Three shapes emerged from the shifting glassy floor. Each with a different tint – Red, Blue, and Green.

  Before they could even finish forming, the Green one exploded as it tanked shears hurtling in at deadly speed.

  Minn screamed and Dusk gritted his teeth through the haze.

  “Defend us!” Dusk shouted, grabbed Minn and ran. The shapes obeyed, getting between Dusk and the threat.

  The geckin flicked his tail across the ground as he passed the harmonica, bumping it forward to light the way.

  Another one of his soldiers exploded behind them.

  As they passed the glowing object, he wasted precious seconds crouching to pick it up again, then continued running.

  They turned the corner, and Minn finally into focus, jerked out of Dusk’s grip, and materialized a card before throwing it behind them. It exploded into purple goop that covered the floor and walls with a nasty squishing sound.

  Dusk didn’t bother asking what it did, only stopping briefly to wait for her to finish setting up her skill before they ran on side by side.

  The third and last of Dusk’s soldiers met their fate. The skill hadn’t even lasted a minute against the Elite. And now it was cold and heavy in Dusk’s hand and permanently took up an active card slot.

  Useless.

  He gritted his teeth. They had been told that crafting random things inside rifts was a terrible idea. Clearly, they had gotten way too conceited after how the spontaneous crafts in the first rift had worked out.

  Why are you so impulsive?!

  They soon reached a crossroads they had already run through before and Dusk immediately picked the path that should lead closer to where he sensed Dawn. He then chanced a glance back as they turned the corner and found the Crystalline Warden with its boots stuck to the ground courtesy of the purple goop.

  He palmed [Tricky Flail], intending to use it as a projectile, but refrained, thinking it might end up freeing it rather than doing any meaningful damage.

  They turned the corner just as another gardening tool swished through the air and exploded into glass. They kept running, desperately hoping they wouldn’t run into a dead end, or even worse, a long hallway that would make it way too easy for the Warden to get a clear shot on them. This hallway in particular looked a tad too long for Dusk’s liking.

  Nonetheless, he used the moment to materialize his new skill and study it.

  [Terracotta Soldiers]

  The art featured close-up of a boot stomping on the ground. In the background, three vaguely humanoid figures formed from the ground. In spite of the monochrome rim and art, he could still tell this was a Very Rare.

  With a stomp, he could summon three golem-like creatures that listened to simple verbal commands and could withstand a decent amount of damage. Unfortunately, their speed and overall combat power left much to be desired.

  Dusk’s thoughts churned with regret at using a Common essence for this. Maybe if he’d used one of the other Very Rares, he might have gotten an Epic. No matter how unfitting they had seemed, surely an Epic would have been better than this piece of–

  Dusk blinked as the card regained color right then and there. Much quicker than he’d anticipated. Less than half the time needed for [Tricky Trail] and its variants to re-spark.

  Alright, maybe it wasn’t as useless then.

  He immediately used the card again as he landed heavily on one foot – resummoning his soldiers behind him – before continuing to run.

  Again, the glassy golems shifted in color to be distinct from one another and then warped into the shape of–

  Dusk’s breath hitched.

  He hadn’t realized it before since they’d gotten destroyed so quickly, but without even looking back, he sensed how his skill decided to manifest.

  Humanoid from waist up, but otherwise one long and thick tail that slithered behind each of them – a coilborn.

  What the heck?! Why?! Did this happen to every skill crafted with a person essence? Did they shape the skills based on who the essence had come from?!

  Then what about all the other skills they had made from person essences?! Was [Soul Split] actually–

  Crash.

  He tossed out that useless train of thought and instead focused on not getting killed.

  He used the fact that Dawn still came in and out of consciousness and split his attention in two. One on thinking of the best way to use his soldiers, the other on actually giving away commands.

  “Green! Go down that passageway! Bait him away! Blue! Charge at the Elite! Distract him! Red! Ambush him when Blue distracts him!”

  As he shouted the last of those commands, he and Minn reached another T-intersection. They looked left – dead end – and right – long hallway – and hesitated.

  The wolfkin then grabbed him and pulled him into one of the cells that had its roof caved in, just as his Blue soldier died. Red died almost immediately afterwards.

  Minn pulled out a card and created her glowing platform near the top of the room.

  Dusk immediately understood her plan and jumped to grab the platform from the bottom.

  “Hey!”

  Or maybe he hadn’t understood her plan.

  “Grab my tail!”

  “...Right!”

