The Art of Gold Digging

"This is not proper," Lyra muttered for the fourth time as they navigated another turn in the academy's corridor, her grip on Crow's legs wobbling slightly.

Amy did not respond; instead, she adjusted her hold on Crow's torso. Her shoulders were already aching, and they'd only been walking for two minutes.

Currently, the two of them were carrying the unconscious boy, with Amy on the lead, walking backwards carrying Crow's upper body, while Lyra followed behind holding the lower part. Their destination was around the same spot where Iris and Lain should be, so as long as they kept following the shining symbols on the walls, they would get there.

Amy felt exhausted, and the idea of dropping the unconscious boy had crossed her mind more than a dozen times, yet she knew she could not do that. Apart from the small detail that it would be heartless and downright cruel to just drop him like that after everything he had gone through, she also needed him.

It was only a matter of time till Abaddon acted. Her ability, Shared Fate—the one in collaboration with Libris that she gained recently—confirmed as much. There was still so much she did not know about this ability, but for now, she trusted it. Abaddon was coming, and she needed to prepare herself; and for that, she needed Crow…or at least his body.

"This is not proper," Lyra whispered once again, earning a look from Amy.

Amy considered ignoring her as she had previously done so, but she was getting tired of hearing her fair, but interminable complaints.

"What's wrong, Lyra…?" She finally asked reluctantly.

Lyra's gaze shifted from Crow's visage to Amy's, a frown visible on her face. "Crow's hurt," she said curtly.

Amy suppressed a sigh and simply nodded. "Indeed, he's hurt."

Lyra's frown deepened. "Then why are we bringing him with us? It's dangerous here."

"It actually isn't. There should be no enemies for now."

"That's not what you said before, back when we were discussing what to do. Moreover, you haven't responded to my question. Why is Crow coming with us?"

"Because I need him."

"That's not an answer."

Amy felt her jaw tighten as she avoided Lyra's piercing eyes. The truth was very simple actually—and practical too—but she knew for a fact that Lyra would be rabid if she knew what Amy was planning. Sure, she will find out very soon, so it was kind of pointless covering it up, yet still, the last thing Amy wanted right now was to deal with that.

"Lyra," Amy said as she took the left corridor where the wall symbols glowed brighter. "He owes me one, remember? We agreed that in exchange for my help with the golden key, I received a favour."

"Last I checked, back when we agreed that favour, Crow specifically put the condition of it not harming others."

Technically, that doesn't include him, but whatever…

"Just what are you planning, Amy….?"

Amy's lips pursed, and the thought of telling her crossed her mind. It wasn't like it was a mega secret or anything of the sort. Lyra would literally find out in less than half an hour, moreover, the fact that she was coming despite being basically in the dark showed that she at least trusted Amy was on their side.

Yet still…for some reason, she just couldn't bring herself to say it...

Why…?

Amy sighed and shook her head. It was only when Lyra was about to talk that she spoke again.

"Didn't you say you wanted to just have a normal conversation…?" Amy interrupted Lyra, who already had her mouth halfway open. "About normal things, not related to our situation?"

Lyra blinked, clearly thrown by the sudden shift. "I... yes, but that was before we started carrying Crow through mysterious academy tunnels towards that crazy heretic…monster who almost got him killed."

"We are not going to face him," Amy interjected, pausing at another junction before following the flow of symbols to the right. "We are just preparing for his arrival. Moreover, we're walking anyway. Might as well talk… What did you want to discuss?"

"Amy, seriously?" Lyra's voice came higher-pitched than usual. "You really want to talk right now?" She gestured awkwardly with her chin toward their unconscious cargo.

"Why not? It'll pass the time." Amy's tone was deliberately light, though she could feel the strain in her voice. "Besides, you seemed pretty determined earlier. Said it wasn't about our situation, just... talking. So talk."

Lyra stared at her for a long moment, her eyes nailed to Amy's face, seemingly searching for something. "You're serious."

"Dead serious."

"Just going to ignore my questions like that?"

"I'm not ignoring them..." Amy shifted her grip, trying to relieve the burning in her shoulders. "It's just that..."

Lyra was quiet for several steps, the only sounds their labored breathing and the soft scrape of her boots against the stone floor.

"Fine," she said finally.

Lyra took a deep breath and seemed to ponder about something deeply. The silence soon became awkward, and Amy started to regret opening her big ass mouth. Luckily for her, it did not last that much longer.

"Soo…." Lyra began awkwardly after fixing her hold on Crow. "Do you... have any hobbies apart from spending time with your book…? 'Libris' you call them, right?"

