10.1

"We are going so slow..." Felt mutters, though every single one us can hear it. It can't be helped though, the reason why we are going so slow is because we have to be careful with our step.

Right now, Emilia and I are carrying Crusch. I'm holding her legs while Emilia is holding her arms, apparently this is the safest way to go about moving her. This means however that if one of us trips and let's her fall... Let's just say that it wouldn't be good for her.

It goes to show how awful her wounds are. I had a broken arm and a fractured leg, but Emilia completely fixed them up after a few minutes, and now I only feel a bit of soreness in my arm, and my leg is totally fine... And even those amazing healing capabilities couldn't patch up Crusch completely.

Anastasia sighs. "It is what it is kid. We can't rush durin' critical situations like these... I sure wish we knew were we are going though." She sends a numb look towards Priscilla. "Honestly I'm surprised you had the gall to just pick a path and start walking." Me too.

We don't know which side of the tunnel is the correct one, but Priscilla just start walking towards one once we picked up Crusch. Eventually the path she picked revealed even more paths... And yet again she chose one without any fear.

The Baroness shrugs. "It doesn't matter which way we go, it only matters that we go. After all, we have zero clues or ways to find which path is the correct one. So stop complaining and gamble like a true merchant." I think it's normal to be surprised by your... Priscillaness. I find it attractive though, so it's okay!

Anastasia glares at her. "Hey, being a merchant ain't the same as being a gambler..." She then sighs. "Actually at the beginnin' it's the same thing as being a gambler, you're right, frustratingly enough..." Don't admit that! At least lie about being a genius or something!

Priscilla chirps up, it's a incredibly cute sight coming from her, even if the fact that I'm carrying a wounded woman kind of ruins the sight... "Of course I'm right." Actually, her cockiness is almost uncanny.

And now we are back to silently walking, Emilia and I carrying a woman, Priscilla and Felt carrying swords, and Anastasia probably carrying a huge damn headache.

Oh right, since I can't carry the Life Sword while also helping Emilia, I gave it to Felt. Right now I wish I had a sheat for the damn thing, or at least that it was a gauntlet. That way I could actually use it with some level of skill.

Suddenly Emilia and I stop walking, it's because it's completely and utterly dark now. That means Priscilla's time with her sword must have ran out, either that or she ran out of mana. No matter what though, we lost both our source of light, and of heat, though I suppose it's fairly hot here anyways.

For a moment we are all shocked into silence, and even Priscilla starts to complain. "The day must have ended...! Who said the day could end, when did I give it permission to do so!?" I don't think even you can control that...!

Nonetheless she quickly regains her composure. "Mongrel, carefully pass me the Duchess and illuminate the area with your magic." Ah, this is about to get dangerous, since they can see much.

Which is why I interject. "By the way... I didn't say this before, but I can see it pretty clearly even in the dark, so let me guide you two at least." I don't know why I have this clearly inhuman advantage, but I'll take it.

Emilia smiles. "Oh like in the well! It's pre~tty useful to have an ability like this right now." Yeah, even in the complete darkness I can probably help to some extent. I would prefer if we weren't in complete darkness though.

Priscilla rolls her eyes. "Please stop dragging out your words, you sound like a child." The half-elf immediately blushes bright red. "And well... your ability seems useful enough, but having someone telling me what to do while I can't see anything seems more distracting than anything." Ah, that's true.

I sigh. "Fair enough." Then I mutter towards the half-elf. "Emilia, I think it's cute by the way." Her blush gets even redder. I don't know if she appreciated my comment or not, but seeing her adorable tomato face alleviates a little bit of the tension I'm feeling at least.

It takes some time, but eventually Emilia does pass off Crusch to Priscilla. Thankfully neither of us drops her in the process, that would be the stupidest way ever to get the Duchess killed, almost comedical.

Now that her hands are free, Emilia extends her hands, eventually light shines from them. Now that everyone can see again, a collective sigh of relief leaves everyone's lips. And the best part is that Emilia's magic is spirit magic, which means it's not really reliant on her mana. So we are going to be more or less okay.

I smile. "Back to walking then, let's hope this doesn't take too long..." We have no water, and no food, while we do have an injured person. In summary this is the worst situation ever, we don't even know we are to begin with... What a awful time to teleport us.

Anastasia sighs. "Well, Julius was sayin' I need to exercise a bit more... This better count." I think this may be more harmful than helpful, considering you are going to be dehydrated and hungry very soon, but okay.

