[S2] Chapter 22: Waking up

"Kayla! Wake up!"

I can't recognize the voice, but it's more annoying than any alarm clock that has ever ripped me out of my sleep. I open my eyes and am dazzled by the sun.

The moment I roll onto my side, I feel my hurting rib and remember what happened before I drifted off into the land of dreams. I turn over on my back and realize that I'm using Miko's thighs as a pillow right now. I should probably get up, but my whole body hurts, and after all, she slipped under me, so I can't be blamed.

"Where is the horned demon?" I ask in a quiet voice. The more I regain consciousness, the more I feel as if I've been properly run over.

"There was no one here when we arrived."

"I see. Is everyone all right?"

Miko turns her gaze away and scares me for a moment.

"Luna and Wace are sleeping in their tents, the two of them really pushed themselves to their limits. Krystoff is with Nada and Alex, waiting for them to wake up."

I feel a certain relief, but I still have too many questions to really calm down.

"And how are you?" I ask as I look at Miko's tired face.

She shows me her right arm, which is wrapped in a kind of metal splint.

"It's a bit busted, but otherwise, I'm fine."

"Give me your hand." My tone comes out more annoyed than I intended.

Without looking at me, she slowly places her hand on mine. I startle a little because she is so cold.

"You should rest first," she says with very little conviction.

"And you should keep your mouth shut and let me work."

To my surprise, she listens to me and falls silent for the time being. I let my magic flow into her arm, and for a moment, it feels as if she is literally sucking me dry.

"Try moving your arm," I say and take a deep breath. I feel a little sick; maybe she was right and it was a little too early for me to use magic again.

"Give me a moment. I want to stay like this for just a little longer."

I feel her fingers slide between mine. I have no idea what happened in the dungeon, but something is bothering her. "What happened?"

"In the dungeon? I don't know. Somehow, it was different from what I expected. I remembered it being more fun."

It's the chill on my hand that tells me first that Miko pulled hers from mine. The black splint liquefies and disappears into her palm, and she demonstratively shakes her arm over my face.

"Thank you, Kayla."

"No problem."

In addition to all the other pains I already have, I am now slowly getting headaches. I'm also starting to feel a little hot, so I sit up and pull the poncho over my head to toss it aside.

Miko puts a hand on my shoulder and drags me back down, my head landing on her thighs again. I look up, a little confused, and get to see a rare smile from her. I don't know what's going on in her head, but I guess I should just enjoy the moment.

"What interests me, though, is how did you manage to defeat such an enemy?"

I thought she'd never ask, not that I'd thought of an answer yet. But I can't think of any either. I can't think of anything in general. Kajsa was suddenly in our camp, and she hit me... I grabbed her. But that's all there is. It feels like I've forgot everything. And the more I try to remember, the worse my headache gets. A pained moan slips out out of my mouth.

"It's all good, Kayla. We can talk later."

"I'm sorry."

"And thank you for surviving. Worrying so much was really stressful."

I just look at Miko, struggling to think of a sensible answer, so I keep quiet.

"Do you want to go to bed?" she asks with a smile that seems even gentler than before.

Now that she says it, why am I still lying on the grass while everyone else, without exception, is resting in their beds? Don't get me wrong, the sun is warm, Miko's thighs are surprisingly soft, and it feels like a crime to complain, but I can't help it.

"Why am I not in my bed anyway?"

"Who was supposed to carry you?"

"No idea. How did Alex get into bed?"

"Krystoff carried her."

"And why not me?"

"Because I told him not to."

Crap. I can't even be mad at her for that one. By the way, I wouldn't have minded if he had carried me, but I like that Miko defends her prey, in this case me. Am I getting a bit carried away? Yes, maybe.

"Okay, and why didn't you carry me?"

"Are you stupid? My arm was broken, and despite this, I've volunteered to be your pillow and ended up sitting here for at least two hours now. I can't feel my legs anymore, and I'm starving too."

"I didn't ask you to do that!"

With a sudden movement, Miko stands up and I deservedly fall to the ground.

"You're heavy."

"I'm not heavy!"

Pouting and arms crossed, we turn away from each other.

