Divinity

--- [Alex’s perspective]

Just like before, the door disappeared the moment we stepped back into the main room.

With every challenge now completed, the dungeon changes…

The walls spread apart and reveal another large door hidden behind them.

That must be where the boss is…

We promised Shin and Illian we wouldn’t fight it without them, and I don’t plan on breaking that promise.

Waiting for them will be a good time to get some rest and recover our stamina.

--- A little while later

“Yo!” – Shin

They’re back!

“You look so much better, Illian! How do you feel?” – Lett

“Great! The healers worked their magic; I feel better than ever before!” – Illian

During his fight in the D-rank exam, his body got severely burned by his opponent’s specialty.

Even experienced healers struggle to fully heal damage caused by other specialties.

It seems the burning he experienced in this dungeon is no different.

Even while fully clothed, we can still see the scarring…

There are marks on his face, hands, neck, and probably everywhere else too…

He might not show it, but I bet it hurts…

I can’t keep letting him put his life on the line for us like that.

It’s not fair to him.

I’m the strongest one of us, I should act like it too.

I won’t let him get hurt any more…

Next time, I’ll take the burden, so he doesn’t have to.

“Anyways, are you guys ready?” – Illian

“Yup.” – Alex

“Same here.” – Lett

“You know I am.” – Shin

“Alright, let’s go then.” – Illian

We walk up to the gigantic set of doors, and push them open.

Behind them is a large room with dim lighting from burning torches and candles.

Despite clearly being inside, with visible walls, ceiling, and all, there is hilly terrain.

Behind the terrifying screeches of the boss, I can hear the calming melody of a flowing river.

The entire room is like a combination of all the challenges.

Fire, water, and earth…

And so is the boss.

It’s like a whirlwind of all three elements.

It reaches its arm out and a wave of flames shoots towards us.

At the same time, boulders start raining from the sky.

We dodge, but it forces us to scatter.

It forms a tsunami so scalding hot most of it evaporates before it even reaches us.

I absorb it all with my specialty, but as soon as I’m done, magma erupts from the ground, spreading across the room.

Lett teleports out of the way, and Shin freezes it with his ice swords.

Illian, however, is out of clones…

He has no way to defend against it…

I rush over to him, and quickly absorb it before it hits him.

This boss is putting us under constant pressure with every element at its disposal.

We need to start fighting back!

Lett teleports over to it and hits it with a barrage of attacks.

It quickly shifts the elements in its body around, only letting her attack water.

Her fists simply pass right through, leaving it completely unharmed.

Shin tries using his ice swords on it, but just like with Lett, it moves the elements around.

Every time he strikes it, all he hits is the rock-solid earth.

It’s probably just as hard, if not harder, than the golem at the top of the mountain.

His swords snap, and with every strike, he’s forced to create a new one.

“Lett, lets hit the same spot at the same time!” – Shin

“Okay!” – Lett

She hits the boss, and the spot becomes water.

At the same time, Shin stabs it with his ice sword, freezing it.

It lets out a cry; that clearly hurt it.

He tries doing it again, but it shifts over to earth, snapping his sword in half.

Instead of creating another one made of ice, he creates a fire sword.

He slices the earth, and it starts melting away.

It yet again screams, and before Shin can do it again, it moves the elements around, making his sword hit a fire part instead.

Fire can’t burn fire, so it doesn’t cause any damage.

While this was going on, me and Illian made our way over to the boss too.

It tries to get us away by shooting out a concentrated beam of every element, but I absorb it all, letting the others focus on offense.

As soon as I get the chance to, I start trying to absorb parts of the boss itself.

As I swipe my hand through the water and flames, parts of it disappear.

It tries to block by only letting me hit earth, but I actually have the power to break through it.

With every punch, chunks are broken off.

As we all work together, we’re slowly but surely whittling it down.

The way it responds is the same every time, so fighting it almost feels like a routine.

After doing it for a while, we start getting comfortable.

Out of nowhere, it completely changes the way it fights.

Instead of trying to defend by shifting the elements around to whatever suits best, it forgoes all defense, and focuses purely on offense.

It knows spreading its attacks around too much won’t work as shown before, so it picks a target and goes all out on them.

I don’t know if it could intelligently pick out the best target, or if it was random, but it goes for Illian.

With the sudden shift in behavior, he isn’t able to react in time.

I notice it, and I put myself between him and it.

The attack is large and uses all three elements at once; I try to absorb it, but it’s simply too big.

