How long has it been since she first got here? How much time has she spent…waiting for Diana to, wake up? Will she ever wake up? Could this be it…for her?

“…No.”

No! Not yet! She might be sinking into her own pool of blood right now, but she’s a slime! She doesn’t need blood to live…does she?

Actually, can’t she just turn her into a zombie? That way, she’ll be alive, and she wouldn’t ever need to worry about dying anymore! If that happens, then everyone wins! But…

–Will she still be the same?

When humans are transformed into zombies, it’s widely known that their ego breaks down along with their mind, leaving nothing but an empty husk, living on with no sense of purpose or will of their own.

–But she’ll be alive, wouldn’t she?

But could she still call that living? If you’re alive, but you don’t think, can that still be called being alive? Rei was lucky to have some of her old personality stick through her after she was reborn, but would Diana get the same treatment?

If she transforms her, will she still…be Diana?

“DIANA!!!”

“…!”

Suddenly, from the distance, Rei heard someone else call the name of her friend.

It was a woman, wearing an outfit that Rei had never seen before. In her hands was a weapon of some kind, and on her belt hanged many objects that was foreign to her. And the smell of this ‘person’, wasn’t pleasant. It smelled the same, as this damned dungeon.

She couldn’t let anyone close to her, not even one! She’ll wait here by her side, until she wakes up!

“Hya?! W-Wait, Rei! I’m not an enemy!!”

“…?”

She was ready to strike her claws at her, but to her surprise, the ‘woman’ raised her arms into the air and called out. And, for some reason, this woman knew her name, the name that Diana had given her.

“…!”

Actually, after she felt her scent some more, wasn’t her smell similar to Diana’s?! How could this be?! Her face was different, her features were different, and her voice was different, but, somehow, the aura and her smell were…similar to hers.

“I-Is she okay?!”

“…Waiting.”

She couldn’t figure out if she was an enemy or not, but she’ll allow her to come close. If she turns out to be enemy, then she’ll make sure she’ll never leave here alive.

“N-No…Diana…”

Nestra came as fast as she could, but now, she could only look on in horror, as the person she was meant to protect, was lying down into her own blood. An arm and a leg of hers were missing, her face was dirty and bloodied, her magical red cloak was torn apart.

She pressed her hands on her cheek. It was cold, but-

‘There’s still some left!’

It wasn’t as cold as a corpse, which could only mean one thing! Her body may have died, and her blood might be everywhere, but she wasn’t completely dead yet!

“But…How…?”

Even if she had the ability to turn into a slime, she was still a human nonetheless. If that’s the case, then how was this possible?

“…Mana.”

“Eh? What do you…I see!”

No, Rei’s right! This wasn’t Earth, so normal earthly logic wouldn’t work in this fantastical world. Her blood might have left her body, and she herself might not be conscious of it, but her Mana was still there!

But, it won’t stay like that forever. Even now, since her consciousness was floating somewhere else, her mana wasn’t being kept in, and was seeping out into the air around her. If she can’t stop that outflow, all her mana will disappear, and with that,

–She’ll die.

To make matters worse, this entire prison was in chaos right now. The beast that Diana had helped to create was now rampaging through the underground tower, and the three judges were thrown into chaos. The walls were breaking down, and an enormous amount of magic was dangerously leaking into the outside world.

It doesn’t stop there. That monster will eat and absorb everything it comes across. Monsters, people, even its own kin. When that happens, it grows larger and larger, more powerful as more mana circulates within it.

And once that beast eats the three judges, and destroys this tower, they will be next.

They needed to get out of here, FAST.

“Rei! Protect Diana for a sec!”

“…………Un.”

But, her own safety and escape comes later. Right now, she needed to save the person she was created to protect. Luckily, as she was descending down this broken dungeon, she was able to scavenge some mana potions, so this should help prolong the timer for a bit!

Although, she had to force feed it a bit, since Diana was, dying and all.

“Rei! You can sense mana, right?! How’s Diana doing?!”

“……Mana, fill…But, leaking.”

It worked! It was still leaking out, so Nestra pulled Diana out from her pool of blood and cleaned her up. She wiped the many bruises she had and applied as many rolls of bandages she had stored up in her pack, in hopes that the leaking decreases for a bit.

But they couldn’t sit idly here and wait, they needed to leave, NOW. The tremors from that giant beast was still pulsing through the entire tower, and it’ll be here any moment. So, carrying Diana on her back, she was about to run off, but Rei stopped her.

“…Where?”

“W-We need to get the treasury, at the last floor! There should be an ultimate potion there!”

