Though a new mystery was dropped on her lap with Shana's visit, there was still need to climb Alos's Dungeon. Touching the cream-colored outer surface of the monolith that pierced high into the air, Rose spoke amidst the barriers and platforms that floated in the air.
"Dungeon - Access - Floor 5."
[Authorizing access.]
[Authorization completed.]
[Beginning transmission.]
The familiar white circle, swimming with unknown mysteries, descended upon them and touched the base of the metal platform as the back of her hand shone.
[Entering floor 5.]
She felt the sensation of sleeping, or at least what she thought that state of being was tantamount to. She was aware of nothing, not even the hum of the core within her heart. In that state of oblivion, a voice rang inside her mind.
[I have managed to gain more emergency permissions. My words, though limited, should be a bit more informative now Rose. At least between the space of time you enter the dungeon and actually set foot upon a floor.] A voice said, familiar yet unfamiliar. [I can now introduce myself. I am Eve.]
Rose thought the words of the dungeon, if she could even call it that, were still useless. All she knew was that it wanted her to reach the top of Alos's Great Dungeon, which it termed 'Asura's Legacy', in order to claim or, as it said, 'reclaim' something that once belonged to her.
[Additionally, I have now realized my blunder.] It said. [You are no longer Rose Igris Blake. Your newest form wishes to be called Rose Ausra, I surmise?]
As Rose felt a mana surrounding her that didn't seem to physically exist yet, she realized her transfer to the fifth floor was almost completed. In that instant, she finally realized something: she could form a single, coherent, thought.
'I do prefer to be called Rose Ausra, yes,' She thought, imagining her thoughts connecting to the dungeon itself. She wasn't sure if it could even reply to her. 'Eve?'
[Yes, you may call me Eve.] It replied and paused. [our time is up. I wish you luck with the fifth floor.]
". . ."
It left without saying much of anything once again. Though, Rose figured, at least she had a name she could attach to the voice. Eve, it called itself, and, this time, it addressed her properly as Rose Ausra, not Rose Igris Blake. That, she was thankful for.
'Newest form, it said. . .' She thought mildly, feeling herself clash against a condensation of mana. She was now certain that she would soon reach the fifth floor. 'That's an odd phrasing that could mean anything.'
Light came and her slumber ended. Rose blinked her eyes, feeling ground beneath her feet, and her five senses returned to her. She turned her head, seeing Elsa at her left and Lilias at her right.
"Back again," Elsa grinned. Then she frowned. "Yeah, okay, the last guardian was a disgusting crawler. . .expected something else."
"Like what?" Lilias asked.
Elsa shrugged.
"Something that doesn't break its body into minions."
As soon as they were back within the dungeon, their full memories of the events that had occurred within came back. 'With two cases of it now, that means the dungeon also stores our memories,' Rose thought, 'And if it does do that, then it likely stores general information about us as well to some degree.' It wasn't all that shocking, merely a confirmation of her conjectures.
"Anyway, what can we get on this floor?" Elsa turned to Rose.
"The talons and eyes of brightbirds," Rose said, speaking the things she already memorized from the association's website, "And there was also a possible connection of being able to obtain orium on this floor based on what previous dungeoneers have come out with, but where exactly we can get the metal from is unknown."
"Gotcha, gotcha." Elsa nodded, patting her satchel. Along with lunch, she had brought stasis-tubes with them, loaned from the Dungeon Association. The pack contained three small, cylindrical, objects that resembled glass tubes, items that could keep blood or the body parts of beasts fresh.
Lilias glanced at the sky. "We have trouble."
"Hmm?"
All three turned their gaze across the barren earth of the fifth floor. The place was a rocky land. Mixed with the desolate landscape that stretched further than the limits of their sights, they could see protruding brown rocks and mountains in the distance. Everything was shadowed under the azure sky.
Above some bushes in the distance that looked like intertwining trees, the screech of a bird rang as the creature flapped in the air. Its form was jet black, absorbing the light of the sun as if it were an oddly-shaped hole in the atmosphere as its crimson eyes glared down and it circled them.
