The Artificial Dimension - Sector 4.Simulation Sub-Level: The Abyssal Chasm (Hidden Caverns).Day 3 - 07:30 AM.
The oppressive, suffocating darkness of the subterranean cavern offered absolutely no visual indication that a new morning had arrived. In the simulated depths of the 4th Floor, time was an abstract, agonizing concept measured only by the heavy, rhythmic dripping of condensation and the persistent, dull ache of physical exhaustion.
It was officially Day 3 inside the anomaly.
Rudeus slowly, painfully forced his crimson eyes open. The dim, ethereal blue light of the bioluminescent moss clinging to the cave roof stung his retinas.
He didn't immediately jump to his feet. He lay perfectly still on the hard stone floor, meticulously running a comprehensive internal diagnostic on his battered body.
The violent, delirious fever that had threatened to incinerate his brain two nights ago had finally broken, thanks in large part to the relentless, desperate cooling compresses Veronica had applied. However, the aggressive illness had not entirely vacated his system. A deep, wet congestion rattled heavily in his chest with every breath, and a dull, persistent migraine throbbed directly behind his eyes. His muscles, pushed to the absolute brink during his execution of the Shadow Assassin and his brutalization of Aemond, felt as though they had been filled with liquid lead.
Slowly, gritting his teeth against the stiffness, Rudeus pushed himself up into a sitting position. He leaned his broad back against the cold, jagged cavern wall.
He raised his right hand, slowly curling his thick, calloused fingers inward until they formed a tight, white-knuckled fist. He tested the tension in his forearms and the stability of his core.
"Seems I can at least still defend myself if it comes down to a brawl, though..." Rudeus muttered, his voice a harsh, sandpaper rasp that echoed quietly in the small cave.
He let out a long, heavy, incredibly cynical sigh, dropping his fist back into his lap.
"It's just a massive, frustrating waste of tactical efficiency that I am still sick," Rudeus complained inwardly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "My reaction times are going to be marginally delayed. Though... maybe if we can just manage to survive this hellish dimension, return to the original world, and I can finally drink a proper, high-tier medicinal potion from the infirmary, then I'll be completely cured of this lingering garbage."
He turned his head, scanning the dimly lit interior of their hidden sanctuary.
A few feet away, resting peacefully atop the thick, heavy fur of his Northern winter coat, was Adelina Van Hestianna.
The legendary, incredibly overpowered protagonist of the universe was still locked entirely within her magically induced, catatonic coma. Her beautiful, midnight-black hair was splayed out across the fur, and her chest rose and fell in a slow, impossibly shallow rhythm. She looked less like a fierce Sword Saint and more like a fragile porcelain doll that had been discarded in the dark.
Rudeus stared at her for a moment, confirming her vitals were stable, before his crimson eyes swept the rest of the small cave.
He frowned, raising a single, highly suspicious eyebrow.
The heavy, dark-grey Vanguard tunic he had given away was neatly folded near the remnants of last night's campfire. But the girl who was supposed to be wearing it was nowhere to be seen.
'Where exactly is she?' Rudeus thought, his veteran paranoia instantly flaring to life. Waking up to find a squadmate missing in hostile territory was a massive red flag.
Ignoring the screaming protest of his aching joints, Rudeus forcefully pushed himself up from the stone floor. He grabbed his heavy, Six-Flanged War Mace, leaning his weight against it for a fraction of a second to steady his vertigo, and began to quietly, cautiously make his way toward the narrow entrance of the cave.
He stepped out of the shadows, transitioning from the damp gloom of the cave into the eerie, red-tinted twilight of the main Abyssal Chasm.
His eyes immediately locked onto a silhouette standing near a cluster of jagged obsidian rocks about twenty yards away, near the edge of a small, bubbling subterranean hot spring.
It was Princess Veronica.
She was crouched low to the ground, her back turned to him. She was fully dressed in her practical combat trousers and her form-fitting under-tunic. She appeared to be intensely, meticulously examining a small patch of strange, glowing subterranean flora growing near the thermal vent.
