(POV Niten)
It looks like that girl is in some serious trouble now. Flavius wouldn’t contact me otherwise.
Luckily, I was still in the area, waiting to see how little Kai handles teaching. So, it was a short order for me to visit Flavius at the academy.
To put a little of the fear he had of me back into his system, I didn’t knock on his office door. I kicked it open, shattering the lock and handle, and strode into the room as if I owned it. Technically, I did, but that’s beside the point.
Flavius, contrary to my expectations, didn’t look afraid as he saw me. No, he looked relived—which was worse. It meant that he wasn’t confident in handling whatever Kai had gotten herself into without me.
(Niten) “Spit it out. What’s happened to Kai?”
Flavius spoke, and explained the whole thing.
(Flavius) “We have records of her entering the dungeon five days ago, and reaching the bottom two days ago. However, since then, she’s disappeared. She reached the bottom, and her coordinates somehow became useless after that.”
I scratched my head.
(Niten) “Has this happened before?”
Flavius nodded.
(Flavius) “A few other teachers have reached the bottom, and disappeared for months, before their bodies reappear.”
(Niten) “How do the bodies look?”
(Flavius) “Dried up. Desiccated. They all had a single wound slashed across their throats, cutting their jugular and windpipes. We could never figure anything else out about them.”
I grunted, and planned a course of action.
(Niten) “Well, first, check her coordinates again.”
Flavius did so. They still didn’t exist.
(Niten) “Check that every hour or so. Let me know if there’s a change in it. Meanwhile, we’re going to visit the bottom level of the academy dungeon.”
It should only take a day for Flavius and I.
And then, I can get to seeing about what has happened to Kai.
Actually, it had only taken us three quarters of a day to reach the bottom. And, once we reached it, I found out where Kai had gone.
(Niten) “So, Flavius. How long do you think this labyrinth has been underneath your dungeon?”
There was a well-concealed hole, leading to a labyrinth entrance. I didn’t think it was possible for a labyrinth to hide under a growing dungeon. But, it’s the only way Kai could have gone.
We set about following her.
…And immediately ran into trouble.
I wonder how she had gotten past monsters this powerful…
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(POV Kai)
I still hadn’t seen any monsters, even as far down as I had gone. I found myself wondering if I was still inside the dungeon, but then dismissed the notion. The buildings were the same type, with the broken and ancient look to them, and the grace that still remained after an unknown period of years.
I found myself wondering what would be waiting for me at the bottom of the dungeon, wherever that was. It felt like everything I had seen so far was building up to that point, where I would find out what had caused the cataclysm, which destroyed this broken underground city. I was close, too.
The bottom felt close—very close.
I thought that it was perhaps within ten floors of where I am. Though, now that I’m thinking of it, which floor am I even on, in the first place?
That’s odd. It’s not like me to forget something like that, though I suppose I just got caught up in the excitement of discovering more about this world’s past.
Partially because it all felt like one big enigma. I mean, supposedly, our continents occupy only a small potion of the world, but no one ever seems to leave and adventurer elsewhere. Also, there’s not nearly as much diversity as other, similar worlds, and now I’ve found out about this ancient, fractured city laying underground, incorporated into a small dungeon—A city demonstrating that the diversity that was now missing had once existed.
I wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery, and I felt like the answer lay at the bottom of this dungeon.
Even more than that, I wanted to leave a mark on the world for once
I felt envy for those who had become legendary historical figures. I felt anger, for not being able to yet join their ranks in any world.
I had never really accomplished much in my other lives, instead enabling others to reach their desires. I wanted that to change, for me to be remembered in a positive light.
I got the strong feeling that if I just continued downwards, I would find that which I have been seeking.
So I continued.
Actually, reaching the bottom was exhilarating.
There was a floor, where a spiral staircase stood in the center of it, leading ever more downwards.
Walking down the stone stairway, what felt like hours and minutes at the same time passed, before the space around me opened up.
While all the floors thus far had been large, and encompassed a few city-blocks within, this last one was massive.
I knew it was the last, as well. I felt it in my bones—What I was looking for was here.
On the other end of the space, past at least five blocks of the most intact buildings I’d seen so far, a cathedral stood.
Just calling it a building didn’t do it any justice.
Even from so far away, I could see the carvings engraved into the side of its stones and spires with masterful skill. The ever-present moss and vines didn’t even touch it, so their green light didn’t light it up. However, the plants illumination was wholly unnecessary, since the cathedral seemed to glow with an inner light, emanating form the stones themselves.
This was certainly a holy-place, dedicated to one of the gods of this realm, or maybe more.
