D&DIVE

Towards the outskirts of a clearing within the jungles of Freydal, the sound of hurried footsteps, uttered curses, and slung spells cut through the silence as a ragtag party of six burst through the flora.

“Don’t stop—don’t any of you dare stop running. Or I swear to my patron that when we return to Fahlmar’s Keep, I will personally have my father execute—AHHH!” a high elf beckoned as one of the troll’s clubs flattened the tree right next to her. “Pelemor, what in the realms are you doing!”

Her pseudodragon grumbled and whined as it zipped around the air trying to taunt the chasing trolls to aim for it, narrowly ducking out of the way each time. “I’m trying, mistress! But it’s kind of your friend’s fault for waking them up.”

Faster than the wind, a blur of blue darted past the warlock and her familiar, slicing and hacking through the foliage and underbrush, clearing the way forward. “Hey, that wasn’t my fault! They were already awake by the time I decided to pickpocket them. Would have been a waste not to!”

As she nearly tripped from the shaking earth, a winged gray figure swooped her up, pirouetting in the air to face the chasing trolls. Hand outstretched, she blasted a column of light right into the face of one of them, blinding it, sending it stumbling into its comrade. “Little devil. Couldn’t keep your hands to yourself, huh?”

Beneath them, a large dire wolf tore into the ankles of another troll, ripping flesh and muscle clean off the bone. It chased after the pack of goblins that acted as the trolls’ posse, nicking them up by their necks before slamming them back into the dirt. Howling, it fell behind a few paces to get between the feet of yet another troll, leaping up towards its thighs for the chance to drag it down with its sharpened fangs.

Ahead of the entire party, their fearless leader—the hooded wood elf—blazed a trail through the last bits of jungle with her glaive, decapitating and skewering the remaining relentless goblins that dared to lay a hand on her. “Doesn’t matter who did what—we’re almost there. One final push! We could use a bit more firepower here. Any second now, Eliza.”

Holding onto her flying broomstick for dear life, the blonde Eliza forced her mount to race past their leader, and at the final stroke before they reached the clearing, she cast her hand back and evoked a spell.

“F-F-Fireball!”

“Wait, Eliza—no—!”

BOOM.

Six bodies—singed, battered, and limp—came flying through the air from the aftermath of the fiery explosion of Eliza’s haphazardly cast spell. One by one, they landed onto a mixture of stone tiles and grass while being showered by troll and goblin remains from above. 

This is I.V.E., an up and coming adventuring group from the south side of the Hangrian Peninsula. Don’t ask for the meaning of that acronym—they swear it exists, they just haven’t come up with a formal one yet. While each member has her own idiosyncrasies, they’ve banded together to form their colorful party, each of them filling a vital role during their marvelous misadventures.

One such misadventure is this one.

As the party gathered their bearings once more, Eliza fought the urge to vomit upon seeing the twitching of a severed troll arm, only to have that disgust converted into fear as a glaive punctured it through the wrist.

“Ya, what was that about just now? I thought we said we were going to take this party thing more seriously now that we’re no longer rookies,” their leader raised, hoisting the troll hand up like a trophy with her weapon. “I thought I told everyone to leave the amateur stuff behind. Why didn’t you aim the fireball further back? You know you could have hit us too, right?”

“E-Eugene, I’m sorry … I swear … I didn’t mean to hurt you o-o-or anyone else for that matter,” Eliza apologized, fingers trembling around her broomstick. “I-I just … Everything happened so fast that I-I-I barely had time to think, and—.”

“You can’t keep doing this,” Eugene interjected, staring her dead in the eye, hands still gripping her glaive. “You have to control your powers. Your magic. I don’t want another repeat of the Kreygor incident.”

A lump formed in Eliza’s throat when she recalled said incident. Oh god, all those poor orphans. It still plagued her at night—their screams. “I … Ok … I’ll try …”

“You keep trying, Eliza. You keep saying that. And look where that’s gotten us,” Eugene sighed, gesturing to the rest of their party, who were in different states of dishevelment and disarray. “You’re strong—I know you are. But you need to have more confidence in yourself. Otherwise …”

“Ya, Eugene-unnie?” the blue tiefling called out, waving both hands at their leader. “I’ve scouted the area. Let’s discuss tactical.”

“Coming! Lilianna, go grab Autumn too. I think she’s having too much fun eating all the … remains.” Before jogging of, Eugene gave Eliza a final nod of acknowledgement. “I trust you. You know I do. So don’t betray that trust.”

“I … I’ll do my best.”

The sound of fluttering feathers roused Eliza from her spiraling thoughts. Beside her, a gray figure in twintails landed with a kneel, wings sparkling for a second before dissipating into nothingness once again. “Are you alright? I was worried you might have casted with some wild magic again.”

Eliza pouted and tugged on the aasimar’s chainmail. “Am I really that … unreliable in everyone’s eyes?”

Sensing something was off, her friend scrunched her nose and picked up Eliza’s hand. “What’s wrong? We made it out. Alive. Like always. That’s all that matters.”

“Reina, you … I saw you almost get beaten to a pulp by one of those trolls … If I was any quicker, th-then maybe … maybe you wouldn’t have cut it too close. Maybe … maybe we wouldn’t have been this roughed up.”

“Bah, you worry too much, Eliza,” Reina assuaged, smacking her friend in the butt, fingers digging into her arcane robes. “I can pull my own weight. The others can too. Just do your own thing however you want to. Only you can decide what—.”

Shatter.

“Ya, Rei-unnie! That’s already metagaming!” Leeseo called out, huffing with a cross of her arms. “It’s fine if you want to console your girlfriend in-game, but at least do it in character. In character!”

“Huh? Since when did you care about metagaming? And what’s with that LARP-ing attitude of yours,” Rei clapped back, rubbing her fingers against the back of Liz’s palm, dice still in her other hand. “It’s just a game, aegi. Don’t get too serious about it.”

Leeseo was about to throw a fit when Yujin called them all to attention. “Ok, that’s enough. We all play how we want to. So long as it doesn’t derail things, it should be fine. You two—go back to that scene.”

Rei and Liz nodded in unison before facing each other again, a faint blush scattered across their faces as they resumed the heartfelt conversation.

Shatter.

“—damn it, where was I? Right! In the heat of battle, only you can decide what’s the best thing you can do. After all, you’re our one and only Eliza Benett! The valedictorian of her year at Strixhaven—.”

“Stop …”

“—the youngest wizard to have ever received the Archanomachia’s blessing—.”

“Reina … I—.”

“—and the most talented woman I know,” Reina finished, holding up Eliza’s hand by her lips, kissing her sweating fingers gently. “Ya … When you’re backed into a corner, don’t forget what you’re made of, Eliza. I don’t know what Eugene said to you, but to me? You’re the best among all six of us.”

“You’re just trying to make me feel better … aren’t you?” Eliza mewled, shying away deeper into her robes. “Because if you are, it’s … it might be working …”

Chuckling, Reina pulled the whimpering wizard in for a tight embrace. “I’ll always believe in you, jagi. You need to believe in yourself more too. Now, let’s go join the others.”

“Ok …”

When the two rejoin their companions, they were already huddled by a flat-topped rock, where a map of the Freydallian wilds was laid across it.

“Alright, now that we’re all here, Lilianna, if you would?”

The blue tiefling saluted and took center stage by their leader’s side. “Right, right. Ok, get this—based on my sources from the Ultroch underbelly, they have good reason to believe that the artifact we’re looking for is located at this very temple.”

“The Horn of Elysia you mean?” Victoria asked, tossing her hair back as she looped her luscious mane through her golden accoutrements for a fourth time now. “What’s treasure like that doing in the middle of nowhere? Let alone an … eery looking temple.”

