While my vision was whitened by the teleportation circle, I wondered what would await us.   

The dungeon had been a frozen city with cliffs, so would the lobby share the same color scheme? Maybe it would have icy pillars? Or would we encounter others who were about to take on the dungeon?  

The excitement I couldn’t hide was destroyed when my vision returned to me.  

There was no lobby.   

As I stood on the blood-soaked ground, my heart sank. The stench of death hung heavy in the air, suffocating and sickening. Before us stretched a macabre tableau, a haunting scene of horror and despair. The battlefield lay littered with the fallen, their lifeless bodies twisted and contorted in grotesque positions.  

Beside me, Elly and Ami succumbed to their nausea, retching uncontrollably at the grim spectacle before us. Their vomiting mingled with the moans and shuffling of the undead creatures that roamed aimlessly in the distance. Their lifeless eyes and decaying flesh sent shivers down my spine because this wasn’t a book.   

It was real life, and the walking dead differed from bipedal leopards and ice-covered birds.    

Melusine broke the silence with a heavy sigh while rubbing Ami’s back. "This must be the work of an undead curse," she murmured, her voice tinged with sorrow. "Those creatures in the distance were once living, breathing people. Now reduced to mindless drones with an insatiable hunger for flesh. An eerie coldness often follows. It keeps the flesh from decaying after a certain point.” 

So, that’s why it’s still cold… It’s another curse, isn’t it? It always seems like it’s a curse.    

Greggie turned away from the gruesome scene and winced.    

“Is that why we didn’t run into anyone?” asked Mary. She struggled to keep her eyes steady. The smell probably burned them.     

“Precisely. It’s too dangerous for a common adventurer to get close. Only the foolish would risk it. But… I do not like to see what was once my domain reduced to this… It hurts my heart.” Melusine shed a few tears, which turned into crystal fragments.    

I rubbed Elly’s back and said we needed to keep moving. She wiped her lips and nodded, and we carefully walked towards the monsters.    

These creatures were known as zombies, and being at Lv. 18, my fire magic easily ended their undead lives. My Ember Tome floated, opening as I cast [Flame Spark]. A tiny crackle appeared underneath my enemies, swiftly engulfing them in flames. The fire reduced them to a pile of diseased dust, which I quickly scorched with a second use. 

I got a zombie slayer and undead slayer title… I guess…I should equip them… 

Melusine said the undead had a natural weakness to flames, but she was an adept mage. Her [Cursed Ice Spear] created a lance of black ice that burrowed deep within her enemies. The curse that once destroyed her kingdom now worked for her, sapping the undead of their power while immobilizing them. [Ice Hail] wasn’t that effective, and [Frigid Explosion], her strongest spell after [Blizzard Tornado], was too dangerous to use since it might only partially injure the zombies.    

She said we had to burn the body to ashes or destroy the head to stop them from moving.    

They were already monsters. The people they used to be? They didn’t exist.     

After an hour of walking and repeating the same, we still hadn’t left the blood-soaked field. Melusine said there used to be a field of yellow grass, which made for excellent farming.    

It seemed that was still once the case when we found a murky brown stream. The nauseating stench of death assaulted our senses. “Those…are corpses…” Keeth whispered, pointing out dead bodies flowing away downstream like macerated leaves. “Just what happened here?”   

“We could follow it,” said the fairy queen. I looked down and saw her feet were covered in blood. She wore heels, which wasn’t the best clothing. I brought it up, and Mary said she had something more suitable being held by her monsters.    

“You’ll look kind of like me,” she said. “Are you okay with that? It's probably not what a queen would normally wear."  

“I am, Mary. Thank you.” Mary nodded. She summoned her monsters, gave her the clothes, and we turned around while the fairy queen changed her outfit.  

“You look super pretty. But what’s wrong with your wings? They don’t look symmetrical.” After gushing about her new clothes, we noticed what Elly pointed out. 

“Faeries can hide their wings,” said Melusine, looking so royal and elegant in that ‘streetwear,’ as Elly liked to call it. “It’s something we learn on our way to adulthood. Admittedly, it’s been 1,000 years, so I’ve...almost forgotten how to do it... There...we go.” The wings vanished into crystal-like fragments and were absorbed by her body.   

