Re: Butterfly (Reincarnated as a Butterfly)

Kill… Rosslyn?

Adon waited a moment to make certain that he had understood correctly. His mind seemed to be operating very sluggishly.

No alternate explanation for what the Dungeon Core had said sprang to mind.

The answer to that request was obviously "No."

He reached into the darkness of the inner world that he had partially explored as he tapped his magical potential. Specifically, he found the memorized location where mental magic lived.

As he touched the power, his mind was supercharged. In an instant, he understood what was going on.

There was a foreign influence working on his brain. His mind had already been resisting it. That was what was slowing his thought processes down: a fight between his mind and the subtle influence—well, the influence that was attempting to be subtle—from the Dungeon Core.

With a miniscule effort, his enhanced brain threw off the unwanted intrusion. Along with that, he sent a telepathic screech the Dungeon Core's way, complete with the physical sensation of getting stung by hundreds of bees—one of the ways a previous Adon had died.

Ouch! the core complained instantly.

Nice try, Adon sent. My mental magic seems to be strong enough to resist yours. Bad luck for you.

What did you—what did you send me? the Dungeon Core whined. That was so painful. I can't remember… I don't think I've felt pain in this incarnation even once until now.

I can't believe I thought I had anything in common with this guy, Adon thought, recalling the many hours he had spent in various forms of excruciating pain since his birth as a caterpillar. That time he was poisoned from eating the ladybug larva loomed prominently in his memory. This core is soft as a boiled egg. And a big fat manipulative liar!

Just sent you a little memory from one of my other incarnations, Adon replied. Figured you could handle it, friend.

"Please, Adon, what is being said?" Rosslyn asked, slightly exasperated. "If you are conducting interspecies diplomacy or something, we should discuss the terms together. I would also like to point out the context for any proposals made." She lowered her voice. "It seems obvious that the core has no remaining protectors. Any suggestions for a peaceful settlement are likely stalling tactics to save its life for a time while it rebuilds…"

You see, she does want me dead! the core fumed.

"No dungeon has ever coexisted peacefully with humans before, in any record I have ever heard of," Rosslyn said. "Even the demons have a greater capacity to share territory with our race than a Dungeon Core."

I think she's got you there, Adon sent to the core. Unless you have some argument besides trying to get me to kill my companion…

Well, you can't blame me for trying, the Dungeon Core sent. Are you sure you wouldn't like to rethink this? For one human, you will give up the fellowship of thousands of your own kind. You could connect with so many others more like you.

I don't even believe you're telling the truth about that much, now, Adon replied. And no, I don't want to rethink it. Not even a little bit. I can't even think of why I'd consider it. Killing Rosslyn is completely off the table. Always would be. She's… very important to me. I actually do kind of blame you for trying. I was willing to consider some way that I could bring you out of here or something. Maybe Rosslyn and her family could hold you prisoner in the capital nearby, or just let you live there, depending on how exactly a Dungeon Core's life cycle works. I don't have any reason to believe you have to prey on humans. But you're not exactly inspiring confidence right now.

Why would you choose them over us? the core hissed. I like feeding on humans. I wouldn't even want to consider eating anything else. Maybe demons. But they're bony and stringy. I don't know why the King cares about pursuing them at all.

Well, you convinced me that you can't be saved, Adon sent.

Rosslyn, I don't think this is going to work out, he transmitted in a separate message carefully projected only to her. I tried to negotiate, but like you said, it was just him trying to trick us. Be ready to fight.

Almost every soul sent to this world with strong connections to its past lives becomes a Dungeon Core or a powerful monster, the core sent in a tone of urgency. You're more like us than you are like any human, no matter what species you were in a previous life. Monsters should not side with humans over monster kind.

I get along with the humans, Adon began.

But he stopped. He noticed that the core seemed to be glowing more brightly as it communicated. It didn't feel like a natural ebb and flow. The change was more as if the core was gathering a large quantity of mana.

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The Dungeon Core was at the end of the tunnel, almost fifty feet away, but Adon could feel the energy. There was a growing charge in the air.

That community is a powerful one, it is closely interconnected, and our leader is the strongest being in this world, the core continued. You will make a terrible mistake by opposing us. Our dominion will only grow…

What are you doing? Adon sent. You don't think I can sense that energy? It's visible. If you were hoping to talk us down…

The Princess had already drawn her sword and was holding it at her side after Adon's last message to her, but as the Dungeon Core began radiating energy, Rosslyn's body noticeably tensed beside him.

"Adon, what is going on? I sense something strange."

He's charging some kind of attack, Adon sent, communicating rapid-fire. I don't know what it is. But before, he was trying to get me to kill you. We have to destroy him before he gets it off!

Both the butterfly and the Princess sprang into action. Adon flapped his wings, instantly pushing a bit of mana into them and surging forward. Rosslyn took off even faster. Adon heard the stone ground shattered under her footsteps, and then she shot ahead of him like a rocket.

But neither of them was as fast as what was coming next.

The crystals that lit the passage around them in steadily pulsing purple light suddenly flashed brightly and went dark, then flashed bright and went dark again, a silent alarm that seemed to warn of dangers they did not yet understand.

