It was a place she had seen before. That was the first thing that Olivia realized as the second dungeon appeared, dragging her and the others in.

It wasn't unheard of for a dungeon to reappear in the world after it was conquered and sealed away. There wasn't an infinite number of dungeons. It was unknown how many truly existed, but rooms or areas would often be repeated and used as dungeons stacked on top of each other, and appeared. When a Knight slayed the boss, the dungeon would shift and alter, leaving the world behind and entering into what was believed to be a pocket realm.

This realm hadn't been thoroughly studied since the Knights couldn't make it over, but the elves had research that had been left behind when they were all wiped out. The 'pocket realm' appeared to be something that the elves had been able to enter and leave freely and was thought to be where all the natural monsters of the world remained. When a dungeon was cleared, it would reappear in this zone, and eventually, a new monster would find it, claim it as its own, and cause it to reappear somewhere in the real world once more randomly.

Despite all of that, though, it was next to impossible for a mage to stumble into the same dungeon twice due to the random nature of dungeons. They wouldn't just reappear randomly in space but also in time. A dungeon that had been cleared out in Estiria could suddenly appear in Mordheim seconds later, or it could appear in the middle of the ocean hundreds of years later. The probability of it appearing in the same nation and time that it had previously been in was already minuscule. Because of this fact, Olivia knew right away that something had to be wrong because the dungeon she was in was one she should have never seen again for as long as she lived.

It was a stone hallway that stretched out. She, along with the others, all stood in the center of it. Behind them were massive steps that led up, and in front of them, further down the hallway, was a giant door. On either side of the walls were coffins, each bigger than a house, and the floor was lined with dozens of pressure plates that could trigger any number of attacks.

All the resolve she had built up faded as Olivia's eyes stared at everything in horror. The others were also looking around in fear, but for a much different reason. The horror that gripped them was the fear of the unknown, but for her, it was the opposite. She knew this place very well.

This was where Garon died.

Nori let out a nervous chuckle, and he tugged on his robes, feeling a bit flustered all of a sudden. "I always thought a double dungeon was a myth. The air feels so thick and heavy as well." He groaned a bit and took a step back.

"No!" Olivia suddenly snapped toward him. "Don't do that—"

Nori's foot stepped down a second too late, and there was a loud click. The room rumbled, and a massive boulder dropped from the sky, ramming into the ground and rapidly rolling toward them.

Sune finally acted and drew her sword. It was a long and silver rapier, which she thrust out. Despite the weapon being so thin and the boulder being a giant ball of stone, her weapon pierced right through it, causing dozens of spider-like cracks to form out. The rock shattered into dust, but unfortunately, while she had been doing that, she triggered another trap from her fast movements. A click echoed through the chambers, and a hail of arrows began to blast out in all directions.

Sune's body glowed with traces of mana, and she barely flinched as the arrows bounced off her skin. The others weren't quite as skilled in protecting themselves as she was, but luckily, Ash was able to act fast enough to save them all. "Row Wind Barrier!" A ball of wind exploded out of the tip of his wand and formed a bubble of air around himself and the rest of team Olivia. The air spun fast enough to block the arrows and send them flying away before they could reach them.

"Good thinking." Emma let out a sigh of relief and patted Ash on the back.

"Don't thank me yet; we're not in the clear." Ash winced as the arrows rammed into his barrier over and over again. "These arrows are also a pain in the ass to deal with."

"They're going to last for a while, from what I remember," Olivia muttered.

"You remember?" Nori stared at her with sudden suspicion. "Have you been here before?"

"Yeah, I have." Olivia nodded.

Ash raised an eyebrow. "You were in a dungeon besides the Salamander one?"

"I was."

"And isn't that strange?" Nori's eyes narrowed further.

"What are you trying to imply?" Ash shot the noble a dirty look.

