Half-Kin (2) (SITO - 207)
·
Jul 8
59
Here's the chapter, finally.
Before anything else, the next chapter will be released on July 10th at 1:00 PM (Brasília Time).
So, what caused the delay at the beginning of the month?
Remember when I mentioned that I was sick? Well, the fever and the flu completely wrecked my immune system, and I ended up with a stomach infection that basically knocked me flat.
I had to go to the hospital, take medication specifically for my stomach, and spent a while dealing with vomiting and diarrhea. It wasn't pretty, but I'm doing much better now.
While I was recovering, I still managed to get some writing done and built up a small backlog of chapters. I'll be posting them every one or two days so I can continue writing ahead while those are going up. I didn't release them all at once because otherwise I'd end up falling back into the same cycle as before.
Thank you all so much for your patience. I truly appreciate it!
[..]
Note: It's been quite a while since I last played Elden Ring, and I genuinely forgot that Godrick is at the end of the damn castle instead of right after Margit.
I haven't replayed the game in a long time, and in my memory, Godrick was literally the very next boss after Margit, like a back-to-back boss sequence.
Devas was supposed to meet him later, following the game's actual progression. But because I mixed up where he was, I ended up messing up his placement within the castle. I even moved what should've been the Castle Courtyard to an earlier point, which is also a pretty big mistake.
I apologize for that error—I honestly just didn't remember. To smooth things over, I'll simply say that Godrick was waiting near the front of the castle because he sensed Devas would arrive, since he had Devas's severed arm grafted onto his body.
As for moving the Castle Courtyard earlier... there's really nothing I can do about that anymore, unfortunately. The worst part is that I didn't even notice the mistake myself—it was my friend, who was reading the chapter, that pointed it out.
Seriously, it's been a while since I made a mistake like this. I think the last one was the Houtengeki weight issue.
Ugh... I'll keep exploring the castle as originally planned. That was the only thing I got wrong. Once again, I sincerely apologize.
As always, have a great night, and enjoy the chapter!
[…]-[...]
My conversation with Melina was brief. Once she realized I wasn't a threat—and that I was actually Alice's ally—she stopped asking questions.
I could tell she wanted to ask more, but held herself back before vanishing in a golden shimmer, becoming "invisible" once again.
Her invisibility was fascinating.
It wasn't exactly camouflage, a normal illusion, or concealment magic. Rather, it was a consequence of what she was doing: shifting from the physical plane into the spiritual one, or this world's equivalent. I couldn't tell exactly where that was, nor did I try to force my vision to find out.
Even though I was recovering, I was still far from being back at one hundred percent. Using as little mana and spiritual energy as possible was essential if I didn't want to slow down my recovery.
What she was doing was most likely made easier by the fact that Melina was more spirit—or specter—than physical being. That allowed her to slip from the physical dimension into something "between" the planes, sliding into a layer superimposed over normal reality almost instantly.
It also made for an excellent defensive technique. Besides hiding her, anyone unable to reach that dimension simply wouldn't be able to touch her at all.
With Melina gone from sight, I turned and continued walking.
According to the Minimap, I could see her marker moving several meters away, heading back along the path we'd taken. If I focused, I could probably distinguish her exact outline within the "spiritual dimension," but since doing that would consume more energy than I was willing to spend right now, I simply followed her movements on the Minimap instead, which cost me nothing.
Combined with my natural instinct that something is there, it was more than enough to keep track of her position.
As I walked, several messages from the "spam inbox" drifted into view.
[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]
That albino girl doesn't talk in Shakespearean English like everyone else.
[TheWizardOz]
Besides speaking differently, Alice has a lot of your mannerisms, Devas. The way she talks, moves, breathes—even how she gestures. I doubt you didn't notice, but I wanted to point it out anyway and ask: is that something dangerous?
[MagicalGirlSera-Tan]
Has the mood gotten light enough for me to say we found the wrong-colored exhibitionist? We were missing a red one, not a colorless one! ╰( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )つ──☆*:・ﾟ
I skimmed through the messages before dismissing them with a thought.
It was obvious they'd notice Alice didn't speak with that "I'm old as fuck." style that every other native seemed to have. But I'd held onto the faintest, tiniest hope that they wouldn't notice just how absurdly similar she was to me.
Granted, it was a microscopic hope, and I knew it was foolish to expect analytical minds like theirs to overlook something so blatant. Still, I'd clung to it. Explaining Alice's situation was a whole separate headache that I absolutely did not want to unpack right now.
