My unlikely savior ended up being my mangled iron sword. Specifically, its ability—[Lightbringer]. At lower levels, it did just what it claimed to—produce light. The thing was, most light sources also tended to produce heat. Just that the heat output at F - 0 was so negligible that I never noticed.

The ability was now at F - 7, thanks to Aerion’s mad rampage in the castle, and both its light and heat were noticeably greater than before.

Aerion and I had lashed our subs together with some rope that was in hers, and we currently sat on top of the round hull of mine, me nursing my wounds and Aerion bathing in the pleasantly hot sun.

I’d stripped my waterlogged clothes to my underwear and placed them on the hull to dry off. My feet were on the blade of my iron sword with [Lightbringer] active, soaking up its blessed warmth. Aerion opted to keep her own wet robe on, but I figured it’d dry out in the heat soon enough.

The road to recovery was neither simple nor enjoyable. My numb feet slowly regained their senses, followed shortly after by the pain. Indescribable, agonizing pain wracked me as blood rushed back into my extremities.

I wasn’t the kind of guy who cried often, but I admit, I shed more than a few tears.

Aerion said nothing. She just squeezed my shoulder and looked on with sympathy.

The worst of the pain passed, and my skin regained some semblance of its normal color. My toes were a bit blueish, but thankfully not black. Though it was slightly painful, I could at least walk, so I supposed I might’ve overreacted a bit. Maybe it wasn’t true frostbite, but it was way too close for comfort.

Aerion hopped over to her sub and poked her head inside, looking very much like an ostrich digging a hole.

“How’s it looking in there?” I asked.

Aerion shot me a thumbs-up, her neck still buried inside the hatch hole.

“Yours looks good as well,” she said after finishing her inspection. “The reduced water pressure is allowing our pumps to make headway. My leak was above water, so I don’t even need to run the pump anymore.”

“Guess I’m not so lucky?” I said. While we could ditch the other sub, it did have about a hundred of those bolts packed into its ballast compartments.

“One of your leaks is above water. The other is below, but again, the pressure is lower on the surface, so if we keep the pump running…”

“Say, what god do you pray to for luck?” I asked.

Aerion frowned. “One prays to their patron god for all things. Why would you pick a different deity for luck?”

“Right.” I smacked my palms together and closed my eyes. “Oh, Great Dominion, please don’t let my pump fail!”

Aerion rolled her eyes and gently jabbed my ribs with her elbow. “Even if it does, we have mine. Or had you forgotten? So long as we don’t dive again, we’ll be fine.”

“Believe me, the last thing I want to do is dive. The surface suits me just fine.”

It truly did. After being underground so long, I’d forgotten just how much I missed the sun. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and not just metaphorically. The ever-present danger of drowning was a hard thing to live with.

For some reason, I was reminded of the smooth waterstones on the fifth floor. Waterstones like that were formed by currents smoothing out their edges. Except, there was no water on the fifth floor.

It was all on the sixth. A horrible thought occurred to me.

I imagined an ocean’s worth of water crashing into the tunnels on the fifth floor. The sound of approaching doom, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Drowned by an infinite amount of water with nowhere to escape to... Somehow, the image was even more terrifying than drowning in my sub.

“Y’know? I think I’ve had enough water for a long, long time,” I said. “Know anywhere we can land?”

All around us was nothing but an endless blue sea.

Aerion pointed into the distance.

I followed her gaze, squinting. It took a moment for my eyes to make it out, but there was something there. A pillar of light that soared up into the sky.

“Well, that sure makes things easy,” I said. “Awfully nice of them to put a beacon up for us.”

“Not just for us. We are likely not the first to use this method to ascend,” Aerion said.

“Look at you, going and ruining my sense of importance.”

“Ah. My apologies,” Aerion replied. “The signal is there for you alone, your highness.”

“Aw, you’re making me blush! Well, then, my reliable vassal. Lead the way! Oh, but we may want to fix my rudder and dive planes first.”

I didn’t know if it was the catharsis of surviving a near-death experience, but we both started laughing uncontrollably, and it was a good while before we finally stopped.

----------------------------------------

Aerion really wanted me to lead the way this time. We’d agreed that if my sub developed any further problems, my being in front would allow her to react faster since we couldn’t see out the back.

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Unfortunately, my rudder had something to say about that. With it broken, I was completely unable to steer. On the upside, my sub’s engine still worked, so we lashed my sub to the small conning tower on Aerion’s sub and had her tow me. The rope mostly just kept my sub in the proper orientation.

As for my broken dive planes, Aerion and I just jammed them in place with some scrap metal from the sub to keep them horizontal. Not like we could dive, anyway, so our fix mainly just kept them from doing anything to upset the sub’s balance.

The hours passed at an agonizingly slow pace. Every moment, I'd wonder if one of those whales would see us and scoop us up in its mouth. Every time I saw a shadow in the distance, I tensed, grabbing my useless levers. With plenty of food and water onboard, we didn’t stop a single time. The sooner we were out of this deathzone the better. I also had to remain alert to slow my sub when Aerion eventually came to a stop, or I’d run into her.

We kept our hatches open for that reason, and when I finally heard Aerion yell, I cut the power and drifted to a stop.

I poked my head out and hooted. “Ahoy dry land!” I roared with such utter joy that it earned me a look from Aerion. It was the look people gave when they were embarrassed to be associated with someone.

