We walked up to the bronze plated door at the top of the stairs. It was kind of out of place if you asked me. Compared to the grim decor of this place, something so fancy would not have been made naturally.

“I got this.” Lucy said.

She brought her sword above her head then slammed down on the door. The sword bounced back up, not seeming to leave even a dent.

“It didn’t even seem to scratch it.” Leah said.

Lucy’s back twitched. That one must have stung haha. She didn’t have to hurt her ego like that. The rose can be so sharp at times. Unknowingly poking others with their thorns.

I walked behind Lucky and she made eye contact with me. But, I wasn’t trying to focus on the beauty in front of me. I brought my hand to the handle. A tiny vine sprouting from my fingertip and inserting into the keyhole. I could feel the gears inside shifting as my vine slid through the door’s mechanisms.

A one way lock?

My vine appeared out the other side and opened the door.

“Voila. Ladies first.” I stepped to the side and gestured them inside.

“Whatever.” Lucy moped, her ego probably still bruised.

“Thanks.” Leah said oh so cutely.

I followed in after them.

It wasn’t the top of the dungeon like we assumed, something more… strange.

The room was much smaller than the previous one, but this was more narrow, almost like one giant hallway. There was a single pathway that led to stairs on the end. We walked up to the edge, looking down there seemed to be no bottom. Like staring into an abyss. I could sense magic emitting from somewhere below. Another creature?

“What do we do here?” asked Leah.

“We just walk without losing our balance right?” Lucy replied.

She walked to the middle and was about to take a step onto the bridge before I placed my arm in front of her.

“Hold on.”

I grabbed a pebble from the floor and threw it onto the bridge. The rock phased through the path and into the abyss.

“An illusion.” I said.

“What kind of cheap trick were they trying to pull? Who would fall for something that simple?” Lucy said brazenly.

Leah and I both stared at her and all she did was an awkward grin like ‘oops I almost died, I’m not stupid I swear.’

I summoned my cloud and enlarged it.

“Hop on.”

They jumped behind me and I raised us off the ground. I moved us forward.

What a strange room. Why would they put something so simple?

As soon as we reached the halfway point of the bridge, I could sense pressure in the air. I looked at the walls, seeing something glowing behind dust and dirt. With a poof, the cloud disappeared from existence and we started to free fall.

“Leo what did you do?!” Leah cried, flailing her arms.

“Why would you possibly think I did this!”

I brought my arms out to the side to use vine magic but nothing seemed to come to formation. Fuck! Time magic?! I closed my eyes and focused… Nothing!

“Grab onto me!” Lucy screamed while unsheathing her sword.

Leah wrapped her arms around me, while I grabbed onto Lucy’s foot. I looked up, oh, she wears lace.

Lucy thrusted her sword into the side. We slid down with the sword, it may not be magic infused but it was still damn sharp. I could hear Lucy grunting in pain from our weight.

“Toss your bag.” I said to Leah.

“No, no. I’m going to fall!”

I looked down, snaking my arm behind Leah, and unclipping the satchel from her waist. Throwing down the bag full of items and our other equipment.

Lucy gripped her sword with both hands as we continued sliding down the walls.

There was no sound or indication of the magic items hitting the ground.

“Ow!”

I looked up to see a pebble bounce off the top of Lucy’s head. Is someone else up there?

“Look out!” I yelled, spotting something bigger than a pebble falling down to us.

Lucy ducked her head and the thing passed by us. Our satchel? Wait a minute. If that is our satchel, then the pebble...

“Leah! Throw your shoes down.”

“Are you trying to make me bloody strip in the middle of this?! What is wrong with you Leo!”

“Just do it! I need to make sense of something!”

“... What if I fall?”

I reached back down with one arm and held onto Leah’s collar. She opened her eyes and nodded at me. She reached down and untied her shoes, letting it fall to the abyss.

After the second fall of the pebble and satchel, a third object fell past us. I held my hand out and caught the small black piece of clothing. Leah’s shoe. I handed it back to Leah but she didn’t seem to have a care for it, not loosening her hug on me.

“Lucy. Let go.”

“Are you out of your mind?!”

“Trust me, I would never purposely bring real harm to such beautiful classmates of mine.”

Lucy looked at the sword, I could see blisters forming at the bottom of her hand. She held on for so long, carrying two people… This girl certainly is strong.

“You better not be wrong.”

Lucy brought her feet to the wall and kicked off, pulling the sword out with her.

I shifted my body downwards, holding my hands straight in front of me. Hopefully my intuitions are correct…

We passed by the shoe and I could see the brown bag. I grabbed onto the sash and opened it up, rummaging inside for a few moments before pulling out a small rod with a crystal on top.

I aimed the item in front of me. I clicked on the button and it shot out an electric bolt of some kind. It shot forward until hitting something invisible and everything around us rippled.

The walls and air rippled like a river, until we slammed hard against the floor.

“Gah!” Leah yelped, falling on top of me.

I peeked one eye open to see Lucy thrust her sword into the ground and flip onto her feet. This mage is freakishly strong. Should I ever cross her, will be the day I no longer live as Leo.

“Darling, I know my charms may have gotten to you, but will you be ever so kind to get off me for now. I’ll be happy to comply later on if you wish.”

“Shut up.” Leah groaned, rubbing her arms while getting onto her feet.

I jumped up and patted myself down. Fixing my hair while I’m at it. If I am going to die, may I at least look decent enough in a coffin.

“What was that? We nearly died!” Lucy asked, walking over to me, sheathing her sword.

I looked at the fierce eyes in front of me.

“Seems like we were put in some magic trap. A Time Loop is my best guess.”

“Time magic is not so simple that it can be laid as a trap for however long this dungeon has been here after sprouting up.” Leah chimed in, “Time magic drains the life energy of the caster, there is no way this trap could be here for so long. Unless—”

“Unless the caster is immortal.” I said.

“But that’s impossible, is it not?” Lucy stated, “The only thing coming close to being immortal are the Elves and even then, they have a limit before they start to wilt.”

“It’s not Elves, it’s something ancient. Leah, remember the cube you picked up when we first came here?” I said.

“Yeah, hold on.” she responded, rummaging through her satchel. “It’s gone. The cube is gone. That’s strange, I remember putting it in here I swear.”

“So it is what I feared, that item was the treasure all along.”

“Cube? Treasure? What are you talking about?” Lucy asked with her eyebrow raised.

“Something that Mister Frost was too stupid to realize.”

“Mister Frost?” Leah asked.

Oops, slip of the tongue.

“I mean me. I didn’t think anything of it. I labeled it as just a collectors item, but those symbols meant something.” I pointed to the wall, releasing water magic on it.

Inscribed symbols of the same form of the cube became visible, etched into the walls.

“Ah, seems like we are going to have to pay a visit to that Nymph after all. Hopefully we avoid needless bloodshed.” I said, walking towards the edge once more.

I hovered a foot over the pathway.

“Leo don’t be an idiot. And why would the person who nursed us steal the cube?” Leah said, grabbing onto my arm.

I turned to give her a smile.