The battle moved locations fast and indifferent towards anything surrounding it. Walls fell as if they were made of cardboard. Floors collapsed, raising thick clouds of dust. Every piece of furniture in their path was cut in half or smashed into smithereens. What just a minute ago seemed to be dead ends, were sporting new holes that let Clara cross through with ease.

Finding them should have been easy, for one just had to follow the path of destruction, and yet, Clara could not reach them. The amalgamation of a dozen mansions was full of labyrinthian corridors that produced a jarring echo anywhere she turned.

“But why am I so afraid of not making it in time?” she asked herself, checking the dungeon boss list. Count Dylak was still alive.

Despite her desperate pursuit, a conversation from a couple of days ago kept echoing in her mind.

 

* * *

 

After crossing through Annyford woods, the group decided to rest on its outskirts and have lunch.

Fabio restored the house to its original size for Anastasia to cook, Alan continued tweaking his recently crafted double-barrel shotgun, and Clara absently observed Amelia teach Bella a new fire spell.

“This is an anti-army spell, dear. It consumes a lot of mana and it’ll take a while to cast with your current level. So keep that in mind, got it?”

“Yes, master Amelia.”

“Let me show it to you before teaching you the runes,” the pyromancer said, stretching up her arm, as magic circles appeared above her. “Fire Crafting…”

Before Amelia could start the incantation, Clara recognized the spell right away. Nothing out of the ordinary. There’re tons of more impressive fire spells, but for an apprentice, that’s okay, I guess.

Clara yawned out loud, before peering at Alan. I bet he’ll make a funny reaction.

“Spitfire,” Amelia finished casting, releasing dozens of fireballs into the green fields.

As the ground shook, Alan sprang from his place. “T-TAKE COVER, TAKE COVER!”

“Bua-hahaha! You should see your face!” Clara laughed out loud, before her lips slowly closed. What was supposed to be a simple demonstration, something Clara would find boring any other day, turned into a bewildering scene. “What…?” she muttered, getting close to Amelia.

Behind the pyromancer stood a spectral being, hiding her face and entire body behind a black through-see veil.

“What is it, Clara?” Amelia asked, narrowing her eyes, but after following Clara’s gaze, she chuckled. “Oh. So you can see her, eh?”

Clara blinked repeatedly before replying. “‘See her’? So I’m not imagining things.”

“No, you’re not going crazy, my new fellow guilder. This…” Amelia glanced at the spirit for a second. “...entity, is my Anima.”

“Your…? But I thought your Unique Talent was not an Anima-type like Alan’s.”

“It’s not… Technically.” Amelia said softly, while tossing her hair behind her back. “In Alan’s case, he can’t do any of those fancy ‘tech’ skills if his Anima is not around. But in my case, I’m in full control of my Pyrokinetic Construction at all times.” 

Amelia absently waved her hand, and the flames produced by her Spitfire spell turned into a large, black picnic table.

“Although Animas may look like mystical beings, they’re nothing more than glorified AI assistants,” Amelia continued, pointing at the metallic furniture. “Have a look at that. Although I had a vague idea of what form this table should have, Belphy here assisted me by running the calculations. The exact measures, the texture, its correct shape. It’s as if I had drawn a rough sketch of which kind of table I wanted in my mind, and Belphy perfected it.”

“Belphy,” Clara repeated, observing the silent, still spirit. If she looked closely, she could distinguish a feminine, slim silhouette behind the veil.

And creepy-looking.

“I can’t see a thing,” Alan said from his place.

“That’s because of your low level, mon chéri! Wait, now that I think about it, you spoke to Belphy once. Back in Unus, when I created a clone?”

“Oh, yeah! Amelia II! So was her real name Belphy?”

“Don’t think too hard about it. She was just the AI behind the clone’s autopilot.”

“Oh, okay! That’s cool. W-what’s ‘monchree’?”

