Ira groaned in pain, clutching her head as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. It seemed Ira had fallen into a network of tunnels, presumably created by some type of monstrous creature.
The young girl grazed the walls of the tunnels; in some patches, the walls were as hard as concrete, while in others, a sticky mixture was slowly but surely hardening.
'Kind of like bees.. I think?'
Ira did not harbor a notable amount of knowledge about the animals of the mundane world, but from what she knew, bees did something similar; she could only assume that the network of tunnels had been created by something similar to an ant or a bee, but there was no guarantee. She lacked information, and the only way to know for sure was to see the beasts themselves in all their glory—or monstrosity.
Ira attempted to leap out of the tunnel—contrary to what she had believed upon awakening, she was still physically mundane, and her mist enhancement would not do too much for her as of that moment; all she had was a whiff of mist, after all—with the jump required not being possible for any physically mundane human such as herself.
'There has to be an exit somewhere..'
The young girl had begun to feel uncomfortable at her situation; she had no information, mundane strength, and no talent—how would a pitiful girl such as herself escape from this situation?
'Just my luck.. at least I'm not dying in the heat anymore..'
She felt thirsty and hungry. Ira opened up her adventure bag and reached in, pulling out one of the water pouches.
Popping off the cap with a smile, she brought the pouch to her lips and.. it was empty?
'It must have broken when I fell into this pit.. this situation just keeps getting worse and worse..!'
Ira began to take inventory yet again; after she was done, two out of the four pouches of water she had were broken—not a drop remained in them; however, everything else was still in pristine condition.
With a heavy sigh, Ira began creating more mist, the action draining her reserves of Realm Thread at a frightening speed, but power was what she needed as of that moment.
'I'm glad the mist does not just disappear on me over time… But I do wonder where the mist goes when I don't have it summoned.. Maybe my soul? Not like I would ever have it not summoned..'
Using her hands to support her upper body, the young girl began to engrave the very essence of the rough ground into her being. The floor under Ira was rough to the touch, but provided plenty of friction, with the occasional weird liquid that Ira speculated to be capable of hardening or enhancing the floor; at least she would not trip from the ground due to its high friction, but more so from her lack of skill.
Gazing upwards as if she was looking at a starry night, her mind began to question her importance; 'What is so special about me.. I have a singular attribute that only tells me I am going to die in the next six years. Not only that, but it does not even say "in" six years, it says "within", meaning I could die at any point in time! Everything seems against me.. Hopefully, after the Trial the Oracle gave me, my life will change for the better—I doubt it, though. The most realistic outcome is that I will face even more hardships; some might not even be from these monstrosities known as Purge Beasts.'
Deciding to rest her mind, the young girl focused all her efforts on renewing her half-empty capacity of Realm Thread.
◇
Ira was getting tired from creating mist, her Realm Thread running low by that point despite her continuous renewal of the fuel for all magical abilities.
Through her tiredness, she decided it was time to drink her last pouch of water. 'Dying of thirst because I was too idiotic to drink whenever I needed to would be excruciatingly embarrassing..'
She began to greedily drink the last pouch of water, gobbling down a few of the berries to quench her hunger and ease her exhaustion, too.
As she chewed, the young girl began to grow anxious.
'It is too quiet.. silence is only good in the comfort of your own home, after all—not in the damned nest of a Purge Beast!'
Ira had drawn the rusty blade by that point, preparing herself for the launch of an attack by an unknown enemy.
Her breathing was shallow and shaky, her palms moist from nervous sweat, occasionally forcing Ira to adjust her hold on the blade—yet her mind was at ease.
'I have fought people before, I can do this.'
People—not the abominable creatures known as Purge Beasts. The Purge Beasts held no mercy, only pure destructive desire to erase all sentient life; they would not hesitate, but could Ira do the same?
'I will kill whatever I need to in order to protect my life. This world is dreadful towards my kind, I must not become a mere number of deaths to those in power.'
Tuning her ears to any sounds, she heard down one of the tunnels the sound of a mysterious creature scurrying across the rough surface of the ground; Ira aimed her blade in the direction, preparing for an inevitable battle.
