“Run, Ad!”
Crys ran.
TT’s urgency pushed him forward.
Behind him, Adama raged—
its body slamming into the cavern walls, the stone shuddering.
Scared.
So scared.
So scared.
Tears spilled before he could stop them.
He knew why TT hadn’t run with him.
That understanding hurt more.
You should go back.
His conscience said it,
again and again.
But another voice overlaid it—
What could you do?
You’d only get in the way.
If it comes to it,
TT can escape alone.
The tunnel, cut off from the chamber’s light, was black—
as if it had been painted over.
His pace faltered.
If TT were here, this would be nothing to him.
He cursed himself for thinking it.
Still—
it was too dark.
“Ah—!”
He struck something hard,
nearly fell backward.
With one hand pressed to his throbbing nose, he groped ahead with the other.
Broad surface.
Edges.
Cool, like water.
Crystal.
He understood at once—it was the exit.
The quake must have brought the ceiling down.
Crystal had fallen,
sealing the tunnel.
There had been no side paths.
He couldn’t get out.
Cold swept through him.
“Someone—”
He swallowed it.
If Adama heard him—
If TT was drawing it away—
One reckless shout, and it would be over.
Besides,
even if a Rofeh came here for minerals, no one would reach this deep anymore.
He took a breath.
Softly—
“Suguri.”
“Yes, yes.”
The reply floated back,
a little muted,
almost like someone chasing butterflies at a picnic.
Crys pressed himself to the crystal wall.
“It’s really you?
Suguri, you’re there?”
“Present and accounted for.
And on the other side—Crys, still glowing from dragon excitement.”
“It’s not that—
I mean—”
A roar shook the air behind him.
He glanced back.
Still distant.
He spoke fast.
“TT’s holding Adama there.
Use your magic—tell Rone. Now.”
“Tell him what, exactly?”
“You heard that!”
Frustration rose.
“Adama’s lost it.
TT stayed behind to let me run.
He’s keeping it at the deepest point
so it doesn’t reach the others.
We need a Master. Immediately.”
“So that’s what that sound was.
I thought it was a welcome festival.
Or playtime.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Hurry!”
“All riiight.”
Her tone made it hard to tell whether she understood at all.
Then silence.
Relief flickered—she could reach Rone.
For now.
But regret followed.
Dragons don’t miss a scent.
If its attention shifted…
If it caught his scent—
He couldn’t just wait.
“Suguri?
You still there?”
He kept his voice thin,
barely above breath.
No reply.
Too late.
She’d sent word
and gone.
Or she had no such magic,
and was running herself.
Either way—
he had to stay.
He leaned back against the fallen crystal, resigned.
In the flickering light from the deepest chamber,
the dragon’s vast shadow still moved.
It meant TT was alive.
For now.
But how long could anyone
face a dragon alone?
What if—
What if TT was more reckless
than he knew?
A tremor ran through him.
Losing a dragon was nothing.
Losing TT—
His thoughts tangled.
Fear froze him.
Duty pulled him.
Something slick dropped onto his shoulder.
He didn’t understand it at first.
Not heavy—but with weight to it.
It slid down his body and dropped to the floor.
In the dark,
it writhed.
A snake.
He almost screamed.
Not large enough to swallow him—but what if it was venomous?
He’d learned already
that not everything in Emet Echad Olam
was gentle.
He kicked at it.
“Puu.”
That sigh.
“Suguri?”
“Light up, compact—about phone-light level.”
Ignoring him,
she spoke the words.
A dim light spread.
She opened the glowing compact,
combing through hair
still damp, like a wet dog’s fur.
Lesamin hung over her shoulder,
folded like a plush toy.
The light hit Crys’s eyes.
He almost snapped—
then remembered.
“Suguri, careful.
There’s a snake here.”
“Another one besides me?”
“What?”
“You felt something slide down?
That was me.”
He stared.
“I saw a snake.”
“Yes.
Brown, probably.”
She toyed with her hair.
“A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is cute.
But if I’m a snake,
pink would’ve been better.”
“Lesamin.”
A muffled protest
from behind her.
Crys almost smiled—
then the roar shook the cave again.
He looked at her.
“We have to help TT.”
He said it this time without hesitation.
“Can’t you break this wall?
Then the three of us can get out together!”
“No.”
Suguri crossed her arms in an X.
Instant.
No… what?
Crys stared.
Then confusion hit.
He’d grown used to seeing her use magic,
but she had only just come to Emet Echad Olam.
Of course there were limits.
Still—
To refuse without even trying—
here of all times—
he couldn’t process it.
Suguri tilted her head,
as if he were the one being strange.
“Don’t you get why I turned into a snake to come through?
I had to.”
She stepped beside him
and laid her palm against the crystal.
“This is sealed with magic.
Strong.
Adama’s, probably.
Like a hospital—one patient at a time.
So I waited,
leaning here.
Then I heard you.”
“Magic or not, it’s still crystal.
Mohs seven.
Use a diamond grinder.
Or strike along the cleavage planes.
If you can give me the tools,
I’ll manage.”
She sighed softly.
“Let me put it in gamer terms, Administrator.
