Chapter 367: Ch 366: The Tree’s Dungeon - Part 2

Lyra’s fear continued to grow as the tree vibrated harder, its enormous branches twisting in ways that made no sense.

The sound was not exactly a voice, but it carried the feeling that it was the will of the dungeon itself that was vibrating through her and commanding her to stay here and not cause trouble.

She tightened her grip around Kael and took several steps backwards.

"Stay away from us..."

The tree did not listen.

Its roots began to move across the floor, spreading in Lyra’s direction. She immediately raised her hand and gathered as much magic as she could.

"Fine! If you won’t leave us alone, then I’ll make my own way out!"

A mass of dark magic gathered around her arm before she swung it forward. The attack struck the space in front of her, creating a powerful shockwave that tore through the strange palace.

For a moment, Lyra thought it had worked and that she had found a way out. But it was clear that she had celebrated too early.

The magic simply disappeared as soon as it started working, causing her eyes to widen.

"What?"

She tried again, this time pouring even more power into the attack. The result was exactly the same. Her magic was swallowed before it could even reach the walls.

"No... no, no, no!"

There was only one action left for her to take now. Lyra grabbed Kael and pulled him further away from the approaching roots.

She could feel her magic becoming weaker the longer she stayed there, while the tree only seemed to become stronger.

Kael was still unconscious in her arms, and his breathing remained steady, but he showed no sign of waking up.

"Kael, please wake up..."

She shook him desperately, but there was no response.

The roots finally reached them, causing Lyra’s eyes to widen as she realised that there was nowhere left to run.

She held Kael tightly against herself and gathered the last of her magic around them, creating a thin barrier.

It was barely enough to protect them, and the roots struck the barrier, causing cracks to immediately appear across it.

Lyra gritted her teeth.

"I won’t let you take him!"

She pushed more magic into the barrier, but she knew it was useless. She was running out of strength, and the tree was already beginning to surround them.

’We’re going to be swallowed...’

For the first time in a long while, Lyra felt genuine helplessness. She was not sure why her magic was not working.

She closed her eyes and hugged Kael tighter.

But then... a flash of light appeared behind them.

Lyra opened her eyes in confusion and noticed a portal had suddenly appeared in the middle of the palace.

Someone was standing on the other side, reaching their hands out toward her, and it filled Lyra with a sense of comfort.

After all, it was a familiar face.

"Elena?!"

Elena looked through the portal and immediately noticed the roots surrounding Lyra and Kael. Her magic was working hard to keep the portal open, but it was clear that she was struggling as well.

"Lyra! Hurry! Get through the portal!"

Lyra stared at her for a moment, unable to believe what she was seeing. But then her feet started to move.

"Elena, how did you—"

"There’s no time to explain!"

Elena raised her hand, desperately maintaining the unstable portal. There was sweat on her forehead, indicating that she was doing what she could to keep that portal open.

"Get out before it closes!"

The roots slammed against Lyra’s barrier again, causing it to shatter completely. But she did not stop running. She created more barriers as distractions while she ran toward the split in space.

"I’m coming!"

She rushed toward the portal as the tree began moving behind her, and Elena reached out her hand.

"Come on!"

Lyra grabbed it.

The moment she crossed through the portal with Kael, Elena pulled both of them through, and the portal immediately collapsed behind them.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Then Lyra looked back at the empty space where the portal had been and breathed heavily.

Elena stared at her before looking down at the unconscious Kael.

"Is he alright?"

"I... I don’t know. He hasn’t woken up once."

Lyra tightened her arms around Kael while looking at his sleeping face. Kael looked so innocent that she felt guilty for even disturbing him. But this situation was something that needed his attention.

Besides that...

"How did you find us? And when did you realise we were missing? It could not have been that long..."

Lyra pointed out, causing Elena to grit her teeth. The younger girl debated with herself before she decided to tell the truth.

"It has been a week since you both disappeared. We tried looking for you before we realised that you were not in this world anymore. Ugh, it took so many resources just to locate you, much less find you... is something wrong?"

Elena asked as she looked at the expression on Lyra’s face. There was certainly something wrong here, and that was the duration of time that had passed.

"What... do you mean it has been a week? I swear we were not there for more than a few hours..."

Lyra pointed out before realising what had happened.

"Hey, dungeons usually have a 1:1 time ratio inside and outside, right?"

She asked, and Elena nodded. That made Lyra grit her teeth, but another hypothesis formed in her mind.

"Then... what if that place had not been a dungeon at all, but somewhere else? Just where did we end up falling into?"

She asked, and Elena shook her head.

"We cannot say that for now. We will have to get your statement and wait for Kael to wake up as well. Maybe that will be able to shed some light on the topic of what happened inside that space."

That was the hope right now. But Lyra had a feeling things were not going to be that simple for them.