They plunged down a twisting staircase, which constricted with every step. As the waning moonlight from the opening flickered out, they were swallowed by absolute darkness. In the depths, a profound cold and an oppressive silence held undisputed dominion.

  “Feel the ground and look for anything that Tiziano can shed light on,” Isgalis ordered.

  The search was frantic. The dangers that could be lurking in the shadows didn’t go unnoticed by anyone.

  “I found something!” Tiziano himself exclaimed. “I think it’s a rock.”

  As the boy focused the meager moonlight on the object, Jayden let out a cry of horror. The others turned pale and froze.

  The hole in the ground opened into a vast, intricate network of interconnected tunnels and chambers, stretching for miles to form a true labyrinth. Like the Sacred Temple of the Ixarions, these subterranean galleries were carved from limestone. Their walls were riddled with rectangular niches of varying sizes, housing thousands upon thousands of corpses in ghastly states of decomposition. Some were reduced to mere bones, either piled high within their niches or strewn across the floor. What Tiziano clutched in his hands was a human skull. The boy, startled, let it slip, once again plunging the group into darkness.

  “You realize what this is, right?” Jayden screamed hysterically. “We’re in a catacomb!”

  “No, that’s not possible!” Teo said, refusing to believe reality. “How could it be? Not here! Not in Ardoras! Tell her, Isgalis! Tell her she’s wrong!”

  The Guardian steeled herself, then spoke to everyone with brutal frankness.

  “We’re in The Cold Plot. Only illness and death reign here. Fire and heat were forever eradicated from this place, and if we don’t find an exit fast, we’ll die of hypothermia.”

  “Death?” Teo asked incredulously. “What are you talking about, Isgalis? There’s no death in Ardoras.”

  “Perhaps not on the surface,” the young woman replied impassively. “But the Continent’s depths are cursed.”

  From a secluded artery within the sprawling underground labyrinth, a girl’s piercing scream tore through the silence, high-pitched and raw.

  “It’s Tania!” Tiziano cried, snatching the skull from the ground to pierce the gloom. “We have to find her! She needs us!”

  “I won’t go!” Jayden snapped, her voice trembling. “I’m not freezing to death in this place! I’m heading back to the entrance for Roderic. We’ll go to Nune on our own!”

  “No!” Isgalis declared emphatically. “Let’s stick together! Separated, we’re easy prey for the Grimonds!”

  Hearing the creatures’ name, Jayden paled.

  “They know we’re here,” the Guardian’s voice cut through the tense air. “They slither in the dark, patiently awaiting their moment to strike. We will not splinter! We will find Tania and get out of this place together, no matter what!”

  They advanced cautiously, forming a circle to make sure they weren’t surprised from behind. At the front was Tiziano, illuminating the corridors, escorted by Isgalis and Teo, who held their weapons at the ready.

  After countless miles, they finally beheld a monumental chamber. Immense arches curved overhead, anchored by stout columns that seemed to defy the crushing weight. Yet, it was the walls that truly gripped them: packed tight with tens of thousands of bones, a chilling mosaic of the dead.

  At the heart of the colossal dome, twenty mirrors shimmered from their altars, each tilted with unnerving precision at a 45-degree angle. And further still, some fifty yards into the vastness, a menacing form like a baptismal font loomed into view.

  “We must press on through this chamber,” Isgalis intoned, her expression grim. “But under no circumstances are you to gaze into those mirrors! Avert your eyes and forge ahead!”

  They pressed onward, their disciplined circular formation unbroken. The Guardian’s chilling warning seared itself into their minds, breeding deep apprehension. As they navigated the narrow passage between the altars, each strove to keep their gaze unwavering, fixed rigidly ahead. Yet, two among them, unexpectedly, found themselves irresistibly drawn by a rhythmic sibilance that emanated from the mirrors. The magnetic pull of its influence proved inescapable.

  Suddenly, Teo’s grip slackened. His swords clanged to the ground, a jarring sound in the tense silence. Disarmed and utterly devoid of will, he shuffled mechanically towards the shimmering surfaces.

  “Don’t listen to them!” Isgalis roared, her hands clamping onto Teo’s shoulders. “Help me!” she commanded the others, her voice raw. “Keep him from those mirrors!”

  Teo’s strength proved monstrous. He pressed on relentlessly towards his unseen objective, every effort to restrain him shrugged off like a gentle breeze. Yet, in the sudden commotion, no one registered a far more chilling truth: Baruch had already succumbed to the irresistible spell—long before the young Vendalion.

  The phonoreplicator keened, his body convulsing as he clung to the mirror, wrenching cries of profound agony tearing from his throat.

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  “Here I am, Mommy!” he gasped. “I’ll take care of you! Just don’t leave me alone again! I know how much this agonizes you! I know it’s unbearable! But what can I do?! I have no solace for your pain! I’m not a bad son, Mommy! But I’m powerless! I just want you to heal and remain by my side! Please, don’t abandon me! Please!”

  A violent gust of wind slammed against the glass, and it cracked in a radiating pattern. Simultaneously, an unearthly, guttural roar filled the chamber. From the mirror clutched by the child, a coiling, anthropoid shadow surged forth, engulfing him completely before seeping into his very being. Baruch collapsed, his body immediately wracked by violent, uncontrollable convulsions.

  “Baruch!” Tiziano shouted, terrified, running towards his friend.

  “Don’t go near him!” exclaimed the Guardian imperatively. “You can’t help him!”

  “Why not?! What’s wrong with him?!”

