In the Academy as Sukuna

(POV: Ryogaku)

The air was damp, almost suffocating. I slowly walked into the room I found myself in with Alexia, the dim glow of mana stones barely lighting the place up.

The walls were covered in symbols, seemingly eroded with time, barely recognizable.

Each step we took caused a cloud of dust to rise up. The ground seemed so fragile that it could crack at any moment.

I glanced at Alexia beside me. Her face was stoic in determination, though I could see a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes.

"We're almost at the exit," I said, trying to ease the tension.

She nodded, her steps slightly quickening at the mention of leaving as fast as possible.

However, even as I said that, I couldn't put off a feeling of foreboding arising within me… a feeling that something dreadful was going to happen soon.

I, too, quickened my steps, glancing at Alexia. Her fists were clenched. Even though she tried to act strong, I knew the weight of everything was pushing down on her.

Suddenly, I froze in my path as I heard a low growl, coming from somewhere in front of us.

My eyes darted around widely… but it was too dark to see. The sense of dread in my heart only grew bigger as I stepped forward, trying to pull Alexia back.

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed in the room, the ground cracking beneath us as a huge monster landed in front of us.

My eyes widened, and my heart skipped a beat as I looked at the towering figure of the creature in front of me. It looked like a minotaur, its horns curving up sharply, its eyes glinting with malice.

Before any of us had time to react, the minotaur charged towards Alexia with a deafening roar. With frightening speed, it swung its arm, knocking Alexia aside like a doll. Her body slammed into a wall, a cry of pain escaping her lips.

I watched, frozen, as her body fell limp to the floor, blood trickling from her mouth.

My legs involuntarily ran towards her, my mouth opening to shout at the top of my lungs. "Ale–"

My heart skipped a beat. I was shouting… and now, I was floating in the air, my body not responding to my movements. I tried to speak, but no sound came out… it was as if I was already… dead.

I balanced myself, landing on the ground on my feet, and sliding a few feet back.

But suddenly, my legs became unsteady, and I fell to my knees, my vision blurring slightly. An overwhelming pain overtook my body. I coughed, blood spurting out of my mouth and falling onto the floor in front of me.

I was hit, right in the abdomen by the minotaur's arm, sending me flying to the other side of the room.

I turned my shaky gaze back up, meeting the grinning figure of the minotaur, its yellow, sharp teeth shining in the dim light.

My gaze turned to Alexia. She lay motionless, her arm bent at an unnatural angle, blood dripping from her mouth and from a cut on her forehead, her breathing shallow and unsteady.

I wanted to run to her… to save her, but the minotaur's steps brought me back to reality, drawing my attention back to its frightening figure.

My eyes burned with an intense fire. Rage surged through my veins, my grip on my sword tightening as I glared at the creature.

The creature stared back at me, the grin on its face not fading.

It's mocking me.

My heart thumped in my chest, seeming to be close to bursting out. Anger mixed with fear as I bent down, my body bending gracefully.

"RAAAHH!" A battle cry escaped my lips as I shot forward, the ground beneath my feet cracking at my speed.

I swung my blade straight down at its arm, hitting it cleanly with a loud clang that reverberated in the room.

However, my eyes widened at the result. The blade barely managed to make a simple, shallow wound on its arm.

It answered with a punch, which I barely ducked under, landing on the ground with a thud, my legs trembling slightly.

I attacked again, slashing my sword to its side… but it barely went through its hide, not even a single drop of blood tricking out.

The minotaur growled, its eyes seemingly glowing as it retaliated with a punch, its whole body rotating with its fist.

I tried to block, but the force was too much.

My body floated in the air… I was sent flying backward, my grip on the sword loosening as I tried to steady myself.

My back hit the wall with a thunderous thud that echoed in the silent room, a silent whimper escaping my lips as I forced myself to stand, my vision getting blurrier by the second.

My heart skipped a beat as I saw the figure of the monster rushing towards me.

I tried to raise my sword to block… to attack… to do anything.

But before I could, the minotaur was already in front of me, its fist a mere few inches away from my chest.

My eyes met the minotaur's, which seemed to be glowing in excitement as if it had found a new toy to play with.

The fist connected with my chest with a bang, pushing me into the wall, making it crack behind me, a dent forming on it due to the sheer force of the blow.

I felt my ribs crack, blood spurting out from my mouth, landing on the monster's hide, staining it a deep red.

I hit the ground with a grunt, my body shuddering because of the pain, my eyes rolling to the back of my skull.

My breathing was slowing down, my heart beating hard and fast inside my chest. The room seemed to spin, my vision started to grow dark.

No… not yet.

The minotaur raised both its arms for a final attack, its shadow looming over me like the shadow of death itself.

At that moment, a memory surfaced in my mind… as if my life was flashing before my eyes.