And it wasn't out of embarrassment.
I just... the whole situation was bizarre enough that I didn't want to say it out loud.
I was still trying to process the fact that, for all intents and purposes, I'd suddenly been handed a daughter.
One who was older than me in both body and soul, and whose mental age, if I had to estimate, was somewhere in her early thirties.
... I really had recovered enough to be almost back to normal, hadn't I?
The madness and insanity had receded enough that I no longer found the situation funny. I found it worrying.
I've been a father for ten minutes, and I'm already more mature and responsible.
Amazing!
Sighing, I activated the stream's mental microphone and answered them.
("Alice's situation is... complicated. But it's not dangerous, so don't worry.") I let my thoughts flow into the broadcast.
I ended the mental connection there, cutting the topic off before any more questions could appear. I'd explain it later. One way or another, the truth was bound to come out eventually.
When I reached the large stone archway, I noticed Alice had already changed.
She looked exactly like an RPG character who had equipped the best gear available without caring whether any of it actually matched.
As a base layer, she wore a dark, thick-fabric shirt and a pair of gray shorts.
Over that was a dark chainmail hauberk that covered her torso, which I was almost certain had been made by goblins. On top of the mail sat leather armor pieces fitted snugly over her chest and abdomen, fastened with thick buckles, while several lighter-colored, irregular metal plates reinforced her shoulders and forearms.
On her feet were a pair of brown leather boots that reached nearly to her knees.
Strapped across her chest with crossing leather harnesses was a broad, open back scabbard for her sword.
Overall, it was practical, even if it looked a little mismatched. At least she'd put something on her feet. That was important in this world...
When she noticed me approaching, she finished tightening one of the shoulder straps and turned toward me.
"So? How do I look?" she asked, spreading her arms.
I looked her over for a moment before nodding.
"Looks good," I replied. "Why'd you pick those specific pieces?"
Alice relaxed and gave me a look that suggested I was asking something painfully obvious.
"Besides the fact that they were some of the only pieces that actually fit me?" she answered rhetorically. "I couldn't even find a single pair of metal boots that fit in that pile."
She rolled her shoulders, one hand resting on the metal pauldron as though testing how the chainmail moved beneath the leather plates before continuing.
"They're great for mobility, and they seemed like the best options among the ones that fit."
She paused briefly, frowning as she placed a hand over her chest, directly above where, as far as I could tell, the Mystic Symbols had been painted on the inside.
"I could instinctively tell these had the best... enchantments? I'm not sure that's the right word. They just felt right."
She sighed, interlaced her fingers, stretched with her hands above her head, then folded her arms in front of herself.
"Though if it were entirely up to me, I would've preferred a full suit of plate armor." She gestured toward the pile of equipment. "Why do you even have so many random things, anyway?"
"They're my Mystic Symbol and Rune enchantment experiments," I replied. "I basically grab whatever random junk I have in my inventory and enchant it whenever I'm bored. It's good practice and keeps my skills sharp."
Alice looked at me as if something had suddenly clicked.
"So that's where it came from..." she murmured.
Without elaborating, she continued aloud, hesitating for just a second.
"I kept a few of the extra pieces that were left over, just in case. Is that okay?"
I nodded. "Of course. Don't worry about it."
She visibly relaxed at my answer.
That reminded me that I really needed to make her a proper suit of armor once I had the chance. And I needed to fix mine... And make another set for myself as well.
Ugh... I had way too many things I needed to do.
The list just kept getting longer.
"Where exactly did you store them?" I asked. "Do you have some kind of storage item with an internal space?"
I hadn't noticed any magical signature suggesting something like that, though I hadn't been actively looking.
Alice smiled faintly.
Her teeth were white and perfectly straight, but her canines were noticeably sharp.
I had to stop myself from physically flinching. They looked a lot like mine...
She must've inherited something from my Semblance somewhere in the middle of that whole mess.
"It's because of the Grace I carry," she explained, completely oblivious to my existential crisis. "It lets me store certain things inside myself. More specifically, inside the Grace within my body."
To demonstrate, she extended her right hand. Golden motes shimmered through the air before rapidly condensing into a small, plain-looking dagger resting in her palm.
"It's useful," she continued, casually twirling the dagger, "but it doesn't have much storage space, so I only keep the really important things in there."
Just as quickly, the dagger vanished back into a flash of golden light.
I studied what she'd done for a moment. It was somewhat similar to the golden "strand of hair" embedded in my left hand before I looked back at her.
