“...Get…h…out…he”

I slowly rose back to consciousness and heard a man talking to someone else, though my mind was drifting in and out, I couldn’t understand what he said; the other person responded, and I only understood one word, “…will…”

I felt a slim arm wrapper around my shoulders, supporting me, and an odd warmth spread from where they touched me…but this warmth was different, of course, from when I killed powerful Monsters.

I was still unsure if I had died when I finally left the cavern in which I had been trapped. Whatever those symbols that I saw, before I passed out or died, made me feel like they were an incredibly powerful teleportation spell; as with most things, I have no idea how I knew that.

It was likely that no one had been in the cavern system for a very, very long time.

But what made me unsure whether I died, or if I just passed out, was the fact that I didn’t experience the strange infinite symbol and liquid-like pressure; and my hearing was strangely distorted.

Luckily though, my hearing was starting to clear up, and I heard a quiet and feminine voice ask me a question, “Are you alright?”

The girl was the one who was supporting me.

When I finally managed to pry my heavy eyelids open, and looked at the girl, her clothing made me think of religions; deep down, I associated that white robe with a sunburst on it, with religion…and with a strange feeling.

Her eyes were large and blue, her nose slim and slightly upturned; she had high cheekbones and a thin, oval face. Disordered strands of long blonde hair was poking out of the cloth covering her head.

When she saw me open my eyes, she smiled--her teeth were straight and pure white, none were missing.

“Thank the Watchers…” The girl spoke quietly, with true happiness in her tone, still supporting me. She faced the man which I had first heard speaking, “Commander Lyus, he is awake.”

The girl was kneeling on the stone floor and supporting the top half of my body--this seemed to be the only way she could support me, otherwise, judging by her slim form and weak looking arms, she would probably be too weak--I also knew that I weighed a lot more than I looked because of something to do with my enhanced body.

My muscles were trembling, but I managed to force myself to sit up and look around.

I was in an underground cavern--I thought I had finally escaped to the surface, but it seems like I was excited too soon.

Oh well.

Other than the religious looking lady, there was a man in heavy-looking metallic armour, he was also carrying a massive broadsword. He was apparently called Commander Lyus; there was also a third person, a beautiful girl with blue hair and pointed ears, she was wearing a deep purple robe, which was covered in strange symbols.

Commander Lyus walked over to me, offering his hand to help me up; as I grabbed his hand, I heard the blonde girl gasp--in reaction to this quiet noise, Commander Lyus’ hand tightened, and he tensed, looking ready to attack me.

I looked down and realized that my clothing was dyed a multitude of colours: not only the red of my blood, but the blood of an uncountable number of Monsters--like the pale blue of the spiders, and off-green from the centipedes and slimes. What remained of my clothing was also slashed into pieces, like it had been cut thousands of times--like I had been standing in a hurricane of swords.

But judging from the look of these people, they had probably seen things like this many times, so it wasn’t likely that the blonde girl had responded to that; it was then I realized that it was after I reached out my hand that she had gasped.

It was the hand with the brand on the back of it.

This probably wasn’t a good sign…

Commander Lyus’ grasp on my hand was starting to annoy me a little, because he seemed to be grasping it firmly, trying to restrain me; so I extracted my hand from his grip, which was surprisingly easy.

“What’s wrong?” I looked over at the blonde girl, curious because of her reaction.

“Fallen Apostle.” She flinched at my glance and muttered quietly.

Lyus jumped backwards, his sword was drawn in an instant and pointed at my forehead. He seemed to know what a Fallen Apostle was, and knew what it meant--whatever it was, it seemed to scare both him…and the blonde priestess.

Come with us, and do not resist!” Commander Lyus barked at me.

The priestess had removed her hand from my shoulders and jumped backwards, she seemed to be praying, or talking to someone through some form of telepathy Magic.

“I wasn’t planning on resisting, but why did you suddenly become so aggressive?”

This was the main question I needed answered.

Something struck me as strange--the girl with the pointed ears wasn’t doing anything, even after the reaction from her companions, she just lent of a strange wooden staff and watched us all.

“Don’t pretend that you don’t know, Fallen Apostle!” The blonde girl was still trembling, but she sounded angry.

I asked what even I considered a silly question, but I had to be sure, “Is Fallen Apostle my name?”--it was virtually impossible, it was likely that a Fallen Apostle was a type of person, not my name.

Neither Lyus or the blonde girl responded, but the blue haired girl tilted her head in confusion as she watched us, she was still relaxed, and she asked, “What are you talking about?” There was a look of confusion in her blue eyes. The way she tilted her head caused her silky blue hair to cover one of her eyes and one pointed ears--it was surprisingly cute, almost childish.

