This Clueless Hero

Leon walked forward, creating a platform of dirt underneath him right when his foot was about to touch the air. Osric and I both followed closely from behind.

I began to think about what I could say to convince the person who created this place, Noah, not to give up his life.

From what I remember, he openly said that he wanted to resurrect his wife, but was also stopping himself at the same time. In the end, when Noah succeeded, he couldn't bear the shame.

Simply the thought of his wife seeing him made him resolutely decide to give up on everything.

So for starters, Noah definitely valued his wife and her opinion. Though, that much was pretty obvious considering how much he went through to resurrect her.

The only issue was his own perception of how terrible he was. It appeared that being a terrible person itself was not what Noah was afraid of, but the fact that his wife would see him as one.

...So maybe I just had to convince him that his wife didn't care.

As I thought of how to accomplish that, we reached the end of the hall. A familiar room was laid out in front of me.

Five green glowing stones were at the edges of the room. In the center was a skeleton with cracked bones. In one of its hands was a dagger in reverse grip while the other was holding onto a shattered phylactery.

It was fairly easy to tell Noah broke his own phylactery before.

Around his neck was a rusty metal necklace with a heart at the end. It was also cracked.

And underneath him, was a piece of paper.

I walked up to it without much hesitation and picked it up.

"Do you guys want to read it?"

Leon shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure."

Osric simply nodded and walked over.

After a few moments, Leon raised an eyebrow.

"This person is quite arrogant to believe that anybody reading this desires to learn resurrection magic."

Osric looked over.

"Though resurrection as a concept is quite fascinating."

I smirked.

"Do you guys want to see something cool?"

Leon chuckled.

"That's why I came here in the first place."

I laughed.

"Well, I'm not actually entirely sure how this is going to go, but it should be fairly eventful."

Osric shrugged his shoulders.

"If it weren't for how strong we were, I would object. But surely there wouldn't be anything that threatens us."

With that, I placed the piece of paper under the skeleton's feet.

Soft gales picked up, stirring around us. As for the paper, it gradually began rising all the while emitting a weak grey light. Then, the light started to flicker.

As for the paper itself, it began shrinking and burgeoning. Mana rapidly gathered around the piece of paper. It was so dense, there were even a few lines of blue mana that appeared, injecting itself into the piece of paper.

A groan of pain filled the air, which gradually became angry.

Leon raised an eyebrow.

"So he did succeed in creating a form of resurrection."

The skeleton broke apart into many little pieces. Together with the necklace and dagger, they were carried with the violent wind. One of them scratched against me, breaking the surface of my skin. I frowned, then cast the growing spell to make another black fruit.

Then, I consumed it.

In this time, the groans of anger calmed down as did the wind. Then, a voice came from the paper in the middle.

"Amy... yes, Amy, I will get right to it!"

I cleared my throat.

"Amy isn't here right now."

The voice paused. Then, the paper turned to me, almost like it was looking at me.

"What do you mean Amy isn't here? She's right there."

I chuckled.

"Right where?"

The voice from the paper seemed annoyed.

"Right there, can't you see? Amy is-"

It paused, then turned to look at the necklace.

"Amy? What happened to you?"

I rubbed my chin with my thumb and forefinger.

"...Amy has been waiting for you all this time. All you need to do is lay that necklace down on the floor."

The voice from the paper appeared hesitant.

"Oh... but why does it feel wrong?"

Hmm... this probably wasn't good. It seemed Noah was slowly understanding the situation he was in. I had to act first.

"Why would it be wrong? It's essentially just opening a door so she can come in! Amy just doesn't have the keys to the house."

The paper hummed.

"Oh, ok."

Then, it laid the necklace down on the ground.

"I-It still feels wrong. I don't know why!"

Well, he wasn't exactly wrong. After all, an eerie wind stirred up. The necklace began trembling and emitting a faint black mist.

Noah, or the paper, seemed to come to a realization.

"Wait... where are my arms? Why is Amy a necklace?"

The blood scrawlings faded along with the glowing green beans. The winds swirled faster and began sounding like a whistle.

Or more accurately, a shriek.

Noah began freaking out.

"No... no this can't be true!"

He looked towards the necklace.

"Amy?..."

Then began contorting.

"D-Don't look at-"

"How... dare you. How dare you kill my child?"

I was about to speak to try and convince Noah, but Amy did it before I had a chance to. The paper stopped contorting after it heard Amy's words.

"Child?"

Noah got closer to the necklace.

"Someone... someone killed our child?"

Amy shrieked.

"You all killed me and my child!"

Leon turned to me.

"Say, what exactly is happening."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I uh... don't really know."

Suddenly, Noah's breathing became heavy.

"Wait, Amy was resurrected? And me too?"

The paper shivered.

"Oh no, t-there is a price."

Noah seemed to be freaking out.

"There is a p-price. There is a price! Price, price, price!"

Amy also appeared to be going insane.

"I will kill you! I will kill you all!"

Suddenly, Noah became quiet, muttering out the words.

"There is a price... to cheat death."

The paper turned to the necklace.

"I must. Kill her."

Noah's voice trembled.

"But... Amy."

The paper began stretching, as though it was being pulled on both ends. The grey light gradually changed, shifting into a bright red on one side and a bright blue on the other.

They appeared to be fighting each other.

Two voices began interlacing. One of them was determined to kill Amy, while the other was proclaiming its desire for her. The paper continued to stretch.

As for the necklace, it continued to gather black mist, screaming out that it would kill all of us. Then, the necklace turned to the paper and shot out a black mass towards it.

Yet, right before it hit, the paper split in two.

The last time this happened, Noah died, thus that was the conclusion I came to.

But I was wrong.

Pieces of paper continued to flutter apart. The shattered pieces of skeleton coalesced around each half of the papers.

In mere moments, two halves of a skeleton formed, split down the middle. The halves were messily put together, almost like a kid trying to put together something they broke. One of the halves of a skeleton had a glowing red piece of paper within its chest cavity.

The other one had a glowing blue piece of paper, but within the skull.

Osric narrowed his eyes.

"Should we be concerned?"

I scratched the back of my head.

"Maybe?"

Leon shrugged his shoulders.

"Just in case, I will create an exit for us here."

For a moment, he was silent. The wall next to us rapidly fell down, before becoming a staircase upwards. Osric nodded when he saw this.

"Ah, that's convenient."

However, Leon had a frown on his face.

"Something is resisting my magic. It is fighting over the authority to control the earth around us."

The red half of a skeleton pointed at us.

"You! You're trying to take Amy away! I won't let you!"

Leon's eyebrow twitched, then turned to me.

"Was this how it felt like when I accused you earlier?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Pretty much."

Leon turned to face forward once more.

"Huh. I'm quite the insolent person then."

I laughed.

"A little bit, yes."

The blue half of a skeleton looked over to the necklace.

"I must kill you. This is my fault."

In response, the necklace let out a screech.

"You killed my child!"

Mana rapidly coalesced around both the red and blue halves of a skeleton. Then, the terrain around us rapidly shifted.

The room grew in size. Several times larger than it was before. The hallway behind us disappeared. Leon furrowed his brows, clearly trying to do something, but couldn't.

I rubbed my chin with my thumb and forefinger.

"Ah, I forgot."

Leon turned to me with a confused expression.

"What did you forget?"

I pointed towards the skeletons.

"He was apparently someone with monstrous magical talent."

It appeared we had a tough fight in store.