Lost

“Woof! Woof” I heard as I woke up. It feels like something just licked my cheek. I thought as I opened my eyes only to see a black dog… no, puppy standing on my face.

Huh? Where am I? I sat up straight and looked at my surroundings… I was in a cave of sorts, it’s the kind of cave where you'd expect it to be dark. But for some reason it was slightly lit up, so I can still see. “Where… is this?” I quietly muttered as I looked around my surroundings and heard water dripping on the ground. If I remember right… I was cutting down the numbers of that massive horde of wolves and then…

I quickly turned my head from left to right, searching for signs of Lumi. She’s not here…

I’m not dreaming, am I? I thought as I pinched my cheek and stood up. Nope, this is reality… but how’d I wind up here? I can’t remember. “Woof!” I looked down on my feet and saw the same black puppy.

“You’re alone too huh…”

“Arf!” I used to be afraid of all sorts of animals before but somehow, I’m not scared of this one. I looked down at my clothes…

Uwaa… it’s all bloodied and beat up. This is just what I’d expected, I haven’t had a shower for a while now so, I probably stink too. I thought then in the corner of my eye, I saw the knife I was using last night, planted on the ground.

“Oh, there it is…” I said as I walked over to it and picked it up.

Now then… How do I get out of here? I don’t how long I’ve been out for, but Lumi is probably either still fighting Sameal or doing her best searching for me.

I don't know where this is… this cave is large so, if it is under the city then I would’ve heard about it, but hmm…

“Arf!” the puppy barked as it pointed its head towards the left as if it’s telling me to go there. Hmm…. If I just wandered around on my own, I’d probably go in circles, and I’ve heard dogs have a good sense of smell. It might be worth a try following it. I thought and I took a step forward, walking towards the dog. As soon as the dog notices me move it then moves and walks too. It’s kind of calming here… and peaceful too.

“Help me…! Please… help!” As I was walking, I heard a voice echo in the walls. What was that? That voice… It sounds familiar.

I feel like I’ve heard that voice somewhere before… but where? Maybe if I hear it again, I’ll remember. My brain right now is still kind of a mush since I just woke up.

For now… I’ll just follow this dog and see where it leads me.

***

Several minutes later, me and the dog both ended up near a body of water… something like an underground lake. “Arf!”

“Woah…” I muttered as I stepped foot in the shallow lake. It’s cold… so, this is where the water was, I’ve been hearing it drip since earlier. It's beautiful scenery for sure but… it’s kind of lonely here. I thought as I sat down, getting my skirt wet in the process.

“Help…!” I heard as a headache struck my head… It hurts.

Where did that voice come from?

I’m pretty sure this time I didn’t hear it through my heart but rather directly through my head, as if it’s my inner voice. Something akin to telepathy if I were to describe it. By the next time I blinked my eyes, chunks of blue crystal suddenly appeared in my field of vision. What? Has that been always there before?

I stood up and walked over to the nearest chunk. “Arf!” The dog followed suit then I grabbed hold of it and tried to pluck it out of the ground and out of the water. It won’t budge. I thought as I gave up and then walked over to the next nearest one, instead of it being in the water this time, it was one that was stuck in the wall.

I pulled my face real close to it.

It’s lit up… are these the things lighting up the cave? Why couldn’t I see these things before? I’d guess that something might be wrong with my eyes but my vision has been fine since I woke up.

I’ll just not worry about it… more importantly, where do I go from here? I thought as I turned around and looked at the scenery behind me. Aside from the walls behind me, I can’t see what’s on the other side of this underground lake. It looks like some sort of fog is blocking it.

I’ve been wondering this since earlier, but where am I exactly? And how did I end up here? My memory is still a jumbled mess, taking a walk didn’t work.

“…” I sighed.

No choice here… I’ll just swim there then. Can that dog swim? He’s floating on the water so, maybe it can? Oh well… I’ll just hold it with me as I swim. That way, when we both reach the other side, I can just follow it again.

“Come here doggo.” I said as I gestured to the dog to come to me.

“Arf!” It barked and then swam its way to me.

I pick it up to see how heavy it is.

It’s light…

Time to go then… I haven’t had a swim nor have I taken a shower in a while so, this ought to be refreshing to some extent. I thought as I put the dog on my head and dived into the shallow water.

It’s like the size of a kiddie pool, I could’ve just walked but I at least want to be energized by the time I reach the other side.

