Have I died?
Mori looked around, but nothing tangible was close by.
Was it another dream?
He walked around, despite there being no floor under him.
"Hello?"
His voice seemed to echo despite the absence of walls.
Is this hell? For what I have done?
He took a few more steps, before a whirlpool opened before him again.
This time it hadn't opened right under him, forcing him to fight for his life for days.
It was dark and violent, but silent.
The sound of water fluidly spiraling, no clashing or crashing.
He got on his knees next to it, getting his face closer to it.
He couldn't tell how deep it was, or what was lying down there.
Whatever was down there was waiting for him.
It knew he didn't have the strength to fight it anymore.
Mori put his hand in the swirling water, it easily pushed against his finger with decent force.
On his knees next to it, he let himself fall forward headfirst into the whirlpool.
The current, while moving him from left to right, ultimately dragged him toward one final destination.
He didn't know if things got darker, nothing felt real.
His senses were numb.
The lower he sank, the darker it was, yet he could see the nothingness of it.
The emptiness wasn't overwhelming. He felt like he belonged, as he kept going down.
What he felt to be water was now air. He was falling down a dark sky toward what he guessed to be a dark ground.
If there was even one.
He closed his eyes. It mattered little. If this hell was his, then he welcomed it.
"You're not in hell."
Mori opened his eyes. The feeling of him falling had abruptly stopped.
He found himself sitting in an armchair, in front of a fire in a setting he recognized.
Mary's inn, in Dustriver?
Everything was the same way it was, down to the last detail.
He got up, walking through the room.
It was as if he was back there, a place that didn't exist anymore.
He walked to the window, looking outside.
A storm was brewing, the wind unleashing itself while flashes of light were illuminating the sky.
Mori's hand trembled as he took several steps back from the window.
His heartbeat was increasing as he stepped back all the way to the armchair.
"Ah. You don't like storms anymore? My mistake."
Mori quickly turned around, the voice came from the armchair.
A woman was sitting in it. She wasn't someone Mori recognized.
She had pitch-black hair and black eyeliner paired with similar lipstick. Her shorter hair rested on her shoulders, perfectly cut in a straight line.
She must've been around his height, she wore black clothes which truly contrasted her pale skin.
She had that 'gothic' aesthetic.
Aren't dreams only able to show you things you've already seen?
"You've seen me before."
Mori frowned, in thought. She clapped her hands, and thunder resounded once more, making Mori's shoulders jump.
"There's no social structure, but there's a hierarchy. Not all of us are equal. You think someone like me is the same as one of them?"
She ran her hand over Mori's chest, biting her bottom lip.
Mori, totally unphased, sustained her eyes.
"All of that stuff is boring. We're here, right now. How about we profit a little? I haven't been in human form for... I don't know. Long." she asked.
"What do you want?" asked Mori, dry.
She rolled her eyes.
"Not in the mood?"
She didn't move from his lap, but her face was now feigning disappointment.
Mori repeated himself.
"What do you want?"
"Hmmm."
"For now, I really just wanted us to meet. We'll be coexisting from now on, after all."
"Not happening."
"Oh, it's too late. You've let yourself fall this low. There's no way you're climbing back out."
His eyes broke away from hers as his gaze went down.
Did it matter?
Aleesia was dead, and Aura would most likely be dead soon, too.
Annoyingly for Mori, she was slowly wiggling on top of him.
"Hey. Hey. Can I not have some attention too? What I meant is that separating me would be like climbing out of here, it won't happen. You're not physically stuck here, your body is still in that room."
"I'm..."
"You're alive, kind of. Your heart was doing a scary thing up there, but I've fixed it for you, don't worry."
As she said that, she leaned in, kissing Mori on the lips.
He didn't fight it.
Her hands were sliding down his torso, while her tongue forcefully made its way inside his mouth.
She was like a wild animal, doing anything she pleased.
When she stopped, it felt like reaching an oasis in the middle of the desert only to not drink from it.
"Don't feel shame. You simply can't fight it. Oh, you're thinking about Aura," she said.
Mori's mind went back to his current situation.
"Well, we can't do anything about Aleesia, but Aura is most likely alive, I'd say."
Mori's eyes regained some of its color as he heard that sentence.
"How? It's been weeks."
"You're right, it is your fault that she's in that situation. In a room, alone, with no real way to meet you without coordinating first. How is she supposed to drink your blood?"
"She's been going for extremely long without it, there's no way..."
"She's smart. She most likely stopped doing anything strenuous the moment she realized she wouldn't clear the dungeon by herself. She's most likely been immobile and resting this whole time."
"But the time it would take me to clear the dungeon has been pushed back by weeks, because of you..."
"You're the one who's fought me this hard, you could've accepted me right away."
Mori's hand tightened into a fist, but she grabbed it, pinning it above his head. She approached, her forehead resting against his.
"It's too late now. You and me are going to be... very close, from now on."
Mori's eyes were fiery, as he stared into hers.
"What if I told you there's a way to reach her?"
The fire died as quickly as it was lit. Hope brightly illuminating his expression.
"What do you mean?! How? She's multiple levels up, and she'd have to know when to enter [8-0-S]. She'd have to survive that room, while weakened, kill its monster, and wait for me to be lucky enough to finally connect to her room."
"You don't need to play by the dungeon's rules. You're the Cursed Sovereign, after all."
"My Cursed Energy is absorbed by the walls. There's nothing I can do."
She smiled.