Amy paused for a split second at the mention of Libris; the memory of its faint voice on the back of her head shutting her brain momentarily, but soon the all-too-useful numbness arrived just in time, allowing her to catch herself just before dropping Crow's shoulders.

"Hey…!" Lyra exclaimed. "Be careful with him."

Amy cleared her throat and stiffly nodded at the girl, before speaking. "Hobbies, you said?"

Lyra's gaze went from Amy to Crow, and then back to Amy. Then, she released a long sigh. "Yes." She said, her eyes still occasionally shifting towards Crow. "Things you do for fun. When you're not working on your thing of….uh, 'saving everyone', or whatever it is that you are planning..."

"Uhhh….."

I can't really just go and tell her that the internet and watching videos of cats doing cute things, are my hobbies, can I?

"I used to read," Amy said after a pause, adjusting her grip as they rounded another corner. "A lot."

"Fiction?"

"Yeah. But I don't do it anymore."

"Why?" Lyra's voice seemed to hold genuine curiosity. "Too occupied?"

"Something like that… What about you?"

The auburn-haired girl took some seconds to think before responding. "I bake," She said, then before Amy could talk she added: "Or I used to. But just like you, I kind of stopped; the academy has been taking a toll on me."

"I see…" Amy nodded. "What kind of things?" she asked, partly to fill the silence, partly because she couldn't imagine Lyra doing something as mundane as baking—in fact, she could not imagine any of the main cast doing anything that wasn't related to the manga's plot.

"Bread, mostly. Some pastries." Lyra's voice softened slightly. "There's something calming about kneading dough. The repetition, the transformation of simple ingredients into something nourishing..."

"Sounds nice," Amy said, and meant it. The idea of creating something instead of constantly analyzing and tearing things apart as she used to do with her reviews held an unexpected appeal. If only that had been her hobby instead, she wouldn't be in this unhinged situation…

"Yeah, it's very nice." Lyra smiled faintly while looking at nowhere in particular. "Many people here, in the academy, think that cooking and stuff are things that only commoners do. If only they tried it…" Lyra paused, then looked at Amy straight in the eye. "Once we get out of this nightmare—if we ever get out—I could teach you..."

Amy was caught off guard by the sudden proposal. It took her more than a single second to respond. "That's very kind of you." She said, with a small—a little bit awkward—smile.

"Is it?" Lyra responded, her tone turning oddly intense. "Kindness, I mean. Or is it selfishness?"

"What?"

"I need to rest," she announced abruptly, her arms trembling slightly under Crow's weight. "Just for a moment."

"Ah, uh— Yeah…" Amy awkwardly nodded, grateful for the excuse to stop.

They maneuvered to a somewhat illuminated section of the corridor, before gently lowering Crow to rest on the ground. Amy's shoulders exclaimed in relief as she rolled them, trying to work out the knots. Lyra slumped a few meters from her, catching her breath.

The silence stretched between them, broken only by their labored breathing and the faint hum of magic from the glowing symbols. Amy found herself studying the patterns on the walls, anything to avoid bathing in the awkward atmosphere.

"I've been thinking about what you said," Lyra suddenly spoke, her voice quiet but somehow more audible than before. "About saving everyone. About your goals."

Amy glanced at her but said nothing, sensing there was more coming.

"I don't think I have been completely fair to you," Lyra said, from the corner of her gaze. Amy could see the girl playing with her nails as she spoke. "It hasn't been long, so I'm probably just exaggerating, but ever since you kind of 'joined' our group. You've always been... apart. Even when you're with us, you're alone… I used to think it was just you, the one who had been putting this barrier between us. But honestly, the fault also resides in me."

"What are you talking about?" Amy frowned as she stared at the girl, and a huge urge to argue rose in her chest. "You haven't done anything. I don't know what 'fault' you're talking about."

"You think so…?"

Amy's expression of confusion deepened at the girl's words. "Yes," she affirmed. "You haven't done anything. If you are worried about me feeling left out, you don't need to. It's only natural to be wary of strangers, especially when the stranger hides as many things as I do…"

Lyra bit her lip, then faintly nodded at Amy. "Still," she said after a pause. "I was very rude at the beginning. Back when we first saw—in the Academy's main gate, you with Crow and me and the others looking from the distance—I already was wary of you, unnecessarily so… I guess, I saw you as a competitor for Cr— Hhmmpp!!" Lyra cleared her throat strongly and then looked away from Amy, apparently finding a spot on the opposite wall awfully interesting. "Either way, I think it's partially my fault that this wall between us was bigger than it should have been."

Amy stared at the girl silently for a few seconds before sighing. "Lyra, this is really not something you should be concerned about. I know I can be very cryptic and hard to trust."

