Catheryn POV
Then, slowly, she reached for his hand.
Luke's fingers closed around hers at once.
Firm.
Steady.
Far too calm for someone standing on a cracking foothold above a sea of lava.
Catheryn's breath caught in her throat.
Heat surged up beneath them in violent waves, and the roar of molten rock below suddenly seemed much louder than before. Her staff trembled faintly in her free hand.
Luke did not let go.
"Listen carefully," he said.
Catheryn looked up at him.
"I'll make the footholds. You launch us the moment I say now."
She swallowed and nodded quickly.
"O-okay."
Luke turned his gaze forward.
Mana stirred through his body.
Another foothold pushed out over the lava ahead of them, black rock rising just far enough to make the jump possible and nowhere near far enough to be comforting.
Beneath his boots, the one they stood on cracked again.
"Get ready."
Catheryn tightened her grip on her staff.
Wind gathered around the tip in thin, uneven spirals, trembling with the same nerves running through her chest.
'Please work.'
The foothold dipped.
"Now."
Catheryn drove her staff downward.
"Wind Burst."
The compressed gust exploded beneath them.
Her stomach lurched.
For half a second, the world vanished beneath her.
Then it came rushing back all at once.
Heat screamed past her legs. Her rose-blonde hair whipped behind her. Instinct made her squeeze Luke's hand tighter as they shot through the blistering air together.
Then they landed.
Hard.
The second foothold cracked the instant Luke's weight hit it.
Catheryn let out a tiny sound as the rock lurched beneath them. Sharp fractures raced across its surface, faster than they had on the first one.
Her eyes widened.
It was not breaking from the heat.
It was breaking from them.
'We're too heavy—'
A chunk of black rock snapped off the edge and vanished into the lava below with a hiss.
Luke's eyes sharpened at once.
He did not hesitate.
Mana surged from him again, and a third foothold pushed out ahead over the molten sea.
"Again," he said.
Catheryn stared at him.
'Again?!'
The broken step beneath them tilted harder.
More stone cracked away.
Luke glanced down at her.
"Catheryn."
That was all.
No panic.
No hesitation.
Just her name.
Somehow, that made her move faster than shouting would have.
She forced mana into her staff again, barely steadying her breathing in time.
"W-Wind Burst!"
The second launch sent them forward just as the foothold gave way beneath them.
Catheryn caught a glimpse of it collapsing into the lava before the rushing air tore the sight away.
This landing was worse.
Luke hit first and dragged her balance with him. Catheryn stumbled the moment her boots touched down, a frightened sound escaping her as her heel skidded against the narrow surface.
For one horrible second, the edge of the foothold disappeared beneath her foot.
Then Luke's grip tightened and yanked her back toward him.
She crashed lightly against his side.
The third foothold shook beneath both of them.
Catheryn's heart slammed against her ribs.
Luke had already made the fourth step.
"Again."
Catheryn looked up at him in disbelief.
He looked back at her like this was still somehow manageable.
'He's actually insane.'
Still, her staff moved.
Wind burst beneath them.
Jump.
Land.
Crack.
Jump again.
The rhythm came fast and ugly.
Each foothold lasted only moments before the heat below started eating at it or their own impact threatened to break it apart. Each landing sent a jolt up Catheryn's legs. Each launch made her stomach twist as the lava roared beneath them.
By the fourth foothold, her breathing had turned thin.
By the fifth, sweat had begun to gather at her brow again despite the layer of Impervious around her skin.
By the sixth, she was no longer scared of falling.
She was scared of messing up the timing.
Luke made the next step.
Catheryn launched them.
He made another.
She launched them again.
The pattern should have felt easier by now.
It did not.
Because every foothold looked too small.
Every jump felt too far.
And the lava below never stopped moving.
It churned and spat and rolled like it was waiting for them.
Another landing jarred through Catheryn's knees.
She nearly bit her tongue.
Luke's hand never loosened.
That should not have mattered as much as it did.
And yet, with every jump, his grip stayed the same.
Firm.
Steady.
As though he had decided from the very beginning that she was making it across.
Catheryn hated how warm it felt.
The next foothold formed smaller than the others.
Her eyes widened immediately.
It was narrow.
Too narrow.
And already trembling.
Luke saw it too.
His expression hardened.
The step beneath them cracked.
The next one looked even worse.
Then the lava below swelled.
A massive bubble burst against the surface, sending a violent plume of heat and molten spray upward.
Catheryn flinched.
The air warped.
For a split second, her vision blurred.
"Catheryn."
She snapped back to him at once.
Luke's voice stayed level.
"We jump through it."
Her mouth parted.
The plume was rising right in front of the next foothold.
Heat shimmered so fiercely around it that the stone beyond looked distorted.
Catheryn's fingers tightened around her staff.
'T-Through it?!'
