Snow felt a sharp pain dug into her very heels. She screamed, but her voices were muffled as it was all in her mind. Her body convulsed, her mind started to become entrapped. Chains of energy strapped her body, tightening around her harder and harder to the point where she couldn’t even budge.

Even thinking was impossible as the only thing she could feel was constant excruciating pain. A ripping sound of soul and body could be felt, slowly but surely. Fear laced her heart, she knew at the rate that they were going her body would be destroyed and her soul trapped inside the ship for all eternity.

The magic around her fluctuated dangerously high, causing every mechanical function inside the room and quickly expanding out towards the central control.

“What’s going on?!” Larsen shouted with anger, but worry and fear could be felt in his voice. “I thought this would be done quickly like last time.”

“We told you it was a bad idea.” The scientists started to whine and even run around like a headless chicken, trying to figure out a way to stop this chaos from happening.

“You never said that it would destroy the ship.”

“We did!” One of the scientists snapped, “you wouldn’t listen.”

Larsen was irked by the scientist's outrage, he came over and punched one in the guts, furious that things weren’t going his way.

With a painful grunt, the scientist kneeled over, unable to stand up.

“Fix it.”

A moan escaped the scientist's lips, leaving Larsen with disgruntled anger.

Suddenly, the doors burst open. Mike, Dairen, and Angie came running in through the doors with weapons ready.

Dairen fired off his arrow, aiming straight at Larsen’s head. It whooshed across barely missing Larsen’s face. His cheeks were scratched, but that didn’t stop Dairen from firing another one right after.

In panic, Larsen ducked, his shoulders were shot with Dairen’s arrow. He yelled in pain, but he didn’t stop and ran straight towards Dairen.

Mike jumped in front of him, swinging his sword dangerously in front of Larsen’s body. Larsen weaved in between each swing with his hand on his shoulder.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Mike growled, his feet twisted from a wrong step. He fell to his knee and caught himself, giving him an odd angle towards Larsen’s back. With a swing of his sword, Larsen's back was shredded by Mike’s swing. With a thud, Larsen fell on the ground dead.

Dairen lowered his weapon, walking over towards Larsen and nudged him. “He’s dead.”

“I hope so,” Mike grunted. His ankles slightly throbbed from the twist.

“Either way, we need to get Snow out.” Dairen had said. He walked over towards the round tube that had Snow floating in liquid mana.

The scientist backed up, unsure of what to do or say. They were too afraid to step forward to stop him as they saw how Larsen had died. Being another victim of these Players' anger wasn’t something that they wanted to be.

Dairen stopped, he raised his hand to wipe out the fog, but every time he wiped it away, the frost quickly took its place. This time, willing up a bit of energy, he wiped the fog one last time, leaving his hand on the glass.

“Happy Birthday Snow.” Dairen was said with a smile though he was still boiling with anger that she was trapped inside the glass.

“I don’t know if she can hear you.” Mike was dragging in one of the scientists that were cowering from the side. He threw him on the ground, glaring at him to fix the situations.

“I c-can't override it....” The scientist stumbled, unable to form a full coherent sentence.

“You better find something to make it happen.” Mike threatened him, he pulled out his sword and placed it on his neck.

Angie pushed away Mike’s sword and sighed at his brash behavior. She shook her head, stepping in between the two. “You’re an idiot.” She then bent over to help the scientist up. “Ignore them, I know you can’t do anything, but your fingerprints will be needed to do the rest.”

She went over towards the dashboard, staring diligently as if she knew what she was doing.

“Do you think you can get her out?” Dairen asked.

“Yea.” Angie pressed a few buttons a few times. Nothing happened, making the scientist even more uncomfortable as Mike was staring down at them as if he was going to chop off their head if she didn’t succeed.

They were impressed with Angie’s computer skills, mostly because they didn’t think she had anything to do with her expertise in being a priestess. Angie fingers dashed across the buttons, her shoulder slightly slouched over as she focused hard on what she was trying to do.

