The band of first years used their own hues of magic to light up the dark tunnels. It cast an array of colors onto the jagged cave walls and close above stalagmites.
Algernon stationed himself at the back of the group where he could inadvertently follow Lucy's every step without anyone noticing, though that didn't work on the most perceptive first year.
"Thinking anything interesting, Algernon?" Pecilia accused, striding beside him with arms crossed.
Her condemnation didn't go lost on him. "No."
"You know, if you're going to keep this up you're going to need to lie better." Pecilia scuffed. "And get a better poker face."
Algernon's shoulders sank but he kept his expression and tone emotionless. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Oh really?" Pecilia spurred with more surliness than usual. "Then you won't mind if I go have a chat with little Lahue over there?" She didn't wait for a reply before starting forward only stopping by Algernon's hand on her arm.
"Pecilia." Algernon pleaded, trying to find the right words. The ones he himself still didn't have. "Just..." He trailed off glancing over to Lucy, and it told Pecilia everything she already knew. The things Algernon was just about figuring out for himself.
Pecilia jerked her arm away, disgusted by these men's lack of manors. "Don't touch me," She scathed. "And keep away from her with whatever sliver of humanity you have," Pecilia looked Algernon up and down, rightfully accusing him and finishing her tirade when she added, "You sad little cold boy."
Pecilia marched ahead as Algernon watched her join Lucy and Freya. He worried about what she might say but held back, knowing that interfering would be the exact thing that turned her threat into action.
"How much longer do you think until we reach the center?" Pecilia asked, her arms and mood still crossed.
"Some time or less." Freya chimed, munching on another treat.
Pecilia softly glared at Freya. "You're really not cute." The end of the insult suddenly reverberated deep into a part of the cave they couldn't yet see and Lucy chased the diminishing cute around the last bend of the tunnel to the center of the mountain.
The very last echoes of Pecilia's words bounced around the huge hollowed-out center of the cave. The rounded walls were so high she couldn't see the top but sunlight illuminated the dirt red rock by reflecting through a small steady waterfall falling from some unseen point in the ceiling onto a four-pointed star of the gods. Each end of the star was tilted to trickle water into the open palms of the most magnificent monuments of the four gods Lucy had ever beheld. Carved so high they were the height of small mountains themselves, the stone gods faced one another, and the rest of the waterfall fell through the center of the star. The group was mesmerized to say the least and climbed the small steps of the circle platform to gawp up at the deities. A small pool formed at their feet from where a crack in their palms leaked water. Lucy looked down to her reflection where she could see the goddess of light staring up at her.
The goddess' mass of round curls was adorned with a crown made from the sun, and her calm stare looked like a mother putting a child to bed. Lucy just about reached the height of her ankle and wholeheartedly knew they could only be forged by a vessel of the gods.
"I read that this was the last place man ever met with the gods," Jasper elucidated from the god of destruction's feet, his voice not echoing as Pecilia's had but sucked into the waterfall. "Maybe they just never left."
The entire group would have agreed with him if they had their sense of self back. The monuments were so lifelike and built to flawless perfection that if they came alive at that moment none would be surprised. Lucy was the first to turn from the gods to notice the one human-sized statue they had all overlooked. Knelt on the floor with his back bent and arms stretched behind him to receive the endless geyser of water was a man wearing a king's crown. Water poured over him, and Lucy knelt down to his level. His eyes stared straight ahead like he was accepting this burden with all his strength. She had never seen struggle so clearly expressed in the features of any man as she did in the stone statute and though he seemed so vulnerable, so human, so unlike the legend of the man turned to god, Lucy knew she was looking at King Leviathan. And for the first time, she wasn't seeing an interpretation of the last good king, she was seeing the real him as authentically as if the king had cast himself in plaster then knelt beneath the waterfall where his stone stature protected one thing from the endless fall of water, a rock tablet with carved words that Lucy had to squint to read. But some voice, other than her own mixed with her inner dialogue and came to say,
If in Violence it begins, in Violence it will never end.
Lucy reached out to touch the words, but a voice startled her back.
"You've finally arrived." Echoed across the chamber as the group of first years looked for the source. "And I couldn't be more proud." Only Algernon and Lucy could spot Brickwood from where they stood, and the professor approached her, his voice now drowning out with the waterfall. "Especially of you, Lucy," Brickwood said, coming to offer down his helping hand up. "You've done so well," He smiled as he felt his cousin's glaring hate at his back. "Much better than I could have ever hoped for." His grin widened and Lucy instinctively accepted his hand but as soon as she did she felt a force behind her. She looked back to King Levithan. He stayed perfectly still watching on with stone eyes as the professor helped her to her feet and pulled her away. Algernon never stopped glowering at Brickwood as he did, not until he let go of Lucy's hand and replaced him at her side.
