The walk through the spire was a march into the throat of a beast. The walls were not stone here; they were a dark, polished obsidian that reflected the party like ghosts. The mana density was so high it tasted like copper on the tongue.
Haruki kept his pace steady. Behind him, his friends dangled in the air, suspended by invisible strings. Wick was limp. Fen was muttering prayers to a goddess he didn't believe in. Sable was feigning unconsciousness, her eyes slitted, watching for an opening that wouldn't come.
Haruki needed an opening. He needed a miracle.
"Sol. Rax," he thought, projecting his internal voice with desperate clarity. "Be honest. Is there a way to defeat Rico?"
The silence was heavy.
"Well," Rax said, his voice returning to its usual, inappropriate levity. "If you ask me, things can get messy. We could always just... bomb the whole place down. I mean, you have a nuke in your left hand, buddy. Just touch the floor and yell 'Surprise!' We go out in a blaze of glory, he goes back to the Stone Age, everyone wins. Except us. We die."
"Rax," Sol said, his tone sharp. "Haruki, look. We are Systems. We cannot do anything physically. We cannot manifest a body to punch him. We cannot cast spells independent of you. We are the engine; you are the car. We can protect you, we can amplify you, but we cannot act for you."
Haruki's mind raced. A car. An engine. He needed a weapon. Not a sword. Swords didn't work on Great Demons. He needed something with impact. Something he could control.
"Have you both seen *Resident Evil: Requiem*?" Haruki asked.
A confused pause.
"What?" Sol asked.
"That wasn't in your archive," Rax noted. "We have access to your memory banks, but that title... is that a movie? A game? Your grandmother's stories?"
"It's nothing," Haruki thought, dismissing the confusion. "Just... I'm pitching an idea. A concept."
He visualized it in his mind. The silver-and-black finish. The weight. The revolving chambers. The raw, unstoppable power of the hand-cannon from that old movie franchise. A gun that fired rounds capable of decapitating tyrants.
"I want you to make a gun for me," Haruki said. "Like that *Requiem* weapon. A gun of immense power."
"We can manufacture items," Sol said cautiously. "Using the matter conversion matrix we unlocked in the Archives. But Haruki, we don't have the blueprints for a 'Requiem' gun. We don't know the mechanics of the chamber, the trigger assembly, or the—"
"I don't need the exact mechanics," Haruki interrupted. "I need the function. A vessel. I want to fire mana—pure fire elements—directly at Rico. Not as a spell, but as a kinetic projectile."
"To create an illusion?" Rax asked, confused.
"No," Haruki said. "To trap him. We have to trap him here at any cost. If we can stun him, or overload his senses for even a second, I can use the dungeon's architecture against him. I need a delivery system. Can you do it?"
Sol hummed, processing. "Constructing a magical firearm... It is possible. We have the raw materials—the power stones in your pocket, the metal from the dungeon walls. We can use the SSS+ skill as the propellant. It would be... volatile. It might blow your arm off."
"Better than losing my head," Haruki thought.
"We understand the commands," Rax said, serious now. "But we're going to have to improvise the design. It won't look like your movie prop, kid. It's going to look like a monster."
"Make it a monster, then," Haruki replied.
Maren stumbled through the mist.
Her left arm was gone. The pain had faded into a dull, throbbing absence, replaced by a cold light-headedness. She clutched the Stone of Disguise in her remaining hand, her knuckles white.
She reached the threshold of the second floor. The exit was close. She could feel the fresh air of the upper levels calling to her.
"Just a little more," she whispered, her voice cracked. "For Cas. For everyone."
*THOOM.*
The ground shuddered.
Maren froze.
*THOOM.*
It wasn't footsteps. It was the earth itself convulsing.
Ahead of her, the wide corridor leading to the first floor stairs began to crack. Dust rained from the ceiling.
*THOOM.*
The floor exploded upward.
Maren was thrown back, skidding across the stone. She scrambled up, blinking through the dust.
"What the fuck?" she breathed.
A shape rose from the pit. It was colossal. A titan of stone and moss, its joints grinding with the sound of tectonic plates shifting. A Colossal Golem. An Ancient Guardian. It shouldn't have been on floor two. It was a floor-ten guardian at minimum.
It turned its head, a featureless boulder with two burning slits for eyes. It looked directly at her.
Then, it spoke. Its voice was the grinding of mountains.
Maren stared up at it, her one hand trembling. It was a wall. A wall of death.
The dungeon shook violently. The obsidian walls vibrated.
Haruki felt the tremor through his boots. He stopped walking.
Rico stopped too. He looked annoyed.
"What was that?" Haruki asked, keeping his voice level.
Rico sighed, waving a hand dismissively. "Oh, nothing. It's just a farewell party for your friend."
Haruki's blood ran cold.
"Farewell... party?"
"The Golem," Rico said, picking at his fingernails. "I gave it a little nudge while we were walking. Told it there was a rat trying to escape through the sewers. It seems it found her."
He smiled at Haruki, his eyes glittering with malice.
"She cut off her own arm to escape. How heroic. It would be a shame if she died to a pile of rocks five minutes later, wouldn't it?"
Haruki stared at him.
The image of Maren—bleeding, one-armed, running for help—flashed in his mind. And now, facing a Colossal Golem alone.
For the first time since he had knelt to cut Maren's hand, Haruki felt it again.
Terror.
Pure, unadulterated terror. Not for himself. For her.
He had failed to protect Cas. He was failing to protect Maren.
"Ah," Rico said, watching Haruki's face. "There it is. The fear. You humans are so fragile."
He turned back to the path.
"Come along, Haruki Sora. Dad hates to be kept waiting."
Haruki stood frozen for a heartbeat. The gun. He needed the gun.
*Sol, Rax,* he screamed internally. *Do you have it?*
"Construction complete," Sol said, his voice grim. "We are manifesting it into your dimensional storage now. But Haruki... if you use this, you're gambling everything."
Haruki looked at the backs of his friends. He looked at Rico's smiling face.
He had nothing left to gamble with.
"Give it to me," Haruki said.
And deep in the dungeon, the Golem raised its fist to crush Maren.
TO BE CONTINUED...