Her tiara even changed, and Melusine said its shape never remained the same, which I thought was cool.    

“So, about the water. Qutie, what do we do?”   

“Follow it downstream,” I said, recalling a tip I had once read in a book where a girl was transported to another world.    

That tale wasn’t anywhere as depressing as this life…   

We did that after crossing it. After thirty minutes, we saw a distant village loom before us. But the true horror only revealed itself after we got close enough to enter it. Undead cows and pigs, their bodies grotesquely disfigured, wandered aimlessly, oblivious to their decaying state. Missing limbs, exposed innards, and hollow, lifeless eyes characterized these abominations. Yet some twisted semblance of life clung to their animated forms since they continued to graze without looking at us.    

The buildings were in ruins and were only standing by luck and faith.    

“HELLO!!! IS ANYONE HERE?!” I shouted in Arezzian—the common tongue of 1,000 years ago, trying to find any sign of life.    

There was nothing except guttural growls from zombies stumbling towards my voice. Their sunken eyes and decayed flesh burned away in my baptismal fire, but we pressed on. Ami hugged Elly and kept her close. Greggie had his icy stone shield and sword at the ready. Keeth kept an eye out and watched our rear.    

Our anxiety mounted and increased, finally topping off once we found a locked shed in the village square.     

Dread washed over us as we cautiously pried open the rusty door, revealing a chilling sight hiding within.    

“Children? Why are they chained to the back?” My heart felt like it was being split into two. Greggie opened the doors all the way.    

“Help! I don’t wanna die! I want my mommy!!!”   

“Please, help my brother! He needs help! He’s been bitten!”   

“I…can’t feel my legs… Sissy… I…think I can see daddy…”   

They were chained to the back—all suffering from horrendous wounds and bloodshot eyes.  Festering boils popped and released dark yellow puss across their skin.       

“Don’t reach out for them, Quella…” Melusine said, grabbing my hand. Her words pierced through the air like shards of ice. “They’re too far gone. Can’t you see the name floating above their head? The system of this world only displays that for monsters. Once you reach this state…there’s no turning back.”   

I swallowed a nervous gulp and focused... [Lesser Zombie]... That was their name... They were Lv. 2, and...

“That can’t be right. Melly, they’re talking to us. They wanna be saved.”    

“The undead curse is merciless, Ami. Their fate… Letting them out or freeing them from their shackles risks letting it spread. The cruel option is to leave, and the gentle option is to give them death.”    

“Help…me… Mommy…I…want…mommy…” I saw a little girl without hope in her eyes—without wonder or a chance to dream of the future. The voice was weak… It was almost too quiet.     

Ami and Elly couldn’t help but run away and cry. Greggie and Keeth joined them after I told them it was fine, and the…fateful decision fell to me.     

The realization was devastating.    

But the choice was clear.    

Even if it made me…a killer… Slaughter of children…   

I summoned my Ember Tome and cast [Flame Barrier] to protect us from the [Inferno Burst]. A fiery orb appeared above the fluttering pages of my book. It flew above the shed and waited, growing angrier the longer I let it charge.    

That was the primer.    

When it was bigger than a truck, I threw the detonator. It pressed into the primer, which exploded, engulfing the immediate area in a searing blaze of purifying flames. It spread like a baptismal sea once the orb exploded. The anguished screams of the children mingled with the crackling flames, piercing the air and etching themselves deep into my memory.   

The barrier protected us from even feeling the smallest amount of heat…   

But…   

I didn’t want to accept this.    

Shut up! Shut up! Stop screaming! Die… Please, just…pass on… And forgive me… I’m…  

The mercy I offered?   

It was gruesome.   

It was merciless—cruel because the children were innocent.   

They were children!  

But the alternative was a fate worse than death.   

It was preventing the undead curse from spreading.   

But as their sorrowful cries and screams died…the guilt and sorrow were etched into my heart.   

Melusine put a hand on my shoulder and apologized. She said this was the only choice. Elly and the others joined her and hugged me while I vented my frustrations.   