  “The mirrors are inhabited by demons that feed on people’s suffering and consume their strength. Their crystals reflect the most painful traumatic experiences of those who look at them. Right now, the spirit of the mirror has taken hold of Baruch and won’t let go. Not until…” The words caught in her throat.

  “Until what, Isgalis?!” Tiziano shouted, crying.

  “The demon won’t release him until it kills him.”

  “No! I refuse to believe that we’ll lose Baruch! Don’t let it happen, Isgalis! Please don’t let it happen!”

  Teo, meanwhile, relentlessly clawed towards the mirrors. Inch by agonizing inch, he wrenched them closer with a supernatural, unseen force.

  “We have to act now, or he’ll drag us all to the same fate!” Jayden shrieked, terror lacing her voice.

  “The mirrors crave two souls,” Isgalis mused aloud, her gaze distant. “They’ve claimed one, but they won’t slumber until they possess another.”

  “What in the blazes are you talking about, Isgalis?!” Tiziano demanded, startled and aghast.

  “I want you and Jayden to hold Teo with all your strength! The only way to stop it is to give the mirrors what they want! As for Baruch, I’m afraid I’ll only buy some time. If I don’t do this, he’ll die in less than an hour. But, if I succeed, he might be able to survive another day! Get out of here and look for the Pipers! They’ll help you!”

  “No, Isgalis! Where are you going?!” Tiziano shouted.

  With a burst of speed, The Guardian launched herself toward the baptismal font, fifty yards distant. Her hands plunged into the water, and she gulped it down. Initially, a wave of nausea churned within her. But in a heartbeat, her mouth parched, her tongue erupted in raw sores. Her skin withered, drained of color, as her eyes receded into their sockets, ringed by an unholy darkness. All she saw before she fell was darkness. A thick and deadly darkness.

  “What a foolish girl, Ptah-Min!” said a decrepit voice in the vaulted darkness.

  “No doubt, Net-Moth!” answered another voice. “I would never have guessed her urgency to die.”

  “Bah! Those are all those idealisms that get put into the heads of today’s young people! Dying for a cause, a love, a utopia... or a friend! I say all those things are nonsense! The only principle that should govern every individual is, ‘Save your own skin, even at the cost of the suffering of others!’”

  “I agree, Net-Moth! Oh boy, do I agree!”

  “That’s how Nature made us, and that’s how it wants us: selfish, opportunistic, and ruthless! An individual should only worry about achieving the maximum extent of their power!”

  “Praise your words, Net-Moth! Praise them!”

  Seeing them appear in the mirror chamber, Tiziano and Jayden recognized them immediately: they were Grimonds! Physically, they closely resembled the aye-aye. They were creatures with a stunted body and scrawny face, with large yellow eyes and giant oval ears. They had almost no fur, except on the head and part of the back, where they exhibited very fine shaggy gray hair. The most striking thing about their anatomy was their very long and bony middle finger, which was different from the others.

  “I see we have a guest of honor among us!” said the first one, approaching Teo, who was regaining consciousness. “A young Vendalion honors us with his presence!”

  The boy’s head was throbbing with pain! Waking up from the spell felt like a terrible hangover.

  “Ah, don’t worry, my dear boy!” said the Grimond. “It’s normal for the summoning of the Psiboros Mirrors to cause discomfort and headaches! And consider yourself lucky! Otherwise, look how your friends ended up!” he shouted, letting out a loud laugh that echoed throughout the hall. The sinister gleam in his eyes revealed only malice and depravity.

  “Who are you?!” Teo exclaimed, enraged. “And what did you do with Isgalis and Baruch?!”

  “One question at a time, sir! One question at a time!” the monster responded cynically. “My name is Net-Moth. And the comrade who accompanies me is Ptah-Min. I’m afraid I must contradict the accusations you level against us: we have done nothing to your companions! Rather, it was they who brought misfortune upon their own heads! Especially the girl! The boy’s body was rightfully claimed by an Incruxis demon. But the girl decided, of her own free will, to share her destiny with him!”

  “And what’s that supposed to mean?!” Teo asked, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the swords lying on the ground.

  “The Incruxis demons claim the bodies of those who dare gaze into the Psiboros Mirrors… And your friend did precisely that, despite the girl’s explicit warning to everyone! As for her… How to put it? What she did was an act of sheer heroism! You see, when an Incruxis demon seizes a body, it gorges itself on everything at its disposal: your flows, your tissues, your kanach! Absolutely everything! It devours the wretch in no more than an hour, leaving naught but bone. You can see we have plenty of proof right here in the chamber!” The creature’s grin widened, its tongue lapped at its lips.

  “But if some kind soul takes pity on the condemned wretch and drinks the waters of Razdar, she buys him time, extending death’s deadline by at least twenty-four hours! Why, you ask? Well, because the Incruxis demon subdivides itself between both, and two bodies are far harder to consume than one!” The Grimond and his acolyte bellowed with laughter. “Hope drives people to do stupid things, kid!”

  Fueled by rage, Teo snatched his swords from the ground with a blur of motion.

  “I’d leave those where they lie, young man!” Net-Moth hissed. “You see, our spirits are bound to the Incruxis demons. Should anything befall us, your friends will perish instantly. I know they’ll cross over eventually anyway! But are you willing to squander the chance to save them?”

  “He’s lying, Teo! You know it! Finish them!” Tiziano bellowed.

  Teo knew that, perhaps, his friend was right. But what if he was wrong? What if the Grimond spoke the truth? Finally, after an overwhelming internal battle, he lowered his arms.

  “Well done, boy! Well done!” Net-Moth cackled. “Hope is a heartless friend! Now, if you please, all of you, follow me. We have a very cozy dungeon reserved for you! You’ll adore it!”

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