Beside the face, two skeletal arms emerged from the wall and seized Archer by the shoulders.

She screamed in horror at the sudden attack and the ghastly sight of the creature's featureless face, devoid of eyes and nose. As it drew closer and closer, a guttural growl rumbling from its mouth full of rotten teeth.

Swordsman reacted without hesitation.

One slash severed the monster's arms, freeing his friend. Sand poured from the stumps, which rejoined within a second.

Swordsman cut them again. To no avail.

Desperate, he struck a third time. The result was exactly the same.

"Move!"

The ever-unflappable Cleric sounded genuinely shaken this time as he charged the creature, now halfway out of the wall. His hammer flared with blinding light and struck the monster head-on. The creature instantly collapsed into a cloud of sand.

"Mummies," Rogue said under his breath. "We've got trouble."

Dice rolled. Several came up very low.

Archer, Dragoon, and Rogue froze as more pairs of skeletal arms emerged from the walls behind them. From the direction they'd come. From the exit.

Swordsman reacted immediately. So did Cleric.

The two of them struck at every creature that tried to emerge. The sword did little more than slow the mummies down, but it bought enough time for Cleric's divine hammer to reduce them to dust.

Behind them, the first pile of sand—the one in front of Archer—began to stir. Slowly, it started taking shape again.

Frightened, Archer didn't react.

Master did.

With a snap of her fingers, her cloak became a white robe, and stars began dancing around the regenerating mummy. A moment later, the stars transformed into crosses. With one final motion, they pierced the monster.

This time, not even sand remained.

"We have to run!" Dragoon shouted as he came to his senses. "They're surrounding us!"

At the far end of the corridor, more skeletal arms clawed their way eagerly out of the walls. The group quickly regrouped at Dragoon's warning.

Everyone except Archer, who remained frozen, staring at the horrifying corridor now filled with grasping limbs and decayed faces trying to reach them.

Master took the lead.

She repeated the spell a few more times, clearing a path ahead.

Meanwhile, Swordsman grabbed Archer by the waist, hoisted her over his shoulder, and carried her away.

They ran for nearly five minutes, dodging claws and snapping jaws lunging at them from every direction, until they reached a circular chamber filled with glowing crystals.

There was no exit.

Nervously, they turned toward the corridor. Sure enough, at least two dozen mummies were still coming after them.

"Dragoon. Cleric." Swordsman set Archer down. "If we hold the front, the corridor will funnel them in. We'll only have to fight two or three at a time. Master and Archer can—"

"No." Cleric stepped toward the tunnel entrance, hammer raised. "We can't take that risk."

Two swings were enough to bring the entrance down. A pile of rocks now separated them from the advancing horde of mummies.

"That was rather impulsive, my friend," Rogue remarked. "Especially coming from you."

"Indeed," Master agreed. "You've left us without an exit. Now we'll have to find another way out... and face the mummies anyway. I'm not pleased."

"I'm sorry... I just panicked. The last time we were surrounded, we barely made it out, and..."

"I think it was a great idea." Dragoon placed an arm around the stocky adventurer's shoulders. "Was Swordsman's plan good? Probably. Is Master strong enough to get us out of this if everything goes wrong? More than likely. But now we've got time to calm down and think, don't we? Besides, maybe the mummies will get bored and crawl back into the— Oh."

"What is it?" Swordsman asked.

"They came out of the walls, didn't they? So what's stopping them from coming through these ones? We're trapped! Cleric! You've doomed us!"

"Calm down," Master ordered. "They won't. This place is... different."

Master looked around the chamber, the others followed her gaze.

It was a circular cavern whose walls and ceiling were covered with glowing crystals. At the center stood an enormous crystal nearly two meters tall. Inside it rested the silhouette of a man curled into a fetal position. Clear enough to tell it was indeed a person. Too blurred by the crystal's surface and density for any features to be distinguished.

The strange symbol from the hieroglyphs had somehow been carved around the crystal well over a hundred times.

"Do you think that's the old man's son?" Archer asked as she cautiously approached, careful not to touch the crystal.

"There isn't any other explanation," Master replied.

"Remember what Arman-what's-his-name said?" Dragoon frowned. "Dead or alive. He didn't care how we brought his son back. He just wanted him back."

"Yeah," Swordsman agreed. "He seemed far more concerned about stopping whatever plan his son was carrying out than rescuing him."

"And do you think he's ...dead?" Archer asked.

"Or maybe he accomplished his goal," Cleric said, his composure restored. "Look at all those symbols. I don't think he ended up in there by accident."

"Well..." Dragoon lowered his spear. "There's only one way to find out."

Without another thought, he drove the spear into the crystal.

Silence filled the chamber. Everyone held their breath.

Nothing happened.

"Okay... we got away with it this time. But knock it off with the stupid ideas, all right?" Rogue said.

