“You should have started with that!” I screamed at the ceiling.
I wiped the blood from Shadara’s face as her eyes fluttered open. She groaned and rolled over, clutching the back of her head. “What hit me?”
“I’m sorry.” I held back my hands from helping her anymore. “Something was talking to me, making me believe I had to help them. It was like something took over me.”
It was not true mental domination. Your mind was flooded with feelings of empathy and adrenaline. You were not in a reasonable state of mind.
It’s not my fault? Is this your attempt at calming me down?
Correct. Unnecessary thoughts on this event should be forgotten. We believe it is better served for you to concentrate on things you must do and not worry about things you should’ve, shouldn’t, did, or didn’t do.
Nice pep talk, Orange.
“Did you hit me that hard?” The beast woman sat up, still rubbing the back of her head. “I have two things to say about that.” I swallowed hard, ready for whatever punishment she would give me. “First, impressive kick. And second, there had better be a good reason.”
I sat back and stared at my hands. “Like I said, something took over me and flooded my brain with emotions that weren’t really mine.”
Shadara glared at me. Her eyes were still a little unfocused. “Yeah, you said something about that, but my head is still swimming. Do you know who, why, or how they did that?”
Insufficient information.
Open the door. Communication like this is hard and draining.
I shook my head. “Who or how? No idea. But the voice in my head said something about saving our lives and the lives of everyone on this floor.”
“They should have started with that.” The panther woman licked her hand and wiped her face, cleaning more of the blood off. “Not that we have any reason to believe them. It could be a trap after all. This place has mimics. If it is a mimic speaking to you, we have a deviant and need to get as far away from here as possible.”
“But why have I been hearing it and not you?” I asked as I stood up and offered my friend a hand once she finished cleaning her face.
She took my hand with the one she didn’t just use to clean herself off. “That is the million shard question, isn’t it?”
“And what if they are telling the truth and really want to save our lives?” I pointed to the hallway Shadara had taken us from. “What if there is a threat to everyone? Shouldn’t we at least find out why?”
Shadara cringed. “Stop!” I flinched. “Stop asking questions. You are making me need to go now. Why are you purposefully egging on my curiosity? You know it’s bad enough without your help.”
I covered my mouth. “Sorry. I forgot. If you think it’s a trap, then let’s go.”
“Too late,” Shadara growled as she spun around and headed down to the hallway. “This had better be worth it.”
A sickening tightness grew in my stomach. What have I done? I stepped right behind her, faster than I originally intended. A small breeze from my sudden movement ran through Shadara’s fur.
She turned to me as she stopped. “Have you gotten faster?”
“I, uh…” My thoughts immediately went to the clock on my HUD. It was still counting down, but it seemed slower than before. “Probably not, but it is easier for me to move faster. My mind is still catching up with the rest of me.”
“Huh.” Shadara turned back to head down the hallway. As I watched her move, she did seem to be moving slower in comparison to me.
Correct. Your mind now processes at a three-to-one ratio.
I groaned internally. The thought of everything being that slow sounds torturous. There will have to be some way of turning it off. I followed Shadara back to the door, and weirdly, she was calm.
She looked around the hallway, her ears and eyes focusing. “It’s gone.” Her voice was merely more than a whisper.
“Whatever was talking to me said it was difficult to speak to me, and it hasn’t done it for a little while too.”
I looked around, but the only thing in the hall was the bust sticking out of the metal door. It was odd. The bust was also clearly that of a muscular man without a shirt. It looked almost human, but the face was disfigured, like it was the victim of a horrible beating. I zoomed in on it, looking for any odd details, but found nothing. Even shifting my vision to infrared didn’t change anything. There was no handle or knob to grab.
I shrugged. “I’ve got nothing.”
Shadara kept looking around. “There are no weird scents, and I can’t hear anything beyond us.” She slumped her shoulders. “So, the best we’ve got is that the door is very unlikely a mimic. But there's no way to open it."
I pointed to the edges. “There are no hinges, so maybe all we have to do is push. Or it lifts?”
The beast woman took a deep breath as she walked up to the door. I stood behind her, just in case something happened and I needed to pull her back. She pushed, and the sound of metal scraping against stone echoed so loudly that I covered my ears. Shadara slammed her eyes shut as she screamed, adding to the auditory onslaught.