I failed again… I couldn’t save… I…killed children… 

---

We pressed forward, haunted by the harrowing scenes we had witnessed. Village after village, we encountered the same nightmarish tableau of the undead. Sometimes, it was a woman trapped in a shed. She hugged a dead baby to her rotted chest and asked us to fetch milk because she couldn’t produce any.    

She cursed me for killing her baby when the flames spread.    

The next one had a brother and sister. Both were missing their arms, but they called me their auntie and asked when their cousin was coming. Their minds were too far gone, and they calmly wondered why the sun was getting brighter before the flames consumed them.    

The next one was a father who wanted his daughter.    

The one after that was a daughter wanting to pet her kitten one last time.    

And the one beyond that was full of dead animals surrounding an old woman without a face.    

It was horrible.    

It was disgusting…   

And… I couldn’t take it.    

I couldn’t keep casting my flames and consuming the villages! The skies behind me were filled with smoke and the rotting scent of corpses. Soon, it blocked out the sun, casting the area in a dull shadow.    

I nearly lost it. It felt like a part of me died every time I used [Inferno Burst].   

And I hated it.     

But my personal feelings aside, we discovered important information in the villages from notes and letters we had found by searching around.    

We were in Northeastern Cridia—in a place called the Apival Duchy. Its capital was Sinem, which was supposed to be located beyond the southern edge of a cliff. If the notes were accurate, we would see it once we came to the last village. This large field housed 14 of them.     

That was our current goal.     

Once we reached the largest village thus far, we entered the most prominent house and searched. Four locked diaries were hidden inside a dusty chest that belonged to the village’s former elder, who oversaw all fourteen farms on behalf of Lord Apival.

The books were old. Based on the writing, they had to be at least two centuries old.    

Why?   

Because it mentioned the man who ruled Cridia before Meruria—Holy Lord Sajun. Meruria once said she encountered tabletop RPGs from Soul Warriors around 150 years ago.    

He had to have died before then. But the last journal mentioned that Sajun had passed away in an accident, and weeks later, Meruria evolved into a Holy Lord.    

That was concerning.     

So…what was the timeline?   

When exactly did Meruria take power? And how long did Sajun rule?   

But from the diaries, we learned the capital city was called Junsa. That was our goal.    

After ensuring we couldn’t find anything else, the duty fell to me to burn the village. This time…my heart was spared the agony of hearing a mother’s or child’s death gurgles.     

I would delude myself if I said it became easier. Rarely we found a place safe enough to rest, but Elly always stayed near me. Melusine’s words were kind. And they were what I needed.   

I needed to be strong. Weakness? Fear? Trepidation? While it was impossible to forgo those emotions and feelings, I oversaw leading Team Quella to survival.    

Night fell upon the land, although with the ton of smoke darkening the skies, it had felt like midnight for the past three hours. Instead of trying to make it to the last village, we decided to rest around a campfire. Our bellies rumbled, but it was dangerous to eat. The fresh meat could cause zombies and other undead to head our way.     

“Melly?”   

“What is it, Ami?”   

“Do you have any stories to tell?”    

“About my kingdom?”   

“Uh-huh.”   

“I’m curious about it. If you’re fine with it, I mean,” added Greggie.   

Melusine spoke of her coronation and how many things went wrong. The errors were only spotted by her, but she still said she never felt so nervous before. And on that topic, she became queen by public vote. Before the crowning, the kingdom was its own thing-- not a democracy, but not a monarchy. It didn’t have any organization until Melusine arrived. She worked for decades and turned it into something special, and the surrounding areas rewarded her by wanting to have her lead them as their queen.    

She said she once knew this foul-mouthed fairy with a preference for alcohol. No matter how often she sent her away, she always returned to spend time with Melusine.  

“She’d used to say it must be so lonely spending so much time on the throne without a man or woman to keep me company. I don’t understand why she was obsessed with procreation, but I miss her. And the head butler and head maid. Taking a stroll through town and waving at the children… Stopping by the orphanage and reading a story or two…”   

“It sounds like a wonderful place. It must be if Melly’s taking care of parent-less children.”   

