After another long descent down the elegant staircase, Astolfo came across a splendid door. It was rather small, similar in size to the ones he had seen in the mansion above. Astolfo nervously creaked the door open and was greeted by a strangely dark room.

The visibility was low, but it wasn’t zero. The dark room was enormous and adorned with paintings and sculptures of all kinds. It seemed to be a storage room of sorts, but the arrangement of things in it being so elegant made that implausible.

Just as Astolfo took a few steps inside, loud and repetitive thumps reached his ears, as if ringing the bells of a disaster’s advent. Astolfo was neither scared nor surprised, it would have been rather stupid of him to not expect this.

Unlike his expectations, he hadn’t come up at the fountain, but that was fine. He had no plans of fighting either, he decided to be as stealthy as possible and find the exit. Astolfo poured his mana into his weapon branch and stepped ahead making as little sound as possible.

Passing through the other door in the dark room, Astolfo found himself in a wide and extravagant hallway, but he paid it no heed. With only the sound of his breathing and the thumping of whatever was running about, Astolfo set off in search of the exit.

His eyes scouting everything around him before each step, he was sure that he wouldn’t be located. The mana he was using to cover his weapon was magnitudes lesser than the mana in the air, and whatever minimal sounds he made were being drowned by the thumps.

So, Astolfo reacted a second too late when a glint of light flashed by him. Half his vision was filled with blood and an intense stinging pain ran through his head. The stumbling boy covered his left eye with one hand and flailed his weapon with another.

Astolfo stabilized himself and turned to face his attacker. Two blades sticking out its arms like the scythes of a grim reaper, four solid legs firmly pressing down the ground, a black amalgamation of flesh and blood grotesquely shaped to resemble a mantis stared down at the boy. Blood and saliva of black and gray dripped from its mouth as two eyes with dozens, if not hundreds of irises all looked at him.

For a second, Astolfo forgot the pain and was shrouded by fear. Soon, he realized he didn’t have the leisure to be in pain. Astolfo’s instincts were screaming at him to run as far away as possible.

“[Ice Magic: Ice Spikes]”

Astolfo stopped covering his bleeding eye. Five spikes of ice materialized from thin air and shot towards the mantis-like monster. The blades of the monster flashed and crushed the spikes to bits within a second.

“[Ice Magic: Freeze]” “[Ice Magic: Ice Spikes]”

A layer of ice spread below the mantis’ body as a dozen more spikes of ice raced towards the eyes of the mantis. It immediately raised its scythes to dispatch the spikes when a dense mist reached it. The mantis recoiled from the great unease the mist brought it and was struck by one of the spikes.

That was all the time Astolfo needed.

Without missing a beat, he rushed right towards the mantis and dived forward. He slid on the layer of ice he had created and passed under the mantis. Astolfo jumped back on his feet and sprinted with all his might.

‘Exit.’

Within seconds, his reason for finding the exit had completely turned on its heels.

Maybe if he found a way out, he could escape that thing.

His eye continued bleeding, but Astolfo didn’t even realize it, he continued to run without looking back.

The mantis-like monster was hit by all the spikes of ice. While they were certainly not damaging, they were annoying. Furthermore, the mist that clouded its face was unbearably unpleasant. The mantis furiously swung its scythes and sliced apart the mist itself. When it looked around, its prey had already disappeared.

The mantis’ eyes split in two, a pair looking behind it and another looking ahead. Seeing its prey run away, the mantis turned its giant body around but slipped on the ice that was covering the floor. In the few seconds, it took to stand back up, its prey had already turned around a corner. Rage bubbled up the mantis and its blood boiled in fury. Its prey had escaped its sight. In a fit of indiscriminate anger, the mantis destroyed everything around it as it ran to chase after its prey.

Astolfo ran wherever his feet took him. As if he was in a trance, he identified every little hint of the place's structure and turned towards the path that would lead him to the exit. Soon, loud sounds of smashing walls and cutting air reached him. The mantis had started tearing this place down.

Every chance he got, Astolfo left behind a mist made of the water he had collected, slowing the mantis down. Soon, he had reached the main gates of the estate. In one fell swoop, Astolfo rushed to the doors and kicked them open.

A hue of a mystical blue light covered everything around him. He was now on a very small floor, spanning a few hundred meters. Right in the center of the floor, an enormous blue magic stone stuck out from the ceiling. Overwhelmingly complex magical formulas covered the base below the stone. It seemed like he stepped into the residence of gods as the perfect sight of the lowest floor appeared in front of him. And far to his left, was the blemish in god’s residence. The dark cave where no light reached. His exit.

The marvelous sight stopped Astolfo in his tracks for a split second. And in that split second, a sharp blade of air sailed through the winds and cut into Astolfo’s sides.

“Ahk!” Astolfo shouted as he looked back. “It’s here already?!”

The mantis had almost caught up to him. Even though he had reached the end! His speed was undoubtedly lowered from the deep cut on his side, it would be difficult to outrun it right now. His mana was running low too.

As the low growl of the grotesque monster sounded again, Astolfo looked at the last of the water in his canteen. His mana was low, but he could manage with this. Without hesitation, Astolfo spread the water in his path with his psychokinesis. He immediately jumped ahead, freezing the water and air below him to move much faster than he could.

The mantis continuously launched sharp blades of air at him, destroying the ice below, but Astolfo would run and freeze it again. His heart beat faster and a sense of relief flushed in as he got closer and closer to the dark cave. The mantis chased after him as he slid right into the cave, into his exit.

Astolfo fell face-first into the place and slid forward. He raised his head and finally saw the cave. A faint blue light, separate from the one outside, softly illuminated the inside of his exit. At the center was a pedestal of marble shaped like an altar, and behind it was the shabby gray wall that covered the edges of the entire floor.

Strength left his body as realization dawned upon the boy.

The worst of his fears had come true.

The cave, where he had made his exit, ended merely a few feet in. This was the end. There was no way out.

The growl of the mantis reached him again, but this time Astolfo didn’t feel like he could move. Yet, his body dragged ahead, he crawled and clawed at the floor to go as far ahead as he could. It was not him alone, he had taken the young knight’s life too. He had absolutely no right to die here. He could not accept it. The mantis came ever closer, but Astolfo still continued ahead.

Soon, Astolfo reached his limit.

The boy fell down.

And woke up in a dream.