The professor walked into view of the remaining first years. "Congratulations on making it here. Not many do." He said beaming at his students. "Though you did not make it here as fast as your upperclassmen." From the shadows of the other side of the cave, the fifth-years sauntered forth.
Luke waved a hello and half a smile lifted his cheeks as he greeted them. It ever so slightly grew when it landed on Lucy with a wink to pair with it. He full-out laughed when Algernon looked just about ready to kill him for it.
Pecilia rolled her eyes at the cockiness. "Whatever comes next, please tell me there's no more walking involved." She groaned, sitting down and rubbing her feet.
"Why would you wear such impractical shoes?" Brickwood questioned, looking at her heels.
"Because," Pecilia snarled. "You geniuses insist on keeping every challenge we do a secret."
Brickwood chuckled under his breath. "Part of the challenge is being prepared for anything."
"Well, I'm prepared for a queen's coronation." Pecilia clapped back.
Brickwood took a breathe so his frustration didn't seep into his words as he addressed the rest of them. "Anyways, it's time to finish the third round."
The students gathered around the professor who stood behind the goddess of light's back. "To make it to the final round, each group must choose one person to sacrifice, while the others carry onto the final task."
Everyone froze, digesting the weight of his words.
"What does a sacrifice entail?" Jasper asked, looking at his friends reluctantly.
"They'll need to be rendered unable to continue on," Brickwood clarified. "Incapacitated."
The first years drew closer together while the fifth years started to break apart.
"I say we get rid of the weakest." A fifth-year girl said, her hands alive with dark magic.
"Holly," Luke scolded, holding out his hand to the girl. "Wait, we're going to need-"
He was interrupted when a different fifth-year girl shot a defenseless Holly.
Luke turned to yell at the other girl but his shouts were overrun when a not yet defeated Holly started to fire back. The innocent bystanders were drawn into the brawl, having to defend themselves. Rowland tried to take a stance between the two but was haphazardly knocked out. Luke stepped back finally having enough of the unnecessary violence. With a quick shake of his wrists, he brought his artifacts to hand and jumped backward. On his way down he bashed the two shield halves onto the ground, sending out a surge wave that knocked the fifth years off their feet.
"Very impressive, Mr. Bellmounte." Brickwood commended, but Luke looked anything but proud as he stood over his self-seeking classmates. Three of them were unconscious, leaving three still standing. "Just like your brother."
Lucy's eyes opened wide as she remembered his connection to Aloysius and noticed the similar characteristics they shared in a long lithe body and sharp angular jaw. Even Luke's personality seemed reminiscent of the seamstress's showy but aloof attitude.
"Well just count one of those three as your sacrifice." Brickwood declared before turning to the first years, "But now for you all."
Pecilia and Algernon unconsciously turned to Freya, who was looking rather accepting of her fate.
"It's ok. I'll stay behind," Freya said. "Just don't let Algernon be the one to do it."
"No." Jasper protested. "We shouldn't make you do that Freya. You've been just as important to this team as the rest of us."
And at the same time to overlap Jasper, Pecilia extended her palm out to the girl and said. "Well if you insist."
"Pecilia no!" Jasper yelled, forcing her hand down.
"Jasper it's ok," Freya relented, "Here just take care of-" She was cut off from handing over her bag of sweets when the sound of magic being fired turned everyone's attention back to the goddess of Creation's heel.
Everyone turned to see Lucy with her hands still pointed at an unconscious Brickwood.
"He never said the sacrifice had to be one of us," Lucy stated, shaking her hands free of the tingle of magic.
Jasper backed away as if he was suddenly very afraid of Lucy, while Pecilia was more than impressed and Algernon gaped at her as if she had just committed the single greatest act of his entire life.
"Well out of all of us," Luke proclaimed, stepping closer to Lucy. "It seems you've figured out how to win this game."
"There was always another option. One where everyone could win." Lucy said finally coming to the revelation.
Luke looked her up and down, his smile nothing but impressed as for the first time someone other than himself had figured out the twist to the games. "And I learned it from him," Luke revealed pointing to the statute of the last good king.
Lucy replayed the words of his stone tablet over in her head. "Has anyone else?"
Luke's gaze remained sadly lingering onto the king. "No," He doled. "But that's the great irony of this world, until everyone realizes we can only win together, none of us ever will."