“It must have belonged to someone at some point,” Autumn chimed in while she licked the backs of her hands as if she were still in her wolven form. “Although this temple does creep me the hell out. Abandoned?”

“I’m sensing some dark energies from it. I can’t tell what, but … there’s definitely something in there. Something we don’t want to mess with the wrong way,” Reina pointed out, resting her folded arms atop the halfling’s head. “We should probably camp out here before storming it. We’re still a bit banged up from the trolls. Head inside tomorrow?”

Eugene shook her head, tapping a finger on the map. “We don’t have much time. It’s another two and a half days back to the village. If we wait another day, we won’t make it back in time to use the horn on their crops. Meaning they don’t make it to harvest day. Meaning we lose our one way ticket into the Continentarian Alliance.”

“The Alliance …” Eliza repeated under her breath.

Their party has been struggling for the better part of a year now trying to be recognized by any kingdom or vassal state as a legitimate adventuring crew. No factions would take them in. No patrons would adopt their services—not without much coaxing at least. Jobs were few and far between. The gold stopped flowing in. Their own individual goals stalled. But being a part of the Continentarian Alliance? It would change all that.

They could finally be acknowledged. They could finally go pro. They could finally be legitimate. 

Just like they’ve always wanted.

But the thought of all of that relying on this one quest of theirs sent shivers up Eliza’s spine.

If we fail now … if I fail now … then …

“Hah, how pathetic. If all it’ll take to win the Alliance’s favor is a measly little farming village’s good graces, then this had better be worth the time,” Victoria cooed, swatting Pelemor away when it fluttered too close to her face. “What’s so special about it anyway?”

“The village of Eideen sits at the crossroads of at least four major trade routes—both by land and by sea. Whoever wins the favor of the villagers earns a bargaining chip with the Alliance. Holding sway over them could mean it would be easier to convince them to allow the construction of trading outposts, to barter for their crops at lower prices, or to even persuade them into joining the Alliance itself. That’s how politics works, princess. I thought your kind understood that well—that’s practically all you’re good at it.”

Victoria snarled and widened her eyes at Eugene. “Watch it, tree hugger.”

“No, you watch it, golden girl.”

“Guys, guys, important quest here? Remember?” Reina intervened, holding out a hand to each of the elves who looked like they were ready to just rip each other’s throats out. “Now that that’s cleared up, all that’s left is to retrieve that horn and make it back to Eideen in time. Yeah?”

Twirling her thieves’ tools around one finger, Lilianna smirked. “Way ahead of you, unnie. I found the entrance to the temple. It’s sealed, but there’s some script engraved around the entryway. I was hoping maybe Eliza-unnie could help me decode it?”

When all eyes turned to the blonde wizard, she gasped and gestured to herself. “M-Me?”

“Who else? You’re the one who knows, like, eleven languages—even Abyssal, mind you, which is crazy,” Reina acknowledged, nudging her friend in support. “You’ve got this. Once we’re in, leave the rest to us.”

Biting down on her lip, Eliza gripped her broomstick by her side and nodded. “Ok … lead the way, Lily.”

Assembling before the front steps of the temple, the party gazed at its towering entryway. The cracks scattered across the stone gave way for moss and other plant life to blossom and burst through the seams of the foundation. The air here smelled thick in moisture, but the utter silence from within lead them to believe this place has indeed been abandoned for some time now.

Placing a hand on the derelict door, Eliza muttered a spell underneath her breath. Lips glowing, the incantation’s energy surged right into her brain, and in moments, the inscriptions before her started scrambling and decoding themselves.

Clearing her throat, Eliza lifted her head and recited the text aloud.

“The thought of me brings sickness, the sight of me—despair. Falter while i-in battle, and you’re sure to find me there. And when your children mourn you … do not weep or rage. Know th-that you have passed me down to endure in them for an age.”

Once she finished, she took a deep breath and let go of the stone. “Y-Yeah … that’s … that’s what it says.”

“You do know that we can’t understand what you just read, right?” Autumn raised, scratching behind the large fold of her ear, rattling the seashells and bones dangling from her headdress. “What was that, Infernal?”

“C-Celestial, sorry …” Eliza replied, quickly correcting herself and translating it into common for the party.

“Huh, Celestial?” Reina repeated, taking a step closer and leaning forward, sweeping over all the writings on the wall. “Why don’t I understand it then?”

“You aasimar know the ‘common’ Celestial. This must be a deeper more primitive variant,” Victoria pointed out, stroking Pelemor’s ahead atop her shoulder. “Thank god Eliza’s good for something other than blowing us up. But what exactly do we do about this … quote?”

“Doesn’t seem like just a quote to me. Might be some sort of riddle,” Eugene corrected, stepping in between Eliza and Reina to take a look for herself. “Whoever built this place doesn’t want anyone coming in. Not easily, at least.”

“Riddles! I love riddles!” Lilianna squealed, wiggling her fingers in the air. “Oh, wait, sorry—that was out of character. Ahem, hmm, something that involves more than just busting in? Interesting.”

Rolling her eyes at the young tiefling, Eugene addressed the party. “Anybody got any clues on what this could be?”

“Should we just keep feeding it answers until we get something right?” Reina suggested, pursing her lips. “Death! War! Um, magic! Education?”

“How about we just break it down? Saves us way more time that way,” Autumn groaned, hands curling forwards, ready to wildshape. 

“But what if there’s a curse attached to this? Maybe I can pick it open instead? But, I don’t really see an opening …” Lilianna offered, much to no avail.

Pinching her nose, the wood elf snorted out her disappointment with a loud huff. “Gods, anyone else got another brilliant idea? Otherwise we’re going to be stuck out here dealing with this first bloody trial.”

Eliza raised a hand. “W-Wait … could you say that again?”

“You want me to rant again? I won’t say no to that,” Eugene chuckled. “If no one comes up with an answer to this riddle, we’re going to be stuck out here with this bloody entrance trial.”

The wizard snapped her fingers and gestured to Lilianna. “Lilly, can you um … can you cut me?”

“What? Unnie, what are you saying?”

But Eliza insisted otherwise, pulling up her sleeve and offering the pale skin on her wrist. “C-Cut me! Just … just trust me.”

Without a thought, the tiefling wove a dagger made of rolling shadows at her fingertips, spinning it around her digits like it weighed nothing. Catching the handle in her palm, she raised it towards Eliza’s arm. “Maybe not the wrist, unnie. I don’t think you want me to bleed you dry, yeah?”

Whimpering at the thought of even a measly cut, Eliza nodded, extending her palm out instead. “H-Here is fine then…”

While the others watched in awe as Lilianna drew Eliza’s blood with a quick nick, the wizard held her quivering palm up and pressed it into the wall inscription, smearing a blur of crimson across the writing.

“What on—are you insane?” Victoria cried, stomping forward ready to stop this farce. But she soon fell silent when the words Eliza had read aloud began to shimmer in a bright golden hue before disappearing.

RUMBLE.

The temple door retreated upwards into the ceiling, spewing a gust of dust and debris outwards towards the party, revealing the darkness of the chambers held within it.

The dumbfounded girls swapped between Eliza and the now open temple—not a single word uttered among them.

“W-Well, ta-da …” she announced with a whisper, drying her hand against her sides. “So …?”

Smirking, Eugene gripped her glaive in front of her and gestured with her head. “Well done. Now, let’s go find that horn.”

This isn’t the party’s first foray into a dungeon such as this one.