Nori folded his arms. "A double dungeon is already statistically unlikely, but not only did one happen, it's the same dungeon one of us has been to?" Nori stared at Olivia, his eyes flashing through different levels of suspicion. "Your mana has felt strange, but it's been getting thicker the longer I've been around you. It's suffocating. Like it's trying to squeeze around me. It feels off as well. I've heard of mana like this. It's rare, but some people have mana that is inhuman due to having the ties of elven blood within their veins."

"Are you saying one of my parents was an elf?" Olivia raised an eyebrow.

Nori shook his head. "It'd be an ancestor. The elves were all wiped out hundreds of years ago, after all." The man rubbed his chin. "Despite that, though, some people have the blood of those pointy-eared bastards since their ancestors were traitors and mated with those abominations. These people are extremely resistant to the air of a dungeon but also attract dungeons to their location. Some say they can even summon it. So what are the chances you happened to fall into both a double-dungeon and a dungeon you'd been in before versus you being cursed?"

"If you want to think I'm cursed, then go ahead." Olivia turned her back on the man. "I was born with blood magic. Anything you could insult me with is something I've heard before."

Nori looked away, suddenly ashamed. "Yeah, that's true. I guess I got ahead of myself. This place has me troubled. Even if you are the reason, I doubt you did it yourself."

Olivia blinked, taken aback. "Did we just come to a peaceful agreement? That almost never happens." She shook her head and glanced back at Sune. "Are you okay?"

Sune stood outside of the barrier, still being hit with arrows, but they weren't bothering her. The woman nodded her head and casually brushed her hair back. "We need to head for the exit. This dungeon, luckily, doesn't feel like a powerful one. If we can make it to the gateway, we can step out and reenter the first one. When a double-dungeon is made, the boss in the second dungeon can't leave due to the layered barriers of twisting space, so anything in here won't be able to escape. The dungeons will become unseparated when the one you cleared fades away, and both should return to the void they came from."

Olivia pointed toward the large stairs. "Luckily, the way out should be up there."

"We seriously lucked out then." Emma let out a sigh of relief. "We could have appeared anywhere in this dungeon, but arrived directly at the exit? That's lucky."

Olivia frowned, feeling a bit uneasy. She was never this lucky. "We should go now."

Ash winced as his barrier shook. "I'll try to keep this shield up for as long as I can. Let's hurry, though."

The moment they took a step, that uneasy feeling Olivia had in her stomach expanded, and she felt a shiver go down her back. A grinding sound echoed through the tunnel, and the large doors behind them began to unfold and open. Flickers of orange mana began to seep through the cracks, and the group stopped and turned. The aura in the air changed, becoming thicker, and it almost pressed down on each of them.

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Sune narrowed her eyes and winced. Everything began to grow hot as well. Fire seeped past the door, and with every second that passed, the mana and heat grew more intense. Something was walking forward.

Olivia had already been afraid just by being here, but what she saw next made her let out a cry of pure terror.

"Oh? Olivia? Have you come to watch me die again?"

Garon's face twisted into a smirk that was far too big. At least it sort of looked like Garon. Gone was his handsome face. His teeth were jagged and mawed, twisting out of his mouth. Half his face was covered in red scales that danced along his flesh. One of his eyes was bulging out of his skull and was wide and yellow. His limbs were also longer, jutting out of his body, his right arm touching the ground. It still clutched the dagger he had used when he first fought her, and fire was pouring out of various cracks that were along his body. His left arm was massive, and where his hand should have been was the pale white head of the snake Davi had slain, a frosty mist pouring out of it. Finally, a snake-like tail jutted out of Garon's back and smacked the ground as he walked.

"You came back for me, didn't you? You wanted seconds, right?" Garon's twisted face cocked to the side. "Killing me once wasn't enough for you, was it, you sicko? You had to see it twice? Well, get a good look at me! I'm what you made me!"

Garon laughed and launched himself forward with blinding speed. Fire gushed out of his body, sending him out like a rocket, and he blew past Sune and reached the barrier. He swung out with his arm, and the knife smashed through Ash's wind shield, shattering it. Everything moved in slow motion for Olivia as the knife came toward her face, but at the last second, Sune twisted forward and swung her rapier up, deflecting Garon's blade. At the same time, she pointed her hand back toward the others.

