[Dungeon path] makes us appear at the foot of the chasm.

Reopening the grimoire, I check our position. Bad—

“So then?” Sylviette checks the soles of her boots, then taps her heel on the ground.

“We are in an unexplored area. My ancestors did not go to the bottom of the cliff.”

“And why?”

I think about the areas where my powers break down.

“I believe out of fear. Fear of involuntarily accessing a Sanctuary place.”

“Sanctuary?”

“These are places where the dominion of the Underwasteland ends. I don't know much about it, but I met one. Our powers are severely limited. Imagine if Dungeon Path stopped working while driving into a chasm like this.”

Sylviette runs a hand through her hair. “I imagine they would appear in mid-air and crash.”

“I think so too.”

Ci-cin.

I baptise the area [N-1] in honor of my name. It's silly, I realize. But I'm so happy to have found a new area that can be helpful to the future [Bakenekro]!

Let's continue the journey.

Since the tracks are clear and no danger is imminent, I check my new ability.

[Blue jet]

A blue discharge splashes from my hand against a wall, causing a roar and dissolving into sparks.

I look at the palm of my hand. Electric arcs pass between my fingers and I feel a widespread stiffness.

“Open.”

[Blue jet] [mastery: 1]

[element: Magic] [target: 1 or more]

[ap: 2300] [damage: 12439]

[other requires]

[Will-o'-the-wisp: 5], [Necromancy: 4]

The caster hurls a bolt of blue, conical light, which explodes upon contact with a solid body.

Um, nothing surprising. Maybe increasing [mastery] will combine [Blue jet] with other [skills].

I would be happy to find out if there is a System index on the topic. In short, just to level with greater knowledge of the facts. For now, I've seen the abilities come to me in mostly passive ways.

The journey proceeds. The tracks are visible and the terrain has become irregular. Sand, small holes, and even ash dunes make our pursuit easier.

The [Devil]'s liquid soaks into the particulate soil, leaving long luminescent trails.

The room must be large and it is freezing. One or two degrees lower than the environments I usually visit. Which is a good thing since I just can't stand the heat.

The disadvantage is always given by the terrain. Here a being like the [Devil] moves much faster than two bipeds.

I sell the trail in the distance in the valleys between one dune and another, I use [Dungeon path] as much as possible.

[Dungeon path]

We climb the dune, check the trail, [Dungeon path] again.

Works?

After a few hours, I start to doubt it. A chase of this type could last decades…

Who controls the on a higher floor?

What will the deceased who are raining do? What if something even more dangerous had rained? Even if nothing comes to mind…

…I'm not used to being away from home for so long. I feel the restlessness creeping in, the fear of failure. That same fear I felt when the fish became extinct and…

Ci-cin.

On top of a dune, I look at the horizon. Telluric rumblings and the smell of sulfur come from the valley we are about to cross.

Sylviette points to a point in the distance. “There is light there.”

It is true.

A source of light. Red and orange, denser but also less powerful than that of sunset.

It's a diffuse, distant haze.

Around us only darkness, except for the trail of bluish light.

“It appears to have headed towards the light.” Sylviette bends down and touches the substance with her finger, smells it, and then wipes herself in the ash.

“Yep…”

“If I ask you what is in that direction, I guess you don't know.”

“Actually, I don't know…”

Ci-cin.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I lift some sand with my foot, letting it fall between my toes. «I don't know,» I said. I-Don't-Know. How little do I know about the dungeon I am to guard? It's nothing new, but—

“Sylv, didn't the God of Wisdom tell you how the dead are resurrected?”

She looks at me, her usual indifferent expression. “No. I know that necromancy can and is prohibited in many states of my world.”

“I'm not talking about temporary methods like necromancy. I'm talking about something more substantial, about why the Devil and Kirlh'iau want to reach the core.”

Continuing to stare blankly at me, Sylviette doesn't respond. She then blinks. “The God of Wisdom told me nothing.”

“Um, then I'll explain what's happening. These are just hypotheses, I'm based on my father's stories and the circumstances, nothing more.”

“Is it worth wasting your time explaining this to me? I mean, the Devil…”

“It's worth it because we have to come up with an emergency strategy. In case the Devil gets to the core.”

Sylviette raises her eyebrows, then she sits down on the edge of the dune. “I listen to you.”

I sit next to her.

«Fsss!»

The ash of this place is more compact than that of the desert. It feels like I'm sitting on a spongy blanket and I have to settle down.

“In the core, there is a plate. This slab allows the deceased to access the System. It can do many things, including resurrecting the deceased. But it is forbidden.”

“How come?”

“Because the functioning cycle of the cosmos requires bodies to rest in this place. Minds continue to dream and dreams are the fuel of the System.”

I try to change position. The sand that gets under my skirt is annoying and, in the end, I get up.

Sylviette raised her head to look at me, then she turned to the distant reddish cloud.

“Resurrection is an emergency measure of the System. Emergency for what I don't know. According to what we Bakenekro have passed down to each other, its use is very dangerous. Fortunately, there are additional emergency systems, such as the Devil and – I imagine, I can't know – the Emperor Leviathan.”

“Hmm, you told me. Since they are both dead, no one manages the errors that would therefore affect the System.”

“Yes, but I think that if an entity like the Devil were to resurrect… well, it's the mistake of mistakes. I have a horrible feeling.”

Ci-cin, Ci-cin.

I take a few steps down the dune, now I too am staring at the distant fog.

“So, what would the counterplan be?”

I turn to Sylviette. She has one hand on her knee and is fiddling with one of her two blades.

