Grim swallowed once as he stepped out the tunnel of roots behind the rest of his team. He turned his head, noting that the roots snaked closed, blocking the way back. That was expected, boss arenas normally only had two ways out.
Victory or death.
‘Well, those used to be the only options. This dungeon is abnormal, just like Durence,’ he thought, slightly annoyed his very first dungeon run was in this weird place. Annoyed, but also a little relieved he wasn’t going to die at the first mistake he made.
Grim had made... a lot of mistakes.
But here he was, staring into a large chamber filled to the brim with mist.
“Deo!” Amenstar called, his voice carrying into the space.
“Well, if the big nasty didn’t know we were here, it does now,” Poppy said dryly as she pulled her hood down tighter as her eyes searched the mist, sniffing like some animal. Kemy bit her lip as she waited for some response.
“He could be dead, but it doesn’t match what we’ve seen so far,” Vas supplied helpfully, his golem nature making him ever the blunt speaker.
“Not dead...” came an amused voice. It was like honey spread across a dagger. Sweet and dangerous.
“He merely understands the rules and he knows the price,” the woman’s voice sounded out, somehow coming behind their ears, from the mist itself... the very room.
“Show yourself,” Kemy called, taking the lead as the adult of the group. Her staff was gripped tightly, her cloudy dress no longer amusing, but billowing dramatically as she held her staff forward.
“Reveal your true form,” she commanded, a light shining off her, repelling the mist like a barrier had been erected. The woman’s voice laughed, a deep throaty chuckle, causing the mist to swirl over the grass small bubbling brooks and creaks...
“Sweet maiden, I’m not hiding, you’re just not looking hard enough,” the voice promised as Grim turned, to check the exit and paused. Despite somehow not taking a single step, the exit was now to his right, not behind him.
Was the room able to move or... had his balance tilted him slightly? Grim opened his mouth to warn the others, but they all saw the dark shape looming in the mist, moving like something exotic, tempting them to come dance in the confusing mist.
Without any warning, the mist peeled back like a curtain on a stage. Before Grim and the others, a tree rose up from the centre of the room, a tree of thick wood and roots from the ground up before the bark smoothed into slender legs and knees half-way up. Dozens of branches swayed as flowering vines grew over where anything indecent would be visible. Still, Grim flushed at the slightly curvy and round stomach, then looking up at those thick lips.
Her hair was spread between fibres and branches, every single one of them covered in some flower of sorts. It was mesmerizing as no one flower shared shape or colour with another, like the tree woman collected every beautiful flower of the world for herself.
She turned her eyes to them as if just noticing something interesting and despite the vision of summer and spring before them, when Grim looked into her honey amber eyes, he felt the sting of winter staring back.
“My, my, such a... interesting collection of people. While I may not be that impressed, you collected the keys, you reached my gate, and here you stand,” she said and turned her body sensually to them and as she did so, in her hidden hand(tightly woven branches into a rough handshape), a cage made of roots and flowers came into sight, dangling from one ‘finger’.
Inside, the sleeping form of Deo was visible, like a colourful bird inside a birdcage.
“Deo!” Kemy cried, reaching out, but Poppy kept her from running in.
“He’s not dead for a reason,” she said darkly, eyes red and slitted like some cat creature. The tree woman noticed the expression and smirked.
“Oh, quite. One, Delta doesn’t kill, therefore I do not. Be grateful for that. Two, I’m experimenting with themes and ideas for my fight. Lovely Sir Fran is forward and simple. Fight with your heart and be brave... myself? I believe I might try a trial of the heart as well,” she mused and held the cage up.
“I recently found the issue of one’s heart and the feelings it invokes troubling, perhaps I will learn more if I see your little hearts flutter in need to protect this one?” she hummed, drawing her words out in a slight song to an extent.
Grim looked at his team with a frown. They all looked upset, except for Vas who looked like he had shot through some awakening, had three breakdowns, and was now looking upon his goddess... that he also wanted to set on fire.
“If only I could be so grossly magnificent,” he said with longing.
“None are as beautiful as I, child of earth and soul. I am Wyin, the once-great tree of legend back with a blackened soul. Fight me, reveal to me your heart's light!” she commanded, holding Deo’s cage aloft as roots and snaking vines obscured their teammate from view.
Poppy didn’t hesitate, throwing herself forward with mobility a human just didn’t have, her fingers wreathed in dark fire. Wyin smacked Poppy with a whip of a vine, her trunk barely scorched. Grim winced as she landed in a roll into the mist.
“I’ve embraced hell, you’ll have to go much hotter, little lovebird,” Wyin encouraged with little care to her voice.
“The truth cuts deep!” Kemy chanted, holding her staff aloft as blades of glowing white sheared through the air at Wyin as horns and some instrument that sounded electrical in nature blazed into a dramatic battle cry around them.
