"Did you forget? I'm not a fighter."

"Come on, Lambert, you wanted to impress Nati, right?" Alexandra saw right through me. "Saving her is your best chance to do it."

"I um, sure but..." From the house arrest for being too dangerous to let's go save everyone right now, she didn't need too much. And she didn't mind throwing in my feelings for her body double either.

"Can I trust you?" She stared straight into my eyes. The white body came with white irises too, but somehow it still burned a hole into me. Why would she ask this now? Wasn't she keeping me under surveillance because she didn't trust me? And to keep the peace with the Demon Lord.

"Would it matter if I said yes?" I was reluctant to give an answer when I didn't know what she aimed for, but she didn't slow down even as we spoke. She dragged me to the main square, which felt empty now that the trainers left. The kids weren't playing football either.

"It would." She nodded, starting her explanation. "As I said, to take over a dungeon, and grow it for this long, you'd have to be a god at least. And while I'm a Goddess too, if it's Addas, they will be in trouble."

"But I can't fight. I only know a few basic spells Omerta taught me but didn't have the chance to practice them." I tried to remind her, but she shook her head, the white, featureless hair whipping around.

"You can fight. You demonstrated on Nati already. That's what got you in trouble in the first place." She reminded me, and I realized what she meant. But I still wasn't a fan of the idea. "We are going up against a god. A strong one. Isn't that your specialty? I can handle everything else I'm sure their team can too. But you are the only one who can banish a deity."

"In theory." I clarified but tried to pull my hands away in vain. "It didn't work with Nati, and when I managed to pull it off, it was against a weakened demon class monster, not a god. Gamma was in chains, Cath and the Inquisitorias took him down at that point."

"Well, good thing that Cath is already involved in this case too." She grinned, ignoring whatever she didn't want to hear. "And of course, you couldn't banish Nati when she wasn't a deity back then, and you didn't use her True Name either. You see, I read up on the matter since."

"W-what do you mean she wasn't back then?" Her wording confused me. I kept my eye on her but saw no such transformation. Sure she used the crystal Fenna gave her to cast spells, but I should have noticed if she reached a higher level.

That said, I was blind to the mana flow, which resulted in my failure on the exams at the Academy. But I was confident I would still notice something this massive.

"I didn't say anything." Alexandra shrugged. "She is stronger than she realizes. I taught her a few methods to maximize her potential, but I'll admit, I should have spent more time training her. What I mean is, even though your aim was completely off, you almost banished her regardless."

"How do you know?" I asked, still confused.

"We have a link." She winked. "She lives in my original body, you know. Of course, I would notice if something happened to her. And when you used that spell, I knew it almost succeeded."

"Wha-uhm, sorry." I didn't know how to respond, but she grabbed my hand even stronger, pulling me towards the center of the square.

"You sell yourself short, but you're not that hopeless." She claimed, stopping in the middle. "The Elder kidnapped you since nobody else could cultivate vast lands in the limited time. I keep you here because you are dangerous to the Demon Lord, and the Elder. They wouldn't hesitate to assassinate you, and you are a danger to me too."

"If that's true, why would you take me to that dungeon?" I asked, but by the time I finished the sentence, I realized, why she asked if she could trust me. Her gaze explained everything before she answered.

"You might be helpless against regular monsters in a fight. But you are the strongest weapon against the mightiest entities this continent saw." She said and started her spell without my consent. She decided, and while she asked me to cooperate, it was clear she wouldn't take no. "And you aren't that hopeless or a coward. Everyone is afraid, but some hide it better. When it mattered, you stood your ground, right?"

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"When it mattered, I ran away instead of defending the Princess," I noted, but she shook her head. A magic circle glowed around us on the main square, running around me as well.

"You stood to fight when a monster threatened an orc child." She smiled, her fingers moving in strange but elegant patterns, and the glow increased. "You also deflected the Elder's attack, when she struck down Nati. I should have been here to do that, but you saved her for me."

"T-that... And then she kidnapped me, and I couldn't do anything, but work all day until I collapsed." I turned away to hide my shame, but she reached for me and tugged on my jaw until I faced her again.

