"STOP IT!" I unclenched my hand in fear, this look in his eye gave me a feeling a dread, "DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, I CAN'T BE THE ONE WHO HAS THE PROBLEM, DON'T PITY ME!" I watched as he turned around and rushed into the dungeon full speed.
"Soren!" I shouted but he kept running and I eventually lost sight of him. That look he had and his speech tone; I had heard it before. It was how I talked before when I lost it. When it happens to yourself you never forget it, but why him? I've only seen him go somber when he speaks of his life, did I hit a nerve? There was more to him then what he told me that night, something…darker. I ran after him once I collected myself. I followed the carnage left behind by Soren; he just hacked through monsters leaving behind what they dropped, he didn't care about what he could gain; only what he could destroy. As I rushed through looking for him I saw broken locks litter the ground with the key jammed into them and broken, was this Soren? This seemed…barbaric and unlike him. When I made it to the mini-boss room I saw a dead corpse of the three headed gleeok. Did he take it down by himself? I heard metal clashing in the next room and rushed over to see Soren slashing through darknuts wildly…and winning? This wasn't humanly possible! He didn't employ any tactic or skill, he just attacked them upfront. Was this the rage he was capable of? I had to stop him!
I rushed forward and felt the wind push me back into the previous room.
"Dammit, what was that?" I stood up shakily and dusted of my clothes to see that succubus giving me a sly smile, "You! Out of my way! I have to save Soren!"
"From what exactly? He seems to be faring better than you did in that state."
"From himself, He'll end up dead if he's not careful!" I rushed forward and she outstretched her hand sending a force that pushed me back.
"I doubt that, he's utterly destroying those creatures. But more than that he's causing them to feel fear." Fear?
"But they're mindless creatures. How can they feel fear?"
"That's the most interesting piece. His rage and desire is so pent up it's instilling the idea of fear into these creatures made of magic. His aroma right now is intoxicating, if it weren't for the fact that we can use him I would eat him up and savor every bite of his emotional level." She quivered in delight as she gripped her own body disgusting me, "Just thinking about it gets me bothered."
"Whatever! What do you want with Soren?" She came back to her senses and laughed at me.
"Well little girl, I don't want him but that man does." That man?
"Gannon?" She gave an uproarious laugh.
"Gannon is not worth a single penny compared to who I'm talking about, but you know him. In fact you've met him before, he tested you…and you failed." That cloaked man!? He caused my state of mind in that moment, what could he do to Soren!? I have to hurry! I rushed forward again and she extended her tail and wrapped it around my body immobilizing me, "I am interested to figure out how you brought this side of him out, even the big guy had trouble figuring out how to open that Pandora's box, but he was right on one thing." She brought me closer and whispered into my ear, "You were the key." I caused this? He's like this because of me? I felt her drop me and I slumped to the ground feeling the cold floor against my legs, "As you learned to trust him and he in turn trusted you it eventually led to him revealing his true emotion and you asking him personal questions, making the grip he had break and giving us this beast." She laughed and pulled my chin up to look her in the eye, "I guess I should thank you, but how?" She dropped my chin as my head slumped back down and I looked up to see her side stepped by the door, "Seeing as you caused this mess I'll give you a chance to undo it, but I doubt even you could quell that rage, he will kill you and I will take that feeling of betrayal from your dying corpse and enjoy every bite." She gave me a chance to save him? I stood up and ran forward but felt my feet stop at the threshold. Why couldn't I move? Was I afraid? I saw Soren stand there in the aftermath of the fight and shivered in fear as I looked at him. It felt like I was looking at wild animal, if I wasn't careful I could die and there was no guarantee of success. I could fail in bringing him to his senses and then what!? I would die without succeeding, without any reason why I died!
A memory flashed in my head from a few days back. I sat there in pain as I watched a wave of fire come at me. I was about to charge into it when I saw a figure slide in front of me…it was Soren. As his hands were burned and he suffered a concussion from my hilt he fell asleep with a smile. He was unsure if he would wake up again and he still saved me…no…that's not true, he knew I could do it. He didn't doubt me and he saved me because he knew I would do it. He risked his life because he trusted me to come back to my senses. Now I have to do the same for him. I took a deep breath and rushed forward to save my partner.
SOREN?
FOR ALL THOSE…who…matter…I WILL BECOME STRONGER THAN THEM ALL!
