It started with just a single stone, a harmless slip that resonated with a thud much too loud. But, this much was still fine. It just felt louder than it should be due to the silence all around them.

In the slight pocket of echoing noise, Leonidas and Lady Eve froze, their movements subconsciously becoming slower and more subtle in a sort of vain hope that this would stop the eventual cascade.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

Leonidas could already hear the whining stone, his twitching ears picking up on the shift. That one stone that had fallen seemed unimportant, but it had led to a shift that was already impossible to stop.

That only left two options. Either they would climb for their lives, hoping to outrun the collapse. Or…

Leonidas’ expression flickered, his arm reaching out and snatching Lady Eve’s wrist.

Lady Eve, who had just been about to cast an agility-type Blessing found herself reeling back, her eyes widening. Her first instinct was that she had been betrayed, she couldn’t fathom any other reason.

Fury lit in her irises as she tried to pull away, but the Leonidas of now wasn’t the same Leonidas she had treated like a ragdoll in the past.

Lady Eve’s thinking was quick, though. She had been in countless life-and-death situations and her guard had always been up against Leonidas.

Her free hand reached to her hip, grabbing onto one of the Substitution Dolls, fully prepared to launch it. So long as the Substitution Doll made it past the clearing of rocks, she would be safe regardless of what Leonidas wanted to do with her.

Her reactions were quick, but Leonidas’ were quicker. He knew what kind of reaction Lady Eve might have in this situation, they had yet to grow any trust between them and his earlier words weren’t enough to change the tide.

When he reached out to Lady Eve, he had already knocked the pouch on his hip loose, releasing some of the gleam of the Basilisk’s eyes.

A jolt ran through his body and Lady Eve found her actions slowing to a halt.

Leonidas bit down on his tongue, pushing past the instinct to cower, and dove forward.

In the clearing he and Lady Eve had formed, there was a small archway of stone. It was barely over a meter tall, just about as wide, and only a small bit larger in length.

It wasn’t a safe location by any stretch of the imagination.

Even if both of them curled up into a ball, they would only barely be able to fit. And, for their efforts, they would be granted the grand fate of starving to death.

When Lady Eve realized that Leonidas wasn’t betraying her, but rather sending them both to their deaths in maybe the most foolish move she had ever seen, she had no idea what to feel.

The first rock fell.

Then the second.

Leonidas’ hand moved to his hip as he dove into the small archway with Lady Eve. The moment he sealed the Basilisk eyes up once again, she regained her movement.

Without a choice, Lady Eve could only dive into the hole along with Leonidas. The falling stones left her without a clear path to throw her Substitution Doll and it was much too late to run any longer.

Her leg and Leonidas’ tail just barely managed to squeeze in as the stones collapsed, the echoes and vibration trembling around them, masking their heavy breathing.

Time continued, every fallen stone like another nail to their grave.

Lady Eve sat in silence, her body rolled up.

She could already feel despair. Let alone hunger, they might run out of air long before that.

“Why did you do this?!”

Unable to hold it back any longer, Lady Eve released a furious bellow. If it wasn’t for fear that this small haven would collapse, she would have attacked as well.

Only a small bit of better judgment managed to stop her in the end, but she wanted nothing more than to shred Leonidas to pieces.

Her words didn’t receive a response, only making her fury bubble further.

The only logical conclusion seemed to be that Leonidas didn’t want to die alone. He lacked her agility and speed, so he dragged her down with her. All that talk about following the road to its end and not needing the support of others was all bullshit!

Before Lady Eve could snap again, though, a faint blue light caught her attention. Soon, that blue light became resplendent, lighting up the entire space.

Leonidas held up two fingers, a thin line of Mana Blade forming between them.

In this small space, he couldn’t reach and bring out his twin sabers. His claws would just have to be enough.

To Lady Eve’s astonishment, Leonidas didn’t aim for one of the walls, but rather pierced his fingers into the ground beneath them, closing his eyes in concentration.

“You…”

Lady Eve swallowed her words, her chest still heaving.

