The malformed guardians rushed them all at once.
The corridor erupted into motion as dozens of pale masks burst through the darkness, their bodies twisting unnaturally across the stone. Black flesh rippled beneath torchlight like liquid shadow while claws scraped against the floor in a storm of metallic shrieks.
The clicking started again, sharp and rapid.
From every direction at once.
Cana felt her pulse spike instantly.
"There's too many of them!" she shouted, backing closer toward Kai as she pulled several cards between her fingers. "How many of these things even exist?!"
Kai didn't answer immediately.
His eyes swept across the corridor ahead, calm and calculating despite the swarm closing in around them.
Running blindly through the ruins wouldn't work. Not anymore.
The tunnels twisted endlessly. Pathways split without pattern. Worse, these creatures knew the terrain better than they did.
They were being herded.
"And standing still gets us killed," Kai replied flatly.
The first creature lunged.
Kai moved before Cana even fully registered it.
He stepped aside with minimal movement, pivoting around the guardian's claws before driving his knee upward into its torso.
The impact detonated through the corridor.
The creature flew backward like it had been struck by a cannon, crashing through several others hard enough to splatter dark fluid across the walls.
Kai narrowed his eyes slightly. Not as durable as the large guardian although still dangerous and still very fast.
Another creature came from the left, claws aimed straight for his throat.
Kai caught the strike with his left arm. Cana saw his muscles tense from the impact, cracks splintering beneath his boots as the force shoved him back half a step.
Then his elbow came down. A brutal crack echoed through the corridor.
The creature's skull collapsed instantly beneath the blow. But the moment its body hit the floor, three more were already airborne.
Too fast for ordinary mages.
Kai rolled beneath them smoothly, shadows sliding beneath his feet as the creatures smashed into the wall behind him—and suddenly they were directly in front of Cana.
"Oh, come on!"
She jerked a card upward instinctively but next moment black wrappings burst through the air before she could react.
Kai's arm wraps lashed around the creatures like living restraints, binding limbs and throats before snapping tight.
"Get back here."
He yanked hard.
The guardians were ripped backward mid-lunge and slammed into the others behind them with enough force to send the entire pack crashing across the corridor floor.
Stone cracked violently beneath the impact.
For one brief second, everything stilled.
Then the creatures twitched . Their bones shifted. Broken limbs jerked back into place with wet, sickening cracks.
Kai stared at them for a moment before sighing tiredly.
"…Of course they regenerate."
Cana didn't waste the opening.
"Card magic: Flame Card!"
Fire roared through the narrow passageway in a violent wave, swallowing the guardians whole.
Heat exploded outward. Smoke flooded the corridor. But even through the flames, she could feel it.
The drain. The ruins were still feeding on their magic.
Her flames looked weaker than they should have.
The creatures stumbled through the fire anyway burning and smoking but still moving.
Cana cursed under her breath.
"God, I really picked the worst possible week to stay sober." She pulled another card free irritably. "I should've brought alcohol."
Kai, still focused on the approaching swarm, answered in a completely emotionless voice. "At least you wouldn't realize you died."
Cana stared at him.
"…Was that supposed to make me feel better?"
But Kai was already moving again. Reinforcement magic surged violently through his body, steam curling from his skin as he launched himself directly into the horde.
"Follow me."
He hit the front line like a battering ram.
One guardian exploded sideways from the force of a shoulder check powerful enough to crack the wall behind it.
Another lunged toward him—
Kai caught it by the face and slammed it into the floor hard enough to crater the stone beneath them.
A third dropped from the ceiling. Kai spun low his heel crushing through the it's jaw before driving the creature backward into the others behind it.
The corridor dissolved into chaos.
Clicking shrieks echoed against ancient stone. Black blood splattered across glowing runes.
Cana sprinted after him, weaving through the collapsing swarm while trying desperately to keep pace.
"How do you even fight like this?!" she shouted while dodging a claw that narrowly missed her shoulder.
Kai ducked beneath another attack. "Two tablespoons of training and obsession daily."
Honestly, that explained far too much.
Another guardian launched itself from the wall toward Cana but Kai caught it midair and hurled it backward like a projectile into the rest of the pack.
"Move."
Cana immediately accelerated again.
The tunnels twisted endlessly around them.
Left turn.
Right turn.
Down another descending passage lined with glowing runes and black crystal.
The deeper they went, the less the ruins resembled ruins at all. The walls had become too smooth and too deliberate.
Ancient stone merged seamlessly with dark crystal threaded beneath the surface like veins through flesh. Massive rune formations pulsed through the structure in slow rhythmic waves.
The entire place felt alive Or mechanical.
Maybe both.
More guardians kept appearing from cracks in the walls. From the ceiling. From narrow openings beneath the floor itself.
The clicking followed them everywhere.
Cana's lungs burned now. Every breath came harder than the last.
"Kai!" she shouted. "Where are we even going?!"
"To the core."
Another creature lunged.
Kai tore through it without slowing down. "Fighting these things forever is pointless."
Then he accelerated again.
Cana glared at his back while forcing herself to keep running. "I seriously hate how fast you are."
Clicking erupted behind her.
Too close.
She immediately regretted slowing down and sprinted harder.
The corridors blurred together into an endless maze of glowing stone and twitching shadows.
Then finally—
She rounded another corner and froze. Guardian bodies littered the floor, broken masks, crushed limbs.