We begin our walk again, and soon after we finally see something. It's a dark door, full of decoration. Immediately a smile appears on my face, this place isn't some random ass cave with no exit. People have been here before... Is this a mine, I wonder? No way, that wouldn't relate to the prophecy.

Felt immediately dashes to the door, probably by using her Divine Protection. "Hell yeah! Let's fucking go!" Don't commemorate like you just won a gacha. Even if I'm feeling exactly the same as you inside...

Priscilla is struggling to look at it, mostly because she's needs to turn a little bakwards, but even I can see she's smiling. "As expected." Right, considering she picked our path, she's gonna get a even bigger head from this.

Anastasia walks closer to the door too, even though she took longer to get to it, she has no Divine Protection after all. "Ain't this a little suspicious though...?" She doesn't seem that happy about our find though?

Emilia raises an eyebrow. "How so...? It seems we fina~lly found our exit!" And I'm glad you didn't drop your way of speaking just because Priscilla bullied you over it. Just hearing is raising up my spirits.

Felt quickly nods. "Yeah, don't look a gift dragon in the mouth damn it!" She then puts her hands on the door, and starts trying to open it. It doesn't budge at all, and I can only hope it's because Felt is kinda weak all things considered.

It's almost sad seeing Felt failing to open the door, but Anastasia continues giving her reasoning. "I mean the door is purple and all... evil lookin'. If that ain't look ominous I don't know what it does." That's actually a fairly good point.

I nod towards Anastasia. "You are right, specially since we probably have teleported here due to the prophecy." What if this door just leads us to some super hard boss? That would be bad, specially with one of our party members down...

That isn't all either, right now Priscilla can't use her sword. Apparently she's super strong, so not having her at full power might heavily bite our ass... In essence this door screams trouble.

Priscilla scoffs. "That door won't lead to anything bad." Yeah, it will probably lead to something totally awful instead. Though of course someone like Priscilla would be supremely confident.

Anastasia glares at her. "How can ya tell?" And of course someone like Anastasia would be supremely skeptical. No, even if she is that, this time her suspicions are completely justified, I don't want to find something that makes Reinhard look weak.

Priscilla grins. "Because I chose this path. Therefore it is either the correct one, or I will make it the correct one." Yep, that's a Priscilla answer all right. Probably not the time for one though.

Anastasia's glare doesn't diminish at all. "No one, and I mean no one, wants to die for your pride." Surprisingly enough Priscilla does flinch a little, it's almost impossible to see, specially with Emilia's unnatural lighting, but with my weird vision I can.

The merchant then sighs. "Whatever though, the little miss over there can't open the stupid door anyways." She points at Felt, who is still struggling and failing to even budge the massive door at all.

Felt kicks the door out of frustration. "Yeah I can't...! Fuck this damn thing, giving me false hope!" Maybe I can crack it with my enhanced strength? Someone else would need to hold Crusch with Priscilla while I do it though.

Emilia gets closer. "Let me try too, elves are pretty strong." She keeps the shine in one of her hands, and tries to push the door with the other. To my surprise Emilia completely fails to open the door with her brute strength.

Instead what happens, is that as soon as Emilia touches the door, it shines a bright purple light and... disappears. It's like there was never a door in the first place, this may be bad... Or maybe it's good.

If it took one of the Dragon Priestesses specifically to open it, maybe this really is the path we are supposed to follow. I guess we really are stepping forth after all... "Good job Emilia. I think." Those words escape my mouth, breaking the confused silence that is around us.

She looks at her hand in shock. "Thanks. I think." Well, I guess it's time for us to keep walking forwards. And as we do so, no one questions Emilia, because we all know this must have something to do with the prophecy.

While we walk, Emilia's light starts to flicker, I can see a growing look of horror in her face. Nonetheless Priscilla snarls at her. "Don't mess things up now you witless girl! Are you trying to kill the Duchess again!?" Right, for Priscilla things just became completely dark for a moment, that was dangerous.

Emilia shakes my head. "It's not my fault, it's just that... the spirits are getting... weird. I don't know how to describe it, but some of them are not communicating with me anymore and, they also don't want to go down..." That's awful, we can't risk our light source.

Anastasia suddenly makes a thinking pose, and then her face become just as horrified as Emilia's. "Hey... Y'all don't think we are descending down a Cataclysm or somethin'?" That would be the worst case scenario...