She didn’t know a lot about Mana, their small town didn’t have any Mages. However, from what she knew about Breath, the more skilled you were, the more concentrated and brighter it would be.

Density and brightness were functions of skill and talent. To have such bright and blue Mana, without even the slightest blemish…

Even Lady Eve’s elder brother didn’t have Breath like this when last she checked.

Also, what kind of Blessing was this? She didn’t know of Blessings that could be used so freely.

Blessings bestowed by Gods were like a box. When an Apostle wanted to borrow said strength, they would have to open said box.

Each box came with its own set of rules and regulations, constraining how the abilities within could be used.

Someone like Leonidas who had refined his Blessings to the point where it didn’t seem like he needed the box anymore was rare beyond words.

Leonidas exhaled a breath. ‘Two and a half meters.’

His gamble had paid off.

Slowly, Leonidas’ fingers began to move.

Maintaining Mana Blade without an actual blade wasn’t difficult. After all, it was designed as a Mage Blessing, not a Fighter Blessing.

By design, Mana Blade was meant to be a long-ranged attack Leonidas fired at enemies from a distance. It was just that Leonidas found that it was far more powerful when attached to a physical object first.

This method not only made it stronger, but it wasted less Mana.

Any Mana Blade you shot out was that much less energy in your Mana Pool. However, if you continuously used the same Mana Blade, the loss of energy was negligible in comparison.

The only unfortunate part was that Leonidas couldn’t retrieve the Mana he had used to form the blade and could only allow it to disperse.

If he could maintain it indefinitely, he would. But that was taxing on his mind and concentration.

It was safer to let it vanish.

Leonidas’ current feat, though, would leave many Mages in awe.

There were three metrics by which the strength of Mana Blade could be judged.

The first was Mana density, the second was blade size, and the last was effective range.

Leonidas had just formed a Mana Blade two and a half meters long while more would be happy with a foot. Two feet and you were already considered adept in its usage.

Granted, the blade was still attached to Leonidas’ body. But it was a shocking feat nonetheless.

“Be ready,” Leonidas said, his fingers almost completing their circuit. “I’m not sure what’s on the other side, but the floor should fall through the moment these lines connect.”

Leonidas’ words proved true. The moment he completed the cut, the floor beneath them sunk by a measure.

He had cut at a slight angle, allowing the top of the hole to be smaller than the bottom and giving it a lower center of gravity that would hopefully help it fall easier. As expected, without even pushing, the floor sunk by almost half a foot.

Leonidas looked up to meet Lady Eve’s gaze and she nodded in return.

Taking the cue, he pressed a palm down and pushed.

There was a sudden pull as a vacuum of air whistled through.

“Jump! Now!”

Leonidas realized the situation was bad. He was hoping they would get a chance to scout out what was below first, but that pull of air could easily send the stone around them crashing down.

There wasn’t much room to maneuver so both could only fall in head-first.

Leonidas dispersed his Mana Blade, taking with it their line of sight and forcing their eyes to adjust for a moment.

Just as quickly, he formed a claw with one hand and formed five small Mana Blades.

BOOM!

The slab of floor hit what Leonidas assumed was the ground below even as the small hole above them was buried beneath crumbling rock.

However, there was something odd about the sound below. Leonidas’ ears had a bit of trouble deciphering between the sounds above, the whistling air around him and what must have been some distance between them and whatever their former floor was.

He reached out, digging his claws into the smooth rock face just before he slipped past it.

With a sweeping motion, his tail lashed out just as he righted himself, just managing to snag Lady Eve’s waist before she fell any further.

The air was knocked out of the petite woman, her ribs threatening to break under the sudden pressure, but the both of them managed to come to a stop, Leonidas’ claw the only thing between them and a fall from unknown heights.

Leonidas’ arm flexed, his shoulder having almost popped out of its socket. He had gotten a lot stronger, but carrying his own over 250-kilogram weight and the additional 50 kilograms Lady Eve must have been was no small strain.