The blood drained from her face as she forced herself to crack a smile. I glared at her—I wasn’t so petty as to kill someone simply for pestering me.
“You wished to know my name,” I said. “I’m Lofus Ray Lightless, the eldest son and heir of House Lightless. I’m currently trying to decide how to take care of the rats who managed to sneak into this place.”
As I told her what was on my mind, she gulped nervously.
“B-But... You said that you’d return to my friends earlier...” she pleaded meekly.
“Yes, that was my intention,” I answered. “But as a member of House Lightless, I cannot have information of this ruin leaked to outsiders.”
“I won’t say a word,” Lilka said nervously. “Honest. I won’t tell a single soul. I’ll tell the other members to keep quiet too—I can promise you that.”
“Indeed, I know that you aren’t lying. However, there are no guarantees that everyone else will keep their word.”
Fear riddled her face. Reflected in her terrified eyes, I saw my cold, cruel self—Elite Four member, Shadow Wolf Lofus of the second act in the tale, who tried to topple the entire kingdom.
“C-C’mon, I’ll do anything,” Lilka said, her voice trembling. “All right, you can kill me, but at the very least...I’d love for you to save my friends. Please?”
She didn’t beg for her life, instead asking for her friends’ lives to be spared.
“Kill her,” a voice echoed in my mind. “Lilka Skyfield must die.”
Yeah... I think she’s better off dead. Shadow Wolf Lofus would’ve killed her without a second thought. But...she saved me earlier. It pisses me off to no end to think that I’m indebted to a lowly wench like her, but a debt is a debt.
I let out a small sigh and lowered my scythe, undoing my spell that restrained her. Freed at last, Lilka fell to the floor as I turned my back on her, my coat fluttering along.
“Follow me,” I grumbled.
“Y-You’ll help me?” Lilka asked gingerly.
I didn’t turn back. “You won’t mention this place to others, will you? I’ll trust your words...for now. But the moment you dare utter a single word about this area...”
“I won’t! I swear it!”
She hastily chased after me. This tumulus was underground and no light shone through; it was impossible for a shadow to form, and yet, I thought I saw a dark one stretch out from beneath my feet, staring and judging me like it had something to say. I stepped over this shadow and proceeded along—I knew that this shadow wasn’t around, but I thought my foot dispersed it as I chose to forge my own path. The face of cold, cruel, callousness that was reflected in Lilka’s eyes moments before flashed across my mind—the face of Shadow Wolf Lofus.
That was the face of a loser, someone who was defeated by the main character and his forces to meet a pathetic, grisly end. I refused to follow his path; I’d use whatever I had at my disposal to cling onto my life.
I refuse to become part of the Elite Four. I refuse to die.
✶✶✶
On the first floor of the founder’s tumulus were the other members of the Scarlet Wind, all fighting for their lives against countless dark monsters. Sigil, the warrior and leader of the Scarlet Wind with tall, spiky hair and a red jacket, heard the loud clang as he defended himself from the threatening fangs of a twin-headed tiger.
“Dammit!” he spat. “This thing’s alive again?!”
The tiger had been killed twice already, but every time, it healed its wounds within minutes until it was as good as new, ready to fight once more. The tiger wasn’t the only one who seemed immoral either; every shadow monster within this gravesite had been killed numerous times, only to pop back up unscathed.
Undead monsters were known to be immortal, and the Scarlet Wind had plenty of experience with them as they’d braved many perilous dungeons and ruins. A man in round sunglasses and a buzzcut—Hawk—fired his sorcery gun.
“Oi, we’re screwed here!” Hawk shouted. “The holy water ain’t working either!”
A veteran treasure hunter, Hawk always had holy water and other anti-undead items on hand for whenever the need might arise. But though he splashed holy water time and again on these shadow monsters, it was all in vain. Any undead monster would at least take some damage from coming into contact with holy water, so the total lack of effect quickly made it clear that they were up against something entirely different.
Hawk, now out of bullets, grabbed his shortsword and turned to his leader, Sigil.
“What now?!” Hawk shouted. “Strategic retreat?”
