Archer was the last to pass through the wall. She expected to feel something, perhaps a little resistance or some strange shiver, like the ones described in novels when something similar happened. But she felt nothing at all. It was as if the wall truly didn't exist.

Inside, they found a system of tunnels illuminated by strange torches that seemed to have been burning there forever, yet for some reason never seemed to consume themselves.

"Where to now?" Archer asked quietly, though her companions could still hear her.

"And how do you expect us to—? Ah," Dragoon began, but stopped when he understood.

"I can't tell you which specific path. Just that it's to the left, going down. I mean... I don't know how to explain it," Rini told her.

"Do you know any coordinate system? Maybe..."

"Yes! It's at -83, -35, -148."

"...Wait a minute. You know Cartesian coordinates? But this morning you asked me what scrambled eggs were!"

"I don't know. I think I know exactly what you know. So you should know about Cartesian coordinates."

"Are you trying to tell me I don't know what I had for breakfast?"

"Did you? You couldn't answer me."

"Of course I could! I clearly told you it was an egg. I explained where they came from. You even made me explain how they were prepared."

"But in the end, you couldn't tell me what they contained. You ignored me when I started asking about the amount of salt, pepper, and diced tomatoes your mother added."

"My dude," Dragoon whispered to Swordsman from the other side of the room, "are you hearing the same thing I am?"

"I think so... Looks like she's arguing with her imaginary friend about... breakfast."

"Do you think we should keep listening to her after this? I'm not su—"

"Yes, you should," Archer interrupted. "And even more so now, because I know the exact point where Rogue is."

"Okay... So which way do we go? There are six tunnels in front of us and..."

"One of these three," the girl said, pointing to the ones on the far left. "Unless one of those goes down and turns left somewhere along the way. But..."

"Good thing you know the

exact

point," Dragoon teased.

"They're coordinates, Dragoon. I know the point. But we're not on a clear plane. So we have to work around the obstacles."

"A clear plane? What?" Dragoon asked himself.

Swordsman and Tomás shrugged.

Archer chose the middle tunnel of the three options and started down it.

"If the path starts going upward, or doesn't descend soon, we'll turn back and try the next one," Archer told her friends.

They followed her without passing judgment on her plan. The lack of criticism worried her far more than Dragoon's usual comments or Swordsman's analyses. Fearing that they didn't trust her, she turned around to discuss the plan and—

"Something's wrong," Rini warned her, with a seriousness Archer hadn't heard from her in the few days they'd been together.

Suddenly, the little light around them was swallowed up, leaving them in absolute darkness where they couldn't even see a hand in front of their faces.

"What happened? Did the torches go out?"

"Don't worry, don't panic," Tomás began, forcing himself to sound calm. "I'll take care of the ligh—"

"My dude? Are you still there?"

"Yes, but... I don't have my hammer."

"My sword is gone too," Swordsman said, feeling around his waist after Tomás spoke.

"The Dimension," Rini began. "...The bond has changed."

"What do you mean?" Archer asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. Something may have happened to Master."

"And Rogue?"

"For some reason, I can still sense Rogue. Although... it's as if he's everywhere and nowhere at the same time."

"Guys?" a fourth voice asked from the darkness. The voice was somewhat high-pitched. Familiar.

"Rogue?!" Tomás exclaimed.

"Oh, excellent! It's you."

"Rogue? Where are you? How did we get to...?"

"I don't know. Suddenly Master disappeared, and everything went black."

"Master disappeared?" several of them murmured, worried.

"Cat," Rini called her, her voice different from before. Less cheerful, more tired. "I think we can do this ourselves."

"Do what?"

"What are you talking about, Archer? What is Rini telling you?" Swordsman asked.

"She says she can make us continue without Master... That... that I should be able to do it, but..."

"Do what? Can you ask her what's happening? At least where we are?"

"She doesn't know. She... she doesn't know. But we were in some caves and..."

No sooner had Archer said those words than the light returned. They were no longer in a tunnel. Instead, they stood in an enormous cavern that stretched into absolute darkness both ahead and behind of them.

"Thank goodness! I've never been so happy to see you guys!" Dragoon exclaimed, on his knees and leaning against his spear.

"And Rogue?" Cleric asked. "You heard him too, right?"

