Alexia

During the process of carrying out my little plan, I quickly come to several revelations.

For one, the more black droplets come out of the heart, the higher level the parasites that form from them are. To the point that some of them are reaching level 950. Which makes me wonder if they’ll eventually reach level 1000 by the time it runs out of them.

Then there’s the fact that the parasites currently in the chamber are getting angrier and angrier with every hit I make on the heart. Which makes some sense, I guess. Since they’re made from that heart.

Still weird that the heart is the source of the parasites, considering what parasites are. What with them being foreign invaders living off of another living being. Oftentimes at the sacrifice of said living being in some manner.

The third revelation I have gotten from this is that the black liquid at the bottom of the chamber is getting taller by the second. Almost like some of the black liquid dropping from the hearts is adding to it instead of helping form the parasite that the rest of the droplet is making.

A revelation that doesn’t bode well for when the heart runs out of black liquid.

Makes me think that some massive parasite will form from it all at the end or something.

Not a pleasant thought.

The fourth revelation happens now, as I stare blankly at my status screen while teleporting away from the horde of parasites chasing after me. Only occasionally stopping to attack either the parasites or the heart.

I don’t have enough soul to keep this up.

A grimace slowly spreads across my face as I teleport up to the heart, slash it once, and teleport away when the parasites begin attacking me. Then I attack the parasites in return with various attacks changing depending on which type of parasite they are. Magic attacks for the physically resistant parasites, and physical attacks for the magically resistant ones. And magic attacks for everything else. Because I’m stronger magically than physically.

I’m going to have to retreat to a Safe Zone again to recover my soul. But at the rate the heart is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes me multiple trips back and forth just to finish this stupid thing off.

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And I can’t waste my big attack, Observation Effect Absorption, on anything right now. I don’t know if I’ll need it later after all. And if I were to use it now only to realize later that there’s a much stronger foe I need to fight…

That wouldn’t be good.

I let out a grunt when another one of those annoying blades hits me. A blade made by over a hundred of those magical glass cannon parasites working together in a corner of the chamber.

Damnit, I should really start targeting those things before more of them join that blob. The things started joining together and hiding in the very back behind a bunch of magically and physically resistant parasites, clearly showing that these parasites are more than just attack fodder.

They can actually make and execute plans.

Which has made this whole fight even more difficult.

I revert my stasis to clear up the injury before glancing at my soul and finding it to be pitifully low. So I quickly begin teleporting towards the entrance I have on my map. Then I continue teleporting through it, away from the parasites, until I finally arrive at the Safe Zone again. At which point I just collapse onto my back.

“Damnit…” I mutter out loud while glaring at the ceiling.

I barely even put a dent in the size of that heart. How many of those parasites are going to be released from it? Will I even be able to take them all down? And, more importantly, will doing this even amount to anything?

It’s not even confirmed yet that squeezing the heart dry of the parasites will do anything to The Horror…

This is proving to be far more difficult than I originally thought.

Right now I’m just treating the heart as a literal punching bag while running away and occasionally thinning out the crowd of parasites. But if I keep this up, will I even be able to finish first and get that Legendary Feat? The Legendary Feat of being the first person to clear a Tier 4 dungeon.

It’s uncertain.

And I don’t like that.

I missed being the first to reach Tier 4, which was pretty obvious that would happen considering the difficulty in Class S species ascending. But I can’t miss this one as well.

Just the thought of missing out on another Legendary Feat that I know how to get… it’s not pleasant.

It would be nice if I could just somehow tell how far the other people in Dimension-Wide Dungeons are in terms of the Tier 4 dungeons. Too bad something that’d do that doesn’t…

Hmm.

I frown for a few seconds before grinning.

Well, it’s not what I was just thinking about by any means, but how could I forget about this? About her.

I continue lying on the ground for several hours, just letting my soul recover. And when it finally finishes recovering, I stand up before closing my eyes and spreading my arms out.

Then I reach out to my bond with Luna.

“Luna, come to me,” I tell her across our bond. And almost immediately, I get a reaction in the form of a burst of joyful emotions sent my way through the bond.

Seconds later, a bright purple and blue light begins shining from my chest before a dark purple orb leaves it. Then said orb slowly begins to rotate in place a couple feet in front of me.

I reach for the orb, and the moment my finger touches it, the orb lets out a bright purple light and turns into a small, purple and blue bat.

Turns into Luna.