Gold Digging— Lain Pov

The people have voted, so here is Lain's pov of chapter 11 as they escape from the first nightmare. Thanks for your patience.

The cramped passage squeezed Lain's shoulders as she hurried after Amy into the dark. Behind them, those monsters scraped at the walls, trying to get into the corridor.

"Do you know where we're going?" Lain forced herself to shout. Speaking loudly still felt unnatural, even in this critical situation.

"Yes," Amy's voice came back, higher than normal.

She's tired, Lain observed, noting the labored breathing ahead of her.

In contrast, Lain's breath came controlled despite the sprint—years of combat training had taught her to regulate her breathing even under stress. The seer's physical conditioning was abysmal. How someone could survive to her age without basic stamina training was beyond her understanding. In that regard, this mysterious girl reminded her of Lyra.

After a few minutes of constant running, they burst into a circular chamber, and Lain's tactical mind immediately catalogued the space: a stone room, at the center an ornate black box with its golden lock. She felt a faint pulse of mana from it, drawing her attention enough that she momentarily didn't notice the most preoccupying part.

Her eyes locked onto the thirteen wooden crosses arranged in ritual formation, eleven occupied by bleeding students, channels carved into the floor in arcane patterns made with blood.

"What is this place?" she asked, turning with a frown to the girl who had brought them here in the first place.

"The sacrifices," the seer replied, her face drained of any color.

Lain's frown deepened, then she rapidly chose to reserve whatever questions she had about all this for later; lives were in danger right now.

Decisively, she moved to the nearest victim, her fingers already reaching for the bindings when—

"Alblagtung thanki shadma. Sehlet hhst mall sbeid!"

The voice that erupted from the girl's mouth was wrong on every level. Lain jerked back, frost instinctively forming around her fingers. "Don't touch them directly. The bindings are cursed," she warned, keeping her voice level despite her racing heart.

Red light began to illuminate the blood channels. A massive ritual circle revealed itself, and Lain's mind raced, trying to find a way to—

"We need to break the circle," Amy said, her voice strained. "In the stor—I mean, according to my power—their souls are being used to power the nightmare."

In the story? Lain filed that slip away. What story? A prophecy? Could it be related to her book?

Lain wished the situation were different so she could ponder on the girl's words more deeply, but right now it truly wasn't the time. So instead, she changed her focus to the girl's later revelations.

Their souls are being used to power the nightmare.

If nightmares were composed of three components, then the 'sacrifices' were the 'Catalyst,' which meant that if they could get rid of them...

The tactical solution was obvious: kill half the sacrifices, collapse the nightmare, escape in the chaos.

Lain's eyes fixed on Amy's, searching for the girl's internal thoughts, and to her surprise, she found her eyes held determination—the good kind.

Just what is her end goal?

"How do we break it without freeing whatever is trying to manifest?" Lain asked, choosing to ignore the practical solution.

She watched Amy whisper to the air—no, to that book Crow carried. Another mystery. Amy's nose began bleeding as she strained with some invisible effort, and Lain recognized the signs of ability overuse. Whatever power Amy possessed, she was pushing it far beyond safe limits.

Lain's frown somehow got even deeper, then a faint urge to help followed. She couldn't let this girl be the only one doing all the work.

It was just as she was thinking that when the sound of approaching monsters echoed through the passage. Lain's combat instincts kicked in, her body moving before conscious thought. Ice erupted from her palms, sealing the entrance with a crystalline barrier.

"That won't hold them long," she said, already calculating angles of attack, escape routes, threat priorities. "Can you break it, the circle?" She positioned herself between Amy and the already cracking wall.

Amy stumbled to the pedestal, examining symbols with fevered intensity. When she spoke of redirecting the blood flow, Lain didn't hesitate.

"To break it, we need blood from an outside system, someone other than those thirteen. Our blood might be enough to redirect the flow of energy."

"I'll go first," Lain said with a nod. The words came out before she could stop them.

It's not like she fully trusted the seer. There were so many uncertainties about her identity and plans. But clearly, their objectives were aligned right now. Moreover, that look...

It was disquieting. Amy Stake moved through this nightmare with the confidence of someone who knew exactly what would happen, yet her body betrayed her complete inexperience with actual danger. As a noble, Lain had encountered many seers, and she could confidently say that most were either battle-hardened from seeing too much, or completely detached from reality. Amy was neither.

Just who in the hells is she?

Without wasting any more time on useless thoughts, Lain drew her boot knife and sliced her palm without flinching. The blood channel pulsed as she pressed against it, and one student's bindings loosened.

It's working.

She didn't know if it was bad that relief flooded her brain instead of suspicion. Lain always believed herself to be a logical person, so the fact that—

The ice wall shattered.

Lain's body moved on pure instinct, frost exploding outward in defensive waves. The monsters came in forms that defied description, but she'd faced worse. Her ice carved through them with precision, each movement as economical as possible; from the look of this, she would need every last drop of energy.

