Kuja’s body sunk deeper into the water. His head vanished under the surface of the water. All at once, the earth below him gave way, and he fell backward, sucked into the depths.

  “Wait, stop—ah, dammit. Well, one’s better than none.” Levi looked at the arm he’d grabbed, then at the hand toward it. Green-black energy still swirled around it. He waved his hand, dismissing the undead energy back into the air. He hadn’t needed the beam, in the end. Better to dismiss it, so he could use it to resurrect Kuja’s arm. He wasn’t quite sure how the energy in the air, the mana in him, and skills and spells all interacted, but he did know that it was far easier to resurrect things when he had that dark energy available to him.

  “Hurry,” Isa said shortly, sprinting past him, Colin in her arms.

  “Huh?” Levi asked. He turned.

  The path crumbled into the water behind them. In seconds, it approached Levi’s toes.

  “Oh, shit!” Raising his hand, he called the undead energy back to him. Better to take it along than leave it here. Running, he kneeled just deep enough to scoop up Kuja’s arm and throw it over his shoulder, fireman-style, then chased after Isa.

  Ahead of them, the entrance to the third floor loomed out of the mist. Rusted iron doors hung shut, waiting for a champion to push them open. Behind them, the path gave way, mud sinking more rapidly with each passing moment. Isa led the way, sprinting faster with every passing moment. Levi lagged behind, struggling under the weight of his prize. Isa reached the door and shoved it open. She stepped through and carefully set Colin down, then turned back.

  “Drop the arm! You aren’t going to make it with that thing!”

  “It’s me and the arm, or nothing!” Levi growled, full of determination.

  Isa rolled her eyes.

  “Come carry me, if you don’t believe in me!” he called. Then he shut up, putting his all into running. The mud crumbled at his heels. He felt it slide out from his feet with every step, felt the void of deep water behind him. If he fell in, he’d fall directly to the hungry things that waited in the depths, longing to snap him up. He charged faster than before, pushing his legs to their very limits. Something stirred in the depths of his mind. Drawing on his very first skill, he cast his shadow in front of him and ran with it, using the shadow-speed boost to surge ahead.

  Even so, the mud collapsed at speed. His trick was only enough to gain him a few seconds. He burst over the edge of the door and stumbled through into the next room, still carrying Kuja’s arm.

  “Gods,” Isa commented. She watched the very last of the mud crumble into the water, then turned to Levi. “You’re madder than I thought.”

  “Thank you, thank you.” Tossing Kuja’s arm to solid ground, Levi turned as well. Nothing but murky, depthless water stretched behind him. There was no sign of the path, not even where the flags fluttered. He frowned. “What happens to Kai? Is he stuck?”

  Isa shook her head. “After a time, the floor resets. Kuja will respawn, and the path will regrow. When Kai wanders his way here, he will encounter much the same scenario we did.”

  “Damn. I was hoping that was the end of him. Guess we can’t have it all.” Levi sighed, disappointed. He looked around the small room they’d entered. It was an antechamber more than anything, a gap between two floors. Iron doors barred the way on either side. Rusty ones marked the way back, while black, fresher doors blocked the way ahead. There were no threats, nothing interesting, just earthen walls, celling, and floor. A few glowing bulbs curled around the top of the hollow dirt cube, casting light, but that was all.

  Crouching, he flicked his fingers, and the Armalgam released his back and crawled beside him. He rested his hand on it, healing the cuts, bruises, and sprains it had been inflicted with during the fight, then patted it. Obediently, it turned. He tilted his head, thinking. “So, Isa, I was wondering—”

  “Where to put Kuja’s arm?”

  “No, no. I’ve already decided. I’m putting it here,” he patted a seam, “and we’re going to ride with the four-arms-plus-one-biggun configuration for a while until I figure out a better organization for it. But I mean, there’s worse bodyplans than starfish, right?”

  “…I suppose,” Isa said, with the confidence of someone who had no idea what they were agreeing with.

  “No, I had that figured out.” He drew his small knife and slit open the seam. “What I was wondering, was what the hell was that ‘truth of the world’ shit you and Kuja were chatting about?”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “You heard that, hmm?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got ears. I might not seem to be paying attention, but my mind’s like a kitten on crack. I’m doing like, fifteen things at all times, and one of them was subconsciously recording your conversation with Kuja for later examination. Well, the cracked-out kitten finally latched onto that particular thread, so now I’m pulling at it. Spill. Truth?”

  Horrible cracking and squelching came from the Armalgam. An unidentifiable dark liquid spilled out of the seam, and an absolutely choking smell filled the air. Levi coughed and pulled his shirt up over his mouth.

  “You’re really going to make me breathe enough to speak while you’re doing… that?” Isa asked, disgusted.

  “If it bothers you, stand upwind.”

