“Ethan,” The Black said in a deep voice, “I’m glad to see you got my valentine.”

“More importantly did you bring s’mores though?” Gavin asked cutting in before Ethan had a chance to respond. “I mean if I’m going to be kidnapped and dragged to a campfire there should be s’mores there right?”

“Do you ever shut up?” the Black asked Gavin annoyed while spinning the black knife in his hand. “I swear if you keep talking I’m going to sacrifice you right now.”

“Yes you’ve mentioned the whole sacrificing my soul to make this place stronger,” Gavin replied rolling his eyes in dramatic fashion. “The joke’s on you though cause you know what they say about gingers and souls.”

“Gavin,” Ethan said quickly once the other boy finished talking. “We’re here to rescue you but please don’t egg him on. This one already nearly killed Alex’s brother.”

“Yeah, I owe you for that one,” Alex added. “What did James ever do to deserve that.”

The Black laughed before saying, “What I did to James needed to be done.”

“You tried to kill him,” Alex spat.

“No I didn’t,” The Black said calmly. “If I wanted to kill him he would be dead. I simply did what needed to be done, but I didn’t invite you here to discuss James. I invited you here to discuss something else.”

“What do you want?” Alex asked with anger still rising in his voice.

“What do you know of this place?” The Black asked still calm.

“The Dungeon?” Alex asked. “It’s of nature and wants us to find it’s stupid heart.”

“So you only know what it has told you in other words,” The Black said, “which means you know almost nothing about it.”

“By all means share if you know so much,” Ethan snapped already feeling his anger rising.

“Dungeons are as old as the human race themselves, maybe even older,” The Black answered. “This one is relatively young for a dungeon, only created in Showa 11, and as such it’s influence is rather limited right now. Of course you’ve certainly noticed all the apparitions around town and maybe even a bit outside of town. It's still confined to a relatively small geographical area right now, but given enough time it will spread to much of the rest of California and perhaps even further.”

It can’t be that confined, Ethan thought remembering seeing dungeon creatures at one of his away soccer games that was a couple of hours from Misty Oaks.

“If left unchecked, this could lead to a disaster,” The Black continued. “Civilization in the western United States could even collapse in the dungeon’s endless quest to grow and expand. However by seizing the heart of the dungeon we can control it--”

“What about destroying the dungeon’s heart?” Alex asked. “Can’t we do that to maybe destroy the dungeon and not have to worry about it?”

“You could,” The Black said pausing, “others in the past have done just that, but that would be a waste. Considering all that goes into creating a dungeon as well as the amount of time and sacrifice required for a dungeon to grow we not only see that option as a waste but something that dishonors all those who have been consumed by the dungeon.”

“What would you suggest then?” Alex asked.

“We would harness control of the dungeon and use it once it is powerful enough to reshape this state and even the country into a better place,” The Black answered. “Getting to the heart and finding it ourselves has proven difficult so I am asking you to join us.”

“You want to remake the country using the dungeon?” Ethan asked. “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Why on Earth would I want to help you do that? You stabbed my friend’s brother and kidnapped my other friend, but I’m sure you’d be benevolent in your rule right?”

“Ethan please understand that everything I’ve done is for a higher purpose,” The Black said. “Life's an endless cycle of sacrifices. Surely you can see that what I do is for a purpose.”

“He said no and I agree with him,” Alex stated. “You’re out of your mind.”

“Shut up Alex,” The Black snarled. “I knew you would never understand and that a Yellow wouldn’t have enough of a spine to understand our methods, but I thought perhaps that Ethan and The Green might listen to reason.”

“The Green has been told several times that she is terrible at listening to reason and far too stubborn for her own good,” Quin said shrugging.

“So you’ve all made up your minds?” The Black asked shaking his head. “That’s a pity, I had allowed myself to hope. Oh well, your deaths with serve a purpose and help grow the dungeon so at least this isn’t a complete waste.”