Black fluid smeared across the walls and glowing runes.
And standing in the center of it all was Kai.
Breathing harder now and slightly hunched.
Steam curled faintly from his body as his reinforcement magic flickered unevenly across his muscles.
He looked genuinely exhausted.
Cana slowed beside him carefully. "…You okay?"
Kai glanced sideways at her. Then smirked faintly. "Sometimes I wonder why people have eyes if they're not going to use them."
Cana narrowed her eyes at him.
Then one of the nearby corpses twitched.
Clicking echoed again somewhere deeper within the tunnels.
More incoming.
Kai's expression flattened immediately. "No resting for the weak, well we're close anyways. Move."
Before she could complain, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward again.
"Kai—!"
"No time."
The ruins changed again as they descended deeper. The stone here no longer looked ancient. It looked engineered.
Massive rune formations pulsed beneath translucent black crystal embedded through the walls, floor, and ceiling. Mana flowed visibly through the structure itself in glowing currents.
It felt less like exploring ruins and more like standing inside the remains of some colossal underground machine.
The clicking behind them intensified.
A claw narrowly missed Cana's shoulder. Kai caught the creature instantly and smashed it headfirst into the wall without breaking stride.
"Focus."
"I AM focusing!"
Another turn.
Another corridor.
Then suddenly light. An opening stretched ahead.
Both of them accelerated immediately.
Behind them, the guardians erupted into a frenzy, clicking violently as they rushed after them.
Kai jumped first.
The corridor ended abruptly at the edge of a massive chasm descending into darkness below.
Cana's stomach lurched.
Kai landed cleanly on the opposite side and turned immediately.
"Jump!"
She didn't hesitate. Her boots barely caught the edge before she rolled hard across the floor with a painful curse.
Behind them, the guardians surged toward the gap.
Kai was already moving. He drove his foot into the wall beside the opening.
The impact thundered through the chamber.
The entire entrance collapsed inward instantly.
Stone and debris crashed into the abyss below, sealing the passage beneath tons of rubble.
The clicking became muffled beneath the destruction.
For now.
Silence finally returned. Cana remained sprawled on the floor, breathing heavily.
"…I need a nap," she groaned.
Kai let out a quiet huff of amusement while scanning the chamber around them.
Then suddenly—
He whistled softly.
Cana looked up immediately. "…What?"
Kai didn't answer.
His attention remained fixed toward the center of the room.
Cana followed his gaze and froze.
At the center of the massive chamber stood an altar, ancient and circular. Covered in glowing runes. And floating above it— was an idol.
Small enough to fit within two hands.
Yet the moment Cana looked at it, the entire chamber pulsed. Blue light spread from the artifact in slow waves while glowing rune patterns stretched outward across the walls, floor, and ceiling like veins.
Alive.
Breathing.
"…That's the core?" Cana asked quietly.
Kai nodded slowly. "…Looks like it."
His eyes narrowed with growing fascination. "And it matches the murals."
The room hummed softly around them.
Then—
CRACK.
Both of them turned sharply toward the collapsed entrance. The debris shifted violently.
The guardians were digging through.
Fast.
"Oh, come ON," Cana groaned.
She turned toward Kai immediately. "Well? What are we waiting for?! Let's destroy the thing and get out of here!"
But Kai wasn't listening anymore.
His attention remained completely fixed on the floating idol. "…Amazing…"
He stepped closer slowly. "The runic layering feels wrong by modern standards…"
Cana blinked. "Kai?"
"The mana circulation is artificial… no… adaptive…" he muttered under his breath. "Semi-organic rune integration? That shouldn't even be possible…"
His expression had changed completely now.
Exhaustion vanished beneath pure fascination.
"…Another intelligent artifact…"
Cana stared at him like he'd lost his mind.
Behind them, the rubble shifted harder. The clicking grew louder.
"KAI!"
He blinked once, finally snapping back to reality. "…Right."
Cana pointed furiously toward the floating core. "Destroy it!"
Kai looked toward the idol again.
Then slowly toward the walls. The glowing runes, flowing mana, the crystal-lined structure surrounding them.
His expression shifted.
Thoughtful.
"…Well little one," he said carefully, "that's probably a very bad idea."
Cana stared at him. "…What?"
Kai gestured toward the glowing rune patterns spreading through the chamber. "The entire ruin seems connected to this thing."
Another violent crash echoed behind them. The guardians were almost through.
Kai continued anyway.
"This place is ancient," he said calmly. "And unstable."
His eyes returned to the floating core. "This artifact isn't just powering the ruins anymore."
A brief pause followed.
"It's holding them together."
Cana's expression slowly paled. "…You're joking."
Kai shook his head once. "If we destroy it carelessly…" He glanced upward toward the enormous ceiling far above them. "…best case scenario, the ruins collapse."
Another pause.
"Worst case?"
The chamber rumbled softly beneath their feet.
Kai looked back at her. "We discover what happens when unstable ancient magical systems implode underground and i would also miss the opportunity to study it."
Silence.
Then another violent crack split through the blocked entrance. The guardians were almost inside.
Cana slowly covered her face with one hand. "…I hate this mission."
Kai nodded immediately. "Understandable."
Then he looked back toward the glowing idol, fascination slowly returning to his eyes.
"But this just became significantly more interesting."