Space Core

Today, an army knocked at my door.

POV: Jerome

I still can't believe I'm doing this. When I signed up at the church's army, I didn't think that they would actually require me to fight. I mean, they hadn't fought in hundreds of years, why would they need to now? At least the money they gave me for simply being there was nice while it lasted.

But here I am, walking through a dense forest along with a hundred others. My platoon was the one given the order to scout out the dungeon as efficiently as possible. But seeing my companions, I can't help but doubt the 'efficiency'

I was pretty much ready to drop when we finally arrived at the dungeon, that large white archway sure looked old for something so new. Thankfully, the leader ordered us to set up camp and rest, don't want to be tired inside there, it could mean life or death. We made camp quickly and prepared a night watch to make sure the dungeon didn't strike pre-emptively. Apparently, some do such a thing.

~

I woke up feeling fresh and ready to take on one of the horribly salted pieces of meat that served as the rations for our mission.

I ate up rapidly and made my way to an area that was determined to be a training ground, though it was more there to stretch ourselves before going in there. I did some of the basic ones as we simply didn't have that much time before our assault on our enemy.

~

I found myself in the back of the platoon once more and prepared myself for a life-or-death battle. Everyone knew what dungeons were capable of, hundreds of adventurers die to them each day!

A little push from behind surprised me, and I found out that we were now marching into the nightmare. I absently noted that the flowers we stepped on didn't seem to break.

When I got into the dungeon, I had the urge to stop and admire what I saw. Those stairs were completely useless! It was a marvel of stupidity! Why make stairs on an angle? And those doorways were even worse! I mean, why would you put them on the ceiling? But I was quickly proven wrong when one of the soldiers in my squad decided that the speech being spouted off by the lieutenant wasn't interesting enough and went to lean on the wall.

His scream when he fell onto the wall was so shrill and damaging, that I'm pretty sure that the ringing in my ears would never go away. Of course, the lieutenant didn't like this, at all.

"Hey! What's going on back there!" His voice boomed, "Who screamed?!"

Jeff(the guy who fell), somehow stood up on the wall and looked... up, at the commander, and mumbled a sorry. How the fuck is he standing there? The world doesn't work like that!

The lieutenant grumbled a bit under his breath and then responded. "Alright! whoever's squad belongs to this guy, I want you to follow him! For the rest, You guys all stay in your squad and investigate using the techniques described in chapter eight of the handbook!"

A series of 'yes sir!' followed after.

To say I was apprehensive of walking onto a wall is an understatement. I mean, it's not an everyday thing. I sighed and told myself, that if I survived this, I could then brag to my friends about the fact I walked on a wall... friends that I don't have.

When I actually fell down-forward, it felt really weird. Because for a few moments, one part of my body was falling while another was pretty much being dragged forward. It isn't something I would want to repeat again.

My squad and I then started our scouting mission, walking here and there, all the while occasionally waving up at other squads who found themselves on other walls. The ceiling was also walkable apparently. At one point, a big half-orc went to climb a stair, but his neck got elongated as it apparently wasn't in the range of the false gravity at one part.

It would've been normal and maybe even peaceful if it wasn't for the lack of shadows and the incredibly harsh light. There were also parts of the room where every movement you made, somehow did the exact opposite; They aren't fun.

The real problem started when that... 'Cat' appeared...

 POV: Certe

I was currently taking a walk around the dungeon, something I had become quite used to these past few weeks. Honestly, being a cat wasn't that bad. I got to do whatever I wanted and was constantly at just the right level of warmth. Though I also found out what being cuddled with felt like, I didn't expect that dungeon spirit to take me into her arms and hug me for so long... didn't feel that bad to be honest.

I also found Almond to be a really confusing person to talk to, he meant well... but he didn't always do things right. I really am thankful to the dungeon for healing the wound, pain really isn't something I'm used to.

Walking along the the torture corridor, I made my way into the first room of the dungeon; Fully intent on roaming around in peace. Problem was, an army was in the way, my brother's church's army. So obviously, the response to that was to get it out.

I love having the perfect cutting tool as my claws.

POV: Jerome

I, along with the rest of my squad, watched in horror as the hell beast cut through soldiers with incomparable ease; Our armors being as good as cloth. Blood spouted off everywhere and painted the walls red, the light coming from them changing to red from filtering through the blood.

I watched as my brothers-in-arms got slaughtered and decimated, too afraid to do anything, frozen in place like a statue. The red light continued to overwrite the white one, the beast's fur tainted red from the lives it took.

For some reason that I didn't understand, my squad was the only one left after only around ten minutes of bloodshed. The beast turned towards us with the eyes of the devil, and slowly walked towards us; Taunting us with our fast-approaching death. And so I did the only thing I could, I ran. I ran as far as I could, walking from wall to ceiling and ceiling to floor. The beast kept chase, fresh blood from my squad painting it. I ran and ran for hours, I ran until I knew I could no more. And so, with a final effort, I found myself jumping off of the platform I had found myself on.

I closed my eyes, waiting for my death.

I waited and waited, but no end came for me. I opened my eyes, and found myself in a place I didn't recognize, it was a ginormous hallway. I fell unconscious.

POV: Clerte

I found myself pitying the man who unknowingly jumped into the second room, his death wouldn't be a sane one. I felt a brush of mana go past me and found my fur perfectly cleaned and the room around me spotless once more. I gave a slight purr of thankfulness and started wandering around.

This was a nice little test of my abilities. Though I sadly didn't get to use my time affinity to kill... hopefully those guys come back.