Mirai plummeted, the wind shrieking in her ears.

  She didn't squeeze her eyes shut. Instead, she fixed her gaze on the rushing floor. She shifted her weight in mid-air, and the moment her boots found purchase, she bent her knees deep to drink the impact. The momentum of the fall vanished into the coil of her muscles rather than shattering bone. She exhaled a quiet breath and straightened up, unharmed.

  She glanced upward to find the opening gone. Above her hung only an ancient stone ceiling, sealed tight against any intrusion of light. The only illumination came from green crystals embedded in the walls at irregular intervals, casting a pallid, eldritch glow across the chamber.

  Mirai took a deep breath, forcing her pulse to steady.

  She pivoted, scanning her surroundings. Rough-hewn stone walls. A narrow corridor stretching in two directions. The air felt heavy and dank, carrying the scent of rot mingled with something else. Old magic.

  She stood still and listened. Silence reigned at first, but then faint sounds drifted from the gloom. Scratching. Slithering. Guttural noises that belonged to no human throat.

  She began to walk toward the sounds, moving with practiced caution. The corridor twisted, and the green light grew dim. She rounded a corner and stopped.

  Before her, in a wider chamber, a horde awaited. Dozens of them. Their bodies were twisted mockeries of life, limbs far too long and heads set at sickening angles. Where eyes should have been, only empty black pits stared back. They shambled aimlessly, their movements jerky and wrong.

  Mirai stared them down. Then she closed her eyes and whispered a low command to herself.

  "Forget everything. There's no point in thinking about it. Just focus on what you've always been good at."

  Her eyes snapped open, transformed. They burned crimson in the dark. Her hand moved to her sleeve and drew the dagger. She flooded the blade with her spiritual energy, and the metal responded instantly. It expanded and warped, reshaping itself into a massive greatsword.

  She gripped the hilt with both hands and launched herself forward.

  The creatures turned, but it was already too late. She was upon them. The first strike shore a creature in two; the second claimed a head. No blood spilled. The bodies collapsed and dissolved into black smoke that curled upward and vanished.

  She didn't stop. A third creature lunged with elongated claws. She side-stepped the blow and drove her sword through its chest, ripped the blade free, and spun toward a fourth. She was fast and powerful, though her strikes were wide and reckless. It didn't matter. The beasts were too slow.

  In seconds, they were all on the floor, dissolving into vapor. Mirai stood in the center, watching the black smoke rise, waiting for it to fade.

  But the smoke refused to fade.

  Instead, the dark mist coalesced, taking shape once more. Slowly, the creatures reformed. Bodies first, then limbs, then those empty, hollow faces. In less than a minute, they stood again, swaying slightly as if waking from a slumber.

  Mirai’s eyes narrowed. She tightened her grip on the sword and attacked again.

  She killed them once. They returned. She killed them again. They reformed.

  To Mirai, however, this was simply a way to empty the rage in her heart. So she continued, cutting them down over and over, even as they rose again each time.

  ---

  In the narrow stone hall, the grey-haired man finally broke the silence, his voice sharp with impatience. "Valdor, how long do we wait? The energy is fully gathered. Staying here is a risk we don't need."

  Valdor didn't shift from his relaxed posture. He answered coldly, without sparing them a glance. "Don't rush. Everything is on schedule. We’ll harvest the final energy after the upcoming tournament at the Coliseum. That will be the grand finale."

  "What finale?" The young man opposite him cut in, his voice trembling as his eyes darted nervously around the room. "The Royal Guards might come here! Raiden is definitely hunting us. If he finds us..."

  Valdor waved a hand in the air, dismissing the concern like an annoying fly. "Stop panicking. Raiden is finished." He smirked, a look of supreme arrogance crossing his face. "You saw the Coliseum. My spell drained him completely. My spell will be enough to stop him later."

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  The old woman intervened with a harsh slap of her withered hand against the table. "I don't care about Raiden or Haru. I want an answer about Trap Number Three." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Why is that girl still breathing down there?"

  Valdor adjusted his collar slowly.

  "Because I wanted to see what she could do. I threw her to the beasts as a quick competency test."

  He nodded toward the surveillance crystal in the center of the table.

  "If she survives, she's a useful pawn we can add to our ranks. If she dies... then she wasn't worth my time."

  The grey-haired man glanced at the crystal. "She's holding her own. Her movements are sharp."

  "Exactly," Valdor said with satisfaction. "Once the beasts wear her down a bit, I'll step in and collect her to be..."

  "Wait!"

  The young man’s scream cut through the room. He was staring at the crystal, eyes wide with shock.

  "She's... she's not just killing them. Look at the red lights!"

  All four pairs of eyes locked onto the crystal. The monsters were vanishing, and their energy signatures were evaporating with them at a frantic pace.