“Vas, Amenstar, back up,” Grim yelled as he went in from the side, his sharp knife in one hand. As Wyin turned and danced around the light crescents that Kemy conjured, some of her flowers and bark were chipped away.
Grim used the distraction to leap off a slightly jutting rock in the ground towards the birdcage, swiping where it was connected to the rest. His hope for a quick and easy cut was dashed as his knife got stuck in one of the fingers.
He felt his foot being snagged and he was flung high into the air with a yell as the tree woman was multitasking with attacking and defending from all sides. Amenstar was using long coils of hair like writhing snakes, empowered by necromantic energies, to try and tie down as many of Wyin’s branches as he could, but there were far too many.
Vas had two vines in each hand, pulling and slightly bowing Wyin towards him, her face a grimace as they matched in pure strength. Grim turned, managing to angle himself towards Wyin instead of the pond she threw him towards.
Crashing into her mass, he snapped a few branches and found himself above where her shoulder was.
“I hate pests in my hair,” Wyin warned and around him, her hair tried to wrap around him. Grim managed to reach into his belt and pull out a ragged cat doll from a pouch. He hadn’t found much use for this weird reward he had gotten from chasing that mouse on the first floor.
“Come on ghost cat!” he chanted and from the doll, a blue cat snarled into Wyin’s face, yowling and hissing as Wyin let loose a screech of indignation. By now, Poppy and Kemy were winding up another barrage of attacks as Amenster was chanting.
Grim pulled himself through the branches to his trapped knife.
He began sawing with grim determination.
---
Al hovered outside the maw of the cave. He felt a pull with every fibre of his being as if something was inside that was...
Al took a step back, panic rising and the fear sinking in as his inbox from the System pinged again and again. Al had stopped even reading the subjects lines on them now. If he just worked harder, the system would stop. If he was the strongest, he’d be fine!
He clutched at his head as his quest log was almost empty. He needed quests! If he didn’t find any soon he’d have nothing and what if the System pulled the plug after that? What if that was the last straw?
“You going in?” came a relaxed voice.
Al turned with a gasp, his squire uniform from the Kingdom rustling slightly. Some kid was roasting meat over a fire. His youngish face seemed at odds with his easy-going nature. Alpha felt... like he knew this boy but after so many quests and so many jobs... he wasn’t sure.
“I don’t think I should,” Al said quietly.
“I think you should. I’d go in, but I won’t be here long. I’m a wanderer,” the boy grinned at something amusing and Alpha didn’t get the joke.
Al’s powers didn’t register the kid as anything, so he was either too low level or unimportant or not relevant to the system. Alpha hadn’t seen that happen too many times but decided the boy was a nice distraction from the choice of wherever to go inside or not.
“I’m Al,” he said quietly. The boy paused as if not expecting the need to introduce himself.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“B...lether. Blether’s the name!” he said and his name appeared above his head like whenever someone revealed their name to Alpha. His ‘Detect Lie’ was pretty high as a skill so he didn’t think the boy was lying...or he was maybe a god of trickery.
Again, it didn’t matter.
“So, why the hesitation? You look sick and like you’re expecting to die any minute,” Blether said, changing the subject casually. Alpha sat gingerly on the nicely shaped stump on the other side of the fire.
“I feel called to go in and that’s dangerous,” Al explained.
“Why?” the kid pressed, chewing some weird fish that was... hard... to look at and his system labelled it as
Loot didn’t matter, only quests.
“It didn’t set off anything in the- my powers. It’s something I can’t explain and embracing it could be a mistake,” he told the kid logically.
“So unknown, unknown, and unknown. Hecking heck, you’re really messed up. How do you ever leave the house?” Blether asked with a shake of his head. Alpha looked into the fire for a moment.
“Fear,” he summed up. There was a pause in the conversation for a second.
“So, if it doesn’t appear to help you... with your powers, it's a trap, pointless, or wasting valuable time? Fear of dying is worse than the joy of living, I see...” Blether frowned, throwing the cooked stick away, somehow even managing to eat the fish bones.
“Ever think why you were chosen for this?” Blether asked abruptly as he pulled out a knife and piece of wood, whittling away at it with skill beyond any child.
“Random selection? Cruelty? Simple logic?” Alpha shrugged, still feeling the pull of the cave, a warm thing that made him want to give in so badly.
“Doubt it. Have you seen this world? It’s messy and already way too cruel in some places. I don’t see the point in throwing you into all that just to add to existing problems. No, I think it was something else. You don’t get purpose and powers by chance,” Blether promised. Alpha supposed he could have given other people some blessing or power himself as... whatever he truly was.
“Let’s say I can see things and I saw you when you first came here. Like memory foam on a really good bedspread, love that stuff,” Blether smiled whimsically and Alpha frowned... wondering if this strange place called Durance had memory foam... or even foam for that matter already?
How strange was this place?
“You were curious and bright. I saw the first few days. Awkward as hell I think. I just don’t think... listen, Al? It wasn’t your fault,” the kid said and Alpha stood up so abruptly that he nearly stepped in the fire.