I stood up and watched the confused people, they said nothing, waiting for me to answer the blue haired girl.

“The blonde one called me ‘Fallen Apostle’, what does that mean? Is it my name? It seems that you might know me…or at least about me; more than I do anyway.”

Commander Lyus still stood and ‘threateningly’ pointing his sword at my forehead, while the blonde girl still prayed with a terrified look in her wide eyes.

“You are a Fallen Apostle, the brand on your hand is to show us that the Gods have abandoned you, and marked you for death!” Commander Lyus was the one who answered me, gesturing for me to go ahead of him, and down the tunnel, “Now, move!”

He poked my shoulder with his sword.

Well, abandoned by the Gods--makes sense, I did fall from a hole in the sky; Gods live in the sky according to most.

Being marked for death is usually a very bad sign.

I sighed and decided that the best course of action was to go forwards, following Lyus’ commands, at least until I figured things out, or had my questions answered.

“While we are going wherever, can I please ask some questions?” I looked back at the people walking behind me.

“No, be silent!”

Sheesh, I didn’t really like this Commander Lyus--should I allow them to lead me, or should I kill him and try with someone else? Lyus and the blonde woman didn’t seem to have good intentions, but the blue haired girl seemed curious, just contentedly following along.

“I have to ask, where are you taking me?” I decided that I had enough, and wanted them to answer my questions, stopping moving and turning around to ask them.

Commander Lyus poked me with his sword, “Keep moving,”

I sighed and caught his blade with my right hand.

“Answer my question…” I was starting to get annoyed, and from what I could guess from my instincts, these people were much weaker than me, no threat.

Commander Lyus wrenched his sword from my hand, managing to do this because I wasn’t holding onto it rightly. He stepped back and swung it at me, it was an interesting movement, a step and simultaneous swing…but compared to even the rats--it was slow.

I stepped a half step to the side, and the blade swung past me; and even though I wasn’t using my light, he seemed like he was moving in slow motion.

“No, Command! Don’t!” The blonde girl screamed, “We can’t handle a Fallen Apostle, we need the Royal Guard.” She rapidly sprinted to Lyus’ side and placed her small hand on his armoured shoulder, seemingly trying to calm him.

Since Commander Lyus and the blonde girl were being a little unreasonable, I turned to the blue haired girl, who seemed to be the most reasonable person so far, “Do you have any idea what they are talking about?”

The blue-haired girl looked confused when I started talking, then she gestured to herself, silently asking if I was talking to her--I nodded.

“I don’t particularly want to take you anywhere, but I’m in a group with these guys, I am following along.” The girl smiled slightly as she answered me, then her face turned serious, “but they want to take you to the Royal Guard…”

The way she shuddered as she mentioned them, it made me worried that these Royal Guard were very dangerous and scary--I wonder if they have the strength of the slimes, without their obvious weaknesses; slimes were the strongest Monsters I had fought.

“So, who are the Royal Guard?”

“Uhh, they are elite Human soldiers who specialize in killing Fallen Apostles.”

“So, you are trying to kill me? Well, at least, they are?” This was annoying--the first people I meet try to kill me. I didn’t enjoy getting threatened, especially when the ones doing it were so weak.

“I’m not trying to kill you!” The blue-haired girl sounded slightly scared as she answered, holding up her free hand, placating--then she tried to smile reassuringly, which shook slightly, “In Human territory, if a Fallen Apostle is found--they have to be reported to the Royal Guard. This is an order from the Church of the Watchers.” When she mentioned the church, a look of fear flashed through her blue eyes.

“So, what is a Fallen Apostle?”

As I was talking to the blue-haired girl, I was easily dodging Commander Lyus’ sword--he still hadn’t stopped swinging, even when it was obvious that it was useless; and from around half way through the blue-haired girl’s explanation the blonde girl had been throwing bolts of golden lightning at me, which I also had to dodge as well.

The blue-haired girl had been watching how relaxedly I had been dodging her companion’s attacks, I could see her surprise--and it amused me slightly. But she was probably the strange one, since she was just talking as her conversation partner was stepping around sword blows and golden lightning, instead of being scared.

“Apostles are people who have been selected by the Aeyes, the attendants of the Gods of Origin. They are given a specific mission and sent back from the Heavenly realm. If any of them refuse their missions, or anger the Watchers, they are branded as Fallen Apostles .The brand is burned into the back of their left hands, and they are hunted by the faithful of the Church of the Watchers, However, those who accept the mission, the Apostles come back with incredible and inhuman powers, but they seem somehow less Human. By the way ‘Aeyes’ is the old Elven word for ‘Watchers’.” The blue-haired girl answered me, but she still seemed shocked as she watched my movements--her eyes seemed to barely be able to follow my movements.

