Chapter: The Decoy Ruby
The cavern shuddered with tension.
Zack Erebus lunged—not visibly, but through a rupture in perception. His body flickered, shifting with the invisible wavelength, moving faster than the eye could follow. Sound did not precede his step. No air moved in his wake.
But Luke Astoria was ready.
He didn't move by sight.
His Heroic Paladin Sense—a continent-scale perception of wavelengths, spiritual presences, and life-force currents—flared like a sunburst through the cavern.
"I can feel you," Luke muttered, sword raised.
CLANG!
Zack's twin daggers slammed into Luke's silver blade, the clash erupting in a burst of light and static darkness. Sparks flared, dancing between divine radiance and void corruption. The stone beneath their feet cracked.
Then Zack twisted back and disappeared—again.
The moment Luke turned to shield the group, it was too late.
From behind, nonexistent threads—invisible, ethereal—lashed out across the cavern, binding the Seven Dwarves. Each one was tied in midair, suspended like puppets, unable to move or scream. The threads shimmered briefly, then vanished from visible space.
Zack stood in the shadows, his daggers crossed.
> "Give up the ruby… or they all disappear."
Luke's hand tightened on his blade. His eyes scanned the dwarves—Rindle's terrified expression, Doli squirming against the threads, Marnick gritting his teeth.
"Damn it..." Luke growled. "He's not bluffing."
Behind him, Oliver hesitated, already holding the ruby in his hand. "Luke…?"
Then—Marnick, ever stern, ever grounded, shouted:
> "Don't be stupid, Luke! The ruby's more important than us—DO IT!"
Luke closed his eyes and exhaled. His arm dropped slightly.
"…Alright."
He turned to Oliver and gave a short nod.
"Give it to him."
Oliver's grip trembled, but he obeyed. He tossed the ruby through the air.
It gleamed briefly—blood-red and smooth—and Zack caught it one-handed with mechanical ease.
He said nothing. Not a word.
He turned… and vanished, into the shadows of the upper cavern ledges, absorbed by the wavelength distortion, gone like fog.
Silence.
The threads loosened.
The dwarves dropped to the ground, groaning.
And then—
> "WHAT?!" Rindle exploded. "Why did we just hand it over?! You never give in to villains with knives and fancy black pajamas!"
He stomped around in the shallow water, fuming.
"Are you insane? We lost! We lost the ruby! That's the game! We're doomed, we're—"
"Rindle."
Luke said it calm, quiet, like a teacher about to reveal a final lesson.
Fern stood nearby, arms folded, the faintest smirk tugging at her lips.
Luke reached into his inventory—
—and pulled out a second ruby.
Perfect. Real. Glowing with the same signature the first one had.
The entire group blinked.
"Wait… what?"
Doli pumped his fist in the air. "HAH! Knew it worked!"
Fern smiled. "It was already in motion before Zack ever showed up."
Luke continued, "While we were trapped earlier, and Zack had me bound in threads, Doli—the only one free—secretly took a ruby he'd found in the cavern and stored it inside his belt folds. We had two. The one Oliver carried was always the decoy."
Oliver blinked. "So… the one I gave him…"
"Was a loss we could afford."
Rindle stared, slack-jawed. "We… we outsmarted the Silent Stalker?"
"Technically," Fern said dryly, "we survived his rules. And made him waste a move."
Luke slipped the real ruby back into his inventory.
"It's not about brute force. Not with him. It's about keeping ahead of his game."
Everyone fell into stunned silence.
Then Rindle clapped. "Gotta admit… that was cool."
Doli beamed. "Told you my beard-belt could hold anything."
And somewhere far above, where light never touched—
Zack Erebus stopped mid-ledge.
He looked at the ruby in his hand, still warm.
He said nothing. But his eye twitched, just once.
Because he knew.
He'd been played.
And now…
He was interested.
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Chapter: Round 2 — The Rogue's Resurgence
The forest above the iron cavern was dead quiet. The mist clung heavier. The trees leaned closer, and the wind had stopped blowing—even nature was holding its breath.
At exactly 4:37 AM, the Systematic Guide clock silently ticked forward.
The stars still hung above.
The Ruby Game was still in motion.
But for the first time in hours…
Zack Erebus had been outplayed.
The Silent Stalker, the boy whose very class bent physics and erased presence, stood on the highest edge of the cavern mouth. His long coat fluttered slightly in a wind that only responded to him. The fake ruby sat quietly in his hand, still faintly warm from the transfer.
He turned it between his fingers once.
Twice.
Then he simply let it fall.
It hit the forest floor with a dull clink and rolled to a stop.
Zack didn't even look at it.
He chuckled—quiet, sharp, low. A sound that didn't feel like it came from a boy, but from the void around him.
> "They really gave me the decoy…"
A pause. His black eyes narrowed with distant amusement.
> "I like them."
The darkness-symbol on his shirt pulsed faintly. He reached over his back and slowly, methodically, drew both iron daggers, their sleek surfaces absorbing every bit of ambient light.
He flipped them in his hands once, reversed-grip. Ready stance.
And then:
> "Let's see what kind of tricks they've got left."
With that, Zack dove from the ledge.
His body phased mid-air, folding through layers of shadow and reappearing mid-freefall with zero sound—completely vanished from the spectrum of light and sound again.
Round 2 wasn't just coming.
It had already begun.
And this time… Zack Erebus was playing seriously.