Half-Dead

Ten fucking days late. I'd like to say it wasn't my fault, but it kinda was, since I made a promise and failed to keep it. Seriously, this week was hell.

First, my dog started pooping blood. I took her to the hospital, and it turned out to be an infection that irritated her stomach. Those were a pretty hectic few days.

Then I went practically blind for two days because, while cleaning up my dog's poop and blood, I accidentally rubbed my eye. Even though I'd washed my hands, something must have remained on my skin, and it irritated my eye badly enough that I literally couldn't see. I had to go to the hospital.

The FUNNIEST FUCKING PART was that it was my LEFT eye. I don't know, sometimes life just pulls shit like that.

Then my workplace blows up (not literally) because, somehow, The Internet password is 4.

FOUR! ONLY FOUR!

That kind of destroyed my trust in every website, on top of 80% of them being down for almost an entire day. That was a pain in the ass, and trying to fix everything while practically blind made it even worse.

Well, it's just been a complicated time... My eye is better now, but I'm using eye drops and going back to the doctor to make sure I'm not actually going to end up blind.

Sorry again for the delay...

Some extra information I discovered: my story is being published on a Russian website. That's wild. And the guy somehow managed to squeeze out 808 chapters. He split the chapters into four parts, and their titles had me laughing pretty hard.

I searched to see if it was on any Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or other websites, but I couldn't find anything.

As usual, if anyone wants to read 3/7/15 chapters ahead or simply support me, you can do so on my (P)(A)(T). If not, I still want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading. Thank you so much!

And with that, have a good night and happy reading!

(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori.

[...]---[...]

Leaving the dining hall, we continued exploring the castle.

It didn't take long before we came across two useful items. Well, I also picked up plenty of small odds and ends, materials, and furniture along the way...

The first was the Curved Sword Talisman, a rusted metal talisman engraved with the image of a swordsman wielding a curved blade. We found it inside a chest in a pitch-black room.

A knight tried to lock us inside to ambush Alice, but she reacted instantly, shifted into a half-sword stance, and drove her blade straight through the man's breastplate before he could even shut the door.

After glancing at the Minimap to make sure the chest wasn't a mimic, I picked up the talisman. The chest too. This particular talisman was slightly different from the others, granting a faint "instinct" for blocks and counterattacks after parrying an enemy strike.

It wasn't anything extraordinary, but it was definitely useful. I tossed it to Alice, who swapped it with the other one in her back pocket after I explained what it did.

"I feel like I can only use one of them... at least for now," she explained, putting away the talisman we'd found in the nest. Then she touched the center of her chest with her free hand. "Something tells me wearing two at once would cause interference and become a problem. It'd also weigh down... my soul? I think. The weight itself isn't really inconvenient. The real issue is the interference. Without that, I think I could probably wear eight of them. Maybe nine."

She shrugged.

"If I get stronger, that should solve itself, and I'll be able to carry more. The interference might even be fixed with runes... maybe?"

I chose not to point out that she didn't sound particularly convinced by that last statement and simply jerked my chin for us to keep moving.

Still, it was good to know the talismans had that limitation. I hadn't felt anything when I held two of them, since I was still keeping the healing one hidden inside my shadow cloak. There hadn't been any interference, nor had I felt any weight on my soul.

A normal person's limit was probably just one, maybe two at most. Which was already pretty good, but it was something to keep in mind when I talked to Dylan.

The second item we found was the Brick Hammer.

Living up to its name completely, the weapon was literally a rectangular block of stone crudely lashed to an iron handle. A brick with a metal pipe attached. I picked it up from the corpse of a soldier lying on a rotting wooden platform hanging off the side of one of the towers after passing through a locked door that I simply pulled into the Voidbag.

It was just a normal hammer, nothing more than that. Still, it supposedly had a history of being the weapon of some guy who started a rebellion, so I decided to keep it for the collection.

I might be able to make use of the "history" contained within the hammer somehow, but nothing came to mind at the moment. Considering the thread connected to it carried the feeling of "useful," it probably was.

After that, using Glimpse of Light in the Abyss as my guide, I followed a denser thread leading down into the depths of the castle. We descended through holes in the floor and crumbling stone platforms.

The area around us was filled with statues and thick roots that seemed to be supporting the foundations, until we reached what looked like a dark, mist-filled pit after killing several creatures resembling giant bats and rats the size of wolves, with a few growing as large as bears.