They’ve scoured through the Tomb of Valdrin the Bold deep in the marshes of N’horgras. They’ve hunted down gnolls in the crypts beneath the city of Halburnheim. They’ve even cleaned out every last bit of treasure from the coffers of a young red dragon’s hoard once upon a time.

But as they stepped into the first antechamber of this abandoned temple, there was just something very off about this place to Eliza. It looked rather … lavish.

Red velvet carpet covered every square inch of the floor. The walls were lined with an assortment of banners and paintings that hung by golden trammels. Braziers rimmed with platinum and gold rested unmoving and untouched, waiting to be struck with fire and lit ablaze again.

This didn’t feel like a temple. This felt more like a mansion.

“Alright, you know the drill, girls. Scouting formation,” Eugene commanded, and in a heartbeat, they drifted deeper into the dungeon in pairs.

Tongues of fire began dancing around Autumn as Lilianna clung to one of her arms. Victoria reluctantly grouped up near Eugene as her familiar willed itself to emit a dull glow in the air. Reina held the small of Eliza’s back and nodded, walking side by side as she lifted up her shield shimmering with light.

The first pair took the corridor to the left. The second pair took the corridor to the right. The third pair was left with no choice but to explore further down the main hallway.

They’ve barely made it that deep before they both began feeling like it was hard to breathe. Eliza clutched her own cloak as she gasped for air, shaky eyes darting through the darkness in constant search for something—anything—that could get the jump on them. But it was Reina’s gentle caresses down her spine that helped soothe her a little.

“You’re on edge. Don’t worry—you’re with me.”

The blonde wizard bit her lip and mustered her best smile. “Thank you …”

Mapping out the layout of their path, they noticed something rather peculiar. It took Eliza a bit, but when she began actively tracing the markings on the wallpaper, keeping track of the states of the different pillars they’d pass by, and observing the placements of braziers scattered throughout the hall, the wizard realized they were somehow … repeating themselves.

They were stuck in a loop.

“Huh? What? How is that possible?” Reina wondered. For a moment, she parted from her companion to dart down the corridor, leaving Eliza behind. But from Eliza’s perspective, Reina was simply running in place for a good few moments before slowing down to a stop and ending no farther than a few steps away from her friend. “That’s … weird. Magic?”

Eliza nodded. “Powerful magic.”

Interlacing her fingers through each other and pressing opposite knuckles together, as if ripping through the air, Eliza willed herself to tear apart the fabric of arcane reality that veiled the truth from their eyes. With a steady continuous grunt, she pulled her fingers apart, and soon, the scene before them flickered and rippled.

What once was an endless stretch of an opulent hallway now turned into a wide grimy atrium filled with cluttered bones, thick cobwebs, and the lingering scent of rotten flesh.

Pinching her nose shut, Reina gagged. “That is … awful. I can see why they’d want to conceal all of this.”

“Huh? Reina?” a voice called out to them from the side.

It was Autumn, who still had Lilianna clinging to her side. “What are you … wait, what just happened? I thought we went left?”

“And I thought we went right,” Eugene chimed in from their other side with Victoria in tow. Her grip on the glaive was tighter than ever. “It seems like we’ve been duped. We need to be very careful now. Who knows what other trickeries are afoot?”

As if on command, a hand bursted through the flagstoned floor of the atrium ahead, curling at the tips. Another one sprouted from the far side of the chamber. And yet another closer to their current position. One by one, about half a dozen of these paling gray limbs forced their way out of the ground and dragged themselves free onto the tiles.

Before them, these newly emerged humanoids with long spiny claws and dressed in nothing but tattered rags twisted and contorted into shape, knuckles and joints cracking beneath the darkness. It wasn’t until they’ve regained their composures that their beady eyes all trained now upon the frightened party.

With a collective growl, they lunged for the girls.

“Ssibal—ghasts!”

But Eugene’s warning came a moment too late.

One ghast barreled towards Autumn, knocking her against the wall with a backhand blow. Although Lilianna was quick enough to conjure her shadow blades, a second ghast kicked her in the back and knocked her prone.

Two other ghasts ran after Eugene and Victoria, who both bundled up closer to each other in surprise. Before the warlock could even call upon her familiar, a ghast leapt for her and sank its rotten teeth into her thigh. Eugene could do little to react as the ghast on her pinned her arms behind her back, its putrid stench filling her nostrils and threatening to make her pass out.

The remaining two ghasts charged towards Reina and Eliza. While the former instinctively bolstered her shield in time to deflect the strikes from their claws, one of them slipped past her and reached for Eliza’s throat.

“ELIZA!”

As the wizard choked on its iron grip, she struggled to win back some room to breathe from its grasp to yell, “I-It’s—ACK—countertrap! A-A countertrap!”

Grunting, getting up from her sprawled side, Autumn glared at the ghasts and shouted, “Doesn’t matter now—pulverize them.”

The halfling wildshaped into the form of a large brown bear, rivaling the claws and fangs of the foe that dared to trample her. With one fell swoop, she knocked back both of the ghasts in her and Lilianna’s periphery.

Dragging off the dastardly creature trying to rip a piece of her by its stringy hair, Victoria howled through pained tears and locked in on Eugene. “You so owe me one for this, tree hugger.” With a clenched fist, she channeled a swarm of eldritch energy at her fingertips and fired a relentless dark beam into the ghast behind their leader, blasting its skull clean off.

Gasping for air, Eugene scrambled for her glaive and spun it around her, hacking at the ghast near Victoria with the full force of her body’s motion. One slice and its arm severed, leaving it wriggling in pain. But Eugene offered it a merciless repose, stabbing it through the chest repeatedly as a final riddance.

“Eliza!” Reina beckoned, ramming her shield into the ghoul in front of her until she managed to pin it to the wall. Reaching behind her, she snapped her fingers and fired a bolt of light. But the creature strafed in time, sending the spell skidding off the floor.

As Eliza’s face started to turn purple, her burgeoning lips struggled to even get a word out, unable to cast any of her spells. With her final breath, she closed her eyes and braced for her impending end.

Shlick.

When the muscles of the ghast relaxed, Eliza darted her eyes open to see Lilianna twisting her daggers into the sides of its head while Eugene skewered her glaive right through its chest.

Stumbling backwards, the wizard gasped, crumbling to her knees as she could taste the heavy air of the temple once again, watching in awe and dread as a murky green ooze spilled out of every orifice of the troll’s putrid head.

As Autumn tore apart the final ghast’s ribcage like it was made of wet parchment, the rattled party gathered together at the center of the atrium to recollect themselves.

Victoria stomped rapidly in place wiping off the black and yellow bile from the ghast’s innards from her limbs. “EW EW EW EW EWWWW! Where did those things even come from? What’s underneath this temple anyway?”

“Dunno, princess, but … ha … whatever it is, it surely wanted that horn kept here,” Autumn grumbled, warping back to her normal form and laying flat against the floor to catch her breath. “Just glad … just glad they didn’t get us good. I haven’t recovered from the trolls earlier yet either.”

“Me too, unnie, but what can we do. We have a deadline to meet,” Lilianna sighed, flicking her daggers against the walls to dry them. “Is everyone ok?”

Propped up against her glaive, Eugene limped towards Eliza—not to help her up, but to glower down at her. “You knew it was going to be a countertrap, didn’t you? And you still tried to dispel the magic.”

Eliza couldn’t look her in the eyes. “I-I-I’m sorry … I realized it too late when I saw that—.”

“Eliza, those things nearly killed you, and you couldn’t do a damn thing against them,” Eugene pressed, slamming the butt of her weapon into the ground. “If we didn’t come to your rescue in time, what would have happened then, huh?”

“I was … my spells wouldn’t … I-I-I don’t have weapons—.”