“Thank you, Ami. Your kind words do me well. We weren’t the strongest kingdom. But we were our own little slice of land. It was a place that was loved by everyone. The fairy I mentioned earlier was more of an assistant. She said she wanted to help me on a whim, and I wouldn’t have accomplished anything without her help.”   

“Do you think she’s still alive?”   

“I cannot say, Greggie. Faeries have an unnaturally long lifespan, but my advisor was…unique. She picked a fight with anyone who looked at her wrong, but she would always share a drink with anyone who asked if you paid. She wasn’t but ten inches tall, so it didn’t take much.”   

“Ten inches? So, a Mini-Melly?”   

“Not quite, my dear,” Melusine chuckled. “I’m a Crystal Fairy, yet my advisor called herself a Dark Fairy. Her wings were black as the night sky. Red energy pulsed throughout them like veins. But her advice was invaluable. It almost seemed as if she was as old as time itself. If she’s alive, I’d like to meet her once more. But she never told me her name. She wanted to be called Miss Advisor to the Queen of Faeries. And you had to say the full title for her to look your way.”   

“She sounds unique,” I said.    

“And she was. But this… Meruria… I can already tell I will not like her. Recycling a Soul Warrior is something that didn’t exist in my time. Nor have I heard of the void.”   

“Remember that accident? In the diary? Couldn’t Meruria have absorbed Sajun’s Holy Mana if she used the void? Do you think that’s how it happened?” Mary raised a good point. I had thought of that earlier, and based on what we know of her…   

I wouldn’t put it past her to do it.    

She struck me as a power-hungry woman. One without any limits.    

Not long after we stopped talking about our summoner, we all drifted to sleep sitting up. Mary had a few monsters keep watch, but they didn’t have to wake us up.   

The morning arrived quickly, and the skies were still covered in smoke.    

That was probably an omen, and I didn’t like it.    

---

As we approached the desolated cliff-side village, the stench of death hung heavy in the air, mingling with the acrid scent of smoke and decay. The ruins of once-peaceful homes lay scattered like broken dreams, shattered remnants of lives forever lost. The weight of the destruction bore down upon us, a suffocating presence that threatened to consume our hope.   

A figure emerged from the shadows at the cliff's edge, its hunched form silhouetted against the dying light. A macabre sight unfolded before our eyes as the person began stacking lifeless bodies, one upon the other, with sickening precision. A chill crawled up my spine, sending shivers through my very core.   

We watched from a distance as the figure grotesquely twisted, undergoing a horrifying transformation. Its body melted and shifted, oozing like a vile slime as it assimilated the corpses into its form.    

“That’s… It’s a chimera…” Melusine’s voice was shaky. We didn’t know what that was, but was it a monster?   

I didn’t see a name or level above it.    

“Chimera are creatures made from corpses that remain in one location for too long. The negative emotions of the deceased trigger a phenomenon. The collected bodies are transformed into one being. It is a foe that grows stronger by consuming others. They are the only entities that do not have a limit to the amount of strength they can acquire. Their potential is truly infinite.”   

“Hmmm… Yep! That’s about right. Good job, Queenie Melly! It seems a thousand years trapped in a dungeon hasn’t messed with your mind,” said a voice that didn’t belong to any of us.     

We turned and stared at a brown-eared woman with wolf-like ears and a tail bending over, looking right into my eyes. She wore a suit, a white buttoned-up shirt, a red tie, and heeled boots. 

Her eyes changed from red to orange, green, and back to red before settling on brown. The woman…   

“What the hell are you doing here?!” I whispered, my vow as quiet as I could force it, grabbing Shuuta’s rapist by her collar.    

“Hahaha! Oh, I’ve missed your hate-filled eyes, Cutie Qutie! I’m glad to see you’ve missed me too! Whoops! I better be quiet, huh? We don’t want the Big Bad Chimera to fiiind us!” screamed the woman, purposely drawing attention.   

“YOU’RE TOO LATE!!!”   

“Whoops! That’s not going to plan!” The woman said everything so casually as a lightning bolt appeared above us. Instantly, we were teleported away in a flash of light until we stood behind the monster.   