Not exactly the healthiest place. Both species were pretty weak, just annoying. I tossed the corpses into the Voidbag.

The place we entered looked straight out of a horror movie. Some kind of root-infested crypt with a more open area at its center.

...It kind of looked like a boss arena. And there was a single red dot on the Minimap, right in the middle of it.

Surprisingly, it didn't stink nearly as much as I'd expected. It reeked of decay and all that, but I'd gotten so used to that smell that, at this point, I didn't think it bothered me anymore.

The moment Alice stepped into the center of the area, the ground cracked. I yanked her back and leaped into the air just before the floor exploded.

A colossal creature, looking like a grotesque fusion of a serpent, a dragon, and a rotting tree, burst from the earth.

Its body of decaying wood was fused with bleeding flesh that oozed through countless cracks. Huge ulcers pulsed sickeningly across that flesh, spewing muddy brown blood. Between the ulcers glowed a faint golden-yellow light, almost like pus, yet reminiscent of the sap from the tree I'd found earlier.

The thing roared the instant it burst from the ground, producing a sound somewhere between the hiss of a snake and the growl of something dying. Then it lunged straight at me while I was still in midair, holding Alice by the back of her neck, opening its enormous jaws in an attempt to swallow us whole while its "arms" lashed out in every direction.

Calling them arms was generous. They were more like masses of flesh and wood that vaguely resembled limbs—branches ending in something that only remotely looked like hands.

I moved the six blood ribs, three above and three below, driving them into the tree-thing-dragon-spirit's jaws and forcing its mouth open, preventing it from closing around us.

Alice didn't stay idle. Even while being carried like an oversized cat, she gripped her sword and slashed downward as the creature's jaws closed in, knocking it back to the ground.

"Can I handle this?" she asked once we landed and I let her go.

"Are you asking for permission, or asking if you can?" I replied, "grabbing" the blood connected to the ribs and hurling the tree-thing-dragon-spirit across to the opposite side of the chamber.

"...Both?" She settled into a fighting stance, gripping the sword with both hands. "I've never fought something this big before. Or this strong... Is it a dragon?"

"Not even close." I answered her last question first. "It's imitating something that resembles a dragon, even though I don't think that's what it's actually trying to imitate. It's some kind of dead nature spirit corrupted by something disgusting. Basically an undead."

I glanced behind the creature. Beyond it, on the opposite side of the chamber, was something that reeked of "death". Not decay or the smell of a corpse. Literally... death.

It was a distinct scent, faintly sweet, vaguely reminiscent of a rotting corpse, yet not quite the same. It was similar to cooked ginger mixed with the smell of burned roots, damp earth, and iron. It was a scent I couldn't truly comprehend, one I could only compare vaguely to others I'd encountered before in my life. Even so, I instinctively knew it was the smell of "death."

I narrowed my eyes.

Whatever was back there was the source of the thread I'd followed to get here. This creature had a much thinner, shallower thread, one connected primarily to Alice. Inside it was something useful for her that, through the Transparent World, I could see was some kind of golden seed, similar to the one I'd found before.

But whatever was waiting behind it was connected exclusively to me.

I took a step back, pulling the blood ribs restraining the creature away from us, and said,

"You can handle it. In fact, there's something useful for you inside that thing."

Then I turned around, walked back near the entrance we'd come through, pulled out a white plastic chair, set it down beside the spot where I could make out Melina's crouched, hidden silhouette, and sat down.

"I'm here if you need anything. I trust you."

Alice stared at me for a moment, as though trying to figure out whether I was serious, before turning back toward the ulcer-covered tree-thing.

The instant it was free, the creature lunged again without the slightest hesitation. It slithered across the ground and reached Alice within seconds, opening its jaws to bite her.

Alice reacted just as quickly as the creature—if not faster.

Lowering her center of gravity and shifting her weight into her legs, she slid to the right. Using the momentum of her dodge, she planted her foot against the stone, twisted her hips, and unleashed an upward slash. The steel tore through the dead wood and flesh along the creature's side. It took some effort, but she managed to carve open a wound.

Thick brown blood, viscous as tree sap, burst from the gash, drenching Alice, who barely remained still for even a second before moving again, lowering herself and slipping beneath a strike from one of the creature's arms.

The tree-thing let out a shriek, twisting its body and whipping its own tail around wildly.

Alice dodged without even seeing where the attack was coming from. Besides her own instincts, the talisman had to be taking effect.