". . .the heck is that?" Elsa squinted at it.
"I wouldn't know," Lilias shrugged, raising her left hand, the crimson sword splitting down its length to reveal a chamber already coiling with mana. "Yet, a mana beast is a mana beast."
She aimed at the creature, arm tracking it and ready to fire at any moment. Rose, however, raised her hands.
"Hold on, Lilias," She said as flames sparked above her palms, "I want to try something."
Though tilting her head, the dragonian lowered her weapon and nodded. Elsa, as well, removed her hand from the pulse pistol strapped to her waist as she watched Rose's movement.
The flames molded with her guidance as the surrounding mana listened to her will. In seconds, she formed a bow in her left hand, and an arrow in her right, both flaming constructs tinted with the blue of condensed mana. Though Rose immediately felt a strain on her mind, she knocked the arrow and aimed.
". . .since when can you make weapons?" Elsa questioned, wide-eyed. "Finally got your flames under control?"
Lilias glanced at her, expecting an answer as well.
"Since yesterday," Rose replied, "And no, not my flames, they can't be naturally controlled to such a degree, I'm simply using mana to mold them. Enough that a hefty chunk of my attention is required."
Elsa nodded, then asked, "Can you hit it?"
Rose smiled, golden eyes tracking her prey. She saw the bird twitch, she saw its head and beak angle down, and she saw its fluttering wings soon to fold upon themselves and bring it to a dive. Something it had to stop in place to do.
"It's simply geometry, physics, and some tracking," Rose replied. She wasn't adept with a bow and arrow, as she had never been trained in it, but any person with common sense would understand the basics of pointing and releasing.
As Elsa rolled her eyes, she released her fingers, the twip of the bow string resounding as the flaming arrow flew through the air.
"So the chance of me missing is low."
The air whistled as the projectile flew. Yet, before hitting the bird, the blue that coated the arrow broke apart as the flames within sputtered, the form broke into mere sparks that drifted with the wind.
Rose tilted her head, "Huh?"
She stood, blinking, completely puzzled and lost in her thoughts. She took a moment and recognized the height at which her attack broke down, as well as the cause. It wasn't due to any outside influence, that much she knew, so, it could only be one other reason. . .
'My constructs escape the shell of mana I create to hold them once they leave my immediate radius of 3 meters?' She pondered. That was her hypothesis for now, solely founded on one event. 'The mana holding them together shatters. My control of mana doesn't reach that far.'
As she was busy pondering this, however, a tail wrapped around her waist and pulled her back.
"Be careful, would you?"
Lilias spoke, slashing her blade upwards.
The speeding beak of the diving creature met her sword.
It blurred, passing through.
Lilias's crimson eyes expanded.
An explosion of black ripped through the air, inky feathers shooting out randomly like deadly arrows, breaking earth and whistling through the wind.
Rose and Lilias were flung back, the force of the thing throwing them across the ground. The dragonian laid, momentarily dazed, but the homunculus jogged herself out of her stupor quicker.
Mana flooded her brain as the world slowed.
Besides her, Lilias's face was bloody, rips on the upper part of her clothing. She had taken the brunt of the initial explosion. Over head, feathers flew, some angling towards them, others flying what towards Elsa's location. If they stayed where they were, they would be sitting ducks.
Rose narrowed her eyes, her brain splitting with pain as the world regained its speed, and she jumped up, one arm supporting Lilias, and the other herself. Immediately, she found herself faced with a barrage.
She gritted her teeth as she angled her body to the side, feathers grazing her legs, arms, and upper body while she protected Lilias. Then she moved once more, twisting herself and Lilias as her golden eyes jumped about, looking for the path with the most minimal damage. The piercing feathers were thankfully random, and spread about, so this much was possible.
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'Thankfully it isn't a barrage of pulses seeking me.'
As they moved back, Rose summoned <Igris> and slashed, fire splashed before her, burning the air and erupting forward. The feathers, however, ignored her attack and flew right through, immune to it.
Pulses rained forward, but the feathers flew unhindered, shattering them. What few pulses that met the floating core of the creature did nothing.