The foothold beneath them gave another sharp crack.
Luke shifted his weight slightly, already preparing.
His eyes met hers.
"Can you do it?"
Catheryn froze.
The answer should have been no.
It should have been obvious.
The heat was unbearable.
The timing was horrible.
The next foothold looked like it wanted to die before they even touched it.
And Luke was asking her like failure was not even part of the conversation.
Catheryn swallowed.
Then, before she could stop herself, she nodded.
Luke's grip tightened once.
"Good."
The foothold beneath them split down the middle.
"Now."
Catheryn drove her staff down with both hands.
"Wind Burst!"
The compressed gust erupted beneath them.
Catheryn and Luke shot forward at once.
The plume of heat slammed into them halfway through the jump.
Catheryn gasped.
Even through the layer of Impervious, the blast felt vicious. It was not just hot. It was sharp. Like the air itself had turned to needles and tried to drive through her skin. Her eyes squeezed shut on instinct, and her grip on Luke's hand tightened hard enough to hurt.
Then they burst through.
Luke landed first on the next foothold with a heavy thud.
This one cracked too—
but not enough.
"Again," he said at once.
Catheryn's chest heaved.
Her vision still swam faintly from the heat plume, and the next few footholds blurred together into a nightmare rhythm of fire and falling.
Step.
Crack.
Jump.
Land.
Step.
Crack.
Jump again.
At some point, Catheryn stopped trying to look down.
The lava was too close.
Too loud.
Too alive.
So she fixed her eyes on one thing instead.
Luke's hand.
On the way he never loosened his grip.
On the way his voice stayed maddeningly steady every time he said—
"Now."
Or—
"Again."
Or simply—
"Catheryn."
And somehow, each time, her body moved.
By the seventh foothold, her legs ached.
By the eighth, her wind bursts had begun to lose force.
By the ninth, her breathing had gone ragged enough that she could hear it over the roar below.
Luke noticed.
Of course he did.
He landed on the next foothold, made another ahead, then glanced down at her.
"One more big launch," he said. "Then solid ground."
Catheryn nodded quickly, though she was no longer entirely sure her body could tell the difference between reassurance and panic.
The final stretch was wider than the others.
Not impossible.
Just cruel.
The next foothold formed.
Then the next one after that did not.
Catheryn blinked.
Luke's jaw tightened.
"Can't make another in time," he muttered.
Her heart sank.
The foothold beneath them trembled violently.
The black stone ahead was close enough to reach—
if they had enough force.
Luke looked at her.
Catheryn looked back.
No words were needed this time.
She planted her staff.
Wind screamed around the tip, rougher and heavier than before, pulling at her sleeves and hair.
Everything she had left gathered into that single point.
Luke bent his knees slightly.
The foothold cracked.
"Now," he said.
Catheryn thrust her staff down.
"Wind Burst!"
The blast that followed was stronger than the others.
Too strong.
They flew.
Catheryn's stomach dropped as the lava vanished beneath them and the jagged black ground at the foot of the volcano rushed up too quickly.
Luke twisted midair.
His arm wrapped around her waist.
Then they hit.
Luke took the worst of it, his boots skidding hard across the volcanic stone. Catheryn stumbled into him with a startled sound, nearly falling again before his grip steadied her.
For a second, neither of them moved.
Then Luke let out a slow breath.
"We're across."
Catheryn stared.
Behind them, the last foothold shattered and vanished into the lava.
Only then did her legs finally stop pretending.
She sank to her knees.
The ground here was solid, though still hot enough to sting through her clothes. Towering above them, the volcano rose like a wall of black stone streaked with rivers of red light. Ash drifted through the air, and every few seconds the mountain gave a deep, rumbling pulse, as though something inside it was breathing.
Catheryn's hands shook around her staff.
They had actually crossed.
Luke looked back at the lava sea behind them, then grinned.
"That was kind of fun."
Catheryn stared at him.
There is genuinely something wrong with him.
Luke rolled one shoulder, then crouched nearby.
"We rest here for two minutes," he said. "Then we move."
Catheryn nodded quickly, still trying to steady her breathing.
Then she froze.
Her hand was still in his.
Her eyes widened.
Catheryn let go at once and pulled both hands back to her staff like she had been caught doing something strange.
"S-sorry."
Luke blinked once.
Then he looked away and scratched the side of his neck.
"It's fine."
That somehow made it more awkward.
Catheryn lowered her head and stared very hard at the ground.
'Why is this embarrassing?'
The volcano rumbled again.
Heat rolled over them in another heavy wave, but Catheryn barely noticed it for a second.
Her arms ached.
Her legs felt hollow.
And her thoughts felt annoyingly disordered.
They had crossed because they had worked together.
That was all.
That should have been all.
So why did it feel so strangely difficult to look at him now?
