The transition was less shocking this time. Before tapping the button, I had been worried that I would end up back where I started the previous time, unable to make it to the dungeon in time. A part of me had hoped that I might start again at the beginning, that I might somehow go back in time, before I was captured, and end up in the forest once more.
The truth was both more and less shocking, I suppose. It was certainly more traumatic though. I heard a slight pop, something that had been inaudible the last time I had done this because of the noise of the bus and city around me. Then my bare feet hit the floor, like I had just fallen a few inches. Bare feet. I glanced down at myself and shivered just a bit. Naked. Again. “Oh for fuck's sake, would it be too much to ask to be given pants?” I yelled impotently up at the ceiling. Of course, there was no answer.
I glanced around, taking in my surroundings. I was back in the boss room, a large circular room with a domed ceiling. Torches still lined the walls, and the singular glowing hunk of rock still hung from a chain in the center of the ceiling to give off a bright yellow light. Near the center of the room were four figures. I could see the corpse of the hulking monster with a pool of blood around it slowly flowing to the center of the room. Alex was... still dead, lying peacefully near a wall now with his hands crossed over his chest. My body was next to his, in the same position.
Ophelia though, had been standing near a hole at the center of the room. Had been, as in the past tense, because by the time I had taken everything in, she was charging at me, scimitar in hand. “Ah shit.” The words tumbled out unbidden as my eyes widened. Fuck no. I could NOT come back here and immediately die. No fucking way. I had a goal. Okay, not a goal. I had a vague idea of something I wanted to do!
“Wait! Ophelia, wait!” I shouted, hands out in front of me, PSD in one hand, the other empty and open. I backed up until my bare ass touched cold stone. She was moving so damn fast. I had almost forgotten how quickly she could move, it was beyond what I considered to be human at least. Or rather, it was the peak of what a human could have possibly done. Olympic athlete level speed and mastery.
The sword swung in an arc, the pointed tip of the scimitar coming to a sudden stop at the base of my throat, between my clavicles. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding and looked her in the eyes. The same crimson red irises looked back at me, full of fury and confusion.
“Who are you? WHAT are you?” She asked, pushing the tip of the scimitar enough to draw blood. I winced and swallowed, which hurt when it rubbed my skin over the blade.
“Ophelia, its still me. Niles. I told you, I'm not from here right? I got a second chance.” I tried to explain, but the adrenaline of the moment had me nearly pissing my pa- well, pissing myself.
“Niles is dead. His body is right there. He died to give me a chance to kill that thing!” She pushed in a little harder, and I coughed as hot blood ran down my chest in a small dribble.
“Please, Ophelia, it really is Niles. When I died, I was sent back to the place I came from. I was told I could come back, just once, and I chose to come and help you. Please believe me?” She wanted to believe. I could see it in her eyes. But how could she? In a world of dungeons and magic and elves and vampires? How many creatures might exist that could use illusion, or change their shape. “There has to be some way to prove it to you, please!”
“Blood. Your blood will prove it.” She didn't offer an explanation beyond that. “Give me your wrist.”
Ophelia didn't pull the sword away from my neck, opting instead to keep me on the verge of a killing blow. I couldn't afford for her to kill me so soon after returning, not when I came back to make sure she would survive. So I offered her my wrist, pushing out my hand as far as I could, palm up. She stepped to the side slightly, coming around and keeping the pommel of her sword close to her chest. Maintaining control of the blade. Her eyes never left mine as her free hand closed around my forearm. Her hands were small, fitting her size, but the grip was as strong as iron to my untrained body. She brought my wrist to her mouth, and opened her jaw wide. I could see two long, sharp canines extending down from the roof of her mouth. She bit down on my wrist, gently, with just enough force to puncture into the skin, and pulled away. I could see her teeth retract before she lifted my wrist to her mouth once more and placed her lips around the new wound, sucking gently.
The whole thing only took a few seconds. There was a small amount of pain, and none of the erotic pleasure or narcotic feeling hollywood seemed to suggest must acompany a vampire's bite. Perhaps that was due to her race having been listed as Elf - (Demi-Vampire; Sanguinis). But I didn't know. I didn't know anything.
She finished quickly, and ran her tongue over the two small puncture wounds. I watched, fascinated to see the blood quickly congeal and the bleeding stop. It wasn't healed, but it wasn't bleeding either. Though my wrist definitley had a hickey on it.
“Niles?”
“It's really me. Promise.”
She launched herself at me suddenly, wrapping her arms around my waist and hugging me tightly. “I thought you had died! You, you... YOU said you were dying!”
“I think I did die.” I hugged her back, the sudden intimacy unexpected. But it wasn't bad. I had thought I'd need to spend a large amount of time winning her trust back, but somehow, drinking my blood had affirmed my identity to her. I tried to remember when she might have tasted it before... When I was coughing, of course. I had been spraying blood into the air constantly. It wasn't out of the question for her to have gotten some on her. I wasn't exactly in the state of mind to prevent that from happening.
“Actually, I am sure I died. I was sent back to my world. But I couldn't just leave you here alone. According to this thing,” I held up the PSD and gave it a gentle shake, “I won't get another chance either. So lets make sure we get out of here alive?”
