Crazy always figured that if he ever ended up stuck in a magical death trap with an annoying redhead, it'd be his own fault.
But here he was. And somehow, it still felt like her fault. "So, just to confirm," he said, rubbing his temple, "after I smash this Heart thing, you're still planning to stab me, right?"
"Obviously."
"Cool. Love the honesty."
As they strolled toward what seemed to be the center of the forest, Crazy walked with his hands behind his head, wondering when he'd finally get some milk bread...
Until a tree root caught him by surprise.
He instinctively grabbed for Ayeka, but she sidestepped the effort like dodging an annoying fly.
Crazy fell into the mud face-first.
For a second, he just lay there, rain dripping onto the back of his head, wondering why he was cursed with eternal life....
"This is your fault," Crazy muttered, slowly rising from the mud. His face was like a soggy, disappointed puppy that had just realized it wasn't getting a treat. Mud splattered, hair messy, eyes narrowed in annoyance... But with a hint of a reluctant smirk, like he almost found it funny. If only it wasn't happening to him.
"Excuse me?" Ayeka shot him a glare sharp enough to carve stone. "You're the idiot who tripped on a damn tree root. Not even a baby would've done that. How the hell is this my fault?"
"And yet… here I am, in the mud. About to break some ancient artifact because you can't do it yourself. Of course, you'd be an expert on what babies can and can't do."
"Shut it, f*cker. Temporary alliance, remember? I still fully plan on chopping you up finely and grinding your bones in the mill once we're out of here."
"Heh. Good luck with that."
Crazy stood up, using the rainwater to wipe his face before trudging alongside Ayeka. The mood had somehow gotten even worse.
After a while, Crazy couldn't help but note how every tree in this forest radiated an unsettling kind of importance. A cemetery like this… Hm.
"Hey. Aren't there supposed to be guards here or something?"
Ayeka rubbed her head, sighing.
"Tsk. Of course there are. Or were. The only reason the two idiots and I managed to get in was because the entire Azure Lion Order had to leave for some urgent mission. I don't know much more than that… Rumors say it was about a potential resurrection of the Demon King. It must've been a high-priority emergency if they all left a place like this unguarded."
Crazy nodded, just about to comment on how the Azure Lions might've been running away from her awful personality... When the ground suddenly shook.
Crazy paused mid-sentence. "Was that-?"
"Yeah," Ayeka said, already raising her dagger. "Guardians. The Heart doesn't like visitors."
From the shadows ahead, glowing figures began to emerge, tearing through the ground and rising like twisted zombies.
Tall and skeletal, their bodies dripped with shimmering blue ichor. Their crooked eyes locked onto them like hungry predators.
Crazy sighed. "Of course, it's never easy."
A crimson window flickered into existence above one of the Guardian's withered heads.
[Guardian of the Hollow Heart]
[Type: Elemental, Earth, Construct]
[Level: 10 (Unawakened)]
[Weakness: ??? (Level doesn't meet requirements)]
Crazy stared at the floating display. It hadn't shown up on the knight before. Maybe it only worked on monsters?
…And what's up with the (Unawakened) part? It felt weirdly ominous.
Ayeka suddenly threw her dagger, the blade slicing cleanly through the air before exploding straight through the Guardian's head.
The creature groaned, collapsing. Strange roots wrapped around its fallen body, dragging it back into the earth.
Crazy whistled, watching the dagger embed itself into a tree before dropping to the ground. He clapped.
"That was cool. Now do it again."
Ayeka smirked, brushing a stray strand of red hair from her face smugly, before straightening.
"No. You go."
Crazy blinked. "Why not?"
"That was my only dagger."
…
Crazy grunted, unsheathing his sword, muttering something about never forming alliances with sociopathic women ever again.
"I hope both your knees break."
Ayeka scowled. "No, you. I hope you trip and hit your funny bone."