“Forget it,” Eugene sighed, turning around now and heading towards Lilianna, who was already investigating the atrium. “Just don’t drag us down next time. Please.”

Eugene words stabbed at Eliza’s chest harder than her glaive ever could.

Even as Reina came to help her up, she pushed her friend away and rubbed her own elbows in comfort. “Eliza?”

“Don’t … I’m sorry, I just need a moment …”

She knew she should be helping with the scouting. She could detect magic after all. It would stop the party from triggering any other arcane contraptions laying about. But when Eliza closed her eyes and thought back to events that just transpired, she found herself feeling unnerved.

I almost … died. I almost died from … from low level ghasts, and … I was a burden ….

I’m a burden ….

If her colleagues at Strixhaven saw her right now, they’d be whispering about her incompetence whenever they thought she wasn’t listening. Eliza’s always known that her skill and merit have been long since constrained to a classroom setting. It’s why she put herself in predicaments like this in the first place. It’s why she decided to join an adventuring party like theirs. To put herself out there. To show others that she was more than just book-smart. To find the reasons why her family believed in her pursuit of the arcane. To believe that maybe—just maybe—she had a place in the greater world at large.

To prove herself.

But that remained to be seen. Especially not after this.

Once she cleared her head, Eliza rejoined the others, but not without sensing their disdain.

“We could have used a quick scan for magic. Autumn here got her fingers singed by a stray glyph,” Victoria pointed out. Beside her, the petite druid was using her aerial cantrips to try and cool off her darkened fingertips. “I’ll be fine. It happens.”

“Could have been avoided though,” the former muttered, glancing at the rings on her fingers. “Pelemor, go push on the other tiles, will you? Be a dear and help out.”

“But mistress, what if they explode on me? Have you no fear for my safety!” the pseudodragon whined, flying in circles above Victoria’s head as if it was her halo. “That’s the point, servant. You’re virtually indestructible. I can just call for you again if you die. Who would call on me if I died, hm?”

Grunting, the poor familiar conformed to the bidding of its mistress.

Eliza chose to remain silent next to Reina. When the other girl reached out to hold her, she jerked away, leaving the aasimar frowning and confused.

“Got it!” Lilianna exclaimed, and with both hands, she pushed into a loose tile along the atrium wall.

The girls all looked at each other for a moment, half-expecting something to happen, but it wasn’t until they heard a grating screeching sound that they reacted.

In a spiral formation from the top of the atrium floor, the ground began to peel itself and retract like shutters, revealing a similarly shaped staircase winding downwards and further into the temple.

Watching as the mechanism struggled at a joint and repeatedly tried to continue its set path, the girls all chuckled with one another before assuming a single-line formation to descend into the depths of the structure.

Reina lead the way with her shimmering shield, followed by Eugene with her glaive ever at the ready. Victoria and Lilianna filled out the middle, holding each other’s hands through the darkness. Meanwhile, Autumn and Eliza fell behind the others, holding up the rear from a distance.

 “Hey you,” Autumn started, tugging on the tips of her hair as she squeezed into Eliza’s space down the stairs. “Don’t let Eugene get to you too much. She’s just trying her best to lead us. We’re all just trying our best to survive.”

“Unnie … I know that but, I-I … everyone’s way more capable than me … All I can do is just … support you. But even then I …” Eliza stuttered, glancing down at her trembling hands. “We’ve all been adventuring for so long, and everyone’s grown, but—unnie, I feel like … I’m still the same …”

“Maybe that’s not a bad thing.”

Hopping onto the final step of the staircase, Autumn beamed up at the blonde wizard with her tongue poking through her sealed lips. “Maybe that’s not so much a bad thing. Maybe you don’t always have to pick up something new or try to be someone different. Maybe you just need to uncover more of yourself—more of what’s beneath the surface.”

Filling the air for a brief moment with the scent of pine needles and earthy moss, clearing away some of the stench of these ruins, Autumn patted Eliza on her arm. “And I think there’s more to you than what you’re letting on.”

The other girl feigned a smile. She knew she should have been comforted by those words, but to her cynical ears, they were quickly rendered moot by her ever-present self-doubt. “Thank you … I’ll … I’ll see what I can do, unnie.”

Autumn smacked her in the bottom a final time before running off to the others, who were now paused before a narrow corridor flanked on both sides by a variety of styled doors. A gothic arch with iron spikes and stained glass. A bolted down reinforced metal frame dotted with heavy gears. Even a circular rustic porthole accented with brass and unreadable Celestial engravings.

“I’ll bet you thirty gold that this one’s trapped too, unnie,” Lilianna teased, gesturing to Victoria. “Want to give it a try?”

“Tsk, don’t push your luck, child. I doubt you even have enough gold on you right now to even commit to half of that. Pelemor, off you go. Scout ahead, will you?”

The pseudodragon performed the equivalent of an eye roll for its kind and leapt off of Victoria’s shoulder. Much to everyone’s surprise, it barely let out a grumble of complaint towards its mistress’s commands, and simply did a quick fly-by back and forth along the corridor.

Nothing happened.

But Eliza raised up a hand. “W-Wait … can I … check it?”

The entire party turned towards her.

Stopping herself from shrinking into her own boots, Eliza cleared her throat and repeated herself. “Y-Yeah … let me … let me check it first.”

“Oh gods, here she goes ag—NGHH.”

Eugene shut the mouthy high elf up with a jab to her side and nodded in Eliza’s direction. “Go. Give it a shot.”

Steeling herself, Eliza weaved through the rest of her party and approached the hallway. Clasping her hands together in front of her lips, she whispered an order of incantations in rapid succession as she began to cast her spell as a ritual. Around her, a string of light manifested itself, encircling her, morphing into different glyphs and symbols that matched her chanting, floating around and orbiting her like living notes on a music score.

After around ten minutes of this, the thread of light bursts forth from her body, signaling its completion. “It’s done. There … doesn’t seem to be anything magical in the area.”

Eugene gave her a wide smile. “Good work. Let’s go, girls. Search through these rooms one by one. Shout us out if you find anything.”

As the girls each took to investigating a room by themselves, Eliza strutted down the hallway with a skip in her step. She felt light. She felt glad. She took initiative and it worked out—and it felt amazing.

Smiling, she bit her lip. I guess it isn’t so bad if I—.

Click.

Eliza glanced down at her extended foot that sank down ever-so-slightly into the ground, revealing the shape of camouflaged pressure plate. “What—?”

Shink.

The wizard felt something pierce her right shoulderblade. When she glanced around, pain flared across her back. Had she not moved her head that way, however, a zipping projectile would have chunked through her cheek.

It was then that she realized what she just triggered. “D-Dart trap!”

Reina was the first to respond, bashing her shield into the door nearest to her thinking the door would give. “Wait—I-I-I can’t open this one.”

Lilianna fidgeted with the knob of another, turning it to no avail. “U-Unnie, this one won’t open either. And it doesn’t have a keyhole!”

Eugene was the only one able to hack away at the door and damage it with the tip of her glaive, but upon seeing the material stitch itself back together immediately after, she grunted and kicked it in a daze. “Ssibal—it’s another trap! Run for it!”

As the party darted down the narrow passageway in a frenzy, they shielded themselves with what little they could to avoid being pelted by the flurry of darts being fired at them from the front and back.

Lilianna raised her hands up to catch the wildshaped Autumn, who turned into a hummingbird, tucking her beneath her cloak. Reina took Eliza underneath her shield, covering her with it instead as she took the brunt of the darts. Victoria screamed and cursed out loud as Eugene dragged her towards the opposite side of the corridor.

