Whilst the prince faced the king and the others faced the corrupted beast horde, Adrian, Renelle and Marion stood in front of a large door made of stone.

Etched on the door was a line of unknown text and just beneath that were illustrations, ones that seemed to map out the entire dungeon, and even this temple.

It seemed to tell a story that started from the very formation of the dungeon up to, strangely, this point.... With the three standing before the stone door.

Adrian had a frown as he looked at the illustrations. It showed two familiar figures, the founder and a Lightbringer ancestor.

They seemed to be battling a large serpent and in the end, after failing to defeat it, they sealed it.

And then, formed this dungeon around its seal, a choice that seemed to be the founder’s.

A trial perhaps? Adrian couldn’t tell.

Time passed and a group soon found themselves inside the dungeon, Marion’s groups.

And in their quest to find a way out, after finding out that this dungeon only held weak beasts, ended up breaking a part of the seal.

To be more accurate, a single person broke the seal, thereby becoming the carrier of corruption.

The King.

The depictions showed the serpent escaping a month after the formation of the black sea and it immediately went towards the stars, formed from natural mana within the dungeon.

That’s when something strange happened again, the mana within the stars suddenly started reacting and as if stuck in a trance,

The serpent started eating its own tail, stuck in a cycle of self destruction.

The final trap formed for it by the Lightbringer himself.

On another part of the stone, it showed the King revealing his corrupted form , but that didn’t surprise Adrian, after all, he already expected this outcome.

The strange part was the fact that the king had what seemed to be an invisible string connected to him, and leading to somewhere unknown.

So did most other corrupted beasts in this dungeon.

"That answers that," Marion muttered, breaking the silence as he looked at the strings with a hand on his chin, "the serpent is the source of all this, and it’s controlling them."

Renelle’s brows furrowed slightly as she looked at the illustrations before asking, "does that involve him?"

"Most likely," Marion answered casually while walking closer to the massive stone door, his gaze lingering on the countless strings carved into the wall, "corruption always seeks control eventually. A creature capable of swallowing stars? Controlling a few puppets should be easy for something like that."

"Then why aren’t you under its control yet?" She asked again.

"I have no idea," Marion muttered with a shrug, "maybe I’m too annoying for its liking?"

"After all, I was the only one who refused to get comfortable in this hell hole despite the lack of a way out."

Adrian remained silent, with his gaze fixed on the strings.

Every single one of them disappeared somewhere beyond the edge of the mural, as though the thing controlling them had intentionally been omitted from the story.

Or hidden.

His eyes narrowed slightly, but he chose to say nothing....for now.

The other two also went silent, looking at the door before them, that is until Marion spoke up again.

"Are we going in?"

Adrian had a bad feeling, almost as if something was about to go completely wrong.

And although he couldn’t ignore his instincts,

He had no choice either.

From the depictions, this was definitely their door out of here, so he had no option but to walk in.

Renelle wrapped her hand around his, as a way to assure him that she was going to be by his side no matter what.

The next second, they walked towards it and without hesitation, they lifted their hand and placed it on the door.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, but the next, the mural started glowing golden before gently enveloping the two.

At first, everything seemed to be going well....that is, until Adrian noticed a heat coming from his pocket.

And that’s when he realized.

Marion didn’t randomly give him that coin, it was for this very moment, as it was now reacting to the glow from the door.

Adrian turned back only to notice that the bastard had a grin on his face as he muttered, "I’ll see you on the other end."

Before anything else could be done, the light around them suddenly intensified and although, for a brief second, Adrian felt his hand still holding Renelle’s.

The next,

Something forcibly tore them apart.

His pupils shrank as he reached forward instinctively, but his fingers only grabbed air before Renelle completely vanished into the light.

The last thing he saw was her icy blue eyes widening slightly.

Then darkness swallowed him whole.

Marion looked at the spot where the two previously stood with a small smile on his face as he took out the same coin he had given to Adrian.

"These came in handy," he muttered, looking at the coin in his hand before turning back to the door.

"Now then, let’s go see how you perform, shall we?"

With that, it walked towards it with the coin still in hand. He then rested his hand on the door and the same golden glow covered him.

A second after, he also disappeared.

***

Adrian opened his eyes in what seemed to be a completely dark hall, with multiple stone pillars at his sides.

The first thing he did was look around for Renelle, only to realize that they had been separated... again.

He then recalled the coin and fished it out of his pocket, noticing that it was still letting out a golden glow.

Adrian couldn’t say this was completely unexpected, after all, he didn’t trust Marion from the day they met.

But from what he had seen through his shadows, to deal with him, they had to face each other alone.

Else, disadvantages would be stacked against him....and this was the only way.

«Look ahead,» his thoughts were interrupted by Noctis who suddenly came out of the shadow vault again.

Adrian complied, looking forward only to spot a massive statue.

But the statue itself wasn’t the problem, it was what wrapped itself around it,

"The Oroborus."