Chapter 35 Trusting someone blindly
Sabine still did not let go of Vandal’s arm immediately.
Instead, she slowed just enough to force him to stop with her. The noise behind them was growing louder now, the sharp scraping of legs against stone echoing across the hall in uneven waves. She searched his face, her brows drawing together slightly, as if trying to read something deeper than his words.
“You’re not guessing,” she said at last, her voice lower now. “You’re certain.”
“How are you certain?”
Vandal’s jaw tightened. “I can’t explain why. I just know. Trust me, Sabine.”
Ahead of them, Mael had already led the group a few steps forward. The dim glow from Hutrar’s flame stretched across the tunnel entrance, casting warped shadows that seemed to twitch along the walls.
“Mael!” Sabine called out, her voice cutting through the rising panic around them.
He stopped and turned, irritation already forming on his face. “What is it?”
“We shouldn’t go there,” she said, her grip on Vandal’s sleeve tightening slightly. “We should take the far right tunnel.”
Jaeden let out a short laugh, though there was a thin edge to it now. “And why should we do that, Sabine? Because your little boyfriend says so?”
“Because there are things in that tunnel too. We should take the tunnel on the far right,” Vandal answered.
“Heh, you arrogant jackass, who made you the leader?” Jaden spat. His eyes flicked briefly toward the disciples before returning to Vandal. This idiot is trying to act special in front of them, probably trying to impress them so he can climb higher in the sect.
“Have you forgotten how I beat you so soon?” Vandal snapped. He did not have time for arguments. He stared Jaden straight in the eye, and for a brief moment, Jaden took a step back and fell silent.
Another of the disciples, a tall boy with sharp features and a restless expression, folded his arms. “Look, I don’t know why you are trying to sound important, but you can’t just tell us where to go when your leader has said nothing,” he said. “You enforcers are really annoying.” His name was Kieran, and impatience clung to him like a second skin.
Beside him, his sister adjusted the sleeve of her robe, her eyes flicking nervously toward the tunnels. “I don’t like this place,” she murmured. “Something feels off.” Her name was Lydia, and unlike the others, she made no attempt to hide her unease.
“We are all wasting time,” Yazmeen snapped. “Let’s pick a path and move.”
“I agree,” Jaclynn added.
The screams in the background had not stopped. Hutrar stood at the edge of the group, his arm extended as flames spread across the ground in a wide arc, forming a burning barrier between them and the advancing spiders. His jaw was clenched as he poured resonance energy into the fire, forcing it higher each time the creatures pressed closer. Some disciples who were quick enough slipped into the safety of the flames behind him, while others were dragged back into the darkness before they could reach it.
“Please, Mael, let’s listen to him,” Sabine said again.
Vandal met Mael’s gaze. “Trust me. I know how this sounds, but if we go into that tunnel, we won’t come out.”
Othelia finally spoke, and to Jaeden’s clear annoyance, she sided with Vandal. “I think we should follow him. He warned about the spider tunnel earlier, and we barely avoided it before those creatures came out.”
Vandal did not respond. His gaze returned to the middle tunnel. The faint throbbing in his left eye sharpened, and the darkness there shifted.
He saw them again.
Long, segmented bodies clung to the walls, their dull, ridged surfaces blending into the stone. Their legs moved in slow, deliberate patterns, and their mouths opened and closed soundlessly, lined with jagged edges that caught what little light there was.
Waiting.
“Mael,” Vandal said, more firmly this time, “if we go there, I promise you, we might not come out alive.”
Mael stood still, his eyes fixed on Vandal. For a moment, indecision flickered across his face.
Before he could respond, a group from another clan rushed past them and plunged into the middle tunnel.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Then the tunnel came alive.
A low vibration spread through the ground, followed by a sudden, violent burst of movement. Shapes dropped from the walls. There was a flash of pale limbs, a wet tearing sound, and then screaming.
The kind of screaming that ended too quickly. The sound echoed out of the tunnel, then died just as suddenly.
Silence followed.
Chan swallowed audibly. “Yeah… I’m convinced.”
Even Jaeden did not speak this time.
Mael exhaled slowly, his expression hardening as he looked back at Vandal. Whatever doubt he had was gone.
“We take the far right tunnel,” he said.
Kieran clicked his tongue but did not argue. Lydia visibly relaxed, though her grip on her sleeve tightened.
“Finally,” Othelia said lightly, though her eyes lingered on Vandal with a new kind of curiosity.
“Move,” Mael ordered.
They turned as one and rushed toward the smallest tunnel on the far right.
Behind them, the black glass spiders surged into the hall.
The sound was overwhelming, a chaotic storm of clicking limbs and scraping edges. One lunged forward, its bladed legs slicing through the air.
Hutrar stepped back, his eyes flashing. Heat flared around his arm as resonance energy surged outward. He drove his foot into the ground, and the flames along the barrier roared higher, surging forward in a wave that forced the nearest spiders to recoil. The air shimmered with heat as the creatures hissed and pulled back.
“I don’t know how much longer I can hold this!” Hutrar barked.
A streak of blue light flashed past Vandal’s shoulder, striking a spider square in the face just as it leapt forward, its web already forming.
Jaden moved in sync.
Electric energy crackled around his body, thin arcs snapping between his fingers as he thrust his hand forward. Another bolt of lightning shot out, slamming into a second spider mid-lunge and sending it crashing violently into the wall.
“Move already!” Jaden snapped.
With the path momentarily cleared, Hutrar pulled back, letting the flames collapse behind them in a final burst that slowed the advancing swarm. Jaden retreated alongside him, the last to fall in as the group rushed into the tunnel.
They entered the passage together.