Chapter 244 - TFF

It took Alan a bit of time to get used to the thought that the voices plaguing his mind were now standing before him, in the physical world. A body that was not a body, but certainly held thought so alien and so frightening Alan wanted nothing to do with them. How would one feel if their whole race had died out, or worse, only to remain as a disembodied voice called upon by a skill?

Not great was Alan’s best guess.

There was something else about it that made him feel quite uncomfortable, but he couldn’t quite place the sensation. The voices were doubtlessly echoes of the long dead and gone shadowless, but the thing before him… it was something new as well. A being born out of Alan’s own path and choices. A consequence of his actions.

The situation was only made stranger by the change in the shadow given to him by the spirit. Alan was certain the acquisition of the new skill had elevated his mastery over the element of shadow further. It was like an imprint of knowledge suddenly made accessible in his mind. Pieces of the puzzle come together to create a whole and propel him to new heights of understanding.

A sensation unlike any other and he wanted more of it.

Skills affect all else about me. I should take more care in the future, and try to grasp all the little changes. Understanding will come in time. Patience will keep me sane.

Alan kept staring at his new pet as he contemplated the next moves. The fight hadn’t been difficult at all, however, it left him wondering whether he was even capable of challenging the resting place of the Lord and the Lady, wherever that was. Those two sounded like tough opponents.

“I guess you can’t speak, can you?” he asked half-heartedly.

The living shadow didn’t answer him. It didn’t even shake its head or move its body. The shadows calmly flowed, and for a moment it looked like a stain upon the world, that needed to be cleansed.

“That’s what I get for picking this skill I guess. Perhaps I’ll get my army after all, one way or another,” Alan continued. He hoped for a reaction or something. He walked out of the hall, leaving the destruction and the body of the slain boss behind. The shadow followed. “Would you guys like that?”

The voices in his head rejoiced, and those outside of it remained still. There was a joke somewhere in there, but he was too confused by all the wonders of the system to run after it and clutch it.

“Do you need a weapon?”

No response.

“How about you nod or jump when you want to communicate?”

Nothing.

Fuck me, this is weird.

“Well then, I’ll call on you when there’s a fight, alright? There’s only so much time you can spend here in the physical realm.”

For the first time, the living shadow nodded. Then Alan felt it dissipate and the voices in his head grew even more numerous. It was as easy as that. He was unsure what the combat capabilities of this vessel filled with the fragmented wills of the shadowless of the past could do, but he was very eager to find out.

If I can make it speak, give voice to the shadowless… well, understandable and coherent voice, then I’ll be able to learn a lot from them.

Alan kept thinking of ways to exploit his skill and advance it as he kept going. Monsters became background noise as the shadows around him tore them apart like they were nothing. Soon enough the chambers of the Doctor sprawled before him.

However, there was a stark difference here. Since the beginning, the presence of monsters and lack of traces of combat had assured Alan that whoever had passed had done so long ago. Dungeons obviously reset at some point, replenishing the spent resources. Even the Doctor had affirmed that part the first time they had met, calling it a punishment to die over and over. It was similar to what Emerson had gone through, although the dungeon at least offered some freedom, and much more leisure time.

Blood and pieces of multiple two-headed werewolves covered the ground. Alan knew only because the heads were piled up in the middle, torn from the bodies. Each had a few round holes as if claw marks had sank deep. The carnage reached the ceiling and red was the dominant color of the space.

It was a vision from a nightmare, but it wasn’t Alan’s first. What worried him was the change. His first thought was that it was due to the freed pale werewolf. Perhaps it had taken offense to the experiments going on here and to the mutated creations of the Doctor. Perhaps this was a natural change in the story of the dungeon.

But there was also a small chance that the intruder, whoever they were, was still inside and at large.

“Hey, Doc?” Alan called.

His voice echoed briefly, and the blood-stained hall responded only with silence afterward. Alan stepped forward slowly, carefully skirting the mounds of flesh and fur, and finally saw the Doctor. His body was broken into six. The head rested on his desk, and the torso leaned behind it. Two legs were set on the ground before it, while the arms were on both sides of the lifeless head.

What the fuck… This is too brutal even for me. Is he permanently dead? He shouldn’t be. The dungeon still expects me to slay the second boss…

But if he was permanently dead… what of Alan’s oath? It still burned a hole in his status, prickling his mind anytime he paid it any attention. It was a chain around his neck and a duty he couldn’t simply ignore forever.

It’s one of two options. Either he can be brought back, or my oath doesn’t care since it was made in the name of the System itself. Both suck and both mean I’m not off the hook. But why is he left here like this? Is it a message for someone?

His senses warned him just as an arrow flew with the intent to take his head. It was a weak attack, barely enough to faze him, but he still dodged with utmost care. Who knew what tricks unknown monsters possessed? It didn’t cost much to be careful. The shadows churned as Alan used [Dark Step] to avoid the attack.

