"Amoria," Father knelt, pressing a hand to my shoulder as he always had.
"I wish to give you the world. I love you more than anything. You know that, right?"
"...Of course, Daddy!" I said cheerfully, hugging his waist. I thought he was only saying what he always did.
But this time, he gently pushed me back and looked me in the eyes.
"Amoria," he said again, firmer now.
"Daddy..?"
A pause.
"... I cannot give you the world." He said.
Another moment of silence, where he just looked into my eyes.
"I know," I replied brightly. "I'm not a boy."
He swallowed.
"But I don't care, as long as I'm with you!" I said.
His expression darkened as he looked away for a moment.
Why was Daddy saying something I already knew?
Silence lingered.
"There is something Daddy needs you to do," he said quietly. "You won't like it. It eats at my heart…. But you won't like it." He sighed, looking down again as he slowly shook his head while squinting his eyes.
I tilted my head.
"Why do you look so sad, Daddy?" I asked, reaching up to touch his cheek.
He took one deep breath, looking into my eyes again.
"You must—"
CLASH
Prince Magus blinked awake, staring at the back of Sir Hicks as he lay beaten on the dungeon floor.
'I… Lost my consciousness.'
Everything hurt. His arms—no. He didn't have those anymore.
Just stumps wrapped in bloodied cloth, throbbing with infection. His royal garments were shredded, crusted with filth and dried fluids he didn't want to name.
His skin burned with fever. The world swam.
CLANG
Sparks erupted in the darkness ahead.
Hicks stood between him and two towering figures—knights encased in black iron, each holding greatswords that gleamed with pale blue light. Their armor was ancient. Wrong. The metal seemed to breathe.
'The Abyss… Yeah. That fucking bitch threw us in here.,' Magus thought dimly, 'He's fighting monsters from the Abyss. It looks like he's… That FUCKING traitor is barely holding on, though. Hicks is going to die. And… So will… I…'
CLASH
Hicks parried a downward strike with his left blade, the impact sending shockwaves through the stone floor. His right sword lashed out.
Aura condensed along the edge, a thin white glow, and caught the second knight's wrist joint.
The blade skittered off. Barely a scratch.
'Too strong,' Hicks thought, already pivoting. 'Their armor absorbs mana-based attacks. Physical force alone won't do much damage!'
The first knight's gauntlet caught him in the ribs.
"GHHK!"
Hicks flew backward, rolling, one sword clattering away. He caught himself on a knee, blood dripping from his mouth.
'Three ribs. Maybe four... Punctured something.'
He rose anyway.
The knights advanced in perfect synchronization. No wasted movement. No hesitation.
'Reinforcement to the legs. Draw mana from the core, push it down—'
"HRRMM!!"
'Even if…' Magus thought weakly, the words barely forming in his delirious head. 'Even if, by some dumb luck, he kills them, we can't leave. Hicks, in his sorry state… Would have to complete the whole dungeon for these doors to open. And who knows just how many levels it has..!'
His vision swam.
'We're dead. Both of us.'
A breath rattled out of him, hot and wrong.
'Why… why would he throw his life away for me…?'
His fingers twitched uselessly against the stone.
'Idiot…'
He chuckled weakly.
'Even if this dungeon were destroyed this very moment… I'd have him executed for treason the moment he brought me back. I would. You.. Fucking deserve it..!!'
The resolve wavered, frayed at the edges.
'So why…?!'
He thought, his vision gradually fading to black.
'Fuck… everything… hurts…'
'It hurts so bad.'
'Daddy…'
Hicks burst forward, faster than before, his remaining blade singing through the air. He ducked under the first greatsword, let the second whistle past his ear, and drove his sword into the gap between helmet and gorget.
SKREEE
The blade stuck in the space between the armor. But the knights had no joints or flesh.
'What..!?' Hicks' eyes widened, 'Living armors!? This… This strong!?'
The knight's hand closed around Hicks's throat.
'Shit!'
He released the sword, twisted, drove his knee into the knight's elbow with everything he had. Aura concentrated at the point of impact.
CRACK
The knight's grip loosened. Hicks dropped, rolled, grabbed his fallen blade.
'One sword. Two enemies. No openings...'
He glanced back.
Magus lay in a heap, barely breathing. Pale as corpse-flesh. Shivering despite the fever-sweat. The stumps of his arms wept something that wasn't quite blood anymore, it was yellowish, wrong.
'Three hours. Maybe less… They didn't even bother to change his clothes when they tortured him all this time. If the infection reaches the heart—'
WHOOOM
The first knight's greatsword carved a trench in the stone where Hicks had been standing.
He backflipped, landed, felt his broken ribs grind against each other.
'Focus...'
The knights pressed forward.
Hicks raised his blade in a two-handed grip, aura flickering along the steel. His arms trembled. His vision blurred at the edges.
'My mana should be at its limit… One more mana surge.'
The knights split. One left, one right; flanking Hicks. They'd learned.
'Clever,'
Hicks waited. Watched their footwork. The left one was half a step ahead. Eager. The right one hung back—the finisher.
'There.'
The left knight lunged.
Hicks didn't parry. He stepped into the strike, letting the greatsword pass over his shoulder, close enough to shear hair from his scalp. His blade came up—all his remaining mana compressed into the edge—and he drove it into the knight's visor slit.
CLANK.
The knight staggered as the metal dented.
'NOW—'
The right knight's blade punched through Hicks's gut from behind.
"...Ah."
He looked down. Big pale-blue steel protruding from his stomach. Blood, dark and thick, running down his legs.
'Miscalculated. The right one was faster than I was..!'
He then tried pulling the blade out of Hicks.
"GAAHHH—!"
