Rushing wind blasted out of the tunnel, pushing out loosened blue stones and sending them scattering beside the tunnel’s mouth.

Leon walked softly toward the tunnel, drew out the dagger and took in a deep breath before entering.

The sound of dripping water echoed when he placed his first step into the blue-glowed cave that seemed to carry countless unheard cries.

Immediately after Leon entered the tunnel fully, he stopped and tuned his ears to the loud footsteps that echoed from the other side of the tunnel where he couldn’t see yet.

"An Lang, Liu Yan, I’m coming to save you guys." He whispered, then continued in a rush. The deeper Leon went, the brighter the tunnel’s blue glow blasted on his skin.

Rays of the Starfire Opal wall and ceiling all followed Leon like they were part of him that had gone out and were entering back into his body.

Leon’s black armor pulsed whenever the wave of light entered his body, but Leon wasn’t ready to check, he just kept moving.

When he reached a section where he could no longer see where he had entered from, a loud chittering sound echoed ahead of him.

’Something is coming, and I can feel it.’ He said low in his head and increased his grip on the dagger, then stood in a boxing stance, moving his right leg a bit backward.

As he waited, breath escaped his mouth and nose as he calmed his fast-beating heart.

Immediately after he calmed himself, a sharp sound sliced across his left ear, and when Leon looked, he saw countless cockroaches swarming at him.

Before he could react, one lunged from the wall, its big shiny wings bouncing air while the two sharp tentacles at its mouth gleamed and screeched against Leon’s left shoulder.

Sparks flew in the air as the creature’s tiny claws scraped across Leon’s armor and it fell on the ground dead. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The iron-colored shell shattered when the cockroach’s wide body slammed on the ground hard. Another one dashed forward with its teeth exposed and grinding against each other, but Leon sidestepped and stepped on it when it also fell on its back.

A shell-crackling sound echoed when Leon increased his stamp.

Two more came from the right wall before Leon could remove his leg. They moved low and fast across the floor, with their teeth already open.

Leon didn’t use his dagger or the sword, he simply kicked one into the wall so hard that the shell splattered on contact with the Opal surface and the mark where it struck pulsed once.

The second one tried fleeing but Leon caught it and dragged it under his boot until it stopped moving.

He looked at the remaining ones gathering at the edge of the wall, where shadow was, chittering at each other with fast grinding teeth.

"Come on then." Leon said and focused on them, but none of the creatures moved.

When Leon neglected them and continued moving, the Opal’s light followed him deeper, snaking across his armor in a breathing pulse.

Leon followed the bovine prints that kept appearing on the slightly wet ground and tracked them without slowing.

’Guys, hold on.’ He said low in his head while doubling his steps. ’Just hold on a little longer.’

Just as he reached the end of the tunnel and entered into a new dungeon, a copper smell hit him and caused him to stop.

Leon pulled the red cloth up over his mouth and nose, then slowed down his steps, trying to locate the bovine prints he wasn’t seeing anymore.

’Where did they even head after reaching this place.’ He said low in his head, then crouched down slightly, brushing the dried dust off the ground.

The dust flew through the red cloth and caused a cough to escape from Leon.

Leon stood up, removed the red cloth slightly, then spat on the ground before covering it back over his mouth and nose. "I still need to find my way through."

He walked from the tunnel’s mouth and began searching the entrance of the dungeon for clues. Before he could place his fifth step, Leon blinked twice.

Thousands of bovine prints covered the ground, pressing over each other, going left, right, doubling back, and spreading outward in every direction.

Leon focused on the prints, then took in a deep breath while closing his eyes.

The copper smell flew to him as he slowly inhaled, trying to navigate through the prints and sort the right path out.

Countless rotting smells, from fish, meat, and metal flew in place of the copper, and when Leon’s eyes twitched, trying to open, a familiar smell flew into his lungs.

"Aurelian!" Leon screamed the name aloud while cracking his eyes open. He stood there for a few minutes before running toward the direction the smell drifted from.

The dungeon swallowed Leon in a way the tunnel hadn’t. His footsteps came back to him a half second after he had made them, like the place was mimicking him and not quite getting it right.