"Yeah, he was right here and..."

Like everyone else, Dragoon looked around. There was nothing but stone and darkness.

"It must have been an illusion caused by the darkness," Archer said.

She immediately regretted it. Suddenly, every shadow in every crevice looked threatening. She took a deep breath, hoping Dragoon hadn't noticed that she'd just become nervous.

There was nothing there. They were just shadows and—

"Wait... I think something just moved over there," Swordsman said, drawing his sword and pointing it toward a pile of rocks that formed a hiding place against the right-hand wall.

Archer jumped in fright at the warning, but Dragoon said nothing. He was worried too.

Cleric quickly raised his hammer to help illuminate the area with its supernatural light. Nothing was hiding behind the rocks. It was just—

Another shadow moved in a nearby hiding place. This time, Archer saw it.

"What is it? An enemy?" Tomás whispered.

"Show yourself, creature!" Swordsman shouted, sword raised threateningly.

To Archer's horror, the creature obeyed. Or rather...

the creatures

did. There was more than one. And they looked incorporeal. Within seconds, the Adventurers' Group found themselves surrounded by half a dozen shadows. They rose into humanoid shapes and occupied physical space, though none of them ever seemed to separate from the ground.

"What are they? Ghosts? Demons?" Dragoon asked.

"There's only one way to find out," Cleric declared, raising his hammer and making it glow with his energy.

The four entered combat. And despite her nerves, Archer was the first to attack, as always. She quickly nocked an arrow and fired at one of the creatures in front of them. The projectile flew through the air... and continued straight through the creature's forehead.

Horrified, she turned toward where Mica stood and found him trying unsuccessfully to cut down another enemy. Cleric was the only one having any luck. His attacks didn't seem to hurt the shadows, but they recoiled from the light of his hammer with unusual agility.

Archer's suspicions were confirmed. And that made her abandon all caution and panic. The creatures surrounding them were ghosts.

Her companions continued fighting around her. Swordsman even called out to her a couple of times and stepped between her and the shadows approaching her. But Archer couldn't react. She was petrified, on her knees against the ground, without even knowing when she'd dropped her weapon.

"What is happening?" Rini asked. "I can see the others fighting, and I don't detect any injuries."

"T-They're... They're ghosts."

"Oh, I detect... Fear. Manifesting something that frightens you. You really are incredible, Cat."

"Enough, Rini," Cat ordered, trying to organize her thoughts. "Could these be the ones who took Master? Maybe..." She began to give in to panic. "Maybe Master couldn't defeat them. Maybe..."

Then she noticed the shadows reaching her. Not the ones taking on defined forms and fighting—or rather, playing, because this wasn't really fighting. The one that reached her was a shadow on the ground. It positioned itself beneath her. Before Archer could realize what was happening, several pairs of arms emerged from it and grabbed her from different places, trying to drag her into the ground with incredible force.

Archer thought they would crush her against the surface. But with the second pull, she saw something even more horrifying. Her body was being swallowed by the shadow, passing through the solid stone. Her legs went first. Then her hips. Then half of her right arm. She couldn't feel anything unusual on the other side.

She tried to scream, but some of the hands holding her covered part of her face. The little sound she managed to make through the shadowy restraints didn't seem to reach any of her companions.

Three more pulls and Archer was no longer in the cavern.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Swordsman knew he was only wearing out his arm, since the shadows were immune to every attack he threw at them. No matter what Dragoon and he did, they kept advancing, tightening the circle around them.

The only one who was managing to do anything was Cleric. With the divine light of his hammer, he could at least make the creatures retreat a little, keeping them at bay.

"Where's Archer?!" Dragoon suddenly shouted from behind him.

Swordsman immediately turned around. He had moved into that position to defend her after seeing her collapse in panic.

"I don't know. I-I thought she was here. Suddenly she stopped moving and..."

"Do you think she tried to run away? You know what she's like when someone mentions ghosts."

"I don't think her reaction would've been to run toward them, Dragoon."

A dark hand passed beside his face as he spoke. With incredible speed, it grabbed him and pulled him backward to the ground.

Cleric reacted quickly, alerted by Dragoon's reaction. With a single movement, he covered the space above Swordsman with his hammer, driving the shadows away and freeing him from their grasp.

