I quickly backed away as Mari uncovered his eyes, but to my surprise, he didn't unleash his energy with a tantrum of adrenaline and anger… but he just hugged Mari and cried and cried until he was exhausted.
"I-I wanna leave!" Asger shouted with tears rolling down his cheeks.
"Unfortunately, that is not possible," I muttered, but a wave of emotions flooded through me as Asger glared at me with the harshest eyes he could muster.
Should I really have put them through this while they were so young?
"I-I hate you!" Asger shouted at the top of his lungs, saliva spraying my face as he cried out again and again until he slumped into Mari's arms.
"Okay, we'll leave if you want," I sighed before pulling out four stones with a strange rune carved into the middle of each one.
"Where did you get those?" Mari asked, her jaw dropping with shock.
"I stole them. But, if we use them now, there would be no evidence… it's a bit disappointing that we'll have to use them in such a useless situation, though," I sighed and directed my eyes to the boy who began to think.
"F-Fine… but I'll only forgive you just this once," He stuttered, with Mari glaring at me instead.
"Asshole," She muttered under her breath before I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and shoved the stones back into my bag.
"Let's continue,"
We took about an hour's break before continuing since we needed that wound Asger to fully close up.
Plus, he just needed some time to calm down.
The next switch wasn't very far since all of the sand had disappeared, and as soon as I pulled it down, the floor underneath us gave out.
"*sigh*... What a pain," I muttered as the clashing thoughts of me wanting to take care of my siblings but also make them stronger swirled in my mind.
It was a battle between the idea of making them stronger through cold and almost harsh decisions or sheltering them so they could grow up happy.
But, from what I've seen in this new world… growing up strong is the only way they'll be able to survive.
Soon, we arrived on the third floor where we were greeted by hundreds of rats that surrounded us.
I couldn't help but let out another groan since this pattern was going to repeat itself until we reached the boss's room.
So, in conclusion, I was going to be a babysitter and not much of a fighter for the next few floors.
…
Finally, we reached the boss room, and boy, were my siblings exhausted, though it's not like I was going to let them fight on the next floor anyway.
"All of you. If it ever looks like I'm going to die or I grip one of these stones, I want you to say 'return.' But never say it with it in your hand unless you want to return to the beginning of the dungeon. You all have done well… so just sit back and enjoy my show," I smiled, handing them the stones I used to persuade Asger with earlier.
"D-Don't die," Petra stuttered as she grabbed onto the stone.
"Don't worry. That is just in case. I won't die," I smiled even brighter before checking to make sure they were holding the stone.
After confirming with my own eyes, I pulled down the lever, revealing a massive stone gate at the end of the cavern we were in.
This time, the floor didn't cave in, but the entrance to the room would reveal itself to us… or so I thought.
As soon as I saw the stone gate open, the floor under us gave out, and I found myself tumbling into a pit of darkness.
I swirled my arms and legs around, trying to gain balance or some sort of foothold on the rocks around us… but it was as if they had all disappeared from existence.
Suddenly, the torches of the boss room lit up brightly from beneath us, and since they were only a few hundred meters down now, I knew I had to act quickly.
Fwip fwip fwip
I flicked out three strings of water that wrapped around my siblings, grabbing them tightly and pulling them close to me.
"Don't worry… I got you,"
As they all shut their eyes tight with fear, I looked down and saw where the widened tunnel of rocks ended and came in contact with the boss room below.
Plus, the illumination of light allowed me to see small edges in the expanded tunnel, so I used these to my advantage.
Fwip
I quickly flicked those three strings to the jagged edges, breaking the fall of my siblings much easier.
I also did the same for myself, but I was a bit too late, meaning I fractured both of my feet upon landing.
"My knees… are still intact. That's good," I let out a sigh of relief and grit my teeth through the pain of slowly backing up.
Searching for the presence of my siblings, a wave of panic quickly washed through me since a cloud of dust covered the entire cavern, which was supposedly the boss room.
But it didn't take even another few seconds since the dust cleared, and I found all three of them groaning from the beating that they received as they crashed to the ground.
But nobody was crying, screaming, or just gasping for air, so I knew they were pretty much all fine.
BOOOOM BOOOOM BOOOOM
"All of you stay towards the edge of the boss room and never try to help me!"
And just like that, the boss was here, and a drop of sweat ran down the back of my neck.