"GASP!"
I awoke startled, filling my lungs with air. My eyes snapped open immediately, but before I could comprehend what was happening, I felt something rising in my throat.
Vomiting was a horrible sensation, even more so when you were lying on your back. In a moment of desperation, I fumbled to roll onto my side, ending up on my hands and knees, tears streaming down my face as I choked, throwing everything up.
"BLEEEGH!"
A thick, dark sludge gushed from my mouth, forming a puddle on the ground, emanating a nauseating odor, bubbling and hissing as it dissolved the stone beneath.
I heard footsteps and agitated voices around me, but my teary eyes were focused on a single thing, the gleaming stone in the middle of the black mass.
With a trembling hand, I raised Nilvan's soul stone in front of my face, ignoring the vomit trickling between my fingers, watching how it shone like a small star, much more so than the other charged stones I had acquired.
Before I could even process my achievement, I was lifted to my feet by a pair of hands under my armpits, a movement so abrupt it made my head spin.
I felt the stone slip from my grasp, heard its crack as it hit the ground, and glimpsed its gleam in the corner of my vision. I struggled, trying to free myself from whatever held me, murmuring something I couldn't even understand amidst the confusion.
A pair of hands holding my head only intensified my efforts, fearing to receive the New God's sickly affection again.
"CALM DOWN!"
SLAP!
A strong blow to my face threw my head to the side, and the hands held me again, forcing me to look ahead. As the fog of fear dissipated, my vision cleared, revealing a familiar knight without her helmet, revealing her worried expression.
"D'arrrce?"
"Yes, it's me. How do you feel?"
"As if I'm drrrowning on dry land."
She grimaced, showing an emotion I couldn't describe, and took a step back as the hands holding me upright released me.
I screamed, almost falling as I felt the strength in my legs give way. The woman in front of me came to my aid, putting an arm around my shoulders while her free hand was pressed against my chest, keeping me upright.
"Slowly, who knows what Nilvan did to you."
Her tone was gentle, whispering in my ear, making me shudder, and the proximity of her face to mine made the heat inside me intensify. I never realized it before, but despite her wounds, despite everything she'd been through, D'arce was simply beautiful.
Where did those thoughts come from? I have no idea, but I pushed them aside before I embarrassed myself even more, preferring to nod at her words. Then I looked around, seeing who else was present.
Rag and Cahara were nearby; they were probably the ones who helped me to my feet. Enki remained pensive in a corner, the floating head complained as always, the armored skeleton still guarded the entrance, leaving only Madeleine and Moonless, the former downcast, petting the she-wolf beside her.
I frowned and then sighed. I don't know if there was a better way to find this out, but she just learned that neither of her parents truly cared about her the way they should. And now, what should she think?
I said I was feeling better and asked D'arce to let me go, but she still stayed close as I approached the child, crouching beside her. Madeleine stared at me in silence, her face showing a weary expression and eyes full of sadness before focusing on the ground, her hands clasped to her chest.
The situation was uncomfortable; for a moment I brought my hand to my head, planning to scratch it before remembering I was wearing a mask and hood. I kept thinking about what I should say, clicking my tongue and looking around, sighing again before finally speaking.
"Don't pay attention to themmm."
Hearing my words, Madeleine raised her head, looking at me again.
"I'm sorrry you found out this way, I don't know how you feel, but you ssshouldn't let this kind of thing destroy you. Bad parentsss exist, not every adult deserves to have a child, if they don't carrre about you, then why should you carrre about them? Family isn't defined by blood, after all, we arrre one, aren't we? You, Moonlesss, D'arrrce, and me."
She didn't answer, as usual, but she accepted my hand when I offered it, standing up before sniffling and hiding her eyes with her arms; however, this time she didn't cry.
"We carrre about you, I carrre about you, so hold on a little longer, soon we'll reach the end of our little adventurrre."
I stroked her head, making her jump, and then she showed me her face, offering a trembling smile accompanied by a sad laugh.
"Come herrre."