"Is that Grace causing you any problems?" I asked. "Or is there any chance it could become a problem in the future?"
I was fairly certain I could rip it out of her without killing her if I absolutely had to...
Alice shook her head.
"No. It's actually very gentle. For the most part, it feels like it's simply a part of me."
I nodded, accepting the answer, and reached into my Voidbag.
After rummaging around for a moment, I pulled out a specific item, tossed a few other things back inside, and threw it toward her.
Alice caught it effortlessly.
It was a silver bracelet engraved with golden patterns. On the inner side was a small array of Mystic Symbols alongside a single Rune.
"That's a storage bracelet. There's almost a thousand square meters of space inside it," I explained. "It's called a Traveler's Space."
I'd bought several of them back in Terraria.
This particular one was among those I'd enchanted to make more durable. It had also served as a test to see whether I could combine Runes with Mystic Symbols inside a Traveler's Space without causing some kind of compatibility conflict that would collapse the pocket dimension.
Thankfully, it had worked perfectly.
"Give it a try," I instructed. "Channel your mana into it so you can see the inside. Then see if you can store the bracelet inside your Grace. That way, you can keep your belongings inside the bracelet—which has much more space—and then keep the bracelet itself inside your Grace."
Alice nodded and focused on the bracelet.
Her expression grew serious as she infused it with mana. She didn't seem to have much trouble.
"There's already some stuff inside," she said, looking back up at me.
"Just a few useful things you can use. Don't worry about it," I replied. "Now try taking it out and putting it away again."
She nodded and did as instructed. This time, I could tell it was harder. The energy surrounding her hand resisted for a fraction of a second before the bracelet disappeared in a burst of golden light.
She let out a quiet sigh.
"That felt like lifting something really heavy..." she murmured, opening and closing her hand. "But it's manageable."
She looked at me and smiled faintly, once again showing her teeth.
"Thank you for the gift..." She stopped herself at the end, as though she'd been about to say something else.
I waved dismissively.
"Meh, don't mention it."
With that, I gestured for Alice to go pick out whatever else she wanted from the pile.
I added a few more sets of clothes, armor, swords, and other melee weapons—anything that might prove useful to her.
I'd probably give her a few more things later. Her current weapon was decent enough, but at the end of the day, it was just a plain greatsword.
Maybe some firearms?
They'd certainly come in handy. Nobody expected someone to pull out a pistol in the middle of a fight full of magic and swords.
But that could wait...
I turned toward the second biggest elephant in the room: the strange rune-like object that was still floating casually where Godrick's body had once been.
That thing was genuinely bizarre. I simply couldn't make sense of it.
Not at all.
Once again, it reminded me far too much of 'The Eye'. Whenever I tried to "read" it, all I got back was a kind of static, and the longer I focused on it, the more my head began to ache.
I turned toward the pile of equipment.
I could vaguely make out Melina's outline standing there.
She was crouched beside Alice as she sorted through the gear, absentmindedly poking at a dagger with an array of Mystic Symbols painted along its hilt.
She seemed to notice my gaze lingering on her and turned around.
"Do you know what that thing is?" I asked, motioning toward the floating Great Rune behind me with my chin. "And what it's for?"
Nothing happened for a second or two.
Then golden particles shimmered through the air, and Melina stepped back into the physical world.
The moment the light faded, she brought a hand to her head, wearing a mildly pained expression.
"It's wearisome to do so..." she muttered under her breath.
"Are you alright?" Alice asked, pausing with a chainmail shirt in her hands.
"I am," Melina replied with a sigh. "'Tis simply most taxing for me to maintain a physical form when I am far from a Site of Grace. In truth, I should not even be able to do so here. The only reason I can is because of thee, Tarnished Alice. The Grace within thy body is unnaturally strong—it serveth almost as a beacon."
I filed that information away mentally.
It sounded vaguely important, but I didn't interrupt her.
Straightening herself, Melina glanced at me before focusing on the floating golden object.
"That is a Great Rune," she explained. "More precisely, the Great Rune of Godrick the Grafted." She paused briefly before adding, "'Tis curious that he seemed almost to await thy coming. From what I know of his nature, he ought not have done so."
Maybe because he'd grafted my arm onto himself... He could probably sense I was coming. Or something along those lines. Not that it would've mattered.
I'd have hunted him down even if he'd hidden himself somewhere deep inside the castle.
Without dwelling on the subject, she continued.
"A Great Rune is one of the fragments of the Elden Ring itself, shattered in ages past."