  She sighed. Moving dutifully upwind, such that there was an upwind in the small room they found themselves in, she began, “It’s only a theory of Kuja’s, based on what he’s experienced. To consider it true or absolute would be just as wrong as to dismiss it out of hand.”

  Levi nodded. Dragging Kuja’s arm closer, he closed his eyes, drawing a deep breath. He put both hands to the clammy surface and pushed. All his mana, all; the undead energy he’d gathered, all of it poured into the arm. Come on. It’s just an arm. It has to have a lower stat total!

  For that matter, what is my stat total? I need to check.

  Dark energy poured into the limb. Its skin crackled with green, and a faint black mist swirled around it. It twitched, then went still. The energy faded.

  “I refuse. You’re coming back to life, no matter what shitty tricks I need to use!” Levi slammed his hands back onto it. He gathered every iota of mana in his body and smashed it into the limb. It didn’t matter if it was over his stat cap. Stat cap? Who cared? Even if it was against the rules, he was bringing it back to life! Who’d set that limitation anyways? The Goddess? The System? Or was it only a factor of his own weakness?

  “Colin! Can you restore my mana?”

  “Er? A little,” Colin said, somewhat uncertain.

  “Do it!”

  Gold light streamed over. His mana slowly restored.

  Isa stepped forward as well. She put her hand on Levi’s shoulder. A small stream of that dead green energy poured into him. Nodding his thanks, he pushed everything he had into the arm. Rules? Laws? Since when had he followed them? Even if it was the Goddess or the System, fuck them! He was bringing the arm back to life, no matter what they wanted!

  The arm twitched again. Green energy flickered, then streamed over it, snapping and crackling like electricity. The fingers curled, and then it shook itself and hopped upright, standing on its fingers.

  Levi fell back, panting, eyes wide, in shock at his own success. Abruptly, he whooped and punched the air. “Hell yeah! Handy’s here!”

  The hand waggled a few fingers in an approximation of a wave.

  “Okay, Handy. I know you were only just born, but it’s time to meet the neighbors. I had to rez you individually, but everyone get along, okay? It’s cooperation only from here on out!” Levi gestured. Handy toppled over, baring its shoulder joint to him. He dragged it closer, then, pulling out needle and thread, stitched it into the gap he’d opened in the Armalgam.

  “Wait, so you rezzed… ‘Handy’ alone so you wouldn’t have to worry about the Armalgam’s stat cap, then stitched it into the Armalgam so it’s still part of the Armalgam from your perspective, but from the System’s perspective, they’re two different entities? That’s a complicated hack,” Colin commented.

  “The best ones always are. Hey, if I could backstep fifty-two times into a wall and do three backflips to open a console into this world, I would. Infinite gold and infinite stats in record-breaking time. Get the world-record speedrun for going from isekai loser straight to god.”

  Colin thought for a minute, then shook his head. “No, I think you’d still lose that speedrun.”

  Levi snapped. He pointed at Colin. “Right, shit. I forgot about the ‘reincarnated as god’ genre.”

  Isa cleared her throat.

  “Truth of this world! That’s right. Where were we? Something about this being Kuja’s wild theory with absolutely no basis?”

  “I didn’t say that… but it isn’t incorrect. Kuja, as you know, is a floor boss. He lives in this dungeon. Every time he’s defeated, he respawns in this dungeon. His people, likewise, live the same lives. According to him, they were simply another race, once, like the elves or beastmen, but over the centuries, their species died out on the surface. In that way, his people, his village, were the most fortunate. After all, they survived. However, from another perspective, they were the least fortunate. After all those cycles of reincarnation, his people lost their minds, their individuality, their sentience. They became no better than mindless monsters. Kuja, more powerful and therefore less likely to face death, managed to retain his conscience… or maybe it was simply that he had a tougher mind from the start.

  “Either way, by the end of it, he was alone. The previous one of his people lost consciousness a hundred years ago when I met him, and when he realized I wasn’t going to leave the dungeon so easily, we grew to develop a kind of friendship.”

  “A friendship where you killed him?” Levi interjected.

  Isa shrugged. “I needed the EXP, and he might have kept his mind, but it wasn’t a sure thing. If we sat still and chatted, he’d abruptly break out and attack me at random. Whereas if we spoke while we fought, he could speak easily, keeping his self-awareness, but of course, if I didn’t slay him, he would slay me, so…”

  “Friends with death benefits,” Levi said. A second later, he frowned. “No, wait. That sounds like you were stealing his inheritance or something.”

  “In a way, I did. But his inheritance was his truth. Or rather, his theory about the truth.”

  “Right, the wild and baseless theory that you’re going to tell us about,” Levi reminded her.

  “The theory… that this world, that these dungeons, were all built for one reason. Or should I say, one man’s mad goal?” Isa took a deep breath. She lowered her eyes, then lifted them. “Levi, have you heard of this world’s apocalypse?”