"I killed you, and you didn't stay dead. Now, you threaten and hurt my best friend. If you wanna die that bad, just kill yourself." A tense atmosphere settled over the three in the room.

"I cannot die in this place. I will simply come back." Lich's grip on the monster tightened.

"Oh, now you speak to me. You didn't even speak once when I was alone up here a couple decades ago." All the mouths on the thing burst out laughing.

"Do you speak with your food?" Lich's skull began twitching with anger.

"No. I also don't trust a thing like you who excels in illusion and trickery. I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, and I can throw you quite far. Graveyard of the Gods my ass. This place is more like the trashcan of the gods if you are here. I think you were thrown away by the gods because you look more like a failed creation." At those words, the already tense atmosphere increased by a tenfold. The two inhabitants of the cavern gave off an extreme pressure that made it extremely hard for Pyrrha to breath.

"Do you WANT me to kill your precious friend?" The monster tightened its hold on Pyrrha's throat threatening to snap it.

"I'd love to see you try." At those words, Lich's shadow burst up in the form of a blade cutting off the monster's arm holding Pyrrha. Before the monster could even attempt to scream in annoyance, Lich whipped around and threw the monster down the hallway. A resounding crash echoed from the direction of the monster after a couple seconds.

"Lich!" Pyrrha tried to rush over and hug Lich, but she did not quite recover from the trauma to her leg so she stumbled. Lich caught her before she fell on her face, and she hugged Lich's ribcage as hard as she could. It felt rough, but it was comforting to know that she was finally no longer alone.

"Yeah. I'm back." Lich returned Pyrrha's hug as he stepped back to get a good look at her. "Well… At least you survived. However, why are you still here? I told you not to wait for me and go to the surface."

Pyrrha sighed in exasperation before speaking. "I didn't wait for you Lich. This floor is messing with my head with how much it changes its structures. In fact, your directions were not very useful at all. I couldn't even understand what some of these words meant, like I don't know what a Tyranid even looks like!"

"Wait, I wrote that? Gimme that." Lich took his notebook from Pyrrha before facepalming at his stupidity as he reread what he wrote.

"I am so sorry. I keep forgetting that you aren't from my world so you won't get these references. The fact that you even got this far without getting utterly lost is an achievement alright." Lich was about to say more; however, an ear-piercing roar shattered the calm as they were reminded that there was something still out there that needed a beating.

"Right. We still have that asshole. I'm sure that we have a lot to talk about, but let's talk after we put this thing down." At those words, Pyrrha got into ready position with her remaining three shards orbiting around her and a dagger pointed in the direction of the roar.

"Umm. Pyrrha. Do you mind stepping back a bit? I don't think you would be of much help this fight." Pyrrha was about to complain, but then she realized that Lich did have a point. She wasn't going to do much with her current equipment.

As she positioned herself behind Lich, a blur burst out from the doorway and tried to bypass Lich to attack Pyrrha. Lich realized the monster's goal so he quickly extended his arm to grab one of its appendages and flicked it to the ground. This time the monster changed forms to what could be best described as a terrestrial octopus. There was no other way to describe it due to the massive clump of tentacles that were twirling around the main body.

"Pyrrha! Get out of here!" Lich managed to grunt a warning out before the tentacles wrapped around his spine and began smashing him onto the ground until Lich electrocuted the monster. The cavern began dancing with shadows from the additional lighting caused by Lich's spell. Pyrrha did not stay in the room to watch the ensuing battle for she knew that she would simply be dead weight. Once she was gone, Lich should be able to utilize his more destructive spells.

Sadly, the monster realized this as well. It has already fought with Lich once when Lich still lived in the top floor. It knew of the destructive powers that Lich was capable of wielding. The monster also knew that the main reason why he did not use those spells yet was because of Pyrrha being in the vicinity. Before Pyrrha was able to escape into the hallways, it used its tentacles to collapse the exit that Pyrrha was heading for, forcing Pyrrha to jump back to avoid getting crushed by the falling debris.