Leon’s eyes blazed with rage as he pushed through wooden doors and entered into rooms that he knew nothing of.

Inside every room he entered and exited, blood that wasn’t his own splashed on the wall, and on the ground were three-foot Syrs chopped in perfect halves.

When he bashed into a cavern in the dungeon, torches appeared at two sides ahead. They ran along the walls, burning and sending sparks that drifted along the wall after Leon had run past them.

Shadows smeared through the walls, but Leon had no time to stop and watch them materialize.

When Leon stopped at a place where the Opal and the orange flames of the torches seemed to fight each other, he slowed down.

He turned and watched his shadow, which had stretched as if he were a giant, then turned and focused on the empty path.

When he turned to the left, Leon swallowed hard when he saw a sword like Liu Yan’s own black sword resting on a rock table, while other sharp weapons lay at its side.

A plopping sound echoed and drew Leon’s attention after he moved a few meters forward. His heart sank when he saw Liu Yan hung from a rope between two iron poles.

Beneath the twelve-foot height was a channel of liquid fire that rolled slowly and pulled heat upward in waves that bent the air between her body and the floor. Sharp flames reached up from it in bursts and each one that found the rope left a new black mark on the fibers.

Even as Leon focused on the flames, a section near the top of the rope caught fire.

The more he watched, the more the rope shortened, and Liu Yan kept on dropping, screaming with every last bit of energy she had until her words became only breaths.

’One night. One choice.’

The message written in the note Leon had met at the Soul Castle flashed in his head before he could force himself to remember.

You have until dawn to save your friends. Or collect their pieces by morning.

’Aurelian!’ Leon screamed the name loud in his head while his rage-burning eyes widened.

When he turned to search for a way to save Liu Yan, the energy died. On the other side, An Lang’s body was locked inside a metallic cage that had its mouth hanging open as if waiting for something to enter before it closed.

At its front was a line of small cut meats that ran from the inside of the cage and outward across the floor, and at the far end of the line was a mass of rats tearing through the meats one after another at lightning speed.

Each passing second sent them closer, and the closest was only three pieces from the cage’s mouth.

Leon’s eyes drifted from the rats to the burning rope and back to the rats. Sweat began to drip from his face when he looked at Liu Yan’s body slowly losing its life and An Lang trying so hard to push himself away from the rats, which were now a step away.

His grip on the dagger went white while his hands shook rapidly. He pulled out one of An Lang’s war discs and threw it at the mass of rats, scattering them, but another set of rats erupted from the dead ones and began nearing An Lang’s cage at a devilish speed.

’What should I do? I cannot split in two.’

As he focused on the rats being smashed by An Lang’s own free right arm, Leon closed his eyes. Before he could crack them open, a voice echoed in his head. ’Move.’

Immediately after he cracked them open, he hurled the second war disc at the rats again and dashed toward Liu Yan.

He held onto Wu Ze’s sword tighter and swung it at the first iron pole while he was still moving. The blade slammed the base and sent sparks exploding across Leon’s hands while the pole shuddered.

Leon swung again, and the pole cracked at the base and leaned sideways, making the rope slack on that end.

Liu Yan swung hard toward the second pole and screamed. "LEON!"

"I’ve got you." Leon said while moving around the edge of the liquid fire. He jumped and grabbed the rope above Liu Yan’s hands and pulled himself up with one arm while the sword hung at his waist.

"Hold onto me, Liu Yan." Leon said as he stretched his arm toward Liu Yan.

Liu Yan’s arms shook so badly that she could barely close her fingers, but she managed.

Leon looked at the liquid fire rolling beneath them, at the pole bending and at the rope above his hands where two more sections had blackened.

Without hesitation he pulled the dagger from his side and drove it straight into the pole near the top and used it as a hook, which lowered them both until Liu Yan’s boots touched the ground.

Liu Yan’s boots buckled but Leon caught her before she went sideways into the liquid fire.

"I’ve got you." Leon said, clutching her so tight he could feel her heartrate.

Liu Yan leaned against Leon’s left ear and whispered softly. "An Lang." She paused and breathed. "Leon, An Lang."

When Leon turned, the rats had already entered the cage and were tearing through An Lang’s body.