Crazy's eye twitched. He inhaled sharply, exhaling his irritation before launching forward, sword glinting in the moonlight.
The first Guardian swung a jagged, root-like arm at him, but Crazy twisted mid-air, flipping over the attack with almost lazy grace. His sword slashed downward, severing the creature's head in a single stroke.
The Guardian let out a groaning wail, stumbling as blue ichor dripped from the wound. Crazy landed on its back, balancing for a second before jamming his blade straight through its spine.
The creature convulsed. The light in its crooked eyes dimmed. Then, just like the first, roots burst from the earth and swallowed its body whole.
"Damn," Crazy muttered. "That was kinda cool."
Ayeka, still standing in the same spot, raised a fist half-heartedly. "Yay. Go team."
Crazy shot her an irritated glare. "You know, you could actually help instead of standing there like you're watching a play."
"Why? You're doing fine." She leaned against a tree, arms crossed, the moonlight casting a shadow over her face. "Besides, I did my part. Now it's your turn, Crazy bastard."
Crazy gritted his teeth, but before he could yell at her, another Guardian lunged from the side, aiming to crush him with its massive, gnarled arm.
He barely dodged in time, rolling beneath it before slashing upward, carving through its torso. The Guardian's body split apart, ichor spraying like a burst dam.
Yet, earthly tendrils penetrated through the ground, and more of them rose.
"Seriously? How many of these things are there?" Crazy growled, shaking ichor from his glinting sword.
Ayeka yawned, as the braches above her waved. "Dunno. Probably a lot. Ancient magic tends to be annoying like that."
Crazy deflected an attack, bending back, dodging a scythe-shaped arm. "Thanks for the deep insight, Professor Useless."
"You're welcome."
A Guardian lunged, claws tearing through Crazy's sleeve.
His eye twitched.
"...That was my favorite sleeve."
Without hesitation, he dashed, sword flashing, and immediately cut down the next three guardians. Their upper bodies smoothly slipped down to the ground, getting devoured by the earth itself.
Ayeka called out lazily, "Hey, Crazy bastard?"
"What?"
"Try not to die, okay? I need you for the grand escape."
"Wow. Such touching concern."
More monsters rose.
Crazy exhaled, then suddenly started tapping his foot rhythmically against the ground.
Ayeka raised an eyebrow. "The hell are you doing?"
Crazy slowly approached the Guardians, nodding his head to some invisible beat.
A Guardian raised its glinting claws and swung down at him.
Ayeka opened her mouth. "...Hey, idiot, watch out-"
But Crazy smoothly sidestepped, slicing his sword in one seamless motion, splitting the creature in half- without breaking his rhythm.
Ayeka's eyebrows rose. "Huh."
Crazy continued, legs constantly in motion, moving like a dancer in the moonlight.
Ayeka watched with growing intrigue as he weaved between the monsters, each step measured, every strike landing precisely. The glint of his sword flashed though the air, creating a web of slashes as guardians fell to the ground, one by one. She swore she could hear faint classical music in the air, somehow.
Before long, a dozen Guardians lay in ruin, their broken forms swallowed by the earth.
Crazy finally opened his eyes.
"Ah… Milchbrot."
Ayeka clapped. "Bravo. That was almost impressive."
Crazy's veins popped, already completely snapped out of his trance-like state. "...Almost?"
Ayeka chuckled, turning toward the heart of the forest. "Just joking. We have a legendary artifact to destroy. Come on, Mister Beautiful Dancer."
Crazy narrowed one eye. "...Was that a compliment?"
"It was a complinsult."
"Ah. Understandable."
And the two walked off into the woods.
...
Finally, after a long awkward walk, they arrived at what seemed to be the entrance to a clearing. Flowers twisted along stone collumns as the trees seemed to look more... Imposing. The usual turquoise leaves turned darker. The trees grew taller, more eldritch. It was somewhat pretty.
"...Hm. We're finally here." Ayeka said.
