Chapter 924 - Into the Volcano

There is a guard in front of the enormous metal gate, which is so thick it makes me wonder if it could endure a nuclear bomb or two or a hundred. That guard in front of it is a three headed corgi, the size of a regular corgi.

(Pay) (Sacrifice) (Determination)

All three heads speak.

We look at each other, and soon Sneaky steps ahead, pulling out what looks like a figurine in the shape of a deer. Looking closer, I realize it is made of dried meat.

He places it carefully in front of the three headed corgi, whose heads follow every single motion of the figurine. One head, which seems the goofiest, tries to reach out and bite into it, but the remaining two stop it and nudge it away.

Then, the three headed corgi looks at me.

It all almost seems like a joke, as if we could ignore it or try to force our way through, but something in the back of my mind tells me that is impossible. For every second I hesitate, the corgi grows bigger, and its presence weighs heavily over us all.

With that presence also comes an understanding of the rules of this place, rules that our opponent is bound to follow in the exact same way we are.

I know what is expected of me, so I move my left hand, stretching my fingers to slash and separate my right arm at the elbow as a sacrifice that I know will be mirrored outside of this mental space.

But before I can finish the movement, I hear a painful groan behind me that makes me stop. There, Sophie clenches her head, offering a painful smile to the corgi, who sniffs toward her before nodding.

“She has sacrificed all her memories of Izzy from the past year,” Sneaky whispers.

Looking at the green-eyed girl, a shudder runs through me. I cannot understand that decision. I was about to do it, my sacrifice would be lesser. Even then, if she truly had to, why hadn't she tried to sacrifice a part of her body instead, a limb, an eye?

I want to shout at her, to shake her for not understanding how important those memories were. Yet, I bring myself to a halt when I see her expression.

With a surge of anger, I turn back around, now fully understanding the level of determination required to open the last lock on the door.

The three headed corgi shakes, blurs, and shrinks a little. Then, only one head remains, leaving a puppy that is a perfect mirror of Biscuit.

(Food?) That young, boy-like voice sounds in my head just as I lift my hand and makes me hesitate.

It sounds exactly like him.

Even the feeling of our connection is the same, along with his movements and the look in his eyes. I almost begin to think he is actually here with us as his tongue lolls out.

(Nathaniel. Friend?) He asks, confused, as he feels my emotions and my intentions.

“Not a friend,” my voice sounds weakly, and I wave my hand, causing the pup to instantly explode in a burst of kinetic energy.

A piece of fur and flesh lands on my bony leg along with blood, making me feel like throwing up, but cold rage takes over. In the back of my mind, I constantly remind myself, like a mantra, that it is nothing but a fake, and that I need to do this so we can continue.

Only then, after a few long seconds, does the voice sound one last time.

(Open)

And the huge metal door begins to open, revealing the only entrance into the volcano.

A small hand finds mine, and when I look to my right, Vega is holding it, smiling at me.

“Yes, I know,” I say, taking a glance at Sophie before we all continue inside at the same time, just as the door closes behind us.

Our group silently continues into the interior of the volcano, which is a huge hollow column with spiraling multicolored glass stairs coiling around its walls, heading down toward the magma gathered at the bottom. It is dead quiet there, and no one seems to be around at all.

The deeper we go, the more the pressure on my mind strengthens, and the more my thought acceleration forcefully increases. That presence of our opponent can now be felt all around us. I can almost feel it trying to decipher this place, to get into our minds. It tries to search for what I have been hiding from it.

That presence is something that used Tariel the Undying as an anchor, a portal into our minds through Sophie, who, even with all her skill, failed to notice it. She triggered an ancient protocol imbued into the kaiju skeleton lying outside of the Kindreds' city, and that summoned our enemy.

The closer we get to it, the more I learn about it too. I mimic the same way it looks into us to look back, and there I find it at the bottom of the stairs we are walking down. It is within the area where the pressure will become too much even for someone like Sophie, and even for me. At least, without my subminds.

A demigod waits there.

A presence set to be awoken once the kaiju fulfill certain conditions.

And now here it is, facing us, on the brink of falling asleep again, and probing our minds to learn more. A true mind, unlike the emotionless, machine-like beings that are the kaiju.

I don't know how much time passes outside, but for me here, it feels like days or maybe even weeks of constant walking down.

Sophie, even if not fully realizing what she has sacrificed, has an idea about it. There is a big gap after all, and due to that, a deep hatred smolders inside of her. And I haven't forgotten the test of determination either.

Two-thirds of the way down to our enemy, there is another door in the wall that we go through, passing by cells with people imprisoned inside. I recognize plenty of them. Some even make me angry or sad, but I pass by each of them, reaching the final cell that is hundreds of times bigger than any other.

