When Raul reached the cave, Aelia dismounted and walked inside. When she returned, her face was deathly pale, as if she had watched Sara fall herself. “Listen up!”

The heroes fell silent, turning to her hesitantly.

“We’re splitting into groups! I’ll lead a group to check for openings on the north side; Edico will take a group to the south. If you find a crack or a cave, do not enter it. We’re standing on a mana vein, and wherever there’s a mana vein, there’s a nest or a labyrinth. That means that whatever’s inside is likely as deadly as the fall itself.”

Emma put her hand to her chest, her lips quivering. Raul grabbed her hand and squeezed.

“If Lady Reece survived the fall, she’ll be fine,” Edico said, easing the anxiety. “The devastation you see around you is proof of that. So don’t fuck things up for her by going it alone. Once we find an entrance, we’ll face what comes together.”

The heroes nodded in assent.

After the directives, the heroes broke into two groups. Raul was going with Emma—the rest was irrelevant to him.

Or so he thought.

Aelia approached Daniel, who was sitting beside Raul. “Hey. I’ll need you riding with Edico’s team.”

Daniel’s eyes widened. “Why? I need to help—“

“Listen, Lord Winters,” she interrupted. “Lord Newborn looks unstable. If he tries to pull something again, we need someone who can hold his own.”

Daniel smiled bitterly. “Isn’t Raul better suited for that?”

“No. They’re quarreling. We don’t want to make things worse. Besides….” Aelia looked at Brandon. “We’ll need Raul to keep that one in check.”

“Brandon?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah.” That’s all she said before walking away, leaving no chance for Daniel to refuse.

“I’m sorry, Daniel,” Emma said, genuine empathy in her tone.

Daniel looked at the ground for a moment before looking up with a bright smile. “It’s just temporary,” he said. “But….” He looked at Brandon with a narrowed gaze. “Stay away from him. Seriously. Let Aelia handle him.”

Raul furrowed his brow. That was a given, but he was surprised that Daniel was suddenly adamant about it. “Why?”

Daniel’s face contorted into a conflicted expression. “You know when you can feel something bad’s gonna happen, and then it does?”

Emma’s lip trembled, and Raul looked away.

Daniel smiled ruefully but pushed forward. “Well, it’s like that. Just keep away, okay? Stay safe, guys.” With those words, he ran away awkwardly, joining up with Edico’s group.

Raul turned to Brandon, eyeing him suspiciously. There was something wrong with the guy. He acted like Sara if he had a few screws loose. No, a lot of screws loose. Whatever he was, he was talented in magic, and he was bad news. Raul took Daniel’s warning seriously—especially since he felt the same way.

The two crossed paths less than an hour later. It was 2:37 pm.

Sara stayed focused as she crept through the cave, taking every step deliberately. It was dead silent, making every drip of water from the ceiling sound like an explosion when it hit the floor. Her heart was strained, and her lungs were as heavy as lead.

Suddenly, she heard a noise and swiped the air with her sword. It turned out the sound was a bug, and its two halves hit the cave with loud bangs.

Sara felt like a pair of hands had gripped her lungs from behind and squeezed as she stood there. That was terrifying…. she thought. Swallowing hard, she looked into the distance. It was faint, but she could see light from mana crystals. Almost there.

Sara was unsure whether that was encouragement or a warning.

By the time the darkness gave way to glowing stalagmites, Sara’s limbs were heavy with adrenaline. She could now see small bugs on the wall and the pools from dripping water. Worst of all, she could see that wall. That fucking wall—the one that was marred with thick gashes from a battle that happened before the Hero’s Party arrived. Now that she saw those same gashes three years earlier than in her last life, she knew the battle happened years, decades, or even centuries before she was Summoned to Reemada. Now, it was right before her, and her anxiety skyrocketed.

Just on the other side of that wall was Haligara. She could hear it breathing, sleeping. She had been dead silent on the way there, but she felt the moment she got close enough to the wall to see the divots from the blades that cut the stone, the basilisk would stir, awakening from its dead sleep to resume its murderous legacy.

Sara took another step. Then another. On the third, she reached that wall and accidently kicked a rock. Stolen novel; please report.

Suddenly, Haligara stirred in the other room, its scales scraping across the ground in a grinding hiss. Sara held her breath, listening to the basilisk and the drip, Drip, DRIP! of water falling from the stalactites.

The basilisk didn’t move.

Neither did she.

After a long pause, its body shifted, and the noises became gentle as if it had laid down to sleep. Sara took a deep, silent breath with stiff lungs and walked to the edge of the wall, reaching the beginning of Haligara’s “throne room.” She had to make it there. A surprise attack with a strong spell was the best chance she had at defeating Haligara. If she fucked it up, she could die. She wasn’t ready to face it, emotionally or physically. Would her weapons even touch it? Sara didn’t know. But she had magic—and a lot of it.

Sara took another step, preparing to begin her chanting, but the next moment, Haligara stirred again, releasing its tongue and tasting the air.

It knows you’re there. Her mind was playing tricks on her again. Just charge in and get it over with.

Sara shook off her inner voice and crept alongside the wall, moving to the far edge where, on one more step would expose her fully to Haligara and its lair. This was her Rubicon, the line that the “Hero” Party had crossed to face Haligara. The one Emma crossed and never returned from.

Sara slowly peeked her head out, and her muscles tensed when she saw what was on the other side. Haligara wasn’t what she remembered in her flashbacks—

—it was worse.

