Chapter 90 – Floor 13: A Long Sleep is Healthy

Mateo extended his skeletal hand, trembling, toward Kali—a hand that looked as if all flesh and muscle had been devoured by parasites.

His dark eyes, which had been filled with the abyss, now shone with a bright hue, widening to an almost impossible extent as they fixed on Kali.

Grab-

I caught Mateo’s wrist as it reached for Kali.

“What are you doing!”

His voice, which had been smooth despite the metallic scraping quality, now carried a nervous edge.

Was he irritated at having his arm grabbed?

Squirm- I felt something unpleasantly moving beneath the skin of the branch-like wrist I was holding, and I furrowed my brow.

“I should be the one getting angry. What were you going to do?”

“Didn’t you yourself say to heal her!”

Mateo shouted indignantly.

The movement beneath the skin of his wrist grew more violent.

“That’s true, but if you and Kali turn out to be mortal enemies, then what? I care quite a bit about Kali, you know.”

I released Mateo’s wrist and draped my arm over Kali’s shoulder, shifting my weight onto her.

Unfortunately, the hard lion-head armor prevented me from feeling the soft, substantial mass sleeping beneath it, but Kali’s body gently pushed back to support me, preventing me from falling.

“Mmm..!”

Mateo seemed quite displeased, but all I knew was that he could extract the Bell of the End from Kali, not what their previous relationship had been.

In D.D, Mateo had simply given out a sub-quest and reward with an unpleasant chuckle, never revealing anything about himself.

He was the only NPC who never spoke a word about his own background.

Mateo, still frowning, turned around and slowly sat down on a protruding rock that served as a chair.

“I’ll tell you everything… about Kali and me…”

“This story sounds like it might drag on…”

“Hmph… I never liked long conversations to begin with. Even less so since I became like this.”

Mateo opened his mouth wide—beh-.

Inside, instead of a tongue, a worm had taken residence, and white tapeworm-like parasites were wriggling in his throat.

“Ugh-”

“Rude bastard…”

The Bell of the End was at least plump and cute in comparison.

Though Mateo seemed aware of his own appearance, aside from one grumble at my reaction, he didn’t add anything more.

A flexible gentleman.

“Well… do you know about the 13 Heroes?”

“Ah. I heard from the orc village warrior chief and Blue Tongue. A pan-national group that gathered the strongest people from the continent.”

“They’re still alive… that’s welcome news in the midst of everything else. As they said, it was humanity’s struggle against the descended evil gods.”

His murky eyes were filled with melancholy.

“Like Kali, I was one of those 13 Heroes… I remember being called the Sage then, not a Parasite Mage.”

I stared blankly at Mateo, my arm still around Kali. For someone once called a Sage, he looked like an old man who had been eaten away by parasites with not many days left to live.

Perhaps this is what they mean when they say genius leads to madness.

“But even a Sage is just by human standards. Compared to that being, I was less than a commoner, mere dust…”

Mateo clenched his fist, which had no strength in it, with a trembling that was closer to anger than fear.

The “that being” he referred to was probably the one waiting on Floor 30.

I couldn’t help but make a subtle face at the gap between how everyone described it and how easily I’d cut it down in D.D.

‘If they build it up this much, it’ll be awkward if it turns out to be weak when I face it.’

“My comrades and I were defeated and scattered. Each finding their own path, their way to survive. After decades, we’ve lost contact, not knowing who’s dead or alive.”

“You’re not just holed up here?”

“Heh heh, perhaps. But I couldn’t leave those things behind either.”

I don’t know how long Mateo had been here, but if he hadn’t eliminated all the apostates yet, it suggested he’d lost his heroic powers and declined.

Yet he couldn’t just leave with the apostates performing such vile rituals.

“Kali and I weren’t particularly close. Rather than being on bad terms, it would be more accurate to say we were acquaintances…”

Despite his words, his face looked quite affectionate, but I decided to let it pass.

At his age, he must feel nostalgic seeing an old friend he thought dead.

“She was always at the core of the 13 Heroes… Skilled at soothing and comforting heroes who were all extraordinarily proud. I was merely an observer watching from behind…”

Gurgle-

Mateo made a sound like boiling metal in his throat before spitting out a strange-colored saliva onto the floor.

