They were back outside, in front of the doors to the dungeon.

"You stink Tsugi." Aylin pinched her nose. "Want me to wash you?"

"N-no, I can wash myself." Tsugi blushed, remembering that the last time they saw each other, Aylin’s hand in marriage was offered to her.

Aylin panicked and waved her hands through the air, as blood rushed to her face turning them a bright red color. "No! I mean, I can make water to rinse off that goo."

"Oh!" Tsugi cleared her throat. "Uh – sure." She moved away from the party as Aylin showered Tsugi with a rainfall of water. Tsugi quickly rinsed the goo out of her hair and swept them off her clothes with her hands.

She untied her hair and tilted her head back letting the water run down the strands of her long dark hair. Wringing out her hair, she put it back up in a high ponytail and rinsed out her mouth. "Okay, thanks." She wiped the water out of her eyes.

Her cheeks burned, feeling as though she were starting a fever right then and there when she saw everyone gawking at her, besides Ruzo, Elli and Pike who were scouting around the corner. "Okay?" She mumbled and frowned, limping past their turning heads.

Tsugi gasped, "my bindings!" She mumbled to herself, quickly grabbed her breasts, looking down, but they were still bound and nothing was out of place. She sighed in relief but cocked her head in confusion when she couldn't figure out what they were staring at.

What are they staring at? Did she have a big blob of goo hanging from her nose or something?

She wiped her nose, but there was nothing on her nose, nor her face.

Lugo tugged gently the sleeve of her shirt, turning her around. "Sit."

"Why? We need to keep moving."

"You've injured your foot and you're bleeding like crazy. You can't heal yourself in here with no plants, so sit and let me stop the bleeding before you pass out."

Sighing, Tsugi slumped to the ground and started untying her boot.

"Oh! I still have my pack." Tsugi pulled her back off her back and dug into it, pulling out the drenched bandages.

Lugo chuckled nervously. "Uh – no, I'm not using that." He got up and went to grab Ellie's bag from her. When he pulled out the bandages, they were covered in Ruzo's slobber. "Okay. I guess we're not using these either." He mumbled.

"Here." Max pulled out some bandages from his bag and walked over to Tsugi. He knelt down in front of her and carefully lifted her foot to inspect it before pulling the cork out of his waterskin, pouring water on the wound.

Tsugi inhaled sharply, wincing at the sting when the cold water touched it.

"Here let me do it." Lugo budged in and took the bandage from Max.

"No, I got it." Max said, grabbing the other end of the bandage.

"He's my friend so let me do it."

"Well this is my bandage."

They glared at each other and it was as if lightning could be seen across their eyes, surely killing each other in a slow painful death.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?!" Tsugi yelled, yanking the bandage from both of them. "You act like I have no hands! I am more than capable of doing this myself!" She eyed them angrily, confused by their reaction. "What has gotten into you two?" She mumbled, wrapping the bandage around her foot.

"Look at what you did! You pissed him off!" Lugo barked, clenching his fists in a way one would when wanting to sink them into someone's skull.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Me? Everything would've been fine but you just had to jump in like some hero!"

"He doesn't trust people he doesn't know! If you would've just let do it, he would've been fine!"

"Will you two SHUT UP!" Tsugi's voice echoed through the mines. "Jeez. I am so close to just murdering the both of you and leaving you in here to rot! You are both being super annoying!" She winced a little, having cinched the bandage a little too tight.

After tying her boot back on, she stood to her feet and stumbled a little trying to get her balance. Max and Lugo both ran over and took each of her arms, once again glaring at each other threateningly.

Now very irritated by their constant touching and their very odd behavior, she shrugged them off and limped away. "Go be a hovering mother to someone else and leave me alone!" Their behavior brought upon new and uncomfortable feelings that she wasn't sure if she liked or not.

"Should we keep going or head back to the entrance?" Aylin asked Max.

Tsugi sighed in relief that Aylin took the attention away from her.

"It's a dead end over here!" Pike came back up the tunnel toward them, followed by Ruzo and Ellie.

"Well, there's your answer." Max gestured to Pike. "Let's head back to the entrance and see where everyone else is at."

