The creature was alive again. And they were trapped in a sealed chamber with it.
"HELL!" Sevran shouted, stumbling back with wide eyes.
Gaudia's eyes widened too. She didn't scream, didn't curse, or move. She sat frozen with teeth clenched, fear locked tight behind her stare.
She was already used to locking her fear deep inside, forcing it down until nothing showed on the surface.
Dominic barely had time to process it.
The Spiderhorse moved toward him.
Its head snapped forward with terrifying speed, jaws yawning wide. Rows of jagged teeth swept toward Dominic.
Dominic didn't freeze. This wasn't his first brush with death.
He twisted and rolled to the side on instinct. But it was too slow.
Pain exploded up his leg as teeth scraped across his thigh. Blood sprayed across the stone floor.
"Argh!" Dominic grunted as he hit the ground.
Felix moved a moment later.
Shock had caught him too. Just for a second. But that second was enough to cause problems.
His expression hardened instantly, activating his Signature. Sigils flared to life on the back of his right palm, bursting into a sharp blue glow as cold mist spilled out around his hand.
The air dropped to killing cold.
Ice surged over the Spiderhorse in a blink of an eye, crawling across its legs, torso, and snapping jaws.
The creature froze in the middle of its lunge toward Dominic, encased completely in thick crystalline frost before it could reach Dominic.
The shriek cut off.
Silence crashed down over the chamber. Only Dominic's breathing and the faint crackle of settling ice remained.
"What in the damnation was that?!" Sevran shouted, scrambling to his feet. He spun on Felix, fury and fear twisting together. "What the hell just happened?!"
Felix stared at the frozen creature, his jaw tight.
"I don't know," he said honestly. "This thing has been dead for a day."
"Like hell you don't!" Sevran snapped. "You almost got us killed!"
Felix closed his eyes briefly and exhaled. "I know. I'm sorry."
Gaudia finally let out the breath she'd been holding. It left her in a slow, shaky release. Fear was something she always swallowed whole. She never lets it spill out. But that moment was too shocking, it had nearly broken through.
Dominic pushed himself up.
Blood soaked his pants but the pain was dull, distant. He'd felt far worse.
In his hand was the dark stone-like object, slick with blood. It wasn't warm anymore.
Dominic frowned at it.
"Dominic," Sevran said, rushing over. "You're bleeding."
"I'm fine," Dominic replied, straightening. "This is just a scratch."
His gaze lifted to Felix. "What happened?"
Felix looked at the frozen Spiderhorse.
"As I said," Felix replied slowly, "I don't know." Then his eyes dropped to the object in Dominic's hand. "But the moment you grabbed that stone, the corpse reactivated."
Dominic caught the look. A suspicion passed through his chest. Was this really because of him?
"What does that mean?" Sevran demanded.
Felix sighed and shook his head.
"I'm not sure. Not yet." He reached into his satchel. "First we need to heal his leg."
He pulled out a small vial filled with shimmering blue liquid and handed it to Dominic. "Drink this."
Dominic didn't hesitate.
The liquid was cold and sharp going down. A moment later, a soothing chill spread through his leg. The torn flesh knit itself together, skin closing as if it had never been cut.
The bleeding stopped.
Felix straightened and looked at the frozen Spiderhorse, then back at the stone in Dominic's hand.
"This just got a lot more interesting," he thought. "For now let's go back to my office."
They exited the chamber in silence. The moment Felix sealed the door behind them, the frozen Spiderhorse collapsed. Ice cracked, then shattered.
The creature crumbled into lifeless fragments that scattered across the floor, leaving nothing behind but frost and dark stains.
Felix didn't look back. He turned and led them down a different passage.
Dominic noticed it immediately. The angles felt wrong. The turns didn't match the path they had taken earlier.
But neither he, Sevran, nor Gaudia knew the Labyrinth well enough to question it. They followed because there was nothing else to do.
The corridor stretched long and narrow with ether lamps casting light against grey stone walls etched with unfamiliar markings.
"I don't like this," Sevran whispered, eyes fixed on Felix's back. His voice stayed low and tight with unease. "Why did he bring students like us down here? We're not supposed to be in this place. Even for a punishment this is not right."
"You looked excited before," Gaudia replied evenly, her gaze forward.
"That was before a dead monster came back to life and tried to bite Dominic in half," Sevran shot back. He swallowed. "I don't think we should get involved with this man. Not any further."
Dominic stayed quiet.
He understood Sevran's fear. It made sense. This place was dangerous. Felix was dangerous too, in a way that didn't scream threat but still felt sharp around the edges, despite his usual smiles and laughter.
But Dominic couldn't bring himself to agree.
What had happened back there hadn't driven him away. It had pulled him in.
Curiosity burned in his chest. That stone… the way it became warmer and how the corpse reacted, and how Felix's interest in his Bloodmark from the very beginning. If his power truly caused something like that, then he needed answers.
Besides, Felix had already offered him a job. So getting closer to Felix was inevitable.
For now, Dominic kept that to himself.
Gaudia nodded once and said. "I agree."
Sevran glanced at her with relief on his face. "Good. After we finish this punishment, we keep our distance from him." He looked at Dominic. "Right?"
Dominic hesitated. Then he spoke.
"I think it's fine."
Both Sevran and Gaudia turned to him at once.
"You saw his power," Dominic continued. "If something bad happens, he can protect us. And we'll learn things faster than the others about the Labyrinth."
They stared at him like he had lost his mind. But they didn't argue any further.
Felix stopped in front of a black obsidian door like before. He placed his palm against it. The door parted to four sides with a low grind.
The door opened.
They stepped through and emerged into a wide corridor lined with polished stone. This wasn't the way they had entered.
Felix led them onward without explanation, his pace unhurried as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all.
They followed him in silence.
Moments later, Felix stopped in front of another door.
"This is my private office." Then Felix turned to look at them and smiled. "We're in this together now. That stone thingy, could be some dangerous relics left by an Archetype."
The trio looked at him with a dumbfounded expression.
—