Rudeus lowered his mace, the tension bleeding out of his shoulders. She hadn't been abducted by a roaming demon; she was just foraging.
"Veronica!" Rudeus called out, his raspy voice cutting sharply through the ambient hiss of the thermal vents. He began to walk down the slight incline, his heavy boots crunching loudly against the loose gravel as he rushed toward her.
At the sound of his voice, Veronica violently flinched. Her shoulders jumped up to her ears.
She spun around with terrifying, unnatural speed, her hands moving in a frantic, desperate blur. She hastily, clumsily shoved a handful of crushed, dark-purple petals deep into the leather pouch securely fastened to her tactical belt, snapping the metal clasp shut with a loud click.
"Hey—hey, Rudeus!" Veronica stammered, her voice an octave higher than usual, laced with a thick, undeniable layer of nervous panic. She quickly stood up, wiping her gloved hands aggressively against her trousers, forcing a bright, entirely unconvincing smile onto her face. "You're awake!"
Rudeus stopped a few feet away from her. He narrowed his crimson eyes, his tactical mind immediately registering her incredibly suspicious, hyper-defensive body language.
He raised an eyebrow, looking pointedly at the leather pouch on her hip, and then back up to her flushed face.
"What exactly were those dark purple roses you were just holding, and why did you hide them?" Rudeus asked, his tone flat, direct, and completely devoid of pleasantries.
"N-nothing!" Veronica replied instantly, her voice cracking slightly. She took a tiny half-step backward, clearly trembling. "It was absolutely nothing! Just some... basic, glowing cave moss! I was examining it for... luminescent properties!"
Rudeus let out a long, heavy, profoundly exhausted sigh. He dragged a calloused hand down his face, feeling the rough stubble on his jaw.
'Is she seriously still terrified of me because of her deeply ingrained 'Man Hate Complex'?' Rudeus reasoned inwardly, trying to apply logic to her erratic, fearful behavior. 'Even after everything we talked about yesterday? Even after I held her while she cried? Does she still think I'm going to suddenly snap and attack her just because I caught her picking some weird subterranean weeds?'
He didn't have the physical or emotional energy to interrogate a traumatized Princess over her botanical hobbies at seven in the morning.
Rudeus simply shook his head and waved his large hand in a dismissive, placating gesture, completely dropping the interrogation.
"Never mind. Forget I even asked," Rudeus said, his voice softening slightly as he pivoted the conversation to immediate survival logistics. "Anyway, we have a much more pressing issue. I checked the satchel. We don't have any of the pre-packaged military rations left."
He looked around the desolate, rocky landscape.
"We desperately need to go and harvest some more of those specific, edible roasted mushrooms you found yesterday evening for dinner," Rudeus instructed. "My body needs caloric energy to fight off this infection, and we need to be at peak physical condition if we are going to make a run for the exit portal today."
Veronica visibly sagged with relief as he dropped the subject of the flowers. The panic instantly vanished from her oceanic blue eyes, replaced by a bright, beaming, incredibly eager expression.
"Oh! You absolutely don't need to worry about that at all!" Veronica chirped happily, her posture straightening with aristocratic pride. "I already went out at first light and meticulously prepared a fresh batch for us!"
"Really?" Rudeus asked, genuinely surprised by her proactive survival initiative.
Veronica nodded enthusiastically, a proud, almost glowing smile on her face. "Mhm! I found a massive cluster of them near the waterfall, purified them with light magic, and slowly roasted them over the thermal vents so they wouldn't burn."
Rudeus stared at her for a second. The corners of his mouth twitched upward into a small, genuinely appreciative smile. Despite her erratic mood swings, she was proving to be an incredibly competent and reliable Vanguard partner.
"Thanks, Veronica," Rudeus said, his voice carrying a heavy, sincere gratitude. "I really, truly owe you a lot for keeping us alive down here."