“Over there!” the tiefling beckoned, seeing a unique looking door at the end of the path—one made of chiseled rock and heavy oak. “Everyone to that door!”

They slammed themselves against opposite sides of the wall as Eugene tried to pry it open. But it wouldn’t budge. “Lily—open it!”

With a quick salute, she whipped out her thieves’ tools. “Cover me!”

Reina bolstered with her shield. Eugene spun her glaive around to deflect as much of the incoming darts as she could. But when Autumn fluttered out of Lilianna’s grasp and dropped her wildshape, she thrusted both hands out and began drawing circles in the air.

“Winds, obey … my … command!”

Thwoom.

A large wall of wind erupted from the ground like a geysers of pure air. The darts that flew towards it got redirected upwards, not just slowing them down but effectively stopping them from reaching the wounded party.

Eliza could only watch, shrinking into a squat by one corner of the corridor, as her allies did whatever they could in the moment to deal with their situation. She couldn’t help but be amazed by their candor. She couldn’t help but feel pathetic over her cowardice—over her failure.

“I … I thought I did it … but …” she muttered, clenching her own shaking fist and beating it against her chest. “Stupid … stupid …”

“Any minute now, Lily,” Autumn grunted, sliding backwards from her position. The force of the ejecting air was too much for her small body to combat. It would only be a matter of time until she and the others would get flattened by the same barrier meant to protect them. “Can’t … hold …”

With a series of successive clicks and whirs, the door popped open with a heavy creak as the rogue slammed her shoulder into it and opened the way ahead. “We’re in!”

After every other member of their party found refuge behind the final door, Autumn clasped her hands shut like a maestro silencing an orchestra before leaping into the room behind her.

Shutting the door with a loud thud, all of their hearts dropped as sharply as they collapsed onto the ground, finding a moment of respite.

“Where … are we? What is this place?” Victoria asked, sending Pelemor off to illuminate the place.

As—.

Shatter.

“YA! WHO SPILLED THEIR DRINK ALL OVER THE BOARD?”

As Yujin quickly picked up all of the important sheets and reference materials she had, the other girls did the same—but not before giggling and squealing and making a huge fuss about it.

Realizing it was her iced coffee that got knocked over, Liz began dabbing at the mess with the edges of her sleeves. “S-Sorry … I shouldn’t have put it there …”

“Jiwon ah, you’re already messing up in game, and now you’re making a big mess in real life too,” Yujin whined, making an adorable growling face at the blonde girl. “At this rate, we’ll never—.”

“Aiya, An-daeng-daeng, calm down,” Sakura cooed, shaking her head at Liz with a smile to reassure her. “It’s just a game. It’s just coffee. Help us clean up, and then we can continue the session.”

“Kkura-unnie did any of your books get damaged? Those look expensive. Where did you get them?” Wonyoung asked, peeking through one of the heavy hardbound books Sakura brought over to their dorms. “Woah … this is … a lot.”

“I usually buy them online since the hobby shops here don’t really sell them. Especially the newer ones. But I just use them as reference materials like any other at the end of the day. If I’m lazy, I’ll honestly just open up Five-E Tools. They have everything.”

“Ahh, I use Five-E Tools as well! For my wildshapes,” Gaeul chimed in, sipping on her boba. “I thought I was the only one. I didn’t want to get the subscriptions on DND Beyond since I wasn’t sure if we were all serious about this—if we were playing long-term.”

“Well, after our recent string of oneshots that you all seem to have enjoyed, I think it’s safe to say we might end up with a campaign on our hands,” Sakura teased, resting her chin atop her folded fingers. “But anyway, is everyone good now? Shall we continue?”

“Yes!” the IVE girls all screamed in unison.

“Ok, then let’s take us back to—.”

Shatter.

As the reluctant servant took to the air, its miniature draconic body illuminated a small radius around it, casting a sufficient glow around the room the party was now in.

It’s a dining room.

A dozen columns holding up the cavernous ceiling were wrapped in alternating patterns of purple and red linen banners. A dusty chandelier hung low and steady above them, only radiating a fraction of its former grandeur when Pelemor soared past it. At the dead center of this room was a long table lined with chairs along only one of its sides. Atop it was what should have been a generous and hearty banquet, now reduced to clumps of decomposed rot slathered onto rusting silverware and accoutrements.

However, littered all across the floor of this entire space was—.

“Oh. My. Gosh. LOOT!”

Before Eugene could even get out a word of warning, Lilianna was already all over the place.

Jumping into a larger mound of gold coins, she flayed her hands upwards and scattered the shiny sparkly objects upwards mid-giggle, making it rain all over herself. Similarly, around her were hoards of different sizes housing a variety of eye-catching treasures: coins, weapons, jewelry, tomes, and other paraphernalia you’d only ever see in the hands of the wealthy.

As the party scattered about to the four winds of this dining room, Eliza sauntered over to the dining table and ran a finger across it, coating her forefinger’s tip with a thick layer of dust. Spreading it across her thumb as well, she glanced up at the large painting staring down at them, which most of the party had missed.

It’s a fresco of a pair of brothers—likely twins, given how similar they looked. Strikingly similar. One of them had spectacles and well groomed hair, dressed in a crimson red doublet coupled with beige and black breeches. The other traded the spectacles in favor of a golden locket around his neck and a thick beard, dressed in a similar fashion as his twin but with a purple doublet instead.

Eliza gazed at the painting with wide eyes in utter marvel. Despite the derelict condition of the rest of this temple, this painting stood out to her greatly because of how untouched it was. Like a moment frozen precisely in time. She longed for the day she might own a painting such as this. But for now, the most she could do was give it a modest bow as gratitude for being allowed to bask in its glory.

Her eyes swept just beneath the lower frame—underneath the painting itself. Engraved across a placard of gold were the words—.

“Ex morte, vita renascitur … Ad vitam aeternam frater …”

Huffing and looking terribly worn out, Eugene pulled up one of the chairs next to Eliza and crashed into it, knees spread apart as she slumped into the backrest. “S’pose this is a good place to rest, yeah? A proper short rest. Need to … ngh … recover after all that.”

“I … I guess so—.”

“Eliza, that’s not a question. That’s a request. Please, check this place with your skills, or your spells, or whatever.”

The blonde wizard pursed her lips, sensing the friction in Eugene’s tone. Fishing through her component pouch, she pulled out a piece of chalk, which slipped right through her butterfingers and cracked in half on the ground.

Palming her face, Eugene couldn’t see Eliza squatting down in a hurry, forming a circle with one half of the chalk. Within it, she connected lines at certain points within the circle, forming figures and symbols along the edges. To the untrained eye, she looked like an artist working on her craft after suddenly being inspired by her muse. But for an arcanist like her, this was typical work for a magic circle.

Once she was finished, she stepped into the circle, and the markings on the ground glowed blue. In a similar fashion, Eliza’s eyes flickered with the same intensity and color as the magic circle. With her temporary magic battery charging her up, Eliza began weaving together a series of spells one after the other, casting every last trick of detection and abjuration that she could think of.

Apart from a small ping of the undead, there was nothing to be found in this area.

It’s safe.

Upon echoing this sentiment to her party, they all let out a sigh of relief. Eugene leaned forward on the table and rested her weary head upon her folded arms. “Get some quick shuteye, girls. One hour like usual. Recover what you can.”

“I don’t know about you, unnie, but I’m going to make the most of this time,” Lilianna exclaimed, acting all giddy as she stuffed her bag of holding with as much treasure as she could. “Ooh, Reina-unnie, can you help me out?”

Autumn yawned and curled up into a ball on the floor, stretching and rolling from side to side like a house cat would. “Mmm, this actually feels really cozy. I can snuggle up here all day.”

