Together With New Life (2)

“There is something among the Dragon’s sacred relics called the Flower of the Mind.”

“……”

The name was straightforward. The Flower of the Mind? Even the Hibiren Flower sounds more impressive.

“Where is it? Don’t say it doesn’t exist anymore or anything like that.”

“No, it does exist. It does, but…”

“It exists?”

“It blooms underground in the Sanctuary. The one who wants to use it must bring it and eat it, meaning you eat it, then give it to Rurin. You lose consciousness and connect mentally with Rurin. You’ll be able to look into her inner mind.”

“Is there really such a miraculous flower?”

“Yes, even in other circumstances, using it lets you see a person’s inner self, even how they think about themselves.”

“Oh, that sounds…both tempting and scary. So what about this underground place?”

“It’s close. I’ll guide you to the entrance. But it won’t be easy. The Sanctuary’s underground has, since ancient times, severely tested the mental strength of visitors so that not just anyone can enter.”

“Hm, no matter. Mental strength or anything, I’ll bring that flower even if I have to grind my bones.”

“…Well, if it’s you, maybe it’s possible.”

The Elder nodded and guided me.

As a result.

I found myself descending a dark underground spiral staircase. This was the Sanctuary’s depths.

Magic cannot be used in this space.

Without magic, I’m just an ordinary human.

Maybe that’s why he said it would be hard.

Wondering, I descended some distance.

Suddenly, I arrived at a point where the stairway was blocked. From there, a freezing cold like my body was freezing gripped me.

The cold showed no sign of leaving.

As if telling me to turn back now.

Extreme cold and a blocked space. The Elder said to go down to the fifth floor. This was the second floor.

Which means?

I don’t know.

Wondering if some mechanism was there, I braved the cold and searched around.

But soon, moving became hard. My body was freezing. My temperature dropped to an unbearable level, and my fingers felt frozen.

In that feeling like a frozen fish.

The space before the stairs remained as was, and from the direction I came light entered, tempting me to turn back and live.

It was an unexpected crisis.

Truly unexpected.

But Rurin’s life was at stake. I couldn’t turn back, even if I died. To oppose that natural law, that flower was essential.

Without it, Rurin wouldn’t wake.

The Elder said she might never wake.

That sort of thing.

Compared to that eternal pain, this suffering was nothing.

Absolutely not.

I gritted my teeth and endured the pain.

As a result, about five hours passed.

Normally, I should have frozen to death by now, but strangely, I did not.

Without dying, the pain continued.

In that situation, stubbornly enduring another five hours.

Finally, in the tenth hour.

With no sensation in my body, the blocked space in front of the stairs vanished, and my frozen body tumbled down the stairs.

Thud!

I probably lost consciousness like that.

When I opened my eyes, I was at the top of the stairs and my body had recovered.

It was a wonder.

The problem was how long I had been unconscious. The place’s clock had stopped, so it was impossible to tell.

I couldn’t help but worry about Rurin.

The more so, the only way was forward.

And soon I arrived at the fifth floor the Elder mentioned. Was that trial already over?

The stairs continued downwards. I didn’t know what was at the bottom of that abyss, nor did I want to.

Anyway, my goal was just the flower on the fifth floor.

Entering the fifth floor, there was a wide space. But no flower.

No, there was a passage.

But before that passage, boiling lava blocked the way. Jumping in was impossible.

Even a dragon trying to jump would fall into the lava.

And the Elder said dragons couldn’t fly here. The lava before me was probably dragon-proof lava.

Thanks to that, the immense space was boiling.

So I had to cross this lava and go through that passage to get the flower?

No matter how I looked, this lava seemed real.

If I went in, I’d die. Freezing before was at least body preservation, but burning and melting means no preservation—only ashes.

First, to check if it was real lava or an illusion, I took off my top and lightly touched it.

The moment I touched it, the part melted and my clothes caught fire. Startled, I quickly pulled my hand away and the clothes burned to nothing. The heat I felt then.

This was lava itself. Truly lava.

Then suddenly, light flashed from the stairs, as if tempting me to turn back if I wanted to live.

I thought.

I didn’t die earlier either.

But the pain was immense. And now, even if I don’t die, I think I have to experience my body burning hundreds of millions of times before reaching that passage.

I heard that the most painful way to die is burning to death.

“Hmph. Ridiculous.”

Then that pain.

I’ll try experiencing it once. It’s good to experience hell before going to hell.

Even if I die a billion times, if I can save Rurin.

I leapt into the lava.

In an instant, the sensation of melting covered my entire body.

-Overwhelming pain!

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

A scream burst out involuntarily. No words came, and when the sensation of suffocation and floating came to me.