"You're entirely, completely welcome~!" Veronica replied, drawing out the final syllable in a sing-song, melodic voice, her smile widening until it reached her eyes.
Satisfied that breakfast was secured, Rudeus turned around and began the slow, aching trek back up the rocky incline toward the safety of their hidden cave.
Veronica remained standing by the thermal vent, watching his broad, muscular back disappear into the shadows of the bioluminescent stalagmites.
The moment he was completely out of sight, the bright, cheerful, innocent smile instantly vanished from her beautiful face.
It was replaced by an expression of intense, dark, and terrifyingly cold calculation.
She slowly lowered her hand to her tactical belt, her fingertips lightly brushing against the leather pouch where she had hastily hidden the crushed, dark-purple petals.
Those were absolutely not harmless, glowing cave mosses.
They were Nyx-Bloom Orchids.
They were an incredibly rare, highly potent subterranean flower that functioned as a devastatingly powerful, fast-acting sedative. The nectar, when ingested, induced a paralytic, incredibly deep, dreamless sleep that could knock out a rampaging troll.
How exactly did a sheltered Imperial Princess know the precise botanical identification and the lethal, pharmacological applications of an obscure abyssal flower?
She knew because her Head Maid, Amanda, was not just a bodyguard. Amanda was a legendary Deathstalker—an elite, high-ranking assassin of the Night Ravens. Amanda was an absolute, unparalleled master of poisons, toxins, and untraceable sedatives. And over the years, to ensure her Princess could survive the treacherous, venomous politics of the Imperial Court, Amanda had meticulously, secretly passed all of that dark, lethal knowledge directly down to Veronica.
Veronica's oceanic eyes darkened, a swirling vortex of possessive obsession clouding her irises.
She smiled again, but this time, it was a chilling, deeply unsettling, and entirely mischievous smirk.
She had successfully, flawlessly achieved exactly what she had wanted yesterday night.
She had secretly, deliberately crushed the petals of the Nyx-Bloom Orchid and dissolved the potent sedative directly into the wooden bowl of purified water she had handed Rudeus to drink with his dinner.
What she had done was highly illegal. It was a severe, profound violation of trust. It was an act of non-consensual drugging.
But as she stood in the dark cavern, her heart hammering with a twisted, intoxicating euphoria, she realized a terrifying truth about herself.
She absolutely, fundamentally didn't care.
She felt zero guilt for drugging him. In her rapidly fracturing, increasingly obsessive psychological state, she viewed it as necessary. It was justice. It was payback.
After all, she needed to make things fair. She had spent the entire day utterly terrified for his life. She had swallowed her pride, discarded her royal dignity, and painstakingly, desperately taken care of him while he was violently sick and vulnerable.
And yet, despite her absolute devotion, he had dared to repeatedly, agonizingly whisper another woman's name in his sleep.
Mel.
The name burned in her mind like a brand of hot iron.
'It is incredibly, profoundly unfair, you know,' Veronica reasoned inwardly, her internal monologue twisting into a dark, possessive justification. 'I am sitting right next to you, nursing you back to health, and you are crying out for a ghost. You forced me to listen to that. So... at the very least, I extracted my rightful payback.'
By heavily sedating him, she had ensured that he fell into a paralytic, dreamless void. He couldn't dream of 'Mel'. He couldn't whisper her name.
Instead, Veronica had spent the entire, long night sitting directly over him in the dark. She had possessively, continuously stroked his vibrant green hair. She had traced the lines of his jaw, the scars on his chest, and the contours of his face, claiming his unconscious, vulnerable presence entirely for herself. She had whispered to him, marking him as her own, safe in the knowledge that his cynical, judgmental crimson eyes couldn't open to reject her.
Without Rudeus having the slightest inkling of the danger, the Princess who had once violently hated him was rapidly, uncontrollably mutating into something far more terrifying.
She was developing a deep, suffocating, yandere obsession toward him.