"You are going nowhere." It squeezed out those words before it was hurled away by Lich. Lich then proceeded to grapple the monster's main body and used it as a battering ram to crash through the wall into the next room. He then followed it up by a barrage of ground spike which the monster dodged by jumping and latching onto the ceiling with its appendages. Afterwards, it began raining down lashes at hypersonic speeds with its tentacles forcing Lich to go on the defensive with dodging. Even then, he was not fast enough resulting in one of his skeletal arms shattering from using it too much to block against the attacks. Meanwhile Pyrrha was hiding behind one of the boulders trying to stay as small as possible in order to avoid getting hit by the monster's attack. If she was hit even once by the tentacle, she would definitely lose more than a limb.

Once Lich lost his arm, the monster juked Lich into dodging before jumping from its position at the ceiling in order to engage in close combat with Lich. Lich was expecting another tentacle instead so he wasn't prepared for the body slam by the monster. Soon, they began exchanging a flurry of attacks on each other, but Lich was on the losing end. Cracks began appearing on his skulls, ribcage, and his femur as he desperately tried to fight with only one arm.

Pyrrha knew how bad the situation was for Lich; however, she could be able to help Lich since she still had the arm that detached from him when he threw her in the DF. If she could just get the extra arm to him, then he should quickly be able to get the upper hand in this fight. Pyrrha took a glance at the blur of the two titans fighting. She could barely even make out the punches, blocks, kicks, and whips that each one was dealing to each other. Going near those two without a good well-thought-out plan was going to be suicide. Desperate for anything that could help her, she looked around the room and rummaged around her little pack made out of her red sash.

While Pyrrha was busy trying to think of a way to get Lich his extra arm, Lich himself was, to put things quite simply, getting his ass kicked. When the monster took a pace back and lowered its tentacles allowing for a straight shot to the disfigured face, Lich shot forward and tried to punch it with a fire-wreathed fist. It was too late by then for Lich to realize that it was a feint so he ended up taking a huge hit to the right side of his skull resulting in his parietal bone caving inward. Lich fell down on his spine, and tricked the monster into diving for him allowing him to kick the monster's face upward. Just then, a red sash with two pieces of iron tied to each end wrapped itself around the monster's face, forcing it to disengage.

"Lich!" Pyrrha then threw Lich's arm towards his fallen figure. With a quick nod of thanks, Lich grabbed his old arm from mid-air and attached it to his socket. The arm was still weaker than normal due to erosion from the sands, but it was better than nothing. The monster was having a difficult time unwrapping the red sash from its face so Lich quickly took advantage of it by using a ground spell to pin its feet in place, and Lich proceeded to dash forward using a massive burst of wind.

He quickly shortened the distance, sunk his fingers into the monster's chest and proceeded to rip it open exposing what looked to be a hideous mockery of the human heart. The monster shrieked with anger at the opening of its weak point. Should Lich create contact between the heart and his box within the monster's body, it would trigger an explosion deeply injuring the monster for a long time, just like last time. Lich's box was already a huge soul battery that oozed with power so putting it in contact with the power core of another powerful monster so haphazardly was an explosion just waiting to happen.

"Pyrrha! The box! Throw it!" Lich yelled at Pyrrha to throw him his box so he could go in for the finishing blow. Pyrrha quickly took off her box and threw it at Lich's outstretched hand…

"Why thank you Pyrrha. How kind of you." Only for Lich to suddenly switch places with the monster. Pyrrha blinked twice to see if she was seeing things properly, but by then it was too late. With the box firmly in the monster's grasp, it smacked Lich aside sending him crashing into the wall and charged through the opposite wall quickly disappearing into the folds of the cavern. Pyrrha's face quickly grew pale, and she ran toward the monster's direction; however, Lich's outstretched skeletal arm quickly stopped her.

"What are you doing?! That thing is going to escape!" At Pyrrha's outburst, Lich merely shook his skull.

"Give it up. That thing is already gone." Pyrrha's head whipped around to stare at Lich's eye sockets. Tears began pooling at the corner of Pyrrha's eyes.