"Oh! Sure they can become tangible when they attack us!" Swordsman exclaimed, both annoyed and worried.

"We have a really big problem, guys," Cleric said, pushing away a pair of arms that were just about to grab Dragoon by the leg. "Stay close to me and..."

"And what?! They might've taken Archer the same way they just tried to take me! If we can't figure out how to fight back, we're screwed!"

"Or we retreat," Dragoon said.

"But... Archer!"

"We won't be able to save her if they capture us too. I say we run and figure out what to do afterward. Maybe... maybe we'll find Master. She'll know what to do."

"How are we supposed to do that in the middle of...?"

"I agree with Dragoon," Cleric interrupted, nervous. "Run as close to me as you can. Shout if they stop you."

Without saying anything else, Cleric charged into the darkness, swinging his hammer above him and trying to cover as wide an area as possible with its light.

Swordsman and Dragoon didn't hesitate. Watching their only safe haven move away from them was enough to make the decision without another word. They both ran with their heads slightly lowered so the hammer wouldn't hit them. The few times they looked back only made them run faster when they saw a thousand hands reaching for them whenever the light turned in another direction.

Swordsman couldn't say how long they ran. His mind was divided between trying to keep himself sane in the situation and thinking about poor Archer.

In the middle of his thoughts, Cleric stopped. Both boys crashed into his enormous body, nearly falling to the ground. That's when Swordsman realized the shadows were no longer following them. More than that, they were already in an illuminated area. They were still inside a cavern, but this one was filled with torches whose light reflected off billions of gold nuggets of different sizes, half-buried in the walls.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Archer finally dared to open her eyes again, she found herself inside a cage made of rusted, warped metal, being carried by four goblins toward a chamber flooded with so much gold that the brightness hurt her eyes for a few seconds.

At the far end of the room, a huge, round goblin dressed in ill-fitting clothes was eating a piece of meat from a creature Archer thought must have been enormous in its entirety. At the goblin's feet was Rogue, inside a cage.

"Rogue! You're alive!" she exclaimed, unable to contain herself.

"Much longer not!" the goblin replied after a loud burp. "And you neither are! Both night breakfast after found other ones!"

The goblins carrying her set her down right beside Rogue's cage.

"What happened? We heard you right beside us one moment. Everything was dark... Then you were gone."

"Archer, Master was here a short while ago," Rogue began. "She came through the rock and started fighting. She was an unstoppable force and then suddenly... she disappeared. Then everything went dark and... I don't know. Everything feels different."

"Different how?"

"I don't know how to explain it. The truth is, I've been here for so long that..."

"Talk not!" the goblin leader ordered, kicking Rogue's cage. "Food talk not!"

"We'll get out of here," Archer whispered, moving closer to the bars. "Swordsman and the others are on their way."

Rogue nodded, but without much hope.

Everything will be fine,

Archer told herself.

Cleric will figure out how to fight the shadows. They'll make their way through the cavern until... What if they encounter another obstacle?

She hesitated.

Look at how much gold there is here... Maybe this cavern is actually a Dragon's lair. No, Cat. Don't think about that.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Swordsman approached the edge of the cliff and looked down. The abyss was still the same as always, endless and dark. But countless suspension bridges connected caverns and stone pathways throughout it.

"There are no signs of life. But there's nothing that makes me think this place is abandoned either," he said.

"Well, I don't know what's worse anymore," Dragoon replied.

"I'd say it would be worse if it were full of enemies," Cleric offered.

The other two gave him an incredulous look.

"My dude, obviously it would be worse if it were full of enemies. But... I don't know. We came in here looking for goblins and haven't seen a single one. This peace is really strange. Especially after escaping those shadows. But whatever. Let's enjoy what life gives us and..."

A deafening roar shattered the silence of the cavern. Along with it came the sound of wind being battered by two enormous wings, followed by tremendous impacts as they struck against the stone.

The three adventurers stepped backward to avoid a shower of debris flying straight toward their heads. The dust hadn't even settled when the source of the noise revealed itself high above them.

"Of course. Just what we needed," Dragoon muttered, unable to hide the little courage he had left at the sight of their enemy. "A damn fucking Dragon."