Sound of footsteps echoed through the stone corridor as he ran.
A thick, creeping fog covered the ground, hiding everything from the calf down; either the sun is setting on the surface or the Dungeon is preparing its usual ambush.
Silhouettes formed on the horizon, becoming ever clearer as he approached. Luki recognized the monsters.
Orcs, a species native to the Dungeon since before the earthquake, large, fat humanoid monsters with pig-like features, usually wearing nothing but a rag around their groin.
But as everyone already knows, things have changed since then, and the orcs, although still fats, are much stronger and more robust. They typically carry large blunt weapons, such as wooden clubs, hammers, and maces.
In any case, they were not a threat for Luki.
— GRUUUAAAH!!
The first Orc lifted its wooden club high overhead, thick muscles bulging beneath rough skin, and brought it down with savage force.
WHOOSH!
Luki twisted his body while running, throwing himself sideway.
BOOM!!
Wood smashed against stone, the club rebounded off the ground with no actual effect, beside an slight pain in the orc's wrist.
But before he could follow up with another attack, Luki was already by his side.
Luki stopped running for a second, stepped with his right foot, quickly throwing himself to the left while spinning.
He gripped his sword with both hands, threw his arms back, planted his feet firmly on the ground at the right moment, and...
SHRRAAAK!
His blade carved a clean horizontal arc, bitting through flesh and bone.
SSSHLAAA!
— GYAAARGH!!
The sword blade cut flush with the base of the spine, blood and fluids splattering as the Orc fell to the ground in agony.
That one was already doomed.
— GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!! — A shout, but not from the orc on the ground.
THUD!
THUD!
THUD!
The second Orc, seeing his companion fall to the misty ground, seemed to be overcome with rage and charged at the puny elf.
It drew its right arm far back, muscles writhing grotesquely beneath thick skin. Veins bulged like cords ready to burst as its grip tightened around the iron handle of a heavy mace.
Then it swung.
The spiked iron ball screamed through the air, being hit by it should be the same as colliding with a not so fast motorcycle.
Luki turned sharply.
He bent his knees slightly, leaned forward, brought his sword to the front of the strike, crossing the blade with his left forearm for support.
KRAAAANG!!
The impact's sound cut through the air, bright sparks spitting outward as the force drove Luki back a few centimeters, his boots scraping against stone.
But he did not buckle.
With astonishing control and timing for a blade of that size, he twisted his wrists and shifted his weight.
The Orc's strike was redirected.
The spiked ball met his sword for only a fleeting instant. It should have continued its arc toward the monster's left side, but that short moment was enough. Instead of stopping the blow head-on, Luki deflected it, guiding the crushing force sideways.
Caught off guard, the Orc was carried by its own momentum. The heavy swing pulled its upper body off balance, and the massive creature staggered forward, passing along Luki's right side.
And Luki's sword was already resting low to his right.
SLASHHH!
A diagonal rising cut tore from right to left.
Steel carved through the Orc's right flank.
Blood spurted out as the creature fell to the misty ground, clutching its open wound with one hand.
'Two down, one to go.' Luki turned to the third Orc in his path, his muscles poised for action.
The third Orc in question how to put this… he seemed frightened, if you could extract any emotion from that pig-like face.
Moments ago, he too was about to attack Luki alongside the second Orc, rage burning inside him, but everything happened so fast that he still hadn't understood what had occurred.
He had taken only one step, his reaction slower than his fellow Orc, but that very slowness was what saved him a few more seconds of life and allowed him to witness the efficient and brutal defeat of another, which could have been him.
At that moment, all the survival instincts within him fired wildly. He stood frozen in place, arms still raised to attack, hands bare.
But the fact that his opponent didn't attack would not make Luki do the same.
Bam! Bam!
— Uuaah? — the Orc grunted in confusion.
Time seemed to slow down.
The Orc slowly turned his head, looking down.
Luki was right beside him, his posture low, his right foot back and his left slightly extended forward, holding the hilt of his sword with both hands, the blade angled downward near his chin.
The movements that followed were performed with perfect motor coordination and fluidity, allowing something like that to be done with such an inconvenient weapon.
Using the muscles in his shoulders and back, Luki slowly pressed the sword downward, lowering the base of the blade as the tip subtly tilted upward with a controlled flick of his wrist. His knees bent further, compressing his center of gravity, shoulders tightening as if coiling energy into his frame.
He rotated his hips to better his stance, aligning his spine behind the weapon. His left foot anchored firmly against the stone while his right leg adjusted behind him, preparing to drive the motion forward.
