The Unholy (Arifureta X OC)

Oscar Orcus

Kane POV

I open my eyes to see Hajime and Yue awake and leaving.

Hajime: "Bout time you woke up."

Kane: "Oh shut up."

Hajime: "So where the hell are we?"

Kane: "No idea. For all we know it's a secret passage to another boss."

Yue: "I don't think so. It could be the home of one of those Mavericks."

Hajime: "Hey look, a mansion."

We look.

Kane: "I checked, all the doors are locked."

We enter checking the house until we come to an open room on the third floor.

Hajime: "Doesn't seem to be anything else up here."

Yue: "Just one big room."

We walk inside. My foot is put down as a part of the ground sinks.

Kane: "That can't be good."

The room is lit up with purple crystals. They keep coming on until we're presented with a skeleton.

Kane: "That's creepy."

Hajime: "It's like he was waiting for someone."

He looks at a circle on the floor.

Hajime: "This room's probably the key to finding a route to the surface. And we don't have many options with transmute not working on those other rooms. Yue, be ready to help if I need it."

Kane: "What am I chopped liver?"

He steps into the center of the circle as it glows. A projection of an alive version of the skeleton appears.

Oscar: "Greetings, my name's Oscar Orcus, and I'm the one to build this labyrinth. I congratulate you on surviving my trials. I assume the term Maverick is familiar to you. I have no doubt you have a great number of questions. Unfortunately what you're seeing is merely a recording. So I'm afraid your queries must go unanswered. Instead I wish to pass on an important truth. A truth about the history of this war torn world. One that inspired myself and others like me to stand up and fight for what we believed was right."

We lean closer.

Oscar: "I don't know who you are or what circumstances led you to pit yourself against my labyrinth, but you fought hard and came far. And so I shall grant you my power. You may do with it whatever you see fit. I make but one request. That you not use what you gain from me for evil."

Kane: "Then why say do with it what you want?"

Hajime: "What's going on?"

Oscar: "That's all I have to say. You'll understand more soon enough. May you remain resilient and may your destiny always be yours to control."

His projection disappears. Hajime grabs his head groaning in pain.

Kane: "What's going on?"

Hajime: "It's like something's being imprinted on my mind."

The circle quits glowing as Hajime lets go of his head.

Kane: "You good?"

Hajime: "The legends are wrong. The Maverick's weren't evil, they were liberators. Till..."

Yue: "What do we do now?"

Hajime: "Like I said, I don't give a crap about this world or the people in it. I'm going back home. That's all that matters. You feel differently?"

She shakes her head.

Yue: "I don't care about anything else. I belong with you."

Hajime: "On another note. I think I learned a new spell. That circle gave me some kind of ancient magic."

Yue: "What's it do?"

Hajime: "It's called creation magic. With it I can add energy to raw materials giving them special properties creating something new."

Kane: "That could come in handy."

The next day we search the library for any clues.

Hajime: "Found something."

We stand next to him.

Hajime: "According to this book, that magic circle can take us to the surface. 

Yue: "Except to connect it we're gonna need Oscar's ring." 

I pull his ring outta my pocket.

Kane: "I thought it might come in handy."

Hajime: "Way to think ahead. Now the workshop's stocked. So I say we take the supplies."

Yue: "I found something as well"

We look to see her holding a book.

Hajime: "So that's how it works. Make it through the labyrinths and we'll get our hands on the other forms of ancient magic these people possessed."

Yue: "You might find a way home too."

Hajime: "Guess we know what we've gotta do now. Time to go conquer more labyrinths."