Making their way back up they saw trails of blood streaks that weren't there before. They didn't see any bodies of adventurers but there were bodies of horse sized monsters that had thick scaly skin. Its head looked like a turtle with a tusk sticking out of its snout like a rhino, and two tusks that grew out of its upper lip. The creature had a deep underbite with a single sharp tooth in the front that jutted out and formed a gap in the upper jaw. It was stocky with a powerful thick tail that can easily break the bones of its prey.

"Glacone's." Lugo said as he knelt down by one of the dismembered bodies. "These guys are most likely the ones that killed the greer’s. The bite's wounds match along with their aggressive nature to kill and not ask questions." He laughed to himself. "Hahaha, I'm so funny. Get it? They can’t ask questions anyway." He mumbled and shook his head, causing everyone to give him an awkward stare.

"Let's keep moving." Max continued to walk up the tunnel and caught up to Tsugi, who was wringing water out of her clothes. Max ran a nervous hand through his hair. "You use dark magic?"

"Yes, why?" Her tone was sharp. She finished wringing the bottom of her shirt and shook it, flapping water through the air, splashing little water droplets into Max’s face.

Max held his palm up where black smoke gathered, swarming like a ball of shadow before forming into a giant ax. It was all black with intricate gold designs on it.

Tsugi's eyes widened. "You use dark magic too? Don't you have to open a portal to draw out a soul for a weapon? Doesn't it make it easier for death to find you?"

Max tilted his head and looked at her in bewilderment. "Death? I don't know anything about that. I just know I have to feed it."

"Feed it?"

"Souls." Max said nonchalantly. Tsugi felt a shiver go up her spine. "Not human souls!" He said abruptly when he saw Tsugi's face. "Well, it wasn't specific, but that's why I go on raids a lot, it's so I can feed it the souls of the monsters I kill. Isn't that why you came here too?"

"No. When I pulled a weapon from the other world, it didn't ask for anything. Then again, I never asked what it wanted in return." Tsugi stared at her feet, scratching her head. It would make sense that it would want something in return. Nothing in this world comes freely. "I still don't know about this soul that I use." She pulled out her daggers. "It just – happened. I never entered the other world, or anything."

"Hmm, maybe you picked up a wandering soul."

"Maybe."

Max shrugged, leaning over to Tsugi and whispered, "do you see spirits too?"

Tsugi nodded. "Yes, but I haven't seen any in a long time. At least, I don't think I have."

"You probably have, and just never realized it. Most of them go about their old daily life like nothing happened because they don't realize they are dead. Also some of them look normal, so it's hard to tell too."

"This is the first time I've met anyone with dark magic like myself." Tsugi was curious but she knew the consequences to obtain this type of magic and didn't want to pry.

Had he gone through something horrible too?

A strong wind howled through the tunnel followed by a bright flash of lightning and ground shaking thunder dropped Tsugi to her knees. She was hyperventilating and she could feel the burn course through her body as she tensed in pain.

"What the fuck did you do?" She heard Lugo's voice before her world went dark.

-“You are weak.” Sir Gorou's voice rang in her ear. “You will always be weak. Everyone you know will die because of you.”

Yamo, Volgen, Fay and Yahni's continuous torturing death appeared before her.

"No." Her voice was but a whisper. As if she was reliving the hallucinations, she saw them open on the table, her hands bloody, their beating hearts in her hands as their wide emotionless eyes stared up at her. "No." She cried.

Sir Gorou's voice rang an evil laugh, drowning out her own screams.

The storm continued and she felt like she was back at that castle – that torturous place that always seems to come back and haunt her relentlessly. She was tied onto that pole again.

No – she was watching herself writhe in pain.

She floated there in midair, no ground touching her feet, and nothing holding her up. She could do nothing but watch herself like an out of body experience, listening to her own deafening screams that fell on silent ears in the village below. The cry for help that everyone in the castle turned their back on.

There was no Yahni that came to help; no Mare that came running; no Xeni with her comforting urges of bitter drinks; no Ruzo that howled and tried to escape the barn – no one that dared to save her from her hell.

How much of it was real? Or – was it all just in her head? Has it always been all in her head?

Damn.

It was all too good to be true. She knew all this happiness, this joy was just a hallucination. He'll always bring her back here. She’ll never escape.

"Just kill me." Tsugi muttered breathlessly, her heart crying for mercy.