What the hell even is the Elden Ring again...?
"So this is what I came here for?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because Grace guideth thee unto it," Melina answered simply, looking at her. "To become a Elden Lord and restore the Golden Order, the scattered fragments must be gathered from throughout the Lands."
I narrowed one eye. Important information. And a lot of it smelled suspicious...
"And why do you want that?" I asked.
Melina turned her one open eye toward me.
"If thy question be whether I deceived thee, then nay, human from beyond the stars."
"I have already spoken my part of our accord. My purpose is to reach the foot of the Erdtree. Yet the path unto the Tree is barred, and its entrance remaineth sealed. Only a Tarnished who beareth the power of the Great Runes and proveth their worth may open its gates."
So it was an access key...
That made sense. Melina needed someone to gather the pieces of that key, and Alice was the person she'd placed her hopes in.
At least for now. There must've been others before her...
"How many of these things are there?" I asked, opening and closing my right hand. "And where did they come from? Are the lesser runes that drop from everything that dies around here related to them somehow? Or are they derived from them?"
I paused, recalling a few terms she'd casually mentioned earlier.
"Actually, let me back up a little," I added. "What exactly is this 'Elden Ring'? A item? And what, exactly, qualifies someone as a 'Tarnished' in this world's sense of the word?"
I myself was technically a "Tarnished" thanks to the potion that had come from the Blasphemy Card. But the way the card had labeled that Sequence, even if it was based on this world's concept, couldn't be exactly the same thing.
Especially since nobody in this world had recognized me as one, even though I theoretically qualified as a kind of Tarnished. My status as an Foreigner seemed to override that...
Melina straightened her posture, her golden eye taking on a slightly professorial, almost reverent look.
"The Elden Ring is neither a physical ring nor a mere ornament," she began, carefully choosing her words. "'Tis the very manifestation of the Order that governeth our world. The laws of reality, of life and death... all were ordained by it. And long ago was it shattered, in an event known as the Shattering."
... Ignorance truly is bliss.
I knew that thing was important.
I even had a vague idea that it interacted with the world's Logos—or, as Melina called it, the Order and the laws of reality...
Just not to that extent!
And how the hell had something like that ended up in the hands of a worthless loser like Godrick? How had nobody killed him and ripped it away from him by now?
... I'd come here looking for my arm and ended up finding a fragment of something that literally altered reality?!
Not that I was complaining, of course.
"And the Tarnished?" Alice asked, sounding much more interested in that part. After all, the title was directly tied to what she was supposedly meant to be.
"The Tarnished are the warriors who, in ages long past, were stripped of the light of Grace and banished from these Lands, to wage war and meet their end in distant realms," Melina answered, looking directly at Alice, whose face remained completely expressionless.
That affected her, didn't it...?
"Now, with the Order in ruin, Grace hath returned unto thee, awakening thee from death, that thou might return, claim the scattered fragments, and mend that which was broken."
I noticed Alice frown before shaking her head with a faint smile, seemingly relaxing afterward.
Melina then turned back toward Godrick's floating Great Rune and finished answering my first question.
"Those greater fragments, imbued with the truest measure of power—the Great Runes—were claimed by the offspring of Queen Marika, the demigods. I cannot say with certainty how many there be, yet each claimed one for themselves. As for the lesser runes thou findest... they are but remnants. The lingering blessing, scattered like dust throughout the Lands when the Ring was shattered."
A low hum escaped my throat.
The surrounding shadows quivered for a brief moment.
"I see..." I said. "Queen Marika was the one who banished the Tarnished in the past?" Melina simply nodded. "And I assume she's a goddess, since her children are demigods."
Another nod.
"Was she the one who shattered the Elden Ring?" A third and final nod.
So she really is Godrick with a pussy. I was never wrong!
I glanced down at the two golden "strands of hair" wrapped around the ring finger of my left hand.
And she wanted me to save her?...
I almost asked whether Ranni and Melina were Marika's daughters, but I was already almost certain they were, and I could always ask later.
Instead, I opted for something that would be more useful right now.
"Would touching the Great Rune cause any problems?" I asked, pointing at myself. "Specifically, if I touched it."
Melina hesitated for a second, her aura wavering ever so slightly with uncertainty.
"I cannot say with certainty," she admitted. "The Great Rune yearneth for a bearer, yet it carrieth the essence of a demigod and the very laws of the Golden Order. As thou art no Tarnished, but an Foreigner who beareth not the blessing of the Erdtree, it may well reject thee. What should come to pass if it doth, I cannot say."