"But. But. It. I didn't mean to… I'm so sorry… I threw it at you though and when I…" Before Pyrrha could utter one more word, Lich pulled in Pyrrha for a hug and quickly stopped her from speaking..

"I know you didn't mean to. I told you. That fucker is an expert at illusion and manipulation. I've learned to tell the difference between illusions and reality, but you wouldn't have developed that skill. Err. At least I hope not. It took me like 60 years of hallucination and madness to learn the difference for me… Anyway! I don't blame you. It was that thing's illusion that got you. It's alright." Lich began wiping away Pyrrha's tears the best he could with his skeletal fingers.

"But Lich. That thing has your box. What if he…" Lich poked Pyrrha's forehead before she could go any further.

"Don't worry about it. This isn't the first time it got ahold of my box. He didn't kill me then. He won't kill me now." Pyrrha's response was a blank look followed by a dead toned 'huh?'. Lich chuckled as he picked up Pyrrha's ripped red sash and handed it to her.

"Well… Let's just say that thing conned me out of my box when I was up here before. It took me a LONG time to get it back. Partly because how good that thing is at hiding its tracks and partly because I really wanted to end my existence, and I thought that thing would kill me."

"Doesn't it mean that we should get it back then?"

"No for two reasons. One, it will take way too long. We don't have the time. You need to get out of here ASAP. Two, my box is quite safe with it to be honest. Far safer than anywhere else in the cavern."

"Wait, what? That thing was promising death and doom with your box."

"Again. That thing excels at illusions and trickery. I would take everything it says with a grain of salt. When I retrieved my box, I found out that thing has a collector's mind or something like that. It has some sort of morbid fascination with my box, and I'm pretty sure it was fapping to it when I finally found it again… Now that I think about it, I REALLY want my box back now…" Lich stared off into space before shaking his head and shrugging.

"Ah well. Priorities. We need to get you out of here first." Lich began pushing her out of the room and into the hallways until Pyrrha stopped.

"Are you SURE about this?" Lich nodded his head vigorously only for another piece of his skull to fall out.

"Yes. That thing didn't kill me last time. It won't kill me this time. Besides, you know how insanely powerful my box is. It will be just fine. Also, you know how fickle my box can be. I have a feeling that if the box was in any danger it will just teleport back to us. Take it from me when I say that the box has an excellent self-preservation mechanism. In addition, I still have my keys with me so he can't open it." Pyrrha began thinking about all the abuse the box went through on the journey up here. It went through the digestive system of a bunch of monsters, it survived a drop into an acidic lake, and it floated on a magma lake like it was a swimming pool. She then thought about the box's teleportation's ability. When she thought deeply about it, she really couldn't feel that Lich's box was in any sort of danger.

"If you say so… By the way, how did the monster get your box the last time. I really can't see you getting robbed." At this question, Lich comically stumbled and began clearing his throat even though he didn't have one.

"Uh… Lich?"

"Hee-hee. Let's just not ask that question." Pyrrha's eyes shot up as she sensed a really good story.

"Ah.. but Lich. It would make me feel so much better if I heard how you lost your arm."

"Pyrrha. Let's be real here. I am not… Fuck you. You know that is playing dirty." Lich tried to look away from Pyrrha's puppy eyes, but it was only a matter of time before he caved.

"Fine. That thing appeared to me in the figure of this smoking hot woman and made me watch this illusion of how it could give me my body back. It only asked for my box so it could make these alterations to revert me. I fell for it." Pyrrha blinked at the absurd story.

"Don't lie to me, Lich. I find it really difficult to believe that you actually fell for that." Lich then coughed out something in response.

"Say what?"

"ItmayhavealsopromisedmesexonceIgotmybodyback." Lich quickly rushed out the last bit of information before he began pulling on Pyrrha. "Alright let's go! Onward to your freedom! But first, let's make you some weapons."

"Wait, Lich. I didn't hear what you said. It promised you what?" However, Pyrrha was straight out ignored as she was dragged behind Lich as he set his mind on walking in the hopes that she would get distracted.

