14 13

'I take back what I said. My student is a complete and utter idiot. Fucking hells,' Favian said. 'You're damn lucky that I don't have my own body to control, or else I would've smacked you to death already.'

Favian's annoyed voice brought Vice back to his bearings. He groaned in pain as he tried to get up back up onto his feet, but it soon became clear to him that his feet were bound tightly. Blood was rushing to his brain and it was only then that he realized he was hanging from his feet.

"What?" Vice said in alarm as he opened his eyes to see his feet covered in a silky white substance. It took him a while to realize that those were webs that covered his feet. Vice squirmed around frantically, but his feet weren't free no matter how much strength he tried to put into them. Even by pushing his mana into his feet to augment their strength he still was unable to achieve any results.

"Shit, Anne? Wake up Anne, we're in trouble," Vice shouted to the seemingly lifeless body of his friend that was hung upside down beside him. Fortunately for him his hands weren't wrapped as tightly as his feet were, and he quickly burst through those shackles.

"Come on Anne, you need to wake up," he said as he nudged her with his hands. The girl still didn't wake up, however.

'Just give her a slap, I'm sure she'll wake up by that,' Favian murmured.

"FUCK," Vice screamed, and went with the suggestion made by his teacher. He swung his right palm which he'd imbued with some of his mana, directly onto Anne's back. A loud thud resounded through the area, and the girl was jolted awake immediately. A green vapor was forced out of her pores by Vice's hit, and dissipated into the air.

"Wh-What happened? Vice is that you?" Anne said, each syllable seemingly being forced out of her frame with difficulty.

"We're trapped somewhere. I don't know why they didn't just kill us, but I'm sure this widowmaker didn't expect us to wake up this soon. Here lemme help with your hands," Vice said and quickly helped Anne break free from the bindings on her hands. "Help me with my feet, the drop isn't too far."

Anne obliged and sent a bolt of yellow energy hurtling for Vice's feet. The silky restraint was quickly torn asunder, and Vice crashed head first onto the ground. "Ouch," he mumbled as he rubbed his head. "Do the same for yourself, I'll catch you don't worry."

Again Anne obliged, and sent a bolt toward he own feet. Vice was able to soften her fall as he caught her in his arms. For a moment he stared into her eyes, but immediately pushed the thought he'd just had out of his mind. "We need to get outta here, and as soon as possible at that," he said.

Vice was finally able to get a better look of his surroundings. Everything was tinted in a crimson light, and a soft red vapor was constantly circulating around him. Multiple bones were strewn about in the room he was currently in, femurs, craniums, you name it and it was there. These bones were mostly suspended in the air by silky webs all around Vice. A pungent odor of vinegar and sewage entered his nostrils, and he noticed Anne covering her nose from the smell, her face contorted in disgust.

"We won't be able to just get out of here Vice. That rune you touched, it's brought us to a different dimension. It's going to take a lot more than just running to get out of here, heck, unless you can break through dimensions with some spell of yours then we're stuck here until we kill the owner of this realm," Anne said. She stared at Vice with an expression he wasn't able to discern.

"I'm sorry… We need to prepare then, we can't just blindly run away if what you are saying is true," Vice replied. He looked around the room hastily, until he found a larger than average door that could accompany three of him side by side. However, multiple thick webs blocked his way to the door.

Purple arcana sparkled about in his two hands as he let the mana burst forth from within himself. After casting for a short while, purple flames burst into existence from his hands. Vice played around with them briefly, changing their size and shape until they completely covered both of his hands.

'Just the luck I needed. The roullette isn't always bad I guess,' he thought to himself.

'I'm pretty sure you cursed my perfect technique vehemently the last time you tried to catch this widowmaker no?' Favian asked.

'Shh nobody asked you,' Vice replied.

Vice walked up to the nearest webs and let the flames from his hands burst forth like a flamethrower. His eyes furrowed as the silky webs didn't initially melt away, however after putting in some more mana into his hands, he was easily able to destroy it.

"These aren't normal spider webs, they are fortified by some arcana," Vice said. He could feel a unique tingling sensation when he touched the webs, and after pushing his mana to his eyes to augment them, he was able to see that there were red strands of arcana surrounding the white webs.

��Stop marveling at the damn web, you've got more important things to worry about right now, like WHAT made those webs maybe?' Favian's voice echoed in Vice's mind with annoyance.

"Wait a second Vice, do you see that?" Anne asked as she pointed to the ground next to the large oak door.

Vice's augmented eyes moved toward where his companion was pointing, and he immediately gasped. A trail of blood made its way to the door, but that wasn't what caught his surprise. The oak door didn't fully touch the ground, and in the small gap between the door and the ground, a large concentration of arcana swirled around. Thick black wisps of arcana covered the bottom half of the door, and a shadow could be seen moving about slightly behind the door.

Vice pushed his finger onto his lips as he looked at Anne, and then frantically looked about the bone-filled room to find a different exit. Slowly Vice descended into madness, his eyes twitching manically as he couldn't find any other means of escape except for the clearly booby-trapped door. There were no windows in the room, and the only source of light seemed to be some red candles which were hung upside down on the ceiling.

'Fuck, what can I even do here? The only way forward is through that damn do- Wait a second, what's that?' Vice thought. A dull blue light caught his attention from the corner of his eyes. The blue light emanated from a pile of bones by a wall opposite to the large oak door.

Vice carefully made his way to the heap, moving his feet ever so slowly to not make any noise. As he inched closer, the blue light became clearer for him to see, and he wondered how he hadn't noticed it in the first place. 'Maybe the fog or mist here does something weird to the light in here?' he thought.

A fresh breeze entered Vice's nose, which he quickly breathed in. The pungent smell from the room still lingered slightly in his nose, but the fresh air was a nice surprise. Vice very slowly moved the heap of bones out of the way with the help of Anne, who wasn't covering her nose from the room's stench now.

An even brighter blue light was emitted through the room as the pair finally removed each of the bones from the pile and carefully placed them away to the side. "What do you think it is?" Vice mouthed to Anne, who simply shrugged in reply.

A metal trapdoor was built into the ground, and the blue light surged through it. Not only did it smell as fresh as a summer breeze, but Vice could even sense a thick amount of arcana was hidden beneath it. There wasn't a handle on the trapdoor however. 'We've seen this a thousand times already, no door handle just means push your mana into it to open it,' Vice thought to himself.

He quickly took some of the flames from his hands and pushed them onto the trapdoor. Almost immediately the door swung open and hit Vice square in the chin. His head lurched back, and it felt like it had been knocked clean off his neck.

"Are you okay?" Anne asked frantically. She held onto his head with care, and caressed his horns softly. Vice could still see some blinding stars in his vision but the nice sensation of Anne stroking his horns brought him back to reality. His face immediately blushed as the sensation felt too nice, much to his surprise.

"What?" Anne mouthed as Vice stared at her with his red cheeks.