“Tch, I can’t believe I was such an idiot,” Nemina groaned as she kicked at the ground. She was clutching the Frostlight Katana close to her chest as she followed Eliam out of the dungeon.

  “Relax, everything turned out alright, didn’t it?” Eliam pointed out.

  She did not relax and instead hissed at him. “Yeah, only because of you, though.”

  He shrugged, trying his best not to relay just how much work he had put into making it turn out all right. Finally, Eliam had exited through the door from the boss's room, and it felt good. It had led them to the small place between the dungeon and cathedral in which Nemina resided.

  All there was were the bare necessities, such as food and water. There didn’t seem to be any entertainment either, so Eliam wondered how she managed to stay sane.

  “It’s not much, but it was my home… for a long time,” Nemina muttered.

  “What did you do here?” Eliam asked

  “What do you mean? I lived here!” she responded.

  “Yeah, I get that, but did you just stare at a wall?” Eliam muttered.

  “I did not! I… trained… and other stuff.” Nemina huffed.

  She sat on her bed and glared at Eliam. “Before we go any farther, we need to rest. Failing to do so means we will be going into battle weakened, which is something only an idiot would do.”

  He gave her a questioning look. “Wait, as in sleep?”

  She rolled her eyes. “No, by doing jumping jacks… Yes, sleep! What else would I mean?”

  Elaim wondered if he would actually be able to sleep in this world. Nemina shoved a few blankets into his hands and pointed at the floor. “You’ll sleep there.”

  “How hospitable,” he muttered as he dropped down.

  “I gave you all my blankets!” she cried. “So, don’t act like I’m not suffering here, either.” Nemina reasoned.

  Eliam sighed but accepted her actions. He laid down on his makeshift map and stared at the ceiling. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to sleep, but sure enough, his eyes closed, and he drifted off.

  ***

  Eliam awoke to Nimena grumbling, something about him sleeping for so long.

  As soon as she noticed him awake, she muttered, “It’s about time. We need to go before Quarlak notices that his minion is no more.”

  Eliam sighed but agreed. The longer they stayed here, the higher the chance of something else coming through from the Nircozonian Domain. Once he was ready, Nimena grabbed whatever she needed from her space, and they made their way to the exit.

  They continued walking until they reached a wall. Nemina pulled a nearby chain, and the wall opened up into the room where he was once swarmed by that horde of skeletons. Thankfully, with Nolmus gone, they were too.

  “So? Where are we going?” Nemina asked.

  Eliam shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not really sure. I think we have to exit through that one temple-looking place, but if we do that, then we have to get through that nun… otherwise, I guess there’s the labyrinth.”

  “The labyrinth… You mean the Nircozonian Domain?” Nemina shuddered.

  “Yeah, there’s a tunnel Nolmus opened up to it,” he explained.

  “Nolmus… so he’s the necromancer, huh… how do you know his name?” she asked.

  Eliam shrugged, “We had a bit of a… history, you could say. It’s of no matter, he’s gone now.”

  Nemina slumped over. “I still can’t believe he was so close to destroying the sword. Not to mention the massive tunnel to the domain. I am embarrassed at my short-sightedness.”

  It took everything Eliam had not to agree with her. Instead, he replied, “Don’t beat yourself up too much.”

  “Whatever… anyhow, going through there would be a death sentence. Our only choice is to go through the temple… and that nun’s name is Sara…”

  “She has a name? Whatever, she isn’t friendly,” Eliam said.

  She glared at him but continued behind him all the same. Soon, they reached the exit of the dungeon and the rather fancy cathedral hall.

  Nemina gasped as she took in the sight of it, a saddened look coming over her face.

  “Were you here when it wasn’t so lifeless?” Eliam asked.

  She nodded. “Yes, of course… It’s a far cry from what it used to be.”

  “What was it like?”

  She glanced at him. “How am I supposed to answer that? It was full, I guess… People everywhere, moving around, tending to their duties.”