The beast was a true colossus, a football field in length, with a trunk twice as thick as a redwood curled into a spring. Even if Sara cut through its scales like a soft stick of butter, her sword wouldn’t even make it a fifth of the way through the snake.

This was the beast that she had to go through to get to the miners’ tunnel, which would bring her to the surface. If she didn’t fight the colossus, she would die in the cave—guaranteed.

Admit it, Sara. Without Qualth, you were nothing. You wouldn’t have even scratched Agronus.

That wasn’t true. The God Slayer sword was powerful, but it wasn’t the main factor that defeated any of her enemies. Still, she couldn’t shake the self-doubt. Worse, she didn’t have any of the things that were the main factors of her battles. The Bow of Rymac. Legendary gear. A party. Friends….

And you’re going to die alone, Sara. Enjoy your self-fulfilling prophecy. You’ll be right until the very—

Suddenly, Sara felt Haligara moving, and her thoughts disappeared. It started snaking forward, mana oozing as it moved toward her. She felt it—but she didn’t hear it. Was it a trick? No…. She would swear that it was moving its long head silently, hunting like a predator on the other side of the wall. Yet she couldn’t check without a divination pulse as it hunted through mana signatures. Her mana was suppressed to the minimum. One break could send it into a frenzy.

It’s time…. Sara closed her eyes to enhance her hearing and concentration since she couldn’t see. Then she began chanting. Thlípsi kai efória, xéna stoixeía syndyasmoúntai se éna dimiourgikó symfoniáko. Traka, mes' ti flogá tis paíthias—

Sara’s eyes snapped open to start the attack—and then her veins turned to ice. A massive green eyeball the size of a beachball was staring right at her. Then it breathed, and she could feel the suction it created from its snout, which was the size of her Tesla. How couldn’t she hear that with her enhanced senses? How couldn’t have known?

The two stared at each other for a split second. Then the fight began.

Haligara opened its mouth to swallow, and Sara completed her chant simultanously.

—ymnáei ti zoiá!

A crushing wave of gravity slammed into Haligara’s head like a dropped shipping container, making it release a horrifying shriek. Sara stumbled back, ears ringing with tinnitus. Her hearing was heightened before the shriek now she was deaf.

Disoriented, Sara lifted her sword like an executioner’s axe, warping the thick mana around and drawing power from the amplification stone in her pocket. But before she could strike, the wall beside her exploded from Haligara whipping its tail on the other side. Boulder-sized chunks of rock smashed into her like cannonballs, sending Sara flying and crashing into the ground multiple times. When she rolled and pushed herself up, there was a massive dent in her breastplate, pressing into her ribs and making it difficult to breathe. Yet her eyes came alive, and a grin crept onto her face.

The battle had begun.

Emma galloped across the mountain, holding tight as her monta jumped over rotting logs and foliage. “Hurry up!” she yelled to Raul.

“Slow down!” he yelled back. “You’re going to fall if you keep this up!”

“There’s no time! You can feel that, can’t you?” There was an ominous mana leaking through the mountain. It made the jagged rocks sharper until they could pierce a person’s hands, and just being near it caused the hair on her arms to rise. The mana felt corrupted—

—alive.

It’s awake, Emma thought. She didn’t know where that thought came from, but she couldn’t let it go. Something was awake, and she had to back up Sara.

“Yeah, I did,” Raul admitted.

“Then hurry up!” Emma yelled. She clapped her horse on the ribs with her heels and sped up, riding as fast as her skill could take her.

It’s awake, she thought again, this time with a follow-up: We’re almost there.

Sara felt alive once the battle started. In the darkness, she was afraid, and her trauma locked her in chains. But the moment that Haligara struck, a decade of hardcore battle experience took over, sending her brain into a state of primal fury.

Suddenly, Haligara slammed its tail into the wall again, sending stones shooting out. Sara dodged projectiles, but her movements were limited, and Haligara seized onto it. Without warning, its tail switched direction and shot out at her. Sara jumped backward, but it clipped her in the side, sending her flying into a wall.

Sara coughed, feeling her armor mold to her ribs. At this point, her armor was weaker than her body! Pushing herself up, she avoided another strike, keeping her distance, analyzing its movements—finding no openings.

Magic it is, Sara thought, covering her eyes with her hands. Verráno davánti a te prestamente!

A blinding flash of light lit up the cavern, causing Haligara to shriek. Sara unshielded her eyes and charged, jumping and kicking off a wall to jump higher and change her angle. As she fell, she swung her sword—radiating with brilliant light—in a beautiful arc onto Haligara’s head.

The basilisk moved at the last second, but the sword still hit true, cleaving through its snout and sending sizzling blood spraying to the ground. Haligara thrashed as she landed, knocking glowing stalagmites off the walls like golden rain.

That’s when it switched tactics.

Suddenly, it opened its maw and shot poison—the same poison that killed Emma—from its fangs. And for a moment, Sara thought that she might have a PTSD episode or freeze—

—but she didn’t.

The second she smelled the noxious gas and listened to it corroding through the stone, her body flooded with intense fury, marbling with her lust for battle. Her movements turned fluid as she dodged the acid, and the dull depression that ruled her mind disappeared, replaced with a sharp desire to live. Now, she just wanted to slash her way through her problems —and her problem was her trauma. This was her battle. It was a declaration of her desire to break her shackles and live again.

Then, Sara stood tall against Haligara, meeting its furious gaze. And for the first time, the basilisk looked really, really small.