author's note: comments and suggestion are welcome.

chapter 11: deadman's wonderland

pov: Kim

I was desperately crawling on the ground, everything that happened was still a complete blur, but i'm certain that what I am looking at right now is the burned and battered body of my companion. I could still hear him screaming while he was trying to extinguish the flames that covered his entire body echoing in my mind. Asking myself why did he save me? Inching my way towards him, on the cold floor of this despicable dungeon while looking at his unmoving body and calling out his name.

" Centor? hey, why did you just stop moving all of the sudden? If you sleep on the floor, you might catch a cold you know.

No answer, but I still kept on calling out to him until I was finally by his side. I patted a few of the lingering flames on his feathers till none of it was left. Then I spoke to him once more.

" Your probably just tired. yes, thats right you were running all over the place, ofcourse anyone would want to take a rest right?

Silence, he wasn't answering me so I just placed my hand under his head and lifted it gently and I rubbed the side of his face, hoping to get any kind of reaction, still nothing.

From behind me, I could hear the shattering and breaking of glass so I instinctively looked back. What entered my view was cracks forming on thin air and bits and pieces of it were falling like rocks. The empty spaces in between them you can see this endless void of darkness that seemed like it can devour anything or anyone if they came upon it. The hole in the middle was gradually getting bigger and bigger, as more cracks formed and pieces of it were collapsing towards the darkness inside.

In just a few seconds, the rift was completed. The height was roughly around 15 feet and its width was the same, a wall of pure darkness floating above the ground.

I was staring at the wall blankly, until I saw a figure slowly coming out from within.

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pov: Aria

Dreams were the only thing that I looked forward to, in my dreams I had a loving family, a number of close friends, I was popular and everyone around me was laughing and had a wonderful smile plastered on their face. Reality was much less to be desired, if I could spend my entire life dreaming in bliss, then I would, given the choice.

This time in my dream, I was with my Bff's spending a night together in a sleepover party that I was conducting. We were playing card games and watching re-runs of my favorite romance movies. My mom would knock on the door and bring us midnight snacks, then she would sit down with us and talk about the number of guys that she dated back in the day, and me and my friends would blush at the most embarrassing moments that she shared with us. It was fun! so much fun that I felt happy to be alive.

Then, out of nowhere. I was attacked by pain that felt like a hundred needles were being drilled into my head, and I was forced back into reality. I stood up, covering my head with both my hands, thinking my head was being bitten by a small monster while I lay there sleeping. Looking around, I saw no one. That's when I realized where the pain was coming from. I grabbed my terminal and quickly browsed through its contents, what I saw made me run back to the house as fast as I could.

[ notice ]

Gallus Centor remaining life 7%

Quickly making my way down the hill. I saw Athen perched on top of a log, when she saw me running, she wasted no time and made her way towards me noticing the urgency in my eyes.

Athen: " Mistress? " she said to me with a puzzled look.

Aria: " Come with me! " I shouted and she nodded in approval when I finally reached her.

Using my terminal, I activated one of the spells that was needed for long distance travel within the shortest possible amount of time. I for one, disliked using this because it felt like my body was being ripped into shreds, the whole experience was like me stuck in the middle of a snow storm without any clothes and at the same time it felt like I was inside an exploding volcano.

With a flick of my hand, I pointed on an empty field and within seconds cracks started to form in the middle of thin air, slowly revealing a wall of complete darkness. I entered it and Athen followed me from behind, because the rift was smaller than Barm, I decided to leave him on this side since we didn't have a choice. Another thing I hated about using this magic, is it required tremendous amounts of mental fortitude. while inside, it will force you to view all your memories as you made your way to the end of the tunnel. Good or Bad memories, mostly bad memories on my part, since Athen was an evolved form of an avian monster generated with the help of my artifact, simply put she used to be a normal bird, I didn't have to worry about her, the worst thing she could see, would probably be a mental image of herself while being chased by a number of silent foxes. however, for me it was different.

