Chapter 28-

As I was laying down on the floor, I was staring up at what was responsible for the mark that's currently covering most of my body. I was staring at a dark figure inside a giant crystal and it was looking back at me.

Then she spoke in my head again.

"You there... mortal. Free me from this cursed thing… now!" She spoke in a tired voice.

I didn't know why, but it sounded like she was pausing every once in a while when she spoke.

(It's you, isn't it? You're Krisyn.) I asked.

"Yes. Now… free me!" She shouted in my head.

(How the hell am I supposed to do that?) I asked while looking at the runes and glyphs around the chamber.

"Speak with your mind, I could barely understand you." She said, reminding me of my lack of lips.

'Ok, so how do I free you? I'm not exactly an expert on this kind of stuff?' I said in my head.

"Break the crystal that I'm trapped inside, the other things don't matter. Hurry, your mortal body won't last longer and I don't want to wait here for another idiot to arrive! So free me now!" She shouted.

'You know that you still haven't answered my question or given me a proper response.' I said as I was crawling my way closer.

"And what would that be?" She asked with the sound of annoyance in her tone.

'About what you really are. I know that you said that you'll fix my problem once I free you, but what will you do after that? How could I trust someone who's been imprisoned in this slice of hell and is referred to as some Banished God?' I said while resting my back against the crystal.

"What are you doing?! Stop slacking off... and free me right now!" She shouted, clearly furious.

'Not until you agree to my terms.' I said while raising three fingers.

"You can't be serious!" She angrily shouted.

'I just want to be sure that you won't try anything. It's only fair since I've been through so much and managed to get here.' I said while my vision started going blurry.

Then after a few moments of Krisyn shouting at me, she then went silent for a while.

"Fine… what are your terms?" She said after calming down, but still angry.

'One: Don't attempt to harm me or go back on your words. Two: You shall not kill or bring any form of harm to innocent lives. Three: You'll answer any questions I have once I free you and you remove your mark, as well as heal me and my fox's wounds. Are those agreeable?' I said to her while looking over at Lux.

"... Fine, whatever! I swear by the name Krisyniellankal, that I'll uphold those terms! Now free me before I change my mind!" She shouted while making the two glowing red eyes shine even brighter.

After hearing what I wanted, I started to rip the scorpion shells off of my clothes with my good arm and place them down next to me. I then wiggled my body in order to take my backpack off and reached into it to pull out one of my jars. I then smashed the jar on the ground and picked up one of the shards. I then raised it above my head and brought it down on my shoulder.

(Damn it, that hurts!) I shouted as it stabbed me.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Krisyn shouted.

'Relax, I just needed it to shock me awake.' I said while pulling the shard out. 'Can't work with blurry vision.'

The pain helped me regain some focus and I used the time to start carving out runes onto every scorpion shell that I could, then placing them near the crystal. I then used some of my blood to make a line that connected the runes to one another, then crawled outside the room to pick up a stone to carve a fire rune on it.

'Alright, hope this works?' I said before pouring some mana into the stone.

I then hid behind the metal door with Lux and tossed the stone inside the chamber, hitting the pile of scorpion shells.

The moment the rock hit them, an explosion filled the chamber and flames shot out of the door. The shockwave from the explosion shook the cavern a little and startled Lux. Then once the flames calmed down I was about to crawl into the room, but suddenly I felt a wave of fear shoot out of the room. It was like every fiber of my body wanted to run away as I saw a black flame come out of the chamber and fill the entire cavern in an instant. While the flames didn’t burn me, it still had something unnatural about it that made both Lux and I unable to move. It was like we were forced to submit in front of something terrifying that was slowly approaching and that we would die if we moved an inch.

The black flames made it impossible to see anything, only Lux who was close by and laying on the ground frightened. But then I suddenly felt my body go cold and limp as I collapsed on the ground. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t feel anything from the neck down. I then felt fear as I knew what was happening.

I was dying.

I could feel myself fading away more and more as my vision went black. The sounds of bare feet walking on stone was slowly making its way towards me, but all I could think of was how I was dying and the regret that I had for not making it farther in this world. I was thinking about how everyone who tried helping me survive and the people that I’ve met in this world that I wanted to see again. The closer the footsteps got, the more I feared that I would’ve then wasted my life in my old world and in this one.

Then before I felt myself fade away, two red glowing eyes were the only things I could see and a voice spoke to me.

“Worry not, for I always keep my promises. But know that it comes with a price.” It said to me.