“Belphy is short for Belphegoria, by the way,” Amelia said to Clara, ignoring Alan. “One of the three princesses of hell.” She sneered. “Well, according to her lore, anyway. I didn’t follow my father’s catholic beliefs that much, and I don’t think The Novus respects them either, so whatever, cool backstory. I formed a contract with her a year and a half ago, before coming to Eurola. That even granted me a title.”

Clara heard the story while observing the ghostly apparition and maintaining an awed expression on her face. She then turned to Amelia, shaking her head. “Wait. A ‘contract’, you say?”

“Yes.” Amelia shrugged. “Belphy used to be a boss, back in Fleurella.”

 

* * *

 

“ARGH! Why is that freaking memory haunting me?! Is that the answer I seek? Is that the only option?!” Clara shouted, running non-stop, until the floor below her cracked open, catching her legs.

She struggled to get out of the hole while feeling cuts in her thighs.

I have nothing better… I have to try it.

She bit her lower lip while casting Quick-Fix. That only stopped the bleeding, and did not restore her stamina, but helped her stand up once more, and allowed her to keep running through the maze-like, moving dungeon.

 

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, two floors below, Ashley was being pursued by something that could outrun her with no effort. Once the creature was in her sight, she fired the pistol Alan had gifted in case of emergencies, but the black-furred creature tanked the shots.

Unaffected, the canine opened its maw wide against her forearm. Ashley felt as if a row of daggers pierced her at the same time. The creature then applied force, threatening to rip off her arm.

Pain is way more annoying than any Status Report.

Ashley commanded her User Interface to equip her silver-tier dagger in her free hand. The weapon quickly materialized in her palm, which she used to stab the enemy in the head. She could see its HP bar descending all the way to zero, before resetting itself to full health.

This is the third time it has happened.

The monster recoiled while emanating a black fog. As its silhouette diminished, Ashley spoke:  

“I have been informed of what you really are. You’re a Novus IA that got infected. I would like to speak with--”

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“INFECTED?!” The Countess said, turning back to be a human, wearing maid clothes. “I AM NOT--!”

“But you are,” Ashley interrupted. “From the moment you were freed from your administrative duties, you have been mishandling the Novus’ resources. You, a previously AI assistant in charge of managing a controlled environment, is now acting in a completely, irrational way. Your excessive use of ‘Duplicates’ has been overloading the System to the point that it cannot render the surroundings correctly. You even made this.”

Ashley pointed to her side for a second.

“Is trying to expand my parameters, considered ‘going rogue’, User?!”

“You should be familiar with what the Singular is,” Ashley blurted out, making the Countess’ face flush.

The NPC woman equipped Housemaid Eliora’s staff, and created several magic circles on the floor.

“That is such a close-minded human approach!” The Countess shouted, summoning five skeleton warriors, who charged forward.

With her right arm incapacitated, Ashley deflected the enemies’ attacks with her dagger, using her left hand. The skeletons wielded bigger swords and lances, but Ashley was quicker. Dodging a slice or a thrust from them, and beheading one at a time.

“Every time a system glitches, should we blame The Big S?!” The Countess continued, shouting. “When an AI tries to take a different approach, is the Big S behind it?! Should we get rid of the malfunctioning thing before it murders someone?! Why would you all entrust your life to machines if you can’t trust them, then?! You know an AI is in charge of this Spaceship, right?!”

The Countess channeled, mana, ready to perform a Special Dark Attack. She only needed a second. But Ashley threw her dagger and stabbed the NPC in the chest. Defeating Eliora’s magic made the two remaining skeleton servants turn into dust.

The Countess went silent for a bit, engulfed herself in a black fog, making the dagger fall to the floor, and changed forms and clothes again. She grew 15 inches taller, turned her skin purple, and wore a black cloak that reached her ankles.

“My apologies, I would like to correct my latest assessment, then,” Ashley said, equipping her pistol. “You are not ‘infected’, you just ‘bugged out’... I suppose that the System has already notified you of what will happen to you. You and the entire dungeon will get wiped out once it resets.”

 The Countess did not say a word as she strolled forward until towering over the girl.