All my days being locked up in a room without food, then my mother coming back only to physically abuse me. The image of my parents fighting and yelling at each other, and the images of my father doing all sorts of nasty stuff on me while naked, then the amount of scorn I experienced in school from all my classmates, down to when I was all alone and needed to fend for myself by eating scraps of food left inside a fastfood restaurant telling or convincing the bus boy that the one's that left the table were my acquaintances. the most recent memory was when I was hit by Elena when all I wanted was to celebrate my birthday with her, Its my fault it ended that way so I can't blame her, I really cared for her and I wanted her to be with me forever but she hates my guts, Literally.

Coming out of the tunnel and reaching the labyrinth, what I saw was the white flaming pandemonium all around. The walls, roads, and other structures were burning. Infront of me, Elena was caressing Centor's head while his body lay there not moving. She was staring at me with blank eyes, like she was expecting me to do something, so I made my way towards her and Centor.

When I was just a few more steps from where they were, I noticed the amount of damage that Centor recieved was colossal. All his feathers were now burned and black, well yeah I know it was black to begin with but this was totally different. It was burnt black feathers, Elena was also burned and her shiny armor was burnt and black, I know it was a black light plated armor, but the fire burnt it and it turned into a darker shade of black so I just know.

I walked slowly as I approached them even more, then I knelt down on the cold floor as I beckoned Athen to perform her healing magic. Unfortunately, she just shook her head and refused to look at whats left of Centor, so I didn't force her.

Strange though, after going out of the tunnel I felt weird, It feels the same as when I first arrived into this world. Like nothing bothered me. I felt indifference. I made a mental note in my head to keep on using the rift because it acted better than a professional psychiatrist in my original world.

Finally, I placed my hand on Centor's Soft feathers, ahem... his hard burnt feathers, I wispered a few words that only the one's around me could hear.

" You did your best. Thank you for protecting her. "

Elena began to cry like a river and Athen moved away facing the direction of the one that most likely caused this and glared at them with fiery eyes, noticing them aswell I stood up and made one final look at Centor before saying.

" It looks like tonight's dinner will be Chicken Adobo. "

I could swear that I saw him flinch from what I said to him, causing my lips to curl up into a smile.

My moment was suddenly interrupted when I noticed a voice of a woman calling us.

" You there! are these your companions?

pausing for a while, I noticed a red long haired beauty with perfect white skin and large 34d's protruding from underneath her white mythril armor, behind her was a battalion of knights, mages and other soldiers.

I looked down on my own chest and instantly I was filled with overflowing rage, every fiber inside my body was rejecting her, I knew right then that I truly hated this woman from the bottom of my heart.

Noticing my animosity, she and her soldiers prepared themselves for what was coming.

My white twin tailed hair swayed in the wind as I glared at them from my position, my smile was long gone and my cute face showed the determination of a battle hardened war maiden, all the while the screen on my terminal was shining brightly.

I answered her, and my voice reverberated in the entire labyrinth, but it wasn't what she had expected.

" Come And Play With Me. "

The entire labyrinth began shaking from its very foundations, and if you didn't know where the voice was coming from people would think that Perdulin has risen from the dead getting ready to devour them whole. then, a system wide notification was heard by everyone inside.

[ Aria has entered the battlefield! ]

[ Initiating ]

[ Combat ]

[ Sequence ]

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Outside Perdulin's labyrinth, the sky above it turned dark as clouds begun circling around towards the middle. From within these clouds, a Gigantic Cube Of Light appeared, quickly making its way below and eventually reaching the ground. the other adventurers in the area could do nothing but escape from the unknown using haste and other speed increasing magic or blink spells. Some of them were even screaming out that it was the end, however some mages and witches and other craft users only had one thing to say, Beautiful. This leveled the same as magic from the realm of the Gods. This was Aria!

Inside the third level of Perdulin's Labyrinth.

The red haired girl sporting her 34d breasts with her white rapier with intricate designs, her Knights, the Guardians, Infantry, Wizards, Acolytes and Priest's were all devoured by the light that came crashing down from the dungeon's ceiling.

Aria looked back at Kim before the light covered them completely and said to her in a soft voice.

" see you later. " a smile visible on her face.

Before everything turned white.

chapter end