Raising his sword defensively, Ethan saw the rest of his friends doing the same with their weapons aside from Alex whose shield was still laying on the ground where it crashed. A couple seconds passed and he knew something wasn’t right because The Black hadn’t moved from his position leaning against the wall.

“I thought you were going to kill us?” Ethan asked unable to stand it any longer. “Are you having second thoughts?

“I’ll kill you if I have too,” The Black answered shrugging and pointed to the cave roof above them with his knife, “but you should know there’s a reason I picked this spot.”

Looking up Ethan saw the icicles falling just in time to jump out of the way pushing Alex over backwards in the process. The icicles hit the floor and shattered right where the two of them were standing on moments before.

Floating in the air near the cave roof where the icicles had been hanging from was a woman made of ice the same clear blue color of the frozen lake. She had long dark hair and pale blue lips and was wearing a white kimono that hid her feet from view.

“This just happens to be the place where the twins hang out,” The Black said and they are really quite welcoming to people.”

Twins? Ethan thought just as he saw Bella’s yellow form blasted past him into the cave in a flurry of snow.

Turning his head towards the cave opening he saw her floating about ten feet outside of the cave in a swirl of snow. Her face was identical to that of her twin with the same dark hair and soft blue lips. She even wore the same white kimono. The only real difference was that instead of being made out of ice like the other one she had skin that was so white it almost blended into the snow swirling around her.

Shaking his head to keep himself from staring Ethan yelled, “Bella?”

“I’m alright,” Bella answered a moment later. “Just watch out.”

More icicles shot from the ice twin’s hand towards Ethan and Alex and they bolted from the cave sprinting past Quin and out onto the open ice outside. The snow twin as Ethan was starting to think of the second one launched a flurry of snowballs at them that while annoying, felt fairly harmless when they hit.

Unfortunately behind the snowballs came a blizzard. Straight up whiteout conditions with visibility reduced to only about a foot in front of him. Living in the west Ethan had of course heard people use the term blizzard from time to time, but this was the first time in his life that he really understood it.

He couldn’t see anything except the wall of white swirling all around him. If it wasn’t for the constant feeling of cold that was getting worse, he would have thought he’d gone to afterlife or something like it was often depicted in movies and TV shows.

“Alex,” he yelled hoping the other boy would be able to hear him over the noise of the storm.

“I’m here,” he heard Alex call from what sounded like only a couple feet away. “Not that that’s going to do much good in these conditions.”

Quin,” Ethan yelled trying to find the next person closest to them.

Unlike Alex there was no response from Quin. She must have been too far away from him to hear over the storm. Hopefully Bella and her were alright, but with the ice twin and The Black near them in the cave that was far from a certain thing.

What do I do? Ethan thought. Just standing there wasn’t an option as he could be attacked at any moment from any side but if he struck out he with his blade he risked hitting someone by accident.

Finally he settled on shoulder charging in the direction he thought the snow twin was in. he figured if he got it wrong and hit someone like Alex all he would do was knock him over instead of skewering him with a sword.

It didn’t come to that because as soon as Ethan started running he slipped and fell shoulder first into the ground which not only hurt but was disorienting when he kept sliding across the frozen lake in the middle of the whiteout. The one thing he’d forgotten when formulating his plan was the fact that he was standing on ice and that it had very little traction.

Sliding on his side with his check occasionally rubbing against the ice had one very positive side effect. It took him out of the blizzard allowing him to see what was going on. The area in front of the cave was getting hammered by whirling snow while the Snow Twin floated about five feet away occasionally blowing more snow into the mix.

Her entire attention was focused on the storm and somehow she didn’t notice Ethan slide out to the side which if he was careful, he could use to his advantage. Now he just had to figure out how to get over to her without falling down and without her noticing.

Running was strictly not an option as he was certain to fall and slide again and while aside from an aching shoulder that worked out for him the first time he didn’t want to keep hoping to get lucky. Carefully using his sword to help stabilize him he pushed himself to his feet.