The trauma of the 'Bad Ending' vision, combined with the extreme, life-or-death adrenaline of the dungeon, and the sudden, overwhelming cure of her 'Man Hate Complex', had completely shattered her emotional regulators.
As she stared at the dark entrance of the cave where he rested, a terrifying, absolute certainty solidified in her mind.
She was actively, seriously contemplating locking him up.
If they survived this simulation, if they returned to the Capital... she wouldn't let him just walk away to the Northern Duchy. She couldn't allow it.
She would use her immense royal authority, her vast wealth, and her newly acquired, god-tier 'Night's Devourer' magic to construct an impenetrable, gilded cage for him deep within the Imperial Palace. She would isolate him completely, ensuring that absolutely no other women could ever lay eyes on him again. Not the commoner Adelina. Not his mysterious 'Mel'. Not even his own family, Ryekard and the Blackfyres.
'If that is what I absolutely need to do to keep you perfectly, eternally safe...' Veronica whispered in the silence of her own mind, her eyes shining with a frightening, zealous devotion.
'I will lock you up. I will hide you away from the cruelty of this world. And we will be together forever, completely undisturbed.'
She took a deep, shuddering breath, her imagination running wildly out of control.
'Even though our political engagement was formally, legally broken days ago... that was simply because you demanded it as a tactical condition. And because I want you to be happy, I granted it. But... as a Princess of the blood, I can easily, effortlessly draft and enforce a brand new, unbreakable marital contract whenever I desire.'
Her hands drifted down, resting gently against her flat stomach.
'And there, locked safely away in our sanctuary... we will create heirs. We will create so many beautiful, powerful heirs with your strength and my magic...'
'Ahh~~~'
Veronica let out a soft, breathy, incredibly inappropriate sigh, her cheeks flushing a brilliant, burning crimson.
She aggressively clutched her stomach through the fabric of her tunic, her legs squeezing tightly together.
'Just thinking about something like that... imagining a future where you belong entirely, exclusively to me... it makes me feel so incredibly, overwhelmingly wet~~~'
She closed her eyes, biting her lower lip to suppress a dizzying wave of pure, dark euphoria.
'Ahhhh~~~, you are mine. My beloved. My dear, inescapable Eternal Star~~~'
"Veronica!"
The sharp, sudden bark of Rudeus's voice echoing from the cave entrance violently shattered her dark, obsessive fantasy.
Veronica gasped, her eyes snapping open. The intense, burning flush remained on her cheeks, but she quickly slapped her hands against her face, trying to cool her skin and reconstruct her innocent, helpful facade.
"Wait just a moment!" Veronica yelled back, her voice slightly breathless. She hastily, frantically patted the leather pouch on her hip, ensuring the sedative flowers were completely concealed.
She took a deep breath, pasting a bright, cheerful smile back onto her face.
"Coming!"
***
The Artificial Dimension - Sector 4.Simulation Sub-Level: The Obsidian Expanse.02:30 PM.
It was already mid-afternoon by the time they had finished their meal, packed their meager supplies, and fully prepared to finally leave the relative safety of the hidden cave.
The atmosphere between them was incredibly tense, thrumming with a sharp, undeniable urgency.
They needed to rush. They could no longer afford to carefully map the terrain or take breaks. Their primary, overwhelmingly lethal enemy was no longer the Greater Demon General Dratkthar, nor was it the hordes of artificial monsters programmed into the simulation.
Their absolute, most terrifying enemy was Time itself.
The temporal dilation of the artificial dimension meant that every single minute they wasted down here translated to precious seconds ticking away in the real world. If Dratkthar awoke from his divine binding before the faculty breached the dungeon's encrypted seals to extract them, they would be slaughtered.
"Are you absolutely, tactically certain that we should leave the defensible position of the cave right now, Rudeus?" Veronica asked, her brow furrowed in genuine concern as she strapped her tactical belt tight.