  “What happened?” Eliam asked.

  She froze. “Quarlak… he had grown stronger. Strong enough to nearly break the barrier sealing him from our world.”

  “He must be a real menace, huh?” Eliam said.

  Nemina gave him her classic glare. “That’s the understatement of the century. Just his influence darkens our very world, let alone his presence… Without the heroes of the old… everyone would probably be enslaved.”

  Eliam started the walk up to the main part of the cathedral, and Nemina followed. He wasn’t sure why he was in this world, but he had a feeling it had to do with Quarlak and these heroes.

  Once they entered back into the main cathedral, Nemina smiled. “Now this still looks the same.”

  “It's beautiful,” Eliam added.

  “Yeah,” Nemina whispered.

  They took in the sight for a moment before heading out. Eliam considered grabbing the armor, but somehow, he figured that Nemina would not like the idea of him stealing from the hero.

  They walked out of the cathedral and eventually back into the cross-sections where Eliam always spawned in. He glanced at the entrance to the temple, where that creepy nun was.

  Nemina walked ahead, seemingly carefree. “I don’t know what your deal is with Sara, but she’s not some monster.”

  Eliam wanted to warn her, but he knew that she wouldn’t listen. She would just have to see Sara for himself. Hell, maybe that whispering freak was actually who she was.

  Upon entering and watching Nemina’s face fall, he knew that it wasn’t. He couldn’t help but feel bad, noticing the tears shining in the corner of Nemina’s eyes.

  “That’s not Sara,” she whispered.

  Moments later, Sara noticed them and started inching closer. Eliam immediately clasped his hands to his ears and backed up. Nemina did the same, although she was confused as to why.

  A few seconds later, that same horrible scream rang out. It still hurt like hell, but at least it didn’t destroy his hearing. They both walked back up the stairs until they finally reached back to the entrance.

  Nemina was shaking her head, rubbing her hands at her eyes, trying to hide the fact that she was near crying. “I don’t know what could have happened. She was fine when I left.”

  “Probably has something to do with Quarlak,” Eliam said.

  “Not probably,” Nemina growled. “Definitely… we need to go back down there and figure out what happened.”

  “What was your relationship like with this Sara person?” Eliam asked.

  Nemina rolled her eyes. “That’s none of your concern. Just know that she was once close to me.”

  “Hold on,” Eliam stopped her from charging down by gently grabbing her shoulder. “No need to be reckless. We need something to protect our ears otherwise, they’re gonna be blown out.”

  She glared at him, but Eliam could tell she agreed by the way she paused. “I guess so… what do you suggest doing?”

  “Nothing fancy, we’ll just stuff some cloth in both ears.” Eliam ripped a part of his shirt off and did as he suggested.

  “How barbaric,” she muttered as she did the same.

  With that covered, they moved back down. This was mostly going to be a fight between Nemina and the nun since Eliam didn’t really have a weapon to use. Only the assassin had a suitable weapon for him, and with that gone, he was forced to use his fists. It felt just like the old times.

  Once they were back down, Nemina readied herself for the battle with Sara. A few seconds later, Sara started shrieking at them again. The noise was still painful but largely ineffective.

  Nemina rushed Sara and hesitated to swing her sword. This would prove to be a mistake, as Sara shrieked again and whipped her hand toward Nemina.

  By whip, Eliam meant an actual whip. Her arm bent like a rubber, which was definitely not supposed to be possible. Nemina tried to block, but Sara’s arm bent around the sword and gashed her chest.

  Nemina jumped back in pain, clutching at her chest. “How could this happen,” shte muttered.

  “Are you going to be alright?” Eliam asked.

  “Yes!” Nemina said as he rushed back in. This time, she was ready.

  She dodged another whip, and this time, sliced the katana through Sara’s arm, cutting it cleanly off. She looked distraught about it, but Elaim wasn’t. Instead, he was perturbed. Losing an entire arm didn’t lower Sara’s health bar at all.