I didn’t care. The sight of pristine coastline catapulted my spirits to the clouds, and nothing was gonna bring me back down. Well, nothing other than a dungeon boss, but it thankfully hadn’t shown its face yet.

After some back and forth, Aerion and I decided that beaching the subs was our best bet, especially with all the cargo we had to unload. Since it looked to be high tide, that was the right call.

We unlashed our subs and Aerion veered away, giving me ample room to gun it, accelerating my sub to its max speed, which was way too fast for its broken state.

“Woah! Woah!” The sub began turning over and I yanked the roll lever, despite knowing it was broken and wouldn’t do anything.

Just when I was worried it’d go belly up, it smashed onto the shore, leaving it beached at a 45-degree list.

I crawled out of the hatch and dropped onto the sand, nearly falling over. Despite only having been in the sub for a few hours, I had a bad case of sea legs—it felt like the ground was moving under me, undulating like waves.

Aerion’s sub beached a moment later, about fifty feet away. Hers was perfectly upright, of course.

We spent the next several hours unloading the Siege Bolts from the ballast tanks, taking them to the edge of the forest nearby. It was a miracle how none of them had gone off, and despite being waterlogged, most seemed to be in good condition. The few that looked broken, we carefully dumped a good distance away.

Once we’d settled in, I plopped my ass on the sand, just happy to be off my aching feet. Aerion did the same, sitting against a tree.

“Y’know, it’s hard to imagine that we might actually be getting out of here soon,” I said. “Can’t wait to see what the world outside’s like.”

Aerion picked up some sand and let it filter through her fingers. “Even now, your memories elude you.”

She said it less like a question and more like a statement, which I guess it was.

“Seems so,” I replied, avoiding her pity-filled gaze. The topic hadn’t come up in a while, so I hadn’t had much opportunity to feel bad about the lie. I was planning to come clean the moment we got out. Just right now, I couldn’t risk Aerion being angry or suspicious of me. Not when we were about to raid the final boss’ lair. That kind of thing was a recipe for disaster.

“Mind telling me a bit about the world outside, instead?” I asked, mostly to shift the conversation.

Aerion shrugged. “Compared to here? Quite different. No fancy magical workings of undersea castles. But far larger. And prettier too, although I suppose this island isn’t too bad. It’s… normal.”

“Sure, but define normal.”

Aerion thought for a moment. “Well, the streets are alive with activity. Each city is unique in its own way, and that goes for the territories as well. People use reed lights and sometimes candles for lighting, not the mysterious machinations of the gods you find here. The same goes for those cog carts. You’ll never see anything like that outside Order’s territory. Or the submarines. Or that Siege Launcher.”

“How’s that possible?” I asked. “How can you be so good at all that stuff if nothing like it exists outside the Trials?”

Aerion’s eyes narrowed, and her face darkened. “As I said, Order’s territory is a bit different. Where I’m from—where I was born—we’re a bit more advanced, technologically. Not quite at the level of what you see in here, mind you, but perhaps a step or four ahead of the rest.”

“That right?” I said, looking up into the bright blue sky. “Swords, blacksmiths, torches, and braziers—that sorta thing?”

“Indeed. So your memories are coming back.”

“Just popped into my mind,” I lied. Yeah, this world sounded downright medieval. Which, to be honest, was more than a little exciting. It sounded like a proper fantasy world.

“What about magic? Is that a thing outside? Trees that regrow fruits, healing water… that sort of thing?”

Aerion shook her head. “Would that it were. There isn’t an apothecary in the world who wouldn’t kill to get their hands on Sanctuary water. Still, magic does exist. Several spots in the world have a connection with the divine. Warriors often go there to train due to the energy that fills such places. It’s where you find the strongest animals outside Trials. Though the Boon and Blessing holders wield the most potent magic. Their powers are a sight to behold.”

So it sounded like while the world was mostly medieval, at least some traces of magic existed outside. “Looking forward to it.”

“I’ll be glad to show you around. Assuming we leave here alive,” Aerion said.

“You know what would help with that?” I said. “Spending those ten stats you gained from the goblin fight.”

“You’d advised me to refrain from spending them earlier,” Aerion said. “What changed?”

“Well, we made it to the highest floor. There’s just one enemy between us and freedom, so I think survival is the name of the game. That, and playing to your strengths.”

“Meaning Dominion and Vigor?” Aerion asked.

“You catch on quick,” I replied. “I’d put six or seven into Vigor and the rest into Dominion.”

Aerion nodded. “Done. My Vigor now stands at 20, and my Dominion at 6, though I don’t feel any different.”

“If your system works anything like mine, you’ll have to earn your stats. Dominion by feats of physical strength or hand-to-hand combat, and Vigor through endurance exercises.”

“I see,” Aerion said, nodding to herself. “What do you plan to do now?”

“Now?” I yawned. “I need a nap. Actually, more like a nice twelve-hour rest. And then? Then we can talk about exploring more of this island.”

----------------------------------------

I never got my twelve hours. Just when I felt like I’d hit the hay, an ear-splitting roar caused me to jerk awake.

Aerion, who’d been resting as well, jumped to her feet, dagger in hand.

“The fuck was that—!?”

The roar sounded again, louder, and this time, I swear the leaves shook.

A chill rippled down my back, and suddenly, a horror scene from a famous dinosaur movie popped into my head.

“Uh, Aerion?”

“Yes?” the elf replied, dagger quivering in her hands.

“This Trial Guardian… It wouldn’t happen to be a T-Rex by any chance, would it?”