“Alysia?” I spoke to her, because she had gone silent for a while.
“I-is his story true?” She asked.
“When it comes to dungeons and their curses, there is no such thing as a truth. Stories change and warp with time, and every person there observes things differently. That story is very likely his truth, just as her story was her own truth. That’s ultimately what creates a curse. People not knowing the whole story, their lives being forever poisoned by their story being cut short, or falling in a direction that was far too cruel. Just like every story is different, so is every dungeon.”
“I… didn’t know…” She spoke quietly.
“Few people on this continent do. To the Fey, dungeons are just the points of invaders, threatening to eat away their mana and poison their world. Even humanity has forgotten where we came from.”
Is there a dungeon between Earth and this world? I wouldn’t even be able to guess. I was able to use magic over there, but the mana wasn’t particularly thick like on the fey continent.
“The fey?” She questioned.
“You see-“ I stopped just as I was about to explain some things to her because the middle-aged man had approached me.
“You have lowered your blade.” He stated.
“I have,” I confirmed.
“You were the one who resurrected me?” This was closer to a question.
“I was.”
“Then, I owe you my thanks. I owe you one.”
“If you owe me, then my goal since entering the dungeon has only been to leave it. As our souls are trapped in here, people I care about are in trouble. The both of us were kind of in the middle of something. A demon lord, countries at war, and so-on. If you’d let me leave with Alysia, I would be eternally grateful.”
“Regretfully, that is something I am unable to do.” He responded, a bitter look on his face.
I felt a pang of anger, but I quickly repressed it and took a breath. “Then, I would ask that you explain.”
“This dungeon isn’t completely controlled by my daughter. In the way that she was able to control me like a sword, I also had some modicum of control while I was in that blade. The trials were ultimately created by me, in hopes of finding a successor. I was looking for a person who wouldn’t be corrupted by a cursed blade like I was. A god soul, one blended with darkness and light.
“That was the prerequisite?”
“One of them. The second was someone who had completed the lore of another dungeon. When you activated your blessings, you met the conditions to enter this dungeon.”
“Alright, continue…” I had a bad feeling about this.
“The only people who can enter this dungeon are those who have been completely detached with their bodies. Those like Alysia who died against my blade, their souls are sucked into the dungeon. However, for you to enter the dungeon, your body also had to be destroyed. However, when I went to take your soul, your body was absent.”
“What are you saying?”
“First off, the only way to bring you into this dungeon was to destroy you. Your blessings were absorbed by this dungeon, as were all of your essence. In short, to the world outside, you are dead. Not only would you not have been able to be resurrected, but any indicators that would have suggested you lived would have shattered. You were completly disconnected from your world. I cannot return you, because you are not alive to return.”
I began to shake as I heard this. I felt a hand grab me, and Alysia had returned to her human form to keep me from falling. I still had to ask.
“Slaves?”
“The bond would have been destroyed for all of them.”
I barely managed to keep standing. “That’s… it’s only been a couple of days…”
The man looked down. “As to that…”
“Wh-what?”
“Your soul entered this dungeon in a nontraditional way, being dragged in with your partner. Although this allowed you to see through this dungeon’s true nature quicker than others, there was a time where you were… for lack of a better word, lost. It was I who pulled your soul out of the weapon and placed you in the trial.”
“H-How long?” I demanded through gritted teeth.
“Two months. You were in this dungeon for two months.”
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