Lily hesitated for a second before shaking her head. “No, you’re right, it’s definitely much less intense than when we arrived.” She slowly stretched her left forelimb forward, wondering if she would feel the usual wave of warmth it emitted, then sighed. “It’s getting colder…”

  “But what does that mean?” Nari asked frantically, shifting her sights between the little spider and the doorway. “What if it fades away completely? What then?!” Her breathing became increasingly heavier by the second.

  “I have no clue, but we'd better get moving, cause I don’t wanna find out,” the spider replied, no hesitation in her voice whatsoever.

  No matter what awaited them behind that entrance, it would be better than being stuck there anyway, because if they were going to die, it would be by fighting. At least that’s what Lily subconsciously tried to convince herself to believe was the better option.

  “Y-yeah, right…” The girl tried to remain hopeful, imagining herself walking through the portal and getting out alive. But something inside of her was slowly growing wary, even more so after the dungeon was basically forcing them to make a choice between staying—which meant certain death—and advancing.

  “I’ll go first, just in case.” Lily immediately took the lead, being the most durable between the two.

  Nari just nodded in agreement and promptly followed closely behind the spider.

  Though the light and warmth had both faded from how intense they were a couple of hours prior, the result was still the same: as the girls stepped inside, it brought them to another room, a much, much bigger one.

  The biggest yet, and somehow, it wasn’t as dark as it should have been, considering that there weren’t really many strong light sources other than one small focal point up ahead.

  “Whoa, I still can’t believe my eyes,” Lily mumbled under her breath, scouting the area for clues, traps, and all the things in between, “dungeons really are incredible…” The sight almost left her breathless.

  The room—and calling it that was definitely redundant—had a much higher ceiling than any cave Lily had seen; it was so tall that the closest thing she could compare it to was being inside a hollow skyscraper.

  “Look!!!” Nari gasped, pointing directly ahead, and there it was, a swirly, orange-colored portal, right on the opposite side of them, demanding attention in the middle of the dimly lit space. “Let’s g—”

  But before the human girl could take any step forward, the spider promptly pulled her back. “Wait and think…” she whispered. “Wouldn’t it be too easy?”

  Nari pursed her lips and crossed her hands. “No?! It hasn’t been easy at all until now; maybe it’s just another safe room! You said it yourself, you’re not sure they switch between dangerous and safe each time…” Her voice slowly got thinner as she spoke, almost cracking by the end.

  Having brought the innocent girl with her, Lily felt at fault for the whole situation and increasingly responsible for her life. “We’ll proceed slowly and carefully, as usual,” she said, “no reason to risk it right at the end.”

  “I’m sorry… you’re completely right.” Nari took a deep breath, then exhaled. “I don’t know why, but when I thought about being stuck here forever, I panicked,” she admitted, hugging herself as she spoke, shivering from a chill that ran down her spine.

  After giving the girl a chance to calm down, Lily retook the lead and moved a couple of steps ahead, ready to react if anything happened, gaining more hope as they got closer to the swirling, bright portal.

  With each step, both their smiles grew wider, so much so that Nari even let out a faint giggle the moment they stood only a couple of meters away from what they believed to be their ticket to escaping.

  “See? We just had to stay positive! Luck is on our—”

  “WATCH OUT!!!” Just as the human was about to reach for the light, Lily abruptly pulled her back.

  “What the—” A wall of flame suddenly burst up from the ground and engulfed the swirl, “hell…” Nari’s heart almost skipped a beat.

  I knew I remembered those writings, Lily mused, thinking back to when the basilisk had trapped her with a Flame Prison.

  But the surprises didn’t end there; the flame walls were only the beginning.

  “W-what’s going on?” Nari muttered under her breath, chattering her teeth.

  All around them, gigantic white marble pillars slowly materialized from thin air, rising from their bases to their tops. Then the walls, the stairs, and even seating appeared, filling the eerily empty room and turning it into something akin to an open arena, with the girls right in the middle of it.

  “This doesn’t bode well…” Lily mumbled under her breath.

  From the ceiling, streams of light pointed directly to the center of the arena, like magic, illuminating the plateau that had just materialized before their eyes.

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  “It really doesn’t…” the spider underlined, taking a deep breath. What a strange sensation. It feels like someone’s watching us, Lily thought.

  “I can barely see a thing; these lights are blinding,” Nari muttered, covering her eyes as she spoke, only peeking through ever so slightly while waiting for her vision to adjust. “Look there…”

  Lily bit her lip, carefully looking toward Nari’s target. “Statues, tall marble statues… like a combination of humanoid and monsters with wings?” she said. Wait, they kinda look similar to gargoyles from movies, she thought to herself. “Back in my world—”

  “Gargoyles,” the girl spoke up, having slightly adjusted to the powerful lights. “Sorry… you were saying?”

  Lily shook her head, nudging the girl not to worry, but instead focus on the problem at hand.

  Each statue had a different weapon: one used a gigantic bow, one a massive axe, one brandished a sword and shield, while the last had the most peculiar of all—some kind of tome.