Lyra smiled faintly at that. "At least you are self-aware." She muttered, then took a deep breath and turned once again towards Amy. "I wanted to say it regardless, though. Even though it probably sounds childish… Amy, you have done a lot for us, and it feels wrong to not even say thank you."

"I haven't done—" Amy paused as she noticed Lyra's gaze increasing in intensity. Instead of finishing what she was about to say, she made a wise decision and decided to rephrase her words. "I mean, everything I've done has been with an objective in mind, all for my own personal gain in some way or another. I'm not even close to being the altruist seer that you guys are probably imagining."

Lyra did not respond immediately; instead, she stared at Amy's face in silence for a long while. It was only when it began getting awkward that she spoke.

"Perhaps…" she said simply. "But it doesn't change the fact that you and your book saved us back there, during the whole swarm of chaos creatures."

"I didn't do anything back there, it was Li—"

"Ughh…" Lyra sighed, then shook her head. "Just take the compliment, will you…"

Amy frowned. It wasn't like she didn't want any recognition for her efforts, it was rather that if someone deserved it, it was a hundred percent Libris.

She nodded regardless; this felt like a pointless thing to argue right now.

Lyra smiled at Amy's agreement, then turned her head towards the unconscious boy on the ground. Her hand stretched until it reached his forehead, where she cleaned some sweat from it.

"I still think it's selfishness…"

"…I still don't know what you mean by that…"

"You know, Amy." Lyra's head leaned on her right hand as she caressed Crow's forehead. "With everything going on, I realized something I have been trying to ignore this entire time: We are all going to die…"

"..." Amy stared silently at the girl, waiting patiently for her to elaborate.

"I have been ignoring this truth since before I even met Crow. Back when I used to live in a monastery… Those days were lonely; my parents had just recently passed away, and as a commoner taken in by an elder who pitied her, my knowledge was severely lacking compared to my contemporaries. Still, I prayed, for though my body lacked strength, my heart had more than enough faith. I asked the Goddess every single night for a miracle—nothing concrete, I just prayed for things to become better.

"Paradoxically, life only got worse and worse. At some point, I even began doubting her existence, and considered giving up on everything altogether. Glad I didn't, because it was when I was at my lowest that my prayers were finally answered.

"It was Crow, a boy that I found beaten on the side of a street. A boy without parents, just like me... One thing led to another, and before I knew it, ten years had passed, I was no longer alone, and things had gotten relatively better. They were still very hard moments, but at least I didn't face them by myself.

"But it was because things got a bit better that I managed to ignore the scythe atop of our heads… Amy, I think we are destined to suffer… I used to be in denial about it, but after everything that has happened—Abaddon's heretic words about the Goddess, his seemingly divine gift of clairvoyance, and the end of the world over our heads… It's too overwhelming… and it scares me…"

"Lyra—" Amy started, but the girl continued before she could finish.

"And I'm sorry." Lyra's voice cracked slightly as she looked up from Crow's face to meet Amy's eyes. "I'm being incredibly selfish. Here you are, clearly going through... whatever it is you're dealing with, and I'm the one dumping my fears on you."

Amy blinked, taken aback. "That's not—"

"It is, though." Lyra let out a shaky laugh. "The truth is, I wanted to talk to you because I needed to get this off my chest, not because I was concerned about you— Well, I am concerned, but..." She gestured helplessly. "Ash is unconscious, and Zayd... I can't exactly confide my fears and insecurities to a Gaspard capable of using Tribe of Onyx magic, can I?"

Amy stared at the girl, processing her words. And despite her best efforts, she could not find an answer to give to the girl's confession. So she left it in a simple, "I see…"

Lyra gave her a toothless smile, then sank her head into her arms.

More time passed in silence, it was the uncomfortable and loud type, the kind that Amy hated the most. She had to say something.

"If it makes you feel better," Amy began talking hesitantly. "My goal hasn't changed, Lyra. I still stand by what I said during our planning before entering this nightmare… I'm going to save everyone, and that includes you. That includes Crow, Ash, Iris, Lain, even Zayd with all his suspiciousness." She paused, then added more softly, "It includes Libris and me, too, though I'm still working on believing that part."

"...How can you be so certain after everything we've seen…"

"It's not that I'm certain, it's that I have to be. The alternative—accepting that we're all doomed—is unacceptable to me; I fear death too much."

Lyra stared at her for a long moment, something shifting in her expression. "You know, when you talk like that... I can see why Lain trusts you. Why we all subconsciously do, even when we don't understand what you're planning."

Amy felt a flicker of something warm—gratitude, maybe, or hope. "Even when I'm being cryptic and dragging unconscious people through mysterious tunnels?"

