A/N: ^^What the dungeon looks like^^

  CLAP

  "Good m, css." Professor Redwood's voice rang through the dimly lit corridor, cutting through the idle murmurs. "As we begin to ehe dungeon, you will be joined by the rest of yraduating css. Furthermore, the rules of tour will be discussed ahead so please pay attention."

  Excitement crackled in the air amongst the students.

  "Are you guys ready?" Lilli grinned.

  "Y-yeah..but I'm a bit nervous, though. But I'm sure everything will be okay with Ryn here," Elnora muttered, gripping her sword haighter.

  Alex said nothing, keeping his usual smirk.

  The dungeon quickly swallowed us, a yawning of stone and crimson bricks stretched before us. As we stepped forward, the space opened up into a vast chamber, a stage sat in its ter, students already gathered—some seemed anxious while others vibrated with the lust of battle.

  "w-oah!," Elnora breathed, eyes wide at the t, arched ceiling.

  I caught her childlike wonder and smirked. Alex and Lilli stayed silent as we merged into the crowd. Then, a professor took the stage.

  "Quiet now, quiet!" He roared. "Wele to your first duour! I will not hold you here for long. Each party will have eighteen hours to desd to floor sixty. You are prohibited from going beyond that.. If you do you will be disqualified... and likely you could die. Checkpoints will be statio every floor."

  Then, he uhed his sword, sending a fme into the air.

  "Now may the tour BEGIN!"

  The room erupted into chaos.

  Students surged different ways, as they headed deep into the dungeon.

  "What's the pn?" Elnora looked up at me, as she uhed her bde. Lilli and Alex copied her mimig a battle stance.

  I drew my iron spell bde, its edge gleamed.

  "Simple. We go around."

  A smirk crept into my lips. These fools. There's always a way to drop floors.

  Since I reinated into this world, I've delved into dungeons many times, sin tless bosses than I t. But never—never have I read of a endless dungeon with a Dungeon Master.

  How exhirating.

  "e. Follow Me."

  The Phantoms trailed behind me as I extended my mana. A whisper ione occurred. Suddenly, the ulsed.

  CRACK—a hole ripped open, revealing an abyss.

  "D-don't tell me we have to go down that hole." Lilli gulped.

  I didn't answer, I stepped forward a myself fall.

  The bess swallowed me, the distant light faded away.

  Elnora followed, her voice eg my name as she casted levitation magic, closely behind her Alex and Lilli followed.

  The moment my boots hit the floor, the ground below me cracked. The others nded softly behind me.

  "We should be around the fifty-fifth floor," I grinned.

  I wao go deeper. But that would be for ter.

  "I hear something," Lilli hissed, summoning her fox spirits fht.

  The glow revealed a horde of ghouls that lurched toward us.

  "End them," I anded.

  "A-are you not going to help?" Lilli shot back.

  "No.... show me what you're capable of."

  Alex and Elnora wasted no time.

  Elnora's swordpy was elegant. Every strike was unique, her mana spiraling around her with fidence. Ghouls disied as roots shot out of them.

  Alex fought with precision—each swing imbued with fire which burnt the ghouls from the inside.

  I turo Lilli.

  "Look at them. But you're just standing here. Are you going to help?"

  Her hesitatioed as she jumped into the fray, reappearing like a phantom, tearing through the ghouls' bde and cws in hand.

  1,000 ghouls. Sughtered in moments.

  I cpped.

  "Nicely done."

  Lilli panted; blood spattered on her cheek. "I've never seen this many monsters before. How are you guys so calm!?"

  "You're right," Alex frowapping his . "A floor like this one should have at least the equivalent of the floor hus being fifty-five."

  "Mmm... you have a point," I added.

  Elnripped her sword, expet.

  "Nicely done, Elnora. You in particur did wonderfully."

  A smile bloomed from her face.

  "Now....now allow me to lead"

  I darted into the darkness.

  We walked for a few hours killing low tier monster until the—

  Monsters stirred. The air pulsed with death.

  "Two minotaur's ahead!"

  The Phantoms barely kept up. How amusing.

  As we burst into the chamber, I locked bdes with the one of the beasts. But something was different.

  Its—aura was boiling red.

  "Tch—rage magic?"

  It swung fast—I easily dodged it as its axe shattered the grouh me.

  "This must be the Dungeon Master's doing I yelled."

  Alex grinned wildly and tossed his sword aside.

  He wao fistfight it.

  How bold.

  He smmed the t beast, breaking its ribs as it reeled. Behind us—

  "More pany" Lilli shouted.

  A/N: ^^What the minotaur looks like^^

  Two more minotaur's appeared.

  "Oh, shi—"

  An axe flew toward Lilli, she barely teleported away.

  "Elnora" I barked.

  She lifted her sword, whispering an elven entment.

  Vied from the walls, ensnaring the minotaur's.

  "Yes, Entrap them"

  We then killed them as they were trapped.

  Four dark red magi stones remained in their pce.

  Lilli turo us.

  "You three have been hiding something from me. I want answers."

  I gripped the stone.

  "If you truly wish to know, stop asking meaningless questions."

  A voice whispered in my mind.

  "If she's unworthy of the truth.... kill her."

  "NO!" I growled

  The others stared.

  "It's nothing"

  Then—

  SCREAMING.

  Magic surged through the halls.

  "Let's go!" Lilli yelled as she darted away from us.

  We followed her as we sprinted down the halls.

  And emerged into a nightmare.

  A man with a white robe stood in the checkpoint room, holding a professor's severed head.

  Nearby, a badly beaten girl stood. Dead enraged monsters around her.

  She begun to whisper. Her golden mana swirling—

  "plete obedience."

