The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Side Chapter Metous 16: Toss The Coin

Side Chapter Metous 16: Toss The Coin

Tyell truly thought that at this moment he might die.

He wasn’t like Ceella, who could walk off injuries and ignore immense pain, he was struggling to move.

Worst still, even if he wasn’t in pain, he was unsure if he could activate his skills in time.

[Quick Step] and [Quiet Step] could technically be used while he was on the ground, but he would need to apply enough force to actually launch himself, which he wasn’t sure if he was able to do.

[Run Light] could only be used while [My Highway] was activated, and while he had gotten better with the skill, he still needed to be standing ready to run to use it.

“No older than twenty-five, I take it? 

Tyell couldn’t tell if he was out of luck due to landing here or just used the remaining of it not getting immediately shot.

Tyell nodded.

He wasn’t sure if it was [Crisis Location Alert] or simply his pure instinct screaming, but everything told him that–if he spoke a single lie, he was going to die; if he said something the man didn’t like, he was going to die; and if he moved–

Glup

…

–he was going to die.

The world felt empty, as if they were the only two in it. The fact that a massacre had occurred in this alley without the notice of the dozens of other armed individuals told Tyell he wasn’t getting away easily.

“I see.” The man’s red eyes glanced over Tyell. At this point the mask he once had was completely gone, his oversized jumper was torn up, and injuries were visible all over.

Why hasn’t he shot me yet?

Tyell’s brain was screaming at him to figure out whatever was making the man not shoot him, and he needed to do more of that. Now! But a combination of the physical pain, fear, and looming sensation of death made sure it was hard to do.

“Have you worked in this business for long?”

“Only a few years… but I am supposed to have quit.”

“And you are back?” 

“No… I am here for personal reasons.” 

The man tapped his briefcase with the fingers on the hand that was holding it. “This right?”

“Yes…” 

Don’t lie, don’t lie, don’t lie. Lila please, I will owe you everything if you can get here soon…

He was betting on the fact that Lila saw his fall, but he knew there was a chance that didn’t happen. He was a blade of light that impacted the ground, but he wasn’t visible for long, and considering Lila was likely very busy keeping herself alive, she might not have seen the landing. Even if she did, whatever this man was doing to keep the area blockaded could prevent her from saving her.

“What a dangerous, foolish, stupid endeavour you had chosen to take on.”

“Yes, it was.” Tyell’s hand twitched as he grabbed his aching rib.

The man’s gun twitched when Tyell made his pained motion.

He is finding a reason to kill me…

Tyell didn’t know if it was morals, a code, or some other miraculous reason the world had given him, but the man was looking for a reason to kill Tyell. 

I got to not fuck this up… like everything I touch.

Tyell bit his tongue hard and tried to hold the pain.

“What do you want to do now?” The man asked. 

A fucking hard question.

The moment he heard it, he thought it would be impossible to answer, but as the words entered his mouth, he realised it was simple.

“Go home, see my family again, and see that my sister is safe and sound.”

“Family, huh? Do they mean a lot to you?” The man asked with a viscous intensity that made Tyell squirm.

“Yes…” He was worried to answer, but he knew there was nothing this man could do to them. Ceella may not be around, but Nina’s influence should protect Tella and Mella while they were home plus there was that supernatural entity who saved him once. He didn’t believe it would come back to help, as he believed it was with Ceella wherever she currently was and that save felt like a one-time deal to him, but there were still Tella and Mella who could be protected.

The man spoke with a passion that could only come from the heart: “So would you kill for them?”

“Would I..?” 

“The guilty, the criminals, the innocent—what line would you create to protect what mattered more to you?” He adjusted his gun hand, and his bones clicked as he stretched it. 

Click

The man’s bones creaking gave Tyell a heart attack.

What is this question?!

Tyell’s mind only became more chaotic, while the previous question ended up having a simple answer for him, this one left him in complete disarray. What the hell did he mean? What was he fine killing? It was an absurd question!... Though Tyell knew he had already stepped partially onto that path. 

The fact he was here. 

Ready to steal from dangerous criminals, he already spoke of what dangers he was willing to get into.

And you couldn’t enter a hornet's nest without expecting to get stung.

Though, Tyell also nearly did that as well. He had no combat abilities and only walked in with some slight armour. If a person stretched it, maybe they could consider Lila his weapon of choice, but a separate person as a weapon wasn’t ideal when being beaten black and red by a former boss.

“I could kill criminals…”

“What about the innocent, your neighbour on your walk to the mall, the random girl you say hello to at the train, the old man whose phone you help pick up?”

“I’m not sure anymore.” Tyell wasn’t sure what face he was making, but he was sure it was pathetic. “I’ve caused enough pain… But I don't want my family to think ill of me.”

“Oh?” His gun’s vice grip seemingly loosened, but Tyell didn’t notice. “Quite selfish of a desire you have there… from your clear deviation to them.”

“I’ve hurt them enough. My mother would kill a criminal.” He had seen her try to do that. “But she could never harm people; she would rather throw herself in harm's way to stop it all. My youngest sister is a good soul, and even if she might support us, I don’t believe she has the will to kill anyone… then my eldest…” 

Thinking of Ceella was hard. 

Not just because she was gone, but also due to how she had changed.

The Ceella he knew was selfish but wouldn’t harm others to get what she wanted, but the current Ceella…

“I would… like to believe she wouldn’t hurt innocent people…”

“You don’t sound confident on that.” He readied his gun again.

“I’m not, but I would like to believe that.” He clenched his bleeding chest. “That way… I know I am in the wrong for the pain I caused. That I can still turn to my family and have them look back at me.” Tyell didn’t even know what he was saying anymore. He didn’t even know if it made sense. 

