Author's note: next week I will post on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The hostility in the Xenos' cave dissipated almost instantly with the intervention of the hooded figure. The air, once thick and electric with the promise of violence, suddenly calmed. The guttural growls that had echoed off the stone walls died into confused murmurs, and the rustic weapons, raised with murderous intent, trembled and were lowered. The intelligent monsters, who seconds before had been ready to tear Hachiman and Ryuu to pieces, now looked at the solitary figure with a reverence and respect that bordered on worship. Their bodies, once tensed for the attack, relaxed and bowed in deference.
For Hachiman and Ryuu, the change was a violent shock. The adrenaline flooding their veins had nowhere to go. Ryuu, her breath still caught in her chest, blinked, trying to comprehend the sudden transition from a battlefield to a kind of sacred audience.
The atmosphere, previously charged with a skin-crawling murderous intent, became festive and welcoming in a completely surreal way. As if an invisible order had been given, the Xenos moved with a new purpose. Exotic-looking fruits, shining with vibrant colors under the light of the crystals, were brought on large leaves. Wooden mugs were filled with a frothy, strong-smelling drink and offered to the two humans they had nearly slaughtered. What was a deadly siege had transformed into a strange and noisy assembly.
As everyone settled onto the stone tiers that circled the central space, Fels, the hooded figure, quietly approached Hachiman and Ryuu. The crowd of monsters fell silent, all eyes fixed on their spiritual leader. Then, in a slow and deliberate gesture, he brought his skeletal hands to his hood.
First, to Ryuu's absolute shock, he removed it. Beneath the dark fabric, there was no wrinkled face of an old man or the weathered features of a warrior. There was no face at all. There was only the smooth skull, an ivory-white polished by time, with a jaw locked in a silent, eternal smile. In the empty sockets, two flames of an arcane and supernatural blue burned with a life of their own, dancing like captive stars.
"Allow me to formally introduce myself," the skeleton said. The voice did not resonate from its mouth but seemed to emanate from the very air around it, a magical and resonant sound, devoid of the need for lungs or vocal cords. It was calm, ancient, and carried the weight of eras. "My name is Fels."
Ryuu took an involuntary step back, a sharp gasp escaping her lips. Her hand flew instinctively to the hilt of her short sword, Alfsreg. Her eyes, normally calm and analytical, were wide, trying to process the impossibility before her. 'A Spartoi? What kind of creature is this? And why do the Xenos revere him?'
"Calm down, elf," the deep voice of Lyd, the Xenos leader, intervened. The imposing lizardman stood beside them, his reptilian eyes noting Ryuu's defensive reaction. There was a tone of warning in his voice, but also of pride. "Fels is not our enemy. Quite the contrary. He is an agent of Lord Ouranos."
The mention of the god who presided over the Guild only deepened Ryuu's confusion. She lowered her hand but did not relax. "Ouranos? What does the Guild's god have to do with... with an undead and a nest of monsters?"
"Fels is our bridge to the world that hates us," Lyd explained, the respect in his voice evident. "His main task is to relay information between us, the Xenos, and the god who watches over the Dungeon from high in his tower. And he is human. Or rather," Lyd glanced at Fels's skull, "was." He paused, letting the next word hang in the air with historical weight. "He is a Sage."
Ryuu gasped, this time in pure astonishment. The hand that was on her sword fell limply to her side. 'A Sage?' The word echoed in her mind, bringing with it fragments of legends, stories told in hushed tones about the Ancient Era, even before the arrival of the Gods. Tales of an archmage of almost divine power, a genius who had transcended the limits of mortality, the only being in history who, according to myth, had managed to create the legendary Philosopher's Stone.
"You..." she stammered, disbelief warring with the evidence before her eyes. "You are that Sage? The Alchemist of Eternal Life?"
The blue flames in Fels's sockets seemed to flicker, perhaps with the weight of a millennial melancholy. "Yes," he confirmed, his voice tinged with the fatigue of the ages. "I am the one who sought knowledge above all else. In my youthful arrogance, I became obsessed with the idea of conquering death, of accumulating all the world's wisdom without the limit of a finite life. And this..." He gestured with a skeletal hand to his own form, a skeleton wrapped in a cloak. "...is the result of my obsessive quest. An empty immortality, a body that feels no warmth from the sun, no taste of food, no touch of a friend. Today, I am better known as Fels, the Fool. The one who watches the ages pass by alongside Lord Ouranos, a ghost bound to his own ambition."
