A dungeon!

"Why can't I see the difference after all this time? Are you really trying?"

"I told you it won't work, but you won't listen!"

"What!? You dare to talk back?! Don't test my patience, boy, I can easily obliterate your pathetic soul if I want to!"

"Are you threatening me now? Remember, I'm a priest of the Holy Temple. If you lay a hand on me, our brotherhood will hunt you down. You won't get away!"

"Hmph! What's so great about the Temple? Do you think this great Mahzin is afraid of you lot? Let's see if that brat Xander will come to avenge your little ass!"

"You! Don't you dare mention Saint Xander's name so casual..ly… Ugh! Wha- what …ve... you… do..ne?"

The young priest turned pale and fell on his four. He struggled just to keep himself in that position under my father's cold gaze. Once father intensified his stare, he could no longer keep up and sticked to the floor unmoving, as if he was under a heavyweight.

Soul Pressure!

I recognized father's spell, it was one of the most simple offensive spells of Soul Magic. Like its name suggested, it sent a pressure directly to your opponent's soul. Unlike most other spells, it did not require incantations nor complicated mana manipulation. However, its effect would be limited depending on both the caster's and the target's mental fortitude.

In my sessions with father, practicing with this spell was the most recurring assignment. My result was still disappointing, though, despite all the repeatence. My own Soul Pressure had not even tingled him while six seconds had been my best record before I lost my consciousness to his overwhelming pressure. And I believed he had never been serious during those sessions.

"Stop!" a woman's voice exclaimed, followed by a hurrying step.

She soon came to my limited and fixed range of vision, a pretty middle-aged woman in a luxurious dress. I recognized her, she was my late mother's best friend and the mother of my crush- I mean, childhood friend Viarissa. Although she should be more than forty, she looked much younger.

Viarissa's mother squatted down in front of the priest and checked on him before she turned to my father. "Mahzin, please stop whatever you are doing to Priest Bert."

"Hmph! Therviana, mind your own business. What're you even doing here?" father said as he crossed his arms, annoyed by her meddling.

She knitted her brows. "I have an appointment with Priest Bert. A nun at the temple told me he is here," she answered. "What are you doing, anyway? He is hardly breathing! Please stop!"

"It's none of your business."

"None of my business?! May I remind you, this town is under my husband's jurisdiction and I am his representative. You are about to kill the only priest of the Holy Temple in this town! Do you even realize what your action may incur?!"

Both Aunt Therviana and father stared at each other, but none of them spoke. In the end, auntie relented.

She said in a low tone, "I heard from the nun, Arzin has… Is that true?"

Father closed his eyes and gave a light nod as the reply.

After a gasp, auntie looked around. She quickly spotted me, or my remnants to be precise. She grimaced. "Is that… Arzin?"

"... Yeah," father replied, sitting down weakly on a chair. His eyes looked at my face, full of sorrow. "Pathetic, right?"

"This… Mahzin, I know you have it hard, but killing Priest Bert is not the solution," she said. "Can you release him?"

Father waved his hand, indicating he had released the poor clergyman. Aunt Therviana quickly gave him another check and woke him.

"Uh, Lady Therviana, thank you for your help," the priest muttered weakly as she helped him sit. His face was still as pale as snow and his body did not stop shaking.

After he stabilized a little bit more, auntie encouraged him by patting his shoulder and had her attention to me. She seemed to be disturbed by what she saw, no matter how much she tried to stay calm.

I could not see my own condition, but it had to be a terrifying sight. Most of my flesh had been deformed by yesterday's blast. Both my hands, which had been stuck to the damned gem, had completely gone.

Even the sturdy, enchanted wall I was thrown to wasn't spared from damage - there was a depression where my remnants were latched onto, and there were some long cracks that extended to the opposite wall.

Meanwhile, father was mostly unharmed because he managed to cast a sort of emergency barrier when he was blasted away. He still ended up being knocked out, though. I was not so lucky. My mana was depleted at the time and, even if it did not, with the source of the blast sticking to my hands I doubt the result would have been any different.

