Luc had lost track of how long he and Ritha had been wandering around in the tunnels of the Chasm. While there were glowing mushrooms lining their path, the rock walls, rock ceilings, and rock floor and all blended together, making it hard to discern where they had already gone.

“Mister Luc,” said Ritha from behind him. “This place looks familiar.”

Luc ignored her and kept pushing forward. His entire body felt sluggish, each step harder to take than the last. But he couldn’t stop. I need to get back home!

Luc’s eyes strayed to the ground, where he saw a pile of cave goblin corpses. The first time he had seen them, he had nearly wet his pants. But in the past several hours, he had seen more dead monsters than he could count. It was quite interesting, really. Luc had expected to run into monsters around every corner, but so far, they hadn’t run into a single one. A living one, that is. The bodies of dead monsters were strewn all over the place, blood and guts splattered throughout the tunnels. He had caught glimpses of creatures moving around in the shadows, but it was always to flee rather than attack.

“It’s a pity,” said Ritha, still holding Cloud in her arms. “Looks like they were killed a while ago.”

“Pity?” said Luc, scowling. “You would’ve preferred live ones instead?”

“N-no,” said Ritha, lowering her eyes. “Sorry, Mister Luc.”

“I’m telling you for the hundredth time,” said Luc. “If you’re going to apologize for something, don’t say it in the first place.”

“Yes, Mister Luc,” said Ritha. “I’m sorry.”

Luc sighed and continued forward. After using the glowing mushrooms as light for such a long time, everything was starting to look green. His hands were green, his clothes were green, even the ground looked green. What made things worse was they had run out of food and water a long time ago. If we keep going on like this, we’re not going to make it out alive, let alone pass this Gauntlet test.

“Mister Luc!” said Ritha, snagging onto the back of his tunic with her hands.

Luc snapped out of his daze, glancing up. In his stupor, he had nearly run into a stone wall. A stone wall? On closer inspection, it was too smooth to be a naturally occurring wall. Taking a step back, Luc looked upwards, jaw dropping. In front of them stood a pair of massive stone doors, rising all the way up to the ceiling of the tunnel. There was an inscription on the door – a circle with a several horizontal lines drawn through it in wild angles. Luc couldn’t make out exactly what it was trying to depict, as the carving was split in the middle, where the doors opened in a small crack wide enough for a human to slip in. Something on the ground caught Luc’s eyes, and he knelt to take a closer look.

At the base of the crack between the doors was a trail of blood.

“Mister Luc!” hissed Ritha, shaking him by the back of the tunic and pointing towards the shadowed side of the tunnel. Following her finger, Luc held up the clump of glowing mushrooms in his hand, illuminating the darkness.

There, leaning against the side of the tunnel, was Tissa.

Taking several steps forward, Luc saw that Tissa’s eyes were closed, head rolled to one side. His clothing was stained with dark and crusted blood, long gashes and small scratches scattered all over his body. Before Luc could stop her, Ritha dashed over to Tissa, opening her satchel and flipping through the vials.

“Is he even alive?” asked Luc, walking over and squatting by Tissa’s side. He looks dead to me.

“He saved my life,” said Ritha, brow furrowed in concentration. “I need to do my best to save his.”

Luc didn’t have anything to say to that. Ritha finally extracted one of her healing potions. Quickly, she brought it up to Tissa’s mouth. Tipping the man’s head back, Ritha emptied the vial down his throat. Keeping one hand clamped over his mouth, she sat him up straight, forcing the liquid down his throat.

The two of them waited for several moments. There was no change in Tissa’s condition. His skin remained gray and ashy, wounds still open. Trembling, Ritha lowered her head, clenching her hands together. Her small shoulders shook with quiet sobs.

Luc reached his hand out toward her but paused, realizing he didn’t know what he was trying to do. Withdrawing his hand, he sat there in awkward silence while Ritha cried. Is it normal for peasants to cry over strangers?

“I’m surprised to see you two are still alive.”

Luc’s head whipped up. Tissa’s body glowed with green light, lacerations sealing and color returning to his skin. Coughing, he forced himself to sit up straight. Ritha wiped at her eyes furiously, small smile spreading across her face.

“Thanks, boy,” said Tissa, placing a hand on Ritha’s shoulder. “You saved me.”

Ritha nodded and kept her eyes fixed on the ground, face red.

“She’s a girl,” said Luc, knowing too well that Ritha would never bring it up herself.

Tissa turned to look at Luc. Then he removed his hand from Ritha’s shoulder. “Is she now?”

Ritha nodded once, still not looking up.

“My apologies then,” said Tissa.

For several moments none of them spoke. It’s not like we ever acted like a team anyways, thought Luc.

“You guys must be wondering what happened to me,” said Tissa, breaking the impasse.

Luc was indifferent, but Ritha nodded enthusiastically.

“That man Gray,” said Tissa, jaw tightening. “He might not look like it, but he acts more demon than man.”

“So it was you guys were the ones who left all those monster corpses?” asked Luc.

Tissa laughed. “Not us. Him. Everything that came close to us was dead in an instant. After a while, the monsters stopped attacking us altogether.”

That explains why Ritha and I never an into a single monster, thought Luc.

“I thought I caught a lucky break,” said Tissa. “Passing the Gauntlet without having to do a thing? That sounds real good to me. But things changed when we reached that cursed door.”

Luc glanced over his shoulder at the large stone doors.

“I know now why they make us take this test in groups of five,” said Tissa. “Because that thing in there…that monster…one or two people just won’t get the job done.”

Tissa’s face twisted with anger. “But Gray seemed to know that better than anyone. And you know what he does about that? He decides to cut me down, leaving me to distract the monster while he goes on ahead.”

Tissa pounded the ground with a fist. “I lost my lance. I lost my chance to pass the Gauntlet. And I nearly lost my life.”

“Lost your chance to pass the Gauntlet?” asked Luc. “What do you mean?”

“Ha!” said Tissa. “I forgot the Scout has no concept of time. Well let me tell you, when Gray and I reached the cursed door, it was already the third day. And how long has it been since then? Judging by the blood on my clothing, I can assure you that the third day has passed a long time ago.”

The third day is over. Luc wasn’t quite sure how to process the words. So I won’t be able to meet Tamia? Does that mean I won’t be able to go home? What about Dante? Did he fail too?

Across from him, Luc could see that Ritha was having difficulty processing the words too. Her breaths grew shorter and shorter and all the color in her face drained. Reaching down, she picked up Cloud and wrapped him in her arms, squeezing as hard as he could. Rocking back and forth, she began muttering to herself, eyes darting here and there.

“But then again, I could be completely wrong,” said Tissa, shrugging. “Everything blends together down here, especially time. It could be that I’m the one who made a mistake. Even though the chances of that happening are nigh impossible, there’s only one way to find out.”

Luc’s heart sank, dreading the answer.

“We have to go into there and make it past that monster,” said Tissa, pointing a finger at the large stone doors. “With the two of you as my only teammates, I’m not sure we have a chance.”

Luc scowled and began his retort, but Tissa interrupted him.

“However, if you two buy enough time for me to get my lance back, I personally guarantee you that you’ll make it out of here alive.”

“Oh yeah?” said Luc. “How do you plan on making that happen?”

A wry smile spread across Tissa’s face.

“Let me tell you my plan.”