Fury charged straight toward us at a terrifying speed.
"YOU ARE NOT ESCAPING" he roared.
His voice echoed throughout the entire confiscation room.
"Why is he so fast?!" I shouted while hurriedly stepping back.
Eda clicked her tongue.
"Because he is extremely annoying."
"That is not a real explanation!"
Fury immediately raised his arm which transformed into a massive blade.
Then he struck.
BOOM.
The ground exploded in front of us.
I grabbed Luz by the arm and pulled her backward just before the attack could hit us.
Chunks of stone flew everywhere across the room.
King clung tightly to Luz's head.
"I AM TOO YOUNG TO DIE."
Even now they somehow found time to argue. Impressive.
Fury slowly advanced toward us.
Every step made the floor tremble.
"You humiliated me…" he said in a cold voice.
Ah.
Yeah he was really angry.
Very angry.
Eda stepped in front of us with a nervous smile.
"Haha… listen Fury, let's be reasonable—"
He attacked immediately.
"OKAY I TRIED" Eda shouted while barely dodging in time.
The wall behind her exploded apart.
I swallowed nervously.
No seriously.
This guy was terrifying.
Meanwhile, Luz was staring at the blue beam in the center of the room.
Then suddenly her eyes lit up.
Oh no.
I knew that look.
It was the "I have an idea" look.
And with Luz, that kind of look was dangerous.
Very dangerous.
"Eda" she suddenly said. "Can you distract him for a few seconds?"
Eda dodged another strike before grinning.
"Kid, I've been doing this for years."
She immediately rushed toward Fury.
Magic circles appeared all around her while she bombarded Fury with spells.
Explosions.
Light.
Fire.
The entire hallway seemed to shake from their attacks.
Meanwhile, Luz turned toward me.
"I need your help."
Me?
"Huh? Why?"
"Because you can use ice magic."
…Ah.
I was seriously starting to regret showing her that so early.
"Okay but what's the plan?"
Luz pointed toward the blue beam.
"If we overload the system with enough ice magic… maybe we can temporarily block it."
I blinked.
"But what would blocking it even do?"
"Well if we block it at just the right moment, we could trap Fury inside it. And since a demon can't enter the barrier… then he shouldn't be able to leave it either."
…Wait.
That actually made sense.
"You're a genius."
She immediately smiled proudly.
"I know."
King dramatically raised his arms.
"Finally someone recognizes my intellectual greatness."
"I wasn't talking about you."
A huge crash exploded behind us.
Fury had just slammed Eda into a wall.
Okay.
No more time to talk.
"Hurry" I said.
Luz nodded and ran toward the blue beam.
…Okay in reality all my cards were already gone.
I used my last one during our fight against Fury.
Damn it.
If this failed, we were doomed.
No pressure.
Absolutely no pressure at all.
Well… technically I do not necessarily need cards to use my glyphs.
As long as I can draw them, it should still work.
The only problem was that I literally had nothing to draw with.
The floor was made of obsidian. There was nothing I could use to carve the glyphs.
And on top of that, to overload the system I would probably need more than just one glyph.
Meanwhile, Luz had already reached the blue beam.
She looked completely determined.
Damn it.
This was no longer the time for thinking.
It was time to act.
Luz stopped right in front of the blue beam.
The light illuminated her face as she carefully observed the magical mechanism.
Meanwhile, I stood behind her, watching the scene unfold in front of me.
Okay.
No stress.
If this fails, Fury will probably turn us into wall decorations.
Very reassuring.
"So?" I asked. "Do you actually have a plan this time or are we improvising again?"
Luz placed her hands on her hips with a nervous smile.
"A little bit of both."
Of course.
Obviously.
Behind us, a huge explosion echoed through the room.
Eda literally crashed through a wall before slamming onto the ground.
"Owww… okay yeah, I felt that one" she groaned.
Fury slowly walked through the smoke and debris.
He looked even angrier than before.
Which was honestly impressive.
"You are seriously starting to exhaust my patience" he said coldly.
King pointed at Fury dramatically.
"And you are exhausting the room's oxygen with your depressing attitude."