Rather than trying to block something weighing several tons with a sword—even if she was strong, the weapon didn't weigh one-hundredth as much and she'd be sent flying—Alice threw herself toward the crack at the center of the pit where the creature had emerged.

She dove into the depression in the ground milliseconds before the tail of flesh and wood swept through the air exactly where she'd been standing, shattering the stone floor.

"She's adapting quickly..." I said out loud to myself, whether for the invisible person leaning behind my chair or for those watching through the stream.

As Alice hung there, driving her sword into the wall of the pit she was in while the creature repeatedly tried—and failed—to hit her, a message appeared before me.

[AsuraLady]How are you feeling?

I hummed before answering aloud, not caring whether Melina could hear me or think I was going crazy talking to myself.

"Fine. Much better than before." I took my eyes off Alice—though my attention remained fixed on her—and looked down at my right hand. I opened and closed it a few times. "I should recover before long."

Especially since I was wearing both rings on my hand to convert mana into vitality, speeding up my recovery. With Hardy's Underworld energy almost entirely driven out and destroyed, I could use my own energies again, which allowed me to channel my mana for that purpose.

I needed to check the status of the Devas Ring too. I had a feeling that thing had changed again since the last time I'd looked at it.

Saya's message disappeared, and two more took its place.

[AsuraLady]Liar... You're still missing your heart. You know we can tell with Hyper Reality 4D, don't you?

[AsuraLady]You're making my beautiful strawberry-blonde hair turn white. You'll have to make it up to me later, okay?... And for that, you need to stay alive, so take care of yourself!

A faint smile crossed my face. I reached out, caught the last message between my fingers, brought it to my lips, then let it go as it faded away.

"I'll be here tomorrow..." I didn't tell her to go to sleep. If she wanted to stay awake with me, I wasn't going to stop her.

I didn't say anything else after that. There didn't seem to be any need. Part of my attention drifted aimlessly while the rest remained focused on Alice's fight.

...What had happened had everyone worried, which was only natural. And it just made me even angrier at Hardy.

Jinn was fine. I could tell from the stream's camera, which was inside the Shadow Puppet. At least physically. I couldn't sense her emotions from this far away, but the way she kept clutching the doll that was the Shadow Puppet tightly against her chest without letting go even once told me everything I needed to know.

Night had begun to fall on the other side. Jinn was at Shizuka's house; the teacher must have invited her over. Ozma was nowhere to be seen, but knowing him, he was fine and capable of taking care of himself.

If he hadn't thought it was worth telling me what he was doing, then it was either something he wanted to handle alone or he simply wanted some time to himself. It wasn't my place to pry if he didn't want to talk about it.

At the moment, Jinn was alone, gazing up at the sky from the balcony. She looked absent-minded, but judging by the way her distant gaze seemed focused on something far away rather than unfocused, I figured she was simply lost in thought.

She was also gently stroking the head of the doll that was the Shadow Puppet while quietly humming a tune I didn't recognize.

I didn't say anything to get her attention. I just left her alone in silence. Like Saya, she had to be affected by all of this. Maybe even more so—probably more—since neither she nor Ozma had been able to help me even though they'd been right there beside me...

Millia would wake up in a few hours, and once she found out I was gone, she'd worry too...

I let out a long sigh.

...God, I wanted to skin Hardy alive.

While my thoughts wandered, Alice's battle continued.

Hanging from the wall of the dark pit, her sword embedded in the stone just deeply enough to support her weight, she waited. When the creature's tail swept over the opening once more, Alice yanked the blade free and launched herself upward.

Stretching out her free arm, she grabbed directly onto the creature's tail, clutching the rotting flesh and decaying wood as the thing whipped across the area.

Swinging through the air while the appendage lashed and thrashed violently, she grunted and pulled herself farther up the tail, her left hand gripping the wood that formed the creature's hide while her right still held the sword, unable to use it.

During one of the arcs through the air, as inertia flung her upward, Alice released the tail and let herself rise. Still airborne, she grabbed the sword's hilt with both hands and swung downward, and at the same time I noticed a faint golden glow forming at the tip of the blade.

The instant that glow appeared, Alice shot toward the ground as though gravity had become ten times stronger for her, cleaving the tree-spirit-thing's tail clean in half—even if it came at the cost of the upper half of her sword snapping off.

...What the hell was that? A gravity shift? No... only the tip of the sword got heavier?

The creature let out a scream that sounded somewhere between splintering wood and a pig dying, writhing wildly as it turned and tried to seize her with one of the "arms" sprouting from the sides of its body.