"Even then." Lyra smiled, and for the first time since they'd started this conversation, it reached her eyes. "Though I still want to know what we're walking into."

Amy glanced at the glowing symbols on the walls, then back at Lyra, then back at the glowing symbols, and then once again back to Lyra.

It would be quite the asshole move to say no after she opened up like this to me, wouldn't it?

"...Alright," she finally said reluctantly, then took a deep, deep breath. "You are not going to like it though…"

-————-　■　-————-

The corridor opened into a huge room with two enormous doors at the side and was decorated with colorless paintings, small tables, and carpets. Just like the rest of the building, the room was full of symbols, and seemed to be made of obsidian, from the paintings to the doors and the walls, all were the same material.

"Are we finally here?" Lyra muttered, her voice trembling from exhaustion.

"Yes," Amy replied while looking at the room they were currently in. "We're here."

Both Lyra and Amy carefully lowered Crow to the ground before stepping back. Then Lyra, after catching her breath, began looking around the room with a puzzled expression.

"This place..." She walked a few steps toward the two grand doors, her fingers hovering just above their obsidian surface. "I think I recognize this. It's the academy's back exit—the one that leads to the southern gardens. But it's all wrong. Apart from everything being made of this weird material, the placement is completely different. Those doors should be on opposite walls, not side by side… Actually even the hallways we came through—none of them followed the original layout. It's like someone took the Academy apart and put it back together wrong."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Indeed."

Lyra fell silent as she gazed around the room. Amy's eyes, meanwhile, drifted down to Crow's unconscious form on the cold obsidian floor. His face was pale. Even in unconsciousness, his expression seemed tired.

Lyra followed her gaze, and her frown deepened. When she spoke, her voice was flat with resignation. "You were right. I really don't like this."

Amy looked at Lyra, noting the tension in the girl's shoulders, the way her hands fidgeted with the hem of her robes. Even though Lyra was clearly uncomfortable with what Amy had explained during their walk—probably horrified by it, actually—she had still agreed to help. She had still trusted Amy enough to follow her here, to carry an unconscious boy through mysterious corridors without knowing exactly what they were walking into.

It made Amy realize something unsettling: she really didn't know Lyra at all.

Yeah, she was still the same Lyra from the manga she had been reading all these years. But also, the girl standing here—anxious, conflicted, yet still willing to help—was far more complex than Amy had given her credit for.

Amy had thought that she understood that the people in this world were real and that she needed to treat them as such. But had she internalized it…?

She had been so focused on the big picture—saving everyone, changing the story's outcome—that she'd forgotten the individuals were more than their roles in the narrative. How many other assumptions had she made?

"Amy?"

Lyra's voice snapped her back to the present. The auburn-haired girl was looking at her with a weird expression, having apparently called her name more than once.

"Sorry," Amy said, shaking her head to clear it. "I was just... thinking."

"About what we discussed during the walk?" Lyra's voice was carefully neutral, but Amy could hear the underlying tension. "Because I'm still not entirely sure about this. What if something goes wrong? What if—"

"It won't," Amy interrupted, though she wasn't entirely sure herself. "Trust me."

Or at least trust my broken ability.

Lyra's expression suggested that trust was exactly what she was struggling with right now, but she nodded anyway.

Once Amy had Lyra's approval, she turned her attention away from her and Crow, and instead closed her eyes and directed it towards herself. She felt a small familiar pull in the back of her head, the same one that always happened when she used her powers. But contrary to the usual, the pull felt weaker, like it took way less from her.

If that was a game of tug of war, then her rival was a little girl not even reaching seven years old, and this was straight bullying.

This was surprising… She had her doubts whether her plan was going to work at all, and if it did, it would have to take a lot from her without a doubt. And yet… She knew that her powers had augmented, but she didn't know just how much they had.

After a couple of seconds later, she opened her eyes. No blood came from her nose, nor did she feel dizzy, only knowledge had arrived… The sensation of pain—the lack of it she meant—felt way weirder than she could describe with words.

Amy took a deep breath, then shook her head. She could lose herself in these thoughts later; right now, she had something to do.

Amy took a deep breath, steeling herself for what came next. "The first step is to take off his clothes."

Lyra stared at Amy for a long moment, then down at Crow, then back at Amy. "Right," she said slowly, her voice oddly strained. "For the... thing you explained...right…?"

"Yes." Amy was already moving toward Crow's unconscious form, her mind racing through the steps her ability, Fate's Road, showed her. The power had shown her exactly what she needed to do with a precision that was almost creepy. It made her think as she began readying herself, how this ability would evolve in the future. Either way, right now wasn't the moment to think about this.

