The group stayed quiet for a long time, each person pulled inward by the weight of what had just been revealed.
Eventually, Adam closed his interface with a sharp flick of his fingers.
"We are wasting time standing around. We each have a path to walk now. Go. Meet your instructor. Figure out what they want from you before they decide it for you."
Lily let out a breath and stretched slowly, her limbs loosening like a lazy cat, though her fingers curled with subtle tension.
"Alright. I’ll go to my creepy field coordinates and hope my instructor isn’t some cursed moss spirit." She gave Leo a quick glance.
"Try not to die before I get back."
Leo tried to smile at her. It faltered but held.
"Don’t die," Luna said softly. She was close, her eyes still fixed on her own interface. Her voice barely rose above a whisper. "If anything tries to hurt you... kill it first."
Leo nodded, his voice gentler. "I will."
Crystal was already turning to leave, her movements graceful, almost too smooth. She paused only long enough to glance back. "We’ll see each other again. Hopefully with answers."
"Not if I find them first," Aria said as she tapped her screen. Her smile was tight. "Let’s see who comes back with the weirdest power."
Adam let out a quiet sound that might have been amusement or warning. He didn’t clarify.
Rachel stood motionless near the wall. Her arms were crossed, her expression unreadable. When she finally spoke, her voice was steady.
"We should hurry up and head out. There’s no point in waiting anymore."
Crystal tilted her head slightly.
"Be careful. Do you think we should should go together or—"
"We are going separately. The faster we do this, the better. "
Everyone agreed yet everyone was hesitant to leave. Only when Leo raised his hand and placed it out in front of him did anyone move.
"Hands in now and once again after a successful return?
No one responded at first. It wasn’t something they had done before. But something about it felt right. A way to ground themselves. A way to promise they would all come back.
Lily was first, her fingers light against his.
"This better not jinx us," she muttered, but didn’t pull away.
Luna followed. Her hand was warm, steady.
"I’ll be back," she said. It was unclear whether she meant it for herself or for him.
Crystal set her hand next with a nod, quiet and calm.
"Until we meet again."
Aria slapped her palm down a little harder than necessary, her eyes gleaming.
"Loser buys dinner," she said.
Adam added his hand last, firm and unshaking.
They all looked to the now all too serious Rachel.
She didn’t move at first. Then, with a sigh, she stepped in and placed her hand on the pile.
"We make it back. No excuses."
Then they broke apart.
No more words. Just footsteps fading into the distance, each person heading toward whatever waited for them.
Adam lingered after the others had gone.
The room settled into a silence that felt deeper than it should have. Faint traces of their presence still hung in the air, echoes of footfalls and uncertain promises fading into the white walls and polished floor. The main chamber of the guild registration building stood unchanged, a sterile space meant for sorting and sending, but now it felt like the final breath before a plunge.
He dismissed his interface again, this time with a slow, deliberate flick of his fingers. There were no notifications left. Nothing waiting. Nothing more to delay him.
He could only bite the bullet and go to the cave to meet Arachne.
Adam took a steadying breath, the quiet of the empty room pressing in around him. The absence of the others left a strange weight, as if the air itself had thickened with anticipation.
No more distractions. No more small talk or last-minute jokes to break the tension.
He turned away from the sterile chamber and headed toward the heavy door at the back.
It closed behind him with a muted thud.
The path ahead was dark and narrow, carved out beneath the earth. The faint drip of water echoed somewhere in the distance, mingling with the soft scrape of his boots on stone.
Every step pulled him deeper into the unknown.
He could almost feel the weight of eyes watching from the shadows—silent, patient, waiting for the moment to strike or speak.
Adam kept his pace measured, every muscle taut with readiness.
This wasn’t about power or glory.
It was about survival.
About facing what he’d been avoiding.
And maybe, just maybe, finding the answers he’d been running from all along.
’What the fuck was I thinking?!’
He howled under his breath as he forced himself to keep moving. The cold grip of doubt tightened with every step deeper into the cavern’s suffocating darkness.
Why did I have to be the one to go alone? Everyone else got to split up and do their own thing, but me? I get sent to meet Arachne in some creepy underground cave. Great.
His heart pounded. Every instinct screamed at him to turn back and run from whatever waited at the end of this path.
But there was no turning back.
He swallowed the panic and tightened his jaw. His breath came out in slow, controlled bursts as he fought the rising tide of fear.
This is what I signed up for. This is what I have to do.
Ahead, a faint glimmer caught his eye. Something almost imperceptible shimmering in the shadows pulled him forward, a thin thread of light in the consuming dark.
The entrance seemed to be cracking as a black portal unfolded before his eyes, covering the entrance entirely in a dark violet light.
’What are you waiting for. Get in!’
Arachne’s voice echoed inside of his mind as he stood on the precipice. He knew that at this point, he couldn’t turn back. So he did the only thing he knew to do: Hold his head up high and keep moving forward.