Using his legs, waist, back, shoulders, and arms as one unified chain of force, Luki unleashed a brutal upward thrust.
The blade tore skyward with explosive force.
VUUUSH!!!
...
[Meanwhile, elsewhere]
Deep beneath the earth, far below the shifting layers of the Labyrinth, the Abyss remained untouched as always.
An immensely vast, dark, and damp cave, extending for several kilometers in all directions. Its edges descended in jagged spirals, lined with fractured stone and shapes that might once have been alive. Blackened silhouettes clung to the walls, fused into the rock as if they were preserved.
A suffocating cold permeates the void, without sound, no wind or anything, a simple existential emptiness, a place where only the madness created by one's own mind will haunt you.
From the heart of the suffocating darkness, a familiar voice exploded, destroying any semblance of oppression and psychological terror with her high-pitched and exaggerated voice.
— (We're SCREWED, we're screwed, we're screwed, we're screwed, we're screwed! Scre-wed! DO YOU HEAR ME?!) — A woman, coming from everywhere at once, said, her voice irritatingly high-pitched.
— (MONTHS! Do you have any idea how many MONTHS of effort that was?! Planning! Resource! Energy! Manipulating pathways, suppressing anomalies, steering others adventurers away, rearranging the Labyrinth so everything would push him exactly where he needed to be!)
There wasn't a single girl or physical body speaking in the middle of that abysmal cave, but with such transparent feelings in their voices, one could even imagine that whoever was speaking was ranting and throwing their arms from side to side like a child throwing a tantrum.
— (All of that, ALL OF THAT, just to make that little brat awaken already, and now it's going down the drain! Just like that!!)
— (Damn it, this makes NO SENSE! Anyone would've broken by now! Months alone! No sunlight! No stability! Constant pressure! Constant danger! How is he still normal?! How is he STILL optimistic in that situation?!)
— (Is it too much to ask for him to lose his temper for ONE SECOND?! JUST ONE FUCKING SECOND!!! Just one emotional collapse would've been enough! Just ONE crack in that stupidly resilient mind!)
— (How are we supposed to finalize the plan if the boy REFUSES to change?! He's supposed to adapt under pressure, not ignored it! That's not how this script was written!!!)
— (And the worst part?! He's practically immune! I SAY, IMMUNE! To my influence! I can't just scramble his mind until we get the result we want. Nooo, of course not! He just HAD to be stubbornly resistant to mental corruption, didn't he?!)
— (I'm starting to regret letting that ability awaken at all. Do you know how much easier my existence would be if I hadn't triggered that early development? I wouldn't be fighting against his stupidly stable psyche every single time I try to push him!)
— (Everything was going PERFECTLY! He was so close, SOOOO CLOOOSE, to awakening naturally! Just one more month! ONE MORE MONTH and his potential would've overflowed on its own, and that stupid skill would have manifested exactly as planned, without interference!)
— (But noooooo! Of course not. That fucking, stupid, shorty goddess just HAD to break the rules!)
— (That's NOT how things are supposed to work!!!)
— SHUT UP, YOU ARE FUCKING ANNOYING!!!
BRUUUMMMM!
From the deepest layer of the void, something vast shifted.
A colossal, shadowed mass unfolded from the darkness itself. Its outline was indistinct, like an lizard sleeping on the ground. An hostile aura radiated from it, pressing against the petrified remains along the walls.
Its voice was low and heavy. Reverberating with the power of its lungs.
— Control yourself... — It, or he, said, calm again.
For a split second, silence followed.
Then-
— (OH, DON'T YOU START WITH ME, YOU OVERGROWN, DUSTY, SCALE-CRUSTED FOSSIL!!)
Her voice snapped back instantly, sharp and shrill.
— (You sit there for centuries doing NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING! And the moment I express a little justified frustration, you tell me to "control myself"?!)
— (Bandaged-up, moss-covered lizard! At least I'm DOING something! I'm the one managing all this! I'm the one keeping our precious "plan" on schedule while you nap like some decorative statue in MY Dungeon!)
While the female voice spilled venom into the darkness, the colossal shadow at the bottom of the Abyss shifted slightly.
For a brief moment, one massive clawed silhouette rose toward where its head would be, as if clutching.
Then it lowered its hand and spoke, composure fully restored.
— If you have so much time to complain, you could do something useful and accelerate the process.
There was a beat of silence.
Then as expected...
— (DO SOMETHING USEFUL?!) — Her voice echoed violently across the chasm, even louder than before.
