My hand tightened and I lifted up my blade. With a single swipe of my blade, I could kill her, an end-all to this. Shao looked at me pleadingly, wanting her death to come. She seemed completely helpless. I had been so angry, so frustrated, so full of killing intent, but the road here. Even though it had been only a hundred meters, felt like it had been a hundred miles. My soul had been quite literally shoved through a sieve, and my life force cycled with hers to the point where they were one and the same. Killing her would be like killing myself.

My hand loosened, and I dropped it back down to the floor. “I can’t… I won’t kill you. I don’t want you to die.”

Shao’s body shook. It would be too easy for her to call me a liar. She didn’t trust anyone, even men. I knew things about her. I knew her as if we had been lifelong friends. I knew things about her no one else knew. However, the feeling was the same the other way. I couldn’t lie to her if I wanted to. It was absolutely impossible.

She made a noise of disbelief. Even though she couldn’t call me a liar, why wouldn’t I want to kill her? She had killed everyone close to me. It wasn’t like she forgot what had happened. She had seen those girls care for me, and she has also been the one to kill them all. If you asked me why I had no anger or desire to see her dead, it was impossible to say.

She reached down, weakly picking up the blade I had dropped, She brought it to her throat.

“Then… I’ll… I’ll kill myself!” She said.

I didn’t react. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to stop her, it was just that with every second, I felt myself growing weaker and weaker. The Miasma in my body had all but disappeared, but the tax on my body was unbelievable.

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After a moment, her eyes shut, she let out a cry. I could feel the fear and reluctance. She didn’t really want to die.

“Please… order me.” She said… “Please, order me to die. I have to die. I will do what you tell me, but you have to tell me, please!”

She started crying, begging for me to send her on. Life was far too painful. Only in death would she be able to have happiness.

I nodded my head, straightening myself and sitting on my knees. Shao did the same, her hand tightening on the dagger, ready for the order. I reached up and grabbed her shoulders, looking her in the eyes with all the strength I had left.

“Shao! I order you…” I demanded, her hand shaking on her dagger as she waited for the final order to plunge it into her heart. “To take… responsibility…”

Whatever else I planned to say was lost as the lifeforce circulating between us cut off at that instant. An incredible sense of exhaustion shot through me. I no longer had the energy to even kneel.

Just as she heard the words and tried to ponder what I was saying, I fell forward. My lips collided with hers, and the pair of us fell down to ground. This attack had no killing intent. It wasn’t cruel or perverted. However, it maliciously stabbed into her heart more powerfully than a thousand blades. In an instant the blackness left her eyes, revealing pretty hazelnut irises. As she passed into unconsciousness, all she could feel was the warmth of those lips.

{The demon lord has been defeated. The emergency dungeon has dispersed!}

The miasma immediately started to dissipate like a bubble had been popped. I barely managed to roll off of the woman under me, staring up at a sun that was now bright against a blue sky. However, my eyes seemed to catch something else glowing in the sky, except it seemed to be falling down. I looked at it for a few moments as it suddenly stopped in midair, about twenty feet over my head. Suddenly, a flash of recognition popped in my eyes.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me-“

The dungeon lore immediately charged, slamming into my side. The pain began to shoot through me, and I quickly passed out unconscious.