As we sat there eating, I puzzled over the patch of dirt. “Soriya… do you think the slimes ate this patch out here?”
Soriya looked up from a bite of her lunch and looked around curiously. “Hm. I think they might have, but they aren’t coming any further. I wonder…” She picked a piece of meat from her sandwich and threw it towards the cavern. Immediately, several green and blue blobs splortched forward and started tussling with each other over the scrap.
“Huh! How about that!”
“Well now I’m upset we didn’t pack more food as bait!”
Soriya shrugged. “We’ll figure something out! They’re just slimes, and it’s just the starter dungeon.”
I looked her in the eye. “Yes, but remember the pixies? Last time we got overconfident…”
Soriya flipped her hand at me again. “It’s fine, it’s fine! We’ll be careful! We have the poison, we have the smarts, we have the teamwork! Team mage is go!”
I sighed. It really is easy to see why we get pulled along on her adventures… I thought. But I promised mother! So! I started putting away the rest of my uneaten lunch. With this body I couldn’t eat as much as I’d packed anyway, and it was a good way to get inside.
I ate the tarts though!
Soriya watched me and shook her head. “Well if you’re going to sacrifice for team mage, I suppose I will as well.” She looked sadly as the slice of meat. “Goodbye, cruel fate…”
I pointed my finger at her sternly. “No! You are not going to guilt me over this! I will make you lunch if you ask me, and not before!”
She looked at me, eyes huge and shining, and her lower lip wobbling.
I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. “Oh my gosh, how do you do that!?”
She giggled. “Well you know, lots of practice…” She paused, and then nodded. “Alright. It’s a shame to waste spooky witch bargaining powers, but…” she clasped her hands in front of her and said “Lilyanna, my dearest, truest friend! Won’t you please take pity on a poor starving girl, naught but skin and bones-”
Her ‘earnest’ plea was interrupted my laughter. I clutched at my stomach, gasping for air. “Stop, stop! The torture is too much! I’ll make you lunch, I’ll make you lunch! My gosh, you’re worse than a cat!”
Soriya smirked at me with a superior smug expression, looking very catlike indeed.
“I shall take that as a compliment then.” She said, adjusting her witches’ hat.
I took a moment to get my breath back, and then we wrapped up the remains of lunch as little bait balls for the slimes, and packed everything into the basket.
We approached the cavern mouth, and the slimes hopped threateningly towards us. I threw a few bait balls to distract the slimes, and we held still as the slimes hopped this way and that, finally moving over towards the balls. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding, and we moved cautiously slowly past them against the wall.
I caught Soriya looking longingly at the slimes just starting to absorb the bait. “Good bye, sweet lunch. You were over too soon, and too briefly.” She mourned.
“Rather than bemoan some not even sandwiches, how about you tell me what you want for lunch when we get back?”
“Oh, good idea! Um… ok…” she tapped her chin thoughtfully then said “I like the tomato tortellini soup you make.”
I blinked, as otherme provided a mental image. “But that takes all day to make!” I protested.
“Good food is worth waiting for!” Soriya replied firmly.
Otherme provided memories of the taste, and my mouth started to water. It did remember as awfully tasty…
“Ok, fine. But you have to bring the mulberry sparkle you make!” I countered.
“What?! But that takes a whole week…!” Soriya glared at me. “You are using my own tactics against me. This will not stand!”
I smiled sweetly. “Will it sit down to tomato tortellini soup?”
Soriya glared at me, then shook her head. “I take it back; this Lilyanna is a terrible person!” She strode further into the cavern, calling back over her shoulder “A weeks’ time! I have to convert the potion brewing stand over to wine making! Don’t forget!”
I smiled quietly and followed after her admiring the way her hips swayed. Otherme whispered quietly in my mind, and I raised my staff, chanting softly.
“Spirits of air and light aid us, illuminate our path. Lux!” I whispered, and my staff burst into a soft glowing whiteness that threw shadows against the walls.
Twenty minutes later, we reached another dead end. I sighed. “This is a lot easier on a console! We should have taken map paper! And there’s not a single hidden area or chest to be found!”
Soriya shrugged casually. “True, but we got some earth aspected crystals out of it. I’m pretty sure this world doesn’t just have chests laying around, though it was a possibility.”