I then felt a drop of something warm fall and hit my lips, then slid into my mouth. Suddenly my body felt calm and warm. But then immediately felt something worse spread throughout my body. It was as if I was getting torn apart by multiple jaws of razor sharp teeth. My body was squirming, twisting, bending, and stretching all over at the same time. I screamed as my mind went from fading away, to focusing on the unbearable pain that has spread throughout my body. I couldn't pass out from the pain since it kept my mind awake.

The pain allowed me to move again and I could see that my body was turning into a pile of flesh and guts. I then felt a liquid coming from my eyes and I started coughing out something. I then saw that the liquid was my blood, but it was darker now and almost turned black. Soon my vision went dark and I was finally able to pass out.

****

As soon as I was able to regain my consciousness, I started to slowly regain my senses and feeling in my limbs. I then noticed that my body felt sore, cold, and itchy. I then managed to raise a hand towards my face and saw that it was alright. I then got up slightly and looked down at my body.

I was surprised to see that my body didn't show any sign of damage and that it was no longer in any pain. All of the burns and scars on my body had vanished. But it was a different story for my clothes. I saw that they were soaked with the dark blood from earlier and that some of the blood on my body had dried up. The dried blood smelt funny and it was the reason why my skin itches. But I was surprised to see something that I hadn't seen in a long time. I saw that my left arm was back to normal. Seeing this made me climb up to my feet and threw my hands up in the air.

"Yeah! It's back! My arm is back to normal!" I shouted.

I then noticed something else and immediately started touching my face. I then felt that the burns on my face were gone and that I had my lips again.

"Lips! I got my lips back!" I shouted.

After seeing that my body was fine, I then felt the presence of something behind me and a voice spoke up.

“I see that you’ve awoken?” The femenine voice said behind me.

I then immediately spun around and grabbed the neck of whoever spoke, then slammed the person against the nearby chamber wall. I was then caught off guard the moment I did that, because of what happened after I did that. When I slammed the person against the wall, it caused a loud boom to echo around the chamber and five massive cracks to appear along the wall.

Then the nearby glowing runes allowed me to see the face of who I had pinned against the wall. I saw that I was holding the neck of what looked like a young teenage girl. The girl looked like she was around thirteen years old and had long messy blonde hair that reached down to her ankles. Other than the long ragged purple dress that she was wearing, there were some strange things about her that I noticed. I saw that she has multiple small horns around her head like a crown. There were a few patches of scales on her body, but every once in a while the patches disappear and reappear in a different location on her body.

I also noticed that both of her eyes were different. One eye has a normal amber color, but the veins around were slightly glowing. The other eye was completely black and only had a glowing white dot in the center. But another thing I noticed were the two long whiplike black scaly tails hanging out from the bottom of the bottom of her ragged dress and past her bare feet.

“What the?” Was all I said after seeing the strange person in front of me.

“Why you insolent rakefire! How dare you lay your hands on me!” She shouted and placed a hand on my chest.

After she placed a hand on my chest, I then felt a powerful force hit me in the center of my chest and immediately felt myself get shot back. In just a second I was sent flying and crashed against the wall on the other side of the chamber. Just like when I slammed the girl against the wall, the wall behind me got damaged and large cracks covered the wall. But unlike me the girl made me hit the wall so hard it made a small crater in the wall and covered half of the chamber's walls in cracks.

After crashing into the wall, I fell to the ground on my hands and knees. I was still shocked with how hard that attack was, then immediately started placing my hands on where I felt the mysterious force hit me. I was then surprised to see that there were no signs of damage.

'Wait, what? That attack should've punched a hole through my chest or at least broken all of the ribs on my body? How am I still alive?' I asked myself.

"Just because you freed me, it doesn't give you any right to act hostile towards me!" The girl shouted.

"Freed you?" I asked before noticing the remains of the giant crystal. "Then that means you're?"

“Yes, I’m the one that’s been guiding you through your journey. The voice in your head, the one responsible for giving you my mark, and the entity that’s been trapped here for who knows how long. I’m the one known as Krisyn. But you may call me by my true name, Krisyniellankal.” She said, then started walking towards me.

While I was standing up, I felt something different with my body. Other than surviving Krisyn’s attack and surviving without a scratch, I felt that my body was completely different now.

“What did you do to me?” I asked as I looked at the crater in the wall.

“I gave you a drop of my blood and turned you into my Chosen. This removed some of your disgusting human cells and replaced them with something that I find better suited for you. Now this makes your Traveler stench bearable.” She said while holding her nose.