The process of turning me into an immortal could be said imperfect, at the very least. The amount of mana required was far beyond what father had expected, this was the root of the problem according to his deduction last night. However, I did not die. I retained my consciousness and all my five senses even with most of my body had become meat paste. With the Soul Gem as catalyst, my soul and body had been bound tightly. In a sense, I really had become an immortal, but without the regenerative ability that was expected to come along with my immortality.

(If only… Nah, there's no if. More importantly, how will I live from now on? If it can be called live, that is.)

"What're you doing?" father frowned, at Aunt Therviana who was now standing so close to me. I could feel her breath.

She reached out her hand, her fingers touched my forehead, moving down to my nose, my cheek, and then she started to caress me gently. Warm. Her hand was really warm. "Poor child," she whispered.

"Should you not close his eyes?" she asked father without turning, both love and pity were reflected in her gaze.

"Mind your own business, just leave my boy alone," he replied grumpily.

Aunt Therviana sighed with the rejection. Still, I was glad father refused, because I would not be able to see anymore otherwise.

(Well, it's an assumption, but I think I'm still looking through my eyes, which explains the limited and fixed view. The reason why I can still see through eyes is beyond me, though.)

Auntie turned to face my father, and seemed hesitant for a moment, before she decided to approach him. "Hey, Mahzin," she started, "I do not really understand what happened. And knowing you, I know it is too much to ask you to recount what happened. However, if you do not want to let Arzin die, you can recreate that miracle you did years ago again, can you not? Revive him! It is not like he specifically asked you to not to, unlike Geulisia's case, right?"

The suggestion caused a reaction from the priest. He squinted his eyes and his lips were twitching, but he refrained himself from making a comment. Obviously, he had not recovered from his previous experience.

Father shook his head. "Not that I don't want to, but I can't. He'll just die again in his current condition. That's why I asked the priest to fix him in the first place, but the brat won't help," he grumbled, glaring at the man wearing the distinct white robe of the Holy Temple's priest uniform.

"I- I told you, even a Grand Priest from the holy city won't necessarily be able to fix a damaged body of that extent!" Bert brought himself to refute. "Besides, I won't be here now if I don't want to help, will I? You came in the middle of night and I've spent most of my mana in five straight hours trying to restore your son's body, yet this is what I get. I regret I've come. You need to learn to appreciate others' goodwill, old man!"

"Hmph, useless trash! Why should I appreciate trash?"

"YOU! Take that… back." Bert was overwhelmed by anger, although he was wavering again in the very next moment.

Seeing that, father smirked. "Or what?"

Bert tried to reply, his mouth was opening and closing for a while, but no sound came out. In the end, he turned to auntie instead. "Lady Therviana, you're a sensible person, help me make Mage Mahzin understand. Also, a devoted believer like you should never mention about reviving the dead. It's threading into the domain of the Gods, a great taboo. Let the dead rest in peace, leave the young Arz in Gods' care for all the betterment."

"Yada yada yada… Preaching at every given chance, eh? Indeed, a model for a priest you are, boy. A trash priest with a trashy teaching, a self-righteous trash priest. Hmph!"

"YOU! OVER AND OVER, I CAN'T LET IT SLIDE ANYMORE! IF YOU'RE THAT DETERMINED TO Challenge The Temple's authority, then I'll gladly perish while teaching you a lesson…" the priest jumped up, but his voice somehow became less and less audible as he finished his sentence. Poor guy.

"That is enough, you two," Aunt Therviana cut. "Priest Bert, as you have heard, Mahzin will not be able to revive Arzin anyway. I am sorry, we are sorry. Please consider that the idea is abandoned, we will never mention reviving the dead again. On the other hand, Mahzin has just lost his only son, his last family member, so I seek your understanding. Please forgive his rude remarks in consideration of me and my husband."

Bert did not say anything. He was contemplating while squinting his eyes, trying to appear more intimidating than he could. I did not miss that his hands were trembling non-stop, however.

