"We must discipline a druid who dares to harm his ancestors as soon as possible!"
"You are right, if we act so soft he won't be able to learn the necessary lesson!"
"Yes, hit with all your might!"
Even though his deputy made some progress, at the dawn of the last day, Alator was trying to withstand the attacks of three old druids. If he wanted to get rid of the beating session, which should have gotten easier as the number decreased but became even harder, he needed to bring down the white-bearded man he set his eyes on.
The stone under his feet had gotten its first crack in the previous session, and with the help of the staffs about to land on his body shortly, this crack would grow millimeter by millimeter. The Elemental Ten Leader, taking the one he saw as weaker among the trio into the tornado he created, was using wind and water simultaneously to bypass his protective shield.
He had used this combination so much that if you added up his uses from the day he learned of his dual element affinity until today, it wouldn't equal half of these last six days. His attacks were getting sharper, the damage they dealt was increasing just like the old druids hitting him.
You could ask why he didn't try this method before, but since you already know the answer, this would be a bit silly. Firstly, to exceed your potential, your mind would put you in a difficult situation by creating obstacles, even if small, every day, and you would make progress by resisting this.
In Alator's case, if it weren't for the rock under his feet, his body wouldn't be able to withstand the beatings he took, he would pass out before enough stress accumulated. The difficulty level required for the sharp rise in his power increase was only thanks to the presence of the rock, which voluntarily shared the damage he took.
Secondly, even his share of the damage was enough to keep him from getting out of bed for weeks in a normal time, but thanks to the tree renewing his physical and mental health each time, he could fight without stopping.
Two factors had allowed him to surpass his limits in a short time, and judging by the state of the old druid falling to the ground, they would be able to help for a while longer. Alator went next to the tree without waiting a second, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to receive the help needed to heal.
Two rounds were left, he didn't know what the outcome would be, but a voice inside him was whispering to his soul that everything would end two rounds later.
"Why are you afraid of me? Did I do something bad to you?"
Even though the voice inside Alator whispered, what Siomha spoke was asking in a tone that those around her could comfortably hear. The druid warrior returned to her memories to look for an answer, scanned her mind, but couldn't find anything negative.
She was sure now, she was talking to the darkness inside her, but her previous feelings had flown away. The times she remembered its presence were only the times she used her abilities, and perhaps the results she observed had pushed her towards fear.
"You didn't do anything to me, but the things you made the dead you entered into do were very terrifying things."
Siomha, talking to the darkness hiding in the shadow of her hair from the small mirror, thought the answer she gave was perhaps a bit too much, and the voice she couldn't hear despite ten seconds passing meant she was right.
"What did I make them do outside of their own desires?"
When the voice speaking from her shadow was heard again, licking her ear, the Elemental Ten Deputy Leader, looking like a little girl, moved to run, but stopped before her right foot rose into the air. There was no reason for her to run away, she wasn't trapped inside blind darknesses like when she ran without looking back, and she could get a logical answer to every question she asked.
"Were all those things they did their own desires? Tearing apart their loved ones, eating them, is it normal for you?"
What Siomha witnessed while developing her ability was much more than what she told. Watching what the newly reanimated corpses did wasn't something just anyone could handle.
"I only ensure the darkness inside them appears one last time, and I return back to you. Everything that happens from that moment on is their own will, their own desires, and their own choices; they are under the responsibility of neither me nor you nor anyone else.
You couldn't have missed the behaviors of the person the orc warrior you call Blood God destroyed last. Did he try to tear a piece off her body to complete his spiritual deficiencies like the others? Did the orc warrior get scared and run away like you?
The answer to both questions is no, do you know why?"
The darkness had made its longest speech and chose to tie its end with a question again. It could have very comfortably said what it was going to say without doing this, but it was as if it wanted to show its respect for free will.
"I know, Nafız is someone who has managed to suppress the darkness inside her, and the darknesses of others are incapable of affecting her!"
"Suppressed, what a crude word. Really, if you think she dealt with your ability because the orc warrior suppressed the darkness inside her, you are very naive, to put it mildly.
If she had suppressed it like you say, she would have tried to cooperate with the bruised darkness inside the engineer, the exile of the Empire of Machines, but the orc warrior didn't hesitate at all to take a part of the darkness of the person she touched upon herself.
The right word is not to suppress, but to understand, even to become one. Can you imagine? If you become one with the darkness inside you, with the darkness powerful enough to reanimate the dead bodies of others for their last wishes, who can threaten you with their darkness?"
When the last and most crucial question came, Siomha took a deep breath, gathered her skirt, whose edges were adorned with flower-patterned lacework, and sat on the green grass. The sun was hitting the right side of her beautiful face, and her flushed cheek was as cute as a rose blooming on her white skin.
The wind was blowing strong enough to alleviate the effect of the hot weather, but weak enough not to make the young girl cold. Siomha lay on her back, clasped her hands behind her head, and didn't even bother to wipe the tears flowing from her eyes and falling to the ground without stopping by her cheeks.
"Siomha, none of what happened in the camp was your fault, none of it was your choice. As long as you were trapped in that dark barrack, neither you nor I are the culprits of what happened to you, and don't be afraid, the darkness inside you doesn't consist of such bad things."
The little girl's crying didn't cease, but the darkness also stopped speaking. The shadow cast by the setting sun stood up on its own and covered the little girl like a blanket. Inside the Druid Main Settlement, surrounded by a sparkling energy shield, a girl, a tiny girl, was being wrapped by the darkness, and judging by the smile on her face, she seemed perfectly content with her situation.
"Hey cowardly druid, open your eyes. How much longer are you going to lie in such a weird way?"
She was faced with a question again, but Siomha would jump to her feet as soon as she realized this wasn't voiced by the darkness. First she saw her eight subordinates before her, then Nafız, speaking while tossing her blood-red hair, entered her view, but no matter how much she looked, she wouldn't be able to find one person.
"You are the new leader of the Elemental Ten, Siomha. You have ten minutes to get ready, we need to hit the road!"
Alator was gone; Siomha looked at the faces of the other druids with hope but got no result other than seeing the same helpless expression again and again. They had to leave behind the former leader of the Elemental Ten, who couldn't succeed in the determined time to conquer the Reward Dungeon, and there was nothing they could do about it.
"Blood God Nafız, can't we wait a little longer?"
Still, Siomha wouldn't hesitate to try her luck. Only seven days had passed, they should be able to afford to waste a little more time.
"I forgot to tell you before; inside the Reward Dungeons, the concept of time works slightly differently from the outside world. When I said you had seven days, that was only valid for the inside of the dungeon; outside, a time of seven months has already passed!"