My mother… buried under the roof, her eyes tearing up in pain as I screamed, trying to pull her out.

I was only a boy then, too weak to even lift up a rock. The man, covered in a veil of fire, was approaching, about to end her life.

"Run… Ryogaku," she said, her voice soft, yet hoarse due to the blood in her mouth. "Live…"

The memory made something inside me snap. I can't die before I avenge my mother… I can't let Alexia suffer the same fate as her.

No… I won't let it happen.

I grit my teeth, my grip on the sword tightening once again as I shot myself up, swinging in a final, desperate attempt.

Suddenly, spark erupted from my sword… bright, orange sparks reminiscent of a beautiful summer evening.

Deep orange-yellow flames began to coat my sword, time itself seemingly slowing down as I put all of my strength into the swing.

My eyes widened in shock and confusion. But it wasn't time to question it.

The blade, covered in scorching fire, met the minotaur's attack in the air, contacting its fist without a single sound.

This time… the sword didn't stop, it cut through its flesh, through its bones, splitting its whole arm into half.

The minotaur roared in agony, a loud, screeching cry escaping its lips as I swung farther.

I could feel the heat of the flames on my body, but it wasn't hot, it was almost… soothing.

This sensation… it was something very familiar to me.

My eyes glanced at Alexia, who lay on the ground far away, her arm raised towards me, trembling with exertion.

She was healing me, using her last bit of strength with a smile on her face.

My heart swelled with emotion, a roar rivaling the monster's escaped my lips as I pushed the sword deeper into its body.

The sword went through like a knife through butter, slashing the minotaur into half, its deafening cries abruptly stopping as its body fell, divided into two.

Its organs seemingly flowed out with its blood, its intestines uncoiling on the floor… a disgusting picture.

However, I showed no reaction… my gaze fixed on Alexia as I breathed in shallow gasps, my hand trembling as I gripped the sword, the flames slowly extinguishing.

The room was eerily silent, the sound of burning flesh reverberating, a smell of charred meat reaching my nose.

I rushed to her side, panting, and knelt down beside her, gently grabbing her face and wiping the blood from her wound off it.

"Y… you did it," she whispered, her voice trembling. I could almost feel her heart beating from here as I held her hand in mine.

I nodded, my breathing slowly steadying as a smile, both relieved and triumphant formed on my face. "We did it."

We closed our eyes, falling to the floor with a silent thud, lying beside each other.

We were alive, and that was all that mattered.

.

.

.

(A while later…)

The room was dimly lit… a room with exactly four paths, three on one side, and another one opposite to it.

This was the place where all the paths in the dungeon converged.

It was a dimly lit room, which seemed cleaner than most in the dungeon, the smell in it was actually tolerable.

The sound of footsteps echoed in the room as a pair came out from one of the paths… Anny and Johan.

"You think we'll meet them soon?" Anny asked, her voice stoic, her eyes glinting with hope.

"If we don't run into a Skittles monster again, then sure," Johan muttered, his voice both frustrated and tired due to dealing with monsters for hours on end.

Another set of footsteps came from the path next to theirs, their eyes darting over to the shadows getting bigger.

Then, the two came into view… Ryogaku and Alexia.

Both Anny and Johan rushed to them, their eyes glimmering with relief as they lay them on the ground with support of the wall.

"You both are kinda beaten up," Johan set, propping himself next to Ryogaku, a smirk on his face as he eyed him up and down.

"It was pretty rough," Ryogaku replied, a relieved smile forming on his face, his voice hoarse with exhaustion.

Alexia groaned as she tried to shift, but eventually gave up. She turned to the pair, joining in on the conversation. "He split a minotaur into two, pretty heroic."

Johan looked at Ryogaku, impressed. "That's pretty cool, actually."

Ryogaku simply smirked at the compliment.

The four of them leaned back on the wall, relief washing over them, the fact that they were in a dangerous dungeon escaping their minds for the moment.

They were there for a while, joking around, teasing each other… it felt like everything was normal again.

But deep down, they knew that this wasn't over… the most difficult part—the bossfight—was still pending.

They let the laughter die down, a silence forming among them, one which was comforting, not awkward.

Suddenly, Anny noticed something on the other side… something written on the wall next to the exit that supposedly led to the boss room.

She pointed at it, her eyes glinting with curiosity. "There's something written."

The three of them turned their heads, looking at each other before slowly getting up, their steps echoing in the silence of the room.

As they reached the other side, there seemed to be something carved into the wall with a stone, the words barely recognizable.

However, as they read the contents, their eyes widened in shock.

Alexia's mouth gaped open, while Johan chuckled in defeat, seemingly done with all this.

Anny read the text a few more times, making sure what she was seeing was true.

They glanced at each other, before sighing in sync.

"Y'all took too long to come so we're going ahead, cya at the boss room…

... -S'kuna"