Dungeon Robotics 117

Olla Guys! How goes your Monday? Nothing much from me today. 

Louella

I had been with these three people for the last day and I wasn’t sure that had been a good idea. Something inside me told me that they were friends, but my head was having a hard time believing that. They were just generally unsafe to be around. 

The girl Sera, had already wandered off three times since we started making for the surface. Each time we would have to make a detour to find her. The crazy part was that she had managed to find an even more dangerous place each time. 

“You guys are insane!” I shouted as they pulled Sera from what looked like a cave full of toxic mushrooms. The air was so thick with smoke I was amazed they could see anything at all. I watched worried when I didn’t hear a reply until they burst from the smog coughing heavily. Sera was in Yuno’s arms starring off into space.

Coughing harshly, Nero turned a smile towards me. “Not to worry. Just a bit of Prexin fumes. It is not lethal.” Even as he said it he turned green and started to retch just around the bend of the tunnel. I pinched my nose as I wanted nothing to do with that.

I moved up to Yuno and Sera, who appeared to be handling it much better than Nero. “Is she okay?” I asked concerned.

Yuno sniffed his sister a few good times. “She smells horrible, but yeah. She is fine. I think the fumes bothered him more than us.”

“Thank god. I was worried about being stuck down here with just him,” I said moving and sitting next to the wall. Yuno laughed which sounded much louder than it probably was in the confined tunnels.

We waited for everyone to recover. Even though he said it didn’t affect him, I caught him starring at spots for longer than seemed natural. Nero had also retched three more times and didn’t appear to be in any mood to continue. As the only with any wits, I decided it would be safer to just wait.

I helped out my hand and created a flame. While I could do it like it was second nature, something inside me felt… odd about doing the magic. While playing with the flame, the staff got angry and sent a jolt of lightning into the flame disrupting the magic. Almost second-naturedly, I rotated the lightning in my hand and started playing with it instead.

Was I dual natured? Memories of people controlling more than one element seemed to echo, but I felt this was wrong. Or at least not the case for myself. I moved the lightning and sent it back to the staff. It absorbed it without pause. I chuckled at the greedy staff. 

I leaned back and placed my head against the stone as I looked at the ceiling. I would be happy to see the sun again. Why, I wished I knew. Maybe this Regan could help me. I really hoped so. I was tired of not knowing who I was.

Glancing at Yuno, I found him and his sister had fallen asleep. Sera was an enigma. She acted… like her life didn’t matter but looking at her now with her body wrapped around her brother’s arm. I thought maybe it was all an act so he wouldn’t worry about her as much. I knew she had some sort of disease and that had to be hard to live with. 

Moving my gaze over to Nero, the man had finished retching and was slumped next to the wall. I couldn’t tell if he was sleeping or not from this angle. He was also strange. He claimed to love me. Vague images of a man made from flames seemed to imply that he loved me as well. 

My own feelings on the matter were amazingly empty. The only person in my head that I could think about was this Regan. Sadly, I could tell there were dozens of feelings mixed together when I thought about him. Happy, annoyed, amazed, sad, thrilled, and more all formed a soup of emotions all centered on the person. I couldn’t tell if love was in there or not.

We rested for a long time before the others roused. I had tried to rest but my mind just kept spinning its wheels. I had even tried to cultivate but I started to melt the ground around me and decided to stop with a long drawn out sigh. Finally, I ended up closing my eyes just to rest them. 

Nero stirring prompted to me open my eyes. He looked mostly recovered by this point. Yuno and Sera woke up next. I pretended to yawn so they wouldn’t worry about me. It wasn’t their fault I couldn’t sleep. I was worried that they didn’t assign someone for a watch, but I was the outsider here.

“Yuno. How long until we reach the surface?”

“With this little detour. Another two or three days.” Sera gave a pout which caused Yuno to pat her head with a soft smile. “Don’t worry.”

“We’ll need to find food soon,” Nero said rubbing his stomach. I bet he felt quite hungry after emptying everything he had in there. He looked at Yuno with a meaningful gaze which only made Yuno blow out an annoyed breath of air.

“I thought you were the ancient one?” Yuno said with a glare.

“Ancient?” I asked. He didn’t look much older than me. Though there were times when I felt he knew more than he was letting on. 

“I’ll make sure to explain later, my dear. It is not something that should be spoke about in the open,” Nero said emphasizing the word spoke with a glare at Yuno.

“I see.” The cave we were in soon grew awkward and Sera was the one that broke the tension. She sneezed of all things which created a blast of wind that knocked her and Yuno back against the wall.

“Let’s focus on getting out of here. As Nero said we need to find food,” Yuno said laughing as he helped his sister up. He moved to the center of the tunnel and did his transformation thing. He was only shifted for a few seconds this time. “I can smell something that I think is edible.” He turned to Nero. “You’ll have to tell me if it is or not when we get to it.” 

