“That's the entrance?!” Ichika seemed a little freaked out by this as everyone was looking at the small hole in the ground.
“Yeeaah… that's a bit…” Even Akemi didn't seem excited about finding the entrance of the dungeon.
“I’ll do w-what Hatsuko wants.” But even though Hina said such things, I could see that she was hesitating a little.
“This is perfect!”
And the spirit was the only one who got hope in her eyes after confirming that that was the entrance of the dungeon.
“What's wrong? You were all excited to beat this dungeon just now?” I asked them since they all didn't seem eager to continue doing this anymore..
“Well… entering that hole is a bit. How can I say this… Creepy.”
“I also agree with Akemi. I don't know, but that thing gives me the chills…”
Akemi explained as they were looking at me with wry smiles on their faces.
“The chills? I thought you weren't scared of anything?” I was a bit surprised by Akemi since she was an actual dragon, and it seemed weird that she would be scared of such a thing as a random hole.
Unless there is something dangerous waiting inside that hole. But I was sure that there’s nothing at the entrance since I’ve been keeping track of every living being around us.
“Don’t get me wrong! Do you really expect a girl to enter that hole? Are you a sadist or something?!” Akemi snapped at me as she was explaining this to me.
“You don't really need to do this if you don't want to. I can go and conquer the whole dungeon on my own. On the other hand, you can wait here until I return.”
I didn't want to make them do stuff that they didn't feel comfortable doing.
If what caused the tree to react like this was some kind of disease, then what awaits inside that tree would be lots of zombie spirits who failed to live after trying to protect this realm.
There was a moment of silence between the girls before one of the girls decided to speak first.
“I’ll enter!” Hina spoke up in confidence. “This means that Hatsuko’s life is in the line as well. SO, we shouldn’t hesitate to enter that d-dark hole, even if it scares us.”
Everyone looked a little surprised and guilty from this. Many different expressions were shown on their faces, but what made their final decision… was the fact that they had a reason to do this thing.
“What are we still waiting for? If it weren't for chit chatting, we would’ve already conquered this dungeon! Why are we still waiting?!” Chloe was grinning as she tried hyping them up.
“Let's already go and defeat all of the monsters!!!” Ichika also was excited once again after hearing Chloe.
“Sigh… I guess leaving you on your own might leave a bad taste on my mouth, so I guess I’m coming with you.” Akemi let out a sigh before saying all of that. But she also was a little hyped up about this as well.
Even though they were not as eager as before, I understood the sudden change in their decision.
With the sole goal of helping me, they all wanted to do whatever it took to do this. Actually they all seemed more confident than ever.
That's what made me realize that… I was a lot luckier to have such girls to care about me…
.
..
…
The moment of actually entering through the roots of the tree, we soon realized how deep the ground was.
If we couldn't manage to fly our way to the ground, everyone would’ve been severely injured… or much worse…
“Being able to fly like this is really convenient.” Chloe sounded relieved as we landed on the lowest part of the dungeon.
“Akemi must have had a lot of fun flying around however she wanted.” Hina let out her thoughts after seeing how Akemi could fly all the time.
“Our wings are a very important part of our lives as a dragon, so that's a given that I would use them however I want.” Akemi proudly said with a great smug on her face.
“Must be fun…”
“Haha, that's right! My wings are the best after all!” Akemi boasted from the jealous looking Hina.
~
We began walking around the dungeon while I would make some light with my glowing materialization, but the girls rejected my idea from using any of my skills as much as possible, that's why Akemi was the one leading our way with some light.
“Ugh, it stinks!” Chloe complained as we were going forward.
“That means we are getting closer to zombies…” I explained what I thought so they would prepare themself for any sudden attacks.
I was standing behind everyone else, together with the twin sisters while Shiro and Chloe would be in the front lines like always. Ichika and Hina were ready for any attacks from a distance, and from behind them was Akemi which was on standby in case a dangerous monster attacks.
“UHgUhghmma!!”
“AGhumghhh!”
“hggaaaahmmmyaaaaaS!!!!”
“YAS! YAS! YAAAGHHHSSS!”
And it didn't take long before we could hear a lot of moaning and dry voices of spirit zombies coming our way.
“A lot of them are coming this way. Try not to get their blood in your mouth. We don't know if that infection will spread to you as well.” I warned Shiro and Chloe before they could engage in the fight.
“Don't worry, we’ll be carefull!” Chloe said as a smirk appeared on her face. While her daggers would be slashing in half many of the zombies.
These zombies were really small, making it harder for them to actually catch. But in this case, Shiro and Chloe only had to graze them a little. Their attacks were powerful enough that they could manage to cut through the air with ease.
“This might be easier than we had thought!” Chloe said as she was cutting them in half with ease.
She looked like she was having fun. But what didn't cross her mind in that dangerous situation was how the spirit guiding us was feeling. And how many of her sisters were being killed in an instant after having been turned into zombies.
“Maybe you shouldn't be looking at this.” I crossed my arms together as I quietly told this to the spirit next to me.
“No…” She was gritting her teeth in anger as she was looking at all of the spirits that no longer responded. “I need to witness every single one of my fallen sisters that couldn't manage to rest in peace. It is my duty to make sure of that!” But her true emotions were shown on her sharp looking eyes which truly cared about every single spirit in here.
~
And as Chloe said before, this dungeon was much easier than we had expected. But what we saw on the last floor of this dungeon shook us…
But the one who was shocked the most, was the spirit guiding us. “This can't be!”
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