My right arm twitched for a brief moment, but I forced myself not to intervene. She was still doing fine.

Alice barely turned her head before throwing herself forward, rolling across the ground to evade the strike. When the second attack came from the creature's other arm, she slashed upward at the same instant, the broken blade colliding with the center of what would have been that arm's "elbow."

The blade flew from her hand, and she was hurled several meters backward, rolling across the ground before quickly regaining her footing. On the other side, where Alice had struck, the arm was severed completely and crashed to the ground like a freshly cut branch.

Without wasting a second, she spread her hands beside her body. A golden glow radiated from her palms before two daggers materialized, one in each hand.

The tree-thing, now missing both a tail and one arm, spun toward Alice in a frenzy. Opening its massive jaws, it launched itself at her in one desperate frontal charge.

Alice waited until the very last moment before sidestepping at the last possible second. Twisting her body, she reversed her grip on both daggers and drove them in with the blades pressed together, striking the creature's right side before dragging them downward.

A deep gash split open the wood, exposing more of the flesh beneath. Thick brown blood, viscous as tree sap, sprayed everywhere, drenching Alice, who instinctively shut her eyes.

The creature continued its charge despite missing her entirely, crashing into the wall on the opposite side of the chamber. Alice didn't wait for it to recover. She sprinted forward, wiping her right eye clean with the base of her thumb before opening it again.

Leaning her body forward, she twisted her upper torso slightly and slashed with both daggers, keeping the blades pressed together once more, carving a second wound opposite the first and forming an "X" across the creature's flank.

Alice turned her face away before the blood sprayed again, keeping her right eye open this time and preventing the thick fluid from covering it.

The monster, trying to turn around, lost its balance as the second wound tore open its flesh and toppled heavily forward. Even so, it refused to give up, attempting to brace itself with the lone wooden "hand" it still had.

A crazed smile spread across Alice's face, which until then had been completely expressionless. She spun around and drove both daggers into the edges of the X-shaped wound. Using them as levers, she twisted her wrists and tore the flesh apart, forcing the wound open even wider.

The creature let out a pained groan and collapsed again, unable to support its own weight.

Ignoring the blood and decay, Alice ripped the daggers free from the flesh and raised them overhead. Bringing both hands together, she struck once more, burying the twin blades into the center of the wound. Then she spread her arms apart, ripping the flesh open even farther.

Letting go of the daggers, she grabbed hold of the rotting flesh and wood with her left hand and pulled them apart.

Spitting the blood from her mouth, she took a deep breath. Then, with her right hand—palm open, fingers pressed together like a blade—she thrust forward into the center of the wound, driving her arm in up to the elbow... then all the way to the bicep with a wet, sickening sound.

The creature stiffened the instant she did.

Alice let out a growl and, bracing herself with her left hand, violently threw herself backward, ripping the golden seed pulsing at the beast's core free.

The beast let out one final, choking cry.

The next instant, its colossal body rapidly withered away.

The rotten wood and dead flesh crumbled into a thick black ash that collapsed in on itself, engulfing Alice completely in a dense cloud of dark dust.

I waited for the dust to settle.

From within the black cloud, I heard a small cough before Alice emerged, covered from head to toe in blackened dust and rotten blood, both of which began dissolving into black ash just like the creature's body.

She coughed once more, clearing her throat, then broke into a wide, genuinely joyful—if slightly unhinged—smile, her pointed canines on full display. Even with the blood no longer covering her face, she kept her left eye shut and looked at me with only her right. Raising her hand, completely stained and soaked with blood that was already crumbling into ash, she enthusiastically waved at me while holding the seed between her fingers.

"I did it!" she shouted proudly.

Her smile and excitement were strangely contagious. Before I realized it, I found myself smiling back.

Melina, who had stepped out from behind the chair after the battle ended, seemed to shrink back for some reason. I couldn't tell exactly why since I could only make out her outline, but her posture looked stiff as her tense gaze repeatedly shifted between Alice and me.

I didn't pay the Maiden much attention.

I stood up, "grabbed" the plastic chair, and pulled it back into the Voidbag.

Alice walked over to me, still breathing heavily, patting her pants to brush away the excess black dust that stubbornly clung to her.

"You did an excellent job," I said, the note of approval in my voice coming more naturally than I'd expected. "Your timing was spot on. And switching to the daggers after your sword broke was a smart adaptation."