She took a step back, nodding. A slight blush was on her cheeks. Mine too. There wasn't anything romantic there, if that's what you are thinking right now. Hell, if I was reading this in a story instead of living it, I'd be sure that Ophelia would be my future romantic partner. But this was different. A reaction born of shared moments fighting together. Soon enough she would return to normal, I knew it.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“A bit cold in here?” She asked suddenly, smirking at me before turning away and heading back towards the center of the room where the blood was pooling. I looked down at myself, and groaned.
“As a matter of fact, it is!” I covered myself and went to do one of the most disgusting and disturbing things I have ever, or will ever do. I stripped my own dead body.
I was just lying there. Dead. Well, I was here to, staring at myself, but my body was there. White skin, bloody chin and cheeks. My stomach tried to disgorge itself of its contents, but there wasn't anything to remove. It took longer than I would have liked to strip my body down, and I dry-heaved several more times during the process. I won't go into it more than that. I don't think I can. I'm going to need a therapist and the good drugs to deal with the nightmares of seeing my own lifeless corpse and having to take its clothes for myself.
But it was dangerous here, and I needed something to protect myself. And to keep between my skin and every rough surface in the place. Sackcloth clothes that fit poorly, a leather vest for armor, and a pair of soft-soled leather boots. I picked up my spear and my gladius, but left Alex's body to keep it's shield. I couldn't take anything from him, even in death.
I looked for my tower shield, but it was destroyed. At some point in the fighting, the monster must have crushed it, perhaps when I charged him, he smashed it before smashing me?
“Hey, Ophelia, how long has it been? I spent about 15 hours in the other world, give or take.”
“Maybe an hour?” She replied, shrugging at me as she waited. Fair enough I suppose. It's not like there was a sun, and she didn't have a watch or anything.
Before we moved on, I needed to do one more thing. I opened up the PSD to scan the monster. But things had changed on the device.
> Paradigm Shift Device Trial has ended. Device has adapted to better serve user.
>
>
> Changelog:
> Device now gathers ambient magic to power functions instead of relying on external power or users mana.
> Device can assume any form the user wishes.
> Device can be recalled to user's hand.
> Paradigm Shift Device may occasionally update itself to better serve the user.
Well that was useful. Immediately, I checked its battery level. 56%. It also displayed that symbol you see on phones when they are plugged in. So it would charge on its own from 'ambient magic'? I could take a guess that that meant there was mana in the air or something similar. It might be an issue if the environment didn't have any though.
The next thing I did was will it to assume a pair of glasses. I didn't need corrective frames, but my biggest issue with the device was that trying to use it in a battle was borderline impossible. What was the use of a scan function or a status page if I couldn't see them in the middle of combat? What I wanted was a Heads Up Display. And as if compelled by my thoughts, the device shifted, turning into a pair of large circular glasses with a metal frame. Not exactly what I had in mind, but perhaps it was what this world could produce?
I spent perhaps five minutes focusing on things until I had the display set up exactly how I wanted it. Magic was awesome. And it had to be magic, because no augmented reality system back at home had ever worked this perfectly. Everything was projected onto the glasses in a way that made it easy to see but didn't obscure my vision. It was a bit like the overlay for an MMO, which was... typical, but efficiency was hard to argue with. I could see my little body dude, mana, stamina, and active effects. There was a notification icon that was greyed out, and the scanner function started working automatically on anything I focused on.
Just to test it, I focused my eyes on the monster we had killed.
> [Bug Bear] - Goblinoid - Dead - A large goblinoid with superior size, strength, intelligence, and stealth abilities. This one is dead.
> -Abilities: [Darkvision] [Invisiblity]
> -Known Weaknesses: Scimitars
Was the PSD being snarky with me? This entry was definitely trying to crack a joke or something. Wierd. I could dismiss or bring up entries with a thought, send them to be minimized, and even control opacity. What had been a nice little thing to have to check if food was poisoned was suddenly far more useful. I could even bring up a little map in the corner! Though it was far from being a mini-map like in video games. It simply gave me the same map I had for an area in the PSD, with a blinking blue dot to specify where I was. The map didn't even orient towards north or the direction I was facing, at least not that I could tell.
“Hey, are you done yet? We should get out of here soon, its starting to smell.” Ophelia was looking a bit impatient now, so I nodded. There would be plenty of time to check out any other features later.
“Yeah yeah, I'm coming! Hold your horses.” I started over to her, but she looked confused.
“I don't have any horses though?”
“It's an idiom from home. it means-”
“I get it from context, no need to explain. What exactly is a horse though?”
I just stared at her. “You don't have horses here?” I asked, an eyebrow raised.
She just shook her head and waited.
“A horse is a work animal. Taller than me on average, with four legs and hair all over. You could ride on them, hitch them to wagons or plows. That kind of thing.”
Ophelia nodded. “Oh! I think I know what you are talking about. Yeah, we have those. We call them stolks though!”
The conversation faded away. I wasn't ready to dig into that bit of cultural exchange, and she didn't offer anything else up. We were both in the center of the room now, and I saw what she had been standing near. The ground opened up in the center of the room, perhaps 3 feet across and going down into pitch black. An abyss of night that I didn't feel quite ready to enter, and yet....
“Once more, unto the breach.” I said, then grabbed onto the ladder that was bolted into the stone, and began my descent. Ophelia started as soon as there was enough room after me. I tried not to look back at Alex's and my bodies lying there dead. I didn't want to remember that, not if I could help it.