"Row Gravity Pull!"

Olivia, Ash, Emma, and Nori all found themselves smashed into the floor by an invisible force just in time as the barrage of arrows launched above them, narrowly missing.

Garon let out a cry and attempted to swing at Sune, but she used more gravity magic to boost her body's natural speed, allowing her to zip past him. She rammed her weapon forward, and it met true, but Garon's scales were tough, the blade bouncing off his neck. His large snake arm opened its mouth and attempted to bite Sune in two, but she ducked under it, dodging it just in time.

She took several steps back and grunted. The monster she was fighting wasn't very powerful compared to others, but two different dungeons were enhancing it, and she was being weakened by two dungeons as well, leaving her only with a little over half her normal power. Even so, she was confident she could win if she had to go all out.

"Alright, game's over, you four get out of here," Sune called back.

"We can help, though," Ash argued.

Sune shook her head. "No. You can't. Now leave. That's an order. The exit is right up there. Go and—" Sune was cut off as Garon roared and sent out a wave of fire. He was more monster than man and no longer needed to say a spell name. The fire simply roared to life and danced through the air. "Row Gravity Wall!" The air grew exceptionally compressed and dense in front of Sune, blocking the fire that rammed into it as if an unseen barrier stood before her. "Go! Now!"

Garon lifted his snake arm, and a wave of frost exploded out of its mouth, mixing with the fire and slamming harder into Sune's barrier, actually making it crack.

Olivia bit her lip hard enough to draw blood but finally nodded. "Ash, create your bird for you and me. Nori, you carry Emma. We'll all fly toward the exit."

"What about the arrows?" Nori asked flatly.

"Emma, you can deal with them, right?" Olivia asked.

Emma gave a hesitant nod. "I can twist space for a moment and cause the arrows to go a different way, but it won't last long. We'll have to be fast."

"One wrong move and we'll be full of holes." Nori hissed.

"Then don't make a wrong move." Olivia shrugged. "Emma."

Emma took a deep breath. "Row Spatial Clearing." The area above her shimmered, and suddenly the arrows that were flying forward vanished and reappeared in front of Garon, smashing into him but not harming him. "Okay! Now!"

"Row Glass Wings!"

"Row Wind Bird!"

Nori sprouted his wings, and Ash created his falcon of wind, expanding and growing it to as big a size as he could. The air twisted and shaped beneath him and Olivia, and the bird was large enough to hold both of them on its back as it flew up. Nori wrapped his arms around Emma's waist and carried her up as well. The four of them got just high enough to avoid the storm of arrows as Emma's magic ended and they began to fly toward the exit.

While they did that, Sune dropped her barrier and used another spell. "Row Gravity Lift." She launched into the air, flying up, allowing her to avoid the wave of fire and ice that blew through the tunnel. She twisted herself and then used another spell. "Row Gravity Pull!" She came rocketing down, her body way heavier, and she rammed her rapier forward, using it as a spear and stabbing it straight through Garon's eye. It came out of the back of his head, and if he had still been a human, that would have been the win, but he wasn't.

Garon laughed and attempted to stab Sune with his dagger, but she used her gravity magic again to lift herself up above him. She was floating in the air, holding onto the rapier that was going through his head, and she pulled herself down, planting her boots on his shoulders. Her other hand came down, and she gripped the blade that came out the other side of the monster's skull. Once she had the weapon from both sides, she twisted her arms.

"Vil Gravity Pull." Sune pulled Garon's head to the side, and there was a terrible snapping sound as his head twisted all the way around. She didn't stop, though, and kept going. "Vil Gravity Lift." His head began to jerk up while she kept twisting, and eventually the flesh around his throat fully snapped, and with one final yank, she pulled his head off. Garon's body dropped back, and Sune flipped off of it, landing on the ground. She flicked her rapier out and sent the head flying off and used one more spell. "Row Gravity Crush." The head twisted and popped as an intense force pressed down and popped it.