So, I had been taken as an Apostle, and something that they had requested from me forced me to refuse--why would I refuse the Gods or their attendants?

But this may explain why I had lost my memories.

“Is it normal for a Fallen Apostle to lose his memories after falling?”

“What do you mean?” Her blue eyes widened slightly.

“Shut up and capture him!” The blonde girl shouted at the blue-haired girl, as golden circles and geometric shapes started spinning on the ground below me. Inside the shapes were all sorts of symbols which moved and gyrated, changing and shifting. The variety were much less complex than the ones which combined to form the infinite symbol in my head--they were even less complex than the one that I put on my rat-hide backpack.

As I stared closely into the glowing circles, my eyes started to get blurry…I had forgotten to blink, and my head felt slightly dizzy. This whole time, I wasn’t actually thinking about dodging, it was completely instinctual, all that combat had helped me more than I thought.

Without warning, a huge pillar of golden flame burst out from the circles underneath me, and my clothing turned into ash. My rat-skin backpack was luckily perfectly fine. My skin was only slightly reddened--the flames looked flashy, but they only had the power on the same level as the baby rats--not even the smaller rats, but the ones that were only waist high.

They were all staring at me…I was naked in front of two attractive girls, and Commander Lyus--I wasn’t so worried about the Commander, since his massive sword was obviously compensation.

The blonde girl blushed, her face going a brilliant crimson, I became to be slightly worried that she might pop some blood vessels in her face…which she was covering with both her hands, but I could see gaps between her small fingers.

The blue-haired girl was looking at me, her blue eyes wide and she was blushing slightly as well--however, she looked incredibly shocked…I hoped that it was for a good reason, but it was probably because I easily survived the spell.

The rat-leather survived the spell, but strangely, the tendons didn’t--so my backpack opened. With a clatter, all of my frozen centipede blood, the slime spheres and green powder from the pillar which the girl was in, fell to the ground…Well, the powder more went ‘poof’ than clattered.

For some reason, this shocked everyone again.

Then Commander Lyus ducked down and started collecting my loot into a strange bag. As he held the bag opened, my loot started flying off the ground and into it…including the odd powder from the crystalline pillar which contained the strange girl.

I had decided to not act too rashly, so I warned him, instead of attacking him, which was my first instinct, “Those are mine--give them back to me.” I spoke calmly, watching, but not making a move.

Once he had collected all of my loot and was about to put it away somewhere, I reached out and grabbed the bag from his hands. He tried to stop me, but I was much stronger and faster than he was.

I held the bag in my right hand, Commander Lyus looked at me, fury on his face.

He snarled and started madly slashing at me, “Give them back!” He sounded like he was going crazy.

Holding the bag in my hand, I just instinctively moved and dodged, but my attention was on the bag instead of the sharp metal.

“These are my crystals and cores.”

“You are lying to me, it would obviously take a large army, fighting for many years, to collect this many God Crystals. If I saw the quality correctly, it is obvious that they are stolen. I will be taking them and giving them to their rightful owner--His Majesty the King!” Commander Lyus sounded like he was trying to sound angry and righteous.

However, I wasn’t tricked, I could hear the greed in his voice--even an idiot like me, who had no memories, I could tell that he wanted them to sell for money.

I was really starting to dislike him, and the blonde girl…

The blue-haired girl had been looking at me, not bothering her embarrassment, or that she was inspecting me closely--after a minute or two, she reached into one of the pockets of her robe and pulled out another robe…it seems that the insides of her pockets seemed to be larger than they seemed.

Accepting the robe from her, I smiled at her, “Thanks,”

She smiled, incredibly cutely, before coughing--and forced her face back into a neutral position.

Putting the robe on, I held it shut. I rolled up my rat leather sheet, which used to be my backpack--unfortunately the left-over blood had melted, and the meat was cooked…and smelt strangely delicious.

I felt upset, I had lost my last connection to my past as my clothes burned away--though I did learn that I wasn’t alone, and that there were others who hand the same brand as I did--I may have also discovered the cause of my loss of memory.

Lyus wouldn’t stop trying to kill me, and he couldn’t seem to see the signs that I was faster and stronger than him, yet I hadn’t fought back--I was showing him mercy; but it seemed that he was going to be an enemy; if you show mercy to enemies, then they will cause even worse problems in the future.

