Dungeon

Aiko's feet landed on a slick stone floor, somewhere that felt deep underground. The walls and ceiling were made of large, roughly cut stones, and the air was wet and felt charged with mana. A dim blue light rose up from seemingly nowhere at all, just enough to see by.

"Oh. A dungeon. Where have you brought us, Mathilda?" asked her sword.

"Infinity portal," Aiko answered.

"Is that so? I hope we don't get trapped down here," the sword said lightly, and then was quiet again.

Aiko closed her eyes and concentrated. The thing she had felt from outside the cult building was here too, much stronger. She could sense things moving all around her, above and below too. The dungeon probably sprawled out in all directions, but right now the only way she could go was forward, down a long corridor that stretched out in front of her. In the other direction was a dead end. At least for the time being her options were limited.

There were plenty of things that Aiko wanted to know about her new circumstances, and plenty that she needed to meditate on, but for now she needed to get moving. Whatever the source of the psychic energy she had felt earlier was, it was surely aware she had arrived. If she didn't go find it, it wouldn't take long for it to find her.

She set off at a brisk jog, keeping her sword in front of her, scanning for traps or enemies as she went, her trainers giving her more grip on the slick stones than she was used to.

As Mathilda, she had fought her way to the bottom of hundreds of dungeons like these. Small miniature dimensions accessible through the oozing infinity portals. They were never good news. Left alone, monsters would start to find their way out, pulling in more mana until the portal was big enough that the dungeon boss could cross over and cause trouble.

All dungeons were different, and all dungeons were dangerous. Mapping them was impossible, as they changed their layouts over time, and finding supplies was impossible, as anything that died in the dungeon was absorbed by it. Mathilda had once spent days in one dungeon, on the verge of starvation, before finally finding the boss and clearing it.

Aiko kept jogging through the dungeon in a straight line, until the corridor finally reached a large ornate archway, decorated with gold plates studded with large red gems.

Although some dungeons were labyrinths, this one, it seemed, was quite intent on getting her to the main event as quickly as possible.

Sword held steady, Aiko walked through the archway into a large chamber. It was a large open space, supported by thick columns that rose up dramatically into a tall vaulted ceiling. It was illuminated by the same pale blue light that permeated everything in this dungeon, and the light caught on a pool of water that covered the floor, rippling gently with each of Aiko's steps.

In the middle of the chamber, curled into a ball and staring at Aiko with all three of its heads, was a dragon—a hydra.

"It's not yet fully grown," the sword noted.

Aiko adjusted her grip, and the hydra uncurled its massive body, standing on four legs, and gripping the tiles with its massive talons.

The hydra lurched forward, snapping with one of its three heads. Aiko spun her sword up and used the flat to push the head out of the way.

A second head swooped in toward her on the end of its long flexible neck, but Aiko was able to roll over the flooded tiles to get out of the way before she jumped back to her feet, and kept running toward its main body.

The hydra, perhaps sensing that Aiko was getting too close, lurched its whole body backward, and then swiped one of its massive arms at her. Without thinking, Aiko held up her sword to stop the attack, and had just enough time to regret it before the clawed hand crashed into her sword and knocked her off balance. As Mathilda, she could have cut its hand off, or at least neutralized the blow, but Aiko wasn't that strong.

Sensing she was on the back foot, the hydra swung again, and this time landed a blow right on Aiko's back. The claws tore through her flimsy t-shirt, and sent her flying through the chamber into one of the pillars. She hit the stone column awkwardly, and felt her arm breaking before she slid down and landed in a heap on the floor.

Aiko took a breath, and pushed her sword into the ground like a walking stick to get back on her feet. It didn't matter how much it hurt. She was in a fight. The first one to stop moving would die.

Though, if she had to hazard a guess, she might die one way or the other.

What should she do? She wasn't strong enough to kill a hydra. Not even an immature one like this. She'd been fighting for less than a minute and had a broken arm. More realistically if she tried to fight this thing as though she were still Mathilda, it was going to kill her. And if it killed her, there was nothing to stop it getting back out into the other world.

Back where everybody else was. Lady Nomura, Yuuji, Giorno, Eri… And Koharu.

The hydra clawed at the ground, and peered at her with its three heads. It had decided she didn't have any fight left in her, and was going to take its time. She could practically hear it laughing to itself.

She could keep fighting, of course, if she tried. But not enough to fight something like this. She wasn't going to walk away from this. But she could still make sure the hydra didn't leave the dungeon.

Aiko dropped her sword, and fell to her knees, closing her eyes. She reached out, pulling in the plentiful mana that hung in the air, and focusing it in a single point. A spluttering, burning ball of energy slowly appeared in front of her, sparking and shivering as she kept filling it with all the mana she could get her hands on.

"Mathilda, if you do that, you're going to die," the sword said from the ground.

"Shut up, idiot. I know."

"You can't even defeat a hydra? This body is weak."

"Shut up," Aiko muttered. The ball of mana was as big as her head now. "Not weak. Strong."

The hydra, sensing what Aiko was doing, frantically began to charge at her from across the chamber, trying to close the distance between them before Aiko could detonate her bomb and blow up the two of them.

Aiko opened her eyes and grinned at the dragon. Just like all monsters, its overconfidence had been its downfall. If it had just chewed her head off, it wouldn't be in this mess.

Aiko prepared to release the mana bomb—

A bolt of lightning cut across the chamber and fused into the side of the hydra. The dragon screamed, and thrashed, and fell forward, its heads throwing up a splash of water as they landed.

"Put away that explosion and kill the dragon, you idiot!" the hero of Jel'Almore yelled at her from the chamber entrance, baring his teeth.

Aiko started back in surprise, and the mana fizzled out, dispersing back into the air.

She frowned. She hated him so much.

But she wasn't so attached to the idea of dying that she wouldn't take advantage of the situation, either.

Scooping her sword up from the water with her good arm, Aiko sprinted through the water to the dragon. As she passed its heads, it growled at her, and tried to move, but the lightning had left it paralyzed. It was defenseless, and out of options.

Aiko leaped over its necks, and with her sword angled downward, stabbed as hard as she could through the dragon's back, until she had pierced one of its hearts. A moment later, a shining spear flew through the monster's side to pierce the second.

The hydra screamed with all of its heads, trying to arch its back but held in place by sword and spear, and then with one last shudder, it fell forward, limp, and died.

"Sword, away," Aiko said.

And then she lost consciousness.