  The marble humanoids stood in a square formation, one per corner, surrounding the girls, and the portal—namely the only possible escape, since the doorway they came from had completely disappeared into thin air—was still encased in a perpetual flame wall, a pretty powerful spell from the amount of mana it emanated.

  One after another, the humanoid constructs began twitching, from the tip of their fingers to their feet, then their heads all turned in unison toward Nari. “That’s creepy as hell,” Lily replied, getting into a fighting position.

  Nari gulped loudly. “There are four of them,” she mumbled under her breath, promptly summoning one of the tiny spheres she had used against the shadowy monsters.

  “Yup, we’re in a bit of a disadvantaged position,” Lily replied, her sights set on the enemy ahead of her, equipped with the tome. “Think you can hold two of them for a bit?” She knew that every second counted, and one hesitant nod from Nari was enough for the spider’s forelimbs to begin glowing. “Armament,” she echoed, then turned toward her friend before initiating the fight. “Please don’t die…”

  With all of the strength she had, Lily launched herself forward, moving so fast that to an untrained eye it looked as if she had appeared on top of one of the statues, slamming it into the ground before it could even react to her ambush. Much to her surprise, that one attack was enough to cause cracks in the gargoyle’s marble body.

  On the opposite side of the arena, the human girl threw one of the tiny spheres right onto the closest enemy—the one with the bow—causing a powerful explosion on impact, strong enough to distract even the spider for a moment.

  “That girl’s full of tricks, huh?” Lily mumbled to herself as she trapped the statue she had just knocked down, pinning it to the ground with her webs. “You be good and wait here while I deal with your friends,” she giggled, glancing again toward her friend before moving on to the next approaching target, who had opted to rush toward Nari instead of the spider, maybe realizing the girl was a much easier target to eliminate.

  But that’s just what Lily thought.

  But before the marble enemy could attempt anything, Lily intercepted its movement and clashed with it, leveraging her empowered fore limbs to counterattack the monster’s gigantic two-handed axe, causing a powerful shock wave on impact. This one’s more resistant, the spider thought, noticing that the weapon wasn’t cracking under pressure.

  In that exact moment, Nari readied to throw another exploding sphere at the already knocked-down statue, aiming to knock the bow out of its hands. Still, she had to quickly shift her focus to the other enemy as its resounding steps were quickly closing in on her, forcing her to attack it instead.

  Unluckily, while the bomb had been effective against the bow user, it didn’t even tickle the statue’s shield, causing the human to take a couple of steps back. “Shit…” she mumbled under her breath, glancing toward the spider, who was still busy clashing with the axe-wielding monster. “Well damn.” She crunched her fingers, ready to fight, knowing she could only count on herself in that moment.

  The statue with the shield kept inching closer at a steady pace, so calmly that it almost didn’t seem as if it were looking for a fight, yet its one-handed sword was ready to strike.

  “Hold,” Nari chanted, enveloping the enemy with purple chains, halting its movements on the spot. “Yes! It’s work—” Before she could finish her sentence, the enemy’s sword began absorbing her spell like a sponge, causing it to start glowing with the same purple hue, leaving the girl flabbergasted, forcing her to add more mana to keep the spell active. “Just a bit longer…” she muttered, taking a peek at Lily’s fight.

  That axe is way too strong, the spider thought as she jumped behind the statue, trying to ambush it from behind. “Silk Web!” she echoed, seemingly aiming for the gargoyle’s hands, to no avail, as it easily managed to evade the skill, readying its axe for a counterattack. “You’re kinda fast,” she giggled, “but not that smart.”

  Lily wasn’t aiming for the monster but for one of the massive marble columns right behind it. As soon as her webs stuck to the column, she dug her pointy legs into the ground and pulled with all her strength, uprooting it from the base and sending it flying back at them.

  The statue was fast enough to turn around and slash through the marble material, but in doing so, it left its back completely unguarded, and in the blink of an eye, Lily jumped right behind it. “That’s it.” With her glowing, empowered limbs, she slashed right through its head, breaking it into tiny pieces, causing it to turn into dust.

  The gargoyle immediately froze on the spot as deep cracks spread all over its body, and even onto the gigantic axe, but it was determined to keep fighting. The dust began to collect around its neck, and slowly its head began to reform.

  “Don’t even think about it!” Lily exclaimed as she launched another attack, aiming for the middle of the statue’s chest, right into the most significant crack. Since its head hadn’t fully reformed yet, the marble humanoid couldn’t stop the spider. This time, its whole body was shattered into pieces and finally crumbled into dust. “One down, three to go.”

  Knowing she had no time to spare, the spider promptly turned toward her friend, ready to aid her, but her heart skipped a beat the moment she laid eyes on her.

  The human girl, who had managed to knock down the bow-wielding statue, stood immobile, her body trapped by purple-glowing chains, as if the statue had reversed the effect of her own spell right back at her.

  In the shock of the moment, the spider’s mind drew a blank, and she helplessly watched the statue raise its one-handed sword. Lily rushed toward them as fast as she could, but she was late by just a second, enough for the monster to swing at Nari.

  Before Lily could attempt anything, the gargoyle struck the golden-haired girl across the waist, its blade slicing through her like butter and echoing across the massive arena.