An Understated Dominance by Marina Vittori

The symbols on the bronze door abruptly stopped rotating, as if caught in a jam. It swayed back and forth with an unsettling creaking sound.

"Huh? What's happening? Why did it stop moving?"

Everyone exchanged puzzled glances.

"Captain Wilder, what's going on?" Grace furrowed her brow in unease.

"Ms. Linsor, calm down. After all, it's been over a thousand years, and it's normal for the mechanisms to show some signs of aging. Just give it a moment, and it'll be fine," Garrett said with a faint smile.

He had encountered similar situations before. In the past, he had dealt with traps that, even when triggered, remained inactive due to years of neglect.

As he examined the bronze door's material, he felt assured that its internal mechanisms were likely undamaged, albeit possibly less responsive.

Given the earlier smashing and explosions, he reasoned that there must have been some impact. Then, the symbols and characters, which were initially rotating clockwise, suddenly began to turn counterclockwise.

"Ah! It's rotating again!" Silva exclaimed in relief. Just a moment ago, she had feared something went wrong, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

"Ms. Linsor, you see? Everything will be okay soon—" Garrett began to smile, but his words were abruptly cut off.

In an instant, symbols on the bronze door sank, revealing rows of thumb-sized dark openings.

Simultaneously, countless golden steel arrows shot out from these openings. The flurry of arrows, swift and unexpected, took everyone by surprise.

be standing closest to the door, found himself

"Captain, be careful!"

acted quickly, shoving him aside and shielding him from the barrage of arrows. As a result, she took hits to her shoulder and arm from the golden

was reveling in his victory, could have been fatally

expression changed as

scratch,"

sanguine tablet

from his pocket and handed it to Silva. As he swiftly wrapped a bandage around her, he felt a sense of relief—it wasn't a critical injury.

Why

a malfunction in some internal components, leading to a misfire in the mechanism," Garrett explained,

clockwise and then suddenly switched to counterclockwise.

still be opened?" Grace asked. Her heart raced from the sudden

thrown off by the unexpected question. Once brimming with confidence, he

the captain can still open this bronze door,"

said, taking a moment to collect

the previous procedure, pressing the ruby eye and turning left three times, then right

the process multiple times, knocking and testing,

appears that

furrowed her brow. "So, you're saying

"You're right." Garrett nodded.

mechanism is unresponsive. The recent explosion might have caused internal damage. At this point, I'm powerless to

way?" Grace's brow tightened