Sune let out a sigh of relief and lowered her weapon. She was about to turn and head toward the others, but before she could, Garon's body jerked forward and his arm expanded, growing out in size. Sune jumped to the side, avoiding the attack, but the knife he held grazed her, cutting into part of her stomach.

She winced and grabbed at her wound but was mostly fine. "Damn? You're still alive?" The snake's head hissed, and the body began to stand up. "I guess I'll need to take that head out as well." Sune sighed. "I should have known it wouldn't be that easy—"

She couldn't move.

One moment, she had been talking, and the next, her entire body froze, her mouth still wide open. Her muscles locked up, and her body stopped responding to her commands. The knife had done its trick.

In a panic, she surged her mana through her body to filter her systems, and her body began to move, but before she could react, the knife rammed into her side again, this time stabbing her head-on. If she had a moment, she'd be able to get the venom out of her, but Garon's body wasn't going to give her that chance. She froze up again, and the snake's head also grew and expanded. In an instant, its jaws wrapped around the arm that held her sword up, and it twisted. Bones snapped, and Sune would have screamed if she could have, as her arm was torn clean off her body.

Back at the staircase, Ash and Nori landed and placed Olivia and Emma down. "Alright." Nori nodded toward the exit. It was right up ahead. At the top of the stairs was what looked like the opening to a cave, and directly past, he could see the lava fields of the last dungeon. "Let's go—"

"Wait." Olivia caused them all to stop. She turned back and stared out across the tunnel. "Sune needs our help."

"She can handle herself—" Nori was cut off when he turned just in time to see Sune's arm be torn clean off. "Oh fuck."

"She lost?" Ash asked in horror.

"If she couldn't beat that monster, then what hope do we have?" Emma asked.

Nori nodded. "Emma is right. Sune is sacrificing herself so we can escape. We should go."

Ash hesitated but slowly nodded. "She gave us an order. We need to go—"

"Are all three of you stupid?" Olivia shocked herself with the words that came out of her. She couldn't help it, though. She stared back at the three others. "This is the test of Courage."

Ash clenched his teeth and shook his head. "This isn't part of the test!"

"Okay?" Olivia nodded. "So we leave, and what? We head back to Rose? 'Oh yeah, that Knight you gave us is dead because we ran away and let her be killed.' Yeah, I'm sure the Arcane Knights are going to be totally cool with that outcome."

"Who the hell cares about what they think!" Nori finally raised his voice and yelled out. "It's life or death right now!"

"So it wasn't earlier?" Olivia's eyes narrowed. "We went into this mission knowing we could die. That was what we were told over and over again. This isn't a simulation. It's a real test. One to see how we handle ourselves. Nothing has changed since this test started. The only difference is your resolve. Was all it took to break all of you a single serious threat? Damn, I didn't realize you guys were all such big babies." She turned away from them. "I'm going to go help Sune."

"Wait." Ash hesitated and growled. "What can you do? You're useless! You only have two more spells, right? Do you really think that will be enough?"

Olivia glanced back and shrugged. "Maybe I am useless. If I am, though, it makes me wonder what you three are." She looked down the stairs and toward the monster. "I might die. I'm scared, of course. Still, if I can, shouldn't I do something? I said I want to be like Davi, and he's always helping everyone he can, even if he says he doesn't. I want to be an Arcane Knight. A Knight that can save everyone. So that's what I'm going to do."

She had already made up her mind before this test had even begun. She was either going to become an Arcane Knight or she wasn't. To Olivia Lot, death and failure had become one and the same. She wasn't risking her life in this moment because she had been doing that since before the very first exam.

She was going to do it.

She was going to become an Arcane Knight. Or, she would meet her end and die here.

Either way, she was going to try.

"I killed him once; I'll kill him again."

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