Since Lich could actually understand what he wrote, they were able to find his forge with no problem at all. In addition, the cavern no longer was changing the structure as frequently ever since Lich rejoined Pyrrha. In addition, since Lich still had a good memory of the layout of the top floor, any time he came across a place in which there should have been a hallway, he simply broke open the wall with his spells to gain access to the blocked pathway. As a result, travel went far smoother than when Pyrrha was navigating the top floor by herself.

"Hey, Pyrrha. Do you need new armor as well?" She took a quick glance down at her tattered and burnt armor. With how it was completely torn apart, she might as well been wearing bikini armor. She gave a quick nod as Lich went to work with scavenging for materials. Once he came back with a stone slab that was piled with metal and other materials, he shuts himself in the forge with the flickering lights from the flames coming from the edges of the door.

"Tada! I come bearing gifts like Santa Claus… If he went around giving middle schoolers weapons that is." Lich then handed Pyrrha a replica of her sword/javelin weapon and her lovely shield with a compartment that was filled with metal shavings. Her armor had some modifications. It had two layers. The outer layer was a thin piece of Lich's special alloy, and the second layer was some sort of armor made of a bunch of small circles.

"Oh, that's called chain mail." Pyrrha nodded as she slipped it over her head and began fastening the straps.

"I noticed how you were thinner so I tried to make the armor lighter by doing away with the solid piece of metal like before and replaced it with more emphasis on the chainmail. I should have cut down on some weight hopefully. I can't really feel weight so…"

To be honest, Pyrrha really couldn't feel much difference. She simply shrugged and began moving around before giving a thumbs up. It didn't impede her movements so it was good enough for her. Once she strapped on her helmet and her leg straps, she was good to go.

With new equipment, the duo once more tackled the final horrors the cavern would throw at them. And the cavern wasted no time indeed.

"Uggh. This is new!" Pyrrha groaned and began dodging the brown substance that a couple of monkey Grimm were throwing at them. Lich, on the other hand, simply stood there not caring about the rain of projectiles as they splattered on his bones.

"You know. I never really figured out how these shadowy things can generate poop." Lich threw back a couple of fireballs in return as the Grimm scattered before deciding to swarm them instead. Deciding to conserve his spell usage instead, Lich got out his longsword and made a long sweep cutting down four monkeys in one go before he flipped the sword around, grabbed the blade, and used the pommel of his sword to hammer the Grimm that got too close.

Pyrrha provided cover for Lich's right side as she used her shield to hold the Grimm back as her javelin jabbed at the Grimm that was trying to get past her shield. The last monkey went for a jump attack, but it got impaled by a longsword and a javelin. Lich and Pyrrha grinned at each other as the Grimm dissolved into nothingness.

"Well, that was a good warm up. Hey, why are you walking away?"

"You stink." Pyrrha had her nose pinched in an attempt to block the smell.

"Ahh… Yeah. I don't have a sense of smell anymore. Want a hug?"

"Lich. Get closer, and I will cut off your legs. Don't think I won't since I know that you can simply reattach them again." Lich's response was only a hearty laugh as he began walking off to the closest underground river he could remember with Pyrrha following a respectable distance behind. A couple of Grimm attacks later, they soon heard the rushing sounds of

"Hey. I know this river. We are actually really close to the end now. Just keep following down this bank and a couple more hallways and then BAM. We should arrive at the door I was talking about."

"And we will get there as soon as you wash off that poop. You really stink."

"What are you, my mom?"

"Eww. I don't want to be the mother of a skeleton."

"Oof. You hurt me."

"Hah. Just go wash up please."

"Alright. Alright."

Lich began scrubbing off his skeletal body of every nook and cranny that the shit could have wormed its way into. As a result, it was taking quite a while so Pyrrha decided to take this time to get a bit of sleep. It was difficult trying to sleep by herself due to fears that she would get attacked in her sleep. As a result, she was never able to get enough sleep. She woke up to the sounds of Lich getting up from the river ten minutes later. When Lich turned around, Pyrrha sighed at the poop that still covered the back of his spine.