Pushing the door was the right move, as it slowly swung open. Shadara only pushed it open enough so that we could walk in without squeezing. She rubbed at her ears as she walked in. We found ourselves in a bedroom of sorts.
It was an extraordinarily pleasant bedroom. The floor was still the same cobbled stone, but the walls were draped in fabric that fluttered softly in a nonexistent breeze. A mesmerizing chandelier filled the entire room with a soothing light. The whole room was full of expensive wooden furniture, and the entire place seemed far out of place compared to the rest of the dungeon.
There was one thing that didn’t belong. Instead of a bed sitting in the square canopy drapes, there was a pedestal. On that pedestal was a familiar-looking head.
“Gary?” The word left my mouth before I realized I had opened my mouth.
“Correct.” The familiar sound of his static-filled voice was almost comforting. “It is nice to see you again, Rina. I am glad you chose to come, despite your partner’s paranoia.”
Shadara pointed at the robotic head. “You met him before? Didn’t you arrive on this level with me?”
“One inquiry at a time, please.” Gary’s mouth lit up as he spoke. “We have not met on this floor before. But I am aware of the dealings and events that happened on the second floor. My fragment there has recovered from the sustained damage.”
Shadara’s eyes started to spin. “That isn’t making sense. How can you have met her but not met her at the same time?”
“It’s complicated,” I answered before Gary.
“It’s quite simple, actually.” Gary’s eyes flickered blue instead of the usual yellow. “We can only see downwards. All future Garys you meet will know of these events, and the Gary you met before won’t.”
“Are you the same person or not?” Shadara pinched the bridge of her nose.
This is a bit beyond what she can understand. I wonder what level of technology she had in her world.
“We are and we are not. All Garys are aspects of a collective, a collective that houses all the information and distributes it through the proper permissions.”
The beast woman groaned.
I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Maybe it’s better you don’t try to figure it out. Or, give me a shot at trying to figure it out. Okay?” I gave her my most confident smile.
You’re up soon, Orange. What do you need me to do to get access?
The same method as before. Direct connection.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
I was afraid you’d say that. This is really going to hurt---again. I looked at my energy bar, which was just under a full bar. I took a deep breath before walking to stand in front of Gary.
“I imagine you’re interested in me, aren’t you?” I held up my non-bladed hand.
“That is correct. We are interested in your construction. It seems our information about you is out of synchronization.” A pedestal rose out of the ground in front of me. The stone slab slid up to reveal a plaque with a handprint on it. “Would you be willing to provide another sample? We understand if you are unwilling after your previous experience.”
A shiver ran down my spine. “Yeah.” I turned to Shadara. “Don’t worry, this will only hurt for a bit. I’m not in any danger.”
“What?”
She dashed towards me as I placed my hand in the recess. Like last time, a metal spike stabbed through the center of my hand and out through the back. There wasn’t nearly as much blood as last time, and it didn’t hurt nearly as much. Even though it wasn’t blindingly painful, I still clenched my jaw to bite back a scream. Two metal prongs sprang out and pinned my hand down.
“Rina!” Shadara ran and tried to free my arm by pulling on it.
I grabbed her wrist. “Stop. I know what I’m doing.” I leaned in close to her face. “This is the whole reason I wanted to come here. This is something I need to do. It will help me.”
“What is wrong with you?” Shadara grabbed my head. “Why is it everything you do to ‘help yourself’ or 'make you stronger’ always causes you pain? You don’t have to put yourself through all this pain. Why are you so desperate for power and strength? Why do you see the most painful way to do it?”
I tried to push her away, but she held on even tighter. “Because I can’t see another way.” I raised my voice. The pain and Shadara’s emotional state weren’t helping me stay calm. “You don’t know what’s coming. Technically, I don’t know exactly either. But I do know that it wants me dead, and it will do anything and kill anyone to see that happen. I’ve already lost Killa. Now I don’t want to lose you either.”
“I’m a big girl.” Shadara lowered her voice. “You don’t have to protect me. I can protect myself.”
“Killa was the same way,” I whispered. “But she was killed by it anyway. You are not invincible.”
Shadara pulled my head until our foreheads touched. “Neither are you.”
