While Red was hesitant to talk about it, Sláine listened, and together they began formulating the basics of a plan.

As much as Sláine disliked it, the severe lack of information made it absolute folly to do anything but wait for help to arrive. Even if they did manage to find a way out of what was, quite possibly, an impossible labyrinthine tunnels system, said tunnels could easily be filled with foreign, unfamiliar monsters. While Sláine was perfectly comfortable with those odds for herself, Red certainly wasn’t, and it didn’t help that it was obvious Red was… keeping something important from her partner.

Red was scared.

The way she hesitated to speak about it, the uneasiness of her posture as they stood together in a chamber so black it greedily lapped up the meager light Red had created… It was clear she had some sort of connection to the Dark, and that meant being down here was all the more dangerous.

Sláine didn’t know exactly how it worked here in Arpege, but back home, the monsters were always stronger if you were afraid of them. Fear was food to them, their lifeblood and what they sought out in the world. Red’s fear made her vulnerable, and that wasn’t even accounting for the perfectly understandable reluctance to talk about it.

Still, though, Red tried to explain, just in case something forced them out of the corner where they’d tried to hunker down.

“If it is the Dark, it’ll try to make you feel powerless. Bindings, emotional manipulation, fooling the senses with illusions and bringing back memories of when you were a pathetic, helpless child… stuff like that, that’s what its servants will use.”

“Somewhat ironic that a power called Boundless would bind its victims,” Sláine replied, tapping a finger against her arm.

Red shrugged, illuminated by the glow of a red cube she rolled across her knuckles. “Ultimately, it’s the feelings, rather than the methodology, that’s important. Anyway. There’s not a lot I can’t burn with these bad boys — “ She caught the cube in her palm, then. “But as what became a problem before, friendly — heh — fire is a bit of an issue.”

“Red. You really don’t have to worry about thing like that.”

“But — “

Sláine held up her hand. “No buts. I trust you to do what’s necessary.”

Sláine would get Red away from the source of her fear, no matter what it took.

“How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t want to be responsible for hurting you, you idiot! Especially if it plays into some bat-shit suicidal ideation!” Red thumped her fist against the floor, letting the red cube bounce against the ground. It’s faint light painted a grim light over the two. “I don’t care about whatever self-worth issues you have going on; using other people to get yourself killed is not right!”

…Ah. Maybe she’d miscalculated, a bit.

“Red.”

Sláine reached out, kneeling in front of her and clasping Red’s hand between her own. She tried to smile as kindly as she was able. “You’re right. I haven’t been working with you in good faith. I came to this land to die, and that isn’t something you can trust in a colleague. But know this: if you are even able to kill me, you will be the most incredible person I have ever met — more powerful than anything I have ever been able to chase down. And if I die protecting you…” (From whatever you’re afraid of, she didn’t say.) “Then that will have been an honorable sacrifice, and a worthy way to leave this world.”

“That’s — “ Red stuttered, and then snatched her hand away and stood. “That’s not a compliment!”

Sláine remained there, frustrated. Why couldn’t she get it? Why couldn’t Red? “My apologies. Among my people, it is.”

“Well, forgive me if I think someone offering to — to sacrifice themselves for my sake is a bit creepy!”

Sláine tilted her head, coming to a realization that only now really struck her. “You’re really quite kind-hearted, you know. I’m not sure why you have such a bad reputation.”

“Kind — kind-hearted? What world are you living in?” Red spat, bristling, but Sláine immediately realized that probably wasn’t Red’s true feelings. Shifting backwards so she could look up at the gloomily shadowed woman, she couldn’t help but feel that Red used anger to conceal the emotions she didn’t want to deal with. “It’s not kindness to not be okay with mercy-killing some rabbit with a death wish!”

Sláine knew laughing wouldn’t be helpful, so she bit back down on the sound.

“…I apologize for offending you. You must understand, death is considered much differently in my home-land than this place. We know what after-life awaits us. We know it is better than here.” Sláine picked up the cube, holding it between her thumb and forefinger. “I’m coming to realize that things are… quite different in the outside world. You all struggle so hard, it seems, to keep breathing. It’s… nice to see,such youthful enthusiasm.’

“Oh, and now she’s talking like some wizened old woman,” Red added, bitter. Sláine simply let that one go with a shake of her head.

“But just as you don’t want to be responsible for hurting me, please know I cannot stand idly by and watch someone else be hurt when I can do something to stop it. If nothing else, take that as my sincere wish.” Sláine looked from the cube to Red, then held it out to her on the flat of her palm. “I truly think your work is impressive. Protecting that has value. I… promise, I will no longer be quite so casual about my safety, but in return, I ask you to let me keep you safe in what ways I can. I can regrow my limbs, Red. It’s unpleasant, but I’ve done it before. I can handle quite a beating, I promise.”

Red fumbled over her words for about thirty seconds, struggling to respond to Sláine with a fair number of but…!s and that’s…! before throwing up her hands in the air and making a noise of distress. Afterwords, her arms dropped to her sides, and she sighed, taking the cube from Sláine. “If your head gets cut off, can you regrow that too?” She asked, tired of Sláine’s bullshit but, despite herself, curious.