Silence.
Even Fury seemed confused for a second.
"…What?"
"I'm improvising" King replied proudly.
Luz took a deep breath before turning toward me.
"When I tell you, use all your ice on the beam."
"All my ice?"
"Yes."
I looked down at my hands.
I was out of cards.
The gigantic magical beam stood right in front of me.
Damn it.
I couldn't exactly tell her that I could no longer use ice magic.
Right now she already seemed really impressed by me. If I kept this up, I would leave a deep impression on her, and for my future plans, I needed her to have a very good image of me.
And this was the perfect moment.
But I couldn't use my glyphs without cards.
And with a floor like this, no dirt, only solid obsidian, it was impossible to draw anything.
How the hell was I supposed to get out of this situation?
…This was going to end badly.
Very badly.
Fury suddenly raised his gigantic arm.
"Enough wasting time."
Oh no.
Luz immediately shouted:
"NOW!"
But at that exact moment, Fury hurled a gigantic rock toward us.
"WATCH OUT!" I shouted while pushing Luz down.
King got thrown backward and landed farther away on the ground.
The boulder slammed into the wall beside us.
At that moment, we heard cracking sounds.
A giant crack spread across the wall all the way to the ceiling.
BOOM.
Part of the roof collapsed.
Oh no.
I was lying on the ground beside Luz with no time to escape.
I could only grit my teeth as massive rocks crashed down on top of us with a terrifying rumble.
BRRRRUUUUUM.
Then suddenly… silence.
"LUZ!" Eda screamed while still fighting Fury.
Without hesitation, she rushed toward the collapsed rubble.
But at that exact moment, Fury appeared behind her, his arm transformed into a blade as he tried to slash her.
"Where do you think you're going, Owl Lady?"
Eda blocked the attack with her staff.
"FURY!" she shouted with deep resentment.
An enormous anger could be seen on Fury's face.
Meanwhile, King, who had luckily escaped the collapse, slowly got back up.
His head was spinning.
He stared at the place where we had been standing only seconds ago, now completely buried under rocks.
"Oh no… guys!"
He immediately rushed toward the rubble.
"Hang on!"
Meanwhile, inside the collapsed debris, silhouettes could barely be seen.
"Agh… this hurts like hell."
A small rock had fallen onto my arm, but luckily it was not too heavy.
Seriously.
Why does everything always go wrong?
I let out a tired sigh.
"Huh…?"
But where was Luz?
After the collapse, both of us got separated.
Then suddenly a horrible thought crossed my mind.
No.
Don't tell me she's trapped under all these rocks.
"Oh no no no… Luz? LUZ WHERE ARE YOU?"
I hurried through the narrow spaces between the rubble.
Dust still filled the air, making it difficult to see anything clearly.
No… don't tell me something happened to her…
Just as I thought that, I heard something.
Soft sobbing.
Behind me through the dust.
That was Luz's voice.
Something happened.
I rushed toward the sound of the crying.
The closer I got, the louder it became.
And then I saw her.
She was sitting against a rock, her face buried in her crossed arms.
"Why can't I ever do anything right…"
I froze for a moment.
She sounded completely broken.
"Luz… are you okay?" I asked carefully.
She answered without lifting her head.
"Oh yeah, I'm doing GREAT. I just trapped us inside a cave-in with no way out while Eda is probably risking her life out there because of me. All because I thought my plan could help, but I just made everything worse."
"Luz…"
I slowly walked over and sat beside her.
"Don't say that."
Honestly, I was terrible at comforting people.
But seeing Luz like this… nothing good would come from leaving her alone.
Luz was not the kind of person who gave up this easily.
I couldn't let her stay like this.
"Me? Exceptional?" she laughed bitterly. "Stop saying nonsense. To everyone else I'm just a weird girl who does weird things. Someone nobody wants to be around. In the end they were all right. I'm just some strange girl who thought she could change things. I couldn't even save the prisoners. I'm… I'm useless. And now because of me we're trapped here while everyone else risks their lives. Maybe I should just stay quiet and stop being a burden to everyone…"
Hearing her say that reminded me of myself back at the orphanage.
