Dungeon? This Tree? Why Don't You Join Me for Lunch? (Dungeon Core)
Chapter 35: Not a war, he said!

Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Not a war, he said!

Well, apparently it was very much still a war. I had to face the fact, and the music, as I woke up to scream one bright and snow-covered morning.

The vampires, whom I thought I had enslaved, were here, in my camp. Very much free, very much set on killing everyone on sight.

Still being able to stay active during daytime!

"Sylvan!" I had never heard Aron sound as panicked. I could see something green from the distance. It was a poisonous green. Something that only someone who loved no one could produce.

So, I thought that Solas was over there, fighting the giant black thing, which made me want to curl up and cry.

"Sylvan!" I heard Aron yell once more. I could see him, trying to fight his way to me. I was in my tent, a barrier around me.

It was possibly the final gift Nathaniel was going to give me. A barrier which protected me.

I was right. Hated the fact with a burning passion. I was right about the fact that the zombies would be taken over.

How could they not? The only living beings in king Alexios’ army were Boliari!

My fist balled, I hit the ground.

This was just like back then.

Methuselah was going to die a second time. Aron was going to die. Desmond, Nathaniel and Nick were going to die.

Alexios was going to turn the world into a toxic dump.

I screamed.

I am not like that...

But what good did that bring me?

Oh, I do not eat entrails, do not follow the ancient ways.

My friends are dying! I roared to myself.

And here I was, snug in my barrier, waiting for Nathaniel to gather up 1,000 zombies from underneath Solas’ control, so he could teleport me out of here.

I hated myself. I had never hated myself more.

Oh, my hands were clean.

But darn it all, how rotten they felt. How dirty.

"Dungeon core Sylvan!" I saw Edda write there, on a screen. "Your vitals indicate a danger. Are you in danger?"

I had never been happier to see the System. Oh, sure, she had tried to trick me the first time we had spoken, but that did not mean that I was not happy.

"Edda! Quickly! Get some giants out of the dungeons! Make them hungry ones!" I was not thinking clearly. No, giants were the scariest thing I could imagine.

I was not thinking that if I got the giants I was describing, the titans, then everyone was going to die.

And I was still going to survive. For as long as I could stand myself.

Then, just as a zombie giant slammed itself against my barrier, I heard it. A roar.

For a second, I thought it was Brandon.

But no.

The dragon who was flying towards us was big, but not as big. He was red, and I could see that he was built for speed, and not for strength.

I saw my chance.

The vampires could still go around during the sunlight. I was not thinking about being above such things. My mana was in their flesh.

I tugged.

The vampires weren’t going to die, or so I thought. But then, right before my eyes, they were reduced to ashes!

I closed my eyes.

"Huh," I told myself, as a fat tear rolled down my cheek. "If I did that at the start..."

I looked at the severed head of a hapless soldier. A man who was always quick to tell me how well I cooked. Who always asked for seconds.

"I am like that."

Something in me broke. I could hear as Aron yelled my name, but I did not care.

I gave the dragon all of the mana I had stolen from the vampires. Gave him all of my mana.

As I closed my eyes, my brain in a fog, I thought only about the soldiers who still lived. About their children, about their future.

Yes, I was like that.

But there was darkness in light. After all, what was the shadow but that?

0000

When I woke up, I saw that I was in Solas’ tent. That was not good. I hated it when he called me here.

He looked healthy enough, but I could feel foreign mana in his body. Huh, the mana felt like the mana of a witch.

"Got a new heart," Solas said so, as if that was the most normal thing to get at this time in the war’s progression. "And not only that, but a new set of lungs as well. Do you want me to show you how strong they are?"

I shook my head.

"Why in the bloody hell didn’t you do that sooner!" Solas roared. I looked around, but there was no one in the tent with us.

I tugged gently at my mana, which was circulating in Solas’ mana pool. He jerked.

"Solas, you are the one who brought only 2,000 soldiers against the Necromantic Union," I reminded him, for the blame lay with him as well.

"You could have saved them all!" Solas roared.

I nodded.

"Yes, I could have. But I don’t know my own power. And how could I? You have reduced me to a camp cook!" I grabbed him by the collar and brought him close.

I had never, ever, fought in my entire life. What I had done during the raid was not fighting, either.

But I knew the theory.

Your fist goes into someone’s nose, the nose starts to bleed, you get kicked in the stomach and then kicked and kicked until the silly idea that you can win a fight goes out of your head.

I blinked.

Darn, I was good at avoiding conflict.

"You’re going to break your fingers like that," Solas said, as he gently began to rearrange my fist. "And if you break your fingers, there won’t be anyone to cook for me."

I really wanted to act upon the scenario I just envisioned, but then I snorted.

"Git," I told him because I had gotten used to him by now. I could recognize the act of mercy for what it was.

"Care Bear," he told me, as he patted me on the arm.

I let him go. He pointed at the map I was sitting on.

"Now, it is time we got down to business," and so, the war really began.