  Sara hissed at the damage only to pick up the arm and place it back on. Somehow, it glued itself back to her body.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Nemina paled as she readied the katana, her confidence diminishing. Sara whipped an arm at forcing Nemina to dodge. However, when she did, she whipped her other arm, pinching her in between.

  Eliam was about to panic; however, he could only sigh in relief when he saw what Nemina did. She had used the blink skill to teleport past the arms and stab Sara in the chest. Again, the health bar did not go down at all.

  Instead, Sara screeched and pushed Nemina away. That wasn’t before she swung again, missing wildly. Instead, she grazed across the sad-faced mask, slightly slicing. For the first time during this fight, Sara’s health bar showed and visibly lowered.

  “What? How did I do that?” Nemina hissed.

  “It’s the mask!” Eliam cried. “It’s the mask that is controlling her!”

  Sara gasped as she ducked under another whip-like swing. She sheathed the katana and rapidly sent a beam of magic toward Sara’s face.

  Sara let out a shriek, except this one was more powerful than ever before. It dissipated the magic and even blew Nemina off her feet. That was not good.

  Eliam didn’t hesitate to sprint forward. Right before Nemina was going to be stabbed in the throat, he parried Sara’s arm. He then pushed forward, dodging every strike that came his way.

  If this were the same person that had first come to this world, then he would have never been able to do this. Eliam was positive that his high dexterity had something to do with the ease at which he was avoiding attacks.

  Finally, he went up closer to Sara and gripped the mask tightly. He tried to yank it off, but it wouldn’t budge. Left with no choice, he slammed his fist into it.

  Sara shrieked as it cracked heavily. Her health bar dropped to only around ten percent of its full value.

  Eliam was about to raise his fists to finish the job, but another hand gripped his arm.

  “Wait! What if she is still in there?” Nemina asked.

  “We don’t know that! What matters now is that if you don’t let go in a few seconds, we’re both going to die!” he growled.

  She looked away and nodded, letting go of his arm. He hesitated and then slammed it into Sara’s mask, fully destroying it.

  A loud shriek blew him off her, and he rolled a good distance away. A green aura started to radiate off her as she looked up. What Eliam saw wasn’t a face, but a moving sludge of skin. He wanted to look away, but doing so could cost him his life.

  He heard a yelp of panic from his side and saw Nemina drop to the floor in horror. She was twitching, tears rolling down her face. Something told Eliam that she wouldn’t be fighting anytime soon.

  He swooped by her and gently took the sword from her grasp. For once, she didn’t try to argue but let him take it.

  “Get back,” he muttered.

  Eliam then rushed forward, sword in hand. He had a feeling the difficulty of this battle was going to ramp up real soon.

  Sara shrieked as she sent her arms flying toward him. They both shot toward him, extending out from her body. At the ends of them were no longer hands but jagged blades.

  Eliam parried one of them and sliced off the other. Thankfully, he managed to cut it all the way through.

  He kicked the throbbing piece of gelatineous flesh away and pushed forward. Moments later, both arms returned. He tried to dodge them, but they easily followed him around. This forced him to stop running straight but to the side.

  A shriek sounded out, nearly causing him to hesitate and lose his life. As the arms neared, he made bold risk and slid under them. As soon as he passed, spikes stabbed through the ground from the arm. If he had been any slower, they would probably be in his head.

  He started making a charge toward Sara again. However, as he continued to get closer, the battle got harder.

  A multitude of thin long spikes burst out of the sides of the extended arms, forcing Eliam to play a kind of dodging game. When he couldn’t dodge, he had to slice it off. If he didn’t manage to do either, then he hoped his aura would be enough to compensate.

  Finally, Eliam got into close enough range to aim the Frostbite attack, and he sheathed the katana. Sara did not like this, and she started to straight up launch projectiles at him. Unluckily for her, what she was firing was not strong enough to break past his aura.