I lifted her, sitting her in my arms; she hugged my neck and rested her head on my shoulder. I heard her sobs and felt her grip tighten around me, letting everything out.
"That's cute and all, but what's the connection between this child and that whore and the fool who thinks he's the protagonist of some prophecy?!"
My mood soured. As always, Nas'hrah had to ruin everything, and now everyone was focused on me, waiting for answers. With no other options, I told them what they wanted.
"Madeleine is the daughterrr of Le'garde and Nilvan. That man believesss himself to be The Prophesied One who will unify humanity, however, Nilvan understood that ascensssion through the thrrrone will never make the worrrld advance, so she developed a plan. Using her ability to enter people's dreamsss and memoriesss, she became pregnant by the Mercenary Captain, bearing the child in my armsss. Madeleine possesses an Ancient Soul, capable of ascending to the same level as the Old Godsss, just like Alll-mer, but for that, an Old God must die, their power absorbed by herrr, initiating her ascension for the progresss of humanity."
There was a moment of silence where I observed everyone's reaction. D'arce already knew the truth. Cahara brought a hand to his mouth. Rag gave me a piercing look, tightening his grip on his weapon. Enki's neutral expression was replaced by surprise.
I, however, retreated, feeling the tension in the air, ready to fight if necessary. Moonless and D'arce did the same, stopping beside me.
"I'll be dirrrect with you. I don't like thisss, and when all this is over, I'll only proceed with the plan if Madeleine wantsss to, but I swearrr! IF ANYONE HERE DARESSS TO HURT HER, I'LL SEND YOU ALL DIRRRECTLY TO THE EMBRACE OF THE SULFURRR GOD!"
My furious voice reverberated through the tower. I felt Madeleine tremble in my arms. Momentarily, everyone assumed fighting stances, but seeing that no one made the first move, no blood was shed.
"Please listen, it is not the time for this! Turning us against each other will only do the dungeon's work for it!"
D'arce was the voice of reason, pleading for us to stop, but never lowering her spear.
"I-I know, but after learning about this place, I don't want another God ruining the world!"
Cahara replied, full of hesitation.
"She will do the opposssite, her ascension will sssave humanity from stagnation!"
I replied, racking my brain for a way out, but with my back against the wall, it was difficult to find one.
"And who guarantees that?! You've been right so far, but what if that's not the case?!"
Ragnavaldr spoke next with barely contained rage.
Surprisingly, it was Nas'hrah who came to my aid.
"The brat is right, the world needs the girl."
His tone was unusual, completely serious to the point that we all turned towards him, allowing him to elaborate.
"The New Gods are merely a creation of the rules of the old ones, made to guide humanity like cattle to the slaughter. I learned this the hard way: a New God arises, creating a new world order and pulling humanity out of stagnation. He reaches the pinnacle of his reign and power and then is forgotten, losing everything he conquered and returning to the Great Hall for all eternity, only for another ambitious mortal to take his place, repeating the process eternally. Time is a cycle, everything is a cycle called the Grand Scheme of Things. Even if you kill Le'garde and the New Gods, even if you sit on the throne, even if we all escape the dungeon, nothing will change, everything that has happened in the last few days will repeat itself eternally, unless someone does as Alll-mer did and becomes powerful enough to rival the Old Gods. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of hearing about the 'old world order' and the 'new world order'... 'Order' this and 'order' that. Humanity was NOT MADE FOR ORDER! OUR PLACE IS IN CHAOS! Humans originate from chaos! It's a one-in-a-billion coincidence that we even exist; why control our existence and subject it to 'order'!? For humanity to be truly free from the dominion of the ancient gods, we must fight for chaos!"
We looked at each other, no one answered immediately, little by little the weapons were lowered. I didn't know if they believed the words of the New God or if his initial calm was so unbelievable as to break the tension, but this served to avoid a disaster, however, now we stared at each other in awkward silence.
