When two symbols rose from within the blue and red lights gathered in their hands, Nafız initially struggled to make out what they were. When they gradually became clear, the seals made by the two monsters had already reached a breath's distance from her.
The symbols in the shape of a red rose and an ice-colored snowdrop rapidly entered the Blood God's body. She wouldn't be able to utter a single word upon this event; anyway, when she fell to the ground before three breaths passed, she was already unconscious.
Alyon rushed to his friend's side in panic. First, the hulking orc checked if she was breathing. The moment he wanted to grab her arm and straighten her up, his hand touching his friend's skin became the target of a burning cold.
While Alyon, gritting his teeth, continued his action, Nafız's body, which possessed a freezing cold just a moment ago, would suddenly reach a scorching temperature. The hulking orc, forced to move away in the face of this situation, turned to the two old people watching the event in anger.
"What did you do to my friend; answer me quickly!"
He had seen red once. Even if they were many times stronger than him, those facing him had to give him an explanation.
"Wow! Your brain doesn't work much, but you are a brave man, orc chief!"
While the ugly old man in the blue robe spoke with a smile on his face, he was checking the condition of Nafız, who was alternately burning and freezing on the ground, out of the corner of his eye.
"Don't be afraid, your friend will be fine. She just needs to suffer this torment to fight with the person you will have to face one day in the future!"
These were not what Alyon wanted to hear. Only the part that she would be fine sprinkled a little water on his heart. After letting out a deep breath, curious about the other words of the pleasant woman in the red dress, he started speaking.
"Who are you talking about when you say the person we will face in the future? Please tell me!"
After hearing that Nafız would be fine, the tone of voice and movements of the hulking orc softened. Overcoming his initial panic, he asked his question with respect.
"We have been here for thousands of years, but that doesn't mean we are unaware of what happens in this world. We are aware of everything going on; my foresight told us that giving the protection of fire and ice to your friend was the best solution!"
When the beautiful woman finished her speech, a short silence occurred inside the cave, then Alyon continued to receive information about the subject with the words of the man in the blue robe.
"A thousand years ago, a human appeared before us. Just like your friend, he knew the three questions coming from us and won the attack of Ice and Fire. The path you walk will eventually have to lead to where he is. Equalizing the conditions was necessary for a better spectacle to emerge!"
Listening to the two old people with stern looks, Alyon figured out what was going on in general terms. In return for the wrath of ice and fire, protection was bestowed upon them. Looking at the fact that all the answers given to him were veiled, he also understood that asking more questions was meaningless.
While Nafız lay unconscious on the ground, time was flowing away. Although he couldn't calculate in this place where the sun didn't shine, Alyon was sure that almost two year-cycles had passed since the moment they descended from the stone steps to the ground.
The duo had already started attacking each other again. The orc chief was waiting helplessly by moving to a side. The real bad part of the business was that there was nothing in the name of food here. Since Nafız was always with him, he hadn't bought a storage ring for himself. He couldn't even guess that this mistake would cost him so dearly.
After the first few days, he had started searching like crazy, but these wouldn't go beyond being futile efforts. The only thing he found were wild plants and herbs growing abundantly everywhere. Apart from these, Alyon was swallowing mouse-like creatures he rarely caught in one bite.
After subsisting on plenty of water and herbs for a long time, the orc chief was skin and bones. Judging by the rings of bruises settled under his eyes, he was playing for extra time. The thought of summoning his spirit animal and eating it had even crossed his mind, and actually, he hadn't refrained from trying this either.
While the giant bear, on which he landed the first blow with great hopes, writhed in pain, his brilliant plan would fall through upon feeling the same pain several times more in his own body. When he wanted to straighten up with his last effort and walk to his friend's side, Alyon stumbled after a few steps and fell face down on the ground.
I've come to the end of the road, thought the orc chief; he had no one to help. Since they started fighting again, the two old people had behaved as if they didn't see him. No matter how much he shouted, they wouldn't turn and look even once.
Just as he rested his head on the soil in despair and closed his eyes, a voice he hadn't heard for a long time rang in his ears.
"Son, what happened to you like this, man?"
At first, Alyon thought he was hallucinating. Such things had happened to him a few more times during the two year-cycles.
"Say something, are you alive?"
The second time, he was sure now this voice was real. With the last crumb of life remaining inside him, he shouted silently.
"Nafız, help!"
The Blood God immediately started feeding the exhausted body of the hulking orc, with whom she had been together since becoming an adult in her new world, with medicinal porridges she made from healing herbs. Before giving him food, this was necessary for him to overcome the life-threatening danger urgently.
"You Ox-head Alyon, you! We told you fifty times to buy a transportation ring! No, our gentleman is a chief, let him wander around with just his dick in his hand!"
While treating her friend, Nafız didn't hold back from swearing heavily. Only after continuing this for a while did her anger subside. There were some thoughts in her mind; calming down, she would start asking questions to her friend to learn about the time she lay unconsciously.
Nafız, who would learn what happened while she lay unconscious from Alyon, would be surprised most at the time passed. They had stayed inside this cave for two whole years; the first question that came to her mind was 'I wonder how the others are'.
"Our job is done; let's get out of here immediately!"
When they headed towards the wet stairs they came from, taking her friend whom she grabbed by the arm, they were taking magnificent gains with them besides saving their lives. Along with tens of thousands of ice and fire marbles, Nafız had obtained natural immunity against two elements. While climbing the steps rapidly, when halfway through the road, a familiar voice rang in their minds.
"Battle of Opposites dungeon completed!"
They froze; it had never crossed their minds that this mysterious place could be a reward dungeon. They were quite sure the two old people were flesh and blood entities; what kind of power could take them and force them to stay here?
While Alyon was drowning in questions occupying his head, he hadn't realized he finished the stairs and reached the surface. His friend beside him wouldn't be as surprised as him; for those who could send a dead person to other worlds, managing two old people was no big deal.
The real surprise for Nafız was finding the people they had been away from for two years scanning them with strange looks. The person breaking the silence that would last for a short time would be Yarmagül.
"Father, what happened? You returned very quickly!"
Alyon was just pulling himself together. Hearing these words from his daughter on top of two years of hunger resulted in losing his ability to understand and think.
"Master!"
Sangre and Kitapkurdu were also astonished. Between the Blood God starting to descend the stairs and coming back up, at most a duration of ten breaths had passed. Following the division of labor and farewell speeches made, this situation was making them look stupid like everyone else.
"Kitapkurdu, come here. You will tell me what happened here!"
Pulling her student to her side, Nafız smiled strangely when she learned the truth of the matter. She was now completely sure that the concept of time in reward dungeons worked differently than normal. During the two-year period spent inside, only ten breaths of progress had occurred in the normal world.