  She did so and he swung his entire body sideways, managing to heave her on top of the platform. She immediately reached down and helped him climb up as well. Once there, they looked through the hole in the ceiling and saw faint light coming through there.

  This wasn’t the same cave-in Dawn was in, but it didn’t matter. They needed to get out of the Warden’s reach. But the hole wasn’t wide enough for them to crawl through, not to mention the awkward angle.

  Crash.

  With Green soldier’s demise, he knew they had no time to lose anymore. But what to do? Did he want to risk burying them alive to make a path up?

  “What do we do?!”

  The footsteps of the copied Elite got closer and closer–

  Dusk palmed [Tricky Flail] and gripped his [Iridion’s Shawl].

  “Shield us!”

  Minn listened without hesitation, despite her growing panic. She pulled out her staff, and slammed the butt of it into the platform, coating them both with a barrier.

  Then, with one swing of the hand, he tore through the debris with [Tricky Flail], before covering them both with his invisible shawl.

  They braced for the impact.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  * * *

  Dawn finally jostled out of the half-conscious state as the rubble hit her twin. She gasped, then immediately coughed as she breathed in salt.

  She glanced around – feeling the tension and adrenaline from her other body – and quickly located the others, despite the relative lack of light.

  Oulo stood tall, keeping a pillar of glass from crushing the party. Leejay had a broken wing and his arm bent the wrong way. Tepp was unconscious and covered in an alarming amount of blood.

  “D-Dawn! You’re awake!” the avian screamed. “Q-Quickly! Tepp–”

  He didn’t even need to finish. Dawn immediately threw [Heartseeker] the wolfkin’s way and watched the pink light envelop her and return color to her face. Once it faded, the party was plunged back into darkness, with only sparse rays of light making it down to them.

  “G-Good…” The avian let out a shaky breath.

  Dawn felt a little bad about leaving him in that state, but Tepp had looked like she’d been on the verge of death and she didn’t want to risk it.

  What next?

  The kobold keeping them from being crushed looked like he wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer. Dawn didn’t have any strength-boosting skills, but–

  She raised her leg and then stomped. The ground below her foot shifted – similarly to Dusk’s new skill – created a mound and as if someone tunneled right under the surface, the mound stretched in Oulo’s direction, before bursting open and creating a glassy tree-like shape that wrapped around the fallen pillar and other nearby debris.

  “Holy shi–!” Oulo jumped in surprise, letting go of that pillar, then immediately looked up in panic. Dawn’s skill groaned under the weight, but still managed to hold on.

  Oulo glowered at her.

  “Don’t do that! I thought I was gonna get crushed!”

  Dawn winced.

  “Sorry. Just wanted to help.”

  He huffed but didn’t push the issue.

  “Whatever. How long will that thing last?”

  “Until I cancel it. It’s a toggle.”

  “Good. Heal the others, I’m gonna find a way out.”

  Nodding, she quickly crawled over to the others, ignoring her own injuries for the moment.

  “Leejay…”

  “I-I’s fine… I’ll wait for your skill. C-Check on Tepp.”

  She hesitated for a moment, then murmured her assessment. After all, she couldn’t do a whole lot to help with her healing skill dim, and Tepp could still be in danger. Just because color had returned to her face didn’t mean she would live.

  With that in mind, she made her way to Tepp and quickly checked her vitals. Heart beating, soft breaths, normal body temperature…

  “...She’ll be fine,” Dawn declared with a sigh of relief. “Just unconscious now.”

  She then looked out into the tiny space they had landed in. Frankly speaking, it was a miracle all of them had survived.

  Or maybe not a miracle – just Oulo doing his job.

  After making sure nobody died in the immediate future, Dawn relaxed and waited for her skill to re-spark as her other body pushed through all the rubble.

  [Heartseeker] regained its light and she immediately used it on Leejay. He sighed in relief as the pink light – weirdly shaped like a catkin, now that she thought about it – washed over him, though she couldn’t help but notice that while his arm now mostly pointed in the right direction, his wing remained completely broken.

  “Drat. My heal is too weak.”

  “It’s fine. At least I can move. We just gotta… find the others.”

  “Found it,” Oulo interrupted, drawing attention. “We can climb down here. Just gotta make it a bit wider.”

  Amidst all the broken glass and salt – Dawn studiously ignored all the scrapes she’d gotten – she could see the opening. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much to help in this regard since using [Tricky Trail] to clear the way like Dusk had might just kill them all instead.