Suddenly, peace arrived.

“Huh?”

My body that seemed to melt was perfectly fine, and the lava still boiling looked as cozy as a hot spring.

“The temperature’s nice.”

I didn’t know what was what.

I walked out and reached the passage without resistance. There, I found a single flower blooming.

This must be the so-called Flower of the Mind.

The flower bloomed nobly within thick thorns. I reached out. The thorns pricked my hand.

But it wasn’t pain. It was just scratches and bleeding, really a trivial matter.

Without hesitation, I plucked the flower.

Then I crossed the lava again and climbed the stairs. There was no pain going up.

“Elder, I’m back. This is it, right? How long did it take?”

“Uh, about a day?”

“How is Rurin?”

“The situation is the same as before you went down. So, the flower?”

“Here it is.”

“…What about the pain from the cold?”

“That was nothing.”

“The lava hallucinations?”

“That too was nothing.”

“The pain from the cold tested your endurance, and the lava tested your mental strength to see if you could really risk your life to pluck the flower. You are who you are.”

“Well, yeah…”

“Then what about the thorns?”

“The thorns?”

The thorns that wounded my hand?

“Nothing much.”

“…I see. The thorns test whether you desire the flower with a pure heart. If not, their poison will eat you away. Even dragons cannot endure that poison.”

“…A pure heart, you say?”

“Yes, if your intent is to abuse this flower, you will die.”

“That’s brutal. But that’s not the problem right now, is it? Now that you have it, you just use it to bring Rurin back, right?”

Rurin felt like she was floating in empty air.

A void with nothing.

She was drifting in that space.

No sensation at all.

No feeling.

She couldn’t move her body, and all she saw was darkness.

She couldn’t understand anything.

No memories came to her. The space before her was darkness, and her mind was a blank white sheet.

-Who am I?

The fundamental question dominated Rurin’s mind. She tried hard to remember something but nothing came.

No matter how much she thought.

An empty blank.

As if the meaning of existence had returned to nothingness.

-I don’t know.

Rurin gave up trying. The more she did, the more her body was slowly sucked into deeper darkness.

-I don’t know?

-Don’t know what?

It was hard. The more she tried to remember, the more empty everything felt.

She thought even the question of who she was seemed meaningless.

Her body became more and more enveloped in darkness.

Rurin’s body was gradually returning to nothingness.

Her thought circuits too.

Her body as well.

The surrounding darkness.

All headed to nothingness. The moment when the consciousness of existence faded.

Rurin found the darkness tedious and closed her eyes. When she closed them, another darkness came.

This darkness was even more nothingness.

-Rurin.

Just as her mind was about to be sucked into that nothingness, a familiar word pierced her mind.

The voice that spoke that word was familiar too.

But still, nothing came to mind.

-Who?

Rurin asked inside.

-Rurin!

Then the voice grew louder. It was a desperate voice. It said only two syllables.

It was so desperate, so agonizing.

Rurin, who was sucked into nothingness upon closing her eyes,

Opened her eyes at that voice.

Around her was still pitch darkness, but within it, a small cluster of light moved.

A different sight than before.

-Who are you?

Rurin spoke again in her mind. She couldn’t speak aloud. It seemed she was only allowed to say that.

-Rurin! Wake up. Don’t you know me?

The voice was heard again.

-I don’t know.

Rurin answered from the darkness.

-It doesn’t matter if you don’t know. Let’s go back!

“Go back?”

Where? She was already on the way to nothingness.

-To nothingness?

Rurin said that.

Then the voice began to make a very pitiful sound.

-No. The place you must return to is my embrace. Don’t you remember? The times we spent together. Don’t you remember? You have to remember, Rurin!

Embrace?

The word ‘embrace’ brought a warmth to Rurin. Even in her emptiness, that word felt like it filled her body with warmth.

-Rurin, wake up immediately. Remember your name. Your name is Rurin. And my name is El! Ellison!

Ugh.

Suddenly Rurin realized pain all over her body. Until just before, she had no sensation, just sucked into nothingness.

More than the name Rurin.

At the sound of El’s name, intense pain struck, as if it was a name she should never remember.

-El.

-El.

-El.

-El.

Law of nature.

Natural order.

Natural flow.

Defying it is a shortcut to nothingness.

Ughhh.

The pain that came to Rurin worsened. But the sense filled by the name El inside her body!

Was pulling Rurin up from nothingness.

-I am.

-I am.

-I am Rurin.

And the name El

was more precious than her own life. A name she would give her life for without hesitation.

The name El was precious enough to shake off the whisper of the space telling her to forget everything and return to nothingness.