Owen didn't scream when he fell.
He didn't flail.
He just dropped.
Through splintering beams.
Through dust and shattered stone.
Through the hollow bones of the guild hall.
Then, a splash.
He landed in water.
Cold.
Ankle-deep.
The ceiling above where he fell from was hidden in the darkness.
Darkness swallowed everything.
For a moment, there was nothing but his breathing.
Slow.
Controlled.
The only light came from faint red veins pulsing along the walls.
Owen started walking.
Seishi was already in his hand.
He hadn't drawn it.
It was just… there.
The water rippled outward in perfect circles.
Then suddenly a voice echoed.
"You're quieter than I expected."
Torches ignited along the circular chamber.
Stonehaven's underbelly was not sewer or cave.
It was constructed.
Ancient stone pillars.
Carved sigils.
Mana channels running like arteries along the floor.
At the center was Cyrus.
No cloak now.
No warmth in his eyes.
Just calm calculation.
Behind him stood three figures in dark coats.
Not mercenaries.
Not civilians.
Knights.
Owen recognized one.
A veteran who had trained him once in the old guild yard.
The man didn't meet his eyes.
Betrayal doesn't always smirk.
Sometimes it just looks tired.
Cyrus stepped forward slowly.
"You're taking your sweet time," he said. "do you really think you can take us on?"
Owen didn't respond.
His mana was flaring less than before.
It was compressed tight around him like a second skin.
The water around his boots began to steam faintly.
Cyrus then gestured toward the red veins in the walls.
"You see, Stonehaven was chosen for a reason. Its foundation sits atop a large dormant mana vein. Stable. Deep. Perfect for cultivation."
He tapped the side of his temple.
"Mana beasts and humans are inefficient naturally compared to other speies like elves, beastkins, and dragons. But if you accelerate their mana core evolution artificially using a stabilizing core, you can produce something far more useful much more powerful much more magnificent."
"Magnificent," Owen repeated flatly.
"Yes."
Cyrus smiled faintly.
"Living weapons."
Silence.
Owen's fingers tightened around Seishi.
"You used the guild."
"Of course."
"You used the mercenaries."
"Yes."
No denial.
No hesitation.
Just confirmation.
The chamber felt smaller.
"You needed field data," Owen said quietly.
Cyrus tilted his head slightly.
"And you and your dead friends were exceptional data."
One of the three knights shifted uncomfortably.
Owen's gaze flicked to him.
The man finally spoke.
"It was supposed to be controlled."
Owen didn't answer him.
He only looked at Cyrus.
"And my party?"
A pause.
Then...
"Collateral."
Something in the air changed.
The red veins along the walls dimmed slightly.
Cyrus studied him.
"Interesting."
Owen took one step forward.
The water didn't ripple.
It froze.
Not ice.
Stillness.
Absolute.
"You're angry?"
Owen's expression was unreadable.
"No."
Cyrus's eyes narrowed.
"Good. Rage clouds judgment."
Owen raised Seishi slowly.
"I'm fuming."
The torches flickered.
The three knights drew their blades.
Cyrus lifted one hand.
The sigils on the floor ignited.
Mana chains burst upward from the water wrapping around Owen's arms, legs, torso.
Binding.
Sealing.
he exhaled lightly.
"You're valuable. Killing you would be wasteful."
The chains tightened.
They hummed.
Draining.
Testing.
Then something pulsed.
Not violently.
Softly.
Seishi suddenly floated up right before Owen.
Owen eyes widen as the blade hummed violently. Suddenly, the words 'Blade of the Fallen' appeared burning itself on the metal as it glowed.
The chains trembled.
The water around Owen began pulling inward toward him.
Not draining.
Responding.
Cyrus's eyes sharpened.
"Ah."
He stepped back slightly.
"A spatial ability."
The water vanished.
Not evaporated.
Gone.
Appearing above the chamber ceiling in a perfect suspended sphere.
The chains snapped.
Not broken.
Displaced.
Owen grabbed his blade by the hilt calmly.
He didn't rush.
Didn't charge.
He simply moved.
And vanished.
The first knight swung instinctively.
His blade met air.
A black arc passed through him.
Clean.
Precise.
He collapsed without a sound.
The second knight lunged.
Owen reappeared inside his guard.
One palm to the chest.
The man flew backward as if struck by an invisible wall.
The third hesitated.
That was enough.
Seishi flashed.
Silence.
Three bodies.
Still.
Cyrus didn't panic.
He stepped back toward the central pillar.
"Consider me impressed."
Owen stopped ten paces away.
"You talk too much."
He fingers pressed against the pillar.
The red veins along the chamber walls flared violently.
"You still don't understand your position."
The entire underground structure trembled.
From deeper below.
A pulse.
Louder than before.
Cyrus smiled faintly.
"You destroyed a prototype beast."
The floor beneath him began to split open.
"You have no idea how many human experiments I created and out of the many I worked on, only three were perfected."