***

“There it is!” I said as I finally reached the other side of the lake with the dog sitting atop my head. “Arf!” the dog barked as I stopped swimming and stood up straight.

Crap…, I don’t have a towel. I thought as I felt my soaked clothes. It’ll probably dry later, so it might be fine.

I walked over to the edge of this lake and finally stepped onto the cave’s stone floor. “…” I sighed as I looked up straight and saw something resembling a door and the dog got off my head and onto the ground.

Is this a door? Somehow it reminds me of those movies where the protagonist explores a pyramid. Is this cave like those things?

As I looked for a way to open the stone door, I noticed a carving on the wall to the right.

A hand? Umm… do I just put my hand in? I thought as I brought my right hand to the carving. It’s a perfect fit.

A moment later the stone door was lifted upwards opening the pathway to a narrow corridor with those same blue crystals lighting it up. “Arf!” The dog barked as it ran towards it. “Oi wait!” I shouted as I ran after the dog.

***

A dozen later, I finally caught up to the dog as we reached another door. “Another one?” I muttered as I looked in all directions for the hand carving. Instead of finding a hand carving what I found was words written in English on the wall to the left. Let’s see… it says. “Knock on the door three times.” I read it aloud.

That’s it? I was more expecting something along the lines of reveal your true feelings to open the door but I guess simple is best. I don’t have to do anything weird to open the door. I thought as I walked right in front of the door and knock three times just as the message said.

A moment later the door opened up leading into a short corridor and another door at the end of it. Me and doggo walked towards the next door and once we got there, I noticed another message and a keyboard with a monitor on the left and right walls.

What is it this time? I’m kind of getting sick of all these doors. I thought as I turned to the wall on the left to read the message.

“What word is always spelled wrong? Type your answer on the keyboard across this message.” I read it aloud.

So, it’s a riddle this time… I might not make it out alive here. I suck at these kinds of things. I thought as I turned to the other side where the keyboard is.

Hmm… wrong, what kind of words do people always somehow manage to spell wrong?

I don’t know what people can spell or not spell, it’s not something I would know about.

“Uhm…” I uttered as I put down my knife and started to type on the keyboard. Time to try every word I know; it’s going to take a while before I even get this door to open up.

Is it Worcestershire? I thought as I inputted it into the keyboard and when I hit enter a popup appeared on the screen. “Two tries left before incineration.” I read.

Crap… I’m screwed. Hehe… looks like this place is going to be my deathbed. I’m not good at any kind of puzzle in the first place so, if it tries to limit the amount of tries I can have at it then I’m doomed. I can’t solve it.

What kind of riddle is this in the first place? What is a word that is always spelled wrong? Is there even a word that you can spell wrong in the first place if you’re not a five-year old child!? Ugh…

I sat down on the ground, hopeless to continue on. I’m tired… I’m going to rest my eyes here for a bit. If I’m going to die here anyways might as well use up my last two tries and die trying.

It'd be better if I go out that way instead of just starving to death here.

I closed my eyes.

I wonder what Lumi is doing now… is she trying to find me? I’d want it to be like that.

The chances are she’d probably already abandoned me.

I don’t know how long it’s been since last night’s fight. I can’t see whether it’s night or day in this cave. I’m tired… ever since Lumi killed me and brought me back as a girl. It’s been one thing or another since then.

Not that I disliked it but… it was a nice change of pace. Before all of this, I didn’t go out much out of guilt for what I’ve done. So, it was fun.

Even if I started doing this because of my selfishness to become a good person.

I’ve already thought of this plenty of times before, but Lumi really is kind. She probably had an ulterior motive to have me help her. But that’s just how all humans are. There’s no helping it.

Our greed controls us, and in turn we profit from our greed. There are probably people out there with no greed but those are just rare cases. Without desire humans are empty.

Not just humans but most lifeforms in general. Everything and everyone will seek out something. Whether it be for entertainment, pleasure, survival, that’s how intelligent life works. Not that I have any knowledge in this field but it’s just something I believe in.

I turned out to be garbage because of my selfish and greedy old self. Some people are probably successful now because of their greed. Life will always have different conclusions for people with the same methods. It’s something I learned from a certain game that I played. This fact stroked deep into my heart.

I was just unlucky.

***

“Haaah!” I shouted as I launched several arrows at Sameal while continuously moving at high speeds.

Before the arrows could even reach him, he had already blown them away by just waving his claw once, causing the arrows to make contact with the electricity emitted by his armor.