  Valdor’s smirk slowly faded.

  "That lunatic is destroying the crystals..." the old woman muttered in disbelief. "She figured out how the prison works!"

  Valdor stood up abruptly, his chair scraping against the stone floor with a harsh screech.

  "I expected brute force. I didn't expect this."

  He strode toward the door, his cloak billowing behind him.

  "The test is over. I'm bringing her in myself before she brings this whole place down on our heads."

  ---

  After countless cycles of death and resurrection, Mirai stopped swinging and started observing.

  She stood in the room, hand outstretched. In her palm lay a small crystal she'd pried from the wall, no bigger than a coin. It pulsed with a faint green light, identical to the ones embedded in the stone. She stared at it with a cold expression.

  "So that's it," she said softly. "Their souls are trapped here. No matter how many times they die, they'll come back because of these."

  She closed her hand. The crystal shattered with a crisp crack, and the shards dissolved into nothingness. The glow vanished.

  Behind her, the creatures that had begun to reform started to collapse again. This time, they didn't rise. The smoke dissipated completely, leaving only empty air.

  Mirai lowered her hand and kept walking.

  She pushed deeper into the maze, sword still in hand. The corridors grew narrower, the air colder. She found more crystals and destroyed them one by one. With each destruction, more creatures fell and stayed down.

  Then she turned a corner and stopped.

  Before her, standing solitary in the center of a vast chamber, was something different.

  It stood nearly as tall as she was. Its form was far more human despite the deformities, and its stance felt wrong. Too still. Too controlled. It gripped a long spear with both hands, the tip pointed directly at her. Unlike the shambling beasts, this one possessed discipline. It stood in a proper combat stance, weight balanced, ready to move.

  The creature didn't wait. It surged forward.

  Mirai raised her sword to block, but the spear was faster. It slipped past her guard, aiming for her head. She twisted her body at the last second, but the tip grazed her cheek in a shallow line. She jerked back, her hand rising instinctively to her face. Warm blood flowed over her skin, dripping onto her fingers.

  She stared at the blood for a moment. There was no healing warmth. No subtle glow. Nothing. There was no defensive barrier.

  She remembered his last words before she left: "Drop the defensive ward you put on me."

  Her mind cleared instantly.

  She'd left without giving him a chance to recast it. When he dropped the ward, he removed every other enchantment too.

  She lowered her hand slowly, crimson eyes fixed on the creature. Blood continued to weep from the cut on her cheek, but she didn't care.

  She attacked first this time, bringing her sword down in a powerful overhead arc. The creature sidestepped and thrust quickly. She barely parried. She attacked with raw power but no finesse, reckless with every swing. Her mind was elsewhere.

  The creature pressed the advantage. It moved with precision, exploiting every opening she gave it. A quick thrust forced her back. A low kick nearly swept her legs out from under her.

  Mirai fought hard—heavy blows, speed—but without skill, just violent flailing.

  Then she heard movement behind her.

  She spun around. More creatures emerged from the shadows, surrounding her on all sides. Six. Eight. Ten. They approached slowly, forming a tightening ring.

  She gripped her sword tighter, ready to fight them all.

  Then a new voice echoed through the room, calm and amused.

  "That's enough."

  Valdor appeared, his long cloak sweeping the floor. He raised one hand, fingers glowing with violet light, and spoke a single word in a tongue Mirai didn't understand.

  Her body froze. Every muscle locked in place. She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. The sword slipped from her stiff fingers and clattered to the floor with a metallic ring.

  Valdor approached, stopping a few paces away. He looked her up and down with interest, a faint smile playing on his lips.

  "You pass," he said simply, looking at the shattered crystals. "Raw power, but dangerous intelligence." Two of the creatures moved forward and grabbed her arms. She couldn't resist. Her body remained rigid as stone.

  Valdor turned and walked toward the corridor. He spoke over his shoulder. "Cage her. She survived the test. Now we begin the breaking process."

  The creatures dragged Mirai through the narrow passages. The green light of the crystals faded, replaced by total darkness. Finally, they reached a heavy iron door. One of them shoved it open with the shriek of rusted metal.

  They threw her inside.

  Mirai hit the floor hard. The spell broke the moment she crossed the threshold. She gasped as sensation flooded back into her muscles. She pushed herself up slowly, ribs aching.

  The door slammed shut behind her. The lock clicked.

  She was alone.

  The cell was small. Stone walls on every side. No windows. No light save for a faint strip beneath the door. She sat with her back against the wall, hand rising once more to touch the cut on her cheek. The bleeding had stopped, but the wound remained open.

  She let her hand drop.

  She stared at the opposite wall in silence. Her crimson eyes dimmed, fading back to their natural color.

  She sat there, motionless, waiting.

  (To be continued)