“Really? How do you figure?”
“Well what if the mana of the world condenses into chests and treasure naturally? Or if the world soul ‘feels’ there should be treasure in caves and dungeons?”
“Seriously?”
“Well, clearly not here, but it was a perfectly valid hypothesis.”
We traced our steps back, killing a few slimes and one particularly persistent cave bat that refused to take a hint or a bait ball. The slimes evaporated into mana, and the bat hit the ground and sizzled. I blinked, clutching my staff in surprise. “Hey… the bat didn’t vanish?”
“Oh!” Soriya blinked and I saw a brief faraway look in her eyes. Oh! That’s what I must look like when I’m talking with me!
Soriya blinked and sure enough started explaining. “Oh, I wondered about this! Now that I've seen it happen, I know! Any creature that’s absorbed enough ambient mana to turn into a monster will vanish when killed. Even humans do it! But sometimes, the mana will collapse around a relic, a form of physical token or object. Drops, in other words! So this world does do drops!”
“Huh!” I stepped forward, examining the ground where the monster’s had been. “You know that makes a lot more sense than a monster holding gold coins. Explains why not even manticore has a liver, also.” I reached down and picked up what looked like a small brightly colored marble. “So… some kind of pebble from the slime, I guess and a… bat wing?”
Soriya strolled over to me and took the marble. “Huh. Condensed mana. Useful for all kinds of potions or spell effects after processing. Not much good right now though.” She pocketed the ball. “I guess we’ll be doing some looting after all.”
I blinked. “Does this mean there are teams of harvesters? Monster hunters to get rare goods?”
Soriya blinked and nodded in surprise. “There must be! I suppose that’s where some of the regular reagents come from. I wonder why Breezewood doesn’t-” Her eyes widened in surprise. “Oh! Slimes don’t do well in captivity!” She laughed. “That makes a remarkable amount of sense!”
I nodded. “Ok! So… pocket change for young adventurers I guess!” I reached down and picked up the bat wing, tucking it into the basket. “I guess if all else fails, we can use these as bait too.”
Soriya frowned. “I don’t like the idea of spending our drops to avoid more drops! That just feels like a waste of time!”
I pointed my finger at her sternly. “We are not here to get rich. We are not here to get drops or loot. We are here to defeat the plot barreling down on us!”
Soriya pouted. “Well yeah, but one of those slime drops is worth 50 zeni!”
I blinked, and otherme goggled. “Wha… uh? Really?!”
Soriya giggled. “See? So, how about it?”
Otherme mumbled something under our breath.
“What was that?” Soriya said sweetly.
I huffed a sigh. “I said, I guess it won’t hurt to keep a few drops.”
Soriya grinned. “That’s what I thought. Monster hunting should be profitable!”
We progressed further into the caverns. I had to admit, I didn’t much like fighting monsters but I was sure glad we could see them before they ambushed us! What would a loading screen even look like in this world?! Or a blur dissolve? My musings were interrupted by Soriya’s soft “Woah” of awe. I looked up to see her standing slack jawed, Diabloi hanging limply from her hands as she stared at a rock lintel glowing with mystic light, apparently carved into the living rock of the cave. Curiously, the lintels pulsed runic shapes that I couldn’t recognize. I pulled up short next to her, hoisting my staff higher to let my spelllight reach further in.
“What’s this?”
“I don’t know!” she said, her voice still hushed with awe “But it’s amazing!”
I turned to look at her. “Run that by me again?”
She stepped forward, running her fingertips lightly over the shifting runes. “It’s in an incredibly ancient variant of the magic language! And these pillars! I’ve never seen anything like them before! These might be older than the Gods War!”
The what?
The ancient heresy that shattered the world and caused the gods to leave us. Otherme explained.
“Oh. I guess this is one of those worlds then?”
Soriya nodded reverently still stroking the lintels. “Looks like. And it’s real! Oh, I have to take notes!” She levitated her spellbook from her side and returned Diaboli to it with the now familiar magical light show. She reached into the book again and pulled out ink and pen, rapidly sketching notes and drawings.
“Um, Soriya, I hate to rush you but… well, I need to rush you?” I said apologetically. “We can come back, but the empire will be looking for us.” My hands flew to my mouth. “Oh my gosh, do you think this is why they level Breezewood!?”
