The cavern was silent but for the soft rhythm of breathing. Nestled into the giant leaf-bed, the group slept at last.
Lein and Gyuunyuu twitched in restless dreams, their tiny murmurs punctuating the hush like fireflies of sound. Mutou and Thog remained statuesque nearby, ever-vigilant guardians, their watchful stillness an unspoken vow.
Piers, however, slept deep — exhaustion pulling him down into a world of fragmented visions.
A weight crushed against her chest.
Her lungs burned.
I… I can't breathe…
The words barely slipped past her lips, weak and broken. Her vision blurred, the edges of the world softening into shadow.
What's… happening to me? Am I… slipping away?
Then—warmth. Familiar. That same embrace that had saved her before. Comforting. Protective.
Piers-sama…
Even through the dim haze, she felt it—his mana, his will, wrapping around her like a shield.
He saved me again… But it should be me. I should be the one protecting him. I admire him. I adore him. I should always be his shield…
But then something cold and unseen coiled around her neck. An invisible hand, squeezing, choking the breath from her throat. Her body trembled, weakening.
Why… can't I move?
———
Elsewhere, in the storm of dream, Piers's own thoughts twisted.
"…I'm sorry, Mom… Dad… please forgive me. I couldn't save Rino…"
A pause. The name flickered like a broken light.
Rino? …Wait. Rino? Onee-chan?
His body jerked upright, drenched in cold sweat. The cavern walls loomed above him, jagged and oppressive.
"Huh…? Was… that just a dream?"
Beside him, Luci stirred. A groan slipped from her lips, low and raw. Her body tensed, every muscle rigid with strain.
Her lips parted, whispering faintly. "…hurts…"
Piers's gaze sharpened instantly. Something was wrong.
He invoked Appraisal.
[Poison Vine]
Properties: Highly toxic plant matter. Contact results in rapid absorption of lethal toxins.
Effects: Immediate severe pain. Paralysis of the nervous system. Death occurs within a few minutes if untreated.
His eyes narrowed. The Abyss wasn't going to wait for them to wake.
It was already reaching for their throats.
Wait… poison? No—her breathing's fading—
"Panic ripped through Piers; his limbs felt heavy, breath ragged, eyes locked on Luci's paling face."
How? She was right beside me… Why now? Why again? What do I do? My body—why won't it move? I couldn't even save Rino… and now Luci—why can't I save her either?!
Then—CRACK.
Lien's foot lashed out, colliding with something unseen. Luci's throat was suddenly free, air flooding back into her lungs in ragged gasps.
The air shimmered. The invisibility faltered. A goblin flickered into view—draped in ragged robes, clutching a warped staff, its eyes glowing with sickly malice.
"Liel—barrier, NOW!" Lien barked, his voice raw with urgency.
"Mutou, Thog—behind Master!"
Everything exploded into motion.
Liel's hands snapped up, light bursting forth, wrapping Piers and Luci inside a dome of shimmering protection.
Mutou and Thog surged forward without hesitation, weapons flashing, flanking Piers's trembling form.
He sat rigid on the leaf-bed, shoulders shaking, Luci's weak, pained head cradled in his tiny lap.
The goblin, sent sprawling by Lien's desperate kick, teetered on the yawning edge of the cavern. As he staggered, his trick was revealed.
Gyuunyuu, trapped inside a shimmering bubble of air, floated helplessly. Her tiny eyes were shut, her body limp, as if caught in a cruel parody of sleep.
A spell.
This wasn't an ordinary goblin.
A shaman.
Piers's gaze lowered, shadow sliding across his features.
"Liel… can you heal her?"
"L-let me check." Liel's hands trembled as she pressed them to Luci's shallow chest.
"It's poison."
"You can heal it, right?" His voice cut like a blade.
"Yes, Piers-sama. I can… I just need a few minutes."
Relief hissed out of him in a single, sharp breath.
"Good. Heal her."
But his eyes never left the shaman. The shaman still clutched its staff, Gyuunyuu suspended like a trophy, a smug grin twisting across his filthy face.
Piers rose. His small frame trembled, but his expression… was blank. Empty.
"Mutou. Thog." His voice was flat, cold. "Step back. Guard the edge. No more goblins get through."
Mutou's helm flickered once—recognition.
Thog gave a grim nod. Silent acceptance.
They obeyed.
Lien stood frozen, shielding Liel as her hands glowed with healing light.