"Hey, I don't think it was a stupid idea." Archer came to Dragoon's defense. "What else are we supposed to do? Leave him in there? What, were you planning to carry the whole crystal back to town?"

"I'm just saying—"

"In fact," Archer cut him off, "I think Cleric should try that hammer of his."

Cleric looked to Master. She nodded.

He raised his hammer. Light burst from it. He brought it crashing down against the crystal.

Nothing.

"It's incredibly hard," Swordsman said. "What is it? Diamond?"

"Possibly," Master replied. "Though I've never seen a diamond emit light."

"Or one that big," Dragoon added.

"Maybe the light comes from somewhere else. Maybe from beneath the ground, or..."

Lost in thought, Swordsman placed a hand against the crystal.

At once, the symbols began to glow. The spot beneath his hand turned liquid. Then it tried to swallow it.

Cleric and Dragoon reacted at once. They lunged forward, grabbed him, and pulled with all their strength.

They managed to drag him free.

"What the hell?"

"Good thing it only got your fingers. That could've—"

"Get back!" Master warned.

The diamond began vibrating violently, producing an almost deafening hum. A couple of seconds later, the crystals covering the walls began vibrating as well.

Several tore free and shot toward the one in the center, attaching themselves to it in shifting formations until, less than half a minute later, they had formed the shape of an enormous golem nearly four meters tall.

Its hands were as large as a person, ending in massive claws. Its legs were as thick as tree trunks. The original crystal now formed a headless torso.

Every symbol glowed red.

"Well... things just got a lot more complicated," Rogue said.

"At least you won't have to drag it back to town anymore," Archer quipped sarcastically.

Rogue answered with a low grunt.

"Remember," Master said, her voice commanding. "Whether he's dead or alive doesn't matter. Our objective is to defeat it and recover the boy's body. And be careful. This won't be easy."

The entire group nodded. Weapons ready, they prepared for battle.

Dragoon attacked first.

He leaped, barely avoiding the cave ceiling some eight meters above, and hurled his spear at the creature. Red energy wrapped around the weapon. Halfway through its flight, it doubled its speed.

When it struck the golem... it simply bounced off.

Cleric and Swordsman charged, one toward each leg, while Archer loosed one, sometimes two arrows every second.

The golem ignored the covering fire.

The two warriors had no choice but to focus on avoiding the sweeping attacks of its enormous arms, which, despite their size and strength, moved surprisingly slowly.

Without much difficulty, they reached their targets and struck with all their might. The dice rolled. Cleric got a twenty. Swordsman wasn't nearly as lucky. Yet neither attack produced the result they expected.

Swordsman's blow didn't so much as scratch the left leg, and even with a natural twenty, Cleric managed nothing more than to threaten the creature's balance, forcing its right leg back a couple of centimeters.

Just then, Rogue appeared behind the monster, wrapped in shadows as he dropped from the ceiling with a dagger wreathed in black energy.

Everyone watched in horror as the blade shattered on impact.

Worse still, the legs he'd braced against the golem's body began sinking into the strange material.

"Damn it, we have to save him!" Cleric shouted, losing his composure once again.

"Stop! Don't touch its body!" Master ordered, stopping Cleric just as he was about to leap after his friend.

Swordsman watched in confusion.

Rogue's legs were sinking deeper and deeper into the golem. He struggled desperately to pull himself free, but when he planted a hand against its body to push himself away, he only made things worse. The creature swallowed his arm as well.

Distracted by the scene, Swordsman was still standing far too close to one of its legs. One kick was enough to send him flying across the chamber and slam him into the opposite wall.

He didn't get back up.

"What do we do!?" Dragoon shouted. "How do we get Rogue out of there!?"

"We have to defeat it before it consumes him completely!" Master replied, sounding calm despite the situation. "Dragoon! Pick up your spear and jump again!"

"It won't work!"

"Do it!"

Driven by Master's command, Dragoon charged the creature, dodging punches and kicks until he reached his spear.

Beside him, Cleric defended himself with his hammer and tried to counterattack, but couldn't inflict any damage.

"Cleric! Leave it and heal Swordsman! Dragoon... jump!"

Dragoon obeyed once more.

Master snapped her fingers. Her cloak transformed into a black robe, while the clothes beneath became an outfit of leather straps and chains. Two massive books hung at her hips. This time, even her dark brown hair turned jet black.

Her eyes glowed red.

She spoke two unintelligible words and Dragoon's spear became engulfed in violent black flames.

He threw it.

The spear accelerated once again through its flight and buried itself halfway into the creature's body. It wasn't enough.

The black flames erupted, forming a pillar of fire nearly five meters high in Dragoon's direction.

He narrowly avoided it, already descending from his jump. Even so, he felt a heat more intense than anything he had ever experienced.

