The new group, now merged with Brian’s group, made eleven Slayers trapped inside Grace’s room.

  The newcomers were panicking, voices overlapping, questions firing in every direction. Confusion spread like wildfire. The captain tried to calm them, but after everything they had witnessed, calm was almost impossible. Rich, the leader of the new group, shouted at his team to stay quiet and hold themselves together so he could understand what was happening. He moved toward the captain and demanded an explanation.

  The captain gathered everyone around so he could explain everything at once. He began recounting how they had arrived in the room. When he tried to confirm whether the new group had come the same way, it became clear they had taken a completely different route. That confused him, but he continued. They were trapped. The only way out was to obey the being’s conditions.

  He pointed toward the Jury.

  The others followed his gaze. Before he could continue, someone interrupted, asking what that being was. Rich tried to silence them, but the priest spoke first.

  “That is the Grace Jury. A being of conditional fates and judgment,” said the priest.

  “I’ve heard of them… the Ten Graces, right? But isn’t that just a myth?” Tanya asked.

  “No, my child. What stands before us now… it is a Grace,” the priest answered gravely.

  Rich cut the discussion short. He wanted the captain to finish. The captain continued, explaining how the Jury had killed their members, what they must never do, and what they must do. He told them about the trials it had already imposed.

  When the new group saw the bodies and heard the truth, fear crawled visibly across their faces. Dash stared at the Jury.

  “This is no Grace,” Dash muttered.

  Dash and Toby stood and walked toward the door. The others warned them that the door would not budge — even Lucky with Decayed Abilities had failed. But they didn’t listen. As they stepped away, a deep, monstrous boar-like sound erupted through the room.

  Everyone froze.

  Silence swallowed the air.

  Then they appeared.

  Thirteen beings materialized around them. These were not soldier-like beings. These held musical instruments. They stood in formation.

  Confusion deepened.

  Rich turned to the captain. “What is going on?”

  The captain stared at the Jury. “The Jury is happening.”

  Panic rose again. Dash and Toby realized some of the beings stood in front of the door. There was no escape. Brian rushed to Cindy and checked on her. Cindy lifted her head, saying she had regained her senses and was fine. She left Molly’s body and moved toward Drek’s.

  The reality of the corpses hit the new group fully now. The captain had not exaggerated. Death was real here. The room demanded seriousness.

  As Cindy and Brian rejoined the group, Josh approached her.

  “I’m sorry for what I said to you. It was insensitive,” Josh admitted.

  “It’s okay. You weren’t lying,” Cindy replied.

  “But it was still wrong.”

  Cindy gently held his hand. “Then let’s get out of here and bury them in peace.”

  Josh nodded. They rejoined the others.

  Meanwhile, Dash and Toby approached one of the musical beings near the door, analyzing it. Ruth joined them, trusting their judgment. Toby, reckless as always, went close to the being, examining it closely, impressed.

  Then glowing circles began forming in front of each musical being.

  One circle surrounded Toby.

  The room stiffened.

  Brian shouted for Toby not to step out or speak. They didn’t understand the rules yet. Toby listened and stood still. On the wall behind the Jury, new words appeared:

  Compose The Grace Jury’s Song

  20:00

  Those who didn’t understand began asking questions again. Rich quieted them. The captain spoke.

  “That is a command. We must obey before time runs out.”

  “What are we supposed to do?” George asked.

  “I think we must compose a song for the Grace Jury using these instrument-holding beings,” Cindy said.

  Cindy turned to the priest and asked if he knew the Jury’s song. He slowly shook his head. The ancient texts described the Graces — their origins, their judgment — but never their music. The absence of that detail now felt like a cruel omission.

  Suddenly, Toby’s circle turned blue.

  The being holding drums began to play.

  The sound thundered through the room. Toby fell to his knees in shock. The drumming did not stop.

  Confusion lingered — until Brian realized something. The circles activated the musical beings.

  Ruth called Toby smart for discovering it unintentionally. Dash even praised him. Confidence filled Toby. Too much confidence.

  Ignoring everyone shouting at him to stay put, Toby stepped out of the circle, boasting.

