With a groan, both myself and Paparoach's body slumped to the ground. That last bit of exertion had taken every bit of will that my bedraggled body could muster. As I slumped to the floor, the golden sword that was still clenched in a death grip by one of my hands began to glow. Like before, the glow began to flow through my body, both energizing me and healing the minor injuries I had sustained. After that, I stood to my feet and started to dust myself off, but quickly realized that I was caked in roach blood and gave up on that.

Surveying my surroundings, I saw that Paparoach's corpse, while still twitching in that unnerving way that insects do, was truly dead and wouldn't be starting round two anytime soon. Then I saw Sieg, who was sprawled out against the wall, and hurried over to him to check his status. Luckily, he was still breathing, but seemed to be unconscious. As far as injuries went, he seemed mostly okay with a few scraps here and there, but his most severe injury seemed to be an arm that had popped out of its socket. This had most likely happened when he hit the wall. I pondered what to do. I remembered something I had seen on TV about how easy it was to pop a dislocated joint back in, especially when the person in question was knocked out. Knowing in my heart that it was probably the wrong call, I carefully wrenched Sieg's arm back into place.

With a blood-curdling scream that shook the cavern, Sieg woke up. I quickly stepped back, surprised by the sudden noise. Grabbing his injured arm, his eyes quickly surveyed the area before settling on me.

"Is it dead?" he asked.

"Yep, Paparoach will no longer rule this sunken realm," I replied.

"Paparoach?”

"Yeah, my nickname for the ugly bastard," I explained.

"You gave a horrific guardian beast a silly nickname," he said.

"Well, yeah, it helps me stay sane," I responded.

"You're a lunatic," he said.

"Coming from the guy who looks like he's been swimming in cockroach guts," I retorted.

Sieg then looked down at himself and saw that he was covered head to toe in Paparoach's black ichor. He froze, then began to vomit violently. After two minutes of retching, he finally looked up, all of his energy drained.

"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned for my friend's well-being.

"I will be," Sieg replied, still looking a bit shaken. "But we need to get out of here. I don't want to spend another minute in this place."

"Wait, Sieg," I said. "Aren't you forgetting something?" In an instant, Sieg's expression of defeat, covered in insect blood, transformed into one of triumph, also covered in insect blood.

"The divine essence! Where is it?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, but it must be around here somewhere," I replied. With that, Sieg and I began to methodically search the cavern. After searching the rest of the area, we moved the bottom part of Paparoach's body that had fallen in the middle of the cavern. After moving it, we uncovered a watermelon-sized rock that seemed to pulsate with shadow and was partially embedded in the cavern floor.

"That's it!" Sieg exclaimed. "After all this time, my redemption is here." With a few tears falling from his face, Sieg reached down and lowered his hand toward the divine essence. Thinking back to the old Indiana Jones movies, I tried to stop Sieg before he could touch the essence, but I was too late. As soon as Sieg put his hand on the stone, the entire cavern began to rumble.

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"Well, crap," were the last words I spoke before we started running for our lives.

Luckily for us, instead of the entire tunnel complex collapsing on our heads, the only thing that truly fell apart was Paparoach's chamber. With that in mind, the two of us were more than excited to get out of the cave complex. Luckily for us, Sieg had a decent memory and had left several markers as he descended into the cave, so we did not get lost. As for the roaches, we encountered a few of them, but they were far too small to pose any danger to us and ran off as soon as they saw us. That being said, we were on edge the entire time. I personally thought that every time we rounded a bend, we would bump into Mamaroach, who would devour us for eating her mate, but it all came to naught when we emerged from the cave none the worse for wear.

I have to say, I almost lost it when I finally saw sunlight again. It had been so long since daylight had touched my skin, so once I exited the cave, I just stood there taking it all in. The landscape was, in a word, beautiful. Lush landscapes reminiscent of something you might see in a Lord of the Rings movie with long green valleys and hills. The cave, interestingly enough, let out into one of these lush valleys, and after taking in my surroundings, I went to the grass and dropped like a sack of turnips.

Looking up towards the sky, I saw at least three different suns. All three seemed to be fairly close to setting. I briefly wondered how all of this worked, from Verethragna's explanation. This was sort of like a pocket universe limited only to this world. How did these three suns work? Were they even stars? Why did they all set at once? Ultimately, I came to the decision that none of this actually mattered, at least in the short term.

As I abandoned my contemplation of cosmic bodies, Sieg moved into my view, holding what I recognized as a water skin and some kind of jerky. He offered me both, which I eagerly accepted. Not caring what kind of strange, otherworldly meat the jerky was, I quickly devoured it and took a long drink from the water skin. While the meat was very dry and spicy, it had been so long since I had a decent meal that it may have been the best thing I'd ever eaten.

After devouring the food, I looked over to Sieg and saw him staring at me in wonder. This made me uneasy, so I snapped at him,

"Why are you staring at me so intently, creep?" His face flushed red and he retorted,

"It's just that I can't believe that I got out of that cave with the essence. I was sure going into this thing that as soon as the mask's charge died, so would I, but somehow I succeeded. With the aid of a crazy ascender who spouts off some ridiculous story about being from the before and wielding half an ascended god. The most insane thing for Hephaestus sake is that with all of your crazy ash talk I’m actually starting to believe you. So you're either truly bonded to a trickster god or you really are this seemingly impossible existence." Taken aback by Sieg's frankness for a second, I quickly calmed down and gave him a sardonic smile.

"Don't worry about it buddy, when we finally get to some sort of civilization and you see how clueless I am about everything, I'm sure you'll believe me." The tension broken, Sieg let out a brief chuckle and dropped the issue.

After the confrontation, Sieg started rummaging through a bag. The bag contained a stash of supplies that he had left at the entrance of the cave. To be honest, there wasn't much in it apart from some basic food and a tent, but I was happy enough to have that. Exhausted, the two of us were eager to set up the tent and sleep for the night. However, before we could rest, there was one more thing to do.

I stood at the entrance of the cave, raised my sword for the last time that day, and fired an arc of golden light inward. The entrance quickly collapsed, blocking the only known exit from the cave that either of us knew of. As I turned away, I caught Sieg's eye. He gave me a single, pronounced nod of understanding. After that, the two of us retreated to the tent where we quickly fell asleep.

Right before I fell asleep, I was a bit nervous. I was sure that once my head hit the pillow, I would be seeing Paparoach again, or possibly something worse. I had always had a problem with nightmares after the incident and was sure that this escapade would only add to my burden. That being said, in my current situation, I might have a prophetic dream that would give me some idea of where to move from here, I surmised. So, I went to sleep ready for just about anything.

With all that in mind, I can say with full certainty that I was not ready for what actually happened in my dream that night. After finally falling asleep, when I opened my eyes again, I was back in Verethragna's golden world. Verethragna himself even stood before me, just as imposing as ever. The only difference was that instead of the armor he wore before, he now wore a golden tracksuit. As I stared at the glowing god, he said to me,

"Are you ready for a training montage?"