He turned, the blue flames focusing on the story that needed to be told. "I found Lyd and the others about fifteen years ago," Fels continued, explaining the origin of the Xenos. "They were anomalies, monsters born with intellect and heart, hunted by their savage brethren, who saw them as aberrations, and by adventurers, who only saw a walking magic stone. They were outcasts in their own home. Together, we gave them a name—Xenos, the 'foreigners,' the 'different ones'—and we began to build this community, a refuge for all of their kind that we could find."
"Since then, we have wandered through the darkness," the voice of Ray, the Siren, sounded from her perch on a nearby stone pillar. She sat there, her tail dipped in a pool of water, her silver hair shimmering in the magical light. "Searching for others like us, moving and living together to survive. Always on the run, always hiding."
"But how? How do you manage to keep such a large group alive down here?" asked Ryuu, her strategist's mind trying to comprehend the impossible logistics of it. "Shouldn't the Dungeon be constantly attacking you? A gathering of this size would be a beacon for hordes of monsters!"
Lyd let out a sound that could have been a hoarse laugh, showing his sharp fangs. "The 'little elf' asks a good question," he said. "You see, the Dungeon is a cruel mother, but sometimes she rests. There are certain locations, 'exhausted wombs,' where her energy does not flow. In these pockets, no monsters are spawned. They are barren lands." He gestured to the surrounding cave. "We make these places our temporary villages, our fleeting homes, until the pressure from wandering monsters forces us to move again."
Fels confirmed with a nod. "These rare pockets of safety exist on various floors. They are the secret to their survival, a secret we guard with our lives."
"I understand survival," Ryuu insisted, frowning. Her initial distrust was being replaced by a deep curiosity. "But if you are strong enough to protect yourselves here, why does the Guild interfere? Why do you need Ouranos's secret help?"
The question hung in the air, and the earlier festive atmosphere was replaced by a wave of collective longing and sadness. The creatures looked at each other, their monstrous faces displaying an unmistakably human emotion. It was Ray who answered, her voice a melodious whisper filled with a deep melancholy.
"Because surviving isn't living," she said, her eyes fixed on a distant point, as if seeing through the stone walls. "Because our true desire... our dream... is to emerge on the surface. It is to see the sky."
"I dream of it every night," confessed Lyd, his usually deep voice now low and vulnerable. The great lizardman, who looked capable of breaking rocks with his hands, stared at the cave ceiling with a lost expression. "I close my eyes and I see... not this darkness. I see a great red light... it hides behind huge dark rocks on the horizon... a whole sky painted a red that seems to cry blood and fire."
Hachiman felt a shiver of recognition. The description was raw, primitive, but unmistakable. The sunset. He, who saw it every day, had never stopped to think how beautiful it would be to someone who had never seen it.
"Have... have you ever been to the surface?" Ryuu asked, fascinated and touched by the image.
"No, not once," Lyd denied, shaking his massive head. "I believe they are... echoes. Memories of a past life. Before we were reborn as... this." He gestured to his scaly body with a mix of resignation and sadness. "Perhaps that is why some of us, like the young xenos you brought, can understand human language despite being 'newly born.' It is knowledge we already possess, engraved in our souls."
"I also dream..." Ray's voice joined Lyd's, soft as flowing water. "...of a time when I flew. Freely. Huge wings, not these." She looked at the fins on her arms with disdain. "I soared through the skies, under a warm, golden sun. I want... I want to feel the wind under my wings on the surface, just one more time." The longing in her voice was palpable, a physical pain that contaminated the air.
A heavy, respectful silence settled over the cave. The dream of a lizardman and a siren was the dream of everyone there. After a moment, Fels turned to the figure who had until then remained a silent observer. The blue flames in his eyes fixed on Hachiman.
"And you, Dragon Slayer?" Fels's question was direct, cutting through the silence. "You have heard our story. Seen our nature. Why did you decide to help one of us? And, more importantly, now that you know of our existence, what will you do? Will you keep our secret? Will you help us in due time?"
The question hung there, charged with the fate of an entire community. All eyes—reptilian, multifaceted, feline, humanoid—turned to Hachiman. Ryuu also stared at him, her expression a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. They awaited his answer, the word of a surface adventurer who could be their ally or their executioner.
Hachiman did not answer immediately. He lowered his gaze, his mind a storm of calculations and theories. The Dungeon... it had always been an enigma. The Three Great Quests... Behemoth and Leviathan, the apocalyptic monsters, were defeated long ago. But the third, the One-Eyed Black Dragon, still lives. It is down there in the depths, contained for some unknown reason, the final challenge. And the Dungeon itself... it doesn't send its strongest monsters to the surface all at once. It creates them in layers, in increasing levels of difficulty. It's as if... as if it were training adventurers. Giving them stronger and stronger opponents, forcing them to evolve, so that perhaps one day... someone will be ready to face the dragon.
