They sat there for a while.
No one said anything.
Which was kind of her thing. But Nathan hated it.
His knee bounced without permission. His hands kept fidgeting like they wanted to hold something, fix something, break something.
But there was nothing.
Just stone steps. Distant voices from some dorm hallway he wasn't in the mood to care about. And Elara, silent as always, like she could outwait the storm.
He finally looked at her again.
Still calm. Still unreadable.
"El," he said quietly. "I'm not going to stop asking."
But her posture shifted slightly. Less closed off. More… resigned.
She didn't look at him when she spoke.
"Below the courtyard."
"That's where he went."
Nathan's mouth opened.
'Below? The courtyard has a below? Since when?'
She continued, voice level.
"There's something under the garden. Something he noticed earlier. I did too."
"And you didn't think to tell me?"
"I didn't think he'd go alone."
Nathan laughed once, bitter. "Have you met him?"
He stood up, ran both hands through his hair.
'So that's it. He left. Crawled… underground into who-knows-what while we were trying to get sleep like idiots.'
Nathan stared at the far wall, heart beating faster now.
'He's probably halfway to hell by now. And I let it happen.'
He turned back to her.
"You knew something was wrong earlier."
"And you said nothing."
"I couldn't stop him."
Elara looked at him then.
Nathan didn't speak after that.
He just stared at her.
Then down the hallway again.
His brain kept buzzing. All noise, no solutions.
'Okay. He's underground. Great. Where? How deep? Is there a door? A stairwell? A hole? Do I just start digging?'
He sat back down, too fast, back hitting the railing harder than he meant.
"Why does he do this?"
"I'm serious," he said. "Why is it always him? Why does he always go alone? Why does he think that's somehow better?"
Not at anything really.
"Because he doesn't think he has time to wait for anyone else."
Nathan let the words sit there.
He hated how much sense they made.
'He thinks we'll slow him down. He thinks he's the only one who can stop things. He thinks if he screws up, we're the ones who'll pay for it. And somewhere in that brilliant, messed-up head of his, he decided that meant we're better off not knowing until it's over.'
This time with purpose.
"Do you know how to follow him?"
"But you know where it starts."
His hands stopped shaking.
Not because the fear was gone.
But because now he had direction.
Seraphina had fallen asleep.
Just the kind where your body gives up before your mind can argue.
She was still sitting upright, back against the wall, head tilted slightly toward the corridor. Even unconscious, she was watching the exit.
Merlin sat across from her, blade resting flat against his thigh.
The system was running too clean for that.
[NERVOUS LINK: STABILIZED]
[ lMANA RESONANCE: INACTIVE — THRESHOLD LOCKED]
[USER CONDITION: BALANCED]
He rolled his wrist once. The motion was sharp now. No drag. No delay.
'Good. I'll need that.'
The fight had been easy. Too easy. Two spiders, drone class. He didn't even break a sweat.
That wasn't the part that bothered him.
The hallway he'd come through, was twenty meters shorter than it should've been.
The stones weren't repeating the right pattern anymore.
'The labyrinth's shifting.'
He leaned his head back against the stone. Let his fingers tap the edge of his knee once, twice, quiet rhythm to keep his thoughts straight.
'Domain's entered stage two. That means active rearrangement. Which means—'
His eyes flicked to Seraphina.
Still breathing steady. Her leg was braced. Bandages holding.
But she'd used up her calm.
The way her voice cracked when she said his name. The way she didn't even try to act cold. No sarcasm. No side comments. Just, relief.
It had surprised him more than it should've.
He didn't expect people to be happy when they saw him.
Not like he was safety.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose once.
He stood slowly. Moved toward the corridor entrance.
The air had changed again.
Like the stone was sinking, inch by inch, beneath something they couldn't see yet.
He reached into his coat. Pulled the folded map he'd drawn earlier. Useless now.
Because thinking mattered. Even if the walls cheated.
