Relief came to wash over them as they realized just how lucky they are when Aediva came crashing like a bull towards their location. How did she do that? Who knows? She had always an impeccable sense of where people are even with her retarded sense of direction.

And clearly something was different with the girl. Her eyes glowing like some silver metallic pen ink under the light. Her slitted pupils remind the boys of some snake’s eyes, sending a part of them alarmed. The air around her chilly like the air in a haunted cemetery.

The floating little silver-blue crystals around her twinkling like stars revolving around the girl. It was as if the one standing in front of them was a different girl - the same yet different. Like the other side of the same coin.

She looked to the side and immediately a sigh escaped her lips. After who-knows how long, of fighting the pesky slimes, she was finally able to freeze over a portion of the thinnest slime wall and break into its inside. While she’s actually grateful to those adventurers helping her by fighting off the slimes together, she knew that entering was a lot harder than getting out of there. The proof was clearly right in front of them.

The large hole from which the wind billowed quickly patches itself back - leaving not a trace of her destruction except for the few layers of wall she had breached to get to where her instinct screamed at her to be at. The sting of her icy sword felt painful in her palms that she let it shattered to pieces as she let out a shaky breath while placing her palm against her forehead - feeling nothing but the chilliness from her own body.

Aediva heard the footsteps of her friends walking closer towards her. She pulled away her aching hand, sparing a passing glance to the odd mark appearing at the back on the hand before pocketing it into the pocket of her skirt’s pocket.

“Aediva? You…” Arthur honestly had no idea how to even start. Or where to that fact.

“A huge surprise huh? Unfortunately, we don’t have much time to discuss it at length. We gotta get out of here” Aediva said, her subtle smile disappeared - replaced with a serious look on her face.

“But how?” Eden asked.

“I’ve been trying to find an exit too. All while running away from those golems guarding this place” Arthur added, sighing heavily right after.

“This place… It’s still a part of the dorm isn’t it?” Arthur asked, sounding a little confused as he held his forehead that was throbbing in pain. Aediva shrugs, rather nonchalantly.

“Who knows. Although I think the two of you might already have a hunch of where we are. Nonetheless, that’s not important” Aediva said, turning her head to the side towards the hallways with an unamused look on her face.

“Golem’s Heart. I guess you both are aware that phylactery that they have been keeping in that so called Gallows’ Hall?” Aediva asked. Arthur looked at Aediva looking a little surprised.

“They moved it about a few days ago but it has been in that hall, yes. And, ‘Golem’s Heart’? What does that have to do with anything?” Arthur asked, curious. Aediva looked at Eden, from head to toe with a seemingly pensive look on her face until she parted her mouth.

“You’re almost half-naked. Oi, Arthur. Get your jacket’s off and let the guy wear something over his thin shirt. Well, not that it’ll help much. You’re still in your briefs, heh” Aediva snorted - seeing Eden’s eyebrow’s twitching and his cheeks turning red from embarrassment.

“Is that your damn focus right now?” Eden said as Aediva shrugs.

“Your legs are distracting me. Plus, it won’t hurt to get yourself a little bit more covered. Don’t tell me you’re not the slightest chilly, being around me?” the girl said as Eden eyed the one feline monster snuggling at the crook of her neck - probably purring too, the damn monster.

“Fine. Oi, Arthur give me your jacket” Eden said, reaching his hand out towards Arthur who only sighed and removed his jacket for his friend which was quickly wrapped around his waist - to the surprise of the jacket’s owner.

“What? My legs are distracting her” Eden said.

“You’re using the same excuse as well…?” Arthur sighed.

“Anyway, now that’s taken care of. We’re running” Aediva said while Eden was fiddling around with the sleeves of the jacket he’s tying around his waist. Arthur looked at Aediva with a horrified look, though honestly, he was focusing past her. Aediva wordlessly places Cath on Eden’s hands before manifesting the icy short swords in her hands.

“Take care of that furry thing, will ya? And just keep running” Aediva said, turning to her back and face the same types of golems she had crushed earlier.

“Ugh. I have about enough golems at this point” Aediva complained. It didn’t take them long to engage in a fight with the incoming golems.

“Where are we going?” Arthur asked, slashing away at the golem with fierce precision towards the glowing orb acting as the head of the golems.

“Do you have to ask me all the time? Think on your own for once” Aediva growled, stabbing the golems around them and throwing them off towards the others, smashing a few while the other tumble like bowling pins.

“Ugh… Uh…” visibly a little troubled with Aediva’s answer. After almost finding himself cut into half by the blades of his opponents from being distracted with trying to think.