And the light all around the core did the same thing.

Adon understood. The reason he had felt the charge in the air was not that the Dungeon Core itself had so much power gathered around its body. It was because the core had communicated its intent to the entire dungeon around them. It wasn't just charging an attack with the energy contained in its own small form. Whatever move it was making, the core was using every single glowing crystal on the final level—perhaps every crystal in the entire dungeon—to execute its final attack.

Do cores attack this way? Adon wondered.

His eyes tracked Rosslyn, but he did not send the thought as a message to her. She had shot far ahead of him, rapidly closing the distance to the core. He couldn't distract her when she might prevent whatever massive attack was coming.

Die with me, then. The Dungeon Core sent a simple, final message, defiant and brutal to the last.

And Adon felt another, much more forceful and massive, wave of thoughts sweep past him. This was from the core, too. The message clearly wasn't directed at the butterfly. If anything, it was sent in such a way as to deliberately avoid touching him.

But his Telepathy was more advanced now than it had been even a week or two before. This was perhaps Adon's most highly developed ability. He wanted to be a social butterfly, after all. He had to be able to communicate.

Adon couldn't catch up to Rosslyn, and he couldn't reach the core in time to prevent whatever it was doing, but he could intercept the Dungeon Core's true final communication.

Keeping one eye on the Princess—everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as she neared the core and the flashing crystals sped up the tempo of their wildly alarming brightening and darkening—he reached out with his telepathic senses and grabbed hold of the signal the Dungeon Core had sent out.

He instantly sensed that the message was meant to go outside the dungeon—far away from there, in fact. He could feel the speed at which it was moving—a speed that would be more or less constant until it reached its destination.

Adon could not stop the message from leaving the dungeon, but he could at least grasp hold of its contents.

He locked onto the message and listened.

Iwy wguors woly pysiyd uy bgiskdy bq Joxr. Iwy zbxoe vzkrmyss ord o ubrsiyz kr iwy swovy bq o pgiiyzqex. Zymbuuyrd oiiomtkrh oqiyz iwy pgiiyzqex wos vossyd br. Ki ks grgsgoeex sizbrh-jkeeyd qbz o mzyoigzy rbi oqqkekoiyd jkiw iwy Ubrsiyz Tkrhdbu, ord iwy mzyoigzy wos iwy ogzo bq o zykrmozroibz. Wod dkoebhgy jkiw iwy ubrsiyz ord mbrqkzuyd iwoi ki jos o zykrmozroibz. Uyrioe vbjyzs ozy ibb sizbrh ib dbukroiy ki jkiw uohkm. Ki ks rbi ouyropey ib cbkrkrh iwy wkly. Jkee skdy jkiw wguors blyz kis bjr tkrd qbz grtrbjr, vbsskpex syrikuyrioe zyosbrs. Jkee oiiyuvi syeq-dysizgmi ib tkee iwyu pbiw, iwbghw yqqkmomx ks dbgpiqge. K dky qbz bgz lkmibzx. Woke ib iwy Tkrh!

The fuck?! The message was completely incoherent. No, it was obviously encrypted. Who uses encryption for Telepathy? There are hardly any entities in this world who can use Telepathy in the first place…

He thought of what the Dungeon Core had said about there being a community of creatures just like Adon and itself. Maybe it hadn't all been completely false after all. There was obviously an effort there to make Adon betray the people he cared about, but perhaps the Dungeon Core really was connected to others that had memories of previous lives. Thousands of other intelligent life forms.

Adon probably shouldn't care about it. He had everything he needed if Claustria and Wayn were safe. As long as Rosslyn, Goldie, and Samson survived, he would never feel lonely.

But there was a mystery there.

I'll try to crack the encryption later, he thought. Infallibly remembering everything was pretty useful sometimes. He also took note of the speed, direction of travel, and as best he could, a mental snapshot of the intent in the message that he'd felt as it traveled through the air.

For Impeccable Memory to function properly, he needed actual memories to work from. Not just a feeling that he understood generally what had happened. If he used his Skill to re-experience something, he would only experience the things he had experienced before.

Fortunately, all of this could be done at the speed of thought. Faster than any physical body could move.

His focus returned to the final movements taking place in front of him. Rosslyn zipped through the air like an arrow, sword swinging, athletic body perfectly on target.

The Dungeon Core flashed, blindingly bright, one final time, accompanied by every crystal in the cavern around them. Adon's body reflexively used Transformation to slightly shield his eyes.

He couldn't visually follow what happened next, due to the combination of brightness and sheer speed. But he heard the sound of the blade slicing through the air, and then there was something else. The tang of metal against a rock-like substance.

Rosslyn landed in front of the Dungeon Core and took two steps, then fell to one knee. Her body quaked with heavy breathing. She had truly gone all out. That might have been all she had left.

The Dungeon Core appeared intact for a moment. Then it tumbled to both sides of the small pedestal it had sat on, in two evenly sliced pieces.

You did it! Adon sent.

We did, Rosslyn thought. It's finally over. Everything but getting out…

The ground began to quiver.