It was cold—so cold that Yelena shivered, clutching her bow tightly as she moved forward. Only darkness lay ahead, endless and pitch-black, swallowing everything around her.
Not even her footsteps echoed.
"Lumine... are you there...?" she whispered, her voice barely breaking the silence.
She didn't dare speak louder, as if fearing something would answer.
The thought clawed its way through her mind, almost too close to voice. Alone, in the silence and dark, she longed for the sound of gods clashing, winds howling, or even screams. Any chaos would be better than this.
'We should never have come here...'
Regret gnawed at her, pulling her mind back to Prince Azriel's invitation, the one that had lured her into this forsaken realm. She'd thought herself ready, but standing here now, Yelena knew the truth: she wasn't. None of them were. Not her, not Lumine. Maybe no one was.
The Crimson King himself was somewhere in this place. Why would one of the Four Great Kings be here at all? It should have been a warning, but greed and ambition had blinded her to the danger.
'I need to find Lumine and get out...'
Jasmine had mentioned that the Crimson King's presence was the only safety here. She didn't want to believe it, yet with each passing second, the weight of her isolation pressed down harder.
Blinking, she found herself somewhere else—a narrow passage wide enough for three people. Gray stone walls lined the hall, worn and endless, with other shadowed paths veering off occasionally into darkness.
It was just her luck. Like punishment for her ignorance, for thinking the void dungeon had been "easy" when she'd reached the Dark King's room on the first floor.
This time, there'd be no mercy.
Everything felt wrong. Her skin prickled with dread as silence smothered her senses. Her [instinct] screamed, an inaudible alarm. She tightened her grip on her bow and began moving, each step echoing like the tolling of a bell.
'Why is it so silent?!'
Where was everyone—Lumine, Azriel, Jasmine, Amaya, Nol? Even that Cole, whose suspicious glances made her skin crawl, would be better than this hollow emptiness.
'How did we get separated...?'
No answer came. Only a stifling, oppressive silence as she walked onward.
Then, a sound. She froze, looking down a corridor to her left. A scream echoed faintly.
'In every horror story, whoever follows the scream... dies!'
Footsteps, soft and dragging, echoed toward her from the shadows. Her heart pounded as a figure emerged—a woman clad in a crimson military uniform, limping, clutching her blood-soaked ear. A weak, cold relief washed over Yelena.
"Help! Get it off me! Please! It's... inside me!"
The woman's voice cracked as she staggered forward, her face twisted in pain and horror, eyes wild and drenched with tears.
Yelena's blood ran cold.
'V-void worms... even here?'
She raised her bow, the green light of an ethereal arrow forming as she aimed it at the woman.
"Don't come any closer! I'll shoot!" she shouted.
The woman's desperation grew, her voice choked with sobs.
"Please... please, it hurts! Get it out!"
Her hands pressed hard against her bleeding ear, a futile attempt to stop whatever was burrowing deeper.
Yelena's hands trembled, the arrow wavering as she aimed. She knew what needed to be done. But killing her... Yelena's heart hammered. She'd never killed before, never had to choose between mercy and survival.
"IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!"
The woman looked up, meeting Yelena's gaze, eyes bloodshot and brimming with agony. She took a step forward.
A blade speared through the woman's skull with deadly precision, black as shadow, piercing her brain. The tip gleamed, pinning a wriggling void worm before it fell still. As the woman's body slumped to the ground, dead and motionless, Yelena's gaze rose.
"Well... guess becoming a Grade 1 Intermediate isn't as hard as I thought."
Azriel stood there, pulling his sword back, exhaustion etched on his face, blood and dirt clinging to his clothes and skin. His eyes met hers, filled with weary familiarity.
Yelena felt an intense wave of relief wash over her.
"Yo, Yelena," Azriel muttered.
"Looks like fate's one cruel bitch, huh?"
Yelena didn't speak, only watched Azriel, who looked so pale and worn, as though he might collapse from exhaustion at any moment. Her eyes drifted to the corpse on the ground, blood pooling around it.
'He killed so easily…'
She shook her head slightly, berating herself.
'I should have been the one to kill… it was my fault he had to step in.'
Strangely, her [instinct] no longer screamed at her to stay cautious around him. Since that odd conversation, when Azriel had said that he somehow knew of her [unique skill], her instincts had stopped marking him as a threat. Though she kept her guard up—it wasn't in her nature to trust so easily—the absence of that warning eased some of her tension.
"We shouldn't stay here too long," Azriel said, pulling her out of her thoughts as his gaze swept the dark corridor warily.
"And stay alert. This place has void worms, too."
Yelena nodded slowly, noticing how tightly he gripped his katana.
"…Thank you," she murmured.
Azriel glanced at her, raising an eyebrow before offering a faint smile.
If he hadn't intervened, Yelena might have been forced to take a life for the first time. She knew that moment would come eventually, but… no. She wasn't certain she could have done it.
Stepping carefully around the corpse, she joined Azriel as they began moving through the passage, her eyes darting at every shadow and crevice in case another void worm wriggled into view. The silence grew too heavy, and Yelena eventually broke it.
"Can I ask you a question?"
Azriel glanced at her, nodding silently.
"What exactly happened? What was that creature Mira was fighting?"
Disappointment flickered across his face as he shook his head.
"I'm as clueless as you are. Maybe Amaya knows something about that creature, but all of this… no one could have predicted."
Yelena pressed her lips together at his words.
"So, we need to find her and get to the king…"
"Yeah. And my sister," he added, though his expression darkened.
"But I'm not sure Nol is with her, since we all got sent somewhere different."
A rare look of panic crossed his face, surprising Yelena.
"I'm sure Princess Jasmine will be fine, even if Cadet Nol isn't there."
Azriel sighed, glancing at her.
"Of course, I'm worried about my sister. One of the main reasons I came to the Void Realm was for her. But… I'm more worried about Nol. I'd hoped Jasmine would protect him, but if he's on his own… I don't know what might happen."
Yelena's surprise deepened. She hadn't expected him to be more concerned about Nol than Jasmine. Somehow, seeing this side of him, this quiet worry, struck her as oddly out of character.
After a few moments of silence, she took a deep breath, finally daring to ask the question that had plagued her since that moment.
"Can you answer me this… without dodging?"
Azriel stopped, turning to face her as she stood in front of him, looking up with unflinching resolve.
"How do you really know about my [unique skill]?"