Her smile widened even further, brightening her soot-covered face. Her aura practically radiated satisfaction and something close to pride, though part of it also seemed faintly saddened when I mentioned her broken sword.

But I wasn't blind, either. Through the Transparent World, I could see the microfractures in the bones of her wrists. Alice was incredibly resilient, but she hadn't come away unscathed. The impact of severing the creature's tail and the shock of her blade colliding with the tree-thing's "elbow" had taken their toll.

On top of that, she had several minor muscle tears and slight internal trauma from the force of the attacks she'd narrowly dodged.

I reached into the Voidbag and pulled out a Healing Potion.

"Drink this," I said, offering her the glass vial filled with bright crimson liquid. "Your wrists are fractured, and you've got a few internal micro-injuries. This will fix everything in seconds."

Alice looked at the vial but hesitated before shaking her head.

"I appreciate it, but you don't need to waste that on me," she said. With her free left hand, she touched her chest. A brief golden glow appeared, and she pulled something out of Grace.

It was a round, ornate flask made of darkened glass that glowed faintly from within.

...Was that a fucking Estus Flask?!

Immediately, every one of my senses prickled. My teeth actually started itching.

The flask reeked of the exact same golden divinity emanating from that abominable golden tree. It was almost identical to the golden seed she'd just ripped from the monster and the one I'd found earlier, and it was also incredibly similar to the sap of the Blessed Dew Talisman.

"What is that?" I asked, staring at the flask.

It was more of a confirmation than an actual question.

"It's a Flask of Crimson Tears," she replied, holding it by its base. "I found it right after I woke up in these lands, lying on the floor of a half-ruined chapel. I discovered it healed injuries whenever I drank what was inside."

I raised an eyebrow, giving her a flat look.

"So you woke up somewhere you'd never seen before, found some random glass bottle lying on the ground, and just decided to drink the suspicious liquid inside it?"

Alice blinked once. Then twice. She cleared her throat and looked away toward the far wall of the crypt, her face taking on a faint pink tint.

"I was really thirsty..." she muttered quietly.

I closed my eyes for a second and sighed.

"Just... don't do that again."

Alice nodded slowly.

[TheBestAndMostBeautifulThief]Hypocrite! Didn't you pull the exact same shit with that disgusting thing in that weird flesh biome, the Crimson Flask? And who knows how many other times before I started watching you?!(Thief scratching his chin emote.)

("Flattering me isn't going to get a reaction.") I replied mentally without even blinking. ("And you're awake? Didn't you say you quit stealing after you started working with Atlas? Why are you up so late?")

The reply appeared almost immediately, forming within the black smoke as it shifted to a pomegranate-orange hue and wrote:

[TheBestAndMostBeautifulThief]It's already five in the morning. What, do you think I'm some kind of bum who's got life made? Working for the army pays well, but the downside is having to wake up early.(Thief sighing emote.)

Five in the morning?... I really had lost track of time.

While I had that brief exchange with Toman, I turned my attention back to Alice.

Ignoring her complete lack of self-preservation—which I definitely wasn't in any position to judge, considering the kind of reckless crap I'd done myself—I pointed at the flask.

"And why haven't you drunk it yet?"

It was empty. I just wanted to be annoying. I think my hobbies are getting weirder by the day...

"Because it's empty!" she exclaimed, turning the flask upside down to prove it. A single lonely crimson drop clung to the bottom. "I drank it all after that beating the golden knight gave me outside. Actually, during the beating. Melina explained afterward that this liquid is the condensed sap of the Erdtree. She's also the one who told me the flask's name."

She gave the flask a light shake, and the lone drop at the bottom glowed a little brighter.

"It refills over time. It's faster when I rest at a Site of Grace. The flask fills back up in... a few hours? I haven't tested it exactly yet, but it should be around that," she explained, looking back at me before pointing to the Golden Seed in her other hand. "Melina also told me that the flask's healing power and capacity permanently increase if I dissolve one of these seeds inside it. I'd already found one before coming to the castle."

After explaining, she glanced between me and the flask before dropping the seed inside.

The seed's golden core touched the bottom of the glass flask and, in the blink of an eye, began dissolving like Styrofoam in alcohol. The red liquid, which had been nothing more than a single lonely drop, immediately began bubbling and rising, filling the flask all the way to its dark glass neck.

The energy also seemed slightly more... pure? No, concentrated was the right word. And the stench of divinity intensified in equal measure.

Alice tightened her grip on the now-full flask and, instead of drinking it to heal her visible and invisible injuries, held it out toward me.

