Sara POV:
Our party led by Timothy infiltrated the half-blown village, we looked so cool. I admit we are not on the level of the other two parties but our teamwork was no joke. This was the second time I explored a dungeon and surprisingly am doing great.
Using my bow I stroke down the monster named Wildmane. My arrow penetrated their wolf-like head; it wasn't much of a challenge.
I looked around me and everyone is doing just fine.
What was I worried for? I mean this isn't our first time fighting.
"We should hurry up. There are not many monsters here since they all headed toward the explosion." Oh right...We are doing fine only because the rest of the Wilmane were attracted to the explosion created by those two weirdos.
Why do I call them weirdos you may ask?
It's because they are, both of them are the same age as me but somehow they are very composed. It is like this is a child's play for them.
These nobles I hate them.
They always get what they want, they always have the best education and now they are getting themselves in adventuring.
Can't you all just drop dead.
Even though these two haven't done anything to me, they just irritate me with their self-centred attitude, they always think they are above everyone.
"Tsk.." I clicked my tongue in irritation and it didn't go unnoticed by Suzanne.
"Something wrong?" She asked while running next to me.
"Oh...It's just these two nobles...I hate them." My thoughts escaped through my mouth.
"Not this again," she sighed "How did you even come to the conclusion that they are nobles." Suzanne would obviously be decided after all they only used their first name to hide the fact that they are nobles.
However..
"I can just tell by their arrogant attitude and they look good to be commoners."
In response Suzanne just sighed again.
"What?!" She is treating me like a kid again.
Suddenly she stopped running and singled me to stop with her left arm.
Aghhh...The smell...What is this smell?
I was behind Suzanne who stood in her place not moving an inch. What happened to her?
Analysing my surroundings I found a couple of houses on fire and some Wildmane bodies turned into ashes.
I peaked to the left as Suzanne was blocking my view and an unsettling feeling ran through my entire body.
A sole woman was slashing through the wildmane in a barbaric manner, her face can not be described as a human anymore.
She had a wide eerie smile and eyes borrowed from the devil himself.
"HAHAHAHAHA." Add to the terrifying appearance her continued laughter after each slash.
This is no human...
A monster slaughtering monsters was the perfect description for this scene.
Soon enough our party caught up to us and just like me they froze in their place witnessing this vile act.
"HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA." Her laughter was getting more chaotic. My body instinctively took a step back in fear.
We stood there in complete silence watching this thing go on its rampage.
Kiyotaka POV:
"This should do." I said to myself and decided to head back toward where Matsushita was, I parted ways with Matsushita and left slaughtering the Wildamne job to her, she was capable enough to pull it.
On my way I spotted a lot of Wildmane's corpses. I guess Matsushita really put a number on them.
As I closed my distance to where Matsushita should be, the smell of blood immediately made its way to my tonsil. What was more disturbing was the culprit, a girl stood in the middle of the mayhem with her face facing upward and her sword facing downward.
Blood splattered everywhere around her but her dress didn't have a stain of dirt on it. The only dirty equipment she had was her sword which was covered in blood.
It took me a couple of seconds to remove my eye from this devilish culprit and recognise the other parties that froze in their place in fear. That was expected after all Matsushita had a devilish smile on her face and an expression that is no longer human.
I walked toward Matsushita as our distance close I could feel the tension increase, all three parties have taken out their weapons and assumed a fighting posture, some of them were trembling other had expression of shock and bewilderment but all of them with no exception where ready to take Matsushita on if she attacks.
Finally I arrived next to Matsushita and with no warning she collapsed in my hand. This was the second time this happened to Matsushita after all.
Some of the witnesses sighed in relief while others kept their guard up.
"Relax..This is just an after effect of using a specific magic." I reverbed a half lie nonchalantly to the tree parties who were on edge.
Every time Matsushita would use space magic I could see a change in her and soon enough this change took control over Matsushita. I can exterminate the fact this could be an after effect of using space since I have not experienced any of it. Which leads me to the conclusion that this might be a trauma from the past.
Steadily the other parties began to approach the both of us to check on our condition.
Time skip
"Do you mind explaining?" I was now in a meeting that included 2 members of each party, however this time Matsushita didn't join since she was resting.
"I have already explained."
"What do you mean explained?, this thing wasn't human." Well that's rude.
"I see no purpose in revisiting this topic again, we should commence with the mission." I decided to divert the topic since we were going nowhere with this.
"But-"
"Enough! Continuing this is unnecessary, we should plan how we will face the dungeon's boss tomorrow."
"Me and Elina will hold our ground, I don't want her to go berserk while facing it." I announced.
"I agree." Orion was the first to speak, Phoenix wanted to say something but was cut off by Suzanne words.
"No complaints from us."
Our attention averted to the two members of Shadow Seekers which only nodded in responde.
"I will be going to check on Elina, then." I stood up and took my leave.
I walked toward where Matsushita should be and finally I caught a silhouette of a lone girl sitting lost in her own thoughts.
I approached Matsushita and sat right beside her.
"It's really unfortunate, isn't it?" I was the first to strike the conversation.
"What is?"
"That we won't be able to fight the boss." Matsushita looked down for a couple of seconds and finally raised her face and looked at me.
The first thing I noticed was the tears flowing from her eyes.
"Am..sob..S-sorry, I don't k-know what happened...sob ... .I c-completely lost control of myself." word were barely making their way out of her mouth as she kept trembling and sobbing.
