Luna looked straight at Niva.
Niva looked back.
They stared at each other—so intently it felt as if time itself had stopped.
Without warning, Luna shattered the silence, smashing Niva into the ground.
"AUGHHH!" Niva groaned.
"That was your grand plan?!" Luna shouted, arms flailing in frustration.
"What is that supposed to mean?!"
Groaning, Niva wheezed, "Please… control your brute strength…"
"I had … to … cheer you … up … somehow …" he muttered—then promptly passed out.
"…"
"Oh," Luna said.
Luna looked back, staring into the darkness.
"I have to move," she thought, and started running.
Glancing down at Niva in his sword form, she flicked him with her finger.
DINNNNNG
"Huh," she muttered.
Up ahead, the corridor split into a two-way crossroad.
Still running, she noticed Niva beginning to stir—his tiny arm protruding from the side of the blade, patting it weakly.
"Ow, ow, ow..." he groaned.
His eyes flicked toward the wall. "Duck down," he said.
Without hesitation, Luna let the strength in her legs go limp and dropped into a slide across the corridor floor.
As she did, the wall to her right cracked. More and more fractures spread with each heartbeat.
A second later, the entire section burst apart—shattered stone flying outward—as Eyril stepped through the debris. His eyes locked on Luna as she slid beneath him.
She sprang up just past him and bolted toward the crossroad.
Her mind raced. She needed to mislead him—somehow.
Her footsteps echoed off the walls as she thought—then suddenly, it came to her.
"Niva," she whispered, "can you freeze the floor?"
"…Of course," Niva replied softly.
"Good." She drove the blade into the ground—it sank in without resistance.
"Freeze the ground behind us," Luna ordered. "... And put up a wall."
"…Mhm," Niva hummed in reply.
As he did, he barely extended his arm, and a faint blue light flickered around his outstretched finger. A few snowflakes drifted down, harmless at first—
—until they burst outward, racing across the floor and instantly forming a thick wall of jagged ice.
It shot up just in time.
Eyril slammed into it head-on. The wall trembled but held, an imprint of his form cracking into the surface like a scar.
He stepped back, steam rising from his shoulders.
He brushed the frost from his coat, unbothered.
"...sturdy?"
…
As Luna neared the two-way crossroad, she said, "Now, direct the frost to the right, please."
Niva nodded. As Luna sharply turned left, he directed the frost to follow the right path. A moment later, Luna took another sharp right turn.
"A simple misdirection… I doubt it'll work on him," Niva thought.
…
With one final strike, the cracks splintering across the icy surface deepened—and with a thunderous snap, the wall shattered. Eyril stepped through the fractured remains, his gaze shifting down the corridor as he began walking forward slowly.
He glanced once over his shoulder at the crumbling wall, thinking, "…"
The dull, steady sound of his footsteps echoed across the frozen floor as he reached the crossroads. Pausing, he looked down—ice traced a clear path to the right.
Without hesitation, he followed it.
"…I guess I was wrong to judge so fast…" Niva disappointed thought, watching as Eyril took the bait and disappeared down the wrong path.