(3rd POV)
In what seems to be a dimly lit cave lies a dragon. Around its body are small sparks of lightning and you can see its scales slowly falling off and where they once were is decaying flesh.
Despite the gruesome appearance it is still very much alive waiting for its savior, or its death.
Around the creature's body you can see the ground emitting some sort of black smoke and the same smoke pouring out of the wounds of the dragon.
Then the dragon cries in pain as it opens its eyes and looks up before sighing.
"He's here, I hope to see him before I succumb to my curse."
It closes its eyes and falls back into a slumber as it senses Kayde moving through the mine.
(3rd POV End)
As I'm mining again I feel as if someone is watching me but it vanishes as quickly as it came.
I start to make my way down the mine slowly tying to see what I can or can't mine along the way. Soon I reach the third floor which has Silver ore and a small concentration of Mythril.
I try to mine the mythril first with no luck. It seems I need a better skill level for that to work or even better tools.
'Reminds me of mine*****, god I miss that game.'
I start mining some silver to melt into bars for Steph to use. As I'm mining I hear some conversations.
"Hey did you hear what happened at the 4th floor?"
"No, what happened on the 4th floor?"
"Monsters started to appear, thankfully some of the people mining there also had combat classes. Makes me wonder if the mine is returning to a dungeon like in the old tale."
"There is no way that is happening, but monsters appearing is a signs for worry…"
After that I start making my way down the mine again ignoring all the ores I see.
'What was the bottom floor again? Was it ten or less?'
I keep going seeing no monsters along the way. Then as I reach the 9th floor I see a few monsters. Goblins, hob-goblins, and orcs are all I see.
I check their levels and see that they are all weaker than me. I try to summon Aurora but no luck.
'It seems she's still resting, oh well better get to it then.'
I start multi-casting many Light Arrows and get ready to fire them as the monsters start to cower in fear as the light blinds them.
Then I release them and seeing destruction all around not leaving a single one alive. After the dust from the attacks clear I thought I would see blood and gore but instead I see all the monster evaporate into motes of purple light.
Along the ground I see nothing but money dropped and some monster materials. I ignore the materials and money continuing my way down.
As I get closer to the bottom I feel an indescribable sense of dread. I can see lots of black smoke or miasma emitting from the patch's of what seems to be corruption and it's spreading albeit slowly.
I make sure to walk around each area of corruption to make sure I'm not harmed or cursed in some way as I walk towards the end.
I then reached what seems to be the boss room cause there is a large stone door that started to open the moment I got closer. I move in and see what resembles a dragon yet looks different. The scales are falling off and where they were is rotten flesh the color black with green pus spewing out of the wound.
The rest of the scales have black tendrils running through as if to ensure its inability to escape its fate.
"So you've finally arrived boy."
The dragon spoke with a feminine voice.
"Who are you?"
It chuckles a bit but seems to regret it as I hear a pained cry.
"Who did this to you?"
She looks right to me and speaks.
"My name is Moria, Moria Wyldhardt. Also to my predicament I'm cursed. I came here to cleanse all the miasma from this place and I did."
She sighs and puts her head down as if she's reflecting on her choices.
"What I didn't expect was a demon waiting to strike and curse me to rot away as I live. The curse also causes my decaying body to undo all I've done to save the town above ground."
"They are no longer a town, it's a capital the the human empire."
She gives me a look of surprise and happiness as she realizes it wasn't all for naught.
"Don't worry, I might have a way to save you but it could cause both of us some pain."
I try to summon Aurora again and this time I succeeded.
"Where have you brought me-"
I see her spinning around and then she screams like she is scared.
"No no no no no! Send me back now! I do not want nor do I need to be here!"
"What's wrong? What has got you so riled up?"
She stops spinning and I assume she starts to stare at me.
"This area is full of miasma, and it's more potent than it should be. The curse she is afflicted with will eventually kill her, corrupt her source of mana, and then use it to bring the Demon God one step closer to resurrecting."
'What kind of circumstances was I dragged into?'
I sigh ready to give into my fate.
"How can we get rid of the curse and heal her?"
"Use the divine nature of your light magic. I will impart onto you a skill for purifying."
"That's it?"
She pauses for a bit and answers with a weird tone of voice.
"Yeah…?"
'I'm worried…'
She taps me and the information for the purification spell rushes into my head. While I'm a bit dizzy I lean against a wall till I feel fine.
Then I get ready to cast the spell.
"Are you ready Aurora?"
"Ready as I'll ever be…"
I smile to her and she helps me guide the divine nature of my Light magic into the spell. I can feel the regality, the strength, and the dominance the element has.
"Purify!"
As I cast the spell I can see the Miasma from her wounds literally fighting against the spell, almost as if it's alive. All the miasma then leaves Moria allowing her to heal almost instantly and then it takes the form of a creature so vile demons I've seen in books are tame.
Then its form keeps changing as it's walking while my spell takes on the form of a humanoid dragon.
I see the two clash and Aurora starts dancing around.
"Kayde this is amazing!"
"What?"
"Your mana mixed with Morias caused this phenomenon in response to the miasma taking shape! It's like your body fighting back a sickness!"
'If that's the case then she's right, it is amazing!'
I keep watching see the dragon construct tear into the miasma demon. Watching blows being exchanged with the demon losing ground ever so slowly gets my heart pumped.
The punches each threw, the claws they used to stab one another, it was intense to say the least.
By the end of the fight I could see the demon kneeling and the dragon holding it by the throat. Next it sliced its head clean of before it vanished completely. Then the dragon came to me and kneeled. I put my hand on its head and then I could feel it returning to my body.
I looked up to see Moria healing quickly and she gives me a vial of gold blood.
"Here you go little one, I know you came for this and despite that you did for me what I could never repay."
"What's next?"
She then chuckles and I see a gold energy in the form of lightning surrounding her body.
"I purify this place for good and then return to my home waiting for my siblings as they finally meet you."
Then she casts a greater version of my purify spell and quickly vanishes in a flash of light before I could ask another question. I look around wondering where she could've gone but I give up.
"Aurora you can go back home. I'll summon you again later ok?"
She taps my forehead and then disappears as well. From there I start to make my lonely trek back to the surface.
(3rd POV)
In the cloudy realm you once again see that woman spying on Kayde through an orb.
"Oh Kayde, you never cease to surprise me. I love you."
As she professed her love to him another goddess with 2 angels appeared out of nowhere.
"You need to stop watching him. He can't help you anymore than his father."
"You do not get to speak about my son like that!"
As a warning to the goddess she traps them in a mental illusion making them think she is tearing them apart.
As that's occurring she returned to the orb lovingly caressing Kayden image.
"I can't wait to see you my son."
(3rd POV End)