Ank

After the Lost Age Civilization “village”, there was more jungle; the buildings slowly became more sparse, rarer, the road used less and less stone, and, soon, not even a signal of a lost settlement existed around us.

However, something else changed, and not much different from the encounter with the 3rd layer king, I could feel it as some kind of pressure in the air: aura.

It wasn’t as impeccable as the one Taffy exhaled; her power passing more a sense of sacredness, tranquility, of a paradise on earth that should not be disturbed; but it wasn’t threatening, full of hate and enmity, like the one the [Thunder Idolater] threw against my sister and I. This new aura was simply authoritarian, lawful, it pushed monsters away, and that was it. And it grew stronger and stronger as my twin sister and I walked forward, until:

“We’re here”, I said, almost in disbelief, staring at a dirty path outside the damp, dark, hot, and dangerous jungle. I didn’t dare to step forward, before holding Hunah’s hand.

The road extended from one horizon to another, separating almost perfectly an untamed jungle in one side, from an extensive grass field that ended only by the roots of a couple of mountains way farther ahead.

“We are, but… Where do we go now?”, Hunah asked, pointing to the lack of anything signaling the direction of the nearest settlement.

“Well, maybe we should go towards where the aura is the strongest? Whatever is making it, must have chosen the closest place possible to people, for offerings and shit”, I suggested, shrugging.

Left or right, the road must have connected settlements anyway, so, without thinking too much about it, we started to walk. And I started to remember everything we went through in these past… time (who knew how long?): we had just fought the 3rd layer king of the “rumors” and his underlings, and had to collapse half a tower over the guy to actually finish him; the 2nd layer king… again, was it the giant beast at the lat floor, or the [Dungeon] itself? In any case, we really struggled there, but it was also where I finally became able to be honest about my feelings towards Hunah, and both of us made a new friend in Incute; and, in the immediate surroundings of Taffy’s house, lived that heard of carnivore insects, and the 1st layer king, which we exterminated with no less effort than any other battle.

“Hey, look: a house”, Hunah pointed to an evidently old and falling apart wooden house that became visible after we passed a boulder. “Well, something that once was a house, at least.”

As we approached the abandoned building (which, differently from entire settlements, weren’t that uncommon to find; constructed by exiled criminals and hermits here and there), I felt the aura reaching what seemed to be an apex.

“That reminds me: what had Taffy told us that made this road aura again?”, I asked, as both of us passed right at the front of the decomposing wooden building. Its entire front half was missing, and the only things inside of it were a table, and a small sculptured figure seating on top of it.

It was a rhetorical question; neither I nor my sister would, no, could forget anything related to them.

“[Summon: Megatherium, make boss]”, I immediately called forth my strongest summon, and enhanced its power.

And the monster knew exactly what was my target, screaming as it hit with all of its strength the tinny wooden humanoid seating at the top of the table: as the small figure opened its eyes, and widened them in surprise and disbelief, its light body hurled away along with hundreds of wooden splinters from the annihilated table, my sister showed up just behind it, and bashed the thing down with her flail, putting all the might she possessed in the strike, and empowering it with sheer hate; the impact nailed the wooden-man on the ground, and caved in a sizable crater.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!”, the tinny wooden man screamed, pushing dirt and my twin sister away with its sheer strength, exploding its earthy prison with only the strength of its small arms. Over its head, appeared:

[Species: God, Type: Zemi, Level: 102]