“Ah.” Sláine smiled, then grazed her fingers across a flower poking out over her shoulder. “This is all that’s left of last time someone tried that.”

“That’s absolutely fucked. I can’t believe other countries aren’t begging you idiots to come fight for them.”

That gave Sláine a moment of pause. “That is, perhaps, why we’ve had to so stringently defend our isolationism.”

“Hm.”

Red still looked uncomfortable, even after having changed the topic, but if she didn’t want to bring it up again, Sláine didn’t either. As long as Red accepted the outcome, Sláine was content. She didn’t have to like it.

Instead, she turned her attention to the rest of the room. It was an enormous, completely empty square made of a material that Red called concrete. Because dungeons couldn’t be changed without the ‘administrator’s permission’, structural damage wasn’t a worry during combat. No matter how big the explosions got, it wouldn’t cause any kind of cave in. (At least, Red argued, not in here; claustrophobic cave-ins were the Lock’s territory.)

Instead — as long as Red didn’t have to worry about other factors — she was free to use her remaining arsenal of crystals. Some, she explained, were a simple extrapolation of the normal properties of monster remains. A fire monster made something she could conjure a fire from. A poisonous mushroom could be re-purposed to poison one’s enemies. Etcetera. There were also crystals she had modified in certain ways to change the effects naturally present within them — such as taking a charge with a blast direction of 360° degrees and focusing the pressure to create a shaped charge, though she wasn’t satisfied herself with the… penetration depth or the velocity or the angle or something, or maybe all of it, it wasn’t anything Sláine could keep track of and once Red noticed that she wasn’t following along (and, in fact, that minutia wasn’t important right now) she awkwardly cleared her throat and moved on.

Unfortunately for them, Red hadn’t been planning on taking on something that required her to be loaded up to the nines, and most of her equipment was either back in her room undergoing various experiments or was stored in isolation tanks in Krystallotekhnics. “Big old crystal lab,” Red explained. “I do a lot of work there.”

Sláine nodded along as best as she could.

(It was best not to let herself get too interested, she reasoned. She didn’t want to make Red have to tell her you’re not really suited for this kind of thing… — It was best to simply know her strengths already.)

So, currently what she had on her…

[ Ice Nova ] - [ x5 ]

Summons spires of ice radiating out from a central point in an approximately ten-foot circle. Normally, the size and location of the spires is random, but if allowed to focus on the cast, Red can direct them with a high degree of accuracy.

[ Ice Wall ] - [ x2 ]

An experimental variation of [ Ice Nova ] that tightens the circle so the spires form a thick, impenetrable wall of ice. Has not been tested outside of a laboratory setting.

[ Photosynthesis ] - [ x1 ]

A simple spell that causes plant material to grow at a rapid rate. One must provide their own seeds and clippings.

[ Choking Vines ] - [ x4 ]

Creates thick ropes of a spiky vine that seeks to restrain everything in its thirty-foot area of effect. Lowering the radius or differentiating between specific targets has proven a difficult and so-far unresolved challenge.

[ Solanaceae ] - [ x3 ]

A deadly toxin that targets the gastrointestinal and parasympathetic nervous systems. The cube must be ingested for this to work, and only targets creatures with the appropriate biology. Mostly useful on very large species in the animalia kingdom.

(Sláine had asked if Red had ever considered turning it into a gas, and Red had just given her a look that Sláine felt even through the mask.)

[ Ceaseless Watcher ] - [ x3 ]

Allows for surveillance through the cube in a radius only inhibited by walls of at least a foot thick for a duration of 480 seconds. Extremely dangerous to the user because it cannot be terminated early and the user will notice everything, even completely inconsequential details.

[ Blinding Light ] - [ x6 ]

Releases a burst of light so overwhelming it’ll blind any witnesses for approximately five minutes. Also comes with an unsettling feeling of being observed, causing the status ailment [ Horror ].

[ Fire Blast ] - [ x9 ]

Releases an explosive blast of force in 360° around the source that produces enough heat to incinerate most organic material. (I’m so serious, you do not want to get caught in that. - Red)

[ Molten Charge ] - [ x2 ]

A specially edited variation of [ Fire Blast ] meant to focus the force into a highly destructive, concentrated impact. Requires a very precise throw to use, is difficult to produce, and occasionally has unintended consequences.

Plus, all of the (suitable, which Red didn’t elaborate on) cubes that they’d gathered during their current ill-fated trip, though this came with the stipulation that Red really had no ideas what effects they’d have, and would really prefer not to do anything without testing it in a controlled environment first, thanks.

At least, not while she wasn’t alone.

Sláine nodded along to all that, mentally filing away the parts she did understand, until the meeting was interrupted by the sound of something skittering at the edge of the dark. Immediately, the two tensed.

“…Well, I guess we’re going to see what’s down here,” Red mumbled, before chucking an [ Ice Nova ] at the source of the noise.

>> Damage control