The Dungeon of Trials (6)
Perhaps because of what had just happened, the air between Evan and me was stiff—more than a little awkward, in fact.
For my part, I was only mildly embarrassed. Besides, my clothes were completely dry now, so there wasn't even anything left to be bashful about. I strolled along the path as nonchalantly as could be, but Evan looked as though walking beside me was taking an immense toll on his soul.
Was it because he had snapped earlier all on his own?
To be honest, I didn't entirely understand what set him off, but I figured he was young enough to have his moods, so it didn't strike me as particularly bizarre. Besides, it was hard to believe Evan's mental health was in top shape anyway. After all, practically the first thing he witnessed upon arriving at the Academy was my personal organ exhibition.
I had literally splattered crimson innards all over the place, dying over and over right in front of his eyes. It made total sense that looking at me left an uncomfortable taste in his mouth. Honestly, considering he could still interact with me normally after watching me die like that so many times, his mental fortitude had to be remarkably tough.
Look at Stella. She had suffered a complete mental breakdown for a long while before barely pulling herself together, and even then, she struggled for quite some time afterward. Right now, she seemed to be burying herself in magic research just to forget what happened, but the fact that she recovered as quickly as she did proved she was plenty strong too.
And who was the last one again? That boy, Albert or whatever his name was, had seemed utterly devastated. Seeing as he was still having such a hard time that he remained hospitalized in the infirmary, it really went to show that these kids had the exceptional potential required to join a party tasked with subjugating the Demon King.
In any case, we walked for a long time without exchanging anything resembling a proper conversation. Having fallen earlier, I could feel the path sloping steadily upward beneath our feet the further we went.
I wonder if Danas made it back safely...
Given Danas's skill level, pushing through the golems inside the dungeon to reach the boss room would be an extraordinarily tall order. Of course, he was stronger than Evan at the moment, so if he pushed himself past his limits, it wasn't strictly impossible, but the odds of him dying before ever arriving were far too high. Danas wasn't foolish enough not to realize that, so even once we reached the boss chamber, there was no chance he'd be waiting for us.
If he had disobeyed orders to turn back and somehow forced his way here anyway, I was going to chew him out thoroughly. It might sound rich coming from me, of all people, but the man needed to value his own life a little more.
Having settled that in my mind, we kept walking. How long had it been? At last, the end of the path began to come into view.
"Whoa..."
At first, I had felt a creeping despair, wondering if we would have to climb all the way up to the boss chamber for eternity. Or rather than despair, perhaps it was just that while losing Danas was undeniably a painful loss, trekking without any real threat felt dreadfully dull compared to fighting a boss.
Well... not that this place wasn't its own special brand of hell compared to the upper floor. Golems swarmed relentlessly without end, and traps littered the path from wall to wall. If I didn't possess Divine Power Detection, I probably would have been impaled, crushed, and pulverized by every single contraption along the way.
Well... in my heart of hearts, I'd love nothing more than to step on every single one...
...But doing that would basically mean putting on an organ exhibition the entire trek. And since I had to play dumb, if Evan happened to trigger a trap, I wouldn't even be able to warn him. That would drag things out forever and shatter Evan's mental health into fine powder. So as sad as it was, I made sure he knew I could detect them and guided us around each one.
It was only thanks to those traps that the walk felt even remotely interesting. Evan, having become practically a seasoned veteran at dealing with golems, cleaved through every single one that dared show its face. Unlike earlier, where attacks rained from all directions in an open chamber, we were now in a cramped corridor, and he was slaughtering them so efficiently that I didn't even need to lift a finger to help.
Normally, the golems appearing here were much stronger than the ones before. But given the narrow path, they could only surge in from a single direction. One massive sword skill was all it took to wipe them all out in a single sweep, regardless of how strong they were supposed to be—death made them all equal.
Earlier, the golems had converged from every angle across a wide area, which had made them far more difficult to manage. Even if the enemies were tougher, fighting in a narrow passage was vastly preferable. After all, it drastically reduced the number of targets you had to handle at once, and you could count on the shockwaves of your attacks dealing collateral damage to the foes lined up behind them.
Still...
Is it just me, or... does there seem to be an awful lot of personal feelings behind those swings?