I knew. Young and low-rank he might be, he was still a priest of the Holy Temple, one of the most influential organizations in the whole continent, if not the most. He had his dignity to preserve and could not appear weak, although he had already failed in that. Everyone in the room could tell he was very reluctant to confront my father. On the other hand, since auntie and her husband were figures with high standings, complying with her request could gain him her favor and it would be beneficial for both himself and the Temple. Thus, it was not too difficult to guess his conclusion.

Yet, before he could reply, auntie had turned to father. "You too should check your temper, Mahzin. What will you gain by antagonizing the Temple? It will not bring Arzin back, only more troubles for you. Please apologize to Priest Bert."

"What?!"

"You heard me. What would Geulisia say in this situation? Please apologize."

"Why're you bringing my wife in this conversation?"

"Please."

Father clenched his teeth. "Hmph! I'm sorry."

"That does not sound sincere, but it should do, right, Priest Bert?" she did not push and turned to the young priest instead.

"… Very well," the priest replied, nodding.

"Thank you," she nodded back. Returning his attention to father again, she said, "Just do not go to conflict with others after this, okay? Now, it appears Priest Bert will not be able to help you, what will you do?"

"I…" father hesitated, his back dropped to the backrest of his seat. "I want to think it over, alone."

"Should I bring some men over to help move Arzin from the wall?" she asked, turning her gaze my way again.

"I'll do it myself later. Just… leave me alone," father replied, waving his hand to tell his guests to leave.

"Do you have a coffin?"

"I do."

"Okay. If you need help, anything, you know how to find me. Geulisia is my friend and I consider Arzin like my own son, I will be more than happy to help."

Father nodded but did not say anything. Auntie and Bert soon disappeared from my view range, leaving just me and father in the room.

Looking intently at me for a while, he let out a lot of sighs. "I'm sorry Geulisia, I've failed you yet again," he muttered. His eyes were red and wet. Soon, he began sobbing.

"Arz… *sniff* to think I'll be the one who ends our son's life… wuu…

"All for nothing! My ambition, your hardship, for what!? What've I done all this time!? *sniff*."

He continued to weep for a long time before he ended up falling asleep, exhausted. What had happened had to have taken a great toll on him, both physically and mentally. He had not rested at all ever since he awoke and found me in my current state last night. He had tried everything he could think of until he decided he needed help, thus went to the town's temple around midnight.

(Sorry, father, I wish I could tell you I'm still here. It'd have easened your burden, at least.)

I took a deep breath, in my mind, as there was nothing else I could do. After a few hours, father finally woke up. The sun had been moving far to the west by then, the day was almost over.

The first thing father did after he awake was to once again look intently at me. His eyes became wet again, but this time he shook his head and stood up. He took a glance at the window and then walked out of the room while mumbling something that I perceived as bringing me to the tomb before dark.

When he returned, he carried a big square box on his back, secured with two straps over his shoulders, which reminded me of a classic, the saints of Athena from my previous life. While in his hand, he brought… a bottle of liquor.

(Hey hey hey, of all the time you choose to drink now!?)

Father gulped the liquid directly from the bottle and made a loud burp, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He looked at me and grumbled. "Hmph! I bet you'd be complaining in your mind by now."

(Err… what?)

"You like to complain a lot, boy, unlike your mother. So annoying. Now you can't complain anymore, serve you right, ha ha ha… haaaa… I miss your complaints already."

When father was about to sit down on a chair, the box knocked the chair off and he almost fell because of it. "Right, the coffin," he grumbled.

The box was this world's, or to be more specific, this country's version of a coffin. Not a long box but a cube, and usually made of stone. The corpse would be put in a seated position. I expected my remnants would be too soft to be made sit, though.

Father put away his bottle and laid the stone coffin down on the floor. He then took the fallen chair and sat on it, not forgetting to retrieve his drink back. "Just… let me finish this *burp* first."

(Um, will you be okay? I don't remember you as a good drinker. Well, I don't even remember the last time you touched alcohol, it must have been a very long time ago. Won't your stomach get upset if you suddenly drink a whole bottle?)