“Hah, just don’t fully fall asleep, unnie. If the horn’s up ahead, there’s a good chance we’ll be encountering the final pitiful defenses of this temple. We’ll need to be prepared,” Victoria reminded her, fishing through her own component pouch. After picking up what looked like a black diamond the size of her palm, she whispered something to it and soon got pulled into a trance, levitating above the floor.

Eliza decided to keep to herself, leaning against her seat as she stared at the painting once more. She hadn’t used much of her arcane energy yet, but she figured she might as well recover some of her magic while waiting for the others.

After about half an hour of unperturbed respite, however, Lilianna was the first to make a fuss. “Hey, stop that, unnie! Shoot them into the bag—don’t just throw the coins at my face.”

“What? But I wasn’t chucking—hey! What did you have to pelt me for? Come here you.”

“Wait wait wait, that wasn’t—NGH. Reina-unnie! Ya!” Lilianna exclaimed. But as she ducked down to grab a handful of gold coins to hurl at the aasimar, they witnessed one of the coins ascend from her pile and throw itself in between Reina’s eyes.

The two girls didn’t say a word.

“AHHH!”

Next to Eliza, Eugene howled in pain, and when the blonde wizard rubbed her eyes clean to finally see what was going on, she nearly screamed as well.

A rusted fork sank itself into the back of Eugene’s hand, pinning it onto the table.

Gripping the handle, Eugene tore the utensil out, but not without leaving a fresh trail of blood in its wake. “What … did you … do to me …?”

“I-I-I didn’t do anything—I swear! I was just … just napping here …”

“Then how do you explain—?”

“GIRLS! HELP ME!”

The other four all sprang into action towards Victoria, who they found hunched over Autumn’s body, watching as the druid was all wrapped up and swaddled tightly in purple and red banners that seemingly came off from the columns beside her. 

“What the hell happened to her? Did she need to get that comfortable on the ground?” Reina asked, using the curve of her shield to try and cut through the fabric. “Ya, if you were trying to play a prank on her, this isn’t funny.”

“Do you think I’d stoop down to that level?” Victoria challenged in reply, backing away from the walls and her party. “I was just coming out of my trance when all of a sudden—HCKK—!”

A saber had stabbed itself through the high elf’s chest from behind, blood bursting from her flesh and gushing out onto her noblewear.

“W-Won—VICTORIA!”

As soon as the saber unsheathed itself from Victoria’s body, she collapsed onto the floor like a ragdoll, splattering onto her own blood. Eugene wasted no time dueling this unseen foe, swiping and slashing at the floating saber in the air. But the opponent was able to meet her attacks one-for-one, parrying with expertise, and deftly stabbing at Eugenes sides in riposte whenever it got the chance.

“What’s going on here? Wh-what—?”

Before Reina could finish her question a dining chair smashed into the back of her head, knocking her prone and out cold. But it didn’t stop there. The shattered pieces of furniture swirled above her before impaling into her wrists and ankles, spreading her across the floor.

“REINA-UNNIE!”

Lilianna called forth her daggers and began blindly swinging them about, aiming at nothing. When she couldn’t find purchase anywhere, she started throwing them at random intervals around her, hoping to land a hit on something.

Eliza ducked under the table for cover. The last thing she saw was Lilianna’s boots suddenly disappearing behind a sea of golden coins.

“L-L-Lily …?”

Peeking out from her hiding spot, Eliza choked her own voice out as she saw a near-endless pile of coins clamoring for her, swallowing her, stuffing her within themselves like quicksand trying to stop the tiefling from escaping its clutches.

“MMMHGNHHHGPHGHHH—!”

Behind her, in a cocoon of cloth, Autumn was struggling to break free from her bindings. The form and figure of her face was outlined in impressions against the banners that bound her tighter with each passing moment.

“U-Unnie, I-I-I—.”

“ELIZA BENNETT, DO SOMETHING FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!”

Locked into a swordfight against not one, not two, but four different sabers all pointed at her, Eugene was fighting within inches of her life. Her unseen attackers were relentlessly pushing her around the room, forcing her to dance like a puppet to the tune of their assault while she could only do so much with the work of her glaive. “Eliza, I’m begging you—DO SOMETHING!”

“O-Oh dear … U-Um …”

“E-Eliza …”

“W-W-Wait … I-I-I …”

“Unnie! UNNIE!”

“I can’t … I-I-I don’t …”

“MMNGHHHHPPPHHH—BAHH! Faerie fhhh! Fae—.”

That was it. Faerie Fire.

Thanks to Autumn’s final words, Eliza knew what to do. Cracking her knuckles, she spun on one foot and yelled at the top of her lungs, spraying a rainbow of colored dust all around her, dousing the room in a coating of Faerie Fire.

There—eight or nine different humanoid figures of varying shapes and sizes were now outlined in pixie powder. No longer invisible.

And they all turned towards Eliza.

The wizard picked up her broomstick and hopped on it, zipping towards the ceiling to create some distance between them. But when she saw them take flight after her, she identified their foes in a heartbeat. “P-Poltergeists .. Poltergeists!”

Like screaming that would have fixed anything. Eliza dove for the dining table and rattled all the contents atop it as she soared through the air and wove around obstacles in her path. Loops around columns. Narrow dives beneath the table. Breakneck turns before crashing into the walls.

But the poltergeists all managed to keep up with her easily.

Glancing behind her to see how far away they were, Eliza didn’t notice that a column was in her way, slamming into it and knocking her off her broomstick.

Landing hard on her hip, she wasn’t afforded any moment to acknowledge the blossoming pain. The incorporeal undead slowly descended around her one by one, ready to finish her off like what they did to her allies.

“S-Stay away … stay away from me!”

As she felt their chilling touch upon her body, Eliza broke into tears and shrieked.

“INCENDIUM CARCERI!”

The words leapt from her lips before she could even think them.

Blazing streaks of fire erupted from her fingers like serpents striking their targets in the air. These bursts of scorching rays split several times, boring holes through the flock of poltergeists above Eliza as she willed the flames to immolate them from existence.

With a pained cry, she howled once more and the fires turned blue. All the poor incorporeal creatures could do was writhe against the flames of her frustrations.

Once their forms had all dissipated into nothingness, Eliza collapsed forward onto her knees and vomited. She let out all the anxiety and fear that had been building up in the pits and recesses of her stomach in an attempt to cleanse and rid herself off them.

But the sound of Eugene’s stomping footsteps told her otherwise.

“You … You could have ended this so much faster. You could have ended this fight so much earlier. YOU COULD HAVE SAVED THEM BEFORE THEY MANAGED TO LAY A SINGLE FINGER ON US!”

Eliza didn’t want to look up. She didn’t dare look up.

But Yujin forced her with a shove. “Don’t go try and look all pitiful now. Save them … SAVE THEM! VICTORIA’S DYING! SAVE HER!”

Bursting into tears, Eliza checked on the rest of their party one by one.

She yanked Lilianna out of the pile of loot that tried to drown her, so the latter could help her cut and tear through the cloth swallowing Autumn whole. Once she was up too, they fed Reina a large healing potion, and when she found consciousness once more, she hurried over to Victoria to stabilize her and then mend her wounds.

Eliza sank onto the edge of one of the seats, hand in her hair, pulse beating a million times per second.

She took one peek at the party crowding by one corner of the room. They all sighed in relief when Victoria forced herself into a stand, her front side still covered in dried blood. She made brief eye contact with the high elf, and all Eliza could see within her golden eyes was disdain.

Disdain.

Eliza didn’t want to be here anymore.

“Eliza?” Reina called out to her, almost ready to leap over the table just to get to her. But the blonde wizard has had enough. “Eli—Eliza!”