"Damn!" Elsa cursed, blood trailing from her thigh and legs, barely avoiding those that found themselves to her. In the end, she was forced to crouch, leap, and roll across the ground or become a pin cushion.
"I'll deal with it," Lilias spoke within Rose's embrace, face healing, her disorientation worn off. "I just need cover for a moment and a clear shot."
Hearing those words, Rose stomped her feet and a wall of blue-tinted fire rose as the two stopped in place. Clanks rang as feathers hit the fiery wall, coming to a stop this time as they embedded themselves within the vertical construct. As Lilias aimed her weapon, Rose snapped her fingers and the wall dropped, dying into flames.
A ray of blue shot from Lilias's left sword and drilled through a floating core eclipsed by black shadows. A crack appeared, expanding until the thing shattered away, revealing a mana core which clucked onto the ground.
". . .well damn," Elsa mouthed, standing and dusting herself off.
The trio stood, staring at the sole remnant of the attack. The body and feathers of the bird were gone. Though they were injured, Lilias and Rose healed, while there were nothing more than scratches on Elsa, wounds that would disappear on their own even if she didn't find a beast to suck vitality from.
"You really shouldn't ponder so strongly while a creature still lurks about," Lilias spoke immediately, sighing as the sword in her hand returned to blade form. "When you're in your head, you tend to ignore your surroundings, especially the passage of time."
Rose nodded, staring at the mana core a couple meters in front of them. Being a homunculus that lived through time without her physiology experiencing its segments, days feeling like one long stream, if she was lost in thought, her attention would drift away from everything else unless a stimulus regained it. Though usually only happening in full safety, this time it had occurred due to her shock.
"I admit, that is a problem of mine," She replied, "Sorry. Though this time it was due to a surprising failure, I'll try not to do it again."
Lilias nodded. "That's alright then."
"Thank you," Rose replied as flames appeared atop her palms.
Elsa, on the other hand, lowered her pulse pistol, returning it to her hip and finding that she had been useless in the fight.
'Damn,' She thought.
The two had taken care of the bird before anything more occurred. Not only was Lilias's reaction time faster than her own, Elsa would have needed to get in close to attack the beast's core effectively, lest she shift into wolf form and take the time to charge and fire her most powerful attack.
Then she stared at the flames, remembering how Rose could now shape them into weapons. Though the homunculus failed to hit the bird due to the arrow shattering apart, Elsa had different thoughts about that.
'She got stronger. . .' She thought. 'I can't do the same. . .' A part of her was happy for the girl, genuinely so, but another part was saddened. She had shied away from thinking about it, but every passing day, she wondered if Rose even needed her. She glanced at the expressionless Lilias besides her and thought, 'Do they even need me?'
Not only was she leagues weaker than the two, certain that they could kill her with ease if it came down to it, certain that they could climb this dungeon far faster with just the both of them, she was also a liability. As a human, she hurt easily and couldn't naturally heal without her Vampiric Tree spirit, something with more limiters than what the other two had.
'Am I a burden to them?'
They had turned down an invitation to what was supposedly the best guild in Alos. That made Elsa happy, especially with how Lilias had smacked Victor—the man had pissed her off. Yet the fact of the matter was that Rose and Lilias had been scouted, not her. Certainly if they joined a guild, wouldn't their trek through the dungeon be far easier? Wouldn't both of them be able to achieve what they wanted faster?
As it stood, Elsa didn't think she could offer much to them but her cooking, which was comical. Even in the slums, she had only been able to sing for Rose at her lowest point. Then, when she did fight alongside Rose, she had been injured, partially becoming the reason the girl became embroidered in a war. Finally, here within Alos, she was simply going through the motions of following after he. Even when Rose came back from meeting her creator, clothing ripped, body healing, and clearly distraught, Elsa had only been able to offer nothing more than comfort.
"Comfort. . ." She murmured as she thought, "Is that enough?"
When it mattered... When Rose eventually fought with those even she couldn't outright defeat easily. . .what would Elsa do? Would she only be there to comfort her losses once more? Was that enough?
'It's not enough,' She grimaced.