"...Is the rune racist?" I heard Alice mutter.
She looked genuinely concerned as she turned to me.
"Don't risk it. Let me do it if you want to retrieve the Great Rune. I can tell it won't harm me."
... I'd be lying if I said her concern didn't touch me.
A message flew out of the "spam inbox" and floated in front of me.
[(MOD)JinnOfTheLamp]
You're already injured. Don't do anything stupid!
(Mini-Jinn bonking the Shadow Puppet on the head emote.)
... Something told me she was doing exactly that herself.
("Don't worry. I won't do anything stupid. Just a harmless little test.") Then I spoke aloud to Alice. "I've dealt with a racist rune before. I've got experience. Watch and learn."
With that, I separated a small amount of blood from one of the six massive ribs orbiting around my body.
With a thought, I shaped the blood into a hand and guided it toward the Great Rune, pressing the tip of its index finger directly against it.
If it turned out to be dangerous, I could sever the connection instantly without hurting myself.
The blood was connected to the Chalice first and only then to me, meaning the Chalice itself would act as a buffer.
Fortunately, none of that proved necessary.
The Great Rune made no attempt to consume, destroy, or explode the blood that touched it.
With that confirmed, I activated Analyze: Item on the rune.
[13,941,204,368,000 SP needed to fully analyze the item: Godrick's Great Rune — Anchor Ring]
... Very nice. Quite the affordable price.
At the very least, I now knew the thing was called the Anchor Ring, whatever exactly that meant.
The name matched what I'd sensed earlier.
It was the "anchor" that had held Godrick together.
But best of all, besides confirming that the rune wasn't hostile toward me, touching it had caused the Blasphemy Card to react.
I dispersed the blood hand and guided the blood back into the rib it had come from.
Then I raised my right hand to my forehead and touched the center of my Demon Slayer Mark.
I "grabbed" the center of the mark and "pulled" it outward.
The Blasphemy Card appeared between my fingers.
It looked no different than before.
Even the lesser runes it had already absorbed hadn't altered its appearance.
The instant I pulled the card out, Melina reacted as though she'd witnessed something horrifying.
She stumbled backward, and the pupil of her one open eye shrank until it was nearly gone.
"W-What... what manner of thing is that?!" she asked, her voice rising into a higher pitch.
I shrugged, holding the card as casually as ever.
"It's a coaster," I replied. "I use it to set my hot coffee mug on."
...Fuck you and your entire family!
Without explaining the joke, I moved my hand and touched the edge of the card against the Great Rune.
The dense golden light was instantly sucked into the card, disappearing without the slightest resistance.
"Just as I thought..." I murmured.
I examined the card for a moment. Once again, it looked exactly the same as always.
The same background, resembling the dark, abyssal emptiness of the void, filled with countless orange points of light like distant stars.
At the center floated the same blue-and-green planet.
Earth.
Beneath it rested the same two golden human hands, cupped gently around the world.
... It was beautiful. And sad.
Yet through my connection to the card, I could tell something had changed ever so slightly. Or rather... I'd unlocked—or fulfilled—a requirement that would become necessary in the future.
If I had to guess, the Great Rune was serving as some kind of material or foundational component for one of my future Sequences.
I also knew that I could pull the Great Rune back out of the card whenever I wanted, just as I could with the lesser runes.
For now, the card was acting more as storage than anything else. Something I'd probably make use of later.
The Great Rune was simply too valuable to leave sitting there unused.
Even without knowing everything it could do, what I already knew—and what I'd seen it do for Godrick—was enough to give me several ideas.
That wasn't even counting the fact that I could feel I was capable of drawing it into my Spiritual Realm.
Not that I was stupid enough to try that right now.
If I could properly harness its "anchoring" ability, then even without being able to fully manifest my Spiritual Realm into reality, the rune itself might serve as a bridge.
Or perhaps I could use it to anchor one thing onto another, just as Godrick had done.
I was certain I could perform a far better graft than that idiot ever had.
And not just on living bodies.
If I had enough time to understand exactly how the grafting process worked, using the instinctive knowledge contained within the "consciousness" housed in my soul's "brain" as a foundation, I felt I could eventually graft even more abstract things together—albeit only to a limited extent.
And that was only using the rune's anchoring ability.
I seriously doubted that was all this thing could do.
The only thing I was worried about was whether the rune would stop working—or lose part of its power—if I took it out of this world.
