ARIFURETA: Cooking to be the Strongest?

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A, another dream again.

The words resonated in a space that wasn't a space, a thought in a mind that was barely a mind.

A soft voice, once her own, echoed like a phantom limb, then swiftly drowned in the endless darkness.

Again, the girl woke, not from sleep, but from a dream of a past life—of sunlight and freedom.

Again, she faced her reality: this vast, dark expanse, a silent, unmoving prison.

She questioned why she was there.

What day was it?

How long has it been?

The concepts of time and date had long since blurred into an indistinguishable, agonizing stretch of void.

She questioned why she had been betrayed—by the very people she had sworn to protect, by the one she had trusted above all others.

In the early years of her sealing, these questions had been her tormentors.

Her days, if one could call them days, were consumed by a burning anger, a corrosive hatred, and a crippling confusion.

She replayed scenarios, whispered names, and plotted revenges that would never come.

She was once a powerful protector, a celebrated protégé, and royalty of a kingdom now surely lost to time.

Yet here she was, rendered unmoving, eternally bound within a dark, cold room.

But time, the most relentless of forces, eroded everything.

The anger, the hatred, the yearning for revenge—all vanished, replaced by a profound, soul-crushing despair.

Though time claimed everything from her, it did not claim her life due to her special constitution.

Bound, she could not end herself, and her body wouldn't allow her to die of old age.

Hope became a forgotten concept, a cruel whisper from a past that no longer mattered. She was utterly alone.

No light, no sound, no touch. Just the suffocating, silent pace of existence without living. She was a statue, a memory, a forgotten sacrifice.

Sometimes, in the deepest troughs of this eternal isolation, a desperate, silent plea would form.

Not a demand, but a raw, primal whisper from the last vestiges of her will.

Please. Someone. Anyone. Save me from this unending nightmare.

But the Abyss only answered with more silence, an indifferent void.

She was alone, utterly and irrevocably alone, forever begging an empty darkness.

Then, through the pervasive, suffocating silence, a sound.

Not a memory, not a hallucination, but a raw, grating SCREEEEECH that tore through the eternal stillness of her prison. It was alien, violent, and utterly impossible.

Her dormant senses jolted, focusing intensely on the direction of the sound.

A loud THUD echoed, followed by a faint glow permeating the darkness, hinting at an opening.

Then, a familiar sound could be heard: the soft, rhythmic footsteps of someone approaching.

There is someone here!

The girl thought, her heart, long dormant, beginning to beat faster.

Finally, someone. Someone came here. I can finally be free!

With all of her remaining strength, she mustered a voice after an unfathomably long time.

"Who… is... there…" she rasped, her voice echoing in the once dark room, now faintly lit by the glow emanating from the newly created hole.

*******

"A person's voice?"

Shin frowned, stepping through the jagged hole his obsidian knife had carved into the ancient door.

As he entered, strange, root-like appendages that had been stretched across the room began to swiftly retreat, coiling back into fissures in the walls and floor.

In their wake, some of the dull, crystalline formations embedded in the room's pillars and ceiling started to glow, bathing the vast, circular chamber in a soft, ethereal light.

Shin's gaze swept to the far end of the room.

There, encased within a colossal cubic rock adorned with intricate lines, was indeed a person—a girl.

"A seal, huh," Shin murmured to himself.

Drawing upon the fragmented knowledge he'd gleaned from Hajime's book, the unique structure of the chamber, combined with the complex, interwoven patterns on the stone, strongly suggested a powerful sealing artifact.

This was likely a being imprisoned here, not merely trapped.

Shin walked carefully towards the girl, his senses alert, checking every shadow and every corner of the newly illuminated space.

The girl, confirming the approaching figure was undeniably a person, felt a tremor of hope rekindle within her long-dormant heart.

She mustered her voice once more, a faint, desperate plea.

"Please... help me... free me!" she rasped, her voice stronger than her initial whisper, though still fragile from disuse.

Shin sensed no malice from her; his instincts—honed by countless deadly encounters—told him she harbored no intent to harm.

Yet, he paused. "Why should I?" he questioned aloud, his tone neutral.

"You're sealed here. There might be a reason, a purpose. Releasing you could pose a risk, or trigger something dangerous for me, the intruder."

The girl's shoulders slumped slightly, then she took a deep, shuddering breath.

"I was sealed because of my strength... my talent... my abilities," she confessed, her voice gaining a hint of its former resolve.

"The people... they began to fear me. They feared my power would be misused, so they sealed me away... to prevent it."

Her words carried the weight of centuries of resentment and loneliness.

Shin thought for a moment. Her story, though vague, resonated with a certain logic given the immense power of the seal.

After a beat, he made his decision.

"Alright," he stated, "I'll free you. But on one condition."

The girl, despite her desperation, was bewildered.

"A condition?"

"Yes. I need to prick you, just a little, with my knife," Shin explained, his expression utterly serious.

"I just need to confirm something."

The girl's brow furrowed, but understanding dawned on her face as she remembered her unique constitution.

Given her current state, and the sheer impossibility of anyone harming her, she had nothing left to lose.

"Mmm," she nodded in agreement.

"This may hurt a little or not, but bear with me for a moment," Shin stated.

With her consent, he manifested the obsidian knife. He carefully approached, extending the blade, and with a delicate touch, just pricked her shoulder.

Strangely, the knife simply slit through her skin without causing any apparent pain or resistance.

There was no typical 'cut,' just a passage, as if her essence simply parted to allow the blade through.

"This knife really does not cut beings that have a soul," Shin murmured, more to himself than to her.

"What is that?" the girl asked, but Shin did not answer her.

With this confirmation of the knife's abilities, Shin began slicing the colossal cubic rock that imprisoned the girl.

The obsidian knife, usually requiring stamina for its use, now seemed to glide smoothly through the cubic stone structure, yet it drained a significant amount of stamina from Shin with each effortless pass.

The girl watched, utterly bewildered by the spectacle.

She sensed no magic involved, yet this incredibly hard structure, clearly enhanced by many powerful magic—an artifact-level item in itself—was being sliced like butter by the person who was freeing her.

With the last decisive slice, the cube imprisoning the girl crumbled into fragments with a CRUMBLE! and a shower of dust.

The girl, no longer supported, began to weakly fall forward. Shin reacted instantly, catching her in a princess carry before she could hit the ground.

The girl, finally freed from the seal, could feel her limbs again. Instead of falling, she felt a warm embrace, then she looked at the person who freed her. A silver-haired boy, with crimson eyes similar to her own.

She gazed on them instinctively, a strange recognition blooming within her.

Shin, confirming no immediate issues with her, gently let her down to stand on her own two feet.

The girl felt a pang of disappointment as the warmth she felt was slowly moved away, and she staggered, regaining her balance for a moment.

But then, some warmth returned. Shin removed his coat and covered the girl's naked body. The girl was bewildered but accepted the gesture of the other party.

The girl, now covered and sitting on the floor, looked up at him.

"So I guess now you are free. What are you going to do now?" Shin asked her.