Soriya finished taking notes, pulled out Diabloi and flipped her spellbook closed. She turned to me. “Hm, I don’t know, but it’s not a bad idea. In which case, we really do need to get moving. We’ll know soon enough!”
Three cavern corridors and two encounters latter, we reached a large chamber with a perfectly circular concave floor and smooth sand.
I looked around nervously. “I don’t like this. This looks like a boss arena!”
Soriya looked around and hummed thoughtfully. “Could be but… so soon? Seems more likely to be a midboss encounter, there’s no centerpoint for the dramatic reveal.”
“You know, does it have to be a midboss? Could it maybe just be… a cavern?”
Soriya turned to me slowly and raised on indigo eyebrow. “That sounds like original flavor Lilyanna. Of course there’s a midboss!”
I glared at her. “But does there have to be?! It seems so… nonsensical for there to be a midboss encounter!”
Soriya shook her head. “Not really. Not anymore than having a System, reincarnating in another world, or having another us in our heads?”
I stomped my foot in frustration. “None of those things should cause a random cavern to generate a midboss out of nowhere though!”
“It’s not out of nowhere though. This is the Cavern of Trials. This is an initiation rite, how we become adults. It even said something about testing our spirits, remember?” She got another faraway look in her eyes. “Oh I just know this is connected to those ruins and the God War somehow! This is so exciting!”
I rolled my eyes. “Is that original flavor Soriya?”
She smiled apologetically at me. “It’s both, actually. This really is so cool, this is the part I loved the best about any new anime or game… when the author really put in the work to make it all fit together and you could actually piece together the lore they’re created!”
“Really? I always got frustrated when the lore didn’t pan out.” I said, fishing in my basket for another bait ball.
“Hm? But that’s fine too, then you can fill in the blanks to make the story better, and often they’ll put out a worldguide to justify all the stuff after the fact, with new art!”
I shook my head, and hurled the bait as far as I could across the room. It sailed a fair distance, but I didn’t exactly have a future as a major league pitcher. Oddly, this didn’t bother me as much as I thought it should.
It’s just the itch cream. Otherme whispered.
Before I had time to formulate an answer, a large silvery grey black blob fell from the ceiling onto the bait with a loud slorb noise.
“Hah! See? Midboss!” Soriya said with satisfaction.
I sighed and clutched my staff. “Right. Let’s get to it." I raised my staff and conjured up the now familar feeling of holy light inside me.
"Blessed spirits of life!” I chanted “Be our armor and protect us! Barrier!” Shimmering magical circles of silvery white like circled us both, and a translucent field of force surrounded us. The big slime hopped towards us eagerly, not nearly so funny and whimsical as the smaller versions we’d dealt with so far.
Probably has something to do with the fact that it could swallow us whole! It’s taller than we are!
The slime lunged at me and my barrier splintered, the force of the slam shoving me back against a nearby wall hard enough that my teeth rattled. “Ow. Honey, that hurts.” I whimpered.
Soriya cocked Diaboli as she recited “Spirits of Water, heed my call and show my foes your fury! Glacies!” Diaboli’s muzzle glowed blue, and lance of bluewhite magical energy speared through the slime, leaving a crystalized trail of frozen goo inside it. “Yes!” Soriya pumped her fist and jumped in the air. “Ice works!”
“Maybe use {Quick Assessment} before wasting the mana on an attack spell?!” I grumbled at her.
“But I didn’t need to! I already used it on the other slimes!”
I glared at her. “Oh yes, why would a midboss have resistances a normal monster didn’t?!”
Rude. … But accurate. Still rude. Our otherself whispered in our mind. I felt a little bad… but only a little! Those pixies really hurt! I thought.
Soriya shot me a glance of irritation and fired off another glacies attack while dodging to the right. It went wide, and she stumbled on an outcropping, falling to one knee.
“Soriya!?” I lurched upright and fumbled in my belt pouches for one of the poison bags.
The slime sensed a chance and lurched for her, impacting her barrier solidly. The slime wobbled like jello, but my spell held firm, protecting Soriya from the attack.
I flung the pouch of poison at the slime. It tumbled over and over in midair, scattering grains of greenish purple landing squarely on the slime, which promptly glorped the bag inside itself.