Luci's eyes fluttered open, pain still clouding her gaze—yet fixed only on him.
And Piers… walked forward.
The cavern seemed to narrow around him. The air grew heavy, pressing down on every chest, as if the darkness itself bent toward his steps.
Every breath hitched.
Every eye followed.
The shaman sneered, clutching his staff tighter, mistaking poison tricks for strength.
But in the silence—
in the stillness—
one truth became terrifyingly clear.
No one had ever seen this side of him.
As he advanced, his face did not change. Still. Unreadable.
His eyes—half-veiled beneath the fall of his hair—gleamed with a dull, eerie emptiness.
No fury.
No fire.
Only cold. Hollow. Creased with the weight of things seen… and things done.
It was the same expression he'd worn in his past life, moments before he ended the doctor with his bare hands.
A tremor rippled through the cavern. Fear. Raw, primal. Even his allies felt it.
The shaman goblin spat a guttural incantation. Symbols flared beneath his feet—twisted, writhing in sickly green light.
With a howl, four emperor goblins tore their way into being. Hulking, towering, their frames swallowed the cavern's walls, each step shaking the stone.
Piers did not falter.
He rose—one foot pressing against nothing, yet climbing higher, weightless.
Air Walk.
Each stride was a ghost's, each step an affront to gravity itself.
The shaman's grin twitched wider—a mask of brittle bravado.
But the emperors… froze.
Their muscles swelled, cords of sinew straining against their skin. Teeth bared. Claws flexed.
And yet—they could not move. Instinct screamed: any twitch, any step, and they would be erased.
Behind him, Luci forced herself upright. Her breath hitched shallow in her chest. Wide, disbelieving eyes locked onto the small figure she thought she knew.
In Piers's hand, frost bloomed. Swirling tight, coalescing.
It hardened into a dagger—curved, gleaming, every edge whispering death.
He stood eye to eye with the petrified emperors.
The last of the summoned giants twitched.
A mistake.
Piers's hand moved. The ice dagger flashed white, slicing the air.
THUNK.
Three heads toppled in unison, rolling across the crystal floor.
For one heartbeat, silence.
The shaman's grin fractured… twisting into raw, unfiltered terror.
The final emperor remained upright, trembling. His vast frame quivered like rotted timber, sweat streaking down his green skin. Wide, wet eyes pleaded for escape—but terror bound him in chains no steel could match.
Piers conjured another dagger, curved and cruel, frost hissing along its edge.
He raised it, and his gaze—calm, empty, sunken—fell upon the brute's chest.
The blade slid in.
Slowly.
Green flesh split with a wet rip. Bone resisted, then cracked, surrendering one shard at a time. The sound dragged on, long and suffocating, like fabric tearing under water.
The emperor shrieked. High. Animal. But his body remained still—frozen in fear.
Piers did not flinch.
He pushed deeper, carving through ribs with methodical force. Then drew the blade out, just as slow, just as steady. Emerald blood poured in sheets, pattering against stone.
Again.
And again.
Each thrust measured. Unhurried. The cavern filled with the obscene rhythm of steel through meat.
"Emerald blood spilled in torrents, pooling thick around his feet, the coppery scent hanging heavy in the cavern."
At last, the giant sagged. His chest gaped hollow. Silence crept back in like a predator.
Piers stood unmoving, expression unchanged, his face a mask of cold ice.
Only the faint twitch at the corner of his mouth betrayed anything at all — a thin shadow of satisfaction.
The others could only watch. Frozen. Breath lodged in their throats.
This was not their Master.
Not the childlike boy who smiled at them, who built them comfort, who spoke with warmth.
Now he stood wrapped in a darkness so raw, so merciless, it was unrecognizable.
At his feet, the last emperor lay butchered — a hollow ruin of flesh. Piers didn't glance at the corpse. His eyes were fixed only on the shaman.
The goblin's twisted grin had curdled into panic. His knees buckled, folding like paper as he collapsed. He whimpered, shaking, scrabbling for a hidden dagger — a pathetic reflex, born of desperation.
Flick.
Two shards of ice split the air. Clean. Merciless.
A heartbeat later, the shaman's arm and leg were gone, severed at the joints. Green blood sprayed across the cavern, pattering against the crystal floor. A stray splash dotted Piers's shorts.
He glanced down.
"...Annoying."
The words were flat, colorless. Even gore was nothing more than a nuisance.