Lucy's brown stitched together so tightly they nearly touched. "What do you mean?"
Luke felt a low rumbling in the ground as did Algernon. "The final stage of the game can't be passed alone," Luke divulged, holding his weapon closer to his chest. "The monsters are always far too big." As if on cue a giant lizard-like creature started crawling out of a crack in the cave's wall, bellowing a hissing scream when it spotted the students.
"What's that!" Jasper asked, gapping up to the ceiling.
"A gecko?" Freya answers, her head moving along with its zigzag crawl across the walls of the cave. It obviously wasn't but Lucy noted the similarities. Its skin was so white it was almost transparent but there were no signs of bones, the only thing that contrasted against its semitranslucent skin were two small black eyes that freely rolled around its body.
"That," Luke said, pointing up to the 30-foot creature that started to make a loud churning sound like grinding gravel. "Is the final round." It gagged until a huge rock was at the back of its throat. With one more soft choke, it opened its mouth and heaved a boulder double the size of a person at them. It propelled impossibly fast and while the others were left stunned, Luke sliced the boulder in half with the razor edges of his weapon. The two pieces flew behind him, leaving behind a creator and searing hot rock.
"Take Brickwood and the fallen students and leave," Algernon ordered the rest of them, taking a position between the monster and them while unleashing his double-ended scythe.
The creature was in the middle of forming another boulder by gathering stray rumble near it when it spotted the shining weapon. It abandoned its mission to start slivering over.
"No." Said one of the fifth years. "We're here to win this thing." His hands lit up with dark clouds as he shot the most powerful stream of magic he could muster. It broke into the back of the creature with a suctioning sound. The monster paused in its pursuit while its stomach started to gurgle once again.
Shit, Luke and Algernon both thought as a ball of circling dark magic pulsated in its core before moving up its throat. The creature opened its mouth and the energy shot at it regurgitated back at them with a hundred times the force.
"What the hell," Pecilia said, from behind Luke, who could barely manage to deflect the blast with his shield.
Lucy peered over Algernon's shoulder to see his scythe cutting the magic but it also looked to be absorbing the black clouds. His brows knitted together as his artifact took in too much energy to control. But he couldn't release it yet and it caused some of the dark magic to seep into his arms, locking up his joints and making his bones ache.
The creature used up all of its given magic and closed its mouth once again.
Algernon released the onslaught of stored magic at the rock above the creature. Boulders fell onto the gelatinous beast completely covering it from sight. Algernon took deep huffs from the effort, and almost lost his footing from the effects of dark magic's still coursing through his body. He could barely keep an eye open against the pain to see the avalanche of rocks on top of the creature start to crumble into sand.
"What did that just do?" Jasper asked, watching the sand funnel into its body and hearing.
"It brings anything thrown at it into its core," Luke said, knowing it was doing the same things with the boulders. "And shoots it back with ten times the power," Luke added keeping his protective position in front of the group along with Algernon as it crawled through the smallest cracks in the boulder with a deflated body.
Its black eyes stared down at the fifth year who shot the dark magic. The creature slithered across the walls before detaching from the ceiling and falling hundreds of feet to the ground in front of the student. Steam leaked from its mouth before it threw up red hot magma.
The fifth-year ran as fast as he could as the creature chased after him still spewing the contents of its stomach in all directions.
The other fifth year sent out shards of rock at the creature impaling it straight through its body. He succeeded in distracting it as it stopped pursuing Luke, but it made one huge huffing churn of its stomach and the daggers heaved back at them a hundred times more powerful.
Jasper and Pecilia created a field of destruction magic to vaporize the matter, but the cost of it half exhausted them from the heavy blunt force behind the stones.
"We need to use destruction magic!" Luke yelled down to the others, acquiring the creature's attention along with it as it started to scurry across the cave towards him.
"But it's huge!" Freya said her voice echoing throughout the cave and making the creature turn to her.
"We can eradicate it if enough of us all do it together," Luke said, following closely behind it as it charged Freya. And Lucy realized this is what Luke had meant when he said the only way for them to win was if they all worked together.
Algernon stepped in front of Freya as soon as the creature reached her, his hand forming a sheet of destruction magic. Freya joined in to help as the creature stopped before the wall of magic. "Box it in on its other sides!" Luke screamed as he used his wings to send him into flight and create a shield of destruction magic from above. The other fifth years took control of one side while Pecilia and Jasper did the other. The monster looked at the forming cage without anywhere to escape, not even seeming to have the sense to try as they closed in on him.