Felt points at Priscilla. "Didn't Miss Cocky over here confirm that we are not? I mean we have gone through this conversation." That's true, but the circumstances were different back then.

I shake my head. "I think Anastasia may be right, let's turn around. We picked the wrong path, so let's try going the other one this time." I guess Priscilla's luck failed this time, a shame, but it is what it is.

The blond raises an eyebrow. "Are you insinuating I made a mistake puppy? Besides, even if this is a Cataclysm, we have no other choice but to head deeper into it." We do have other choices though, they're called backtracking.

Felt pouts. "I still don't get why you guys are assuming this shit hole is a Cataclysm anyways. I... agree... with... the... bitch, this one time." Was it really that hard to take Priscilla's side!?

Anastasia sighs. "Ain't clear? The reason why this might be a Cataclysm is because the spirits are startin' to freak out. We must not be feelin' anythin' 'cause we are supposedly immune to miasma, remember?" Yeah, I'm pretty convinced this is a Cataclysm, I do have a question though...

I raise it. "So, how much do we know about the Cataclysms anyways? Is it really a case of going insane the moment someone gets close to one? Or is it like this, where someone can descend a fair bit?" That will decide whether this is a dungeon or not.

Emilia shakes her head. "Sorry Iori, but not a lot is known about Cataclysms. People haven't gotten close to one in hundreds of years... That said, I don't think this is one. I mean we haven't seen a single Demon Beast yet, and Cataclysm are supposed to be filled with them." Right, where is my random mob spawn?

I take a moment to think. "We should still turn back. If we keep going we are gonna lose our light source, and we aren't looking for trouble anyways... We are looking for food and water." I doubt that's gonna be found there.

Priscilla glares at me. "Don't be foolish puppy. We are supposed to step forth, don't you remember?" That's true... "Besides, as I said multiple times, I picked this path, it will be fine." I don't really care about that though.

I sigh. "Fine. I guess we are gonna keep walking then." And so we resume our journey, there's no doubt that our heads are being filled with even more depressive thoughts as we walk further though...

Really, the main problem is water, if it was just food then... I guess I could cut off my arm. I have a bladed weapon, which Felt is holding, and Emilia could probably seal the wound anyways. A bit of a depressing story for my harem JRPG, but sometimes it's like that.

Our walk is treacherous now that Emilia's light is constantly blinking away, and the thought that if this is a Cataclysm a beast could appear and attack us doesn't help with anything...

Eventually we arrive at another door, so I motion to Emilia with my head. "Try to open this one too." Or magic it away, I guess. We still don't know what happened to the first one after all...

Emilia nods and walks towards the door, just like before she touches it... and nothing happens at all. "Um... I don't think this is working." She even tries pushing it, but yet again, nothing happens.

Anastasia scowls. "Fuckin' great. Really..." She then walks forwards and tries touching the door as well, nothing happens. "Hey everyone, try touchin' this thing, maybe it will react to one us..." That's a good idea.

If this does lead to a Cataclysm, then maybe this is like a... check-in for heroes, to see if we are qualified. Emilia already confirmed she's a heroine, so maybe each of us will need to open a door? The first door didn't open for Felt though, so maybe there's a correct order?

We all do as Anastasia suggested, even Priscilla and I, who carefully make sure to not drop Crusch... We then even make Crusch touch the door, but nothing happens at all. No shine, no budge, the door stays firm.

I frown. "I guess we are turning around after all, let's try the other path..." Why did the first door even react to Emilia then? I seriously don't get it, does she have something we don't have?

The dark thought that she looks like the Witch of Envy does pass through my mind, but in the end I doubt that's the reason. She only managed to open one door after all, so unless our future is everyone turning into a silver haired half-elf, that can't be it.

Felt kicks up sand. "Damn it! All that time wasted, and for nothing...!" She glares at Priscilla, but then sighs and looks down. I was certain she was going to blame the Baroness, but Felt was agreeing with her earlier, so I guess she doesn't want to come off as a hypocrite.

Anastasia however, glares at Priscilla, she never took her side after all. "You... good goin', you did great." Her words are full of sarcasm, as one would expect... To be honest, I get her anger, but I can't blame Priscilla. We are all equally blind here.

