57 57. Task Completed
As Orion strengthened his resolve, his eyes darted towards the hand mark etched on the wall.
Then, without any hesitation, he moved and placed his hand on the mark.
Nothing seemed to happen for a moment before his figure began to glow with blue light particles.
Seeing that, a visible frown appeared on Isis's face.
"You know you will die, and yet you released the boss monster," she sighed.
Hearing what she said, Orion turned to her.
"There are some things I just can't run away from," he said to her. "Either way, thanks for the warning. I'll see what I can do."
As he finished speaking, the blue particles of light floating around him coalesced around him, forming a beam of blue light that tore through the wooden ceiling and shot into the sky.
With that, Orion's soul form disappeared from this place.
Staring at the blue light that started to fade away, Isis thought to herself.
'He has finally appeared. I have waited long enough.'
***
Outside the temple, within the enormous red cylindrical force field, Orion's lifeless body, which had lain on the ground for days, suddenly sat up.
Looking around, he found himself back within the cylindrical force field.
'My soul has returned to my body.'
He thought as he observed that everyone else also started to stand up.
'It looks like the task was completed when I put my hand on the marker.'
Standing up, he observed everyone and noticed that not a single one of them died inside the temple.
At that moment, he also noticed something else: he saw that the cylindrical force field started to disintegrate into red particles and disappear into thin air.
And they once again got to see the sun and the blue sky… as well as the temple standing in the distance.
However, as Orion looked at the temple, he caught sight of the two statues, one of a man and another of a woman, stabbing each other.
Before he had entered the temple, he had no idea why they had taken such drastic measures to kill each other, but now he understood everything.
'They probably somehow got to know what was happening inside the temple, hence this result. They must have thought that it was better to die outside and be free rather than be trapped in the temple forever.'
He concluded this as he observed the two statues.
At that moment, Orion remembered all those souls that appeared to be trapped inside the temple.
'Did they finally obtain freedom?'
Thinking of that, he turned to look at Runo, who appeared to be standing not far from him.
"Runo," he called out to him. "What happened to all those soul forms? Did they obtain freedom in the end?"
Runo turned to face Orion upon hearing him calling his name and listening to what he had to say. He nodded at him.
"Yeah, they disappeared from the temple before we did," he said. "I guess that's what they wanted."
As he said that to Orion, he didn't feel uncomfortable with him like he felt previously. He understood what his father meant and what he needed to do to be a better version of himself.
Orion nodded as he heard him.
At that moment, a red beam of light tore through the sky in the distance, causing the whole sky to turn red as a result.
"That's where the skull throne is," Runo exclaimed.
"It seems the boss monster has made his appearance," Orion said as he looked at the red beam of light in the distance.
He hadn't forgotten his fate, but he was also helpless here.
'I will have to be careful from now on.'
Knowing his fate didn't mean he would just surrender himself to it. No, he wouldn't. It was the exact opposite. He would do everything in his power to not let that happen.
At that moment, the captain of the pirates called out to his crew.
"Let's go and kill this monster and leave this damned place."
But Runo stopped them from doing so.
"Hey, stop!" He yelled at them. "We don't know how strong the boss monster is, and barging in without knowing anything about the monster wouldn't do us any good."
The captain of the pirates had already been upset with Runo for what happened at the temple. Therefore, now that he heard Runo reprimand him, he immediately got angry over it.
"You are going to teach me what's good or not, kid?" He sneered angrily. "I have been sailing the seas since you weren't even born. So, I don't need your trash advice. Keep it for yourself; it may come in handy later."
Runo shook his head at him in annoyance.
"Trash like you is the reason why some parties heading into the dungeon never come back," he said, his eyes narrowing at the captain of the pirates. "If people like you don't exist, then the casualties over clearing the dungeon should have been all time low."
The captain of the pirates was immediately triggered by Runo's words.
"What did you say, kid?" He yelled at him. "Say that again."
Runo smiled at him and was about to continue when Orion interfered between them.
"Both of you are correct, okay?" He said this as he looked at the two of them. "We will go to the boss monster, but we won't be attacking blindly. We will first see what type of monster it is before discussing its weaknesses and our plan, and then we will go and kill it. Understand?"
The captain of the pirates nodded. Although he felt that there wasn't a need to be so cautious over a bronze-rank dungeon boss, he just couldn't deny Orion.
He had witnessed the battle between the third guardian and Orion firsthand and came to understand that he stood no chance against him. Therefore, he just nodded at him without arguing over it.
As for Runo, he also didn't say anything and just nodded like the captain of pirates.
Seeing them nodding, Orion pondered for a moment. He thought about whether they should go kill the boss or not. If he hadn't heard Isis's warning, he probably wouldn't have hesitated over it, but now that he knew his life would be in danger, he didn't know what the right thing to do was.
'But we have to kill the boss anyway. So, let's just go.'
In the end, he decided to go and see the boss monster, thinking they would have to go there anyway.
But first, he had to see his friends. He didn't know how they were doing on this hellish island.
Thinking of them, Orion took out his sword and engulfed it in flames.
Afterward, he let the burning sword fly in the air like a rocket. It left a trail of red as it zoomed to the sky and returned to him a moment later.
He then looked at the sky as if waiting for something, but as time passed, nothing seemed to happen at all.
'Why aren't they responding?'
Previously, when they had planned to join and follow Liira and Dion, he had a talk with Ryfin about what could go wrong.
Therefore, he had come up with a plan to let Ryfin and Famir escape while he would remain with them since they had to leave this place, and only Runo's team seemed to know about that.
It was also during that time that he asked Ryfin to wait for his signal, and if they saw his signal, they would also send a signal with Famir's lightning bolt. That way, they would know each other's location. But now it appeared something had gone wrong with them.
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