“Don’t,” he warned, voice cracking.
“You did everything you could. The Silence-” Blether began but Alpha painfully squeezed his eyes shut and tried to cover his ears like he was a small child again.
The boy’s voice seemed to echo out his very bones.
“The Silence took that village to preemptively stop you. In a way... they succeeded,” Blether said bluntly and Alpha reached for his weapon, drawing it as angry tears welled up. His best weapon felt too heavy in his hands.
“Good, making a choice without a promise of reward and for the sake of it. I swear, I didn’t want to step in, but enough is enough. I’m not trapped like she is... but this has spent my strength on top of Delta needing help from the old bastard tree,” the kid grunted as he stood up, more like an old man.
“Alpha, get your head out of the damn sand. Also, answer your damn letters. There's like a bunch of rare mounts and costumes that Sis tried to apologise with,” the kid said and faded away, crumbling into the earth as if time was devouring him.
It just left Al with a burning campfire and a strange feeling he had been talking to death and yet... yet it felt... good.
His tears fell as the sword clattered to the ground. He hesitated, then without being able to take it back, opened the most recent letter.
“Dear Alphonse,
I wonder if you like that name? You said you didn’t like your actual name so how about that one? You’re really close to Delta and she’s really nice! Please say hi. I’ve been busy updating some systems around the dungeon sphere, but it's a little hard. Delta’s code seems to work on wishes and mushroom powder.
I got a few quests I can offer for cleaning in Delta’s dungeon and helping her on the lower floors. It isn’t as much EXP as you might like, but I’ll keep making more and also the people of Durence should offer some. Please feel better, it’s very hard to see you so upset.
You used to smile and I am very sorry that I might have had a hand in taking it away. If you wish to hate me, I will accept this. As in all my letters, I never blamed you nor do I think you are a failure or imperfect.
I cannot be perfect so please... please be kind to yourself.
Signed,
System (Please call me Sis!)
Letters since your last opened letter: 301.
Al tried to put his hand on the screen, but there was no resistance.
Letter 300...
“...On your way to Durance! I’m so happy. You’ll finally get some nice friends and there’s someone very important to meet there!”
L-letter 246
“You seemed to have stopped looking to die. But you aren’t alive. I feel so hopeless.”
180
“Please stop this... please. Quests won’t make you feel better. Head to Durance! Head anywhere!”
100
“-Happy 100 letter. I put a little ritual circle in the letter to conjure a cake. I... hope it tastes okay. I got some tips from Delta’s kitchens! Please eat. Please.”
On and on they went, he skipped dozens in a numb manner, flicking through them to the point there was less emotion and more simplistic messages.
He reached the last letter he ever opened. The tone between the newest letters and this one was stark.
Letter 10.
“Alpha,
The village of Muriee is gone. No trace can be found. It would appear the cult called the Silence attacked there to get to you. This was beyond your control. You need more strength. This will not stop. The Silence will always be your concern, you need more power. Keep moving and you will be instructed on where to proceed.
Soon Beta will come and your fear will end.
Then Gamma, and your doubt will cease.
Then Delta, and your weakness will be removed.
-System.
It hurt then and it burned now. Alpha saw every word as a warning, every name as a nail in his coffin. Without his fear, what was Alpha? He feared the day heroes with those names rose up to make him obsolete and now... Delta was a dungeon?
Beta was a monster that devoured monsters and revealed Silence members?
Gamma was... well according to the last letter he skimmed through which was quite a while ago according to its date, Gamma was being used in some underwater rebellion led by a shark prince as a sword?!
Since then, Alpha had so many letters and it was like the System... changed. No longer some ambivalent deity judging him for his weakness, but someone with fears and doubts of their own and it made him deflate as his fear took an uncertain step back
Again... because there was still no answer from when he first asked... without his fear, what was Alpha? Slowly, he looked up at the large puzzle door that it had taken him a single attempt to open, lining up the symbols of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta to make the doors slide open.
There was one way to find out what life without fear was and it laid inside that door.
---
“My beautiful face!” Wyin howled as she ignored the others attacking her to send dozens of thorny snakey vines after Grim who screamed in terror.
“It was just a cat!” he yelled back as he jumped over the ground exploding in wrath as Wyin glared, three claw marks on either cheek scratched downwards, giving her a whiskered appearance.
“It was more than a damn cat! Delta is howling in laughter and telling me to ‘believe it’ over and over! I’ll show you catty!” Wyin promised in rage.
Grim just ran faster, hoping Amenstar and Poppy were nearly done popping the birdcage open with their combined powers, Grim was tiring and he did not want to know if Wyin would see what was inside his heart the good ole fashioned way.
Dissection via being pulled apart.
Not the cleanest way to go.
He scowled at the feeling of vines on his heels.
If anyone told him the trees needed to be protected ever again, he was going to strangle them.