“Oi Eden! Help us out a bit!” Arthur said, pushing off the golems away from him while Eden let out a sigh as he was left alone by the golems that were being actively obliterated by Aediva from ever getting too close to both the raven and Cath.

“Are you seriously giving up even before you could even try to use your brain?” Eden said, much to the chagrin of the young blond.

“Well, you aren’t doing anything now, are you?!” Arthur retorted.

“Do you both have to argue now?!” the frost mage barked at the two boys - all while she crushed the orb in her hand with ease. She barely had any time to even say anything more when she was being charged at by some golems that came from the other side of the hallway. Somehow, she knows these creations of the unhinged professor are targeting her more than the others. Probably because she is technically an intruder who was not part of the structure when it was erected.

But she had wasted so much time trying to get in there to be dispatched so easily by the small fries. What she is doing now is wasting even more time and it doesn’t bode well for her anymore.

With what happened to Zielle, her awakening and the tiring fight to get into the tower itself… She’s running out of energy - mainly due to the fact that the whole dorm grounds is an active mana trap that drains everything with the magical source of power. Aediva honestly doesn't know how much longer she can hold on to being in that condition.

“Wait! Is it possible for us to use that phylactery to find the way out instead? And if this Golem’s Heart is inside that phylactery then we’ll also be able to stop this thing from actually going on a rampage!” Eden said, looking at Aediva who didn’t answer as she was busy dispatching the golems all around them.

“Can you actually do it or not?” she finally shouts at the raven.

“I sure as hell can’t do that! I have no conduit to even do anything much. I don’t even feel that good at the moment” Eden confessed, rubbing the back of his neck with a tired sigh.

“I’ll do it. I don’t have my wand but I have my sword…” Arthur said, slashing the last golem in front of him. With bated breath, drenched in sweat, the handsome blond looked back at his friends - letting out a soft exhale before bringing the sword in front of him. Both Aediva and Eden watched as the sword glows in golden light and they were equally stunned when looking at the golden light snaking its way down the hallway before disappearing as fast as it appears.

Arthur swats his sword away, sheathing it into its scabbard with a determined look.

“Let’s go,” he said to the two other teenagers with him.

Both him and Eden took off towards the direction of the light they saw earlier - Aediva lagging at the back, merely glancing at the shadows of the boys around the corner that’s gradually disappearing into the distance. Not even a second after that, Aediva started to stumble - coughing into her intensely cold palm.

Leaning to the ice polearm she conjured before she could fall to her face, she wiped her dry lips and fixed the collar of her shirt to cover her neck despite the futility of her action to keep herself warm. A weak smirk tugged at her lips as she wiped the blood off the corner of her mouth.

“Heh. Just a bit more… just a bit… I can’t go down right here and now…” Aediva sighed in between her heavy heave of breath. She straightened herself as she made her way to the hallway where Eden and Arthur ran towards.

And apparently none of the boys actually noticed she was lagging behind them. After all, when Eden looked to the back, he saw Aediva tailing behind them. For quite some time, it seems like nothing was in their way and by the time they thought it was a smooth sailing to wherever the light was guiding them, they felt the ground shook violently.

They were forced to stop in their tracks when they saw their paths were blocked by debris seemingly from the hole right above their head.

“Ugh…” Arthur groaned.

“The path is blocked” Eden said, keeping looking behind him as the tremor started again.

“No, there’s another path,” Aediva said. Before both boys could even say anything, they found their legs off the floor and within seconds they felt their bodies flying to the air and harshly landed on the concrete floor beneath them. Arthur and Eden blinked in wordless shock as they scrambled back to see the girl a level under them with Cath on her shoulders - hissing at the blockage in front of them.

“Aediva!” Arthur shouted, right when the whole structure started to shake - sending tiny pieces of the bricks and concrete all around them falling to their heads - nothing painful in particular but what worries them more is the fact that they felt the whole structure moving in a way that they know it was no longer a tower as Aediva stated earlier.

BOOM!

Startled by the loud sound of an explosion, both boys scramble away from the hole they’re peeking at and find Aediva running away from something.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE BOTH WAITING FOR?!” Aediva hollered at them, snapping their attentions back to their objective.

Finding a way out of there.

“What about you?!” Arthur asked, desperation and worry in his voice were clear. Then, Eden pulled his arm.

“Worry about yourself first, dumbass. Cath’s with her, so let’s keep going” Eden said. By the time Arthur looked back, Aediva and Cath were gone from the floor beneath them. And truthfully, the two boys thought nothing would have shocked them more until…

They reached that red room.

Nothing could’ve probably prepared them at what the both saw at that moment.

“Dorm President?!”

The two boys shouted, horrified.