The passage stank, a sour fog that clung like an old bruise. That smell would brand itself for life; one whiff would tug the chain of memory.

Hedi covered her nose, heart knotted like a rope in rain. She watched Evelyn’s slightly hunched back and pushed deeper, steps iron-solid.

“Is your arm okay?”

“For now.” Her voice drifted, thin like a phone through static. “Near the core, they might come out.”

“Who?”

“Bugs… little things, like grit under skin.”

Hedi felt dull and heavy, like an anchor stone under a beacon’s glow. She fumbled for words. “You said you were here once and Olivia attacked you?”

“She planted… little things… in my arm, like seeds of pain.”

“Hearing that, I’d rather not make Olivia my enemy. She’s a storm I’d avoid.”

They trudged for twenty, thirty minutes, time dripping like damp from the ceiling. By the wall’s green phosphor dust, Hedi saw a heavy shadow leaning ahead.

A rectangular silhouette cut clean, like a carved monolith in moss-light. It was the Investigator they met before, statue-still, tapering into endless dark.

“We’re close,” Evelyn said, voice a flint spark. “But I don’t hear anything. That’s strange.”

“The roaches?”

“Their skittering… and the Investigators’ wails.”

“No sign of Olivia.”

“Their target is the Dormant Core, so they’d meet Olivia. If not, why aren’t they attacking us?”

Unease pricked first, then thought followed like a lantern in fog. Hedi felt her way through the dim passage and whispered, “You said Olivia controls the roaches. From my last time in the Dark Realm, she’s likely watching us from the dark.”

“Because of you.”

“Smart.”

Evelyn hummed, light as a feather, yet in the sealed corridor it cracked like thunder. “Simple inference. I said Olivia kept some humanity. She didn’t strike at once because you escaped with Selina.”

“She thinks I’m Selina’s friend?”

“It’s the only angle that tracks.”

Hedi spoke before doubt could bloom. “Before you met me, you already knew Olivia kept some humanity?”

“I wanted to net monsters from the Dark Realm, like fishing in night water. I didn’t expect… she’s beyond the usual catch.”

“And after talking to me, you fixed on Olivia’s research value.”

“You both have strong research value.” Evelyn’s gaze slid to Hedi, sharp as a scalpel under green light. “You faced Dark Realm Erosion and showed no pain. Olivia endures headaches and endless whispers at her ear, yet stays human.”

“I won’t be your specimen.”

“So we grab Olivia.”

Hedi walked on in silence, mood heavy as clay. The floor no longer slick; it was ribbed and rough like pumice underfoot.

By the wall’s faint glow, she could make out windworn and scuffed textures, like nature’s careful chisel marks. Yet the Dark Realm allows human change; this was Olivia’s magic, a subtle reshaping of inside space.

As they went deeper, the passage narrowed, squeezing like a throat. Soon it fit only one foot at a time.

She had to turn sideways and hug the wall, body pressed like paper to stone. The wall’s countless holes, big and small, formed a honeycomb that made her scalp crawl like ants.

Disgust rose first, then thought scattered. Each time she slid past, Hedi pictured roaches poking out of those pores like black seeds sprouting.

Hedi sniffed hard, breath thin as a reed in wind. Her eyes followed Evelyn, who moved like a lizard in clothes, inch by inch through the squeeze.

“Feel it?” Evelyn asked, voice a wire pulled tight.

“The wall moved.”

A sound burst in the dark, like someone hoisted a slab of raw meat and slammed it down. It was wet and flat, like tide-soaked leather, and it reeked of malice.

Silence fell for a beat, like a piano pausing between notes. That gap felt filthy, a hush that crawled like mildew.

Hedi pressed to the wall, breath held like a trapped bird, waiting for the unseen to land.

Evelyn raised her arm toward the boundless dark. Her five knuckles stood out; her fingers twitched up like puppets on thin strings, and pressure rolled out invisible as mist.

Soon, thousands of fat roaches surged like a floodriver. They carried foul stench like rotten reeds and swarmed at the two pinned to the wall.

“Hear me,” Evelyn intoned, voice low as a bell in fog. “Let filth disperse, let force rise from dark. Let vermin falter and fail to climb. By magic’s might, let all return to calm.”