"Drink... I know you're hurt," she said.

I raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know how badly, but I know you are. It's... some kind of instinct. Just drink it."

She pressed the flask against my chest, the shadows of my cloak writhing around her hand. I hesitated for a moment, staring at the reddish-gold liquid she was offering me so sincerely.

"I don't think this will work on me the way you're expecting," I warned her. Even so, unwilling to reject her goodwill, I nodded and accepted the flask from her.

I raised it to my lips and took a small sip.

The liquid was warm and thick, bubbling as it slid down my throat. The texture was somewhat like honey. It was intensely sweet, and maybe it was just my own prejudice, but it was far too sweet—to the point of becoming cloying.

My teeth began itching the instant it touched my tongue.

Divine Anathema sank its fangs into the essence of that single sip and brutally tore apart the energy contained within it, forcibly separating its components. Every trace of divinity and influence was ripped away and dumped directly into the "soup puddle" inside my Spiritual Realm.

What remained—the life energy in its purest form—was absorbed by my body. I could feel my vitality being mildly stimulated and nourished.

It would be a lie to call it weak.

That single sip was equivalent to one, maybe almost two Healing Potions, enough to save someone on the brink of death and stabilize them. But that was for an ordinary person. It didn't do much to change my current situation of being without a damn heart.

If that were all I needed, I'd just drink the mountain of potions sitting in my Voidbag. The entire flask, now at full capacity, was probably worth around ten, maybe twelve or thirteen Healing Potions.

Which, to be fair, was impressive for something that recharged "passively" and was, in a sense, infinite. If Alice found more of those Golden Seeds, it would become genuinely powerful.

For now, though, it still couldn't compare to a Great Healing Potion, so it wasn't actually useful for healing me.

I lowered the flask from my lips and handed it back to her.

"Thank you, but you'd better drink it and heal yourself. I'm fine."

Alice gave me a long, appraising look, narrowing her eyes slightly before lifting the flask to her lips and taking a generous drink. Tilting her head back, her short white hair swayed gently before she tucked the flask away once more into the golden glow of the Grace within her chest.

Immediately, I saw and heard the quiet crack of the bones in her wrists knitting back together and settling into place. A glance through the Transparent World confirmed she was completely healed.

Meanwhile, I walked over to where Alice's broken greatsword lay on the stone floor.

I knelt down, resting one knee on the ground, gripping the fractured tip of the blade with my right hand and the larger portion with my left as I examined the weapon's point of failure.

It hadn't broken because it was poorly made. Analyze: Item confirmed that the weapon, despite being "common," was exceptionally well crafted.

The material was durable, forged from high-quality steel alloy, and every detail of its construction told me it was a fine sword.

Nor had it broken because of Alice's technique.

She knew how to use the weapon, and while part of the blame lay in the execution—since I could see that she'd been violently pulled downward midair and the strike hadn't landed quite the way she'd intended—there wasn't a flaw in her technique severe enough to make someone with her current strength snap a blade this thick like that.

It would've been far more likely for the ground to crack beneath the impact while the sword merely chipped its edge than for the blade itself to fail this way.

I inspected the broken tip more closely. Letting go of the larger half of the blade, I ran the fingers of my right hand directly over the fractured surface.

The material there was cracked and crumbling from the inside. Only that specific section near the tip had truly been damaged; the rest of the blade remained relatively intact. It was as though the tip had suddenly been subjected to an overwhelming amount of pressure...

I looked up and turned toward Alice.

My voice sounded far more like a statement than a question.

"That wasn't magic... You increased the weight at the tip of the blade...?"

I would've noticed instantly if it had been magic.

I wasn't arrogant enough to claim I could detect every form of magic in existence. I was sure truly skilled users or legendary mages could evade my senses. But Alice?

It wasn't a matter of looking down on her. She simply wasn't anywhere near that level.

The Grace inside her... a concentrated golden glow had gathered at the sword's tip just before she struck and plummeted onto the creature like a comet.

I hadn't sensed anything magical there, so it wasn't truly "magic." It was just like the other times she'd pulled something out from within to...

My eye widened ever so slightly.

"Weight redirection...?" I muttered.

... No fucking way.

Alice blinked a few times, processing what I'd just said, before slowly nodding, confirming my theory.

"He figured it out that quickly?..." I heard her murmur under her breath, in a tone she probably didn't think I could hear. "What a monster..."

Ignoring the oddly familiar comment, I grumbled inwardly.