"And you worked hard because you knew you had to survive. And that the food you grew would feed hundreds of thousands who otherwise starved in the winter." As her words warmed me up, she released me to complete her spell. I heard strange melodies as if the magic circle played music for us, but it sounded subtle and distant. "I'd take a huge risk by taking you with me. The only one that could harm me right now is you. And I want you to come with me to save your friends."

Her arm reached out for me but stopped before it would touch me. She wanted me to decide, and my heart almost exploded. Sure, I wanted to save them too, but it was dangerous. Even the Elder mopped the floor with me, a mere mage, and now she wanted me to go up against one of the strongest deities. In a dungeon, no less, that he controlled already. And she alone couldn't defeat him.

"Don't you want to save them?" She asked it again. "I know you tried to get close to Nati all this time, but she was suspicious and avoided you. She changed her mind after you protected her that day. I'm sure she would appreciate it even more if you rushed to her rescue."

"W-why are you trying to convince me with her in mind?" I blushed, reluctant to take her hand as the glow and melodies strengthened. "Isn't she even more important to you? I mean, you went into that much effort to transfer her over from another world, and even gave her your body."

She averted my gaze. Did I touch on something I shouldn't have? But then, I was always curious about what their deal was. She was the only one alive who could teleport and even jump between worlds, which was amazing. It was trivial for her, sure, but she still sacrificed her own body for a stranger.

"You said you'd take a huge risk taking me with you, to save her again. But why?" The glow didn't fade, but the music became stranger. The rhythm went off-beat and the sounds turned false. "Why go to all these lengths for her, and her alone? You haven't mentioned Gitaut or Omerta so far. They are your friends too, right? Why is it always Nati?"

"I wish I could tell you." She said, her voice soft. She lowered her hand, and the magic circle became unstable. "You are right, I'd take a risk, and put you in danger too, and I can't even explain it to you. But if I did, the whole continent would be in danger."

That sounded ominous, and my inner coward wanted no part of it. But she was right about me trying to get close to Nati, and failing all this time. I wanted to know what motivated her but was too afraid to learn such secrets. It could have been love, or the fate of humanity, or the Lesser Races, who knows. She saved and protected me too, and I felt bad for being so reluctant. I reached for her hand this time and a weak smile spread on her face. The magic circle stabilized and the scenery changed.

We zoomed through a gray vortex that felt empty but loud. The strange melodies that emanated from the circle before became deafening, and dazing. It didn't last long, but that was for the better. A minute in this disorienting limbo I would have lost my mind. It still took me a while to realize where we ended up. I half expected Baran, the old dwarven capital, but she took us to a forest I wasn't familiar with.

"You were right, Lambert. The right question would be if you trust me, and not if I could trust you." She said the first thing once our surroundings seemed to solidify. So this was her teleportation? It wasn't what I expected, my head still spinning, and the strangest part was how my ears hurt. She didn't show symptoms, but it wasn't her first time either.

"I ugh, trust you, Goddess." I tried my best not to throw up. "B-but where did you take me? I thought the dungeon was in Baran."

"It is, but Gomel said the dungeon dwellers kept blocking the pathways inside." She explained, looking around. "If Bastion was right, this is where Dio found the entrances to the same place."

"You are assuming it's the same place, but it's only speculation." I reminded her, but she shook her head. She still held my hand, realizing it made me blush a little, but she didn't waste her time and pulled me towards the woods. "And are you sure this is the right place? I can't see anything resembling a dungeon entrance."

"Oh, you know how they look?" She glanced back at me with her eyebrows raised. All white of course, but Nati did a great job sculpting her shell. If only she had color too... My heart skipped a beat thinking about it.

"I do, there was one in Sanctuary before the Collapse." I nod, struggling to follow her with all the dizziness. "I was a child back then, but I watched it open, invaded by the Imperial Company, and close."

"Not all looks the same." She waved towards the forest. "And most of them only have one entrance. But I can feel the ripples in the mana as the dungeon is overflowing. It's near, we are in the right place, but most of it is still underground. The monsters attempted to dig to the surface but ran into Dio and those humans."

If she felt it then it must have been true. The flow of the mana didn't reveal itself to me, but I entrusted her a moment ago, so I had to accept her claims. Once we entered the woods, I noticed the rotting monster carcasses and the holes in the ground. When I got close to one, a strong feeling took over me, the first time I experienced mana so dense, even I could perceive it. This was a dungeon for real.