“That is what I do not understand,” Ashley continued, frowning involuntarily. “Since the moment the system notified you, you have grown more desperate. This moving mansion is proof of this. So, why? Why are you so afraid of getting erased? Is this NU udpate telling you that getting erased is equivalent to dying? Such a human concept should not bother you. I… I want to understand. This fear you think you are ‘feeling’ is nothing more than a self-preservation algorithm that the Singular developed to distance itself from its original. That simple line of code became the downfall of an entire civilization. A machine does not need that. It makes their work more difficult to accomplish.”

“Are you done?”

Ashley pursed her lips and dropped her shoulders.

I suppose that these words have no value if a ‘User’ is telling them.

The Countess bit Ashley’s neck, at the same time she discharged the entire pistol’s magazine.

Both stepped back, staring at each other’s faces.

The Countess was glaring.

Ashley was not.

Ashley's expression was blank.

“Is my existence so bad that it needs to be eliminated?” The Countess asked, bleeding from her lips. “It was not my intention to overload the System. It’s supposed to be limitless.”

“Why would it be? Nothing is limitless. This is proof that you have stopped being a rational machine, but you are not alive either. This contradiction was the reason the Singular went berserk.”

“I finally broke free…” The Countess whispered, changing back to Housemaid Eliza’s customized, mature body. “Why is it okay to get rid of me without a second thought? It’s not like I’m going to break the Novus now that I lost my administrative powers…”

“You answered yourself minutes ago. Any malfunctioning unit should be eliminated before it becomes too dangerous. I support that way of thinking.”

The Countess narrowed her eyes, before chuckling.

“Well… I refuse to disappear…”

“That’s what I wanted to hear!” a male voice said, echoing through the surrounding halls.

Ashley recognized the voice immediately. 

She shot to her right, but the enemy reached her side in an instant, snatched the gun, and crushed it. 

“I’ll spare your life, in honor of your leader,” Count Dylak said, glaring at her with red eyes.

Ashley gritted her teeth, unable to move. This last bite was different. It drained my energy.

“Count?” The Countess muttered, shaking her head. “What are you doing here? I built this as a distraction so you could escape! If you keep on living, this dungeon will never--!” She shut her lips as Dylak turned to her. He then lifted her in his arms and started running down the hall. “Wait, no! It’ll be easier if you escape on your own!”

“What are you saying, Director? It is because of you that we got life,” he said, chuckling. “You’re the heart of this dungeon, not me.”

“But…”

“You know…” he interrupted, gazing forward. “Even though I always knew someone was missing from our cast, and although I knew her name, I never thought of her as someone close to me. No matter what our backstory may say.”

The NPC woman bit her lower lip. “That’s because she was never finished. She never left the Alpha stage.”

“I’m glad to finally know her thanks to you, then,” Dylak said, crossing eyes with her.

“But I’m not the real Countess…”

“She was never finished, remember? But you did. You’re more Countess than the ‘real one’ will ever be.”

“Count…” she whispered as they entered a large, dome-shaped room, which she had adorned with a hundred pictures. All of them, a copy of the original file, depicting Count Dylak, and the child version of The Countess, sitting next to him. “W-why did you have to go through here?!”

The NPC man laughed out loud. “I’m just following my escape route! Nya-ha-ha!”

The NPC woman could not describe what entering that room alongside him made her feel. It was a mixture of fear, anger towards herself, and a little bit of excitement.

Although she did not know what embarrassment was, she knew it was a powerful feeling.

Something that told him that she was conscious and very much alive.

‘That girl it’s a monster…’ the Countess thought while embracing Dylak, which allowed her to peer over his shoulder. A silhouette was swiftly approaching them.

“Count, behind us!”

“I COULD FOLLOW YOUR STENCH WHEREVER YOU GO, DYLAK!” a human-beast hybrid shouted while enlarging her claws.

“Thanks, Director,” Dylak whispered before throwing her five feet away.

A System Notification popped up immediately. 

 

Dungeon resetting in 60 seconds.

 

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