“If we don't reach it in time, we will go straight to the core and when it arrives you will resurrect.”

She puts the weapon away and looks at me astonished. “Huh?”

“If the stories are true, your resurrection will generate a major error. But no Devil will absorb it. Ergo, I hope this irreparably damages the resurrection function of the System.”

“Hm, quite a gamble.”

I lower my ears and look away. “I know.”

“What if this operation causes even more damage? Maybe that's just what the God of Wisdom wants.”

“Hm, how can you say that?”

“Well, the way it plans, it sure is a twisted mind. I think it's no coincidence that it chose to send both me and the Devil here. Think about it, if I were alone this plan wouldn't be possible.”

I nod, she's right.

“We will risk it.” I raise my head. “And then this is only the emergency plan. I shared it so you are ready.”

Sylviette stands up and joins me. “I am.”

“Good, and now let's get to it! Hehe!”

♦

I use [Dungeon path] a couple of times. We appear closer to the light source and the red cloud seems to have disappeared. While the telluric hammering became more thunderous.

In front of me, vents of fire erupt magma. There are glowing pools and scorching rivers. The whitish-orange of the molten minerals and the reddish halos around them.

I've never seen anything like it.

“Look aloft,” Sylviette holds her mouth slightly open.

I look yes, you don't need to tell me.

In the background, a chain of high fire. Volcanic mountains in constant eruption.

The black clouds disappear into the depths of the room and the darkness remains absolute when you are far from the fire vents and wells.

I feel my skin getting irritated and the air getting heavy. I almost regret the [Devil]'s traces in those corridors.

About that…

“Sylv, do you see where the tracks go?”

In the dark, she sees better and I trust she sees what I don't see.

“There is some aftermath up there.” She points to a burning pit a few miles away, further downstream than the dune we came to.

“Do you think it jumped?”

“Do you think that's a problem?”

From the tone of her voice, I can't tell whether Sylviette is serious or sarcastic. Given her situation, there's no point in getting angry and I pretend I didn't hear.

I take a couple of steps forward and feel the ground becoming smoother and slippery. Hot tuff, volcanic sediments.

I still can't believe it.

Volcanoes.

Geological entities of ancient power. Many adventurers have told me about it. It's usually worth it; where there is a volcano there are also rubies and diamonds. Dragons and creatures of the deep also live on certain volcanic planets.

Not that the show isn't hellish enough already.

I almost suffocate in my sweat. I would like to go back and leave those sulfur fumes behind and a red flash illuminates a black cloud.

Ci-cin.

“Sylv, we can't go into the magma, can we?”

I hear the click of her heels on the tuff. She passes me and stops just beyond my position. There is warm air that moves our hair slightly.

“N, the Devil could?”

“I guess so… I'm embarrassed not to know more.” I tighten the hem of my skirt with my hands and realize that it too is soaked, making me even more uncomfortable.

“Suppose it can, where do magmatic calderas lead?”

“The what?”

“Hm, I guess you didn't study geology.”

“I don't even know what it is, sorry.”

Sylviette makes a jaunty gesture with her hand. “Of course, it's comforting to know that even the gods don't know everything. In any case, geology in my kingdom is a science that studies the subsurface. We Diplomats study it during university.”

I listen with interest, I imagine that Sylviette doesn't just want me to share in her experiences.

“Calderas are underground pockets. It amazes me that there is a geological activity in the Underwasteland.”

“It surprised me first…”

“So, you don't know where this magma comes from? Too bad, we could have cut off the Devil's path.”

It's a shame.

If the [Devil] has immersed itself in that seething substance, I doubt I can intervene.

But.

What if it couldn't either!? Did it disintegrate to rain again and try a different path?

“Anyway, in geology they never taught us to see greenish spots in magma. Not that volcanoes were the main topic, just a smattering of them.”

Green? In what sense? Ah, maybe you mean…

Ci-cin.

I feel faint. I get up and run a few steps along the back of the dune, I glimpse a sparkle in the boiling magma.

“Sylv, let's take a closer look.”

She nods and holds out her hand, I shake it.

[Dungeon path]

We arrive at the edge of the crater. The gases, the heat, the intensity of the air, take my breath away. I try to force myself and breathe slowly. I feel Sylviette's cold hand supporting me, resting on my shoulder.

“You can see it very well from here.”

Already. I nod at her with my chin. From here I can see very well, really.

A huge patch of dark green coral, tinged with blue, against which the magma sizzles and around whose pit it boils. An iridescent pit from which greenish smoke comes out. The coral patches also resemble crystals and appear to spread slowly, through the magma.

The rest of the pool is incandescent and extends as far as the eye can see. A boiling sea. A sea into which the [Devil] seems to have thrown itself.

“I guess it's an ability or a skill.” Sylviette bites her lower lip and then flips back her hair that rests on her shoulder.

I step forward. “Scan.”

[Scan: ???]

“Your hypothesis seems correct.” I'll close the statistics with a wave of my hand. “Scan is unable to read data from that substance.”

“So, it is a substance of the Devil?”

“I suppose it's a reaction from the contact between its drool and the magma.”

Sylviette takes a few steps away from the crater. Because of the sweat, I feel the friction of her hand leaving my shoulder.

“You say we can go into that well?”

“Umm, the lava seems blocked—but I wouldn't want to find myself underneath it in case of failure or dissolution…”

“Yes, but what if the Devil was just holed up there waiting?”

“Waiting for what?”

“Waiting for our arrival, N. Waiting for our renunciation. It's hard to say.”

It's difficult.

Certainly, it is difficult.