68: The Hall of the Luminous, Part Thirty-Three

The Hall of the Luminous, Part Thirty-Three

Neve stared up at those words for a while. 

{Dungeon Cleared!} 

It felt like a dream. Having been stuck in Rorvan for weeks, seeing that felt like it wasn't real. 

The words didn't fade, though. 

[... It's done.] 

EXP Gained: 3000

EXP: 3100/720

Level Up!

WS Tokens Gained: 5000

WS Tokens: 27910

She lay there for a time.

No longer injured, but still tired as hell, her body refused to move an inch, and Neve was left to continue staring up at that old ceiling alone. 

The light shining in from the doors to her right reminded her that there was still one more question that needed answering. Before that, she wanted to confirm her success.

Inhaling slowly, she walked up to those doors. No message appeared as she drew close to them. The healer placed her weary hands on the black wood and pushed forward. 

And the doors opened with ease. 

A bright light assaulted Neve's eyes, forcing her to bring a hand up and shield them. It didn't seem like she was hundreds of feet underground, no. Rather, it looked like all she had to do to find the surface was walk forward. 

She didn't do that, though. As she said, there was one question she needed to answer before she could leave. 

[... Let me assign my points first.] 

After doing just that, she arrived at this status: 

Level 75

MP: 1290/1290 (+300)

EXP: 160/750

AP: 3690

WS Tokens: 27910

---

Endurance: 30

Speed: 40

Precision: 30

Strength: 34

Arcane: 99

If her memory served her correctly, and that warrior she knew of hadn't been leveling up at all, Neve was now officially the highest-level player in the world. 

It meant little, of course, due to the fact that she was a healer and her offensive spells sucked, but still. It was a fact that had Neve smiling a little. 

[... I wonder if Thomas and his followers are going to shit themselves when they see me. I hope they do. After everything I've been through, killing them isn't enough. I want to savor it.] 

Once she finally got the energy to get up and find out what the answer was to the question in her thoughts, she walked back into the temple and summoned Erin next to her. 

She wanted to say something to her, given that they'd succeeded. 

As Erin appeared, she looked around, ready to fight. To her surprise, there were no enemies here.

"... That was truly the last battle?" Erin asked as she saw that there was no knight to battle anymore. Even though every time she was summoned her stamina was fully regenerated, her shoulders still dropped as though she was feeling Neve's same exhaustion. 

"Here, yeah," Neve replied. "There will be more fights, though. There shouldn't be anything as tough as this. At least, not for a while. But, there will be more fights in the future." 

Neve walked up to her, then. As she did, Erin raised a brow and Neve looked away, unable to handle the scrutiny in her eyes. But, she tried to communicate her feelings regardless. 

"I... I probably couldn't have made it without you. Thank you," she stated. 

Erin, however, wasn't satisfied with that. She slithered toward her, standing in front of Neve and taking her by the chin to tilt her face up. 

"Perhaps humans don't see it this way, but if one cannot make a statement while looking into another's eyes, then they do not mean what they are saying. Tell me again." 

She was far too close. So much so that Neve could see herself in the woman's eyes. Still, she tried. 

"Thank you," Neve said once more. "Seriously. For everything. I... I hope you'll have my back in the future, too." 

Erin briefly narrowed her eyes. Emotions that Neve was simply too socially stunted to identify popped up on the woman's face before she then turned away and let Neve go. 

"This place smells of blood, guts, and death. If you want to show your gratitude to me, you could start by taking me elsewhere." 

"Okay," Neve replied. "First things first, let's let everyone know that it's done." 

On that note, Neve walked out of the temple with Erin following behind her. 

The citizens of Rorvan waited up ahead. Tense and hesitant, their eyes lit up as they saw Neve exit the Infested Hall. 

Ministress Jia was closest to it. Neve locked eyes with her and smiled. 

"It's done," she stated. 

In all honesty, she couldn't tell if she'd ever felt quite as proud as she had at that moment. 

The crowd erupted. Cheering, laughing, and hollering, they hugged and kissed each other as Neve smiled, watching on. She lost herself in that sight for a moment. The direct result of her and Erin's combined efforts. 

Ministress Jia fell to her knees. The stoic woman started crying as a couple of soldiers crouched to hug her. The disbelief on her face was stunning to see. 

Kelvon, the old mage, stood a short distance away, watching the nulin people the same way Neve was. He nodded at her as he noticed Neve's gaze. 

Ahlakan and her mother both made their way to the temple's entrance, cutting through the chaotic crowd, and both of them hugged Neve tightly. They were so happy that they paid no mind to her blood-covered clothes. They embraced her regardless.

"You did it," Ahlakan muttered quietly. "You saved us."