Lucy stayed back, her hands pressed together in worry but unable to put out any real amounts of destruction magic to help.
"Move forward," Luke ordered everyone. "And don't stop." The students all took very careful steps trying not to lose the extreme concentration it took to keep up the magic and also struggling to withstand the extremely draining effects of channeling it. The creature lost any room to move as it looked upon the glimmer of destruction magic reaching its body. The group pressed forward with all the energy they could muster, and as soon as their magic hit the creature it bounced off. A ripple effect sent them all flying back as if their magic had just turned against them.
"No way," Pecilia huffed, pulling herself off the floor. "It can repel destruction magic?"
"I thought only the artifacts could," Freya said, looking at Algernon and Luke's weapons.
Luke was left wondering what was happening just like the rest of them. "But there was supposed to be a way for everyone to win," He whispered under his breath but couldn't stew over the unfairness for long as the creature lunged at him.
Luke sliced at the creature's front foot with the end of his shield. It completely severed the leg, and as it fell forward onto its severed limb it reabsorbed it back within it's body to immediately regrow it in the same position. "You've got to be kidding me," Luke said, pausing to let his mouth drop in disbelief. The creature went back to the chase and Luke tried slicing through any other part of the creature to see if it made a difference but everything only healed or reattached the moment it connected with any part of itself.
Algernon joined in the fight, trying to splatter parts of the creature far enough away from each other that it couldn't reattach.
But the others watched all the severed pieces move on their own back towards the body bringing pieces of rubble with it. The moving slimes reabsorbed into one giant form again as the creature started to churn.
Luke had his shields up protecting himself and Algernon from an avalanche of burning stones when an unexpected huge boulder sent him flying back. He hit the wall as air dragged out of his lungs. The creature trailed after him, reaching Luke before any of them could. Its mouth opened looking as if it was about to swallow Luke but Algernon slashed it from behind up towards its head. Splitting the creature perfectly in two.
Its jellied body fell next to each other and melted into one pool of slime before it started to mold into an even more paralyzingly terrifying dragon-like form.
"Is there really no way to win?" Luke questioned holding his throbbing side.
Lucy was already thinking frantically about the answer to that question even before Luke had asked it. At every step in the game so far there had been a twist, something that allowed everyone to pass if only they had thought things through and not gone straight to fighting.
"How do we fight something like that?" Freya asked.
"You don't," Pecilia said, facing the futility of the situation.
Lucy looked back to the statue of the king as a strangely familiar voice filled her head with the words
If in violence it begins, then in violence it never ends.
Lucy's eyes lit up. "That's it!"
"What is?" Pecilia asked but Lucy couldn't hear the question as she had already started sprinting towards the creature.
Algernon prepared for another round as the creature finally reformed to its full size. He raised up his scythe and wasn't prepared to have it suddenly pushed down.
"Algernon, wait!" Lucy said, putting all her weight on the flat part of the blade to lower it. "This isn't something you can win with violence."
"Everything can be won with violence," Algernon said back, forcing Lucy aside.
Lucy stepped in front of him again. "No! It can't!"
"I'll prove it to you later." He said, moving between her and the creature again.
Lucy ran out ahead of Algernon towards it, but before she could get too far away he buffered the edges of his scythe with magic and hooked it around her waist.
"Am I going to have to prove it to you now!" Algernon yelled, pulling her back and face to face with him.
"Just listen to me!" Lucy yelled, but the sounds of churning turned their attention to the creature replenishing its stomach with more rock to melt into lava.
"Are you crazy?" Luke accused Lucy. "Or did you maybe lose some of your brain cells when I almost drowned you yesterday?"
Algernon tore into Luke with his eyes. "I haven't forgotten about that."
Luke shrank back
"But we should!" Lucy declared, putting her hands on Algernon's chest and leaning back against the scythe to create some space between them. "That's the entire point of this!"
The creature turned its eyes towards them, ready with lava to perform another explosive act.
"Right now the point is not to get killed," Algernon countered, removing his scythe from around her waist. "And you're not strong enough to guarantee that."
"It won't stop attacking as long as we attack it!" Lucy argued but Algernon ignored her as he walked with his weapon drawn. She was more annoyed that he wasn't listening to her than anything and chased after him. "Just trust something other than your own strength for once! Just trust that it won't hurt us!"
Algernon stared down at her as the gurgling noises of the creature still alerted him to the wave of magma it was building. "Do you not hear how absurd you sound? There's no trust to be found in monsters." He said, annoyed as to why he even had to explain such an obvious thing.