"Lich. You still have a lot of poop in the crooks of your spine." In response, Lich popped out his skull and looked at his back. "So, I do."

After watching Lich struggle at trying to wash his back, Pyrrha stood up, ripped a piece from her already deteriorating red sash and began wiping his spine.

"Thanks. I've always wanted a back wash… Although I would prefer that I had flesh… and that it was a woman with more developed boobs." Pyrrha merely gave a playful slap on Lich's skull as she continued to wipe his back.

"Lich. Don't these cracks hurt?" Pyrrha fingered all the numerous cracks that appeared all over his body after his fight with the monster.

"Hmm? No. Not really. I told you that most of my sense of touch is practically gone so I don't really feel this." An awkward silence fell over the two.

"Alright. I think I got all of it." Lich leaned down into the river, and after a couple minutes of soaking, the water slowly became brown. "This may sound disgusting, but looking at this water reminds me of chocolate milk."

"Did you like chocolate milk?"

"Like it? I loved that shit! A pity that I won't be able to drink it anymore." Lich finished up and walked out of the river to begin stretching out of habit. With that, they went down the river, getting ever closer to the door that will lead to the outside world.

"Whoa…" Pyrrha gasped in surprise at the majestic hallway that opened up in front of them. Statues and beautiful murals lined the walls that lead up to this small wooden door at the end.

"Yeah… If you examine these works of arts a bit closer, you realize that I don't really agree with this place being the Graveyard of the Gods."

"What? But I read this message on the wall that talked about the gods dying and this place being born."

"Was the message in blood-red color?"

"Yes…"

"Yeah. That was probably an illusion. What this room will tell you is a bunch of random little snip bits from what I could tell. An argument between two gods regarding life, death, and resurrection. Some type of love tragedy. A revolt against the gods. And the final picture." Lich walked up to a mural in which the two gods were dumping what looked to be corpses into a gigantic pit in the ground.

"I'm guessing that the revolt had a lot of people dying so the gods sort of made this graveyard. It might explain all the Grimm too with all the negative emotional remnants a pile-up of corpses after a war would have."

A grim mood fell over Pyrrha as she contemplated what that meant. However, her train of thought was broken when Lich gave her a thump over her head. "Don't think about it too much. You are going to get out of here real soon, and you will never see this place again. And look. Past that door will lead you to another door that will lead you to your freedom."

Of course, it was at that moment the three-headed dog monster burst out of the door and grew to titanic size dwarfing the two. All three heads then proceeded to howl resulting in the room trembling, and Pyrrha had to cover her ears to avoid going deaf.

"Fuck my life." Lich managed to curse before he got smacked by a paw and went crashing through numerous statues. Pyrrha fared no better as she was taken by surprise at the sheer speed of the monster despite its size and was almost swallowed. At the moment, she managed to wedge herself in the dog's mouth preventing it from closing and swallowing her whole. However, her sword was slowly slipping from its placement.

Desperately, she summoned her shards to create a pole that forced the dog's mouth open even wider, and she quickly took advantage of it by jumping off. While she was falling, she braced herself for the impact, but Lich managed to grab her in midair so she avoided taking fall damage.

"Lich. Did that thing just eat all my really sharp shards like it was a snack?"

"You don't question this thing. You just try to survive." Lich blurted this out before he dived forward to avoid an acid spit. He then proceeded to throw a huge wave of lightning and fireballs at the dog so Pyrrha could dive behind a statue to hide. "I also remember this thing being a LOT slower."

After dodging a fire stream, Lich yelled at Pyrrha to prepare herself. With a nod, Pyrrha peeked out to see what Lich was trying to do. With a grunt, Lich propelled himself into the air with the help of a spell and grabbed onto the snout of the armored middle head. He then punched his hand into the nostril and froze all the snot inside the nose. With a howl, the middle head shook off Lich and shot out a stream of metal at Lich, which Pyrrha quickly snatched up with her semblance.

