Re: Butterfly (Reincarnated as a Butterfly)

As the ground quaked, Adon saw little flickers of bursting light all around him.

It took only a moment for him to recognize what was going on. One by one, the glowing crystals that had lit the tunnel were popping like lightbulbs, shattering into tiny stone shards that sprayed little clouds of brightly lit shrapnel in all directions.

It wasn't particularly dangerous to him, since he wasn't right next to the wall, but Adon had the sense that he and Rosslyn had dodged a bullet.

The Dungeon Core was trying to blow the dungeon up, he thought. Those crystals were probably supposed to all detonate together in some kind of big chain reaction. Maybe they would have also given off a lot more energy if the core had still been alive, coordinating them, infusing them with its own power.

The whole world was shaking just then, so Adon could only imagine how much more dangerous it would be if the process was still guided by an actual living intelligence. The Dungeon Core's mind was gone from the space, fortunately. He could sense that all its mental activity had faded a moment after Rosslyn sliced the core in two, not counting the telepathic message that had continued to shoot forward through space even after the sender's death.

Adon would have been impressed with the sheer scale of the Dungeon Core's telepathic abilities; his own range was not nearly as long as what he sensed the core was achieving.

But the small matter of the dungeon trembling around them proved a stubborn distraction.

I think you saved us, he sent to the Princess. She had been crouched just beyond the Dungeon Core a moment before, but he saw she was now sprinting back in his direction.

"We have to go!" Rosslyn shouted.

He flapped his wings, keeping ahead of her as she reached the place where he had just been hovering.

I agree, Adon sent. But what exactly is happening?

Dungeon collapse, she thought, panting as she raced alongside the butterfly. Happens when the core is destroyed. Usually slower than this, I have heard. For some reason, this dungeon has been peculiar in many ways.

I think he was trying to self-destruct, Adon replied immediately.

Rosslyn shook her head, an expression of obvious confusion spreading across her face.

Why? What would that gain the core?

We were about to kill him anyway, Adon sent. He wanted to take us with him.

Pure spite, then? Rosslyn wondered. She still seemed unsatisfied with the explanation.

Adon had a deeper insight than that. In their dialogue, the Dungeon Core had mentioned a whole community of similarly situated individuals, and in its last moments, it had even tried to send out some sort of communication, albeit one scrambled with some form of encryption.

It was entirely plausible that the core had more objectives than just its own survival. Maybe it was trying to look out for the others of its kind. The Princess and the butterfly were an obvious threat to cores everywhere.

But this felt like a bad moment to explain all of that.

After we survive, Adon thought. After we escape the dungeon and maybe finish out this war with the Demon Empire. Surely that can't be too far away.

As the pair raced down the tunnel, Adon heard the beginnings of collapse coming from behind them. Stones falling upon stones. He could see it in the edges of his vision, an ominous warning of what would happen to him and Rosslyn if they failed to move quickly enough.

Rosslyn suppressed a cough beside him. She did not let it slow her pace, but Adon immediately felt worry—both his own natural concern, and a shred of worry leaking from her mind. The latter scared him more than the former. If Rosslyn perceived it as a problem, it would probably actually be a problem for her.

I thought you healed, Adon sent.

I mostly did, Rosslyn thought. You scared me a little when you were going back and forth with the core earlier. You were just hovering there, not answering things I said. It felt as if you were falling under some sort of magical control to me. I needed to act. I… I should have trusted that you were still in control. But I cut it slightly short so that I could be ready. I was expecting some sort of surprise attack at any moment, imagining that you would be paralyzed when it came.

That was an entirely legitimate fear, Adon admitted. You weren't wrong to worry. He held off from explaining any further. It wasn't the time or place.

He fluttered down to her back.

What are you doing? she thought.

Isn't it obvious? Adon began shrinking down with Transformation, until he was in the form of a dense little caterpillar, his wings and spikes all compressed. Healing you. You can run faster than I can fly anyway.

The butterfly-turned-caterpillar-again spent the next several minutes clinging to Rosslyn's back, slowly finishing up the restoration of her lungs. He was barely conscious of the changes in their surroundings as she ran, though he could hear the sounds of rocks falling and thought he felt the shaking intensify. The latter was hard to be certain of, because Rosslyn was still running incredibly quickly despite the exertions of the day, and her movements shook Adon roughly as much as the unstable structure did.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

When he paid attention to his surroundings again, the quality of the lighting was different. That was the first thing he noticed. He looked up and saw that the ceiling was completely open above them. In the distance, far enough away that it felt like the sky, violet crystals that remained intact twinkled like stars, lighting a path upward to the level they had fallen from. The signal to self-destruct had not been sent to them, or it had not reached that distance yet.

Adon recognized that Rosslyn had somehow run all the way back to where they had first arrived after climbing down into the final level. That distance had taken them hours to pass through before, including time in which they were running for their lives from monsters.

Somehow, Rosslyn had cut through it in a time period that felt much shorter. Just barely long enough for Adon to finish healing her. And she had done it while exhausted.

Then he realized that, apart from the patch of Rosslyn's back that he was stuck onto, every bit of her exposed skin was covered in a thin sheen of sweat.

The Princess took deep breaths and blinked slowly, as if she was tired and a bit sleepy.