"I'm glad you're doing well, but can you please keep it down."

I glance over at Luna, and it takes me a moment to recognize her. She has tied her long hair up in a bun, her skin is pale, and her eyes are bloodshot. But she still looks really cute in her cardigan and black sweatpants. I don't know how she pulls that off.

"Sorry." Miko and I say in unison.

"Everything's fine. Just relax a little. And if you have too much energy, maybe you can take care of the food."

"It's okay." She waves it off, and I notice that both her hands are wrapped in bandages. I stand up and walk up to her.

"What happened?"

"My own spell got a little too hot."

"Do you want me to heal you?"

"No, I'm fine. I drank a healing potion and put some balm on it. I'll be fine in a few hours. But you could check on the others."

Miko appears next to me without a word, she could just say that she wants to come with me.

We make our way to Alex's tent, and I'm a little surprised by how crowded it is. Krystoff is sitting at the bed where Alex is lying, while Nada is asleep in a second bed that wasn't there before.

Krystoff looks over at us briefly and just nods. It's very quiet here. Only Nada moans from time to time as if she's having a bad dream. I carefully walk over to her and see that she is soaked with sweat. Without thinking, I put my hand on her forehead to check her temperature, but she didn't seem either warm or cold.

"I've already done that."

I hadn't even noticed that Wace had entered the tent. He joins us with a chair in his hand and takes a seat next to Nada's bed. Compared to the others, he looks relatively fit, but I can sense a certain exhaustion in his voice, too.

"What happened here?" he asks, looking up at me.

"I'm sorry, but I can't remember much. We fought, Alex and I, that is. Nada was actually in her tent the whole time."

"You were all asleep when we got here. Maybe the demon did something to her when Alex and you were unconscious."

"Maybe."

"But we're all alive, that's what counts."

"What about the demoness?"

"I spoke to the ministry. The guilds in the region know about her and are on patrol. If she's still in our world, they'll find her."

Wace's words helped me to calm down a little, especially after I would have let Kajsa run free. A situation I remember quite clearly is when Alex decided we had to stop her, and my first thought was that I didn't really want to.

"Should I try to heal her?"

"Can you do that? You've already healed Miko's arm, haven't you?"

"I can try."

"Don't overdo it." Miko intervenes.

"I'm not." Somehow, it's a little annoying that she's so worried about me.

I place my hand on Nada's body and activate my mana flow, which is so weak that I can barely feel it. I'm not sure if I can even cast magic like this, but I try it anyway.

The usually bright green light of my healing is unusually pale, and my hope that I can help her dwindles, but I keep the spell active a little longer.

Without intentionally stopping pumping mana from my hands, my magic ceases. It seems that I'm empty, and yet I'm fine. Unlike back then with Krystoff, my body copes quite well with mana deprivation. That's probably what Miko meant when she said that my body's reaction back then was rather extreme.

"She seems to be sleeping a little more soundly now," Wace says, flashing me a slight smile.

"You should go to sleep. Tomorrow, we have to go to the dungeon again."

"For what?"

"To destroy the dungeon core."

The dungeon core is a manifestation of a dungeon's mana source. In other words, the battery of this world. Be that as it may, sleeping sounds good. Because despite my nap, lying on Miko's legs, I'm still pooped.

◇◆◇

"Where do you think the core is, Kayla?" Why is Luna asking me?

"I don't know. It's usually strong monsters that carry them, right?"

"Do you know why that is?"

"No idea."

"Didn't Miko teach you anything?"

Luna and I look at her at the same time.

"What? It's not that important."

In Miko's defense, I have to say that I wasn't interested in learning more about dungeons either. But that has changed a little since I experienced one from the inside.

"The core itself has two functions. Firstly, it keeps the dungeon together, and it repairs any damage the dungeon suffers. So, if a monster is carrying the core, it will now be near the mountain. If the core is fixed someplace, we should find a trail of mana that we can follow." Luna explains as our small team, consisting of Luna, Miko, and me walks towards the mountain in question.

As crazy as it sounds, at some point, I would really like to talk to a mage who creates dungeons. I want to know how they work and, above all, why they make them. I currently picture these mages to be like billionaires. Only instead of money, they have so much mana that they can't think of anything better than using it to create small worlds filled with all kinds of creatures.

