Lost Warmth

I don’t even have the time to scream at them to flee. Not even to open my mouth before it’s too late.

    I fall to my knees. The feeling of a grip, something pressing my heart.

    The emissary of the Taint has taken back the dungeon’s beast’s initial shape, Beluacor and Tyffeon’s silhouettes now floating inside the blackish slime. Unable to move, unable to breathe.

    Pretentious… I’ve been so pretentious to blindly believe that all would happen according to Umbrestio’s route…

“They… This can’t be…” Timoria mutters, paling.

    The ground beneath has turned back to normal, leaving pillars and stretches of wall oddly protruding from it.

    In the middle of these ruins, the emissary begins to writhe, heaps of blackish slime splattering all around as they drip from its skeletal jaws, between its sharp teeth.

    Little by little, the pulsing, viscous piles shape into monsters usually populating the dungeon.

“A-Amako…” Timoria has joined my side. “Amako! Please!! Tell me what I am supposed to do.”

    The feeling of her hands over my arms makes me turn my eyes at her. She’s knelt in front of me, tears in her malachite eyes.

    She just wants to help… to keep fighting, but, is it still worth it? I don’t even dare to glance at the emissary, afraid to see that Tyffeon and Beluacor have already faded into flames and debris of metal.

“I don’t know…” I mutter.

    Whatever we do, even if we find its weakness and fight, it would be cheesy to think that we would defeat the dungeon’s beast in time to save them. Only heroes are silly enough to keep fighting once they lost those who count to their eyes. To fight in their names? Oh my, how sweet. It won’t bring them back, though…

    A den of monsters? No, the depths are rather a den of nightmares.

    Timoria’s grip tightens over my arms.

“You can’t give up! Not yet… Please… You’re stronger than that. …This is thanks to you Ard Ramalia is safe. This is thanks to you we’ve gotten so far. That was possible only because of you! We have been able to gather because it was you.” Her grip loosens as she lowers her head to the ground. “You even gave someone like me a chance. Despite what I have done…” She pauses, standing up, her hand pressed against her heart. “I… I believe in you. I’ll do my best to save time.”

    At these words, I widen slightly my eyes, glancing at her.

“Not again.”

    Reaching out my hand towards her, I try to hold her back.

“Wait. Wait, don’t go!”

    But my protests are lost on her as Timoria already pounces forward.

***

“Mira… I don’t have the right to say I am sorry for what I have done to you. These words would be too weak… Nor Miss Kitsune, nor Amako should forgive me. But,… But still, I want to do something for them. They have accepted me. Why? I am not worth their kindness.”

    Hurling leaves around, she slays the monsters close to Amako’s position.

    A growl.

    She turns just in time to use her benediction on a wolf-like monster pouncing at her, barely avoiding getting bitten. Once her leaves have cut through its silhouette, Timoria rushes forward. She tries to get closer to the emissary despite the numerous monsters shaping out of the black slime thrown around.

“For Amako…”

    No matter how many she turns off, their number doesn’t shrink. How much more? How much longer?

“Ghh…” She winces as one of the monsters manages to bite her leg.

    The numerous bracelets around her wrists clatter as she keeps moving around, kicking the monster with her elbow to free herself before slicing it with her magic.

    Her bleeding leg hinders her moves, but she has to keep moving. She can’t pause to take a healing potion.

    Timoria is already close to the emissary when she notices a silhouette laying on the ground.

    A bunch of leaves hurls forward, defeating one more monster.

    As she gets closer to the silhouette, she recognises Umbrestio.

“It’s… the true one?” She wonders to herself. He probably got ejected from the emissary’s shadow the moment it took back its beast form.

“What should I do..? I need to focus on the emissary.”

    A monster approaches, ready to make its meal out of the Knocker. Saliva drips from its jaws. But before it gets closer, it suddenly backs off, surprised by the fright he suddenly feels.

    As it runs away, hands enclose the dwarf’s shoulders. Timoria has knelt next to him.

“…But they, they wouldn’t have abandoned him.”

    Monsters don’t miss that opportunity to pounce on a motionless prey, but all they encounter is the verdant gust circling now around the cowmaiden and the Knocker.

    Timoria leans over Umbrestio’s body, as if to keep him safe.

“I wish you were the one by her side, Mira…”

    The leaves protect them for now, the monsters kept at bay,.. until black slime engulfs them.

    The emissary having reached their position.

***

    The air filling my lungs getting squeezed out. That’s what I feel when I catch sight of Timoria trapped in turn in the beast.

    I clench my teeth.

“Ahh… How pathetic. All I’ve been able to do was being an onlooker of your end.”

    Deep down, I haven’t changed. I keep losing what is precious to my eyes. Is it a curse? Or do I just not deserve them? But they aren’t the ones who should pay the price for being by my side. They brought me so many things… so many memories.

    Before I can help it, images of the meals shared with them at Beluacor’s house, at the hot spring, flash through my unconsenting mind.