Are you all right? Adon sent. You're… very athletic, but it feels like this has pushed you too far. Maybe I can turn into my human form and give you a piggy-back ride for a while?

He could smell her sweat intensely now, and he noticed how every muscle in her back felt tense and primed for action, as if she expected an attack at any moment and needed to be prepared for it. He couldn't help but imagine her leaping twenty feet into the air, repeating the move, and somehow jumping their way up the wall until they reached the level she had fallen from earlier.

"Just had to…" Yawn. "Make sure that I did my part." She shook her head. "I got us here. But now it's your turn." She yawned again. "I ran the last part on foot, because it was a horizontal path. But—" She gestured at the cliff face ahead of them—"I cannot run up a vertical wall. I need you. Need your wings."

As she finished speaking, Adon heard a tinkling sound like glass breaking. He looked behind him and saw that violet crystals were still exploding in the cavern they had come from, and the little explosions were advancing in their direction. Further back, he could just barely see that the tunnel had collapsed. It seemed when the nearby light source exploded, that area of the dungeon caving in wasn't far behind.

He would need to get them out of there as quickly as possible. There was just one problem.

Rosslyn, you remember when you fell from the level with the ants, right? Adon asked.

"I do not quite remember, since I was unconscious," Rosslyn replied gently. "But I do remember waking up with you taking care of me, after you threw yourself after me. And I know that you kept me from… landing harder, more violently. Fatally." There was a tenderness to her voice as she recalled the rescue, and Adon felt very heroic as she described it.

But she was missing the point. Her voice also lacked the urgency of their situation. She might be getting too tired to think straight.

At the time, I used Transformation to make my wings big enough to try and carry you, but I couldn't, Adon sent. I could make my wings gigantic, as big as I wanted, almost, but the best I could do was slow your fall and direct you through the air a little bit, like a parachute. He sent a quick telepathic image of a parachute and how it worked, since the Princess would not have context for that invention.

Oh, that is interesting, she thought. It does make sense with how falls work that such a device would be viable for long drops like this.

I don't know how I could ascend while carrying you, he sent. My wings wouldn't be strong enough. We should come up with something else.

"I have thought about that problem, Adon," she said aloud. "That is why I ran this distance using just muscle, trying not to reinforce my legs with magic at all. I saved as much strength as I could for now."

There were a number of questions running through Adon's mind.

She was that fast with pure muscle alone? What is she made of? I guess her father is supposed to be a pretty amazing warrior, right? What does magic have to do with this? Can she use mana to fly?

Um, I don't get it, he sent.

"Try a Transformation into a form with giant wings, and I think I will be able to reinforce your wings and strengthen your body with mana," the Princess said. "Quickly, please." She turned her head to look back at the collapsing layer of dungeon behind them and furrowed her brow slightly. The devastation was drawing closer to them. Just fifty feet back as she observed it.

All right, Adon thought. It was amazing to think the Princess might be able to do what she described. But if she could, it would save them.

He used Transformation and formed his body into a giant pair of butterfly wings joined to a modified version of his head, thorax, and abdomen. He minimized the sizes of his main body parts other than the wings and also expanded his legs into octopus-like tentacles that he used to wrap around Rosslyn's waist.

I think that's as good as I'm going to get, he sent.

"Should be perfect," Rosslyn purred.

She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and then Adon felt her power run through her waist and back, into his legs, body, and his wings. An unimaginable strength flowed through him. Intoxicating.

"Go," she whispered. Adon felt the weakness in her voice. All Rosslyn's energy was flowing into him now.

He pushed that thought away, tried not to worry about what effects this energy usage might have on her. If they didn't get out of this dungeon soon, it would be a moot point.

Adon flapped his wings with a strength that seemed physically impossible, and he felt a massive burst of air push them off the ground. Another massive flap took them another few feet into the air.

Slowly, without grace, the pair ascended. Rosslyn's body shuddered slightly in Adon's grip, and the butterfly's wings sometimes moved more slowly than he would have liked, but they kept going.

As they flew, the exploding crystals reached the area around them, but Adon guided them close enough to the center of the vast chasm that the explosions from the walls nearby could not reach them. The world shook, and levels collapsed as they passed them by, but for a time, the pair felt almost untouchable.

They rose for hundreds of feet, wingbeat by jerky, clumsy wingbeat. Rosslyn's eyes were closed, her body slumped in Adon's grip, as if she did not want to spend energy on anything other than fueling their rise.

Her vital signs remained fairly steady—Adon could feel her heartbeat was actually relatively calm, and she was taking deep breaths—so he tried not to worry about her apparent exhaustion too much. There was nothing he could do about it.

Slowly, he got the hang of flying with giant wings while carrying an unmoving young woman, and Adon was able to gain on the exploding crystals. They were not accelerating in their progress, and there seemed to be an order to the explosions. They would gradually take out every crystal lighting a level, and by the time they were done detonating, that level would collapse.

Some floors were larger and took longer than others to self-destruct.

As the Princess and the butterfly neared the level where they had lost contact with the group, Adon remembered that it had already partially collapsed when they fell into the abyss.

He had only a moment to consider what effect that might have on the progression of the dungeon's self-destruct sequence, before he saw the remaining intact chunks of ceiling above them begin to crack and split apart.

Adon prepared for evasive maneuvers.