“You got it!”

We gathered our things and followed Yuno down the tunnel. Personally, everything looked the same. It was pitch black, but Nero had a spell going that cast illumination around the group. If I remembered correctly, he’d had the same spell going since I’d met them. That should take quite a bit of control to be able to have a spell going even in your sleep.

We traveled through the tunnels for another five or six hours before there was a change. Even I could smell the difference in the air. It was less stale. I looked ahead curious to what we would find. I hadn’t eaten anything in almost three days, and I was starting to feel a bit peekish.

Yuno held up his hand for us to come to a stop. Nero and him moved over to the bend in the tunnel and took a look. I made sure to hold Sera’s hand. While I generally liked the girl, I didn’t want her wandering off again. 

“I’m sorry,” Sera said catching me by surprise. She hadn’t spoken to me directly the entire time we had traveled together. 

“For what?” I asked gently. I moved her over to a ledge and we sat down.

“For the way I am. It feels like there are several people in here sometimes,” Sera said placing her free hand on her head. I gave her a small smile.

I patted her hand. “I know exactly how you feel. I keep getting these flashes of events and people that I feel I should know but don’t. I keep wondering if the person that interacted with those people is still there.”

“I’ve been so cruel to my brother!” She said tears springing to her eyes. “He could be one of the best adventurers on the continent but has to pay for my mistakes.”

I pulled her head into my shoulder, not sure what else to do. “I think you’re brother loves you very much and that is why he is doing everything in his power to help you. My memories are anything but clear, but I think this Regan should be able to help you. Whenever I think about him, memories of incredible feats flash through my mind.”

“I hope so. I’m tired of hating my own mind,” Sera said with a last sniff. “Are you in love with this Regan?”

I gave her another small smile. “I’m not sure. I’m not sure about anything sadly. Maybe? I certainly feel indebted to him.”

Sera jumped to her feet. “I’ll try hard to control myself. So we can both meet this Regan!” 

I got to my feet to just as the boys were coming back from around the corner. They both had very serious looks which made me worry about what blocked out path. We had only encountered one monster so far and Nero had turned it to slag in seconds. Surely, if it was a monster it wouldn’t be that hard to deal with. 

“We have a problem,” Yuno said his eyes going to mine and Sera’s locked hands for only a second. “There is a group of people up ahead.”

“Is that bad?” I asked. I didn’t exactly know the situation down here. Plus it could be people looking for us.

“Well. It’s a group of dark elves and Fallen rose members. Usually that would be a mix for a long drawn out battle. The fact they were only talking leads me to believe the situation has changed down here. Probably due to your friend, Regan,” Nero said starching his chin. 

“Could we try just talking to them?”

“I was actually going to suggest that. I just wish we knew more about why they were out here. This is considered a no-man’s land for the Beneath races.”

“No time like the present!” I said and strode forward. I didn’t hide the sound of my approach and when I was within eyesight of the group, maybe ten minutes from the bend in the tunnel, they were all ready for combat. 

I walked forward with my hands in the air. Helios was currently strapped to my back. It had a tendency to make my hands sting. I took in the group much quicker than I thought I should be able. There were nearly two dozen members, with half being dark elves and the others a mix of humans and elves. Though, the humans possessed the same blue hue as me while the elves had a golden sink tone. 

“Stay right there! What squad are you affiliated with?!” a man in a azure robe said his voice echoing unnaturally down the tunnel.

I thought about how to answer. Clearly, they thought I was with Fallen Rose. I couldn’t decide if it was safer to let them continue that thought but decided against as I wouldn’t know the first thing about their culture. I cleared my throat. “The surface?”

The man looked to a dark elf that must have been his counterpart in the squad.  She was an ebony beauty and that’s from a distance. In fact, all the dark elves were quite a sight. They whispered something amongst themselves before they lowered their weapons slightly. “We are approaching. If you make any move to attack you will be met with deadly force,” the man called.

“You got it!”

The group moved up until they stopped a few meters from me. The two leaders moved up. “You said the surface. Explain.” I felt it from down the tunnel, but I could really feel it up close. This person was powerful. Glancing at all of them, I felt I was going to be crushed by the pressure of their collective mana. I couldn’t understand how a city of these people living together didn’t feel suficated all the time. 

“My companions and I were pulled to the Beneath during a battle that was taking place on the surface.” I motioned for the others to come out from around the bend. While the rest of the of the people tightened their grips on their weapons, the leaders looked like they weren’t worried about a thing. “We are just trying to find a way to the surface,” I explained then my stomach rumbled loudly. “Well, more urgently food.”