"Not everything is a monster!" Lucy shouted back. "But anything you treat like it is will become what you make it."
Algernon fell silent in contemplation. Her words reminded him of the demons he created when he lost control of his mind, especially as a child when in the darkness of night a coat rack turned into a murderer, or a jacket slung over a chair turned into a beast coming to eat him alive. He never stopped seeing monsters in everything as he grew up but instead became strong enough to kill them all.
Now he looked at Lucy. At her unwavering strength and confidence that seemed like one of the most powerful things, he'd ever face.
The creature finished digesting its material and the center of its body glowed with fresh molten rock, but it didn't make any moves to unleash it. And Lucy stepped towards it feeling with everything in her she was right.
"Lucy," Algernon said, stopping her this time by grabbing her wrist, the one that still wore the bruise he created, "Trusting in monsters is going to get you killed."
Lucy stared back at the creature. Its eyes were the same black as Algernon's, and like his, it reflected a glimmer of light back if she looked close enough. "Not if you can make peace with them."
Algernon clenched his jaw. "If it was anyone else, I'd say they were crazy." He sighed but relaxed his stance of attack. "But I don't think anyone but you is insane enough to even imagine such a thing." The creature made no moves to attack, and it seemed Lucy was already proving her point. "Let alone try."
Lucy smiled. Algernon stood behind her as she walked forward. The creature's eyes drew together almost touching as it stared down the approaching girl. It had lava tickling the back of its throat, but Lucy felt the change in demeanor, it was still cautious, but it wasn't attacking, and its churning stomach hushed.
Its eye darted up towards a small light shining upon the cave. Lucy followed the source of the light to a reflection off of Algernon's scythe.
"Algernon," Lucy called, as she watched the creature follow along with the light. "Throw your weapon."
"Now you're taking it too far," Algernon warned, tightening his grip and making the ray of light dart to the side, sending the creature's eyes darting along with it.
"Just trust me." Lucy pleaded.
Algernon eyed Lucy sideways. But it wasn't like they were likely to get out of this alive anyway. He sighed and raised the greatest weapon currently in the position of any human in the world back. The creature hyper-focused on the weapon, its back legs arching to attack.
Algernon gave Lucy one more look, before he chucked it away, sending the creature instantly pouncing after it as the monster released all its lave so it could run as fast as it could towards the shiny stick. The dynamics of the scythe made it fly to the other end of the cave where it gouged into a wall, but the creature easily tore the weapon free with its mouth sending rocks tumbling before it pranced back to them.
The creature dropped the scythe in front of Algernon, covered in a clear sticky slime.
"You've got to be kidding me," Algernon said, looking disgustingly down at the saliva-covered artifact. "It wants to play fetch."
The creature's eyes remained fixed on the scythe, its tail wagging.
"Oh, it's just a puppy!" Freya cooed, her hands clasped in front of her chest as she came to stand in front.
"That's one big dog," Luke said as he watched Freya pick up Algernon's weapon with both hands and throw it while yelling, "Go get it puppy!"
"How did you pick that up?" Algernon asked in utter shock. "It weighs more than you."
"Bring it back!" Freya called affectionately, ignoring Algernon. "Good boy!" Freya praised it once back. "You want a treat?" She opened her bag to search for some jerky. The creature dropped the scythe upon the smell of food to get closer to her bag.
"Freya, do not feed that thing," Pecilia said from farther away, still not convinced that it was safe. "It'll follow us home."
"But I always wanted a puppy." Freya cried, pulling out the jerky. The creature closed its mouth around her hand gulping down the food and leaving behind a trail of slime on Freya's arm. Smelling more food, the creature's eyes lowered to Freya's open bag as it started to condense its body and shrink smaller. As it did its squishy exterior turned much harder until it was now no bigger than a small dog. It reached its much smaller mouth into her bag and came away with a mouth full of sweets. Its stomach churned, turning it into food bile that it promptly threw up.
"Oh, it's so cute!" Freya said, taking its face in between her hands and squishing its malleable cheeks. "Aren't you."
"She's kind of fearless," Luke remarked, watching Freya. "In her own way."
Algernon was staring at Lucy when he registered what Luke said. "She is."
Luke smiled to himself, noticing Algernon's much softer expression falling onto Lucy. He had warned him once to mind who saw that look but figured the boy was far too hopeless now to heed caution in the face of such strong emotion.
"Lucy, how did you know that would work?" Jasper asked, watching Freya pick up the creature that became putty in her hands she could barely hold.
Lucy looked to the statue of the king and the eerie sense of a familiar presence. "I just had a feeling."