She made a run for it.

“Eliza, wait!”

Through swinging axes and blades on the walls. Leaping over pitfall traps and pressure plates. Dodging past blasts from different elemental glyphs.

“ELIZA!”

She hopped onto her broomstick and flew faster. Farther and farther away. Deeper and deeper into the dungeon.

Alone.

“Eliza …”

Until the voices of her disappointed allies faded behind her. Until she could drown out the voices inside her own head.

Until her rolling tears finally dried with the wind.

She didn’t know how far away she had already gotten, but she promptly had to stop before an unadorned archway opened up into a dead end.

Dismounting her ride, Eliza took one step into this final chamber and immediately felt chills ebbing down her spine.

It was cold. Very cold.

Her shaky breath was visible in the air as she rubbed and caressed her bare skin. It was completely dark save for this beam of light—whether natural or arcane, she could not tell from an initial glance—that spotlighted a single ornament throughout the emptiness of the room.

Atop a pedestal rested a curved and ribbed artifact swaddled in velvet cloth.

“The Horn of Elysia …”

Eliza clenched her fists and wiped her snot. Taking several steps closer to the horn, she kept an eye out towards her surroundings to ensure there weren’t any surprises—not again.

Not this time.

“Elysia?”

The wizard turned around, and there, she found Reina wincing and limping into the space of the room. “What … what are you doing here?”

The aasimar eyed the artifact past her ally. “The horn … you found it. Let’s … let’s maybe not act so hastily—.”

“Why … do you care?”

Eliza took a step back, a step closer towards the horn. “You and the others … you just want to finish this quest, a-a-and go back … and get our reward … and be a part of the Alliance. Right? I’m … I’m just helping you out with that.”

Holding her hands out, shield attached to one bandaged wrist, Reina widened her eyes. “Eliza … stay with me … please … slow down a little …”

But Eliza shook her head, taking another step back. “I’m tired, Reina … I’m tired of being useless to everyone … tired of dragging you all down … Let me have this, please … Just let me have this one …”

As she took the final step towards the pedestal, the rest of the adventuring party crowded by the entrance to the room. It was Lilianna who managed to burst through and beckoned to the wizard. “Eliza-unnie—STOP! THAT’S TRAPPED—!”

But it was too late.

Upon reaching out for the Horn of Elysia, like it had a life of its own, Eliza witnessed the artifact fly out of her grasp.

Clung.

As the whole party banded together by the pedestal now, they observed with bated breaths as the horn sank into what looks like a nine-foot-tall statue made of bones. Affixing itself onto the forehead of this figure, the horn glowed purple before the eyes of the statue glowed the same hue as well.

Bursting from its confinement within the wall, the towering skeleton came to life and examined the party.

“Ssi-ssi-ssibal … What in the nine realms is that?” Autumn gasped, pointing at the hulking skeletal abomination before them.

In reply, the monster growled and shook the entire room.

Exhaling firmly, Eliza nodded and gripped her broomstick. “I will get that horn … No matter what … Dead or alive …”

Reina tried to stop her but the witch was quick on her feet and immediately soared right into the creature.

“Incendio carce—!”

The bony brute reached for her mouth with its extended limbs and slammed her into the ceiling.

In a heartbeat, Eliza’s vision grew unsteady and unfocused. The impact to her head immediately sent her fighting just to stay conscious.

Eugene let out a battlecry to rally the party, and within moments, they all charged towards their new foe.

Autumn wildshaped into a brown bear for Eugene to mount, and at the last second, the latter leapt off the bear’s back to deliver a wide backhanded sweep against this creature’s exposed thorax. But blades and claws did nothing to harm the monster. They simply ricocheted off its exterior.

From the back, Lilianna darted across the room to spray a fan of shadow knives at it, but all it took was one swipe of its hand through the air to send them all clattering back to their owner. Victoria took advantage of this to summon a pitch black hole beneath the monster, where large and thick cephalopodian tentacles and tendrils came bursting forth, wriggling about and grappling their target.

It was then that Reina slammed her wrists together and began to thrum. In the blink of an eye, a burst of light erupted from the well of her chest as she forced the bound creature to take the full brunt of her radiant beam.

And during all this, Eliza could only watch helplessly within the clutches of this monster, once again unable to do anything. But she was relieved. Relieved that her allies were far more capable than her. Relieved that this would finally be over soon. Relieved that despite her own inability and inaction, everything would be fine.

At least, that’s what she wanted to believe.

Snap.

“Nghh … Will you girls hurry it—NGHH—hurry it up! I can’t hold it for much longer.”

Crackle.

“Eugene … Eugene, please! Grab the damn horn already!”

Pop.

It all happened so fast.

Just as Lilianna thought she melded perfectly into the shadows to yank the horn out of this creature from behind, its head turned a full one-hundred-and-eighty, stared her down, and extended one of its rib backwards—up and into her.

Piercing her through and dangling her by her neck.

“LILY!”

She dropped dead in an instant. How could she not? The bone pierced right though her tender tiefling skin like a molten hot blade would a loaf of bread. As she remained impaled behind the monster, it rotated its head back and glowered.

Victoria focused all the tentacles towards its torso now, racing up its skeleton to reach for the horn, but all it had to do was open up the cavity of its chest to take in the squirming appendages before snapping it shut and swiftly slicing their tips clean off.

Autumn tried to grapple its slender legs with the strength of her bear form, but she could only hold onto the monster for so long when it repeatedly bashed its large clenched fist against her spine, beating her in and flattening her against the tiled floor.

Reina and Eugene took turns trading decisive blows against it. Whenever it sprayed a volley of sharpened bone fragments at Reina, she would duck behind her shield, giving Eugene the opportunity to shatter some of its exoskeleton. Whenever it readied its lone free fist to swing again towards Eugene from up close, Reina took this opportunity to hop back and rapidly fire radiant beams at it. Beams that simply singed into its form before petering out just as quickly.

All of that, and not a single damn mark of damage on their opponent.

Eugene closed her eyes when her vision glossed over Lilianna’s lifeless body hanging like an accessory behind this thing’s back. “We … we need to retreat. We need to fall back for now. We’ll … we’ll get Autumn, a-and Lily, and Eliza later … But for now, we need to survive—.”

“Fuck you.”

Before she could even question her comrade’s foul remark, Reina forced her radiant wings out from underneath her shoulderblades and charged towards the creature. Leg extended, she aimed for the thing’s skull for a powerful aerial roundhouse kick.

But all the skeleton had to do was burst its ribs forth like vines to pierce and puncture into Reina’s body midair, impaling her midair before engulfing her into its sternum, until all that was visible of her was her pleading and contorting face.

Eugene dropped her glaive, fingers trembling from fear as she watched Reina scream in torture within the creature’s clutches. “Vi-Victoria … Let’s go … LET’S GO!”

“I’m ashamed of you.”

Ripping her royal cloak off, the symbol of her house fluttering in waves towards the ground, the warlock cracked her knuckles and lowered her chin. “I’m an Erevan, and I am NOT going down without a fight. We are not going down without a fight.”

Hands to her sides, she whipped her arms several times around her as they transformed into tentacles themselves. Her whole body coated itself in a shimmer of icy blue that frosted the air within her proximity. 

As she stepped up towards the creature, she began whipping at it with her tentacled limbs, swatting away and deflecting each and every one of its skeletal strikes. Wincing as she pushed herself forwards, Victoria edged closer and closer, her infernal armor shielding her from the attacks she couldn’t fully stop. And when she pressed in near enough, she smirked up at the creature. “Boo.”