He looked at the Xenos around him, at their anxious faces. And them? Where do they fit into this? Monsters that have shed their primal savagery, that have gained intelligence, a soul. The Dungeon seems to hate them, allowing them to be hunted. But at the same time, it doesn't completely abandon them. It has given them a way to grow stronger, by absorbing magic stones from their brethren. And it has given them these refuges, these 'dead wombs,' to survive. Is it a test? Another form of evolution?
It was a complex theory, full of gaps, but it made more sense to him than the simple idea of an "evil dungeon." Finally, he raised his head, his calm eyes meeting Fels's. When he spoke, his voice was measured and clear, surprising everyone with its dispassionate logic.
"I, for my part, hold no particular hatred for the Dungeon or for monsters," he began. "In fact," he paused, choosing his words, "I am a little grateful to it. I see the Dungeon as a forge. A way to get stronger, to challenge myself and gain the power to control my own destiny. Since the Dungeon allows me this, I have no specific animosity against it or its creations."
He swept his gaze across the assembly, at the monstrous but undeniably intelligent faces watching him intently. "And seeing now that there are monsters with whom I could, in theory, converse instead of fight, monsters that are not inherently seeking my death, but simply the possibility to exist... there would be no reason for me to be at war with you."
He turned directly to Fels. "As for helping you... your dream is dangerous. For you and for the world above. But the intention is pure." He pondered for a second. "If the help you ask for does not place me, or my Familia, in a situation of grave and irremediable risk, then yes. You can count on my hand."
Hachiman's answer, so pragmatic, so devoid of the fervent "kill all monsters" mantra that defined almost every adventurer, fell like a stone in a silent lake. The ripples of shock and relief were visible. Lyd, the leader of the Xenos, broke into a wide, toothy grin, a guttural sound of approval escaping his throat. Ray, the Siren, visibly relaxed, a small, genuine smile lighting up her melancholic face. And Fels, the skeletal Sage, nodded slowly, the blue flames in his sockets glowing with a new intensity.
With Hachiman's promise, the last drop of tension evaporated. The Xenos became even more friendly and boisterous, surrounding him with more fruits and drinks, asking curious and naive questions about the surface. The situation became festive once more.
After a while, Hachiman and Ryuu, who still seemed a bit overwhelmed by the situation but no longer with animosity, decided it was time to leave. They said their goodbyes to the Xenos, who sent them off amicably from the cave, with Lyd and Ray thanking him once more for bringing the young Xenos and for his understanding.
As Hachiman and Ryuu began the long climb back to the surface, traversing the floors of the Dungeon, a comfortable silence settled between them for a time. When they reached a more deserted spot, it was Ryuu who stopped him.
"Hachiman-san," she said, her voice now loaded with a restrained intensity. "About what you said before... about Evilus. For me to agree to help the Xenos."
Hachiman was hesitant to explain more about the situation, but seeing the fierce determination in her eyes, he knew she would hunt them to the ends of the earth to exterminate them if he didn't say something. "What about it?"
"Where are they? Who are they? I need to..." her hand squeezed the hilt of her sword so tightly her knuckles turned white.
He interrupted her gently. "Ryuu. Few remnants of Evilus remain. They operate in the deepest shadows, and they are not a direct, open threat at the moment. The Loki Familia is getting involved in the situation; they will handle the bulk of it." He was using his knowledge of the plot to try to calm her, to prevent her from going on a solitary and suicidal crusade.
Ryuu still looked very hesitant, the fury and pain of her past clearly visible. Seeing this, Hachiman made a decision. He took her hand. The gesture was so unexpected it startled her, making her look up at him. "Ryuu, I'll make a deal with you," he said, his eyes serious and sincere. "When I learn of any concrete action from them, of any real lead... I will call you myself. And I will take you with me to help in their purge. I promise."
Ryuu looked into his eyes for a long moment, seeing the sincerity and gravity of his promise. Slowly, the fury in her eyes began to subside, replaced by a reluctant trust. "I... I will believe you, Hachiman," she finally said.
A moment of silence passed. And then, Ryuu seemed to realize they were still holding hands. A deep blush rose to her face. She quickly pulled her hand away, turned, and began walking hastily toward the exit as if fleeing. "W-well, we have to go! See you later!" she said over her shoulder, not looking back.
Hachiman, for his part, sighed, a small smile appearing on his lips. He looked at his own hand, then at Ryuu's hurried figure ahead. The day had been long, full of shocking revelations, battles, promises, and strangely intimate moments. He finally started heading towards the surface, departing for home.