𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄 , KAEYA A.

11 | FREEZE!

and perhaps, i would not be stuck in this pit, with no way out, no light, no chance to call for help, with the most insufferable person i have ever met.

"now... what should we do about this situation?"

i glared at kaeya, who had chosen to sit down at a corner of the room. "what are you doing? find a way to get out of here."

...how did we end up like this, you may ask?

when rosaria and i reached the prisoners, the rest joined us shortly after.

"we are unable to find any potential exits, acting grandmaster." a knight sighed, scratching his head.

jean frowned and crossed her arms. "let's look again around this room. ysabelle, rosaria, did you two hold up okay?" she gestured to us.

behind her, i caught sight of the knights who were previously stuck in the barrier. a couple of them stood next to some sort of mechanism, which seemed to have been destroyed. some light continued to glow through the cracks, similar to how the gate looked. the wounded knights were tended to by some of the others and i was relieved to see that they were all conscious, though still looking extremely weak.

i nodded. "the abyssal energy is growing stronger, especially in this room."

lisa and amber gathered next to us. thank goodness, they did not look injured.

"any updates?"

amber shook her head, "we will continue to investigate the mechanism. maybe something will appear."

as amber spoke, i glanced around and noticed someone missing. lisa noticed and smiled at me, "kaeya is over there." she pointed to the side.

i let out a small scoff and shook my head, mumbling, "i wasn't looking for him."

lisa only hummed in response.

after a few seconds, i looked over and surely enough, kaeya was standing with 2 knights, arms crossed. behind him was a huge concrete wall with a few cracks here and there. kaeya suddenly looked up, locking eyes with me.

i immediately turned away, cursing myself. i already know the bastard probably thought i was staring at him.

all of a sudden, the medics attending to the knights screamed. he held up his comrade's hand, which was previously covered by a glove. "his, his hands! they're turning blue?!"

we were all immediately alarmed and rushed over. amber took the knight's hand and inspected it closely. jean took off his other glove, and surely enough it was the same. she cursed under her breath, "it seems to be the effect of the abyssal energy. we have to find a way out. quickly."

the knight who was sat leaning his back against the wall looked half-conscious. his eyelids were drooped low and his breaths were slow. jean barked out commands and the knights quickly went to work.

"our only hope seems to that wall over there." kaeya popped up behind me and i nearly jumped in surprise. he smiled at the effect of his actions and i glared in response.

"what wall? the one with the drill?" i pointed to where he stood earlier. a small drill-like object was situated in the middle of the wall. it vibrated steadily and debris dropped onto the ground as it continued.

"yeah, you know, the wall you were staring at earlier."

"the fuck? i wasn't staring at the wall."

"my my, so you admit you were staring at me?" his eyes twinkled teasingly.

"i was staring at the wall." i concluded, ignoring his laughter that followed my words. i went over the wall to inspect it closer. while my finger traced the cracks, kaeya had followed and also knelt beside me.

"huffman used a detector and the energy we detected back at the entrance is similar to the one we suspect is behind this wall."

i continued to trace the crack. one in particular was larger than the others, and if you squint, you might be able to see something inside it. "but you can't break this entire wall down. the platform will collapse."

he nodded, "correct. that's why we're going to try to make a small opening. but before that, we need to make sure our suspicions are correct."

"was there always something glowing like that?" i had one eye closed while the other squinted to look in between the cracks.

"what do you mean?"

i moved my head back, gesturing to where my finger was. "look for yourself."

there was a tiny red glow in the rock, a few centimetres past the opening. "that's unusual. abyssal energy should be blue." he leaned back and turned to me. his eyes casted to the side of my head. "wait, your earring is glowing to-,"

in the next second, the wall started to rumble uncontrollably. "shit." i took a few steps back, placing my hand on my sword handle. the drill fell out onto the floor with a loud thud and soon enough the entire wall crumbled to pieces in front of our eyes.

"wait, the gate! that's the exit!" someone exclaimed from the back.

"fuck, wait, there's something appearing! GET BACK! GET BACK!"