“Yes!” I jumped up and down in excitement, swiftly followed by horrified realization, the slime didn’t seem to have slowed down at all, and was glorping its way at high speed towards me, eager for more!
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“Sugarpop, it’s immune?!”
Don’t you feel bad now for being so rude to Soriya earlier? Otherme whispered.
Soriya shouted back “Why would a midboss have unexpected resistances?!”
I glared daggers at her and thought self-righteously to myself No. I don’t feel bad at all.
Soriya lunged forward and shoved Diaboli into the slime, firing again. “Spirits of Flame, heed my call, unleash your power on my foes! Ignis!” The magical circle glowed brilliant red orange this time, and a roar of flame shot from Diabloi’s muzzle directly along the same wound that the ice spell had cored through the slime. The slime gave a wailing gurgle, and I saw frozen pieces shatter and turn to black ash. The slime charged Soriya, far faster than anything that made a ‘glorp’ sound should ever move, engulfing Diabloi and Soriya’s hands, tendrils grabbing at Soriya’s waist. Several of the potion bottles shattered under the flailing pseudopods of the giant slime. She shrieked and yanked at Diaboli, unable to pull it free.
“Soriya!” I ran towards her, flailing wildly with my staff, beating at the slime. The impacts made a muted ‘thub thub’ sound as the knotted spiral of my staff beat the surface of the slime. It didn’t look like it did much, but it distracted the slime long enough for Soriya to scramble backwards out of reach, her hands already blistering badly from the slime’s touch. Diaboli’s barrel gleamed bright gold in the glare of my light spell overhead.
Soriya fired, bluewhite streaks of ice spearing through the slime once more. It wobbled, blorbled, started to deflate, and then burst, a fountain of greyish black goo showering over the walls and us alike. It stung badly, but what stung worse was seeing three smaller slimes erupt from the gooey mass in the center of the room. Without even a pause, they leapt for us, even faster than big mother slime had moved, slamming into me and Soriya repeatedly. Repeated jelly flavored hammer blows to my arms torso, the slimes slamming into us and the goo from the slimesplosion burning at us.
“Soriya! This is looking bad!” I hollered at her, hurriedly chanting ““Blessed wind of the spirits, bind out wounds with care! Heal!” The gush of power welling up from below my feet and flooding through me, exploding into a shower of silver white light. The stabbing pains and ache of my torso eased and the burning sensation on my skin faded and I could see the angry red and blisters on Soriya’s skin healing over as well.
“Pardon me, ladies!" A dashing baritone male voice echoed in the cavern. "A gentleman never intrudes when he’s not wanted, but you seem in a bit of a bind!”
I turned towards it, my mouth falling open in shock.
No way! He’s not supposed to be here yet! I was supposed to be clear! What is he doing here!? He’s going to ruin everything!
My mind gabbled over itself as the boy dashed into the arena, drawing his sword with smooth motion, slashing at the slimes with a series of graceful lightning quick strokes almost too fast to follow.
Don’t you think we’d better help him? Otherme whispered quietly.
“O-oh! R-right!” I hurriedly spun out another Barrier to shroud the boy, barely in time. At the center of the room, he was the obvious center of attention-
Typical! Showoff! He’s going to ruin everything!
Maybe we should give him a chance? And we did need the help…
I ground my teeth together in frustration as the smaller slimes impacted the boy, bouncing off my protection barrier with small flashes of silverwhite light.
He waved cheerfully. “Thank you, miss healer!”
Oh spirits! Why?
I don’t see why we’re acting like this, he’s really cute and-
Stop! Stop right there! I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to know about it! I’m not listening to you! If I could have spared my hands from my spellcasting, I would have slapped them over my ears in an effort to stop my own voice.
With a tank in our group, soaking the hits and dishing out far more damage than he had any right to be inflicting, the fight was wrapped up quickly. Soriya’s ice and fire spells made a fantastic 1-2 combination, freezing the slimes in place and then shattering them with a strike of flame or a solid hit from the boy’s sword. With the last blow landed, the boy turned to us, and with a flourish of his sword to clean the gel off it, slid it back into his scabbard.
He approached us with a smile. A quick glance at Soriya revealed that she was smiling like a cat that ate a canary.