He had already lost Elly and Chris through two vastly different tragedies.

It was safe to say that his family, and the people whom he considered that, were the most important thing to his heart. 

But it wasn’t enough to know they were alive; he also didn’t want them to truly hate him. Not just be angry, but true hate and disgust for him as a person. Being abandoned by them wasn’t something he thought he could handle. Even after years of being in the wrong kind of business, after that life of his collapsed, did he realise more than ever that the people he loved were the most important people to him.

The man chuckled, but his face barely changed. “Well, you haven’t been shot yet. Congratulations, you have done better than my inner circle, who were supposed to know me.”

“Well, you have made me curious.” The man’s face did smile or more, but there was a violent excitement in his voice. “So, why did you want it? My belongings? Money, power?”

For the first time, Tyell leaned forward. “I wanted to use it to save my sister.”

His voice was seemingly unchanged, but it now carried something deep. “What?”

“She… is suffering, her mana can’t stay in the body properly anymore, and she even went on a suicide mission to try and fix it.” Tyell believed that this might be the journey that made Ceella truly never able to stay with them again. “What I heard… This artefact involved mana recovery to the point that it would, at the bare minimum, give her a moment of reprieve.”

The excitement dropped, and his finger left the trigger. 

He didn’t do anything for a few moments. 

Tyell didn’t know what he was thinking, and he didn’t tell the world either. 

After a few more deathly silent moments.

“If you want to carry this bomb, so be it.” The man chucked the briefcase at him. “I have no use for it anymore, and I can’t care about anything right now.” His arms retracted, and he taped his gun on his now free other hand. “If you want to destroy your own life, do your best.”

The man’s red stare flicked off Tyell as he walked away. Tyell still didn’t move, as he still felt there was a chance the man would shoot him if he moved now.

…

Tyell was still very out of it.

But after the man finally walked out of sight and he took a few moments to breathe, he stretched out to grab the briefcase and opened it.

Click

The briefcase slowly opened, and inside it was a tiny silver locket. Tyell touched it, and it flung open, and inside was a crimson-red diamond jewel that radiated energy.

“Argh!” The moment he opened it, a pain shot through his head.

…Are all dungeon artefacts like this?!

It was like his brain was injected with knowledge on how to use the artefact, but that left him more confused.

There is still mana left inside it…

The artefact automatically transferred all mana within it to the connected user; this process was a slow transfer, but it could be sped up. The device could absorb a small amount of mana from the surroundings, but the main method had to do with killing. Any life the user took, all their mana would be absorbed into the device. 

Were his questions about this?

Still, it confused Tyell why there was mana remaining, not only that because it felt as if the item hadn’t been connected to anyone in months. The fact the man didn’t even use it to keep his mana topped up was surprising since he seemingly held no qualms about murdering people here.

“I need to put it away–” Tyell turned to the briefcase, but while he wasn’t looking, the briefcase shrunk until it was just bigger than the size of the locket.

That… works…

He placed the item in the small box, and he hoped it did something to protect it.

He sighed, “I don’t know if all of this was good or bad luck.”

Tyell was happy to get the artefact, but he almost died in the process, and he wasn’t sure if it would work for Ceella. It would help if she were fighting for sure, but it wouldn’t support her living a day-to-day life as well as he wished it would.

“...Shut up you idiot.” He knew he was just complaining. Something was better than nothing, and this was good, but it was simply not the perfect solution he wished for it to be, and that was okay. 

I’m still alive… that is all that matters.

After going through a few near-death encounters back-to-back, all he wanted to do was spend time with his family again.

“Tyell.” Lila’s voice called out to him as she ran towards his body.

She’s okay…

Hearing that familiar voice brought a smile to his face.

Then she reached his side and helped pull his body up into a sitting position. She asked, “Are you not dying?”

“I will need you to confirm that.” He coughed, “I have no idea besides knowing everything hurts.”

“Well, let’s check you out when we get out of here.” Lila pulled Tyell onto her shoulder and took them away. Her goal was to immediately leave the city; she didn’t know what had happened with Tyell, but the moment he attempted his trip to the sky and his subsequent crash into the ground, she had decided they were immediately leaving.

Reaching the edge of the city, Lila spoke again, “Our luck has been pretty awful.”

“Huh?” Tyell glanced at her.

Lila continued, “Well, we both ran into old bosses from work.”

“Didn’t yours try to assassinate you?” Tyell replied.

 Lila countered, “She did. Pretty sure yours just tried murdering your ass before you sent him to fucking sky to become a pancake on the ground.”

“Yeah… that’s fair.” He groaned as they stepped forward out of the city. “Though I think my luck was already zero by the time this stupid plan started. Entered a building, got shot at immediately, got punched in the face, rib, and nearly the dick, fell from the sky, got threatened by a mobster who was all too willing to shoot me in the head, and all that is discounting all the other times I nearly died.”

Lila said, “Let’s not do this again.”

“Until the future.” Tyell joked but ended up coughing due to the pain.

“That’s it, telling everyone immediately what happened.”

“Wait… At least give it a day. I would prefer to be healed up first.”

“You're not Aunty Ceella; you're not simply walking off a broken rib in a day.”

“Maybe I could…” Tyell pouted. “Why do you call Ceella aunty anyway?”

Lila replied, “Why? Haven’t I already spoken about that? It was simply something I called her as a kid, and it has stuck with me. Too many memories, too. Honestly, it would be hard to stop calling her like that unless she asked me not to.”

“I don’t know about all that; overhead something you and Mella were. Now in truth, I didn’t hear all the details but it sounded like there was a reason you–”

Lila interrupted him. “I could drop you here.”

“Please don’t.”