“Like hell!” Sigil shouted back angrily. “Hawk, you damn bastard! Are you gonna abandon Lilka?!”
“Naw, I never said that,” Hawk replied, calm as ever. “But we’ve been fighting nonstop ever since we set foot in this place. At this rate, we’ll all get wiped out.”
He turned to the other two members—Kay, who swung his spear around as his long, gold locks flowed behind him, and Dan, a large, bald man who crushed these creatures with his war hammer. The two stood with their backs against Sigil and Hawk, fighting on the opposite side to take care of the monsters that attacked them. Their bodies were covered with fresh wounds from this endless battle, and their breathing was haggard and heavy from exhaustion. They’d been in nonstop combat for a while, and their concentration could break at any moment as fatigue slowly set in.
Sigil clicked his tongue. “Dammit! And we just found that damn staircase...”
A staircase that led to the floor below stood in front of Sigil and Hawk; it wasn’t difficult to assume that Lilka had been transported due to a teleporting trap, waiting for them to rescue her somewhere in the lower floors.
“When it comes to sneaking around, Lilka’s one of the best in our team,” Hawk said, reading Sigil’s mind. “She ain’t the type to screw up and get caught straightaway.”
Sigil fell silent. He understood that, at this rate, it really was only a matter of time before they all met their end. And if everyone died here, they wouldn’t be able to save Lilka. That was the worst outcome at every angle.
He reluctantly nodded.
“Gh... Fine!” Sigil shouted. “Hawk, got any flash crystals?!”
Flash crystals were a type of magical item that emitted a blinding flash of the light element when crushed.
“Only got a few left,” Hawk replied.
“All right,” Sigil said. “Kay! Dan! Strategic retreat! We’ll regroup before we go back to save Lilka!”
Kay, who was swinging his spear around, angrily turned to his leader. “What?! The hell are you on about, Sigil?! Lilka’s all alone and— Gah?!”
Dan silently carried Kay on his shoulders.
“What the?!” Kay shouted. “Dan?! Let go! Damn it!”
“Listen to your leader’s orders,” Dan said.
“Up yours! I can still fight! Let go of me!”
Kay writhed around, but Dan used his strength to keep the man locked in place while running ahead.
“Cover your eyes, guys,” Hawk warned.
He threw the flash crystal at the horde of dark creatures. The crystal shattered, and a blinding flash of light filled the corridor. This wasn’t the first time they had used this item in this ruin; just like before, for some inexplicable reason, the dark creatures faltered and froze as their bodies blurred and jolted like a broken TV screen whenever they were assaulted by light. Why were these creatures weak to light anyway? The Scarlet Wind couldn’t have known, and Hawk ran ahead as he tried to piece things together. Were they undead, or monsters of the dark element? Sigil ran alongside him, glancing at the monsters with suspicion.
“They can’t move...” Sigil muttered. “Are they weak to light, then?”
“That flash did more’n just make ’em dizzy...” Hawk added.
A fuzzy static of sorts ran through the black monsters’ bodies, like they were struggling to maintain their shape and form in the presence of bright light. Hawk certainly wasn’t one to miss that.
“Once we’re back at the ship, let’s bring out as many flash crystals as we can,” he said. “Doesn’t matter how immortal these monsters are—if they can’t move, we’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Good plan. Hang in there, Lilka!” Sigil muttered.
With renewed resolve, the Scarlet Wind headed for the exit, throwing flash crystals along the way. But right before the exit, Sigil and Hawk stopped without uttering a word of warning, their eyes growing wide. Dan even dropped Kay onto the floor.
“Ouch!” Kay yelped. “Dan! Hey, what the—”
He gazed up at Dan and angrily shouted, but he cut himself off as his gaze traveled upward, higher than Dan.
“Huh?” Kay gasped pathetically.
A giant, coiled snake completely blocked the exit as it slowly raised its many heads. The void hydra pointed its numerous pairs of eyes at the Scarlet Wind, along with the countless eyeballs that dotted its entire body. A hydra was a powerful foe, one known to be the boss of the most dangerous ruins or dungeon floors as it protected priceless treasure. It was of a completely different breed from the other monsters prowling about.