He held out his hand to us. “Hello there! My name is Eshaan Nakamu, freelance adventurer.” Soriya’s pleased smile flipped upside down then vanished so quickly I wasn’t sure I’d seen it. She took his hand in hers and shook it. “Hello! We’re very pleased to meet you, Eshaan! My name is Soriya, and this is my friend Lilyanna.”
Oh spirits, he is so incredibly cute!
Stop it! Stop thinking about that! It was very hard to ignore though, it was flooding through most of my brain in the same way I couldn’t stop noticing the guild proctor was darkly handsome.
He was about 10cm taller than me-
The perfect height otherme informed me
-with brown hair and smiling brown eyes. Tapered chin with just a touch of strength in the jaw, gave him a firm but approachable face.
Would you stop that!?
I don’t see what your problem is. As you told me, there’s no harm in admiring the scenery. Otherme’s voice was smug and prim in our head.
I found myself staring uncomfortably intently at his bare arms with their nicely defined muscles-
Alright, fine! I get it! He’s hot! FINE!
I stepped forward and pointed my finger at him accusingly. “What are you doing here?!” I demanded.
Soriya grabbed my hand, and pulled me to the side. “Lilyyy, maybe we should let him come with us, he might be friends with some friends of ours!?” She hissed in my ear, and then, louder “Ah, sorry! My friend is a little spooked from the slime attack! Hahaha! You sure saved us there!”
I blinked, and pulled my brain out of the pink fog that was threatening to overtake it, and really looked at him. That movement… that took training. Real quality training. You didn’t get that from just swinging a sword in play. Those moves, too clean and precise. His sword…
That’s the curved blade style of the Empire, and that hilt doesn’t look like a standard knock off. And there’s a bare patch on the left sleeve of his tunic where something’s been removed… he’s Empire! What is… oh no!
I forced a smile, and let myself dip into an apologetic bow to him. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for being so rude, and after you were so nice to rescue us! It’s just… everything has been a complete shock!”
He laughed, rubbing at the back of his head with embarrassment.
People really do that?!
“Well, I’d like to claim some sort of divine providence, but honestly it was just luck! I’m just happy I could help!”
My lips twitched, and otherme suddenly said “I really am so glad if you could come along! Things are very strange for us right now, so I hope you’ll forgive my forwardness… are you an isekai too?”
My eyes widened in surprise, and I could see Soriya turning to me, her mouth open in astonishment, then she looked at the boy again with narrowed eyes.
He blinked in confusion, and shook his head in puzzlement. “I’m sorry, what? I don’t… am I a world? I don’t understand.”
Oh good, he’s not. Otherme said.
He could be lying to us? “Are you from another world?” I said, staring up at him intently.
He blinked several more times, then laughed nervously. “No? Don’t tell me you are?”
Soriya glanced at me then spoke up. “Actually, she is.”
She’s backing our play, though she doesn’t understand what we’re doing. What are we doing?!
We’re trying to find out if he’s an isekai like we are! It would just… be so typical for him to be one!
Well he’s not. Look at him, he’s fascinated! By us! … That’s not such a bad thing?
I almost swallowed my tongue. I’d just made it worse! Now I really am the mysterious maiden with the exotic past!
I don’t see why you’re so upset… I like the way he looks at us like that.
No. You don’t! He’s Empire! Something… really bad is coming. He told us he’s a freelance adventurer, but he’s wearing empire gear and holding an empire sword! And, and… my eyes opened wide and I pointed at him accusingly as little bits suddenly lined up in my head. “You! It was you! You won the fishing contest, didn’t you!?”
Eshaan gaped at me, his mouth opening and closing silently.
Soriya spoke up, her voice purring with satisfaction. “Oh good catch Lily!” she giggled. “Yes, it had to be him.”
He swallowed and then laughed nervously again, and I clearly caught the difference this time. The echo of hollowness… I suddenly realized I could tell when he really was trying to hide something!
Well this is an unexpectedly useful talent we have…
“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “Yeah, you got me. That was me alright. I just happened into your town-“
He’s lying!
“-and well, I’m a fan of fishing, it’s an amazing contest-”
Even if that part is true, the cute boy is lying to us! Genuine outrage from my otherself now.
“-and so I took a spot in the contest! And it somehow turned out this way! I got a nice prize too; your town is really generous.” He smiled at me.
