldrick yelled desperate orders, but their formation was collapsing.

"Help!" cried Mirell, now on the ground, soaked in blood as the creatures closed in.

Darien, with the last of his strength, threw himself between Mirell and the monsters. He let out a strangled cry before being torn apart without mercy.

Tears welled in Mirell's eyes.

"Lina, cover Mirell!" Arkhiel shouted as he conjured another dagger. He hurled it at a creature trying to flank Celica, striking its skull dead-on.

Lina obeyed immediately, slaying the beasts still feeding on Darien's corpse.

Arkhiel was so focused on Lina and Celica, watching their every movement while sealing the breaches, that the rest of the group simply stopped existing to him.

He didn't even notice the exact moment Darien died.

He felt no guilt, only a faint discomfort.

Could he have saved him? Probably.

Did it matter? No.

Darien, like Erina, was part of a story that would never be written.

The number of creatures was finally starting to decrease.

Arkhiel had sealed nearly every visible crack.

He could still hear the shrieks behind the walls—but they were growing fainter.

Then he saw it. A crack in the wall, wide enough for an adult to pass through.

A way out.

"There!" Arkhiel shouted, pointing. "There might be a tunnel behind that wall!"

Mirell, still in shock, was helped along by Eldrick. Blood covered half her face, and her legs gave out with nearly every step.

"Come on. We need to get out of here," Eldrick muttered—more to himself than to her.

"I'll go first. I need to clear the path," said Arkhiel as he slashed through another creature emerging from the crack.

Celica stepped in after him, followed closely by Lina.

"Go!" Eldrick shouted to Mirell.

The ice was starting to crack. It wouldn't hold much longer.

Just as Eldrick was crossing into the passage, one of the creatures broke through the ice.

Eldrick hesitated.

He stopped.

He turned around.

"What are you doing?!" Arkhiel yelled.

Eldrick didn't answer right away. He just looked at Mirell, who was struggling to move forward.

"I have to… buy you time," he said, voice hollow.

Mirell looked at him, horrified, understanding instantly what he meant.

She tried to grab his arm.

"No! Don't be an idiot! Don't you dare!"

But Eldrick slipped free with a light shove.

He looked at her one last time.

"Sorry… now you won't get to yell at me anymore."

Mirell grabbed him with both hands, sobbing.

"No! Don't do this to me, Eldrick! Don't leave me, damn it!"

"Hold her. Don't let her go after him," Arkhiel told Lina.

Lina obeyed. She wrapped her arms around Mirell and held her back with ease. Mirell struggled, screaming.

"Let me go! Let me go, please! Eldrick! ELDRICK!"

The last thing they heard was muffled roars.

"You idiot…" she whispered, voice breaking. "You always did play hero…"

He was overwhelmed.

No one stopped.

"Keep moving!" Arkhiel ordered.

Lina followed just behind, still holding Mirell, who sobbed silently, crushed by helplessness.

Another miscalculation. Failure was his shadow.

He had believed the ice would hold longer.

He hadn't wanted to spend too much mana.

Not because he couldn't, but because he had to conserve it.

If something stronger waited for them at the end of this hell, he couldn't afford to take risks.

That was his reasoning. And Eldrick died because of it.

Arkhiel had always hated working with large groups. Too many variables. Too many weak points.

Celica walked silently behind him. Eldrick and the others were dead.

And even though she hadn't killed him with her sword, her decisions had condemned them.

She didn't mourn someone she barely knew—but there was a knot in her chest.

She had forced the deal, manipulated them. She had planned to use them as cannon fodder. But the problem wasn't watching people die because of her. The problem was that her decisions had consequences beyond what she could foresee.

What if one day the same thing happened to Lina or Arkhiel?

What if her next decision cost them their lives?

Because with them, it was different. And that terrified her.

She had to change. She had to think more carefully before acting. She had to be a better leader.

But thinking it was easier than doing it. 

Lina, on the other hand, simply kept walking in silence.

She just held Mirell.

She understood what it meant to lose someone and be unable to do anything. She knew there were no words that could ease that pain.

The passage began to widen, and finally, they emerged.

This time, Arkhiel wouldn't hold back on mana.

Ice burst from his hands, sealing the passage completely.

They kept walking aimlessly. Arkhiel did not know this part of the dungeon.

Then they saw it.

A white, six-legged creature, twice the size of the one they had just fought. It was asleep… or perhaps hibernating.

Mirell dropped to her knees.

"No…" she whispered through sobs. "No, this can't be… this can't be…"

Celica took a step back. For the first time in a long while, she couldn't keep her composure, her face twisted in pure fear.

Lina instinctively clutched Celica's arm, as if, for a brief moment, she was the little girl who once feared being alone.

Arkhiel simply cursed.

"...Perfect," he said with bitter irony.

He had avoided using his true abilities.

But it didn't matter anymore.

There was no one left to hide them from. Erina, Darien, and Eldrick were dead. Mirell likely wouldn't speak, and even if she did, no one would believe her.

If that creature woke up, it would all end right there.

Enough hiding. Enough restraint.

It was time for the abyss to answer.

And for the shades to reign.