"Hey! You spend a long time in a desert, then fight a creepy mannequin and tell me if you had time to have a proper shower or bath!" I shouted at her.

"Don't talk back to me!" She shouted.

Then she kicked me in the shin, then I heard a crack and the rush of pain from my leg. This caused me to crouch down and clutch onto my leg.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!" I shouted.

"You don't understand how pissed off I felt when you got disconnected from me for eighteen years! I thought that you died and I had to find another person to free me!” She shouted as she grabbed the collar of my robes.

I was confused after she said that.

“Wait, hold up! Did you just say eighteen years?” I asked.

I knew that I was in that desert for a while and the fact that the sun was always out made it difficult to tell time there. But I didn’t expect to be there for eighteen years. But before I could learn more about what’s going on, a strong vibration started to shake the chamber.

“Huh? Guess it’s happening sooner than I expected?” Krisyn said as she looked around the chamber.

“What do you mean by ‘sooner than you expected’? What’s going on?!” I asked.

Then the cracks in the chamber walls started getting larger and distant crumbling sounds could be heard. Then Lux limped his way over to me and I could tell that he was worried.

“This room was made to drain my mana in order to power the entire dungeon. So when you freed me, you’ve also cut off the dungeon’s source of power and now it's crumbling.” She said while pointing at the center of the chamber. “This means nothing to me, since it won’t kill me. But I’m not so sure about how you’ll survive this?”

“There has to be something?! I didn’t almost died multiple times in this dungeon just to die in the end!” I shouted at her.

“Normally I’d just warp out of here and leave you to perish.” She said, then groans. “But you made me agree to that stupid deal, so I guess that I acually have to help? I really hate it when someone twists my arm just to do something for them.”

She then knelt down and placed a hand on the floor. Then I saw that the remaining glowing runes and glyphs started fading and a strange energy flowed into Krisyn.

“I can’t believe that I’m wasting mana on a stupid Traveler.” She mumbled to herself.

Just outside the chamber, I could see that the cavern ceiling was starting to collapse and it was getting closer to the chamber.

“Whatever you’re doing, hurry up and finish it!” I shouted.

“Don’t rush me! I only have enough mana for one of these, so I need to make sure this doesn’t blow up in our faces.” She said without looking away from what she was doing.

I then picked up Lux and carried him in my arms, since I didn’t want anything to happen to him. Then a small white orb appeared on the ground in front of Krisyn.

“Alright, here we go!” She shouted.

The moment the ceiling above us started crumbling, I crouched over Lux to protect him. Then the white orb turned into a large and bright magic circle. Then before the ceiling fell on top of us, Krisyn slammed a hand onto the magic circle and our surroundings changed. One second we were in the chamber, then in the blink of an eye we were in an open field.

"W-What the heck?" I stuttered, since we almost died back at the chamber. "Where are we?"

"As long as I remembered the correct way the spell goes, we could either be outside that damn place or it failed and we're still in the dungeon?" Krisyn's voice spoke next to me. "But seeing that this place isn't a fake, I'm glad to say that we're no longer inside the dungeon."

"You mean… we're now out of that dungeon?" I asked.

I then looked to my side and saw a familiar sight. I saw the tent that I set up back when I first got to the mountain. It was still collapsed, but there it was and completely untouched. I then looked up the hill and saw the many large rocks around the area, from back when the explosion made them fall down the mountain. Then a gentle breeze blew past the trees and I could smell the smell of nature in the wind.

"..."

Then once the fact that I was no longer in the dungeon hit me, I could feel my eyes getting wet from the tears that were building up and I almost cried. Then at that moment, I felt a colossal weight get lifted off my shoulders. I then placed Lux down on the grass and took a long breath of fresh air. Then a large rush of euphoria came rushing from my brain and into my body.

"Yeeaaahh!" I shouted as I threw both hands up in the air.

I was glad to be out of the dungeon. I had to go through alot during my time there. The near deaths, the monsters, living off the fat of the land, the training, facing each Hunter that came after me, and the countless injuries that I've sustained during my time there. Now I’m finally free from that place stronger, my face and arm back to normal, a pet green fox, and free from the dungeon floors.

But before I get to do anything, there’s one final thing that might be a problem. I now have a powerful being that was imprisoned in that dungeon for a long time and I don’t fully know what she’ll do now that she’s free.

Then behind me a soft thud sound of something hitting the floor. As I turned around to look, I saw Krisyn laying face down on the ground.

“... what?” I said as I saw this.