He then made and shot two more lightning spears instead of just shooting towards where it's been shot to like earlier, this time it was following me it’s as if they’re homing missiles.

I jumped as I pulled two arrows from my quicker and quickly turned back mid air and aimed at the two spears. I then released my fingers from the string causing the bow to shoot the arrows and in the next moment as my arrows and his spears made contact, they both blew up.

I landed my feet on the ground as I prepared another arrow to shoot directly at Sameal. Damn it! It’s been the same thing over and over again. I can’t pierce through that armor of his.

Sameal moved his feet and dashed towards me with claws ready to kill. I released the arrow and then quickly jumped back.

[Want me to help~?] A voice suddenly spoke in my head.

Took you long enough? Please, I need your power here. I responded as I jumped back as much as I could, giving distance between me and Sameal.

[Switch with me~]

I will… but I have a condition. Don’t harm Eden, that’s it.

[You mean that boy you brought back a girl?~]

Yeah.

[Fine]

In the next moment, the pupils in my eyes dilated and started moving, it deformed from the normal circle shape and formed into the shape of a flower.

Sameal had stopped moving and just stood there while staring at me.

“Hahahahaaha!” I was laughing like a madman, a psychopath. “It’s been a while since I was given full control of this body.” I continued as my bow and quiver disappeared. “Still, this is quite a situation if I say so myself… they’re not humans but~” My crystal sword had materialized without me even uttering a single command. “Killing is still killing.” My expression had turned into a crazed smile.

“Sameal, was it? You look quite strong; do you mind indulging me in battle? Not that I wouldn’t fight you if you said no.”

“I don’t mind…!” Sameal responded as he immediately dashed towards me. Once I was in his range, he brought his electric claws down on me.

But before it could reach me, I had already swung my sword to deflect. The lightning had run through my sword and into my body, but I paid it no heed. The beastman had jumped back several meters noticing how ineffective his electricity was against me.

“Boring~” I moved my legs and in the next moment I was already in front of him. In that instant I quickly thrusted my sword into his abdomen. Blood had been spilled as his armor made of lightning had been pierced. Instead of the electricity travelling towards my body the moment I made contact with the armor, it just stayed there as if there's no object for the lightning to travel towards. “How!?” Sameal exclaimed as he tried to swipe me with his claws.

But a moment after he moved his claws, I spoke. “Stay feral beast.” Instead of his claws continuing its trajectory to hit me, it moved as if it was frozen. “So, this is the true Twilight Princess.” He muttered.

“Ah, I gained such a name? That’s sweet… then can you die for me?~” I swung my sword up, slicing through his upper body like butter. “That’s boring… I wonder why she had such a hard time dealing with you. You’re just a small fry.” His armor made of lightning disappeared as his corpse dropped to the ground.

But then a moment later, the wound I inflicted on him had started repairing itself, eventually putting his upper back together as if nothing happened.

“Uwaa… can you just stay dead if you’re not even going to provide me entertainment?”

“I’ve had no plans of dying until our goal has been completed. Therefore, I’ll eliminate you here.” He responded as he stood up. “Owooooooo!” He howled then in the next moment all those beasts swarming Eden had all turned direction towards us.

“Hmm… this is kind of getting boring. I wanted to murder all of you but~~” I turned my gaze to the incoming horde. “I change my mind, even if I let you all last long, it’s not going to be any fun.”

I crouched and then lifted my feet off the ground, jumping high up in the sky.

“System Access~” I started to voice a command. “Generate reality distortion. Destination Space: Storage #9” As I finished voicing commands, the sky behind me had cracked.

Over the next few seconds, the crack got larger and larger until finally a large hole had been opened up. “Drop~” I muttered.

In the next moment a giant rock had shown itself and slowly but surely falls from the hole. Sameal shoots up multiple lightning spears but it doesn’t affect it. “Hehe… hahahahahaaha!” She maniacally laughed as her consciousness fades into darkness.

***

“EDEN!” I shouted as I sat up straight and woke up as I instantaneously opened my eyes. As soon as my senses returned back to me, I immediately felt my soaked clothes and the cold temperature of the water I was sitting on top of. I brought my submerged hand up from the water.

Where am I? If I remember right, I was in a fight with Sameal and then…

Ah, I remember now… I think, Eden is safe. After that giant rock crash landed on the crater, I think some sort of distortion generated and ended up transporting us to this place. I was barely awake so…

The main question now is… where are we?

