“How long have you been like this?”
The reason I felt I needed to ask this question was that I needed to understand if the time was off in this world. In the Twilight Dungeon, I had gained quite a bit of time. Weeks out here translated to months in there. If this dungeon was the same, then I would have a good amount of time to finish. If it was the opposite, I would probably panic.
“I don’t… I don’t know… I remember… I remember dying. Then, everything went black. I thought I was dead. I was just trapped with my own thoughts, not knowing anything. It wasn’t until I started to feel you coming toward me that I started to become aware of things. I can hear and feel, but I can’t see anything.”
“I see… to me, it’s only been maybe thirty minutes since you died.”
“Only thirty minutes?” She gasped. “It’s felt… like an eternity. What has… what has happened to me?”
“That ancient sword was a dungeon. The dungeon destroys your body and uses your soul. They call it a soul dungeon. Anyone who dies becomes a weapon. If you activate the trial, they give you one of the weapons. That’s all I know.”
“That’s… so, you’re saying I’ve become a sword?”
“I’m holding you in my hands right now.”
There was a brief moment of silence. It would probably take a while for someone to come to terms with being turned into a sword. Actually, I had read many different isekai in Earth, and often people would reincarnate as objects. I still couldn’t imagine it. I came to Earth as myself.
“To what end?” Alysia finally asked, her voice croaking slightly.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head as I glanced around the room, finally noticing a mural on the wall. “Ah, we’re in a safe room and they have a dungeon mural. It might shed some light on things. Hmmm…”
“Well? I can’t see anything, describe it!”
“Oh… right. The mural depicts the story of a man and his daughter. He appeared to be a soldier or adventurer of some kind. From what I can see, the daughter went out one day to pick fruit. However, she never came home. Then, reports of a dungeon forming in the area struck. The man desperately went out to find his daughter. After untold challenges, he discovered that she had died in the dungeon, never to be resurrected.
“That’s heartbreaking.”
“I think… I think the woman who is guiding me through this might be his daughter.”
“Are you sure?”
“No… I’ve only ever made guesses. The drawings on the murals aren’t exactly picture perfect.”
“This is useless! Just destroy the dungeon and let’s get out of here.” Her voice sounded aggravated.
“Understanding the dungeon will help us succeed in conquering it. You’ll just have to trust me on that, okay?”
“O-okay.”
“However, you’re right. Demon Lord Aberis has Eliana, and he’s likely planning to go to war with Aberis too. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible. Our one advantage is that everyone likely believes we’re dead. Fortunately, this dungeon doesn’t destroy souls. That’s probably why it hasn’t grown past ten levels despite all of this time. It can’t be absorbing very much mana or the church nearly on its doorstep would have noticed and blocked it. Once we destroy the dungeon, your soul will be free and I will be able to resurrect you.”
“We’ll both make it out of this.”
“Yes.” I agreed, and then slapped the flat end of the blade against the wall.
“Ow!” She cried out. “What was that for?”
“That was for killing yourself! I’m still angry about that!”
“Th-there was no other choice! You were dying! It worked, didn’t it? It separated our souls?”
“You mean too much to me for you to do something so foolish again. Promise me, if we ever get in a desperate situation, whatever we do, we do it together.”
“Deek…”
“Promise me! We fight together!”
“O-okay…”
With that taken care of, I relaxed a bit. It was time to take on the next part of the trial.
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