The odds were that it wouldn't. The thing didn't even seem to have originated in this world to begin with, but I wasn't certain enough to say that with confidence.
The rune also seemed... Dormant?
That was something I'd have to figure out how to fix.
There was a "path" connecting it to somewhere far away, and it seemed that whatever lay at the other end was what would awaken it. I'd have to investigate later, but even without that, the rune by itself was already more than impressive.
Shrugging and pushing those questions and possibilities to the back of my mind, I let go of the card.
It hovered in midair for a brief moment before flying back toward me and sinking into the center of my forehead once again.
Melina was staring at my forehead, visibly stunned.
"I... I can no longer sense the Great Rune," she murmured in disbelief.
She opened her mouth as if she were about to ask something, but stopped halfway through. Slowly shaking her head, she said nothing more before dissolving into golden dust.
Alice, on the other hand, looked impressed.
She adjusted the sword on the harness across her back and looked at me.
"I'm done picking everything I wanted," she said, pausing briefly before pointing at my forehead. "Can I... or will I be able to do that someday?"
"The card is something unique to me," I replied, shaking my head. "It's not something you can learn."
I could technically lend the card to her, but it would be pretty much useless for Alice right now.
For a moment, the idea of giving her a Sequence 9 Beyonder potion crossed my mind.
... Would she become a Tarnished²?
I'd considered doing the same thing before with the others—the Terraria crew, the HOTD group, and the Remnant team.
That included Jinn, Millia, and even Ozma, although with those three I had absolutely no idea what would happen, considering Jinn was a spirit, Millia was a slime, and Ozma was a soul without a body.
Doing the same for Alice wouldn't really change my plans.
The moment the thought crossed my mind, however, a dark premonition washed over me.
An instinctive warning from my spirituality telling me it would be a terrible idea. If I did it now, something would go wrong in the future. I didn't know exactly what. But whatever it was, it would either affect me in a very bad way or affect everyone else who had drunk the potion.
Perhaps both at once.
Or maybe it wouldn't affect us directly, but would instead permanently—or almost permanently—close off some future path.
I had no idea what it was. I only knew that it was something that absolutely could not be allowed to happen. My instincts screamed that this limitation could only be safely overcome once I reached Sequence Four... Or perhaps Sequence Three.
Until then, it was better to play it safe.
"What about the mark, then?" Alice asked, persisting as she pointed at my face again. "I can tell it's more than just a tattoo."
"That, you can obtain someday," I answered. "But first you'd need to learn a Breathing Technique, and that's something we'll deal with later."
She had already instinctively picked up half of the technique.
Learning the rest wouldn't be particularly difficult for her.
As for the Demon Slayer Mark draining her vitality, the runes Melina was using to strengthen her would probably compensate for that.
That, and the fact that she was immortal. At least the kind that came back after dying.
I changed the subject before she could ask anything else.
"Are you sure you've taken everything you wanted from that pile?"
Alice nodded.
Without wasting another second, I pulled the entire mountain of clothes, armor, and weapons back into my inventory. Then, while I was at it, I swept up everything else in the area as well.
I absorbed the dragon's corpse lying nearby, Godrick's golden axes, and the countless abandoned weapons embedded throughout the battlefield.
The courtyard was spotless. Nobody owned it anymore. Which meant it belonged to me.
I nodded in satisfaction.
"Alright. Now we're going to explore the castle," I said. "I need to take care of something with Ranni later, and I don't have time to waste."
Alice blinked in surprise.
"We?"
"Yes, we," I confirmed with a nod. "If you wanted to be on your own, then you shouldn't have run into me. From now on, I'm dragging you along. You're my responsibility—especially because, if I'm right, this world is dangerous as hell."
I didn't give her a chance to argue or even ask another question.
I started walking toward the castle's massive entrance, waving a hand without looking back.
"You'd better follow me. Otherwise I'll drag you with me."
"Do I even have a choice?" I heard her ask from behind me.
I stopped walking and looked back over my shoulder. A small, amused smile spread across my face.
"No."
Alice shook her head.
I caught the faintest hint of a smile forming on her lips.
Her aura carried a quiet sense of happiness as her footsteps echoed across the stone, following behind me into the darkness of Stormveil Castle.
[...]---[...]
Like I mentioned above, I ended up mixing a few things up.
Devas is going to spend a little more time exploring the castle because, after realizing the mistake I made, I went back to check everything inside Stormveil Castle and discovered a few things that I simply couldn't ignore.
I won't keep you any longer.
As always, have a great night, and enjoy the chapter!