"What, you didn't think to bring a light going into a cave?" Cedez grinned.

"It was a bit of a spontaneous plan," Dave complained. "That and I clearly don't go into caves that often."

"Uh-huh." All the blue gems on Cedez's outfit suddenly ignited, like an ocean of blue stars wrapping her dark figure, casting a soft glow on the caverns around them.

"Thanks," he said.

“These lovely gems aren't just for show, you know,” she shot back.

She pulled the leather collar with the large gem from her neck and gave it to Dave. "Here, put it on your wrist and try pushing a bit of mana into it and think about light; then it should light up."

He did. The gem in his fingers lit up.

"See, not hard at all," she winked. "Now don't waste mana and stay behind me."

“Do lots of people come here?” Dave asked as the gem in his hand dimmed.

“No,” Cedez replied. “It's not a popular dungeon. Void magic doesn't produce mana crystals and these Void beast corpses have little use to most people. Ordinarily, Gate mages would enjoy steaks made from 'em to empower their skill, but the river running through this place is a bit poisonous, which makes their meat... contaminated with arsenic. The effort and cost in cleaning the meat just isn't worth it."

As they continued deeper into the cave, Cedez's expression grew more serious. “We're about to enter the dangerous part of the caves. Monster attacks will begin a few levels down. First line of defense is Voidbats. Nasty little buggers that can fold space."

"Fold space how?" Dave asked.

"They can basically teleport," Cedez explained. "One second they're in front of you, the next they're behind you, ready to take a chunk out of your neck."

"Great. Teleporting vampire bats. What else is down there?"

"The deeper we go, the more dangerous the creatures get. The Voidbats are just the beginning. We'll also have to watch out for Voidcrawlers, Voidlancers, and if we're really unlucky… a Voidwraith. Avoid getting a deep cut or you’ll become infected with Void. I don’t know any trusted mages who can pull the Void out of your blood.”

“Does every dungeon try to convert its visitors into something?”

“Yes,” she said. “This is how dungeons work. Their only goal in life is to propagate themselves, to turn adventurers or creatures into Sentinels. Voidwraiths are this dungeon’s Sentinels, ex-humans. I’ll walk in front of you, attract the attention of all the dangerous things. Stay behind me, got it?”

“You aren’t worried about getting infected with Void?”

“No. I am already almost entirely aligned to Shadow. I expect to die here, Dave,” Cedez replied. “When I do, take the dress back to Murdoc.”

“Die?” Dave froze as the star-covered fox advanced ahead of him into the cavern.

“I’ll respawn back in Shandria in a day or maybe three,” she said with a casual wave of her hand.

"But..." Dave struggled for the right words. "That doesn't mean you should just... accept it."

“We are a team. And sometimes, being a good teammate means being willing to take one for the team. I’ll aggro the monsters by being a walking, glowing, Christmas tree, you find the damn flower, stop time and run away. Got it? Good.”

Dave sighed, uncomfortable with her casual attitude towards her own demise.

"Your mana will run out," Cedez added. "And we don't know how deep we'll need to go to find the Void Lotus. It's better to save it for when we really need it. I’ve died before a few times, don’t worry about it.”

“Does dying hurt?” He asked.

“Yes,” she nodded. “It hurts like hell. I’m going to try not to die, obviously, but there’s only two of us here and the local dungeon core is almost two centuries old, which puts it waaaaay above our level.”

Suddenly, a high-pitched screech echoed through the cavern. Dave tensed, his hand instinctively moving to his bone knife.

"Voidbats," Cedez warned. "Remember, they can teleport. Stay alert."

No sooner had she spoken than a dark shape materialized in front of them. It was about the size of a mouse, with leathery, gray wings and far too many pitch-black eyes. Its mouth opened, revealing rows of needle-like black teeth.

Dave barely had time to register its appearance before it vanished, only to reappear behind him. He spun around, slicing through the bat as time slowed for half a second.

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Cedez, for her part, momentarily became surrounded with about ten other bats. She spun around like a dancer, shadow blades extending from her hands and feet, obliterating the bats. A few of them managed to bite her, making the foxgirl hiss angrily.

"You okay?" he called out, his voice echoing in the cavern.

Cedez finished her spin, panting slightly as the sliced bats fell around her. "Yeah, just a few nicks. Nothing to worry about." She brushed off her outfit. "How about you?"

“I’m good,” he replied. “Give me a few minutes to get their souls.”

He leaned down and touched the corpses. His mind filled with what it was like to be a Voidbat, to seek flesh of the living, to set little teeth into a succulent neck or limb of prey, to wait in the darkness, hanging upside down and…

“Okay, I’m good now,” he stood up.

“Off we go then,” Cedez advanced into the next cavern.

“Hey, um, what's it like?” Dave asked to fill in the dreary silence.

“What?”

“Dying… uh, besides the pain that is. What happens after you melt into a shadow?”