Alone. Rejected.
Treated like I was strange just because I was different.
But what was wrong with being different?
"Luz… you say you're a burden, but honestly I think you're the exact opposite."
She slowly lifted her head toward me.
"You always give one hundred percent in everything you do. And it shows."
She stared at me silently.
"How would you even know that?"
"Because… because I always watched the things you did. The theater play, your classes… you always added your own personal touch to everything and put your whole heart into it. That's why I always thought you were incredible. Even when people criticized you and called you weird, you never stopped doing what you loved. And that's what matters."
Luz's eyes widened.
"H-how do you know all that? The only way you could know would be…"
She froze.
"No… impossible…"
…Okay.
This was the moment.
I slowly placed my hand on my hood while looking directly into her eyes.
"Actually, Luz…"
I lowered my hood.
And immediately her eyes widened in complete shock.
"Luz… I'm human. Just like you."
"W-what?"
"You and I went to the same school. For a while, we were even in the same class."
Her expression became even more confused.
She looked completely speechless.
"And honestly? We're not trapped here at all."
I grabbed a small rock from the ground.
"With all this dust around us after the collapse… this should work."
Around us, debris and dust covered everything.
Unlike before, now I finally had enough material to draw a glyph.
Luz silently watched me with complete focus.
Her gaze had clearly changed.
I finished drawing the glyph on the ground before turning toward her.
"Oh and Luz?"
She blinked.
"I may be human… but unlike everyone else…"
I crouched down and tapped the glyph on the floor.
"As you probably realized by now…"
The symbol suddenly lit up brightly.
"I can use magic."
POOOOF.
An enormous wave of ice exploded forward, blasting away the rubble surrounding us.
The floor instantly froze solid.
The ice climbed along the blue beam like a frozen serpent.
The system's light began flickering dangerously.
Luz stared at the scene in complete amazement.
At that moment, only one word crossed her mind.
Extraordinary.
This person was simply extraordinary.
Her eyes sparkled brightly.
"Come on… come on… please work…" I muttered hopefully.
The blue beam flickered violently as the magical circle became unstable.
Blue sparks burst everywhere across the room.
Fury immediately noticed what was happening.
"NO!" he roared.
He charged toward us at full speed.
But too late.
Eda tried to stop him with a spell, but Fury shattered the magic circle instantly.
Oh no. Not again.
Then suddenly—
CRACK.
The blue beam shattered.
Time itself seemed to stop for a second.
Then all the light exploded.
BOOOOOOM.
A massive shockwave tore through the entire room.
Confiscated objects flew everywhere.
Fury was violently blown backward.
So was I.
I slammed against the floor with Luz behind me while King, who had tried to lift the rubble with his tiny hands, got launched away by the explosion.
"Agh…"
Smoke now filled the entire room.
I coughed several times before slowly lifting my head.
"Did… did it work?" I whispered.
Through the smoke, a silhouette staggered unsteadily.
Fury.
"No… not again…" I muttered.
But then suddenly Eda appeared behind him and slammed her staff violently against his head.
He immediately collapsed to the ground.
"Yes… YES FINALLY!" I shouted joyfully.
Then through the smoke…
A small crown fell from above.
Right into the pile of scattered objects.
King, still dazed from the explosion, noticed it.
He stared at the crown for a moment.
Then slowly raised his head with shining eyes.
"MY CROWN!"
He ran toward it immediately.
He hugged the crown tightly like it was the greatest treasure in existence.
Eda burst out laughing despite everything.
"Well not bad, kid."
"All this for a piece of cardboard" I said while laughing tiredly.
"A LEGENDARY PIECE OF CARDBOARD" King corrected dramatically.
I let out a long sigh of relief followed by laughter.
"Hahahah…"
…It's over.
It's finally over.
Then suddenly, I felt a hand rest on my shoulder.
I swallowed nervously.
I slowly turned around.
Luz stood there staring at me with a determined look.
"You."
She pointed directly at me.
"You and I need to talk."
…Yeah.
Turns out it was not over at all.