— (Oh, I'm SORRY! Should I just casually intercept a goddess with her powers fully unleashed?! Is that what you're suggesting?!)
— (Get REAL! I only stand a chance against them if I catch them off guard while their divine authorities are sealed! Do you think I can just waltz up and slap a deity mid-descent?!)
— (And EVEN IF I wanted to act against her, I couldn't! We're talking about Hestia! Hestia! Disregarding the Divine Hearth Fire entirely, she occupies a special emotional anchor point in his psyche! The first love! A foundational bond! If something happens to her, the entire psychological trajectory I been building would collapses!)
— Do you have ANY idea how sensitive this task is?! One more step beyond the limit and things go from "I'm so pissed off that I'm going to awaken a new power" to "the world is a shit, so I'm going to destroy everything," or even "life has no meaning without her…" Do you happen to want to see the third option? UHM?! NO?! Then I can't touch that goddess!)
— I was not referring to that.
— (THEN SPEAK PROPERLY, DAMN IT!)
— (I am NOT the Master of Mages! I do NOT enjoy cryptic one-liners and ominous half-sentences! If you have a point, articulate it! Use words! Complete thoughts! Preferably in order!)
— Ahhh… — The dark being sighed.
It was impossible to hear his thoughts, or even see his expression, but it was clear he was reconsidering his life choices.
— The chosen one's innate potential has already awakened enough to unleash that gift. — He began to explain, remaining calm and deliberately explicit so as not to further irritate the child in the room.
— All he needs is a sufficiently violent emotional breakdown for it to finally blossom. However, his chosen one apparently possesses enough mental resilience and firmly rooted values to prevent that from occurring.
— (Duh! That's literally what I JUST said! I KNOW that! I'm not stupid, you oversized shadow carpet! So to work around that tiny, microscopic, completely unavoidable problem, I had to pour EVEN MORE energy into this whole circus! Just keep inflating him until one day he SNEEZES and boom: there it is! The ability we want, nice and shiny!)
Her voice grew faster, higher, increasingly unbearable.
— (But noooo, I can't even do that now because there's a GODDESS breathing down my neck! A literal divine authority stomping around in MY Labyrinth! Do you have ANY idea how inconvenient that is?! It's like trying to perform delicate brain surgery while someone is setting the house on fire!!)
— LET ME FINISH TALKING, DEVIL!!!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The roar detonated through the Abyss.
CRAAAAAACK!!!
KRRRRRRRRSHHHHH!!!
A visible shockwave erupted from the colossal shadow's mouth, tearing through the void like a physical force. The ground split in jagged fractures that raced across the stone floor. The walls groaned and ruptured, fissures spiderwebbing outward.
Entire sections of compacted rock shattered.
Petrified humanoid figures, carbonized remnants of pain and despair, exploded into fragments as the pressure tore them apart.
Chunks of mineral and stone rained downward.
RUMBLE!
KRAAAASH!
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The Abyss itself seemed to convulse.
The sheer force was absurd.
This was not fragile material. The minerals and stone here had been compressed for ages under unimaginable depth and pressure. Even a Level 5 adventurer would struggle to leave a crack upon their surface.
And yet a mere shout had fractured it.
Silence followed, heavy and oppressive.
Then...
— (Uwuwuwuwuwu~)
A tiny, pitiful whimper echoed awkwardly through the devastation.
— (Uuuuu… that was loud…)
One could almost picture it: a round-faced, melodramatic girl on the verge of tears, lower lip trembling dramatically in the darkness.
— (You're so mean… Uwuwuwu… I was explaining very reasonably… 🥺) — An image flickered into existence in midair, a nearly crying emoji wobbling dramatically, oversized tears shimmering at the edges of its eyes.
The other side remained silent, perhaps regaining composure, or most likely, reconsidering his life choices.
— (I, uh… I'll stay quiet. You can continue.) — she said sweetly, voice syrupy and artificially innocent, as if the previous catastrophe had never happened.
A long pause.
— One day… one day… ahhh… — The male voice began, but he stopped midway.
Whatever thought had formed was deemed unworthy of release.
— As I was saying, that same resilience and morality of his, while being his greatest strength, is also his most exploitable weakness. All we need to do is attack it.
— (AND WHO DO YO-) — she snapped instantly, tone flaring.
A suffocating pressure shifted in the darkness.
She froze.
— (...mean… who would I use for that? Oh great scaleness…) — she corrected herself quickly, voice suddenly polite to a suspicious degree.