"I..." 

But, it was as Neve stood there, Ahlakan and Minerva's heads buried in her shoulders, that she saw something. 

One of the citizens, to the far back, disappeared. 

A young man, he dissolved into dust swept away by a sudden wind. No one around him seemed to notice.  1

Suddenly, Neve's blood ran cold. 

[... Wait.]

A few others disappeared, then. Her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. This was happening. 

[Wait, wait!] 

Slowly, many of the hundreds of people who had called this city their homes began turning into puffs of smoke, clouds of dust that disappeared so easily that it was like they were never there, to begin with. 

"Neve," Ahlakan said, but the healer couldn't take her eyes off what was happening. 

[Don't...] 

"It... It would seem I owe you an apology," Ministress Jia said. The woman had stood up and walked over to Neve, who hadn't noticed her approaching at all. "For so long, the people of this city had looked to me for salvation. I, pathetic as I am, could do nothing but cry myself to sleep night after night, wishing I could find a way out of this for us. In truth, though, I never thought..." She wiped away a tear. "Thank you. On behalf of everyone in Rorvan, you have our gratitude." 

As she spoke those words, Jia faded away. 

There was no trace left of her. No one aside from Erin reacted to her disappearance. It was like she had never been there at all. 

"Erin!" That soldier who the lamia had spent time training with walked up next. She slapped Erin's shoulder, a hearty laugh pouring out from her lips as she looked back at the lamia. "You're gonna have to show us how exactly you managed to take down these endless hordes. I could tell when we fought. You're good. Really good. Maybe we could spar under the sun, one of these days, eh?" 

"Certainly, I-"

Erin couldn't respond further than that. Before she could finish that sentence, that soldier and all others around her disappeared. 

It was Neve, of course, who Erin looked to for answers. 

[Tamira, please,] Neve thought, as all of the citizens of this underground city disappeared, one by one. [At least... At least let them walk on grass for a few minutes, for fuck's sake.] 

"Would that make a difference?" The snake replied in Neve's thoughts. "Even if they're bound to fade anyway, would getting to see these people, any of these people, experience joy change how you're feeling right now?"

Tamira waited. 

[... Yes!] Neve finally replied as she watched them go. [It... It would.] 

"... Hmph. Is that so?" She asked, pondering that response. "Fine. Hold on, then. Maybe I can work something out." 

Neve didn't hear her voice again for a while, after that. 

Before long, it was just Neve, Erin, Ahlakan, Minerva, and Kelvon there. Everyone else just vanished. 

She hadn't noticed it yet, but Neve was holding on so tightly to Ahlakan that it hurt, almost like, if she tried hard enough, she could stop her from suffering the same fate. 

"For so long, I worried that my child would die of starvation without ever seeing sunlight," Minerva said. "Thanks to you, that will not happen. You have my thanks. I... If only her father could see this," she whispered, before disappearing as well. 

Neve fell to her knees. 

[But...] 

All of the hopeless, desperate looks she'd seen on the people's faces as she walked through this city came to her mind. 

"I know you probably gained something from all of this," Ahlakan said, bringing Neve's eyes up to her. White irises in a sea of black that Neve could drown in looked back at her with so much fondness that Neve's heart hurt. "But, still. I have spent so many years picturing the outside world. What my people had seen and felt that I would never get to experience. Because of you, I might just see some of it. My hero." 

Ahlakan then leaned forward and pressed her lips against Neve's. Ahlakan's side of the kiss was soft and warm. Neve's side was pleading and hopeful. 

Alas, as she lost sense of Ahlakan's lips on hers, Neve opened her eyes and found that she was no longer there. 

Neve felt her eyes watering up. Erin had looked suspicious initially, but upon seeing Neve's reaction, it became clear to her that Neve had nothing to do with this. 

"Well, now that you've had a taste of it, how does responsibility feel?" Kelvon suddenly asked. Neve didn't even glance the old mage's way. "To have the hopes of hundreds on your shoulders... I wish I could tell you it would work out like this every time, but that would be a lie. Sometimes, you will fail. Sometimes, you will disappoint people. But," the old man smiled, looking at something Neve couldn't see, "sometimes, if you try hard enough, you can create beautiful moments like these," he stated, before fading away as well.

Neve could find no beauty, though. All she felt was a growing resentment toward the Forces That Be for dragging her along this road. 

If the point of this had been to make her hate them even more, well, they'd succeeded. 

"Neve?" Erin asked. The warrior princess's tone was almost as soft as it had been when she and Neve first met. "Are you...?"

"It's fine," Neve replied quietly. Picking herself up, she shook her head and smiled at her summon. "I... I don't know what I was expecting. Come on, let's just get the fuck out of here."

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