Pov Vix

  I felt sharp claws digging into my skin. It was so painful. I tried to pull my tail back. It wasn’t working, so I started to move it up and down and sideways as fast as I could. Then I felt the ripping—it was so painful.

  My eyes opened, my heart was beating fast, and it took me a moment to remember where I actually was. It was a serene lake, or for me, a pond, as I was simply too big. I saw at the edge a familiar face, which calmed me quite a bit as I started to lumber my big body towards her.

  She was the one who greeted me first when I was pulled out of that world where I was born and had to survive. Father got quite worried, and so did she, when they first learned that when I now slept, I could remember scenes from that world as I tried to survive in it. It was unfortunate, but Father couldn't do anything about it. My diamond rank talent seems to be reminding me of things I should not be able to remember.

  I understand the need for not remembering, and most likely there would not be another one like me coming out from that place. Most of my siblings from that world looked nothing like regular creatures from the outside world, but I managed to stay quite faithful to turtles. In fact, the only difference between them and me was my size, at least on the outside. My insides and my shell were made of even stronger stuff that helped me survive the onslaught of my brothers and sisters.

  From the world I came, Father made it for two purposes: to get more mana generation, which I can offer, and for battle, in which I will never be truly useful. The only reason I survived in this form was because I was defensive enough that the others who attacked me couldn't kill me fast enough to prevent others from finding them.

  I still can't believe that the unthinking me managed to survive just because it had a small damage aura skill. The fighting happening around me back then helped me grow stronger. The cycle was quite interesting: someone would find me, try to eat me, others would come hearing the noise, and then they would start to battle each other to see who could claim this morsel. Every time, at least as much as I could remember, the battles turned into slaughters, and I was buried under countless corpses.

  It wasn’t the best of times when that happened, but I could eat in peace, and yet the battles going on constantly brought me closer to my next breakthrough. The only true danger to me was if someone could kill me in one shot or swallow me whole. So, the unthinking me strengthened myself, mostly in physical ways, and of course, made me bigger so I couldn’t be swallowed whole.

  It took me a while, but I finally made it to the edge of the lake to see the smiling face of my greeter. “What has brought you here today?” I asked her.

  I enjoyed talking with her; we talked quite a bit when I was still at the welcoming village. I believe she’s my friend. I didn’t really like to speak with others as I mostly just slept. It was nice to sleep in peace, although the nightmares ruined some of the enjoyment.

  She was bubbly, I believe it’s called, talking so fast. Well, she wasn’t actually talking fast—I was just slow. I would need to push myself if I wanted to not be slow, but I couldn’t be bothered right now. It was good enough.

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  She continued to talk about the excitement she had experienced, especially with the war with the outsiders. Apparently, we are planning on doing some things with Father’s gateways. I wished her luck when she finally stopped talking and then started to slowly turn around to get to the good spot where it was the most comfortable to lay in.

  Most of the time, it was difficult to keep my eyes open—sleep called me constantly. Once again, I think it’s because of my talent, which I still don’t actually know what it is. From my understanding, most diamond ranks understand their talent quite quickly; for me, it was taking time to understand what the word in my mind for my talent meant. I was not that worried, as eventually, I would figure it out.

  Sleep came quite fast, the way I liked it, but before too long, I opened my eyes again, happy to notice no nightmares this time. She was back at the edge of the lake, and I once again walked towards her.

  She was less bubbly this time. I guess she had seen battle, I could tell from her talking about the results of the gateway strategy she mentioned last time. Apparently, it was working really well, as they were stopping 50% of the melters from reaching the farthest point the enemies had pushed in the labyrinth.

  I sped myself up a bit to ask her a proper question. “Why 50%? That seems a bit exact.” She took a little bit to answer that question.

  “Others are worried about that too, but it was actually a complete accident. Things just happened to turn out like that. Father did say there were some weird movements outside, but I guess we’ll see what will happen.”

  I always liked the way her voice sounded, but I was once again sleepy. I walked back to the best spot and made myself comfortable. Sleep came quickly, and once again, I woke up feeling pain. I expected to remember a nightmare, but I didn’t, which was weird. I had never had two sleeps without a nightmare, and when did I start feeling pain out of nowhere?

  As I stretched myself up to not be slow, it didn’t take a genius to realize where the pain was coming from. It was Father—he was hurting so badly. Immediately, my heart started pounding, and I properly used my strength to be as aware as possible.

  My head snapped to a certain location in the sky as I felt something bad there. Immediately, I started rushing towards that spot, and although I was slow compared to other diamond ranks, I could still move faster than a platinum if needed.

  It didn’t take long for me to realize what I felt, and soon I saw the horror. A dungeon melter’s beam was piercing through the roof of this world. This yellow destructiveness hit the land soon after it broke through, and to my horror, I saw it melting even through the vegetation. That should not be possible. Those were not dungeon-made; those were like me. A dungeon melter shouldn’t have any effect, but it was having an effect.

  I knew that underneath this world were others. Before the beam could cut through the vegetation, I made it there and used my shell to block it. It hurt so much, but my shell seemed to be strong enough that it would not have any effect. Father seemed slow, as he was in pain, but he still appeared to be working. Information was given to us on what was attacking.

  Apparently, almost every diamond rank was outside the dungeon right now, alongside a lot of Pixies who were actually casting the melting beam instead of using devices. They had pierced Father in so many places and continued to pierce ever deeper. All of a sudden, the beam stopped, and I looked upwards to see a Pixie far above with a cruel smile on its face.

  Its smile disappeared as I saw a dragon breathing fire on it, and I saw its wings go up in flames. They were so far away, but my senses were good. A truly monstrous battle started outside the dungeon, yet some of the beams still pierced Father. Father actually informed me that one of them had nearly gotten through the entirety of the dungeon.

  Apparently, it was the leader, the oldest Pixie and it just ordered everyone to assault the dungeon. The beams started to cut off as they couldn’t maintain them because most of the dungeon forces went outside to attack.

  I quite anxiously waited, as I wouldn’t be any good in that sort of battle. It seems that slowly we were gaining the upper hand, although we were also taking heavy losses. Then Father informed us that the leader of the Pixies was weaving the melting spell again, aimed directly at the core. It would take some time for that beam to reach him, but the defences around that Pixie were strong, so they didn’t know if we could disrupt it in time.

  “Father, make a gateway and take me to your core. I will buy you some more time.”

  I could feel Father not liking the idea, but a stone wall quickly rose in front of me, and a large gateway melted out of it. Immediately, I went through to find myself in the core room. For the first time, I gazed upon the magnificence of Father.

  “Do not worry. I will hold the beam off long enough for our forces to disrupt that Pixie.”