Lyra knelt beside Crow hesitantly, her movements stiff. "This feels... wrong."

"I know," Amy said, reaching for the clasps of Crow's coat. "But we need every advantage we can get. His mark is our best bet for—"

"That's not—" Lyra cut herself off, shaking her head. "Never mind. Let's just... get this over with."

Amy frowned at the girl's obvious discomfort. She understood, of course. What they were doing—using an unconscious person as a living shield, essentially—was morally questionable at best. But survival trumped ethics in situations like these. That's exactly what Lyra had said before as she explained her plan.

"Look, I get that it's kind of grotesque," Amy said as she worked on the first clasp. "But Crow would understand. He'd probably suggest it himself if he were conscious."

"Mhmm," Lyra made a noncommittal sound, carefully lifting Crow's upper body so Amy could access the fastenings better.

Amy noticed Lyra's hands were trembling slightly. The poor girl was probably wrestling with her conscience. Amy felt a pang of guilt for putting her through this, but pushed it aside. There would be time for moral quandaries later, assuming they survived.

The coat came off easier than expected, revealing Crow's standard Academy shirt underneath. Amy moved to the buttons without hesitation, her fingers working methodically while her mind ran through contingency plans.

"Hold him steady," she instructed, noting that Lyra had gone very quiet.

It wasn't until she was halfway through the buttons that Amy noticed something odd. Lyra's breathing had changed—shorter, more rapid.

Amy, confused, glanced up, finally registering Lyra's face properly for the first time since they'd started.

The girl was bright red.

Not the red of exertion from carrying Crow through the corridors. Or the one people had when receiving praise. This was the deep, unmistakable crimson of acute embarrassment, spreading from her cheeks down to her neck.

Oh…

Amy's hands froze on the buttons as her brain finally caught up with the situation.

The realization hit her like a physical blow. She'd been so focused on the tactical necessity, so caught up in her abilities' visions and the impending threat, that she'd completely missed the obvious awkwardness of the situation.

"Lyra, I—"

"Yo!!! What the hell?? Are we interrupting something?" A voice suddenly called up from the side.

Both Amy and Lyra jumped about three feet in the air. Amy's hands jerked away from Crow's half-unbuttoned shirt so fast she nearly fell backward. Lyra made a strangled squeaking sound and dropped Crow's shoulders, but rapidly caught him up, avoiding his head hitting against the obsidian floor.

Standing in the hallway entrance they'd entered from, Iris and Lain stared at them with expressions of complete disbelief. Iris's mouth was hanging open, her eyes darting between Amy, Lyra, and the half-undressed Crow on the floor. Lain's usual composed expression had been replaced by something that might have been shock, or possibly constipation—it was hard to tell with her.

"This isn't—" Amy started.

"We were just—" Lyra tried at the same time.

"It's for tactical—"

"There's a perfectly reasonable—"

They both stopped, looked at each other, then back at Iris and Lain.

The silence that followed was deafening.

"So," Iris said slowly, her voice dripping with barely suppressed... something. Amy couldn't tell if it was anger, amusement, or second-hand embarrassment. "Before you explain why you're stripping our unconscious friend in a creepy obsidian room, I want to know why you are here. We were just going back from exploring when we heard very faint voices in the distance. Almost decided not to check it out since it could have been dangerous. Glad we did— actually, maybe not that glad…"

"Could they be blood mimics…?" Lain said, her eyes squinting.

"First of all, why would blood mimics be doing that. And second, even if they are, I have a feeling we will find out soon."

"It's not what it looks like," Amy and Lyra said in perfect unison, which somehow made everything worse.

Lain tilted her head slightly, her silver eyes moving from Crow's exposed chest to their flushed faces. "...what does it look like?"

"Nothing!" Lyra's voice came out as an unfortunate squeak. "It looks like nothing!"

"Because from where I'm standing," Iris continued, taking a step into the room, "it looks like you two decided to have some fun with—"

"It's for protection!" Amy practically shouted, her composure finally cracking. "We are doing a…ritual of sorts."

"Ritual, huh…?"

Alright, that sounds even more weird…

"Yes, ritual." Amy continued. "Remember the thousands of chaos creatures left trying to break into the Academy? Well, with Abaddon's help, it will happen soon."

If there was any humor in Iris' face, it was quickly gone once Abaddon had been mentioned. Similarly, Lain's expression became serious.

"Explain," Iris said.

Amy took a deep breath before talking. "I hope you didn't think that the ones killed by my book were even close to being all of them. There are still thousands more, and the only reason they haven't entered yet is the barrier of the Academy; even after all the time that has supposedly passed, it still stands. But not for long. We talked about how it might fall by the end of the day; however, my book has shown me that in not even a few hours we will be in deep trouble."