Then another thought slipped into her mind.
Why had she not transformed?
Catheryn stared at her staff.
The crossing had been terrifying. The kind of terrifying that usually pushed her over the edge—into that colder, quieter state where fear dulled and action came easier.
But this time, she had stayed herself.
Her fingers tightened slightly.
Slowly, she looked up.
Luke stood ahead of her, his large back rising and falling as he stared at the volcano, his thoughts hidden.
Steady.
Solid.
As though the madness of the crossing had never shaken him at all.
Catheryn lowered her gaze again.
'...Why didn't I transform?'
.
Scarlett POV
Scarlett had decided three things about Ruth Flare in under a minute.
He was huge.
He was quiet.
And if he turned out to be boring too, she was filing a complaint with the dungeon itself.
At least the heat was not a problem.
The air here was thick and burning, the ground split with glowing veins of lava, and every few seconds a wave of heat rolled across the path hard enough to make the air shimmer.
Scarlett barely felt it.
With her fire affinity, this place was closer to warm than unbearable.
Ruth was faring a little worse.
Not badly.
Just enough for her to notice.
A trace of sweat. Slightly heavier breathing. A little more tension in the way he carried himself.
His metal affinity must have been helping him endure it.
Just not enough to let him ignore it.
Scarlett gave him a sidelong glance.
Still huge.
Still quiet.
And, unfortunately, still giving off strong boring potential.
"So," Scarlett said, dragging the word out, "are you always this chatty, or am I getting special treatment?"
Ruth glanced her way, and to her surprise, a faint smile touched his face.
"Yes," he said solemnly. "This is the VIP treatment for Your Esteemed Highness."
He even dipped his head in something dangerously close to a mock bow before turning forward again and resuming his quiet march.
Scarlett stared at him.
'Oh, so that's how it is.'
From the corner of her eye, she spotted a small pocket of lava.
A wicked grin spread across her face.
With a casual flick of her finger, she swiped upward from the molten pocket toward Ruth.
A plume of fire burst out at once, shooting toward his back.
Ruth reacted immediately.
A metallic sheen flashed across his skin as he braced for impact.
The flame slammed into him—
and he frowned.
There was no burn.
He turned and fixed Scarlett with a flat stare.
"We're in a dungeon, and you're fooling around?"
Scarlett was already bent over, clutching her stomach as she laughed.
"It's fineeee," she said between cackles. "Stop being so serious, geez. We're being watched anyway."
Ruth's expression shifted strangely, like he was not quite sure what to do with her.
Scarlett's grin widened.
'Awwwh. Look at him getting all awkward.'
That only made her laugh harder.
Ruth let out a long sigh and turned away again, deciding to ignore the strange specimen behind him.
Scarlett followed after him with far too much satisfaction.
For a while, the only sounds between them were their footsteps, the distant bubbling of lava, and the occasional rumble that rolled through the burning land beneath their feet. The path twisted through jagged black stone, sloping gradually upward as molten streams carved glowing lines through the terrain.
Scarlett stretched her arms behind her head as she walked.
"Y'know," she said, "for someone built like a fortress, you're surprisingly easy to annoy."
"No," Ruth replied without looking back. "You're just surprisingly committed."
Scarlett blinked.
Then a grin tugged at her lips.
'Okay. Maybe not boring.'
The path narrowed.
What had once been a broad stretch of volcanic rock slowly tightened into something meaner, with lava running closer on both sides and the blackened ground breaking more often beneath their feet. The air shimmered harder here, thick with heat and ash, and every few seconds a warm gust swept across the trail carrying the scent of sulphur and burning stone.
The heat was finally starting to get to Ruth.
Only a little.
But Scarlett saw it.
A faint sheen of sweat at his temple. Slightly heavier steps as the path narrowed and the air thickened around them.
She glanced at him from the side.
'Still annoyingly sturdy.'
Then the ground trembled.
A low crack split through the air ahead of them.
Both of them stopped at once.
The narrow path in front of them shuddered, then broke away with a grinding roar. Chunks of black stone fell into the abyss beyond, vanishing from sight a second before an angry hiss rose from below.
Scarlett took one more step forward and looked down.
Then immediately took one back.
The land had simply ended.
A massive chasm stretched before them, carved deep through the volcanic terrain like the dungeon itself had split the world open. Far below, a river—no, a whole sea—of lava churned and rolled, thick and vicious and very much alive. Heat surged up from it in heavy waves, warping the air above the drop and making the far side look like it was flickering.
Scarlett clicked her tongue.
"Okay," she said. "That's rude."
Ruth said nothing.
Scarlett looked at him.
His eyes were not on the lava.
They were moving.
Across the cliff walls.
Across the jagged outcrops jutting from the sides.
Across the dark seams glinting faintly beneath the cracked rock.