The shadow did not acknowledge the change.
— Make him fight something he cannot kill.
— His moral and ethical framework is clearly structured. He will not resort to lethal force against sufficiently conscious beings. Therefore, you must create a monster, one that remains under your authority, yet possesses autonomous cognition. Comparable to them.
The Abyss grew still.
— (Uhm… now that you mention it…) — her tone shifted, thoughtful but still annoyingly animated. — (Considering he had a relatively decent upbringing in a mostly "peaceful" world, hesitation toward killing other humans would be expected. In this world, that hesitation should logically extend to sufficiently intelligent monsters as well… like the "Xenos" from the third season. But not quite...)
SHINEEEEE!
A lamp materialized in the center of the Abyss, blazing absurdly bright against the darkness.
— (I HAVE AN IDEA!)
...
VUUUSH!!!
Luki's rising thrust tore upward with explosive speed, the blade carving a lethal vertical path straight toward the Orc's throat.
Its small, pig-like eyes widened grotesquely, pupils shrinking in pure instinctive terror. He instinctively tried to recoil, bending his legs for a small jump backward.
But it was too late.
SHLAAAAK!
Blood exploded into the mist.
THUD!
The massive body crashed against the stone and rolled once before going still.
But there was something strange, the monster was... alive?
— GYAAAH!! GRAAAH!! KHHH KHHH AAARGH!! HRAAA! HRAAA!! — The Orc writhed, shrieking in pain and panic, voice breaking into guttural pig-like squeals.
One thick hand clamped desperately against the side of its neck, fingers digging into torn flesh as blood continued to pour between them.
He was breathing with difficulty, his expression pale, but with his special constitution he would survive.
CLANG!
Luki's sword fell to the ground far from them, the sound of metal clashing against stone echoing across the area; it seemed as if it had been thrown.
But neither of them paid attention to it.
The Orc looked up.
Its eyes were wide, pale skin, whether from blood loss or fear, Luki couldn't tell.
Luki stared back, frozen mid-motion, arms still outstretched as if the attack were continuing. His body had stopped, but his gaze hadn't. It locked onto the Orc's face with such intensity it felt as though his own eyes might tear free from their sockets.
— HWRAA! HWRAA! — The Orc squealed, scrambling backward on thick limbs, clumsy and panicked.
Luki barely noticed.
Something else had seized him.
What had he seen?
'Its eyes…'
He was staring directly into them.
Normally, a monster's gaze was simple, a bright red orb, flat and unnatural, devoid of depth.
But these were different.
They weren't the eyes of a monster.
They were the eyes of an animal.
Clear structures. White sclera. Brown iris. A defined pupil. Even the faint reflective sheen of a speculum.
But this was impossible.
Monsters weren't supposed to have eyes like that. Not that he knew of. The Dungeon didn't create creatures with complex expressions and feelings. No matter who intelligent they are, they still mindless monsters, not so mindless but still monsters.
But these eyes couldn't be false, so what is this...?
'Alive? Xeno? Conscious? Thinking? …Is this a monster?' The thoughts did not form clearly, lacking a logical line of reasoning, but the questions were clear.
That was why the orc in front of him hadn't died yet; if it had been any other monster, Luki would have chopped its head off long ago.
But with the seed of doubt planted in his mind, Luki simply couldn't see himself taking his life while there was even the slightest possibility that he was a person, or even a prospect of one.
Unable to simply stop the attack or change direction, he let go of the sword's hilt. The orc, in turn, instinctively recoiled, allowing the blade to pass through and sever only a part of its neck, not its entire length.
But what happens now?
Luki will simply turn around and ignore these monsters; they're incapacitated, so it wouldn't be a bad idea.
But what if they're actually people, in the most figurative sense of the word? If he leaves, he'll have almost directly caused the death of two of them, and that would leave a bad taste in his mouth.
Even if it's improbable, unrealistic, and idiotic, Luki would much rather make a mistake like that than stain his hands with blood and live with that fact.
Or... he could take his sword and finish the job, completely ignoring this mere possibility of an unimportant fact and do what adventurers do. After all, screw it if a monster can now think for itself, what's the problem? Its magical core should be worth even more.
Unfortunately, he didn't have that privilege to think deeply.
— Luki-sama, watch out!!
His eyes widened.
FWOOOOOSH!
A blazing projectile tore through the air like a runaway meteor.
KABOOOOOM!!
The explosion swallowed the Dungeon corridor in a violent burst of orange light.
KRRRASH!
TKTKTKTK!
