As the ghosts cackled behind them, the five students bolted down the rail tracks. As they ran, Ace and Deuce quickly took out their magic pens and blasted each ghost with their magic as they tried to get away from them.
The mine was so barely lit that they could hardly see anything that was in front of them, but they had to continue running. Finally, they couldn't run anymore, and they all stopped to take a breather. Grim panted heavily. "Haah...Haah... They're still chasing us, yanno!" he exclaimed, pointing at the incoming ghosts.
As they were catching their breath, Ace, Deuce and the three girls braced themselves for any possible attack from the ghosts. Then suddenly, the ghosts stopped in front of them...and they started to pant heavily.
"Haah... Haah...! Stay... with... us...!" the fat ghost said breathlessly as he suddenly slumped down and wiped away a sheen of sweat from his brow. "Phew!" he sighed. Grim stared at the ghosts as his jaw dropped to the ground in utter disbelief. "Why're are the ghosts out of breath too?!?!" he asked.
Even Deuce and the three girls couldn't believe what they were seeing. "Do ghosts have lungs too?!" he asked. "I had no idea they can do that!" Aria exclaimed. But Ace wasn't planning to stick around and ask.
"Can you leave that 'til later?! Let's go!" he said as he picked up his feet and ran down the mine shaft. "...Tch!" Deuce tsked as he, Grim and the three girls ran off with Ace. The ghosts have gotten their second wind, so to speak, and resumed the chase, much to their delight.
The five teens ran as fast as they could, all the while Ace and Deuce continued to fire their magic at the ghosts to shake them off their trail. In the midst of them running away, one of the ghosts cackled as it dove into the earth and travelled fast towards the five teens.
With a horrifying screech, it grabbed hold of Aria's ankle, causing her to scream and fall to the ground. Ace and Deuce stopped running as they saw Aria getting dragged away by the leg with the ghosts coming in close. "Help! Help me!" she screamed. "Arlo!" the girls, Ace and Deuce all shouted.
"Let go of him!" Deuce shouted as he fired a blast of magic at the ghosts while Ace rushed over and picked Aria up, grasping her hand as they got back to running. After a while, they managed to shake the ghosts off their trail and reached what looked to be the center of the mine.
Several crystals shone from the walls which provided some light for the small group. They almost collapsed on the spot as they finally took a chance to catch their breath, now that they've escaped the ghosts.
"Is... Is.... everyone.... alright?" Alice asked between breaths. "I'm good...." Ace huffed. "Yeah....I'm okay." Deuce said, nodding. Alice turned to the other girls. "Arlo? Jazzim?" she asked. "We're okay...Don't worry." Jazmin said assuredly as she and Aria both tried to catch their breaths.
"Haah, haah... It looks like they're not following us anymore!" Grim said. "Man...! This place is haunted with ghosts, too!" Ace said. "We don't have time to deal with every single one of them. We'd better hurry!" Deuce said once he caught his breath. He stood up straight and tried to walk on ahead.
"He's right. We should keep on moving." Jazmin said as she and her friends proceeded to follow him, but then Ace became annoyed with Deuce's bossy attitude and ran up in front of him.
"Don't think you can just order me around." he snapped. "We wouldn't be in this mess in the first place if you hadn't done something so idiotic."
Deuce was greatly appalled by this as he glared angrily at the terracotta-haired boy. "You wanna talk about who started it? It's cause you wouldn't clean!" Deuce shouted. Ace and Deuce both glared at each other fiercely. Neither of them was willing to back down.
"Ace-kun, Deuce-kun, stop it! Please!" Alice pleaded. "Ffgna! That's on you! That's what you get for making a fool outta me!" Grim shouted, getting in on the argument. "Grim, don't goad him!" Jazmin said firmly.
Before things could escalate any further between them, Deuce suddenly swung his arm and slammed his fist against the stone wall, creating a dent and shutting their whole petty argument down.
"All of you! Do you understand our situation right now?" he shouted, making them stop. Everyone immediately went silent and turned towards Deuce. "We're all expelled if we don't get back with a magic crystal by tomorrow morning!" Deuce snapped.
"For the last time, stop acting like you're in charge here. It's really ticking me off." Ace said. "Why don't you three blockheads simmer down?" a voice suddenly said. Everyone turned around and saw Kira walking towards them. "Kiro-kun!" everyone exclaimed in unison.
"How'd you find us?" Deuce asked. "I heard you guys screaming from inside the mine. Thought you guys might be in trouble so I came to help." Kira explained. Alice and Aria then ran towards Kira and wrapped her in a huge hug. "Kiro-kun! You came to save us!" Alice exclaimed. "Thank goodness!" Aria said with relief.
But before Kira could say anything, Grim's ears suddenly perked up. He heard an unusual sound coming towards them. "Fugyaa?! I-I just heard some kind of noise, yanno?!" he said in alarm. Everyone looked at Grim in concern.