"I'll keep them back! Do what you gotta do!"

Four down, five struggling to stand, four more freed... Throughout the whole fight, she kept an eye on Amy. The seer's blood was everywhere—nose, eyes, a nasty neck wound that had barely missed the artery.

At this rate, she might actually die. Lain grunted, then silently increased her magic output. The best thing she could do right now was to make sure no monster got through her.

The ceiling cracked. Lain's breath caught as she glimpsed what descended—the Blood Emperor's incarnation, a thing of nightmares made flesh. She'd read about it in restricted texts, but the reality was so much worse.

Her magic reserves were depleting rapidly. Each frost nova took more effort, and each ice spike formed more slowly. Amy had freed eight now, and Lain made a decision.

After creating a giant ice wall, she dashed to Amy's side, slicing her other palm. "Let me help."

Together they freed another, then another. Only four remained.

A tentacle smashed nearby, stone shrapnel slicing across Amy's neck. Lain watched the seer stumble, her heart freezing for a nanosecond but soon returning to beating as she saw the seer rapidly stand up and return to her task.

She's insane.

"Leave them!" a blonde girl they had rescued shouted from the portal, where she was helping others escape. "You won't make it!"

Lain's gaze shifted from the girl to Amy's. She could see the determination in her gaze, and the will to save others. Whatever doubts she had about the girl before, they were dissipated at that exact moment.

"We finish this," Lain said firmly, meaning it completely.

More creatures poured in. Lain threw everything she had into one final ice wall, feeling her magic scrape the bottom of her reserves. The red-haired girl came free, then—

"Get her out," Amy ordered, pointing to the girl. "I'll finish here."

Lain hesitated. Amy looked moments from collapse, blood streaming from multiple wounds, eyes unfocused. Leaving her was tantamount to murder.

"You can't—"

"I'll be right behind you. Take the golden box with you."

Lain considered ignoring the girl's request, but a faint voice in the back of her mind reassured her.

But she knows something. She always knows something.

With some remaining hesitation, Lain turned around, then grabbed the box, hid it in her uniform pocket, and helped the disoriented girl toward the exit.

But soon after, the sound of impact made her turn. It took less than a second for her to realize the tentacle had crushed the skull of the boy Amy was freeing, painting the cross with gore.

Amy stood frozen, staring at the corpse with an expression Lain recognized too well—the look of someone watching their first death up close.

"Damnation! Amy!"

Lain fought back through the chaos, ice shards clearing her path despite her depleted reserves. Miraculously, after what felt like an eternity, she reached Amy just as the seer's legs gave out, catching her before she hit the ground.

"Stay with me. We're almost out."

Amy was lighter than expected, despite the way she carried herself. Lain could tell that the person in her arms wasn't someone strong. She half-carried, half-dragged her toward the portal as the chamber collapsed around them.

The Blood Emperor's roar of rage shook everything. A massive tentacle descended toward them.

No choice.

Lain shoved Amy forward with strength born of desperation, sending her tumbling through the portal. She dove after, the tentacle crushing the space where they'd stood.

The transition was jarring—from nightmare to reality in an instant. Lain caught Amy's collapsing form on the other side, cradling the unconscious seer against her chest.

"Amy?"

Blood seeped through her fingers where she pressed against Amy's neck wound. Around them, the freed students were crying, vomiting, or simply staring in shock.

Lain held Amy tighter, frost unconsciously forming around them in a protective barrier.

The sound of running footsteps announced help's arrival, and Lain looked up to meet the academy staff's eyes.

"Medical assistance! Now!" A professor's voice cut through the chaos.

"She needs a healer," Lain said, her voice hoarse. She tried to stand but found her legs unsteady.

"You both do," Hendricks replied, signaling to the medical team rushing forward with stretchers and healing supplies. "What happened in there?"

"Ritual sacrifice," she said simply. "Thirteen students. We got twelve out."

The words felt inadequate, but they were all she could manage. One of the healers gently took Amy from her arms, and Lain felt the absence immediately—the weight she'd been carrying suddenly gone.

With Amy now gone, Lain noticed her hands were shaking. When had that started? She stared at her palms—one still oozing blood from where she'd cut herself, the other bearing frost burns from overusing her magic. The tactical part of her mind catalogued the damage: magical exhaustion, minor lacerations, probable concussion from the debris, and...

The adrenaline was fading.

It hit her like a physical wall. The hyperfocus that had kept her moving, fighting, analyzing, planning—all of it drained away in an instant. Her knees buckled, and suddenly the weight of everything crashed down—

"Easy there," the professor caught her elbow as she swayed. "When did you last eat? Sleep?"

"I'm fine," she managed, though her vision was starting to blur at the edges. "The students need—"

"The students are being cared for. You've done enough."

Enough. The word echoed strangely in her mind. Had it been enough?

Amy's face flashed in her memory—that look of determination, the way she'd moved through the nightmare like she was following a script.

Compared to her, have I done enough?