"It's here," I said, voice flat.
After turning a hundred thousand rats into my personal surveillance swarm (sorry Aldi, your bucket of thirty sewer rats was cute but useless), I'd finally pinned the distortion down.
Controlling that many living cameras at once should have turned a normal mage's brain into soup, but Parallel Processing plus Accelerated Thought let me pull it off.
My head still throbbed like someone had taken a hammer to it, though. Never again.
We stood in front of what looked like any other abandoned house in the middle of a quiet residential street.
Eve frowned. "It's just… a normal building. I don't sense anything."
Aldi scratched his head. "Same. No magic at all."
"Look closer," I said, pointing at the front door. "The space around it is warped, just a little."
Aldi squinted, then his eyes widened.
"…You're right. How did you even notice that?"
He muttered something about wanting to dissect my magic circuits. Hard pass.
"It's a transfer-type Other World," I explained. "I sent a scout rat through earlier. One second it was here, the next it was in a pitch-black cave system crawling with monsters. Classic labyrinth dungeon."
Eve grimaced. "Maze layout?"
"Worst kind. Twisting corridors, dead ends, the works."
Both of them made the same disgusted face. Maze dungeons are everyone's least favorite homework.
"But I already have the route memorized from the rats," I continued. "Straight shot to the students. No problem."
Aldi immediately reached for the door.
"Then let's—"
I grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back.
"I'm going alone. You two stay here and guard the entrance. More people getting sucked in just makes my job harder."
Aldi opened his mouth to protest (something about responsibility, blah blah), so I cut him off.
"No. Final answer. Stay."
He deflated like a sad balloon and nodded.
Then Eve grabbed the hem of my cloak.
"I'm coming too."
I stared at her.
"I'm tired of repeating myself. Stay."
"I'm coming," she said again, quieter but immovable.
Her knuckles were white around her white-mage staff.
I released a pulse of raw magical pressure (enough to make the air itself tremble).
Any normal person would've dropped to their knees.
Eve didn't even blink.
I tried one last time.
"The caster who built this place is strong. Stronger than most professors here. Your recovery magic won't—"
"If I become a burden, leave me behind," she cut in. "But I'm going."
Something in her eyes was different (sharp, almost desperate).
I didn't have time to play therapist, so I gave up.
"Fine. Don't leave my side. Aldi, you're on guard duty."
Aldi saluted with zero enthusiasm.
Eve and I stepped through the warped door.
Forty minutes later (thanks to perfect rat-guided directions), we reached the final stretch.
A wall of writhing black smoke blocked the corridor ahead.
"Last chance," I told her quietly. "Once we cross that, no outside magic works. No escape portal, no emergency teleport. My scout rats can't even come back out."
Eve gripped her staff tighter and nodded once.
"Don't regret it," I muttered, then pressed my hand into the smoke.
The darkness parted like theater curtains.
And the curtains revealed hell.
Eve made a tiny, broken sound and dropped to her knees, one hand clamped over her mouth.
Rows of bodies (our missing students) lay neatly on the stone floor.
Every single chest had been carved open, ribs spread like obscene flowers.
Empty cavities stared up at the ceiling where hearts used to be.
None were still breathing, All lay motionless As even the light feded from their eyes.
Eve's shoulders shook.
Tears hit the ground before she could stop them.
I looked away from her and stared at the carnage, jaw clenched so tight it hurt.
This was why I told her not to come.