Now that Pyrrha had her greatest and most versatile weapon refilled once more, she jumped out of cover and began fighting more offensively. She used the shards to block many of the physical attacks and cover their movements in a flock of metal. The monster had a hard time pinpointing where they were because of all the shards that were zooming around everywhere. Occasionally, a stream of metal tried to cut the dog; however, its skin was too thick to pierce. Lich's spells had even less effect on the dog for it seemed to actually absorb many of the spells instead. Eventually, the three-headed dog got sick of the goose chase that went on for quite some time so the two side heads began taking a deep breath while the middle armored head glowered at them as if it was taking aim for the other two heads.

"Shit! Pyrrha. Take cover!" Lich created a hole and jumped in, but Pyrrha was too far away so she was forced to concentrate all of her shards in a thick dome around her. A typhoon of fire and acid swirled around the room as it began quickly stripping Pyrrha of the majority of her shards. Just before it could penetrate the second to last layer of Pyrrha's dome, the storm ended, and the dog looked tired as the two heads panted heavily while it looked unsteady on the legs. Lich upon seeing this began formulating a plan.

"Pyrrha! Head for that door!" Lich then stomped on the floor shooting up four pillars of stone unbalancing the dog so that it flipped over with a thundering crash. Realizing what Lich meant, Pyrrha made a mad dash for the door. Sadly, the dog was able to recover quickly by reducing its size and jumped at Pyrrha latching onto her arm with all three mouths. Her aura quickly began to drain from the collective bite as she struggled to free herself before it collapsed.

Lich tackled the dog away from Pyrrha as he began wrestling with it. The dog did have three heads though so Lich was unable to prevent one of the heads from biting his left hand clean off. Cursing, Lich bathed the entire dog with flame, but he might as well been giving it a heat bath since it did absolutely nothing.

The dog was soon able to regain its strength so it regrew to its maximum size once more, crushing Lich underneath one of its paws. While Lich was desperately struggling to escape, Pyrrha quickly came to the rescue by hurling her shield straight at the dog's head. Instead of actually hitting the dog, one of the heads merely ate the shield. All the of the heads turned towards Pyrrha with an annoyed expression.

It was all the distraction Lich needed to create a stone pillar that smacked the monster straight in the dick causing it to leap up in pain. Lich and Pyrrha quickly took this chance to get even closer to the door, but even then the dog would not let them go so easily.

Realizing the danger, Lich made a running jump and stabbed the eye of the dog causing it to shriek in pain. The injured dog began whining while the other two heads slowly got into attack position with hatred and vengeance apparent in their eyes.

"Oh shit." Lich braced himself for the attack. Pyrrha looked over her shoulder to see the predicament that Lich was in. She turned around, used her shards to make her javelin even bigger, and hurled it right at the dog's ass. It was a bull's eye, and while the gigantic dog was enraged at the new wound on its butt, Lich punched the dog's snout, jumped off, picked up Pyrrha, and darted through the door. He then turned around to use his magic to haphazardly create a massive stone barricade around the door.

"Well… let's never do that again. Nice butt shot. Ten out of ten anal to that dog thing. Do you think that would count as bestiality?"

"Does that thing even count as an animal? It feels like it was more of a monster than an animal."

"Well, you can cross 'taking a monster's anal virginity' from your bucket list."

"Why in Monty's name would that be in my bucket list?"

"I don't know." Lich and Pyrrha stared at each other before bursting into laughter. The adrenaline from the fight began to drain out from them as they collapsed onto the ground. It was Lich who got up first and beckoned towards Pyrrha to quickly get up.

"Would ya look at that. The way to your home." Pyrrha stared up at the massive decorative door with the message, 'Only the living shall pass.' She held her breath as she walked up to the orb and placed her hands on it. Slowly, the door opened to reveal a swirling portal with the colors of spring, summer, fall, and winter. Pyrrha looked back at Lich and smiled. They made it.

Disaster struck then and there. The three-headed dog was not pleased with Pyrrha's attack so once it recovered, it began ramming the blocked door with all its might. The entire room groaned and shook violently causing both of them to lose balance and fall down. Due to Lich's haphazard spell in using the ground to barricade the door, he unintentionally weakened the stability of the cavern. After a couple more rams, the ceiling fell.