Cedez was quiet for a moment, cautiously walking through the cavern and looking left and right. "There's the pain, yeah, but then there's this moment of... pure nothingness and hungry purpose. Like you're floating in a void, like you’re everything and nothing. And then, suddenly, you're back in Shandria, naked and confused… barely knowing who you are.”

"That sounds awful," Dave said.

"Eh, not much worse than a bad hangover," Cedez joked. "You get used to it. The worst part is the memory loss. Sometimes I forget little things, sometimes big things. It's like... parts of me get left behind each time."

Dave frowned. "Is that why you can't remember much from before Murdoc found you?"

"Probably," she nodded. "But hey, at least I always remember the important stuff, like how to make a perfect latte!”

Her attempt at humor fell flat as Dave sensed the pain behind the smile. How much of herself had Cedez lost over the years? How many times had she died and come back, pieces of her identity chipped away each time by her insane competitors like Stellaris?

“The first few years were pretty awful, yeah,” she confessed. “The time between the respawns and remembering that I was an individual… was weeks, but as I got more purified mana gems and anchors set up inside the snail's shell, it became much easier to find my way back home.

Squeaks sounded from above as more bats flashed towards them. Cedez produced a wide shadow lance that sliced through a whole bunch of them at once and finished the rest of the bats that teleported around her by firing off what looked like nails made from shadow.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Dave asked as he absorbed the souls of her kills.

“When your enemies keep hiring assassins to heckin’ murderize you, learning to fight is a must,” she replied. “Murdoc hired me some adventurer tutors when I was young and sent me into dungeons with them. Practice makes perfect. Though, I'd rather be practicing my latte art. Drawing cute pictures with cream takes effort, you know.”

She shot a few more shadow-nails at the bats hiding in the ceiling. Dave slowly walked behind her, absorbing the souls of the fallen dungeon-serving critters.

He was about to ask another question when a low rumble echoed through the cave. "What was that?"

Cedez's ears swiveled towards the sound. “Sounds like a Voidcrawler," she muttered. "Imagine if a centipede and a shark had a baby, and then that baby got really into Void magic. Basically, their armor is spatially reinforced and dimensionally skewered… which makes them harder to stab. Need an extra thick and extra long blade to kill one.”

With another rumble, a massive, segmented creature burst from the cave wall to their left. Its dozens of legs ended in wickedly sharp points, and its elongated head was dominated by rows of serrated teeth. Dave barely had time to register its appearance before Cedez sprang into action.

Shadow blades erupted from her hands as she leaped towards the creature.

The Voidcrawler screeched and lunged at Cedez with its gaping maw.

Dave watched in horror as Cedez and the Voidcrawler clashed in a whirlwind of shadows and chitinous armor. The foxgirl's blades sliced through the air, leaving trails of darkness in their wake, but the monster's carapace seemed to absorb the blows. Its segmented body writhed and twisted, impossibly long for the narrow confines of the cave.

Suddenly, a section of the Voidcrawler's body seemed to fold in on itself, disappearing into nothingness only to reappear behind Cedez. The creature's rear half clamped down on her leg, its sharp limbs piercing through her leather pants.

Cedez let out a pained cry, her starlight gems flickering erratically. She spun, trying to free herself, but the Voidcrawler's grip was relentless.

Dave accelerated himself, the world slowing to a crawl around him.

He rushed forward, bone knife in hand. But as he neared, he realized his mistake. His short knife was useless against its extradimensional shell.

Panic rising, Dave searched desperately for a solution. His eyes landed on the cave ceiling, where stalactites hung like nature's daggers.

Using his ability to walk on air, Dave rushed up to the ceiling through the thick air.

He grasped one of the smaller stalactites, putting everything into Strength. With a crack, the enormous rock came loose in his hands.

As his mana ticked down, Dave positioned himself above the Voidcrawler’s head.

He aimed carefully, then let gravity take over as he deactivated his timeless state.

The stalactite plummeted, driven by Dave's momentum and the force of gravity. It struck the Voidcrawler's head with a sickening crunch, embedding itself deep into the creature's skull.

Dave accelerated himself again, landing carefully beside the dying beast.

The monster's grip on Cedez loosened as it thrashed in agony. Ichor spurted from its wound, splattering across the cave floor.

The foxgirl limped towards him, her leg leaving a trail of dark fluid that was turning into smoky shadows.

Suddenly, the cave floor beneath them began to crumble. Dave's heart leaped into his throat as he felt the ground give way. He reached out, managing to grab Cedez's hand just as they both plummeted into the darkness below.

Activating timelessness, he slowed their descent, but then his mana ran out.

Cedez's grip on his hand tightened, her claws digging into his skin. "Don't let go!" she yelled over the roar of the water.

Swung left and right by the powerful current, they were spat out into a vast underground cavern. The river cascaded down in a thunderous waterfall, hurling them into a deep, dark pool below.