Rudeus, currently verifying the structural integrity of his war mace, nodded his head in a sharp, definitive motion.
"Yeah. We absolutely need to hurry and locate the extraction portal immediately, before that massive, horned demon manages to break Adelina's seal and actively starts hunting us again," Rudeus replied, his crimson eyes hard and focused.
"I see..." Veronica murmured, accepting his command.
She turned toward the back of the cave, where the comatose Adelina lay on the heavy fur coat. Veronica bent down, preparing to grab the commoner girl by the arms and heave the dead weight up onto her own back.
"Wait!" Rudeus barked, stepping forward quickly.
Veronica paused, looking back at him over her shoulder.
"What is it?" Veronica asked, slightly annoyed by the interruption.
"I should be the one who gives her a piggyback ride to the extraction point this time," Rudeus stated firmly, walking over to the coat. "You have been doing all the heavy lifting and magical carrying for the last two days. You are exhausted."
Veronica immediately stood up straight, aggressively waving her hands back and forth in a gesture of absolute dismissal.
"There is absolutely no need for you to worry about that!" Veronica argued, her aristocratic pride and her possessive nature simultaneously flaring up. "After all, I am perfectly fine! I am not physically tired at all, Rudeus. I can carry her!"
"No." Rudeus didn't accept her argument. He stepped directly into her personal space, physically blocking her from the comatose girl.
He unhooked his heavy, leather-bound tactical satchel from his shoulder and held it out toward her.
"Here. You can hold my satchel and act as the forward scout," Rudeus compromised, his tone brokering no argument. "But I will absolutely be the one who gives her a piggyback ride out of here. After all..."
Rudeus offered a soft, genuinely appreciative smile that completely disarmed her anger.
"...I owe you a massive debt for taking care of me while I was sick. Let me pull my own weight."
Veronica stared at his handsome, smiling face. Her heart did a traitorous little flip in her chest. She couldn't argue with that logic, nor could she deny him when he looked at her with such open, unguarded gratitude.
She let out a long, highly exaggerated sigh of defeat.
"Fine.... here, let me help you lift her..." Veronica grumbled, reluctantly taking the heavy leather satchel from his hands and slinging it over her own shoulder.
"Thanks," Rudeus said.
He crouched down, carefully maneuvering Adelina's limp, unresponsive body, pulling her arms over his broad shoulders and hoisting her up onto his back.
The moment her full weight settled against him, Rudeus's knees buckled slightly. He let out a loud, strained grunt, his boots grinding against the stone.
'Goddamnit! Why the absolute hell is she so unbelievably heavy?!' Rudeus cursed inwardly, his newly forged back muscles screaming in protest. For a girl who looked relatively slender, the sheer density of a high-tier Vanguard's musculature and bone structure made her weigh as much as a fully armored knight.
He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stand fully upright, adjusting his grip under her knees.
He looked back over his shoulder at Veronica, who was currently watching him with an incredibly unimpressed, blank expression.
"Hey," Rudeus panted, a bead of sweat already forming on his brow. "How the hell can you possibly not be completely exhausted when you carry her? Goddamnit, she's as heavy as a boulder!"
Veronica simply shrugged her shoulders, a serene, highly arrogant smile touching her lips.
"I honestly don't know?" Veronica replied, her tone dripping with false innocence. "Maybe it is simply because I am naturally, genetically stronger than you are."
Rudeus let out a massive, aggrieved sigh at her smug response, rolling his eyes toward the cavern roof.
"Never mind... forget I even asked. Let's just go now," Rudeus grunted, adjusting the comatose girl on his back and beginning to march heavily out of the cave.
Veronica nodded, falling into step slightly behind him.
Outwardly, she appeared perfectly calm and compliant.
But inwardly, a massive, raging inferno of toxic, irrational jealousy was violently consuming her soul.
She glared daggers at Adelina's unconscious head resting securely against the crook of Rudeus's muscular neck. She watched Adelina's arms draped intimately over his broad chest.