After awhile, father managed to empty his drink. Then, after another series of loud burps and hiccups, he stood up, reached the coffin, and squatted down in front of it. He focused his mana on his right index, enchanting the finger, and started to carve on the hard surface: 'Here lies Arzin Mahzinson, my pride and joy who has to experience an untimely death because of my foolishness. -Mahzin Eldinson-'.

I was impressed. The writing was like calligraphy, it was neat and well written. Considering his worrisome condition, it was even more impressive.

Without saying anything, father stood once he had done scribing and walked to me unstably. When my old man pressed the wall beside me, I felt his mana seeped in between my back and the wall. Soon after, the wall behind me began to crumble. I fell, caught a glimpse of the yard and the unfinished laundry from the previous day while falling, and safely arrived on father's open arms.

He hugged me, held me tight in his arms. For a moment, he did not do anything but hugged me, and then his body started to shake. In almost inaudible sound, he cried, "I'm sorry, Arz… *sniff* I'm sorry, my boy… I'm… really… *sniff* *sniff*."

(There, there. Stop blaming yourself, father. I'm alright. Well, not really, but stop blaming yourself anyway, okay? Don't cry anymore. You need to take good care of yourself from now on, you know. And you reek of alcohol, by the way, urgh.)

Father put me inside the coffin after he calmed down. As expected, my body was so soft that it could be folded. He kissed my forehead and took a brief pause, looking at me for the last time, before closing the lid. Everything turned dark.

(Welcome, me, to the eternity of darkness…)

The box was swaying as father lifted it, placing it on his back. It continued to shake with each of his staggering steps, especially when father was walking down the stairs. The shake was unpleasant. To lessen the sensation, I focused my mind on something else. I imagined the route from our house to our destination and tried to guess where we were.

The destination was the town's public tomb, located east to our town, not too far from the forest entrance there. It was a spacious underground where generations of townspeople were buried. Because our town was rather small, it would only take about twenty minutes to walk there from our house, which was in the southern part of the town.

Or so it should.

Somehow the shake went on, the journey to my last stop did not end despite the twenty minutes mark had long passed and the noises of people in the street had long been gone. As the oddity remained for what I estimated no less than an hour, my doubt had turned into a certainty.

(… We're lost, aren't we? The sky should've been dark by now, there's no way we've not arrived if we're not lost.

(Come to think of it, father's always bad with directions, isn't he? He's very clumsy in this regard. Moreover, he's under the influence of alcohol and we're within the forest. Damn, that's why I said you shouldn't have drunk, father!)

I let out a sigh in my mind. As if to confirm my conclusion, I heard father muttering not long after, "Weird. I can't find the entrance to the tomb…"

(Hah! I knew it!)

He continued to walk. At a point, he exclaimed and the shaking intensified, father was rushing. He slowed down soon, though. I could only guess he had found something and was checking it. After a while, he finally put my coffin down.

(Did you find the right way, father? Are we there at the tomb now?)

"Sorry, Arz, I can't seem to find the tomb, but this cave doesn't look bad. Maybe I should claim this cave for our family tomb and move your mother here too, ha ha ha."

(I see, so we're in a cave somewhere in the forest, huh? The mana in the air is a bit thick, though. Well, it doesn't make any difference for me, as I can only see the lid of the coffin.)

"I guess this is goodbye," he said, patting my coffin.

(Yeah, goodbye, father. Don't forget to take care of yourself. Thank you for everything.)

The sounds of his footsteps were getting further. "Oops, almost forgot! I need to set a ward to fend off animals first," he said in the distance.

(Ha ha… clumsy till the end. Well, what do I do now? Maybe try to get some sleep or… Wait, what!?)

Light began to emanate from my surroundings. No, not just my surroundings. My remnants were also emanating the same light. It did not stop there, me and the coffin were turning into light particles.

(This phenomenon, I've read about it… This is no cave, this is a dungeon! I'm being absorbed by the dungeon! Aaahh, what'll happen to me now!??)