"Soren!" I TURNED AROUND TO SEE A BLACK HAIRED FEMALE. ANOTHER OBSTACLE IN MY WAY! I PULLED MY SWORD UP AND LOOKED AT HER. SHE HAD THIS FAMILIAR LOOK ON HER FACE. HAD I…seen her before? Who am I? What's happening to me!? OBSTACLE! I MOVED FORWARD FASTLY AND SWUNG AT HER. SHE MOVED BACWARDS AS I CONTINUED TO SWING. AS I LOOKED AT HER FACE SHE HAD THIS CALM LOOK ON HER FACE. AS I CONINUED TO SWING I NOTICED WE CAME CLOSER TO THE WALL. SHE WOULD MOVE EVENTUALY. SHE CONTINUED TO BACK UP AND EVENTUALY WE HIT THE WALL. I DUG THE SWORD INTO THE WALL AS I APPROACHED HER. SHE CONTINUED TO LOOK AT ME WITH THAT DETERMINED EXPRESSION.
"Soren, please come back." SOREN? THAT NAME...FeLt FAmiLiAr…NO! I GRABBED HER BY HER NECK AND BEGAN TO SQUEEZE WATCHING HER BODY CONVULSE. I WATCHED HER STRUGGLE AND FELT EXILIRATING PLEASURE AND…overwhelming regret. Why was I strangling my VICTIM! I FELT HER HAND ON MY ARM AND SHE GAVE ME A LOOK OF SADDNESS. I…I've seen this person before, this was Asuna. My partner! Why am I strangling her!? SHE IS JUST AN OBSTACLE TO OUR GOAL! Who said that!? Who are you? IT DOESN'T MATTER, JUST GIVE ME CONTROL! No, I won't let you hurt her! DIDN'T YOU WANT TO BE STRONG? THIS IS HOW WE DO IT! I want to be strong for the people I care about! If I hurt them then what am I getting strong for! THAT IS WHERE WE ARE DIFFERENT; I WILL BECOME STRONG SO I DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ANYONE ELSE, SO THAT MOMENT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN! What moment!? How did you get in my head? IT DOESN'T MATTER JUST GIVE UP AND LET ME CONTROL! This is my body ad I won't let you use it to hurt her! I concentrated with all my might and felt my hands loosen. I stepped back and panted feeling my head about to split in two. FINE, YOU MAY HAVE CONTROL NOW BUT ONE DAY I WILL CONTROL OUR BODY FOREVER. Our body? What did that voice mean by that? I shook it off and immediately went to help Asuna.
"Asuna! I'm so sorry! How could I think of hurting you? Are you okay?" I felt her wrap her arms around my neck and stopped dead in my movement.
"Thank god you're back! You had me so worried you idiot!" I hugged Asuna back and took a deep breath.
"Asuna, I will tell you everything so you won't have to worry anymore."
"That's okay, you don't have to tell me, I won't ask."
"No! I have to tell you, otherwise…I can't guarantee this won't happen again but…can you wait till we leave this dungeon?" She looked and me and smiled.
"Okay." I heard clapping and we looked over to see the cloaked man applauding slowly. Otherwise known as the condescending clap…bastard!
"How touching, but my offer is still on the table, I can make you stronger. Just take my hand." What offer was he talking about?
"I have no idea what you're talking about but I don't care either, I won't abandon her!" I stood up pulling my sword out of the wall and stared at him. He backed up which confused me.
"Interesting, I have more work to do I see." I watched him disappear into the shadow of the room and sheathed my sword.
"What the hell!?" I turned around to see Lissa standing there enraged by what she saw.
"You should be enraged, and you should be dead! What happened to that emotional level of rage and desire is gone! There's not even a trace of it! How is this possible!?" She continued to scream and I just looked at her and a question ran through my head.
"What are you gaining out of this?" She stopped and looked at me, "You obviously don't care about what Gannon wants or we would be dead and if you wanted the emotional level I had you would have taken it. Obviously you're working with that man but what are you gaining out of this?" She looked at me and I noticed her rage replaced with anxiety, "Wait, if you're not from here like us…are you from another world to?" Suddenly I watched her shrink back and shiver, "You're working with him to get home aren't you?" She bolted backwards and left the room into the darkness. I must have hit the nail on the head with that guess. I looked over at Asuna and helped her up as she rubbed her throat. I could still see the bruise mark.
"…Sorry about that." She bonked me on the head and tsk-ed me.
"Don't apologize about this, you took burn marks for me so let's just call it even okay?" I laughed and she gave me a smile.
"If that's what you want okay!" We started to move forward into the dungeon but the voice I ran into still hung in the back of my mind…possibly more literal than I think. We soon found the magic rod in the basement level and examined it thoroughly.
"Do we have to have the mental capacity to use this or is it self-powered?" I questioned moving it around and examining every angle. I shot it forward and felt my body drain as strong energy shot from the wand. I collapsed to my knees in exhaustion.