Hm. I don’t know why, but I felt a little uneasy seeing it. Like something was out of place, though I didn’t know what.
I made sure that Twilight was in a good position to draw it quickly and easily, and walked all the way down the staircase, finally making it to the streets below. The street the staircase terminated on led straight to the cathedral, and I could see heavy wood-carved doors set into an alcove in the cathedral’s front.
For some reason, the silence of the streets and buildings were bothering me. And something felt off in the back of my mind. The whole thing was beginning to feel weird.
The sensation of wrongness and incongruity mounted, until something snapped.
All the sudden, it felt like I could see in color again. Nothing around me changed physically, but my perception of everything did.
A crushing sense of danger overwhelmed me, no matter where I looked, whether it be the road, some rocks off to the side, or the buildings on either side of me. The greatest feeling of danger came from the cathedral in front of me, whose light I now saw differently.
While it’s stones still seemed to glow, the light felt…corrupted somehow.
Also, I now felt all my emotions again. Most prominently, I felt fear.
I knew what had happened, why I had gone this far down, even though my common sense should have stopped me long ago due to the feeling of danger all around.
Long story short, my mind has been subtly messed with.
More specifically, someone inhibited my sense of fear and caution, making me more carefree and completely wiping out my feelings of danger. Something wanted me to come all the way down here, and now I’m very reluctant to meet it.
It has to be powerful, to be able to mess with my head like that though. The last time something similar had happened to me, was when I got summoned from that one world, Earth.
When a summoning ceremony is carried out, restrictions like the ones I had just broken were placed on the heroes minds, keeping them from thinking too much about the past, and making them more sympathetic towards the plight of the country doing the summoning.
It’s a complex process that seems to backfire half the time, creating men with the minds of monsters. It can be broken by sheer will power, though. Which is how I broke it this time. Or rather, how my subconscious did. My waking self didn’t even realize it was being controlled, which scared me. Who the hell had such power, and such a delicate touch?
Not someone I’d want to meet, that’s for sure.
I turned around, looking to run out of this place as soon as I could. Before I could even start moving though, two shadows rose out of the ground, blocking the road to the staircase.
A fine layer of sweat broke out all over my body when I saw them.
While I was confident in my strength at the moment, the auras exuded by those two shades far and above exceeded anything I was capable of fighting at the moment.
They also sent a potent message. Whoever went to the lengths of getting me to come down here of my own will—albeit a limited one—wanted me to stay.
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No, they wanted me to go to them.
Only one place this…entity could be hiding, then.
Looks like I get to view the cathedral up close, after all.
Sure enough, as soon as I started walking to the cathedral, the shades disappeared, seemingly fading out of existence. I walked straight to the church, certain that if I deviated even a little off course, the shades would return.
I looked at the towering spires of the church, shivering a little. It whatever was behind this had to use mind-control techniques to get me here, then it was all but assured that nothing pleasant was going to happen.
I could try fighting the shades, and running, but to beat them, I felt like I would have to use my trump cards.
And there were likely many other things waiting for me on the way up.
I didn’t feel like that would be the way to survive this. I need to meet the one who brought me here, and try to fight my way out from there.
After all, it’s always easier to fight one on one, rather than against larger numbers.
Getting closer to the cathedral, I could now make out the images carved into its marble façade. None of the carvings looked fun, depicting scenes of those who betrayed the gods bring punished, or others carrying out brutal quests for one reason or another.
As soon as I stood in front of the massive wooden doors, they slowly creaked open, swinging inwards. I knew that as soon as I stepped inside, the doors would crash shut, blocking my way out.
Sure enough, as soon as they had clearance, the doors closed with an echoing thud.
Inside the church, imposing pillars lined the center section, all the way down the massive corridor. Off to either side, small vestibules lined the walls, little recessed alcoves with cold stone benches inside them.
I could faintly see the alter ahead of me, it’s stone faces covered in gilded bass-relief carvings depicting the creation of this world.
It was what stood behind the alter that left my knees shivering, though.
I could see the bare skull; it’s eyeless face grinning at me under the heavy black cloak it wore, and wisps of black fog curling around it. It seemed to be staring straight at me, its malevolent gaze also holding an unmatched intelligence and thirst for power.
Shit, I’m in trouble again.
(Lich) “I would have you serve me, little immortal.”
I gritted my teeth, all too aware what a lich meant when it said ‘to serve’. Unlike a necromancer, liches will only take their servants already dead.
It was with a tremendous amount of will, that I spoke.
(Kai) “You…will not have me.”
The pressure that crashed down on me in the next moment, reminded me that one wrong move here—No, any move might kill me. Even not moving.