  The circle shifted from blue to red.

  The drums stopped.

  “Why did it stop playing?” Toby asked, the grin fading into confusion.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  In less than a blink, the being slashed its bass drum mallet across Toby horizontally.

  His upper half was obliterated. His lower half remained standing for a second — blood spraying from the severed torso — before collapsing.

  Ruth screamed.

  Dash stood frozen.

  Shock crushed the room.

  The captain shouted for them to continue the command, his voice cutting through grief like a blade. Tanya and George exploded at his coldness, rage fueled by terror. Brian tried to intervene but failed — until Cindy stepped forward, trembling yet fierce.

  

  “Shut up! I understand you're scared, but what you're doing won't change anything. We have lost a lot of friends, we have lost a lot of hope of getting out of here, but we are still fighting to get out. But if this keeps on, we are definitely going to get killed. I doubt that time is going to reset after it is done. We are all going to get killed. We have been through a lot, and I can promise you won’t, but there are 15 minutes left, and you need to figure out how to finish that command, and that is by working together. We don’t want to die, and I sure as hell do not want to die, so let’s work together and finish this,” said Cindy passionately, her voice shaking but fierce, echoing against the stone walls like a desperate battle cry.

  Everyone kept silent as she finished. The weight of her words settled over them. Rich stepped forward and agreed with her. He reminded his people that Brian and the others had warned them about this environment before. If they wanted to survive, they had to listen and believe. Some were still skeptical, still hesitant, but they followed Rich because he was their lead. Brian checked the timer. 14:20 left. He informed everyone. The captain decided they had to examine what these musical beings were holding. The beings carried a violin, viola, double bass, French horn, harp, shofar, timpani, bass, a cello-like instrument, flute, and three musical beings that looked like angels.

  The group analyzed the musical beings carefully, but they still didn’t know how to compose the Jury’s song. Tanya warned them not to choose randomly. Choosing blindly would definitely be a disaster. The priest, standing halfway apart from them, agreed.

  “There are ten Graces, and each Grace has their own composed song. Choosing any instrument to compose without its knowledge is a bad idea,” said the priest gravely.

  The priest walked past a terrified Ruth and a still-shocked Dash. Josh shouted, demanding to know where he was going, but the priest stepped into the circle Toby had stood in. The circle turned blue, and the drums began playing again, thunder shaking the chamber.

  “You piece of—” Josh growled angrily.

  The captain restrained him and pleaded for him to calm down. This time, Josh forced himself to contain his rage. Terrence went to Dash, trying to pull him back to his senses.

  “He… he… he is dead,” mumbled Dash, his voice hollow.

  “I know, but we can’t do anything about it,” said Terrence quietly.

  Dash didn’t move. Terrence eventually gave up and helped Ruth back to the others so they could continue discussing. Still, no one knew what instruments formed the Jury’s song. Tanya stared at the three angelic musical beings. She was certain they were singers of the Grace Jury’s song. After everything they had witnessed, the others hesitated. But Tanya announced she would go herself. Rich volunteered to join her. Then Brian nominated Cindy. Cindy looked at him in shock, but Brian explained that if this was right, she would be safe. She didn’t like his decision, but she didn’t argue.

  The three stood before the circles. Tanya stepped in first, eyes closed tight in fear. When she opened them, the circle had turned blue. The angelic being before her began singing in harmony. Rich, breathing heavily, stepped into another circle. Blue. The angel there sang the same harmony. Cindy gathered her courage and stepped into hers. Blue. But her angel did not sing harmony—it sang vocal lyrics about the great Jury. Drums and voices intertwined, weaving together into something structured. Relief washed over them. Even Brian and the others allowed themselves a small breath of hope. Mike informed them the time was 9:10.

  Captain and Brian pushed their minds to the limit, even as others tried to help. With no clear solution, Brian, Captain, and Josh decided something harsh—they would have to choose. They told the others that since they could not figure out the Jury’s song completely, each of them would have to select a musical being. No one liked it, but they had no better option.

  “Look, it’s either we choose or wait for the time to run out and die,” said the captain.