The chant dropped like stones, and magic wrapped her arm and burst. A black barrier swelled, pushing the roach tide back like a wave-buckler.

“Didn’t think you were an old-school Spellcaster,” Hedi murmured to the barrier, eyes snow-bright. “People once believed only chants woke the air’s flow of mana. With tech racing and systems refined, few chant now. Magic’s essence is energy’s interplay—emotion, mind, or ambient mana in the air.”

“Surprised?”

“A little. You didn’t chant when you controlled bodies.”

“I only chant in formal moments. It calms me, like incense before a storm.”

They met each other’s gaze, green glow soft as moss on stone. Evelyn’s eyebrows loosened, pain sliding off like dusk. Yet in that strange light her eyes went cold, a thin ice glazing a winter pond.

“Part of my emotions are gone,” Evelyn said, words clipped like frost shards. “I don’t feel anything.”

“The price of Dark Magic.”

“You could’ve helped me—”

“Forget it. Sacred Magic drains spirit directly, like fire drinking oil.”

Evelyn walked on, steps steady as drumbeats in deep caves.

Hedi followed, breath a thin ribbon trailing her. “What happens if we put the Dormant Core to sleep?”

“Restart.”

“Including Olivia?”

“The Dark Realm and monsters are joined by a mental tether, a thread like spider silk. Restart cuts it. If it works, the monster forgets everything before. Danger drops like a tide ebbing.”

“Last time you came, you wanted a restart?”

“Not until I learn how Olivia’s humanity knots to her memory.”

“So many monsters in the Dark Realm, yet only she keeps humanity.”

“Willpower… heh.” Evelyn’s smile was a thin blade. “Melvina, even as a monster, you’d likely keep yours.”

Hedi frowned, discomfort landing like cold rain. She listened to the roaches rasp over the barrier, then pressed forward.

“The door…” Evelyn stopped, then looked back at Hedi. “My barrier reached the door. Inside lies the Dark Realm Core.”

“I only see roaches, a crawling rug.”

“I need your magic.”

Hedi sighed, weary as a lantern near dawn, knowing a Spellcaster’s limits. Each can hold only so much power; we can’t defend and attack at once.

Stratford’s using defensive magic to hold the assault. That means only I can use Sacred Magic to clear the piled swarm.

After a sober breath, Hedi curled her fingers, gathering light like a pearl in a clam. As the power pooled, she signaled Evelyn to drop the barrier.

The instant it vanished, the light in her palm flared white, a sun bursting behind clouds. The blaze tore the dark like noon and burned the swarm to ash.

The door showed itself, seams hard as iron veins in stone.

“I thought you excelled only at general magic,” Evelyn said, a note of awe like wind in pines. “Didn’t expect Sacred Magic…”

“Keep moving. We’ll face Olivia soon.”

“You draw the attention.”

“Why me?”

“Because—your emotions surge in the Dark Realm like storm waves. And you just burned spirit, like a candle guttering.”

A force slid into Hedi’s body first, cold as water in bone. Then her legs moved toward the door, driven like reeds by a hidden current.

“Interesting,” Hedi said, mouth curling like a blade’s smile. “You still want my body under your hand.”

“It’s needed to pull Olivia out of the dark.”

“If she’s watching, she’ll read the board like a chessmaster.”

“Monsters working with humans—unheard of, like snow in summer.”

Hedi’s lips tugged into a knowing smile, quiet as moonlight. She turned to face Evelyn. “Good thing I never fully trusted you.”

“How— You were under my—” Evelyn’s mouth opened, eyes widening like glass under frost. “Dark Magic inside can’t be resisted. Why can you… turn?”

“Dynamic balance.”

“But I seized your emotional core, the heart-knot.”

“Yes.”

“That balance is impossible in this state!” Evelyn’s words struck like flint, sparking thought. “Keeping balance under Dark Magic’s erosion… You have the same magic I do!”

“Dark Magic.”

“Sacred Magic and Dark Magic are opposed like dawn and dusk… heh.” Her laugh scraped like dry leaves. “A witch bearing a child with a human… is that even possible?”

Hedi lifted her arm in silence, calm as a lake before wind. Rather than burn spirit and sink into blackout, she chose to bleed out a slice of emotion, a winter leaf, and teach Evelyn a lesson.