Finally, with a loud squeal that sounded close to happiness, she pressed the button hard with a slap. A bright smile erupted on her lips, telling whatever she was doing, she succeeded.

The other scientists who watched her work were appalled at how quickly she was able to get things done and even crack through the code that they weren’t even able to do. They came over, placing their hand on the screen to finish up the final steps.

A loud whoosh could be heard as steam erupted from the very tube. The liquid blue magic that glowed brilliantly started to slowly dim, becoming a fog as it spread out onto their feet.

Even water spilled out onto the ground, followed by Snow herself, who was spat out onto the ground like a doll.

Dairen, Mike, and Angie rushed over-worried. Dairen was the first to pick her up with his arm as he laid her on his leg. His worry quickly diminished, realizing that she was naked. He could see the purely white skin, her collar bones, and below. He froze. His mind blanked out for a moment.

Mike smacked him, shaking his head at Dairen’s immobile action.

Dairen realized his mistake, he blushed scarlet, looking away. He pulled out a long coat from his storage, gently placing it on Snow’s body as he wrapped it around her.

Snow's mind was a blur. The only thing that she could remember in her cesspool of emotions of pain was released. She was set free of the chains that seem to strangle her.

She couldn’t really rip away the chains that had stopped her, but she took it with a vicious force when she had the chance. There was no way that she would just kneel over and die, she fought, suffering in the process.

Her mind felt shredded into millions of pieces until finally, she was able to grab whatever little straws she could grab until she finally took it. At first, it was slow and mind-numbingly difficult to move towards what she needed to do, but when the chains loosen even a little, she tore at it with teeth, claws, and even her own feet.

Until finally, she felt the light that gave her the hope that she needed.

With blinking eyes, the blur of images focused in and out. Snow felt a weird connection of her body coming together, but her mind and magic were healing.

“Snow?” A familiar voice called out to her.

Snow blinked a few more times, the image becoming clear. Dairen's face was the closest, while Mike and Angie hovered around her with the same worried and relieved expression.

“D-Dairen?” Snow coughed, spitting out water from her lips. It even hit Dairen’s face, making him wipe it away.

“Yes. Are you alright?” Dairen asked out in concern.

“Somewhat.” Snow felt weak, she realized her muscles weren’t used to what it was, but luckily it didn’t deteriorate too much, allowing her to push up and sit.

Her long white hair dripped down her shoulder and touched the very ground. It has grown once again, longer than before. The jacket slipped off her shoulder, drooping a bit too much to reveal a lot more than one would like.

Dairen reached over, pulling up the jacket around her and even tightening a bit too snuggly for her comfort.

“Thanks for getting me out of there.” Snow took in a deep breath, happy that she escaped from the isolation that could ruin her mind.

“You would have done it for us.” Mike laughed, cheered that they saved Snow. “Out of the many other people we have interacted, you would have gone all the way without a second thought.”

Snow tilted her head, unsure what Mike was implying. “What are you talking about. I’m not going to throw my life away that easily anymore.” She said with a serious tone, but Mike didn’t believe her. Actually, none of them believe her at all.

Dairen cleared his throat. “Happy birthday Snow. Sorry, we couldn’t get you out sooner.”

“My birthday?” Snow was thrown off by his sudden congratulations. “What day is it today?”

“August 23.”

“Oh, wow, it actually is.” Snow had forgotten her birthday was actually today. She honestly forgot everything about it as the dungeon dive was becoming a stressful endeavor.

Dairen rummaged through his pocket, bringing out a gold ring. “We got this from raiding the pirate ship. A birthday gift, even though it's not much, but it has some special properties to it that can help you for now. I’ll definitely get you a better present.”

Snow opened up her hands. Dairen dropped the ring on her finger. “Thank you.” She was unsure what benefit it would bring, but she knew that he wasn’t the type to give her something harmful. Out of the two that she already had wrapped around her finger, she slipped the one Dairen gave her on her index finger. Snuggly, fitting without complaint.