“…Ultimate, potion?”

An ultimate potion, it was something Nestra had never seen herself, but as a creation of the master, she had a vague idea of what its effects were. It’s like the Full Restore in Pokémon, restoring both her HP and MP.

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If they can get that, then Diana should be good to go!

“If we get that, Diana should wake up!”

“!...Then, follow.”

“Yeah! Come on, let’s go!”

“…Un!”

……………………

Everywhere they went, was a complete and utter disaster. Monsters were running around everywhere, trying to avoid the ‘sisters’. The walls and floor had cracks and holes all over the place. And many of the stairs had collapsed, making their traversal much harder than it needed to be.

If she had been counting correctly, she and Rei should be at the 43rd floor by now. There were only 50 floors in Tartarus, with the last being the boss room with the three judges. And behind them, lied the treasury, and there, lied the Ultimate potion!

Obviously, they were in a hurry. The clock was counting down after all, and Nestra’s supply of mana potions weren’t infinite. She was only carrying 15 to begin with, and 9 of them had already been used up.

So they should really be running, but…

“Eh? Is that Slimey?”

“…Slimey.”

To their surprise, embedded into the wall like some sort of ornament, was their beloved slimy friend, Slimey!

Before, since Slimey was being Slimey, he became prey to a floor trap, and was swallowed up into darkness. After getting his pass checked, and got his designated area, he was sent down into here and was now stuck in a wall of cement.

“…Break.”

*Boom!*

Although, Nestra had the ultimate punching machine Rei on her side, so this little wall of enchanted cement was nothing to her. And out, came their slimy mascot!

*Boink, boink!*

Slimey was back, but this was no time to rejoice. Diana was barely hanging on, and the ultimate potion was still 7 floors away. Thankfully, despite being Slimey, he seems to be understand the weight of the situation, and quickly joined up with the rescue team.

Although, now that Slimey’s back, where the hell was Crystal? Oh well, Crystal was strong, so she should be able to hold her own fort for a bit. Feeding Diana another mana potion, the rescue team turned towards the hole in the floor, and descended further in.

…………………

Floor 47, 2 more floors to go before the boss room. And that would’ve been great new, if not for this.

“What, the…f*ck…?”

“……”

*Boink…*

When they arrived on the floor, it was a complete ruin. No, even calling it simply a ‘ruin’ might be sugar-coating it a bit.

The entire floor was missing, the walls were destroyed complete, and marks of explosions could be seen all around. There was no mistake about it, this kind of damage, could only be caused by that giant beast.

While it did mean that they didn’t need to go through floor 47, the floor below it was, a complete hell. A monstrous number of those monsters could be seen roaming around, eating up the other inhabitants of this tower.

And, was it just her, or are these monsters bigger than the normal ones?

“…This, way.”

“Eh? Wait, that’s…”

W-Wait a sec, Rei’s joking, wasn’t she? There was no way they were going to survive jumping down into that crowd of monsters!

“…Have, plan.”

“Huh? O-Oh, what is it?”

Sadly, Rei was a ghoul, which meant that her thinking would usually be much, simpler. Holding out her fists, she jumped straight into the fray!

“H-Hey!”

What was her plan, you ask? Well-

*BOOOOOOMM!!!!!*

Using her fists, she struck the floor with as much power she had, and blew open the entire floor, causing everything to tumble down! From the beginning, Rei never planned to fight the monsters, but still! This was madness!

“D-Damnit! Slimey, hold on!”

*B-Boink!!*

With Slimey in her hands and Diana on her back, she readied herself, and jumped down! But to her surprise, Rei wasn’t done yet! Once again, she mustered up her strength, and struck the next floor, causing it to crumbled and fall apart, paving the way into the final floor!

“T-That’s-!”

It seems, this job just got a lot harder. Because there, battling against the three judges, the last boss of this prison, was the giant beast Diana accidentally created. And…The monster seems even bigger than last time.

This was bad! VERY bad!

But before all that, she needed to slow her fall, or else she’ll end up flat when she hits the ground. And if that happens, she won’t be able to get the ultimate potion, would she?

“R-Rei! I’ll get the ultimate potion! Cover me!”

“Un.”

And so, the two had a quick exchange and split ways! Nestra moved her falling body close to the wall and managed to grab on to a ledge that was sticking out from the broken walls. Slimey accidentally let go and fell, but he’ll be alright! Fall damage can’t do anything to him! She also managed to get down onto the floor straight after.

Meanwhile, Rei went straight on towards the giant monster. With her fists readied up, she aimed her strike, and sent a good Detroit Smash onto the giant’s head! The ripples that spread out from that attack pulsed through its entire body, even causing it to flinch for a good second!