BRRAAAK!
Chunks of brick were ripped from the walls and hurled in every direction. Stones ricocheted across the floor, shards slicing through the scorching air,
— Ghh! What the hell was that?! — Luki grunted as he stepped out of the thick cloud of black, blistering smoke.
SHHKRRR
His boots scraped hard against the floor as he twisted his body mid-slide, slowing stopping.
Perhaps by coincidence or on purpose, he had stopped right next to where his sword had fallen. Luki picked it up by the hilt and stood up, fixing his gaze on the direction the attack had come from.
FSSSSHHH…
CRRRAAACKLE…
WHOOOOSH…
The smoke split apart.
A searing light cut through the Dungeon's darkness, not like the white flash of a lantern, but a forest fire, tinting everything in shades of yellow, the air visibly oscillated due to the temperature.
What else could it be if not...
— Will-o'-Wisp… — Luki muttered, apprehension tightening his voice as he lowered his stance and steadied his grip.
The fire elemental.
A literal sphere of living flames, hovering and pulsating intensely like the flame of a flamethrower, yet unable to escape its spherical shape.
Like all its counterparts, It possessed neither a physical body nor a mana core, making it literally immune to any non-magical threat.
And woe to anyone foolish enough to think dumping water on it would solve the problem, if things were that simple, this thing wouldn't be so feared.
But look how convenient, he was one of the few monsters in the entire labyrinth that Luki couldn't kill, Aeeeh!
Dungeon son of a bitch...
FWOOSH…
CRCKLE-CRCKLE…
The Will-o'-Wisp floated slowly down the corridor, illuminating the path, as if it owned the territory, as if it were the most dangerous presence in the moment.
And well... He is.
Fss
It stopped, motionless like a simple fireball.
But it was worth mentioning that... it had stopped right in front of the fallen orc, the one whose spine Luki had cut. And even though it had no face or anything, it was pretty obvious that it was looking at him.
The injured Orcs stirred.
Its fingers twitched against the stone, claws scraping weakly as it forced its head up.
The first thing he saw was fire.
The Will-o'-Wisp hovered inches from its face.
— Grrrhk…?! Ghuu…?! — It jerked back in panic.
The Orc's breath hitched. A tremor ran through its massive frame, but it couldn't look away.
Silence swallowed the corridor.
It was a grotesque contrast, a hulking, tusked body of flesh and blood staring into something so smaller than himself, ephemerous and expressionless. And yet… it was staring back.
The Will-o'-Wisp's flames pulsed steadily, unnervingly controlled.
There was nothing in that fire, no anger, no cruelty. Just an void, like looking at any other object. But his presence was heavy, his danger undeniable, and with each passing second, the nervousness grew.
Then...
Tss…
The Wisp began to emit a high-pitched, continuous sound. Was he communicating? It would make sense, since it's hard to imagine how a fireball could speak.
Tzzzz…
The sound grew louder, becoming even higher-pitched.
However, that noise was very familiar to Luki, who had dealt with it before; he knew what that sound meant.
TZZZZZNNN!
The Wisp's flames grew wilder and more intense, shining ever brighter and illuminating the entire corridor.
VNNNNNNNN!!!!
The noise grew louder and power emanated; it was pretty obvious what was about to happen. Something the fallen orc also noticed.
— GYIIIIIIIIIH!! SKREEEEE!!! WHEEEEEEEGH!! — The orc began to scream desperately, like the squeals of a pig about to be slaughtered.
It thrashed clumsily, trying to crawl away using only its arms. Its legs dragged uselessly behind it as its claws dug desperately into the stone.
Scrrrrk
Scrrrrkkk
It scraped and scraped, the heat behind him intensified, the humanoid pig was sweating as if it were in a sauna, which seemed to encourage it to flee even faster.
But he couldn't get very far;
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
A blast erupted forward.
A sustained torrent of flames surged outward like a dragon's breath, swallowing the Orc whole in an instant.
— GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!
Fire engulfed its body completely. The flames wrapped around its torso, climbed its shoulders and devoured its face while the stone beneath it blackened instantly.
Luki instinctively took a step back.
— What the hell?!
The Will-o'-Wisp hovered closer, still releasing his relentless stream of fire.
Through the blaze, the Orc's silhouette became visible, a massive dark shape writhing behind the inferno. Its outline flickered violently, distorted by heatwaves.
Its arms flailed blindly, head jerking side to side. But no matter how violently it thrashed, the fire did not relent.
The silhouette grew thinner, yet the screamsjist became louder.
