The stairwell curved upward, but the air only grew worse.
It felt like climbing into a dying lung—wet, warm, and too quiet. Muck slicked the walls. The stone underfoot was soft with moss and something darker. With each step, the scent of rot thickened until it clung to their skin like oil.
Chains moved ahead, shoulders tight, her boots slapping through shallow puddles.
Blue followed in silence. Not because she was calm. Her jaw was clenched, her gaze fixed forward—but her hands hovered near her sides, fingers twitching slightly each time the floor shifted underfoot. She hadn't said a word since the last door closed behind them.
The corridor opened into a circular chamber.
The walls were lined with growth—black mold creeping through split stone, rusted fungus blooming like old scars. The floor dipped into a shallow basin where five stone pedestals circled a drain clogged with what looked like congealed sewage. At the far end, a heavy door loomed. No handle. Just a rusted wheel set into the frame, and five thin channels carved into the floor, leading back toward the center ring.
Chains stepped forward first, eyes sweeping over the pedestals. "Symbols," she muttered. "Five of them. Five grooves to the door."
Blue crouched near the nearest pedestal. The stone was wet, the grooves filled with old filth, but the runes were still visible beneath the grime.
"Flame. Water. Lightning. Stone. Wind," she said quietly.
Each pedestal had a slot below the rune. Deep enough for a hand. The channels leading away from them looked like they were designed to glow—etched shallowly into the floor, tracing paths toward the locked door.
Chains exhaled slowly. "No clear instructions."
"No. But it's a cycle," Blue said, a little more firmly than she'd intended. Her voice still wavered.
Chains looked over. "You good?"
Blue hesitated. Then nodded once. "Trying."
Chains didn't push further. She turned back to the puzzle. "Stone feels like a safe starting point. Nothing flammable about rocks."
She pressed her palm into the stone pedestal's slot.
The grooves vibrated.
Then a hiss echoed from the wall behind them. A seam split open.
Chains took a single step back as a thick, sloshing shape rolled out of the dark. A slime, large but faster than it seems, its body rippling with acidic sheen. The floor beneath it hissed and darkened as it moved.
"That wasn't it," Chains muttered.
The slime surged forward.
Blue flinched—but didn't freeze this time. "Water. Next try, we start with water."
Chains nodded, falling into a low stance. "Then figure out what comes after. I've got this one."
She rushed in before Blue could say anything else.
The chain around her wrist cracked like a whip as it snapped across the slime's side. It split open—but the pieces clung to the stone, reassembling in seconds. Acid sprayed out from the point of contact. Chains jumped back, but not fast enough—flecks of burning fluid landed on her sleeve and wrist.
She grit her teeth and pulled the chain tighter.
Behind her, Blue moved fast.
She pressed the water pedestal first. The groove lit—faintly.
Then she crossed to fire.
Her hand hesitated—but only for a second.
She pressed it.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then another hiss.
A second wall opened.
Chains didn't look back. "Still wrong?"
Blue stepped back from the pedestal. "Flame after water. Doesn't make sense."
Chains lashed her chain again, catching the second slime before it reached the pedestal ring. Her swing knocked it into the far wall—but the acid splash that followed struck her forearm cleanly this time.
She bit down hard on a shout and tore the chain free from her wrist before the links could melt through completely.
"Chains are done," she grunted.
Blue was already moving back toward the first pedestal.
"Water doesn't destroy stone," she said under her breath. "It wears it down. Water, then stone. Then…"
Her eyes tracked the lines on the floor. "Wind."
Chains dragged her arm against her shirt, smearing off what acid she could. Her skin stung—deep, sharp—but she didn't let go of the chain fragment. What was left of it hung loosely in her hand, scorched black at the ends.
One of the slimes was dissolving already, too damaged to hold itself together. But the other pulsed brighter, thickening as it rolled forward.
Blue pressed her palm into the water pedestal again. The groove lit.
"Stone next," she said, more sure now. "Water erodes stone. That's the start."
Chains didn't reply—she was too busy circling the slime, waiting for it to expose a softer side. Its movements were more erratic now, reacting to the light flaring up behind it.
Blue moved quickly.
Water. Stone.
Then wind.
The grooves brightened with each step. The channels lit in sequence, glowing pale blue beneath the slime-damp floor.
"Wind spreads debris," she said, more to herself than Chains. "Storms form in wind currents. Lightning comes next."
She touched the fourth pedestal. Lightning.
The glow flared like fire catching a dry wick.
The last slime lunged.
Chains dodged hard to the right and swung wide—her burned arm jerking the chain stub like a hook. It caught the creature in its core, but not before another spray of acid burst from its surface and splattered across her leg.
She dropped to one knee, gritting her teeth. Her skin hissed under the fabric.
Blue moved to the final pedestal, breathing faster now.
"Lightning starts fires," she whispered. "It has to end with fire."
Her hand pressed the last rune.
The grooves blazed white.
All five pedestals pulsed.
And at the far end of the chamber, the rusted wheel in the door began to turn.
Chains staggered back, watching the last slime melt into a bubbling heap of acidic sludge.
The room fell quiet.
Only the sound of steam and the slow grind of the unlocking mechanism echoed through the wet dark.
Chains lowered the chain fragment in her hand. Her arm was red, angry with burns, but the worst was already done.
Blue stepped toward her, hesitated, then offered her hand.
Chains looked at it. Then at her.
"…Thanks," she muttered, pulling herself upright without using it.
Blue didn't seem offended. She simply nodded and walked toward the door.
Chains followed, limping slightly.
They didn't speak as the door creaked open fully, revealing another passage beyond—this one darker, narrower, colder.
But they walked into it together, shoulder to shoulder.
Not because they trusted each other yet.
But because, for now, they were all they had