"You can't imagine how much I hate the fact that Nilvan and my horrible servant are right, but the reign of the Old Gods must end. They created us and abandoned us when we failed to meet their expectations. Humanity needs Human Gods, Gods who understand humanity so that it can prosper, so it is in my best interest that the child becomes an Ascended God! If anyone here wants to stop that, then they will have to go through me too! I'm tired of ignorant fools fearing what they don't understand!"
Shame, that was the feeling after almost killing each other for a foolish reason. Our attention remained on the New God, and I wondered if anyone here would be crazy enough to confront the immortal sorcerer. Fortunately, no one took such action.
"Jussst… Jussst let's get out of this towerrr and move on, pleassse. Before we all lose our headsss again."
It was a silent agreement, but with slow, heavy steps, without daring to look into each other's eyes, I retrieved Nilvan's Soul Stone, the Endless Soul, holding it in front of my face, admiring its glow.
For a second, I saw that terrifying woman in front of me, smiling with her lifeless eyes. My breath caught in my throat and both our hearts raced, a shiver ran through my body as a pair of ghostly hands approached. I wasted no time and put the soul in my pocket, making the image disappear, then turned to the others, pretending nothing had happened.
"With the first sssoul acquired, we unlocked all its abilitiesss at the Hexing Table. I suggest we return to the higher levelsss at some point."
With that done, we approached the exit. I ordered the skeleton to get out of the way and follow me down, and throughout the descent, I remained vigilant with my multiple eyes in case anyone tried to knock us down from up here. To my relief, nothing happened. We made our way back to the main square, passing the Nameless Figurine, endlessly repeating the same words, and crossing the entrance of the building on the opposite side.
From now on, our exploration of the city began. What should have been a small space with linear paths turned out to be a larger structure. Lighting some torches, we spotted the walls made of cracked and worn brown bricks, the colorful tiles in irregular patterns covered in dirt and vegetation growing through the cracks, and the old wooden furniture, rotting and covered in dust and cobwebs.
Our heavy footsteps and breaths echoed through the ancient corridors, the thick, fetid air created by abandonment making my nose burn, but we pressed on, exploring, searching for a way.
The rats had mapped the area, of course; I didn't want to be caught off guard, but with the moon threatening to kill us, standing still until my summons found the best route wasn't an option.
Meanwhile, I searched my mind for anything that could be useful in Ma'habre. I would clear this place of everything of value, just like the dungeon above, however, I couldn't help but chuckle at a funny thought.
"Is there a problem?"
D'arce asked hesitantly, and at that moment I realized everyone was staring at me. There was a moment of embarrassment where I mentally kicked myself before trying to invent an excuse.
"No, no… Just a sssilly thought. You wouldn't underrrssstand."
Judging by the grimaces most of them made, they wouldn't take no for an answer.
"You who possess knowledge of the future, if there's something important then speak."
"Right, but don't say I didn't warrrn you. If Alll-mer is basically the Jesusss Chrrrist of this world and his corpse is in the Tomb of the Godsss, then would I be able to get D4C and Love Trrrain if I reached him?"
If this were a movie, there would be a cricket chirping amidst the awkward silence that followed. The small smile I had slowly died as I noticed the stares and expressions directed at me, a mixture of anger, confusion, and disbelief.
"...Right, he's gone mad…"
"...Talking nonsense at a time like this…"
"...What a waste of time…"
"...I thought it was something important…"
I watched as the men, the woman, and the floating head passed by me, muttering insult after insult, making me cringe with each word. Even the child in my arms looked at me with a 'Seriously?' expression.
Finally, I was left with Madeleine, Kitab, Moonless, and the Armored Skeleton, watching the others disappear into the distance, forcing me to walk faster so as not to lose sight of them.
"I swearrr there's an interesting story behind thisss, with vampiresss, muscular Aztec Godsss, a perfectly normal man who just wantsss a quiet life, and much morrre!"
However, no matter how hard I tried, they refused to listen to the epic story I wanted to tell, except for Madeleine, who caught my attention, wishing me to continue.
"Verrry well, it all began in the year eighteeen hundrrred and eighty, with the accident of a carrriage…"
END OF CHAPTER