    I already miss it,.. the warmth I felt by their side…

    I wish I could just close my eyes and stop thinking, stop feeling.

“We have been able to gather because it was you.” Her words echo.

    But if you hadn’t followed me…

“I… I believe in you.”

    Don’t.

“I believe in you…” Mira’s smile flashes.

    I bite my lower lip, eliciting a droplet of blood.

“Please, don’t give up. If someone can save our world, then I am sure that it’s you.”

    Mira’s and Timoria’s voices echo loudly in my mind.

“You can’t give up!”

    I hate this feeling. That I might be making a mistake not fighting to my very last breath.

    My heart beating wildly, I raise my eyes with difficulty to glance at the emissary.

    Tendrils of slime jerk out and back to its hooded figure, endlessly giving birth to bunches of monsters from the blackish substance dripping from its dragon skull.

    Inside its translucent body, in addition to the remnants of the Knockers it has absorbed these past centuries, I can still distinguish the silhouettes of Beluacor and Tyffeon.

    As I stand back to my feet, grey clouds begin to form far above our heads.

“Of course I can’t give up… I don’t want to be the one who will betray you. There’s still one chance left… If I achieve calling for the thunder like at Makhlubi, I may be able to finish the emissary quickly enough to save them. That’s my only hope but…”

    The rain begins to pour down in the cave, monsters approaching my position. They emit growls, they emit mocking laughs.

“…how do I even trigger it?”

    Not that the monsters intend to give me the time to search for an answer. As they pounce on me, I can only run out of their reach, their sharp claws barely missing me. They’re too close for me to use my bow…

    My thoughts focused on the thunder I try to summon, I don’t escape them for long before I fall to the ground with a muffled scream. One of the monsters has bitten my ankle, dragging me against the stone.

    Its grip tightens, threatening to reduce my leg to shreds.

    A brief, nearby glow.

    I catch sight of a blade among the ruins. Tyffeon’s dagger!

    Clenching my teeth, I extend my hand to grab it, barely catching it before I get dragged further. Straightening as I can, I lean forward to wave the dagger in a brisk blow.

“Give me a break!! I have no time to lose on you!” My features contort with anger as I draw blood from the monster’s neck, not even taking a close look at its shape. All I see is its throat, the blackish liquid dripping from it.

    All I feel is the satisfaction for having inflicted a wound on it.

    But that isn’t enough.

    They all have to pay for what they’ve done…

“Let them go.”

    Suddenly, a bright light illuminates the dungeon. A thunderbolt crashes over a close monster.

    Far from being the only one, lightnings hit the ground one after the other, straight into the mass of monsters around.

    It draws a smirk and a chuckle from my lips.

“Ah yes, suffer. Suffer like you made us suffer.”

    Standing up despite my bleeding ankle, I turn a gaze at the emissary. More thunderbolts continue to send fragments of ground and of monsters all around, drawing closer to the beast.

    A lightning whizzes through the air, piercing the slime body.

    But if it annoys it, the blackish substance simply reshapes, leaving no trace of the impact.

“Vain. Vain attempt.” It scoffs. “The dungeon won’t let you leave.”

    Hate… I hate… I hate it so much…

    The thunderbolts begin to reach the ground randomly.

    I will shred it to pieces, I will shred it until it learns to feel pain…

“You’re stronger than that.”

    As Timoria’s voice echoes in my mind, I widen my eyes.

    No… I can’t afford to get dominated by that feeling. If I keep aiming randomly at it, I won’t save them in time. Or… I’ll even hurt them.

    Forcing myself to keep focused, I lock gazes with the dungeon’s beast.

    I’ve never designed it to be a boss. In Kingdoms of Sin, the Player never confronts it. Still, it has to have a weakness. What can it be? What would it have been if I had made a boss out of it?

    At this very moment, my eyes lock on the dragon-like skull protruding from its hood.

“That’s it. This has to be it.”

    Frowning, I force myself to focus by raising my arm high above my head. There’s no place for a mistake. No time to doubt.

    The moment my fingers close into a fist, sparkles whizz through the clouds above our heads. They crackle, rumble, and a mighty thunderbolt zigzags through the air. The emissary barely has the time to raise his head up when it crashes against its skull.

    Cracks.

    The lightning persists over the long muzzle.

    Cracks.

    Until it shatters to pieces, the skull falling apart.

    As the bone fragments hit loudly the ground, the glow of the beast’s eyes wavers… before fading away. Little by little, the blackish and violet mass wobbles, heaps of it falling in turn. Nothing ensuring its unity any more.

“Is it… over?”

    All around, the monsters created by the emissary melt into a blackish mud.

    The moment I catch sight of my companions’ silhouettes, freed from the slime, the clouds begin to fade away.

    Attempting to run towards them, I stumble and fall to the ground. The pain in my ankle calls me back to my wound.

    Of course…

    Leaning against my hands, I intend to stand up… but my fingers begin to blur before me.

“Ehh… Was.. the bite poisoned? Exhaustion..?”

    A thud.