I wasn't going to lie: I was jealous. A little jealous... alright, it was more than just a little.

I'd thought of doing exactly that the moment I obtained the Voidbag, months ago, when I first arrived in Terraria. But even after every upgrade my inventory had received, an ability like "weight transfer" had never appeared.

Because if it had, my life would've been infinitely easier.

I had so much crap stored inside the Voidbag that the total weight in there easily reached several dozen million tons.

If I could gather all that weight and channel it into the tip of a sword or spear for a single strike, on top of my own strength...

Right. I was jealous.

Sighing and pushing the thought aside, I got to my feet, picked up both halves of Alice's sword, and handed them back to her.

Alice accepted the broken weapon, giving it a rather mournful glance before storing it inside Grace in a flash of golden light instead of putting it in the bracelet.

"Since when can you do that?" I asked, folding my arms. "You didn't use it before. Throwing a dagger, for example, then transferring all that weight into it at the last second before impact would be a great way to attack enemies from a distance."

Alice's eyes widened. Her expression froze for a second, her lips parting slightly before she muttered,

"I... hadn't thought of that. I don't think it works at a distance, but maybe if I...?"

She quickly shook her head, refocusing.

"And it wasn't something I'd practiced. It was more of a... test. While I was fighting just now."

I gestured for her to continue.

"I wasn't sure it'd work," she admitted, running a hand through her hair before frowning as a few pebbles fell out. "Ever since I woke up with Grace, I've been getting these random insights about things that might work."

"So when I was hanging there and needed more power behind my strike... I thought, what if I only pulled out the idea of the weight of everything inside Grace, while keeping the actual items stored in there? I tried it. And... it worked."

She shrugged.

I almost wanted to say that was complete bullshit, but I'd done things that sounded just as ridiculous myself before. I'll just proudly say she got that from me and leave it at that.

"If it hadn't worked, you'd have had some serious problems," I pointed out the obvious. "You wouldn't have been able to cut off the monster's tail, the blade would've gotten stuck, and you'd have ended up falling onto a creature that size without dealing any meaningful damage."

Alice nodded without the slightest hint of embarrassment.

"Yeah," she replied with a broad, calm smile. "But you said you'd stay there watching and that you'd help me if anything happened. So it was fine. I knew I could take the risk."

I blinked a few times, staring at her in silence.

"..."

"What?"

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. I missed when it wasn't gray. You know, yesterday.

Right, she wasn't wrong. I would've eviscerated that thing if she'd actually been in danger.

Changing the subject before I started thinking too much about that, I asked,

"Nothing," I replied. "So what's the exact size of Grace's internal space? Didn't you tell me before that it was pretty small? There can't be enough stuff in there to weigh so much that it'd shatter a blade like that."

"It is small, but not that small," she corrected, gesturing with her hands to give me an idea of the volume. "It's much smaller than the storage space in the bracelet you gave me, but I'd say it's about the size of a medium—or maybe large—room. Around five by five meters, maybe. As for the weight... well, I stored all the clothes, armor, and the other weapons you gave me in there."

"I also put my old armor in there, a few spare heavy weapons I picked up from soldiers along the way, plus a bunch of rocks and weird plants I figured might be useful materials for something."

She paused for a moment, tilting her head as she mentally went through the list.

"Oh, and there are the intact bodies of a few animals I hunted earlier and stored in there to eat later," she added matter-of-factly. "Adding everything together—the rocks, the carcasses, and the armor... I think there's probably around two or three tons in there. Maybe more."

I nodded.

Ignoring the fact that she clearly didn't know how big a large room actually was, two or three tons suddenly concentrating on the tip of a blade at the instant of impact would explain why the metal ended up in that condition.

And that was "only" two or three tons. She'd need to train that ability unless she wanted to destroy a weapon every other fight—especially later on, once Grace's internal space grew larger.

That reminded me...

With a flick of my hand, I pulled out the two slender, twisted blades that had belonged to that ugly grafted thing I'd killed earlier.

The one in the dining hall, not Godrick.

...That motherfucker really thought he could graft my arm onto himself without getting fucked up?!

Maybe I still wasn't completely sane.

A quick Analyze: Item told me the swords' names and abilities before I handed them to Alice. They were strangely elegant despite their bizarre appearance and had clearly been designed to be wielded together.

"A little gift for your victory. They're both called Ornamental Straight Sword, though you can rename them if you want," I said. "They have a skill called Golden Tempering. If you cross the blades and channel a bit of your Grace into them, they'll be bathed in light, making your attacks stronger, faster, and better at piercing."

