Was it really my dungeon? I had a hard time believing it was. Yet it was undeniable that it had reappeared after we cleared it. Why would it come back if not because a huge, wild, unaccounted for source of corruption was running free?

Yes, all evidence suggested that I was the only reason behind this dungeon existence.

Either way, whether it was mine or not was completely irrelevant. The monster didn't obey me. And I wasn't expecting otherwise. If they were anything like me, they had their own agendas and thoughts.

Regretfully, that meant that I didn't have an army on my side that could protect me. Also, I had to kill a bunch of them to get back into the building.

But I had made it safe and sound. Yasmin was still passed out, but I had already unchained her. I suppose having no control over your mana hits a whole level of exhaustion that I had never experienced.

There was nothing to do, so I killed time the best way I could; analysing my new status. I had been forced to grow, and I could feel in on every muscle of my body.

Status: {

 Name: Darian

 Energy: 1275/1275

 Classes: {

   [32] Advanced Corrupted Bloodshaper

   [8] {The Third Eye of Corruption}

 }

 Attributes: { 

   Strength: 9

   Agility: 16

   Vitality: 8

   Intelligence: 35

   Wisdom: 37

   Stamina: 9

 }

 Skills: { ... }

 General: { ... }

}

So much had happened that it was hard to believe it had only been about two weeks since I was summoned.

I had been driven into a lie so deep that it had saved my life. Dungeons and corruption were normal. I was corrupted and the thought of it was somehow refreshing. I had fought increasingly harder enemies; wolves, undead, Lebil, and now the [Oracle].

“Darian?” Yasmin's voice woke me from my daydreaming. “Whe-where are we?”

She was incorporating, scanning the room as if her life was on it.

“In the summoning site outside the city. Actually, it's a dungeon now. But!” I quickly realized I shouldn't have said that; it sounded too alarming. “But don't worry, I can keep both of us save. There's only mo-”

I almost ran to her when she suddenly dropped back down to the floor. Only her bawls, her unrestrained cry and sobs made me stop.

“You came for me?” She barely managed to say after three unsuccessful attempts. I nodded. “And we are… safe?”

“Yes. I defeated the [Oracle], he won't be coming after us.”

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I didn't want to say that, while it was true, we would probably have the whole Order chasing after us as soon as the news made it back to them. She already knew, I was sure.

“You know,” I continued, “your sister can be very bossy and demeaning, but when it comes to her younger sister… She ended up confessing that you have basically saved my life, risking your own life at that.”

She looked at me with the same sad and pitiful eyes she had when I saw her on the city's square. Eyes that begged for me to run. Hiding her face between her hands in a futile attempt to hide the tears that escaped her control, she tried to say something else. But words didn’t come out.

“What's wrong? You are safe now. It's okay.” I tried to step out of my comfort zone, and offer her some reassurance that we were going to be okay.

But she didn't take it.

“No! You could have died!”

“Yes, I could have. But if it weren't for you, I would have died well before this.“

She shook her head, hitting the floor with her punches.

“I don't deserve it! I lied!”

“I know! And Claudia explained. I'm really not mad about it. You had to make sure I was not one of them, you could not blow up your entire cover. And even then, you did!”

She looked at me, and for five seconds she said nothing. I thought I had convinced her, but then she shook her head two more times. Slowly and dejectedly; disappointed.

“Claudia only told you one half of the truth.”

“What do you mean?”

She breathed in and sighed once, trying to reign her tears under control. Sitting with her legs crossed, she straightened her back and looked me straight in my dead eyes.

“We are the reason you are here.”

“Meaning?” I curtly said.

I was already considering the thousand ways that phrase could be interpreted. And I feared there was one, just one, that I didn't want to hear.

“We… our faction is behind your summoning.”

But she said it.

That moment felt as if time froze. My brain stopped processing. I licked my lips involuntarily. I started pacing around the room. My hands clenched and unclenched and my fingers moved.

And I punched the wall until my knuckles bled and the System complained I was hurting myself.

Good! I thought. I don't deserve anything else than pain!

“Darian! Darian!” Yasmin had come running and was trying to make me stop. She didn't have the strength to do so.

I kept hitting it until she hugged me. Or tried to. I had just enough presence of mind to not blow her in two pieces. Just barely, but I stepped back and managed to constrain myself to only push her back.

She broke down. Falling into her knees, she covered her head and started rocking in place.

“We just knew they were summoning someone new. Someone we could infiltrate in the Order.”

She was sobbing, trying to dry her tears with her skirt without much success.

“But then we learned what they were truly doing. What they were aiming for. We tried to stop it. We really did! Not even Charlotte…“

“Not even Charlotte what!?” I impatiently yelled as she basically admitted that all of them were in into the summoning.

“When everything went wrong they raised the alarms. We were informed of the situation, and Charlotte was summoned… her mission was to kill the threat.“

My head fell. Lies within lies and lies. I have been living a farce since the very first second I met Charlo-

“But she came to me first. I explained her the crimes that had been going on in that summoning site. How an innocent had been pulled and subjected to the most forbidden kind of System manipulation. Right then, we decided. We would do whatever it took to save him. No matter the consequences.”

There was a lot to unpack, but there was a question that I needed to ask.

“Charlotte… she knowingly failed the summons?”

“No matter the consequences,” Yasmin repeated. “I had also accepted my fate, you know? And when I saw you coming back for me… Everything came crushing down. I felt guilty and accomplice to what happened to you… if you had died trying to save me…”

“I…” I stood there, not knowing what to say or what to think. “I need some time to think.”

I left the room, leaving behind a crying Yasmin. I didn't know how to feel about anything. My life so far, my attempt at becoming important, respected, powerful even, had just been a string of lies.

Was Yasmin guilty of what had happened to me? Had I saved my own torturer? Could I still be her friend, let alone let her live?