Sliding was probably the best option actually, just not sliding on his butt or side. If he could keep one foot planted on the ice he could use the other to propel him and steer him. This plan of course wouldn’t allow him to suddenly change directions or brake so it would only give him one shot at hitting the Snow Twin but it was the best he could come up with at the moment.

Taking a silent breath he gripped his sword tightly in hands and aimed himself straight at floating Snow Twin while pushing off with his left foot. His right foot stayed planted and he began to slide across the ice, slowly at first, and then picking up speed as he continued to pump the ground with his left foot.

He was actually picking up far too much speed for comfort. This was going to end poorly for him regardless of what happened and worse yet he saw as he got closer to her that the Snow Twin was further off of the ground than he thought. He’d be able to reach her if he jumped most likely, but attempting to jump while sliding at high speeds across a sheet of ice wasn’t exactly something he knew how to do.

I’m going to have so many regrets in like a minute, Ethan thought no longer pumping the ground with his left foot. Instead he bent both of his knees getting ready to spring. She was only five feet away now and getting closer every millisecond. If he was going to do this, it was going to have to be now. He leaped.

Upon finding himself in the air hurtling at high speed his first thought was, I’m going to die. That was right before the tip of his sword blade caught the unsuspecting Snow Twin in the back and then his body slammed into her, his momentum and body weight shoving the sword straight through her. She gasped and he saw the swirling storm stop right before the two of them slammed into the ice below them cracking it.

Upon hitting Ethan felt the hilt of the blade jab him in the stomach before he was bounded off of her and sent sliding and spinning away. The Snow Twin went sliding too but was quickly stopped by the edge of the blade sticking out of her chest catching in the ice.

By the time Ethan finally came to a stop and recovered enough to drag himself over to her all he found was two thirds of his sword and some black essence dispersing in the air around it. The tip of the sword had snapped off stuck in the ice but he didn’t have time to worry about that now. He needed to make sure the others were alright.

Alex was the first one he saw and was perfectly fine standing on the ice near the cave mouth and staring open mouthed at Ethan. Quin and Bella seemed to be at least moving because he could see flashes of Yellow and Green running around the cave entrance along with light blue which he suspected was the Ice Twin.

“How did you do that?” Alex asked still looking amazed. “I couldn’t see anything.”

“Luck,” Ethan muttered in response. “Come on, we need to help the others.”

His shoulder was killing him and his stomach and chest ached something fierce from where he landed on the Snow Twin but he couldn’t stop right now. Slowly he halfwalked and half slide back over to the cave mouth near where Alex was standing.

Inside the Ice Twin continued to shoot, or really spray icicles at Quin and Bella who were throwing themselves around dodging. The Black was still leaning casually against the wall of the cave looking like he couldn’t care less while the still bound Gavin flinched near the fire every time ice shattered against the ground.

“Hey ice lady,” Alex yelled. “We killed your sister, I hope that’s okay with you.”

Inside of the cave the floating woman froze and turned to stare at Alex. Her eyes then flicked over Ethan, his broken blade, and finally to the remnants of black essence before she let out a shriek and flew straight towards the two boys.

“What’s your plan Alex?” Ethan asked bracing himself.

“Plan?” Alex asked. “I was just trying to draw her attention away from the girls.”

“Well it worked,” Ethan yelled diving and sliding out of the way as icicles hit the ice right where he’d been standing.

Alex did the same but wasn’t quite as fast and a couple icicles struck him in the leg and chest. Most of their momentum was stopped by the spirit armor but the sharp points at the end still managed to shallowly pierce him.

Rolling and pushing himself onto his feet Ethan tried to think of a strategy to use against this thing but came up with nothing. He was standing on a sheet of ice, this thing could fly, and it could shoot sharp projectiles at them. It wasn’t going to be easy to avoid getting hit by it, let alone counter it and do some damage.

