Five other people stood behind Elias, all with the same cruelly amused look on their faces. Marina's instincts as an adventurer told her to be careful, but Thorne was already talking.

The commander said, "We could use more strength for level five and up."

"We'd love your help if you're willing to work together."

Elias smiled more. "What a lucky thing. We agree."

That was the time for Marina to speak up and say what was bothering her. But she didn't say anything, and that silence would stay with her.

The group worked together to finish level four with surprising ease. Elias and his group were incredibly effective, cutting through monsters that had been giving the expedition trouble like they were nothing. The man with the silver hair fought in a way that was almost too easy, as if he didn't have to try very hard.

"Impressive equipment you have," Elias said as he took a break and looked at one of Marina's tools with interest. "I bet it's Greg Greyson's work, if I'm not mistaken."

Marina starts to feel awkward hearing Elias talk to him like nothing ever happened back then. "Yeah, you probably should've known that sooner."

"And to my surprise, he still doesn't want to make weapons for all of you to conquer this dungeon, huh. What a faithful guy." Elias giggled.

Marina wanted to ask more, but then she let that be because she didn't want to accidentally bait him to rage about the revenge that he talked about in the village back then. "An interesting man Greg Greyson is." Elias kept on talking about him.

"It's really annoying how self-righteous he is and how he won't admit what he really is. But we'll see how long those rules last."

Thorne told the group to leave before Marina could ask what he meant. They had made it to the stairs that led to level five.

The trip down to level five should have been normal. They had a good rhythm going, everyone knew what they had to do, and Greg's tools had worked well over and over again. But when the last member of the group stepped onto the fifth level, things changed.

The dungeon changed.

There wasn't any physical movement, nothing that obvious. But Marina could feel it in her bones that something had changed about the rules they had been following.

The compass that had always pointed to the exit suddenly started to spin all over the place. The communication crystals that had been working fine started to crackle with noise.

Elias then started to laugh. "Finally," he said, and his voice sounded strange in the suddenly wrong space. "I was wondering when the trap would go off."

"What are you talking about?" Thorne asked, and Marina saw him reach for his sword.

Elias said, "The Sunken Citadel has many secrets," and his relaxed demeanor changed to something cold and hungry. "One of them is that you can seal level five from the inside if you know the right rituals."

"Another is that sealed areas are great for prisons."

That dark energy that Marina would come to know all too well started to glow on his sword. "And prisons need guards."

Thereafter, things got crazy. Elias's party attacked without warning, and the group that had been working together just seconds before broke up into a fight. But the fight wasn't fair.

Marina realized with horror that Elias and his people had been holding back. Now they were showing how strong they really were.

Commander Thorne held on for thirty seconds before Elias's dark blade went through his chest. The man who had led them into the Citadel died with a look of betrayal on his face. He didn't understand that they had walked into a trap on purpose.

Elias told his group, "Don't kill them all at once."

"There's no fun in that!"

"We have a whole weeks to have fun with them."

The Crimson Falcons fought back hard. Kael's arrows hit their targets with deadly accuracy, but Elias's people were able to ignore wounds that should have killed them.

Denna was very strong, but her opponents were just as strong, so she was overwhelmed. Ryn's magic hit shields that could counter or even reflect all her attacks.

Marina came face-to-face with Elias, her frying pan raised in a desperate attempt to protect herself. He looked at her with a look of pity.

"I should've known that you were trying something crazy with your words back then...!" Marina gritted her teeth.

He said, "Ahh yes... the special one."

"The one that matters most to Greyson. I'm honored that you remembered me, and I'm trying not to put a stop to myself because you already know that you and your group have a zero chance of winning!"

"I can tell by the way he changed your crystal." Elias smiled while licking his lips like a maniac.

"How the fuck do you know about it...?!" Marina asked with a fierce tone.

"In my previous world, those crystals are called phones. And of course I know of something that is fucking cheap!"

"So... about that son of a bitch Greg Geyson." Elias started to look at her with intimidation.

"Do you think he knows how you feel about him? Or are you both too scared to say it?"

Marina hit him, but he easily blocked the blow. "That's a no for me!"

Elias laughed while facepalming, "What a sad thing to say... and even to die with feelings that aren't answered."

Marina yelled, "I'm not dying here!"

Elias said in a friendly way, "Oh, but you are."

"Not today, though. Because today... you get to watch as I break each and every person you care about, one by one, every day."

"And when Greyson finally comes to save you, which we both know he will, you get to watch me break him too."

The fight, if you can even call it that, lasted less than an hour. By the end, half of the group was dead and the other half was taken prisoner. Greg's tools, which had seemed so strong, were useless against enemies who used dark magic that ate away at everything it touched.

They were chained up in what used to be a throne room, but now it was a nightmare prison. Elias walked among them like a king looking over his land.

He said, "Here's how the system works."

"Every day, I pick someone to give special attention to."

"It could be fast or slow, and they might live or die. Just to see how entertaining you are and how I feel at the time."

He stopped in front of Marina. "But you, you're one of a kind. You can see it all until the end."

"Every scream, every death, and every moment of hopelessness."

"I want you to be so broken by the time your blacksmith gets there that seeing you kills him."

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