“You may remove your hand now.” Gary’s voice broke the tension. I looked down to see that my hand had healed and been freed. “That was an interesting collection of information. Your biology is beyond unique.”
Please tell me you got what you were looking for, Orange.
We have gathered some information. It would be better to discuss what we found later.
“What are you talking about?” I asked Gary.
Gary stayed silent for a moment. “The connection between your nanites and your soul is unique. Your soul held signs of incompletion, but now there are fewer signs of that from our previous scan.”
I tilted my head. “You’re saying my soul is more complete. What does that even mean?”
Shadara gave me a momentary glare before turning to Gary. “How does one have an incomplete soul to begin with? And how can she complete it?”
“One inquiry at a time, please.”
“Sorry,” Shadara and I said simultaneously.
I scratched the back of my head. “How about you just tell us everything you can about my soul? Start from what you mean; my soul had signs of incompletion.” It’s better he describes it to Shadara than me.
“Souls are complicated things. They are something we still don’t completely understand but are eager to study.” Gary’s comment felt unsettling. A bristle ran through Shadara’s fur. “Rina is a great subject for study. As we noticed, the first time we met, your soul was unique. And unlike Shadara’s soul, which has only strengthened since their time in the Nexus, yours seems to be repairing itself. While the missing section still seems to be there, the edges show signs that the edges are filling in.”
Gary continued, “In normal circumstances, souls are formed, grow, and change based on external stimuli. When we mentioned signs of incompletion, we referred to the anomalies we detected in the structure of your soul. It was as if a part of it was either missing or underdeveloped.”
Shadara crossed her arms, her tail flicking anxiously. “How does a soul get incomplete in the first place?”
“There are various possibilities. Most likely, someone created it incompletely. Your case, Rina, is particularly intriguing because the missing section appears to be reconstructing itself.”
Shadara’s ears twitched. “What causes a soul to repair itself?”
“In most cases, souls are static once they’ve reached maturity,” Gary explained. “However, we are curious as to how your incomplete soul is repairing itself. We need more data to draw definitive conclusions.”
Shadara uncrossed her arms, her expression skeptical. “So, what? Rina’s soul is fixing itself because of these nanites?”
“That appears to be a plausible hypothesis.” Gary’s tone seemed contemplative. “There is also the chance that the system has some part to play in it. Thus our desire to study Rina.”
Shadara’s tail flicked. “Okay, but if her soul finishes repairing, will it no longer be considered artificial?” She turned to me. “Will whatever is hunting you have to give up at that point?”
There was a long, uncomfortable pause. “That information is currently beyond our calculations. However, we can surmise that Rina’s artificial soul will always be artificial, even after completion.”
I hung my head as I slumped my shoulders. “So, that leaves me with my original goal; reach the top of the Soul Nexus.”
“Speaking of which…” Shadara tapped her finger on her elbow. “How are our lives in danger?”
“Apologies for getting sidetracked. There is something unnatural on this floor.” Gary’s voice dropped its static quality. It also boomed throughout the room. “Its mana signature is incomparable to all others on record. If this becomes a threat to the sphinx, the entire floor will be purged. Everyone on the floor will be ejected from the Soul Nexus in the most direct route possible. Everyone will be left on a random plane in a random galaxy of a random universe.”
I hummed. “So, what?”
“There is a one in two billion seventy-nine million four hundred sixty thousand three hundred and seven chance you will not be ejected into the vacuum of space.” Gary’s nonchalant response seemed all too practiced.
“So…” Shadara waved her hand for me to continue.
I took a deep breath. Explaining space. Well, that’s a clue as to what her home planet’s technology level is. “Okay, imagine space as this vast, empty, and incredibly cold void. There’s no air, no heat, and no gravity. If you get ejected into space, you’ll just float there, unable to breathe, freezing, and with no way to return.”
Shadara raised an eyebrow. “So we’ll die?”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
Gary’s eyes flickered, and he projected a holographic display in the air. The hologram showed a figure floating in the vastness of space, surrounded by stars. “In the event that someone is ejected into space, the result is instant death. The lack of air means suffocation; the absence of atmospheric pressure leads to the boiling of bodily fluids; and exposure to cosmic radiation causes severe damage to internal organs. Within moments, almost all organic life would be terminated.” The figure exploded in a gory mess before disappearing.