I brought her head close to my chest and hugged it.
"Chiaki...you are not the same." I said in a confronting tone.
"H-huh?..w-what do y-you mean?" Stuttering Matsushita tried to play it off.
"You are not acting as the Matsushita I know from my old world." It's true even though I wasn't close to Matsushita, I can tell there is a difference. The old Matsushita used to be more social, more level headed and more importantly she used to have a goal...
The Matsushita in-front of me has given up on everything even though our new life has just begun, her attitude was not the attitude needed to survive.
"What happened? What made you change?"
"I-I" She trailed off as she couldn't organise her words to answer my quesion.
"You remind of someone who hid herself by assuming a different personality just like what you are doing right now..and it didn't end well for her."
Matsushita kept silent, she could only listen to my words with a thoughtful face..
"I understand that we are in a different world, and it's not wrong to display a different personality to adapt to your surroundings." I took a break for a couple of seconds.
"However, have you given your original personality a chance to shine, here?"
I looked at Matsushita's face for a second before continuing.
"You haven't, I can already tell it's written all over your face. Why did you hide it Chiaki?"
Matsushita stayed silent.
"Why?" I repeated my world with a harsher tone.
"You don't understand...you don't understand anything!" Matsushita's eyes became darker and she looked at me with a face full of emotion. "I-i was tortured day in and day out. My limbs were cut on a daily basis. It was all hopeless when faced with despair you just have to accept it." she stopped for a second. "So I accepted it, I killed myself and when I killed myself, I killed the old me, the happy one, the one who wanted to live and experience what the world can offer."
"Then why don't you experience it here?" not affected by Matsushita break down, I asked nonchalantly.
"It's just not possible..you could die anytime in this world."
"Is that your reason to display this personality?" I asked
She didn't reply and instead laid down on the ground and took a sleeping posture. I did the same and readied myself for sleep.
"Hey..Kiyotaka." Matsushita called me out while still maintaining her sleeping posture.
"Hmm?"
"Which one do you prefer?" She asked
"I don't understand."
"Me or the old Me?" Whichever benefits me the most.
I stayed silent.
"How can you tell that I was different than before, even though we never interacted once?"
"I was in contact with one of your close friends, she would talk a lot about you." A half lie.
"It was Kei right?" I have already told Matsushita about my action as the shadow leader so there was no need to lie, after all there is no point in lying anyway.
"Yes."
"Good night..Kiyotaka."
"Goodnight." I replied back.
Time skip
"Is everyone ready?!" Orion who was now standing in front of the entrance of the third level shouted from the top of his lungs.
"YEAH!" Both Counter Arrow and Nightfallers shouted in unison showing their excitement.
Slowly but surely we began to march our way into the third level. The first to enter were Nightfallers followed by Counter Arrow and Shadow Seekers respectively, and then there were us placed last in the formation.
Even though Matsushita seemed normal today she wasn't allowed to fight, this was understandable after all.
As Me and Matsushita entered, we spotted the others with confused looks, I glanced at my surroundings and immediately grasped the situation the boss wasn't in the room.
This room was a large area with a flat surface. It had light emitted from the crystals in the room and massive holes in the ground.
"Arthur what's going on?" Matsushita has also grasped the situation but not fully.
"Vipera Mortis is a large snake that travels the Dungeon through holes, like this." I explained as I pointed at the hole.
"Does this mean it's already awak-" Before Matsushita could finish, a massive serpent-like creature with razor-sharp fangs appeared out of the hole next to me and with no warning it crawled at an alarming speed announcing me as his first victim.
Unfortunately for it I responded in perfect time and launched myself toward it crawling head.
Thud~
My sword clashed with the shelter that covered it head reverbing a clearly audible sound, this sound was enough to snap everyone back to reality.
"Mages retreat, Everyone else ATTACK !" Mages in panic immediately tried to flee the scene, while the front linears for all three parties ran to aid me.
Sensing danger with one slick movement the Vipera Mortis returned back to the ground causing more of a panic.
Blast~
"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
With a loud roar the snake came out again from the new hole that he just created, unfortunately for the mages this hole was right in front of the entrance.
"RUNNNN!" Orion ordered but there was no place to run.
With no prior warning the snake snatched one of the mages in its massive mouth and dug another a new hole.
"CASSIUS!!!!!!" A member of Nightfalls shouted his comrade name.
The snake appeared again with the man named Cassius in his mouth and as if to add to Nightfallers agony the snake proceeded to bite the man cutting it's body in two.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO" Nova shouted but I decided to Ignore him.
"Long Sword of Light." I uttered these words as I realised this was my perfect opportunity to end this and for all.
I launched my body at furious speed to perform one of the techniques I learned in this world, my sword collided with Viper Mortis skin and in one swift movement I decapitated my target.
Thud~
The head of the snake fell off its body declaring an end to this.
Immediately Nightfallers ran toward their comrade in hope for his survival, letting their guard down.
"It's not done." I said in a cold tone.
"H-huh?"
"Get ready for battle." The other looked at me in confusion, it was well known that Viper Mortis was the Serpent Dungeon boss, however what's not known is that the Serpent Dungeon is connected to The Red Dragon Dungeon.
A rift appeared in the sky similar to the space magic I used and a creature walked out of it.
It stood at two metres tall with two dark wings and devilish horns, it looked exactly like Ifrit. This is because it was one of Ifrit's four sons.