“I’m taking a break.” I told Alysia.

“Already? We didn’t go that far. We should get this finished quickly. Since I don’t feel any pain, I feel like I can handle more.”

“I had to use a lot of skills in quick succession to kill those doppelgangers swiftly,” I explained. “Just give me an hour or so.”

“Okay…” She responded, somewhat quietly.

“Did you feel anything wrong? Like with your soul?”

If she was being turned into a sword, shouldn’t her soul be changing? So far, I didn’t see any of that happening. It felt more like torture than functioning toward some kind of end.

“No, I feel great.” She spoke.

I could sense through the Slave Empath that she was relieved and quite happy. That was good. I just wanted to give myself a little time to prepare for the next trial. I hoped I was done with the doppelgangers, but I had a feeling that I wasn’t.

“What does the mural say?” She asked after a while of silence.

My eyes snapped open. I wasn’t sure if I had drifted off or not. “Right… that.”

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I looked up at the mural, hoping to see some answers. It was a single image, depicting a sword impaling a man. It looked like he was committing seppuku, his hand on the blade as he plunged it into his chest. His hands were bloody, and his mouth was open. This was the father? These stories didn’t always come in order. I felt like this must be the end, or at least close to the end.

After recovering a bit, I grabbed Alysia and stood back up. “Time for the next trial.”

“Yes! We can get through this dungeon!”

The pair of us headed out, and there was the guide waiting on us again.

“You didn’t do bad. Only had to kill them three times.” She smiled. “Let’s see how long it takes you now!”

My expression fell as I saw two doppelgangers again. Well, at least it wasn’t three. They were, once again, more difficult. However, trying to distance myself from the pain, I killed them and then set them on fire. As the feeling of being burned finally dissipated, I turned to the exit, only to see that it was still closed. Turning back, the ashes started to form back together, and the two doppelgangers reappeared once again.

“Hmm?” Alysia remarked. “They’re not dead with that?”

“I think I see how these trials go,” I shivered as I came to a realization.

“How is that?”

“Every time you kill them, the next trial is immune to them. We had already sliced them to death in the first trial, so they no longer could be killed by a blade. I burned them alive in the second trial, so they no longer can be burned.”

“Oh, so we just have to find a new way to kill them?”

“I can certainly come up with a few ways, but what are we going to do when we reach the ninth trial?”

I had already used two ways to kill them. Could I come up with another 7 ways? More importantly, could I handle dying seven more ways?