The goblin writhed, guttural screams shredding the air.
Piers stepped forward, boot planting on the mangled stump of its leg.
Crunch.
Bone cracked beneath him. The shrieks climbed into a shrill, animal pitch. Piers pressed harder, grinding until the stump gave way — reduced to nothing but pulp beneath his heel.
At last, the shaman fell silent. Eyes wide. Glassy. Mouth frozen in a rictus of horror.
Piers shifted his boot higher, planting it firmly on the creature's chest.
Dead. Or near enough.
And he didn't care.
He pressed down again. Harder.
Dead ribs snapped, one after another, until the entire chest caved inward. Organs burst, churning into mush beneath his heel.
Still… he kept going.
The cavern echoed with wet cracks, a grotesque rhythm.
Then—arms wrapped around him from behind. Soft. Trembling.
"Piers-sama…"
Luci's voice cut through, thin and cracked, soaked in guilt.
"I'm sorry… I should've seen the poison. But… you can stop now. It's already dead."
I didn't answer.
I wasn't sure I cared.
A heavy silence pressed down on the cavern.
Then, slowly, the suffocating rage began to ebb, like a tide pulling back. Clarity crept in. A sheepish sweatdrop rolled down Piers's temple.
"...Ah. I, uh… might've gone a little overboard?" he admitted, forcing a weak, lopsided smile.
Lein, still pale and trembling, finally blurted out, voice cracking,
"Master, 'a little overboard'?! You just turned that goblin into green paste!"
For a heartbeat, silence reigned.
Then—like glass shattering—laughter erupted.
Relieved. Hysterical. Unstoppable.
The kind of laughter that bursts only when fear finally breaks.
.
.
.
.
The next morning.
Piers clapped his tiny hands together, a crisp signal to assemble.
"Alright, everyone. Gather 'round!"
His expression was calm, fresh—like last night's bloodshed had been nothing more than stress relief.
One by one, they shuffled over. Liel, Luci, Thog, Gyuunyuu, Lein, Mutou—forming a half-circle around their toddler commander. Wide-eyed. Waiting. Like children at story time.
He drew in a steady breath, setting the tone.
"The goblins aren't attacking us anymore. That means one thing—they're waiting. They want us to come down there. They're baiting us."
He paused, letting the words hang, heavy and important.
All eyes were fixed on him.
And then—
"MASTER!"
Lein burst forward, eyes blazing with idiotic excitement. "Then let's charge down there and smash their asses! Like you did last night with those green mugs—BOOM! CRASH!"
He flung a series of wild punches into the air for emphasis, nearly knocking a torch off its stand.
Before Piers could get a word in, Gyuunyuu, perched on his shoulder, squeaked proudly:
"Yes, Master! I don't know what happened while I was sleeping, but I believe in you anyway! Yay! Go Master!!"
She flailed like she was conducting a war symphony with invisible drumsticks.
Lien immediately butted in, puffing his chest.
"And I'll be right there beside Master, smashing even harder!"
"No way!" Gyuunyuu zipped off Piers's shoulder, orbiting Lein's head like a furious mosquito.
"I'll be the closest to Master! My cheers give him a power boost!"
"Pfft, cheers don't kill goblins," Lien shot back with a smirk.
"Your tiny fists are only good for punching air."
"HEY! Who are you calling tiny?!" Gyuunyuu's voice pitched so high it could etch cracks into stone.
"Say that again and I'll show you what these fists can do—on you!"
And that was it.
What should've been a sober strategy meeting had collapsed into a noisy pep rally, hosted by one yokai shrieking about her fist size and a battle-hungry elf with zero volume control.
A quiet vein pulsed at Piers's temple.
As the bickering raged, Liel noticed it first — the faint flicker of annoyance in Piers's eyes.
Her stomach tightened.
She knew that look.
Everyone did see what Piers's "bad temper" looked like when it surfaced. The shaman and his oversized pets were still green paste on the cavern floor because of it.
"You two," she said firmly, calm but sharp. "Keep it down. Let Piers-sama speak. No repeats of last night."
Lein and Gyuunyuu froze mid-squabble.
Her gaze softened when it turned back to Piers, a silent apology for the interruption.
Gyuunyuu, oblivious to the weight of her words, bounced midair with excitement.
"Yes, Master! I really wanna know what happened last night! Now's the perfect time — before the strategy meeting!"