Priscilla snorts. "Thank you for recognizing it Fox. Now let's stop crying and turn back, no doubt this will help me someway, that's always how it goes." Her attitude obviously pisses off Anastasia even more.

She points at Priscilla. "Ya are a master at gettin' to people nerves, ya know that!?" It almost looks like Anastasia is about to jump the Baroness. "You... sorry. Ya are right that there is no real to blame ya, it ain't like I know where we are goin' anyways." What's with this surprising maturity!?

The merchant looks down. "I'm the oldest here so... I shouldn't be blamin' ya for what you didn't do." She sighs. "You're kind of a bitch though." Don't say that right after admitting Priscilla is younger than you...!

Whatever though, we better turn back.

"There's light up ahead..." Torches to be specific...! Something that is definitely man made! Maybe this time we have finally found the correct way forward! We better have, because I have no idea on how many hours we have walked at this point.

The thief smiles "Another door!?" Felt yet again rushes forwards, trying to open the door ahead of us... "And another failure...!" And the door doesn't budge. Not surprising considering our luck. I'm beginning to think we really are going to die in a depressing place like this... Damn it, if only we could find some water...!

Anastasia sighs. "At least this one doesn't look all ominous..." That's true, even though the door is decorated, it's gray, and... not creepy looking. That's the best way to describe it.

Emilia lowers her hands. "Yeah, and this place has lit up torches! Someone must have been here rea~lly recently." I have no idea for how long torches stay lit once someone does so, but I'm taking your word for it.

I look at the center of the room. "And there's also that. The most suspicious thing here." In the center of this place, there's a sword stuck to the ground, it reminds me of King Arthur's legendary sword.

Which means it immediately screams JRPG, I would like to say this proves that we are finally on the right path, but the doors were also screaming JRPG and they were worthless in the end.

Emilia gets closer with a smile. "Oh, maybe I can pick it up with my elf strength!" I don't know if that's a good idea or not, this could be a trap... But obviously we are gonna need to try it eventually.

The half-elf easily removes the sword... and suddenly we are in a field of flowers, beneath a shining sun. "Again!?" Is this another teleportation!? And one to the other side of the planet, considering it's supposed to be night now...!

No, that isn't all of it. My hands suddenly feel free, because I'm not holding Crusch anymore. She's actually on the ground just besides me, and Felt and Emilia are also now close to our group...

I hear a whistle. "Man, y'all look like shit. Pale as fuck..." It comes from a red haired man, one wearing an... eyepatch? He must be missing an eye. That isn't all though, because he's also missing both fucking arms...!

He's dangerous though, even though my brain tells me he shouldn't be, my soul disagrees. The same goes for all my other party member, which is why we are just staring at him in silence.

He grins. "Here are the rules... Y'all land one blow on me, the door opens... I think." He scratches his nose? "It's hard to remember what she said after so many fuckin' years, but that should be the gist of it." He then looks at the dawned Crusch. "Gotta say though, didn't expect someone hurt... Y'all look weak as hell too, skippin' the line is bad..."

It's only after a few moments that my mind catches up to what he did, even though he has no fucking arms, he still scratched his nose...! How!? The answer quickly comes to my mind, the world simply could not deprive this man of having arms. So even though he doesn't have them, he has them. What a mess...!

He suddenly glares at me. "Oh yeah, I remembered somethin'! I'm supposed to kill any man quickly once the fight start, to not make it painful... Well, it ain't like I kill women in painful ways anyways." He sighs. "What a pain, so many cuties in front of me, but I can't do anythin'..."

His eyes suddenly widen. "Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself... The name's Reid Astrea, the challenge starts once any of y'all takes one step forward." He stretches. "And if none of y'all can lend a blow on me... Then it's better y'all don't enter the tower anyways, I don't like seein' women being tortured." This guy...!

He's one of the three heroes, Reinhard's ancestor, a man who genuinely fought the Witch of Envy...! Is this prophecy putting a bunch of level ones like us against a level one hundred like Reid!? Give me sometime to grind at least!

Priscilla is the first one to break from the fear Reid induces. "Very well then, com-" And she's immediately silenced, and not because Reid has attacked her either. Priscilla doesn't have a single wound in her body.

"I did say I was killin' any guys quickly. Fuckin' cossetin' parents, am I right?" There's a pair of chopsticks inside of my head, I'm definitely dead. The world goes dark before I even feel pain.

"You should have won that... Disappointing."