— GRAAAAAAAAHHHH!!SKREEEEEEEH!!
Meanwhile, the other Orcs watched.
One remained on his knees, one massive hand pressed against the side of his abdomen where a grotesquely wide wound spilled dark blood between his fingers. The other lay a bit behind, clutching his torn throat, thick crimson pooling beneath him. Both had frozen.
Their eyes were wide.
Yellow light from the inferno reflected across their pupils, and within that glow, the silhouette of their burning companion writhed and twisted. The fire danced inside their gaze. They saw everything.
Then, understanding struck.
— WHEEEEEEGH?!
— SKRRREEEEIIIII!!
Panic shattered whatever strength they had left.
The kneeling Orc forced himself upright, one hand still trying uselessly to hold his entrails in place as he staggered back. The other rolled onto his stomach, pushing against the floor with trembling arms, scrambling to rise despite the blood gushing between his fingers.
They turned to flee.
But there was nowhere to run.
FWOO- FWWOOOOOOOSHHH!!!
A second surge of flame erupted from the Will-o'-Wisp.
The blast swept sideways this time, a wide, merciless wave that struck both monsters at once. Fire swallowed their massive frames instantly, coating skin and muscle in searing orange.
They didn't even make it three steps ans both collapsed hard against the stone.
THUD!
Their bodies convulsed violently on the ground, limbs jerking as flames crawled over their backs and down their arms.
— GRAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!
— SKREEEEEEEEEAAARGH!!
Their screams filled the corridor, raw and animalistic, as the fire consumed them without hesitation.
The Will-o'-Wisp as if delighted by their suffering, it flared even more
FWOOSH!
FWAAASH!
FSSHHH- FWOOOOSH!!
More tongues of fire burst from its surface, lashing outward in violent spirals. They coiled, circled, and whipped back randomly around its core.
The corridor ignited, almost completely filled with flames.
They kept appearing without stopping, heat rolled outward in suffocating waves, turning the Dungeon into a furnace, or, in terms more suited to this fantasy world, like inside the mouth of a dragon.
And at the center of it all was the Wisp, just floating in its place; for a moment, it could even be compared to a small god of destruction, merciless and unconcerned.
— What the fuck is happening…? — Luki muttered, taking large leaps backward to escape the suffocating heat.
Fire and cramped spaces doesn't make a very cozy combination.
— Luki-sama… — Lili's voice trembled behind him. — I… I think we should leave. Now.
— Yeah. Let's run before he notices us.
He began to retreat.
Slow at first, as if his body hadn't fully committed. His boots scraped against the stone before he finally turned his torso away from the inferno.
But he kept looking back from time to time.
Disbelief flickered across his expression, or maybe something else. Something unsettled.
Strange...
By now, Luki had killed hundreds of monsters. Cut them down without hesitation. Watched them dissolve into ash and magic stones.
But this time it was different, this whole situation, whether it was the strange orcs or the Wisp that murdered his countrymen, something was messing with his head.
A feeling arose, something he couldn't recognize even when his imagination ran wild; it wasn't pity or anything like that, but... he simply couldn't name it.
— Argh… fuck it.
He turned and started running at full speed.
The flames roared behind him as he sprinted down the corridor, Lili with a privileged view of everything couldn't help but look away. The screams of the Orcs grew fainter with each step.
The screams grew quieter with each passing second, perhaps because he was moving away or-
Shiver...
Without thinking or hesitating, Luki threw himself backward with every ounce of strength he had, trusting only his sixth sense and the certainty that something was on top of him.
BOOOOOOM!!!
KRAAASH!
TRRRAAAK!
KRRRK- CLANG!
Chunks of debris ricocheted across the corridor, dust and shattered masonry erupting outward in a violent cloud.
— L-Luki-sama?! W-What was that?! — Lili cried out, her voice shaking.
He skidded across the floor before stabilizing himself.
— Monster… — he said grimly, bringing the sword up with both hands.
A roar tore through the corridor.
— GWWWWRRRROOOOOOAAARRR!!!
The dust began to settle.
Where Luki had stood now crouched a massive figure of pale muscle and raw power. An enormous albino gorilla, arms grotesquely oversized, fangs bared, steam hissing from its nostrils.
Silverback. A strong one.
THOOM!
THOOM!
THOOM!
It pounded its chest, each strike echoing like war drums.
— GRAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!
The monster leaned forward, muscles tightening as it glared at Luki, its expression twisting into a savage challenge.
And its eyes…
Normal.