'Tsk! I should be the absolute only woman you are carrying right now! Not this pathetic, heavy commoner!' Veronica screamed inwardly, her fingernails digging painfully into the leather strap of his satchel.
The sight of another woman—even an unconscious one—touching her 'Eternal Star' made her blood boil with a dark, territorial possessiveness.
'I swear to the Goddess...' Veronica vowed silently, her oceanic eyes narrowing into dangerous slits as she stared at his broad back. 'If I manage to find a way to isolate you after this... I will literally lock you up in a tower where no one else can ever touch you again!'
They exited the hidden cave and began the grueling, dangerous trek across the Obsidian Expanse, moving swiftly but cautiously toward the estimated coordinates of the 4th Floor's emergency exit portal.
They walked in tense silence for nearly twenty minutes, navigating around steaming magma fissures and towering, razor-sharp rock formations.
Suddenly, Rudeus's heavy boots skidded to a violent halt.
His crimson eyes locked onto a small, isolated cluster of jagged rocks near the edge of a deep ravine.
Without a word of warning, Rudeus abruptly knelt down, unceremoniously, but carefully, depositing Adelina's comatose body onto the hard ground.
"Wha-what happened?! Why did you suddenly put her down onto the dirt?" Veronica asked, instantly dropping into a defensive combat stance, her hands glowing with white light as she frantically scanned the surrounding darkness for an ambush.
Rudeus didn't answer her. He completely ignored the potential danger and rushed headlong toward the cluster of rocks.
He dropped to his knees, his eyes wide with intense, focused recognition.
Growing in the absolute center of the jagged rocks, thriving in the suffocating heat and sulfur, was a single, grotesque-looking flower. Its petals were a vibrant, pulsing, arterial red, and it exuded a faint, sickly-sweet odor that smelled remarkably like oxidized copper and dried blood.
'This is—!' Rudeus yelled internally, a massive surge of tactical adrenaline flooding his system.
He didn't hesitate. He reached out with his armored hands and carefully, meticulously uprooted the entire plant, ensuring he didn't crush the delicate, blood-red bulb at its base.
Holding the flower as if it were a live grenade, he spun around and rushed frantically back toward Veronica.
"Here! Hurry! Open the main compartment and put it deeply into the satchel!" Rudeus commanded urgently, holding the flower out to her.
Veronica, utterly bewildered by his frantic behavior, didn't ask questions. She immediately popped the brass clasps on his leather satchel and held the flap wide open.
Rudeus carefully placed the red flower deep inside the bag, motioning for her to seal it tightly.
"Haah... thank you," Rudeus gasped, taking a massive step backward, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his gauntlet.
Veronica quickly buckled the satchel shut. She looked up at him, her brow deeply furrowed in confusion and alarm.
"What exactly was that horrifying red flower?" Veronica asked, taking a step closer to him. "And why were you in such a massive, terrifying rush to seal it inside your bag?"
Rudeus took a deep, steadying breath, his crimson eyes locking onto hers with absolute, deadly seriousness.
"Haah... that specific plant is known based on our survival manuals is an Abyssal Blood-Orchid," Rudeus explained, his voice grim. "It is a highly specialized, incredibly dangerous demonic flora that acts as a localized pheromone beacon. It actively, aggressively attracts high-tier monsters."
Veronica's oceanic blue eyes blew wide open in sheer, unadulterated panic.
"WHAT?!" Veronica shrieked, instinctively gripping the satchel tighter before realizing what was inside it. She looked at the bag as if it were a bomb. "Does that mean every single surviving monster on this floor is going to violently follow us now?!"
"Relax! Keep your voice down!" Rudeus ordered, raising his hands in a calming gesture. "That is exactly why I hurried up and immediately sealed it inside the deepest, scent-proof compartment of my tactical satchel. The enchanted leather completely masks the pheromone signature. As long as the bag remains closed, the monsters won't be able to track the scent, and they won't follow us."