Scarlett followed his gaze and narrowed her own eyes.
Embedded in the volcanic walls were thin veins of ore, black-silver and dull red where the heat caught them. Some were only exposed in patches. Others ran deeper, half-buried like metal bones inside the cliff face.
Ruth stepped toward the edge.
Not recklessly.
Just close enough to study the distances.
Scarlett folded her arms and watched him.
"Oh?" she said, one brow lifting. "Don't tell me you're thinking."
Ruth crouched slightly, eyes tracing the nearest ore seam, then the next one across.
"I am."
Scarlett's grin returned at once.
"Well," she said, stepping up beside him, "this suddenly got interesting."
Far below them, the lava burst and rolled.
The cliff walls glowed.
And beside her, Ruth Flare kept staring at the chasm like he was trying to deconstruct it.
Scarlett tilted her head.
'Let's see what he comes up with.'
Ruth crouched at the edge of the chasm, one hand resting against the black stone as his gaze moved from one exposed ore vein to the next.
Scarlett leaned slightly, trying to follow whatever absurdly serious calculations were happening behind that quiet face.
"Well?" she asked. "Do we jump, pray, and hope the dungeon likes us?"
"No."
"How tragic."
Ruth ignored that and studied the cliff wall a moment longer.
"There's enough metal in the rock."
Scarlett blinked. "That's your grand revelation?"
"It's enough."
His hand pressed into the ground.
Metal trembled.
At first, it was subtle.
Then thin strands of black-silver ore began dragging themselves out from the cliff face with a low grinding sound, tearing free from the volcanic wall like veins being pulled from flesh. They twisted through the air and gathered near Ruth's arm, glowing faintly from the heat around them.
Scarlett's brows lifted.
"Oh."
Ruth rose to his feet, shaping the metal as he spoke.
"I'll pull enough out to make anchor points."
The ore stretched, condensed, and hardened into a thick hooked spike, then another shorter segment beneath it.
Scarlett tilted her head.
"Anchor points."
"We don't cross all at once," Ruth said. "We move from hold to hold."
He pointed toward a jagged outcrop jutting from the left side of the chasm, then toward another farther ahead.
"I anchor us there. Then there. Then farther in."
Scarlett folded her arms.
"And the part where gravity politely minds its business?"
Ruth glanced at her.
"That's where you come in."
A grin spread across her face at once.
"There it is."
"You use your fire to launch us," he said. "Short bursts. Controlled. Don't waste mana."
Scarlett placed a hand over her heart.
"You say the sweetest things."
So that was it.
'I have been turned into a jetpack.'
Ruth continued as though she had said nothing.
"I'll handle the anchors and the landings."
"Mm." Scarlett looked out over the chasm again. "And when there isn't a nice convenient outcrop waiting for us?"
For the first time, Ruth went still.
His mismatched eyes narrowed slightly as he judged the distances ahead.
Then his blue eye deepened.
Not brighter.
Deeper.
The colour sharpened into something colder and heavier, like pressure gathering behind it.
Scarlett noticed immediately.
Her grin shifted into something more interested.
"Oh?"
Ruth's voice stayed level.
"If the gap gets too wide, I use Repel once."
Scarlett whistled softly.
"Once?"
"It uses too much."
His gaze stayed fixed on the far side.
"I'm not wasting it early."
That answer only made Scarlett look at him more closely.
There was no frustration in him.
No irritation.
If anything, the more she joked, the calmer he seemed to become.
More focused.
More locked in.
Like all her noise was being pushed aside by the part of him that only cared about getting them across in one piece.
Her grin turned sharper.
'Okay. That's a little cool.'
Ruth drove the first metal anchor forward.
It shot across the gap and sank into an exposed seam of ore in the cliff wall opposite them with a harsh metallic crack.
The line between them pulled taut.
He tested it once with a sharp tug.
Solid.
Then he formed a second line around his gauntleted arm and looked at Scarlett.
"We do this fast," he said. "I anchor. You launch. We don't stop halfway."
Scarlett stepped up beside him and peered over the edge again.
The lava below churned and spat, orange light flickering across her face.
Then she looked at the line.
Then at him.
"So basically," she said, "you want me to throw us across a volcano like slingshots."
Ruth considered that.
"Yes."
Scarlett stared at him for half a second.
Then she laughed.
"Wow. You really do know how to show a girl a good time."
Ruth either ignored that or chose not to understand it.
Scarlett honestly could not tell which was funnier.
He extended a hand toward her.
"Ready?"
Scarlett looked at it.
Then up at him.
The lava roared below. His blue eye still held that deeper colour, steady and watchful.
For the first time since they had been paired together, he did not look quiet.
He looked dangerous.
Scarlett's grin widened.
"Oh, this," she said, flames already curling around her fingertips, "is definitely better than boring."