Lein quickly joined in, teasing her.
"Yeah, Master, tell her! So she doesn't snooze through the next big fight!"
He nudged her with a smirk.
"Hey! I wasn't sleeping on purpose!" she huffed, puffing her tiny cheeks like mochi.
"Master's cooking makes me this sleepy!"
"Well, sure, the food was delicious—we all ate plenty. But at least we didn't pass out when there were goblins to smash."
lien smug grin practically glowed.
Gyuunyuu puffed up even more, cheeks ballooning, but no words came out. Only furious buzzing noises.
Piers dragged a hand down his face.
"…Honestly, I'm getting a little pissed off right now."
The room went still.
And then—
BONK. BONK.
Luci, who had been quietly watching, finally intervened. Two lumps sprouted on Lein and Gyuunyuu's heads—raw, ambient Luci-justice.
Lein yelped, clutching his scalp.
Gyuunyuu squeaked, rubbing her forehead with fists.
Luci sat back down, calm, almost eerily serene.
"Continue, Piers-sama," she said softly.
A massive sweatdrop rolled down Piers's temple.
Beside him, Liel let out a long, weary sigh.
Thog and Mutou exchanged glances—business as usual.
Piers closed his eyes.
His mana senses stretched outward, sweeping through the suffocating depths of the labyrinth — over walls, tunnels, and the teeming hordes below. Slowly, a map drew itself in his mind: the nest, crawling with goblins; shamans clustered near the heart; even the faint pulse of something larger, an emperor lurking among them.
When he opened his eyes, his voice carried calm authority.
"Right, everyone. Stay focused. Here's how we move."
His fingertip flared with firelight as he traced a glowing diagram across the crystal floor, sketching the battlefield in molten lines. A towering decagon. One side marked their cavern far above. The other—a seething nest of goblins below, their numbers almost blotting out the map itself.
"We split into three teams."
His gaze swept across the crew, weighing each of them.
"Luci and I will move first from above. I'll drop Skull Bombs into this hot zone." The blast will scatter them at first, but then…" He tapped the glowing hot zone. "They'll regroup at that spot — confused, disoriented, trying to make sense of the attack."
Lien leaned closer, eyes following the fiery diagram. He watched Piers's finger carve through the map like a blade, but forced himself not to interrupt.
"Once they're clustered," His gaze shifted to Lien. "That's when you, Mutou, move in. Strike them while they're confused. Don't give them time to recover."
His hand shifted, the ember trail sweeping to another side.
"Liel—your role is critical. When they start swarming, hold them with a barrier. Trap the tide in one choke point." Don't let them spill out.
Thog's massive frame leaned forward, Piers's eyes flicked to him.
Thog, you guard her. Anyone slips through, you crush them."
A low rumble of approval came from the orc.
He turned, eyes locking with Luci's.
"You and I will control the skies. Will rain hell from above while they're boxed in. Coordination will be everything. Do you all understand?"
Silence. Then, one by one, the others nodded—expressions set with grim determination. The plan was clear. Executable. Flawless.
And then— "Master!"
The shrill cry cut through the solemn mood.
Gyuunyuu hovered just off the floor, tiny fists balled, eyes glistening with betrayal.
"You forgot me!"
she wailed, pointing both stubby arms at him like
Twin accusations. "You made groups and gave everyone a job… but I'm not in any!"
Her large eyes held a hint of genuine hurt, as if she'd been deliberately excluded from some grand adventure.
Piers blinked, then let out a small chuckle, a smile tugging at his lips.
"Ah. Right. My mistake, Gyuunyuu. You can choose whichever group you'd like to join."
Her eyes sparkled.
"Oh, is that so?" Gyuunyuu leaned forward in the air, scanning the assembled groups with exaggerated seriousness, like a commander reviewing her army.
Her gaze darted from Lien's flexing bicep, to Thog's hulking frame, to Mutou's silent flame.
Then—spark. Resolve.
She spun midair and thrust both stubby arms straight at Piers.
"Then it's decided! I'll stay with you, Master! Otherwise—" she raised one hand with theatrical flair, "who would be there to cheer you on?!"
A ripple of chuckles passed through the group, the tension breaking for just a moment.
Even Mutou's usually stoic flame softened slightly as he watched his daughter's eagerness.
Gyuunyuu puffed out her tiny chest proudly, basking in the attention as if she'd just claimed an official title: the team's cheerleader.
* * *