And in that moment, the three judges that were below combined their strengths, and fired off a giant beam of mana, light, and darkness, blasting right into the giant’s stomach. But, even that combined attack, wasn’t enough to put it down.

Rei gracefully landed on the ground, and began running around the giant’s legs, punching and clawing it as the giant continued to ignore her.

Then again, her attacks were nothing but little pokes for the beast. In fact, it seems to have gotten bigger from last time, and much, much stronger!

But of course, defeating this beast wasn’t Rei’s main objective. All she needed to do, was to distract and stop it long enough for Nestra to hack open the treasury’s door, and head in to take the ultimate potion for Diana.

*GGGGGGUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUAAAAAUUUUAAAA*

Ah, crap, it’s charging up an enormous beam attack in its mouth! The three judges saw that, and the blood in their faces pretty much left them as the monster looked down at them, and fired the beam off!

Luckily, the judges were able to survive that beam attack, but things were not looking good! Two of three judges were heavily wounded, and the third was barely holding on. And if they fall, Rei’s coming up next!

So, using her sharp claws, she turned into Spiderman and started to climb up the giant’s body. ‘If the legs are no good, then attacking the head should work’ was what she had in mind as she scaled up the enormous titan.

And befitting its size, the beast was very tall, maybe even taller than 40 Diana’s stacked up into one!...That’s a terrible example.

Anyways, the two remaining judges quickly caught onto her plan and continued their attack, hopefully distracting it long enough for Rei to reach the giant’s head. This wasn’t supposed to happen, but they’ll make it damn sure that titanic beast meets its death!

*GGGGGGGGGGUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUAAAUUUAAAAUUAAA*

“Ngh…! Come on, open already!!”

As Rei was hiking up the beast, Nestra was busy trying to hack open the door to the treasury, and this task was hard as hell!

As a creation of this dungeon, Nestra had knowledge of how the mechanisms worked. Normally, this door would open after the challengers defeated the three judges, but they were quite busy right now, so that’s out of the picture!

Using her extensive knowledge, both as a creation of this dungeon and as an alternate version of Diana, she broke open the mechanisms of the door, and fiddled around with the controls, trying to find a way to make it open.

And also, no, she couldn’t just force the door open by exploding it or something. The door was near indestructible, and the door was forcibly stuck in place until something opens it from the inside.

But she’s really on the clock right now! Diana’s MP was still leaking out, and she only had 5 remaining in her-

*GGGGGGGGGGUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!*

“W-What was that?!”

Suddenly, an ear destroying scream echoed out on full volume. Although she needed to hurry, she took a moment to look outside, just to see what was happening. And-

*BOOOOMM!!!*

For some reason, a giant eyeball just decided to plummet down onto the stone floor. Obviously, it belonged to that beast, but why the hell did its eyeball just pop out all of a sudden?!

She looked up, and instantly knew why.

‘R-Rei!?’

Like in the Shadow of The Colossus, Rei was running all over the giant monster’s head, stabbing her sharp claws into the monster’s eyes to try and scoop them out. Of course, that’s not so easy, since the monster’s head was quite hard, and there were 8 eyes in total, so, yeah.

Not an easy task, could almost call it a ‘Colossal’ task.

…Ahem! Anyways, enough watching, she needed to get back to opening this damn door! And she would’ve immediately continued, but some obstacles had come to mess her day up even more!

“Oh, come on.”

Circling around her, was a total of 4 of these ‘sisters’, each already transformed and ready to chomp her head out. To make things worse, she’s out of ammo! Which means, she couldn’t use her one-hit KO guns! Woo~!

*GGUUAAAAUUAUA!!!*

“D-Damniittt!!!!”

Pulling out her steel knife, she engaged in a melee combat against these vile monsters. Unlike her skills in firing her rifle, her skill with the knife was…amateur at best. Maybe even worse than what Diana had back then!

Thankfully, she didn’t need to fight against them for very long, because as she was about to strike again, a series of dark blades came in and sliced them in half! That trademark attack, there’s no doubt about it!

“Crystal!”

“Haa? How do you know my name? Agh, whatever. Continue working, I’ll take it from here.”

“T-Thanks!”

Crystal has appeared on the battlefield! Being a newcomer to the field, she wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but there was a big monster, Rei was fighting against it, there were also many smaller monsters, and Diana was lying there lifelessly. Put in some thought, and she had the basic gist of what was happening.

With this, the team has been assembled, and the battle of survival, continues on!