I offered my most sincere smile back, which I could feel was badly threadbare. We just were really no good with lying, even with our body language.
“Well! It’s… certainly good of you to help us out.” Why is he here, why is he following us… I shared a glance with Soriya, who nodded very subtly to me. Right. He’s like a burr. We can’t get rid of him, and have I mentioned how angry I am that we got here early to avoid him and now he’s here anyway!?
I smiled awkwardly again. “If you’d like to accompany us, we can’t promise much in the way of treasure or fame. Or really anything at all. Breezewood uses the Caverns as a coming-of-age trial, and we wanted to be ready for whatever came of it.”
He frowned at me, and I could tell he could hear the false note in my voice. “So… you’re from another world, and you’re turning 18 soon?”
I nodded. “That’s right. And so we’re here.”
He smiled broadly. “Well that’s great! I recently turned 18 just a few weeks ago! I’m trying my hand at adventuring now that I’m an adult!”
He just did it again! otherme was outraged, and she almost stomped our foot in frustration. I can’t believe I thought he was cute! What a rotten person he is!
Easy girl. He’s here for a reason. And if we’re careful, we can find out what. If we’re not careful… this could be the flag we were fighting so hard to avoid. I pushed the thought of failure down, swallowing a sour lump in my stomach. I refuse to give up. I absolutely refuse!
I turned and walked over to where the slime… make that slimes, had exploded, and looked down, hoping to find a drop. Glittering in the puddle, I found what looked like several translucent grey marbles. I gave a little cheer of excitement and scooped them up.
“Look, Soriya! Drops!”
She sauntered over to me, and peered into my hands. “So they are. Well done!” She lowered her voice. “You know he’s empire, right?”
I nodded hurriedly. “Yeah, of course.”
She grunted in surprise, picking up one of the marbles, and examining it. “Huh. Surprised, I thought you said you hadn’t seen him.”
“What? I’ve never seen him before?”
Soriya looked up at me, eyes full of surprise. “But you… he was the cute one I saw behind the Guild Proctor!”
I blinked, my own eyes widening in understanding. “Oh!” I glanced over at him, but he appeared to be politely ignoring our conversation, and examining the cavern walls. I turned back to Soriya. “No. After you hinted I should look closer, I saw it. His combat tunic is missing a patch on the shoulder, and his sword has the imperial crest on it.” I scowled. “So he was behind the guild proctor, but expects us to believe he just happened by?” I shook my head in frustration. “I guess he’s one of the not very bright ones then.”
Soriya smiled blandly at me. “I thought I was the {Loremaster} here. Those are some keen eyes for a goody two-shoes staff girl.”
I shrugged. “He’s the hero of the story. Maybe not my story, but he’s the hero of the story. There’s no way he’s not special in lots of ways. So I just had to look for them.”
Soriya nodded in appreciation, then dropped the marbles back into my palm and wiped her fingers on her robes. “Slimy, yet satisfying. Hold onto those, and we’ll sell them when we get back.”
“You don’t want to hold them?”
“I’ve already got plenty from our previous encounters. These look special, I’ll look at them later when we have a chance.”
“Hm, alright.” I said, rummaging in my girdle pouches for a space to put them, then wiping my hands on my cloak. Soriya was right, they were slimy. My thoughts were interrupted by Eshaan calling to us.
“Ladies, I think I’ve found something interesting here!” he tapped his sword hilt against a rock outcropping. A singing crystal note filled the cavern, and flickering runes lit up the wall in strange branching patterns like a tree or circuit board. “I think this cavern might be some sort of ancient structure! It’s incredibly old! Fascinating!”
Huh. He looks like he’s actually interested in t-
“Are you interested in the past?” Otherme spoke up.
Hey, what are we doing? He’s a bad guy, remember?! The bearer of plot!
He’s interested! There’s nothing wrong with knowing more about him!
“Ah? Eh heheh.” He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment again.
Seriously?! Who does that?!
“Ah, well yeah. I’ve always been interested in those kinds of things. Part of why I want to be an adventurer, the past is fascinating!” His eyes shown with genuine excitement and interest. “But you know, you have to be an imperial scholar to get permission to even get near that kind of thing, and the entrance exams are a bit over my head. So!” He shrugged and gestured around. “But I think I recall something like this…” he tapped the flat of his blade against one of the glowing crystal lines, and a grinding rumbling noise filled the cavern as a section of wall slid aside revealing a neatly worked stone corridor.