  Oulo’s gaze snapped to the unconscious wolfkin. He then marched over to her, knelt down… and slapped her.

  “Gwah?! Wha–”

  “Tepp! We need you to clear the way!”

  “Huh? What are you… Oh. We’re alive.”

  “Not for much longer if we don’t move from here.”

  By which he meant air, Dawn realized thanks to Dusk and Minn running into the same issue as they made their way through the rubble.

  “R-Right. Yeah. I’m on it!”

  The wolfkin climbed to her feet, wincing as she her tail scraped against the glass shards. She pulled put a card as she made her way to where Oulo pointed her.

  Dawn saw a glimpse of it.

  [Corruption Blast] – Very Rare.

  She threw it. Familiar purple bubbles burst out of it and tore through the debris blocking their way out, while somehow not jostling the structure enough for everything to come down on them.

  “Alright, let’s go!”

  Leejay forced himself to stand and Dawn… Dawn failed to do so, because she had healed everyone but herself. Not to mention, without Minn’s barrier, her bare feet did not appreciate all the sharp glass scattered around.

  Oulo awkwardly paused as he realized the problem.

  “...Right. Let me help.”

  He grabbed her and carefully placed her on his back. In the meantime, Tepp conjured her staff again and created a small flame with it to light their way as she and Leejay stepped into the tunnel they had uncovered.

  “It leads down!” she yelled back.

  “It also leads up! I think these are the stairs!” the avian added.

  Dawn perked up as her [Heartseeker] re-sparked again and she used it to heal herself this time. Unfortunately, it didn’t help much with her barefoot situation, so Oulo had to keep carrying her for now.

  The crew descended the ruined staircase and found themselves inside a complex of crystalline hallways that reminded the geckin of a windowless cathedral. Three paths in a T shape spread out in front of them. Each lined with unnerving statues of glass.

  The path to their right had caved in, but two still remained open.

  “Okay… Where do we go now? Any suggestions, team?” Leejay asked as his eyes flicked from one path to the other.

  “They are…” Dawn frowned, concentrating on her other half. “On the same floor now! That way!”

  The others looked at her weird for a moment, but then nodded and followed her instructions.

  The hallways, just like the prison complex below here, were empty, which only unnerved the party. Nothing worse than waiting for an ambush that may or may not come.

  But not Dawn. She felt tension drain from her shoulders as the distance between her and Dusk shrunk with every step.

  Finally, they could reunite and then work on finding a way out of this hellish nightmare. Really, they should have never come here in the first place.

  Just like with the other rift – the in the world had they been thinking? They should have just–

  Dawn suddenly jumped with a gasp.

  “Shit!”

  * * *

  Dusk and Minn finally made it through the rubble and found themselves in the cathedral floor, same as the rest of the party. Unlike the others, Minn didn’t even bat an eye when Dusk immediately picked a direction, saying that the others were that way.

  Though maybe she should have. After all, even if he knew the location of the others, he still had no idea about the location of any monsters lurking nearby.

  Being so close to reuniting with each other, he couldn’t help but focus on it. Moving his feet just a little quicker in anticipation, neglecting to properly pay attention to their surroundings. He barely even looked into the side passages as they walked past.

  A grave mistake.

  The geckin did a double take as he strode right into the sightline of a giant snail creature with a salt body and a glass shell.

  Brine Colossus, the first Elite.

  “Shit!” he shouted in unison with his sister despite being nowhere near each other.

  The monstrosity leaned back, and then lurched forward, spitting a glob of brine at the duo. Minn reacted by slashing a card in an arc in front of them, which shimmered and turned into a glowing dome covering them.

  The glob hit the dome.

  The dome flickered, then popped like a bubble.

  Minn yelped and stumbled back, straight into one of the glass statues lining the opposite wall, elbow first.

  Contrary to what looked like a minor injury, the wolfkin then let out an ear-piercing scream that echoed through the cathedral and even reached the rest of the party.

  Dusk, not wanting to get shot again, hastily scooped up the girl in his arms, and rushed forward and out of the Colossus’s sight.

  As he went, he stomped to summon his [Terracotta Soldiers] again, hoping they would actually do something this time.

  Only when he finally made sure that they wouldn’t be shot at again did he take a better look at his charge.

  A cold chill ran down his spine.

  Her elbow was slowly turning into glass, just like the supposed Crystalline Warden’s curse.

  And he had no anti-curse on hand.