“Would you stop? This is your last chance…” I made sure to warn him, it felt wrong to just attack--hmm, I must have been a nice person before losing my memories.

“You have refused to follow orders, so you must die!” Lyus’ eyes had gone bloodshot and a silver aura formed around him.

I sighed.

Stepping inside his guard, I drove a spear hand through through his chest and the breastplate that protected it. There was a loud ‘clang’ and screeching noise as my hand went straight through the metallic armour.

I felt his ribs shatter, and pulverized his heart, with a single impact; I also seem to have clipped his left lung on the way through, eviscerating a large chunk out of it. There was another loud screech as my hand emerged through his back.

Of course, I hadn’t placed my full strength into the strike--I had the feeling that this guy was much weaker than a slime…and I didn’t wish to vaporize him.

His distorted face showed how shocked he was, his eyes widening as I pulled my arm back out of him--blood rapidly began spraying out of the wound, and all over the new robe that the blue-haired girl had given me.

The blonde girl suddenly screamed and passed out.

“Why did you kill him?” The blue-haired girl looked at me, for some reason she looked less surprised and scared than I had expected. Strangely there was a lack of hostility in her voice, though there was fear, “Are you planning on killing me too?”

She didn’t try to run, nor did she move more than just trembling a little.

“Well, he was trying to kill me, and I couldn’t get him to stop…especially after he saw my loot. However, you don’t have any hostility, and happily answered my questions--so I have no reason to kill you.” I watched her, glancing at the priestess as I answered the blue-haired girl.

“W-What about me?” The blonde girl woke up surprisingly quickly, she stuttered out the question that was bothering me too; my instincts were telling me not to kill her--and for some reason, when I thought of the Gods, I felt a strange feeling of guilt.

But she had attacked me, and she could identify me.

I turned to the blue-haired girl, “Hmm…Do you happen to have any spells or skills that can manipulate or remove memories?”

She narrowed her green eyes slightly as she considered my question for a second, before smiling and nodding, “Yes, I do. However, it is only a basic one--so it requires the target’s consent,” For some reason, she braced herself as she spoke.

“Can you cast it on her? Make her forget the last few hours?” I pointed at the blonde girl--who looked at me and trembled.

The blue-haired girl nodded, and then started chanting in a language that I couldn’t understand. Green circles and other geometric shapes appeared on the ground, and in the air surrounding the blonde girl.

“If you accept the memory wipe--I will let you live,” As I said this, she stared into my eyes, searching for something…before calmly nodding her head.

The green circles shot out a light, which hit the blonde girl and caused her pupils to dilate--her face went completely blank.

“Leave the Dungeon, it will be safe to traverse for the next few hours.” The blue-haired girl spoke in a hypnotic tone to the blonde girl, who nodded robotically and then turned…without a word, she began to walk away.

“What about me?” The blue-haired girl turned back to me, I could hear the worry in her voice, and her pupils trembled.

“Well, I am not too sure; you are the only one who didn’t attack me, you also answered my questions…so I have no need to do anything bad to you--I could also use your help, if you are willing. I happen to have lost all of my memories.” Speaking as calmingly as possible, I slowly approached her.

She flinched, instinctively moving her hands into a guarded position--but she seemed to be trying to stay still.

Her eyes narrowed and she looked at me closely, mainly into my eyes--she seemed to be thinking about something, to decided something, “Hmm…” her murmur was really quiet.

I didn’t rush her, I didn’t want to force her.

“If you would allow me…could I join you? I would be willing to answer any more questions that you may have.” She spoke slowly, hesitantly.

“Alright, I have no problems with you, and I do need your information.” I decided to accept her--truthfully, I was hoping that she would respond like this.

She smiled, relief obvious in the way her posture relaxed slightly--and carefully extended her small hand, “Well, new teammate, my name is Resh; what’s yours?” as she spoke, she got a little more confident.

I took her hand, so slim and warm in mine--I liked how it felt, with a cough, I shook it, “Me? I…don’t remember. Umm, call me--Tek” I made up the name on the fly, but it felt right, and I liked it.

Resh looked at me for a second, a strange look in her eyes as she removed her hand from my grasp.

I ignored that and spoke again, “Resh, you don’t seem quite as scared as before--which is good.”

“Well, I was at first…but you don’t seem to be a bad person--and you accepted me into your team…so I have decided to just go with it I guess.” Resh shrugged, and smiled...shakily.

“I see.”

She was a confusing girl, she trusted me too easily.

