𝚁𝚘𝚕𝚕 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚒𝚌𝚎: 𝚀𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝙵𝚘𝚛 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔

🅟🅛🅐🅝🅢

12. PLANS

『 Ni-ki's POV 』

How does it feel to be walking towards your death in less than 24 hours?

Looking around at everyone else—who, for some reason, seemed okay with it—I questioned their sanity. Walking into Entwurf, even with our cool powers, felt like straight-up suicide.

Huening Kai took charge, his voice steady. "First of all, we have to cross all the realms in this order: Fire, Dragons, Magical Creatures, Light, Darkness, Water, Earth, Ice, Magic, Illusions, and finally, Ad Mare."

"Why?" Kyujin asked, as expected. Always questioning, always learning. Did she ever take a break?

"Because that's the only way," Edlynne answered. "We have to follow the path exactly and not stray from it."

"Oh, like the Camino in that board game," Bae muttered, though only a few of us caught the reference.

Yuna suddenly perked up. "There's a spell here," she said, flipping through her book. "A recreating spell. We can recreate anything with it—even the stone."

I blinked. "Wait, so we could just recreate all the stones and be done with it?"

"Yeah," Jinni nodded. "And Sunghoon can freeze time. The Guardians won't even know what happened."

"It’s not that simple—"
"But—"

Yuna and Huening Kai spoke at the same time, then exchanged a glance. Yuna glared, Kai looked awkward.

"You can go first," Yuna said coldly.

Kai sighed, clearly losing patience. "That plan won't work," he said, turning to me. "Each realm is different. The stones are guarded in different ways. The Stone of Life only reveals itself after an act of great valor. The Stone of Magic is protected by an enchantment, and only Raven can lift it. And the Realm of Land is a maze of riddles. There's no shortcut."

Yuna added, "Besides, there's a catch. The spell can only be used once. And even if Sunoo, Kyujin, and Bae help, the stones' magic is too powerful to recreate."

Kyujin sighed. "Okay, so we need another plan. But we can still use the spell strategically."

Jungwon turned to Edlynne and Kai. "Do you guys know anything else?"

Edlynne hesitated. "I do know that the Stone of Fire, Light, and Darkness act as life sources for their realms. If we take them, the realms might collapse."

Kai added, "I’ve already mentioned the Realm of Magical Creatures, Land, and Magic. But for Illusions and Ice, we’ll have to negotiate with their Guardians. As for Water—" He paused. "Let’s just hope the dragons don’t kill us on sight. They’ve been trapped in one place for too long. When that happens, they get violent."

Sunoo exhaled. "Great. That’s reassuring."

Jiwoo frowned. "So... do we just blindly walk in?"

"Maybe we should go with the flow," Sullyoon suggested. "Enya sees and hears everything in the Fire Realm. We’ll have to be invisible and soundless. Bae, Yuna, can you do that?"

"Invisibility will take practice," Bae admitted.

"There’s a spell to make us inaudible," Yuna added, still glaring at Kai.

"So that's settled," Edlynne nodded. "For the Dragon Realm, maybe the same strategy will work."

Kai agreed. "The Realm of Magical Creatures shouldn’t be too hostile. We can walk in without issue. The Realms of Light and Darkness... well, Alyonna and Donovan were easy to talk to last I checked."

"Last you checked was a thousand years ago," Yuna deadpanned. "People change."

Kai rolled his eyes. "You are such a ray of sunshine."

"Just stating facts," Yuna shot back.

"Can you two stop?" Sunoo groaned.

"Yeah," Kyujin said. "Besides, after Light and Darkness, we hit Water. We’ll need a ship or something."

"I think I can spell one up," Yuna replied flatly.

"The Land Realm will be tricky with those riddles," Jiwoo pointed out.

"We’ll figure it out," Jinni said, though she sounded like she was trying to reassure herself more than anyone else.

I frowned. "Won't the Realm of Ice be too cold?"

Edlynne nodded. "Sunghoon, Jinni, Jiwoo, and you will be immune. Yuna, Kyujin, and Sunoo might be fine with their powers. But Bae, Jungwon, and Sullyoon? Not so much."

Sunghoon crossed his arms. "So for Magic and Illusions, Sunoo, Kyujin, Yuna, and Bae will be doing most of the work, right?"

"Yes," Edlynne admitted. "And Illusions will be the biggest challenge. Like my brother said, only Bae might be able to cross—or she'll be the most affected."

Bae groaned. "Can you stop reminding me?! I'm already stressed."

"It's okay," Sullyoon reassured her, holding her hand.

"Yeah, we have each other," Yuna added, linking arms with Bae.

"Aww, this is sweet and all," I interrupted, "but can we wrap this up? I’m so tired."

"Agreed," Jiwoo yawned. "We’re all fighting drowsiness at this point."

Edlynne sighed. "Yeah, you guys deserve rest. My brother and I will work out the details."

"Well, meeting dismissed," Sunoo declared.

We all left for our rooms, and the moment my head hit the pillow, exhaustion won.

I was out like a light.

╭──────────────────── ·  ·  ·  · ✦

I don't know wth happened here
Another filler chapter, ig

Anyway,
hope y'all are enjoying the story
your reads, votes and comments mean a lot