“Hmm…”

I scratched my chin. So he was something like the class loner who secretly watched the popular kids during break time?

Thinking of it that way, I could only give Mateo a lukewarm look of not-quite-consolation.

Sniff…

“I’m not sure what you’re thinking…”

“I don’t know why everyone keeps saying that to me.”

I felt slightly stung, but my perfect acting abilities couldn’t possibly be penetrated by those cataract-covered eyes.

Bring at least four-wheel-drive eyeballs.

“Anyway, I understand what kind of relationship you had, but can you heal Kali?”

“…Her condition?”

“She’s been parasitized by the Bell of the End.”

Mateo frowned deeply at the mention of the Bell of the End.

“She’s fallen victim to a troublesome creature…”

“Can you heal her right away? Do you need materials or something?”

I decided to get straight to the point, the reason I sought Mateo, rather than listen more to his bittersweet unrequited love story from the past.

The sub-quest Mateo offered didn’t have particularly necessary rewards, so this was just an errand I was running while looking for Naud’s alcohol. If he could remove the Bell of the End and restore Kali, I had no more business with him.

“That’s enough…”

Mateo rose from his seat and pressed his fingers against Kali’s temples.

Those fingers, which barely looked alive, dug in deeply as they settled into place.

“AI’F GEB’L—EE’H Iä”

Mateo began chanting strange words.

His hands, pressed against Kali’s temples, shook violently as Kali’s mouth twisted in pain and slowly opened.

KYAAAAAAAH─!!!

The Bell of the End emerged through Kali’s mouth, thrashing wildly to resist Mateo’s actions, but parasites emerging from within Mateo began to consume it in return.

“vugtlagln vugtlagnafh”

‘Hmm…’

I stepped back slightly at the horrific and repulsive sight.

But the continuing scene of mutual consumption filled the air with a headache-inducing bloody stench.

“Ugh…”

“Ah, aagh..! AAAAAAAH!!!”

As the Bell of the End that had been blocking her vocal cords began to emerge, a painful scream that sounded like Kali’s voice—which I’d never heard before—rang out.

“AI’F GEB’Ai!”

SPLAAAASH─!!!

The Bell of the End was completely pulled out of Kali’s mouth. The main body, a large cyst with tentacles sprouting all over it.

Kali’s head jerked back as the soccer ball-sized mass popped out, almost causing her to fall backward.

“Whoops.”

Fortunately, I caught the falling Kali, and Mateo threw the wildly thrashing Bell of the End to the ground, smashing it.

Splat!

“That was quick…”

“I’ve devoted my life to countering the vile evil gods… The servants of evil gods are nothing if you know how to deal with them…”

The Bell of the End, despite being torn from its host and thrown to the ground, was still desperately struggling to return to a host.

Mateo strongly struck its cyst-like body with the staff he had been carrying.

Squelch─ With a sound of bursting blood, the once rigidly writhing tentacles stiffened.

Droop.

At last, it seemed to have died, going limp and motionless.

“I cut it several times before but it wouldn’t die, yet it dies so easily now.”

“What you cut were merely its sensory organs… Equivalent to fingers or toes, or perhaps more like fingernails or toenails…”

“Even fingernails hurt when you cut them too short.”

“Let’s drop it…”

What did I do? I pouted my lips at Mateo and looked down at the collapsed Kali.

Unlike the painful screams she had been letting out moments ago, she was now breathing steadily with a snoring sound, her arms and legs relaxed. Lifting her blindfold slightly, I saw her eyes were gently closed.

She looked like she had fallen into a sweet sleep.

“Is this really okay?”

I was a bit concerned, having seen too many clichés where someone was alive but brain-dead from being parasitized for too long.

“The Bell of the End… repeatedly pushes its host to the limit, then forcibly restores them using its disgusting magical power… After enduring that for what seems like decades… she could only fall into a deep sleep…”

“So when will she wake up?”

“Hmm… approximately 8 hours?”

“…That’s the recommended sleep duration for a healthy lifestyle.”

“Indeed it is.”

I decided to let her enjoy a good night’s sleep.

Sufficient sleep is good for beauty, isn’t it?

From now on, I should stop worrying about such things.