With every slash, he obliterated each golem to an almost spiteful degree, shattering them into dust. My buffs had certainly amplified his strength, but the sword aura he unleashed felt unnervingly violent—hardly what you'd expect from something woven out of sacred Divine Power. I could understand harboring some frustration toward enemies that had been pestering him all day, but was it really something to get that incensed over? It didn't seem like it... What a complicated kid.
Does he have a much lower boiling point than I thought...?
From everything I had seen of Evan so far, he didn't seem the type to lose his cool like this. Was I just imagining things? Even though the game only offered fragmentary glimpses of his personality, he had never been the sort to throw tantrums so easily. Granted, he did tend to flare up whenever his master was involved.
Wait, could it be?
Were the golems insulting his master?
If so, that meant they possessed the terrifying ability to read their opponent's mind and provoke their deepest insecurities. What monstrous fiends they would be...
Nah, not a chance...
It wasn't that such enemies didn't exist, but none like that appeared this early on. Besides, the enemy that actually did that was insanely powerful, going so far as to read minds just to dodge incoming attacks.
Regardless...
"Looks like the slope is ending..." Evan muttered.
"Haa... haa... [R-Really...?]"
I was on the verge of dropping dead from exhaustion, but finally! At long last! Spurred by Evan's words, I squeezed out the last ounce of my stamina and trudged up the incline. The sheer steepness of the climb drove home just how terrifyingly far we had plunged earlier. I was so, so tired...
Did we finally make it?
I had wondered how long it would take, so I supposed I should be grateful it hadn't taken as long as I feared. If we had fallen from an even higher point and the trek had dragged on forever, I might have just bitten my tongue and died once. At least that way, I could have indulged in a brief, blissful wave of pleasure, couldn't I?
Of course, no matter how good it felt, self-harm was purely deranged behavior, which was why I refrained... And since I had no real cause to build up stress, I didn't feel the impulse like people who self-harmed to vent. Besides, even if it triggered raw physical euphoria, hurting myself with my own hands—and looking like a lunatic in front of others—never yielded that great of a thrill anyway. The pleasure I experienced was a rather complex concoction woven from both mind and body. Don't ask me why, because I didn't know either.
"[Phew... We're finally here.]"
"Uh... should I have carried you on my back?"
"[...No. I would have refused anyway.]"
No matter how exhausted I was, getting a piggyback ride was crossing a line... I shook my head as I gave my response.
At that, a curiously disappointed look flickered across Evan's face before he turned away. What was that? Why on earth were you looking disappointed, kid?
It can't be, right?
Don't tell me he...
Hmm.
Preferences aside, it would be much better for his own sake if he didn't fall for me... My appearance was one thing, but inside, I had the pitch-black heart of a grown man. I wasn't even sure I was capable of falling in love with him. Sure, I had lived as a woman for two years now, but that was strictly in terms of physical anatomy; it wasn't as though I had been raised socially as a woman. In truth, I still thought and acted like a man, didn't I?
Well...
He was pretty cool earlier, I'll admit.
In the grand scheme of things, the outcome would have been the same either way. Even if things had turned out differently, I still would have had to endure the agony of reviving him, rendering his gesture ultimately pointless—yet the fact that he threw his own body into danger for my sake earned him major points in my book. Not that it changed anything, of course. What he did earlier was impressive, sure, but that alone wasn't nearly enough to sway my heart. Who falls in love over something so simple? Least of all someone who used to be a guy. At most, I just thought of him as an admirable, praiseworthy kid.
Anyway...
Where is it...?
As far as I recalled, reaching the end of the path was supposed to lead straight to the boss chamber...
"Huh?"
What was that?
This familiar scent of blood...
A "familiar scent of blood"... well, blood all smelled mostly the same anyway, so that was an odd way to put it, but regardless. There shouldn't be any smell of blood here. The creatures wandering this floor were golems without exception. Unless golems had suddenly taken to bleeding, smelling blood should have been an absolute impossibility. Nor could it be coming from Evan or me; neither of us had sustained a single scratch on the way up. I had mapped out every trap on the lower path with my Divine Power Detection beforehand, so we hadn't triggered any in the first place.