  Seconds later, he swung out widely, launching a beam of ice energy toward her. With no real way to define this, she tried blocking with her arms. It froze them stiff, and they shattered off.

  Sara fell to the ground, convulsing in a mess of flesh and something else. Eliam walked up to her and raised the sword. He made sure to glance at Nemina first, getting her approval. She hesitated at the sight of Sara and then nodded.

  Eliam sliced downward, splitting Sara into two. A +400 appeared in the corner of his screen, and he gaped at the number. How was that fair?

  He didn’t focus on it for long as he was more worried about Nimena’s reaction to Sara’s death. She refused to tell him who Sara was, but she must have been important to her.

  Nimena clenched her fists but ultimately got back up. She walked over to Eliam and held out her hands expectantly.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Don’t what me! The sword! Give it to me!” she hissed.

  He sighed as he did as she asked. Honestly, he wanted to hold on to it, but he knew Nemina would never allow it.

  She yanked it from his outstretched hands and groaned. She seemed to be trying to hide her grief with annoyance.

  “This place was once a temple for the god Sagmin worshipped, Apredilio,” Nemina muttered.

  “A god, huh. What happened… to this place… to everything?” Eliam asked.

  Nimena looked away. “I don’t know… I was told to watch the sword, and that is it. I did not question.”

  “And look where that got you,” Eliam groaned.

  She glared at him, as she usually did. “How dare you! You have no clue what it was like!”

  Eliam softened his eyes. “Yeah… you’re right. I am sorry.”

  She gaped at him for a moment, surprised at the apology. “Yeah… you’d better be. Now, I want to know what has happened with the world just as much as you do.”

  A thought crossed Eliam’s mind, one he couldn’t hold back from asking. “How long were you in there?”

  “I don’t know,” she said silently. “Probably decades.”

  Eliam gasped. “Decades? But how do you look so young?” he asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “Were you born yesterday? It’s common knowledge that putting stats into life allows one to live for longer.”

  “It does?” he asked.

  “Yes!”

  A plethora of questions rushed into Eliam’s head, ones that he had forgotten he even had.

  “Where are we?” he asked.

  Nimena paused. “The Sagmin Cathedral and now the Temple of Apredilio”

  “No, I mean the country. Where are we?”

  Nimean looked at him as if he were crazy. “The country?” She shook her head. “You of all people should know that there is no country. Those ended long ago. All that’s left is the city of Denovere.”

  “A single city? That’s it?” Eliam asked.

  “Well, yes, and you should have come from there. It’s unsafe for humans to live elsewhere. Although, now that I think about it, you’re a little odd,” Nemina said.

  “What happened?” Eliam said.

  “What do you think? When Quarlak’s seal weakened, his influence grew. The fiends started to reappear, and they toppled whatever structure society had.”

  “How long was he sealed away for? Since Sagmin?” Eliam asked.

  “Uh, a few centuries, I presume.” She looked away. “Sagmin was there when the bonds weakened. He was the one who actually felt it, but he was much too old to do anything at that point. It was when he passed that it happened.”

  “What happened?” Eliam asked.

  “I already told you, I don’t know!” Nemina snapped. “And why do you know so little? It’s suspicious!”

  “I…” Eliam paused. He couldn’t exactly say that he came from another world in his dreams.

  “Spit it out! I’m starting to think you’re a Quarlak spy,” Nimena scoffed.

  “I’m not!” Eliam waved his hands. “I just can’t say.”

  She glared at him but ultimately huffed. “Whatever. If you were a spy, you’d be a pretty bad one, considering you left me live and haven’t destroyed the sword.”

  “Exactly…” Eliam still had many questions, but he decided to leave them for later. The last thing he needed was for Nemina to actually start to believe he was a spy of some sort.

  She rolled her eyes and hastily started moving further into the temple. “Whatever, let’s just get out of here. It’s this way to the exit.”

  “Wait… do you know your way through this place?” Eliam asked.

