Winx Club - Eternal Spark

Chapter 7: Trap

One by one, the Winx jumped down into the fortress hall, praying that they would not break a leg in the process. Luckily for them, the fall turned out to be shorter than they had imagined, as the windows were surprisingly close to the ground.

They rose to their feet, scanning their surroundings for the least suspicious move, but the room was so dark that it was difficult to see. After a few seconds of hesitation, realizing that they were in no immediate danger, they relaxed slightly.

Stella materialized a ball of light and sent it floating above their heads, illuminating the entire hall. The girls discovered a room that was empty of furniture and covered in dust, as if no one had set foot in it for many years.

Their attention was drawn to a passageway on the opposite wall. They looked at each other, a little confused as to what to do next.

"What do we do?" Musa asked, taking off her hood. "Should we continue this way?"

"Let me have a look around first," Tecna said, creating a magical map of the castle in the palm of her hand while casting suspicious looks around. "It's too quiet, I don't like it."

"And you wanted to hear what, exactly? Birds chirping?" Stella scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"She's got a point," Aisha remarked with a chuckle.

Tecna just groaned in annoyance, then continued tapping on her map, muttering to herself.

"I don't know," said Musa, rubbing her chin, "I can't help but feel that something fishy is going on..."

"You're not wrong," Aisha agreed. "Personally, I think we've managed to get in a little too easily... what fortress worthy of the name would leave its windows open and accessible to anyone? That much is suspicious."

That was all it took for Stella to start acting up again. She made her way to the passageway, eager to prove to her friends that they were being paranoid. She made it to the front of the corridor without a hitch and turned back to the girls with a satisfied look on her face, while they all looked at her in utter disbelief.

"See? Nothing happened. Come on now, I don't want to stay here all day."

She turned her back on them and was about to step into the corridor when, suddenly, Tecna looked up from her map in horror.

"Stella, don't go any further!" She shouted, surprising everyone.

Stella panicked and spun round. 

Suddenly there was a muffled creaking, followed by metallic noises coming from all directions. The ground began to shake beneath their feet, as if an earthquake had struck.

But it was no earthquake. 

In front of their very eyes, robots clad in heavy steel armor emerged from the walls. There were hundreds of them, marching in unison like an army, wielding sharp swords.

Stella looked back at the passageway... but it was gone. Where it had been, there was a wall. She put her hands on it, trying to work out if it was an illusion, completely perplexed. Unfortunately for her, the wall was as real as the army of robots closing in on her.

"Tecna! Stella shouted so that she could be heard over the cacophonous noise of the robots. "You're the fairy of Technology, for Sun's sake! Aren't you supposed to know when an army of killer robots is waiting for us!"

"I told you to wait!" Tecna snapped. "But, as usual, you wanted to show off, and you walked right into a trap! If you had just..."

"Enough already!" Aisha interrupted them. "We'll decide who's to blame later, right now we have more pressing problems!"