Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls-Chapter 142: He should be fine.

The sword went all the way through the core.

Silence.

For an eternal second, the Guardian stood still. Then, slowly, cracks began to spread across his armor. His body began to vibrate. And then... he collapsed into black dust, which was immediately absorbed by the source of living mana in the center of the room.

Kael staggered, leaning on the sword stuck in the ground. The golden aura around him flickered... and disappeared.

He almost fell.

Erika ran, limping, over to him. Her eyes were wide.

"You... you destroyed a Third Depth Guardian all by yourself..."

"Not alone," he smiled weakly. "You paved the way..."

She caught him before he fell.

"Kael... what was that? That power... that light..."

"I don't know." He closed his eyes for a second. "But it wasn't just mine..." He muttered, looking at Umbra, who shook her head in denial. Only now had she appeared, but she hadn't spoken a word.

'It was Ahri... wasn't it?" he asked and she shrugged her shoulders in confusion. She didn't know either.

"There's something down there... Something... older than this whole dungeon." Erika murmured as if she were extending her mana down there, sensing the atmosphere.

Erika looked around. The dracovampires had fled, as if the Guardian's death had broken their connection.

But the worst was not yet over.

The mana fountain in the center was now pulsing violently. The ground began to shake again, this time not like a heartbeat... but like convulsions.

"It's collapsing," Erika muttered. "The core of this chamber... has been affected by the Guardian's collapse. The structure is unstable."

Kael gritted his teeth. "We have to get out of here."

"We don't know the way."

"Then let's find one."

She helped Kael to his feet. They staggered towards the opposite side of the room, where a staircase emerged from the shadows, revealed after the dissipation of the dense mana. Steps carved straight into the black stone, covered in erased runes and fragments of what looked like fossilized bones.

They climbed, each step echoing like a countdown.

"Do you think this staircase leads up?" Erika asked, panting.

"No," Kael replied. "I think it takes us deeper."

She laughed, exhausted. "You're terrible at giving good news."

"But I'm great at keeping you alive."

She squeezed his arm tightly.

When they reached the top of the stairs, they found another door - huge, circular, with three rotating arcane locks. A rune flashed in the center, demanding blood.

Erika looked at Kael. "Your cuts... maybe..."

He held out his hand before she could finish.

A cut. A drop.

The rune glowed gold.

The door opened with the groan of ages.

On the other side, a cleaner, more... orderly corridor. As if they had crossed a barrier between savagery and lost civilization.

[Outside...]

Sunlight streamed over the devastated field in front of the dungeon entrance. But for the four girls kneeling there, all that remained was darkness.

"MASTER!!!" shouted Stella, her voice tearing at her throat. She slammed her closed fists against the huge stone that had sealed the entrance to the dungeon. Blood ran down her fingers, but she didn't even notice. "MASTER, ANSWER! ANSWER ME, PLEASE!"

Beside her, Irelia had run out of strength to scream. Tears flowed silently as she tried to push rocks that wouldn't budge. Her knees were bruised, her clothes dirty with dust and blood.

Amelia punched the wall, her face smeared with dirt, anger and pain.

"They... They were so close... Kael... He promised me he would come back... HE PROMISED!!!" she screamed, her voice choking. A sob cut off her cry, and she collapsed to her knees, hitting the rock again and again, as if she could, with sheer force of will, break the dungeon's seal.

Sylphie, by contrast, was trembling. She didn't scream. She just cried, silently, her shoulders shaking as she hugged one of the larger stones. "Kael... you... you couldn't..." Her voice was a broken whisper, more devastating than any scream.

The four of them were united by despair, by impotence. All their hands were bleeding. Their mana was unstable, useless, unable to affect the cursed rocks. No magic could recognize that kind of sealing. No force seemed capable of penetrating it. Only the pain... the pain grew.

Until a new presence appeared behind them.

A purple glow enveloped them. Silent. Calm.

The barrier rose in an instant... a translucent, perfectly spherical magic dome, enveloping all four of them. The sounds of the outside world fell silent. The wind ceased. The searing heat of the light was replaced by a cool, controlled breeze.

Lyra stood there.

Her gaze was steady. Silent. And deeply sad.

She walked to the edge of the barrier, her hand outstretched in the air, holding the spell. The rune of protection swirled in her palm, like a flower of light.

"You have to stop..." she said, her voice low but firm.

Stella turned around, her eyes wide with fury and tears.

"NO! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! MY MASTER IS IN THERE! I HAVE TO-"

"Stella." Lyra's voice didn't change, but it was like a wall. "If you go on... your hands will stop responding. And you won't be able to save anyone."

Irelia stared at her own hands. Blood was trickling between her fingers, and she was only now realizing that she had broken one of her nails trying to scratch the stone. Her gaze flickered. She fell to her knees, her body trembling.

Amelia tried to get up again, but staggered, exhausted.

"He... he stayed behind... and we... we just ran..." she muttered, hating herself.

"Kael told you to go," replied Lyra, crouching down in front of her. "He didn't ask. He ordered it. Because he knew what was coming. You did what he needed you to do."

Sylphie, still hugging the rock, leaned her forehead against it. "He saved us..."

"And he'll keep saving us," Lyra said, her gaze now turning to the center of the barrier. "But if you destroy yourselves here, everything he's done will have been for nothing."

A dense silence filled the space for a few seconds. Only the muffled sound of tears dripping onto the floor remained.

Stella squeezed her eyes shut and finally gave in, sliding down the stones until she was sitting on the ground with her arms crossed over her knees.

"...She was everything to me," she murmured. "More than a teacher... she was my light... my mother..."

Lyra bent down beside her, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. "And that's why you need to keep following that light. Even if it's far away now. They'll be back, just wait, okay?"

The barrier glowed softly. Not like a prison... but like a cocoon. A safe space where broken hearts could bleed without being crushed by the weight of the world.

Irelia rested her head on Amelia's lap, who was still trembling, and for the first time, Sylphie turned, looking at Lyra with pleading eyes. "Do you... do you think he's still alive?"

Lyra looked for a few seconds at the desperate girls who were waiting for an answer.

"...Kael is not like the others, he is the son of the craziest witch who ever lived and the grandson of the strongest witch who ever lived. And he was trained by one of them..." he said at last. "He doesn't die easily. Because his genes scream strength in everything he does. You know that... He's simply insane..."

She raised her eyes to the sky, feeling a distant presence.

A tremor of power.

Faint.

But real.

Like the echo of a roar trapped in layers and layers of stone.

"He's still fighting."

Hope, albeit faint, lit up in the eyes of the four girls.

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And while the magical barrier kept the pain in check, while their bloodied hands rested, for the first time since the door had closed... they were able to breathe.

Lyra looked at them, as if remembering something she had been through, a distant memory...

"Ah..." She sighed, "Let's take care of these wounds, shall we? We need time and let the principal know what's happened... and please... don't contact Elion Scarlet, okay? If she hears about this... I'm afraid the world will end." She muttered.