The admin rank on this spell is absurdly high.
Anything Theo or I can spawn is useless.
We wait for someone higher.”
Higher.
The fact that they couldn’t break the crystal wall meant one thing—
even if they had to bring Adama out of the cave,
escaping together—
all three of them—
was no longer an option.
Crys shook his head.
No.
TT could teleport.
Suguri could transform.
They had options.
He didn’t.
And neither of them blamed him.
He bit his lip.
“…Got it.”
“How did you tell Rone?”
“I can’t blink yet.
So I turned one strand of my hair
into a fruit bat.
Sent it flying.
A noble sacrifice.”
“A bat?”
He pressed his palms to his temples.
Of all things.
There were faster animals.
And Dimon’s Guide was already a bat.
He didn’t need more of them.
Suguri only shrugged.
“Not many creatures move in dark and daylight.
Can cross that cliff.
And the fastest?
A bat wins.”
“Animals are your field.
How long?”
“Estimate only.
Twenty minutes.
If we’re lucky.”
“Twenty—”
His voice thinned.
From the depths,
a roar.
The earth trembled.
A vast shadow stretched toward the tunnel.
Ten minutes had passed already.
Maybe more.
For TT,
it would feel like forever.
Trusting him.
Trusting Suguri.
Waiting.
Twenty more.
Or longer.
Hope?
Or a death sentence?
Either way—
TT had to know.
Crys ground his teeth
until they hurt.
He stepped toward the tunnel’s mouth—
“You stay.”
Suguri caught his hoodie
and held him fast.
“Your hands.
They’re shaking.
You’re scared.”
He lifted them.
They were.
Not the quake.
Himself.
His mind screamed go.
His body refused.
He looked at her,
almost asking to be told what to do.
“If you can’t use magic,
running in there is pointless.
I’ll tell Theo.”
He lowered his head.
She was right.
Bravery wasn’t enough.
He’d only slow them down.
He hated the way
his own courage felt
like a lie he told himself.
“Again.
My bad.
Not enough words.”
He looked up.
Suguri touched her cheek,
thinking.
“Puu.”
Her eyes met his.
Softer now.
“It takes courage
to admit you can’t use magic.
That counts.
Now it’s my turn.
To show the kind of bravery
only I can.”
She smiled faintly.
“So you stay.”
His throat closed.
He’d hurt himself
imagining she’d judged him before.
And she—
She was answering instead.
Grateful.
Frustrated.
Not wanting her to go.
He caught her sleeve.
She misunderstood.
Pressed something soft into his arms.
Lesamin.
“Hold him.
He’s in the way if I’m fighting a dragon.”
“Lesamin—”
A muffled protest.
Suguri blew a kiss
and walked toward the deepest chamber.
Crys blinked,
then looked down.
Lesamin puffed,
slipped from his arms like liquid,
and ran after her.
A small girl.
A folded creature.
Walking toward a raging dragon.
Crys didn’t think.
He moved.
Followed.
He caught up at the border
between tunnel and depth.
“Oh?
You came.”
“Lesamin won’t hang out with me.
Guess I’ll settle for a dragon.”
Suguri laughed lightly.
“Crys,
you’re such a classic princess.”
When Crys stepped into the deepest chamber,
there was no room left
to ask what Suguri had meant.
Adama slammed its body into the cavern walls,
pounding the ground flat.
The plaza was chaos—
minerals and shards scattered everywhere,
as if they had fallen from the ceiling.
Crystals twice his height
were speared into the earth.
The danger
wasn’t only the dragon.
Crys searched for TT.
A sweep of the chamber—
nothing.
He had to be beyond the debris.
Adama was in pursuit.
Crys traced the line of its charge through the chamber—
and a human shape flashed
across a crystal face.
There.
He almost bolted.
Suguri seized his arm,
hard.
TT’s there.
His mouth formed the words.
That was enough for her.
She shook her head
and pointed at the ground.
Stay.
He didn’t understand why she stopped him.
But even if he ran,
he wouldn’t make it in time.
Adama’s tail—
thick as a tree trunk—
came down.
The crystal shattered.
For a heartbeat,
time froze.
TT—was he hit?
Then Crys saw—
another crystal caught the light.
Another silhouette.
He stopped himself
just short of moving.
It wasn’t one reflection.
Three.
Five.
Fragments of him in every direction.
Half-seen reflections became a curse.
Adama smashed the images,
one after another,
frustration in each blow.
Not accident.
Calculation.
It was a feat just to stay alive here—
and TT was doing more than that.
He was toying with it.
Crys clenched a fist
without thinking.
Because TT kept the dragon far from the tunnel,
Adama hadn’t noticed the new intruders.
But TT hadn’t noticed them either.
Through gaps in the crystal,
Crys glimpsed him—
not running.
Gliding.
Like skating over glass.
Clearing obstacles taller than himself
as if they were nothing.
Crys shifted,
trying to signal him
without drawing the dragon’s eye.
He must have picked up on that slight movement.
TT, who had been reading Adama’s motion with sharp focus,
turned suddenly toward the tunnel.
As if someone had called his name.
Their eyes met—
and in the next breath,
TT stood before him.