Have those dreaded ghosts returned?! "But I thought we had given those ghosts from before the slip...?" Deuce asked. Kira's ears suddenly perked up. She also heard that peculiar sound. "Shh! Something's coming!" she said. "What?" Ace asked. "Shh! Quiet! ...Sounds like it's something big." Kira whispered as her ears swiveled. Everyone immediately went quiet.
Before long, an unusual sound suddenly echoed through the mine, bouncing off its stone walls. Drip, drip, drip. Everyone remained still as they kept their focus on the thick dripping sound. Their eyes darted around, but they saw nothing that could distinguish it as the source of that sound. Then... they heard it.
"....on't......ive.......wo..." a voice suddenly said, making everyone jump. It was so hoarse, gravelly and distorted, it was barely audible. The group tensed as they quickly looked around for the owner of the voice. Whoever, or whatever it was, it didn't sound human.
"Wh-What's...this voice?" Ace questioned anxiously as he and the others took a cautious step back. Then they heard that voice again, sounding more louder than before. The owner of the voice was coming their way. "Cry...stal....sssss.....mine...." the distorted voice said again. "I think it's...getting closer..." Deuce said.
Without warning, a massive boom erupted throughout the mine tunnel and the whole place seemed to collapse in on itself as everything around them trembled. It was as if an enormous earthquake was taking place.
The harsh tremors nearly knocked the group off their feet when suddenly... a massive beast of a ghoul came barreling out of nowhere and stood above the group. It had the appearance of an inked monster wearing a ragged red shirt with dull-colored buttons and a black belt wrapped around its waist.
Its bottom half was a large pile of pitch-black goo and its inky hands held up a creepy purple lantern and a giant pickaxe. Its head, if any, was a large, round faceless glass orb with black ink inside. It had a giant crack running across it, blobs of inky goo seeping through it.
Once it saw the six teens, it let out a thunderous roar, making the teens all scream in terror. "Crystal....IS MIIIIIIIIIIINNNEEEE!!" it shrieked as it charged towards them. "I-It's heeeeeeeeeeere!!!" the six teens all screamed as they quickly ran away from the beast.
They ran far into the mine, trying to find a way to evade the monster and get out. "What the heck is that thing?!" Deuce shouted. "Ffgnnnaaaaa!!" Grim screamed fearfully. "Crowley didn't say anything about that!! Let's get outta here!"
"It's so nasty! But didn't it mention a 'crystal'?!" Ace shouted. Everybody glanced at him. "Eeeh?!" Grim went. "If it was talking about the crystal, does that mean it's protecting it?" Aria asked. They all stopped running when they felt another loud BOOM! echo through the mine.
The mine shook and they looked back to see the massive beast roaring and screaming towards them, using its clawed hands and pickaxe to crawl its way down the mine. The teens kept a safe distance away from the beast, seeing that it was more or less stuck in the small pathway. "Cry....stal, won't.... give...!" it bellowed.
That caught their attention. Seeing how it was intent on chasing them out and hearing it screaming and roaring about not giving the crystal to anyone, that only lead to one reasonable conclusion to the group.
"So there really are magic crystals left!" Deuce exclaimed. Grim quivered as he climbed onto Alice's shoulder. "N-N-N-N-N-Nope! Nope! I'm a genius, but I don't stand a chance against that thing!" he cried shakily. "W-We can try to do something." Alice said. "Oh, yeah? Like what, exactly?!" Kira asked.
Alice looked at Kira. To be honest, she had no idea on what they should do. They were up against a massive monster and none of them knew if the boys' magic could do anything to it. In all their lives, in all of the fairytale stories that the girls once read, if any at all, nothing came close to the nightmarish monstrosity that stood before them.
It was savage, Mostrous, crazy...and real. Just by looking at it and feeling the murderous aura from it further proved to the four girls that this and the very world around them was very real. The possibility of them dying here was highly possible. They need to find a way out of here. And fast.
However, it seemed Deuce had a different idea altogether. He stared at the beast with hard eyes and stepped up, taking out his magic pen. "But we'll be expelled without it...I'm going!" he said determinedly.
Everyone looked at him with utter shock. "No way! Are you crazy?!" Kira snapped. "You've gotta be kidding?!" Ace shouted. "No! No, please! It's too dangerous! You can't do this by yourself!" Alice cried, taking hold of his arm and begging him to reconsider. "You'll get seriously injured, or worse!"
This was just too risky. That thing looked incredibly strong. There's just no way he could take this thing on by himself. What's more, they couldn't just rush through this blindly. They needed a rational plan.
Deuce looked at Alice for a moment, seemingly considering her words... but he then ultimately shook his head and pulled himself away from her grasp. "I cannot, under any circumstances, be expelled!" he said firmly. Before anyone else could do anything to stop him, Deuce got into a fighting stance and charged towards the beast, unleashing his magic and firing it at the monster.