Inside it are two beings. One is my submind that handles primordial energies: a demon with my face, short horns like Vega's, and red eyes. He is shirtless, showing his muscles as he does push-ups.

Behind him is the wyvern that escaped from the 12th floor of Beyond, with the only difference being that this one has two wings.

My submind puts on a bright smile upon noticing us and waves at Vega, who waves back at him. He takes his mantle from the ground, the one with the fur around the neck, similar to the one placed on me during my coronation. He dusts it off, after which he just walks toward us and passes through the prison bars that are each as thick as he is and tower high up, imprisoning the wyvern but making it easy for him to pass.

Shortly after, he waves goodbyes to the wyvern, which continues to lie there lazily.

“Ignore the two winged wyvern, he is just a bit shy,” he tells us, taking the lead as we follow him back onto the stairs.

“Wouldn't a two winged wyvern just be called a wyvern?” Sophie asks Sneaky quietly.

Nerdthaniel answers instead, “Please ignore Demonthaniel. He can be a bit… special.”

Though hearing him, our new companion ignores the comment and kneels in front of Vega, poking her tiny horns and letting her poke his, which are similar.

Saying something about it being rude for a demon princess to have to walk, he picks her up, and after placing his mantle around her, he carries her as we continue on our way.

It is only a few days later when we find the last of my subminds here. He is simply sitting on the stairs, looking down into the volcano. It is he who mapped out this place to make it understandable for us and created a path.

He is fully covered in dense, delicate tattoos, and the scars I carry are even more visible on him.

Standing there, all my subminds and I look at Sophie at the same time, and she gives a short nod.

As if in reaction to that, the presence around us increases, causing Sophie to groan in pain while my subminds disappear one after another. Before going, each of them gives a short pat, poke, or hug to Vega, who allows them to do so and says her own goodbyes.

When I take the next step, nerves stretch over my skeleton, followed by veins, tendons, and flesh that then become encompassed by my skin. Clothes appear on me at the same time most of my body finishes regenerating, and hair grows from my head. Each of my scars appears on my skin, causing Vega to touch my hand and caress one of them.

Finally capable of it, I also offer a smile and ruffle her hair. “Sorry for bringing you into all of this.”

She determinedly shakes her head. “It made me happy, master. Very.”

“I see.” I let go of her and step toward Sophie. “I will be relying on you to finish this pincer movement from the outside. And… I'm sorry about those memories.”

“Don't be stupid. We will make new ones. You know... I always hated that it's only you sacrificing yourself. It makes me feel like trash. Now do your stuff, and I'll do mine. And it was nice to see you, Vega.”

Shorter than my disciple, Sophie stops in front of her, rolling her eyes but smiling in the end as Vega pats her head.

“An asshole to the last moment, just like her master,” Sophie mutters with a smile, and disappears.

Just as her presence is gone, I grab Vega’s hand and pull her close to me. Without Sophie here stabilizing this place, everything turns into a huge mess.

The magma below us explodes, streams of it shooting through the hollow column. All the rules Sophie kept up, even as the space was degrading, now begin to break.

Out of nowhere, a skyscraper grows from the stairs near us. Cars begin to fall from the sky. The temperature rises greatly before plummeting just as drastically. Huge monsters climb out of the shadows, walking on the walls and breathing fire at us while I jump around and begin to defend against it all.

I boost us toward the hollow center of the volcano, dodging a stream of magma before diving toward the presence below. With Sophie gone, it awakens further, opening a single eye. Though I can barely make out the shape of its body, an incredible power radiates from within it.

Then, it launches an attack on us. A huge skeletal limb of an animal I cannot recognize reaches out, growing from that unidentifiable shadow and stretching to squash us. Every part of that skeletal arm is covered by the very same barrier that covers the kaiju outside on the 12th floor of the tutorial, only much, much stronger.

I smile at Vega, and she laughs as I hold her in front of me and in the path of the arm while the air and streams of magma pass by us.

I am confident in my theory, absolutely sure of it, enough to allow Vega to help me in this way. Yet, for a moment, a thought flashes through my mind: If she dies, if something happens to her, I will follow her without trying to save my life. For betraying that trust.

The moment that skeletal arm touches Vega, the barrier around it disappears. The hand that touches her crumbles, and the presence roars in pain.

It is as simple as that. Vega has been brought here through a communication token that creates a shared mental space for us, and until the token runs out and she returns to her planet, she is under System protection.

And the System doesn't like such an abuse of the rules.

You have been given a second warning.