"Careful!" Asuna helped me up as I felt my head pound, "Obviously you need the mental power, let me try." She shot the wand's power out and staggered for a moment, "That felt weird." She was still standing which made me question why my mental strength was so lacking. Maybe that moment from before drained me…or maybe it was something else, "Don't get so deep in thought there." I snapped out of it and looked at Asuna who was looking down at me, "Just get some practice and you'll be fine." She handed me the wand and we decided to continue. I used the rod periodically when I felt I could use it and keep fighting. Eventually I got to the point where I could use it twice and then switch to sword play before tiring out, "Good, you have a hand on it so let's keep moving." I put the wand away and followed her into the deeper reaches of the dungeon. Eventually we made it to the boss room and saw the area was dimly lit and empty.
"I can't see a thing, are there any torches around?"
"Use your lamp." I pulled out the lamp and lit it. With that light I surveyed the walls and lit any wall torches illuminating the room. As I lit them I could hear something skitter along the floor prompting me to turn around only to see nothing. When finished we looked around the room to see it was empty, not even bones or remains of previous adventurers, "Let's move before something pops up." Asuna pointed to the open door on the other side of the room.
"Right…let's go." As we approached the door I heard that skittering sound again and pulled out my sword in caution; I saw Asuna had done the same.
"We're not alone in this room, be careful." We kept next to each other and moved slowly through the room making sure we had a full view of the room from all angles. Suddenly it went dark again and the next moment I felt something slam me to the floor. I hastily pulled out my lamp to see the giant arachnid Gohma standing on me. I rolled out of her clutches and saw it had Asuna and was wrapping her up very quickly. I shined the lamp to the ceiling to see strings of spider thread and the husks of people caught in the remains of those strings. I sliced my sword at her cutting an appendage off and causing it to drop Asuna mid-wrap, "Thanks, let's get her!" I nodded and looked back to see the appendage I cut off had grown back. I rushed at us moving too fast for us to dodge. Man, if spiders were this big in my world the human race would be screwed. It slammed us back to the floor and shot webs at us. We moved around avoiding its string and hacked at it only to find the areas we hit already healed.
"Dammit! Small hits won't cut it with this monster; we need to kill it with one hit!"
"Wasn't gohma's weakness an arrow directly to her eye?" She was right; one arrow and that's the end of gohma. Asuna pulled out her bow and shot at the eight legged abomination only to watch it move out of line with her arrow.
"It's moving too quickly for us to get a direct hit! We need to stall it."
"How do you suppose we do that brainiac!?" The only thing gohma wants is food…I've got it! I moved quickly in front of Asuna and rushed at gohma. I whiffed my attack and it grabbed me and started to wrap me moving quickly, "Soren!"
"Take the shot…now!" The binding was starting to crush me making it hard to breath. From the corner of my eye I saw Asuna line up her shot and take aim; the arrow flew hitting gohma in the eye, causing it to go limp and drop me. The queen was dead with a silver arrow imbedded in its eye. Asuna moved quickly and unwrapped me from the binding.
"Moron! You put yourself in a lot of danger!" She reprimanded hitting my head.
"We needed a clear shot and it needed to be distracted to get that." I pointed out rubbing the bruise she left on my head.
"Doesn't matter, be more careful!" We laughed for a bit enjoying our victory. Wait, this is the first dungeon we beat without heavy damage! A few busted ribs but nothing serious. We were getting a lot stronger, this was awesome! I stood up and felt that same energy surround us, it once again emanated from the monster we just slew. We moved quickly and touched the piece of the Triforce feeling that golden glow and blinding light consume us as it had before.
"…he came out? I didn't plan for this." The voice had a hint of fear as it asked that question which made me cautious. Before its tone always became happier as we succeeded but this time it seemed afraid of something. Did it mean the cloaked man or…the other thing?
When the light died we were back at the entrance, the dungeon behind us in ruins. We looked up at the sky to see the sun was starting to set; we had to find shelter before night fell. I thought back to the calve where we got the sword, if I remember correctly it's near here.
"Come on, I know where to head." I grabbed Asuna's hand and we ran to our known shelter. When we got there we entered and I started to prepare the fire. Hmmm…let's try it. I pulled out the wand and pointed it at the fire pit.
"Soren, that doesn't seem like a good-" That's all I heard before I swung the wand and saw wood and stone scatter. When the smoke cleared the spot with the fire pit was a small hole in the ground. Opps. I felt Asuna hit me upside my head and grumble as she gathered the remains. After making the fire Asuna plopped down in front of it warming her hands. I took my fingerless gloves off and did the same feeling the cold night set in. I took a deep breath and looked at Asuna who looked back with a quizzical expression.
"Asuna, it's time you heard the whole story."