As we spoke, I was stripping the thick metallic armour off Lyus’ corpse--since it had a hole in the breastplate, it was unlikely that it would be useful…it was also weaker than my flesh. I also checked for any loot, including a purse with some coins in it--which I didn’t know what they were worth.

Resh watched me, she looked slightly confused for some reason as she watched me; I have no idea what she was confused about.

After I removed his armour, I took the clothing that he was wearing, since mine was ruined--but I did place mine into my new storage pouch, which I originally stole from Lyus.

I was correct, his thick armour and massive sword…were compensating for something else.

I took neither his armour, nor his sword; for my skin was tougher, and my crystal claw was much sharper than his sword.

“Can you please turn away?” I asked Resh, who was closely observing me, she just shrugged and turned to face the wall. Making sure that she had turned away, I removed the robe that she had given me, and then put on the stolen clothing--the hole in the chest might be a little annoying, but I covered it with the robe again…I was now modestly clothed.

I was finally properly clothed again, I didn’t realize how much I had missed that.

Turning and looking back at Resh, I saw that she had turned back to me--she seems to have been watching me get changed.

When Resh saw the naked corpse of Commander Lyus, she let out a small giggle; it seemed that she didn’t know that he was overcompensating; I don’t know why she didn’t know, maybe he wasn’t the sort of leader who slept with his female teammates…or she didn’t like him, which would be understandable.

I sighed, and then took off my shirt, ripping it into pieces. I used one piece to wrap around my hand, to hide my brand. Another piece I made into a belt to hold my robe closed--the robe was strangely soft and comfortable against my naked skin…luckily it didn’t itch.

“Well, let’s get going…Uhh, which way do we go?” I asked Resh, who looked over at me and then pointed down a passage. Well, that makes sense, it was the direction that Lyus wanted me to go--it was probably the way out.

“Umm, I’m a Mage, so I fight from the back. Could you please go in the lead?” Resh spoke quietly, and with a nervous tone.

Nodding to her, I walked in the lead, down the indicated passage--my hearing was good, so I could hear her footsteps following reliably behind me…even though she wore soft shoes.

When I looked back. I saw that she was following along with a long wooden staff, covered in symbols, in her hands; she was looking around, and when her eyes met mine, she twitched her lips…she seemed to be trying to smile.

Suddenly, I heard a noise which was incredibly familiar: a skittering, followed by a dragging noise--a rat was coming. Oh, such a nostalgic creature, and one which had killed me a few times…Oops, I felt a minor annoyance at the thought.

“Damn, it’s a Rodent of Unusual Size…Do, you think that you can hold it off long enough for me to prepare some Magic?” Resh sounded scared--maybe even more scared than she was of me, originally.

“Yeah, I can--I can also kill it; why are you so scared?”

Resh had her hands raised, coloured circles and patterns starting to appear, hovering in the air in front of her slightly trembling palms.

“Rodents of Unusual Size are incredibly powerful--usually taking entire military squads, or a full party of six, to kill. Commander Lyus would barely manage to hold them off using his Blessing, while Jess would heal him until I could cast my spell; they are also incredibly rare--we only encountered two in the months we were exploring this Dungeon.” As Resh spoke, she continued to wriggle her fingers and manipulate the floating light.

“So, do you think the blonde girl made it out?”

“Who? Ohh, you mean Jess. Yeah, with her protection of the Watchers, it was incredibly unlikely that she was killed; she could also be resurrected at the main Temple if she did, anyway. She is the Saintess” The last part of Resh’s sentence was mumbled in a slightly jealous tone.

Good, so I didn’t cause her to die.

“The Rats on this level of the Beleran Dungeon are incredibly powerful, luckily the ones on the upper levels are weaker offshoots, with incredibly diluted bloodlines,” Resh was still happily answering my questions, as she was playing with her light.

“Hmm, interesting, I want to kill it--I haven’t had any issues with rats…well, after I killed my fiftieth or sixtieth were I was; if these are more powerful, that is good.”

Resh looked at me, her eyes widened, and a slight look of disbelief on her face.

Smiling at her, in what I hoped was a reassuring way, and turned in the direction that the rat was coming from--Resh said that it was incredibly powerful, hopefully it was stronger than the ones before, I wanted more of that warmth.

Drawing my crystal claw, I prepared myself, taking a self-created combat stance; however, I didn’t activate my light, since I felt like I shouldn’t reveal it until it was most needed. I could keep it active for as long as I wanted now, but I didn’t feel anything that needed me to use it--I had also gotten into only using it when needed back when it used to make me starve…well, when not in enemy territory anyway.

Around the corner, it came, a rat…