"You're ruining the scenery." Crazy stated bluntly.
"The hell? I'm not even standing in your way?"
"Just knowing you're here seeing the same thing as me makes me annoyed."
"I hate you."
"I hate you more."
Now throughly irritated, Crazy and Ayeka pushed forward, rain hammering down like needles against their skin as they reached the center of the clearing.
There, cradled in a web of pulsing roots and twisted vines, the Petrichor Heart sat upon its stone pedestal, its eerie glow flickering like something... alive.
The damn thing breathed.
Crazy wiped the rain from his face, scowling. Why the hell does this rain feel heavier? It wasn't normal. The downpour had a presence, pressing down on him, drowning the very air.He let out a dry laugh, exhaustion laced with irritation.
"So this is it? After all this trouble, all these damn Guardians... For this? I expected something bigger."
His grip on his sword tightened. He was more than ready to smash it and go home.
A crimson window flickered into existence above the artifact.
[Hollow Heart]
[Type: ???]
[Level: ??? (Unawakened)]
Crazy's eyes narrowed. A window for an artifact? That was new.
Crazy stepped closer, his fingers tracing the air just above the Heart's surface. "...Huh. It looks kinda looks like a giant egg," he commented. "Maybe there's a prize inside?"
"...Well, time to get to work." Ayeka muttered.
A sharp, ragged breath escaped her lips, and in that instant, the air around her seemed to shift. Her eyes, glowing, like twin suns, locked onto the egg, while the crimson strands of her hair whipped around her face, as though guided by some unseen force.
The veins beneath her skin began to pulse with an otherworldly light, each one crackling with raw, untamed energy.A surge of power flowed through her like a torrent, spiraling outward from her fingertips in tendrils of fiery magic.
The ground beneath her feet trembled as the force she summoned began to twist the very fabric of the air. The world around her felt both heavy and charged with a palpable tension, as though the spirits themselves were gathering, answering her call.
Crazy couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. It seems she wasn't as useless as he thought.The egg seemed to shiver, as a bead of sweat formed on her forehead. Invisible beings slowly tore at the barrier on the egg, and soon, it began to shake violently.
Ayeka, completely focused, suddenly shouted. "Now!"
Crazy didn't hesitate. He brought his sword down in a clean, decisive arc.
A deafening crack split the night.The Petrichor Heart shattered.For a heartbeat, the world stood still.Then...
A sudden scream. A monstrous, guttural howl that tore through the sky like a dying god's wail that made Crazy's vision blurry.
The vines convulsed, recoiling violently, and the ground beneath them trembled as if the very earth was trying to escape. From the fractured remains of the Heart, a thick, black mist poured forth, twisting and writhing, forming grotesque, shifting limbs of liquid shadow.
Then, it took shape.
A colossal figure loomed before them, its form half-solid, half-ethereal, like it existed between worlds. Its molten-red eyes snapped open, burning with something ancient, something wrong.Its body crackled with shifting energy, its voice a fractured hymn, both deep and whispering, like the echoes of a thousand forgotten prayers. Branches loomed from it's back, as the faces of guardians swirled around it's gassy form.
"M̵U̴S̷T̵ ̸P̴R̵O̷T̵E̵C̷T̷..."
The words weren't spoken... They were felt, reverberating through the marrow of their bones.The rain intensified. The air grew heavier.
The world itself seemed to tilt as the crimson window reappeared, but now-Glitched. Corrupted.The text broke apart, then reformed into something else.
[H̶o̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ H̶e̶a̶r̶t̶:̶ False Deity of the Forgotten Rain (1st Seal)]
[Type: Ancient, Ethereal, Divine]
[Level: 143 (Awakened)]
[Weakness: None]
Lightning split the sky.
The rain turned black. Crazy stared at the text, his gut sinking.
"…Ah, f*ck."
The False Deity moved.
The forest shattered.
The world screamed.
...
It seems like the surprise inside the egg was certain death.