Everyone's expression was exactly as expected: Dread.

They really couldn't catch a break, could they…?

At least on the positive side, Abaddon probably wasn't going to actually appear. Libris had basically beaten the shit out of him; moreover, during the whole swarm thing, Amy noticed cracks appearing in him reminiscent of the same ones her book had. So Abaddon was probably in some sort of contract with the Goddess, too, impeding him from acting directly.

Didn't change the fact that they were going to die if they did nothing, though.

"So, we are fucked. Cool. But I still don't understand why you guys are stripping Crow naked."

Amy frowned uncomfortably at the use of those words. "I told you, it's a ritual," she said defensively. "I'm copying the blood ritual back in the Building B nightmare, so it connects Crow to the barrier."

"What? You know how to do that?"

"My ability helps me…"

"But, why…?" This time it was Lain's turn to ask. Though it seemed that she was mostly asking out of confirmation rather than confusion, going by the aggravated look on her face.

Yeah, I don't like it either.

Amy inhaled deeply, pursed her lips, and let out an exhale before talking. "So that if the barrier gets destroyed, Crow will die."

Iris seemed to freeze, while Lain's expression became harder.

"...Wait. What?" Iris exclaimed, looking at Amy in shock. "Ok, ok, ok… I think I wasn't hearing correctly because what…?"

Amy was about to respond; however, Lain beat her to it. "You're using Crow as a hostage…?" she said, her expression still covered in a frown.

Iris looked between Lain and Amy, then, after seemingly finally realizing the plan, she let out a small, uncomfortable laugh. "That's messed up."

Lain's lips were tight. She seemed to take a small breath before speaking. "Am I understanding this correctly…?"

Amy hesitantly nodded.

"Wow, that's crazy…" Iris exclaimed, looking at Amy for a few more seconds before shifting her attention to Lyra. "And you agreed to this?"

Lyra looked like she wanted to be everywhere but here. "I didn't agree to it," she said, her voice trembling a little. "Not right away."

"And then you did?" Iris asked. "You just—just went 'yeah sure, let's use our friend as a meat shield'? That's hilarious…"

Amy finally snapped, completely fed up with the girl's complaints. "Iris, listen. It's not about sacrificing him. It's about linking him to the barrier. As long as he's tethered to it through the ritual, anything trying to destroy the barrier will also kill him. That makes him a failsafe. A deterrent."

"Has he even agreed to that?"

Amy hissed through her teeth, and she could feel herself starting to get heated. "Look, I know it's wrong. But it's also the best plan we've got. If we don't do something, the barrier will collapse anyway—and then we're all dead. Including Crow and you."

Silence followed. It seemed Amy's words had finally shut up Iris. However, she couldn't celebrate yet; there was still Lain.

"...this could go wrong in many ways," Lain said quietly, moving further into the room. "How would Abaddon even know about our plan? Can he actually stop the creatures? What if—"

"He's watching," Amy interrupted, her voice steady despite. "Right now, either us or the barrier itself—probably the barrier. My ability is clear on that; it says that the plan will work, so there is no way he won't be aware of what we did. And considering the swarm we fought earlier, how they moved with purpose rather than mindless hunger... he has some level of control over them. Enough to call them off if needed."

Moreover, she knew that from the manga, he had a connection to the chaos itself. But they didn't need to know that yet.

"How sure are you about this…?" Lain once again asked, contrary to her usual quietness, she seemed to have a lot to say today.

"As sure as I can be in a situation like this… The only thing I can assure is that my ability has not failed me yet."

"Damn," Iris muttered, running a hand through her hair. "Seriously, what even is your power? Future knowledge, luck, and now a divine all-seeing counselor?"

"Useful, isn't it?" Amy gave a tired smile.

"Yeah, well—" Iris paused, gaze shifting upward, toward the oppressive black ceiling of the strange obsidian room. "Since your power's so handy, can you ask it to get us the hell out of this nightmare?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "I tried, and it doesn't work that way. It's too limiting in regard to time. For anything more, I need my book, and even that doesn't seem to be enough."

Amy let the words sink in for a little while before speaking again. "So…" she began, looking at everyone in the room. "Are we on the same page?"

Everyone stood in tense silence. Amy could feel the weight of her question hanging heavy in the air. Her gaze swept across the room, from Lyra's downcast eyes to Lain's cold contemplation, and then to Iris, who seemed to still be struggling to process everything.

Then, surprisingly, it was Iris who spoke first.

"…Fine," she said, voice clipped but clear. "We're on the same page."

Amy blinked. "You agree?"