There was a crater where we had just been.     

The grotesque thing looked like a scholarly gentleman you’d find in a library. But his snarl…   

“Teleportation, huh? I don’t have that. I hope you taste as good as you look, cutie,” growled the chimera. He raised a hand, and it transformed into a dozen tentacles that grossly squirmed around.    

“Anyways, Cutie Qutie, I was sent here by Lord Meruria to pick you guys up. Do ya see the curse around us? Yeah, that happened a few days ago. But guess what?”   

“Don’t ignore me!” shouted the chimera.   

“Look over the edge.”   

“What? I’m not doing that. You’re just going to kick me off it!”   

“Gasp!! I’m shocked you think so little of me! Oh! Remy’s poor little heart can’t take it!”   

“You raped Shuuta, you goddamn bitch.”   

“Is that you, Greggie? You’re so fat I mistook you for a blubbering wall of flesh. Treat me right, and Lord Meruria will let me take you to heaven. You can experience the last thing Shuuta felt.”   

“DON’T IGNORE ME!!!!”    

“You have questions. And I have answers. And sure, I can kill that thing in no time. But I wanna see what you can do. Lord Meruria knows you’ve obtained your Soul Weapon, so let’s see it in action, Cutie Qutie.”    

Remy teleported once more and appeared in the sky. She stood on a block of white light and commanded us to fight as if she ruled over a gladiatorial death match. Daggers appeared from a flash of brown light, and she juggled them.   

The chimera growled once more. He spat death threats as his vines plunged into the ground.    

We weren’t going to wait and take it, so it was time to act.    

Elly started singing [Dexterous Resolve] to increase our speed. Melusine formed her crystal wings, flew, and used [Cursed Ice Spear]. Greggie lifted his shield and cautiously walked forward, and Ami kept pace with him. Our monster tamer summoned her monsters, and the fight tensely began.     

“Now! You need to move!” Mary shouted a command after being told important information by her monsters. Immediately, we jumped away and avoided the vines threatening to impale us. Ami used her superior speed to close the distance and engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. He dodged her strikes and transformed into slime to break her grips and holds.   

Her fists went right through him.     

Greggie jumped and smacked him away with his shield, but he morphed into a bird and took to the skies. He flew around, and then the one bird turned into four.   

I used [Flame Barrier] and then charged mana into [Heat Wave]. The spell left my tome and was hot enough to melt the ground in seconds. I directed it towards the birds, but they…   

Just vanished.    

“SHIT—”    

I turned around too late and felt an arm puncture my stomach. The chimera we fought was a decoy.    

The real thing was hidden from the beginning…   

“Got you now…”   

“QUTIE!!!!” Elly screamed my name and switched to her healing song. But my HP drained faster than it healed. Greggie made a move, but a second hand spread open my stomach. I felt a foreign entity poke and prod at my intestines.     

“You don’t want me to hurt her more, do you? Why don’t you sit there and let me enjoy this meal?”   

“[SOUL BARRIER]!” I gritted my teeth and used a spell exclusive to me. The chimera’s arms were severed, and he tried to break my protective aura after regrowing his limbs.     

But it didn’t work.    

I muttered [Heat Wave] under my breath and melted the ground below us. My soul energy drained like crazy, but the chimera immediately felt himself become one with molten rock. He tried desperately to pull himself out, but I turned around and hugged him tightly.    

“YOU’RE GOING TO DIE TOO!” he shouted. He struggled even more, but I didn’t let go.    

Suddenly, the chimera ripped off his head and threw it at Mary, who fell in panic. I looked at the headless corpse and found watery slime. Melusine appeared to grab my hand. She lifted me out of my trap.    

Mary screamed. The monster had turned into slime and circled her body, sending its tendrils into every orifice it could. 

“Oh? What’s this?!” The monster formed a slingshot and flung itself away. It regrew into a child and childishly spoke while looking at a bottle of pills.     

The same pills Mary needed to survive—to counteract her accelerated aging.  