More icicles shot toward him and he threw himself out of the way again slamming his already injured shoulder back against the ice and letting out a gasp of pain in the process. Sure he could keep avoiding the attacks, maybe but if he couldn’t counter attack it somehow it was going to wear him down and kill him eventually.

Rolling over onto his stomach he started to push himself up again and saw that the Ice Twin had floated closer to him and was already about to unleash another round of icicles straight at his face. There would be no avoiding all of them this time, but maybe he could at least protect his head to keep himself from getting killed.

Right as he began to lift his left arm in front of his face he caught a small green streak out of the corner of his eye right as it flashed across the sky and struck the Ice Twin in the side of the head. Her head jerked sideways and she looked down at Ethan with a mixture of disgust and surprise on her face right as two more arrows in Quick succession struck her.

She vanished into black essence a moment later and Ethan finally let out his breath which he realized he’d been holding the whole time. Thank you Quin, he thought making a mental note to try to be nicer to the girl in the future. She’d just saved his life, or at least saved him from a great deal of pain and he’d have to be a real jerk not to at least try harder to accept her moving forward.

“Ethan, Alex, are you two alright?” he heard Bella asked as he pushed himself back to his feet for what felt like the hundredth time.

“Yeah,” Alex said while Ethan said, “I’m okay, are you two?”

“We’re fine,” Quin said walking out towards him.

“Good shots,” Ethan said smiling at her. “I thought that was going to be it for me.”

“When you two distracted her, I finally got a chance to attack,” Quin replied shrugging.

“It’s time to kick the--” Ehtan started before he was cut off by the booming voice of the dungeon. “Congratulations, you have cleared the fifth floor by defeating the Yuki Onna and Tsurara Onna. The sixth floor is now available to you.”

“Oh unlocking the sixth floor, that’s quite the accomplishment,” The Black said walking calmly out of the cave with the bound Gavin hosted over his shoulder.

“Put him down,” Ethan demanded glaring at him.

Ignoring Ethan the Black said, “It’s really a pity you won’t join us. I must admit you’re all quite resourceful in the way you defeated those two. It took us nearly twice the length to defeat them when were were making our way through this floor.”

The condescending tone of The Black’s voice was really starting to piss Ethan off. It was like everything he said was a dig at them whether he meant it to be or not. Gripping the hilt of his blade tighter all Ethan wanted to do was charge the jerk but with Gavin in the way he couldn’t at the moment.

“Oh Ethan, you really do have an anger problem you know?” The Black said walking over and inspecting the cracked ice where Ethan killed the Snow Twin. “I can see the fury in your eyes, but know if you do something stupid like try to snap part of that sword off in me I’ll slit Gavin’s throat here.”

“Honestly that might be preferable,” Gavin said. “It’s freezing out here and you’re not a very good chauffeur.”

With a quick jab the black smashed his free fist into Gavin’s face. There was an uncomfortable crunching noise and Ethan heard the nose break and saw blood start to drip down onto the clean ice below.

“God, you’re annoying,” The Black said. “I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting to do that.”

“Put him down and fight me,” Ethan growled. “What are you proving by hitting a tied up kid?”

“I’m not proving anything,” The Black replied stomping down hard on the part of Ethan’s sword that was still sticking into the ice. “I don’t need to prove anything to a shipper like you. Look at you and pretending to be a hero, you look ridiculous with that red spirit armor.”

His boot and the Blade tip went through the ice breaking apart the cracked up area beneath it and creating an opening in the sheet of ice.

At the same time Ethan felt his vision get more blurry as the rage continued to build up inside of him. It felt like his eyes were going as red as the armor he was wearing. Who was this person to treat him like this? He was going to make him pay and he didn’t care how.

“Such a fierce glare,” The Black said in the same irritating tone. “I’m trembling over here.”

Muted in the distance Ethan heard Bella yell, “Ethan don’t,” but his legs were already moving on their own.