If a distortion had happened that’d mean the enemy used their spatial transportation just as it crashed. Meaning, we’re right in the enemy base.

Lucky me, I didn’t have to go through the pain of finding this place.

I wonder if they know we’re here. I thought as I stood up and cleaned the dust off my white dress. If it was just me, it’d just destroy this place entirely but If I did that now, I might accidentally kill Eden again in the process, so I’m better off finding her first before I go and tear this place to shreds.

I thought as I stood up and got out of the water then walked away…

***

“Arf! Arf! Arf!” I heard as I slowly opened my eyes and saw the little dog barking at me. Oh, right I’m still here. I stood up and walked to the keyboard. Hmm… let’s try typing down wrong. I still have two attempts left so…I thought then I inputted the word wrong. Ding-dong. In the next moment I heard a doorbell sound that came out of nowhere and the stone door had been lifted open.

For a minute, I stood there amazed by the heights my stupidity reached. I crouched down on the ground with my head down. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” I screamed. I’m an absolute dumb idiot. The answer was so fucking simple. I’m an idiot, I’m an idiot, I’m an idiot!!! “Arf!” The dog barked again as I slowly stood up, still embarrassed and shocked.

“…” I sighed as I stood up and picked up my knife that was on the ground.

After tightly gripping my knife I peeked at what was behind that door.

It’s big! I thought as I saw it…

Beyond this door… this corridor was a large area spanning thousands of meters. I walked through the door only to find a very narrow pathway connected to the walls. As I looked down on what’s below, I was shocked even more than earlier.

Those are the wolves from last night! I thought as I saw the uncountable number of wolves fill the bottom of this large area to the brim…

What the hell?! There’s too many of them. Me and Lumi alone can’t handle this much. Even if Lumi’s strong, I doubt she can take on this many. There’s simply no way.

I peeked on the edge as much as I can to get a clear view of what they’re doing.

With the cramped space, the wolves are all packed together with barely any space to move. As I watched them from above, a number of them were biting and snacking on each other.

Cannibalism! Of course, it makes sense, with this very large number of them, there’s simply no way to keep them all fed and healthy, therefore they cannibalize each other as they have no other food to eat in this space.

But how can this be in the first place? How were they all born? I thought as I stepped back from the edge and I saw a white shadow in the middle of all the wolves.

What’s that white thing over there? I can’t see, I need to get closer.

I started walking on the narrow pathway aligned on the walls of this area.

I’m not very good at dealing with walking on tight spaces but I’ll suppress my cowardice for now. There’s a much bigger thing I need to worry about than falling to my own death.

As I’m steadily walking with my legs slightly shaking, the familiar headache from earlier struck again. Why now? I thought as I stopped walking .“Help me! Please… let me out of here… I don’t *a** to **** ***** to more ********.” The headache lifts up and vanishes as the voice stops speaking. Is that voice… coming from that white figure? I can’t see it from here, it’s a bit too far. But what will I do then, when I get close enough? At this point my best options now are to just die here and escape this hell, or try and find Lumi. I can’t do anything on my own. If I had some extra blood, I can use my ability to fight back more effectively if I get attacked.

I don’t know… I don’t know anything anymore… I don’t know what to do. I’m useless.

I can’t figure this out on my own. I know that I need to avoid making hasty decisions but what is the right choice to make here?

I can try to find Lumi in this endlessly big place. I can also use the blood that they’re shedding down there to cut down their endless numbers.

What should I do?

In that moment, images of the moments I spent with Lumi suddenly flashed through my mind as if my subconscious was trying to tell me something.

I stopped walking and sat down on the narrow pathway.

I’m tired… but I don’t want to feel any more guilt than I already do. I don’t want to break my promise with her. I decided I was going to help her till the end, so… for now I need to forget.

Like when I was fighting. I need to forget my personal matters for now. I don’t need these now.

“…” I sighed as I stood up, my legs stopped shaking.

Time to go, she’s out there looking for me, so I need to meet up with her now and plan what’s next. I thought I ran as fast as I could.

Not being bothered by the narrow pathway. Not being afraid of falling to my own death.

I don’t want to be useless to her! So, I’m going to commit.

I won’t let my emotions hinder me any longer!

***

“So, you’ve come.” A shadowy figure had muttered as it watched him run along.

“Very well, if you can defeat the foundation that’s been planted in this place. I will personally act in return. After all, if it’s you. Then surely, we will meet face to face.”