Without even saying anything, we launched into a rage. Elly switched to [Physical Resolve], which strengthened Greggie and Ami. Keeth…   

He couldn’t do anything. He just watched and cheered us on.    

Melusine called my name and said one word.    

Barrier.   

She used the ice variant; I used the flame, and I overcharged the hell out of [Inferno Burst]. Melusine channeled [Frigid Explosion], which grew to life above her head. She held both arms up and screamed, her crystal wings shining brighter than ever.    

“This must be important if you’re going this far for it.” The chimera didn’t even move. Ami’s furious punches and Greggie’s anger-infused slices just passed right through.    

I instantly turned around and waited for the chimera to show himself, but he never did. Melusine used her spell first, but the monster transfigured into a nimble serpent covered in ice. It jumped towards the incoming attack and slithered around it, using the frictionless surface to build up speed to launch itself high into the air.    

An icy apocalypse was born when the spell landed. It exploded into a barrage of frozen spikes that rampaged the nearby village, freezing everything solid. Without our barrier spells, we would’ve died thirteen times over.    

“JUST GIVE IT BACK!” I launched the primer and prepared the detonator. “You don’t know what they’re capable of. We need those pills more than anything!”   

I knew I still had a hole in my stomach.    

It hurt so goddamn much.    

Elly’s song couldn’t fix that kind of injury. She could delay the HP drain, but that was the most.     

But it was nothing to the hatred I felt towards my enemy.     

The chimera grew wings and returned to a humanoid form, although he became an elderly man with wrinkly skin. “If you want them, you need to kill me. If this attack doesn’t do it, then…”   

“You bastard!” Elly screamed. Her teary eyes revealed her true feelings. She changed her song and attacked using flying musical notes. The lyrics were heavy and depraved—something that would fit in a death metal band. Our enemy avoided the magical music notes with ease. I threw the detonator with my last bit of strength and watched it explode like a bomb. The skies were filled with so much heat and flames that the air caught on fire. It was so hot a portion of the cliff liquified into goo. We needed to retreat further into the village to avoid falling. The ice reacted and made a wave of steam, preventing us from seeing our enemy.    

The pain radiating from my stomach tripled in agony. I cried and fell to my knees, unable to harbor the strength to look up.     

But we heard his voice.    

His taunting, crude, annoying voice. “Hahahaha! You’re powerful, but that’s all you are. You don’t have any skill—any technique! You rely on raw power without any refinement! You need to be like me!”   

A powerful breeze picked up. The steam began to swirl and thin, revealing our enemy. The chimera had four arms and two heads. Two hands supported a wind spell, and the other two were popping Mary’s pills into his mouths.    

Before I could say anything, the steam compressed itself twice into a thin needle, then shot like a laser towards Keeth.    

It pierced his throat.    

“KEEEEEETHHHHH!!!!” Elly rushed to his aid and sang her healing song as fast as she could. Ami joined his side and pressed her hands against the wound, using pressure to stop the bleeding.    

But his HP drained quickly. He was the weakest of us. He didn’t have that much HP. Nor did we have any armor. We wore gear made for ice and cold--mere clothes.     

I tried to stand, but my legs were numb. My arms felt like rubber.    

My head hurt.    

My eyes hurt.    

My stomach hurt.   

There was nothing that didn’t hurt.    

It took all I had to look at Elly and Ami trying to help Keeth. Greggie… He fought the chimera, but his blows were deflected. The enemy was covered in shiny scales and looked like a walking aquamarine. It then transformed once more and formed long claws. It snatched Greggie’s sword and shield and crumbled them like paper.    

Melusine was running low on mana. Her blue bar was almost totally drained. Greggie had resorted to throwing punches. It was hard to see it, but his left hand was broken.    

Oh... His... Keeth’s… 

Shit… 

Am…I going to fail…? 

Again… 

After I let Shuuta die? 

Why can’t I do anything right…? 

I can’t do this anymore.  

I can’t keep killing… 

Mothers 

Fathers 

Children… 

I’m not strong… 

I can’t survive here… 

Shuuta… When I die… I can say sorry… It’s okay if you hate me… I’ll understand it…because I hate myself too…