Hicks grabbed the sword with his bare hands, stopping it from pulling out, and turned; wrenching his own body around the blade to face the knight behind him.
Their visors were inches apart.
"Not... yet..."
He headbutted the knight.
CLANG
The knight stumbled back, releasing the sword. Hicks fell to his knees, the blade still through him, blood pooling beneath.
'Get up.'
His legs wouldn't move.
'GET UP.'
He planted one hand on the stone. Pushed. Rose an inch. Fell.
The left knight was recovering. The right knight was already raising its greatsword for the finishing blow.
'Your Highness...'
He turned his head.
Magus was watching. Eyes barely open. Fever-glazed. But watching.
'I'm sorry. I couldn't—'
CREAAAAAAAAAAAK~….
A sound echoed throughout the chamber.
The sound of great stone doors being opened, right behind the knights.
The massive doors at the far end of the chamber; the entrance to the Second Circle was opening.
The knights froze.
Hicks froze.
Even dying, even with a sword through his gut, he felt it:
Something was coming.
The door swung inward, ancient hinges screaming, and darkness poured out like smoke.
Clank.
A footstep.
'Impossible…!' Hicks thought. 'Another… Living armor..!?'
Clank.
Another.
A figure emerged from the black. Armored, like the knights, but different. Leaner. The metal was ancient, but clean and seamless.
Both of the living armors turned to the figure as he slowly stepped forward.
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
The figure stepped into the weak manalight emanated by the Living Armors' weapons.
And then—
Magus's vision went white.
Then black.
Then nothing at all.
'Hmm,' Van thought as his eyes swept the scene through the visor. Landing on the near-dead boy in what seemed like filthy royal clothes, and a guard with a sword stuck in his gut.
'I remember this clothing. The Royal Capital.' His fist clenched uncontrollably. 'They must've entered the dungeon from the opposite end, considering this is the First Circle. Am I still in the kingdom? And…'
'... Do I start my revenge with them…? It IS a problem if they find out I'm alive…' His eye twitched slightly as he saw the state of the mutilated royal boy.
His thoughts paused as he looked at his form.
'...That didn't seem to happen to him just now.' His fist unclenched.
The two Abyssal Guardians turned fully now, greatswords raised. Their attention had shifted entirely—the dying man and the fevered prince forgotten, so it seemed.
'....' Van looked at the two.
'They must be the bosses of this Circle...'
He took a deep breath.
'Alright.'
Clank.
One step closer.
'I'll decide what to do after dealing with them.'
The left Guardian lunged first—greatsword sweeping in a horizontal arc.
'They're… attacking him!?' Hicks thought.
Van raised one gauntleted hand.
CLANG
He caught the blade.
'Weak.'
The Guardian tried to pull back. The sword didn't move.
'I'm not even feeling the slightest itch for you.'
His grip tightened.
CRACK
The greatsword shattered.
Fragments of pale blue steel scattered across the stone like broken ice.
Hicks's eyes widened again in disbelief, his bloodied mouth partly open.
'WHAT…!? W—… With his bare hand?!'
The Guardian stumbled back.
Van moved.
His fist drove through the Guardian's chestplate. The metal screamed, buckled, caved inward.
It collapsed.
'This… Is… Am I delirious…? Is this really happening?! A Living Armor from the Abyss… Just collapsed from a single punch!' Hicks narrowed his eyes, forcing his head upright.
The second Guardian hesitated.
Van turned to face it. Slow. Patient.
Clank.
Clank.
The Guardian raised its greatsword in a defensive stance.
Van tilted his head slightly.
'It's scared…!' Hicks thought, his eyes fixed on the scene before him, 'A living armor… Is SCARED..!?'
Van walked forward.
The Guardian swung—a vertical strike, all its weight behind it.
Van sidestepped. Minimal movement. Just enough.
His hand shot out, gripped the Guardian's helmet, and gripped it.
CRRRRNCH
The helmet collapsed under his grip.
The body clattered to the ground in pieces.
Silence followed.
Van stood motionless amid the wreckage.
He turned.
Looked at the guard.
Looked at the prince.
'...'
Hicks shivered, unsure whether to speak or beg. Van began to approach. Slowly. Hicks tried to step back, but his legs failed him, strength already gone. He twitched instead, helpless.
Van stopped before him.
'...'
"S…" Hicks croaked. "Kill me if you must, whoever you are…"
His breath hitched.
"But,"
He turned his head with effort toward the unconscious prince.
"S-save him." he whispered. "Please—"
The door leading out of the Abyssal Dungeon creaked open.
Sunlight spilled across the cobblestone.
'I considered the option. But now I see,' Van thought as the light greeted his visor.
'That guard and the prince… weren't monsters I needed to kill.'
Hicks froze.
'The door… opening?'
His throat worked.
'Impossible…'
His gaze shook as it climbed Van's armor, now bathed in sunlight.
'This person…'
'That means he actually… beat the Abyssal Dungeon?'
Hicks felt cold.
'Just what kind of god… are we facing right now!?'
"Hold still," Van said.
The words snapped Hicks out of it.
Van's hand settled on his shoulder. Firm. Unyielding. He stepped around behind him.
"H… huh…?" Hicks stammered as something shifted deep in his gut.
Van's other hand closed around the hilt of the greatsword protruding from Hicks' back.
"N-NO DON'T PULL IT OUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!"
Van pulled.
The blade came free in one smooth motion.
Blood burst forward. Something wet and pale followed.
"Fuck!" Van spat.
Van stared for a moment.
'…I thought only the sword would come out.'
He exhaled, opened his Inventory, and retrieved a Super Life Elixir and opened it.
'I guess now I know.'