"Yeah. To be honest, your plan is actually kind of genius…"

Amy frowned, confused. "Wait. What?"

Iris scratched her chin with an awkward expression. "I hate it," she clarified. "Like, hate it very much. But you are making a lot of sense right now…" She turned her eyes back to Amy, mouth curling into a conflicted grimace. "...It's twisted as hell, but kind of brilliant."

Amy looked taken aback. "You changed your mind awfully fast."

"I guess." Iris shrugged. "Honestly, you got me when you mentioned the part of all of us dying. You see, I'm emotionally unstable and very results-oriented."

Lain, arms crossed and posture tense, was the second one who spoke. "It's still a gamble…," Lain added coolly, her arms crossed and silver gaze as unreadable as ever. "But… I agree, and Crow would too…probably…"

Lyra nodded slowly, her lips pressed in a thin line. "That's exactly what I said. It's wrong, but it's what he'd want. He wouldn't even hesitate."

Amy felt something loosen in her chest at their words—something that had been clenched for far too long.

"...Good," she said softly. "So we are all on the same page."

"Yeah, I guess we are," Iris responded, then seemed to catch herself, and frown. "Still... Do we really need to undress Crow for this?"

Amy winced. "It's only the top and a bit of the down; pulling up his pants should work. I just need access to the…meridians."

Lyra groaned softly. "This is not proper…"

Iris sighed, then threw her hands up. "Okay, someone better make him a 'get well soon' cake after this, because we're all gonna need it."

"Maybe two," Lyra muttered.

"Three…" Lain added, letting out a sigh.

Four…with extra frosting....

They all looked at one another in exhausted, grim silence.

"This is still temporary, though," Lain said, breaking the moment. Her silver eyes were now focused and calculating. "Even if your plan works, we're still trapped in this nightmare. We need to get out."

Amy nodded, tiredness all over her eyes. "That's exactly what we're going to do. But instead of just escaping, we're going to destroy the core."

"The core?" Iris raised an eyebrow.

"Just like Valheim's lecture said. If we disrupt the core of this nightmare realm, we can get out. All of us."

Iris straightened up, suddenly more interested. "I mean, sounds good. But there is a small, very little problem. Do we even know where it is?"

"Yeah, we do."

"You mean, you do. Because I have no idea."

"No, we do. You've already seen it, haven't you?"

"The room with seven doors," Lain interjected with a nod, understanding immediately. "I remember seeing it during our exploration. It was... unusual. Different from the other distorted architecture. They didn't open, nor could we break them."

"Exactly." Amy's expression grew more serious. "To enter the Library—that's where the core is—we have to take individual trials. Each one of us."

"Is your ability also telling you that?" Iris asked.

Amy only sighed, not responding.

After a long pause, Lain spoke carefully. "The individual trials… they include Crow, right…?"

Amy nodded reluctantly.

Iris's face darkened. "Wait, during the 'ritual' you guys are doing—will Crow be able to move? Fight? Do... anything?"

Amy's expression grew pained as she shook her head. "No. He won't be able to move at all. Even if he wakes up, he'll be completely vulnerable until the ritual is broken."

"Shit," Iris swore, running her hands through her hair in frustration. "So we need to take the trials one by one, and once it's Crow's turn..." She trailed off, the implications hitting her.

"The barrier will most likely fall as the chaos creatures would swarm it, a few minutes tops, with luck maybe an hour," Amy confirmed grimly. "We'll have to hold our position while Crow does his trial."

"So we have to hold thousands of creatures until Crow is finished…" Lain summarized, her voice flat.

Amy met her gaze steadily. "It's the only way."

The obsidian room fell silent again. Each of them was processing the full scope of what they were about to attempt—a desperate plan, that was what this was.

"Well," Iris said finally, her voice carrying a note of dark humor, "at least we'll all die together if this goes wrong."

"That's... not particularly comforting," Lyra muttered.

"We need to go and tell the others about it," Iris said with exasperation. "Speaking of which, why are they not with you two? It could be dangerous here, you know?"

"I doubt there is any danger here, so that's why I left them behind, so they guarded the teleporter," Amy explained. "Abaddon puts nothing in."

"That sounds dangerous…" Lyra muttered.

Amy simply sighed, "Again, no other option. We had to make sure—"

"I'll correct you on that one, Miss Stake. There was one other option." A male voice suddenly spoke from Amy's left side. Everyone spun toward the voice. From the shadows near the entrance, Zayd emerged carrying an unconscious Ash over his shoulder. His amber eyes swept across the room.

"Zayd?" Amy blinked, momentarily thrown off balance. "What are you—how did you—"

"Wake up," Zayd said curtly, unceremoniously dumping Ash onto the obsidian floor with a solid thud.

