deia smiled softly and said, "I’m sorry, but the Red Star base is my ho now."
There was no hesitation in her voice. She sounded so sure of herself that Sora realized that she couldn’t change her mind anymore.
"Fine." Sora let out a sharp sigh. She still looked conflicted, but she knew there was nothing more she could do. "Just know this, no matter what happens, you can always co back to us. We’ll always welco you."
deia’s eyes narrowed slightly. She still wasn’t used to this kind of warmth. This unfamiliar thing called family love, sothing she had never truly experienced before.
"Thank you for the offer," she replied, her voice a little stiff. "That really ans a lot."
Now that everything had been said, deia clapped her hands once, drawing everyone’s attention. "Alright ... how about we start thinking of a way to get out of this cursed place?"
Ethan, who had been sitting quietly a bit farther away, finally spoke up. "Don’t any of you feel sothing’s wrong?" She gently rubbed her chest. "I’ve been having trouble breathing for a while now, or ... is it just ?"
deia turned toward Lucian, silently asking if he felt the sa.
Lucian gave a small nod. "Yeah ... maybe just a little."
"That’s not good," deia muttered, glancing around the room. "I think ... we’re trapped inside a fake dinsion made by the monster."
[You’re correct, Host.]
deia raised an eyebrow in surprise. She hadn’t expected the system to respond so quickly.
Well, she wouldn’t mind if the system changed for the better.
[The monster has the ability to create its own domain. If you’re trapped inside its domain for more than 24 hours, you’ll start struggling to breathe and eventually die.]
Just great. deia imdiately took back any praise she’d been about to give the system.
’Why didn’t you tell this sooner?!’ she snapped inwardly.
[You seed pretty busy before.]
The corner of deia’s mouth twitched slightly as she tried to maintain a calm expression, even though she was ntally cursing the system nonstop.
"Pretty busy," it said. If the system really wanted to tell her sothing this important, it would’ve done it anyway!
"If we really are inside the monster’s fake dinsion... then how do we get out?" Finn asked, clearly panicking again.
Seriously? Couldn’t this kid do anything other than panic? Even Nico was more useful at this point.
"Well, I don’t know." deia shrugged. "We could try jumping into that hole down there. See what’s at the bottom."
Naomi hissed. "And then what? Most of us would die if it’s too deep!"
Finn imdiately raised his hand. "I can stay here!"
deia clicked her tongue in annoyance. "If we’re going down, we’re going down together."
"It would be reckless to step into the monster’s nest without knowing what we’re dealing with," Walter said calmly. Strangely enough, his voice had a way of calming everyone down. "Let’s figure out what this monster is first."
deia glanced at Tian, then said, "I have a guess. The monster is probably ... a giant worm."
Eldon raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so sure the monster is a worm? I also heard you asking Tian about it earlier."
deia gave a light shrug. "It was just a hunch. I an, worms live underground, so that’s the first thing that ca to mind."
When no one responded, she went on, "Anyway, if we really are inside the monster’s dinsion, doesn’t that an we’ll die if we stay here too long?"
Of course, she couldn’t exactly say that the system had warned her they only had about twenty two hours left before they’d all be dead.
"You’re right," Ethan finally spoke. "We’re already feeling short of breath, which ans the oxygen level here is lower than in our dinsion. It’s not impossible that the oxygen might completely disappear later."
On top of that, deia was pretty sure that whatever food existed in this place wouldn’t satisfy them. If they didn’t die from lack of air, they’d probably starve instead.
Sora added, "Creating a whole new dinsion must be incredibly difficult. So I’m thinking ... maybe there’s a flaw sowhere. A crack we can escape through."
"Then ... should we split up?" Ethan asked.
Sora nodded. "There are a lot of rooms in this building. We should split into pairs and spread out."
She looked at everyone seriously. "Our goal is to find that crack. And if any of you see sothing dangerous, don’t try to handle it alone, just run, so we can deal with it together."
No one argued. Everyone silently agreed and began forming groups. deia had barely looked around when Lucian gently took her hand and said, "You’re with ."
His expression was serious, so serious that she couldn’t even make a joke. It was clear he didn’t want to let her out of his sight, not after what had happened earlier.
"Okay, I’m with you," she replied quietly.
Once the teams were set, they all went in different directions. Lucian and deia chose to check the second floor, since the others seed too hesitant to leave the safety of the first.
Maybe they were too scared to venture too far after realizing how many terrifying secrets the church held.
"So," Lucian said as they stepped into the second floor, "how much ti do we really have before we run out of air?"
deia laughed softly and nudged his arm. "Why are you always so good at reading ? Sotis it really feels like you can read my mind. Or ... can you?"
He was a system, after all. Maybe he really could hear people’s thoughts.
"deia," Lucian said, taking a deep breath. "I’m being serious."
deia let out a long sigh. She honestly didn’t understand why Lucian suddenly seed a bit grumpy. He had seed fine before, a bit tense, maybe, but still fine.
"Twenty-four hours, but now only twenty-two left," she finally admitted. "That’s how long the system said we have. Once ti runs out, we’ll die. I guess staying too long in a foreign dinsion starts breaking our bodies down."
Lucian sighed heavily. "Maybe you’re right," he said. "Maybe we really should just jump into that pit."
[Warning! Warning! The King of Worm is on the move!]
[Warning! Warning! The King of Worm is getting closer!]
deia’s eyes narrowed as she slowly scanned the area around them. "Well ... I don’t think we need to go looking for it."
She turned to Lucian, her voice calm but serious. "It’s already coming for us."
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