"ak, w-what is this!?"
Losing her footing, Alya tried to move closer to the base and pull out her sword; however, she couldn't focus enough to use her sword.
Glancing around, Alya tried to discern if she was the one being affected by this strange phenonon.
"I-is anyone else feeling this!?"
Yet, as she glanced around and saw Zach running normally, without any signs of the ground shaking below him, she imdiately realized sothing was off.
*RUMBLE*
Then, right as Zach was about to reach her, the ground finally collapsed, causing Alya to free-fall downwards.
Thankfully, realizing sothing was off, Alya already managed to pull her sword out, but that didn't stop Zach from worrying.
"w-what, ALYA!?"
"WHE-WHAT HAPPENED!?"
As Alya fell deeper, Zach's screams slowly faded away, and darkness slowly overwheld the light.
Knowing that the fate of the statue, whether it fell or not, depended on her, Alya imdiately plunged her ice sword into the ground as she landed.
Not bothering to look around or find the culprit of the ground collapsing, Alya looked downwards at her sword, which was embedded into the ground.
Feeling the temperature in the underground area grow colder, Alya imdiately began manifesting an ice pillar, slowly lifting herself up.
Though she knew that the ground collapsing was unnatural and there was likely an enemy nearby, Alya did not wish to engage in a fight.
She knew that Kevin and Liam wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, so she had to get to the surface and stop the statue from falling with her ice magic.
However, as Alya slowly rose up into the air, closer and closer to the surface, a very familiar voice echoed throughout the underground area.
"Can I call in... a favor, my dear princess?"
Stopping dead in her tracks and halting the ice pillar from rising, Alya stared downward at the source of the voice.
Despite knowing that Ren was most likely part of the three other students due to his display of strength during the carriage battle between him, Kevin, and Liam, Alya still stood shell-shocked upon hearing his voice.
Unable to form a coherent word due to the shock, Alya simply stared down in silence at the erging figure below her.
"..."
A few seconds later, the sa voice echoed again in a slightly awkward tone.
"You did say any ti, didn't you..? Or am I mistaken?"
Realizing that ti was ticking, and the statue would soon begin to fall, Alya regained her composure and replied.
"...I-i, y-yeah, I did say that."
Leaving the cave's darkness, Ren walked towards the ice pillar.
The light-yellow orb of the statue illuminated his figure through the hole in the ground that was created when the floor under Alya collapsed.
With two pitch-black daggers in his hand, Ren tapped the ice pillar with one of them before muttering.
"Brings back mories... huh, not nice ones."
Starting to rise herself and the ice pillar up again, Alya stared downwards at Ren in disbelief.
"Are you... trying to guilt trip !?"
With a smile, Ren looked up, making eye contact with Alya, and responded.
"...is it working?"
Continuing to raise herself closer to the surface, Alya ignored Ren's question, simply waving it off before curiously questioning.
"Am I to assu this floor... and statue was all your work, then?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Ren began tapping at the ice pillar before replying.
"So...about that favor!"
" *PFFT* "
Unable to keep her laughter in at the shalessness of the figure below her, Alya burst into laughter while staring at Ren.
Sighing, Ren shook his head and interrupted Alya's fit of laughter.
"...I guess that's a no."
Since she couldn't increase the speed at which the ice pillar rose and there were still twenty seconds before she returned to surface height, Alya continued laughing before asking.
"I can hear you out if that makes you feel any better."
Thinking for a mont, Ren tapped his foot up and down before looking up at Alya once again.
"Will you go to the winter ball with ?"
"..."
"..."
As Alya imdiately lost her focus due to Ren's words, the ice pillar stopped rising, causing more ti to be wasted.
Standing on the ice pillar and glancing at Ren down below, Alya began to recall how he had acted in the past.
The Ren she had seen over the past few weeks would never say sothing like that!
Then, at that mont, it clicked for her.
At this mont, Ren and she were enemies!
She had been fooled because, during her tis with Zach and Ren, she had been so used to being on Ren's side, not the opposite!
With her face red, Alya realized her mistake and desperately began trying to calm her mind.
But, the precious seconds had already been wasted.
A couple of seconds later, the ice pillar began rising again... but when Alya looked down, Ren was simply standing there.
Then, the next mont... Ren quite literally disintegrated before her.
It looked as if he had just lted right in front of her.
Pieces of his body had just deford before completely disappearing, leaving the area where he was a mont ago empty.
Dismissing Ren's creepy skill, Alya stared upward with her ice-sword ready, thinking about how she had just been fooled.
"...that dam-"
"What was that, Alya?"
Looking up at Zach's confused face, Alya simply waved her hands up and down before replying.
"nothing... just nothing. A little...trick."
Waving off Zach, Alya imdiately pointed out her sword before sprinting around the base of the statue, covering the base with a layer of ice every ti she circled around it.
Liam, Lily, Irene, Ruby, and Kevin, who had been oblivious to Alya's fall, sighed in relief as they saw the ice beginning to form.
*WHOOSH*
*WHOOSH*
Yet, Lily's relief was short-lasted.
Sitting atop the shoulder of the statue, Lily's face quickly transford as she saw three crossbow arrows heading straight for the right side of the statue.
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