"Ow! What the—" Ash groaned, his eyes fluttering open as he pushed himself up on his elbows. "Zayd, what the hell? Did you just—" He paused, blinking in confusion as he took in his surroundings. "Where... where are we? And why is Crow half-naked?"

"Long story," Iris muttered.

Ash's gaze darted between everyone's faces, clearly trying to piece together what he'd missed.

Amy ignored him and instead turned to Zayd. "What are you doing here? And what do you mean by 'another option'…?"

Zayd brushed dust off his clothes before responding. "I must confess, I was unaware of your specific plan, Miss Stake." His amber eyes met hers directly. "However, I too was concerned about the possibility of an ambush. While you were... occupied with your preparations, I took the liberty of addressing our most vulnerable point."

"Which was?" Iris asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"The teleporter," Zayd replied matter-of-factly. "It struck me that leaving the only means of entering this building completely undefended was strategically unsound. So I spent considerable effort tampering with its activation mechanisms."

Iris stared at him with a confused expression. "You what?"

"I modified the teleporter's core matrix," Zayd continued, seemingly unbothered by everyone's shocked expressions. "It can now only be activated through direct physical contact and requires a significant channeling time as well as my expertise. This ensures that Abaddon, or anyone else for that matter, cannot activate it remotely."

Ash, still sitting on the floor looking dazed, raised his hand weakly. "Sorry, can someone explain why we're worried about teleporter security? And again, why is Crow—"

"Later," Iris cut him off.

"How…?" Lain's voice was sharp with interest. "How did you manage to modify Academy-grade teleportation magic…?"

Zayd's expression remained neutral, though Amy caught a flicker of something—pride, maybe?—in his eyes. "I began working on it during our encounter with Crow's father," he explained. "While all of you were... engaged in that rather intense family reunion, I was attempting to activate the teleporter for an emergency escape. The effort proved educational regarding its underlying structure."

Amy's eyes widened as understanding hit her. "You were trying to get us out of there."

"Precisely. Though my attempts were unsuccessful at the time—the chaos creatures' arrival interrupted my work—I gained valuable insight into the device's magical framework. Once we successfully teleported here, I continued my modifications. Establishing the security link required the remainder of our separation time."

"Wait, wait, wait," Ash struggled to his feet, swaying slightly. "So while I was unconscious, you were doing... magical engineering? And again, what the hell are we doing here? And again, why is Crow half-naked—" He gestured helplessly at their unconscious friend. "What is going on?"

"The world is ending and we're all going to die unless we do morally questionable things to survive," Iris summarized bluntly. "Catch up."

Zayd nodded approvingly at the summary before continuing. "Once I completed the modifications, it occurred to me that your decision to leave me behind was likely strategic, Miss Stake. You needed someone to defend the teleporter. So once that problem was taken care of, I decided to leave."

"And you brought Ash with you because...?" Lyra asked.

"Because leaving an unconscious person alone in an unfamiliar location seemed inadvisable," Zayd replied simply. "And because I suspected we would need all available personnel for whatever plan you were implementing."

Ash threw his hands up in exasperation. "Someone please explain what's happening before my head explodes."

"Amy's going to use Crow as a hostage to prevent the Academy's barrier from falling," Lyra summarized.

"She's WHAT?"

"It's complicated," Amy said, already feeling tired of the topic. "Either way, we should stop losing time with explanations and actually get to work."

Ash looked around the room at everyone's faces. His gaze lingered on Crow's unconscious form, then back to Amy.

"Okay," he said finally, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "I think I get the general idea. We're in deep shit, you have a plan that involves using our friend as leverage, and apparently we're all going to die if we don't pull this off." He took a deep breath. "So what are we supposed to be doing?"

Amy straightened up, feeling a weight settling on her shoulders once again. She glanced around at the faces circling her—Lyra still uncomfortable, Iris grudgingly supportive, Lain calculating, Zayd surprisingly helpful, Crow still unconscious, and Ash ready to act despite his confusion.

Everyone was here one way or another…all except for one.

Amy looked down at the book in her satchel, silent and damaged. A pang of sadness hit her, but was rapidly exterminated by the feeling of numbness. The emotions were happening deep down; she could feel them, but it was almost like another person was experiencing them. It was a level of dissociation she had never experienced before.

"A ritual, that's what we are going to do." She suddenly responded, her voice sounding kind of emotionless. "Then set up some defenses, and then if there is some time," She paused, her eyes drifting toward the obsidian walls around them, thinking of the trials ahead and the conversations that would need to happen before they faced them. "A bit of talking."