However, just as I will never be rich, I will never have that much mana. But if I had the chance, I could imagine trying out to build a dungeon on my own.

"Kayla, look." Miko points in the direction of the mountain and shakes her head in disbelief.

This sight leaves me speechless. I'm not good at describing sizes, but the mountain itself was massive, and now more than half of it is gone. Since it's made of mana, there's no debris. It looks more like a huge chunk has been cleanly carved out.

"You're not going to teach me the spell, are you?" I ask with a grin.

"Why not?"

"Please don't," Miko says, sighing heavily.

I don't know why I would need such destructive power, but knowing I could do something like that excites me.

"That's the core," Luna says and points to the sky above the mountain, where a giant bird is making its rounds. I'm aware that she can see mana better than I do, but it's still a bit annoying that I don't detect anything at all.

"How do we do that?" Miko asks, forming a sword in her hand.

"It'll be hard with this," Luna replies and starts chuckling. "No, um, I'll provoke it, and when it comes down, you do the rest, okay?"

"Sounds good to me."

Without the help of magic metal, Luna forms a bow in her hand that looks pretty solid at first glance, but as she moves, I see mana powdering off of it.

She takes aim at the sky and stretches the string without putting an arrow in it, but the longer she continues to hold the bow like that, the more mana gathers right in front of her.

Then she suddenly lets go of the string, and some kind of bullet hurtles towards the bird. She clenches the hand with which she had strung the bow into a fist and opens it abruptly. At the same time, there is a bang in the air, and the mana spreads like fireworks. Several particles hit the bird, which begins to screech loudly.

It briefly feels like I'm making eye contact with this creature, especially because it then starts flying straight at us. I am aware that I have problems estimating sizes and that my perception of space is really bad, but somehow, the bird keeps getting bigger without reaching us.

While Luna and I stand still on the spot, Miko takes a few steps ahead. She is the only thing between us and the giant bird, and I hope she knows what she is doing.

She holds her sword in her right hand and slowly raises her left, pointing it in the direction of the gigantic bird that will arrive at any moment. Needless to say, my heart is racing a little. Maybe it really is better if I'm not around when Miko puts herself in danger.

Wait! I'm just as annoying and overprotective as she is. Only that I don't tell her but suffer inwardly for myself alone, which somehow makes me better than her.

Lost in my thoughts, I almost miss the bird crashing at full speed into a barrier that Miko erects in front of her at the last second. This giant monster now lies there, twitching before bursting into an infinite number of mana particles. And like a pinata, it leaves behind something, namely a large yellow orb.

"Why the sword?" I ask more to myself.

"For this," Luna answers, nodding towards Miko, who stabs into the dungeon core with her weapon. Shortly afterward, the sky begins to dissolve, and the bright blue is replaced by clear white. As I look around, I see how the mountains and the terrain are also slowly disappearing.

"Now, get out of here quickly before we disappear with the dungeon."

"Huh? Are we going to dissolve too?"

Why does Luna say that so seriously? She must be joking because Miko comes strolling back to us far too relaxed. Nevertheless, I grab her by the hand when she reaches us.

"We have to get out of here quickly," I say.

She looks at me for a moment, looking quite puzzled, but then starts to nod. "You're right."

Hand in hand, we arrive back at the camp before we disappeared with the dungeon. I'm still 99% sure that the two of them were bullshitting me, but I still don't want to take the 1% chance.

I said camp, but there's actually not much left of it. The others are all busy dismantling, except for Nada, who is sitting in a camping chair trying to survive. Ever since she woke up, she's had a headache that won't stop even after my healing magic.

"Is it finally official? You two are a couple?" Alex looks over at Miko and me and starts clapping half-heartedly.

"Congratulations," Wace adds, who is also standing nearby.

The two of them are so silly, but despite the short time and far too few conversations, I like them. Meanwhile, Miko lets go of my hand to help disassemble the camp. I'm a little surprised that she didn't comment on their stupid remarks, although I also reacted with nothing but silence.

Huh? But what does that mean? Why didn't she deny it?