The chamber shook.
"You've already met one. Actually they should be getting to you're new friends right now." Cyrus laughed.
Above ground, the crater in the square cracked wider.
Glauderia felt it instantly.
"…There's another."
Lucius' expression darkened.
"Maybe more than one."
Zach's grin disappeared completely.
Back below, the stone floor beneath Owen collapsed again.
This time not a trap.
An opening.
A descent shaft spiraling deeper into red-lit abyss.
Cyrus stepped backward into it.
"You want answers?"
He vanished into the dark.
"Come and get them."
The abyss below pulsed once.
Slow.
Hungry.
Owen stared into it.
Then stepped forward but didn't fall this time.
He walked.
Step after step into the abyss.
No hesitation.
No breathing change.
No sound except boots against ancient stone.
The spiral tunnel widened the deeper he went. The red veins along the walls thickened, pulsing like arteries feeding something massive below.
Then the path opened.
An underground temple.
Massive pillars carved with distorted angels and kneeling figures. Chains hung from the ceiling like ribs of a beast. At the center, a wide obsidian platform.
And lining both sides, were rows.
Dozens of them.
No—
Hundreds of hooded figures.
Still.
Waiting.
At the far end, elevated on a throne carved from black stone and embedded with red cores—
Cyrus.
No longer the warm Guildmaster.
No longer pretending.
He leaned back casually, one leg crossed over the other, chin resting on his knuckles.
He smiled.
"Welcome," he said softly, voice echoing across the vast chamber. "To the Temple of Despair."
Owen stood at the entrance.
His face was blank.
Not grief.
Not fury.
Just empty.
Cyrus studied him carefully.
"You will either escape alive," He paused. "Or changed."
No reply.
Cyrus continued, voice smooth as silk.
"I'll spare you theatrics. You have a choice."
The hooded figures remained motionless.
"Join us. I'll personally put in a recommendation to my commander. With your compatibility, you won't just be a soldier. You'll be a weapon."
His smile widened slightly.
"Or…"
The red cores embedded in the throne flickered.
"You die here. Along with those Oriana knights scrambling above."
A small pause.
Owen tilted his head slightly.
Then smirked.
Slow.
Unsettling.
His eyes widened just a little.
Not madness.
Hunger.
"Are you gonna use these idiots to kill me?" Owen asked calmly.
His voice echoed unnaturally in the chamber.
Cyrus' smile thinned.
Owen's gaze swept across the rows of hooded figures.
"It's gonna take more than a few hundred lousy mercenaries."
His eyes snapped back to Cyrus.
"You remember who I was, right?"
The air shifted.
"I was above S-rank without mana."
A few of the hooded figures twitched.
"One of the very few in this world."
Cyrus leaned forward slightly.
"Do you take me for a dumbass?"
Owen didn't answer.
Cyrus raised one hand lazily.
"Lift your restrictors."
Silence.
Then...
BOOM.
The entire underground hall detonated with pressure.
Mana.
Pure, dense, suffocating mana exploded outward from every hooded figure.
The stone cracked.
The pillars trembled.
Red cores embedded in their chests began to glow beneath their robes.
Cyrus threw his head back and laughed.
Maniacal.
Echoing.
"Mindless prototypes beast weren't cutting it for me!"
The laughter stopped abruptly.
His eyes sharpened.
"So I improved."
He stood from the throne.
"I merged the prototype cores with humans."
The hooded figures slowly lifted their heads.
Eyes glowing red beneath shadow.
"Stable. Strong. Obedient."
He began walking down the steps of the throne.
"I even offered the opportunity once before."
A pause.
Owen's fingers tightened around Seishi.
"I asked Lysa."
The air changed.
"I promised her absolute power. A place above kings."
Cyrus scoffed.
"She called me insane."
He chuckled.
"Ungrateful bitch."
The word barely left his mouth...
When Owen twitched.
Not flinch.
Not step.
A twitch.
The temperature in the chamber dropped.
Cyrus noticed.
A grin spread across his face.
"There it is."
Owen's voice came out low.
"Bring it on."
The torches blew out.
"You bastard."
Seishi began to hum.
The etched characters along its blade glowed.
But.
That wasn't the only thing glowing.
Owen stopped holding back.
All the holding back no longer mattered now, he was going to crush Cyrus and make him suffer.
BOOM.
Black mana flooded outward like a tidal wave.
Not chaotic.
Not unstable.
Heavy.
Oppressive.
The twisted form from before emerged but different.
Sharper.
Clearer.
The darkness didn't crawl wildly around him.
It flowed through him along the blade.
Resonating.
Seishi pulsed in sync with his heartbeat.
Blade and wielder.
One rhythm.
Cyrus' smile faded just slightly.
"…Interesting."
The hooded figures shifted into battle stance.
Owen lowered his head slightly.
When he looked up...
His eyes were no longer sane.
They were filled with madness.