Turning on Each Other

"That coward Carl, you shouldn't have brought him along even if he's a mage," Galen frowned. "Having someone like that in a team, no matter how capable, with such poor character will only drag everyone down."

Galen made a slashing motion across his neck, his eyes gleaming ferociously. "We should have just killed that thing directly."

"Who knew he'd be like that on first meeting? I brought him along because I saw potential in his magic," Laura clearly regretted it too.

Following behind, Kyron felt a chill hearing the two discuss killing so casually, like talking about eating and drinking.

He knew these two were no good sorts, only temporarily teaming up.

"Did you two also enter this underground labyrinth from the underground river?" Galen asked curiously.

"...What underground river? We didn't encounter any underground river, just entered this underground labyrinth through a cave midway up a mountain."

The two exchanged a glance, sensing this wasn't a simple matter.

It seemed they had entered the labyrinth from different locations, which meant there could be many more people inside, or skeletons?

"Clearly, the paths you and I took were from the outskirts of the secret realm to enter this labyrinth. Based on the positions, the direction we're heading must be deeper into the labyrinth...I think, following normal deductions, the key to completing this secret realm mission must be at the labyrinth's core, perhaps that's where the real main battlefield is!"

Galen hypothesized. This was quite an enormous secret realm, no telling how many had entered.

"A completely unfamiliar world, unfamiliar enemies, I hate it!" Laura sighed.

"Regardless, we can only go forward, no way back now."

Galen looked ahead into the pitch-black tunnel, riddled with intersections. Getting lost for a year would be normal.

"Head downwards!" Kyron suddenly spoke up.

"Huh? Why?" Galen turned to him.

"Because we've actually been going downwards this whole time. I guess that even if the final destination isn't the deepest part, it's very close by. I believe the bottom is where we'll find what we're looking for!"

Galen gave Kyron another strange look.

"You're a clever little brother," Laura laughed.

Galen led the way with a lighter, always taking the downward path at intersections.

Just as Kyron predicted, every intersection had a clearly descending tunnel.

...

...

The trio made their way through the tunnels for about half an hour, which grew increasingly narrow.

Passing another bend, Galen stopped.

Ahead was a straight passage ending in an enormous bronze door.

They felt a twinge of excitement - was this the place?

But!

Over a dozen bodies lay in the passage.

Some living, some skeletal.

Killed in various ways.

Shot by arrows, smashed to bits, heads severed from bodies.

"Doesn't seem like they killed each other."

"Looks like a trap!"

Galen's brow furrowed as he exchanged a glance with Laura, then turned an icy stare towards Kyron.

Kyron felt a murderous aura emanating from Galen's eyes, chilling him to the bone.

"Why don't you go scout ahead?"

Galen said it casually.

Kyron was instantly enraged. He had just saved this bastard, yet he turned on him so quickly, cold-blooded beyond belief.

He reached into his pocket, gripping his deck tightly.

Seeing Galen and Laura's hands bulging with veins as they gripped their weapons, eyeing him warily, Kyron chuckled and pulled out a summon skeleton card from his pocket. "I have a summon, let it scout ahead first."

Galen paused, loosening his grip on his axe. "You've got quite the deck."

Kyron had already summoned the Skeleton Warrior, instructing it to go forward.

"Just lucky, I guess!"

The Skeleton Warrior looked at Kyron questioningly. Kyron patiently explained, "It's safe up ahead, go take a look."

The Skeleton Warrior nodded, believing Kyron, and strode down the tunnel gripping its great axe.

After just a few steps, it triggered a trap - an arrow shot through its chest, shattering two ribs.

Fortunately, being a skeleton without a life spark, it was largely unharmed despite the damage. Recalling Kyron said it was safe, it continued forwards.

A few more steps.

Suddenly, a stone hammer dropped from the ceiling. The Skeleton Warrior leapt up, but only avoided half of it, the other half crushed underneath with bones cracking.

Kyron rushed over in alarm, avoiding the arrow trap area, and retrieved the heavily injured Skeleton Warrior back into its card.

As long as it wasn't completely shattered, returning to the card allowed gradual recovery.

Galen's eyes shone intently as he studied each trap's location and mechanism.

The stone hammer that dropped had iron chains pulling it back up, disappearing into the ceiling again.

As Kyron looked up, the ground suddenly shifted under his feet.

In an instant, the floor he was standing on - about three meters long in this part of the tunnel - flipped over completely!

Underneath revealed a vast, pitch-black pit!

Kyron cried out as he plunged straight into the pit!!

The flipped floor section rotated 360 degrees before returning to normal, the edges seamlessly blending with the rest of the tunnel floor.

The tunnel fell silent and dark again, as if no one had ever passed through. Galen stared in disbelief as Kyron suddenly vanished before his eyes.

...

"Ahh!"

"Ahhh!!"

Kyron's screams echoed as he slid downwards.

It was sliding, not falling. Kyron was like on an extremely steep slide, rapidly descending below.

The slope was incredibly steep and rough, causing Kyron to be battered and bruised all over as he tumbled down. The once handsome lad had been reduced to a pig-like mess.

He curled up tightly to minimize further injury, but the incline was too great, maybe 60 degrees, impossible to stop by human power alone.

After a full minute of sliding, he saw he was about to crash into a huge object ahead. Kyron swiftly drew his dagger and stabbed it into the ground, his arm shuddering with intense pain as it finally arrested his momentum.

Behind him, the tunnel rumbled as it inexplicably collapsed, blocking off any chance of return.

Kyron pulled out his dagger and scrambled away from the cave-in, narrowly avoiding being struck by the falling debris.

His heart was still racing!!

Whew!

A blessing in disguise, Kyron reassured himself, patting his chest.

Looking around, this seemed to be some kind of strange chamber, with a ceiling around 7-8 meters high embedded with dimly glowing gemstones.