It slams into my body, breaking my left arm.

Luckily, Illian is unharmed.

Right as this was happening, Shin and Lett took the opportunity to damage it as much as possible.

Most of the earth melted, and the water is almost completely frozen.

It tries to move, but it can’t.

It’s barely even still alive.

With all my power, I break the last pieces of earth, and shatter all the ice.

With only fire remaining, it quickly fades away…

I guess it needed all three elements to live.

“Are you okay, Alex?! You didn’t have to do that…” – Illian

“I’m fine, don’t worry!” – Alex

He looks sad…

Sad that I got hurt trying to protect him.

Just like he did for us…

“Hey, cheer up! We beat the boss! We finally completed our first D-rank mission!” – Alex

“Yeah…” – Illian

He looks like he has a lot on his mind…

I wrap my arm around his shoulder.

“Seriously, it’s fine! Don’t worry about it, okay? You put yourself in danger for us, it’s only fair I do the same for you.” – Alex

I look over at Shin and Lett.

“And you two! Good work. Had you stopped attacking to help Illian too, we would have missed our biggest opportunity to beat it. You put your trust in me instead.” – Alex

“Of course.” – Shin

Lett nods along.

After a short rest, just as we’re ready to leave, Illian says something…

“Guys, we’ve all been through a lot. Not just today in this dungeon, but in general. We’ve fought side by side for a long time, and I consider you all my closest friends… There’s no good time to say this, but…” – Illian

He stops and thinks for a moment.

What is this about?

Where is all this coming from?

Does it have something to do with me getting hurt to save him?

“Actually, can I tell you a story?” – Illian

He looks me directly in the eyes.

“Uhm… Sure? Go ahead.” – Alex

“Once upon a time, there was a poor boy in the outer area. The village was small, and they didn’t have much. Not that different from the one you grew up in, Alex… The boy and his family struggled just getting enough food to eat. It was a daily struggle, and they were barely scraping by.

As it turns out, ‘barely scraping by’ wasn’t good enough. Something as simple as bad weather for an extended period was enough to tip the scales. They could no longer feed themselves.

That’s when the bad men arrived… They took the little boy’s father away in exchange for food. The boy objected, but he had no power to fight back. For the price of giving up a loved one, you’d think they’d at least get enough to live off for a long time. They did not. It didn’t take long before they were yet again on the brink of starvation.

That’s when the bad men reared their ugly heads once more. They took the mother, and as compensation, the boy was given two loaves of bread.

Only the boy and his older sister remained. They were both still kids and did not have the necessary knowledge, nor the means, to operate the farm on their own. It did not take long before those loaves were gone.

That’s when the bad men showed up for the third, and final, time. They took his sister, and in return, they gave him one loaf of bread.

The boy didn’t care about food. All he wanted was his family. He ran away and swore that one day he’d get them back.” – Illian

“Illian…” – Lett

“…” – Shin

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that…” – Alex

“Alex… This story was not just about me, but millions of kids around the world. People in poor areas are preyed upon, and sold as slaves for the benefit of the rich and powerful. Every single day that passes, dozens of kids meet the same fate I did. Some have it even worse… You know, not every parent is kind enough to sell themselves first…” – Illian

I…

I don’t know what to say…

Should I comfort him?

Help him?

Stay quiet…?

His somber tone fades away, and determination is all that’s left.

“Alex. I want this to end. More than anything else in the world!” – Illian

He grabs my hand, and holds it tightly.

“Do you? Do you want it to end?” – Illian

“I… Of course! What you went through was horrible. Nobody should have to experience that.” – Alex

“Good… Good.” – Illian

He lets go and takes a step back.

At the same time, he takes a deep breath…

“I’m going to be completely honest with you. For the first time ever…” – Illian

He glances over at Shin…

“What do mean?” – Alex

“I’m part of a certain organization… ‘The END’ is what it’s called.” – Illian

The END?

Isn’t that…?

Isn’t that the one Arthur warned me about?!

The ones who were after me?

Illian, who are you…?

“The END…” – Shin

“Do you know them?” – Alex

“No, I…” – Shin

Before he gets to explain, Illian chimes in.

“We’re a group filled with people whose stories are like mine. All we want is an end to all the suffering. An end to the war on humanity itself. An end to… well… the Emperor.” – Illian

“The Emperor?!” – Alex

“Yes. He’s the one behind it all. The root of almost all suffering. The most evil man in all of history. And Alex… You’re his son.” – Illian