“Hah!” he said in satisfaction, then bowed to us, gesturing to the corridor. “Ladies, please allow me to escort you!”
Soriya and I glanced at each other then at him. Tighter than a burr indeed. How dare he be useful. I sniffed and strode past him, Soriya following.
Somehow, I found Eshaan walking next to me. “So you’re from another world? What’s that about?” he asked eagerly.
I heaved a sigh, feeling a surge of irritation as his gaze drifted down to my chest as I did.
“It’s not very interesting or complicated.” I said, trying to parse carefully so I wouldn’t trip on my own inability to lie. “I arrived on my mother’s doorstep as a baby, but when I got older, memories of another world started to appear in my head. I realized I’d been born in another world, and delivered to this one. There aren’t very many clues to how or why any of it happened, so I’ve always been looking for any hints of my past. There haven’t been very many.”
Ugh. I feel dirty! That was almost as bad as a bald lie!
But we didn’t trip over our own tongue, or sound completely false, now did we?
A sullen pout from my otherself.
Eshaan’s eyes were shining with excitement as he looked at me though. “But that’s so incredible! Do you remember anything else? What was your other world like?!”
I glanced over at him, frowning unhappily. “Eshaan, please. I know you’re excited about this, but I’d really rather not think about it right now. It’s a bit of a painful memory for me and I’m not an exhibit at a Spyre conservatory.” I said. And with any luck, I never will be, once I get this millstone around my neck gone!
Otherme still felt a stab of anxious fear and anger at the thought of deliberately destroying her pendant, but focusing on the fact we were doing it to save Breezewood made her relent.
To his credit, Eshaan was immediately apologetic. “Of course, I’m sorry. You must have had to repeat this story a hundred times.” I caught him glancing at my chest again, and then felt a little chill run down my spine.
No. Not my chest. He’s thinking about my pendant. If he’s the guild proctor’s cat’s paw, then… I shook my head.
“Thank you for understanding, Eshaan.” I said, giving him a little half bow of thanks. Soriya was scribbling notes frantically in her book of shadows as we slowly worked our way down the corridor. It was interesting though, the circuit pattern looked as though this was some sort of techno dungeon. But those were always one of the very last locations! But the interplay of magic, a System… hm. I wonder if the System is related to the technology-
My thoughts were again interrupted as a section of corridor wall slide aside with a low hum, and we found ourselves staring out into a vast natural cavern chamber, lit with glowing filigree runes, like a fractal tree, an infinitely complex pattern that was echoed and echoed again. The runes all lead to the center of the chamber, and pulsed in slow rhythm. I looked over at Soriya, who was staring around in giddy wonder. I twitched a smile. “Think this is enough of a boss arena for you?”
She nodded wordlessly, while Eshaan looked puzzled. “Boss arena? Did you come here to work?”
I glanced over at him in surprise. Uh. I guess this world really doesn’t think of things like bosses or in video game terms, despite the System? That’s interesting.
“Um, no. It’s… it’s a term Soriya and I use when we’re expecting to encounter a difficult enemy. They seem to happen in large areas like this.”
Right on cue, the ground started to rumble and shake. The door to the corridor behind us slid closed, returning to it’s disguise as normal cavern rock.
A glowing circle of runes lit up in the floor and ceiling, at the intersection of numerous runelines, and a translucent shape started to rise from the floor.
Oh, it’s a dragon?
What are you talking about?! IT’S A DRAGON!
Don’t worry, it’s only the starter area-
IT’S! A! DRAGON!
“Greetings to you, brave souls of the village!” The dragon’s voice rumbled and thundered around us. Really a bit overdone, frankly. “You have come far in your search for wisdom, to seek the depths of your soul! I commend your bravery and your strength!” The dragon boomed in the cheesiest cliched way possible. “But now your final test, the ultimate trial! What do the depths of your very soul hold!? Can you face the darkness within yourself?!”
Brilliant beams of purple black light shot out from the dragon’s maw and hit each of us in the stomach.
It hurts! Like flames and fire burning inside me! Like something was being pulled out of me, peeled off of my soul.