Despite everything... the creature remained standing.

The only difference was the spear lodged in the middle of its body and the large black scorch mark surrounding it.

It continued attacking as though nothing had happened.

Growing desperate, Master ordered Archer to prepare to repeat the experiment with her arrows.

Behind her, Cleric managed to bring Swordsman back to consciousness.

"The diamond is indestructible," Swordsman muttered mechanically, still drifting in and out of consciousness. "It can't be destroyed by conventional means. There isn't enough force in any human tool to break it."

He coughed.

"The only way... is to burn it. Burn it with an extremely powerful flame."

"What are you talking about?" Dragoon asked as he reached his side.

"Are you delirious, my bro?"

"I'm not delirious. I know what I'm talking about. For some reason..." His voice grew steadier. "... I dreamed I wrote about this. That I researched it for a story. Something like that."

"You? Writing? I've never seen you write anything in your life. You're a swordsman. You're..."

Dragoon stopped. Something told him Swordsman

did

write. He just couldn't understand why he thought so.

"Are we losing our minds?"

"Karo defeated the Earth Alpha Demonius with fire. Its body was made of diamond."

"Karo? Alpha Demonius?" Dragoon turned toward Cleric. "Can't you do something abou—"

"I'm listening, Swordsman."

Master didn't turn around. She remained focused on the black-fire arrows bouncing harmlessly off the monster's body, leaving nothing but dark scorch marks.

"I don't know how you're accessing to that thoughs ...but I'm listening. And I think you're right. But as you can see... the fire isn't enough."

"More intensity. More pressure."

Master smiled. She had an idea.

"Cleric, I need you to launch Dragoon toward Rogue. Dragoon, do everything you can to pull him free."

"But—"

"Don't worry about hurting him, Cleric will heal him afterward."

Cleric left Swordsman's side.

He planted his hammer firmly against the ground, turning it into a platform, then motioned for Dragoon to climb onto it.

Dragoon obeyed uncertainly.

Cleric acted before he was completely ready. Yet somehow, as though they had practiced it countless times before, Dragoon instinctively knew what to do.

The instant Cleric launched him upward with supernatural force, Dragoon used the hammer as a springboard.

His speed through the air became immense. He reached Rogue and wrapped one arm around his ribs. Dragoon felt the monster resisting as he pulled. He also heard countless things tearing and snapping. Even so... he managed to continue through the air with Rogue in his grasp.

"Everyone! Take a deep breath and hold it!" Master ordered, stretching both arms out to her sides. "This is going to be intense."

Swiftly, she brought her arms together, slamming her palms into a thunderous clap.

At once, as though obeying the sorceress's command, every bit of air in the area rushed toward the golem, forming a magical pressure chamber around it.

Without a moment's hesitation, she snapped the fingers of both hands.

Two sparks of black fire appeared beside the monster.

Within a hundredth of a second, the sparks consumed every trace of air inside the chamber, unleashing an explosion so hot and so violent that it hurled the entire Adventurers' Group against the walls, scorching their eyebrows and singeing parts of their hair.

The impact drove every last breath from Master's lungs.

Even so, she watched closely as the diamond evaporated inside the pillar of black fire.

Relieved and exhilarated by her success, she would've sighed if she'd had any air left. Instead, she tried to draw a deep breath into her burning lungs.

Nothing.

Panic seized her as she realized what she'd just done.

They were trapped inside an isolated cave, buried beneath countless meters of earth and rock. Even then, she had consumed every bit of air in the chamber to fuel the explosion.

She had...

She had doomed them.

She desperately searched for some way to create more air. Nothing came to mind.

Her vision quickly began to blur, though not before she saw her companions collapsing in horror as they realized their predicament as well.

She had ruined everything...

She hadn't even reached the war and she had already failed.

She hadn't even finished her training.

Selfishly, she'd chosen her companions—people who had no idea what they were getting themselves into—and tried to turn them into her squires.

For what? To leave them all to suffocate inside a cave?

Out of nowhere, a powerful gust of wind swept through the chamber.

Within two seconds, everyone managed to draw enough air to fill their lungs once more. The rushing air also fanned the flames now engulfing a human corpse.

"And you judged me for borrowing these." Rogue struggled to get the words out as he held up several blue crystals. "Oxygen bombs. Pretty useful, huh?"

Master let out a relieved laugh.

They had survived. Barely.

The others laughed with relief as well.

Everyone except Swordsman and Archer.

Their attention remained fixed on the corpse as the flames slowly consumed it, leaving only bones behind.

"Wait..." Swordsman stared at it. "Isn't that James?"

Before he could finish saying the name, a deafening sound—like countless panes of glass shattering at once—filled the chamber.

An instant later, they were all sitting in a circle once again... in the basement of Tavern.