Ocean.
The sound of the distant Whirlpool.
I fall to the ground missing my right leg from the knee down. Green blood pouring from my veins and [Immortality] wrapping me in shadows of flesh and erasing the mutilation.
The [Devil] falls onto the dock and is too long and wide not to slide partially into the water. It holds itself up by waving its legs and wings and its heads hiss like snakes at me.
The gone leg is in its mouth and disappears between its jaws dripping with drool and blood.
Will Sylviette be around?
Did I manage to touch her? Or was I grabbed first?
“The Golden Doors are closed. You've got the wrong destination.” The [Devil] clings to the dock and crawls closer. The street lamps give way as he passes by and the water becomes saturated with corals.
Ci-cin.
I raise my hand with the palm facing the being. I shake my ears. “ALT. Who tells you I made a mistake?”
The [Devil] ignores me and swells the bags under the necks of some heads. The pockets lighten, a sign that it is about to launch flare-ups.
I wait.
I wait.
[Dungeon path]
I appear behind it on the edge of the pier. It springs back and roars. It is the moment.
Overcoming my limits. Overcoming my fears by trusting in others.
I beg you. Understand me. Understand me!
The plan needs you!
Breath of fresh air. Closed eyes.
Ci-cin.
I dive into the black water and try to submerge myself. It's a risk. A huge risk. The [Bakenekro] disappear forever in these waters.
Everyone disappears there.
A strong underwater wave tosses me forward. The [Devil] has dived and is chasing me. At the mercy of the current it moves, I try to aim it but my arms and legs don't cooperate, the current is stronger than me.
Understand me!
Please help me!
I close my eyes. I narrow my eyelids and my heart beats very fast. Will it [obliterate] me!? Can an immortal be [obliterated]!?
NNNNGH!
“AH!” a sudden current catapulted me to the surface. I breathe in.
The [Leviathan]'s head emerges and munches on the [Devil]. It wriggles and screams and disappears swallowed up between those jaws.
I feel frozen, at the mercy of the loose surface. The red eyes of that head observe me and a tentacle captures me and lifts me in mid-air. The eyes that judge me.
Ci-cin, Ci-cin!
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Angh.” Squeezed by that creature I try to shake my head to thank it.
“This solution is temporary. My superiority is only in level.”
I lower my ears and try to appear calm. “Sorry, sorry, but I couldn't come up with anything better. I don't even know what will happen now.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“That I will become corrupted and become part of the Devil.”
“AH!”
The being shakes, causing large waves, then leans me against what remains of the coral pier.
“It will take centuries, perhaps millennia. But if you don't find a solution it will happen. You have to judge me and you have to find a new error catcher.”
I look at the soaked hem of my skirt, I move my regrown leg and it doesn't seem like mine. I look down at the corals.
What can I answer?
Did I make the situation worse?
“N” Sylviette reaches me with swords in hand. “What is that?”
“Sylv…”
The [Leviathan] turns and takes off. “Right not resurrect it. The System lost two out of three today.” Its voice shakes everything and the waves shatter part of the coral.
“Two out of three what? Am I the third?”
The colossus sinks. “The hunt is not over. You are the Empress of the Underwasteland. I am merely a deceased corrupted Emperor.”
Only the sound of the Whirlpool in the distance.
No, I notice my trembling breathing.
“N?”
Sylviette's hand on my shoulder. I raise my head to look at her.
“Sylv…”
“What happened?”
“I think I saved you from obliteration.”
Ci-cin.
She takes my hand and helps me up.
“Oh, thanks.”
“I saved everyone from obliteration.” I moan with my head down.
“Yes.”
“…”
“N, is everything okay?”
I shake my head no. “I made things worse. A temporary victory but the problem remains.”
“Do you want to rest? Let's go and rest.”
“Sylv, I'll put you to rest.”
Her hand lifts my chin and forces me to look at her. Her usual expressionless face, her eyes half-height, hints at a smile.
“All right.”
♦
“Scan”
[lv: 45] [xp: 139345]
[name: Sylviette Noiv]
[type: Dark Elf]
[class: Noble]
[job: Diplomat]
[hp: 3548]
[c: 3][d: 5]―[s: 4][i: 8]
[ap: 3854]
[c: 3][i: 8]―[d: 5][s: 4]
[malus: Deceased]
So changed.
Grown-up.
I think back to the first meeting with Sylviette. Cold and melancholy, high [lv] for a mortal. She wore that ring of cosmic root, the same as the tree of the core that she is now observing.
It's not the [core] that needs to rest, but there's one last thing I'd like to share with you.
“So can I ask this slab a question?”
I nod. “You can ask her anything you want to know. Since we won, at least temporarily, don't ask her to resurrect. It's against the rules.”
She closes her eyes and says nothing. She then turns towards the slab, with her back to me.
“How does it work?”
“Put your hand down and think about the question. You can also say it verbally.”
Sylviette performs. The black plate mass wraps around her wrist and then snaps her hand away.
Ci-cin.
“So?”
“You're a bit nosy.”
I lower my ears and bow. “Sorry, sorry.”
“Ha-ha, kidding! I had a curiosity satisfied. It's just the same tree. Do you know how the dead come back to life?”
“No idea.”
“The roots consume them and recompose them beyond. They remove the malus deceased but they wither away.”
Oh, that's interesting. I asked the [core] plate several times but since I am not deceased, many answers were denied to me.
I imagine the disasters that could be created by the [Devil]'s errors.
“Hm, if you want to ask anything else, go ahead.”
Sylviette raises her hands and shoulders. “No, take me to sleep. There's no point in beating around the bush, in the end, I only caused trouble and all because I hoped to help you. But maybe I'm lying, so…”
I smile at Sylviette. I take her hand.
[Dungeon path]
Since she is not a [Heroine], she has no right to the Whirlpool. Her [lv] is too low for the Golden Doors and in general the catacombs in which Lajal also rests would be fine.
But the orchestra hall is the place I choose.
“Ah, but there are certainly musicians more deserving than me!”
“I'll bring them too when I meet them,” I nod and drag Sylviette onto her stage holding her hand.
“Well, what an honor then.”
“Already?” We stop in the center of the stage. I turn to look at her.
Her expression is the usual one. Yet I notice a new relaxation, which perhaps is a projection of my own.
“Goodbye, Sylv.”
“Bye, N. Take care of yours.”
[Judgment]
[Jedgment: Dream]
I smile.
Sylviette smiles and transforms, leaving a handful of ashes in my hand. Only the insects continue to produce their creaking, the swarming of the excavation.
I listen to them and remain catatonic.
I contemplate that white and gray sand for a few moments. My eyes get wet and I feel tears running down my face.
Is fine. [Dream] is a fitting ending to us sad misadventure. However…
…I'm so unhappy.
I sit at the piano and play. A melancholic theme.
A theme that makes me think back to the moments spent in the Underwasteland in solitude. I found a friend and now I'm alone again.
It's a hard life. It is a task that no sensitive being should perform. Why?
Why if the System is lifeless, its components must be sentient!? It's not right. It's not right.
I hit the last chord hard, missing some notes and producing a dissonant cluster.
I have to react.
My mandate is still long. I have many years ahead and just as many problems to solve.
With my arm I rub my immaculate nose, with my hands I rub my eyes and blink away the tears.
I look at the darkness. I listen to the insects. I think back to that dove with bat wings.
The hunt isn't over yet.