He charged the Black no longer thinking about the fact that he had a hostage. All Ethan could think about was that he was going to beat that smug tone right out of the person. Miraculously he didn’t slip on his way over to the Black but as Ethan lunged for him with the broken sword the Black effortlessly spun out of the way causing Ethan to slip past him and land face first on the hard ice.

“Ethan, you should have listened to your fat little girlfriend,” The Black said. “Because just for that, I’m going to have to kill Gavin here sooner that I’d planned.”

Releasing a feral grunt Ethan pushed himself onto his knees and spun around just in time to see The Black toss Gavin face first into the hole he’d created in the ice. Gavin let out a small yelp before it was muted by the water. Still bound he strained against the ropes but they didn’t give and he began to sink.

“Now that I’ve got that off of my chest,” The Black said with a chuckle at his own joke, “I’m ready to see how powerful that anger of yours really is.”

Pushing himself to his feet Ethan readied his blade and thought about how nice it would be to wipe the smile off of The Black’s face that he was certain was there. A small voice in the back of his head caused him to hesitate. Part of him knew that Gavin was going to die without help and could he just let that happen?

“What’s the matter?” The Black asked. “I thought this is what you wanted. Now you’re going to hesitate like a coward?”

With a roar Ethan charged. He hated this person so much and it would feel so good to pummel him. The Black got into a defensive position anticipating Ethan’s attack, but five feet from The Black Ethan threw himself face forward down onto the ice and slid with his sword held in front of him straight towards the hole in the ice.

This took The Black by surprise as Ethan passed him on the ground and slid head first straight into the frigid water. The first impact took his breathe away it was so cold. The second second sucked out all of his rage. It was hard to stay angry when your body was going into complete shock. It had to be just about as cold as water could possibly be without freezing.

The only thing that kept him from completely freezing up was the part of his brain at the back that told him Gavin was down there and going to die. It was the same part of his brain that moments before tempered his anger and made him dive in a frozen lake.

Staring down into the clear water it wasn’t hard to find Gavin. He was about ten feet below laying sideways on the lake floor with his arms and legs still bound and looking like he was panicking. Adrenaline surged through Ethan and he swam as hard and as fast as he could towards the other boy. It didn’t take long to reach him but it was a battle to get the other boy to hold still enough so that he could cut the ropes without cutting him. Gavin didn’t seem to understand what Ethan was trying to tell him at first and Ethan getting frustrated hit him a couple of times with the pummel of his sword until the other boy stopped trying to rip his way out of his bonds.

It only took a couple quick cuts with the jagged end of the blade to free Gavin and as soon as he was free he kicked off bolting for the hole near the surface like a mad man. Dropping the sword Ethan kicked after him feeling almost as desperate to get out of the water.

Gavin broke the surface first and while the hole was only big enough for one person at a time he was quickly pulled out of the water by someone Ethan couldn’t make out. Ethan broke the surface next and while the air entering his lungs was a relief, the air hitting his skin was almost worse than the water. It freaking burned.

Blue, Yellow, and Green hands grabbed ahold of him and dragged him out onto the ice next to Gavin where the two of them lay coughing, gagging, and shivering.

“Where is The Black?” Ethan finally asked between chattering.

“Gone,” Alex answered. “He ran off shortly after you dove in after Gavin. We thought about chasing after him, but with the two of you under the ice we figured we needed to stay close by in case you needed help.”

“I thought you were going to attack him,” Bella said. “You really surprised me when you dove down and slide at the last moment.”

Honestly, I thought I was going to attack him too for a minute there, Ethan thought.

“I appreciate the rescue and all,” Gavin said sitting up and shaking, “but I’m freezing so can we talk later?”

“Both of you need to get back into the cave near that fire,” Quin order pulling Ethan to his feet and pushing him into the direction of the cave.

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” Ethan replied teeth still chattering. “I’ve never wanted to be so near a fire in my life.”

“You’re also going to need to strip,” Quin added causing Ethan to exclaim, “What?”