[WARNING: DOMAIN SHIFT DETECTED]
[PATH RETRACE — NOT POSSIBLE]
[SUGGESTED ACTION: FORWARD MOVEMENT ONLY]
'That's how it's going to be, huh.'
He looked over his shoulder.
'She can't stay here.'
Not with the shift happening.
The drones were only scouts. The real problem came after.
He'd read the chapter.
Two shifts in. One reorganization. Then the nest.
He tucked the blade away.
Stepped over quietly.
"Seraphina," he said, voice low.
She blinked awake instantly.
She looked up at him, confused for half a second. Then focused.
"Time to move," he said.
She nodded. Didn't argue.
Just braced her hands against the floor and let him help her up.
Her leg shook slightly.
He let her lean on him without comment.
And together, they stepped into the moving labyrinth.
One hallway at a time.
The corridors weren't the same.
They curved tighter now. Angled wrong. Some steps sloped downward without any clear decline.
The labyrinth was active.
He could feel it under his boots.
Alive, not just in structure but in timing. Watching them. Rearranging.
Seraphina leaned against him with careful weight, limping but steady. She hadn't spoken since they left the alcove. She didn't need to. Her silence said enough.
They turned another corner.
The hallway was wider here. Almost circular. Like a broken wheel, hollowed out.
There was something in the center.
Merlin saw the shape before he registered the rest.
Slumped. Still. Face turned away.
His stomach didn't turn. It just sank.
The one from earlier.
The one the system flagged but couldn't confirm.
Seraphina stopped beside him. Her breath caught, just slightly.
The girl was young. First-year, maybe. Her uniform jacket was torn, one sleeve missing. Her head leaned back against the wall like she'd been sitting, or trying to.
A line of black-green fluid had dried near her mouth.
Merlin crouched slowly.
No visible wounds. No blood. No obvious trauma.
But he'd seen this kind of death before.
[USER OBSERVATION CONFIRMED]
[SUBJECT: STUDENT — ID MATCH FOUND]
[CAUSE OF DEATH: SYSTEMIC MANA COLLAPSE]
[TIME OF DEATH: APPROX. 2.1 HOURS AGO]
'The system actually provides new info now..kind of useful.'
He read the system message, then let it fade.
"She's dead," he said quietly.
Seraphina didn't respond.
She just looked at the girl's face. Not crying. Not frozen.
Like she wanted to memorize it.
But her grip on his coat tightened.
Merlin didn't say anything else.
There was nothing to say.
They left the body where it was.
Because there was no bringing her back.
And the deeper they went, the more Merlin knew—
this was only the first one they'd see.
The first thing he noticed was the smell.
Old, damp, and stale. Like air that hadn't moved in years. Maybe longer.
Nathan stepped forward, one hand brushing the wall. Rough texture. Uneven brick. The corridor sloped gently down with no end in sight.
Elara moved behind him, silent as ever.
Neither of them spoke.
He'd spent the last few hours convincing himself something was wrong.
Now he didn't need convincing.
The moment they passed through the vine-covered threshold, it felt like the world had sealed shut behind them.
Like the Academy was gone.
And they'd stepped into something older.
The kind of place that didn't care who you were, only if you were smart enough to get out.
He took another step.
The torchlight from above had long faded. Only a dim green glow lit the walls now, coming from somewhere he couldn't name.
He hated that most of all.
'I'm walking through a hallway that wasn't here yesterday, and I'm supposed to just… guess what's next?'
His fingers hovered near the hilt of his dagger.
The walls narrowed ahead. The floor dipped slightly. A bend turned sharp and fast.
"Stop," he said softly.
Elara froze behind him.
He crouched. Brushed his hand across the floor.
White. Thin. Scattered in uneven trails.
He lifted his fingers to his nose.
He stood again, eyes sweeping the walls.
But the hallway felt watched.
Didn't say what it was.
'Something's waiting.'
He took a slow breath.
'He's down here somewhere. Merlin. I know it.'