(Lich) “That is not your decision. You amuse me, so I will attempt to keep intact your thought pattern. Your soul will still die, however.”
I tried to fight back against that pressure, which had brought me to my knees all too easily. Only with great effort was I able to stand again, and still my knees threatened to buckle under me.
It was a reminder that came too late. I had gotten caught up in my power, the level of my ability compared to my peers.
I had forgotten.
Truly powerful beings do not care if you are stronger than others your age. They will squash you like a bug all the same. So what if I’m a teacher at thirteen? So what if I’m a monster as far as training speed is concerned?
I’m still missing one thing all of the strongest beings have on their side.
Time.
I haven’t had nearly enough time. And now, if I don’t do something, I will never get that time. Instead, my undead corpse would.
(Kai) “I refuse…to die here!”
All at once, I activated〖Demonic Transformation〗and〖Storm’s Eye〗, boosting my combat potential by several times. This would be enough to let me curb-stomp any of the monsters I’ve beaten so far.
It wasn’t enough. Not nearly.
The lich seemed to smirk, even though it’s face had no flesh, it was conveying a sense of amusement.
I hoarsely yelled out a battle cry I’d once used many times, and prepared Twilight for one of my strongest strikes.
I took the basic concept behind my best ice based magic, Niflheim, and my best fire magic, Muspelheim, and combined them. A wave of pure cold erupted from Twilight, speeding towards the lich. Closely behind it followed a wave of heat, to violently expand that which was contracted by the cold.
I saw the lich get hit with them, it’s old and brittle bones cracking, and as it gave off a scream of anger and despair, I walked away from the short battle unscathed…Not. I wish.
Unfortunately, things never seem to work out the way I want.
It only set up a little barrier, thin as a sheet of paper, and both the waves were blocked. I gathered most my remaining mana, and shoved it into a lightning spell, which would be greatly boosted by〖Storm’s Eye〗.
A crack resounded within the cathedral as a bolt of pure energy hit the lich’s barrier, seeming to warp the space around it as it past, due to the heat of the strike.
Smoke obscured the lich for a moment. It cleared after a second, and I was stunned by the sight of…Nothing. The lich wasn’t there anymore.
(Lich) “You do not use those spell correctly. As you are now, you do not meet my expectations.”
I spun around, the lich’s voice appearing from behind me. I panicked when it wasn’t there either, and spun about, frantically attempting to locate it before〖Storm’s Eye〗wore off.
(Lich) “You think yourself my match still? I shall demonstrate our differences.”
Without any chants, or any other indications, what felt like a wave of pure mana suddenly struck me from above. A crescent moon shaped piece of pure ice hit Twilight, and sheered straight through it, and my hand underneath.
Both fell to the floor, the sword with two different chiming sounds, as half of its blade and the rest plus the hilt hit the stone floor, and my hand seemingly without a sound, lightly twitching.
For a moment, I simply stared at the stump where my right hand had been, my mind refusing to recognize what was now an empty space. Then, wave after wave of pain wracked my senses.
I picked up the hilt portion of Twilight, refusing to believe a few crucial things.
One, Twilight was broken, the mana circuits sheered off in the middle.
Two, I’m not left handed, though I suppose I was now.
Three, I was likely in shock, and some part of my brain recognized it, though the rest refused to, focused as it was on panicking.
Four, I was panicking.
Five, I really need to stop making lists in deadly situations, though that might be the shock setting in.
I was shaking badly at this point, and blood started to drip from my arm.
(Lich) “If you would submit, I can ensure a painless demise.”
Demise. Death. Do I want to die again?
Go through the pain of being born once more? Or will I even be reborn after this life?
How unfair this life is, I thought to myself.
No, how unfair all of my lives have been.
Living in fear, in agony, in paranoia, in delusions. Living in the squallier of the poor, and with the scheming of the rich. Living as a sacrifice, and as a tool.
I’ve lived, yes.
But never for myself.
I want to live. I want to survive. To never be threatened again, to have to worry about death.
I don’t want to...no, I won’t die here.
I can't die here.
NOT AGAIN!
So I snapped, and I felt true agony course through my soul.
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[tr]
System Notification:Overlay Sequence BegunError—Body Incompatable
Partial Overlay Sequence Begun10%
20%
30%
45%
60%
70%
95%
100%Overlay Complete
Huh. What?
And that was the last thing I remembered form the cathedral, except for a glowing blue circle of mana, ancient and miraculously intact, and the nausea that followed after I dragged myself onto it, bleeding from pretty much everywhere.
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Credit to LadyLaurel for the chapter name. Very fitting, so I went with it.
—River.