The room swam before my eyes, the world growing dark. A familiar tension filled me, and then… The singing agony, darkness filling my vision and blurring the room. And a familiar ringing snap-
“Ahh.” The voice was familiar and unfamiliar. A purring satisfaction of pleasure and discovery. “Ah, this is so much better!” I wiped at my streaming eyes, and struggled to look. There, below the ethereal outline of the dragon, was… me! Proper me! Benjamin Williams! Ordinary, boring just me… as I had been.
“Oh, this is…” he turned his hands this way and that, examining them, looking up at us in mild interest. “How curious!” he looked up at us. “Oh there I am!” he tsked with disappointment. “And what have we here?” he turned to his side, where flickering negative outlines shimmered. “Tch. Pitiful. We can do so much better than this.” He reached out, and clenched his fingers and pulled and suddenly the dragon let out a deafening scream, a sound I hoped never to hear again. I fell to my knees, clutching my ears, feeling a trickle of fluid dribble from my nose. The salty copper taste of blood on my lips, and the sound ended.
When I could focus again, the dragon was gone, and I saw the two figures standing next to him had grown clear and sharply defined. An Asian woman, small and frail, her lank black hair hanging in matted strands over her eyes, and… was that, Eshaan? Eshaan, but taller, wearing some sort of scholar’s robe, holding a book?
The doppelganger of me looked at each, and tsked. “Interesting. A shadow of a shadow, not like me at all.” He looked down at his hands and clenched his fists, then looked up, stepping out of the arena. The lines of rippling runes and light immediately died. That was the right word. Died. As though something living had been eliminated. The only light remaining in the arena was the small spark of my Lux spell far overhead, shedding what suddenly felt like far too feeble of a radiance. His feet-
My tennis shoes. I just bought those… flickered through my mind
-hit the ground, and then two pairs of feet behind him joined them. He strode up to me confidently, taking my chin roughly in his hand. A buzzing shock of something shot through both of us, and he yanked his hand away. “Well! That was most unpleasant!”
Eshaan somehow managed to get his tongue back, pushing his way between us… me? Ourselves?
“Who are you?! What’s going on here? Why are you treating miss Lilyanna so badly!?” He demanded.
Benjamin’s eyes were cold and black, his voice curling smoke as he said “Lilyanna, is it? You poor fool, you don’t even know what you’re trying to protect, do you?” He looked past Eshaan’s shoulders to me. “Pitiful. Is this all you are now? Is this all you are willing to do? Have we always been so weak?” He muttered to himself. He sounded almost… bemused. “You cannot see the chains that shackle you, but soon enough you will understand.” He spoke louder, spreading his arms wide. “Rejoice! I will free you. I will free everyone! I will show this world what freedom means!”
My eyes felt like saucers. That’s… that’s a villain speech. That’s a Kefka speech! What the honey… why is my shadow self a villain?! My knees felt weak and I had to cling to Eshaan for a moment to stay upright. Oh… oh no. This… this is my break. This is my fault!
He… it? Snapped his fingers, and the Asian woman and scholar Eshaan crossed over to him. He made to stride past us, Eshaan moved to jump in front of him.
My eyes bugged out and I grabbed Eshaan’s hand. “No! You mustn’t!”
The shadow Benjamin stopped, his eyes turning to Eshaan. “No. I really think he should.” He smiled coldly, then turned to me. “Don’t you want to be free of him?” He asked in a genuinely puzzled tone. “Isn’t that the point of this entire folly? Or have you fallen so far? Tch! I suppose it’s traditional to show you what you’re dealing with…” he smiled at me and I felt my knees turn to fear jelly. “But again… why be such a traditionalist?” his voice grew hard and cold as he sneered at me. “You’ve got that covered so well, don’t you, Lilyanna?” He shook his head, and made a single pass with his hand. The world swam, swirling in a flash of silver and ebony, my skin burning with ice and fire, and then he was gone, along with the other two… They must have been... Soriya and Eshaan’s shadow doubles?
I sank to my knees my legs splaying out to either side of me. I felt hot tears welling up. My lower lip trembled and I almost started crying right then and there.
It was my fault. It was my fault! I came to stop the game’s plot, and instead I’ve created a worldeater?! It’s not fair!