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The air in the underground was so heavy it felt solid.
Every step echoed muffled, swallowed by the dense mana that gathered between the rocks.
Victor moved forward cautiously, his sharp gaze following the cracks that snaked across the walls — as if the earth itself were breathing.
Beside him, Niyx walked in silence — as close as always, yet somehow still distant.
There was something wrong in the way she moved.
No sound, no hesitation. It was as if the ground gave way before her feet even touched it.
Victor tried not to think about it.
Ever since he received the message through the communicator — that distorted voice reporting the source of the corruption and the spatial distortions — the weight of a mission that wasn't his had settled on his shoulders.
Niyx, on the other hand, reacted as if it were nothing more than a trivial nuisance.
"So it's him," she said flatly. "The source of the corruption."
Her pink eyes reflected the bluish glow of the roots, and for a moment, Victor had the impression she knew more than she let on.
Every remark she made about the enemy felt too precise — the creature's spatial domain, its layers of energy.
It was as if Niyx had seen this kind of anomaly before.
"His domain doesn't reach the surface," she had said without looking at him. "That's why Eldoria hasn't been swallowed yet. The upper layers of the soil are immutable."
Victor listened in silence, unsure if that made him feel safer or more afraid.
But fate rarely respects predictions.
A sound tore through the air — like glass cracking under pressure — and before either of them could react, something colossal fell from the ceiling.
The living mass hit the ground with enough force to shake the entire cavern.
Victor only had time to raise his arms instinctively, trying to absorb the impact.
The creature — a shapeless fusion of flesh and mana — crushed him against the ground, and then the world dissolved.
The floor vanished beneath their feet, melting into a hazy void, and in seconds, Victor, Niyx, and the thing were falling.
The underground wind roared in their ears.
The fall felt eternal.
'This might be a perfect opportunity to finish him off. But should I? I can't reveal my Unique Skill to Victor. It would ruin everything,' Niyx thought as she fell, the world seeming to move in slow motion.
As the wind howled around them, the world seemed to decelerate.
Victor drew his sword and slashed at the air, aiming at the creature plummeting alongside them, but the blade only ricocheted off the monster's thick, gray hide.
"Damn it!" he snarled, seeing the attack do nothing.
The ground was rushing toward them at alarming speed.
'It's immune to magic — or to any ability that uses mana. My Unique Skill could kill it instantly; it doesn't use mana at all.
But Victor hasn't used anything resembling a Unique Skill either… strange. Maybe his requires mana? I don't know, but either way, skills are just trump cards — revealing ours would be the same as handing over the entire game.'
She glanced at him for a brief second, watching him fight the fall, determined as ever.
'I just need to restrain the worm. Prevent it from manipulating space and escaping. For that, I'll use a simplified version of my Unique Skill.'
The ground was already too close. Every speck of dust seemed frozen in midair, every sound muted by the dread of the moment.
'The ground's coming fast… I need to activate it at the exact instant of impact. If I do, Victor won't notice a thing.'
Less than a second after her thought ended, mere centimeters from the floor, Niyx made a hand sign — an inverted temple — and in that instant, she activated the simplified version of her Unique Skill, enveloping the entire area around them so seamlessly that it was impossible for Victor to even sense it.
Dust rose, and silence was broken only by Victor's heavy breathing.
He quickly stood and ran toward her.
"Are you all right?" he asked, offering a hand.
Niyx blinked, surprised by the gesture, but smiled faintly.
"Yes, thank you. I protected myself from the impact with my mana."
In front of them, the worm convulsed grotesquely — as if something invisible were crushing it.
It was the effect of Niyx's Unique Skill.
The monster was trapped in an impossible space, sensing danger from every direction yet unable to react. Its mind screamed, its flesh trembled — like a rat cornered in an invisible trap.
However, Niyx wasn't using her skill's direct attacks. She wanted to keep it paralyzed, confused — but alive. That way, Victor wouldn't suspect a thing.
Using her skill this way, however, required strict rules — restrictions she herself had created.
For her Unique Skill to work properly, Niyx had to perform the hand sign, recite the chant, and speak the name of her ability aloud. But the simplified version was different — she only needed the hand sign, then to intertwine the index and middle fingers of her left hand. If that last rule was broken, her simplified version would vanish instantly.
'That should be enough to keep it from escaping. It'd be easier if I were alone, but I can't break character now. I still have one arm and two legs to fight with — using physical strength, I could easily kill the worm. But given the situation, I'll have to let Victor handle the fight while I focus on maintaining my ability. I'll stay back for now.'
"What's happening to it?" Victor asked.
"The impact must've shaken it up. This is your chance! If you kill it now, everything will be resolved!"
"How? Mana-based attacks don't work, and my physical strikes aren't strong enough to kill it with that tough hide."
Niyx could've killed it easily with her strength alone — she was already a mature metamorph, and her [Adaptation] ability had faced countless threats to make her this strong. So the idea that Victor simply lacked the power to kill the creature wasn't strange to her.
"There must be a weak spot somewhere. I'm sorry, I can't help much, so I'll try to assist from a distance."
"All right." Victor nodded. "I'll do my best."
Niyx only smiled faintly, stepping back a few paces.
She wasn't worried.
She knew that if he wasn't strong enough yet, [Adaptation] would handle the rest.
'Your body will learn. It will evolve. You will change.'
Her pink eyes gleamed softly, filled with an almost childlike curiosity.
'You'll become even stronger — that's good. I can't wait to fight you!' That was all Niyx was thinking as she stepped back.
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