Chapter 18

Elinore opens her eyes to find herself trapped in a hallway with Bonny and Liana picking themselves up off of the ground. The trio look around, noting how the walls around them glitter with an odd blue hue. Elinore rubs her fingers across the walks as they slide against the smooth glass-like surface.

“Where are we?” Bonny asks.

“The next floor, most likely. Kind of a dirty trick for our reflections to pull us inside of this place.”

Elinore looks around. “More like they took us inside of a mirror.”

“A mirror?” Bonny asks.

“Yeah. At least that’s what this feels like.” She says.

Liana stares behind them to see a vast black emptiness. “Well, this is more straightforward.”

“Yeah, let’s hurry we should be close to the center, right?”

“No idea. Most people don’t make it past the second floor here.” Liana says. “And the people that do almost never come back.”

Elinore looks down the path and walks forward. “We’re not going to get anywhere just standing around. We have to move forward!”

“Eli?”

“Elinore, what’s wrong?” Kaito asks.

“I’m nervous. Like something in here is watching us and I don’t like it.” She says.

Liana stares at the walls. “I can feel what you mean. There’s something eerie about this place.”

“Honestly, the dungeon as a whole has been giving me that vibe,” Bonny says.

The trio walks down the hall with a sinister aura growing ever more the further they pierce through the depths. Staring ahead the hallway seems to never end as they force themselves forward, ignoring the mounting sensation of foreboding around.

“We’re getting nowhere. This puzzle has to be something else!” Bonny yells out.

“What could it be then?” Elinore asks. “We only have one way to move forward!”

Liana stares at the two, pulling them close. “Calm down. This could be a mind game, I know we’re all a little on edge considering, but we can’t take it out on each other.”

“Fine.” The pair say in unison.

Liana smiles. “Good. So what should we do? Because walking down the hall isn’t working.”

Elinore stares at the walls. “Maybe it’s like the box and we have to break our way out?”

“Possible. Let me try first, though.” Liana says.

The pair move away as she pulls out a staff from her bag, swinging it and hitting the surrounding walls. Slight cracks appear before part of the wall breaks away. They wait a moment and rush towards the hole, staring into it to get some kind of clue.

“So, there’s no water outside. But can we confirm there is an outside?” Bonny asks.

“Not with a hole that small. We’d need to keep smashing to make it wider, but whatever this stuff is made from is super tough.” She says.

As the three stands around more cracks appear on the walls that spread to the floor underneath them. Moving away, the cracks spread surrounding them as the floor breaks away underneath them.

“What’s going on?” Bonny asks.

“I think we’re making our way to the next floor,” Liana says.

As they fall a large tentacle wraps around the girls, dragging them further down as they struggle against its grip. A loud slithering noise echoes across the area as they fall to the ground, staring up at a large waggling mass of tentacles in front of them.

“What is that?” Elinore asks.

Liana rushes ahead. “It’s a monster!”

She smashes her staff into the mass, only for it to bounce off. “We need to slice!” Bonny yells out, tossing her scythes.

Her blades cut into the mass as a noise echoes across the area and they cover their ears. Forcing herself up, Elinore rushes in swinging her blade as fire erupts from the hilt. She stabs into the mass as more screams echo out.

“Hurry up and go away!” She yells out.

The mass of tentacles opens and swallows her whole as Bonny and Liana watch on, stunned.