A monstrous head peeked around the corner, resembling that of a human-sized ant, with characteristics of a scorpion, too.
'It seems I was right.'
The abominable thing's exoskeleton was a dark shade of red with intricate patterns all around its body; it did not seem too strong, then again, ants in the real world were known to carry things much larger than themselves with relative ease.
Ira clumsily aimed her blade at the creature, preparing herself for a violent confrontation. Her fingertips had begun to turn white from the pressure of clutching the rusty sword; deciding it would be best for her to land the first strike.
'Just strike it down already, Ira! Come on!'
Her attempt to encourage herself was futile—if anything, it had caused her to feel hopeless in this terror-inducing predicament, her tranquil mind disappearing after the beast had shown itself.
Gritting her teeth is self-rage, Ira lunged at the creature despite her previous hesitation, 'To hell with it!'
Regardless of her enhanced body, she still lacked the proper experience to wield such a weapon, causing her lunge to be inefficient.
One could swing a sword, but could they master the graceful dance of steel-full death? The dance of death was a fine line, and those who crossed it could not return from its clutches. Ira did not have the experience, nor did she possess the talent required to wield a sword—but to live, she was being forced onto that fine line between gracefulness and death.
With a quick swing of her blade, she slammed it into the durable exoskeleton of the creature—only for the blade to shatter into a million pieces.
'I knew it!'
Ira's shallow breath worsened under her already severe situation. The silver-haired girl had barely done anything to the abomination, yet at that moment, everything felt hopeless. She did not want to die here—in the dark being ripped apart by mere ants.
She had undergone a "change" with her conviction; she had promised herself that she would regain control of her life—and that is what she would accomplish, no matter the consequences.
Quickly scrambling to pull out her dagger, which, unlike the rusty blade, was in pristine condition.
'What do I do.. I doubt this is the only creature in this network of tunnels, but at the same time, I do not know if I am capable of defeating an opponent of this level.. What am I talking about!? I, too, am a being of the Beast class; we are both of the same rank. I will not die to this abomination!'
The young girl's mind began to go through all of the possibilities and actions she could take to increase her likelihood of survival; the obvious one being to run and save her energy, and hopefully find an exit to this network of tunnels before encountering something she truly had no hope of slaying. Even if she hoped not to encounter any monstrosities, Ira doubted that she would be able to avoid confrontation entirely.
'Maybe a knight in shining armor can come save a damsel in distress like me.. Ugh, never mind; I would rather die.'
The mysterious creature began to creak and compress as if being forcefully scrunched together.
Suddenly, the ant-like creature lunged at her with ridiculous speed—with her narrowly avoiding the possibly lethal blow. Its maw dripped with saliva as it stared Ira down—as if beholding a grand feast meant for itself.
There was no doubt in Ira's mind, the piercing gaze, the unfiltered desire to devour her—this was a Purge Beast. Previously, she had not been entirely sure since she had assumed this was in the distant past.
Ira had encountered a Purge Beast before; it had been a major reason why she had shown such hesitation to join GIRS; the silver-haired girl did not want to meet the same fate as her parents—mauled and devoured.
But at the same time, her fear of the unknown pushed her towards certainty; she would know what would kill her, and how it would kill her—it would maul, rip her apart as she screamed in agony, before ending her life and feasting on her Dormant flesh; that is what a Purge Beast did to its victims.
'Running would be beneficial in this situation..'
And thus, she began to sprint down one of the tunnels. She felt tired, her mind was foggy, but she had to run—not because she could not defeat the beast chasing after her, but because she was certain there were more of them around, and she would not take her chances and be surrounded and devoured as if she were some mere animal.
The young girl was suddenly cut off, another one of the ant-like monstrosities now blocking her path.
'Just my luck.. As I was just so happening to think about "what if I am cut off from the front"; today has been horrible..!'
Ira's abysmal situation left her in shock, how could it possibly get any worse?
But at least there was always tomorrow for her.
For now..