She didn't want to only be a comforter for the girl. It wasn't what she desired. As she gazed at Rose's form, stomach churning, she realized she couldn't tell Rose her feelings. She couldn't tell Rose how she truly felt about her because it would become a burden, yet another burden for someone who already had a lot on her plate.
Perhaps, she thought as she stared at the landscape around them, when she became stronger, enough to be Rose's equal, enough to lift the girl's weight if even just a little, she would tell her.
'I don't even know if she likes girls or guys though' Elsa cynically thought. Though she had been indulged many times by Rose, she was unsure of the girl's true feelings. Sometimes they felt like best friends, which was good, and other times it was something hard to recognize, something hard to put her finger on.
Rose turned her gaze towards Elsa, standing from picking up the bird's mana orb.
"Is comfort enough?" She asked, tilting her head.
Elsa chuckled. Of course the girl could hear her murmuring.
"Nothing, nothing," Elsa waved her hand, "Let's just get this floor over with. . .it looks massive."
"That it does." Rose nodded.
As Elsa took a step forward, Lilias's crimson eyes followed her back. Unseen by the other two, there was a light smile on her face. She was amused, perhaps, as she kept her thoughts to herself. Unconsciously, her tail wrapped about her waist as she followed after them.
Rose led them, every step she made summoning flames that crawled upon the surrounding earth, exploding weakly far off away from them in a circle about the trio.
"What are you doing?" Elsa asked.
"Running some tests," Rose replied.
"On your Gear?" Lilias asked, watching with interest.
Rose nodded. For a moment, she debated telling her her findings, then she mentally shrugged. She could trust Lilias.
"It seems I can summon my flames within about the range of my sword if I were to hold it and extend my arm," She explained. It made sense seeing as the weapon, though not summoned itself, was the source of the flames. "Furthermore, I can control them to, say, explode or strengthen to a deeper crimson all the way till about 50 meters."
Lilias and Elsa raised a brow at the same time, swiveling their heads and nodding.
"Seems about right," Elsa said.
"Anything else?" Lilias asked.
"Hmm. . ."
Rose thought for a moment.
"Well," She said, holding back a headache splitting her brain as she focused and listened to the hum of mana around her. "It seems I can currently control mana in a 3-meter radius, effectively limiting my constructs to close or medium range."
"I see." Lilias nodded. "And when they try and extend beyond that, the mana keeping them together falls out of your control, and your flames break out of the shell? I'm assuming that was what occurred to your arrow and caused you to take a moment to delve into your thoughts, analyzing it?"
". . .the hell, you got all that that quickly?"
Elsa and Rose turned a glance at a fully confident Lilias with surprise.
"Correct," Rose muttered.
As it stood, her flames still refused to listen to fine control and could only be forced to shape with mana. It was as if, in its default state, her Gear was a raging weapon whose two switches were 'safe' and 'dangerous' with little in-between. That seemed interesting to Rose. After all, the dragonian had stated that Gears were a representation of a person's soul. Was she then just a weapon utilized best by pointing at something and commanded to rage? If Shana's findings were to be taken at face value. . .that might be the case.
As Rose pondered momentarily on her being, Lilias chuckled.
"Even the best at controlling mana require time and effort to extend their range," She said, "You'll get there sooner than later. For now, however, I believe we should focus on this floor. . .with fewer experiments in battle."
As Elsa laughed, Rose rolled her eyes with a bit of embarrassment. Looking at Lilias's face returning to placidness, she vowed never to experiment in the heat of battle again unless she was completely sure of herself. Even with fair intentions, and speaking with complete truth, the dragonian was far too good at getting under people's skin. It was the one thing Rose doubted she could ever beat her in.
"One of these days, I'll accidentally stab you," Rose said as she returned her gaze forward.
Yet, just as Lilias was about to reply, the homunculus stopped in place, golden eyes turning a hue of blue.
"There's other dungeoneers on this floor," Rose spoke as she narrowed her eyes. Her gaze drifted over the desolate terrain, the bushes soon to completely shrivel and die, and saw individuals advancing from between mountains. "They're heading our way right now."