  A/N: ^^What she looks like^^

  Her magic whipped toward the man—

  "You repulsive brat!" he roared, striking her across the face.

  "a!" Lilli shouted as she tried to teleport toward her.

  Suddenly, a disappeared.

  The man ughed. "Her death will be beled an unfortunate dungeon i—HAHAHA!"

  Lilli teleported.

  And reappeared behind him.

  CRACK. She kicked his skull downward with raw force.

  "How dare you!"

  She summoned her spirits.

  They swarmed him—

  And ripped him apart.

  That seems to easy.. I thought

  Blood spttered across her face. Her cold gaze met mine.

  ...Iing

  Then—

  The room trembled.

  We were teleported.

  And in the middle of floor sixty—

  A bight stood. His broadsword dripping of blood. Bodies of students and professors id around him.

  A/N: ^^What the Bight looks like^^

  a id, by his feet her body weak.

  Lilli barely had time to react before—

  BOOM.

  A mana bst sent her flying into the wall.

  Her body imprinted into stone.

  She staggered to stand. Then she fell.

  The knight's soulless gaze fell ohree of us.

  I grinned.

  Ahh, more bugs have swarmed in I, see? The Bight spoke.

  The Bights voice was deep, sharp like mithril scraping against stone. His armleamed uhe dim dungeon light, a walkiroyer, his presen anomaly.

  "I should thank you for killing that church heretic." He flexed his fingers, as if imagining them ed around someohroat. "He's stirred chaos in this sacred pce...thus this false princess here belongs to me. Her death will serve as a trophy for my people."

  Beside me, Elnora didn't flinch. Her mana surged, and thick, gnarled vines spiraled from the ground, f a protective barrier behind us. An aggressive defeance.

  "Ah...Elven magic." The Bight voice rumbled in amusement. "I haven't seen that spell sihe Dawn of the Elves. How fasating yirl."

  Suddenly, bck-crimson energy begun to around the knight, his aura calm and trolled, yet a. The way it was casted—it was different. Not wild like most, but refined, almost elegant. Like Elnora's. Like mine.

  We don't appreciate you hurting our friend.

  Alex stepped forward, his fist ched, his smirk defiant. The air cracked around his knuckles as mana surged through his muscles.

  I let my gaze drift toward the Knight. "You're the dungeon master, aren't you?"

  He titled his head slightly, then chuckled. "Is that what they call us now?" His voice carried arrogance. "I am Schutz, the Royal Crimson Protector of the true family of Idelia."

  "W-what nonsense—" a stammered.

  Before she could finish, Schutz pced his iron—cd boots against her bad pressed down. She cried out, her fingers scratg at the stoh her.

  "Who asked you to speak?"

  His crimson mana thied, unfurling into a heavy fog that g onto the walls. He summoned his first spell. With a slow, but deliberate motion, he raised his sword toward Elnora and uttered.

  "Der Vogt"

  A blur—a fsh of steel—the bde shot toward Elnora.

  Her maed, f a shield. G! The dungeon shook as magic met metal, and for the first time in Schutz life he hesitated.

  "Mhhh?" He exhaled, intrigued.

  Alex was quickly upon him. He lunged, fist blurring, striking with a uless for! BOOM! BOOM! Schutz raised a single arm to block it, his armor chipping away. Sparks danced in the air as the metal bent under Alex's assault.

  "AGH!" SCUM!" Schutz snarled.

  His knee—shot forward—a brutal knee kick ected to Alex's stomach.

  "GAH!" Alex gagged, doubling over, but he gritted his teeth—still swinging. His fist ected toward Schutz helmet the chamber banged like a war drum.

  "Should I help him?" Elnora asked me.

  "You may." I replied.

  Meanwhile Elnathered her mana near me. As I watched the battle take pce. Elnora's fingers grew a vibrant green as the air rippled around her infusing a mana arrow.

  She fired.

  A perfect shot.

  Schutz, without fling, caught it midair—his gau crackled with energy.

  And at that exaent he caught Alex's fist, stopping his barrage of punches.

  "The youth of today." Schutz mused, staring at the arrow as if it was nothing but a pything. "No respect for elders."

  With a siion, he drove the mana arrow into Alex's shoulder while bending back his other arm breaking it. –

  CRACK!

  Alex screamed. His body flung like a ragdoll, smming into the dungeon wall.

  And—then Schutz gaze on us.

  "Now it's your turn."

  Faster than I could blink – he shifted behind me.

  A fsh of crimson red.

  A surge of overwhelming power.

  Schutz sword desded. Fmes around the bde as he roared.

  "FEURER"

  Fire ighe air.

  I turned—watg the bde hurl toward Elnora.

  She gasped.

  And for the first time—I felt true despair.

  I saw my fallen rades in Phantom Force 1-46.

  Their bodies. Lifeless. Cold. But their faces once blurred repced with that of my party members in this life.

  And then—the voice. The ohat had whispered to me sihe beginning.

  The voice that was filled with narcissism.

  "They were weak. Like your rades before."

  "But now you have power. The means to firm your ideals."

  "Allow her to die."

  "The weak must suffer." "YOU'RE THE REAPER!" It yelled.

  My mind begun to spin as I pced my hands on my face a smile crept as tears ran down my face.

  Power surged through my veins, screaming, trying to take trol.

  The choice was mine.

  I REFUSE! I REFUSE! I REFUSE! I screamed cupping my face with my hands.

  A/N: ^^Ryn's rea to the situation^^

  Fshes of Elnora, Lilli, and Alex pyed in my mind. The images of the first year I met them. Me shaking Alex's hand and Lilli bumping into me around the er as she helped me pick up my books. The day I met Elnora in the orb.

  Then images of their lifeless bodies pyed in my mind. Then I was met with silence.

  I have made my decision.