They made camp in the hollow of a broken corridor, where old stone met rusted metal and the air stank of ancient blood. Noct sat with his knees pulled up, watching the flickering fire Mia had sparked from crushed Ather stones. It danced strangely—flickering in patterns that mirrored equations he barely understood.
Ellen sat across from him, cleaning her blade with a cloth worn thin from overuse. Her silence was heavy, the kind that carried weight without words.
Mia lay back, hands behind her head, staring at the stone ceiling.
"You're wondering about us," she said without looking.
Noct hesitated. "A little."
Ellen didn't glance up, but Mia continued.
"We used to be weaker than you."
Noct blinked. That was hard to imagine.
"Our parents were Venators," Mia said. "Mid-tier. Good, but not good enough. They took us into a Category III Nexus for a routine sweep. We were maybe eight."
She didn't change expression. Just kept her eyes on the ceiling.
"There was a breach. The monster that came through... wasn't supposed to be there."
Noct leaned forward slightly, pulse tightening.
"They died buying us time," Ellen said, her voice low. "But that wasn't what broke us."
Mia turned to him now, her grin hollow. "We trusted a team to escort us out. Professionals. They took one look at the situation, and decided we were 'dead weight.'"
"They ran," Ellen finished. "Left us locked in with a starving predator."
Noct didn't speak. The fire crackled.
"We killed it," Mia said after a pause. "Somehow. We don't even remember how. Just blood. Screaming. Then silence."
"That day," Ellen said, "we stopped being children."
Mia sat up, brushing dust from her jacket. "We don't do 'teams.' Not really. Not after that."
"And yet you're helping me," Noct said, softly.
Ellen looked at him then. Her eyes were sharp, emotionless—but not empty.
"You're weak," she said bluntly. "But not pathetic. That's rare."
Mia smirked. "And it's fun watching you try not to die with math magic."
Noct gave a half-smile. "Thanks... I think."
For a moment, there was peace. Then Ellen stood.
"Rest is over. We descend in five."
Mia sighed, stretching. "Hope the next monsters scream louder than the last."
Noct stood too, the Ring of Constant Flow pulsing faintly on his finger, his mind already drafting new formula arrays.
As they walked deeper into the dark, the past lingered behind them like a ghost—but now, they weren't alone.
They were a strange trio: the killer, the phantom, and the calculating anomaly.
And the labyrinth had no idea what was coming.