So close yet so far. Pyrrha thought this as she closed her eyes and covered her face in a futile attempt to protect herself from the falling ceiling as she waited for the embrace of death. It never came. Slowly, she opened her eyes and gasped at the sight. Lich was fast enough to use his magic to solidify the ceiling and stabilize parts of the cavern, but he went into overload so he couldn't finish stabilizing the cavern. As a result, Lich was now holding up the entire ceiling with just his physical skeletal body.

"Lich…" Pyrrha gasped at how cracks were slowly spreading across his skeletal structure. His existing cracks were only getting wider and wider.

"Pyrrha. You have to go. I can't hold it for much longer." Pyrrha edged closer to touch Lich, but a 'No!' from Lich stopped her.

"Don't come close to me. If you touch my body, I feel like its going to break. Listen. To. Me. Get out of here."

"And leave you here! I thought I told you that I was going to leave with you! I can't just abandon you!"

"God damn it, Pyrrha! Now is NOT the time to be a hero." Lich's leg gave way to the pressure as it began splintering so Lich was forced onto his knees. The ceiling slowly lowered forcing Pyrrha to slightly crouch.

"But Lich. I can't just leave you here all alone. I've seen what this place has done to you. All your suicide attempts. You don't deserve to be in here. C'mon. Just hold on to it for a bit longer. We'll think of something!"

"Damn it Pyrrha! We don't have the time!" Lich grunted as one of his arms let out a massive crack. "Look. I made the promise that you will get out of here safely. Look if you want to get into semantics or whatnot, see that bone shard. Take that and go. At least a piece of me will make it outside. Eh?"

"But that's not the same! It's not the same! It's just not fair to just have me escape! You are the one who deserves to go outside the most!" Lich's spine began to make increasingly louder cracks.

"Pyrrha. Please. Unlike you, I can't die. I'll be fine."

"Are you really?"

"Yes! I'll be a hell of a lot more fine than being forced to see you get crushed to death so close to escaping! I've already suffer through so much being trapped in here. Don't make me suffer even more by making me see you die. Just go. Get out of here. Chase your dreams. Maybe fall in love and raise some kids. Most importantly, get out of here and LIVE. Now, please. For me. Leave me." Pyrrha opened her mouth to argue some more, but one look at Lich's slowly breaking skull and the sheer desperation that seemed to leak out of his eye sockets convinced her otherwise. If she was to die here, Lich would truly never forgive himself. Her death would haunt him for eternity.

"Pyrrha. Please. I am begging you to leave me. Begging you." Lich trembled as his body slowly gave way to the ceiling.

"Lich. I will never forget you. Thank you so much, and I am so sorry for being unable to help you in return." Pyrrha's voice cracked as she picked up a couple fragments of Lich's body as she then made way over to the portal.

"No. Thank you for reminding me about living. It was a real joy traveling with you. Now, get out of here, and don't you dare come back here. Get out there and live your life." Those were Lich's last words before the portal sucked Pyrrha away, and a falling sensation overcame Pyrrha.

When she opened her eyes once more, the blue sky greeted her eyes. A soft wind blew ruffling her hair as she slowly stood up to survey her surroundings. The trees, the rocks, the birds. It seems she was back on North Mistral Mountain. The place in which her adventure has started. But Pyrrha did not care at the moment. This was a hallow victory at best.

Pyrrha curled up, and tears began streaming down her face. Pyrrha looked down at her attire as well as the bone fragments clenched tightly in her hands to remind herself that everything that had happened was not a hallucination. It happened again. Someone sacrificed himself so she could survive. She still wasn't strong enough. She was still weak. Some hero she was. She should just give up and… Live your life. Lich's last words echoed throughout her mind.

With a sigh, Pyrrha stood back up and brushed herself off. It wouldn't do to continue wallowing in her grief. He wouldn't want that as well. He told her to live her life, and so she will as she began her first step back into civilization.