“There’s no chance?” The panther woman’s eyes shifted as she shied away from where the image was. “There’s nothing we can do?”
I shrugged. “Well, there are space suits, but I wouldn’t know where to start making them or what they’re made out of to begin with. In the end, it will only prolong the inevitable as we die of starvation or dehydration.”
“There are some species that can survive the harsh conditions of space, but those are rare,” Gary added.
Shadara winced, her tail puffing up. “So, it’s a death sentence.”
Gary’s eyes flickered. “Precisely. The purge function has never been used on these early floors. The Soul Nexus is designed to prioritize its own existence. If a significant threat is detected, it takes drastic measures to ensure its survival. An attack on the sphinx or other floor guardians is seen as an attack on the Soul Nexus.”
I held out a hand. “And what do you want us to do about it?”
“Leave the floor,” Gary answered immediately.
Shadara sighed. “So, you take over Rina’s emotions and force her to knock me out just so you can tell us to leave.” Her tail flicked behind her as she straightened up. “Why? There’s got to be a good reason.
Gary almost seemed to sigh, but it sounded more like a burst of static. “I am currently unable to provide detailed information on the nature of the threat. Since we have had previous dealings with Rina, we wish to preserve such interactions in the future. And we know you are not a threat.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What if we hadn’t entered this dungeon? We could have gone to another one or never found you.”
“Those are probable outcomes.” Gary’s eyes lit up again and displayed another image of us entering the dungeon and playing the events throughout our time in it. “We received notification of your entrance to this dungeon, and since then, we have been attempting to contact you through remote means.”
I scratched my head. “And how did you even do that?”
“Radio waves.” I felt the smugness in Gary’s annoying monotone voice with those two words. “We realize now that the frequency to establish communication with your nanites caused unforeseen discomfort to Shadara. For that, we apologize for the inconvenience.” Gary showed the image of Shadara carrying me off just before I hit her and knocked her out.
Shadara tapped her chin. “Not a bad hit from that angle.” Did she just compliment me for hitting her? She glared and pointed at me. “But you got lucky. Next time, I’m knocking you out first.”
The blood dropped from my face. “Yes ma’am.”
Orange, did he use radio waves to communicate with me through you?
The hypothesis seems plausible. However, since you can’t perceive radio waves, neither can we. We were not aware of such a function being possible. If you would like, we can shield ourselves from that in the future.
Please. The fewer voices in my head in the future, the better.
“Alright, so if everything you said is true, how long do we have?” I asked Gary.
Gary’s eyes went dim. “We have no timeline for which to provide. It could be as little as one day or as many as a million.”
Shadara frowned. “So it might be something that never happens.”
“Not so.” Gary’s voice slowed down as if he were thinking as he spoke. “Something will happen; we just have no way to comprehend the individual’s desires or objectives.”
“Are they even here?” Shadara extended a hand and folded her other arm across her chest.
“Yes.”
“How long have they been here?” I asked.
“Two thousand of your Earth years.”
I turned to Shadara. “So much for a vacation. What now? Do we run?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah. But we are in no state to do anything. We need to rest. Let’s hope nothing happens until tomorrow. Now, let’s get out of here.” Then she headed for the door, but paused. “Unless there was something else you needed to ask Gary.”
I turned to the metal robotic head on the pedestal and shook my head. “Nope. I’ve got enough on my plate. Unless there was any other reality-shattering news you needed to give us.”
“We have no more facts to provide.”
I waved. “Alright. Hopefully, we’ll see each other again.”
I followed Shadara. She was walking as fast as she could; her stride just short of a jog.
She stopped at the first intersection. “Please tell me you’re not planning on finding the Gary of every level from here to the top just so you can have it stab your hand every time, are you?”
I shook my head. “Not every floor. But I would like to stop by every few levels, if you don’t mind.” I held up my hand. “And don’t worry, this time hurt far less than the last time. My muscles must not feel any pain.”
Shadara rolled her eyes as she groaned. “That’s not an excuse to hurt yourself in the future.”
The idea is that a little bit of pain now will save me from a lot more in the future. I wanted to tell her, but that moment seemed like a bad one. So I just walked ahead and led her back to the entrance, where we saw Elara still sitting where we saw her before we descended.
She watched us exit the dungeon with a terrified look. “What happened? You look awful.”