Falling, falling—I, Obyron of the House of Swords, was falling from an incredible height.
And as I reached the ground, my consciousness finally drifted awake.
I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, trying to shake off the sudden drowsiness that clung to me.
Squinting, I took in my surroundings.
Though I was still inside a cave, I could tell at a glance this wasn't the same one as before. The floor was muddier, and faint traces of human-made structure were hidden in its form—subtle enough that one had to look carefully to notice.
Suddenly, with a jolt, I looked for Lycrane.
'Did I lose her while we were being teleported?' The thought pressed in.
But the sight of her standing beside me, staring off somewhere, calmed me down.
"Hey, where are we?" I asked, brushing dirt from my clothes.
Without turning back, Lycrane replied indifferently, "Oh, you're up. Come here for a second."
"What…?" I muttered, but walked up to her anyway.
'Why is she always like this? Moving at her own pace, not caring about others…' I criticised inwardly.
Looking down, I saw a small pillar-like object made of pure emerald stone.
On its surface, faint words were etched:
"Give thy life to pass."
'This…' I drew in a sharp breath and looked at Lycrane.
"That can't be right, can it? It says we need to give our lives to proceed. But if we give our lives, then the only place we're going is the afterlife!" My irritation bled into my voice.
"I know what it says," Lycrane replied calmly. "But I think the term 'life' is symbolic here." She finally glanced at me. "You know mana is the essence of life. So, what are the chances this is asking for mana, not our actual lives?" She muttered the last part more to herself than to me.
'Then…'
"Then try imbuing it with a bit of your mana," I suggested.
"I tried. Mine didn't work. Yours might. Try it." She flatly dismissed my suggestion.
"Ah… so you already did? And it didn't work. Then I'm absolutely positive mine won't either. Why bother?" I grumbled.
"Do it." Her voice was deadpan, her eyes steady.
What's wrong with her? Annoyance filled me, but I pressed my hand against it and poured my mana into it.
At once, it vibrated and began to glow. Flames roared up, rising like the fires of hell and obscuring everything before us.
I reeled back in shock.
'It worked?'
But before the thought could settle, another struck me like lightning.
I gasped and rushed toward the fire, trying to put it out.
'We're in a cave. Oxygen is limited. Fire consumes oxygen. This is a death trap!'
I flailed my arms uselessly, looking like an idiot, until Lycrane calmly used a water spell, dousing the fire in an instant. I was left soaked to the bone.
I clicked my tongue and turned away, ignoring her pitiful look, scanning to see if anything had changed.
It didn't take long to realise: five tunnels now stood before us. Tunnels that hadn't even existed a moment ago.
I looked at Lycrane and asked, "What now?"
"This one," she said, starting toward the third tunnel on the left. Without lingering on her steadfast attitude, I followed behind her.
…
I wasn't sure how long I had been walking. It felt like ages, long enough that sweat clung to my skin and my breaths grew ragged with exhaustion. The tunnel stretched endlessly, heat radiating from the walls as though I were trapped inside a giant oven that was only beginning to warm.
To break the heavy silence, I glanced at Lycrane. "So, what exactly are we looking for? Uh… we are looking for something, right? It kind of feels like that."
Lycrane, ever the picture of elegance and grace, showed no signs of sweat or fatigue. Not even a change in her breathing. That was SSS-rank talent for you.
After a while, she sighed, glanced at me, and asked something entirely unrelated to my question.
"You lived in a church orphanage, yes? Saint Randolph was the head preacher there, if I recall correctly."
"Uh… yes? Do you know him?"
Once again, she ignored my question and pressed further. "What kind of man is he?"
I paused for a moment before responding. "He didn't have many standout traits. Like most head preachers, he was kind, warmhearted, merciful… and perhaps a bit philosophical."
"Oh…" She raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Did he ever tell you who your parents were?"
"Wow, that came out of nowhere. Why do you want to know?"
Lycrane stopped and fixed me with a piercing gaze that made me feel uneasy.
Then, just as suddenly, she looked away and continued walking as if nothing had happened.
'What was all that about?' I wondered as I walked alongside her.
'Could it be that she's hinting at something? Maybe her recruiting me has something to do with my parents? What if she's my long-lost sister?! Now that… would be something,' As I pondered, my imagination began to take flight, following a rather absurd train of thought. Was this heat starting to get the better of me?
Lost in those thoughts, I suddenly collided with something.
I stumbled backwards, and someone—or something—crashed to the ground with a soft thud. As my vision cleared, what I saw made my pupils dilate.
It was the body of a naked, headless woman lying on the stone floor. From the stump of her neck sprouted smooth, trunk-like growths, thick and fleshy like those of an elephant. In their centre bloomed a massive sunflower, its vines piercing deep into the pale flesh around her throat, wriggling and squirming beneath the skin.
"What the fuck is that?" should have been my first thought, but what happened next left me utterly numb.
The grotesque body convulsed violently on the ground. Her arms flailed, her legs stretched wide, and her stomach began to swell—bloated like a grotesque flesh balloon. A chorus of tragic, distorted cries echoed throughout the tunnel, forcing me to clap my hands over my ears.
Then, with a sickening crack, the tip of her grotesquely distended belly split open and burst, splattering blood and yellow pus everywhere.
Something akin to a monstrous infant encased inside a translucent membrane, was writhing in the mess of gore and ruptured flesh that had once been her body.
In the next instant, the translucent membrane cracked, and the infant trapped within it let out an ear-splitting shriek as its head split open, revealing a pulsing, pale mass of brain matter.
Its hands unravelled into dozens of slimy tentacles as small indistinct Cracks started to form all around its slimy body, where fresh blood and flesh gathered, creating eyeballs with clear blacks and whites.
Those eyes glared at me menacingly.
Seeing that, my stomach turned, my head jerking back in disgust and dread.
"...Get behind me," was all I managed to register before I realised Lycrane was already standing in front of me, brandishing her sword, taking a battle stance!