Ding
[Host, the threat of entering this chamber is too high. Please reconsider entering it. You can wait for the party members to reach here.]
"No, that would be too late."
Reading the message from the window, Aiden replied as he shook his head.
The light ache on his head was getting worse, turning into a headache.
Maybe that's why Eden's condition was also getting worse as the time went on.
He had already lost someone with the possibility of never meeting them; he didn't want to lose the only other person too.
If he did, he would once again be all alone.
"Just remember the plan. All I have to do is find a heart stone and instantly use it. So, at least help me find it." Aiden said as he looked at the door.
Ding
[Understood, host.]
The window answered as Aiden walked to the door and placed his hand on the door.
Creak
As soon as he placed his hand on it, the golden door made a sound as it started to open up by itself.
'…I thought I would need a lot of strength to open it.' Aiden thought as he was surprised by how easily it opened.
…
'…What is this place?'
As Aiden walked inside the chamber, he found himself in between a huge room surrounded by bookshelves.
'Is this some kind of library?' Aiden thought as he looked around.
The bookshelves were at every wall of the room, extending to the sky.
There wasn't any roof, as Aiden could see the blue sky too.
'I should hurry up and look for the heart stone.' Aiden thought.
Walking up to the nearest bookshelf, he started going through every small place, hoping he could find the heart stone.
'Tch. Where could it be?'
Not finding anything, Aiden felt frustrated as he started to take out the books and look inside the shelves.
Flip
As he was going through them all, he heard a familiar noise of a paper flipping.
The paper that he had seen before was floating above with the strange characters written on it. Fortunately, the window allowed Aiden to read the characters.
[Welcome challenger!]
Aiden started to panic as he read the characters. He knew what the appearance of the paper meant.
Flip
[After betraying your friends who had decided to walk on the good path, you continued on the path of crimes. You came here for fellowship with another famous evil.]
Flip
[Too bad for you, the crimson witch doesn't talk.]
Flip
[It's a world of kill or be killed.]
'Crimson witch?' Aiden frowned as he started to get a bad feeling.
Brrrr
Just then, the ground started to shake as it started to rise.
'H-huh?'
Losing his foothold, Aiden grabbed the near bookshelf to balance himself as he looked around.
The whole room was moving up.
'I don't know what's going to happen, but I should hurry up looking for the stone.' He thought as he looked across the room. He hadn't looked for the stone there yet.
Running there, Aiden held the book shelf since the ground was still shaking.
Ding
[Danger sense automatically activated.]
'Shit.'
Feeling the danger, Aiden quickly used his skill [Reflection] to create a wall against the place where he felt the danger from.
BOOM
A huge explosion of orange fire occurred at the wall as the wall instantly broke.
"Cough."
Coughing up some blood, Aiden felt the pain on his body as he realized that he hadn't fully healed from the previous use of [Reflection].
Using [Reflection] to create a dome was really affecting him now.
Ding
[The 5-second duration of the skill [Danger sense] is over. Please wait for 5 minutes of cooldown.]
Looking at the message, Aiden felt threatened as he quickly formed a thick, transparent wall around him.
Whoosh
As the orange fire from the explosion disappeared, Aiden could finally see the source; he had already guessed who it was.
The ground was no longer shaking.
The book shelves around him were still there, but there was one thing different.
At the corner of the room, a staircase appeared that led to a huge golden throne.
'So she is the one that the paper mentioned.'
Aiden cautiously looked at the one sitting at the throne as he raised his guard.
With long and luscious orange hair, a girl wearing a bright red gown calmly sat as she looked at the one in front of her with indifference.
Her face that was void of any emotion was round with fair skin.
Her eye pupils and even the lashes were orange.
She was the witch that the paper had mentioned.
Crimson witch, the dungeon ruler.
'W-what is this?'
As Aiden made eye contact with the witch, his body shivered.
'I-I can't move my body.' He thought as his body didn't listen to him.
BOOM
Another huge explosion occurred instantly, destroying the wall he created around him.
The explosion didn't harm him, but his body was sent flying backward.
BAM
"Agh."
His body collided on the bookshelves as the corner of the bookshelves hurt him, but the wall getting destroyed hurt his body even more as he decided to just run and dodge her attacks.
'Move move.'
Thankfully, that explosion allowed him to come into his senses as he could move his body again.
BOOM
As soon as he stood up, an explosion occurred beside him as his body was sent flying to the side.
BAM
'Agh. It burns.'
The orange fire from the explosion caught on to his body as it started to relentlessly burn him.
Whoosh
Tap
Quickly taking out a water bottle, he poured it from the top of his shoulder as he tried to extinguish it.
BOOM
As he finally relieved himself from the fire, another explosion was triggered in front of him.
BAM
He again collided with the same bookshelf, as his whole body was now caught on fire.
"AHHHHHHH"
Screaming from the pain of burn, the water from the water bottle proved inefficient as it was too little.
Whoosh
Ding
[Elemental sword coating activated]
Thinking quickly, Aiden took out the thick sword from the ring and activated his skill.
Water appeared from thin air as it surrounded the thick sword.
Using them like a cloth, Aiden quickly killed off the fire as the pain finally went away. But the pain of the wound still remained.
Burning wounds were created all around his body as he glared at the indifferent girl sitting on the throne.
'How is she creating the explosions?' Aiden thought as he had to quickly find the answers to save himself from dying from fire.
'…'
Ding
[Energy eyes and energy sense activated.]
Feeling it was something invisible, he quickly activated his skills as his vision changed.
As soon as he activated his skills, he saw various orange strings coming from the throne. These orange strings were connected from the throne to the ground all over this room.
Srrrr
'This!'
One string that was right in front of him started to glow as Aiden quickly reacted and took some distance away from it.
BOOM
As soon as he did, the string exploded as he watched the orange flame soaring out from the string.
'H-how do I get out of this?' He thought as he looked around.
He was surrounded by the orange strings from everywhere.
Looking at it, he was glad that the girl hadn't decided to explode them at once; if she did, he would have already been reduced to ashes by now.
Srrrr
As he was figuring out a way to get out of here, the string that was directly going through his head started to glow as Aiden became pale and jumped out of there.
BOOM
The string exploded as Aiden barely got out of its range.
'T-this is getting unfair.' He thought. He wanted to just quickly search for the heart stone and get out of this dungeon, but these strings ruined everything for him.
If his focus shifted from these strings even for a second, he would be late to react and get blasted by the orange flame.
'Agh.'
'…Eden please just hang in there; I would make sure for both of us to live.' Aiden said as he could tell that despite suffering, Eden was holding off his groans to not panic him.
Srrr Srrr Srrr
'Huh?'
Using all his strengths, Aiden jumped far away from his current position as three strings instantly glowed.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
All three of them blasted as what Aiden had feared came true.
Srrr Srrr Srrr
'No.'
As soon as Aiden landed on the ground, the strings that were near him glowed.
'I can't make it.'
He wanted to get away, but a thought crossed his mind as hesitation consumed him.
BOOM
The string that was going right through his heart exploded, engulfing him in flames.
'I'm sorry, Eden.'