  Nemina scoffed. “Of course I do.”

  Eliam followed Nemina through a door that led further into the temple. Unfortunately, it would not be as simple as just walking through.

  Moans of the undead sounded as people who were seemingly rotting away walked out from various rooms.

  Nemina narrowed her eyes as she didn’t hesitate to slay each one. Eliam winced at the lost essence, but he figured he could always come back in another loop.

  They continued their journey through the temple, following Nemina as she took various twists and turns. Without her, this would have taken him a long time to get around. Things seemed to be going smoothly until they reached a mess of bricks that was blocking the path further down.

  “This… was the only way out,” Nemina stammered.

  “The only way out? What kind of design is that?” Eliam groaned.

  “I don’t know! I didn’t think that something like this could have happened!” Nemina said.

  “Well, there has to be another way out. Maybe whatever caused this also put a hole through one of the walls or something.” Eliam suggested.

  “It’s possible, but this place is pretty big. It could take a while to find anything,” Nemina said.

  “Then let's get to it.”

  As they walked, the zombies almost seemed to be getting larger in number. Eliam’s wish of getting essence was granted when they started swarming them from all sides. Unfortunately, the zombies were more abundant than strong, so they gave very little reward. Each kill netted him 300 essence.

  On the topic of essence, he had not been leveling up recently. Every time he died, his progress went back to zero for that level. If that weren’t bad enough, the amount of essence he needed from then on was much greater than before.

  Together, they pushed through the zombies, with Nemina doing the brunt of the killing. That didn’t mean that Eliam’s fists weren’t still deadly.

  As they continued, Eliam felt as if this temple was somewhat easier than the cathedral dungeon. That, combined with the enemies giving him less essence, made him feel as if this temple was supposed to be a precursor to that dungeon.

  Finally, they came across an entrance to a tunnel that did not fit the typical design of the temple.

  “This was not here before… it goes down,” Nemina said.

  Eliam shrugged. “I think we found our exit.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “What other choice do we have?” Eliam pointed out.

  She looked as if she wanted to say something but didn’t.

  They went down the tunnel until they arrived in a dimly lit cave. They walked for a bit until coming across a wall with an obvious crack in it. Nemina slashed it once, and it crumbled.

  They walked into a much larger cave that was well-lit. There were dozens of these creatures hopping around. The best Eliam could describe them were as small demons.

  The hopping stopped as soon as they noticed the both of them, and a storm of anger chitters sounded.

  Suddenly, they stormed them. Nemina swung a magic beam at them and took out most of them. The rest were left to Eliam, who easily squashed them with one punch each.

  “What the hell?” Eliam muttered.

  “Nemmites,” Nemina said. “Be careful, it means there’s a nemasus around here.”

  “A what? The hell is that?” Eliam asked.

  “A fiend.”

  “I see,” he said.

  They had two directions in which they could have gone. Ultimately, they decided to go left.

  “So, do you know where we are?” Eliam asked.

  “No, I’ve never heard or seen of a place connecting to the temple before,” she said.

  “Where should the temple have connected?”

  “Somewhere around the Glacidious mountains, but certainly not a cave,” Nemina said.

  A rush of footsteps filled the air, and Nemina immediately readied herself. Eliam clenched his fists. They were both ready for battle.

  “I can’t believe how great this new new amulet is!” a feminine voice sounded in the distance.

  A chuckle and then a response. “It was hidden well. Just make sure to switch it out before we get to the nemasus.”

  Moments later, they came into view, and everyone stopped dead in their tracks.

  Nemina had her hands on the katana while Eliam was tense, ready to charge.

  “Uh… Adrian, have you ever seen these people before?” a purple-haired woman asked.

  “No, uh, this… this has to be a result of something someone else did,” he asked.

  The man turned to them and gave them a tight smile. “Hello, my name is Adrian Beaudmont. I’m one of those heroes you’ve probably heard about.”