I'd considered giving her the Royal Greatsword. As much as I liked the weapon, it'd be far more useful in Alice's hands. Unfortunately, though, it was only on loan. I'd have to return it to Ranni the next time I met her.

"I... Thank you, D-Devas," Alice said gratefully, taking the twin swords by their hilts and testing their weight with a few quick practice swings, her eyes shining.

I had the feeling that the first "D" hadn't been the start of my name, but I didn't comment on it.

"It's fine. It's something small. Later, I'll see if I can find a forge—or at least the materials—to repair your greatsword. I'll also get you better armor and equipment," I replied.

She simply looked at me for a moment before nodding, looking away, and beginning to straighten herself up.

As Alice adjusted her belt and waist buckles to keep the scabbards of her two new swords crossed and easily accessible, I slowly turned around.

My gaze ignored the dust that was finally settling over the crypt's arena and fixed directly on the deepest, darkest part of the pit, where the rotting roots seemed to have gathered into a dense, lifeless wall.

That was where the heavy, faintly sweet scent of Death was coming from.

I nodded, pulling my attention away from the darkness for a moment to see that Alice had already finished fastening the scabbards to her belt.

She dusted off the last traces of black ash from her pants, then looked at me, waiting for my signal.

I gestured with one hand, and we started moving. I shifted the Royal Greatsword and the Teardrop Cleaver to either side, making them easier to draw, and took the lead, with Alice and Melina following behind me.

I commanded the six massive blood ribs to spread open above my shoulders like six fingers pointing straight ahead.

We circled around the crater left by the tree-creature's eruption and advanced into the narrow passage that opened directly behind the arena. Almost immediately, the surroundings began to change. The cold, damp stone that formed the castle's foundation quickly gave way to a massive web of roots.

These, however, were anything but normal. They looked diseased—and not in the same rotted, sap-filled way as the monster from before.

This corruption was more fundamental. If that creature had been something infected, then this... was the infection.

The wood was gray, stained with a suffocating blackness, and felt almost fleshy to the touch, as though it had petrified halfway through decomposition. Scattered across its surface, small twisted thorns resembling insect legs or shattered bones jutted out at erratic angles.

There were no enemies—I could tell from the Minimap. There wasn't a single sound besides the muffled echo of our own footsteps. It was a heavy, stagnant silence, like the bottom of a tomb.

That bizarre, nauseating smell—a blend of cooked ginger, damp earth, burnt roots, and iron—grew stronger with every step.

It was so dense I could taste it on my tongue, even with my taste buds as fucked up as they were. A shiver ran down my spine.

Something was wrong. But it wasn't dangerous.

My senses were conflicted. Glimpse of Light in the Abyss pointed toward a "thread" connecting me to something deep within this place. That "thread" carried an inexplicable feeling of "opportunity"... and "melancholy".

It was like walking through a dark, empty forest. I knew it was empty. I knew there was no danger. Even so, that didn't change the fact that I wanted to be anywhere but there.

I glanced at Alice and saw that she looked perfectly normal. Her tension came solely from being in a place where enemies might be lurking—nothing more. As for Melina, though I still couldn't fully see her, she didn't seem particularly disturbed either.

...They couldn't feel this?

A few steps later, the narrow passage abruptly opened into a vast underground chamber.

The ground sloped sharply downward in a steep embankment of loose earth and shattered stone, ending at a pool of stagnant black water. And there, covering nearly the entire floor beyond, sprawled across a small hill, swallowed by darkness and nestled at the heart of a tangled mass of corrupted roots, lay the source of it all.

I stopped at the edge of the slope. Beside me, Alice swallowed hard and went rigid.

It was a face.

Without moving, its mouth whispered a single name to me.

Godwyn.

[...]---[...]

As for the chapter itself... well, it's another one of those "calm" chapters. Kind of.

Things are moving forward, and two things introduced here will become important in the next arc/world. The weapon he'll create here will also matter, but that's getting into spoiler territory.

The relationship between our two lovable idiots keeps developing, and Melina is starting to realize that there might be something seriously wrong with both of them. Beyond the whole "this guy literally fell from space, and I have a feeling he's going to kill me" situation.

Or rather: "This man didst fall from the sky, and methinks he may yet be the one to slay me."

Godwyn made an appearance... or something very close to him.

Have a great night, everyone, and enjoy the read!