Pelemor appeared out of thin air after being invisible for so long and managed to bite the creature’s horn. For a moment, the hulking figure was stunned and nearly let go of both Reina and Lilianna. But the moment was too brief. It recovered in an instant and managed to gape its jaw wild enough to suck in Pelemor by its tail.

Crushing the familiar into a puff of smoke with its teeth.

“No … NO—NGHHKK!”

Victoria too was felled by this creature, stabbed into her shoulders from behind by curling bone she could not see just at the peripheries of her vision.

Once she too collapsed to the ground, Eliza whimpered and whined even harder within the clutches of this monstrosity, wishing she could break free and do something—anything—to help.

All the while, she could only watch as their once fearless leader fell onto her rump, crawling and scrambling backwards as the creature inched towards her.

“No … n-no please … please … mercy … mercy—.”

Eugene glanced above her and saw Eliza blinking twice before crossing her eyes against each other. In that moment, despite how absurd the reaction was, Eugene understood. “Kreygor …”

Calling forth a second wind, Eugene darted between the creature’s legs. Even as she felt the sharp-tipped bones protruding from it graze her, she pushed forward. Until she could grab her glaive again. Until she could spin around and around before hurling it like a javelin towards Eliza.

Just when she thought it might decapitate her, a spectral hand caught it in the air and used it to pry Eliza loose from the creature’ grasp.

Casting a quick fly spell on herself, the wizard controlled her fall in time to meet the creature eye to eye. Taking a deep breath, she muttered. “You … will not hurt my friends anymore. You can hurt me. You can … k-kill me. But them? Not a chance …”

As the skeleton bounded for her, she quickly took out a pearl from her component pouch and smashed it against the ground.

“Swarm.”

Bursting from the debris came a massive swarm of locusts that pestered and trapped the creature in a sphere of darkness.

Eliza fished out a ruby gem and pressed it against her bleeding forehead. She then chanted something before tossing it towards the creature.

“Arise, Volvotha!”

Glowing crimson, the ruby shattered mid-air and out came flames incarnate as a large fire elemental took to the stage, wrestling with the skeletal monster as it continued to be bombarded by locusts.

Hesitating for a moment, Eliza took one final look at Eugene as if seeking her approval.

“Do it, Eliza … DO IT!”

Nodding, the blonde wizard hastily withdrew a deck of cards from her pouch, and without even bothering to take a look, she one from the pile.

“King of Clubs.”

“The Void.”

As her announcement left her lips, a dark portal formed just behind the creature. Feeling the incoming wild magic take ahold once more, both Eugene and and Eliza clung onto whatever they could to avoid being sucked up into the gravity of the portal. Locusts, flames, and bone all began melding into one as they slowly disintegrated, helpless against this powerful force of nature.

Gone. The creature was gone. Reduced to nothing but small fragments and shrapnels of bone.

The Horn of Elysia dropped to the ground.

Pressing her forehead to the ground in relief, Eugene let out a weary chuckle. But it was Eliza who immediately rushed to the rest of their party, racing towards Lilianna in particular, stabilizing her in preparation for Reina to revivify her upon waking.

However, something continued to stir around them.

“What … what—no … no this can’t be … is this …?” Eugene croaked, her voice straining in absolute fear and helplessness. “Don’t tell me …”

As the calcified dust and debris askew across the floor started to swirl and coalesce like a vortex, slowly, the two surviving members of the party watched in sheer horror and helplessness as the creature they had just felled began to restructure and reform itself back into existence.

“It’s … it’s a lich?”

Eliza shook her head. “No … A boneclaw. I-I-It will keep coming back. Not unless … not unless we kill its master …”

“Well … ssibal … what can we even do? Eliza—what do we do!”

The wizard racked her mind, revisited her spellbook footnotes, and even urged herself to remember their discussions during Necromancy 145 back at Strixhaven. But nothing she has experienced before could ever prepare her for an encounter with a failed lich such as a boneclaw.

“Think … think … think …”

As they glanced up from their lowered positions on the floor, the two remaining members of I.V.E. witnessed the disfigured and contorted creature righting itself upon regaining a new lease on life—on undeath.

When the creature stood up to its full height, it was then that Eliza caught the glint of a locket wrapped around the neck of the boneclaw. A locket she hadn’t noticed earlier.

A locket she had seen before.

“E-Ex morte, vita renascitur … Ad vitam … ad vitam aeternam frater!”

“Eliza …? Eliza!”

“Do you … do you trust me, Eugene?” the blonde wizard pleaded, needing an immediate response as the boneclaw began stomping towards them. “This … this is crazy … but this is all that I’ve got.”

“Whatever it is just do it. Just—HLRKK!”

The boneclaw grappled Eugene, gripping her by the neck.

It was now or never.

Taking a deep breath, Eliza clenched her teeth, and with her remaining magic, she hid underneath her cloak, squatted down, and when the spell was complete, bursted forward into a confident stand.

“Brother, what are you doing with such a filthy mortal? You would do well to unhand her now. Right this instant, I tell you!”

Eliza demanded, having adjusted her voice to sound like a pompous yet refined man in his mid-thirties. Likewise, she adjusted her appearance to look like one of the men in the painting she had seen earlier at the dining room.

She took on the likeness of this boneclaw’s twin brother.

The boneclaw was ready to pop Yujin’s head clean off when it got distracted by Eliza’s final gambit—.

Shatter. 

“Oh my god, Liz … Liz this is it. This is the final roll of the session,” Sakura announced, holding her hands above her mouth. “Whenever you’re ready, roll the dice.”

The pink D20 in her palm rattled as if it was already raring to go. Liz couldn’t steady herself. She just couldn’t. The fate of their entire adventure rested on her shoulders—on this one roll. This, she thought, was what legends were made of.

And with a deep breath, she casted the dice forward and let it roll.

Everyone held their breath.

Bouncing against the corners of the dice box.

Everyone watched in silence.

Slowly stopping by the center and turning over a face.

Everyone widened their eyes at the result.

Sakura chuckled and shook her head. “Well, what can I say? The dice gods have spoken. And so …”

Shatter.

Charging towards the being it believed to be an impostor, the boneclaw readied itself to strike at Eliza’s disguised self until she uttered her final words with booming thaumaturgy.

“Brother, release her, and I … I promise to give you headpats and back rubs every day f-for a week!”

Both Eugene and the boneclaw looked at each other awkwardly for a moment before the latter smiled and dropped Eugene on her own two feet.

The menacing creature sat on its hind legs like a hound would and started panting, waiting for Eliza’s next instructions.

Feeling her heart burst from her chest, Eliza quickly cleared her throat and added, “O-Oh, and take the horn off your head, place it on the floor, a-a-and then … and then bury your head into the ground!”

On command, the boneclaw extracted the Horn of Elysia from its skull, propped it gently by Eliza’s feet, and then with another smile, slammed its oversized skull into the floor of the temple, keeping itself locked in place.

Picking up the damned horn they’ve suffered so much for, Eliza raised it up in the air as tears streamed down her face. “Finally … I-I … I did it …?”

Eugene limped over towards her and ruffled the wizard’s blonde hair. “You did it … When no one else could, you did it … I … I knew I should have trusted you all along … I’m sorry …”

But Eliza just chuckled and crinkled her nose at their leader. “Don’t thank me yet, unnie. Now we have to um … I think we should wake up the others …”

As they both went around the room to revive, awaken, and heal their other party members from their several states of disarray, a final thought entered Eliza’s mind as their dungeon-delving was now coming to a close.

I may not be the strongest, or the wittiest, or even the most capable person in the room most of the time … but I know what I can do. And I do me the best.

And that … that’s going to be enough for me.