"I see... I see..." Veronica nodded rapidly, her racing heart slowly beginning to calm down. She trusted his survival expertise implicitly.
But then, a chilling realization dawned on her. She frowned deeply, looking up at him with a mix of awe and profound apprehension.
"So... if it is so incredibly dangerous... where exactly, and why, do you intend to use that flower?" Veronica asked, her voice dropping to a cautious whisper.
Rudeus's expression hardened into a mask of absolute, uncompromising military pragmatism. He looked away from her, staring out across the dark, hellish landscape of the 4th Floor.
"I am going to use it as a localized tactical decoy trap," Rudeus stated, his voice devoid of any hesitation.
He turned his gaze back to her, and the raw, heavy weight of his next words struck her like a physical blow.
"If things go completely south... if that demon, Dratkthar, manages to break his binding and actively locates us before we reach the portal... you are going to take the satchel, escape first, and drag that unconscious woman through the gate."
Veronica froze, the blood draining entirely from her face.
"And as you escape..." Rudeus continued, his voice cold and analytical, outlining a suicide mission. "I will stay behind. I will drop the Blood-Orchid on the ground. The concentrated pheromones will instantly draw every single surviving monster in a ten-mile radius, including Dratkthar, directly to my specific location. I know for a fact that the Demon General will find us sooner or later. So, I needed to create a viable contingency plan to ensure the primary VIPs extract safely, and I was incredibly lucky to find that specific flower to use as bait."
Veronica stared at him. She was completely, utterly paralyzed.
"I see... that is a brilliant tactical plan!" Veronica blurted out, her voice entirely hollow, her aristocratic mask trying to automatically praise his military genius.
But then, the sheer, horrifying reality of what he was actually proposing violently shattered her composure. She frowned deeply, her oceanic eyes filling with a sudden, overwhelming terror. She took a step toward him, grabbing his arm tightly.
"Wait! What exactly do you mean by me 'escaping first'?!" Veronica demanded, her voice rising in panic. "You are coming with me!"
Rudeus let out a heavy, tired sigh, gently placing his hand over hers.
"Don't worry about it, Princess. I promise you, alright?" Rudeus lied smoothly, offering a comforting, yet deeply sad smile. "I will follow closely behind you toward the exit portal. It's only a contingency plan. I will only use it if things really go south and that damn demon finds us before we can cross the threshold."
Veronica nodded slowly, her grip on his arm loosening.
But she was not comforted. She was still profoundly, overwhelmingly terrified by what Rudeus had just said.
Because those words... that exact tactical reasoning, that exact promise of 'escaping first' and 'acting as a decoy'...
"You escape first, Princess. I will hold him off. I promise I'll be right behind you."
Veronica violently clenched both of her hands into tight, white-knuckled fists at her sides.
Those were the exact same words. It was the exact, identical promise that Amanda the Deathstalker had made to her in the dark, suffocating tunnels of her 'Bad Ending' nightmare.
And Amanda had never followed her. Amanda had died, her severed head thrown into the dirt, sacrificing herself to buy Veronica time to run.
A suffocating, paralyzing wave of existential dread washed over Veronica's soul. History was violently, stubbornly attempting to repeat itself. Fate was demanding a blood sacrifice to escape the dungeon, and Rudeus was willingly volunteering to step onto the altar.
'I pray to the Goddess that the absolute nightmare does not happen to him....' Veronica thought inwardly, her oceanic eyes wide with a terrifying, desperate intensity as she stared at Rudeus's broad back.
She felt the dark, possessive obsession in her heart mutate into a fierce, absolute determination. She would not let him die. She would burn this entire artificial dimension to the ground before she let the Demon General take him from her.
'Please, Goddess... if you exist, hear my prayer,' Veronica pleaded silently, her nails digging painfully into her palms.
'Protect him at absolutely all costs.'
'Please...'
'Protect my Eternal Star....'
'Please.....!'