Chapter 35: Why I Hate Felicia Forge

A very uncomfortable silence filled the air after Harmony uttered the name. The humanoid creature coming out of the wall, responded to her words after letting her realization sink in.

His voice came out broken and overwhelmed with emotion “You…Remember me?”

Harmony continued speaking in that same broken soft whisper tone. “I never forgot you Gary…I was trying to help you back on Earth…Remember? You and I were racing all the time…You wanted to join the track team…Said it was going to help you get into college…”

He turned his head slightly as if pondering her words, “You hunted me down…Day after day…I was forced to wear that heavy backpack…While you threatened me!”

Harmony’s gaze shifted down to her feet and she clenched her fists. “I won't deny my methods of trying to help you were wrong…I used to think…That if I could get the results as quickly as possible…I just wanted to help people…I thought I could make friends like that…I never actually hurt you or anything…”

He slammed his fist on the ground in frustration. “I lived in fear of you everyday…! Dreading going to school because of what you would do to me…! You were no hero, you were a bully to me…!”

She trembled from his words. “ I was…What I did to you was horrible and wrong… I know it helped you at the end of the day, but that doesn't make up for what it made you feel the whole time…I'm sorry…I really am…”

She couldn't bring herself to look up at him, which just enraged him even more. He couldn’t contain his anger, and slammed his fist down on the floor. Tremors shot through the cave from his rage. “LOOK AT ME!”

She slowly brought her head up to look at him. She could feel all the negative emotions radiating off of him. “IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY TO ME?!”

Harmony swallowed hard before speaking. “I wanted to be your friend…I didn't have any friends back at home…I was struggling to make any because of how I was…”

The cave shook as he roared with rage. “I don't care about your hardships! Even after everything you put me through back on Earth…! It all pales in comparison to your actions in bringing me here!”

Tears streamed down her face and her voice came out as a soft confused whisper. “What?”

He trembled with rage. “If it wasn't for you then that truck would have never followed me…! Your idiotic actions…! You following me home…! If I was never around you…! If you just didn't exist…! I WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN SENT TO THIS WORLD…!!!”

They could hear his voice breaking, but also trembling with frustration just as much as sadness. “I lost my body…I became this dungeon…I'm constantly living in fear of the dangers of this world…I can't even feel anything the way I used to like a human…! I'm forced to fight for my life every day…!”

He clutched his head as the emotions swirled around and overwhelmed him. “I just want to go home…! I just want to go home…! I JUST WANT TO GO HOOOOOOOOME!!!!”

Black smoke burst out of his mouth and smothered the entire room in complete darkness. System notifications filled the entire room and bathed it in red light.

“Warning! Warning! Warning!”

Black chains erupted out of the ground around each of them, stretching up towards the ceiling. Something about them made it feel like they were going up against an enemy that was a prisoner. This was the first time they had ever dealt with something like that.

A strange music filled the air. Arret smiled while sitting against a nearby wall. “Anybody else wondering why they hear boss music?”

Several black chain links shot up into the air and shattered into pieces. It created text from the system for them to read. “Reincarnated as a Dungeon!”

The battle had now begun among the Other Worlders. The red lights faded away from existence, but dark fog along with black chains, constantly moving throughout the area, now filled the room. They were all trapped and locked into a battle until one of them was the victor.

The turn timer line up displayed all who were to participate. It showed Gray Dungeon, Vault, the wolf, the bat, and Harmony in that order.

Gray Dungeon held his hands up like a marionetta controlling a puppet. Tendrils stretched out from his fingertips, and reached into the floor below. It pulled out a golem, but this one was more human-shaped and much larger than all the other ones.

Gray Dungeon was now controlling this puppet to act as his representative for the battle. He used his first turn to summon the puppets. Now it was Vault's turn, and he was full of conflicted hesitation.

He sweated profusely while debating in his mind how to proceed. “We don't need to fight…Don't you see we're all just being used for Arret’s amusement…?! We need to stop this before things go too far!”

Gray Dungeon shook his head. “You don't understand anything! She's the only one who hasn't lied to me! She's been helping…! She's been helping me over…! And over…! And over…! And over…!!!!”

Vault kept shifting his gaze between his teammates, and the enemy before him. None of this felt right in his eyes, but he wasn't sure what else to do. He was searching for an answer in the people around, but found nothing. “I don't want to hurt you! We can just talk things out and…!”

He let out a roar in response and the dungeon began shaking. Vault had wasted his turn trying to reason with him. The wolf and the bat, both could not decide what to do during their turns. They kept stealing glances at their human companions for some form of reassurance.

They also ended up wasting their turns. Harmony was now the last to go during the first round. “Gary…I want to help you…We can work together and go back home…”

He shook his head. “No more of your weird tricks! You're just trying to use your strange methods to drag me somewhere worse! Arret is the only one I can trust, and she promised me that I would be able to go back to my old life, if I could just get rid of you!”

Harmony’s thoughts were racing trying to figure out what to say to him in order to get through. It felt like their words were falling on deaf ears. None of this was right. They were just fighting against someone who was being used.

He was just scared, and angry. He wasn't a bad guy, and they didn't want to treat him like one. What else could they do…Except fight…