A silent figure appeared from one of the entrances at the back of the hall—those which Alan presumed led to laboratories or chambers.

Or the next part of the dungeon.

Well, well. Answers are presenting themselves to me sooner than expected for once.

“Hello there, stranger. What, please tell, is your tragic story?”

The figure soon stepped into the light. Alan’s mind reeled from the shock as tired eyes met his. A fine armor of leather and steel covered Ashlyn’s fit frame, ending in a Roman-style armored skirt. Her axes rested on her belt, while a bow of beautiful make was in one of her arms.

Most eye-catching, however, was the blood-red collar around her neck.

“A-Ash?” Alan had been certain few things could shock him or leave him as speechless as he found himself.

Why was his best friend, his sister, his only anchor to sanity at times here? Was she the visitor? Had she done all of this, or—

“Hey, Alan.” Ashlyn smiled. Her blood-red collar pulsed slightly with light. “I was wondering if it's you that has come. I was hoping it wasn’t.”

Her eyes scanned his frozen body from top to bottom, and a bit of light entered her otherwise gloomy gaze.

“You’ve changed a lot. You feel… dangerous. Even to the current me.”

“Ash, what are you doing here? What’s been happening? They told me you’ve left. I didn’t know—”

The woman chuckled as she leaned on one of the cleaner pillars and sighed heavily. The collar pulsed again, twice, and Alan caught the barest flinch.

“I tried to help, but I only made things worse somehow. I was hoping you would make it back from wherever those bastards send you… I was going to kill them all, you know? Rosalyn stopped me but I also figured that growing strong enough and forcing them to send me to you was a better plan. I hope she’s well. I kind of fucked off and left her with all the mess.”

Alan suppressed all the thoughts in his mind and ignored the urges of the dark voices to fight. They were fools if they thought he would attack Ashlyn. The shadowless could go to hell for all he cared. His senses kept examining the collar as if drawn to it. A strange thread of mana connected it to something far beyond the darkness. It was unlike any Alan had sensed so closely, but it was also familiar. The Blood Corpse’s chambers reeked of the same magic.

“Are you hurt? Is someone forcing you to do this?”

The darkness twisted and shuddered as Alan felt the spirit’s shadow flicker yet again in response to his rising anger. It was excited too.

“This… is not a simple question. We don’t have much time. If I don’t fight you, I’ll get tortured for quite a while. Believe me, I don’t want to go through the Lady’s pleasure chambers again. Her and my definition of pleasure are quite different, even if she’s hot…”

Still trying to lighten the mood… She only does this when things are dire.

Alan barely contained himself from exploding right there and then. He needed to know more before he acted. Exploding like some sort of an insecure fool whose weakness had been pricked was asking for trouble.

“Do you need to kill me, or just fight?” he asked. He could guess the answer already.

“I should do my best to kill you I’m afraid, but don’t worry. I wouldn’t do that. Even if I win I’ll probably get punished. So far only one set of visitors made it to this place—elves. I managed to scare them off, had to kill the most enthusiastic one, but… I got tortured either way.”

“So in short, you came here to level… and probably to help me with the Oath I made.”

“Don’t blame yourself… I released the werewolf too so my punishment is in line with that. It only served to fuel their desire to bind me to this place. The werewolf this did to the doctor if you’re wondering. A decent fellow. We failed to win against the Lord and the Lady and will be serving as another boss in the next segment of the Dungeon.” the collar flashed and Ashlyn knelt on the floor. “Go. If one day you’re strong enough come back for me. I’ll be here. They’ve forced me to join the lineup so even if I’m killed by visitors, it won’t be the end. I’ll be preserved somewhat at least.”

Alan felt the anger morph as if it was compressed. The hot blade of it burning a hole in his chest was suddenly a cold dagger waiting to slit a throat.

“You’re like the Doctor, then? He said his freedom lies in destroying this place…” he asked, voice calm.

“Just go, Alan. You’re not strong enough yet.”

Alan flashed in a burst of shadows and enveloped Ashlyn in a tight embrace before she could even react. Her body was warm but in a way that made him feel uncomfortable. This way he could feel the foreign mana better and realized with horror how intertwined it was with all of her blood vessels.

These bastards…

“Listen well, Ash. Whatever they do to you, I know you’re strong enough to handle it,” Alan quietly whispered.

He felt her body slump a bit, and some of the tension left her. For the first time in his life, he found Ashlyn so vulnerable, and for the first time in his life, it was her relying on him to such an extent.

“Tell me how to reach the next part.”

“No.”

“Don’t be stubborn Ash,” Alan said.

He grabbed her face with both hands and forced her to look at him with some help from the shadows. God, was she strong.

“I’ll tear this place apart and show them what agony truly feels like.”