Chapter 65: Chapter 65: Dive Into Hell [5]

"No, fuc" his scream was cut off instantly.

The hungry wall swallowed his head whole as rock sealed tightly around his waist, muffling his terrified cries.

He was stuck inside the seemingly solid stone, with only his kicking legs still visible, flailing wildly in the dim tunnel.

"Help him," a female student screamed in pure terror.

She dropped her shield and quickly jumped forward, grabbing the struggling boy tightly by his ankles. She braced her boots against the floor and pulled backward with everything she had, desperately trying to rip him out of the wall.

"Pull," she yelled, her face turning bright red with the severe effort.

Three or four other students immediately dropped their water flasks and rushed over to help her.

They grabbed onto his legs and her waist, forming a desperate human chain to pull him free.

But the second the other students brushed their shoulders or leaned their weight against the surrounding cavern walls for better leverage, the stone rippled again.

Raven was standing too close to the edge of the expanding ripple.

The mud reached out and grabbed his oversized black sweater, dragging his upper body straight into the stone.

His legs kicked frantically in the open air, shaking as the rock sucked him deeper into the trap.

The human chain broke apart in blind panic.

Students screamed, tripping over each other as they tried to scramble away from the deceptive cavern walls.

They abandoned their friends to save their own skins.

Zephyr pushed his way through the scattering crowd, his eyes locked onto the trapped victims.

He planted his feet firmly on the safe path and stretched out both hands.

A warm light erupted from his palms as he activated his unique skill.

God Hand flared to life, casting a holy glow over the terrified group.

The dense light wrapped around the struggling students like ropes.

Zephyr gritted his teeth and pulled backward. The divine energy fought against the gripping stone, slowly ripping the victims out of the mud one by one.

They fell to the floor, coughing up dust and gasping for air.

Before Zephyr’s holy light could even reach him, Raven simply slid right out of the rock.

He used a strange, slippery shadow technique to phase his upper body free without any assistance and collapsed onto his knees in the middle of the path, then started rubbing his eyes.

"You just left me to die," Raven wailed, pretending to cry loudly as he hugged his oversized sweater tight against his chest.

"You abandoned me in the rock. My heart is broken into pieces."

Nobody paid attention to his dramatic whining because the medics were too busy checking the injured students.

Azrael watched Raven from the corner of his eye and let out a scoff.

He recognised the technique the boy used.

Raven was hiding his true strength behind a pathetic facade, playing the fool to lower everyone’s expectations.

It was a smart survival tactic, but Azrael found the fake tears highly irritating.

During all this screaming and frantic rescuing, Azrael did absolutely nothing to help.

He stood at the very front of the formation with his sword drawn, his red eyes focused entirely on the tunnel ahead.

He held his weapon at a steady angle, his posture relaxed but ready to strike anything that might emerge from the shadows.

This was the correct tactical position for a vanguard unit.

Someone had to watch the forward threat while a rescue operation happened behind them.

If a real monster ambushed the group while they were distracted by the wall trap, they would all be slaughtered in seconds.

Azrael knew this basic rule of war from centuries of commanding actual armies in the Abyss.

He assessed the situation, determined that the golden-eyed boy had the rescue handled, and secured the perimeter. He felt no urge to panic.

But Shane would never have done that.

If the human boy were still driving this vessel, he would have been right in the middle of the terrifying chaos.

Shane would have dropped his sword and pulled those people out of the mud with his bare hands, risking his own life without a single thought for his own safety.

He would not have been able to help himself because human empathy was his fatal flaw.

Shane always fought to save the weak, even when it broke all tactical sense.

Zephyr noticed the quiet stillness at the front of the line. He finished checking the last rescued student and slowly stood up.

He looked at Azrael standing perfectly rigid, staring into the dark as if the panicked cries behind him were nothing more than annoying background noise.

The crisis was finally resolved as the trapped students caught their breath and drank some fresh water.

Zephyr walked forward, his boots stepping heavily on the floor.

He bypassed the resting students and stopped right beside Azrael.

"You didn’t help," Zephyr stated. His voice was low, tight with a mixture of anger and rising dread.

Azrael did not turn his head.

He kept his red eyes tracking the invisible currents of the tunnel, scanning for any shifts in the stagnant air.

"Someone had to watch the front," Azrael replied smoothly, resting the flat of his blade against his shoulder.

"If a crawler pack rushed us while you were all playing tug-of-war with a rock, we would be dead right now."

It was a technically correct answer. It was the kind of practical logic Shane might have used to deflect blame and cover up his own insecurities. It made perfect sense on paper.

But Shane would have looked back.

The real Shane would have glanced over his shoulder to make sure the victims were actually breathing.

He would have checked on the bruised students to satisfy his own guilty conscience, unable to hide his genuine concern for their well-being.

Azrael just kept staring forward, utterly indifferent to the fragile lives resting just a few feet behind him.

The safety of the group meant nothing to a ruler who saw them only as temporary pawns.

Everything became clear to Zephyr.

His eyes moved to Raven and Mia, who were already staring at him, and he nodded once.

This trip wasn’t to help Melissa.

It’s to seal whatever is inside Shane.

In the entrance of the cave, Sienna stood near the water, the ring reacting to whatever monster was inside the cave.

Principal Boros gave her a mission.

To appraise the soul of a student who seemed to be possessing something far more dangerous than this world can handle.

The very student who helped her.

It’s time for her to pay him back.