  They understood. They just didn’t want to accept it. Still, they prepared themselves. Tanya understood the necessity. Ruth remained in disbelief until Terrence snapped her back to reality. She stood shakily. Six of them moved toward different musical beings. Rich tried shouting to Dash, but Dash remained unreachable—either too traumatized or drowned by the music.

  “What if the musical instruments of the Jury’s song are limited, and we are just a lot?” asked Mike nervously.

  “No point now. We just have to choose,” said the captain.

  Ruth collapsed to her knees, crying. Brian rushed to her, speaking softly, steadying her breathing. He reassured her as best he could. She improved slightly but remained terrified. He helped her up and hugged her. Cindy saw everything.

  “I can’t promise that everything will be all right, but I will help you,” Brian told her.

  Confused and scared, Ruth stepped toward a circle. Brian stepped in with her despite the others screaming for him to stop. Nothing happened. They looked around in confusion.

  “I think there can only be one in the circle,” said the captain.

  Brian told Ruth to step out so he could stay. She refused.

  “No, you get out. I will stay,” said Ruth.

  Brian searched her eyes. She was sure. Slowly, he stepped out. Silence filled the room. Then the circle turned red.

  Ruth looked at Brian with desperate eyes. He stared back in horror. The being before her held a violin. Wrong choice.

  The being moved.

  Ruth ran.

  Dash snapped out of his shock at her scream. He enlarged himself and his weapon and attacked the being repeatedly. It ignored him completely, dragging him aside as it pursued Ruth. He tried to block its path, but it pushed forward relentlessly. Before Ruth could fully turn, the violin slammed down with brutal force. She was shattered against the ground.

  Shock returned. The being calmly walked back to its position. Dash attacked again and again, but it paid him no attention. His final powerful strike shattered his weapon instead. The being remained unmoved.

  Dash went straight for Brian. He began blaming him for Ruth's death with a left hand, he hits Brian on the left side of his stomach, sending him flying. The others were screaming for Dash to stop. He rushed for Brian to punch him again, but Josh blocked him. He told him to calm down, dash began crying, even failing in his strength, but still blaming Brian. He even blamed the others for not doing anything, while Ruth was just up and running for her life.

  "Look, Ryan, I know you must feel bad, but we have to do this;" said it's Josh.

  Brian with his sad face looks at Cindy. Cindy shows those eyes to keep going. Dash stood there crying. Brian tries to get him up, but he was a bit broken to even do anything. Josh tells Brian to leave him because there was no time. The time was 00:40. Brian left. In that moment, the priest remembered that since the Graces are ancient beings, doesn't that mean that the instruments have to be ancient? Tanya agreed with his knowledge. He screamed at them to choose instruments that seemed long time ago. The 5 of them had Tanya, and now they go to choose.

  Mike goes for the one with the harp instrument. Even though he was scared, he went into the circle, and the circle turned blue. The musical being began playing.

  Captain went for the one with the chauffeur. The circle turned blue.

  Terrance goes for the one with the timpani. The circle turned blue. Terrance went on his knees out of relief.

  Josh goes for the one with a shape like a cello, the circle turned blue.

  Then there was Brian, he stood in front of the one that had a bass. The music was finally aligning with each other. The song with the other instruments playing was getting composed. Brian can only hears the song. He looks at Cindy and takes a deep breath. He goes into the circle with his eyes closed. All of a sudden he hears the bass play. As he opened his eyes, the circle had turned blue, and the song was being composed (orchestral).

  The timer ended.

  The song continued playing.

  But the unchosen musical beings surrounded Dash.

  Everyone screamed for him. Dash rose, fury burning in his eyes. He enlarged himself to his limit and charged. One struck with a trumpet—he blocked. Another with a viola—he blocked again. It was overwhelming. Then the being with the flute hurled it forward. It pierced straight through his stomach. Before he could react, the one with the double bass smashed his head to the ground. It struck again. And again.

  The song reached its final note.

  The beings stopped.

  Then they vanished.

  Dash shrank back to normal—skull crushed, stomach pierced.

  Dash was dead.

  All went blank.

  “Someone tell me what the f**k is all this?